UPDATED! I am Your Host, Your Ghost Host. Tricks, Treats and Toddler in October 2011

[exwdwcm]

Welcome to the Haunted Trip Report. I am your host, your ghost host. Scared yet? :hmghost::hmghost::hmghost::hmghost::hmghost:

Okay, not really a ghost, but Michelle. And welcome, to my haunted trip report. We just spent a fabulous eight nights at Bay Lake Towers creating magical memories!

So what's with the Haunted Mansion theme? Well my son is obsessed with HM now. We rode it 7x this trip, yes, seven! He has the spiel almost memorized and would repeat it word for word. Hilarious considering he is only three!

If you have not visited my pre trip report (PTR), you can check it out HERE. (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2641439)

Here are the basics on our trip:
WHAT: WDW Annual Trip!
WHEN: Friday, October 14- Saturday, October 22, 2011
WHERE: Bay Lake Towers at Disney's Contemporary Resort (lakeview studio)
HOW: Flight from DFW, rental car, APs, TIW, DVC
WHY: Because we can! No, really to celebrate my son's birthday (10/30- turning four!) and to experience the Halloween offerings

TABLE OF CONTENTS


Background (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43062974&postcount=11)
Friday, October 14- Part 1 (flights) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43063021&postcount=12)
Friday, October 14- Part 2 (arrival at BLT) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43085262&postcount=21)
Saturday, October 15- Part 1 (DHS morning) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43140524&postcount=41)
Saturday, October 15- Part 2 (CRT dinner, MK) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43360744&postcount=52)

Sunday, October 16- Part 1 (CP, MK) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43387605&postcount=57)

Sunday, October 16- Part 2 (Epcot, Teppan Edo) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43427048&postcount=64)

Monday, October 17- Part 1 (AK, Tusker House) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43474223&postcount=70)
Monday, October 17- Part 2 (BLT pool, Pirates & Pals cruise) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43474256&postcount=71)

Tuesday, October 18- Part 1 (F&W at Epcot) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43514234&postcount=78)
Tuesday, October 18- Part 2 (O'hana) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43514258&postcount=79)
Tuesday, October 18- Part 3 (MNSSHP) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43703202&postcount=92)

Wednesday, October 19- Blizzard Beach, DTD, MK (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43712129&postcount=97)

Thursday, October 20- Part 1 (MK and Pirates League) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43833799&postcount=104)

Thursday, October 20th- Part 2 (Epcot, Via Napoli) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43946766&postcount=112)

Friday, October 21- Part 1 (Epcot F&W) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43946796&postcount=113)
Friday, October 21- Part 2 (DHS) (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=44093722&postcount=119)

Saturday, October 22



OUR CAST:
:tink:ME- Michelle: 38, The planner, type A perfectionist, Mom to William, work full-time as Mktg Mgr at a technology company, DVC member as of Feb 2010, ex cast member (WDWCP 1996), likes going commando (no not that way, as in park touring!), loves junk food, picky eater, tries to please everyone.

:darth: DH- Alan: 40, works for a REIT (finance), loves working out and playing World of Warcraft. Finally gave into my disney obsession and bought DVC for our 10 year anniversary! Is the quiet type, hates having his picture taken, eats anything and lets me do all the planning.

pooh: DS- William (Will): 3yo, will be turning 4 right after our trip. He is a clever, tough, not scared of anything, Mommy's boy. Goes to Montessorri day care and loves it. Just made the 40" mark this Dec 2010 to ride TT, Splash, BTMRR and Soarin!

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[monica23535]

Count me in, I really enjoyed your last trip report :goodvibes

[mickeystoontown]

Joining in!

[IheartDDuck]

Joining in!

[hardingk]

I'm here! Can't wait to hear all about it!

[khertz]

:woohoo: Ready for this TR!!

[MiaBella05]

popcorn:: joining in popcorn::

[eecteacher82]

I'm here! Can't wait to hear all about your trip! Sorry we never got a chance to meet up! Maybe next time!

[Pixiedust530]

Welcome Back!!! You are totally ahead of me! I need to get my butt in gear and get my TR started....although I have NO idea when I am going to squeeze that in! :rotfl2:

Can't wait to hear all the details.

[exwdwcm]

Count me in, I really enjoyed your last trip report :goodvibesThanks for joining- again!!!

Joining in!woo hoo!

Joining in!Welcome!!!

I'm here! Can't wait to hear all about it!Hey there Kimberly!! :goodvibes;)

:woohoo: Ready for this TR!!Welcome again!;)

popcorn:: joining in popcorn::woo hoo, you even brought popcorn!

I'm here! Can't wait to hear all about your trip! Sorry we never got a chance to meet up! Maybe next time!That's okay, we will meet up next time! I did love hanging out with Megan!!!

Welcome Back!!! You are totally ahead of me! I need to get my butt in gear and get my TR started....although I have NO idea when I am going to squeeze that in! :rotfl2:

Can't wait to hear all the details.lol- that's okay, all in good time! I am just now starting my first day. I know, i am so swamped too between work, Will's bday this weekend and Halloween, but I want to write this before I forget! :rotfl:;)

[exwdwcm]

BACKGROUND

Well here is a short history on us in case you didn't read our PTR.

I am a DISNEY NUT! Certified! My love began as a kid when our parents scraped enough together to drive us to WDW and camp in Fort Wilderness twice as a kid. I remember reading the Birnbaum guide and picking out the rides and planning, even back then as an 8 year old!

My senior year of college, I applied for and was accepted into the WDW College Program. I didn't even know it existed until a fellow coworker during a summer internship my junior year told me about it (he had done it). I spent the fall (August-Jan) of 1996 working at Hollywood and Vine Cafeteria at the then DIsney-MGM Studios, now DHS. My love for Disney only grew- getting to experience it from the inside was simply amazing and the magic only increased!

Finally, after a family trip in December 2009 (my son's first), my not so Disney loving DH suggested we do the DVC tour to get the $100 gift card and just see what it was about. My penny pinching (okay, cheap), hubby shocked me. We ended up buying DVC in February of 2010- 200 points at BLT. Now we have the opportunity to create memories for a lifetime! I couldn't have been happier!

My non-disney loving hubby suddenly was converted a little after watching the joy on our son's face that first trip. I think that is when he finally got the magic. He'd been many times before, even visited me when I worked there (yes, we were together way back then- almost 19 years now, married 10). I even caught him giving advice/tips to another family on the monorail this trip- when they missed their stop at the MK and weren't sure how to get back. He explained the two monorail loops and the best option to get back. I was so proud. :rotfl::woohoo::hug: First off, he is pretty quiet, so speaking up was one thing, but knowing his disney, another. :thumbsup2 I actually hold back on doing that on trips, because I know he will get embarrassed when I start sharing all my tips and advice with strangers on vacation.....and now he was doing it!

So that is our history- Disney history anyhow. One more thing- another reason the magic is so, well magical for us is because we don't take it for granted. Especially being able to share it with our son. Because we almost didn't have a son. We struggled for years to conceive. After an awful year enduring fertility drugs, self-administered shots, tears, thousands of dollars, four artificial inseminations, surgeries, testing and more (could never find a problem btw).....we finally conceived through our first attempt at in vitro. We are so blessed and thankful to experience parenthood. I know many take it for granted, but not everyone gets blessed with the opportunity. I know firsthand so many friends online that have not been successful. My heart aches for them. Whether we are able to have a second child or not, I don't know. We will begin that journey again come January probably. But for now, we are just so happy to be able to experience the joy, wonder and magic through our son's eyes. We are so happy to be able to share the pixie dust with him. So every trip is a blessing and a miracle to us and we don't waste a second or a memory. :wizard::wizard::wizard:

So this trip came to be a year ago- since we own DVC now, we knew we needed to go this year and use up some points. They were burning a hole in my pocket! I booked at the 11 month window, a studio at BLT, lakeview. This was also the first time it would be just the three of us only. While this was Will's third trip, his first one at 2 was with our extended family, almost 14 of us! It was amazing!!! Then last year, we took my mother in law and my niece with us, so there were 5 of us. This time, it was just our little family and it was so nice to experience it that way too. So we planned and plotted for almost a year. I created a countdown calendar for William at 3 months out and he really loved putting a sticker on each day.

I booked a rental car, made our dining reservations at 6 months out, booked CRT, Pirates and Pals cruise and bought Halloween party tickets, plus booked the Pirate League. We were all set and ready to go!

so from our little family to yours- WELCOME!!!
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[exwdwcm]

Friday, October 14
Well today is the day. We’ve planned for almost a full year, counted down the last three months on our countdown calendar and anxiously watched videos, listened to park music and planned. Now the time is here, it is almost too good to be true!



I worked all week of course and managed to leave only 15 minutes early on Thursday from the office, at 4:45pm. I was a little worried, as our biggest tradeshow of the year and a private casino/cocktail reception was going on next week while I am gone. And of course, this year, the show was actually in my back yard- in Dallas! I didn’t really look at the tradeshow calendar when booking my week at Disney. Oops!! Usually that wouldn’t matter, because I have a coworker based in Ohio that was going to fly in and work the event for me. But 3 weeks before my vacation, she suddenly left to have surgery. UGH! So not only was neither of us going to be in Dallas for the biggest event of the year, but now I was stuck picking up a ton of little details and projects from her while she was out too. So I was a little worried about everything going right, but I had done all I could in preparation before leaving Thursday. In the end, the events all went great, in fact, perfect and we all got huge kudos this week! All turned out okay and I resisted the urge to check work email. I did not check even once. I told work to simply call my cell if they needed anything and they didn’t. Yeah work! Yeah me!



So Thursday after work, I thought about repacking, but I just wasn’t in the mood. Usually I’ll repack over and over again, but I had been sick for the past two weeks and was just so tired and not in the usual Disney mood. So I did get together our last minute toiletries and stuff and got everything over by the front door.

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I had picked up some Boston Market for dinner on the way home, I didn’t plan to cook. So we all enjoyed a quiet dinner and I got William bathed and to bed by 8pm. I was pretty exhausted myself, the meds I was on for my sinus stuff weren’t helping me in the tired department. So a Tylenol PM later and I am off to sleep too. I can take one Tylenol pm and wake up refreshed and not tired.



We all had a good night’s rest. Our flight wasn’t until noon, so I let William sleep in a bit, until 8am or so. I needed to run to WalGreen’s and get some bandages for our dog before we left, so I ran up there and grabbed us some breakfast on the way and brought it back home. We all got showered and ready to go. Unfortunately, our 12yo boston terrier, Sassy, has a growth on her foot/paw. It’s been there for a few months and she started to gnaw on it. DH took her to the vet last weekend and he wanted us to let it heal first before he does surgery to remove the growth. So we were told to keep it clean and bandaged and put her in a cone. So my poor parents were watching our dogs (sisters- both 12yo) while we are gone and my poor Dad was going to have to change her bandages for us. I felt terrible about that. Plus, my parents are having a swimming pool put in right now in the backyard, which meant he had to actually walk the dogs out front instead of just letting them out in the back. Not very convenient for them at all. But I had to buy last minute supplies for them to care for her.

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With that taken care of, breakfast eaten and all packed, we headed out the door at about 9:30am. We took the truck and drove the 20 minutes or so to DH’s office, which is right near DFW airport. We parked and DH ran inside to get his buddy who would drive us to the airport and then leave the truck at DH’s work all week (covered parking garage) while we are gone. We waited in the truck a good 10 minutes and finally they come back out. He drives us to the airport and drops us off at our gate.



We plan to check our one big checked bag at the curb, but then we realize Air Tran doesn’t offer curb service at DFW. Oops- so in we go. I had already checked in online and printed our boarding passes, so we simply went up and checked the bag and our booster car seat. My bag was 51lbs. The guy didn’t let it slide. I had to take out a pair of shoes to get it under weight. Come on- one pound? Gimme a break dude!


We get through security with only like 3 people ahead of us and then begins the crazy x-ray/security check. William has a backpack on wheels, DH has our big backpack, I have a tote bag with the laptop and my purse. Plus the stroller. Plus a medium rolling suitcase we are carrying on. So we have a lot of crap! I get the laptop out, shoes off and we make it all through. We are sitting down, putting shoes back on when DH realizes he forgot the small rolling suitcase, duh! He runs over and gets it. We are good.



We have about 45 minutes to an hour before our flight, so after parking our stuff at our gate, I head off in search of lunch to take on the plane with us. I don’t usually fly Air Tran or out of this terminal, so I have a hard time finding something- finally find a taco bell and grab a burrito for me and a quesadilla for William. I return and let DH find something too. Soon enough, they are boarding. We are in group 6 I think. I did pay the extra $6 each way per person to select our seats- we are all sitting together. I hate that Air Tran makes you do that. I mean, who wants to risk not being able to sit next to their child?



So we get boarded, luggage stowed and I put William in the window seat. We depart almost on time and I break out the workbooks for William to play with. He is really into school and learning. He has been in a Montessori day care since he was 10 weeks old. They are really working on writing their upper and lower case letters and numbers right now (he is almost 4). So he loves these workbooks I bought him to practice writing, counting, doing puzzles etc. I had four workbooks I brought, plus colors, coloring books, his Nintendo DS, some wax straws to play with etc. But the workbooks won out. He finished every single one of them that day. He was an angel on the flight. We arrived in Atlanta on time at 3:18pm or so.

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We got off the plane and wow, the airport is crowded! We find a snack- some fries and fruit and sit at our gate. Our flight is at 5pm to Orlando. I HATE connections. I rarely fly anything but direct, but the prices were just so high on airfare and this was the best I could get. Even this was $330 a person RT. We usually prefer to fly AA.



So at 4:30, we aren’t boarding and the plane arriving is late. So we board late. We get seated and start to do his workbooks…….but suddenly the pilot comes on and says we have a bathroom leak and problem. We taxi back to the gate to have it checked and sit there for 45 minutes. Ugh! Kill me now. We are already late as it is. We are supposed to arrive MCO at 6:30pm. We end up there after 7:30pm.
We get off the plane and take the little monorail to baggage claim. We are all so tired now. Will was once again an angel on this second flight.



I wasn’t sure how he would do, this was actually his 4th time flying and the last time he was okay, but the time before that, he threw a fit. So I was nervous, but he was quiet, good and even the lady behind us commented on how he was the best behaved kid she had ever seen on a plane. Yeah!
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[LilyWDW]

Super excited to read your trip report! I was great getting to meet you and your family and it was a highlight of our trip! I hope we all keep in touch!

[mousescrapper]

I'm in popcorn:: looking forward to reading along and can't wait till I make a hauntingly good appearance in this TR too ;)

I say it does stink to pay the extra $ for the seats together :headache: glad despite the transfer eveything went well w/ the travel and Will was so good!

[msmith1026]

I'm in!!! Can't wait to hear all about your trip!!!

[IheartDDuck]

Ugh, flight delays! I agree with you, I don't normally like flying with layovers either, but this time for myself too, I had to book it too.

Oh, and agree about AirTran. What's up with the $6 seat fee?! :confused3

[exwdwcm]

Super excited to read your trip report! I was great getting to meet you and your family and it was a highlight of our trip! I hope we all keep in touch!ah, loved meeting everyone too- that was certainly a highlight for us as well. I had three lovely DIS meets while there and hope to have many more! :goodvibes:thumbsup2

I'm in popcorn:: looking forward to reading along and can't wait till I make a hauntingly good appearance in this TR too ;)

I say it does stink to pay the extra $ for the seats together :headache: glad despite the transfer eveything went well w/ the travel and Will was so good!haha- oh, you can bet there will be a cute, um, scary pic included!!!! Yeah the airlines are charging us fee by fee until we are broke!

I'm in!!! Can't wait to hear all about your trip!!!Welcome!!!:woohoo::hug:

Ugh, flight delays! I agree with you, I don't normally like flying with layovers either, but this time for myself too, I had to book it too.

Oh, and agree about AirTran. What's up with the $6 seat fee?! :confused3Yeah, we avoid connections when possible, which is usually pretty easy since we fly out of DFW (which is usually a connection point for others!). I hate all those stupid fees. heck, i am flying to Anaheim for work on November 10th (yeah quick stop at DTD and DL!!!)- anyhow- i booked through our work travel system on AA- and now AA is charging more if you want window or aisle. so i am stuck in a middle seat for the long haul to the west coast. really? come on airlines!!!! how on earth are they going under when they are charging all of these fees? lol

[khertz]

Yay, you started!

I'm glad William was so good on the plane. I'm hoping for that myself! Luckily our flight is only about 1 hr and 40 minutes or so...hopefully we can keep him entertained that long!!

His shirt is adorable!! Where did you get it?

Too bad about the planes being delayed. It always sucks when you plan everything for so long and something out of your control happens to mess it up. :sad2: Hopefully things only get better from there for y'all. :goodvibes

[Curiouser&curiouser!]

I just found your trip report and I am enjoying it.

We just got back from our first family trip with DS2 (We had been many times without kids) and it looks like our next trip will be right about your son's age! So this is perfect for tips!!

[exwdwcm]

Yay, you started!

I'm glad William was so good on the plane. I'm hoping for that myself! Luckily our flight is only about 1 hr and 40 minutes or so...hopefully we can keep him entertained that long!!

His shirt is adorable!! Where did you get it?

Too bad about the planes being delayed. It always sucks when you plan everything for so long and something out of your control happens to mess it up. :sad2: Hopefully things only get better from there for y'all. :goodvibesAn hour and 40 minutes shouldn't be too bad! I ordered his t-shirt on etsy.com. Just go on there and search for disney birthday shirts. You will see a ton- amazing designs!!!

I just found your trip report and I am enjoying it.

We just got back from our first family trip with DS2 (We had been many times without kids) and it looks like our next trip will be right about your son's age! So this is perfect for tips!!Thanks for reading along! :thumbsup2 Enjoy! Yes, this was his third trip, but it was the first time he was truly excited about meeting the characters and was really into having his book signed. He would grab it from me beforehand and get all ready. So that was a lot of fun. Plus we would ask him where he wanted to go next or ride next and he is at that age where he can actually tell you and really know what he wants. It was a lot of fun!! I think it is a great age!!!

[exwdwcm]

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15- continued


So we make to baggage claim and wait and wait. Finally our large bag comes through, but no car seat. I am already running through my head the cost to rent one at $10 a day. Ouch! Finally after 20 minutes or more, other bags come up on a completely different carousel next to the one our bag come on. And suddenly we see the car seat. That took like 30 minutes. Ugh!



So we take all of our crap, wheeling most of the carry ons in the stroller while Will walks and pulls his own backpack on wheels. We head downstairs to the parking garage. I notice the HUGE line at the Alamo counter as we pass by. I am so glad I didn’t use Alamo now. We rented from National, who I prefer since I use Emerald Aisle. So we head straight out to the first floor of the parking garage.



I notice all the folks at the airport that are heading in- their vacations over and I get a little sad in anticipation of that being us in a week. Funny, how at the beginning of your vacation, you are already dreading the end. But I try and enjoy and savor the moment knowing we are just beginning ours.



We get to the parking garage, find the midsize aisle and pick out a silver Toyota corolla. It will do. With Emerald Aisle, you simply pick the car, get in and go. I only had to show my ID and credit card at the booth on the drive out and it took like one minute. Thank you Emerald Aisle- sure beats waiting in line at a kiosk or counter. I drive and we head out on 528 to I-4- my preferred route, it is just the way I always go and know the best.



I remember my days as a CM, and how I HATED the tourists that had no clue where they were going when driving. I have a flashback as a car in front of us proceeds to completely stop on the road instead of yielding and merging into the traffic. Seriously people! We finally make it to I-4 and I usually exit at 535, at Downtown Disney basically, driving in through the village hotel area. The traffic is CRAZY. I guess it is Friday night. And it is about 8:45pm or later now. We wait at the light forever and finally get into Disney property and see the big sign. Yeah! We are here. The traffic near DTD is simple insane. Glad we aren’t going there tonight.



We turn and follow the signs to the MK towards our home for the next 8 nights- Bay Lake Towers. We check in the guard booth and proceed to park in the BLT parking lot. We all head in to CR to check in. DH takes William over to the cartoons, which he adores. He loves the old school cartoons. I’ve ordered him some of the “have a laugh” series, but I need to find more of the original old cartoons- especially with Donald. He watches them online a lot, so he loved this.

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I get a very nice gentleman that grabs my packet for me. He shows me where our room is, it is on the inside of the curve, directly over the pool, 12th floor. I had requested high floor, even number. I only got high floor. Given we were checking in so late, I didn’t risk trying to get another room, since really, this one is pretty good- great pool view. The only better room would be the north side with a potential fireworks view and I didn’t want to risk losing the room we had. He was super nice and broke open the MK map to show me the best spots to view the Halloween parade. He said near Splash Mtn, you can’t hear the music. So I did learn something new! He also pointed out his favorite food and wine booths too.



So with our keys and packet in hand, we pryed Will away from the cartoons and went out to the car to get our bags and up we went. Will’s big thing this trip was pushing the elevator buttons. If you even dared get close to pushing it, he would give you the evil eye. One time, DH pushed it on accident, not thinking and a complete tantrum followed. Not good.



So up we go to the 12th floor. We were fairly close to the elevator, about 4 doors down or so. That was nice because last year, we were at the very end of the hall. We opened the door and DH commented on how small the room was. LOL. Sorry dear. Next time we will really consider the one bedroom (which is what we had last year). It is quite a change from the spacious one bedroom. But it was enough room for the three of us. There was the queen size bed, pull out couch, table, chairs, dresser etc. I did see that we were not in a newly updated room. Our sink was still in the kitchen. To be honest, I didn’t mind it all that much, except for the few times DH and I crashed into each other while he was brushing his teeth and I was trying to get in the fridge for water or something. That was annoying.

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I hated the toilet area- it was small, dark and the while we had a “lock” if you even call it that on the door, it barely worked and there was still a good inch gap on the door where you could see in. Not very conducive to doing your private business. I hated that. I also hate how loud those toilets are. The room was clean, but it smelled funny to me. Sort of a rank, moldy smell. DH didn’t smell it. Everything else seemed fine with the exception of the toilet. The top lid opened, but the actual seat itself, well if you lifted it, it wouldn’t stay up. For my little 3 year old, that was not good. He couldn’t hold it up and pee like his dad can, so he ended up just peeing all over the seat instead. Thanks kid. As the only woman in the room, I sure did appreciate that. Lucky me.



We leave our bags and head to the Contempo Café for dinner. Originally, I had considered taking the monorail over to the Poly and eating at Captain Cook’s, just for a change of scenery, but we were so tired and it was late, thanks for the late flight and flooded airplane bathroom (what is with the bad luck in the bathrooms?)

So we head across the bridge to CR and look, there’s WISHES going off- we stop for a moment and watch. What a great first night, walk out to the bridge and see fireworks. This is why I love BLT!!!


We then head into the CR and order at Contempo Café using the fancy machines. I get a burger/fries, DH gets a salad and we get William a burger with applesauce and grapes. He also wants a cupcake. Since he was so good on the planes, we let him get one- the red velvet one. It ends up sitting in our fridge the rest of the trip with only 2 bites taken out of it. Go figure.

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We get our food and it is okay, nothing fancy. I enjoy hearing the monorail rush by as we eat, so relaxing. I actually answered my mom’s panel question about my favorite resort this way-------how I immediately relax when I step into BLT/CR and hear the giggles from Chef Mickey’s and the monorail whizzing by. This. Is. My. Happy. Place.



As we walk back across the bridge, I see they are showing the Lion King on the movie screen outside downstairs- so fun! WE don’t end up doing it this trip, but nice to know it is an option! We also catch the electrical water pageant. Talk about a magical first night!



So after dinner, we are exhausted. We get back to the room and I call bell services to deliver our garden grocer order and also a box a lovely DIS friend left for us. She had stayed at BLT the week before us and packed up some of her leftover water, detergent, apple juice, cereal, soap and more.



It only takes them about 10-15 minutes to bring it up- I tip him $5 and start unpacking. We didn’t order much- just water, juice, milk, apples, yogurt, applesauce etc. I give Will a quick bath and pull out his bed (couch) and get him to rest and do his books while I unpack. I am OCD, through and through. I can’t rest or go to sleep until the room is all organized, unpacked and clean. So DH plays on the laptop and reads his book while I do that. Of course, what is on the TV? None other than Stacy! Gotta love it! I love listening to it over and over, or putting it on the resort channel.



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So all unpacked and tired, I finally give in and go to sleep. It is about 11pm. We have an early morning tomorrow, but we all pass out. I have a hard time sleeping though. It is only an hour time difference form home in TX, but I wake up at 3am, 4am and 5am. DH wakes at 5am for good.



And here is where the fun starts……….I have a hard time sleeping because I was worried about the rental car. When we took the bags out and locked it, I pressed the lock button and the lights were still on. Usually they shut off after a while. So I made a comment to DH about “hey, the lights will turn off, right?” and he says yes. So I kept looking back as we walked off, but lights were still on. I know some cars take a while to turn off and I didn’t remember the lights being on when we first left the car, so I assumed they shut off on their own that first time and would again. But now, tossing and turning, I am second guessing myself- did the lights turn off automatically or not? I almost went out in my pajamas to check. So what happens? Stay tuned to find out!

[CandleontheWater]

Hi there, I'm joining in!

I hear ya on the BLT bathroom situation! I would love to add on some BLT points (our home is SSR), but I just can't get over the bathroom. I haven't been staying on top of the fixes, but hopefully that is something they have been addressing.

I hope that your car is OK, there would be nothing worse than a dead battery on vacation!

[IheartDDuck]

Got another OCD unpacker here too. I have to get the room all organized before I can think about crawling into bed. No matter how late in the day it is. You've got a friend here with that! :lmao:

I love the cupcakes from Contempo Cafe. I got several of them when we stayed there in July.

That sucks that you kept thinking about the car while you were trying to sleep. I am hoping that it went well...

[khertz]

Yikes, I hope the lights ended up going off on their own! I'm OCD about locking the doors on my car (my lights don't go off automatically, so I', OCD about turning those off too when I have to use them), so I wouldn't have been able to go to sleep without going back to check...or sending DH to do it! :laughing: I have to hit the lock button and hear the horn beep at least twice if not 3 times to be satisfied that the car is locked! Definitely get that from my mom.

I hope the late night didn't interfere with your early morning! We all know just how important those are!!

[zhonggu54]

I am here now, too late for me? I really enjoyed your trip .:cool1:

[mjwheelerali]

We're going in December with our 3.5 year old so definitely joining in to hear more about your adventure!!! :)

[tlenzendorf]

I'm here and ready! :banana:

[hardingk]

So after dinner, we are exhausted. We get back to the room and I call bell services to deliver our garden grocer order and also a box a lovely DIS friend left for us. She had stayed at BLT the week before us and packed up some of her leftover water, detergent, apple juice, cereal, soap and more.


Such a nice DisFriend!! ;)

We loved sitting at the Contempo Cafe watching the monorail and people! We just LOVE BLT. I'm now thinking that once every other year is not enough!

[archdandy]

Subbing in! It sucks that your flight was delayed a little bit but hopefully it didn't put you guys in too bad of a mood! I can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip.

[LJD2143]

Looking forward to hearing all about your trip!:goodvibes

[exwdwcm]

Hi there, I'm joining in!

I hear ya on the BLT bathroom situation! I would love to add on some BLT points (our home is SSR), but I just can't get over the bathroom. I haven't been staying on top of the fixes, but hopefully that is something they have been addressing.

I hope that your car is OK, there would be nothing worse than a dead battery on vacation!I know, it was a little frustrating. We didn't have to deal with it much last year (our first BLt stay) as we were in a one bedroom and DH and I had the master, so our huge bathroom was in the bedroom and pretty private, but the outside bathroom my MIL used was pretty annoying for them.

Got another OCD unpacker here too. I have to get the room all organized before I can think about crawling into bed. No matter how late in the day it is. You've got a friend here with that! :lmao:

I love the cupcakes from Contempo Cafe. I got several of them when we stayed there in July.

That sucks that you kept thinking about the car while you were trying to sleep. I am hoping that it went well...LOL- glad to know I am not alone there. I really can't relax until I know it is all put away.

Yikes, I hope the lights ended up going off on their own! I'm OCD about locking the doors on my car (my lights don't go off automatically, so I', OCD about turning those off too when I have to use them), so I wouldn't have been able to go to sleep without going back to check...or sending DH to do it! :laughing: I have to hit the lock button and hear the horn beep at least twice if not 3 times to be satisfied that the car is locked! Definitely get that from my mom.

I hope the late night didn't interfere with your early morning! We all know just how important those are!!Well I definitely need to start doing that at least with rental cars to just be sure!!

I am here now, too late for me? I really enjoyed your trip .:cool1:Nope, not too late, just getting started. Thanks for joining in the fun!

We're going in December with our 3.5 year old so definitely joining in to hear more about your adventure!!! :)You guys will have a blast! We've taken him for the last 3 years (can we say spoiled??) and he's been great everytime. This trip was probably the best age so far and I imagine next year will probably be even better. :thumbsup2

I'm here and ready! :banana:Yeah, welcome in the fun Tricia!

Such a nice DisFriend!! ;)

We loved sitting at the Contempo Cafe watching the monorail and people! We just LOVE BLT. I'm now thinking that once every other year is not enough!YES_ my AMAZING Dis buddy, Kimberly was so kind!!! :rotfl:;) I still need to send you a little thank you for that. So stay tuned. I might just have to pick you up something special in Disneyland next weekend. I leave next Thursday for 4 nights in Anaheim for work and plan to visit the park and DTD!

Subbing in! It sucks that your flight was delayed a little bit but hopefully it didn't put you guys in too bad of a mood! I can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip.Thanks for the sub. I hate late flights, but what can you do. It could have been much worse I guess. This year we are really looking to do a direct flight, even if we have to pay more. I felt the connection thing just took way too long. It wasn't too awful, but I felt we lost a lot of precious disney time. Our flight out of DFW was at noon and yet, we didn't arrive in Orlando until like 7:30-8pm. Usually, our direct flight is 2.5 hours and so we save so much time direct. that is definitely on my list for next year!

Looking forward to hearing all about your trip!:goodvibeswoo hoo- welcome!

[exwdwcm]

and on a quick off topic (well sort of on topic), side note........we've started planning for 2012.

The best cure for the post trip blues is to plan another one right? I am so thrilled to have the luxury to do this now, all thanks for DVC. :thumbsup2;)

So I spoke with DH yesterday, we were originally thinking we would try Aulani next year, if flights were decent enough. But William seems to have really had a blast this year. I think this was the trip where he was old enough to really get it. He's been talking about the trip non stop since we got back. He was asking about the hotel yesterday- how he wanted to stay in a room at the hotel like one we did with Granny (a one bedroom). We were in a studio this trip and while it was fine, it was a little tight at times.

Anyhow, after much discussion, we decided it was best to skip Aulani and save it for a future trip and head back to WDW while William is at the age to really enjoy it. He'll be 5 for our next trip. We are looking at early November. Right now I am debating on two different weeks. We'd like to fit in Food and Wine again, which I believe runs typically through mid November. Then if possible, see one of the early MVMCPs.

So the dates I am looking at are:
Friday, Nov 2 through Saturday, Nov 10 OR
Friday, Nov 9 through Saturday, Nov 17th

Do you think the second week (9th-17th) would be more crowded and that we might start to see some of the Thanksgiving crowds that Sat, 11/17? Thanksgiving is on 11/22 next year.

We want lowest crowds, best weather and ability to do F&W and MVMCP. I know, not asking for much, right? Anyhow, if you have any experience with early November, let us know. I'll be looking to read and follow some old November trip reports to get a feel for that time of year. We've done December now twice (early Dec), October now, May, August, June etc.

I am very excited to plan another trip. We also debated on who to bring this year. We treated my mother in law and niece last year, this year was just us. So this year, we are inviting my parents. They've treated us in the past, including a fabulous 10 day stay at the Wilderness Lodge in December 2009 for the entire family. So we figure we owe them, right? ;) Plus, they haven't been back since that trip in 2009. My mom is a huge disney fan like me and a HUGE shopper. Dad is the laid back type that just goes with the flow. Both are retired. Mom has some vision issues and is losing her vision due to a pitutary brain tumor she's had operated on twice now. Due to all the medications and her sight, we might use a wheelchair for part of the trip. She tires easily with all of the meds. She is missing her pitutary gland due to the tumor and that controls almost all hormone activity in your body. Dad also has some issues with his feet and diabetes he was just diagnosed with a few years ago. So we will go slower this trip, which is actually welcome to me! We went a little slower this last trip too and I enjoyed it. I figure we will do even more of that.

Our plan is to get a 2 bedroom villa at BLT- lakeview. Looking forward to it. Plus, William will be happy since he preferred the bigger room. We loved having our own kitchen, living area and breakfast/dining area last year. We didn't get to use the living area much, since MIL slept there and my niece slept on the single pull out chair. So we much prefer doing 2 bedrooms for everyone to have privacy and ensure we can actually use the living room area as that.

So that's the latest news and planning in motion. Now to start all over- where to eat, what special activities to plan etc. We have done a lot at Disney, but I know there are more new things to try. So if you have any advice on great new activities, let us know!

[KatieCollette]

Another FB person, checking in! Loving it so far!

[lmc318]

I'm in and enjoying your report so far! And we're looking into the 2nd week of November for our next trip too, but not until 2013, so I'm really anxious to see how your week is next year. :goodvibes

[lovethattink]

I'm in!

Love the airplane pictures!!

For some reason I can't get past page one, I get an error message and IE closes down. Hopefully I will get to see the rest of your report soon!!

[lovethattink]

Oh yes!! I was able to get to page 2 tonight!

I love the way you write. I could "see" the roads from the airport to BLT and how busy it was on the 535. That traffic can be crazy on a Friday night!

My friend's sister calls them "tourons", tourists who drive like morons.

Never heard of Emerald Aisle but it sounds great! I remember when we lived up north and rented cars down here. Alamo was a killer wait, never less than an hour for us.

I didn't realize the bathrooms at BLT were that bad. Your view of the pool looks great!

We haven't eaten at the Contempo Cafe since the renovations. I can't get over that MY Concourse Steakhouse is gone. :sad1:

How cool to see fireworks on the bridge AND get to your happy place!!



and on a quick off topic (well sort of on topic), side note........we've started planning for 2012.

The best cure for the post trip blues is to plan another one right? I am so thrilled to have the luxury to do this now, all thanks for DVC. :thumbsup2;)

So I spoke with DH yesterday, we were originally thinking we would try Aulani next year, if flights were decent enough. But William seems to have really had a blast this year. I think this was the trip where he was old enough to really get it. He's been talking about the trip non stop since we got back. He was asking about the hotel yesterday- how he wanted to stay in a room at the hotel like one we did with Granny (a one bedroom). We were in a studio this trip and while it was fine, it was a little tight at times.

Anyhow, after much discussion, we decided it was best to skip Aulani and save it for a future trip and head back to WDW while William is at the age to really enjoy it. He'll be 5 for our next trip. We are looking at early November. Right now I am debating on two different weeks. We'd like to fit in Food and Wine again, which I believe runs typically through mid November. Then if possible, see one of the early MVMCPs.

So the dates I am looking at are:
Friday, Nov 2 through Saturday, Nov 10 OR
Friday, Nov 9 through Saturday, Nov 17th

Do you think the second week (9th-17th) would be more crowded and that we might start to see some of the Thanksgiving crowds that Sat, 11/17? Thanksgiving is on 11/22 next year.

We want lowest crowds, best weather and ability to do F&W and MVMCP. I know, not asking for much, right? Anyhow, if you have any experience with early November, let us know. I'll be looking to read and follow some old November trip reports to get a feel for that time of year. We've done December now twice (early Dec), October now, May, August, June etc.

I am very excited to plan another trip. We also debated on who to bring this year. We treated my mother in law and niece last year, this year was just us. So this year, we are inviting my parents. They've treated us in the past, including a fabulous 10 day stay at the Wilderness Lodge in December 2009 for the entire family. So we figure we owe them, right? ;) Plus, they haven't been back since that trip in 2009. My mom is a huge disney fan like me and a HUGE shopper. Dad is the laid back type that just goes with the flow. Both are retired. Mom has some vision issues and is losing her vision due to a pitutary brain tumor she's had operated on twice now. Due to all the medications and her sight, we might use a wheelchair for part of the trip. She tires easily with all of the meds. She is missing her pitutary gland due to the tumor and that controls almost all hormone activity in your body. Dad also has some issues with his feet and diabetes he was just diagnosed with a few years ago. So we will go slower this trip, which is actually welcome to me! We went a little slower this last trip too and I enjoyed it. I figure we will do even more of that.

Our plan is to get a 2 bedroom villa at BLT- lakeview. Looking forward to it. Plus, William will be happy since he preferred the bigger room. We loved having our own kitchen, living area and breakfast/dining area last year. We didn't get to use the living area much, since MIL slept there and my niece slept on the single pull out chair. So we much prefer doing 2 bedrooms for everyone to have privacy and ensure we can actually use the living room area as that.

So that's the latest news and planning in motion. Now to start all over- where to eat, what special activities to plan etc. We have done a lot at Disney, but I know there are more new things to try. So if you have any advice on great new activities, let us know!

That's awesome that you get to plan a return trip!!

Is the 2nd date Veteran's Day weekend? We are going back that weekend this year and I know it will be busy since many people have a long weekend off.

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

I'm here!!!! Great updates so far! I'm glad to see that William did well on the planes :) I saw that huge cupcake on FB that he was awarded once you got checked in!! Random question..why did you get off at 535 on a Friday?! lol. You can go one more exit and get off at Epcot and it will take you past Epcot and to the MK area. You still get the "Welcome to WDW sign". That is actually the way that the CP buses go because there is always less traffic. I guess it will be a good tip for next time maybe?! lol. Oh the joys of rental cars + tourists + elderly drivers = crazy high insurance in FL!!!!

[tlenzendorf]

Yay for planning another trip!!!

[LJD2143]

We turn and follow the signs to the MK towards our home for the next 8 nights- Bay Lake Towers. We check in the guard booth and proceed to park in the BLT parking lot. We all head in to CR to check in. DH takes William over to the cartoons, which he adores. He loves the old school cartoons. I’ve ordered him some of the “have a laugh” series, but I need to find more of the original old cartoons- especially with Donald. He watches them online a lot, so he loved this.

Yay for BLT - that's our HOME too!:yay:

My 3 boys are much older (10, 10 & 13) and they STILL love the "old" Disney cartoons! They always stop to watch them in the hotel lobbies or at Caseys.:happytv:

So up we go to the 12th floor. We were fairly close to the elevator, about 4 doors down or so. That was nice because last year, we were at the very end of the hall. We opened the door and DH commented on how small the room was. LOL. Sorry dear. Next time we will really consider the one bedroom (which is what we had last year).

Yes - I had heard the studios at BLT are smaller than others - good to know!
This year we stayed in a 1BR because it was all 5 of us, but in the future DH and I may go without the kids.:love:


So we head across the bridge to CR and look, there’s WISHES going off- we stop for a moment and watch. What a great first night, walk out to the bridge and see fireworks. This is why I love BLT

There are SO many great places to watch the fireworks! Did you go up to the Top of The World Lounge?


We then head into the CR and order at Contempo Café using the fancy machines. I get a burger/fries, DH gets a salad and we get William a burger with applesauce and grapes. He also wants a cupcake. Since he was so good on the planes, we let him get one- the red velvet one. It ends up sitting in our fridge the rest of the trip with only 2 bites taken out of it. Go figure.
HaHa!! We bought a couple cupcakes from Contempo too. They look so yummy! But the red velvet was my least favorite.:sad2:




As we walk back across the bridge, I see they are showing the Lion King on the movie screen outside downstairs- so fun! WE don’t end up doing it this trip, but nice to know it is an option! We also catch the electrical water pageant. Talk about a magical first night!
Movies on the beach....campfire with s'mores.....activities around the pool.....bocce ball.......ping pong table.......the activity center..........SO MANY reasons to love BLT!:lovestruc

[exwdwcm]

Another FB person, checking in! Loving it so far!Welcome Katie!

I'm in and enjoying your report so far! And we're looking into the 2nd week of November for our next trip too, but not until 2013, so I'm really anxious to see how your week is next year. :goodvibesYeah, hey, it is NEVER too early to plan!

I'm in!

Love the airplane pictures!!

For some reason I can't get past page one, I get an error message and IE closes down. Hopefully I will get to see the rest of your report soon!!That is so strange, have you tried firefox maybe? Heck, you probably can't even read this response then. :confused3:rotfl:;)

Oh yes!! I was able to get to page 2 tonight!

I love the way you write. I could "see" the roads from the airport to BLT and how busy it was on the 535. That traffic can be crazy on a Friday night!

My friend's sister calls them "tourons", tourists who drive like morons.

Never heard of Emerald Aisle but it sounds great! I remember when we lived up north and rented cars down here. Alamo was a killer wait, never less than an hour for us.

I didn't realize the bathrooms at BLT were that bad. Your view of the pool looks great!

We haven't eaten at the Contempo Cafe since the renovations. I can't get over that MY Concourse Steakhouse is gone. :sad1:

How cool to see fireworks on the bridge AND get to your happy place!!

Is the 2nd date Veteran's Day weekend? We are going back that weekend this year and I know it will be busy since many people have a long weekend off.I never got to visit the Concourse STeakhouse- was it good? I haven't tried the new WAVE either yet.

Emerald Aisle is great. i highly recommend it if you want to sign up. I think mousesavers.com has a code to sign up free. You book online, walk out to the garage, find the Emerald "aisle" (literally) and just pick out a car in the category you booked, get in and drive! There is the little booth to check out at- but you just hand over drivers license and credit card and it took less than two minutes, then drive out! done! easy peasy!

I love tourons. So using that next time!!:rotfl::thumbsup2

Yep, the bathroom was annoying, but we made due.

yes, the second date is Veteran's weekend on the 11th. I can't wait to hear what you think of that week/end then, please let me know.

I'm here!!!! Great updates so far! I'm glad to see that William did well on the planes :) I saw that huge cupcake on FB that he was awarded once you got checked in!! Random question..why did you get off at 535 on a Friday?! lol. You can go one more exit and get off at Epcot and it will take you past Epcot and to the MK area. You still get the "Welcome to WDW sign". That is actually the way that the CP buses go because there is always less traffic. I guess it will be a good tip for next time maybe?! lol. Oh the joys of rental cars + tourists + elderly drivers = crazy high insurance in FL!!!!LOL- I know, I wasn't thinking! Next time, I'll go up one more. :rotfl:It was a disaster! I know better now! :laughing:

Yay for planning another trip!!!I know- I can't wait! a new countdown!!

Yay for BLT - that's our HOME too!:yay:
My 3 boys are much older (10, 10 & 13) and they STILL love the "old" Disney cartoons! They always stop to watch them in the hotel lobbies or at Caseys.:happytv:
Yes - I had heard the studios at BLT are smaller than others - good to know!
This year we stayed in a 1BR because it was all 5 of us, but in the future DH and I may go without the kids.:love:
There are SO many great places to watch the fireworks! Did you go up to the Top of The World Lounge?
HaHa!! We bought a couple cupcakes from Contempo too. They look so yummy! But the red velvet was my least favorite.:sad2:
Movies on the beach....campfire with s'mores.....activities around the pool.....bocce ball.......ping pong table.......the activity center..........SO MANY reasons to love BLT!:lovestrucI forgot that they play them back there in the corner of Casey's, so stopping there next time. He did enjoy them while waiting at the Epcot character spot, but the line was short, we only were in line like 5 minutes. He was mad when we moved, he wanted to watch more!

The studio would be fine for just the two of you! I did miss the washer/dryer though. I used the free w/d downstairs and it was easy.

We watched WISHES from TOW lounge last year, but missed it this time. I can't wait to go back!

I know, I really enjoy it. We did some pool time this trip, but wished I had more time for the Community hall and other activities! Next time.....

[exwdwcm]

Well you guys have been so patient. A lesson I am learning this week as I still wait for a "Congrats" or "Sorry" email from the WDW Moms Panel! Still waiting, hoping to hear this week though.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15
When we left off, I tossed and turned all night, worried about the car lights being left on. Turns out, my gut was right. I should have checked the lights. Yep, the battery was dead. So usually I rent a full size car, like an impala. It has automatic lights. Just like our cars at home. But this time we rented a midsize, cheaper, smaller car. You guessed it, no automatic lights. So the lights had stayed on all night. And the battery was dead, completely.



So after a restless night’s sleep, I am up at 6:30am. I was nervous about the car and lights. I should have been. My instinct was right. Darn it! So we are up, we eat some cereal and applesauce in the room and finally head out about 7:40am, later than I had hoped. But we were greeted by this beautiful sunrise! What a great welcome to our vacation! Tink herself must have created it just for us!:wizard:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a1ce02b3127ccefe3a4cc2955900000030O08RbtHLVi1B7e fCQ/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/ I wanted to be out by 7:30am, but DH take the longest showers. I swear he is worse than a girl. We head downstairs to the car and my heart sinks when I hit the unlock button on the keys and nothing happens. Yep, dead as a doornail. What now?DH says, well you have to change your plans and we can walk to the MK instead. Um, no we don't. We can take the bus. And so our one and only experience with a bus begins....



Off we go to the bus stop- just feet from us, after turning off the lights of course on the car and locking it. I get on the phone with National to find out our options. There is the car care center just less than a mile from us near the MK with a National. Just as I get her on the phone, the DHS bus pulls up. Our wait was maybe 5 minutes, not bad. We are the last ones on and it is almost full. So I am juggling the phone, stroller and toddler getting on the bus. I can’t hear a thing, so I finally tell her I will have to call her back, but she does tell me it is $39 fee for them to come out and switch the cars or jump me.



We get on the bus and DH says not to worry about it, since we turned the lights off now, we will try and get security to jump us later and it should be fine. So thankful I married a car guy. The man can tear apart and rebuild a car himself, so I figured he knew what he was talking about. Did he?



So on the bus to DHS, we stop at the Poly, however the bus is packed already, standing room only and this guy has this HUGE stroller in the aisle. We are crushed in like sardines. DH would try and offer his seat to a lady, but he is holding our son and there simply isn’t a way for him to even move with the giant stroller in front of him.



We make it to DHS at about 8:15am. Later than I hope. It is EMH today- they opened at 8am. So we rush in and head down to Toy Story Mania. We missed the crazy mad dash at least. The standby time is 30 minutes already, so we get fastpasses for 12:05pm. We decide to head to Tower of Terror. This is one of my all time favorites and just think, it stands in the place where I used to park when I worked at DHS 15 years ago. Yep, that used to be the cast member parking lot that it is built on. I only wish it was open when I worked there, I would have ridden it daily!



Now, we weren’t sure William would want to ride this. I had shown him a video of the ride at home on youtube and made sure he knew it dropped over and over again, not just once. He could hear/see the screams and knew it was dark and scary. But he wanted to try it. Who am I to say no to a 3 year old? He is tall enough. Heck, he was tall enough last year at 2 for it, but I didn’t feel he was mature enough to ride it then. Now I did, he is a thrill seeker and not scared of much. Plus he really loves ghosts and the Haunted Mansion, so I thought he would like the whole ghost scene here. He also loves the Haunted Mansion scenes at first with the lightning and storms, so I thought ToT might be up his alley.



He is a clean freak like me, so we joked about how dirty the place was and how we needed to come back and dust. The line for ToT was only 10 minutes. He was a little scared, but still wanted to go on. We sit in the back row with him in the middle of us. He has a death grip on us both. He likes the ghost scene for sure, but once we start dropping, he says, “let me off of here.” Sorry kid, you’re stuck for now. I told him it was okay, and held his hand as best I could. He never cried. But once we were off, he said, that was a fun elevator. Silly kids. I told him what a brave boy he was. He said he didn’t want to ride it again right now. Well I figured that much.

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We skipped RnR. I’ve missed it the last two times. DH doesn’t care for it and I wasn’t ready to put William on there, so I just skipped it instead of making them wait on me. So we headed to Starring Rolls- I wanted to get one of the famous butterfinger cupcakes we had last year. But it was pretty packed, the line was way out the door and not a place to sit. I decided it wasn’t worth it right now. We needed to head over to see Phineas and Ferb, I knew they would be out by 10am. But, I should have checked my times guide, they were actually out at 9:30am. Oops! This was a must do this trip. William loves them. We watch them a lot- heck, I really enjoy the show and love that Bowling for Soup does the song. Gotta love all the crazy music and lyrics.



Since I thought P&F didn’t start until 10am, we had a little time to kill, so William and I went on Star Tours. It was basically a walk on, no wait. DH sat out. He can’t do the motion rides like that. We actually all rode this together at Disneyland in late August when we spent the day at the park while I was there on business. We loved it, but DH can’t do that often. He broke out into a cold sweat, so he decided to pass this time.



William loves wearing the glasses. We sit in the back row and get a great movie! It features the Ewok planet and then a dive under the sea with Jar Jar Binks. Very cool. Poor William, while big for his age, is still so little in that big seat and he was being jarred around pretty good with all of the movement. But we loved it and had a good time.



Next, we head over to the P&F meet and greet, located at the exit of the Muppets. I now realize it opens at 9:30am, which it is exactly 9:30am, so there is already a line of say 15-20 ahead of us. Not too bad though. It moves fast. DH goes to sit down on a bench while William and I wait in line. He brings along his workbook and sits on the ground doing it. Too funny- the kid is addicted to those workbooks. Who would have guessed? Unfortunately I don't have any pics of P&F, they are on our PP CD which we haven't gotten quite yet, so I'll add them later.

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We finally work our way up and one family before us, they go to take a break. Thankfully, they only break for like 3 minutes and are back again. We are through the line in about 20 minutes and get our cute P&F pics!



We stop in the Muppet store quickly and it is empty! I had seen cute muppet hats in previous years and wanted one for Will. I found them! They had Animal, Beaker and Kermit. I got one for Will and he immediately wanted to wear it. He wore it a lot this trip, as you will see in photos and I swear every single CM and guest commented on that hat and asked if I made it or where we got it. It was a huge hit. Best $20 spent ever!
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DH is a little hungry and was searching for coffee, so we hit up the writer’s stop near Sci Fi. Line here is about 5 deep, but we wait. It moves so slow and takes forever. I get a yummy oatmeal apple cookie and get William yep, another cupcake. He proceeds to eat the icing only.



We sit near the Sci Fi restaurant and enjoy our cookies. I watch some guest have a meltdown about something on her phone. Always interesting people watching at WDW.



We then head over to the animation area, seeing that we just missed the 10:30am Disney Jr. show, which is a must for us. William is a HUGE Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Jake and the Neverland Pirates fan. Those are his absolute favorite shows. I see there is an 11:20am show, so we park the stroller and head into the animation building instead. This is another thing I wanted to do that we missed last trip.
We’ve always missed the characters in there, so I wanted to make a point to see them this time. So we headed in and saw Pooh with about a 10 minute wait.

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We attempt Sorcerer Mickey, but realize it is getting too close to our Disney Jr. show time and we probably need to get in line, so off we go. We wait in line about 15 minutes or so and head in. We sit in the back right. Will loves this show, especially the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Jake and the Neverland Pirates parts. He also loves catching confetti/gold doubloons! We have to collect them off the floor for him.

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a1ce02b3127ccefe3bd99b74ae00000030O08RbtHLVi1B7e fCQ/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/After the show, we head to Pizza Planet for lunch. I managed to find a table outside and it was just perfect to sit there and people watch. Unfortunately DH went to get in line right as a large tour group went in ahead. He gets a salad and then Will and I share a pizza and a small salad. We all share a drink. It is just at noon, so it is pretty crowded inside, glad we got a nice table outside.



It actually feels a little chilly in the shade out here actually.


On the way to TSMM, we run into three folks I recognize from a facebook picture. They are cast members, dressed in some Hawaiian shirts, holding a video camera etc. As I get closer, I see it is…….Heather! My old roommate from the college program 15 years ago. We’ve kept in touch by email, facebook and always try and visit while we are in town. She still works for the mouse, has ever since the college program. She was one of the Ziti Sisters at Epcot in Italy for a while, but now just subs there. Now she is doing some pre-crowd show before the parade. So I knew that might be here when I recognized those outfits from one of her FB pics. So happy and random to run into her. We meet her coworkers and chat for a bit. Unfortunately we won’t catch her later for the parade preshow. Will is going to need a nap by then!



So we continue on to Toy Story Mania. The line is now 60 minutes, it said 90 minutes earlier. After a nice relaxing lunch, we head over to Toy Story Mania to use our fastpasses. It's funny, we only wait about 10 minutes max, but we get looks from those in standby. Then as we are in the staircase area, folks in front of and behind us start giving folks in the other empty line next to us dirty looks, as a family with a special needs child walks by. Come on people!!! Enough already. A CM walks by and someone asks him if we can get in that shorter line. Um no, if you could, they would have put you in it originally! The CM tells them it is the line for GAC passes, or single riders etc. to try and fill up empty spots I swear!

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Will sits almost in my lap, I let him pull the gun while I aim. I actually did okay considering I had a toddler assisting. Alan gets a pretty good score, but I can't remember what. After enjoying shooting to our heart's content on TSMM, we decide it is break time. We head out of DHS over to the bus. We only wait 5 minutes and actually run into a family that was on the bus with us there that morning. We chat briefly. Always nice making friends in the world!

We get back to BLT and I grab our mugs, which we had kept in the stroller (one reason I LOVE having a stroller, hello storage!) and fill our drinks. Alan tells me to call security about getting a jump for the car, so I do. They say to put the hood up and they will find him in the parking lot in a few minutes. AWesome! I wonder how many times a week they have to do this. A LOT, I bet. :confused3:rotfl2:Alan said they were really nice and got it jumped. He drove it around a bit and then came back up to the room for a rest. I got William down for a nap, finally at about 3pm. Once Alan is back, I head down to do one of my favorite things at the world.......SHOP! I do love Buena Vista Gifts in the CR. I manage to spend about $140. OUCH! Mom had given me a list. I got 3 calendars, one for me, mom and sister. Got her a few ornaments (the round 40th one), a "monorail" t-shirt for my sister, WDW candyland game for Will for Christmas and more, including a mousepad and nice writing pen for work. I get back about 4pm and Will is waking up.

I take a few pics of our view- amazing!
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Next up, the rest of our first full day- dinner in the castle with some beautiful girls.

[tlenzendorf]

Mmmm I love those cupcakes! Sounds like you had a good day at HS. I'm so impressed that Will rode ToT! Ellie is my ride chicken and didn't even like doing the queue so we could do rider switch with her.

You had way better luck with the busses that day than we had our whole trip. We decided after driving a few days and bussing a few days that we will nearly never take the bus anymore! It is ridiculous!

Yay for security jumping the car for free!

[IheartDDuck]

Oh no, I had a feeling that your premonition would turn out to be true and that the battery would be dead. At least security jumped the car later.

I love the hat you bought Will. Honestly, I had seen that hat last year and loved it. I may have to get one for myself. :laughing:

[exwdwcm]

Hi guys, still here and actually have the next part almost typed up and ready.

I am currently at the happiest place on earth- Disneyland! I am here for work- the National Association of Realtors conference and tradeshow. Flew in yesterday afternoon, checked into my dump of a hotel and then hit downtown disney. Today i hit Disneyland at 8am. I was able to tackle Space and Thunder Mtn, Indy, HM Holiday, castle walkthrough, ToT, Soarin, California Screaming and Goofy's Sky School....plus a cinnamon roll for breakfast on main st and a hot dog for lunch at Coke Corner and some strolling and shopping. It is pretty crowded, i guess a lot of folks are off for the holiday today. But I hit everything early and still have 3 FPs to use tonight.

Gotta go work a few hours at the opening reception for our show. But I am heading back over to the park afterwards. I figure I'll just take in the atmosphere since the crowds are crazy.

I did see a scene....they had an area near Adventureland blocked off with tons of security, right in front of Bengal Barbeque, there were some empty tables blocked off and a bag sitting there and bomb sniffing dogs. Turned out to be nothing apparently.

I have to say Haunted mansion holiday is one of my new favorites. I have never ridden it before and WOW, they go all out in completely changing it. I absolutely loved it. It was even cold in the graveyard scene to match all the snow. I couldn't get over how simply amazing it was. I need to buy the movie for William to watch, we don't have that one and I do love it.

Weather has been great, it was cloudy most of the day, which was nice- I could have actually worn my hoodie and been fine, but I left it in the room. I was fine in short sleeves, but it was a little chilly, which for this Texan, was actually nice!

okay, gotta get dressed to head to work for a bit, but thought I would check in to let you know I haven't forgotten about you guys! In fact, most of my TR is written- i did keep notes, just got post it all with the pics! :wizard:

[msmith1026]

We ended up never going to HS during our trip, the day we were supposed to go to the park Zoey slept until 9:30 and I just thought it was better to make it a rest day. I was bummed, i really wanted a cupcake, you know, for research purposes!!! JP had Lunch with an Imagineer that day, so he went to the park alone and Zoey and I sat by the pool.

Will eats his cupcakes like Zoey, apparently. She eats just the frosting most of the time too. Sometimes I cut the cake in half, and put the bottom half i just cut on top of the frosting, making it a sandwich. She loves to eat it that way!

I love that Will road ToT. My favorite ride! I made JP ride that for me since I was with Zoey.

Nice that you could get the jump from security for free!

[mousescrapper]

Hi Michelle,

getting caught up!

fun news about the preplanning for 2012 already...a good Diser friend of mine DisMomAmy is just geeting back from WDW and did the F&W/MVMCP thing I'll post you a link to her TR when she get's started. :thumbsup2

I am in complete agreement w/ you about your Happy Place...me too :goodvibes


stinky about the car, but g;lad security got it jumped for you :thumbsup2


wow what a brave little guy to go on ToT! i love that ride too. looking forward to more

[RGirl]

Joining in!! Loving your TR so far. I think our trips overlapped some - it was a great time to be there! :woohoo:

I was really struck by what you said about being so grateful for your DS after all you went through. I know exactly what you mean. I tried to become a parent for close to 5 years before I realized that my path to a family was through adoption; I am so thankful every day for my DD. I was almost 38 years old when she came home, and I am very tired a lot of the time :rotfl:, but I am so thrilled to be spending every day with her. I am so glad that you finally have your adorable DS!

I am marveling at your relatively short wait for Phineas and Ferb. That was the longest wait of our 9-day trip!!! :scared1:

Looking forward to more. :woohoo:

[exwdwcm]

We ended up never going to HS during our trip, the day we were supposed to go to the park Zoey slept until 9:30 and I just thought it was better to make it a rest day. I was bummed, i really wanted a cupcake, you know, for research purposes!!! JP had Lunch with an Imagineer that day, so he went to the park alone and Zoey and I sat by the pool.

Will eats his cupcakes like Zoey, apparently. She eats just the frosting most of the time too. Sometimes I cut the cake in half, and put the bottom half i just cut on top of the frosting, making it a sandwich. She loves to eat it that way!

I love that Will road ToT. My favorite ride! I made JP ride that for me since I was with Zoey.

Nice that you could get the jump from security for free!lol at the cupcake for research purposes! I love it! I totally work in the wrong business. :rotfl: It sounds like you had a good rest day though instead! William just eats the frosting now too (and me as well).

Hi Michelle,

getting caught up!

fun news about the preplanning for 2012 already...a good Diser friend of mine DisMomAmy is just geeting back from WDW and did the F&W/MVMCP thing I'll post you a link to her TR when she get's started. :thumbsup2

I am in complete agreement w/ you about your Happy Place...me too :goodvibes


stinky about the car, but g;lad security got it jumped for you :thumbsup2


wow what a brave little guy to go on ToT! i love that ride too. looking forward to morewould love a link to her TR when she starts!!!! thanks for thinking of me. Yes, so thrilled security was able to help. I was panicked at first, but I really tried to not let it bother me too much and ended up having a great day and didn't worry about it too much. Which for me, is saying a LOT! :goodvibes

Joining in!! Loving your TR so far. I think our trips overlapped some - it was a great time to be there! :woohoo:

I was really struck by what you said about being so grateful for your DS after all you went through. I know exactly what you mean. I tried to become a parent for close to 5 years before I realized that my path to a family was through adoption; I am so thankful every day for my DD. I was almost 38 years old when she came home, and I am very tired a lot of the time :rotfl:, but I am so thrilled to be spending every day with her. I am so glad that you finally have your adorable DS!

I am marveling at your relatively short wait for Phineas and Ferb. That was the longest wait of our 9-day trip!!! :scared1:

Looking forward to more. :woohoo:ah, hugs to you and your amazing little blessing. No matter how they come to us, all a blessing! I am 38 now and we are going to be trying to #2 this year, probably doing IVF again next fall. :grouphug:

P&F were awesome, I knew there would be a wait, so I wanted to tackle it early! thanks for joining in the TR!!!

[exwdwcm]

so i've been MIA. I did return from Anaheim last Monday, a week ago, but work has taken over ever since and catching up from being out of town on business.

I hope to have the next day posted soon- i have it all ready, just need to add pics.

In the meantime, I got my PP pics!! yeah- here are some from day one- enjoy!

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[exwdwcm]

And my business trip to anaheim was okay. The hotel was a total dump. Had the sink back up on me night one, bedding was all stained and nasty, yuck! But it would have to do for 4 nights.

I was able to shop at DTD on the first night- a Thursday night. Friday am, I was able to do RD at DL and even hit DCA for a few hours before working that night. Then back to DL. on Saturday, I only hit DL that night for a few hours. Sunday, I hit DL and DCA in the am again and then again that night after working a few hours that afternoon. I headed home Monday. So I actually spent more time in the parks than I did working. LOL! Also saw Michael Eisner's keynote at the show, which was fun.

Here are a few pics. I fell in love with Haunted Mansion holiday. rode it 5x! It was so cool. Also loved Small World holiday!

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[khertz]

I love the photos of Will hugging Pooh Bear & high fiving P&F! So cute, and really shows he was having a great time!

How great that you got to play more than work on your business trip!! :rotfl: I'm getting more excited for our first DL trip after seeing your pics. Although now, I think once we take our May trip there, we might have to make a fall trip in the future to see these holiday overlays everyone keeps raving about!

[exwdwcm]

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15th

PART 2
We left off with William waking up from his short nap. Mommy and Daddy are pretty tired too, but no nap for us. Alan read out on the balcony while Will napped or usually got on the laptop. He had brought two books along. At first, I was like, when are you going to actually read. But he did.
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While I was down shopping, I had also stopped by the concierge desk to pick up our MNSSHP tickets and a birthday button for William. So back up in the room, we all get changed and ready for dinner. William is wearing a renaissance fair type knight’s costume that was a hand me down from a friend of ours. He wore it to the local ren faire and I thought it might be cute for dinner at Cinderella’s Royal Table (CRT).
Mom, stop taking my picture already.
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I put on jeans tonight, but it turns out it is pretty hot. Not a good decision! We are used to the humidity in TX, but it is worse here. We walk over to the MK. I can’t say enough how much I love this walk. It beats the monorail for sure. As much as I love the monorail, we would have to wait for it first off, then risk getting on a packed monorail, since it just left the MK and is packed with folks waiting for the TTC, Poly or GF stops. We’ve actually had to wait for a second monorail once it was so full when it arrived at CR! So we love the option to walk. It is only about 5minutes or so and a nice walk. I mean, you are walking miles a day, what’s a little more?



So we get into the MK, it is pretty crowded, but then again, it is a Saturday and touringplans ranked this day as a “8”! Ouch! So we knew it would be crowded. Many people arrive on Saturdays and the first place they want to go is the MK. Plus MK was open until midnight this night, one of the few nights it had late hours, especially given the early (7pm) closing on MVMCP nights. We had planned to do dinner and just whatever we felt like we could do in the crowds. We weren’t going to try and hit any big rides.



Our dinner reservation is for 5:45pm. We get in the gates and see Chip and Dale. William loves them! The line isn’t long, so we stop and get a pic.
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I see the cute sign for the MNSSHP and take a pic of that too.
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I love the park all done up for Halloween!
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After our encounter with Chip and Dale, we head in and check in early for CRT at 5:15pm. Folks are trying to walk up and being sent away. I feel bad more newbies don’t know to make ADRs and that is one of the first things I always tell friends or family planning trips.
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Even checking in early, we get right in. We head into the room and get our pic made with Cinderella! William was in awe.
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We were seated within about 15 minutes or less. We had a table right in the middle pretty much. I was hoping for a window seat, but no luck. Our server was okay. We did use our TIW card and ended up getting about $30 back credited on the card I used to pay for the meal in advance.



Since this is a set meal with appetizer and dessert, I order the cheese platter, DH gets the shrimp cocktail and William gets some grapes and cheese. The cheese are very good!
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For dinner, I have the beef, DH has the stuffed chicken and William has the chicken nuggets. William is a pretty adventurous eater and he doesn’t often order chicken nuggets.



We enjoy seeing all of the princesses being introduced and come out into the dining room. We have a seat pretty much right in the middle. First up to visit was Sleeping Beauty. This is the only good picture with a princess of Will. He started making this really weird face in all of the others. Go figure, toddlers.

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Then Snow White
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Next up was Ariel. She was asking him if he fought dragons and he was very shy!
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Then they started the wishing ceremony, which I had never seen before. It was so cute! He waved his sword in the air, the girls waved their wands and they each had a little mirrored star they were given at the table, so they had to wish on it. So cute- the room got slightly dark and lit up for the end.

Here he is wishing really hard! :rotfl:
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Then there was Belle. William is a big reader, so he liked her since she likes books too!

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William was given double dessert. He got the ice cream, but they also brought him a birthday cupcake and of course it was purple! So he had purple icing all over the place. But he had a good time with it. I really enjoyed my dessert, I am a sucker for chocolate mousse!

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Great meal- better than expected. No waits and good service. Food was actually much better than I had planned on. So that was a pleasant surprise. Don't get me wrong, it is pricey, but we were happy with our experience and glad we did it now while William is still young enough to like the princesses and not think they have cooties.



So we say good bye to the castle and head out to the HUGE crowds in the MK. I knew it was going to be crowded this evening. It is MK on a Saturday night, with it being open until midnight. With the halloween parties, this is one of the only late nights available to guests at MK, so of course everyone is here.



We knew this going in and had planned to just hit the less popular stuff with shorter lines and head out when we were tired. Alan and I both hate crowds, not a phobia type thing, but more of an "I get annoyed with stupid people" thing. :rotfl: So the crowded walkways and crazy stroller drivers were not fun. We finally found a spot to park the stroller and headed into PhilHarmagic. There is no line. William giggles his way through this movie- he loves it. He jumps and laughs during the parts that are 3D. Next up, we hit the Haunted Mansion.



After visiting the Haunted Mansion in Disneyland in August (for our quick one day visit), this has quickly become William's favorite ride. So we knew we just had to do it. We decide to check out the cemetery, it is a new addition since our trip last year. William has a ball with it. We wait about 20 minutes, including the cemetery visit. William's favorite part is the book shelves and the books that pop out at you.

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When we get to the main line again, the CM sees Will's birthday button and has the entire line sing happy birthday to him. Yep, one of those special moments. He was so shy, but it was so cute!



We finally get in and Will actually gets scared in the first room and asks to leave, but then he loves it. Not sure why he got scared, since he rode this like 3x in DL (and last year at WDW), but I guess he didn't remember the dark room or something. He says he remembers and isn't scared anymore. The kid knows the entire spiel for this ride now. He can literally recite the whole thing, and accents the words in an eerie way just like Vincent Price. It is too funny.



We finally decide the crowds are just too much and head back for the night. We have a full week ahead to enjoy without the crazy crowds. Plus it was a long day already. We are ready for the rest. While we enjoy nighttime, we tend to really get more out of our early mornings at the parks than nighttime hours. Will can stay up as late as we keep going usually, he rarely crashes in the stroller, but we figured it was best to break.



As we hit Main Street to exit, MSEP is lining up. We decide to head through the Emporium to try and exit. Not good planning/timing on our part. It is the 8pm showing. We had gotten into dinner early (at 5:30pm) and only done the two rides, so it was still early. We finally get to the front of the Emporium, but can't get across, as the parade is coming right around the circle there. It is the tail-end of it, so we let William watch. Then we head for the exit and walk back to BLT. It is close to 9pm now.



We give Will a bath, call both the grandmas and head to bed, finally all asleep by 10:30pm. First day was a success!

[exwdwcm]

I love the photos of Will hugging Pooh Bear & high fiving P&F! So cute, and really shows he was having a great time!

How great that you got to play more than work on your business trip!! :rotfl: I'm getting more excited for our first DL trip after seeing your pics. Although now, I think once we take our May trip there, we might have to make a fall trip in the future to see these holiday overlays everyone keeps raving about!ah thanks! He loves Pooh a lot!

I know, I've been very fortunate this year- mixing in a day at DL with the family (and San Diego) in August on a business trip, then getting a few nights at DL solo in November. Plus our big WDW trip in October. I hate to say it, but i am almost vacationed/traveled out! We had the week in the TN mountains in June too and I had a week in Vegas for work in July. Next year will just be the one big trip to Disney and that's it!

i would say, be sure and check the refurb schedule. Be sure you go when you can see Haunted Mansion holiday at least- if you can see the Small World holiday, it is awesome too. We did a girls trip for my birthday a few years back to DL and we went like second week of Sept, and HM was closed for the holiday overlay. So just check the schedule. you will love DL, while more compact and a different experience, it definitely has its own charms!

[exwdwcm]

Thanks for hanging in guys! It's been a busy few months! Now I can finally get back to working on the trip report, so the next update will come in the next few days! Stay tuned!

Work has been crazy busy and then I had that work trip and Thanksgiving take over. But now things are settling down more and I can get this finished up. I have to say, it is fun to revisit the memories and photos now that almost 2 months have passed. It reminds me of what a great time we had and I am looking forward to planning our next trip in November! Our booking window for DVC opens up in the next 2 weeks! :thumbsup2

[WDWCP96]

Love the PP pictures. Glad that you enjoyed CRT. We ate there years ago with DH's family and had a good experience as well.

We are thinking about going to WDW next November as well and stay at BLT.

[nemofans]

How was the weather for this trip?

[exwdwcm]

I promised another update soon- here you are!

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16

Good morning! Here is how the day looked from the elevator area in BLT! Beautiful and warm.
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Today we started at the Magic Kingdom! We figured it was a good plan, since they had late hours last night until midnight. Usually the park that is open late the night before is pretty empty that next morning. MK opened at 9am today and we made it in time for rope drop. We headed in at the back of the pack. We make it to Fantasyland and the Dumbo line is looking pretty long already. I think all the folks in the front of the pack hit that first, so it is overwhelmed at the moment.

We decide to get Peter Pan FP for later and head over to Pooh. There is no wait at all. We actually ride it twice in a row and let William play in the queue some.
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I also take a few photos of the construction. It is amazing to see it all in progress. I can’t wait to see what has been done and is open when we head back next November 2012. The new Dumbo should be open by then, Snow White will probably be closed (to be turned into Fairy Tale Hall) and most of the B&B stuff should be open- including the Be Our Guest restaurant, Belle’s Cottage and the Tavern. Not sure on the timing of Little Mermaid, but it might be open by then too, although I have to say, I wasn’t impressed with the ride in DL, just a dark ride, so don’t care about that one too much.

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The boys then head off to the carousel while I go to the bathroom back by Pinnochio’s Village Haus. There are some big construction walls up by there, I think some of the castle wall posts are going up by there. I meet the boys and we ride Peter Pan with our FP and grab another FP for late. Now it is time to head to our late breakfast at Crystal Palace. CP is a tradition for every trip. We love breakfast there. William really loves the Pooh characters and we love the food. We like doing either a very early (before park opening) or late breakfast here.

I took a few pics as we waited. We had managed to ride Pooh twice, Peter Pan and the carousel before breakfast, not too shabby.
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Today was a good choice for the late breakfast. Although when we arrived, it was pretty packed and in fact, they seated us at a two-top and pulled up an extra chair to it. We were pretty smushed in there. But the restaurant cleared out quickly and we had a lot of the characters to ourselves!

I get Will’s plate and then mine. First up to visit our table is Tigger.

Next is Piglet.
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William really loves the custom autograph book I made/ordered on Shutterfly. Thanks to other DISers, I found some layouts I could import into shutterfly that someone else on here already designed. I just selected which ones I wanted to use. For example, one page has all 4 Pooh characters on it, with their photo and a box next to it for them to sign in. William thought this was the coolest and he really got into getting signatures (as he called it) this time. It definitely made it a lot of fun. We haven’t focused on hunting for characters or autographs on past trips, but we did more of it this time.
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Then Pooh visits.
I’m keeping my eye on you Pooh!
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Okay, seriously, what is this pose? Will started doing this in all the pictures on this trip. He would lean forward, stick his chin out, close his eyes and open his mouth- so un-photo friendly! I could not get him to take decent pics half the time, which is normally not a problem!
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Then Eeyore came by- more strange poses from Will
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He got another birthday cupcake, which once again, he did not finish. It felt so wasteful! While the free cupcakes are nice each time, it almost got to be too much. Breakfast was not agreeing with me for some reason and I had a bit of a tummy ache! Ugh. WE were finished with breakfast by 11:15am. So where to next? Haunted Mansion of course, by request of Will. We skip the cemetery this time.

We run into Donald in Frontierland and wait for a pic. Donald thinks Will’s book is so cool!
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We then head to BTMMR and I get some great pics of Will riding with his daddy! He even put his hands up!
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After that, it is time for our DIS meet! I loved chatting with all the great folks in our October trip planning thread and FB group. So a few of us had set up a time to meet for Dole Whips in Adventureland at 1pm. Alan wasn’t sure what to think, but he went along with it. Alan got our dole whips while I sat and looked for lime green mickey heads. Finally I spot some! Turns out quite a few of us were there waiting and just didn’t recognize each other. We all got to say hello and chat a bit! Michelle’s son was so sweet and was showing Alan all of his cool pins. I really enjoyed chatting with all the wonderful ladies and their families. I have yet to meet a bad egg on the DIS when meeting in person. We took a few group shots before going our separate ways. Although I know a few of the folks ended up hanging out together later on in the trip! I tell you, some great friendships are forged here on the DIS, sharing our passion for all things Disney! I am so glad I took the time out to meet these wonderful folks! We wanted to hang out more, but I knew Will had hit his breaking point and it was time for a little rest/nap at the hotel. It was almost 2pm by now and we’d been going hard since 8am.
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On the way out, we saw the stage show going on and Will wanted to watch. I had no clue he would be interested in these shows, so next year, we will build it into the schedule for sure!
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On the way out, I forced Alan into more PP pics! I love this one.
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We also caught the band on the way out!
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I took a few pics of the crowds and décor
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[tlenzendorf]

I LOVE CP breakfast!! It's one of my favorites. We are scheduled for one for our February adult trip even, lol.

I totally agree about making great friends on the DIS. Laurie(LJD2143), Darren, Brent and I are even going on an adults trip in February together. :cool1: It was amazing that even the kids got along well!

[tlenzendorf]

I LOVE CP breakfast!! It's one of my favorites. We are scheduled for one for our February adult trip even, lol.

I totally agree about making great friends on the DIS. Laurie(LJD2143), Darren, Brent and I are even going on an adults trip in February together. :cool1: It was amazing that even the kids got along well!

[kid@heart-karen]

I am jumping on board. I am usually a lurker, however I just had to tell you that your son is adorable. I am sure he makes your husband and you very happy. I am looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip.

[khertz]

Haha Will's silly faces!! When my aunt & uncle took my cousin to WDW for the first time, he was probably about 4 or 5, and in every single picture that they posed for, Michael would put his right hand up to his face so that his thumb & index finger made the number 7 right next to his eye, and stuck out his tongue. :rotfl: Kids come up with the strangest things!!

I LOVE what you did with his autograph book! Did just regular sharpies write well on the Shutterfly pages without smearing? What size book did you use? It is SO cute!! What a great souvenir for Will.

[msmith1026]

Love your PP pictures! I can't wait to get our CD, hopefully it will be here soon.

Doing our DIS meet up was one of my favorite parts of our trip. I am glad I got to meet Tricia and Laurie on my trip!

Will looked really cute at his CRT dinner--that costume is adorable.

[exwdwcm]

Love the PP pictures. Glad that you enjoyed CRT. We ate there years ago with DH's family and had a good experience as well.

We are thinking about going to WDW next November as well and stay at BLT.CRT was definitely a pleasant surprise! Oh yeah- you will have to let me know your dates. We will be booking this Friday, our 11 month window opens then for DVc. November 9-17, 2012! :thumbsup2

How was the weather for this trip?The weather wasn't bad. It was actually warm at first, pretty hot in fact. We did have the awful rain on our MNSSHP day which was a bummer. Otherwise, we don't mind the rain! It was a little chilly on our water park day too- at least when you are wet and out of the water, it felt chilly. But overall I can't complain. It was pretty nice!

I LOVE CP breakfast!! It's one of my favorites. We are scheduled for one for our February adult trip even, lol.

I totally agree about making great friends on the DIS. Laurie(LJD2143), Darren, Brent and I are even going on an adults trip in February together. :cool1: It was amazing that even the kids got along well!Oh that is so cool Tricia! You can make some amazing friends here, that is for sure!


I am jumping on board. I am usually a lurker, however I just had to tell you that your son is adorable. I am sure he makes your husband and you very happy. I am looking forward to reading about the rest of your trip.Welcome out of lurkdom! :thumbsup2 so glad to have you here! Thank you so much.

Haha Will's silly faces!! When my aunt & uncle took my cousin to WDW for the first time, he was probably about 4 or 5, and in every single picture that they posed for, Michael would put his right hand up to his face so that his thumb & index finger made the number 7 right next to his eye, and stuck out his tongue. :rotfl: Kids come up with the strangest things!!

I LOVE what you did with his autograph book! Did just regular sharpies write well on the Shutterfly pages without smearing? What size book did you use? It is SO cute!! What a great souvenir for Will.I know, the crazy faces were well, crazy. lol. Where do they come up with this stuff, seriously! Thank you on the autograph book. Yes, regular sharpies worked well on it. Didn't smear for the most part. Just had to be careful and let it dry a minute or two. I ordered I think like something just below 8.5 x10 size. or it might be 8.5x 10- i'll look at home and I'll try and find the link for all the pages other DISers made. You just add them to your own shutterfly account.

Love your PP pictures! I can't wait to get our CD, hopefully it will be here soon.

Doing our DIS meet up was one of my favorite parts of our trip. I am glad I got to meet Tricia and Laurie on my trip!

Will looked really cute at his CRT dinner--that costume is adorable.Thank you! Yes, DISers are the absolute best. At least DH now understands why I like doing meets. He was a bit perplexed at first- meeting strangers and all. But then again, he plays online games (used to play World of Warcraft) with people from all over the world and also was on a mustang/car message board and met folks too, so he should know. LOL! Can't wait to see your PP pics!:goodvibes

[exwdwcm]

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16, PART 2

So we left off with us taking a break in the room after a lovely morning at MK. We had a brief rest in the room, and a nap for Will and then headed back out to visit Epcot for the first time this trip. Epcot is probably my second favorite park. We planned to avoid Food and Wine, since we know it can be more crowded on the weekends. We’d tackle it later in the week.


So we took the monorail over to Epcot, which we ended up deciding was a hassle much of the time, having to switch at the TTC etc. We ended up just driving later in the trip, especially for morning visits when we could get close parking since we do RD. We arrived at Epcot and hit Spaceship Earth first since there was no line. I always feel sorry for the folks that actually wait in a line for this ride, not realizing if they just waited until mid afternoon, it would be dead. Will got a little scared on some of the dark parts. I really miss the old Jeremy Irons narration.
Next up was over to Journey into Imagination. Alan hates this ride. Not my favorite either, but we figured it was a quick and easy ride. Will played for a few minutes in the play area.

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After we exited, we spent some time playing in the fountains outside. I have great memories of these jumping fountains as a child. My parents took pictures of my sisters and I playing here each trip. So we let Will take his time playing here for a bit.
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As you can see it was warm enough for shorts and a tank top again today. Pretty hot.

We hit Nemo and Friends next. Again, no lines at all. This is a cute little attraction and Will enjoyed the ride. We spent some time after exploring the aquarium and saw the dolphins. When done, we headed for some samples of free coke! Pass on the Beverly please. I hate the sticky floors in here, but it is a must do each trip.

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It was nearing 7pm or shortly after, so we headed towards the World Showcase for our dinner reservations at Teppan Edo. This was a first for us. We’ve never dined there before. It was the only place we ate (sit down) that wasn’t covered by our TIW card. So we walked towards Japan and see how crowded it is back here in the WS. Ouch! Glad we avoided it earlier. We do have fun checking out the food booths. I think this is when Alan realized what the Food and Wine Festival was and he thought it was so cool. He really liked exploring all the menus. Neither of us are foodies at all, heck, I am pretty picky actually and more of a meat and potatoes type of girl, but he will eat anything. Same for William- so glad he is an adventurous eater too. We stopped in Morocco and shared a meat lefta pocket, it was good. I also stopped in France for the Cosmo there. It was delicious!


We arrived in Japan about 7:30pm and checked in early for our 8pm ressie. Got a page and headed into the store to explore. But we were called up just 5 minutes later. We were seated with a guy from NY and his mom, plus 2 other ladies. The NY guy was obviously having a good time at F&W if you know what I mean. He talked about how often they come down and he seemed to be flashing $$ everywhere too. He ordered sake and more drinks. We had a fabulous chef, so entertaining. We were all laughing at his crazy jokes. Will enjoyed the show, but was more content to play with my phone. We all enjoy the food. I have the chicken and filet, Will has chicken and I think Alan had shrimp. This ended up being our most expensive meal of the trip, well over $100 and no TIW discount. It was good, but we can do fun hibachi style dining at home, there are a ton of great places in Dallas too. So we will probably pass on this one in the future, but I am glad we tried somewhere new.
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We wrap up dinner at 8:45pm. We decided to head out of the park before the fireworks start, I don’t want to mess with the crowds and we have all week ahead of us. So walk around the WS the other way, towards Mexico. It is DEAD back here. Literally no one is around. We could walk right up and get a great spot for Illuminations if we wanted, but we were pretty tired. As we got closer to mexico, there were more crowds, but still pretty dead. It’s like no one was waiting for Illuminations at all at 9pm.
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We are walking out right as it starts. But we beat the crowds to the monorail, so that is good. We are back in the room by 9:30pm and in bed early tonight. Our first few days are catching up with us!

[tlenzendorf]

The girls love to play in those fountains. When we went in August one year I just let them get completely drenched while Brent and I had a drink and just relaxed. They were so hot it was great to cool down! I'm sure some parents loved how I showed my kids how to stop the water and get drenched in the process :rolleyes1.

I'd like to try Teppan Edo, but Brent has a really sensitive stomach when it comes to meat tenderizers, so we try to stay away from places like that on vacations. That guy you ate with must have some serious $$ to get that happy at F&W! I wanted to try some of the drink samplings, but at $7.50 a pop I was much better to just get regular drinks from the carts instead of the small cups they gave for that. I know, I know, it's about the experience, but I like value, too! :3dglasses

[msmith1026]

When we started planning our trip, Teppan Edo was on the top of our list, we thought Zoey would love it. But, she is suck a picky eater, and she loves Fish and Chips, so we switched to Rose and Crown--which was her favorite meal of the trip. I wish Zoey was an adventurous eater like Will is, you have to really push her to try new things, and on vacation I wasn't feeling like getting into a fight at each meal with her!

[mousescrapper]

Hi Michelle :wave: getting caught up...

I love Will's costume for CRT and that is so cute how much fun he had there and glad you all liked it too :thumbsup2 we had a nice meal there too when we dined last yr. nathan likes belle the best too because of the books!

great dole whip Dismeet, wonder we matt and i were as we were in MK at the time or maybe just arriving :confused: it was warm that day, but a good warm :thumbsup2

I always shake my head at the people standing in line for SSE too :laughing: I love the water fountains too, a great place to stop every trip :goodvibes

looking forward to more!


and THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH for the wonderful DISgift surprise (well i knew it was coming but had no idea when or what)...:hug: I agree completely I love the DIS people...some of my very best friends are people I have met on the DIS!

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

eeek!! No TIW discount!!??? We enjoy the meal as well but we have several places in Orlando and Cincinnati that we go and it's a lot cheaper so I can agree with that :) Saw your booking for 2012..YAY!!

[exwdwcm]

The girls love to play in those fountains. When we went in August one year I just let them get completely drenched while Brent and I had a drink and just relaxed. They were so hot it was great to cool down! I'm sure some parents loved how I showed my kids how to stop the water and get drenched in the process :rolleyes1.

I'd like to try Teppan Edo, but Brent has a really sensitive stomach when it comes to meat tenderizers, so we try to stay away from places like that on vacations. That guy you ate with must have some serious $$ to get that happy at F&W! I wanted to try some of the drink samplings, but at $7.50 a pop I was much better to just get regular drinks from the carts instead of the small cups they gave for that. I know, I know, it's about the experience, but I like value, too! :3dglassesWe will definitely spend more time in those fountains next trip too! so fun! LOL at them getting completely drenched! Yeah, i think the guy had some $$$, but apparently not much else, since he was there with his mom only. He was at least our age (late 30s/early 40s). It was funny though. Yeah, it was pricey, I didn't keep track of my F&W spending, but I should have. I am sure I can add it up now though, i know what all I got and it was a lot! mostly food though. Yeah, i was surprised how small some of those cups were, you are right, sticking to the full size is probably better! :rotfl::thumbsup2

When we started planning our trip, Teppan Edo was on the top of our list, we thought Zoey would love it. But, she is suck a picky eater, and she loves Fish and Chips, so we switched to Rose and Crown--which was her favorite meal of the trip. I wish Zoey was an adventurous eater like Will is, you have to really push her to try new things, and on vacation I wasn't feeling like getting into a fight at each meal with her!Well you probably made a good choice. While the food was good- it isn't something you can't get at home. and ouch on the price! I thought they would take the AP for a 10% discount, i had looked it up online, but apparently that doesn't include weekends. so we paid full price. The only meal we did. I haven't tried Rose and Crown, but I think I would like to consider it for next trip. So did you all like it? what did you get?

Hi Michelle :wave: getting caught up...

I love Will's costume for CRT and that is so cute how much fun he had there and glad you all liked it too :thumbsup2 we had a nice meal there too when we dined last yr. nathan likes belle the best too because of the books!

great dole whip Dismeet, wonder we matt and i were as we were in MK at the time or maybe just arriving :confused: it was warm that day, but a good warm :thumbsup2

I always shake my head at the people standing in line for SSE too :laughing: I love the water fountains too, a great place to stop every trip :goodvibes

looking forward to more!


and THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH for the wonderful DISgift surprise (well i knew it was coming but had no idea when or what)...:hug: I agree completely I love the DIS people...some of my very best friends are people I have met on the DIS!Yeah, that is strange, maybe you guys weren't there yet or something? You are so welcome on the little treat! I hope you all enjoyed it. :) Will loved the little bag you did for him- we still have it hanging on the door in his room! ;)

eeek!! No TIW discount!!??? We enjoy the meal as well but we have several places in Orlando and Cincinnati that we go and it's a lot cheaper so I can agree with that :) Saw your booking for 2012..YAY!!Yes, all booked for November 2012- November 9-17th!! woo hoo! Yeah, no TIW there. I knew that going in and was hoping the 10% AP discount would apply, but they said not on weekends. Guess I should read the small print! Good news is, now DVC apparently in 2012 can buy the TIW card without having to get an AP!!! I am not sure if we will do APs for 2012 or not. So that is good news. Heck, we might even consider trying the dining plan again, but using points, we would have to purchase it. I need to figure out our meals and the costs to see what makese sense.

[exwdwcm]

Monday, October 17th

Today we started bright and early! We had an 8:05am ressie for Tusker House at AK! This would be a first for us, we’ve never eaten here. So we were up bright and early, but once again, running late with Alan. We left BLT about 7:45am. Alan drives this time. We arrive and park in Unicorn 26, almost up front. We walk rather than wait on the tram, I mean the walk isn’t far!


I am surprised by the number of people already waiting at 8am when the park doesn’t open until 9am. One lady was confused as she saw some of us going in the early breakfast line. When they told her the park didn’t open until 9am, she seemed miffed. Check your park hours people- why would you arrive at a park and not know it isn’t open yet? We were already late and took forever for the family in front of us to pull out their ADR number in order to be allowed in early. Finally they do and we get in too. The park is empty this early obviously. We enjoy the fast walk back to Tusker House. We arrive about 8:25am by now- but they check us in just fine. There isn’t a line at the podium, but there is a line about 10 families or more deep for the photo op. So we wait and wait. Finally we get our photo
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We are seated in the back of one of the rooms and settle in to wait for characters. I go and get plates for Will and I. We enjoy the usual breakfast fare, but my stomach was not agreeing with me again this morning. First up to visit was Daisy Duck- William loves both her and Donald, so if nothing else, this meal was fun for that !
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We also met Goofy, Donald, Mickey and had more strange poses from William.
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Breakfast was good, but because I was not feeling great, I just didn’t get that into it. It was super crowded in here too, so maybe that had something to do with it. I felt the tables were close together etc. The food was fine and we loved the characters, so we will probably go back again. We spent almost an hour here. It took forever to get our bill- and we used TIW again.
So it is like 9:15am, the park is open now. Since we are back by the safari, we hit that up first. There is actually like a 10 minute wait, so we wait and then board. We see tons of animals this trip and are sitting right behind the driver. He actually doesn’t speak great English, so it was sort of strange. I couldn’t make out where he accent was from. We even spot the lions. Always a fun trip.
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We return safely and I want to head to EE to get a FP or ride quickly. Alan is going to pass and sit out with Will. He isn’t big on this coaster, the backwards thing disorients him he said. The older Alan gets, the less he wants to do the coasters/thrill rides. LOL- but I am a ride junkie! Fortunately, there is only a 10 minute wait, so I just get in the standby line and wait by myself. I’ve never actually waited long in this queue, we usually fastpass it, so it was sort of fun to get to enjoy the details of the queue.
I also took my camera on the ride and took a few pics.
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After my run in with the Yeti, we decided to do It’s a Bug’s life per Will’s request. There was only a 5 minute wait. William is so funny, he put on the glasses during the show, but would take them off on the scary or 3D parts. He sat in my lap too, but had a ball. He doesn’t scared by the bugs or the dark or anything, it was just the 3D stuff popping out of him had him a little on edge, but then he would laugh it off.
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Next we saw a PP spot and took a few pics.
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Next up, we explore some and go do the pangani trail- which is back by the Safari. We were totally criss crossing this park, but that’s okay. It wasn’t my usual plan. Back by the safari is a snack cart where they have the jalapeno cheese pretzels- YUM! Love these, I had to stop and get one. I saved it to eat after the trail (since no food on the trail). So we do the trail and really enjoy it. We see the gorillas very active- tons of them, including a baby.
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After our walk, we catch the drum show near Tusker House. I promised myself that I would stop and smell the roses this trip- and take in more things exactly like this, instead of rushing to the next attraction. So we stopped and watched the whole show and it was a lot of fun! We knew we wanted to catch the Lion King show and we knew there was an 11am show, it was like 10 til. We decided to give it a shot, so off we ran. We just made it in time- they started literally minutes after we sat down.


We were in the giraffe section. For some reason, I can’t find photos from the show, but I did take a few. I was also trying this trip to NOT make photos my priority. I mean we go every year now, so it’s not like I don’t have photos from this show. I instead focus on photos of us, not just scenery alone since I’ve been so often now.

We enjoy the show and decide to skip Camp Minnie Mickey because the crowds are just a little crazy with the show dumping out. There is this poor kid, a little boy, probably about Will’s age (4 or 5) and he is throwing the biggest fit you’ve ever seen. His mom has physically picked him up, he is fighting, scratching, snot going everywhere from his nose, screaming, kicking and she is trying to subdue him as her and the dad (who is manning the daughter) try and head to get their stroller and get out of there. I felt for them- everyone was staring at them. It was a monster fit. But you never know someone’s situation. So I just felt terrible for them. I was thankful that Will is healthy and so well-behaved the majority of the time. But at WDW, we all have our meltdowns, that is for sure. I can’t tell you how many I saw when I was a CM.

So it is super hot outside now and the crowds are really heavy now. We decide to just sit on a bench, order a frozen coke and rest and people watch for a moment. These are some of my favorite moments, much like watching the drum performance. I am so into seeing and doing everything, that I get a little commando and yet, these simple slow moments usually are my favorite ones. So I have really tried this trip (and plan to in futures ones)- to just stop, sit down and enjoy. It pays off. We really have fun just taking a little break. William and I do a little shopping too- I get Will some books, and I find the 40th anniv mousepad which I am using right now at my desk at work!

After our break, it is after 12:30 or so. We’ve done a lot already. So we h it up Dinoland. Now, my commando self is freaking a little. Usually I would have hit Dinoland much earlier in the morning to FP and avoid crowds, but this time, we sort of changed things up. So I was nervous, but as we head back, I see Dinosaur only has a 10 minute wait. Score! We weren’t sure if we wanted to take Will or not. He’s tall enough (well over 42”), but I know how scary it can be (and rough). So we explain it to him and he wants to go. The kid isn’t afraid of much, so we agree to let him. He enjoys it. I prep him for when the dino pops out and he’s fine. We just tell the mean t-rex- NO!

Next up was Tricertop Spin. We waited about 5 minutes or so. But man it was so hot! We were melting. William really wants to do the boneyard playground though and I had it on my list as a must do for him this trip. So we let him, even though we are all dying of heatstroke. Alan sits out while I go in and we let him play for almost 30 minutes. But even Will is sweating up a storm. He has a blast in there though- he’s big enough now to climb everything himself and he LOVES slides. After that, we grab some ice cold water and juice and rehydrate!
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It’s now about 2pm, we decide to call it a day at AK. We saw everything we wanted pretty much for this trip here. We did the train ride to the back last year and decided to skip it this time. So we head out and man is it crowded! We actually take the tram back to the car, it’s just so hot and we are wiped out.

[exwdwcm]

Monday, October 17th- PART 2


We get back to BLT and I decide I better take Will to swim since it looks like rain later in the afternoon. This is another must do on my list- swim at the BLT pool. And we only got to do it this one day. The rest of the trip, we were too tired, busy or it was raining. Next trip- more swimming is definitely a priority.



Mousekeeping had come today, it was our 4th day, the one time they come to change trash and towels. For DVC, you don’t get mousekeeping everyday. They left this:
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So we change clothes. I figure with the heat and humidity it is the ideal day to swim. Plus we aren’t hitting another park, instead we have the Pirates and Pals cruise tonight. So we have some time to kill. This is my first time to the pool, so I have trouble figuring out the gate to get in. LOL. I finally get us in. I brought the stroller down, since it is nice to use to put all our “crap” in. William has almost outgrown the stroller for anywhere else other than WDW, but man it is so nice to use to keep all our stuff in. So I decide I deserve a drink. We head to the bar and I get a pina colava, some apples and chips and then refill our mugs with coke and find a spot near the water splash ground area.



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William immediately takes off to play in the water. He loves it. I sit and enjoy a snack! They are doing pool games, but he prefers to just play over there instead. The pool is NOT crowded at all. After like 35 minutes, I see him holding himself…..I ask him if he has to pee and he says no, but then immediately I see he is peeing in his shorts. Right there on the edge of the water playground area. Ugh! The kid hasn’t had an accident all trip and now this. So we wash off the area, luckily it was actually far away from the water area, more on the edge of the sidewalk area. So we call it a day and head up to clean him up and get him down for a nap.
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We never made it in the pool itself. I really wanted him to try the slide. Maybe next trip! But the water playground alone was enough fun for him. So the pool remains on my must do list for November 2012. I get Will changed and Alan gets him down for a nap while I take the laundry downstairs. This is the one time I did laundry the whole trip. I know, it was only a few days into our trip, but it was going to be the best time I had available to do it. We had almost 4 whole days worth of stuff to wash anyways. So I head downstairs and ask the CM where the laundry is, it is on the first floor and you need your key to get in. Nice. I like the added security.



So I get two loads of wash going and then go to refill my drink at the pool again and sit out there for a while updating my TR notes and FB. I go back in, put the clothes in the dryer and head back out again. It is getting very cloudy, but never actually rains. I also head up and sit near the 12th floor elevator, where there are great views of the MK- just sitting on a bench there, watching the monorail go by. So peaceful! This was the view.
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William ended up sleeping until 6pm- a full two hours. He needed it. I had taken a shower in between doing the laundry. We get Will dressed in his Peter Pan costume, because tonight, we take on the pirates! It is the Pirate and Pals Cruise! We were looking forward to this- a new experience for us and I had only read great things about it. We decide to eat dinner at the Contempo Café in the CR. We had eaten here our first night too. I had the sliced stacked sandwich and it was really good. It became my favorite there. Alan had artichoke flatbread and Will has a turkey sandwich. We enjoy a leisurely dinner. After eating, we head to find the check in for the cruise. We are 30 minutes early , it starts at 7:45pm. We check in and there are already a lot of folks here. We sit down and entertain Will while we wait. We all get our pirate bandanas and mill around a bit.


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Finally at 7:45 on the dot, they let us in to the area with the food and photo opps. There is a station with prepackaged snacks- including smartfood popcorn, rice krispy treats (the kellog brand), cookies, brownies, pretzels, yogurt covered raisins, nuts, granola bars, cotton candy etc. There is a separate station for soda, water and coffee. At the back is a backdrop and Hook and Smee come out for pics.



We are about 10th in line or so. It moves fairly fast. I regret this photo op. I let Alan take the pics with my phone and they were not that great, he didn’t focus in at all. And yet, Hook and Smee are two of Will’s favorites, so I hate these pics didn’t come out great. If we do it again, you can be sure I’ll man the camera! So we enjoy our pics and then grab some snacks and find a seat.
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We meet some fellow Texans, but Will is super shy. Everyone is divided into two teams- Hook or Smee. We are on Hook’s team. They select a child to hold the flag and lead the teams down (usually an older kid- 8-10). We head out to the dock area at the CR. Remember, it is still rather warm and humid. And the bugs are out in full force. It is so gross. I wish I had taken a picture. The CM tells us they are a type of mosquito, but don’t bite. They are everywhere on the dock, like you can’t put your hand on the railing even, they are covering it completely. They are flying around on us. It is so nasty! We had noticed them at BLT too- tons of them on the sidewalk and near the lights.



We get on the boat, it is much bigger than I thought. I guess I thought this was a more intimate experience than it is- there were two boats- one for Hook and one for Smee. We are in row 16, towards the back. The boat is almost completely full. The bugs are on the boat too – gross! We get our seats and are introduced to Patch, our pirate captain. He’s hilarious – children and adults alike will appreciate the humor.



We sing songs, do trivia and head out on the lake. We stop to watch the Electrical Water Parade, but we don’t have a good view from our side of the boat. Then we drive around to get our spot for WISHES. While waiting, more trivia- I win a hook for Will by answering the name of the dog on Peter Pan- Nana. Soon WISHES starts, it is the regular version, not the MNSSHP version, since it is a Monday night. I had tried to book the cruise for later in the week- on Friday, so we could do it our last night and catch Hallowishes, but they weren’t offering one and then later I think they did, but it was booked up.



We then head back to the dock and are the last ones off the boat. It is about 10:30pm or just before. Everyone is greeted by Peter Pan at the dock! Yeah. William is dressed as Peter Pan, remember- he is one of his favorites. Fortunately the last thing off worked in our favor. By the time we make it up to where the line for Peter Pan is, there are only like 5 people still in line. We get up there and he shows Peter Pan his book. Peter thinks it is so cool. I love this shot of them both kneeling down. When Peter was kneeling, Will took a knee too. So cute!


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Then he posed with Peter- again, the weird leaning forward thing, but he was trying to stand like Peter. LOL! Overall it was a great night and we had a lot of fun. We would definitely recommend this cruise to anyone and we will consider doing it again, maybe even next trip. Fortunately, we just had to walk up to the CR and across the bridge and we were home at BLT and in bed by 10:45pm.

[mousescrapper]

sounds like a really nice AK day, getting alot doen and even some extra play and fun moments...:thumbsup2 Tusker house seems like th eplace to be...I have read other TR's recemntly too of people eating there, but also talking of long waits, and crowded rooms but that the characters were great...we have never yet...but seems you need to do pre park and be on time ;)

sorry your stomach was bugging you still

glad you got in a pool break too, it really is a nice pool, my family really enjoys it :thumbsup2

so much FUN w/ the Pirate cruise...I just love the end picture of the two "peters" on a knee...so precious :goodvibes

remember how I told you we could here the music/chatter from the boats as we stood on the GF boat dock :confused:

looks like you had a blast...maybe we'll have to consider that one time around :idea:

I have to mention how you said it was so hot on Mon...I don't recall being hot at all on Mon and we were at EP...I swear it's the AK factor :laughing:

[khertz]

Oh my gosh HOW CUTE is Will in his Peter Pan costume?!?! The whole bug situation sounds gross, I hate bugs of any kind!! Although I've never heard of a mosquito that doesn't bite? Weird. Anyway, looks like other than the bugs, Will had a great time on his Pirates & Pals Cruise. Hopefully they will still be doing things like that when Paxton is big enough to be a swashbuckler. :goodvibes

[Moodyzblu]

Joining in ! Going back to read now. :thumbsup2

Needing to read TR's to get us through the "waiting" period before our trip ! :banana:

[CandleontheWater]

The pirate and pals cruise sounds awesome! This is actually the first I've read about it, so thank you so much for sharing your experience!

I think my little man would just LOVE a pirate theme fireworks cruise, combining his two favorite things into one activity is bound to be a hit!

[nemofans]

I have heard about the pirates & pals cruise, but never anyone's experience. It sounds like fun. We may check it out our next trip.

[exwdwcm]

sounds like a really nice AK day, getting alot doen and even some extra play and fun moments...:thumbsup2 Tusker house seems like th eplace to be...I have read other TR's recemntly too of people eating there, but also talking of long waits, and crowded rooms but that the characters were great...we have never yet...but seems you need to do pre park and be on time ;)

sorry your stomach was bugging you still

glad you got in a pool break too, it really is a nice pool, my family really enjoys it :thumbsup2

so much FUN w/ the Pirate cruise...I just love the end picture of the two "peters" on a knee...so precious :goodvibes

remember how I told you we could here the music/chatter from the boats as we stood on the GF boat dock :confused:

looks like you had a blast...maybe we'll have to consider that one time around :idea:

I have to mention how you said it was so hot on Mon...I don't recall being hot at all on Mon and we were at EP...I swear it's the AK factor :laughing:yes, too funny you could hear all the chatter from the docks/boats! The cruise was a blast, we really enjoyed it and might have to try it again! AK was great too- just not sure on Tusker house again for next year, but worth trying again at some point. Yep, AK does tend to be a lot more hot!! LOL!

Oh my gosh HOW CUTE is Will in his Peter Pan costume?!?! The whole bug situation sounds gross, I hate bugs of any kind!! Although I've never heard of a mosquito that doesn't bite? Weird. Anyway, looks like other than the bugs, Will had a great time on his Pirates & Pals Cruise. Hopefully they will still be doing things like that when Paxton is big enough to be a swashbuckler. :goodvibesThank you- he loves that costume! You would have really hated these bugs, they were so yucky! Kimberly had warned me about them, but they only appeared a few days into the trip. Yes, you have to put this on the list for Paxton to try when he is a big boy! He'll love it! I would say as young as 3 would probably enjoy it and "get it"

Joining in ! Going back to read now. :thumbsup2

Needing to read TR's to get us through the "waiting" period before our trip ! :banana:Yeah, thanks for reading!!!!

The pirate and pals cruise sounds awesome! This is actually the first I've read about it, so thank you so much for sharing your experience!

I think my little man would just LOVE a pirate theme fireworks cruise, combining his two favorite things into one activity is bound to be a hit!It was a lot of fun. I had researched it and only heard great things on it. It is pricey, but worth doing once, especially if you have a child into pirates!

I have heard about the pirates & pals cruise, but never anyone's experience. It sounds like fun. We may check it out our next trip.I give it high ratings. It was fun for Will, but we enjoyed it too- they had some adult humor mixed in too.

[exwdwcm]

Tuesday, October 18th


Woo hoo- I’d been looking forward to this day for a long time- Food & Wine! Our first one ever. We knew that hitting F&W on a weekday was the best way to go and we planned to hit it up for lunch. So we arrived early at Epcot, it was EMH morning- they opened at 8am. We arrived about 8;15am, but got a front parking spot, so I knew it was going to be pretty empty for EMH. There was a threat of rain today and I guess it scared folks off. That’s fine with me. We always carry our ponchos, and a little rain doesn’t scare us off! WE just keep on going.
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So we go in about 8:30am and get a FP for Soarin. I like the The Land now makes you park strollers over in the area between Nemo and Friends and The Land. Much better than all the strollers blocking the walkway up to The Land! So we get a FP, but also ride since it is just a 5 minute wait. We get third row- bummer! Will really thought it was fun to take our shoes off. He had on his crocs today I think and I had on flip flops. After we soared over California, we head towards Test Track, the usual Commando code and plan. But on the way, we see the character connection with little line, so we stop. I did want to get more characters for Will this trip, so I figured why not. Again, trying to make myself relax more and veer away from being so commando!



So we stop, the line is only like 3 families deep and Will wishes the wait was longer because he LOVES the old cartoons they play while you wait in line. So we see Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy. Pluto was out taking a break or digging up a bone or something and we even waited longer and still he never came back. So we moved on. We get through there in 10 minutes or less. Nice! So glad we stopped.
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So we continue on the original plan to Test Track. We walk on, even though it says standby is 20 minutes. It is really walk on. Will for some reason is scared the first time this trip. He’s ridden Test Track before, twice, last year when he was only 3. So not sure what the deal is. The minute we sit down, he freaks out and wants out, but it’s too late. He is fine though and loves it.
Should I, or shouldn’t I Daddy!???
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Get me out of here Daddy!!!!

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So TALL now!
We spend some time in the store when we exit. They have the monorail track set up and he wants to watch it. We ended up buying this for him with a gift card my parents gave him for his bday! I just order it later in the trip at DTD and have it shipped home.
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After some browsing in the shop and car area, we check out the F&W festival center in the old Wonders of Life pavilion. Again, it is DEAD! I swear we are the only guests in the whole center.



We walk through the whole thing- I buy a few things- including the less then $5 wine bags- one for each of my brother in laws who are both big wine drinkers. It is just a simple bag, but has 4 slots to hold 4 bottles of wine. I thought it was cute. I got myself a shirt too and a set of the F&W wine glasses- I have them sent back to our room, always love this feature of staying on site! None of the demonstrations were going, it is still too early. But I mainly had wanted to check out the merchandise. We do end up seeing two other guests in there, also from TX, but that was it.
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It was like 9:45am. I want to hit mousegears too- I need to get some ornaments and stuff to ship home. I figure I should go while it isn’t crowded. So Alan and Will sit on the bench outside and play on my phone while I shop alone in peace for about 20 minutes, yeah! I get a ton of stuff and pay and have it all shipped back. They come in just as I am paying. Now, it’s 10:45am, time to hit the Food and Wine booths!
We start at the Carribean- I have the dragon colada I had read about and it is delicious, but oh so small. They don’t have straws either, so I have to hunt one down at the Mexican FF spot. Alan heads to Argentina and gets some type of fish and enjoys it.
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Next we hit Mexico. Alan gets the shrimp taco and me the rib eye. I go to get a drink for Will. He saw my colada and of course wanted some. It is hard explaining to a 4yo that they can’t have that frozen pink drink that looks so good and harmless. So I try and get him a sprite at the Hacienda fast food place. They are having issues with the drink machine. I wait and wait and wait. It is ridiculous.



After three more cast members, and a manager, I am finally told they can’t get them to work. So I get a tea instead for him. I get a large, not realizing how big it is. We sit and enjoy our tacos. Will loves the rib eye too- man it is spicy, not sure how he ate it. But I guess he is like me and enjoys the spicy stuff. He does eat hot sauce when we eat Mexican food!
Now on to Scandinavia! I get an order of the meatballs and they are yummy. We all share.
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Keep in mind as we are going through the booths, there is like ZERO line. Of course the WS just opened and I think this is the way to do F&W, unless you are looking for the nighttime party atmosphere, which we weren’t, since we had Will with us (and we sort of hate all the crowds anyhow). There was another family with two kids older than Will in front of us- we seemed to follow them. We stop next in China and I get potstickers and Alan has the chicken. Both were good, but not my favorite. WS is just so dead, I can’t get over how fast we are able to move and just enjoy what we want. It is cloudy, but not raining yet.
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We stop off in Africa to let William play the drums. He has a great time with this. Alan gets the lettuce wraps- at South Korea, right before Africa.
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See how empty!!!
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to be continued.....

[exwdwcm]

Tuesday, October 18th- PART 2
Next up is a favorite- Germany! I first hit the cheese and fondue booth- I love me some fondue! The sourdough was so good with the cheese, I could have just drank it down. Probably should have. We feel it starting to sprinkle a bit, so we both put on our rain gear, we both have pull over rain jackets. I cover the stroller with the extra ponchos to keep Will dry. But it stops after a minute and we are so hot/humid in those jackets, we take them off again.
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Alan grabs us a spot on the picnic tables near Germany. Then he gets the pretzel sausage and streudel. I go get beer flight #1 for us to share. I don’t like dark beer, so he drinks that. I do try the sausage and it is good, but he manges to down the apple streudel before I even get a bite. AT least he shared with William. William is enjoying have a taste of everything too. This is our lunch afterall!
We take our time in Germany, resting and sitting for a bit. Still pretty dead! I stop at the Italy booth next to try the ravioli and yum, I love it. Now most probably won’t, because really, it tastes like chef boy ardee! Honestly, it does, but I actually like it. I have very strange taste, I know.



We are now nearing the USA and the Fife and Drum corp comes out. William refuses to let us continue until the whole show is over. So we watch the whole thing. Very touching. A tear comes to my eye, watching all the people stop to watch and honor this great country.
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By now, we are getting pretty full. So we skip the next few booths. I do get a kaki gori in Japan though- it is a must each trip! We sit near Morocco and I share it with Will. He loves it. I think this is a must on his list from now on too.



We continue walking to France and stop at the fountain to let Will play a bit.
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Then we spot it, the bakery, one of our favorites. I LOVE the chocolate mousse from there. So Alan goes in to look around. He is taking a while, so we go in after him to find out he has ordered chocolate mousse and lemon tart. We find a table outside the café/bakery and enjoy. Both were so good. The weather is nice- not raining and not too hot. So we really enjoy the sun now peeking out.
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We keep on walking and spot Mary Poppins in the UK, so we stop to get her autograph and pic. There is a short line, but it moves fast. Then a CM walks up and cuts a family in front of us. No biggie, I see they are a Make a Wish Family (have the backback/bag on the wheelchair). So sweet to watch the interaction with the little girl.
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One thing I can’t stand is people that take pictures of characters, while other people’s children are in the pic. I saw this one guy, he didn’t speak English so maybe it was more of a cultural thing to do this, but he was taking pics of the family in front of us with Mary and then of Will too. I guess they were trying to get a pic of just Mary, I get that, but really, do you want a pic of someone else’s child? And does that family want you having their child’s pic. I mean obviously in WDW, you will turn up in other people’s pics, I don’t really care, but I just think it is odd. He was trying to really work his way in and almost cut in line to get pics. So annoying.



We make the rounds towards Canada. We had skipped most of the booth since Italy, knowing we would come back later in the week for lunch and we could do the other side of WS then. But I couldn’t skip Canada’s famous cheese soup! Suddenly, Will has to pee really bad, so we head to the bathroom, forgetting that bathroom is only a two person one. It takes forever!!! The line is so long and he is about to pee his pants. One nice lady let us go ahead of her. Thank you!



While we were gone, Alan got the greek salad at the Greece booth. I get my soup and enjoy it. By now it is 1:45pm and the crowds are picking up a lot. It is a lot later than I anticipated too. Considering we didn’t do any rides while doing F&W, Will was such a good boy! I kept him busy playing with my phone or reading a book in his stroller when he seemed bored. He didn’t complain once and tried all the foods that we did.



So now it is time to take a break! I had planned to break much earlier than this, probably by 1pm, and now it is nearly 2pm, but oh well. We get back to the hotel and try and let William sleep for a bit. We finally get him down at 2:45pm. Tonight is the Halloween party! So we really wanted him well-rested. He does great staying up late, but I don’t want him grouchy!



So it’s almost 3pm, I get a text from Julie – mousescrapper and she is at BLT too and has a treat for Will before the party. We plan to meet up at the party tonight too, but they will be in full costume! So sad that Will is asleep and can’t meet her out of costume, but I go down to the lobby and we meet, hug and sit and chat. She has the cutest little homemade decorated bag with treats for Will- colors, candy and beyond. It is so sweet and thoughtful and he loves it!! It was so nice to meet her! I head to get a drink refill at Contempo and then head back to the room. Will only gets an hour nap, as we wake him up by 4pm to get dressed and head to dinner. We have 5pm ressies for O’hana before the party!



We get him dressed in his Peter pan costume and we head out to the monorail.
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It was about 4:30pm and it was taking forever to get a monorail. Once we get on, they are full. We manage to get in a car that has a group chaperoned by two kind people. It is a mix of men and women from some sort of group home for the disabled, some are in wheelchairs. There are two wheelchairs in our car and we barely fit in, with the stroller. They were kind enough to squeeze us in. When we finally stop at the Poly, I have to fold it up, take William out to get out.



The folks are right by the door blocking our exit, so it was pretty tough to get out and the female chaperone has her leg in a cast. It was fun hearing their conversations of what they did that day and what they bought and how they were heading back to a rental house to make dinner. The chaperones were talking about stopping at WalGreens for meds and also for shower assistance seats and tools. It just made me so thankful there are good people like them whether paid or volunteer that take the time to help these folks enjoy a wonderful time in WDW. I am so happy that WDW is so accommodating to those with special needs, whether it be a physical one or not. Everyone should have the opportunity to experience this magical place.



So we finally exit at the Poly and head immediately to the check in line for dinner. They have moved the check in podium though to a new location, right by the top of the stairs almost, closer to the store. There are actually two lines, one for those with ADRs and one for walk ups. Interesting new concept and I like it!



We head to the lounge area near the bar as the whole area was pretty packed with folks waiting for O’hana to open. We find a table and order drinks. I get a pina colava, my fave. We get Will a sprite. Bad mistake- it was like $3 for his sprite and of course he gets a drink included with the meal at O’hana, so we just should have waited. We were seated pretty quickly, on the far side of the restaurant near the window. We get the bread and drinks- but no butter for the bread. Our server seemed a little busy. But it was definitely much better than our server last year (she was just pathetic and I can say that, I waited tables for years!)
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We pigged out on salad, bread etc. I love the potstickers. I don’t care for chicken/meat on the bone, so I only ate one wing, but love the sauce on it. Will enjoyed all too- he loved the salad. We stuffed ourselves silly on everything. It seems our waiter didn’t bring the hot towels early enough- it seems we usually got them pretty fast, but it took forever to get them. The beef was cooked just perfectly for me- not too rare. I hate when it is too rare for me. I am more of a medium/medium well kind of girl.
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Finally out came the bread pudding. YUM! I was so stuffed already though, but I forced it down, almost making myself sick. LOL! They even brought Will a birthday cupcake too.
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O’hana was great as usual. It has become one our must do’s each trip. I have read the stories about the bread pudding being replaced by a coconut version and different sauce. Very disappointing if that is the case. I am NOT a coconut fan. But much like the noodles, maybe the new version will be okay? I was very sad when those delicious cheesy potatoes were replaced by the noodles, but I do enjoy the noodles now too. Who knows. I will certainly miss it if it is gone.



So bellies completely full, we headed out by 6:15pm to the MK for the Halloween party! YEAH! Our first MNSSHP. We’ve done MVMCP about 3x now. Will’s done it twice. But MNSSHP was a first for us.

[tlenzendorf]

Great update!

Our plan was to do an afternoon in the WS snacking around the world, but we were having so much fun during our Dismeet that we just skipped out to hang out with them :laughing: I definitely need to get back during that time of year again to try it out. I'm thinking maybe a womens' trip? :rolleyes1 I didn't even know that there was a F&W area with that store in it or I would have gotten something from there. Just what I needed, another souvenir. We took an empty suitcase down in a suitcase that didn't have much in it and didn't have much room to spare in any of our bags. Good thing we flew SW....

Will is so cute in his Peter Pan costume! I just love it!

I can't wait for our Ohana reservation and to have another one of those Pina Colavas. Only 45 days to wait now, woo hoo! I do have to say that I'm really disappointed about the dessert change. Brent doesn't really care since he doesn't like bread pudding, but he did like the ice cream and sauce.

I can't wait to see your party pics! I am still surprised at how much fun it was. I wish we could have gone a second time.

[Moodyzblu]

F&W looks like SO much fun ! I did it back in 1998 .. but didn't really know what it was .. I just thought it was a normal part of Epcot. :rolleyes:
Some day I might have to do it again .. the right way !

Will looks so cute in his PP costume ! :love:

[Bonniec]

Did you ride the cruise WITH him? I thought it was for kids only?

[IheartDDuck]

How awesome that F&W was so slow for you! Both of the times that we went it was crawling! But you're right, it does have to do with the time of day you go.

I liked the ravioli too! You're not alone there.

Will looks absolutely adorable in his Peter Pan costume. :goodvibes

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

great update :) I love Ohana too!!!

[fitgirl36]

Hi! Found your trip report and have enjoyed reading it. My DH, 1 yr old DD and I were at the BC Oct 16th for 5 days. Best trip ever! I was very nervous taking a young child, but it was awesome! Of course all of the advice I found on the DIS while planning our trip helped a bunch too. We are planning on going back in May but I'm really torn between BLT and VWL. We stayed in a 1 bedroom at the BC villas and loved the extra room. We wont have a car so I think being able to walk to the MK will be the selling point with DD. I have to giggle at Will's picture face, I taught my DD the cheese face for photos big, big mistake, a wrinkled little face every time! Your son seems like such a good boy keeping himself occupied with his workbooks too! Have fun planning your next trip!

[khertz]

What a great day to be in WS for Food & Wine! We were mostly there in the evenings and definitely did NOT have the same experience as far as crowds!! I couldn't believe how packed it was, even in the middle of the week. I'm hopeful that we will have a better experience when we go next year in October and it won't be so crazy. There were a couple of things I wanted to try from some of the booths, but the lines were SO long it just wasn't worth it.

I can't wait to see how Will did at the Halloween party!!

[msmith1026]

You had posted a pic of the chocolate mousse on our FB Group, and that picture alone made me hunt it down and get one when we were at Epcot! SO good.

I love what an adventurous eater Will is. I can only dream that Zoey will be like that one day! Although, she did surprise us by loving the potato leek soup at Rose and Crown (and last night, when we were at dinner, she did ask if they had potato soup on the menu, so maybe there's hope yet!!)

I agree with you on the weirdness of people taking pictures of characters when kids are standing with them. We noticed it alot, and when we were standing in line to see Pocahontas there was a gentleman who was being very extreme with it, to the point of it boarding on creepy. The CM with Pocahontas stepped in and made him stop because it was so over the top.

Can't wait to read about your MNSSHP night!

[exwdwcm]

Great update!

Our plan was to do an afternoon in the WS snacking around the world, but we were having so much fun during our Dismeet that we just skipped out to hang out with them :laughing: I definitely need to get back during that time of year again to try it out. I'm thinking maybe a womens' trip? :rolleyes1 I didn't even know that there was a F&W area with that store in it or I would have gotten something from there. Just what I needed, another souvenir. We took an empty suitcase down in a suitcase that didn't have much in it and didn't have much room to spare in any of our bags. Good thing we flew SW....

Will is so cute in his Peter Pan costume! I just love it!

I can't wait for our Ohana reservation and to have another one of those Pina Colavas. Only 45 days to wait now, woo hoo! I do have to say that I'm really disappointed about the dessert change. Brent doesn't really care since he doesn't like bread pudding, but he did like the ice cream and sauce.

I can't wait to see your party pics! I am still surprised at how much fun it was. I wish we could have gone a second time.Oh you definitely have to go back for F&W- a girls trip would be ideal. While we didn't participate in any of the special parties or tastings, we enjoyed just doing the booths. The Festival Center is in the old Wonders of Life building and it has the shops plus a ton of special events/tastings etc. that go on in there.

You will have to report to use on the dessert change after you go (at Ohana)- i can't wait to hear about it- you should still ask if you can get it- you never know, can't hurt to ask right? let us know on the FB group page!!:thumbsup2

F&W looks like SO much fun ! I did it back in 1998 .. but didn't really know what it was .. I just thought it was a normal part of Epcot. :rolleyes:
Some day I might have to do it again .. the right way !

Will looks so cute in his PP costume ! :love:F&W was awesome, we loved it! definitely worth trying it again. Thank you- he loves his Peter pan!

Did you ride the cruise WITH him? I thought it was for kids only?Yes, the Pirates and Pals cruise is different from the one you might be thinking about. The pirates and pals is for everyone- the whole family. There is a separate cruise you can do that I think leaves out of the GF where the kids go on a boat and scavenger hunt on their own with CMs. It is different from this one- this one is a fireworks cruise with food before and fun on board- highly recommend it. I don't know that Will is old enough (just turned 4) to do the other cruise (by himself)- i am not sure the age requirement on it, but we might look into it for him next year.

How awesome that F&W was so slow for you! Both of the times that we went it was crawling! But you're right, it does have to do with the time of day you go.

I liked the ravioli too! You're not alone there.

Will looks absolutely adorable in his Peter Pan costume. :goodvibesWe knew it would be busy, so we planned to do it during the weekdays and in the morning. We literally started at 10:45am, when the booths opened, it was dead back there that early, as most folks are still in future world or just arriving. By 1 or 2pm, it was slowly getting crowded. So glad someone else liked the ravioli- :rotfl:

great update :) I love Ohana too!!!did you hear about the dessert change? can you let us know if it is true and if you can still get the bread pudding?

Hi! Found your trip report and have enjoyed reading it. My DH, 1 yr old DD and I were at the BC Oct 16th for 5 days. Best trip ever! I was very nervous taking a young child, but it was awesome! Of course all of the advice I found on the DIS while planning our trip helped a bunch too. We are planning on going back in May but I'm really torn between BLT and VWL. We stayed in a 1 bedroom at the BC villas and loved the extra room. We wont have a car so I think being able to walk to the MK will be the selling point with DD. I have to giggle at Will's picture face, I taught my DD the cheese face for photos big, big mistake, a wrinkled little face every time! Your son seems like such a good boy keeping himself occupied with his workbooks too! Have fun planning your next trip!BLT is definitely the winner given your situation. While I actually love the ambiance and look of WL over BLT (contemporary design is totally not our style)- the location makes up for it all. Being able to just walk out the doors, push the stroller down the sidewalk for 5 minutes and you are at the gates of the MK- can't beat it. Never waiting on a bus or walking to the car. It's awesome. With a little one, you spend so much time at MK, so I say save VWL for a future trip and do BLT this time. We've done a one bedroom before (last Dec) and loved it! amazing amount of space, plus the views from BLT are great. you might luck out with a fireworks or partial fireworks view. We were able to watch the water parade each night from our balcony which Will loved, plus catching the fireworks from the bridge or TOWL is great too. That is the one reason we bought at BLT, location. And so far, we haven't booked anywhere else and this is our third year as owners. As long as Will is still small and we are spending a lot of time at MK, we will continue to stay there- can't beat the convenience.

oh and thanks for reading!!!! love the cheese face;)

What a great day to be in WS for Food & Wine! We were mostly there in the evenings and definitely did NOT have the same experience as far as crowds!! I couldn't believe how packed it was, even in the middle of the week. I'm hopeful that we will have a better experience when we go next year in October and it won't be so crazy. There were a couple of things I wanted to try from some of the booths, but the lines were SO long it just wasn't worth it.

I can't wait to see how Will did at the Halloween party!!ouch on the crowds, but at least we know the mornings are the time to go now! I am nervous about doing it next year, since we will be going in November like you guys did---and it will be the last week of F&W. We plan to be there at 10:45am ready to eat! We will hit it the last Friday am and last Sunday am. I anticipate it being more crowded, but hoping we can still enjoy it. October should be better for you guys! Funny how we are swapping times!

You had posted a pic of the chocolate mousse on our FB Group, and that picture alone made me hunt it down and get one when we were at Epcot! SO good.

I love what an adventurous eater Will is. I can only dream that Zoey will be like that one day! Although, she did surprise us by loving the potato leek soup at Rose and Crown (and last night, when we were at dinner, she did ask if they had potato soup on the menu, so maybe there's hope yet!!)

I agree with you on the weirdness of people taking pictures of characters when kids are standing with them. We noticed it alot, and when we were standing in line to see Pocahontas there was a gentleman who was being very extreme with it, to the point of it boarding on creepy. The CM with Pocahontas stepped in and made him stop because it was so over the top.

Can't wait to read about your MNSSHP night!OH that mousse is a must for me each trip. I always try and plan a stop at the bakery for ham/cheese croissant and that mousse. the lemon tart DH got was divine too- it is on my list now. I can't believe how good he eats, given how picky I am. I don't even eat salad (hate lettuce, tomato, onions). I got lucky with him- he eats like his dad.

Rose and Crown- how did you guys like it? We've never tried it and i might want to try it out in November. yeah, some of those picture taking folks are down right creepy. ugh!

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

I went to Ohana for NYE and it was still the bread pudding!!!

[MickeyLover20]

Just found your TR today and am caught up...loving it so far! Can't wait to hear (read) about the rest of your trip. Will seems like such a sweet little boy...I can't believe how good he is, not wanting to get out and run around and explore, you are very lucky.

[exwdwcm]

I went to Ohana for NYE and it was still the bread pudding!!!Thanks Megan. That's so funny, because as of late, I've seen other people post it is still there. So weird how rumors get started, i guess!

Just found your TR today and am caught up...loving it so far! Can't wait to hear (read) about the rest of your trip. Will seems like such a sweet little boy...I can't believe how good he is, not wanting to get out and run around and explore, you are very lucky.Thanks for joining in the fun! He is such a sweetheart, I love him to pieces! He is so good! I think we only had one melt down this entire trip, which was so nice! The midday nap really helped him I think.

[exwdwcm]

Tuesday, October 18th- Part 3


Time for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party!!!



We left off with us just wrapping up our 5pm dinner at O'hana. We took the monorail over to the MK for the party.

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You can see the clouds and how empty it was here
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Alan and I passed on the costumes, we just simply had so much packed already, there wasn’t room. So we get to the MK, get our bracelets and get in. The lines are somewhat long to get in, but not too bad. It is rainy too. We love the spooky feel of the MK!!! Awesome. So it continues to sprinkle and we are getting pretty disappointed our party will be a wash out, but we don our rain jackets, ponchos and carry on. It is about 6;30pm when we enter. Will wants to do HM, so we head that way. Love the special lighting and fog. He loves all the graveyard stuff.
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As we exit HM, it really starts pouring. So we gear up again and head to see Mickey in the front of the park. I figured that would get us inside for a while. There are so many strollers and people on the porch, seeking shelter from the rain, you can hardly move. But we get inside and it is empty. Hardly any line for Mickey.
So we are waiting in line, about 10 minute wait. We get in to meet Mickey and Minnie and have a ball with pictures. Will loves it.
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You can see how wet we are in the last pic. I had put on my hat because my hair was a mess. I have naturally curly hair, so it turns into a frizz ball in the rain. Alan is actually smiling in this pic- he hates having his pic taking, so it was nice to see him smiling and having a good time despite the rain!
The rain has slowed down when we exit, it is like 7:30pm now. We decide to hit some treat trails. William really wants candy. So we head towards the one in TL near Buzz. We decide to stop and ride Buzz too. Next we head to the treat trail near the tea cups. We ride Pooh and Dumbo with hardly any lines at all. The rain has really cleared people out or they aren’t doing the rides. We do the werther’s trail near Pinnochio’s Village Haus twice! Yum! Now there is no more rain, just drizzle every now and then. We head to Peter Pan, again, no line!
The first parade was apparently delayed by like 20 minutes due to the rain. Good thing we were planning to watch the second one. The bad news, we are trapped. We’ve walked down towards Liberty Square, but the parade is blocking us, so we just do HM again. WE also get the HM picture and there was like no one in line. I don’t think folks realized what it was. You can see some of the rain on the photo from the lens even.
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Then William wants to ride HM again. Yep, 3rd time tonight. Then we hit the treat trail by Tiana’s boat. We actually do this one twice. After the parade has cleared, we go to grab spots for fireworks near the hub. It is empty. We pretty much have our choice of spots. We find a spot on the curb, lean back and wait. We managed to walk up just like 15 minutes before and get a prime spot. We could even stay sitting down and still see, that is how empty it was. No one to block our view! We enjoyed the fireworks show a lot!

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We have a little time before the second parade, so we hit the treat trail back by Splash Mountain, I had heard this one was good- three stops! We did it and got a ton of candy and I saw where the Seven Dwarves were stationed. Still a pretty long line for them. One CM on the treat trail was so funny, as the trail split off, he was trying to get us to go his way and said the other CM was only handing out broccoli!



So with treats in hand, we head to grab a spot for the parade. I think we hit every treat trail there was. We find a good spot in front of the Golden Horseshoe Review area. I take Will inside to see the dance party. He doesn’t want to dance or anything, so we leave. Once we get outside, he starts crying saying he wants to go back in. So Alan takes him in. I get a text from Julie (mousescrapper) that her and her hubby are nearby- we had planned to take in the parade together. I tell them I have a great spot for us and they meet us. I lay down our ponchos to get a dry spot for all of us to sit. We get the ghost popcorn bucket for Will too. So we sit talking, eating popcorn and just enjoying each other.
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The parade is at least 10 minutes late and no headless horseman. Boo- I was so looking forward to that! We absolutely adored the parade. It is my favorite one now. I took some video and photos.
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After the fabulous parade, we say our good byes to Julie and Matt- who looked great in their HM bride and groom costumes. In fact, as we left, folks were coming up to them and asking to pose in pics with them. She said that happened all night long- how fun!



Will is fading fast, so we hit one more treat trail and head out- it is about 11:25pm, so we did pretty good. William is so flexible for us on vacation- he always is a trooper- getting up early, staying up late etc. The key is the midday break and nap for him. I took a few pics on the way out- we actually caught the rest of the parade near Main St on the way out.
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So we walk back to BLT (have I mentioned I LOVE this easy walk?) and we are all tucked in bed about midnight. I was very disappointed we didn’t catch more characters, but we didn’t make it a priority and with the rain, I wasn’t sure where some had moved to indoors. With it being our first MNSSHP, I know what to expect next time and will plan better. We did consider attending a second party later in the week, but decided not to due to the cost. The characters we really missed and had planned to get were Pooh and friends, so we missed them. I didn’t realize it was the only time you can catch the princesses with the princes too- or else we might have done them too after we saw Mickey. Oh well, you live and learn! We did have a great time, even with the rain and made a huge candy haul! I was impressed with the candy, it was mostly good high quality candy. I had read on the boards how it was crap sometimes. But we scored with good stuff this year.
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[tlenzendorf]

I really love the party. I think it was my favorite thing out of our past 3 trips!You guys got a nice amount of candy, too! We missed Minnie and Mickey in their costumes. There is just SO much to do it's amazing that you can't get it done in 5 hours. I wish we would have done a second party, but with the cost we didn't either.

[Moodyzblu]

Sorry about the rain .. that happened to us one year for the MNSSHP and it was gross. The boys little treat bags were full of water and it just kept raining on us. Luckily we went back the next year and NO rain at all. :banana:

Loving your report ! :thumbsup2

[khertz]

That sucks about the rain, but it looks like in the end it made for a better party night! That picture of the people (or lack of people!) in front of the Castle is just unbelievable! I have seen and heard lots of complaints about the kind of candy they give out too, but it looks like y'all got some good stuff. Love the pics of Will with Mickey & Minnie in their costumes! I was already thinking about maybe doing a party on our trip this year, and your experience has me leaning towards doing it. I'm just so worried because I have no idea how DS will tolerate staying up so late, even if we didn't stay for the whole party, because he goes to bed so early right now. I guess that's one of those things we'll have to wait & see about when it gets closer.

Great update! :thumbsup2

[exwdwcm]

I really love the party. I think it was my favorite thing out of our past 3 trips!You guys got a nice amount of candy, too! We missed Minnie and Mickey in their costumes. There is just SO much to do it's amazing that you can't get it done in 5 hours. I wish we would have done a second party, but with the cost we didn't either.I know, I think the MNSSHP is my favorite special event of all time. The parade is just amazing. I wish we had seen more characters, but oh well. Next time we will try doing two parties!

Sorry about the rain .. that happened to us one year for the MNSSHP and it was gross. The boys little treat bags were full of water and it just kept raining on us. Luckily we went back the next year and NO rain at all. :banana:

Loving your report ! :thumbsup2The rain was a bummer, but we carried on. Usually the rain doesn't bother us since it means lower crowds for rides, but since we had hoped to meet characters outside, watch the parade and all, it made all of that a little painful. But still had a great time. So glad you got a rain free visit! :thumbsup2

That sucks about the rain, but it looks like in the end it made for a better party night! That picture of the people (or lack of people!) in front of the Castle is just unbelievable! I have seen and heard lots of complaints about the kind of candy they give out too, but it looks like y'all got some good stuff. Love the pics of Will with Mickey & Minnie in their costumes! I was already thinking about maybe doing a party on our trip this year, and your experience has me leaning towards doing it. I'm just so worried because I have no idea how DS will tolerate staying up so late, even if we didn't stay for the whole party, because he goes to bed so early right now. I guess that's one of those things we'll have to wait & see about when it gets closer.

Great update! :thumbsup2We actually got fabulous candy, lots of high end chocolate, skittles etc. We went through the werther's stop twice since the apple caramel candy hadn't been released to the public yet. :goodvibes We always make Will take a long nap that day before the party. So maybe have the morning be a rest day, sleep in, do some pool time, take a big nap before the party. Will has no problems staying up late though, so he does great. But i agree, if you think you won't last past 9 or 10, might not be worth it. But it is a great time! Worth considering for sure. Even if he didn't stay up, and sleeps in the stroller, you guys could enjoy some of it??

[exwdwcm]

Wednesday, October 19

We all slept in until 8:30am after our late night. So dead tired! Finally got up and ate some cereal in the room. We were dressed and out the door by 9:45 to hit blizzard beach. I’ve done BB before, but it has been years ago. Neither Alan nor Will had been. Will loves our water park at home- we have season tickets (a must in TEXAS). It actually turned out to be sunny this morning! We got in the car and drove over and got a front parking space- not that crowded that early. We had to buy tickets, but I did get a discount, I forget if it was an AP or DVC discount, I’d have to look. But it saved a few bucks. Man the one day ticket is pricey though, ouch!
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We headed in and realized we had to rent towels at $2 a pop. What a rip off. I just assumed towels were provided. I had only brought one towel from the room. Oops. Rookie water park mistake. We also rented a locker, I just feared leaving my iphone and credit card in our bag on the chair. The locker was $12, but you get $5 back when you return the key. Still pricey. And that was the for the small locker. We found a spot to the right side of the park, a covered spot since DH burns so easy. Will does too. But I knew DH would probably hang out more and not swim as much. He had brought a book to read.
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So we settle in and decide to take the chair lift up to Teamboat Springs for our first ride. There is no line this early. We had a ball. We rode with another family of three from the UK. So much fun. Will loved it. We ended up riding this ride 3x that day. There wasn’t a ton that Will could ride alone or even with us, but this was one of them. The water was COLD. And while it was sunny at first, the clouds moved in a bit and once you got out of the water, it was FREEZING!!!

After our first ride, we headed to the rapid runoff and Will shared a float with me. They had the double float thing. I was a little nervous since he had never ridden like that before and I wasn’t sure he could sit on it right- I was afraid he would fall through, but I put my legs up there and made sure he didn’t. He did much better than I thought. He’s been in swim lessons since he was 6 months old and he can swim a good 15 ft, but we haven’t let him just freely try and swim around at a waterpark, although he does love doing all the kiddie slides by himself.

So we loved that little ride too. He did great. We decided to head to the wave pool and enjoyed
Upon exiting, we did the rapid runoff and Will did great sharing a float with me. He loved that too. Then we walked back to sit for a minute and did the wave pool for a bit. Then off to Tike’s Peak- Will loved this and did all the slides while I sat at the bottom watching him. Then we were getting hungry, so we headed to the Lottawatta Lodge for lunch. It was nice going this early as there were no lines. I had the chili cheese dog, Alan had the chicken wrap and William had a hot dog too with yogurt and cookie. We shared a drink. It was dead so we had our choice of tables.
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After lunch, we decided to go back to the wave pool and the lazy river again. Man the water was cold!!! It was getting cloudy which didn’t help. We let William play at Tike’s Peak for a while longer and did the family ride again two more times. We loved that one! After on last round on the lazy river, we were done. Alan liked to try and push me into the super cold waterfall on the lazy river. Ouch! Seriously, that waterfall water was like frozen cold!

So we headed back to our stuff, loaded up and headed towards the exit. But first, there is something I just had to try. Everyone talks about the mini donuts at BB. So we stopped at the little booth and had some. They were good, but nothing I would die to have. It was starting to get crowded now around 2pm and more cloudy, so it was a good time to head out.
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We drove back to BLT and took about 30 minutes to relax and change before driving over to Downtown Disney. The plan was just to spend the afternoon here, no real plans beyond that, although I was considering trying MK tonight if we felt like it. BLT makes it so convenient to just walk over for even an hour or so.

We arrive at DTD and spend the usual 10-15 minutes trying to find a parking space. Seriously, when will they build a parking garage or something here. I know it would be an eyesore, but it would make life so much easier. Parking here is always a nightmare and I hear the bus transportation isn’t much better either. I LOVE DTD. Even when I’ve been in Orlando on business by myself, I always make a point to visit DTD to get my Disney fix if I don’t have time to visit a park. It’s nice to just sit at the Earle of Sandwich on the patio and people watch.

First up was the Lego store. While William isn’t a Lego nut, he does like them. We needed to find a CARS plane set to my nephew for Christmas. I saved 10% on it using my AP or DVC, I forget which one! I let the boys play in the play area there while I headed to the World of Disney. Ahhhhh, I love this place. It seems to always be crowded unless you hit it first thing in the morning. I could spend hours in here and that is NOT a good thing for my pocketbook.
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I had some Christmas shopping to do though. I found two cute 18” doll outfit sets for my niece- one was Belle and one was Minnie/Mousketeer to fit her American Girl doll. I bought a few shirts, the monorail set for William (using his gift card from his grandparents ), some puzzles from Santa and lots of other little souvies for family. I also finally decided to splurge for me. I got the Dooney and Burke 40th Anniversary wallet! Here was the current selection of bags.
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I already have the balloon makeup bag, the sketch wristlet and the sketch medium tote, which I love. I am not a huge purse/bag person, but I did really love these. I had also just purchased the 40th anniversary letter carrier before my trip. I ordered online, which was tough, because you don’t know what “placement” you will get and placement is a big deal on some of these patterns. I actually got a pretty decent one, but ordered a second one for my mom and she let me pick which pattern placement I liked better. So I was already using my 40th letter carrier this trip, now I would have the wallet to match! I felt silly asking the CM to let me see a few different ones, because she had to pull them out of the nice boxes etc. But I looked at about five and found one I liked a lot. Let me say since getting home, I’ve been using it, but I’ve found it a little too stiff for my liking. It’s hard to fit much beyond one credit card in a slot, and it has already started to tear the thread on one section. So not sure I will do the wallet again, but I do love my other items tremendously. I use the letter carrier on most trips now- so easy to put my iPhone in the side pocket, money, chapstick and other little items.
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I was able to use my Disney VISA and get the discount with that, I think it was 10% off. I miss the days when they used to do that special promotion when you ate quick service, it would print a voucher on your receipt to get 20% off before noon. We used those on previous December trips. Maybe it is a December thing. The boys got tired of waiting on me and found me at the checkout. I had most of the items shipped home ($29), since it had the monorail set and the large boxes the 18” doll dresses came in. Sure, it cost more, but it is worth it to not have to carry home! Sure, I could have shipped from a postal center or something, but that would have been a pain. The other good thing about shipping home…. it is fun getting a package after you get home! It’s like Christmas!

So now we were getting hungry. Shopping will do that to you! So what to eat? It’s no question for us. Earle of Sandwich it is. We try and eat here twice a trip if possible. I love it that much. We headed over to Earle expecting the usual line and surprise, ZERO line! That’s a first. Earle ALWAYS has a line. I notice there are always CM’s (out of costume, off work) eating there too- it’s a popular place. The line always moves fast though, so we never mind waiting. But we scored this time. It was exactly 5pm. I had my usual ham and swiss with tomato soup. I am a creature of habit, what can I say? I LOVE the tomato soup. I hate soups with chunks in them, and this is smooth and delicious! Alan got the Hawaiian and we got Will a grilled cheese. We shared a drink, a common theme for some of our quick service meals. We sat outside, facing the carousel and enjoyed people watching. I admired my new wallet too. LOL!
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We headed into the kitchen/spice store next. I love the addition of the spices and rubs. I bought quite a few as stocking stuffers/gifts. We then headed over to the candy store, but Will had a mini meltdown, I think the only one of the trip. We are pretty strict with him, which I think is why he is so well-behaved most of the time. We don’t put up with temper tantrums and we always follow through on what we say. I think that’s been our saving grace in his behavior. I can’t even remember how the meltdown started, but he started running around, not listening and so Alan took away the suckers we had planned to buy him. I had already gotten in line to have a marshmallow made, dipped in chocolate etc. So we had to wait. He was crying and sobbing in his stroller over the suckers being taken away for his bad behavior. But he got over it pretty quickly. We knew he was tired, the water park will do that to you. So we decided to cut our DTD stay short. I skipped the Christmas store, which I love and skipped many other stores, knowing he wouldn’t be able to hang on much longer. We did have one last stop though- the Once Upon a Toy Store. He was much better in here. We picked out some new potato head parts and got a book for his other niece. Then he had to go potty. I checked out while they went potty. We made our way back to the car and back to BLT.

We talked about our options for the night. It was about 7pm now. William was asking to go ride Haunted Mansion though. The MK was open until 9pm, so we said, hey, why not? That’s why we bought DVC at BLT anyways, to have the convenience to pop over! So off we went to the MK via the walkway. There were lots of people going in considering it was 7pm and they were closing at 9pm. But there were a lot of people leaving as well. We headed straight to see our favorite 999 Happy Haunts. I think we rode Haunted Mansion at least 7x this trip. The love for it must run in the family, as I rode the Nightmare Before Christmas version at Disneyland in November at least 3x when I went into the park solo. The Nightmare overlay is simply amazing. I know Will would love it and I wish they did it at WDW.
So after escaping the mansion, Will wanted to go again. Alan took him while I finally got into a Christmas store- the one in Liberty Square. I found like four ornaments I wanted. Then I waited by the kiosk outside the mansion for the boys and found some Haunted Mansion playing cards for William. It’s hard finding good souvies themed for that ride. Next up, Small World. There was no line at all, so we hopped on. Peter Pan was 40 minutes, so we skipped it, but did Snow White and Pooh. We also did the teacups, well Will and I did, Alan passed on those.
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It was about 8:30pm and were a little hungry, so we hit Cosmic Ray’s and shared a bacon cheeseburger and fries between the three of us and we sat right by Sonny Eclipse to listen to his singing. William thought it was a hoot. It was pretty dead in here given the time of night, so close to closing time. It was nice to just sit and relax a bit.

At 8:45pm, we headed over to Buzz, it was a complete walk on again. I ride in my own car and score only 125k, the stupid gun wasn’t working well at all. Little did I know, my previously non-Disney loving husband (okay, I’ll give him a halfway Disney loving mark now that he bought into DVC), had actually googled the targets for Buzz and knew which ones to shoot for. Go figure. I got a kick out of that one. I’ve looked at them before too, but don’t always remember.
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We decide to head out after that. The streets are crowded with folks waiting for the fireworks, but we use the shops to exit through. Will wants to see the fireworks, so we stop and watch for a little bit, but beat the crowds. We stop on the walkway to BLT to finish watching the rest. It isn’t a bad view. Alan joked at how we were literally just right there on the other side of the fence in Tomorrowland and how it’s too bad we couldn’t just exit from there to BLT. Wouldn’t a little shortcut be nice?
I loved these “See You Real Soon” pumpkins at the exit.
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We get up to the room right as the water parade is starting, so we sit on the balcony and enjoy it. I loved having the option to do this each night, we really loved that view. Some nights, I would fall asleep to the parade music passing by. We were all crashed out by 11pm. It had been a long “break day”, lol!
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[exwdwcm]

stay tuned, about to start my November 2012 PTR!!

[hardingk]

stay tuned, about to start my November 2012 PTR!!

Yea!

[exwdwcm]

Pre Trip Report for our November 2012 adventure! (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=43774578&posted=1#post43774578)





Come join in the fun!

[mousescrapper]

Getting caught up...

Love that you all enjoyed your first F & W day like Matt and I did, that def is the way to do it...we loved all that food and low crowds too...the rain threatening prob helped you out too.

It was so fun meeting you all too...thanks for the parade spot :goodvibes so fun seeing myself in other people's TRs :laughing:

That rain was no fun at all, it had Matt and I quite nervous too, the night was going to be a wash as well...so glad it wasn't

You guys got quite the candy haul! :thumbsup2

The watermark day sounded good too, except for the extra costs and chill factor...love all the shopping you did too at DTD

And hopping back into MK is so easy staying at BLT...Matt did it once just by himself during our 2010 trip too :thumbsup2

Looking forward to see what is up next

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

YUMMY EARL!!!!

I love your purchase :) They did do the print out in Dec for 20% off. I ended up with like 4 or 5 of them!! It still wasn't as good as the CM 40% off merch (no longer 50%!!) but you deal lol.

I'm heading over to check out your new adventures!!

[exwdwcm]

Getting caught up...
Love that you all enjoyed your first F & W day like Matt and I did, that def is the way to do it...we loved all that food and low crowds too...the rain threatening prob helped you out too.

It was so fun meeting you all too...thanks for the parade spot :goodvibes so fun seeing myself in other people's TRs :laughing:

That rain was no fun at all, it had Matt and I quite nervous too, the night was going to be a wash as well...so glad it wasn't

You guys got quite the candy haul! :thumbsup2

The watermark day sounded good too, except for the extra costs and chill factor...love all the shopping you did too at DTD

And hopping back into MK is so easy staying at BLT...Matt did it once just by himself during our 2010 trip too :thumbsup2

Looking forward to see what is up nextYes, we adored F&W and are very excited to share it with my parents this year in Nov!! The rain probably helped a ton that day! I hated that it rained on our party, but I think we all still had a ball and yes, we got a TON of candy. Will isn't even a huge candy lover. I love being able to just walk over to MK at a whim. Definitely makes our BLT choice so worth it!

YUMMY EARL!!!!

I love your purchase :) They did do the print out in Dec for 20% off. I ended up with like 4 or 5 of them!! It still wasn't as good as the CM 40% off merch (no longer 50%!!) but you deal lol.

I'm heading over to check out your new adventures!!Earle!!!! Love it!! I loved that 20% coupon when I've used it in the past. The 40% CM is even better though.

How are you feeling Megan? Hope you are all better and feeling good enough back at work. ;)

[exwdwcm]

Thursday, October 20th PART 1


So bear with me, I didn’t take any notes on Thursday or Friday. We had our laptop, so I tried and take notes during our break, so I am simply relying on memory, our itinerary and dated pics to piece the next two days together.

Today we woke up early at 6:30am and had a quick snack in the room. With our vacation coming to an end soon, I was trying to be sure we ate all the food/snacks we had in the room. And as any good Disney fan knows, you accumulate even more snacks in the parks each day too that you bring home. Today’s plan was to hit the Magic Kingdom at rope drop for extra magic hours at 8am. So we were up early again.
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It was a little chilly this morning. We saw Pinnochio once we got in, so we stopped for a quick photo. William looks, well, not quite awake yet.
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We took a few pics. Look how pretty the horse drawn trolley is for the fall!
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Then we headed to Tomorrowland to do something we’ve never done before as a family- the Astro Orbiters! Alan and Will shared a rocket and I got my own. It was an amazing view of the MK and even BLT in the distance with the sun coming up. It was still early and chilly and I loved the view. I took some video.
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Here is the video- I love the music in the background.
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Then a quick ride on the TTA/People Mover, whatever they call it now. William loved going up the escalator.
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We then hit the speedway, before the crowds got too crazy. We still waited at least 15 minutes I think.
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We were getting hungry and it is my tradition to enjoy a warm cinnamon roll on main street, so we headed to the bakery. There was a line, as usual and probably the longest we’ve been in. We waited though. That sweet gooey goodness was calling my name. We actually found a table inside, which was nice, since it was chilly and windy out. We enjoyed our late breakfast.
We had a special appointment today though. AT 11am, Willliam was turned into a pirate! So after breakfast, we headed over near Pirates to check in for his appointment. We were a little early, so we waited a bit. I think we even rode Pirates first and looked around in the shop to kill time. Finally they called him in and had our first Pirate League experience.

William spun the wheel and found out what his pirate name was- HECTOR.
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We weren’t sure how this all worked. We were given his name and then told to wait in the main room until his name was called. We waited a bit, there were at least 3-4 people ahead of us already waiting. But it was fun to take in the room and what was going on. We hear them call William, but turns out that was some other kid’s pirate name, since they use your pirate name! Finally we heard Hector called.

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Suddenly William had a black eye and a tattoo, which he loved. He was so good the entire time, sitting quietly and letting her do her pirate makeover.

“I make this look good!”
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He was officially pronounced a pirate then and we went to another area to wait for him to enter the secret room. Once it was his turn, he had to sword fight another pirate and enter the secret room. It was all very cute. He was the perfect age for this.
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The secret room is where he had his picture made and found some treasure. The whole experience was like $29, but if you want the photo, it is another $15 or so. We did purchase the photo. William had a ball at the Pirate League and we will definitely consider doing it again in the future.

So now we took our pirate off for some lunch. We were lucky that the newly named Tortuga Tavern was actually open. This restaurant, located across from the exit of the Pirates shop and behind Pecos Bill’s. I’ve only been able to eat here a handful of times, as it operates seasonally and is usually closed when we go, which is in the off season. But they recently renamed it and have a new menu, so maybe we will see it open more often.

I don’t have pics from lunch, but I know had got some kind of nacho and Alan I think had some tacos and same for William. It was okay and a nice break from the burgers. The place was packed though and it was hard finding a table. After our lunch break, we had something in mind on the agenda to check off the to-do list, Tom Sawyer Island. Since we had already seen all the e-ticket rides (many twice) at MK, we decided to hit the island. I hadn’t been over to it in years and knew Will might enjoy it and he could burn some energy running around. So we got in line for a boat over, and only waited like 5 minutes. The boat was packed though.

We got over and explored the entire island, played on the playground and did the barrel bridge multiple times. There is so much potential on this island to do something so much bigger and better, but maybe one day they will. Even some cool interactive scavenger hunt. Will enjoyed the caves too. Some of those have some tight spaces!
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We also checked out the fort side on the little side island and had some fun there. William smeared his makeup a little and got all upset about it. Poor guy. Good thing we didn’t do the full face makeup. We were all pretty tired by this point and it was probably close to 2pm. Time for a break. We headed out of Magic Kingdom and walked back to BLT.
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[IheartDDuck]

Love the Pirates League! It's such a cute experience. I don't know the logic in the name selection either, but my nephew ended up with Davey Ropewalker. :lmao:

[Moodyzblu]

My boys are thinking about doing the Pirate's League .. it looks like so much fun ! He looks really cute in his make up. :thumbsup2

[khertz]

Awww, love the makeover for "Hector"! And I love his t-shirt! I remember seeing that one at Target this year...looks like we will have to stock up on Disney Halloween t's for our trip this year. :thumbsup2 It's always so nice when you are able to do some of those little things you have never done before. I read about Tom Sawyer Island in the latest issue of Celebrations and thought it sounded neat for a little boy, especially one Will's age! Paxton might still be too young on our next trip but it is definitely something we want to do when he is older. I think he'd find it a lot of fun!

[WDWCP96]

Our next trip we are definitely doing the Pirates League. I am hoping we can have both my boys do it.

We have never made RD at MK. I am hoping we will this trip since we will be so close at BLT.

Our last trip we did Tom Sawyer's island for the first time. It was really neat and the boys had a great time running around although we couldn't find a single paint brush.

[msmith1026]

I'm finally getting caught up on your TR. Real life has been nuts, so i'm way behind. Will looks adorable in your Pirates League pics!

[mousescrapper]

I didnt remember he was doing PL...so glad he liked it pirate:

Nathan did it in 2010 and really had a great time w/ it...glad you had a fun morning and got to do a few things new or hadn't done it awhile :thumbsup2

Looking forward to the rest of your day

[exwdwcm]

Love the Pirates League! It's such a cute experience. I don't know the logic in the name selection either, but my nephew ended up with Davey Ropewalker. :lmao:He really loved it too. We might even consider doing it again this trip, who knows. :)

My boys are thinking about doing the Pirate's League .. it looks like so much fun ! He looks really cute in his make up. :thumbsup2They definitely should, it was a great experience. he had a blast and the price isn't bad either!

Awww, love the makeover for "Hector"! And I love his t-shirt! I remember seeing that one at Target this year...looks like we will have to stock up on Disney Halloween t's for our trip this year. :thumbsup2 It's always so nice when you are able to do some of those little things you have never done before. I read about Tom Sawyer Island in the latest issue of Celebrations and thought it sounded neat for a little boy, especially one Will's age! Paxton might still be too young on our next trip but it is definitely something we want to do when he is older. I think he'd find it a lot of fun!Yep, another Target find. I am always on the lookout for clearance stuff off season! Tom Sawyer island was fun. I don't think we will do it again next trip, but maybe an every other trip sort of thing. Give Paxton another year or so and he will probably love it.

Our next trip we are definitely doing the Pirates League. I am hoping we can have both my boys do it.

We have never made RD at MK. I am hoping we will this trip since we will be so close at BLT.

Our last trip we did Tom Sawyer's island for the first time. It was really neat and the boys had a great time running around although we couldn't find a single paint brush.RD is AWESOME. I am NOT a morning person at home. I don't have to get up until 7am, but even then, i struggle. :rotfl: I am usually at work by 8:30am. Anyhow, at WDW, my body clock changes though- i am the first one up, raring to go! :confused3:lmao: Luckily DH is an early riser too and I think he's done so many trips with me now that he knows the value of making RD, or if not making RD, coming in just minutes after at least. We try and be at the parks at opening. Taking a midday break everyday allows us the flexibility and stamina to do opening and then also stay late if we want. Luckily my 4yo has always been so great about going with the flow- he can stay up late if we let him and will get up early too. Getting to walk down a half empty main street is so nice- and the lines for the rides- awesome! almost non existent. Hopefully you will get a chance at RD since you are at BLT. I know the quick walk makes it so easy.

I'm finally getting caught up on your TR. Real life has been nuts, so i'm way behind. Will looks adorable in your Pirates League pics!woo hoo! Glad you got caught up! Thanks,

I didnt remember he was doing PL...so glad he liked it pirate:

Nathan did it in 2010 and really had a great time w/ it...glad you had a fun morning and got to do a few things new or hadn't done it awhile :thumbsup2

Looking forward to the rest of your dayHe loved it. I think he would enjoy it even more now, a year older, so might have to try it again.

[exwdwcm]

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20th- Part 2


Tonight takes us to Epcot! I always try and plan where I have time at the parks in the morning (to hit the e-ticket attractions) and time at night, to view the fireworks, enjoy dinner etc. We had no major plans other than dinner at Via Napoli tonight at 7pm.

We drove over, since I hate fighting the crowds on the monorail at closing. It was probably close to 4:30pm by the time we arrived in the park. To be honest, I don’t remember what all we did! But I do know we hit a few of the kidcot stops. William really enjoyed this. Last trip, not so much, he didn’t get it. This time, he really wanted to stop each time. So we hit up some of the countries we had missed previously for him to get his stamps.

I think we might have hit the boat ride in Mexico, which Will simply adored since it had Donald and he is a huge Donald fan. We have tons of old school Donald books that he loves to read. We checked in for our dinner a little early at Via Napoli. There was a line outside at a podium, but I soon realized it was for walk ups. So I checked us in inside and we were seated almost immediately. I don’t remember our server’s name, but he wasn’t great. We had to wait for refills etc.
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I do love this restaurant, I think this is our third visit here now. The pizza is amazing. I haven’t even tried the pasta yet, but the pics I see look great. The restaurant is beautifully decorated (and not just talking about the attractive Italian waiters)!!!
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I can’t remember if we ordered a medium or large pizza, but we all shared. We did half pepperoni and half something else for Alan. I am the picky one.
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The pizza was delicious as always. We were able to use our TIW card here too. William had to go potty, so I took him while Alan was waiting to pay the bill. This took forever. Finally William was getting restless, so I headed outside with him, but it was freezing cold outside. The server just took forever to bring and run the check for some reason.

It was after 8:30 now and nearing time for Illuminations, but we had a stop in mind……Karamelle Kuche! We simply adore this new addition. We stopped here twice this trip I think. The line was sort of long, but we got in it. I hate how they have that one door on the front that sort of enters right where the line is, so folks already in line are waiting and these other people are trying to come in and confused as to where the line starts. Not efficient. We had some folks come in that way and sort of cut in line in front of us. You know it happens every trip, something like this.

We check out all the delicious goodies.
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We got quite a lot actually, some fresh caramel corn, which is to die for here if you haven’t tried it. We also got like 4 other pieces of caramel/chocolate, some to take home. I think Alan got the dark chocolate caramel, I got the milk chocolate and we got a marshmallow swirl too. We haven’t tried the apples here, but I hear they will cut them for you, so we might next time. William loves green apples.

With goodies in hand, we started to make our way out of Germany and around the world showcase. Will wanted to see the fireworks, so we decided to stake out a last minute spot, which as you know, doesn’t always work so well. We were just past Canada, to the right of the main hub if you are facing the lake. We actually had a decent view, but some trees were in the way, so we moved back more. You can see the crowds.
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We left before it was all over and headed back to BLT, exhausted, full and happy!

[exwdwcm]

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21st- part 1

Again, didn’t take notes today, so sort of winging it here based on photos! As you can tell, we make a big effort to do as much of the parks early in the trip, including the big attractions, so that we can relax a little more later in the trip and just enjoy the details and not rush around.

The plans for today were to hit Epcot again. I know, we spend a lot of time here, huh? But we love it. Plus today was our second morning to take advantage of Food & Wine and wrap up the other half of the festival on the right side. We had pretty much already done the left hand side earlier in the week.

Epcot was open at 8am for EMH this morning. So we got up early and headed over, getting in just after RD. We hit Soarin again and also Test Track. We also rode Spaceship Earth.
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Today our focus was:
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First up, Alan tried something from Australia I think, I forget what it was. It was windy and chilly out today though! But beautiful day.
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We actually hit the booths at like 10:45am and many were already opening that early. Then a little something for me!
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The champagne and dessert booth. We passed on the champagne, but had the dessert trio.
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It was tasty and included these three items- lemon chiffon, white chocolate macadamia mousse with dark chocolate pearls and tres leches verrine. I passed on the last one, not a big tres leches fan. The lemon and chocolate were good! William was having a good time too, sharing in the tasting.
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Next was Canada! We had already tried the cheddar cheese soup the other day, but today I wanted the chipotle chicken sausage. My………this was delicious, spicy and perfect. Loved it. Probably my favorite item of F&W. It came with sweet corn polenta which was also heavenly. I tried a Neige FB- apple ice wine. $5.75 for that tiny cup. Next time I think I will skip most of the mini drinks, they were pricy and tiny. The food was a much better value.
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We made our way towards UK next. Alan got the Lobster and Scallops Fisherman’s pie. I got the chocolate lava cake. I am not a seafood eater. He enjoyed it. The lava cake was delish too! We sat on a bench and enjoyed our snacks while people watching. Again, no lines for the booths this early, we walked right up to every single one.

We headed towards France next. I wanted to try the Coq au Vin sur gratin de macaroni (red win braised chicken, mushrooms, pearl onions and macaroni gratin) for $4.95. Paired it with the sparkling pomegranate kir for $6.50. I wasn’t a huge fan of the chicken. Not sure why. I am not a mushroom or onion fan, but there wasn’t much and I could pick around. The kir however was very tasty!
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We continued making the rounds, but we had eaten most of what we had come for that morning. We had already tried Morocco the first night. The other booths just weren’t doing much for us and we were feeling full.
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We stopped for Will to visit the kidcot stations again too.
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We decided we were ready for a break, so we headed back to the room about 1pm. Just in time to beat the crowds.

[mousescrapper]

Looks like you are finishing off your last days w/ some good eats :thumbsup2


I will have to try the carmel corn :thumbsup2

[khertz]

This whole update had me drooling!!

Can't wait to have that Via Napoli deliciousness again! And we only glanced through the caramel store last time. Definitely need to look closer and get something (or a few somethings :rolleyes1) next time.

I am really happy to see that you actually had a day that was on the chilly side! I was just dreading having to sweat our way through a week in October, so it makes me hopeful that maybe it won't be so bad when we go!

LOVE the picture of Will eating his pizza in his Kermit hat! That's about the cutest thing ever!!

[exwdwcm]

Looks like you are finishing off your last days w/ some good eats :thumbsup2


I will have to try the carmel corn :thumbsup2Very good eats! I miss the caramel corn- so yummy!

This whole update had me drooling!!

Can't wait to have that Via Napoli deliciousness again! And we only glanced through the caramel store last time. Definitely need to look closer and get something (or a few somethings :rolleyes1) next time.

I am really happy to see that you actually had a day that was on the chilly side! I was just dreading having to sweat our way through a week in October, so it makes me hopeful that maybe it won't be so bad when we go!

LOVE the picture of Will eating his pizza in his Kermit hat! That's about the cutest thing ever!!Loved VN!!! We are skipping it this trip, but it is a favorite now. The caramel store is a must for us each trip now. DH loves it too. We actually had a few chilly days, but many days were warm too. Hopefully it won't be too bad for you.

He gets comments on that Kermit hat everywhere we go!! Probably one of our best souvies!

[katt789]

I love the background story, it’s good to know that people can convert into Disney lovers!! I honestly cannot wait to have a little one to share all the magic & pixie dust with (I say this now, but it will still be years!!) DVC is starting to look more & more like a good idea for me (that, or an annual pass, or something of the sort!)

-That room looks fantastic!! (this is coming from the girl who’s spent 3/4 trips at a value resort though..) love the view of the pool! And I just have to say, I definitely have the same Pooh stuffy! :rotfl:
-Wowee!! Talk about an amazing morning shot!! That suuucks about the battery being dead!!
-Bahah! Gotta love the “let me off here” line, oh kids!
-AHHH! Kermit toque!! You have NOO idea the story of that hat & me! I wanted one so bad when we were there in Sept, but didn’t get it. Went back in Dec, couldn’t find it anywhere, but saw lots of ppl wearing them, finally asked, and they said there was a kiosk in Tmrland, where we RAN over during the fireworks to make sure we could get one…and they only had beaker & animal. SO SAD. Finally, a friend of a friend was down there, and I asked if she saw one, to buy it for me, just for hopes! AND SHE FOUND IT!! (although I have yet to actually get it, but seriously, cutest hat in the entire world)

-Oh my goodness, the wishing picture is absolutely adorable! I love the knight costume!
-Alright, I finished Day 1, that’s where I’m going to take a pause for now, enjoying your tr!!

[exwdwcm]

I love the background story, it’s good to know that people can convert into Disney lovers!! I honestly cannot wait to have a little one to share all the magic & pixie dust with (I say this now, but it will still be years!!) DVC is starting to look more & more like a good idea for me (that, or an annual pass, or something of the sort!)

-That room looks fantastic!! (this is coming from the girl who’s spent 3/4 trips at a value resort though..) love the view of the pool! And I just have to say, I definitely have the same Pooh stuffy! :rotfl:
-Wowee!! Talk about an amazing morning shot!! That suuucks about the battery being dead!!
-Bahah! Gotta love the “let me off here” line, oh kids!
-AHHH! Kermit toque!! You have NOO idea the story of that hat & me! I wanted one so bad when we were there in Sept, but didn’t get it. Went back in Dec, couldn’t find it anywhere, but saw lots of ppl wearing them, finally asked, and they said there was a kiosk in Tmrland, where we RAN over during the fireworks to make sure we could get one…and they only had beaker & animal. SO SAD. Finally, a friend of a friend was down there, and I asked if she saw one, to buy it for me, just for hopes! AND SHE FOUND IT!! (although I have yet to actually get it, but seriously, cutest hat in the entire world)

-Oh my goodness, the wishing picture is absolutely adorable! I love the knight costume!
-Alright, I finished Day 1, that’s where I’m going to take a pause for now, enjoying your tr!!Thanks for reading a long! Sharing the magic with your child is well, magical! Nothing better. Seeing his little face light up is priceless. And I seriously thought my Disney grump of a hubby would never be a fan. I knew he would put up with it because I loved it, but I figured it would be an every 3 years trip kind of thing. But once we took our son, he was hooked, I think he really saw the magic then!

Too funny on the Kermit hat! We lucked out and found it in the muppet store early in our trip. So glad you got one! We get comments everywhere on it.

;););)

[exwdwcm]

Friday, October 21, Part 2


I wanted to take a big break today because I needed to pack. I know, it is sad, today was our last full day. It’s funny how halfway through the trip, I am usually already mourning the end of the trip. Tonight’s plan was for Hollywood Studios. They were only open until 8pm. So we took a quick break, let William nap and I packed best I could without disturbing him while Alan read his book on the balcony. Having a studio room, it was nice to have the balcony to escape to when William was napping. That, or I just left the room and walked around the resort a bit while Alan stayed with him.



But today it was packing, trying to cram all this stuff into the few suitcases we had brought. Now remember, I tried to pack light. I have to say, looking back, this was pretty light packing for me, considering we were there 8 nights.

Now I was trying to play tetris to fit it all. Luckily I had shipped two shipments home, one from World of Disney and one from MouseGears earlier in the trip with the big items, but I still had a lot of souvies, including F&W wine glasses, tons of t-shirts, and small items. I managed to fit most of it, but we would be carrying on a few more bags, including a big yellow lego bag and one large Disney bag.

So after Will’s nice nap, we got up and ready to head to the studios.
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We drove of course, love having the rental car! I think we probably arrived close to 4pm. I had been texting my friend Megan (TinkerbellLuvr7) from the DIS. I had been reading her trip reports and all about her college program experiences at BBB and AK for years. Then we started chatting and decided to meet up since she had moved back to Orlando permanently! We texted and she was going to meet us by the times sign near the Starring Rolls bakery. We parked and got in and found her immediately. Of course I recognized her from all her pics on the boards. I think DH was finally getting the hang of the fact that I would be meeting “strangers” I met online that shared my love for Disney. Of course he thought Megan was super sweet too. So off we went. We had no big plans, and I know we rode the Great Movie Ride.

Then we decide to try and see a few characters. We headed over towards Playhouse Disney, and Will wanted to see the show again, but we were too late, the last show of the day was already in session and we had missed it. Ugh! He loved seeing Jake from the Neverland Pirates. At least we got to see it once. So we met Handy Manny instead.
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Then the Incredibles. There’s that awkward pose again.
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We also ran into a Green Army Man later:
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After that, Megan split up from us to shop for her Dad’s birthday present. We had a great time together though and I regret we didn’t take a picture together! DOH!!!

Alan and I decided to try Tower of Terror. I knew Will didn’t want to go. He had ridden earlier in the week and while he had wanted to ride and I had showed him the ride video first, he was scared once the drops started. So no way was I going to force him to ride. He did say he liked it after he got off, but every time I mentioned going on it again he said he didn’t want to. So I told him just Mommy was going and Daddy would wait outside with him. As we got closer, he changed his mind and said he wanted to ride. I got a lot of funny looks from folks in line taking a 4yo on, but he’s tall enough and likes thrills usually. So off we went. He proclaimed it was his favorite “scary hotel” ever.
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After that, we decided to head back towards Toy Story Mania just to see what the line looked like. It was nearing closing time, so we figured it was worth a shot. It was still super long, so we opted to meet Buzz and Woody instead. We waited probably 20 minutes for that.
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After that, we visited One Man’s Dream again. Alan really likes this exhibit, which surprised me at first last year.He is a history buff though, so that makes sense. I love it. The movie is so touching, but I haven’t watched in the last two trips, so I really want to see it in November again. It's going on the to do list! We did a little shopping and decided it was time to head out- as it was closing time- 8pm. Now we hadn’t eaten dinner yet. I thought we could try Beaches and Cream. So we drove over to Beach Club. The walk was so long from the parking lot and our feet were dead tired.

The best laid plans…..well you know what they say. We made it in, enjoyed checking out the lobby and pool area, but Beaches and Cream had like an hour wait. No thanks. We couldn’t wait that long to feed William. We were all pretty tired, hungry and grumpy at that point and had a long walk back to the car. What a wasted trip. I wish they took reservations! Maybe another time. This is also going on the to do list for November!!!

So we drove back to BLT and just ate in the Contempo Café before crawling into bed. I had the same sandwich as before, something with ham/turkey and salami I think, it was delicious! I did want to get a good night’s sleep since tomorrow was our last day and we would be traveling home late. It was going to be a long day.

[exwdwcm]

Saturday, October 22
We decided last night that we would get up early today and hit the MK one last time before our breakfast at O’hana at 10:45am. We are early risers, so it wasn’t a big deal for us. I know today was rated like a 8 or 9 by Touringplans, so we expected BIG crowds. That is part of the reason we wanted to go in early and tackle some stuff before breakfast, grab a few fastpasses for later. I am so disappointed that FP return times will be enforced now, since we are “those people” that like to get them and use much later after the return window. Oh well.



Really the one reason we went back in the am was William. He wanted to ride HM again, plus Pooh and Peter Pan. I doubt we would have been able to do that in the afternoon, after breakfast with the crazy crowds.
And so, the alarm was set for 6:00am. I think this was one of our earliest days. What I intended to be a sleep in day, turned out to be an early day instead. The best laid plans……….but that’s okay and I am glad we were flexible and willing to change what we wanted to. This trip was really about William after all!



But we didn’t mind waking up early. I got up, showered and ready and then woke up William. He woke up, looked out the window and said “Mommy, it’s still dark outside.” I know kid, but get up if you want to see ghosts without an hour wait!



I finished putting up and packing away our last few items and toiletries and cleaned out the fridge some. I wonder if the mousekeeping cast members get to keep any of the leftover food and stuff that is left behind? I know Disney usually isn’t on board with that sort of thing, but wouldn’t it be such a waste for it to be tossed? We only had two bottles of water left and used everything else. But it had me wondering.
As we took the elevator down later that day, I did see a CM, carrying a grocery bag that looked to have an opened bag of swim diapers, some bottled water and other items in there. I couldn’t help but wonder if it was leftover items from a room she was taking home. I hope so. I would hate for all that stuff to go to waste. If we had more left, I was going to try and pass it on to another DISer, like someone else so kindly did for us. But hopefully what others leave at least gets a good home with the CMs?



So we got all ready and I fed William some applesauce and cereal. Our breakfast ADR was not until 10:45am, so we needed to eat a little to hold us over. I had also decided the night before that I would use Resort Airline Checkin (RAC) and would check two bags this time. We only checked one on the way to Orlando. But our smaller carry on/roll aboard luggage piece was so packed and heavy, I just didn’t want to deal with it. So we paid the additional $20 or whatever. Plus, we already had 5 carry ons, not counting that. I wasn’t sure we could manage all the carry ons, stroller, car seat and that big roller suitcase. So I just bit the bullet and paid the $20 to check it. I called the baggage line that morning to pay the $40 baggage fee. I figure after all the money I spent on food and souvenirs, another $20 wasn’t going to kill me, and at least it wouldn’t kill my back!



At about 7:15am, we took our two checked bags, plus our 2011 Halloween bag filled with all of our candy from MNSSHP and some caramels from Karamell Kuche downstairs. We went to RAC, much different from our experience last December, where there was a HUGE line. This time, there was not a soul there, in fact, we were it, other than the five cast members standing around. One guy gets to checking us in and is having issues. It is taking forever and poor William is freezing. It is quite windy and chilly. The CM finally asks for help. Turns out he was searching by my middle name, Lenn, not our last name. He had asked for my flight confirmation # and all and I had showed it to him directly from my phone and he still wasn’t finding it. This other CM finds it immediately. We get our boarding passes. He doesn’t even ask for Alan’s ID at all. I thought that was strange. While digging out my stuff, I drop a used up Disney gift card and Photopass card out of my purse. Alan picks them up and I put them back in. This will come back to haunt me later.



So with boarding passes firmly in hand, we head inside so I can check the Halloween bag with the valet. We worry that leaving it in the car will be a bad idea and the chocolate might melt. I check it with no problem.



We then head up with our mugs to the fifth floor, taking the escalator, Will’s favorite thing. We fill our drinks- coke for me, coffee for Alan and head across the bridge to BLT one last time. This really is a pleasant walk and while it can be windy, I enjoy it. Such great views on both sides.



We head back up to the room, William is disappointed because the lady in the elevator hits our floor when I say 12th floor and he doesn’t get to. He gives her the evil eye all the way until she gets off. Don’t mess with a kid pushing elevator buttons lady!



We grab our other four carry ons- our black backpack, my large tote bag with the laptop and breakables I bought, Will’s backpack and then a Disney bag of souvenirs, plus the stroller. We look around our home for the last eight nights and say good bye. While small, this little studio was a good home for the week.



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We head back downstairs, William is happy to push all the elevator buttons himself this time. We then take one last look at BLT and head to the car to put everything in the trunk. By now it is like 7:55am. We hoof it over to the MK via the walking path. With the huge crowds expected today, we want to try and tackle Peter Pan, Pooh and HM before we have to head over to the Poly for breakfast.
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We get in, just missing rope drop. I try and really savor this last walk down Main Street, the sights, sounds and smells.
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We stop for Pluto in the front though near the flag pole. That is one autograph Will did not get yet, and there are only like six people in line. Will has on his Kermit hat and so the CM and everyone else is commenting on how cute it is.
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When we get up to see Pluto, he holds up his ear and the hat for the pic. Too cute! We them make our way up Main Street and through the castle.



We grab some fastpasses for Peter Pan, but there is no line at all- completely walk on, so we get on. In fact, we ride it twice in a row, walking on both times, plus we have FP in hand. I have never seen it this dead! SCORE for arriving early! It really made all the difference in the world to get up early. After Peter Pan, we head to Pooh and ride that twice as well, again, completely walk on both times. Next up, Dumbo. We ride this twice as well. No line at all. It was a beautiful morning too- so we were really enjoying the gorgeous sunshine and no crowds on this last morning.



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After Dumbo, we hit Snow White, but only once. I know this is probably my last time to ride it. I am sure it will be closed the next time we come back as they prepare to tear it down and open up the new mine train ride instead in another location in the new Fantasyland expansion. Who knows when it will close down, but I am guessing in the next year.
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After a wonderful morning in Fantasyland, (Peter Pan 2x, Pooh 2x, Dumbo 2x, Snow White 1x), we grab the stroller and head over to Haunted Mansion for a quick ride. It is only about 9am now. Look how empty Frontierland was.
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HM is a walk on too. The walkways in the park are just completely empty. It is so nice. Now I know Saturday is a day many guests arrive and so maybe folks just aren’t here yet or sleeping in, but it is eerily quiet and empty! We are loving it.
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We take a ride on HM, but explore the cemetery again first, William loves playing with the books that pop in and out. Alan yells “ham sandwich” into the poetry area (obviously getting it wrong). LOL


We enjoy one last ride on ghosts, our 7th of the trip. William is saying the complete spiel now in the stretching room and this lady hears him and is looking at him in amazement. It is so funny.
After our visit to the ghosts, we head to Big Thunder to grab another fastpass for later. I anticipate big crowds this afternoon, so we want as many fastpasses as possible to use later. We grab Big Thunder and then head to Jungle Cruise. We haven’t done it yet this trip. This is also a walk on. Our boat is only half full in fact. We get a decent skipper and have a fun ride.



We still have a little time, so we decided to hit Pirates. Again, complete walk on. We get first row. I get pretty wet on that small drop. Who knew that front row would get so wet? After Pirates, we head out to Main Street and I grab Mickey/Minnie fastpasses for later. While we saw them at the Halloween party, they were in their costumes and we missed getting Minnie’s autograph somehow, so I wanted to come back. We grab Princess FP too. I didn’t realize you could get them both at the same time. I guess they officially count as one fastpass and you can hold them concurrently at the same time. Interesting and good to know.



We now have three sets of fastpasses in hand for later. We head on out of the park, planning to ride the monorail over to the Poly. But, we see a boat is ready to go, so instead, we opt for the boat, the first one of the trip in terms of transportation. There is only one other family on board.

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We enjoyed a beautiful ride over to the Poly with a quick stop at the Grand Floridian. I can see the construction area they have cordoned off, for the rumored new GF DVC resort area.
We arrive at the Polynesian and it is about 10:35am or so- just in time. I check in at the desk- no line, but I do see tons of people standing around with pagers and yellow leis. We get our leis and decide to skip the “no obligation” picture.



We are called back at almost exactly 10:45am. We are given a lovely table right near the front window, overlooking the pool/beach area. The restaurant is probably only a third full, if that. There is a table next to us with a nice family speaking Spanish, the husband is all dressed up in a sport coat and it becomes obvious they have their nanny with them and their two girls as well. Great perk for being a nanny I guess, free trip to WDW!! William hears them saying some numbers in Spanish and he perks up. He loves counting in Spanish. LOL!
Service here was okay. We had Samantha. It took forever to get our juice and drinks. Finally get the breads, which we devour. It takes forever to get the rest of the food. We get waffles first, but no butter or syrup, until about 10 minutes later. The food when it finally comes is good and plentiful. The oven fried potatoes were delicious, as was the fruit.



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We asked for some seconds and it took forever too. By the time we got it, we weren’t even hungry anymore. Same thing on our drink refills, took forever. By the time we got them, we asked for to go cups.
So first up to visit us was Mickey. Loved his Hawaiian shirt!



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Next was Lilo, followed by Stitch. Then Pluto. We had a great time with all. We got Lilo and Stitch’s autographs.
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By the time we saw Pluto, we were all done eating and they had brought over a birthday cupcake for William. He proceeded to lick the icing off the top. Pluto came over and tried to steal his cupcake. It was so cute. You can see the video here. Pluto’s handler had told him to come back, but he stayed and continued to play with us. He kept trying to distract William and take his cupcake. Then he took a mickey waffle from my plate and threw it at a waitress, then at another table. It was so cute. We had a lot of fun and William loved all the extra attention. IN fact, in the car, on the way to the airport later that day, William tells me how he was going to call the police on Pluto for trying to steal his cupcake. Then he decided against it and said he would just share with Pluto.



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Pluto also loved William’s autograph book. I ordered it on shutterfly and used this really cute photo of William and Pluto from our last trip. Pluto was so happy he was featured on the cover. He went to show it to his handler and to the next table, pointing to himself. It was so cute. That book definitely got William extra attention each time. So worth the $25 to make.



Full and ready to head back to the MK, we left the restaurant, one of the last tables to leave. It was about 11:50am or so. We head out to the monorail and there is a car waiting for us. Off we go to the Magic Kingdom again.

[hardingk]

Great update!! So sad to leave your home away from home.....

So nice that fellow Dis'er left you some stuff....LOL!!:rotfl::rotfl:

[Moodyzblu]

The last day is so sad .. but you sure did get a lot done ! Good for you. :thumbsup2

[khertz]

I can't believe how much y'all got done on your last morning before even heading to breakfast!! That is pretty amazing.

All the TRs I have been following are ending! It's so sad, especially after we all planned these vacations together. :hug: I guess on to the PTRs now! :goodvibes

[exwdwcm]

As we enter, we notice the HUGE crowds. It is now after noon. I guess all the late sleepers or Saturday arrivals are finally awake and heading over to start their day! We decide to go in and see Minnie and Mickey first. We show our fastpasses and are first in, but I realize we forgot the autograph book and so Alan heads out to the stroller to get it. Meanwhile a family of 8 slides in front of us. No big deal since I was waiting on DH.



They only have 6 fastpasses, but the CM lets them in anyways, but she finally notices they are short and makes a comment about it. There were plenty of folks trying to get into the fastpass line without fastpasses. The regular line was about 30 minutes for Mickey. So we were behind this family of 8. Then behind us, is a lady and her daughter. AS we are ushered into the waiting area, the CM asks us to stand against the wall, so we do. Then this lady and her daughter come in. The CM lets us go in now and the lady tries to push ahead of us. She doesn’t speak English, but I know she knows we were there first. So I make sure to keep our place and I get ahead of her. I don’t mind letting people go ahead of me, but when they are rude like that and trying to purposely cut the line- no thanks.
So in we go to the room with Mickey and Minnie. There is a HUGE party with them at the moment. Literally 28 people the CM said. They are taking FOREVER. Finally the CM tells them only one more pic. One with Grandma, one with Grandma and two kids. One with the aunt and uncle. One with three kids. You get the picture or pictures! The continue taking more and more. It was pretty ridiculous.



She finally ushers them out. I send Will out to Mickey and lo and behold, the lady behind us sends her daughter out too- rushing ahead of Will. Um, excuse me?????? Mickey and Minnie see what is going on. The little girl is trying to hand them her book and finally Mickey walks her back over to the mom. The mom either had no clue or just didn’t care that it was our turn and that her little girl was right in the middle of us trying to take a picture. Thankfully Mickey and Minnie deal with this daily and handled it for us. I mean, I don’t want to push this little 5 year old out of the way, but really, we are trying to take pics here! I couldn’t believe the mom didn’t even try and move her. It took the CM doing it. I make a good effort to ensure William waits his turn and is patient. What kind of lesson is this kid getting when her mom just keeps trying to rush in front of us in line? I mean come on.



Again, I don’t mind letting someone go ahead of us, it happened plenty this trip, including many times with WISH kids- stopping the line to let a Make a Wish family ahead of us. No big deal. It’s five more minutes. But when someone is rude, like this lady, it just irks me. I didn’t let it ruin our magic, it happens at WDW all the time. But funny for sure.



So we finally get Minnie’s autograph and some pictures without someone else’s daughter in the picture. Thank you Mickey for the crowd control. DH commented how hard the CM’s job must be to deal with both the good and rude people all day long. It definitely takes a special magical breed to handle such situations with grace, calm and a smile. But that is why Disney is so famous for their guest service!



With Minnie autograph in hand, we head back outside and realize just how crowded it is. We make our way up Main Street and decide to tackle Tomorrowland. We head own Main Street on the right, and I pop into the Crystal Arts shop for a moment. We walk to the back and catch the glass blower in action. We watched for a good 10 minutes. It was so cool. One of those great “slow down” moments.


We know the crowds are heavy, so we just plan to do the less popular stuff. We see the line for Buzz is 50 minutes. Ouch! It is now 1:15pm. The fastpass return time is 2:05pm. Um, why would you wait in line 50 minutes, when you can get a fastpass right now and come back in under 50 minutes and get right on basically? LOL- but people were doing it and waiting. So we get our fastpass and then wait 10 minutes for Monster’s Inc. Stitch was only 10 minutes too, but we passed on it. We were at the very back of the line and theatre for Monsters.



When we were let into the show, of course guests did not follow the “all the way down to the end of the aisle” instruction from the CM, so there are no seats for us at the end. We have to walk to the front of the theatre and all the way around to find seats. But we get second row and into the middle. We really enjoy this show- so funny and entertaining and love that it is different each time. Gotta love “that guy” and all the other crowd participation. William really laughed his head off in this one.



Next up, TTA Peoplemover. Short line here, but boarded immediately. William loves this too. And we lucked out, Space was down. In fact, we could see guests were actually stuck on the coaster. The lights were on, so Alan enjoyed getting to se e the inside. We didn’t ride Space this trip. I had attempted it earlier in the week, but it was 30 minutes. Alan and Will didn’t want to ride, so I just ended up skipping it. William for some reason was obsessed with the safety signs inside all of the ride vehicles. “What does this mean mommy?”- I had to tell him it meant stay inside the vehicle, no arms outside etc. He just loved those signs for some reason.



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So after our ride on TTA, we do the Carousel of Progress. I haven’t ridden this in years. It was fun to do it again. Will was very tired, so it was a nice break to relax. We did get stuck on the last part. It started to replay it again, yet we weren’t moving. When it started to replay again, the whole audience let out a huge sigh, like “again?”- it was too funny. It finally moved and we got off. Now time to use our Buzz fastpasses. But where is the line? Oh, WAY BACK There……literally out into the street near Stitch. They had a CM with a flag showing us where the end of the fastpass line was. Crazy. That is when you know it is crowded. So glad we were using FP and not in a rush today. To be honest, I would never wait 50 minutes for anything. We finally get on and I share a car with William, Alan gets his own. The ride stops a few times. William loves to do the spinning part, so I let him, which means my score is not all that great. LOL, but hey, whatever the little guy wants, right?



After Buzz, we manage through the crowds and head to get some ice cream. It is HOT now. We get in line at the ice cream shop on Main Street, about five people back. It moves fast. We find a table right outside, but it is all in the sun and so hot. We all share a hot fudge sundae. I think it is about 2:30 or 3pm by now. We know we need to leave by 5ish.
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So next up? We head to use our fastpasses for Peter Pan. Wow, 60 minute wait. Even Small World has like a 40 minute wait. Everything is crazy long and crowded. Pooh is 50 minutes. SO glad we rode these multiple times this morning with NO WAIT. Our early strategy certainly paid off.



We get in the FP line for Peter Pan, and enjoy our third flight to Neverland today. I always catch something different on this ride- another detail I missed. Next up- we catch PhilHarmagic again. William really enjoyed it the first time, since he loves Donald. We waited quite a bit for the next show, and end up in the very back at the end. Not the best seats, so Will sits in my lap. He giggles his head off the entire show, reaching out for Donald and stuff. We look in the gift shop a bit and then locate our stroller amid the crazy masses of strollers. I have Alan take a pic of the crowds in the walkway here. You literally can barely walk or move, especially with that huge construction wall set up in the middle between Dumbo and the Carousel.
Check out the crowds!
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We get out of there as fast as we can and over to see how long HM is. 40 minutes. No thank you. We don’t wait longer than 20 minutes for anything typically, that is sort of our rule and we manage it just fine by getting there early and using Fastpasses.



So we keep walking and head to Big Thunder to use our fastpasses there. We take the shortcut on the wooden walkway near the water and through the smoking area. Again, massive crowds.



We get over to BTMR and get in the FP line. Even it looks long. Two little girls behind us notice the standby line is actually way ahead of us. I promise her that it isn’t faster and that they have a long queue up there wrapping around that we just can’t see yet. Sure enough- the standby line wraps through all of the queue inside on both sides. The FP line just goes right in and down. It’s funny, as us FPers are walking down, there is a break in the standby line. The next guy in line comes walking up and looks totally confused, and is about to hop into the FP line, I guess thinking he went the wrong way or something. He is holding up the entire standby line and now everyone behind him is confused too- so as we pass them by, I let him know to proceed straight, around the corner and he will see the rest of the line. He just couldn’t see around the corner to the area where the queue wrapped around.



LOL…..sorry dude!!! The CM was checking all of the FP’s, so not like you can just hop over anyhow. The standby line here- 80 minutes. CRAZY, did I say CRAZY?? Yep!
We managed to get on in like 10 minutes or so. WE all ride together this time. William gets a death grip on us going through some of the fast parts.



After BTMRR, we decide it is time to call it quits after a bathroom stop. It is about 4:30pm or so. We head out of the park and I try and turn around and take in the amazing view one last time. It’s so sad to say good bye. Now I know why we usually take a break from like 2pm-4pm, the crowds and heat were just insane.



I had been worried our last day would be bad, but it turned out GREAT! On our last trip, last December (early December) with Alan’s mom and niece, we had done Epcot our last morning, after a late breakfast at Chef Mickey’s. Epcot had been crowded that day too and we ended up waiting over 30 minutes for Test Track, which turned out to be more like a 50 minute wait, totally against our usual 20 minute rule. It turned out to be a waste of an afternoon. I was worried out last day would end up like that, but it turned out great instead!!!! I was so glad we had decided to get up early. It made for a LONG day, but worth it.



So we exited the park and headed back to BLT via the walkway to our car. I went to go get our bag from valet while Alan filled up our mugs one last time. It was so hot outside now. William was fading fast too.



We got in the car and said good bye to WDW. We stopped at the Hess gas station near the Car Care Center for gas. It was packed. No wonder, those pumps are so slow! Gas tank filled, we hit the highway back to MCO for our 7:54pm flight back to Dallas, this time direct.



We hit some traffic on I-4, so I was glad we left early. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time. Poor William had fallen asleep the minute we hit I-4. He slept almost an hour. I was so glad we had checked that second bag.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a1ce02b3127ccefe3a4f20541200000030O38RbtHLVi1B7e fCQ/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D3/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/


We got the car returned with no issues and William even stayed asleep in his stroller, which was a first. He rarely sleeps in his stroller. We got in the airport and debated on whether to wait outside of security and let him sleep or just go on through. We had a little time to kill, but I worried the line would get longer. Because we used RAC, we had our boarding passes already and only our carry ons (which was a LOT). We took a bathroom break and decided to just go ahead and go through security and wake up William. I let him sleep as we waited in line. As we got close to going through, I woke him up. Bad idea, should have woke him earlier! LOL- he was half asleep, barely able to stand up and walk through the machine!
He didn’t go back to sleep after we got through. We got all our “crap” and found a spot to wait on our flight. Once again it was a full flight, but at least it was direct this time. Our flight departed at 8pm, and arrived home at 9:47pm. This is the latest we have ever flown home. I was worried it would be too late, but the other options were much earlier and would have cut into our day so much. I knew we’d be exhausted, but that’s why we flew home on a Saturday, so we’d have all day Sunday to recuperate and get ready for work/school on Monday.


The flight went well and William was so well behaved, unlike our flight last year. It’s only like a two hour flight back to DFW. We arrived and waited forever for our bags, I was getting nervous, since we used RAC, but both bags came out on the carousel. Wooh! Now it was time to get a cab. We found one right away. It is like 10:30pm by now. The cab drops us at Alan’s work parking garage where we left the truck all week. His work is only like 5 minutes from DFW airport. Free parking instead of paying for airport parking. The cab ride is like $20 or something. We get all loaded in the truck- exhausted. We make the 20 minute drive home and crash!



It was a fantastic last day and we had a ball. Next up- souvenirs and final thoughts!

[exwdwcm]

Great update!! So sad to leave your home away from home.....

So nice that fellow Dis'er left you some stuff....LOL!!:rotfl::rotfl:Wasn't that so nice!!!!! :cool1: SHE totally ROCKS!!!!:wave2::flower3:

The last day is so sad .. but you sure did get a lot done ! Good for you. :thumbsup2I hate the last day, i end up dreading it for days leading up to it.

I can't believe how much y'all got done on your last morning before even heading to breakfast!! That is pretty amazing.

All the TRs I have been following are ending! It's so sad, especially after we all planned these vacations together. :hug: I guess on to the PTRs now! :goodvibesI know, I've never accomplished so much before in my life at WDW in such a short time. It was awesome! We plan to do it again this year on our last day. even Ohana's for late breakfast! I know, on to the PTR!!!:thumbsup2 speaking of, i need to update that!

[exwdwcm]

so I thought I would share a few of our souvies.....

I am a shopping fiend at Disney. I love Disney stuff and love shopping. I know many of the shops carry the same "crap" as my DH likes to say, but I don't care, I just love checking every store out, to find that special something. I work really hard all year, and this is sort of my fun spending spree. We are very blessed to not be on a tight budget on our trips. With DVC now, we don't have a room to pay for (well we paid for it alright, but it's all paid for now) and I save up a lot all year including earning Disney rewards. so i tend to go a little crazy on shopping. I am sure when/if we have a second child and if I ever become a stay at home mom, I won't have the luxury of being so free with shopping there, but for now, I enjoy it! I have a general budget in mind, but if I see something i know I won't find elsewhere and I really want it- i get it.

I knew I wanted the Dooney 40th wallet, so I did splurge on that. That was my biggest thing. We also used money from my parents for Will's birthday to get him the monorail he wanted. So that was another big purchase. I did two shipments home- one from MouseGears and one from World of Disney. So we didn't have to lug a ton of stuff home. It was pricey to ship, but I was going to have to pay another checked bag fee, so I figure easier to ship. I don't regret doing it either!

I did get some wine glasses at the Food and Wine festival:
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a1ce02b3127ccefe3b9718740a00000030O08RbtHLVi1B7e fCQ/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a1ce02b3127ccefe3ac357d51300000030O08RbtHLVi1B7e fCQ/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a1ce02b3127ccefe3a6098951500000030O08RbtHLVi1B7e fCQ/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

I got a ton of ornaments, including about 4 for my mom- this is just a few.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a1ce02b3127ccefe3bb729f51b00000030O08RbtHLVi1B7e fCQ/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

Mickey pop corn bucket- one of the ears broke off already! boo- i need another one!
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a1ce02b3127ccefe3bd888b51500000030O08RbtHLVi1B7e fCQ/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

here is our new monorail around the Christmas tree!
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a2df07b3127cceff6011173c7a00000030O08RbtHLVi1B7e fCQ/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

my wallet
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a1ce02b3127ccefe3aa7b054f600000030O08RbtHLVi1B7e fCQ/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a1ce02b3127ccefe3be26834d800000030O08RbtHLVi1B7e fCQ/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

I got this cute 40th anniv shirt- red/blue- i love it- i wear it all the time- love the fit.
http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a1ce02b3127ccefe3aa4fb142400000030O08RbtHLVi1B7e fCQ/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

So those are just a few of our purchases. It's been so long now, but I know I got another frame, a nice writing pen, some notepads, sticky notes, toys for the kids, more ornaments and a cute hoodie for Will and one for me. I'll have to take a pic of them, they are both really cute. I am pretty picky about the hoodies, always on the search for the right one......i don't want something that screams Mickey, but i found something fun that had these patches all over it- sort of almost like college letterman type patches. I'll post a pic tomorrow!

[wdwfanatic316]

Just wanted to say that I really enjoyed your trip report! Sounds like you had a great trip! :goodvibes