Seven days of Sunshine, Storms, Sweaters and ....Sickness?? [Archive] - The DIS Discussion Forums

BridgetR3

11-13-2011, 09:20 PM

On Saturday, March 5, we checked out of our off site hotel and checked into Caribbean Beach Resort. Would we like the hotel? Would we stay there again? I'll share that later but for now.....

After we check in, they tell us that they will text us when our room is available and we head off to the bus stop.
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/waitingonthebus.jpg

Notice that they are looking the wrong way for the bus? :lmao: It didn't take them long to realize that the buses came from the other way. We got on the bus at 9:03 a.m. not bad for having to switch hotels and all. On the bus, my DS 9 decided to tell the lady next to him EVERYTHING about his life. I'm thankful that we didn't know our room number yet because she would have known that too. He told her that we were staying at Trinidad North in Caribbean Beach, that we were from Louisiana, etc. :scared1: As soon as we got off the bus we had a family stranger danger lesson. :thumbsup2

First park ever?

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/cindycastleday1.jpg

Of course we went to Magic Kingdom to see Cinderella's Castle!! We were SOO excited to be at Disney that I think we practically ran down Main Street. I don't remember stopping at a single shop on this day! Magic Kingdom had opened at 8 a.m. and was set to close at midnight this day. The crowds were not bad at all when we got there and it looked like it would be a wonderful day!

Our first ride???

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/buzz.jpg

Yes Buzz it is! :woohoo: I had learned enough on the DISboards to know that I should grab a fastpass before we ride it to save for later!

My DS 9 rode with my husband and my DS 5 rode with me. This was a favorite for both of my boys and we rode this at least 4 or 5 times during the week! :cool1:

I now have one of these photos too!!

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/zurg.jpg

After we defeated Zerg, my DH wanted to ride Space Mountain so off he went alone poor fellow as none of the rest of us were brave enough to join him. We were going to meet Chip and Dale but the boys spotted Buzz greeting people. Surprisingly the lines were not bad for Buzz and we only waited about 20 minutes even with a "recharge break" for Buzz. :wizard:

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/buzzmeet.jpg

My DH took a LOT longer than we expected on Space Mountain so we ended up looking around at little kiosks of Buzz merchandise and sitting on a wall while waiting for him. FINALLY he finished and came join us. After all that, he did not enjoy his ride as much as he thought he would. He said it was a rough ride. Maybe we really are getting old...... :rotfl2:

We had seen the Tomorrowland Transit Authority ride while waiting for DH but I knew that it was one of the rides that never had a line (thanks to the helpful DIS people) so we decided to wait and ride it later. DS 9 found the Tomorrowland Speedway and begged to ride but with a wait time of 50 minutes, we decided to try it again later since we were going to have 3 days at Magic Kingdom.

Fastpass time!!! I ran ahead and grabbed Fastpasses for Peter Pan. After catching back up with my family, we decided to see Mickey's Philharmagic.

This was my DS 5's favorite show AFTER he got over the fact that Mickey shot his favorite dear old Donald Duck into a wall! :rotfl: He was SOOO angry with Mickey at first for hurting his dear Donald Duck! :rotfl2:

This was a GREAT show. We all enjoyed it a lot but one thing we first saw here that was made more and more evident to us throughout the trip is that our boys have no idea what most Disney shows are. They have never seen Bambi, Little Mermaid, 101 Dalmations, Fantasia, Rascals (not sure it's Disney but still.....) and many many others. We have since introduced them to almost all Disney shows but it was such an eye-opening trip when they had no idea who classic Disney characters were.

Both boys asked to see it again and we told them yes that we would see it on another day. Unfortunately we never made it back here so we have something to look forward to on our next trip.

By the time we got out of Mickey's Philharmagic it was 11:45 a.m. (thank you time stamps) and we were very hungry!!! Our very first Disney meal was Cosmic Rays. Here's a pic of my lunch......

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/cosmicrayslunch.jpg

1/2 Rotisserie Chicken - with Mashed Potatoes and green beans with a child's nuggets in the background

I did a terrible job at getting food pictures on this trip!! Maybe next time I'll do better!

I had chosen a chocolate cake as my dessert but the ones at WDW are WAY too rich for me so I would trade them to the kids for their grapes!

Fastpass time!!!! - This time we all headed together to Frontierland to grab fastpasses for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad!!

After grabbing the fastpasses we decided to ride Pirates of the Caribbean which only had a 15 minute wait.

This turned out to be a family favorite for the week!! We LOVED this ride especially the song which we still sing to this day (usually just to aggravate DH). :rolleyes1

My DS 5 exclaimed while getting off the ride, "This is FUN and we didn't EVEN GET DEAD!!!" :lmao: :rotfl2: Poor baby!! He was brave enough to ride even if he might die in the fight!

It was a few minutes too early to get fast passes for Splash Mountain like we had planned so we decided to go on a train ride. On the way there I took this crowd pic.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/crowdpic3-5-11.jpg

It was by far our biggest crowd day! :scared1:

And we are back to Frontierland to grab fastpasses for Splash Mountain. We are also waiting for the hotel to text us that our room is ready even though it's only about 1:40 p.m.. They said that it would be between 3 and 5 p.m. but I was really hoping it would be ready sooner so we could go unpack our stuff.

After grabbing fastpasses for Splash Mountain, we decided to use our first fastpass of the day. We headed over to Peter Pan.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/mkcrowd3-5-11.jpg

This was by far the worst crowds we saw of the whole week. It amazed me how many people were in Magic Kingdom this day.

As we were about to hop on Peter Pan, we saw that the It's A Small World line was a 10 minute wait so we decided to go there first. Our touring on this day was very jumpy, :rolleyes1 jump here, jump there, all over the park. It did get better some throughout the week.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/drunkhippo.jpg

Is the IASW hippo always drunk? :rolleyes1

On the way to Peter Pan, my phone went off!!! YAY! Room is ready and we are staying at 3118!! We rode Peter Pan and left to go unpack our luggage. Would we make it back to MK? popcorn::

BridgetR3

11-14-2011, 02:37 PM

So last time I left off we were going back to the hotel to unload. Upon arriving at CBR, I reached into the back seat on the floorboard to grab my jacket and realized that it was soaking wet. Now we had noticed wet things on the way to Florida but dismissed them as the boys having spilled a drink or maybe a busted hand sanitizer (I had only brought a million). However, my whole jacket was dripping wet and it STUNK so I knew we had some kind of problem. As we started unloading luggage we noticed that some of it had gotten wet too. Where is this water coming from??

Upon closer inspection we noticed that the ice chest spout at the bottom was open, completely open. We think that in pushing everything in to make it fit in the back we must have pushed the ice chest against something that unlatched the spout. Unfortunately we did not realize this until two days into the trip and my jacket being squished under the back seat in an effort to make room for everything is now really wet and REALLY smelly. Oh well, nothing we can really do now so we bring our luggage to our room to finally see the inside of our home for the week.

Here are some pictures from around our resort.....

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/CBR5.jpg
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/CBR6.jpg
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/CBR1.jpg
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/CBR2.jpg
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/CBR3.jpg

While at our resort we decided to have dinner at Old Port Royale and then head back to Magic Kingdom for the second parade and the fireworks later in the evening.

After eating dinner, we caught a bus to MK around 6:40 p.m. I knew that a parade was starting at 7 but I wasn't worried at all because my plan was enter the park, head up the stairs and take the train to Frontierland. Simple enough right? WRONG!! Another first timer mistake - I didn't know that the train stops operating during the parade.

Now if you ask me that is the dumbest thing ever because you enter the park and are stuck. You can't go down main street because of the people and the parade so you have to just stand in the crowd. So what do you do when you are stuck?? Take pics of the parade of course. These pics were taken by me raising the camera over my head and over everyone in front of me and blindly snapping. Therefore, only a couple are actually usable....

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/MSEP2.jpg
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/MSEP1.jpg

Again to me the crowds were large but I don't have anything to reference that by since this was our first trip. I do know that we never again experienced crowds like this all week. However, on this night, it was shoulder to shoulder PACKED for the parade and fireworks (at least the first parade).

So after the parade we went shopping down the shops on Main Street. We traded pins and vinylmations. Then we grabbed a spot for the Magic, Memories and You show. I'm not sure how I feel about this one. It's neat what they can do to the castle but you can't really tell who or what is in most of the pics from the parks that day. We loved the Buzz Lightyear blastoff part and a lot of the other character things but I wouldn't have been able to tell if we had a picture of us up on the castle or not because I could not see most of them clearly enough to know. What are your thoughts on Memories, Magic and you??

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/Ccastleevil.jpg
Cinderella's castle looked evil in this one.

After the Magic, Memories and You show, Wishes started. I don't have any pictures of the fireworks from this night because I really wanted to just experience the moment with the boys and besides we were standing shoulder to shoulder front to back with what felt like 8 million other people so it would have been really awkward to take pics like that.

Which fireworks show would be my favorite? Would it be Wishes or would Fantasmic win my heart? Would I enjoy Epcot's show? More on that for another day.....

saintstickets

11-14-2011, 04:01 PM

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/fampic.jpg

From this pic I can easily see that y'all are "Who Dat" followers as well. I can't tell you how many "Who Dats!" we received walking around WDW during our trip in 2010 after the Super Bowl. Looking forward to the rest of your TR.

BridgetR3

11-14-2011, 05:48 PM

Yes we are Saints fans and LSU fans (that was a different day). Since we were there when most of Louisiana was off for Mardi Gras, we received a LOT of "Who Dats!" and of course, my DH was ALWAYS happy to oblige with one back.

In fact the day we ate at Le Cellier it was pretty much a sea of purple and gold!

Thanks for following along!!

BridgetR3

11-16-2011, 08:10 PM

Once the fireworks were finished, MOST people exited the park. Did they not know about the midnight closing?? Had they not seen the signs EVERYWHERE or heard the announcements about it? Honestly I didn't care because that meant the crowds were lightening up a bit. Next, we found a spot to sit on the curb and really watch the Main Street Electrical Parade. About 10 minutes before the parade was to start, both boys decided that they needed the bathroom. Yep always happens like that right?? So DH took them while I basically laid down on the curb on Main Street with my stroller and all of our junk trying to hold our place. Yes I realize that it is probably illegal, immoral and unethical to do that but I had waited for this spot for a while and was NOT going to lose it because my boys had to potty!!! :confused3 It worked and they were back quickly enough to see the parade.

First up, Tinkerbell!!!* DS4 loved watching Tinkerbell fly in the sky during the fireworks and was excited to see her again here.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/MSEP3.jpg

After the parade, more people left so we decided to use our fastpasses for Buzz Lightyear and Splash Mountain and see what others we could ride before bed time since we were not really tired yet!!

This time the boys switched places so DH rode with....no one???

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/Buzzemh.jpg

....oh wait DS4 is in there somewhere. If you look closely you can see his hand on the “gun” but no child. :rotfl:

It's kind of funny that even on the ride photos (the ones THEY take of you) you can't see DS4. I'm not sure he could even see the Z targets but he loved the ride.

On this ride we got stuck at the very very end for a few seconds.It was in the "hall" with the big spinning circle of Z targets on the right side. Well DH and I stopped shooting but the boys didn't. Obviously it was still counting shots because DS8 ended up with 207,400 and DS4 had 400,000+.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/buzzemh2-1.jpg
DS8's score before the very last room

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/buzzemh3.jpg

After riding Buzz, we decided that we wanted to ride the PeopleMover. I was amazed at how many moving walkways they had at the parks. It took a little getting used to especially since I'm so clumsy as it is!!

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/pplmvr1.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/pplmvr2.jpg
I love my little one's face in this one!! It's his “I love Disney!” smile!

DS4 really enjoyed the ride, but DS8 was so sure of it. Quite a few parts of this were in the dark and he was always certain that we were going to have a big drop or start going really fast right up ahead. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was always at the back of his mind. He had HATED it.

After getting off of the PeopleMover, we decided that none of us felt like walking over to Splash to use our last fastpasses and in fact, none of us felt like walking at all. We stopped to buy a set of Buzz Lightyear figures for DS4 and a laser gun with Z targets for DS8 and headed back to the hotel. On the way to the bus stop, we saw this.....

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/wtrparade.jpg

After getting back to our hotel, we quickly got ready for bed and fell fast asleep dreaming of our day in the parks!!

UP NEXT: ANIMAL KINGDOM AND OUR FIRST TS

Would we like AK? Where was our first TS? Would we enjoy it or regret our choice? More stories next time.....

Colleen27

11-17-2011, 07:19 AM

I'm in! We were there the same weekend but went to MK on Sunday for the evening EMH and I can't believe the crowd difference one day makes! Sunday was nowhere NEAR that crowded.

Our last day was Mardi Gras and it was clear that all you Louisiana folks had taken over. Peter Pan commented to the girl in front of us that there must not be anyone left there, and we were the only ones *not* sporting purple & gold in line for Tiana and Naveen. :rotfl:

jenseib

11-17-2011, 10:14 AM

Joining in

jenseib

11-17-2011, 02:43 PM

Just starting to get caught up from the reading. I am glad you had a great first day...those crowds are insane. As for the Castle show, I got to see it in Auyg and it was wonderful....but I don't think they use pictures from the parks that day...from what I know, they are pictures people sent in ( I sent some in earlier this year). I think they switch them up, but they are sent in.
I have arrive many times during the parade, and it's hectic, but you can usually push your way in the supposed pathway they have open along the shops.

CookFamilyVacation

11-17-2011, 02:50 PM

Joining in!

BridgetR3

11-17-2011, 05:23 PM

WOOHOO I have readers!!!!

Colleen, yes the crowds were CRAZY that first day at MK. No other day was ANYWHERE near that full. I do think that all of Louisiana came out that one week because DW was constantly full of LSU and Saints gear!!

Cute story that I'll share now - I had loaded our stroller down with beads, LOADS of Mardi Gras beads, starting on the second day after I saw the "stroller hell" as I called it all week. This helped me identify my stroller from every other stroller although that day at MK was by far the worst. One day this cute little elderly CM stopped me as I was picking up my stroller and said, "Ma'am do you think you left any beads at all in New Orleans on your way down here?" We have laughed about that comment to this day!!! :lmao:

A pic of stroller hell on that Saturday -
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/strollerhell.jpg

The reason I called it stroller hell was because I would leave my stroller at point A and look around to memorize where it was only to return after our ride to no stroller. Then I would have to walk around for a good 3-5 minutes and usually it was clear across the way from where I had left it. I HATED the stroller organizer CM's!!! :laughing:

BridgetR3

11-17-2011, 05:27 PM

Joining in

Thanks for joining in!!!! I was really beginning to worry that I would just be talking to myself throughout the trip down memory lane!!

Just starting to get caught up from the reading. I am glad you had a great first day...those crowds are insane. As for the Castle show, I got to see it in Auyg and it was wonderful....but I don't think they use pictures from the parks that day...from what I know, they are pictures people sent in ( I sent some in earlier this year). I think they switch them up, but they are sent in.
I have arrive many times during the parade, and it's hectic, but you can usually push your way in the supposed pathway they have open along the shops.

I remember that MK on this day was a 7 which I didn't think was too bad.... :confused3 but those crowds to me at least were way way more than a 7. Of course, it was my first day at Disney ever so what would I know?? :laughing:

Oh well that makes sense about the Castle show! I was wondering how they could put it together so fast everyday. How do you send in photos?

Joining in!

THANKS!!! Great to have you along!! Congrats on your upcoming little one!

Colleen27

11-17-2011, 06:28 PM

The reason I called it stroller hell was because I would leave my stroller at point A and look around to memorize where it was only to return after our ride to no stroller. Then I would have to walk around for a good 3-5 minutes and usually it was clear across the way from where I had left it. I HATED the stroller organizer CM's!!! :laughing:

BTDT :laughing: The beads were a great idea!

We have an older stroller for DD3, a Peg Perego that I bought second hand that has certainly seen better days so I'm not concerned with resale or hand-me-down value. So what I did to make it stand out in stroller hell is ironing on patches all over the canopy, each designed in Photoshop to commemorate trips we've taken with DD, ala an old hard-side suitcase plastered with stickers. It is starting to get a bit crowded now, but I have a new idea for this year.... Electroluminescent wire to make it easier to spot in the dark! :teeth:

BridgetR3

11-17-2011, 07:43 PM

BTDT :laughing: The beads were a great idea!

We have an older stroller for DD3, a Peg Perego that I bought second hand that has certainly seen better days so I'm not concerned with resale or hand-me-down value. So what I did to make it stand out in stroller hell is ironing on patches all over the canopy, each designed in Photoshop to commemorate trips we've taken with DD, ala an old hard-side suitcase plastered with stickers. It is starting to get a bit crowded now, but I have a new idea for this year.... Electroluminescent wire to make it easier to spot in the dark! :teeth:

What's BTDT??

Ooooh I may need some of that wire since we are going to try to tour LOTS at night during the summer to avoid the heat!

BridgetR3

11-17-2011, 09:29 PM

It was very easy to wake up Sunday morning and rush off to Animal Kingdom. After all, it was only the second day!! We almost made it to the little pre-opening show (actually this is the only one we missed) but I think for some reason our bus took a little longer than expected and as we entered the park we heard the people yelling the last lines of the show.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/akgate.jpg

Yes I cut off the M.....I guess we were in a bit of a hurry and I never noticed. First we were going to hit up the Character Trails but they didn't open until 10 (and it was only 9) so we kept walking and decided to go on the Safari. We had a 10 minute wait for the Safari which is great and we passed the time by talking to the Louisiana family in front of us. Actually we spent the better part of EVERY line talking to Louisiana people. It became a very common theme during this trip.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/safari.jpg

Our tour guide (she was GREAT and I'm sorry I can't remember her name) told us that we would be on our African Trek for two weeks. Well of course DS8 hears this and reminds me that we can't do that since we have dinner reservations tonight! He was so funny on the ride because he believed EVERYTHING she said. We had the “rickety bridge” and I thought my DS8 was going to jump out of the truck to ummm.... safety???? Luckily he decided that staying in the truck was his best option.

Here's some pics from the ride.....

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/rhino.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/watersafari.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/giraffesafari.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/elesafari.jpg

I loved the cute story she told about lions (don't know if it's true or not) - The female lions hunt food for the family and the male lions well they protect the family just by well being there.

What was amazing to me was that NONE of the animals are in cages or pens. I loved how they were all free roaming. I know that there were "cattle guards" to keep say the lions from eating the giraffes I suppose but it was great to see them able to roam unlike a regular zoo. There was however nothing to keep the lion from eating us since our vehicle is completely open. I was a bit concerned about that aspect.

After our safari was over we headed over to pick up Kali River Rapids fast passes and then onto the Character Trails since we had not met many characters yesterday. But first, .......

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/tdrums.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/drums.jpg
The three guys in black shirts with CHAMPIONS written on them are mine.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/ducks.jpg
These ducks were asleep RIGHT next to the drums like nothing at all was happening.

So we got our fastpasses and headed to the Character Trails when we spot Lilo and Stitch!!! Now my kids are not big fans of Lilo and Stitch. It's going to sound bad but ummmm.....they really had no idea who these two were but there was no line and they are characters so........

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/lilostitch.jpg

As soon as we walked up Lilo and Stitch had to go get cookies so we were first in line for when they came back out. After about 3-5 minutes they were back out and the boys greeted them happily. I have an “unmagical” question about the cookies/recharging/etc breaks. Does a new Lilo and Stitch come out or do they just go hide for 3-5 minutes and then come back out? That's not really enough time to do much of anything if you ask me.

NOW onto the character trails.....

DS8 ran right up and hugged Donald, but DS4 is still not too sure about all of this. He would get braver later on.
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/akchartrails1.jpg

DS4 LOVES Donald. Anyone want to guess how many of Donald's autographs we received throughout the week?? (It's probably not as many as we could have but still....)

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/akchartrails2.jpg

The character interaction all week was magical for my boys. All the way to the next character my DS4 was saying, "And he signed my book and we hugged and....." .

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/akchartrails3.jpg

Minnie was so sweet. The boys just loved her!

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/akchartrails4.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/akchartrails6.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/akchartrails7.jpg

I LOVE this pic our photopass photog caught of DS8.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/akchartrails5.jpg

Up next : FOTLK, the rest of our day at AK, and our first TS restaurant.

Anyone want to guess where we ate for our first TS?

Colleen27

11-18-2011, 09:15 AM

What's BTDT??

Ooooh I may need some of that wire since we are going to try to tour LOTS at night during the summer to avoid the heat!

BTDT = been there, done that.

The wire kits really aren't expensive at all. About $15-20 will get you a kit with the controller/battery and 3'-5' of wire.

mommy2mb

11-19-2011, 01:25 PM

Joining in! :banana:

BridgetR3

11-19-2011, 05:29 PM

Welcome!!! Welcome!! I hope to finish Day 2 tonight and put it up on the boards!!

However, no one has tried to guess our first TS?? Are you all asleep already?!?! :lmao:

mommy2mb

11-20-2011, 09:35 AM

My guess is Ohana's or Chef Mickeys.

jenseib

11-21-2011, 07:30 AM

I have to correct myself. I had told you that they didn't use pictures from that day on the castle, but I just found out I was wrong, they use both pictures of the day and sent in ones. I never know that before...and now makes me wish I had made a point to see the show in April when I had my DD with me, because we had a lot of pictures that day.....I did catch it in August on a solo trip and it is a fantastic show.

BridgetR3

11-21-2011, 08:20 AM

I thought that's what I had understood but I get so much stuff wrong that I didn't say anything!!! :lmao:

I did look and the only people I could really make out were from the large pictures. Do they use Photopass pics and ride pics for the "from today" pictures?

I PROMISE to post today but it will have to be later this afternoon as I am bringing my mom to some appointments today!

adoerr72

11-21-2011, 11:32 AM

Joining in. Your Lilo and Stitch situation was like my girls the first time they met "Marie" from the Aristocats in Epcot. We had not seen the movie yet (the girls were 2 and 3). All they knew was there was a pretty white cat standing there with a pink bow. They HAD to meet her :)

BridgetR3

11-21-2011, 09:18 PM

After meeting the characters in the greeting trails we got in line for Lion King. This was by far a family favorite from the entire week. The boys still talk about it to this day! AND anytime I hear a Lion King song, I get all teary-eyed and think, “ahhh.......Disney......” My husband tells me I'm crazy but I just claim that he just doesn't understand!

While waiting in long lines we let the boys play on our Iphones to give them something to do. We had also downloaded DisneyWorld line apps that showed how long lines were for each ride. I didn't find that the lines apps were really accurate but it kept the kids busy! Maybe we just weren't using the “right ones” but we did have three different line apps and sometimes the actual wait times were WAY off of the app wait times.

This was probably our longest wait all week since we waited for about 30 minutes before they opened the doors but boy was it worth it.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/FOTLK.jpg

It was an amazing show. We really considered going back for a day at Animal Kingdom just for this show and the safari. However, we would never make it back to AK on this trip. After the show was over, it was around noon and we were really hungry. We headed off to Flame Tree Bar-B-Que. At the place where you receive your food at Flame Tree there are no tables, but I had read here on the DIS that if you follow the path ALL the way to the very end you would receive a wonderful little surprise. We walked until my hubby asked, “Do you even know where we are going??” and then we saw this.......

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/flametreebbq.jpg

The pavilion was out on the water with ducks swimming around and Expedition Everest in the distance. Gorgeous view for lunch!!

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/ftbbqfount.jpg

After lunch we decided to head to It's Tough to be a Bug since it was close by.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/toughbugdrew.jpg

DS4 is ready for the show or at least we thought he was ready. How scary can it be?? Really?? This show scared the four of us silly(o.k. so DH says it didn't scare him so maybe just three). It was so real at that one dark point and for someone like myself who is terrified of insects, well let's just say it was rough!! The boys literally screamed out loud and swore that they would never ever go back ever ever again. Yes it was bad but it was worth it for the "experience" as we kept telling them all week!

After It's Tough to be a Bug, we went and rode Kali River Rapids. While DH rode Expedition Everest alone (see a pattern here? Poor guy, I can't ride ANYTHING big and neither will the kids.), I took a pic of these cute bug pickers.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/asiamonkeys.jpg

We also found a Photopass CM and took some family photos without DH while we waited for him.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/eefam.jpg
Neither child wanted to cooperate for this one but it's one of the few photos from this trip where my hair isn't a hot mess so I included it here!

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/eeds4.jpg

LOVE THIS PIC!!!! His face is priceless!

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/eeboys.jpg

Lastly, a cute one of just the boys.....

We never made it to Dinoland this day as we had dinner reservations later in the evening and we wanted the boys to rest a little while before them. We missed a lot of AK I find because we did not do any trails or the train to the “petting zoo” part. We did not see Dinoland or ride Dinosaur. Looking back, I wish we had spent more time in AK rather than head back to the hotel but the boys needed their rest.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/akgiftshop.jpg

On the way out of AK we stopped at the little shop to trade pins and vinylmations. I found that trading pins and vinylmations really kept the kids from "needing" everything we saw. Now, don't get me wrong, they still wanted LOTS of stuff but most of the time they were more interested in trading than they were in buying.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/akvinyltrader.jpg

Sorry for the blurry picture but I really wanted to share how much we enjoyed this CM. He was great about vinylmation trading. He hummed a little tune while turning the big black box around so you could see what the vinylmations looked like and then he let you pick. He was our best trader! The kids loved him!!

On our way out we did make time to stop for Photopass pics. Some days I was REALLY good about this, and some days I only have about 5 pictures. If I do purchase it this time, I REALLY need to get better about finding the photopass people!

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/treeus.jpg

I look pale in this one. Could I be getting sick? Would I be the one with sickness on the trip?

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/treefam.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/treeboys.jpg

Brotherly love.....

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/trevsimba.jpg

DS 9 holding Simba....

Continued in next post.....

BridgetR3

11-21-2011, 09:21 PM

So we took a bus and went "home" to our hotel. The boys and DH all quickly fell fast asleep but I was too excited to sleep. After all, I was at DisneyWorld!! I decided to walk around a little while and take pictures of our resort.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/acrosslake.jpg
A pic of the buildings across the lake....

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/island.jpg
A pic of the island in the middle....

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/build31.jpg
We stayed in building 31.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/room3118.jpg
I brought window clings to decorate for Mardi Gras.

After walking around for a while and calling home to tell my mom about our trip, it was time to wake up the boys for our first TS dinner of the trip.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/tireddrew.jpg

Poor DS4 was EXHAUSTED and definitely not ready to get up.

This is only day 2 and they are already so exhausted!

Dinner would be Captain's Grill!!!

Our dinner was at the Beach Club (or so we thought) and since we had driven our car we decided to drive there. Our car smelled awful from the spilled water sitting in the heat all day but there is no resort to resort bus system so outside of a taxi, this might be our only hope.

I head over to Beach Club and tell the little attendant at the gate that we have reservations at Captain's Grill to which he says, "That restaurant is at the Yacht Club....". We headed back out onto the road and it was the next turn so it was easy. The Yacht Club was gorgeous!!!

When we arrived at Captain's Grill, we were still a little early so we decided to take some time outside taking pictures.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/yc.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/yc3.jpg

This is also where we took the intro picture for this TR. A gentleman walked by noticing that I was taking pics of my kids and asked if he could take one of all of us. We were VERY appreciative and passed it on later in the week at Epcot.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/yc1.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/yc2.jpg

And with that it was time for our reservations so we went and checked in at the desk. We were seated right away and the place looked fairly empty so I'm sure we could have gone as soon as we got to the hotel instead of going take pictures. This restaurant was not really recommended by anyone so I was worried about the quality of food. Since we had to change our plans and book this vacation last minute, I had lost ALL of my May ADR's. The only ADR I was able to get from May was my Le Cellier one; all of the others were different.

Anyways, so we sit down and order our drinks. We weren't brave on drinks at all on this trip so we always order our cokes and diet cokes. They brought out bread and took our orders.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/yc4.jpg

Excuse the quality of this picture and the next one. I didn't want to use my flash and embarrass my husband that I was taking “food porn” pictures so they turned out dark.

DH and I ordered grilled ribeye with cheddar-bacon mashed potatoes, seasonal Vegetables, and Herb Butter. I have no idea what the boys ordered but I do remember that the three of us (me and the two boys) all ate my steak instead of them eating their own meals. DS9 was upset at most restaurants because he is used to getting a small steak and potato to eat as well which was often not offered on the children's menu. This did become an issue by the end of the week. DS4 was often upset because not every restaurant offered chicken nuggets. To each his own I suppose.....lol....

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/yc5.jpg
My meal with the best potatoes EVER!!!!! I could eat the potatoes EVERYDAY for the rest of my life. They were so good.

And for our desserts.....

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/yc6.jpg

Gelato Mix for me

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/yc7.jpg

Double Chocolate Cheesecake for DH – he said it was too rich and for him to say that it must have been REALLY REALLY rich

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/yc8.jpg
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/yc9.jpg

Make your own sundaes for the kids

We finished dinner at 7 o'clock and headed back to our hotel. Once there, we caught a bus to Downtown Disney to do some shopping and trading of course!

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/dtd1.jpg
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/dtd2.jpg
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/dtd4.jpg
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/dtd3.jpg
We were sad that they were still refurbishing the Lego store while we were down there. It will be nice when we go back to see the actual store instead of that small yellow tent!

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/dtd5.jpg

My last picture stamp shows 8:54 p.m. With that we found our bus stop and headed home tired and happy.

Next stop – Epcot and our 2nd TS of the trip....Le Cellier.......

jenseib

11-21-2011, 09:51 PM

dinner looks good...I have heard good thing about that place...it's on my radar for next trip. I ate at le cellier last trip and was not impressed

ChildAtHeart82

11-22-2011, 03:35 PM

Subbing! :) Followed the link from your PTR. We were at Disney last March as well!

BridgetR3

11-22-2011, 04:27 PM

dinner looks good...I have heard good thing about that place...it's on my radar for next trip. I ate at le cellier last trip and was not impressed

I LOVED Captain's Grill!! I would love to get an ADR for that on our next trip as well. However, as you will see in our next day at Disney, none of us even liked Le Cellier. It just plain was not good, especially not $100 good. :confused3

Subbing! :) Followed the link from your PTR. We were at Disney last March as well!

Thanks for joining us!!! I really should have completed the TR on these boards back then instead of doing it on my blog. My outer family was less than interested in hearing about all of my Disney adventures. BUT, I have finally made it over to doing a TR here for it. We enjoyed our trip but did find some days were cold for us! (I guess we Southerners aren't used to winter anywheres!)

jenseib

11-22-2011, 06:53 PM

was your food really salty at Le Cellier? Ours was. The food would've been good, if I could've gotten past the salt taste...I like salt...but it was even too much for me

BridgetR3

11-22-2011, 07:25 PM

No, ours wasn't salty at all, but it was really bland. Now, honestly, we are Southerners and being from Louisiana, we use a LOT of seasonings so most of the dishes at Disney just didn't cut it for us. However, Le Cellier was one of the worst as far as flavor.

BridgetR3

11-27-2011, 02:17 PM

Just wanted to let all of you know that I have not forgotten about you. We had to take an unexpected family trip out of town Thursday through yesterday evening and today I'm washing clothes and recovering!! I'm also trying to get into the Christmas spirit by putting up our tree. :rolleyes1

I'll try to post another update tonight if I get a chance. In the meantime, did anyone else go Black Friday shopping? What did you get? I had enough banking rewards saved up to get a Wii for the kids :wizard:(nice bit of pixie dust there!!) and then my hubby purchased another XBOX for himself (ours is slowly dying after 3 years of use).

Other than that, I got boring things like slippers and pj's!

BridgetR3

11-27-2011, 08:19 PM

We awoke to a gloomy, dreary Monday morning at Disney but hey, we were still at Disney so it doesn't matter what the weather's like right? Today we were headed to Epcot which was the place that my DS9 was most looking forward to. He could not wait to try out the KimPossible missions.

We ended up sleeping in a little on this morning and arrived at Epcot around 9:30. It was a VERY chilly morning at Epcot. (Remember how I lost my jacket on the way to Disney? Yeah I really needed it on this day!!!)

Here's a pic of the ball my DS5 wanted to “play golf with” when we would look at Disney pictures before our trip. Imagine his surprise when we rode the ride inside the ball!! :lmao:

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/epcot.jpg

We did not ride Spaceship Earth on the way into Epcot though because the line was really long!! Instead we kept walking since I had heard on the DIS that the lines for this ride get shorter as the day goes.

I loved that it was the Flower and Garden Festival!! Soooo many pretty topiaries were all over Epcot. I overheard my husband the other day ask someone who had gone in October if they had seen all of the cool “flower characters” in Epcot. They had no clue what he was talking about so I had to explain that it was only a spring thing and he was shocked. ;)

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/fgfest2.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/fgfest1.jpg

First thing on our agenda was to grab our KimPossible passes for later in the day. Since we grabbed them so early, our start time was 11 a.m. I thought my DS9 was going to lose his little mind waiting that long but we all survived...somehow....lol

Since we were already in Innoventions (West? East?) we decided to hang out and try some of the activities. This would come back to bite us in the backside later on in the day. How? Wait and see..... popcorn::

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/firehouse.jpg

We learned how to escape from our house in case of a fire. :scared1:

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/piggybank.jpg

We also learned how to save for our next Disney vacation.

While the boys finished playing in Innoventions, I ran to grab Test Track fastpasses. Next we left and went to the Land pavilion. Epcot was a VERY VERY tough day for me because on Saturday at MK, DS9 had stepped on the backside of my flip flop. My foot got caught in it and my leg ended up twisting really weird. By Monday, my knee REALLY hurt (mostly going up and down inclines) and Epcot is ALL inclines it seems. I was fine in Animal Kingdom but in Epcot I paid a painful price trying to get around. I actually considered getting a scooter/wheelchair but I figured I would rather deal with the pain rather than the ugly looks. I really thought I may have torn something but since we have been home it has gotten better - not completely gone but better, except an episode last week when the latest round of cold weather came in. :rolleyes1

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/fgfesttrio.jpg

DH went to get FP's for Soarin while I waited with the boys by Living with the Land. When he returned, we all got in line together. This would be our first "ride" in Epcot. Maybe it's the teacher in me :teacher: but I really enjoyed Living with the Land and seeing all of the plants that they are growing. The kids enjoyed the boat ride and we were all happy.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/lwl1.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/lwl2.jpg

I was amazed at the 9 pound lemons, at the sweet potatoes growing above ground and at the tomatoes shaped like Mickey ears. This was a neat little relaxing ride but it is now past 11 a.m. Are we all happy?? Of course not!!! DS9 is worried about missing our time for KimPossible.

So as soon as our ride was over, we began to head to World Showcase.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/fgfestlevee1.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/fgfestlevee2.jpg

Notice how gloomy the sky looks in this pic. It was in the low 50s all day which was COLD to me, especially with no jacket!!! I have a VERY expensive fix to the that problem in a couple of hours but for now I'm toughing it out.

Our Kimmunicator pick up site was Italy which is on the other side of the world from where we are and I'm hurting BAD so we take a boat across the lake to ummm....I think it's Germany which is right next to Italy and I get about 10 minutes to rest! The boats saved us on this day in Epcot because if I would have had to actually walk all the way there, I would have given up!

Next time – Our KimPossible mission and which countries would we save?!?!? Lunch at LeCellier's and would we ride anything else?

BelleTinkMom

11-28-2011, 10:17 PM

BridgetR3

11-29-2011, 05:45 AM

Joining in. popcorn::

All caught up.

Space Mountain is rough. Cosmic Rays is one of our favorite CS in MK.

We also enjoy Living with the Land in Epcot, it's one of Madi (6) must do rides.

Can't wait to hear more about your trip.

Thanks for joining in!!! Yeah I won't even try Space Mountain!!!

Sunday was nowhere NEAR that crowded.

Do you mean Magic Kingdom wasn't that crowded Sunday? Yeah nothing else was that crowded all week except for Magic Kingdom again on the day we left. :eek: It looked worse but thankfully we were only viewing it from the monorail as we passed by. :rolleyes1 That is a whole nother story as they say..... :rolleyes:

BridgetR3

11-30-2011, 09:41 PM

When I last left you we were at Italy getting our Kimmunicator. I did enjoy doing these missions but my kids had a REALLY hard time sharing that thing. My DH was okay with Disney but did not enjoy it like I did. He felt the Kimmunicator missions were a waste of our time since they were not a ride/show. He also got REALLY aggravated when he realized that our kids would not share the phone.

There were a few things on this trip that he did enjoy and some things that I can assure you we will never wait for (or go to) again.....I'll tell those later but for now, here's a pic of the kids listening to their very first message on the Kimmunicator.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/kimp1.jpg
Love DH's face....that shows it all..... :rolleyes1 :lmao:

We get our Kimmunicator and head out on our mission to save....Japan....wait we were in Italy why do we have to go to Japan.....oh my poor knee endured so much walking that day. These missions are really cute in that a "movie" plays on your phone and tells you about some type of bad guy trying to destroy the world. It's up to you to find certain landmarks in the country and save everyone. Japan was probably our favorite although it was still new so the boys fought the WHOLE time with whose turn it was and did it make that sound to switch people. I'll just share a couple of these pics as I don't want to spoil the missions for anyone who hasn't done them yet.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/kimp2.jpg
Japanese pagoda

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/kimp3.jpg
Look it's the bad Baby Beebees!!! We have captured them and saved the world.

The boys wanted to do another one but it was close to our lunch reservation so I chose one near Canada where we would be eating. We went over to the United Kingdom to save their people now. One thing that I didn't care for about the missions was that we missed a lot of World Showcase because we would only go to the places we had to in order to save the world. On this next trip, I'm going around the world with NO Kimmunicator!!! (or so I say right now....) :thumbsup2

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/kimp4.jpg
Random people shot.....

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/kimp5.jpg
What is this building? :confused3 (I didn't write it down and now I don't remember.)

In this mission, we had to go into a shop and actually tell a Cast Member a memorized line. This was during one of DS5's turns and I was certain that he would be too shy to tell the man so I was prepared to say it for him. However, DS5 walked right up and said the line perfectly. The cast member was great in acting like he was looking around for spies and then giving DS5 a special surprise with our next code on it. He was very proud! :woohoo:

Finally it was time for lunch at Le Cellier. We had heard many many wonderful things about Le Cellier and their steaks so I was excited to be able to try it out. We were a little early for our reservations so we walked slowly along the path back to the restaurant and took pictures.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/kimp6.jpg
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/kimp7.jpg
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/kimp8.jpg

The flowers everywhere were so beautiful!! I don't know if it was just for Flower and Garden but I would have to think that some of these are there year around.

I didn't take many pictures of Le Cellier because it was rather dark and well I would have felt out of place even though we were surrounded by other LOUD Louisiana people. GO TIGERS!!! (SOOOO much purple and gold on this trip!) It didn't live up to the hype in our opinion. Maybe other people had made such a big deal about it that we would have been let down by anything but it wasn't something that I would HAVE to try again. I tried the pretzel bread which was good but I rathered the other bread over the pretzel one. I tried the Cheddar Cheese Soup and didn't care for that. DH and I both had New York Strip...mine was with garlic mashed potatoes and his with fries since he doesn't do garlic. I would say that we in Louisiana are so spoiled by the flavor and seasoning we use that any of these steaks were not flavorful or seasoned enough for us. This is just our opinion but we definitely would NOT spend two dining credits on it for a dinner unless you wanted something that is only offered at dinner there.

I did get a picture of my favorite part of the meal....my chocolate “moose”....
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/kimp9.jpg

Oh yeah while eating our mission's Kimmunicator died because there is no reception in the restaurant and I got tired of running outside for the two hours that we were in the restaurant to keep telling it that I wanted to continue my missions. There were quite a few tears :sad1: and some not happy kids but I think it was for the best. FINALLY, some time to enjoy the sights and not run around looking for buildings and plants.

After leaving Le Cellier, we decided to go back to Future World and ride all the things we missed while rushing over to do Kimpossible.

Here are pics of the sand sculpture on the way to FutureWorld.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/kimp10.jpg
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/kimp11.jpg
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/kimp13.jpg

Up next....rides, rides, rides....Where would we go first? (Hint – we had a BLAST!!!) Any guesses??

jenseib

12-01-2011, 08:03 AM

I have never even told my DD about the Kim Possible missions. I know she would love it, but it would drive me nuts....well if we stayed longer and had more days and time, I might show it to her.

ChildAtHeart82

12-01-2011, 11:09 AM

BridgetR3

12-01-2011, 07:01 PM

I enjoyed your update! :) We felt the same way about Le Cellier. I'm glad that we ate there once so that we know it's not all the hype says it is. The Kimpossible missions are definitely a different way to see World Showcase. We enjoyed them because it exposed to parts of some countries that we'd never known about before. I can see how it would be tough with kids fighting over the phone, though.

I seem to remember that you were there around the same time I was from the March 2011 thread. Any chance of a TR from you? ;)

I could always use more reading material!! :surfweb:popcorn::

khertz

12-03-2011, 08:58 PM

Followed you over here from my TR, and I'm all caught up & enjoying it so far! Your boys are adorable & look like they are having so much fun! We did a number of Mardi Gras trips when I was younger, and it always felt like New Orleans really must be a ghost town because EVERYONE was wearing Saints or LSU t-shirts and wearing beads! I remember one year we went to see the old Who Wants to be a Millionaire show, and the whole audience was chanting LSU before the show started. :lmao: I would love to take another MG trip someday because the crowds usually aren't bad and it's fun to see other NOLA families there, but MG is my husband's absolute FAVORITE holiday, and I don't see him willingly giving it up, even to go to WDW!

BridgetR3

12-03-2011, 09:27 PM

After exiting WS, we decided to just start going on rides in the order that we came upon them since there really weren't any lines. First ride was Journey into Imagination with Figment.

My men on Figment's ride....DS5 and DH happy with bellies full...
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/figment.jpg

This was a cute kidsy ride that both boys really enjoyed til Figment said he had a blast and then DS5 hated the ride. Lol......:rotfl2:

The boys enjoyed making music in the play area after Figment.
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/figment2.jpg

After this ride, my knee was hurting really really bad (remember I have no pain meds YET) but I didn't want to stop because I wanted them to be able to see and do everything so we are missing a lot of pictures from here on out. I think I was more interested in grabbing onto any railing I could find to take the pressure off of my knee rather than lift the camera and take a pic. I'm sorry about that now but I know at the time how bad I felt. :sad2:

After Figment, we rode Nemo which was really neat. I don't know why we didn't stop by the Land and ride Soarin. I had FP's for the ride but for whatever reason we decided that we would come back later. I seem to remember that the incline looked too steep for me with my knee troubles and I was not sure how the boys would handle “flying”. We did not stay around to see Crush because the boys were ready to go even though we walked all the way into the room right before you get to Crush before they decided to leave. :eek:

DS5's teacher was also at DisneyWorld the same time we were and at this point I received a text from her asking us if we were in World Showcase. We knew that we would be at Epcot and Hollywood Studios on the same days and we wanted to meet up. Actually I booked her trip for her when I booked ours. We talked Disney A LOT before the trip!!

DS5 was determined to see what was in the golf ball so off we went. We rode Spaceship Earth and chose our futures. Then we played with all the little games in the dump off area. Here's some pics of the boys giving energy to houses and businesses.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/figment3.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/figment4.jpg

They had a great time and worked so hard. Those sticks are heavy and DS5 was tired when he was finished giving power to over 5 million people.

After leaving we decided to go trade pins and vinylmations so we head to the store right by Electric Umbrella (I don't remember it's name right now) and who did we see?!??!?! MRS. VICKIE , DS5's teacher from his school. Here's a pic of their meeting.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/figment5.jpg

I also met a DIS'er here which was sorta hilarious. You see, before Disney my hubby didn't really know that I DIS'ed. He knew that I spent lots of time online checking out Disney stuff but he never really knew about the DIS. So this younger guy (late teens/early twenties) came up to me (I had LGMH's on my lanyard) and asked if I DIS'ed. I said, “Why yes I sure do!” We exchanged screennames and talked about TR's that we were both following all the while my DH, my son's teacher and her whole family look at me like I've grown antennas and an extra eye. When the gentleman walked away I explained it to them but I still don't think that they “got it”. Unfortunately I did not write down the guy's name and now I don't remember it at all.

DS5 loved getting some time with his teacher! We sat and visited for a little while and then headed off to Test Track. We made it all the way to the room where they are loading cars, past the video and everything, and DS9 backs out. This is not unusual as he is VERY leary of most things in life and is a worry wart by nature. So I take him out with me while DH and DS5 rode it. Both DH and DS5 loved it. Here is the PP pic of them on the ride.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/testtrack.jpg

I think Disney needs to add more attraction photos to your PP CD because after all, you spend enough money on the CD to pay for the photos.... :idea:

After Test Track DH rode Mission Space which was not something I was interested in so I just waited with the boys. We had dinner at the Electric Umbrella and I bought a jacket to replace the one that had been destroyed on the way here (since it was 53 degrees and windy outside). Of course when mom “treats” herself to a new Disney jacket, everyone needs something!!! DH bought himself a jacket too although he NEVER gets cold at home and he had one in the room and my bill skyrocketed. I will bring TWO jackets next time! lol......:rolleyes1

After all of this I just did not have the energy to walk all the way back to Soarin to use our Fast Passes and since we were coming back on Thursday I decided to just find a seat for the fireworks and wait til Thursday to ride.

Illuminations was nice but I rathered Wishes from Magic Kingdom. During the fireworks here at Epcot, DS5 couldn't contain himself anymore. He hollered, "I LOVE DISNEY!!!" I answered, “I do too, little buddy, I do too.” :hug:

One last pic as we walked to our buses......

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/golf.jpg

Next up – Running of the bulls at Hollywood Studios and the madness of trying to get Toy Story FP's while signing the boys up for Jedi Training. Could we get both??? Notice no one has been sick yet...tomorrow's another day....who gets sick? Will it ruin our plans?

BridgetR3

12-03-2011, 09:29 PM

saintstickets

12-04-2011, 12:01 PM

During the fireworks here at Epcot, DS5 couldn't contain himself anymore. He hollered, "I LOVE DISNEY!!!" I answered, “I do too, little buddy, I do too.” :hug:

A Kodak moment without the photo! I love it! Keep up the great TR!

jenseib

12-04-2011, 09:33 PM

What a great ending to the day

BridgetR3

12-07-2011, 09:21 AM

A Kodak moment without the photo! I love it! Keep up the great TR!

It definitely was a moment I will remember forever! :lovestruc

What a great ending to the day

Yes it sure was!

So I have not abandoned you all but I caught a VERY NASTY bug from one of my students and had been feeling too ugh to even update. I've read other people's TR but haven't sat down at the computer long enough to update mine. Therefore, since I'm feeling better, I will update it today with our HS day!!! :yay: And hopefully I'll be back at work tomorrow!! :teacher:

BridgetR3

12-07-2011, 10:42 PM

So today I could finally get out of the house and was feeling well enough to run a few errands. While I was out, I decided to spend some of my birthday money on Disneyland Adventures for the Kinect/Xbox and boy is it fun. I have played that all night instead of updating my TR. :happytv: :banana:

Long before we ever stepped foot onto Disney property I had been warned about Hollywood Studios and the "running of the bulls". I had prepared my family for it and made sure that we all got up EXTRA early that day to be at HS super early to wait for rope drop since we wanted both TSM fast passes and to sign the boys up for Jedi training.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/hs1.jpg

The time stamp on this picture says that it was 7:56 a.m. We caught a bus quickly and made it to Hollywood Studios in plenty of time to sit and wait for opening. While in line at HS, DS5's teacher met up with us again and we all hung out in line visiting. As they opened the turnstiles, DH was sent with our cards to the right side with DS5's teacher and her family while the boys and I turn left. We watched the cute little show...at least what we could see of it. I really wish I had lifted my camera up and taken a crowd pic because boy was it crowded!!! :sad2:

The rope dropped and we raced over to Jedi Training. I was probably slower than most people and definitely slower than I will be the next time since I had never been in the park before. I did have a little bit of trouble finding the spot but eventually (5 minutes later) we were there and in line. When we got to the front, they were signing children up for the 12:40 p.m time which would not work for us since it was in the middle of our lunch reservation at Hollywood and Vine. Therefore they put us in the 2:20 p.m. one since I was really worried about missing line up.

While we were exiting the line, my phone started ringing. I answered it and it was DH telling me that he was sick.....REALLY sick. He seemed fine 15 minutes ago when I left him. :confused3 My first question (I know I'm REALLY compassionate) was, “Well did you get the Toy Story fastpasses?” :lmao::rotfl2: He told me that he thought we may have gotten some but that he, himself, had never made it to that part of the park. You see, just as the cute show was ending, he had to find the nearest restroom and handed off all of our cards to DS5's teacher. I was hoping that she had our FP's or else we may not be able to ride Toy Story Mania. I called her but there was no answer so we got in the short line to meet the StormTroopers.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/hs2.jpg

DS5 waiting patiently in our short line....notice the person in the background with beads. Yes, this was Mardi Gras day and there were Louisiana people everywhere!!! Loads of Mardi Gras beads!

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/hs3.jpg

Notice the boys' shirts for this pic. Yes they are both dressed as Indiana Jones, one of their favorite characters. Well, I didn't realize what kind of pixie dust this would give to us! Let me back track a bit to tell you the story....While in line waiting to sign up for Jedi Training, a CM noticed the boys' costumes and asked me to "stick around" for a minute. Little did we know that she was radio-ing the Indy show to put us in the front row!!!! We also got to meet Indy after the show! The boys love Indy but they were SUPER excited to meet Marion. :banana::thumbsup2

O.k. Back to the Storm Troopers with a couple more pics....
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/hs4.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/hs5.jpg

After meeting the StormTroopers, we walked back towards the middle of the park to say good bye to DH who was going back to the room for a while. The boys got interested in the Disney Channel Rocks show so we stopped to watch it. As we were watching it, my phone rang again and it was DS5's teacher who thankfully HAD gotten fastpasses for us to TSM and had our room keys so that DH could leave. I really was lucky that they were in HS also this morning and that they took our cards when DH got sick!

Here's some pics of the Disney Channel Rocks show......

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/hs6.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/hs8.jpg

LOL...DS5 is dancing in this picture although a video would have shown it better. He would take off his hat and spin around while putting the hat back on. Silly boy!

At this point, I met up with our friends and gave DH his room key so he could go rest. He has health issues and we figured it was a flare up of sorts so he was going to take it easy.

WARNING - Our HS day was really "different" in that we only rode two rides ALL day long. It was just the boys and I for most of the morning and we spent sometime enjoying shows and walking around. I was really really surprised at how people say that there is nothing in this park for the little ones. My boys absolutely LOVED HS and want to spend two days there next time.

After Disney Channel Rocks finished their show and rode away, we walked towards Toy Story to see what the wait time was like. I knew it would be too long but it was still only 10 a.m. We enjoyed the decorations at Pixar Place but the wait time was 120 minutes and none of us were ready to wait that long. We kept walking to the Backlot Studios tour which I thought was something we would enjoy but as soon as we got in line DS5 had to potty (doesn't that ALWAYS seem to happen?!?!?!) so we left to go to the restrooms and along the way discovered that Disney Junior would soon be starting. We decided to skip the ride and watch the show since both boys LOVE Jake.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/hs9.jpg

DS5 waiting for the show...this was our one warm day of the trip as it was in the low 80s. It would have been a perfect day to swim in our so-far unused CBR pool but this was our only planned day at HS and we had reservations for things most of the day. I did regret not scheduling two days at HS but hey, that's what a second trip is for!!!

Once inside, we were ushered to the VERY front of the third section. Now, I had heard that you shouldn't sit in the front because you won't be able to see but the lady would have nothing of meeting trying to sit in the back so we grabbed a front row seat and made the best of it. Actually I think the benches in the back are the best seats!

My view of the stage.... :sad2:
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/hs10.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/hs11.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/hs12.jpg
This CM creeped me out :eek: because he sat there the ENTIRE time just staring forward into empty space. Now I know that he was probably “crowd control” or whatever but at least SMILE!!!!

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/hs13.jpg
This lady on the other hand was priceless. Her expressions were soooo over the top that the kids loved it. :love: I know we will have to visit again on this trip before they get too old for the show!

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/hs14.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/hs15-1.jpg
So after singing Happy Birthday to Minnie, we left to head back to Backlot Tour. I had promised DS9 that we would go straight back after seeing DisneyJunior.

Up next: Was it a mistake to leave Backlot Tour and go to DisneyJunior? Will DH make it back in time for our lunch at Hollywood and Vine? Will the boys be able to do Jedi Training or will we have to miss it with our poor sick dad?

jenseib

12-08-2011, 08:55 PM

I hope your DH got to feeling better. I got sick at Universal one year...May years ago....I ran to the bathroom. A bit later my Mom comes in with my DD, who was almost 5...and all I hear is "Hey Mom...are you puking?"

BridgetR3

12-12-2011, 09:28 PM

When I left you we were sitting in the Disney Junior show, enjoying the air conditioning while watching JAKE!!! popcorn:: DS5 was in heaven and enjoyed the show a lot. After the show we headed back to the Backlot Studios Tour because DS9 was now suddenly really interested in it. Toy Story still read 120 as we passed but now instead of the Backlot Tour being 15 it was 50 minutes!!! :eek: I was not waiting 50 minutes while trying to entertain these two monkeys by myself. Besides, it was 11 a.m. and we had lunch reservations at 12:20. We found during this trip that reservations for meals take away alot from the trip. You are always concerned with being late so you choose not to do things based on your reservation time. We have decided that at least for the next trip we are going to do all quick service food places. I think if we ever get to go during a slower time when it's cold and we can not swim (A LOT of if's) I would love to do the TS restaurants again but for now, our time is precious. Speaking of which, our 180 day mark passed this weekend and I wasn't on the internet making ADR's. It feels like I'm missing out somehow.

So where do I take my two active monkeys?? The playground of course!!! Yes we went all the way to Disney to play at a playground. It's the kids' trip right?!?! Off we went to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. This was a great place to let them get their energy out!

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/honey1.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/honey2.jpg

So later on in the day, I was having the kids tell their dad all about what they had done while he was gone. I said, “Tell him you slid down a giant film.” My DS9 says, “We slid down a flim.” So I corrected him, “No it's a roll of film son.” He says, “Mom, what's film?” LOL.....I guess film is now as far gone as cassettes and 8track tapes. :sad2:

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/honey3.jpg

This picture of the PlayDoh definitely does not do it justice until.....

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/honey4.jpg

you put some kids next to it!

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/honey5.jpg

I loved the way the streets are made to look like you really are in New York City, etc.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/honey6.jpg

We stopped for a minute to look at the Moychindice while I spoke to DH on the phone. He called to let me know that he had slept for a while and was feeling a little better so he decided to take a bus to HS to meet us for lunch.

So we headed back to the front of the park to wait on him...while waiting we watched Disney Channel Rocks again (my boys LOVED that show) and shopped in a few stores.

Remember how worried I was about Jedi Training....let's see if we make our 2:20 show time.....DH met us and we all headed to Hollywood and Vine for our 12:20 reservation. This was probably our most disappointing table service experience of the whole trip. As we walk up, we noticed that the entire outside waiting area is FULL like packed so full that people are standing. This is not a good sign. We waited for what felt like forever. If it were not a character meal we would have definitely just cancelled our reservation and eaten something quick because we were VERY hungry. In the end, we were not seated in the restaurant until 12:50 and by then even DS 5 was ready to give up on the whole character thing and just grab something from the nearest stand. It seems Disney tried to "fancy it up" the buffet here by putting delicacies with little or no taste. I'm usually pretty easy going with food and will eat most things. My family on the other hand is fairly picky. I did try quite a few of the seafood meals offered at this buffet and most of them were either very bland or cold when they should have been at least warm. I know this sounds harsh but honestly all four of us ate from the children's buffet for this meal. Yay for baked chicken and potatoes on the kids' buffet!!!

My DS5 looking for Special Agent OSO...
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/honey7.jpg

Luckily when we sat down there were no characters on our side for a little while which gave us time to get plates of food and begin eating since we were very hungry.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/honey8.jpg

Timestamp on this photo says 1:10 so we had a good 20 minutes to begin eating. They also did one dance in the middle of the restaurant during that time that the boys both participated in. I was glad to see my DS9 join the dance since at home he would have been too cool to do it. He seemed to relax a lot at Disney and allow himself to be a kid for a little while.

Special Agent OSO visits us....
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/honey9.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/honey10.jpg

Here is Leo...funny story about Leo - He came to our table and as I was getting up with my camera he sticks his hand out for a high five from me. Well it took me a while to figure out what he wanted because I hadn't had many characters interact with me over the children first. After a second or two I realized what he was "saying" and I went to high five him but by this point I think he must have thought I ignored him so he moved his hand and I slapped the side of his glasses and head. He grabbed the side of his head and I couldn't stop laughing. I felt SOOOOO bad! Look, he still gave me a thumbs up!!!

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/honey12.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/honey11.jpg

June was by far the sweetest and stayed with us the longest. She even hugged DS9 which he loved! I was surprised that he was so interested in the characters especially since he “knows” that they aren't real even though I still believe!

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/honey13.jpg

One last pic on the way out and we race over to Jedi Training.....Did we make it or did Hollywood and Vine take too long?

jenseib

12-15-2011, 01:23 PM

I have heard many bad reviews of H&V too. The food always seems to be just OK, or yuck. We may try it someday, but right now the current characters are not a must for us.

BridgetR3

12-21-2011, 08:43 PM

Hey all,
I'm here and I will have at least one update for you tomorrow!!! Wow, life gets busy around the holidays!!

In the meantime, I hope you all have a wonderful time with your family during these holidays!

BridgetR3

12-22-2011, 08:31 PM

Our restaurant was right by the Jedi Training stage which was good because we needed to rush over if the boys were going to make it for training. Our performance was at 2:20 but the little jedis had to be there at 1:50 and this last picture has a time stamp of 1:44. Cutting it close......but we made it and as soon as they put us in the group DS5 realizes that he has to potty. This was also a recurring theme on our trip. NO matter how many times either DS went to the potty before some type of wait, they ALWAYS needed to potty RIGHT before the event. DH flew him to the bathroom and back just in time to move towards the stage.
O.k. Onto the show....
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/jt1.jpg
Waiting to go on stage.....this is while DS5 is at the restroom....
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/jt2.jpg
Receiving instructions before we get our light sabers!
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/jt3.jpg
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/jt4.jpg
Woohoo!! We have weapons!
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/jt5.jpg
One of the few times he actually got the light saber out of its holder....
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/jt6.jpg
Practicing our moves to battle Darth Vader
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/jt7.jpg
Light Saber woes.....
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/jt9.jpg
This sweet CM helped him countless times because he wouldn't flick it hard enough to get the light saber to stay out.
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/jt8.jpg
DS9 had no problems. He was always ready and eagerly listening to the Master.
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/jt10.jpg
Uh oh Darth Vader shows up....
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/jt12.jpg
I LOVE DS 5's face on this one!!! He was scared to death of Darth Vader but was brave enough to stay up there and fight him even if it took the Jedi Master pushing him forward!
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/jt13.jpg
He did get braver!
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/jt14.jpg
DS9 wasn't scared at all. He loved every minute of it!
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/jt15.jpg
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/jt16.jpg
Checking out Darth Vader's shoes....
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/jt11.jpg
I thought the end speech here about good vs. evil was pretty cool.
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/jt17.jpg
We are officially Jedi!!
After the Jedi Training, we grabbed ice creams and found a seat on the curb for the Block Party Bash.

jenseib

12-27-2011, 09:01 AM

Looks like that was a big hit with the boys. I know al about the potty trips. We seem to have to go at the most inoportune moments as well.

BridgetR3

01-03-2012, 08:38 PM

O.k. so I need to get this show on the road in order to start my PTR for our next trip!! My goal is to do one update each and every night so hang on tight!!

When I last left off we had just finished defeating Darth Vader and the evil Storm Troopers. We were now on our way to Indiana Jones but first, we stopped for ice cream and drinks. I think this was the one and only time ALL trip that we actually stopped to enjoy a snack and just relax. I am going to try to fix that next time!!

So we grab our ice creams and drinks and sit on a curb to watch the parade. Here are some of our pics….
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4884.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4886.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4887.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4889.jpg
After the parade it was time to grab our seats for the Indiana Jones show and since we were right across the “street” from it we didn’t have far to walk. Because the boys were dressed like Indy, we were able to get front row seats and were told to hang around afterwards to meet Indy and Marion.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4894.jpg
Meeting the volunteers…

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4899.jpg
My boys loved the action in this show. Next time we go we will have to watch Lights, Motors, Action.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4900.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4906.jpg
My 5 year old meeting the girl of his dreams….he loves Marion!!! I have a pic of them with both Marion and Indy but it is dark and needs help…lol…

After the Indy show, we decided to finally use our FPs for Toy Story.

I love the theming to Pixar Place with the oversized toys. So many of these brought back memories of things I had as a child. Here are some of my favorites….

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4911.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4910.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4912.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4913.jpg
Finally!!!!
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4914.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4916.jpg
Loved that the Peter Pan viewfinder was filled with Peter Pan “films”.
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4915.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4919.jpg

My cute riding partner

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4920.jpg

Our scores…he was more in awe of the pictures and the fact that we kept spinning so he often forgot to shoot.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4923.jpg
Love these guys!! I didn’t notice them until this point in our day! Lol….

Sorry not many pictures after this. I guess it was dark and we were quite distracted to stop and take pics.

After this, we decided to eat a quick dinner since it was around 6 p.m. and catch the first showing of Fantasmic so that DH could go back and rest at the hotel. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at one of the little quick service food places right by the line for Fantasmic. However, as we finished eating and headed toward the arena to be seated, the CM was beginning to announce that it was standing room only for the first show. We really didn’t feel like standing especially since there was another hour til show time so we decided to wait for the second showing.

Just as we began to head away to find something else to do, we ran into DS5’s teacher again and decided to go ride something all together. We found the rest of her group and headed back to ride Backlot studios tour but it was closed. Sadly, we never made it on that ride although I really think my kiddos would have enjoyed it. It is definitely a must do next trip.

We then headed back to Great Movie Ride since we figured it wouldn’t have long lines and we really needed to get into line for the second Fantasmic.

We really enjoyed the ride and got the gangster side. I hope that when we ride it the next time we will get the wild west side.

After riding together we all got in line to wait for Fantasmic. We waited for right at one and a half hours for the show. The boys played with DS5’s teacher and her adult children. They were really good about waiting but honestly I don’t think Fantasmic is worth that wait. Next time I may do standing room only just so I can walk in without waiting.

My boys HATED Fantasmic a lot. There were scared of most of it and are not interested in seeing it again. I’m a little bit thankful for that!!!

The grand finale of Fantasmic….
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4931.jpg
We definitely enjoyed our HS day even with DH getting sick. We only rode TSM and GMR as far as rides go so lots of rides are still on our to-do list. This was probably our second favorite park!
Up next – our MK day and a MAJOR meltdown at the Grand Floridian!!! Who would turn heads at the restaurant?

jenseib

01-04-2012, 02:04 PM

I have yet to see fantasmic too. I have a feeling Claire wouldn't be impressed with the villains.

BridgetR3

01-04-2012, 04:40 PM

It definitely wasn't "kid friendly" in my opinion BUT then again, my kiddos are very ummm sheltered. :lmao:

I liked it o.k. and would love to go back just me and DH so I could actually watch the program instead of consoling the boys! :)

BridgetR3

01-07-2012, 10:49 PM

Day 5 Part 1 Magic Kingdom

I was so ready to see the rope drop show at Magic Kingdom since we missed it the day we checked into our hotel. I was also hoping that some of the BIG crowds we saw that first day would now be gone or at least at the other parks. We were exhausted but were finally able to get up and over to Magic Kingdom by 8:30 am. The crowd was small so far so we were hoping for a great day!

While waiting for the opening show, we took pictures of the kids.
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4933.jpg

GEAUX LSU!!!!

We also stopped for PP pictures but the boys did not want to look at the photographer so in every picture they are looking at something else. Here’s one of the best ones….
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/Photo0232FourBySix.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4934.jpg

I was hoping to get picked as the family of the day but we really weren’t anywhere near first and we really didn’t speak at length to any CM’s so I was o.k. with just watching. They did, however, pick a family from Louisiana for rope drop!! We all cheered for them. Here are some pics in case someone recognizes them as DIS’ers.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4938.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4939.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4951.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4952.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4953.jpg

As we entered MK, we headed straight to get FP for Buzz Lightyear but chose not to ride it so that we could get to Tomorrowland Speedway in hopes of NOT waiting an hour for the kids to ride. This ride for me is blah, just o.k. but my kids LOVE it. The wait time was about 15 minutes and we hopped into line.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4969.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4958.jpg

I LOVE this sign!! Look at our top speed! :rotfl2:

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4972.jpg

I love this one too!! The biggest spectacle in racing describes our driving experience WELL!!!! :lmao:

Continued in the next post....

BridgetR3

01-07-2012, 10:50 PM

After riding these extremely fast cars :laughing:, we decided to slow it all down a bit and go to Fantasyland to ride Winnie the Pooh. I love the queue. My kids loved the queue. Everyone’s kids loved the queue and I think it sort of slows down the line some but that’s o.k. because honestly that’s the only part of Pooh that I like. I did not like this ride at all. I don’t understand it (or the story that goes with it) and my kids weren’t really excited about it.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4979.jpg

These poppers are so much fun to play with!

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4974.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4975.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4984.jpg

Our honey pot!

After riding Pooh, we headed over to Splash Mountain to grab Fast Passes for after lunch. On the way, we ran into Frontier Donald and since DS 5 is SUCH a Donald fanatic, we stopped to take pictures with him. The line was long so I took it upon myself to run ahead to Splash and get the FP’s while the others waited in line. I made it back just in time for our turn.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/Photo0243FourBySix.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/Photo0247FourBySix.jpg

Once we said good-bye to Donald, we headed to Agrabah in order to ride those amazing flying carpets!

A few pictures we took in Agrabah…such a detailed area!!
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4992.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4993.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4994.jpg

You will notice the DS 9 does not like heights….you can tell because any time he gets scared he covers his ears.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN4999.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5001.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5003.jpg
End of ride = smiling while covering his ears

Sad fact is that neither of my kids would ride Dumbo last time we were there! Maybe next time in the new area.....

We had just a few minutes left until we could grab more FastPasses so we decided to see the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse and grab Jungle Cruise FP’s before heading out to lunch.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5010.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5012.jpg

After this, we took a train ride to the front and hopped on the monorail to head to lunch at the Grand Floridian. Someone is going to have a meltdown BIG TIME!!!! Any guesses??

BelleTinkMom

01-07-2012, 11:16 PM

Love your LSU shirts. We are always wearing some sort of LSU when we are there also. Now that I think about it, we wear LSU almost every day. :lmao:

BridgetR3

01-07-2012, 11:49 PM

Love your LSU shirts. We are always wearing some sort of LSU when we are there also. Now that I think about it, we wear LSU almost every day. :lmao:

Thank you!! The boys had a different matching theme each day. We joined in on the fun for the Saints day and the LSU day. We saw LOTS of purple and gold while we were there!!!

saintstickets

01-08-2012, 01:09 PM

Loving your TR. Keep it coming. I guess you can tell from my screen name what comes next from me....Who Dat! :thumbsup2

BridgetR3

01-08-2012, 08:37 PM

Loving your TR. Keep it coming. I guess you can tell from my screen name what comes next from me....Who Dat! :thumbsup2

The game last night was awesome!! Geaux Saints!! :thumbsup2

Thanks for the encouraging words! Sometimes I feel like I am speaking to myself but I know how much I lurk other TR's so I'm hoping I have lurkers that are enjoying it! :confused3

Either way just a couple more days of TR and I'll start my new PTR!

BridgetR3

01-08-2012, 08:40 PM

Day 5 Part 2 – Lunch and MK afternoon
WARNING: There are very few pictures from this day, but we do have a storm and a meltdown for your entertainment! I'm sorry about the lack of pictures!!! I think this day I was always either consoling or running from the rain!

Starting at Hollywood Studios the previous evening, I had begun receiving weather alerts about a strong cold front passing through back home. Now here in south Louisiana, we never really see snow but we do see high wind and tornadoes. These alerts continued all through the night and throughout our morning at MK but why worry about that, after all we are at Disney! So on our train ride back to the front of MK, I checked my FB quickly to find out that our area had indeed experienced tornadoes with a life being lost about an hour from our house. :guilty: What a sad thing to happen.

I called home to make sure that our families were o.k. only to be warned that it was headed to Orlando tonight or tomorrow morning. Well shucks, I guess Disney can’t control the weather after all. Blah…..ah well not much we can do now. Let’s go to lunch.

I was so excited to ride on the monorail for the first time!! We had seen it a few days on our trip but had never ridden on it. We hopped on the resort monorail in order to get to Grand Floridian. I knew that we would be the last stop but it would be fun to see the others and we had plenty of time before our reservation.

Although we really enjoyed our ride, we did not take any pictures, which was kind of strange for us. However, once we arrived at Grand Floridian, I did take a few scenery photos. I love the way this resort is decorated!!

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5016.jpg

While waiting to be seated, I stepped outside to snap a few more of the resort buildings. My little one followed along while my older DS stayed inside with DH holding onto the buzzer.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5018.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5019.jpg

Once the buzzer went off, they walked outside to get us and we went with them to be checked in. AS SOON AS we walked back inside, DS5 started to lose his mind…..not just a little bit but A LOT. He was just screaming at the top of his lungs refusing to move. I kept asking him what was wrong and honestly at first thought that maybe a bee from one of the flowers had stung him on the way in. Halfway to the table, I had to turn around and take him back out for fear of getting kicked out of this restaurant. Finally once we were in the bathroom washing his face, he told me that he was angry because his brother got to hold the buzzer and he didn’t. Sheesh!!! (I think it was more Disney fatigue and “hitting the wall” at this point but yeah…)

I was able to calm him down and promise him that he could hold it next time if he would just go sit back at the table and let us have a quiet meal. He calms down to just breathing hard and we leave the restroom. As soon as we cross the metal piece on the floor to enter the restaurant again, he loses his mind AGAIN. Blood curtling screaming, kicking, absolute mayhem…..at home this would have been handled differently since we could leave the restaurant but at Disney on the dining plan with ADR’s you are kind of stuck.

My husband came out at this point to rescue me so that I could at least choose my food and drink. I chose a New York Strip with mashed potatoes. By the time the poor waitress came by and took my order, DH was back with DS5 who for a minute or two had calmed down. Poor DS lost his mind again when he realized that this restaurant did not have chicken nuggets either!!! He looked for nuggets at all of our TS restaurants with very few of our choices having them. I did not realize that this would be a problem going in but we know better now. Of course now he eats lots of other things but at the time he was on a nugget binge. The sweet waitress brought him a cheese pizza which much to his dismay was not nuggets. Luckily DH is a fast eater so he scarfed down his food and left the restaurant with DS for good. Once we all finished eating and paying for our food, we headed back to the monorail and DS5 was happy again because he was riding.

Again at home he would have been punished but I think part of his meltdown on this day was our fault. Notice we have not taken breaks yet on this trip. They had ONE nap on the second day, the Sunday, and we have been going NON-STOP since then. Also, I should have watched the menus more carefully knowing his food choices were limited but I was more worried about DH and his limited food choices so I didn’t consider poor DS.

We hopped off the monorail at MK and walked towards the bus stop only to find these guys in that area!!

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5020.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5021.jpg

How cute!!!

We got on the bus and headed back to CBR for a much needed nap!!!! We rested and then ate dinner at Old Port Royale before hopping back on the bus to head back to MK.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/Photo0255FourBySix.jpg
I love DS 9’s expression in this picture! I have NO idea what he is doing that for!

These were taken at about 6 p.m. and still no thunderstorm clouds are rolling in so we thank our PP photographer (even though I appear white as a ghost in them) and head off to Splash Mountain to use our FP’s.

This was probably the hardest I laughed on the whole trip. Remember our kids are terrified of LOTS of things, but we agreed that they had to try each thing at least once before they could decide that it wasn’t for them. (In other words, they had to be brave!!) DS9 had read about the “50 foot drop” repeatedly and he obsessed about it the whole time we were there. Remember Aladdin’s carpets from earlier this morning?!?!? We did get him on the ride but he was scared to death!!! We had a young couple in the raft with us who also got a good laugh! DS9 screamed from the time we got on things like “IS THIS THE DROP!!?!?!” “I DON’T WANT TO DROP.” “GET ME OFF THIS THING NOW!!!!” “I WANT OFF!!”

Lucky for him (sarcastically), we got stopped right before the big drop and sat there for about five minutes before it started up again. As he screamed, we went over the edge. I had the claw marks to prove it for days afterwards.

Once we hit the bottom, he says, “Well that wasn’t that bad” and I busted out laughing. Our whole little raft was in tears before we got to the unloading area from laughing at DS9. This ride is now on our must do list for our next trip.

Quick recap of the rest of the night….we exited Splash Mountain to thunder with lightning in the distance. We hurried over to Jungle Cruise to use our FP’s but were turned away right as we got there. We went to Pirates one more time before leaving the area and came out to a storm. It was pouring down rain with lots of wind. The rain at times was going sideways. We ran over to Tomorrowland to see Monsters, Inc. and to ride Buzz Lightyear with FP’s. The rain finally ended and we were able to see Memories, Magic, and You and Wishes.

Afterwards, we headed to the buses and “home”.

Next up – Would we make our morning reservations at Cape May? Would the storms continue? Will we hit any other parks on our trip?

jenseib

01-10-2012, 08:49 PM

BridgetR3

01-11-2012, 07:58 PM

You got some great GF pictures. Too bad your DS wasn't letting you enjoy your dinner. I know what you mean though, what can you do when you are on vacation, but try to deal with it the best way you can. (and then beat them when you get home!:rotfl2: Ok, I am just joking...but sometimes that thought does cross a parents mind. :rotfl:)

Let's just say.....he's LUCKY we weren't home!!!! Oh yes the thought crossed my mind SEVERAL time as sweet little elderly ladies stared me down in the restaurant like "HOW DARE YOU BRING A CHILD WHO IS HAVING A MELTDOWN HERE?!?!?!?" :confused3
Yep it crossed my mind...actually it stayed there all through lunch. It must be the Disney magic because he survived the day! :rotfl:

jenseib

01-11-2012, 08:08 PM

Let's just say.....he's LUCKY we weren't home!!!! Oh yes the thought crossed my mind SEVERAL time as sweet little elderly ladies stared me down in the restaurant like "HOW DARE YOU BRING A CHILD WHO IS HAVING A MELTDOWN HERE?!?!?!?" :confused3
Yep it crossed my mind...actually it stayed there all through lunch. It must be the Disney magic because he survived the day! :rotfl:

:lmao:

BridgetR3

01-12-2012, 08:58 PM

Day 6 – Cape May Café’ and Epcot

We so wanted to cancel our breakfast in exchange for a little sleep. However, we decided to get up and head out in hopes of great memories! It was a very rainy dreary morning and our ADR was crazy early (8:05). Yes, I think I was not thinking when I scheduled that one!!!

We somehow managed to get there early for our reservation and were promptly seated. Out of all of our meals, this one ended up being my favorite. We all loved the breakfast foods and the characters were great!! The only other ADR that came close to this one was our first night at Captain’s Grill.

Here are some character photos with sleepy little boys!
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5042.jpg
MICKEY!
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5045.jpg
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5049.jpg
Goofy was sooooo well goofy!! He kept tapping DS5’s head the whole time and DS would just laugh and laugh. He was by far the most friendly character at the breakfast!

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5050.jpg
Sorry for the poor lighting on poor Minnie! The photo however was too cute to pass up. I love the way DS is just mesmerized by her!

It stopped raining while we were in the restaurant and was pretty chilly since a “cold front” came through.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5053.jpg
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5052.jpg
I love these flowers outside the Beach Club! I wonder what kind of flower they are.

So after eating we decided to go back to our hotel and sleep. Yes I know we have not done a single thing yet but this seemed like the best idea since EVERYONE was exhausted. The boys and I woke up around noon and were ready to hit the parks but poor DH was not feeling well again. He decided to take a day off and stay in the room resting since we had a long ride ahead of us the next day.

At about 12:30 the boys and I took off for Epcot. On the way into Epcot we stopped for some PP pics….

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/Photo0295FourBySix.jpg
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http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/Photo0347FourBySix.jpg
O.k. YES I know that France is no where near the beginning but I felt like throwing it in at this point.

After that we decided to go to Innoventions ( I can’t tell west from east yet but it’s the one with Sum of All Thrills in it) and we played with the exhibits for a little while.
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5058.jpg
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5067.jpg
My favorite Innoventions exhibit is the one where you create paper.
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5077.jpg
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After leaving Innoventions, we decided to have lunch and chose the Electric Umbrella. One day I’ll go to Disney and be able to eat something from World Showcase but my boys are just not that into good food!

Up next, we decided to go into the butterfly house since we had not seen it yet.
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5082.jpg
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We really loved seeing all of the character topiaries. I definitely think that I will miss them on our upcoming trip in June.
Up next – World Showcase and Kimpossible again!!!

mommy2mb

01-15-2012, 02:37 PM

Cape May breakfast is one of our favorites too. They have great food and always a great way to start the day!!!

BridgetR3

01-15-2012, 03:30 PM

Cape May breakfast is one of our favorites too. They have great food and always a great way to start the day!!!

I would definitely consider character breakfasts over character lunches because of the food. I absolutely HATED Hollywood and Vine's lunch buffet but breakfast is really hard to mess up so I'm sure that it is great there too.

Or maybe we are just breakfast people... :confused3 :rotfl:

Thanks for reading along! I'll have an update later tonight or tomorrow morning sometime about the rest of our day at Epcot.

jenseib

01-15-2012, 08:07 PM

Cape May is my favorite breakfast at WDW so far. Good food and fun.

BridgetR3

01-15-2012, 09:32 PM

Day 6 – Afternoon at Epcot

So when I left off last time, we were leaving FutureWorld on our way to WorldShowcase. My boys really loved the Kimpossible Missions so we had picked up a FastPass while walking into the park to pick up our Kimmunicator. My DH was not too fond of the Kim Possible missions on this trip because that was all the boys wanted to see in WorldShowcase. I can honestly say that next time we will probably only do one or two at the most and just enjoy WS the rest of the time seeing the countries.

A few more topiaries as we walk toward France for our first mission….
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5090.jpg
Peter Pan

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5091.jpg
Captain Hook

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5092.jpg
Croc

We arrived in France poised and ready for our mission. As the boys ran around following the hints on the Kimmunicator, I took pics. Here’s a few of them…

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5094.jpg

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Funny story about our France mission – there was this lady who watched us closely for a while at the end of our mission. We were interacting with a few things that were showing video (which only we could see) and making noises that were loud enough for all to hear. After watching us for a while, she walked up to the camera that we had just watched our movie in, took out her cell phone and pointed it at the camera. I assume she was trying to get it to play the movie for her. My kids ran off to the next part so I followed them. Watching from afar, I noticed that after a couple of tries, she shrugged her shoulders and walked away. Poor thing!!!

After leaving France, we chose Norway as our next mission so we hopped on a Friendship boat and ventured out to save the world. We grabbed Fastpasses for the ride in Norway because the wait time was about 45 minutes and we set off to do our mission.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5120.jpg

Saving the world is hard work!!!

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5121.jpg

Since it still wasn’t time to use our Fastpasses for Maelstrom we decided to head to Mexico for yet another mission! I absolutely LOVE Mexico’s pavilion and how it’s all inside. We stopped in the middle of our mission to ride Three Cabaleros which my DS5 LOVED. He is a huge Donald Duck fan so he was excited about a Donald ride. We shopped around for a while and I purchased a ceramic cross while DS5 spent some of his money on a Mexican Donald.

Here is a pic of the boys outside of Mexico.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5129.jpg

Donald loved seeing that DS5 had a special Donald plush. He had so much fun posing with the little Donald.

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http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5133.jpg

At this point, the boys decided that they were too tired to walk a step farther.
They could not possibly walk back the short way to Norway to ride Maelstrom. They could not possibly do anything except go back to the hotel until they saw Duffy and then they were o.k. enough to go meet him.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/Photo0361FourBySix.jpg

Such a cute picture!!

After taking our picture with Duffy, we headed out, boarded our bus and headed “home”. Gosh I wish I were “home” tonight!! Anyways, my DH met me at Old Port Royale and he fed the boys and then took them back to the room for an evening of movies while I went shopping at Downtown Disney on my last evening at Disney.

I had dinner at Wolfgang Puck Express and spent time relaxing while looking in all the little shops. About 10 p.m. I decided to call it a night and headed back to our room.

Up next – our last day at Disney….Will we hit MK as we have planned or will we do something else?

jenseib

01-17-2012, 05:27 PM

I am worried if I evr show my DD the Kim Possilbe missions, thats all we'll be doing too.

Too funny about the lady watching you.

weezy26nm

01-18-2012, 07:16 AM

Day 6 – Cape May Café’ and Epcot

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5052.jpg
I love these flowers outside the Beach Club! I wonder what kind of flower they are.

These look like cyclamen.

BridgetR3

01-18-2012, 07:32 PM

I am worried if I evr show my DD the Kim Possilbe missions, thats all we'll be doing too.

Too funny about the lady watching you.

Yeah, I'm afraid that this was how I presented Epcot to them because otherwise I didn't think they would like walking around and looking at the countries. So it's all my fault. Next trip though, Epcot gets only one day and Mom gets to see the world without so much Kimpossible!!!

These look like cyclamen.

You are right!!! I actually found them at a locally owned hardware store Monday. They are in season right now which makes sense considering it was a March trip and Beach Club was full of them. I bought some to remind me of Disney and now I'll try not to kill them! :rolleyes1

Update coming up a little later - last one of my TR!

BridgetR3

01-18-2012, 07:38 PM

Weezy,

Since you knew what the other flower was, could you try to figure this one out for me?? :confused3

It is basically a few leaves with a "stalk" and this flower on the end. They are gorgeous but I can't figure out what they are.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/flower.jpg

Thank you for trying to help me!! :lovestruc

BridgetR3

01-18-2012, 09:03 PM

Day 7 - Resort Touring

Our plan was to get up and hit Magic Kingdom one last time to say good-bye to the castle on our way out and then head towards home. However, with DH having been sick most of the trip and my knee hurting tremendously on this morning we decided to drive around and tour some of the other resorts.

We got up around 9 and loaded up the car. Do you ever feel that there is no way you could have possibly brought this much junk while you are packing to leave? We had to make SOOOOO many trips just to get all of our stuff into our car, which still stunk from the water cooler leak on the way down. :rolleyes1

Once we were loaded down we said good-bye to our room and our resort and then we headed off. We really didn't care for CBR because it was really large and spread out as well as having seven (?) bus stops. My DH hated the double beds because they were so small. SO....part of our day would be finding a new hotel for our "next" trip although when we were looking we did not have a trip planned.

Our first stop was Port Orleans French Quarter to get breakfast. Why there you ask? Well beignets of course!!!!! ;)

Here are some pics of POFQ -

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5152.jpg

This CM was awesome! His personality was great and he was so excited about his job. He gave the boys doubloons and offered to take our picture inside by the fountain.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5153.jpg

Boy do we look tired.....

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5154.jpg

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http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5156.jpg

I know some people do not like these "huge" Mardi Gras decorations but I thought they were overwhelming. I guess because the ceilings are so high that you really have to look up to see them.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5157.jpg

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http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5161.jpg

From POFQ, we took a bus over to Epcot because (remember I am a newb) I wanted to ride through Epcot. Well for ANY of you who have ever ridden the monorail from Epcot to TTC you know that it does NOT go through Epcot. It's the return trip that does. And what monorail did we get?

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5165.jpg

Woohoo! Score! We got the Tronorail.

Anyways, we arrive at the TTC and because it's almost noon, the lines were CRAZY long. :scared1: We wanted to ride a boat but there were so many people waiting for it that we decided to just take the monorail around.

A few pictures first....

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5169.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5170.jpg

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http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5176.jpg

We did not get off at the Contemporary but instead chose to get down and check out the Polynesian. I'm not sure why we didn't stop at the Contemporary because I'm a lot more interested in it than the Poly.

BridgetR3

01-18-2012, 09:04 PM

Pictures of the Poly....

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5181.jpg
I loved the water features in the Poly!

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5182.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5185.jpg
Poor lifeguards. It was chilly!!

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5189.jpg
Great view of the Grand Floridian...

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5190.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5191.jpg
Waiting on a boat...

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5193.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5195.jpg
We were the ONLY people on the boat and I quickly found out why....it was COLD!!! The wind blowing while we were on the water was freezing!

Next stop - Magic Kingdom - nope, not to go in the park, just to hop on a bus back to POFQ......

Thank goodness that we are not going into Magic Kingdom! Check out that crowd. :scared1: (Time stamp says 12:32 p.m.)

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5210.jpg

We grabbed our car and headed out to All Star Movies. This is where we were originally supposed to stay but because of our date changes we had to choose a moderate since the values were all sold out.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z290/BridgetR321/DSCN5219.jpg
What in the world are they doing?!?!

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After touring ASSports, we headed to DTD for some shopping and our dinner reservation. I'm thinking we had lunch somewhere but I don't remember eating anywheres and I did not write it down so maybe we just starved until our 4 p.m. reservation. :confused3:laughing:

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Dinner was o.k. but kinda sad since it was our last thing to do at Disney. Unfortunately it was time to go home. :sad1:

Thank you for reading along with me throughout my TR!! If you have noticed, we are headed back to DW June 8-15 to stay at POFQ!! I have a PTR tag in my signature that you can join in on. Won't you join me there? :flower3:

jenseib

01-19-2012, 01:57 PM

Where was your dinner at ?

weezy26nm

01-19-2012, 03:31 PM

BridgetR3

01-19-2012, 04:26 PM

Where was your dinner at ?

Well that would have been a nice little detail now wouldn't it?!?!? :lmao:

I swear sometimes I amaze myself. We had dinner at Planet Hollywood per DH's request. It was neat to see the memorabilia and the food was decent. I was just so sad that we were leaving and hadn't had the trip I had imagined that I really didn't enjoy dinner.

Our TS reservations were all a bit weird since we had to make them so close to our vacation. Very few places were left at decent (or any) times. We chose what we could but the choices were very limited!

I'll have to do some investigating and see what I can do.

Oh don't go through too much trouble. I just figured since you knew that the other one was a cyclamen that maybe you knew this one too. ;)

Thank you both for being faithful commenters and helping me get through my TR!!! :cloud9: :hug:

Luvmepluto

01-19-2012, 10:06 PM

Newbie to your report! I can't wait to read more!:)

BelleTinkMom

01-19-2012, 10:15 PM

We've never tried Cape May. It Sounds great. The Poly is beautiful. I always take a ton of pics there.

So sad that your trip is coming to an end. :sad1:

mommy2mb

01-20-2012, 11:56 AM

Great update! We stayed at POFQ last trip and really liked it. The smaller size was really nice never a long walk to anything and queen beds are a plus. My 6 year old loved the pool area.

BridgetR3

01-20-2012, 05:09 PM

Newbie to your report! I can't wait to read more!:)

Thank you for joining us!! This TR is pretty much done and my PTR has started. If you want to follow me there, you can check my signature. I do have a couple more pictures to share later but most of the "story" is finished.

We've never tried Cape May. It Sounds great. The Poly is beautiful. I always take a ton of pics there.

So sad that your trip is coming to an end. :sad1:

Yes, I was so sad after our trip was over that I could not visit the DISboards for about 6 months. I keep telling myself that this time won't be as bad but with DH saying that this is our last trip for a while, I'm already struggling. DH doesn't know it yet but I'm beginning to make and sell sewn goodies in hopes of saving the money to go back for Mardi Gras 2013. We'll see how that goes!

Thank you so much for following along with me!

Great update! We stayed at POFQ last trip and really liked it. The smaller size was really nice never a long walk to anything and queen beds are a plus. My 6 year old loved the pool area.

I can't wait to stay there. Those are the two reasons we are staying there. CBR was very nice don't get me wrong but it was HUGE!!!

I have a few more pictures that I will share sometime later this weekend!

weezy26nm

01-20-2012, 06:54 PM

I'll have to do some investigating and see what I can do.

My friend (who works in a greenhouse) says it's a hoya carnosa otherwise known as a wax plant :)

BridgetR3

01-20-2012, 07:01 PM

My friend (who works in a greenhouse) says it's a hoya carnosa otherwise known as a wax plant :)

WOW!! Thanks!!! I appreciate your help!! :thumbsup2

Now to find one to buy for my yard!

BridgetR3

01-20-2012, 07:21 PM

weezy26nm

01-20-2012, 07:24 PM

WOW!! Thanks!!! I appreciate your help!! :thumbsup2

Now to find one to buy for my yard!

It says it's native to Asia and Australia but that it's a common house plant. Did you see it at Disney?

BridgetR3

01-20-2012, 07:44 PM

It says it's native to Asia and Australia but that it's a common house plant. Did you see it at Disney?

Nope it was actually growing in a flower bed at my boys' school. It just seemed to be haphazardly planted there like no one was really tending to them (there were weeds growing with them) but they were GORGEOUS. Since I teach school over in the next town and my children stay late in extended care, I have never been there during school hours to ask anyone. I just think that they are beautiful!

weezy26nm

01-20-2012, 08:02 PM

Weezy,

I'm reading your TR but it must be closed because I can't respond there so I'm responding here. I love you castle pics from your MK day!

OMG that car!!! What were they thinking?!?!?! :confused3

I love that you surprised them with your restaurants. My DH would kill me if I just "surprised" him kind of like yours felt. (At least yours seemed to enjoy the food once he got there!) He doesn't like surprises much at all! :confused3

Will you be doing any TS when you go back in 9 months?

We LOVE Festival of the Lion King!!! THat is the ONE thing my DH still talks about from Disney. It may be my only hope in getting him back there after this trip.

We want to get a Kitchen Sink from Beaches and Cream this time. They look enormous!

I've enjoyed reading your TR!!! popcorn::

Ya I think it's closed because I took to long to finish. Bad Disser, I know! DH doesn't like to plan but we all know there has to be some planning at Disney. And when I ask him for input before hand he says he doesn't care but then once we get there he wants to run the show. But everyone is my family knows who runs the show around here :rolleyes1.
That car was just crazy.
I definately want to do some TS meals. Just can't decide which ones. Don't like to pay a fortune for food and there be nothing anyone will eat. Have some fussy eaters. Plus my step-daughter will be celebrating her birthday while we are there so I want to do something special for that and want to surprise her with a cake.
We want a kitchen sink too. I'm thinking I'll have to make a ressie to make sure we get it this time :thumbsup2
Hope to start a Pre-trip report some time soon. Will keep you posted.

weezy26nm

01-20-2012, 08:05 PM

Nope it was actually growing in a flower bed at my boys' school. It just seemed to be haphazardly planted there like no one was really tending to them (there were weeds growing with them) but they were GORGEOUS. Since I teach school over in the next town and my children stay late in extended care, I have never been there during school hours to ask anyone. I just think that they are beautiful!

I agree they are beautiful!

BridgetR3

01-21-2012, 11:17 AM

Ya I think it's closed because I took to long to finish. Bad Disser, I know! DH doesn't like to plan but we all know there has to be some planning at Disney. And when I ask him for input before hand he says he doesn't care but then once we get there he wants to run the show. But everyone is my family knows who runs the show around here :rolleyes1.
That car was just crazy.
I definately want to do some TS meals. Just can't decide which ones. Don't like to pay a fortune for food and there be nothing anyone will eat. Have some fussy eaters. Plus my step-daughter will be celebrating her birthday while we are there so I want to do something special for that and want to surprise her with a cake.
We want a kitchen sink too. I'm thinking I'll have to make a ressie to make sure we get it this time :thumbsup2
Hope to start a Pre-trip report some time soon. Will keep you posted.

Nope not a bad Disser at all...sometimes life just gets in the way and you don't have time for it all. I did enjoy what you had posted though!

Yes I have a picture somewhere of a car that was decorated with stuffed animals on the inside and plastic "dolls" on the outside (My LIttle Pony, bobbleheads, etc.) from one of our vacations but there was nothing written about God or anything on it. It must take a special kind of person to drive something like that.

We loved Captain's grille but I don't remember how much it was because we did the dining plan. It had steaks on it which is what most of us eat. I want to do Teppan Edo in the future as we have just recently fallen in love with hibachi grills and I think that would be neat.

I checked into Beaches and Cream for both of us and they do not take reservations. We are going to try to go on our "off" day of relaxing so that if it's a longer wait it won't matter. Also, I'm going to try to go around 3 in the afternoon in hopes of it being a slower time. Who knows though.....

weezy26nm

01-21-2012, 12:16 PM

I didn't realize that they didn't take reservations. Oh well we'll just have to give it a try anyway. We lucked out in 2006 and got in with very little wait. So maybe we will luck out this time.

Deesknee

01-21-2012, 03:24 PM

BridgetR3

01-23-2012, 07:43 PM

Well, it took me a long time, but I read it. You did a great job with this TR! You have a very handsome/beautiful family. Your boys are too cute. I can relate to alot of your situations. 1st- haha about your sons fear on Splash Mtn. My daughter did the exact same thing. She kept panicing and asking if "this" is the drop, is THIS the drop, on and on. Whining & her tone was horrified. Telling us the whole time she is NEVER going on this "stupid" ride again. Then at the bottom...."that wasn't so bad". She said she was willing to go on again someday and she did once more, but now refuses. Like you say try it, if you don't like it you don't have to go on again. That is our rule too.

I can also relate to the melt down. We had one once. Then we decided if we get up early we go back for swim & nap. We also agree doing ADR consumes alot of your valuable vacation time, not to mention puts more stress. .. can we do this, will we make our ADR, ... hurry up we're going to be late for our ADRs, etc. I truly believe little ones get overstimulated, then add sleep deprivation, unfamiliar beds, it is a recipe for a good old fashion melt down. (honestly, I've been known to have one here or there myself. I just don't yell any more.).

Your photos are beautiful.

Oh, and thanks for the tip on the Jedi training, I didn't know about this, or I may just have forgotten. Our youngest is a girl, but with a Dad who loves Star Wars, she may be interested in this. Do they have it all year or only around Star Wars w/e time frame?

Thank you for joining us!

Glad to know my kids aren't the only ones who lost their minds on Splash Mountain!! They are getting really brave here at home and are ready to ride Splash again but who knows once we actually get there!! lol....all I know is that I'm riding and I may do an adult only ride just so I can enjoy looking at all of the scenery.

I felt SOOOOO bad for all of the poor people trying to eat while we were at GF. He is normally a great kid but was so loud and angry!! I hoping for NO meltdowns this trip from kids or adults!

Jedi Training happens every day at HS. You have to sign up for it at park opening. I don't know how exactly you sign up anymore because it has changed since our last trip. I do know that it's for 4-12 year olds and it was located back by Star Tours. They learn a few moves and are then able to fight and defeat Darth Vader.

O.k. guys I'm sorry but this weekend really got away from me. I'll try to post sometime this week but it's going to be super busy! :rolleyes1