The Last of the OCD Type A Planners To Get Her Dec 2011 TR started... [Archive] - The DIS Discussion Forums

shocky5

01-11-2012, 08:48 PM

Yes, that is correct... I began this journey on January 5, 2011 when I booked our first Disney Family Surprise Christmas Trip for December 16th - 24th, 2011... and in the process met a wonderful group of DIS friends who planned right along with me.

So let's get this TR started! First, I will introduce (or reintroduce to those of you who shared in my PTR) my family for who I poured out my blood, sweat, and tears for to plan the perfect magical Christmas vacation to Disney World! :santa: Er... will it be?? Let's find out!

This is me.... the mom, the wife, the planner... who used 'turning 40' as the leverage for this trip...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0738-1.jpg

This is my best friend of 20 years and my DH of 17 of those 20... the one who keeps me in check yet knows enough to sometimes just sit back and smile...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Fall%202011/IMG_0356-1.jpg

And these are our offspring... aka "the best we could do"... :goodvibes The absolute joys of our lives for who we secretly would do anything for...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Fall%202011/IMG_0389.jpg

Eddie and I agreed in January 2011 that we would attempt to take our kids on a surprise Disney Christmas Vacation and oh what twists and turns we would have... even down to just within 12 hours of departure... just goes to prove that we can plan and plan and sometimes it's not always going to work out as we hoped but we can adapt and still slap a smile on our face because after all... it is DISNEY! ;)

shocky5

01-11-2012, 09:16 PM

When you plan a trip a year in advance, there will be what we fondly refer to here amongst friends on the DIS... "tweaking, tinkering, and lots of Disney Math." I am not good at Disney Math but I love to tweak and tinker.

We received a PIN discount in the mail for 40% off... and knowing the Disney World and I share something in common... we were both born in 1971, it didn't take much to convince DH we should do a Christmas trip and surprise the kids. We wanted to surprise them just hours before boarding an airplane to take off for what would be our third trip to the World.

We booked the Polynesian, Club Level, Theme Park View. We got great airfare in February so all that was left was to wait for June to make our ADR's... right?? WRONG.

First twist - Typically, our school district releases for winter break on a Friday, which would have been the 16th of Dec, so we had airfare for Friday evening after school released. My DH is a teacher so we felt we needed to wait until school released before leaving. We were going to return on the 23rd just in time for Christmas at home. Imagine our surprise :scared1: when the school calendar came out and school was not going to be released until Dec. 20th!!! :eek:

What did we do? We adapted... DH spoke to his administrator and we decided the best thing to do and least expensive would be for the children and I to go ahead and go on the 16th and he would join us the evening of the 20th and we would add an extra day to our trip and return on the 24th so DH could have some time at Disney, too. Would I do this again? NOPE. You will see in this TR that we had a great time... the kids and I had some priceless moments without Eddie there but given the opportunity to have him there or not... we WANT HIM THERE. It really_really felt like 'someone' was missing, because he was and I often found my thoughts wandering to him and feeling :guilty: because he was at home. (on a side note... he was fine with being at home... :lmao:) We were only out the change of his 'going to' plane ticket from the 16th to the 20th, about $150. As luck would have it... eventually the airlines would change our flight for the kids and I to a different time... so taking advantage of that, I called and got our departure flight moved to the morning of the 16th... what's one more day of missing school, right? And was able to move our return flights from the 23rd to the 24th with no extra costs. MOTTO for trip: What's one more day??

Next twist - We sold our house in 6 days in the spring! Which meant we needed to find a new house QUICKLY. This is important only because we were blessed enough to purchase a new home after testing the market and selling ours so quickly... new home = new furniture... I downgraded our Theme park view for new dining room furniture... :thumbsup2 And believe me when I say this was discussed heavily on the DIS in my PTR. Love all the advice I got about anything from my friends! :grouphug:

So we still stayed club level at the Polynesian but garden view which was still AMAZING. :goodvibes

Aside from tweaking some ADR's here and there, we were very happy with the plans we had for our trip... all that was left to do was wait for it to arrive and surprise the kids.... :rolleyes:

FINAL TWO TWISTS... First one... My sweet, sweet, well intentioned daughter snooped a little too much and discovered enough information to guess we were headed to Disney World. She and I discussed it and she was scared enough about getting in trouble because she snooped that she promised she would not say a word to her brothers so we could still surprise them. This went great and she never said a word to them about it! HOWEVER... and here's the second twist... two days before our trip... Erin jumps in the car after school and hands me a sheet of paper of t-shirt sizes for 4 of her friends... and I'm looking at this and asking her "Why are you giving me this? Why does this say Disney World? ERIN! Did you tell your friends we were going? Because this one right here... is <ahem> let's just say you need to call her right now and make sure she understands the importance of telling NO ONE about this trip." So Erin called her as well as the other three and felt confident the secret was safe.

And here's where the trip report begins....

veggiemama

01-11-2012, 09:23 PM

Am I really the first one to subscribe?! :yay::yay:

shocky5

01-11-2012, 09:26 PM

Am I really the first one to subscribe?! :yay::yay:

You are, Laura!! Yay!!! :cool1: And :welcome:

annmarieda

01-11-2012, 09:43 PM

:wave: now to go back to read :goodvibes

shocky5

01-11-2012, 09:45 PM

The morning of Thursday, Dec. 15th - Stanley, our elf on the shelf, left a note for the kids telling them that he was proud of 'how good they had been' all year long and that if they could go to school and take all of their "friday tests" they would not have to go to school on Friday and could have a special day. The boys were so excited and bought it hook, line and sinker.

At this point, their teachers were in on the surprise and knew to give them their tests and we really thought we were home free. Erin was set to take all of her semester tests on Thursday as well so all that was left was one school day and one sleep.

Imagine my surprise when I got to Eddie's office to pick them up from school and Nolan blurts out "I know we are going to Florida tomorrow!!" I truly felt myself leave my body and levitate above this chaotic scene... okay... that may be a little bit dramatic but I was floored. :eek: I'm looking at Nolan while Nate is yanking on my arm screaming "We are? We are? We are??" All I knew to say was "You better hurry up and go to your dad before I flip out here... I need a moment... he can bring you home... Erin! Get in the car."

Erin is now sobbing because it took 1/2 a pea brain to figure out where the leak came from. Basically, her one friend that I made her call had said something to her mom and then that mom innocently said something to the son who is in Nolan's class at school and he is the one who told Nolan about it. I was crying... Erin and I got home, I went in my bathroom and cried it out... all the while feeling like a total nut job for crying over the silly fact that my boys found out about the trip and I couldn't surprise them like I'd hoped... I mean after all... we were going to Disney! And that is the thought that helped me pull my big girl panties up... call the mom who was also crying and reassure her that it was all OKAY... and finish preparing for our trip. ;)

One positive... I was able to quit hiding suitcases and the boys could actually bring me their underwear and socks instead of me sneaking them after they were asleep. They still hadn't seen the t-shirts I'd got them so that was a surprise for them everyday to see what they 'got' or 'had' to wear... :rotfl2:

SO... the reveal didn't go as planned but we did it anyway... the next morning the kids woke up to this...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0689.jpg

Inside were t-shirts for them to wear that day and a Disney Christmas ornament... it was 4 a.m. in the morning so the kids are pretty 'sleepy' looking in the pictures below... they'd wanted to sleep in the living room so excuse the mess... :flower3:

Erin's...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0692.jpg

Nolan's...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0691.jpg

Nate's...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0693.jpg

And we were off to the airport... with what we thought was plenty of time to spare... ;)

shocky5

01-11-2012, 09:50 PM

:wave: now to go back to read :goodvibes

:hug: Ann! Glad you are here!!! :goodvibes I've missed everyone! Still want to see pictures of your haircut! Did you post any on facebook yet or on here?? :goodvibes

lilpixiebabe101

01-11-2012, 10:00 PM

How did I miss this!?!?! Going back to read now!

annmarieda

01-11-2012, 10:12 PM

lilpixiebabe101

01-11-2012, 10:24 PM

Love the ornaments. Nate's the only one who looks awake! He was the um very talkative child at CP that morning too! Morning person?

shocky5

01-11-2012, 10:25 PM

How did I miss this!?!?! Going back to read now!

You didn't miss anything! It's just an hour or two 'old.' But it's started finally!! :rotfl:

momabaarjo

01-11-2012, 10:25 PM

Wahhhh...i wanted to be first!

shocky5

01-11-2012, 10:29 PM

I have to color my hair first and then I will take pics. I am hoping to get that done tomorrow.

I am so sorry about the surprise being let out of the bag. I do love that the kids were sleepy, yet look so excited with with their ornaments.

BTW, you do not look anywhere near 40!!!!

And...the best you could do? Your kids are stunning!

Okay! Can't wait to see pics! Thank you for saying I don't look 40... that just means I did a good job on the photo edits!! :rotfl2:

Thank you for the compliment on the kids. They are so funny and each their own personalities for sure... hence Ashley's comment below!! :rotfl:

Love the ornaments. Nate's the only one who looks awake! He was the um very talkative child at CP that morning too! Morning person?

Nate is an "all day, every second, never still or quiet until he's asleep" person. But I love that about him (99.9% of the time)! :goodvibes You just wait until I tell some of the stories on him from this trip... definitely had at least one moment with him that I wanted to crawl in a hole until the turnstiles had officially opened and we didn't have to see the people standing in line behind us ever again.... :rolleyes1

Glad you are here, Ashley!!!

shocky5

01-11-2012, 10:31 PM

Wahhhh...i wanted to be first!

I tried to tell you, friend! ;) Glad you are here!!!

aadaneboy

01-11-2012, 11:14 PM

Johndough

01-11-2012, 11:27 PM

Count me in. I can't wait to read more. :)

momabaarjo

01-12-2012, 06:29 AM

nvsnot

01-12-2012, 07:20 AM

I'm in :surfweb:.

veggiemama

01-12-2012, 08:13 AM

It's too bad the reveal did not go exactly according to plan. :hug: It is such a tough thing to keep secret and you almost made it! I think I would have cried and been really frustrated by that.

I love the am pictures. My kids definitely do NOT look that cute or happy at that time in the morning. No morning people here.... we are bears in the morning, which in the end has its funny moment too. :goodvibes

Monknmom

01-12-2012, 09:42 AM

I'm in.... :surfweb:

I'm sorry that the reveal didn't go as planned. I can't remember who told me that though through a text... maybe you? But hey, they were still surprised with the gifts! And did they know it was Disney or just Florida?

Moodyzblu

01-12-2012, 10:36 AM

Joining in !

Sorry about the reveal .. I'd have been very upset too. :sad1:

But you got to go to Disney !! :banana:

shocky5

01-12-2012, 02:22 PM

Cant wait to read more!!!

I'm new to DISboards, but certainly not to WDW!!!

Santa surprised our 2 children this Christmas (actually he surprised all of us :santa: with a trip to WDW in March! Reading all these trip reports has gotten me soo excited for our trip......

Welcome! It's nice to have readers with upcoming trips because the rest of us can live vicariously through you!! :goodvibes

shocky5

01-12-2012, 02:23 PM

Count me in. I can't wait to read more. :)

Yeah! Welcome! I will have to come join your PTR! :goodvibes

shocky5

01-12-2012, 02:28 PM

Story of my life...always late it seems! Just for the record your title refers to Ann and Ashley right? :cool1::lmao:

I am still crying for you over the unexpected reveal...but you are right pull up the big girl panties after all you can shout "I'm going to Disney World." So love Nate's ornament...bet he loved it too! Nolan's face is priceless...and Erin...I know why you have the back of the head shot with her....:rotfl:

Had you not started your TR yet, Tammie, my title would have been "The second to the last of the OCD Type A Planners..." :rotfl2:

And yes - you are correct... even before I took that picture of Erin, she told me ahead of time "Mom, I'm going to turn my head while you take this picture because... you know... I look pretty gross right now." :rotfl:

I'm in :surfweb:.

Welcome! Happy to have you along!!

It's too bad the reveal did not go exactly according to plan. :hug: It is such a tough thing to keep secret and you almost made it! I think I would have cried and been really frustrated by that.

I love the am pictures. My kids definitely do NOT look that cute or happy at that time in the morning. No morning people here.... we are bears in the morning, which in the end has its funny moment too. :goodvibes

Laura - you are right - I think because we were so very close to the reveal is what 'bit' the most!!

I'm in.... :surfweb:

I'm sorry that the reveal didn't go as planned. I can't remember who told me that though through a text... maybe you? But hey, they were still surprised with the gifts! And did they know it was Disney or just Florida?

I can't remember if I texted or threw it on the DIS before the packing resumed. But I do think you and I talked about it. And Nolan did say "Florida" but my kids know my love for the mouse and his world so that was next out of their mouths.

Joining in !

Sorry about the reveal .. I'd have been very upset too. :sad1:

But you got to go to Disney !! :banana:

Thank you! :goodvibes Your trip is getting closer!! :cool1:

15isto2

01-12-2012, 02:33 PM

Looks like I am late to the party but am allong for the ride

shocky5

01-12-2012, 02:36 PM

shocky5

01-12-2012, 02:37 PM

Looks like I am late to the party but am allong for the ride

Welcome! And absolutely NOT late! I just started this last night and there's still the travel to Disney plus 8 more days to cover!

Happy to have you here!! :goodvibes

Grumpy's Wife

01-12-2012, 02:42 PM

oceanwave

01-12-2012, 02:57 PM

Loving your trip report!

I can totally understand why you were upset when the reveal didn't go as planned. I would have been upset too!

Looking forward to hear more about your trip :yay:

Moodyzblu

01-12-2012, 05:06 PM

MelMel11

01-12-2012, 05:47 PM

Im in!!!

momabaarjo

01-12-2012, 06:31 PM

danimaroo

01-12-2012, 08:31 PM

I'm in! I missed out on your PTR but I like how you write and I'm excited to follow along! We are heading out dos WDW in 6 days, but I will be keeping up with your TR before and after our trip. :)

My heart broke for you when the reveal was messed up. Such a bummer! But on the bright side, the kids were really excited which is a grea thing. Can't wait to hear about the whole trip; your kids definitely sound like characters. :laughing:

veggiemama

01-12-2012, 09:20 PM

shocky5

01-13-2012, 11:49 AM

Ok, I'm hooked.

So sorry your surprise didn't go as planned. I still dream of the day that I can surprise my kids but I'm too much of a talker for that to happen. If I find something new on the DIS I can't wait to share the info with them.

:welcome: So happy to have you! I'm very flattered that I'm picking up readers so I will try to move this report along and keep it entertaining! :goodvibes

I can be a talker, too. There were times I found myself about to slip and my DH would look at me like this :eek: and cut me off before I said too much. :rotfl:

Loving your trip report!

I can totally understand why you were upset when the reveal didn't go as planned. I would have been upset too!

Looking forward to hear more about your trip :yay:

:welcome: I'm glad you like the report! I'm having a great time putting it together! Thanks for reading along!!!

shocky5

01-13-2012, 11:52 AM

Im in!!!

:welcome: Thanks for reading along! :goodvibes

I'm in! I missed out on your PTR but I like how you write and I'm excited to follow along! We are heading out dos WDW in 6 days, but I will be keeping up with your TR before and after our trip. :)

My heart broke for you when the reveal was messed up. Such a bummer! But on the bright side, the kids were really excited which is a grea thing. Can't wait to hear about the whole trip; your kids definitely sound like characters. :laughing:

:welcome: Thank you! How exciting your trip is so close! Seems like 'just yesterday' I was just days ahead of leaving for ours! Treasure each and every moment, the good and the bad, and then you can allow us to live vicariously through you when you return! :goodvibes

My kids are characters! I can't wait for my photopass cd to arrive... I made a 'special' picture out of one of the pics they took to share with everyone... :rotfl:

KatMark

01-13-2012, 12:06 PM

Amy, I'm here...and I'm late. But I promise to be back and catch up soon.

:hug:

shocky5

01-13-2012, 12:14 PM

I left you all with my family leaving our house for the airport. Our take off time was 6:50 a.m. It's an easy 35-40 minute drive to the Tulsa Airport and we left the house about 5:10a, est. time of arrival to check bags was 6:00a which for our airport is PLENTY of time.

What we didn't count on... as soon as we parked an airport worker pulled up in the golf cart baggage carrier contraption to assist with luggage and driving us up to the check-in. AWESOME! We wouldn't have to walk in the cold. HOWEVER... Mr. ?? whose name eludes me right now immediately recognized my DH and begins to question him to determine how he knows him. Turns out, Mr. ?? was a retired coach who had coached some baseball games against my DH and Mr. ?? was extremely talkative and distracted by running into DH. SO what should have taken just minutes to get up to the baggage check, took literally 10 minutes... clock is now ticking in my head... it's COLD outside... and as we finally make our way up to baggage check... I'm hearding our children and luggage to the door while DH is still being contained by Mr. ??.

We were already checked in so all we had to do was drop our luggage off. Took maybe a minute. Just as I started to feel a little bit of relief... we head up the escalators and in all of my years of flying out of this airport, I have NEVER seen a line at security check. And boy was there a line...

The time is now pushing 6:20a. There was no doubt in my mind that they were beginning to board our plane. We tell DH bye and basically Erin and I were crying. Couldn't help it. Just felt so strange to be leaving him behind even knowing he would be catching up with us in a few days. He tells us bye and heads back to find the car so he can get to school on time and we submit to the security line. Erin is still teary eyed, and now also realizing our plane leaves in 30 minutes. So she is now fretting, as well. I'm trying to be the rooster and the hen of our family so I put on the 'fake happy face' and reassure them the plane won't leave us. They have our bags, they know we are here and they don't want to have to figure out how to get us there so they will wait. We commence to people watching in line and try to strategically pick which path we will take when the line finally splits after boarding passes are checked. Thankfully, a security agent came over after we cleared the first checkpoint to remind me the boys did not have to remove shoes which saved some time and we were through by 6:45a.

As we were run/walking to our gate which THANK YOU LORD was the first one and not the last one in our terminal, we hear on the overhead:

"<insert our last name here> party of 4 to gate B1, <last name> party of 4 to gate B1..."

The lady at the gate just finishes the announcement as we run up to the gate and she has a very sweet smile on... and said "I knew you were here!" Which made me look like a genius to the kids. :goodvibes

We board with no problems... the door shuts... and even though Erin was crying again <she's not my flier> we were on our way.

Only had time for one picture...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0695.jpg

Isn't that gross?? I can't tell you how many times I had to tell my 9 year old "Get your hands out of your mouth..." EWWWW

First stop - Dallas/Fort Worth, TX.

shocky5

01-13-2012, 12:17 PM

Amy, I'm here...and I'm late. But I promise to be back and catch up soon.

:hug:

:hug: Kathy! I knew you'd eventually make your way over here! You aren't late! :goodvibes

shocky5

01-13-2012, 09:22 PM

We made it to Dallas/Fort Worth airport with no problems which really helped put Erin's uneasiness back in check. I was grateful for the smooth flight we had. Since we didn't have a chance to grab breakfast at the Tulsa airport, we made our way to our departure terminal and found a Starbuck's near our gate. Muffins, apple juice and a BIG COFFEE for mom... and we were able to park ourselves for our layover. It wasn't too long of a layover - just over an hour - and we were soon chatting it up with another family who were also headed to Disney. I have no pictures to share... I was somewhat frazzled in making sure I kept track of my kids and made it on the next plane. I do know that at one point while we were sitting and waiting to board that one of my kids knocked my coffee over on my foot... :confused3 It wasn't a terrible thing other than I was tempted to lick the spilled coffee off of my shoe. :rotfl2:

We boarded and departed on time and had another wonderful, smooth flight to Orlando. We were 'officially' becoming more excited, even while missing Dad, and after landing in Orlando, catching the mini-monorail shuttle we were headed to baggage claim. We did not do DME this time - we reserved car transportation this trip. And this would have been PERFECT if I hadn't have made a right turn when I should have made a left... delaying us meeting our luggage and our driver by about 10 minutes. :lmao: Oh well... Demetrius, which was our driver's name... looked awfully lonely standing there with our name on his board. Grabbed our luggage, loaded it up and away we went!

Here is a picture of Erin and Nate in the town car. It's kind of dark but the car was parked in a shaded area.
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0696.jpg

It was a short 15-20 minute ride through Orlando and into the Happiest Place on Earth! And the excitement we felt when we started to see these tell-tale signs was familiar and welcomed!

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1047.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1050.jpg

We were officially back for our Christmas trip to Disney World!

shocky5

01-13-2012, 09:43 PM

This was our third stay at the Polynesian Resort but our first time to stay club level. I will say we are now officially 'spoiled' by club level. It was just so very convenient to grab snacks and drinks throughout the day and evening. I was not entirely sure pre-trip how much benefit we would gain from the concierge lounge but I do believe we got our money's worth just in drinks alone. And my kids looked forward to turn down service and chocolates each night. :goodvibes

Okay... so back to check-in. We pulled up to the Polynesian and were greeted immediately by Bob. Bob had a golf cart ready to load our luggage, called for our room number and explained he'd take us to our room first and then back to the concierge check in to get our official keys to the world and so on. Bob drove us around the Polynesian resort showing us where the pools were, the Great Ceremonial House, laundry service, etc. We already knew this information from prior visits but we enjoyed the tour anyway. The resort is beautiful and I could never get tired of seeing it!

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1054.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1055.jpg

Bob eventually made it to the longhouse we would be staying in - Hawaii.

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0705.jpg

He then escorted us inside. We had requested a first floor or third floor room because we wanted either a patio or a balcony. We were assigned to room 1526... Or were we? ;) And here is one of the very few 'non-magical' moments we had on our trip...

Bob took us to what he thought was our room... he'd said 1526, but he opened the door to 1527, so crazy me thought he'd said the wrong room number. SO when he opened up 1527, there were other occupants in that room. :rotfl2: In Bob's embarassment and confusion, he takes us back to the concierge lobby and tells them that the room we'd been assigned was occupied. SO they then told me that the only room ready at that time was on the 2nd floor. Not wanting to be a pain or prolong getting into a room with the kids, I opted for the available 2nd floor room. 2533. After we delivered luggage and kids to the room, and upon returning to concierge check in to get keys, etc., it was discovered that Bob took us to the wrong room initially. BUMMER. We should have gone in 1526 after all and it was vacant. I know we would have enjoyed the first floor room more but the thought, at the time, of moving three kids and luggage did not appeal. And I was relatively sure the kids were getting into swimsuits already... :rotfl: so I let my disappointment go and just went with it. On a positive, we were just steps away from concierge lounge and it was nice to let the kids go get a drink on their own throughout our stay.

Here is a pic of our room on arrival:

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0698.jpg

What was first on the list of to do's?? The plan was to let the kids go swim for a bit, then eat dinner at Whispering Canyon Cafe at the Wilderness Lodge. From there, we would then go to Fort Wilderness to see campground Christmas decorations of which I'd heard were amazing! Then we were going to drop in at Epcot to try to do a dismeet with Heather and Ann.

All I'm going to say at this point is that it was a great plan..... ;)

Stay tuned to find out how our first evening in The World went! :thumbsup2

shocky5

01-13-2012, 10:18 PM

While the boys were swimming, I snapped a few pictures...

This was our view across the Seven Seas Lagoon from the Polynesian and just outside our longhouse:

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0702.jpg

This is Erin and I sitting in the lounge chairs while the boys swam. For whatever reason, Erin didn't just jump in the pool as is the norm in past trips. She would ease her way in... I think it was a combo of being a teenager, who is modest (thankfully), and trying to decide if she wanted to hang with her brothers thus leaving mom alone in lounge chair... ;)

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0707.jpg

She eventually got in the water and they got to swim about an hour before I pulled them out to go get ready for dinner.

We knew we'd need to leave fairly early for our ADR at WCC. I believe our reservation was at 5:25p and I wanted to give us about an hour to get there because I knew we'd need to take the monorail to the MK and then the boat to WL. It was a pleasant trip over.

Here is Erin and Nolan on the ferry boat from MK to WL:
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0714.jpg

I also have some pictures we took before dinner that are on the photopass so I will have to post those when the cd arrives to my house! :goodvibes

Now for a short dining review of WCC... we opted to have milkshakes and the skillet meal.

Nate, since he was still considered a kid, had his own skillet.

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0726.jpg

Erin, Nolan, and I shared another skillet... and I cannot imagine any one person eating one of these on their own...

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0725.jpg

The food was fine. Of course, we loved the milkshakes the most. I do think we were somewhat jet lagged at this point because Nolan was nodding off during our meal. Yes - my 10 year old fell asleep in what was supposed to be one of the loudest, rowdiest meals available in Disney World.

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0727.jpg

Basically, we were seated in a somewhat isolated location, not in the main eating area... our waiter was non-interactive in regards to antics... no extra ketchup or straws... and if I'd gone to this place solely for the antics, it would have been a total fail. We could hear the fun going on in the other room and my kids would get up and go peek around the fireplace we were seated next to trying to figure out what the noise was but otherwise our meal was very <ahem> boring. :rolleyes1

I should mention that Erin had been diagnosed with croup and put on steroids prior to our trip and she was feeling okay but still coughing quite a bit. Our pediatrician sent me with extra just in case one of the other two kids might catch it as well. As luck would have it, both boys had begun to cough and become stuffy by dinner time. SO, the mom in me kicked in and decided we would forgo Fort Wilderness and the dismeet at Epcot so I could get the kids back to the room, drug them, and get them to bed so we could attempt to make rope drop the next day.

We rode the boat back to MK, this boat was larger than the ferry boat and we enjoyed the peaceful ride back.

The boys...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0731.jpg

The girls...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0733.jpg

The one thing we did not plan on when making our way back to MK to catch the monorail back to the Polynesian was the fact that it was a MVMCP night. So imagine our surprise when we dock at MK roughly at 7p and the very large crowd making their way out of MK... :sad2: I told the kids to walk as fast as they could to the monorail or else it could be a long wait.

We made it on the second monorail to pass through which I didn't think was too bad considering the people in line behind us and the amount of shoving going on... :rolleyes:

By the time we arrived back to the Polynesian, it was about 7:30p and it was nice to walk into our room to find this:

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0736.jpg

The kids took one more dip in the pool while I chit chatted with Eddie on the phone, we managed to make it through the electric water pageant production, and then we went inside, gave everybody some medicine, and all were tucked in bed by 9:30p. I couldn't believe how tired we were but it had been an early morning and we had a rope drop to make.... after setting our Mickey wake up call for 6:15a, I know I was asleep by 10p.

Who would get Mickey's call in the morning and would we make rope drop?? :3dglasses

annmarieda

01-13-2012, 10:45 PM

Just wanted to share with you all... my daughter just called me and told me the varsity basketball coach is going to have her play with the junior varsity tonight... she's an 8th grader for those that don't know... excited for her! Will be a good experience for her... and then there's this tiny bit of nagging in the back of my mind telling me that some of those JV girls mamas are not going to be happy about this... because it will take time away from their child on the court if he puts Erin in.

More to come... :wizard: magic that all the drama mama's stay calm tonight. :scared1:

:cheer2::cheer2: go Erin!!!

We are heading out dos WDW in 6 days, but I will be keeping up with your TR before and after our trip. :)

I have to share with you... my dd is about to head to WDW, and is a few months shy of her 1 year anniversary(:rolleyes: well, 4 to be exact)..and will be flying out of seatac. (I assume that is where you will be flying out of.)
I don't see that many disers from this side of the country who go to WDW. so between all of those things... I just had to say hi :wave:

annmarieda

01-13-2012, 10:51 PM

OMG! that initial flight would have made me lose my mind! You are such a strong woman!!! We plan each flight to be at the airport 2 hours ahead just cause it takes so long here to get through security. We arrived very early this last trip and there was still a HUGE line. :confused3:confused3

I am sorry about the room mix up! Very frustrating.:headache:

I hate that we missed you. I know I am going to read parts of you TR and think "OMG, we just missed each other!". So you were at WL the night of the 15th? :sad2: However, don't feel totally bad about missing the antics. I don't think we ever heard much going on there. I remember thinking before the trip that we may not want a room that is near the lobby because of the reported noise. Yet each time we went through the lobby it was pretty darn quiet!

Can't wait to read more!!

shocky5

01-14-2012, 11:14 AM

shocky5

01-14-2012, 12:00 PM

I actually woke up before the alarm went off or we got our wake up call... so typical for me to do that. I've always dreamed about being one who can sleep in but normally, I cannot. I really do try, though!! :confused3

When the phone rang with our wake up call, I tried to get Nate to answer the phone because I knew who would be on the other end... here's how that went:

Me: Nate! Nate! Answer this phone!!

Nate: C'mon Mom... who do you think it is?

Me: It's probably Mickey!

Nate: Oh, well just let it ring - he'll call back and I'll answer it then. (then he rolls over to go back to sleep)

:rotfl2:

After finally getting the kids awake and dressed in our Disney attire, we took a couple of pictures before departing from our room to head to the concierge lounge to grab some breakfast.

Erin and I in front of our non-balcony sliding window... :rotfl:
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0738.jpg

The boys and I in front of same window... ;)
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0737.jpg

After grabbing some food from the lounge, we headed for the transportation and ticket center, on foot, and headed for the Epcot monorail and hopped right on. I was concerned about the wear and tear I'd been hearing about in regards to the monorail and am thankful to report we did not have to endure but one 'restart' for the duration of our trip. I did however notice many times when we'd opt to take the ferry boat from MK back to Polynesian that I would see a monorail sitting for a bit (5 or more minutes) on the track and was happy to be traveling by water. :goodvibes Not sure if it was a congested track issue or what... :confused3

I'm happy to report not only did we make it to rope drop at Epcot, but we were first in line at our turnstile! This was the first ever for our family! :goodvibes

Here are the boys in line...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0740.jpg

Here is some of the scenery that greeted us while we waited...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0741.jpg

When we were allowed into the park, we actually had a plan! Another first for us! We walked very quickly to The Land and grabbed fastpasses for Soarin and then immediately headed back over to Test Track. We rode this three times in a row, walk-on, before moving on. I do know I texted Ann and told her my 'good hairday was officially over' after riding Test Track repeatedly. :lmao:

I really_really thought I had a picture of us loading on Test Track (still waiting on photopass cd, too...grrrr) but I guess I was wrong. After Test Track we rode Mission Space, Soarin', Nemo, Figment, and at some point in the day we grabbed fast passes again for Soarin and Test Track because we rode those before dinner and leaving the park. We also rode Maelstrom, Gran Fiesta Tour, and experienced Ellen's Energy Adventure for the first time. I couldn't believe this but my kids loved Ellen's Adventure.

We ate a lot of these on our trip....
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0748.jpg

We toured the counter-clockwise countries in World Showcase (and I most likely have these out of order...):

Mexico
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0749.jpg

Africa
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0763.jpg
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0765.jpg

Germany (complete with caramel treats - YUM)
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0760.jpg

The German Storyteller and the Nutcracker
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0756.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0759.jpg

Norway
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0767.jpg

Also snapped this shot of Spaceship Earth from Worldshowcase
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0753.jpg

After touring, it was time for our dinner ADR at Akershus in Norway. Small dining review... my kids did not care for this meal. The princesses were great, Nate loved his kid friendly pizza, but my older two turned their noses up at their meal. I had the beef tips of which Nolan and Erin ended up splitting because they had both gotten the meatballs. They loved the mashed potatoes but after trying the meatballs, the taste was just too different from anything they'd had before.

Here's a pic:
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0780.jpg

I think I ended up eating the green beans and we turned to dessert. The appetizer buffet was great and the dessert was delicious. So not a bad restaurant at all but my two older kids will tell you otherwise because of the meatballs... :rotfl:

I will have to post pictures of the kids with the princesses later. Didn't get them uploaded to photobucket like I had thought. Sorry about that.

We left Epcot after dinner, around 6:30p. When we were leaving Akershus, we actually ran into the sweet family we had met at the DFW airport on our way. Was fun to see a familiar face! We spoke to them and then made our way back to the monorail. The kids were ready to swim some more and I think we were still getting our "Florida legs" beneath us getting adjusted to the walking.

After swimming, we got ready for bed - it was early, 8:30p, and Erin decided she was starving. SO again, I was very thankful for the concierge lounge. We walked to the lounge, grabbed a few snacks and then got back to bed. We were asleep no later than 9:15p. I found this so funny! :rotfl: But kids were still fighting their colds/croup/whatever so I felt like I needed to make sure I didn't wear them out completely.

We had an early morning ADR at a magical place and a dismeet in the morning to get to! :goodvibes

annmarieda

01-14-2012, 01:51 PM

veggiemama

01-14-2012, 05:19 PM

Love the pictures at WS.

I can't believe how much you got done in the day and were still in bed by 9:30!! :thumbsup2:rotfl:

oceanwave

01-14-2012, 07:32 PM

Great pictures!

Love Nate's response to Mickey's wake up call! My husband would say the same thing, to him sleep is more important :rotfl:

Congrats on making it to Epcot so early and being first in line! I never did accomplished that when we were there last.

KatMark

01-14-2012, 09:00 PM

Amy, as promised, I'm back...finally. :eek:

Love the introductions. Glad the flights were smooth (but I'm with your daughter...I'm not a flier either...it will be tough to get on plane in 12 days all by myself. :scared1:

I love the photos of the Polynesian...it really is a beautiful resort.

We were stuck in that back room at the WCC the one and only time we went. But there were no "antics" going on in the main room either. Mark and I loved the milkshakes; the food -- not so much.

Great photos at Epcot. That's great you got to do Test Track three times in a row.

Again, I'm with your kids...we did lunch at Akershus...did not care ofr it; but the Princesses were great.

sl_underwood

01-14-2012, 10:26 PM

:surfweb:

shocky5

01-15-2012, 03:41 PM

:surfweb:

:welcome: Glad you are joining in!

shocky5

01-15-2012, 03:52 PM

I love the pictures taken in WS. I really wish I had taken more time there.

I have had the meatballs at Akershus a couple times. First time it was yummy... i believe served with logan berries. The next time was way to heavily seasoned.

BTW, :woohoo: on being first in line at the turnstile!!!

And you are correct about the 16th.. but I thought you were referencing the 15th. :rolleyes: Thats what I get for staying up late to dis. I get all confused. ;)

Ann - this was probably the most time we've ever spent in WS. And I'm happy to report my kids didn't complain. I'm glad they are getting old enough to be interested in what each country has to offer... not much on the films, etc but the offerings in the various stores were interesting to browse through.

I can't believe we were one of the first... I can definitely say, and this will be in my trip report, that I'm glad I utilized the 'touring' resources I did to help determine our days, etc. because it made a huge difference in what we got done. And I was skeptical to some extent at taking the planning that far but am glad that I did. :goodvibes

Love the pictures at WS.

I can't believe how much you got done in the day and were still in bed by 9:30!! :thumbsup2:rotfl:

All I can say is touring plans coupled with easywdw and ridemax made huge differences in our days.

Great pictures!

Love Nate's response to Mickey's wake up call! My husband would say the same thing, to him sleep is more important :rotfl:

Congrats on making it to Epcot so early and being first in line! I never did accomplished that when we were there last.

Nate is so funny. He finally jumped up and of course Mickey didn't call back that day but he was willing to answer the next day... :rotfl:

Amy, as promised, I'm back...finally. :eek:

Love the introductions. Glad the flights were smooth (but I'm with your daughter...I'm not a flier either...it will be tough to get on plane in 12 days all by myself. :scared1:

I love the photos of the Polynesian...it really is a beautiful resort.

We were stuck in that back room at the WCC the one and only time we went. But there were no "antics" going on in the main room either. Mark and I loved the milkshakes; the food -- not so much.

Great photos at Epcot. That's great you got to do Test Track three times in a row.

Again, I'm with your kids...we did lunch at Akershus...did not care ofr it; but the Princesses were great.

I'm glad several of you feel similar to how we did about the Akershus food. The meatballs were highly seasoned and I think both the meat and the gravy... I think my kids ordered them without the berry sauce which may have been their downfall. Oh well... we still enjoyed the experience. Nolan has an Ariel story that I probably shouldn't share on the DIS. :rotfl2:

Kathy, I agree - the milkshakes at WCC were very good! :thumbsup2

shocky5

01-15-2012, 04:03 PM

Here is the picture of us loading onto an empty Test Track
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0742.jpg

And the princesses from Akershus Royal Storybook Dinner:
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0777.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0781.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0783.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0784.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0785.jpg

I will still have some more pictures when photopass arrives so I will share those then.

I do realize I've left something out that plays a 'small role' in the memories of our trip... As I stated earlier, we booked our trip in honor of my 40th birthday even though I really didn't plan on celebrating my birthday because the trip was for the family and not me. But when we booked, Eddie did tell them we were celebrating my 40th more to tease me than anything. Well I got the 'Happy Birthday' button upon check-in and while I didn't have any intentions of wearing it, my kids stuck it on my park bag. Just tuck that away in the back of your mind for later stories! :goodvibes

shocky5

01-15-2012, 04:27 PM

Once again, the alarm was set and Mickey was set to call. Nate had informed me he would wake up and answer the phone call this time and he did. He was funny to watch while he listened to the message. He had kind of a half-grin on his face but I could tell he was questioning whether he was really listening to Mickey or if it was a recording! :scared1: :rotfl:

The kids got up and we were ready to head out the door. We had an early ADR at the Crystal Palace in Magic Kingdom for 8:05a. We were also going to meet up with Ashley (lilpixiebabe) and her sweet daughter Alexa and brother Joe and Mom.

Here was another little twist... when we had made this ADR originally, the MK was set to open at 9a. Well, as luck would have it, MK changed their hours a few weeks before we left and were now opening at 8a. We opted to keep the ADR because it was a predicted low crowd day and we had tickets that night to Mickey's Very Magic Christmas Party. So the plan was to get there about 7:40a, get in the park a little bit early, take some pics, have breakfast and then tour the MK.

We were out the door and to the monorail by about 7:35a. Pretty good, I thought. We hop on the monorail, make our way to the Grand Floridian, unload and load and then hear the announcement (after the doors are shut) "Ladies and Gentlemen, please be patient while we reboot the monorail. We will be on our way shortly." :headache: Ashley had texted me by this time telling me they were in the park at CP. Well, 'shortly' in Disney terms is not necessarily short... we did get on our way, pulled up to MK, and unloaded only to find large lines at bag check which I'd failed to consider. DOUBLE:headache::headache:

We got through bag check, made our way over to the left where the early breakfast ppl get to enter and the clock is ticking to 8a. I wasn't concerned about being late for ADR, but I didn't want to get trampled by the people ready to run the second the park opened. :eek: We got into the park when we hear the countdown begin, the people cheering, and I tell my kids stay on the sidewalk of the shops on Main Street and hold on to each other... and before the rope even fell, people were going under it and running up Main Street. My kids were in shock... and laughing... it was a funny memory for us. :goodvibes

We finally arrived at Crystal Palace:
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/IMG_1187.jpg

And I immediately hear someone say "AMY!" And it was Ashley and her sweet family. Her mom and brother were gracious to take our pictures for us.

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0796.jpg

We then checked in, visited while we waited to be seated and were called in after about 10 minutes to go to our table. We really enjoyed this breakfast! And I'm a total loser because I do not have a single food pic from this meal. Sorry friends!! But here are the characters we spent some time with! :goodvibes

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0800.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0801.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0802.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0804.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0805.jpg

Nolan was the only one who was brave enough to do the kid parade... the other two were either 'shy' or 'too cool.' Here's Nolan with his ever present smile on his face:
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0810.jpg

Crystal Palace was a great breakfast, no complaints, and we all ate everything we wanted to try. We were finished up by 9a and headed out into MK next.

I would say this is where our 'day' got a little bit weird... :rotfl2:

To be continued....

shocky5

01-15-2012, 04:58 PM

We absolutely love Magic Kingdom. But it's like we couldn't get our 'rhythm' going while in the park this day. I don't know if it's because we knew we would be there that evening for the party or if we were more tired than we cared to admit from our three early mornings in a row... but regardless, we were all a little bit irritable.

We headed over to Tomorrowland first to check out getting a fastpass for Space Mountain. We got a fastpass but the standby was so short, we decided to go ahead and ride it, too. The last time my kids rode this ride, they were 'this size.'

From our first trip in 2007... Erin was 9, Nolan was 6 and Nate was 4.
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/DSCF0636.jpg

Needless to say, they 'liked' Space Mountain in 2007, but they didn't LOVE Space Mountain in 2007. When we visited in 2009, SM was under refurb so we didn't get to ride it then. SO I was a little bit unsure how they would respond to it this time....

They LOOOOVED IT! And I have the photopass pic to prove it when the cd arrives. :rotfl2:

We rode it once, and tucked our FP's away for later on.

As we were leaving SM, we decided to stop off at the restroom before heading over to Frontier Land... I was looking down at my phone texting with Ann when I hear "I believe somebody is following you!" It was a CM with one of the characters and I was the somebody following... :lmao: I had no idea that we were walking behind and were about to run over this character who undoubtedly thought I was a little nutty at the time...

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0816.jpg

The CM and Stitch were kind enough to stop and take a picture with the kids.

We continue our walk back over to Frontier Land with the sole intention of riding BTMRR. We love this ride as well. And as luck would have it, we were able to get another FP and not wait too long in the standby line ensuring at least two rides on this ride, as well.

Nolan and I on BTMRR
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0823.jpg

Erin and Nate on BTMRR
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0824.jpg

After this ride, we made our way over to Fantasyland... and it was at this point I just felt like we were 'wandering' around. The kids were cranky, thus making me cranky, and I was really missing Eddie there to help buffer some of that. The lines were pretty long in Fantasyland and no one really wanted to wait in line yet we really didn't know what else we wanted to do... so we jumped on It's A Small World knowing it would at least give us a break and I could "think" about what we wanted to do....

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0817.jpg

This was a funny moment... this holiday season is the year Nate figured out who the Rockettes were... and upon entering this part of IASW, you can see him pointing at some dolls doing 'kicks' and he's asking me if those are suppposed to be the Rockettes...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0818.jpg

From IASW, we went to Liberty Square and rode Haunted Mansion. We always enjoy this ride so much. We did not take the que through the cemetary... but vowed we would the next time we rode. ;)

After we got off of this ride, we walked over to Adventureland and headed towards POTC... we managed to grab some Mickey Bars to eat on our way. Here are the kids finishing theirs up before we got on the ride:

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0825.jpg

The Mickey Bars and POTC seemed to really help. We'd decided after we got off of this ride, we'd make our way back to the Polynesian, eat lunch there, swim a bit and then rest before going back to MK at 4p for our ADR at the Plaza. We ended up buying one of the POTC movie DVD's to watch in our room... best investment I made the entire trip. If ever I wanted them to rest, we'd put that movie on and they'd be so calm and quiet!

We did watch the performance of Jack Sparrow's pirate training which was cute and took a few pictures before we left.... but in the back of my mind, I really couldn't believe we were already leaving the MK after only a few hours. I was worried we were making a mistake...

Jack Sparrow
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0827.jpg

Some other pics on our way out... just trying to take it 'easy.'
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0828.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0829.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0830.jpg

We stayed true to our plan to leave for a bit. We road the ferry boat back, went to Captain Cooks and grabbed a light lunch and then went to our room and laid down with the movie on. I think every one of us slept some which is probably what we needed.

Next up... back to MK for early dinner and Mickey's Very Magic Christmas Party! Would we have a better experience the second time around??

swwake

01-15-2012, 05:00 PM

shocky5

01-15-2012, 05:04 PM

I am loving this so far! I am trying to figure out when it was that I saw you entering the Hawaii building in a rush with the kids and texted "was that you Amy that I just saw at Hawaii?"

I'm thinking it had to be either Saturday night after we arrived and were on our way to WL for dinner, or maybe sometime on Sunday when you would have taken a break back at the resort.

Yay! You made it over here! I am not sure either! I think it was Saturday night because it seems like you were going to WL for dinner and I got your message while sitting by the pool with the kids while they swam some. But it's so funny you say that because I was trying to decide when as well so I could get it in my report! :goodvibes

momabaarjo

01-16-2012, 06:35 PM

So sorry about Mr. ??? and the delays in security. I had to laugh because that was around the time you texted me about having your name called at the gate...I told you that you were already getting the magical treatment! I love that you called yourself both the rooster and the hen...poor Erin and her rough start to the flight!

I love the town car pick up...so glad that we used it instead of trying to get back to MCO on marathon day! I am going to have to check out club level if we ever go back as a family.

I am so loving all of your pictures...including ones with you in them. Even with photo pass, I am still the one behind the lense and I always try to avoid the camera anyway!

Nolan sleeping during WL skillet meal....:lmao:I wish I would have kept this ADR instead of the one I replaced it with...the meal looks better and even with Nolan sleeping I am sure the atmosphere was better!

I can't believe that Nate told you that Mickey would call back...:rotfl2:

KatMark

01-16-2012, 07:19 PM

Great update, Amy. I love the photos with the Princesses. And the pictures with Pooh and friends at my favorite breakfast place are adorable.

Glad the kids LOVED Space Mountain this trip. Great morning at MK. And sometimes the best thing to do is take a catnap in the afternoon to revitalize yourself.

annmarieda

01-16-2012, 09:14 PM

Love the updates! The pictures are all so good!

I was frustrated by the change in park hours since it affected our CP ADR too. We made it... and I will leave the details till I get to it on my TR...but I was really worried.

shocky5

01-19-2012, 04:37 PM

So as I said earlier, we left MK after just a few hours and rode the ferry back to the Polynesian, grabbed a quick lunch at Captain Cook's and went back to our room. We put in the POTC DVD we bought and took a rest. About 3:00 that afternoon, we decided to make our way back to MK... better attitudes and looking forward to Mickey's Very Magic Christmas Party.

I tried to take some more holiday pictures as we made our way back down Main Street towards The Plaza where would be having dinner.
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0836.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0837.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0838.jpg

We made our way to the Plaza where we had one of our most favorite meals. :goodvibes I had read reviews of the Plaza in Kathy's (KatMark) TR's and the food was wonderful and it wasn't too heavy. After all, we'd had CP for breakfast, lunch at Captain Cooks, so this was great for us! Originally, we were going to go to 1900 Park Fare and I'm glad I switched this ADR.
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0843.jpg

I have no food porn! Sorry! But Nate had the kids PB&J, Erin had the club, and Nolan and I had the grilled chicken sandwiches and they were really good!

After we ate, we made our way to Stitch's Great Escape fastpass machines... not because we wanted to ride the ride but because this is where we traded in our tickets for our wristbands for the party! :goodvibes The line was long but the lady assured us the one out front would be considerably worse and surprisingly enough, we had our wristbands in under 30 minutes. Since we were in Tomorrowland, we decided to go ahead and use our FP from earlier in the day for Space Mountain. Just as we get to the loading area of Space Mountain, I look at my beloved youngest son who is now so obviously doing what we call in Oklahoma "the pee pee dance." There was no way I was putting the kid on SM, in that condition, so the lady at the loading area was nice enough to let Erin and Nolan ride and gave us a FP ticket for the four of us to come back later and ride again.

We then made our way to the PeopleMover... my kids loved this ride in 2007... it was under refurb in 2009 and they threw the biggest fit that I was 'making' them ride it... but as we all know "Momma knows best" and they loved it!

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0854.jpg

After this, it was time to go to the hub and catch Cinderella's Wish and the castle lighting. This was a beautiful production....

Mickey and friends talking about dreams and wishes
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0866.jpg

Cinderella wishing for her castle to be lit up like ice
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0869.jpg

The Fairy Godmother appears
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0868.jpg

And POOF - Cinderella's wish comes true... it was STUNNING
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0870.jpg

We then headed over to Adventureland, rode POTC again, made our way to Frontierland and used our FP for BTMRR which, by the way, we love this ride at night!!! While over there and on a restroom break, we saw these guys...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0874.jpg

We were having a good time! We failed to stop and get any cookies or hot cocoa that the party offered... my kids were on 'let's ride' mode. :goodvibes

SO what do we do next....

newtexan

01-19-2012, 04:46 PM

:surfweb:

momabaarjo

01-19-2012, 04:52 PM

:lmao:The pee pee dance...yep, don't you just love when this dance always seems to happen! I can't wait to share with you our thoughts on your changed ADR at 1900 Park and the peoplemover!

shocky5

01-19-2012, 04:57 PM

We decided to go catch "Celebrate the Season" at Cinderella's Castle. We thoroughly enjoyed this show!

A few pics:
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0880.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0883.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0889.jpg

After this show, we opted to go use the complimentary fastpass we got from earlier when Nate's bladder went into overdrive. On our way over, we happened upon the Tomorrowland Christmas show which we opted to watch before riding SM. It was also a wonderful show. Very cute. And even had it's own version of 'snow.'

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0892.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0895.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0897.jpg

We rode SM and then also had time to go to Monster's Inc Laugh Floor... we even had a small amount of screen time but thankfully were'nt "that guy." :rotfl2:

It was time to head back to the Castle to see The Memories, The Magic and You, as well as Wishes and the 2nd Christmas Parade...

Here are a few pics of The Memories, The Magic and You:
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0903.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0904.jpg

Now, while we were watching this show, the dear sweet woman behind us somehow stepped off of the curb (it's very dark during this show) and she faceplanted into the ground. She was very seriously injured. Sitting up, to some extent, but the blood was overwhelming. We weren't bothered by it but the staff on the scene was having difficulty keeping people from walking through that area. We eventually made up the frontline barrier, and these two sweet women, unrelated to the injured took the sides. It was amazing to me how many people were unaware and after they had gotten her removed from the area, they still had to partition off that area until the blood could be cleaned up.

About the time that Holiday Wishes was starting... the kids and I got the bright idea to gradually make our way back up into Main Street because we planned on leaving after the Christmas Parade. This was our coldest night of the entire vacation and it was indeed chilly. We wanted to beat the crowds back to catch transportation back, and before I knew it, we'd walked to the entrance of the park. We ended up sitting on a park bench to finish watching Wishes and then we caught the monorail back to the Polynesian. We were tired, had a great time, but definitely can cross the Christmas Party off of our "to do" bucket list. It was fun, but honestly, nothing we couldn't do on a normal MK day at Christmas time once the MVMCP's cease. As you'll read in the rest of my TR, we 're-did' all we'd done at the party on our second MK day. :rotfl: Minus cookies and cocoa, which we missed out on anyway. ;) The party is great and definitely wonderful for character greetings!

We got back to our room and in bed by 11:00 or so. Grabbed a snack in the concierge lounge and off to bed. We were going to try to do RD at Hollywood Studios in the morning... but in a last minute decision, I shut the alarm off and decided we'd sleep in, instead. :rotfl2:

shocky5

01-19-2012, 04:59 PM

:surfweb:

:welcome: Looks like you are planning a Christmas trip! We loved it!

:lmao:The pee pee dance...yep, don't you just love when this dance always seems to happen! I can't wait to share with you our thoughts on your changed ADR at 1900 Park and the peoplemover!

:goodvibes I can't wait to hear/read them!!!
:rotfl:

mommytominnie

01-19-2012, 05:47 PM

shocky5

01-19-2012, 05:57 PM

The day after our MK day, which ended on a good note, but just wasn't what I had built it up to be, we headed to Hollywood Studios.

I let the kids sleep in and let myself wake up on my own... which ended up being about 7:30a. Hollywood Studios didn't open until 9a so I got myself ready and gradually the kids began to wake up, too. We grabbed breakfast from the concierge lounge and quickly boarded the first bus that came to our bus stop. We arrived to the Studios about 10am. We decided to go get FP's for Toy Story Mania first and imagine our surprise when there was a long line just to get FP's for this ride... which ran OUT of FP's for the entire day when we were about 10 people away from the machines. We love this ride but it's not do or die for us... so we weren't horribly disappointed but throughout the day I checked the wait time for this ride on my phone app and it was never less than 65-70 minutes long.

So we went to get FP's for Rock N Roller Coaster and were able to ride The Great Movie Ride before meeting up to watch Beauty and the Beast with some friends of ours from home. They were also in DisneyWorld and while we didn't plan the trips together, it was fun to meet up with them periodically throughout the trip.

Hollywood Studios Christmas Tree
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0911.jpg

Waiting for the show to start... Nate & Nolan were just oozing excitement over this show....

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0912.jpg

I really liked this show - it had a lot of color and the singing performances were very good!
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0914.jpg
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0917.jpg
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0921.jpg
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0922.jpg

It's a condensed version of the story, 30 minutes long, but very well done. I say see it at least once if you get the opportunity.

After this show, we decided to hit Tower of Terror. There was about a 30 minute way but as the day was moving forward, this definitely was our most crowded park day of our entire trip. At the time we didn't know that and I was somewhat discouraged that it would just get worse as the week wore on, but truly, this was our worst day. The remaining days were wonderful.

Here we are waiting in line for Tower of Terror
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0926.jpg

The only two not in this picture were me and my friend's DH. He'd run to go get FP's for Star Tours. He was going to try to get RNR but something was messed up with the FP machines so.... back to the picture... by the time we were ready to load Tower of Terror, only 5 people were still willing to ride. The others headed towards what they dubbed the "I'm too cool for this ride exit." This name would stick with us for the remainder of our trip... and was almost the title of this report... :rotfl2:

The riders? Nolan and myself, My friend, Her DH and their little 5 year old girl. The teenagers, the 9 year old and the 3 year old opted out.

After Tower of Terror, we decided to get some lunch. We went to Pizza Planet over by Muppets 3-D and really liked what we had. Again, fell down on taking pictures... sorry about that!

After lunch, we headed to the Backlot Tour. We've done this everytime and still enjoy it.

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0932.jpg

We then headed over to Star Tours to use our FP's.
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0944.jpg

I have to tell you - this ride started out great but thank GOD it ended when it did... I was not feeling well from the simulated ride, had a bead of sweat on my lip and my hairline and certainly did not want to puke on the people in front of me... :rotfl2: I normally do not have problems with rides but this one I did... I don't know why... Erin said it made her sick, too.

After Star Tours, we headed over to Animation and enlisted ourselves in a Buzz Lightyear lesson. It was fun. The kids enjoyed it and I'm going to try to frame their pictures... each definitely has their own style but we enjoyed doing this. While waiting for our turn to go in the drawing room, a family asked me if we'd like their FP's to Tower of Terror. Nolan was all over that... so guess what we would be riding again? :goodvibes

We parted ways after Animation so our friends could to go Fantasmic. As luck would have it, Hollywood Studios extended their park hours that day because of the crowds. The kids and I had originally thought we'd walk through the Osborne Lights after our dinner ADR at Sci Fi but with the extended hour and our newly acquired FP's to Tower of Terror, we opted to not rush in using our FP's for RNR before dinner but would use them after dinner. SO we headed to TOT, Nolan and I rode again while Nate and Erin used the too cool for this ride exit, and then headed to the bathroom and to Sci Fi for dinner. We were hungry at this point.

While we waited, I got some 'true color' personality pics of the boys...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0949.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0952.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0955.jpg

A very 'not such a great pic' of the check-in stand at Sci Fi
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0956.jpg

And finally we are seated....
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0957.jpg
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0958.jpg

Again - fell short on the pictures but the food was great! Erin and I both had the strip steaks, Nolan had a huge cheeseburger and Nate had pizza "I think." I know Nate ate off of Nolan's burger and my steak... so maybe he wasn't as impressed with his food. :3dglasses

After dinner, we did not go see the Osborne lights but I made my kids promise we would not miss them when Eddie arrived, that we would go see them and no one was to try to talk me out of it. :rotfl:

We made our way back to RNRcoaster and we actually had 4 FP's in case Erin and Nate changed their mind about riding. They again went through the entire queue area, got to the loading area and RAN for the "I'm too cool for this ride" exit. Nolan and I were lucky enough to get the front seat of the ride and if you've not been in the front seat before... DO IT! We loved it! :thumbsup2

I don't have the ride picture of us on this... I'm cheap sometimes and am one of those people that will shoot a picture of the ride picture with my own camera and the people who shared the picture frame with us wouldn't move as they laughed at their pic and it was gone before I could get it... but rest assured... I got one the next time we rode. :rotfl2:

We called it a night after that ride. Here is a final shot of the Hollywood Studios tree at night as we left.
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0962.jpg

We made our way to the bus stop, it was about 9p and we were tired. Thankfully we didn't have to wait too long for a bus.

When we got back to our room, we were greeted by this cute little guy...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0792.jpg

It was off to bed! We were so excited for our next day... we would be headed to Animal Kingdom, Downtown Disney, and then back to the Polynesian to wait for the arrival of..... EDDIE!! :woohoo:

shocky5

01-19-2012, 06:01 PM

I am so in!! We were there from Dec. 15 - 22. I am so sorry your surprise did not go as planned but I am glad to see your kids were surprised nonetheless! It would have killed me if my Hubby was not with us even for a few days. On one hand I can appreciate the time alone with the children but on the other hand I can totally relate to you saying something was missing. Can''t wait to read more!!

:welcome:

After the fact, it's become part of the journey that the kids found out and we can laugh about it now. But one of these days... I'm going to surprise them even if no one knows but me. :goodvibes

It was difficult without Eddie for so many different reasons - mainly just missing him and his calm demeanor when mine is on the verge of 'freak out' mode... :rotfl: It was good mom/kids time and I will cherish that but it was still different to experience those 'parenting' moments and he not be there next to me to turn to and smile with.

Glad you are here! It's fun meeting people on here pre-trip and post-trip who can share in the experience!

momabaarjo

01-19-2012, 06:04 PM

KatMark

01-19-2012, 08:14 PM

Amy, two great updates for the price of one. :goodvibes

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy that you loved the Plaza. It is simple food and good on top of it (love their french fries). I'm glad you were happy with your choice.

Your pictures of the Christmas decorations and characters are wonderful. Although I can read between the words that you are definitely missing Eddie not being there with you.

What a fun day at the Studios! And you received pixie dust of extra fast passes too! I can't believe that two of your kids didn't do RnR or Tower of Terror. So glad you enjoyed Sci Fi...we really like it there too. In fact, with the exception of Olivia's for breakfast at OKW on our departure day, the only place that Mary, the girls and I have ADR's at are Plaza and Sci Fi.

newtexan

01-20-2012, 08:30 AM

Great pictures!

veggiemama

01-20-2012, 09:01 AM

Great photos! The blue sky looks fabulous in the back ground :)

shocky5

01-20-2012, 10:12 AM

How fun to have some friends along for part of the trip. I love the pictures of the boys being themselves...hmmm, now where have I seen all those faces (oh yeah, in all my pictures). The too cool for this ride exit...:rotfl2: wait til you read what I did to Boo!

Yay, Eddie is coming!

We did have fun meeting up with our friends. As you will read, we meet up with them a couple of more times on our trip. We had more fun with their new nickname for what I call "the chicken exit!"

Amy, two great updates for the price of one. :goodvibes

I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy that you loved the Plaza. It is simple food and good on top of it (love their french fries). I'm glad you were happy with your choice.

Your pictures of the Christmas decorations and characters are wonderful. Although I can read between the words that you are definitely missing Eddie not being there with you.

What a fun day at the Studios! And you received pixie dust of extra fast passes too! I can't believe that two of your kids didn't do RnR or Tower of Terror. So glad you enjoyed Sci Fi...we really like it there too. In fact, with the exception of Olivia's for breakfast at OKW on our departure day, the only place that Mary, the girls and I have ADR's at are Plaza and Sci Fi.

I don't know why Erin and Nate boycotted ToT and RnR. They have rode much more intense rides at Six Flags in Arlington... I think it's the dark... I really_really do. That fear of the unknown. :goodvibes But I'm not giving up on 'em yet!

Great pictures!

Thank you! This is our third trip but the first time I've really felt like I took the time to take pictures of The World and not just my three kids, posed, doing the same thing. :lmao:

Great photos! The blue sky looks fabulous in the back ground :)

Thank you! We really only had one overcast day and it was our arrival day! You can see in those pics by the pool that it's cloudy. After that, it was blue skys and only one chilly day (which I've already reported on in this report). Could not have asked for better weather! :thumbsup2

Disneyland_Mama

01-20-2012, 10:20 AM

Enjoying your trip report! We were there 12/15-12/26. Wasn't the weather amazing?

I had debated doing MVMCP, after reading your installment, kinda glad we didn't. :thumbsup2

:surfweb:

shocky5

01-20-2012, 10:33 AM

Enjoying your trip report! We were there 12/15-12/26. Wasn't the weather amazing?

I had debated doing MVMCP, after reading your installment, kinda glad we didn't. :thumbsup2

:surfweb:

Thank you! Yes, the weather was amazing! I was so thankful for that as I had a really hard time packing for this trip! :rotfl:

I don't regret doing the party but had I known then what I know now, I would have based our decision off of one thing - go to the party to catch those rare character moments or just chance it and see who we see on our park days... and I am pretty sure we would have chose the latter. ;)

We love the characters but my kids had no interest in standing in any lines to meet any. :confused3

swwake

01-20-2012, 11:54 AM

shocky5

01-21-2012, 08:52 AM

Wow - two quick updates!

I had forgotten how chilly it was that night of MVMCP. I don't know why, but they wouldn't let us use our fastpasses from earlier in the day on Space Mountain. :confused3

That is too bad about that lady falling and all the blood. I hope she was eventually ok.

Agree with you about the Christmas Party. Now we've done it :) In fact, I think I feel that way about the whole WDW at Christmas thing. I'll talk more about that at the end of my TR.

Your DHS day sounds very productive! I'm jealous that you got to do Beauty and the Beast and Animation academy - two things I really wanted to do but missed :(

Every time you mention what time it was when you were at the Poly, I'm trying to remember whether we saw each other that time. I know we talked at least 2, maybe 3 times there, and I know I saw you 3 times (once rushing into the building as we were headed out). But since the time has gotten away from me now, my memory is foggy. I have an idea. I think I'm just going to insert you and your family in my TR at random times and pretend that was when we saw each other! ha!

:thumbsup2 That sounds like a good plan! The more I think about it - I know I was fb'ing you by the pool the first night you passed us and as cold as it was on party night, I'm sure that must have been the night of the 17th after we wore ourselves out in Epcot. I know the kids and I didn't go near the pool on the 18th because it was so chilly.

And then we talked about possibly running into each other at the party. And then it was either DHS morning or our AK morning (which is where I think I'm going to insert you... ha!) that we got to visit in the lounge.

Beauty and the Beast and the Art of Animation were two things we'd not done yet either. There were still a couple of things we didn't fit in either that I'm sad about but still a reason to go back.... ;)

I'm wondering if our Disney at Christmas humble opinions will be similar at the end of our TR's... :goodvibes

tankgirl427

01-21-2012, 12:27 PM

Wow! How did I end up being so late to your TR Amy? I'm loving catching up on everything you did.

annmarieda

01-21-2012, 03:26 PM

We decided to go catch "Celebrate the Season" at Cinderella's Castle. We thoroughly enjoyed this show!

Oh, man!!! we missed those shows. I came away from MVMCP feeling like we missed so much. Looking at some of your pics, I can now see what we missed.
After this show, we opted to go use the complimentary fastpass we got from earlier when Nate's bladder went into overdrive. On our way over, we happened upon the Tomorrowland Christmas show which we opted to watch before riding SM. It was also a wonderful show. Very cute. And even had it's own version of 'snow.'

:rolleyes: another show I missed.

Now, while we were watching this show, the dear sweet woman behind us somehow stepped off of the curb (it's very dark during this show) and she faceplanted into the ground. She was very seriously injured. Sitting up, to some extent, but the blood was overwhelming. We weren't bothered by it but the staff on the scene was having difficulty keeping people from walking through that area. We eventually made up the frontline barrier, and these two sweet women, unrelated to the injured took the sides. It was amazing to me how many people were unaware and after they had gotten her removed from the area, they still had to partition off that area until the blood could be cleaned up.

Oh no!!! That is horrible. :sad2:

About the time that Holiday Wishes was starting... the kids and I got the bright idea to gradually make our way back up into Main Street because we planned on leaving after the Christmas Parade. This was our coldest night of the entire vacation and it was indeed chilly. We wanted to beat the crowds back to catch transportation back, and before I knew it, we'd walked to the entrance of the park. We ended up sitting on a park bench to finish watching Wishes and then we caught the monorail back to the Polynesian. We were tired, had a great time, but definitely can cross the Christmas Party off of our "to do" bucket list. It was fun, but honestly, nothing we couldn't do on a normal MK day at Christmas time once the MVMCP's cease. As you'll read in the rest of my TR, we 're-did' all we'd done at the party on our second MK day. :rotfl: Minus cookies and cocoa, which we missed out on anyway. ;) The party is great and definitely wonderful for character greetings!

That was a cold night for sure. I keep getting confused by when you were where... we had our dates very similar. We did DHS on 12/18...had sci fi for dinner... and went to fantasmic and it was COLD!

The day after our MK day, which ended on a good note, but just wasn't what I had built it up to be, we headed to Hollywood Studios.

I let the kids sleep in and let myself wake up on my own... which ended up being about 7:30a. Hollywood Studios didn't open until 9a so I got myself ready and gradually the kids began to wake up, too. We grabbed breakfast from the concierge lounge and quickly boarded the first bus that came to our bus stop. We arrived to the Studios about 10am. We decided to go get FP's for Toy Story Mania first and imagine our surprise when there was a long line just to get FP's for this ride... which ran OUT of FP's for the entire day when we were about 10 people away from the machines. We love this ride but it's not do or die for us... so we weren't horribly disappointed but throughout the day I checked the wait time for this ride on my phone app and it was never less than 65-70 minutes long. [quote]

Isn't that crazy how fast the fast passes go for that ride?

[QUOTE=shocky5;43788631]So we went to get FP's for Rock N Roller Coaster and were able to ride The Great Movie Ride before meeting up to watch Beauty and the Beast with some friends of ours from home. They were also in DisneyWorld and while we didn't plan the trips together, it was fun to meet up with them periodically throughout the trip.

I think that is so cool! It is fun to enjoy Disney a bit with a friend. BATB is one of my favorite shows in Disney!! I have to see it each and every time!!!

I have to tell you - this ride started out great but thank GOD it ended when it did... I was not feeling well from the simulated ride, had a bead of sweat on my lip and my hairline and certainly did not want to puke on the people in front of me... :rotfl2: I normally do not have problems with rides but this one I did... I don't know why... Erin said it made her sick, too.

Oh!! feeling sick on a ride is never a good thing. I hope it was just for that one moment.

After Star Tours, we headed over to Animation and enlisted ourselves in a Buzz Lightyear lesson. It was fun. The kids enjoyed it and I'm going to try to frame their pictures... each definitely has their own style but we enjoyed doing this. While waiting for our turn to go in the drawing room, a family asked me if we'd like their FP's to Tower of Terror. Nolan was all over that... so guess what we would be riding again? :goodvibes

for the entire year of planning, I wanted to do this. I know I should wait till my TR to let you know how it went... but lets just say I was very disappointed. :sad2:

annmarieda

01-21-2012, 03:34 PM

So as I said earlier, we left MK after just a few hours and rode the ferry back to the Polynesian, grabbed a quick lunch at Captain Cook's and went back to our room. We put in the POTC DVD we bought and took a rest. About 3:00 that afternoon, we decided to make our way back to MK... better attitudes and looking forward to Mickey's Very Magic Christmas Party.

I tried to take some more holiday pictures as we made our way back down Main Street towards The Plaza where would be having dinner.
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0836.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0837.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0838.jpg

Those pictures show how busy it was getting. HOLY COW the crowds!!

We made our way to the Plaza where we had one of our most favorite meals. :goodvibes I had read reviews of the Plaza in Kathy's (KatMark) TR's and the food was wonderful and it wasn't too heavy. After all, we'd had CP for breakfast, lunch at Captain Cooks, so this was great for us! Originally, we were going to go to 1900 Park Fare and I'm glad I switched this ADR.
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0843.jpg

I have no food porn! Sorry! But Nate had the kids PB&J, Erin had the club, and Nolan and I had the grilled chicken sandwiches and they were really good!

I too have been tempted to try the Plaza after Kathy's reviews. Now that you too have liked it. :scratchin I might just have to put that on my list.

After we ate, we made our way to Stitch's Great Escape fastpass machines... not because we wanted to ride the ride but because this is where we traded in our tickets for our wristbands for the party! :goodvibes The line was long but the lady assured us the one out front would be considerably worse and surprisingly enough, we had our wristbands in under 30 minutes. Since we were in Tomorrowland, we decided to go ahead and use our FP from earlier in the day for Space Mountain. Just as we get to the loading area of Space Mountain, I look at my beloved youngest son who is now so obviously doing what we call in Oklahoma "the pee pee dance." There was no way I was putting the kid on SM, in that condition, so the lady at the loading area was nice enough to let Erin and Nolan ride and gave us a FP ticket for the four of us to come back later and ride again.

We exchanged at the gate. There was no one in line ahead of us. I didn't realize it could be tricky. I think that too could have summed up my experience this trip. Going at Christmas time is not at all like going any other time of the year.

We then made our way to the PeopleMover... my kids loved this ride in 2007... it was under refurb in 2009 and they threw the biggest fit that I was 'making' them ride it... but as we all know "Momma knows best" and they loved it!

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0854.jpg[?quote]

I love the people mover!!!

[QUOTE=shocky5;43788631]After this, it was time to go to the hub and catch Cinderella's Wish and the castle lighting. This was a beautiful production....

Mickey and friends talking about dreams and wishes
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0866.jpg

Cinderella wishing for her castle to be lit up like ice
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0869.jpg

The Fairy Godmother appears
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0868.jpg

And POOF - Cinderella's wish comes true... it was STUNNING
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0870.jpg

I begged and pleaded with my family to catch the lighting ceremony. :sad2: I am so glad to see your pictures!!!:thumbsup2

shocky5

01-22-2012, 07:32 PM

Wow! How did I end up being so late to your TR Amy? I'm loving catching up on everything you did.

:welcome: Betsy!! You are not late! You've been on the go a lot! And I'm anxious to hear about your trip with your cousin! :goodvibes

shocky5

01-22-2012, 07:38 PM

Those pictures show how busy it was getting. HOLY COW the crowds!!

I know - the crowd that day really threw me off, I think. It was the lowest crowd level prediction day of our entire trip and it was the 2nd busiest for us... Don't know if it was because it was a Sunday, it was a sold out party night, as well, but it did thin out after non-party people began to leave the park.

I too have been tempted to try the Plaza after Kathy's reviews. Now that you too have liked it. :scratchin I might just have to put that on my list.

You should! It's a sandwich shop cuisine, the ice cream is delicious, and we will definitely return! :thumbsup2

Going at Christmas time is not at all like going any other time of the year.

Isn't that the truth!?!

I begged and pleaded with my family to catch the lighting ceremony. :sad2: I am so glad to see your pictures!!!:thumbsup2

I'm glad you like them! I wish Cinderella wasn't as fuzzy but happy they turned out okay!

KatMark

01-22-2012, 08:21 PM

Hey, Amy. I just wanted to stop in and make sure I didn't miss an update while we were gone spending part of the weekend with our youngest. Hope you ahd a great weekend.

shocky5

01-23-2012, 02:16 PM

Hey, Amy. I just wanted to stop in and make sure I didn't miss an update while we were gone spending part of the weekend with our youngest. Hope you ahd a great weekend.

Thanks Kathy! Glad you had a great weekend with Markie and Alisha! Are you packed??? :goodvibes

shocky5

01-23-2012, 02:26 PM

So I finally called to check on my photopass cd and photobook and found out they had cancelled my order! :scared1: Why do you ask?

Well silly me tried to upload into the photobook a couple of 'unauthorized ride pictures' I'd taken with my own camera of the pictures taken of us on the ride by Disney... yeah... that's a no no. :rotfl: I innocently did not even think about that or consider checking on that.

SO I quickly replaced those two pictures and replaced the order and the cd has officially shipped and book is still processing.

Very glad I called them. I hope to have some photopass pictures to share with you by week's end.

KatMark

01-23-2012, 02:57 PM

Thanks Kathy! Glad you had a great weekend with Markie and Alisha! Are you packed??? :goodvibes

I am packed. But I think I have to repack with the weather forecast. :lmao::lmao::lmao:

Can't wait to see the photopass pictures.

tankgirl427

01-25-2012, 06:44 PM

shocky5

01-31-2012, 04:38 PM

Let me start off by saying... the longer I go in between days of writing my TR, the more fuzzy the memories are becoming! Hopefully, I can rely on my pictures to pull me through it! :rotfl:

I also need to add in here when I first 'walked past but didn't see' Susan (swwake)! Back up to our Epcot day... and the kids and I going back to the Polynesian to relax from a tiring day... As the kids were running to the elevator, and I'm pretty sure I was crawling, I passed a family in the lobby of Hawaii. Pretty soon, I had a message from Susan asking me if that was 'my family' and I told her if the kids were running and I was crawling, it was definitely us! :goodvibes

On our Animal Kingdom day, we were up early enough to hit the concierge lounge for breakfast and it was this morning that I 'officially' met Susan! :goodvibes She was in the lounge with Katie and we were all diving for the coffee. But we did get to introduce ourselves and the kids and, as Susan has said, it just made us feel like 'old friends.' Susan and Katie look more like sisters than mom/daughter even in person! And so very nice! :goodvibes

The kids and I walked out to our bus stop just as the AK bus was arriving and we were instantly on our way with no stops on the way. Amazingly enough, we were 'in' just shortly after rope drop. Our plan was to grab FP's for Expedition Everest and then head over to Dinosaur. No problem getting mid-morning FP's for EE and as we walked over to Dinosaur, we hopped on this ride first...

Primeval Whirl! My kids love this ride!
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0963.jpg

We then headed over to Dinosaur...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0965.jpg

And then caught a showing of It's Tough To Be a Bug. We have always loved this show....
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0969.jpg

We sat in the second row, which was a new seating area we'd never been in and one thing I did not expect was the fact that Nate decided to 'freak out' this year... (spoiler alert) When the 'big bad bug' comes out and decides to exterminate you and it gets foggy... and then suddenly the spiders come down from the ceiling and in the fog you dont really see them until they are pretty close.... yeah.... that was too much for tough Nate. He was in the floor covering his ears and eyes... poor kid... :rolleyes1

After ITTBAB, we headed over to Camp Mickey and Minnie... we were treated to several character greets and really enjoyed the individually decorated Christmas trees we found there...

Pluto's
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0978.jpg

Minnie's
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0981.jpg

Meeting Goofy
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0980.jpg

Meeting Minnie
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0984.jpg

We had a lot of fun at Camp Mickey. We had plenty of time to look around before completing one the MUST DO's for me on this trip....

Anyone remember what that was??

shocky5

01-31-2012, 05:04 PM

I'm so happy to say that I finally got to see "The Festival of the Lion King!!" It was AWESOME!! :thumbsup2

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_0990.jpg

The colors, characters, songs... A*M*A*Z*I*N*G A kajillion thumbs up! I will say it was quite a bit of pushing and shoving to get inside so be prepared for that! ;)

After FOTLK, we headed over to Expedition Everest to use our fastpasses. We started to get in line and Mr. Nate started to get anxious and suddenly announced he needed a potty break. So we step out of line, walk back to the nearest bathroom and he 'does his thing.' :rolleyes: We head back to EE and hop back in the fastpass line and begin to walk through. We are up to the boarding area in a matter of minutes. Erin and Nolan were going to ride together and I was going to ride with Nate. I should add that my kids have rode this ride multiple times since our first trip in 2007.

Here is Nolan and Erin waiting to board....
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1003.jpg

Here is Nate... and while you can't see his eyes... there are tears in them. I didn't realize this until we were in and lap bar down and we are rolling down the track...

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1004.jpg

I had to talk him through the ride. He was nervous about going backwards. Once we were finished with that portion of the ride, he was fine and said he enjoyed it. Question remains... would he ride it again with Eddie when we came back to AK?

Here's our ride pic... Erin looks like she's having a blast, huh? :rotfl2:

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1005.jpg

After EE, we were ready to go. We were headed to DTD to do some shopping, to have lunch and to go to Goofy's before heading back to the Polynesian. I was still trying to keep my kids "well" at this point. By this day, Erin was finishing up her croup medicine and doing well but had put both boys on the medicine the doctor sent with me 'just in case' and this day was a day they were both very stuffy and 'cough-y". So we were trying to take it pretty easy.

I forgot something! When we arrived in the morning, we stopped on the bridge area in front of the Tree of Life to have the traditional photopass pic taken... the guy was such a grump! He had just finished setting up his camera and all I can say is he just must not have been having a good day. When I get my photopass pics uploaded, I will have to share those with you. You can almost see it in our faces "Hurry up and take the picture, dude, so we can leave you alone." :rotfl2:

Okay - back to leaving the park... I hated leaving because as luck would have it, Ann and I had been missing each other all morning. She'd be on one side of the park and we'd be on the other and so forth. We had a few photopass pics taken and snapped this one of the AK Christmas tree, as well.

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1006.jpg

When we left, we opted to just splurge for a taxi ride to DTD. The kids were hungry and I kind of had the "let's get this DTD adventure over with" attitude... :lmao: I was just very anxious to get to that evening when Eddie would arrive.

So we headed to DTD, and decided to eat lunch first. The kids love the Rainforest Cafe so we sat out on the patio on the water. It was a really nice seating area and we enjoyed being out there.

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1009.jpg

After lunch, we headed to Goofy's. I let the kids pick out their candy and I found some cute Mickey & Minnie head sugar cookies to bring back to nieces, nephews, friend's kids, etc.

We found some t-shirts from some friends, and also made some Mr. Potato Heads to give out for Christmas presents. My kids had a blast doing this.

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1013.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1014.jpg

We stopped off at Ghirardeli (YUM) and got a treat to take back on the bus ride to the Polynesian.

Nolan bought this rock after the Dinosaur ride... he loves stuff like this. It covers his room... sometimes I have to explain to him the difference between a true fossil find and what is actually fossilized animal excretions... :rotfl2:

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1016.jpg

And Nate... well this picture speaks for itself...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1015.jpg

We arrived back at the Polynesian to find some new friends...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1017.jpg

I made the kids lay down and rest for a couple of hours. And then I did something I never thought I would do... anyone care to guess???

shocky5

01-31-2012, 05:15 PM

I have no pictures to go with what we did after naps.... so I'm just going to have to tell you.

I let the kids walk themselves down to the volcano pool and I hauled laundry to the laundry service at the Polynesian and I did laundry! The facility was great and I was done pretty quickly. Once I got them through the washer, and into the dryer another guest told me the dryers lasted about an hour. So I went back to the kids and watched them while the clothes dried.

I was extremely pleased that my kids did great. I've not let them go off like that by themselves, EVER, and so it was refreshing to know they did exactly what I asked for the 35 minutes I was away from them. And then an additional 15 to go back and pick up the laundry from the dryers.

Through most of the afternoon, I would receive a phone call here or there or a text from Eddie saying "I'm at the airport in Tulsa - plenty of time. No wait in security line." "I've landed safely in Dallas." "I've landed in Orlando." "I'm in the car headed to the Polynesian!"

He arrived around 9:15 p.m. He was a little bit earlier than what we thought he would be. We were so excited to see him! The kids attacked him when he got out of the car. I vaguely remember grabbing a snack here or there in the concierge lounge and we set out on the beach and watched the MK fireworks on the beach before calling it a night!

We definitely enjoyed our beach nights at the Polynesian. Another must do I had this trip.... never seemed like we spent enough time there the prior two trips so I really tried to prioritize resort time and I feel like we satisfied that and absolutely enjoyed every minute of it!!! :goodvibes

We were in bed and calling it a night so we could attempt to hit rope drop at Epcot again in the morning - this time with Dad in tow. :woohoo:

momabaarjo

02-01-2012, 02:39 AM

oceanwave

02-01-2012, 10:25 AM

Loved your Animal Kingdom report. The park looks so pretty at Christmas. Poor Nate though, looks like he was having a tough day. When we did Tough to be a bug last year, I was really surprised how intense and scary it was!

And a big :woohoo: for your husband joining you!

Moodyzblu

02-01-2012, 06:10 PM

My boys won't do ITTBaB ! :( I think it's funny.

Glad your DH got there fine and everyone was happy to see him !

Moodyzblu

02-01-2012, 06:11 PM

My boys won't do ITTBaB ! :( I think it's funny.

Glad your DH got there fine and everyone was happy to see him !

shocky5

02-01-2012, 06:35 PM

OMG...I love the picture of you and Nate on EE. I forgot to pull out my camera and take a picture of Goo and me on Space Mountain...I sure wish I had the picture! Priceless...what is Erin doing?

I guessed it Laundry! Hmmm wait for my TR to bring up this subject!

I understand memories are getting a little fuzzy now a month later! I need to get cranking on mine a little faster.

So glad Eddie made it safe and sound and EARLY. I was worried that day because of what the weather was doing! I think I texted you a couple of times that day to make sure he got out!

I want more resort time if we ever go back...funny Jeff and I were talking about that same thing tonight. I was working on him for that cruise in 2013...:rotfl: I don't know if I will ever get him to agree but I already have it planned out! :rotfl2:

I do NOT know what Erin was doing in that pic. It almost looks like she's trying to crawl out of the seat but I'm not sure where she thinks she will go! :rotfl2:

I'm still working on Eddie for the July 2013 cruise, too! I did however score a small victory today, though! Eddie's best 'bro' friend is turning 40 Jan. 3, 2013. And his wife is wanting to surprise him with a trip to LAS VEGAS and invited us to go along. So Eddie agreed we would go! SO she and I have been trying to decide where we want to stay, etc. and that's been fun. :thumbsup2

Loved your Animal Kingdom report. The park looks so pretty at Christmas. Poor Nate though, looks like he was having a tough day. When we did Tough to be a bug last year, I was really surprised how intense and scary it was!

And a big :woohoo: for your husband joining you!

Animal Kingdom was very nicely decorated for Christmas. We really enjoyed that park. Were able to see pieces of it we hadn't seen before and that was fun! Nate did have a tough day! But a nice relaxing nap on the way back to the Polynesian and he was good to go again. :thumbsup2

My boys won't do ITTBaB ! :( I think it's funny.

Glad your DH got there fine and everyone was happy to see him !

Thank you! I will say that we did ITTBaB again with Eddie when we went back... but I'll save that for the TR! ;)

KatMark

02-03-2012, 09:05 PM

momabaarjo

02-04-2012, 08:01 AM

How fun...Vegas in a year! I have never been, other than the airport between flights!

I am working on Jeff for the cruise...I put my pencil to the budget and think I can swing it...I will not be able to book until July...that gives you 5 months to get Eddie in agreement (and me to get Jeff to agree) plus get the down payment (about $1000) saved!:rotfl2::rolleyes1

I have already read the book I got yesterday cover to cover...:lmao:

annmarieda

02-04-2012, 01:25 PM

I so hate that on 12/20 we were both just missing each other. We started out our day in Dinoland too, so we really were so SO close :confused3 Crazy!!!

And.. ITTBAB... both times we saw it (and it was the same day you did) Hopper didn't come out. I thought that it was part of a refurb or something... but it must have just been something that happened on some of the shows. (lucky us it happened both times:rolleyes:) I love the picture of your kids posing there though... boys looked a bit buggy. ;)

Glad you got to see FOTLK! I love that show..well, I love all the shows...but.. this one is pretty cool!

:yay: for Eddie arriving! Now.. I have to ask... your room. Does it have just 2 queens? I didn't know that the rooms in Poly could accommodate 5 people... makes me feel bad since my ds wanted to go...but didn't cause we could not have him in the room with us...:rolleyes:

shocky5

02-05-2012, 03:29 PM

What a great day at AK! Isn't Festival of the Lion King great? We had front row seats last week -- awesome. The picture on EE is priceless.

And what fun at DTD afterwards.

So glad the kids were excited to have dad arrive. :goodvibes

Thanks Kathy! It was all in all 'the kind of day' we were wanting to have. I would love to have front row seats at FOTLK! I remember thinking that during the show how much fun it would be to sit that close to all the action going on!

How fun...Vegas in a year! I have never been, other than the airport between flights!

I am working on Jeff for the cruise...I put my pencil to the budget and think I can swing it...I will not be able to book until July...that gives you 5 months to get Eddie in agreement (and me to get Jeff to agree) plus get the down payment (about $1000) saved!:rotfl2::rolleyes1

I have already read the book I got yesterday cover to cover...:lmao:

The Vegas trip is really starting to come together. We got our rooms booked. So far, there are 4, possibly 5 couples, that are going. My friend whose hubby is going to be 40 is ecstatic. I'm not sure she's going to be able to keep it from him because she keeps saying she wants to blurt it out right now to him! But if she can keep it in, she's going to give him some 'clue' Christmas gifts that he and she are taking a trip together and then the rest of us will either suprise him in Vegas or at the airport. OR she'll tell him because she can't stand it any longer and we'll all have fun anyway! :lmao:

I so hate that on 12/20 we were both just missing each other. We started out our day in Dinoland too, so we really were so SO close :confused3 Crazy!!!

And.. ITTBAB... both times we saw it (and it was the same day you did) Hopper didn't come out. I thought that it was part of a refurb or something... but it must have just been something that happened on some of the shows. (lucky us it happened both times:rolleyes:) I love the picture of your kids posing there though... boys looked a bit buggy. ;)

Glad you got to see FOTLK! I love that show..well, I love all the shows...but.. this one is pretty cool!

:yay: for Eddie arriving! Now.. I have to ask... your room. Does it have just 2 queens? I didn't know that the rooms in Poly could accommodate 5 people... makes me feel bad since my ds wanted to go...but didn't cause we could not have him in the room with us...:rolleyes:

I know Ann! I recall you texting me that you'd made it to Dinoland and I think we were headed to FOTLK. :sad2:

I love the picture of the boys posing, too. They are such nuts. I have one of the best pics of all three of them on the photopass cd that 'shows their true characters.' :rotfl:

The Polynesian regular rooms will sleep 5. There are 2 queens and then a daybed that converts to a twin. It's honestly the perfect size for us - we have plenty of floor space, not crawling over our stuff and we all sleep well. I do think we'd like to try BC, AK and WL 'someday....' :goodvibes

shocky5

02-05-2012, 03:55 PM

So Eddie had finally arrived and we were happy to have him. The only negative was he wasn't feeling all that great. He, too, was struggling with cold symptoms but hopped out of bed like the trooper he can be and we were off to catch the Epcot monorail at the TTC.

First, we stopped off by the concierge lounge to grab some breakfast goodies and coffee. :goodvibes

There was quite a mill of people at the TTC but as luck would have it they were either headed to MK or somewhere other than Epcot... so we were hopeful we'd make it to the front of the line. On the way, the kids were explaining to Eddie 'the plan' to get our FP's and what order we were going to ride rides... I'm sure his head was spinning.

We were soon pulling into Epcot!
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1018.jpg

AND we actually did get a spot at the front of the turnstile for the second time this trip!
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1019.jpg

We entered the park at rope drop and allowed Erin and Nolan to run ahead to get FP's for Soarin'. I totally appreciated their energy. I could tell Eddie was not feeling very good and he was really trying to just suck it up and be with us. They were on their way back to us about the time we made it to The Land area and we immediately turned around and headed back over towards...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1020.jpg

Yep! Test Track! And we were able to ride this a couple of times again as walk ons! From there, we made our way over to Mission Space and Eddie and the kids rode while I waited. Since there's only 4 to a simulator, I was more than happy to play 'odd man out' and hang out while they rode. ;)

After Mission Space, we hopped over in line to ride Figment...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1023.jpg

we got all the way to the front of the line and GUESS WHAT??? It broke down. :rolleyes: So all bystanders were escorted out of the building as they weren't sure when it would be up and running again. Never did hear what the issue was because the cars that went through before we were to board looked like they were doing just fine. :goodvibes

We did spend some time looking at the fountains at Epcot. The boys had a great time chasing the water and I love this picture I managed to snap of them!
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1029.jpg

Another pic...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1030.jpg

We then decided to go use our FP for Soarin' before heading into WS.
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1022.jpg

We had awesome seats! We've never been able to be in the B section, top row and this time we were and Soarin' still remains at the top of our list! :goodvibes

Next up... World Showcase.... counterclockwise this time! :thumbsup2

KatMark

02-05-2012, 04:06 PM

shocky5

02-05-2012, 04:13 PM

We headed to WS, Canada side first this time as the kids and I had mostly just been on the other side on our prior visit. We walked up on the Canadian Santa and stopped for a listen...

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1032.jpg

It was around 11am, WS had just opened so it was pretty leisurely. Erin has a 'thing' for France right now... all things Paris... so we headed there next. We found her a very cute necklace, complete with Eiffel Tower pendant and I don't think she asked for anything else the remainder of the trip.

Erin after French purchase... speaking of... the CM that checked us out said "Bonjour" to which my daughter told me later I responded with a very Oklahoman "Hey"... :lmao:

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1034.jpg

Erin and Eddie in front of fountains in France
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1037.jpg

I think this one was in Italy...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1040.jpg

And Erin wanted to take a picture of Eddie and I on the bridge by Italy... she did a good job!

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1042.jpg

We then found the Christmas story teller in action in China...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1043.jpg

It was at this point, even after a funnel cake, I could tell my DH had very little energy. We'd really taken it pretty easy, had walked quite a bit but it was just about 12:30p and he was struggling. So I finally suggested we go back to the room and just hang out until our dinner that night. We had an ADR at Cape May's at the Beach Club and he was really looking forward to that so I wanted him to feel like going! PLUS we were planning on going over to DHS to see the Osborne lights and I really wanted to do that! :rotfl:

SO we did the following....

Made our way back to the monorail... took some silly pics while waiting for it to arrive:
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1045.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1044.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1046.jpg

Exited the monorail and headed back to the Polynesian...I managed to snap some more pics on the way. I love this one of Eddie and Erin... I don't think I've seen them hold hands since she was very very little!! And even though they were kind of swinging each other's arms around and slapping, it was a sweet moment for me to walk behind them. :goodvibes

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1049.jpg

Saw a lizard or two the boys were chasing down...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1052.jpg

And I snapped a picture of the family I love so much!

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1053.jpg

And it was back to the room for a nice nap. Wonder what Eddie will feel like when we wake up and it's time to leave for dinner?

shocky5

02-05-2012, 04:31 PM

I won't leave you in suspense... I have to update this TR as I get the time and right now I have the time! :rotfl:

The nap did wonders for Eddie. He woke up a few hours later and was a new man. And kept telling me how much better he felt and he was ready to go for the afternoon/evening. We almost slept too long. Our dinner ADR was at Cape May's and the plan was to ride the Epcot monorail, walk through the park to the International Gateway over to the BC for dinner. We left the Polynesian about 4p and our ADR's were at 5:05p. AND I'm pretty sure we walked in to the BC about 4:55p to check in for our ADR.

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1057.jpg

But it was just fine and we even were able to snap a pic of their gingerbread exhibit in the lobby...

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1058.jpg

When we checked in for our ADR, I think the hostess must have seen the "Happy Birthday" pin on my bag (that I constantly forgot about since my birthday was much earlier than our trip) because this played a part in our evening here in a bit.

We thoroughly enjoyed this meal. Everyone ate really well and the food was delicious! The layout of the buffet was awesome and I don't recall anyone getting anything they did not like. Unfortunately... here's the pic I have from our meal... :rotfl:

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1060.jpg

Now for the fun part... after we'd finished eating, the waitress brought me out a special "birthday treat" and yes, the staff sang a happy birthday song to me... it was unexpected, but a fun memory! And all I could think about was "Please don't let my children say anything about my birthday having been in August." I'm not going to 'celebrate' my birthday there again unless I can actually do it in my birthday month! :rotfl: I was a guilty, nervous wreck! :rotfl2: Here's my special treat!

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1062.jpg

It was delicious!!!!

We wandered around the BC some, including the outside and fell in love with this place, too. After seeing the WL and BC, I do believe next time we go back, we'll spread our wings and fly away from the Polynesian. Still love the Polynesian but I think we'd love these other places, too!

We walked out to the boat dock by the lighthouse of the BC and Yacht Club... I tried to snap some pics for Tammie of the Boardwalk to give her some Disney before her trip... didn't feel like the pictures came out very good!

Eddie feeling much better waiting for a boat to DHS!
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1064.jpg

Boardwalk pics....
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1065.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1066.jpg

The Friendship Boat arrived (which was packed I might add but they squeezed us on)... and next up were the Osborne Lights at DHS!

shocky5

02-05-2012, 04:43 PM

I'm just going to say it right now... we loved the Osborne Lights. This was probably one of the most favorite parts of our trip. The lights, the music, the snow... the lights, the music, the snow... it put tears in my eyes several times. I really felt "Christmas" at this attraction. Here are some of the favorite pics I took:

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1072.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1073.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1075.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1076.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1077.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1078.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1079.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1080.jpg

After the Osborne Lights, the park was closing so we caught a very packed bus back to the Polynesian... here we are squeezed in.... :rotfl:

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1091.jpg

We were actually in the front of the bus, last ones allowed on the bus, which was fine except we weren't the first stop.... :rotfl: HOWEVER the bus driver enjoyed visiting with our boys and Erin and he just opened the middle exit door and people flowed off that way.

Here we are with a little more bus room before our stop...

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1093.jpg

When we got back to our room... we found Stanley relocated...

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1094.jpg

AND I don't think I ever showed you the Christmas stockings in our room...

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1095.jpg

We ended up having a great evening, Eddie was feeling better, and we were headed to bed. We had an early morning breakfast ADR at Hollywood Studios in the morning, before rope drop... and we had Toy Story Mania on the brain!

shocky5

02-05-2012, 04:45 PM

Sorry Eddie wasn't feeling well, but he sure is a trooper. And you can see how excited the kids are to have him with you.

:woohoo::woohoo::woohoo: for riding Test Track with no wait a couple of times.

I know! I loved him for really trying to gut it out but felt so bad for him because he just wasn't 'quite himself.'

We could never get tired of Test Track! :rotfl:

KatMark

02-05-2012, 05:15 PM

swwake

02-05-2012, 09:51 PM

Ok I am getting caught up, so I'm a little behind on my comments.
Let me start off by saying... the longer I go in between days of writing my TR, the more fuzzy the memories are becoming! Hopefully, I can rely on my pictures to pull me through it! :rotfl:I am having the same issue. So much has happened in the last 6 weeks! It's just a blur and I now wish I had kept a journal.

I also need to add in here when I first 'walked past but didn't see' Susan (swwake)! Back up to our Epcot day... and the kids and I going back to the Polynesian to relax from a tiring day... As the kids were running to the elevator, and I'm pretty sure I was crawling, I passed a family in the lobby of Hawaii. Pretty soon, I had a message from Susan asking me if that was 'my family' and I told her if the kids were running and I was crawling, it was definitely us! :goodvibes

On our Animal Kingdom day, we were up early enough to hit the concierge lounge for breakfast and it was this morning that I 'officially' met Susan! :goodvibes She was in the lounge with Katie and we were all diving for the coffee. But we did get to introduce ourselves and the kids and, as Susan has said, it just made us feel like 'old friends.' Susan and Katie look more like sisters than mom/daughter even in person! And so very nice! :goodvibesAww...thanks. I enjoyed meeting y'all too, and bumping into each other a few times in the Concierge Lounge. Made the trip more fun! I also appreciated the random texts from you throughout the trip. Wish we had had more time together...

Primeval Whirl! My kids love this ride! This was one of our favorites in 2008. Something different happened in 2011. I'll get there in my TR. Someday.

After ITTBAB, we headed over to Camp Mickey and Minnie... we were treated to several character greets and really enjoyed the individually decorated Christmas trees we found there...Dang it! Another something we missed...

I'm so happy to say that I finally got to see "The Festival of the Lion King!!" It was AWESOME!! :thumbsup2So glad you got to see it. I just love that show. I think it gets better every time.

I love Goofy's!!

swwake

02-05-2012, 10:12 PM

He arrived around 9:15 p.m. He was a little bit earlier than what we thought he would be. We were so excited to see him! The kids attacked him when he got out of the car. I vaguely remember grabbing a snack here or there in the concierge lounge and we set out on the beach and watched the MK fireworks on the beach before calling it a night!I remember that night. You and I were texting each other and I said we were going to the lounge to have a beer/wine and watch the fireworks and you said Eddie was on his way and he was thinking the exact same thing.

Then most of my group was in the lounge at that table by the Christmas tree in front of the window, and you introduced me to Eddie. Then y'all went out to the beach for a little better view and ambiance.

I wish we had spent more time at the resort. I really do.

Ok, I'm all caught up. You are going to be finished with your TR before mine even makes it to WDW!

momabaarjo

02-06-2012, 06:01 AM

Wow...3 updates, I am super impressed! :woohoo:

We never made it to Figment...not sure why I decided to skip...it was on my touring planing?! And of course we avoided the water fountains like the plague with the temp not so great while we were there.

I think going back to the POLY was the best plan, although deep down I am sure it was killing you to miss the park (I know when I retreated back to the hotel, I was in a very unmagical mood). The goofy pictures have to be the best...I wish I would have taken more of them!

Can't wait to share Cape May with you in my TR! So my lips are sealed...I so appreciated the picture of the BW the night that you sent it to me!

I loved the picture on the bus...Goo ended up on the floor several times...once he fell asleep sitting up!

lilpixiebabe101

02-06-2012, 06:09 PM

Sooo um apparently some how your TR sub got sucked into LA LA Land... because I just had like almost your whole TR to catch up on. I've been seeing my update list and was like Hmmm Maybe Amy is just too busy to update... No apparently, technology got the better of me. haha.

So caught up.

Sorry all your boys were sick.

Eekk about the airport almost fiasco.

Thank you for your sweet words about our Dis meet! I wish my normally talkative little monster hadn't chosen that moment to be shy, At least she wasn't asleep like the meet with Susan!

You can definitely tell that Eddie was feeling better after the nap.

Can't wait to read more.. now that I'm actually subbed! :rotfl:

annmarieda

02-08-2012, 11:28 PM

So Eddie had finally arrived and we were happy to have him. The only negative was he wasn't feeling all that great. He, too, was struggling with cold symptoms but hopped out of bed like the trooper he can be and we were off to catch the Epcot monorail at the TTC.

I am sorry he was not feeling well. He seems like a good sport about it though... mine.. he would have just stayed in the room the entire trip. :rolleyes:

We were soon pulling into Epcot!

:sad2: We just kept missing eachother. We got there early for an ADR.

headed back over towards...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1020.jpg I had to check your photo to see if I could see my son. Shortly after the park opened... that was where he went. But..nope he was not there in your pics. :goodvibes

we got all the way to the front of the line and GUESS WHAT??? It broke down. :rolleyes:

Oh..that sucks when that happens!!! :confused3

We did spend some time looking at the fountains at Epcot. The boys had a great time chasing the water and I love this picture I managed to snap of them!
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1029.jpg

I could not believe that I didnt know about these fountains before this trip. What an awesome picture you got of the boys and the water!

We then decided to go use our FP for Soarin' before heading into WS.
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1022.jpg

We had awesome seats! We've never been able to be in the B section, top row and this time we were and Soarin' still remains at the top of our list! :goodvibes

First row of B is the BEST. I always hope for it.. I know some ask to wait, but I always feel bad doing that... I have been lucky a time or two though to get it anyway.

We headed to WS, Canada side first this time as the kids and I had mostly just been on the other side on our prior visit. We walked up on the Canadian Santa and stopped for a listen...

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1032.jpg

Shortly after 11am guess where we were? YUP!!! we watch the Canadian storyteller too. Tell me again why we never connected?

And Erin wanted to take a picture of Eddie and I on the bridge by Italy... she did a good job!

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1042.jpg

She did do a good job!

We then found the Christmas story teller in action in China...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1043.jpg

I wish that I would have seen this guy!

It was at this point, even after a funnel cake, I could tell my DH had very little energy. We'd really taken it pretty easy, had walked quite a bit but it was just about 12:30p and he was struggling. So I finally suggested we go back to the room and just hang out until our dinner that night. We had an ADR at Cape May's at the Beach Club and he was really looking forward to that so I wanted him to feel like going! PLUS we were planning on going over to DHS to see the Osborne lights and I really wanted to do that! :rotfl:

I think going back was a good choice. The crowds in WS got really bad that afternoon. It made touring very... sloooow.

Exited the monorail and headed back to the Polynesian...I managed to snap some more pics on the way. I love this one of Eddie and Erin... I don't think I've seen them hold hands since she was very very little!! And even though they were kind of swinging each other's arms around and slapping, it was a sweet moment for me to walk behind them. :goodvibes

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1049.jpg

Saw a lizard or two the boys were chasing down...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1052.jpg

And I snapped a picture of the family I love so much!

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1053.jpg

And it was back to the room for a nice nap. Wonder what Eddie will feel like when we wake up and it's time to leave for dinner?

What great family pics! Not your standard "theme park" posed for shots. :thumbsup2

Now for the fun part... after we'd finished eating, the waitress brought me out a special "birthday treat" and yes, the staff sang a happy birthday song to me... it was unexpected, but a fun memory! And all I could think about was "Please don't let my children say anything about my birthday having been in August." I'm not going to 'celebrate' my birthday there again unless I can actually do it in my birthday month! :rotfl: I was a guilty, nervous wreck! :rotfl2: Here's my special treat!

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1062.jpg

It was delicious!!!!

I felt bad too! I know I shouldn't have... but celebrating on a day that was not my birthday felt odd...

I'm just going to say it right now... we loved the Osborne Lights. This was probably one of the most favorite parts of our trip. The lights, the music, the snow... the lights, the music, the snow... it put tears in my eyes several times. I really felt "Christmas" at this attraction. Here are some of the favorite pics I took:

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1079.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1080.jpg

I am so jealous! My guys get overwhelmed by crowds so... well, I can live a bit vicariously through your TR :goodvibes

AND I don't think I ever showed you the Christmas stockings in our room...

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1095.jpg

We ended up having a great evening, Eddie was feeling better, and we were headed to bed. We had an early morning breakfast ADR at Hollywood Studios in the morning, before rope drop... and we had Toy Story Mania on the brain!

I love the stockings!!!

momabaarjo

02-14-2012, 06:11 AM

http://i114.photobucket.com/albums/n255/loghan85/comments/mickey_valentine-4-miny02.gif

Monknmom

02-14-2012, 10:06 AM

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb378/poohcl13/poohvalentine.jpg

shocky5

02-17-2012, 10:31 AM

I'm with you...I think the Beach Club is beautiful and it is the last deluxe I want to try (I have to win the lotto first).

So glad that Eddie felt better and you all enjoyed your meal at Cape May. I have to try to fit that back in for a meal soon...it's been a couple of years.

And I wouldn't worry about celebrating your birthday "after" your birthday. Not everyone can get to Disney during their actual birthday month. Mark and I celebrate our anniversary every September even though the actual date is in May.

:goodvibes I just assumed you were married in September! I love that!!

I keep finding myself planning this trip back to WDW in 2013 (over the cruise... I don't know why :confused3) with the idea of driving cross country to Florida, touring 'the other parks' before going to stay at Beach Club and touring WDW. I haven't told Eddie yet... :rotfl:

I remember that night. You and I were texting each other and I said we were going to the lounge to have a beer/wine and watch the fireworks and you said Eddie was on his way and he was thinking the exact same thing.

Then most of my group was in the lounge at that table by the Christmas tree in front of the window, and you introduced me to Eddie. Then y'all went out to the beach for a little better view and ambiance.

I wish we had spent more time at the resort. I really do.

Ok, I'm all caught up. You are going to be finished with your TR before mine even makes it to WDW!

:goodvibes I have to update while time allows and as much as I possibly can. I think my goal is to 'finish' this TR. It's getting more difficult the closer we truly get to spring!!!

Wow...3 updates, I am super impressed! :woohoo:

We never made it to Figment...not sure why I decided to skip...it was on my touring planing?! And of course we avoided the water fountains like the plague with the temp not so great while we were there.

I think going back to the POLY was the best plan, although deep down I am sure it was killing you to miss the park (I know when I retreated back to the hotel, I was in a very unmagical mood). The goofy pictures have to be the best...I wish I would have taken more of them!

Can't wait to share Cape May with you in my TR! So my lips are sealed...I so appreciated the picture of the BW the night that you sent it to me!

I loved the picture on the bus...Goo ended up on the floor several times...once he fell asleep sitting up!

I think my kids loved being the ones 'not in seats' on the bus! Because I'm a 'get your seatbelt on and sit on your rear or the car doesn't move' kind of mom. :rotfl2: So that was a totally acceptable rule breaker to them!

Sooo um apparently some how your TR sub got sucked into LA LA Land... because I just had like almost your whole TR to catch up on. I've been seeing my update list and was like Hmmm Maybe Amy is just too busy to update... No apparently, technology got the better of me. haha.

So caught up.

Sorry all your boys were sick.

Eekk about the airport almost fiasco.

Thank you for your sweet words about our Dis meet! I wish my normally talkative little monster hadn't chosen that moment to be shy, At least she wasn't asleep like the meet with Susan!

You can definitely tell that Eddie was feeling better after the nap.

Can't wait to read more.. now that I'm actually subbed! :rotfl:

Yay! I thought you had subbed earlier too! But glad you are here!! :thumbsup2 Now if we can just find Betsy again! :goodvibes

I am sorry he was not feeling well. He seems like a good sport about it though... mine.. he would have just stayed in the room the entire trip. :rolleyes:

:sad2: We just kept missing eachother. We got there early for an ADR.

I had to check your photo to see if I could see my son. Shortly after the park opened... that was where he went. But..nope he was not there in your pics. :goodvibes

You know - had we seen Alex, I would have probably walked up and introduced myself... wonder what he would have thought about that?!?!

I could not believe that I didnt know about these fountains before this trip. What an awesome picture you got of the boys and the water!

I liked this picture. They were working so hard to try to touch it when it would fly over their heads!

Shortly after 11am guess where we were? YUP!!! we watch the Canadian storyteller too. Tell me again why we never connected?

Ahhh are you serious? I'm not sure on exact time but I feel certain it was shortly after WS opened!! Because I know we left the park shortly after noon-ish!!

I wish that I would have seen this guy!

He was really interesting and animated!!

What great family pics! Not your standard "theme park" posed for shots. :thumbsup2

I really tried to take lots of different pictures. Usually all we come home with are the standard posed pics. And I definitely have plenty of those.. but some of these have proved to be my favorites.

I felt bad too! I know I shouldn't have... but celebrating on a day that was not my birthday felt odd...

I felt that way, too.

I am so jealous! My guys get overwhelmed by crowds so... well, I can live a bit vicariously through your TR :goodvibes

We really loved the lights!

I love the stockings!!!

shocky5

02-17-2012, 10:49 AM

After a wonderful night's rest, we woke up about 6:15a on this day to make an early ADR at DHS. We had a pre-opening park entry with an ADR of 8:05a. The park was set to open at 9a.

We caught a bus with no problems whatsoever and everyone was HAPPY. Here are some bus pics we took on our way.

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1100.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1101.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1099.jpg

Well, maybe the boys weren't in as good of a mood as the girls... :rotfl2:

We arrived and made our way up to the entrance... snapped a couple of pics on our walk from bus drop off to the park entrance...

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1102.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1103.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1104.jpg

We were in line for the ADR entrance by 7:30a. Here is a moment I'm going to share with you but it's not a proud mom moment... but it happens and it was part of our trip... While in line, Nolan and Nate began playing with a little boy in line behind us, I would say he was probably 2 years old. We chatted a little bit with the parents. They had another child in a stroller, looked to be possibly 1. Nate, in all his inquisitive, begans to visually evaluate this child... and I knew the question was coming before I could divert it... but he looks at the parents and says "Hey... is that a he or a she?" asking about the gender of the child... and then he throws out "because IT has on a brown shirt but there's a necklace on IT's neck." Ultimately, the parents say "He is a boy." And needless to say, we quit chatting and thankfully, our ADR line was now being allowed to enter the park. We walked QUICKLY... snapped a picture... found a hole to crawl in... you know how it goes... :sad2:

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1105.jpg

We arrived here...

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1106.jpg

Wonder what we thought about breakfast at Hollywood & Vine?? :confused3
(That's my Tammie cliffhanger....) :rotfl2:

shocky5

02-17-2012, 11:23 AM

We had originally had an ADR for Tusker at AK but changed it to Hollywood and Vine to hit DHS first... on a whim last minute decision. Our sole purpose of this day was to hit the rides Eddie really wanted to ride so we could commit most of our time with him there to Epcot and Magic Kingdom. That being said, we decided the smartest move would be to go to DHS first, because of TSM, and then head over to AK and hope for the best in regards to crowds.

Our breakfast at Hollywood & Vine was 'interesting.' Traditional american buffet... hit and miss on what was good and what was gross. :rotfl: But we managed to find plenty. ;) We weren't truly interested in the characters, we were more interested in feeding the kids, and getting FP's for TSM in a quick fashion. :goodvibes

SO at our breakfast we met...

Handy Manny... this brought back some fun Disney channel memories for all of us. :goodvibes
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1108.jpg

Agent Oso... of which my kids were never really interested in....I have a picture of him somewhere but apparently I wasn't interested in it making it into the TR because I didn't upload to photobucket... :rotfl2:

Next was Jake from the Neverland Pirates... and we officially got skipped. I couldn't quite figure it out... He walked past our table and waved but didn't stop... so it's safe to say we will probably never become Jake fans either. :confused3

HOWEVER, bless June's sweet heart... she fell in LOVE with Nate and she made the meal worth it... She knew exactly which kid to pick at our table to have the most fun with and he still talks about "June tryin' to love up on him." :rotfl2:

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1112.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1114.jpg

After June left, we happen to glance out the front of the restaurant and notice that there are people running down the streets of DHS! And it's only 8:40a... THEY OPENED EARLY! We quickly paid our ticket and joined the runners towards TSM! Earlier in the week, I reported that we were in line for FP's not too long after the park opened and they had run out... we weren't going to let that happen again! So Erin and Nolan ran for us to get in line for FP's. They did a great job because we got some! And they were in the 9:20am return time so we could still ride the other two rides we came to do and hit that one last before heading to AK.

After we got FP's, we had time to snap this picture...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1115.jpg

It was time to head over to RnR and ToT! As luck would have it, RnR was a 20 minute wait which proved to be about 10... so we all get in line, go through to the loading area, help Erin and Nate find the "We are too cool to ride this ride" exit and Eddie, Nolan and I board the ride. NOW, I must tell you - I know my daughter very well... and I knew without a doubt she'd be standing by the exit where they post the ride pictures waiting to see ours which in turn will tell her 'we are done riding and headed her way.' She's not the most patient chick on the planet... :sad2:

So being the fun loving mama that I try to be... I took a special pic JUST FOR HER viewing pleasure! Here's the pic...

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1118.jpg

And it got the exact reaction I was looking for... She was shaking her head telling me 'how embarassing' before we even got off of the red carpet... I reminded her no one would have even known I was her mother if she'd not said anything at all. :rotfl2:

After RnR, we head over to ToT, and repeat the same drill... we all go through the line, Erin and Nate exit as 'cool-ly' as possible, Eddie and Nolan and I ride...

Here is Nolan in line excited about it! He loves this ride!
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1123.jpg

And here's our ride pic... not very good but evidence none the less! ;)

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1121.jpg

After we rode, Nolan wanted to ride again - it was still walk on so Eddie went with Erin and Nate to hit the bathrooms while I took Nolan. We rode it one more time, and then it was time to head over to....

TOY STORY MANIA!

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1128.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1136.jpg

We love this ride and of course, Eddie whipped up on all of us but it's always fun to try to beat him.

Having accomplished our ride goals, we caught the Muppets in 3-D show and then decided it was now time to make our way over to AK. We snapped a few pictures on our way out... this would be our last visit at DHS this trip...

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1138.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1137.jpg

And we were off and headed to the bus stop to catch that bus to AK!

annmarieda

02-17-2012, 01:09 PM

Great update.:goodvibes I thought for sure I was farther behind. OH...but scrolling down I see you posted another one since I read the last...tricky.;)

I love the boys all in the Perry shirt. Too fun! Is it bad though that I have that same pink shirt. Course... I thought I saw you wear it too... you and your dd must have the same shirt too?

You "is it a boy or girl" story is funny! I think we have all been there... sometimes it is actually hard to tell...:rotfl2:

A last minute change to an ADR? :rotfl: but it looks like it worked well. I had thought about an early morning ADR to H&V... but thought we wouldn't like it... or at least wouldn't like the characters. It was the only park we didn't have an early entry into with an ADR...maybe next time. :rotfl:

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1138.jpg

What a pretty picture :goodvibes

newtexan

02-17-2012, 03:22 PM

opening early is our fear that we will miss out on fp's while still eating...glad it worked out for you all

momabaarjo

02-18-2012, 09:53 AM

:worship::worship::worship:
You are getting the mother of the year award in my book for the picture on RnR!!!
:rotfl2::rotfl2::rotfl2:

I love the picture of Nate and June...hmmm, can't wait to share a couple like that I have!

The same thing happened with us too at DHS...we left the hotel to be in line for rope drop 45 minutes early with TSM in mind. And they opened the park 30 minutes early...we just walked right in with no dash and can you believe this...rode TSM 2 times without more than a 10 minute wait plus picked up fast passes? :confused3 The CM told us that they finished opening procedure early and opened the park...another CM told us that they are really trying hard to figure out how to avoid the TSM dash and rope drop...too many people getting hurt :scared1: and too many people getting testy with CMs about walking. I am just glad we got to avoid all of that!

momabaarjo

02-18-2012, 09:59 AM

Wonder what we thought about breakfast at Hollywood & Vine?? :confused3
(That's my Tammie cliffhanger....) :rotfl2:

Ahhh, you learn well young grasshopper!

I have to tell you that I am really jealous of all your family pictures. It seems that my family scatters when I have a camera out (probably cause I take too many pictures)...and no one else ever seems to carry a camera (plus the fact I avoid the camera) to take pictures with me! :sad2:

oceanwave

02-19-2012, 08:12 PM

Finally all caught up!

Sorry to hear that Eddie was feeling ill, but glad he recovered in time for Cape May and the Osborne lights. I really wouldn't feel bad about celebrating your birthday in the wrong month. I celebrated my birthday in Disney last September (birthday in August) because we couldn't go for my actual birthday. Also it was one of the reasons why I justified the trip :rotfl:

You look far to relaxed on RnR :) Rode the ride once and probably will never to it again! I screamed the entire ride, and well my husband just laughed :rotfl:

As for the baby incident, I wouldn't worry about it. It can be hard figuring out if its a boy or girl!

Monknmom

02-19-2012, 08:36 PM

I am really sorry I swore that I had posted here before to subscribe and I remember reading a few posts... but I never got the email update so I never remembered to come catch up... I am so tired right now though and I am going to head to bed, there is soo much to catch up on I'm sorry... I will be back tomorrow night! Have a great day off and again I am sorry!

KatMark

02-19-2012, 10:10 PM

I'm caught up...I wasn't too far behind.

Love the Osborn light photos (not sure if I commented on those or not).

What a fun morning at DHS. I have to admit I don't even know who any of those characteres are at your breakfast at H&V. We did dinner there twice...and that was twice too many. :sick:

I had read at some point that they were going to open up the rope drop a little earlier than they had been becasue of the running to TSM.

Glad you got on R&R and TOT. I love that you "posed" for your pic on R&R and that your DD got upset. It is so like a teenager to say how "embarrasing" it is to them. :lmao::lmao::lmao:

I'm with Nolan. TOT is my favorite ride...it is awesome!

Mark always wins on TSM...I think the big boys cheat. ;)

shocky5

02-20-2012, 08:55 PM

Great update.:goodvibes I thought for sure I was farther behind. OH...but scrolling down I see you posted another one since I read the last...tricky.;)

I try to keep you all on your toes! :goodvibes

I love the boys all in the Perry shirt. Too fun! Is it bad though that I have that same pink shirt. Course... I thought I saw you wear it too... you and your dd must have the same shirt too?

Yes, Erin and I both had that pink shirt she is wearing on this day, I wore another pink shirt because I think I accidentally wore my pink shirt like hers earlier? I'd have to go back and look at the pictures... I probably should have put my shirts in the ziploc baggies, too! :rotfl:

I have to tell you that Eddie was a good sport about the shirts. He definitely had a comment here or there to make but I like the pictures we ended up with! He hasn't worn them since we got home though...;)

You "is it a boy or girl" story is funny! I think we have all been there... sometimes it is actually hard to tell...:rotfl2:

And in Nate's defense... he was a beautiful child... long eye lashes, big blue eyes... brown onesie shirt... that said "Handsome" and a black beaded necklace... :confused3 I'd assumed from the 'handsome' on his shirt that they probably have gotten that question before... but the necklace... :upsidedow

A last minute change to an ADR? :rotfl: but it looks like it worked well. I had thought about an early morning ADR to H&V... but thought we wouldn't like it... or at least wouldn't like the characters. It was the only park we didn't have an early entry into with an ADR...maybe next time. :rotfl:

I don't know what to say about H&V... it's probably not an ADR we will go for again... the only perk was getting in the park early but there was nothing to outstanding about the rest of it and I'm usually not a harsh food critic... I'm not even sure what I ate there! :rotfl:

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1138.jpg

What a pretty picture :goodvibes

I like this picture of Erin, too. She can be such a girly girl and then be the biggest tom boy... but my favorite part about this picture is her dimple... I've always worried she'd eventually lose it as she's gotten older but not yet!

opening early is our fear that we will miss out on fp's while still eating...glad it worked out for you all

Me, too! I think our server thought we were nuts when we said "UM, we need our ticket, NOW!" :rotfl:

:worship::worship::worship:
You are getting the mother of the year award in my book for the picture on RnR!!!
:rotfl2::rotfl2::rotfl2:

Why thank you so much!!! She STILL doesn't think it's funny! Wait til I put the video montage together from our trip! :rotfl2:

I love the picture of Nate and June...hmmm, can't wait to share a couple like that I have!

We can't wait to see them!!!!

The same thing happened with us too at DHS...we left the hotel to be in line for rope drop 45 minutes early with TSM in mind. And they opened the park 30 minutes early...we just walked right in with no dash and can you believe this...rode TSM 2 times without more than a 10 minute wait plus picked up fast passes? :confused3 The CM told us that they finished opening procedure early and opened the park...another CM told us that they are really trying hard to figure out how to avoid the TSM dash and rope drop...too many people getting hurt :scared1: and too many people getting testy with CMs about walking. I am just glad we got to avoid all of that!

Yes, the TSM dash was the worst I'd ever seen. And bless the CM's hearts for telling people to walk, slow down, don't run over the children or disabled... I think Erin and Nolan even got called down for walking too fast... :rotfl2:

shocky5

02-20-2012, 09:06 PM

Ahhh, you learn well young grasshopper!

:rotfl2::rotfl2: Thank you Thank you!

I have to tell you that I am really jealous of all your family pictures. It seems that my family scatters when I have a camera out (probably cause I take too many pictures)...and no one else ever seems to carry a camera (plus the fact I avoid the camera) to take pictures with me! :sad2:

Oh friend, my family was getting sick of the camera. But our previous trips... I always felt like my pictures really... well... for lack of a better word... sucked. :rotfl2: SO that was a definite goal of mine!

Finally all caught up!

Sorry to hear that Eddie was feeling ill, but glad he recovered in time for Cape May and the Osborne lights. I really wouldn't feel bad about celebrating your birthday in the wrong month. I celebrated my birthday in Disney last September (birthday in August) because we couldn't go for my actual birthday. Also it was one of the reasons why I justified the trip :rotfl:

I am going to have to come up with something to justify another trip... I gently approached it on Sunday with Eddie for 2013 and he literally stuck his fingers in his ears!!! :rotfl:

You look far to relaxed on RnR :) Rode the ride once and probably will never to it again! I screamed the entire ride, and well my husband just laughed :rotfl:

I have grown very fond of RnR! :rotfl:

As for the baby incident, I wouldn't worry about it. It can be hard figuring out if its a boy or girl!

I am really sorry I swore that I had posted here before to subscribe and I remember reading a few posts... but I never got the email update so I never remembered to come catch up... I am so tired right now though and I am going to head to bed, there is soo much to catch up on I'm sorry... I will be back tomorrow night! Have a great day off and again I am sorry!

Don't worry about it! It will be here for you when you have time! I'm not sure I'm subscribed to yours??? I get so used to talking to you all on FB that I forget to check here!!! :sad2:

I'm caught up...I wasn't too far behind.

Love the Osborn light photos (not sure if I commented on those or not).

What a fun morning at DHS. I have to admit I don't even know who any of those characteres are at your breakfast at H&V. We did dinner there twice...and that was twice too many. :sick:

I had read at some point that they were going to open up the rope drop a little earlier than they had been becasue of the running to TSM.

Glad you got on R&R and TOT. I love that you "posed" for your pic on R&R and that your DD got upset. It is so like a teenager to say how "embarrasing" it is to them. :lmao::lmao::lmao:

I'm with Nolan. TOT is my favorite ride...it is awesome!

Mark always wins on TSM...I think the big boys cheat. ;)

Kathy - I think you are right! The big boys do cheat! :rotfl: That's got to be it!

It's hard to beat TOT. It's even one of the attractions I look forward to the queue area, too. I am not surprised at all if they are trying to crowd control the mad dash to TSM. It was a little bit nuts both of the mornings we were there! :scared1:

I'm not sure how long H&V will continue to function 'as is' before a change is made. I think they changed up a few of the characters already and while my kids knew who they were, I could tell they all considered themselves somewhat "beyond" that phase of their lives... :rotfl2: I did enjoy June though! And Handy Manny was cute, too. But I really think the food was gross... I don't recall anything specific but it seems like we didn't go back for any seconds... left food on our plates... so I don't think we were too impressed.

Monknmom

02-21-2012, 12:19 PM

Monknmom

02-21-2012, 12:42 PM

Don't worry about it! It will be here for you when you have time! I'm not sure I'm subscribed to yours??? I get so used to talking to you all on FB that I forget to check here!!! :sad2:

Yeah I usually just check my emails and I get an email when it updates... but I don't think I clicked on yours and I saw on someones you posted something and I couldn't remember reading about it so I checked in and I'm sorry! It's okay- you're right though, we get used to talking on facebook that I forget..

Monknmom

02-21-2012, 08:33 PM

Okay this wasn't too hard to catch up to, Damien was pretty good and I did get the laundry done and the house cleaned so I deserve to come back on right? I agree!
Oh my on the photobook! I had taken one I think of the ride photos! They said that you could add it to your photopass, but you had to spend $15 to do it and we weren't going to spend that everytime we wanted the picture! I wonder if you have you photopass now? I will have to keep on reading! How did your kids do with Dinosaur? And I love all of the shirts! Oh I am sorry that he had a tough time in ITTBAB... I love the EE ride picture! I missed so many things in DTD that I had wanted to do, but we didn't get to. Oh the beach fireworks sounds so nice! I have to say that I did let Damien go a little more than an arms length away from me a few times- never too far that I couldn't grab him in a second (although you will hear about a scary time on mine), but just far enough. I think that I felt I could do that because I noticed that people were generally there to either be with friends, family or just to have a child-like time so I felt a little safer than I would walking the streets of NY! Oh good for Eddie being a trooper with the kids and you! That is a good picture of you and Eddie! I like the morning and early afternoon you had in Epcot the 2nd day! It sounds like you got just enough done! Oh my I did not like figment so I would have been happy to have it out of order for us, luck would have it we rode on it way more than we should have though! Aww. I think that your husband mentioning it on your reservation was all too cute! And I like the birthday treat! It looks really yummy! Osborne looks so pretty! And oh my you really were packed in on the bus! That is a lot more room that you guys got! Oh how cute for Stanley to come! And the stocking's came out nice! I love that Disney lettering!

I got done with a little more and am getting there! Very nice! It sounds like you guys were having a really fun trip with lots of family time and more taking it easy! I want to take it easy in the afternoons more next time!

Monknmom

02-22-2012, 07:54 AM

Oh my Nate's comment! That must have been embarressing, but I can fully understand! It's confusing now-a-days lol! You kinda leave us hanging like Tammie- she REALLY leaes you hanging, she writes something and then doesn't come back for a week! I'm kidding I love her and her cliffhangers! My goodness the heads on those characters at H&V are HUGE!!! But glad you got your FP's for TSM! That was a mad dash type thing! I love the RNR ride picture! Oh that sounds like a fun last day- just enough rides to make them happy!

Oh my goodness I am all caught up now! Keep the stuff coming! I agree with Tammie I love all of your family photos! Your family is really photogenic and even though you said that they were getting tired of the camera you can't see it! In mine you can tell where K and Damien were like ENOUGH!

momabaarjo

02-22-2012, 06:30 PM

High jacking about to happen...Heather I do read Amy's TR:rotfl:

Monknmom

02-23-2012, 07:17 AM

High jacking about to happen...Heather I do read Amy's TR:rotfl:

:lmao:I know I know.... my mistake- just kidding:rotfl2:!

lilpixiebabe101

02-23-2012, 11:24 AM

Hmm you and Tammie had rope drop happen early... we had it happen late two days.. We seriously got to the park thinking we were half an hour late for park opening, got to the turn stiles, and they weren't letting ppl in yet.

shocky5

02-24-2012, 11:00 AM

Nice introductions! I love it! I remember all of the hard times that you had to go through! But I am so sorry that they found out and only hours before you were leaving! That stinks, but nice to see that you found the positive in it all! I love the ornaments as well! Oh my how cute that she still gets teary eyed leaving dad! I mean I can imagine that made it harder for you, but it's nice to hear how close they are! How nice they took the town car to Disney! We toured the Poly- it was really pretty! K had said that next time he'll putin the extra money to stay in them! WOW that was a really nice view! And LOL I can see now why we didn't meet in Epcot... they really were tired! You know we had a few TS meals planned OOP and I am a little glad hat I cancelled some of them because we were supposed to go to WCC but I would have wanted the antics so I would have been a little disapointed! But anyway, it worked out for you guys since he needed a little nap! I found that we got a lot done in Epcot too- it was the one place that my plans didn't fall apart too much! I didn't like Ellen and thought it was a little boring, but my science loving son loved it! And those Mickey ears were good! I wish I had one now.... if only ice cream traveled nicely! K kept ordering things that he wouldn't eat at home and I toldhim that's why he didn't like it! SO I know what you mean when you say the meatballs turned them off from Akershus! The princess photos turned out nice, but the post after that is missing a picture.... Oh my goodness about the MK RD! I love that you were able to have a DIS meet with Ashley! And oh my Alexa's face is so cute! I think that MK overwhelmed us! When I write the TR you'll see! It was just too much going on and I expected it from reading, but didn't really expect it I guess? And I love that you took it easy with breaks in the day! I wanted to, but they wanted to stay so we did the opposite as you- we stayed until eaarly evening and then left instead of leaving and coming back. I think that if the hotel was closer we would have taken more breaks! But hey if eeryone feels okay and gets some rest it's worth it! It's looks like the rest was a good idea for you guys when you came back to the party you seem more lively! The MVMCP sounds fun though and how awesome of you guys to help stand people off while she could get help! You really did get a lot of use out of the concierge! That is great that it's there whenever you want to pop in! And oh my on your no TSM passes, at least you were going to go again later on! Oh my your boys look like they have lots of fun together! Your Hollywood studios day sounds fun too-- okay it's late and Damien is getting restless I have to take him to a park or someting, I am going to try to catch up more later! (just so I remember I start at post 76 page 6!)

One of our favorites about the Polynesian is definitely it's location to either quick transportation or MK. And of course the resort is beautiful. We definitely saw some resorts this past trip we had not been too yet that we found ourselves saying we'd love to stay there! It's probably time to venture out a little bit!

I'm a science geek, Heather, and I literally found myself 'dozing' off some in Ellen's ride. :rotfl: But my kids wanted to ride it AGAIN. We didn't. I would rather do Figment, maybe because it's shorter??? :lmao:

Okay this wasn't too hard to catch up to, Damien was pretty good and I did get the laundry done and the house cleaned so I deserve to come back on right? I agree!
Oh my on the photobook! I had taken one I think of the ride photos! They said that you could add it to your photopass, but you had to spend $15 to do it and we weren't going to spend that everytime we wanted the picture! I wonder if you have you photopass now? I will have to keep on reading! How did your kids do with Dinosaur? And I love all of the shirts! Oh I am sorry that he had a tough time in ITTBAB... I love the EE ride picture! I missed so many things in DTD that I had wanted to do, but we didn't get to. Oh the beach fireworks sounds so nice! I have to say that I did let Damien go a little more than an arms length away from me a few times- never too far that I couldn't grab him in a second (although you will hear about a scary time on mine), but just far enough. I think that I felt I could do that because I noticed that people were generally there to either be with friends, family or just to have a child-like time so I felt a little safer than I would walking the streets of NY! Oh good for Eddie being a trooper with the kids and you! That is a good picture of you and Eddie! I like the morning and early afternoon you had in Epcot the 2nd day! It sounds like you got just enough done! Oh my I did not like figment so I would have been happy to have it out of order for us, luck would have it we rode on it way more than we should have though! Aww. I think that your husband mentioning it on your reservation was all too cute! And I like the birthday treat! It looks really yummy! Osborne looks so pretty! And oh my you really were packed in on the bus! That is a lot more room that you guys got! Oh how cute for Stanley to come! And the stocking's came out nice! I love that Disney lettering!

I got done with a little more and am getting there! Very nice! It sounds like you guys were having a really fun trip with lots of family time and more taking it easy! I want to take it easy in the afternoons more next time!

That birthday treat was yummy! I was stuffed from dinner but wouldn't you know I managed to eat that anyway?? We did get our photopass. I really need to take this weekend and get those pics uploaded since I'm getting near the end of our trip as well as my George Strait concert photos! And we got our book and I was satisfied with it. Nate took it to school with him one day as his teacher wanted to see it so I guess if he's proud enough to do that then it must have turned out okay! :thumbsup2

Oh my Nate's comment! That must have been embarressing, but I can fully understand! It's confusing now-a-days lol! You kinda leave us hanging like Tammie- she REALLY leaes you hanging, she writes something and then doesn't come back for a week! I'm kidding I love her and her cliffhangers! My goodness the heads on those characters at H&V are HUGE!!! But glad you got your FP's for TSM! That was a mad dash type thing! I love the RNR ride picture! Oh that sounds like a fun last day- just enough rides to make them happy!

Oh my goodness I am all caught up now! Keep the stuff coming! I agree with Tammie I love all of your family photos! Your family is really photogenic and even though you said that they were getting tired of the camera you can't see it! In mine you can tell where K and Damien were like ENOUGH!

Yes - Tammie does leave us hanging!! (Hi Tammie!)

High jacking about to happen...Heather I do read Amy's TR:rotfl:

:lmao:

Hmm you and Tammie had rope drop happen early... we had it happen late two days.. We seriously got to the park thinking we were half an hour late for park opening, got to the turn stiles, and they weren't letting ppl in yet.

Aw that stinks, Ashley! Definitely with the money we pay to go, they need to make sure the park is open on time! Gotta get your moneys worth, right? Wonder what causes that to happen? I guess just 'not ready' maybe in the aspect of a ride or workers? :confused3

Monknmom

02-24-2012, 06:50 PM

One of our favorites about the Polynesian is definitely it's location to either quick transportation or MK. And of course the resort is beautiful. We definitely saw some resorts this past trip we had not been too yet that we found ourselves saying we'd love to stay there! It's probably time to venture out a little bit!

I'm a science geek, Heather, and I literally found myself 'dozing' off some in Ellen's ride. :rotfl: But my kids wanted to ride it AGAIN. We didn't. I would rather do Figment, maybe because it's shorter??? :lmao:

That birthday treat was yummy! I was stuffed from dinner but wouldn't you know I managed to eat that anyway?? We did get our photopass. I really need to take this weekend and get those pics uploaded since I'm getting near the end of our trip as well as my George Strait concert photos! And we got our book and I was satisfied with it. Nate took it to school with him one day as his teacher wanted to see it so I guess if he's proud enough to do that then it must have turned out okay! :thumbsup2

Yes - Tammie does leave us hanging!! (Hi Tammie!)

Yeah I'm not all that into science so imagine myself! Damien and K were pretty interested though!

Glad that you got the book and pictures... when can we see them? Oh my uploading to photobucket and facebook is a rough thing! You may want to knock back a few of these :drinking1 (I thought that there was a martini one?) so you don't become :crazy: or :furious: like I was! I was glad though because I looked like this :surfweb: typing to ashley!

shocky5

02-26-2012, 03:45 PM

Yeah I'm not all that into science so imagine myself! Damien and K were pretty interested though!

Glad that you got the book and pictures... when can we see them? Oh my uploading to photobucket and facebook is a rough thing! You may want to knock back a few of these :drinking1 (I thought that there was a martini one?) so you don't become :crazy: or :furious: like I was! I was glad though because I looked like this :surfweb: typing to ashley!

I know Heather! I think that's why I've been dragging my feet on uploading! :rotfl2: But it will happen! There are some really good ones in there that I like of the kids!

swwake

03-04-2012, 08:01 PM

I'm here and caught up. We had an early rope drop at DHS one day too. I don't think we were there the same day as you though.

KatMark

03-04-2012, 08:03 PM

Hi, friend. I've been missing you and just checking in to see how you are. :goodvibes

shocky5

03-11-2012, 04:29 PM

shocky5

03-11-2012, 05:01 PM

I was wrong... I'm not on our last day! :woohoo: I haven't told you about our second half of the day to Animal Kingdom.

We'd just finished up at DHS and were headed to Animal Kingdom. We really didn't know what kind of crowds we would find there but the 'must do's' were Primeval Whirl, Dinosaur, EE, It's Tough To Be a Bug, Kilamanjaro Safaris and anything else that struck our fancy along the way.

When we arrived, we decided it would be best to head to EE and get fp's. Found this friend along the way...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1139.jpg

The kids wanted a picture with the parrots...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1140.jpg

And in the distance... you can see our first destination...

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1141.jpg

We got our fp's with no problem for EE and were headed over to DinoLand next. I honestly do not have any photos of what we did next... we walked on to Primeval Whirl, which was a pleasant surprise... my kids love this but it is not the most fun to wait in line for when the line is long... I'm spoiled to all of the fun queues Disney has to offer on the other rides. Next, we had to take a potty break. ;) It's always the boys... We were sort of hungry but thought we'd try to ride Dinosaur first. It was only a 20 minute wait that actually ended up being about 10 minutes. I was very thankful that our Animal Kingdom half-day was moving so smoothly. :thumbsup2

After Dinosaur, we went to see It's Tough To Be a Bug. We promised Nate we would not sit up close this time and he had a much better experience with the show. After the show, it was time to go back and use our fp's for EE. Now if you will remember, Nate was a little teary eyed the first time we rode this ride... actually cried when the 'train' left for the journey... this time, he was more prepared. Since there were now five of us... Nolan said he'd ride single so I could ride with Nate and Eddie with Erin... our two lil chickens. :rotfl2:

Here is brave Nolan in the fp line, almost to the front...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1168.jpg

Here is Nate mimicking Nolan's bravery... no way is he going to let his brother out do him...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1169.jpg

Did they love the ride??? We can let this picture do the talking for that answer....
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1171.jpg

After EE, we decided we would go get fp's for Kilamanjaro Safari. We hadn't been able to do that yet. On our way, we saw this guy....

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1149.jpg

We were able to get our fp for a decent return time - in 30 minutes. So we decided to grab a bite at a snack stand we saw earlier that was boneless chicken wings. This was actually a quick service and the kids thought they would like this cuisine. I can't remember the name of the stand... :rolleyes:

Anyway - NOT a favorite. You could pick between teriyaki chicken or garlic. We liked that but the service was really_really bad. We were supposed to each have a drink, a bag of chips and a serving of wings. Let's just get out of the way that we never got the chips... :sad2: But while they were putting the wings on the ONE tray they were giving us (there are 5 people in my family, remember) along with 5 BIG drinks with no straws or lids because it's AK after all... the lady spilled one of the drinks in one of the chickens and ALMOST gives it to me with chicken swimming in soda pop. :confused3 Really?!?! I'm not usually one who speaks up about too much that I don't consider to be a huge deal but I couldn't help myself... I looked at her and said "Are you really going to go ahead and give that to me after the pop has been spilled all over it?" She looks at me like I'm an alien, throws the swimming chicken away... Erin's dying of embarassment... which I loved... and the lady replaces the chicken. NOW it's up to me to carry this ONE tray with the chicken and drinks with no lids and a wandering husband who's since disappeared 'to go find a table.' REALLY???? :rotfl2: I maybe make it about 5 steps before people in the line behind me start saying "Oh honey, you need some help... you're not going to make it..." Some very sweet women step forward, put their hand under my tray to help balance, one takes a drink and starts yelling "Where's your husband?" :rotfl2: I LOVED IT. Because Eddie sheepishly looks around the corner and says... "Do you need some help?"

Erin and Nolan went back to try to get the chips that were not put on the tray but to no avail... they basically told them to go to the back of the line and I just told them to forget it.

Here we are...seated... enjoying our food, I suppose.
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1147.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1146.jpg

The scenery was nice though... I will give it that much! :thumbsup2

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1148.jpg

Next up... the safari to finish up our final AK day! :goodvibes

shocky5

03-11-2012, 05:14 PM

We made our way over to Kilamanjaro Safari... we'd never rode this ride in the afternoon - we'd always gone first thing in the morning on our previous trips. It actually felt like the animals were active on this trip!

Here are some of the favorite pictures I snapped:

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1155.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1165.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1164.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1160.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1152.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1151.jpg

All in all, we had a great 1/2 day at AK. We left before the afternoon parade and headed back to the Polynesian to let the kids get their swim on.... and what a night we had! <cliffhanger...>

KatMark

03-11-2012, 05:24 PM

shocky5

03-11-2012, 06:08 PM

Great updates, Amy. Sounds like a perfect 1/2 day at the AK. And :woohoo::woohoo::woohoo: for all three kids doing EE!!!!

You got some terrific shots on the safari...and I don't recall seeing a single "rear end" shot. ;)

:rotfl2: Thanks Kathy! I hadn't thought about the "rear end" shots but that may become a goal next trip! :rotfl:

I know I've liked your status announcement on fb but I wanted to personally tell you CONGRATS on Markie's engagement! So exciting! Can't wait to hear how the details of their wedding come about! :goodvibes

annmarieda

03-11-2012, 06:17 PM

shocky5

03-11-2012, 06:35 PM

Okay - I'm going to go ahead and finish up 12/22 day of our trip.

We left Animal Kingdom after the Safari content with all we had accomplished! We wanted to head back to the Polynesian, let the kids swim, and just let the evening unfold.

We caught a bus back to the Poly, don't recall any issues with crowdedness, I actually think we got on pretty quickly! After one stop at the Contemporary, we were pulling into the Poly. I had decided I would do another quick round of laundry - basically because our trip was so warm, we were running out of shorts again and we still had a day at MK to go before our trip came to an end.

When we got to the Poly, Nolan wanted to get his 'girlfriend' a Christmas present and Erin still wanted to get her bff's something as well. So we stopped in the Boutiki shop and found a cute necklace for Nolan's sweet friend, and some bracelets for Erin's friends. While the family was browsing, it dawned on me that I hadn't stopped by the Wyland Gallery yet in the Polynesian lobby. During the 14 month planning and building phase of our new clinic at work, we were purchasing pieces of art through Donna, the manager, at this gallery. So I'd emailed with her and spoke to her on the phone but had not met her personally. I stopped in, introduced myself and was thrown into a huge bear hug and before I knew it she was introducing me to her staff. I "think" not many people purchase the quantity of paintings we purchased from Wyland. Donna was so incredibly sweet. Erin is super into art and Donna caught on to that quickly and gave her several art books, coffee table style, to Erin for "christmas." Erin was ecstatic and so was I. I was sort of concerned about the weight they were going to add to our luggage... :rotfl: We ended up buying a tote the next day at MK though to just carry them on the plane.

We finally said our goodbyes - the kids were wanting to go swim and I was a nervous wreck with how comfortable they were beginning to make themselves in this art gallery.... Donna insisted on taking our family picture by the Christmas tree in the Polynesian lobby.

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1174.jpg

And we insisted on taking a picture with Donna.

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1176.jpg

She was such a special, sweet lady and she is undoubtedly the one I will send pictures of our new clinic to.

Back to the Hawaii longhouse we went and soon the kids were in their swimsuits and chomping at the bit to go to the pool. We were pretty sure this was their last time to get to go swimming as we had a full day ahead at MK the next day. Eddie took the kids and I went to the laundry mat. I decided this time to just stay there and wait for the wash cycle to complete and read my book (it was so pleasantly silent) and then toss them in the dryer and head to the pool.

Later that evening, our friends from home that we met up with some texted us to tell us they were at the luau and wanted to know if we wanted to meet up poolside when they got out. We thought we'd have time to feed the kids but failed to get that done before they were texting us that the luau was over. So we got some snacks from Samoa Jack's and headed back to the pool.

This is where 'bad parenting' ensues... the beach movie was on - so we put Erin in charge of the two little ones and the oldest boy of the other family in charge of Nolan and Nate. They stayed right there by us - watched Tangled and we sampled drinks from the poolside bar. :eek: Tangled ended, the CM's picked up the screen and we continued to sample drinks from the poolside bar. :eek: The kids asked if they could go swimming and of course we said "SURE! Have at it." While we continued to sample drinks from the poolside bar. :scared1: By this time, we were on a first name basis with the bartender... :scared: It was pretty harmless... the only thing I feel really guilty about... :sad2: was that the youngest child of the other family kept coming and hiding in this bush (picture tall reed type bush, bamboo maybe?) right by our table. It finally dawned on us to ask him why he kept getting inside the bush... turns out the boys told him that the ferry boat would take him away so everytime he'd hear the ferry boat horn, he'd come hide in the bush... poor baby... We did watch the electric water pageant, pieces of the Memories, the Magic and You, as well as Wishes. It was a great time! We closed the pool down and then some... which was a good thing because the poolside bar closed down as well and it was time to make a decision... figure out how to get our friends back to their resort or let their family of 5 crash on our floor. :idea: Eddie and I sent Erin and the boys up to our room and we dutifully walked them over to the Transportation and Ticket Center, giggling the entire way, before it dawned on us that there are no resort buses at the TTC. SO they caught the monorail back to MK, and caught a bus there back to their resort. I think we were in bed by 12:30a (thank God the monorail was still going) and they made it back by 1:30a. "I think" :rolleyes1

As Eddie and I walked back to the Polynesian and to our room, happily hand in hand, he says "What time do we have to get up in the morning?" :scared:

shocky5

03-11-2012, 06:41 PM

Very cool on the job. I saw you added it to your work on fb... and thought "hmm... I didn't know she worked in the medical field"

I can't believe your experience getting lunch!! I also for the life of me can not figure out where you are eating.

The pictures from safari are excellent!!!

Can't wait to read more. :goodvibes

I think I will always consider myself a teacher! Even though I'm not sure I will ever go back in the classroom. I could see myself doing that when the kids are high school/college age or after they are out of the house and I need to work a few more years... I keep up with my licensure... still pushing towards finishing my masters (which I should have finished last year but life interfered with that a little bit) but I'm going to reach a point when all I have left is intern hours and I don't have an answer for myself on when I will get that done... :confused3 I don't even know if I consider myself in the medical field... lol Although I surprise myself from time to time in diagnosing my own kids... :rotfl: Drives my boss, their pediatrician, crazy. :rotfl2: It's not a 'career' I was looking for, but I do enjoy the work and it pays well and I'm definitely a 'kid' person so it works for us right now. I do miss my summers though... :upsidedow

Okay the food stand... the stand reminded me of a circus train cart... it was like a box... one window where you ordered and paid and the second where you picked up your order. It is on the walkway from EE over to Kilamanjaro Safari or Tusker... It's next to the water that separates Asia from the Tree of Life... I will do a search and find a name for you!

annmarieda

03-11-2012, 09:27 PM

Okay the food stand... the stand reminded me of a circus train cart... it was like a box... one window where you ordered and paid and the second where you picked up your order. It is on the walkway from EE over to Kilamanjaro Safari or Tusker... It's next to the water that separates Asia from the Tree of Life... I will do a search and find a name for you!

No worries, I think it is safari wings or something like that. I just can't place where it is. I bet I have walked by it a dozen times.

Love your wrap up of 12/22. I dont think you are a bad mom for having the evening you did with friends. Sounds pretty harmless to me. I think it is neat you were able to do it. 12/22 was the day we flew home. I thought you texted me back and forth that night... :scratchin

The photo of you in front of the tree is priceless! I think it is definitely a "Christmas 2011" keeper.

How cool you got to meet the gal in the gallery ;) How special that she gave Erin a present!

shocky5

03-11-2012, 09:59 PM

No worries, I think it is safari wings or something like that. I just can't place where it is. I bet I have walked by it a dozen times.

Love your wrap up of 12/22. I dont think you are a bad mom for having the evening you did with friends. Sounds pretty harmless to me. I think it is neat you were able to do it. 12/22 was the day we flew home. I thought you texted me back and forth that night... :scratchin

The photo of you in front of the tree is priceless! I think it is definitely a "Christmas 2011" keeper.

How cool you got to meet the gal in the gallery ;) How special that she gave Erin a present!

We did text back and forth that night because if memory serves me right, you were not happy with the airlines!!

It was fun to spend time with friends that evening - I just don't normally do that and on vacation with the kids no less... let's just say Eddie and I were worried about making rd the next day at MK in light of our late evening! :rotfl:

momabaarjo

03-12-2012, 10:09 AM

momabaarjo

03-12-2012, 11:07 AM

:rotfl2:I love the lady helping you with your tray...poor Eddie! :rotfl2:

How fun for you to pick out art that is Disney and Poly and get to see it everyday!

Love the picture of the family that Donna took!

I like your bad parenting...hanging out at the bar and getting to know the bartender sounds like a lot of fun. Why can't I have fun friends like that?

shocky5

03-18-2012, 09:32 PM

I AM SO GLAD YOU DID A LIFE UPDATE....I HAVE BEEN SO CONFUSED WITH PICTURES ON FACEBOOK AND WHAT I THOUGHT I KNEW ABOUT YOU FROM HERE...and I really thought I lost my mind. :rotfl2:
Congrats to you, I sure wish a new door would open for me!

Glad I cleared the confusion! :thumbsup2 You just never know about opportunities, Tammie! Mine hit when I least expected it and while I continue finishing my masters, and wonder while I'm doing endless writing assignments, if it's all for not. But I'm too close to not finish it...

:rotfl2:I love the lady helping you with your tray...poor Eddie! :rotfl2:

How fun for you to pick out art that is Disney and Poly and get to see it everyday!

Love the picture of the family that Donna took!

I like your bad parenting...hanging out at the bar and getting to know the bartender sounds like a lot of fun. Why can't I have fun friends like that?

You have fun friends like that - we are just spread out nationwide! :hug: I'll be thinking of you and your family heading back into school tomorrow. We officially start our spring break this week so I've taken most of the week off from work- going in briefly tomorrow, working 1/2 day Tuesday and that's it. My goal, you ask, for the week? FINISH UNPACKING the last remaining boxes from our move 11 months ago... :eek:

shocky5

03-18-2012, 10:15 PM

I last left off with Eddie and I walking back to our room from the TTC with our friends, to find our children actually in their PJ's and IN BED snoozing. Score 1 for big sister making that happen. :thumbsup2

I think I failed to show you what towel animal we found when we got back to our room...

So on one of our prior days we found this towel animal in our room... We'd been to DTD the day before and of course the kids loaded up on candy at Goofy's... and mousekeeping took full advantage of the boy's candy!

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1177.jpg

Thought it was so cute!

Even though Eddie and I could have easily slept in from the prior night's activities, we valued our final day at Disney World and were going to spend the day at MK. Our first day there had been just the kids and I and while we ended up having a great evening, the day was not what I had 'built up in my head' for that particular day, so I was hopeful this day would make up for that. :)

We got up, one more Mickey wake up call, got the kids dressed, grabbed breakfast from the concierge lounge, and proceeded to the monorail. There was no way for us to make rope drop but we were going to do our best to get there as early as we could and enjoy our day. I took a few more shots of the Polynesian as we walked to the monorail station.

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1178.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1179.jpg

It was promising to be a beautiful sunny day. Our objectives for the day were to ride Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, BTMRR, Snow White, Winnie The Pooh, Peter Pan, POC, HM, the train, and catch the Christmas Parade (since the kids and I had missed it on our MVMCP night).

We made it into the park with very little trouble - I don't even recall that the park seemed very busy which was a pleasant surprise since we were two days away from Christmas Day. We opted to head over to SM and grab fast passes and then go back over to BTMRR, SplashM, and Fantasyland.

We were able to snap some pictures upon entering the park, this time with Eddie in them.

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1182.jpg

Eddie was quickly impressed with the holiday decor at MK. I know this because he hadn't commented too much about the decor in the other parks - he had mentioned that he liked the Christmas trees, etc. but he really made several comments about all of the decor in MK.

We did stop and complete some 'fast shopping' on Main Street. We wanted to buy Erin's basketball coach a tie, who has close to 100, for Christmas and I found a waterproof tote for the day... after all, Splash Mountain was on today's list.

After we gained our SpaceM fp's, we walked back over towards Adventureland and saw this show going on at the Castle.

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1185.jpg

We were going to go to Frontierland first but dared to ride this ride as we approached.

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1189.jpg

After riding POC, we ran into this character... a first meet and greet for us!

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1191.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1192.jpg

He really played the part very well. He was completely into chatting it up with the boys, pretty stand-offish with Erin - he did comment on 'the treasures on her teeth and said he'd like treasures on his teeth, too.' :rotfl: She thought that was funny!

We next stopped by a photopass photographer who took some great shots of our family, even a few of just Eddie and I and a few of just the kids. These proved to be some of my favorites. (side note: After I finish this report, I'm going to upload those and share our photopass pics with you as a grand finale to this TR.)

Making our way into Frontierland - we had to make a potty break and we chose the bathrooms back behind Splash Mountain. And as we finished our potty break, we see a very empty queue for Splash Mountain. It was around 10 a.m., already warm, so we threw caution to the wind and opted to 'risk getting wet.'

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1193.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1194.jpg

Our seating arrangment... Nate is behind me with Nolan - I was single rider... I chose the front to attempt to duck at the last second to avoid being soaked... did it work??

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1195.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1196.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1198.jpg

And the plunge!!!

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1205.jpg

Successful ride. Of course we were wet but it wasn't bad. I've definitely had worse! So we headed to BTMRR next! It was around 10:30a... wonder what kind of line we would find??

shocky5

03-18-2012, 10:34 PM

The line to BTMRR was a mere 10 minute walk on! :cool1: I'm a little bit fuzzy on this one but I do believe we went ahead and grabbed a fp anyway and considered just keeping it on hand should the park get busier.

We were ready to load in no time at all.
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1206.jpg

We absolutely love this ride. So what did we do? We rode it again. Didn't have to use our fp so we tucked that away for later.

We finished BTMRR one more time and then decided we would grab some lunch. It was about 11a or shortly there after. We were very satisfied with how our morning had progressed so easily. I think this was probably our shortcoming for what would happen after lunch. Not sure if we did the right thing stopping for lunch this early or not but two things sent us to eat...we were starving and we had an early ADR at 'Ohana for dinner so we didn't want to be 'too full' for that meal. We went to Pecos Bill, which by the way we thoroughly enjoyed this quick service. My kids left nothing on their plates (Eddie or I either for that matter), and I think we all had the pulled pork bbq sandwich with french fries. It was great! :thumbsup2

After lunch, we thought we'd head to HM. We arrived and opted to go 'through the cemetary.' At first the kids complained about this because they could only focus on 'getting on the ride as quickly as possible,' but once they found the interactive queue, they were completely happy that we opted to go through the cemetary.

"Fake happy" in this picture... still whining about going the loooooong way
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1207.jpg

And not whining anymore....
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1208.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1209.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1210.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1211.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1212.jpg

And I took the risk of offending those around me and snapped this picture of Eddie and I in the 'stretching room' before the story began.... I like it because his eyes are so big... :rotfl2:

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1213.jpg

After HM, it was time to go ride Space Mountain! I do believe we used our fp for SM, but not before getting another one for later that day. We were planning on leaving after the Christmas Parade to go back to our room and get ready for our 'Ohana ADR.

At this poing in my TR, I either don't have the remainder of my personal pictures uploaded to photobucket yet, or I didn't take anymore, which would shock me... so I will check on that before concluding our day at MK.

SO I will leave you with us riding SM... ;)

annmarieda

03-19-2012, 01:58 AM

shocky5

03-19-2012, 11:19 PM

You certainly are getting a lot accomplished. Dont you just love walking right onto a ride and then doing it again?

So Peter Pan... first time you met him, or first character meeting of the trip? :confused: Sorry... I am up later than I should be and I am easily confused.

My ds was just like your kids in complaining about going the "long way" round HM.:rolleyes: That is until we got into the cemetery good!

Glad your lunch was good at Pecos Bills... you know how my meal there went. :sad2:

I too plan a finale with pp pictures. Course, at the rate I am going it is going to be a while. Are you that close to being done :confused:

And... I hope Ohana was good. It is always a favorite of mine. :goodvibes

No, not first character meet - first time to ever meet/see Peter Pan! :goodvibes

I am that close to being done - I have our dinner at 'Ohana and our evening back at MK, then our departure morning and flight home... and no future trip planned back yet! I'm just enjoying your new ticker! :goodvibes

'Ohana was good!!

annmarieda

03-19-2012, 11:28 PM

No, not first character meet - first time to ever meet/see Peter Pan! :goodvibes

I am that close to being done - I have our dinner at 'Ohana and our evening back at MK, then our departure morning and flight home... and no future trip planned back yet! I'm just enjoying your new ticker! :goodvibes

'Ohana was good!!

I am thinking I will never finish mine. I am coming to the end of 12/18... but then there will be 12/19, 12/20, 12/21 12/22 and then I will do a wrap up for 12/23 (since we arrived home technically on that day and had vacation drama then) That is a lot of updates I still have to do. I just hope to get to them before my trip in the fall.:rolleyes: I put a ticker on... but I can't manage a TR and a PTR...so for now, no PTR.

And no future trip? What about 2013? You could put a ticker on for that. I would... I might still. I bet that once we get into the summer I might. Sheesh, I know when we all started talking about it 20 months seemed so far. Now with the thought that summer is around the corner, fall 2013 will be a year away in no time. I think we should plan for September. Any thoughts? I will be honest... my reason is that if Betsy and I are sucessful in doing the run in September she wants to then do the princess half in (?) february. If we are also going again in the fall... then getting an AP might make sense for me...but getting it this September means going before it expires...so would have to go next September with all of you.

And...speaking of the princess half... are you planning that?

Ok, I am rambling on...on YOUR TR. I need to go to bed. :rotfl2:

shocky5

03-19-2012, 11:40 PM

I am thinking I will never finish mine. I am coming to the end of 12/18... but then there will be 12/19, 12/20, 12/21 12/22 and then I will do a wrap up for 12/23 (since we arrived home technically on that day and had vacation drama then) That is a lot of updates I still have to do. I just hope to get to them before my trip in the fall.:rolleyes: I put a ticker on... but I can't manage a TR and a PTR...so for now, no PTR.

And no future trip? What about 2013? You could put a ticker on for that. I would... I might still. I bet that once we get into the summer I might. Sheesh, I know when we all started talking about it 20 months seemed so far. Now with the thought that summer is around the corner, fall 2013 will be a year away in no time. I think we should plan for September. Any thoughts? I will be honest... my reason is that if Betsy and I are sucessful in doing the run in September she wants to then do the princess half in (?) february. If we are also going again in the fall... then getting an AP might make sense for me...but getting it this September means going before it expires...so would have to go next September with all of you.

And...speaking of the princess half... are you planning that?

Ok, I am rambling on...on YOUR TR. I need to go to bed. :rotfl2:

I could put a ticker on for our fall 2013! You are right - it will be here before we know it!

I would love to join you for the princess half in February. Time will tell. I'm getting ready to start beefing up the running again. I got pretty lazy after our vacation and holidays. But I'm starting boot camp back up on the 26th - those are my 5a work outs... :guilty: Fun but so hard to get up that early until after I've done it a week or so. :scared:

I did ask Eddie if we could plan a drive out to Disney World next summer (2013) since it looks like we will plan a cruise in 2014 for my parent's 50th anniversary... he did NOT put his fingers in his ears... so I'm making progress there... :laughing: The only thing we have on the books this year so far is a trip to Arlington in July to see the Rangers and the Twins play - spend a few days in Dallas/Fort Worth, and then he and I are going to Las Vegas over New Years. So I have a couple of things to look forward to that will get here before we know it and then "voila" it'll be 2013! :wizard:

KatMark

03-20-2012, 07:22 AM

shocky5

03-20-2012, 08:59 PM

Congrats on the real life update. What a great gift from Donna to Erin.

I love your pool time and getting to know the bartender...my kind of pool time.

What a great start to your MK day! Loving all the pictures.

Thank you Kathy! It was very sweet of Donna to give the art books to Erin.

I'm honestly so happy we spent more time at the resort and the pool this trip. The downtime, as opposed to the 'go go go' attitude made a big difference for us. We seldom ever stop and just 'be' and it was nice to do that for a change.

annmarieda

03-22-2012, 01:37 PM

I could put a ticker on for our fall 2013! You are right - it will be here before we know it!

Strange to think, isn't it. So... do you think it will be September or October?

I would love to join you for the princess half in February. Time will tell. I'm getting ready to start beefing up the running again. I got pretty lazy after our vacation and holidays. But I'm starting boot camp back up on the 26th - those are my 5a work outs... :guilty: Fun but so hard to get up that early until after I've done it a week or so. :scared:

Wow... 5am work outs :worship: I still have to get into a routine. It is hard though since my schedule varies so much.

I did ask Eddie if we could plan a drive out to Disney World next summer (2013) since it looks like we will plan a cruise in 2014 for my parent's 50th anniversary... he did NOT put his fingers in his ears... so I'm making progress there... :laughing: The only thing we have on the books this year so far is a trip to Arlington in July to see the Rangers and the Twins play - spend a few days in Dallas/Fort Worth, and then he and I are going to Las Vegas over New Years. So I have a couple of things to look forward to that will get here before we know it and then "voila" it'll be 2013! :wizard:

I wish I had some things other than disney to look forward to. Dh and ds just got back from a beach trip. While, I wouldn't have been able to keep myself busy for a week there.. .it did look nice.

momabaarjo

03-27-2012, 06:52 PM

annmarieda

03-27-2012, 07:44 PM

Don't you just love family of 5...seems like mom always gets left out! Great picture on SM! I wish we would have rode it more than we did...

I will but a ticker on for September 2013 if you will...I actually was thinking about how bare it looks without one. Yay for Eddie not sticking his fingers in his ears...you are making head way. Jeff has no fingers in his ears and has agreed to the cruise, but it is going to have to be 2014 because after putting pencil to paper my budget for the cruise...and no frills is almost $12,000. YIKES! I can shave about $3000 off pretty easy providing Jeff starts racking up mileage points with the new business card...but with Ab's new school tution increase, new furniture, cabin expansion, and a new (used) car...not happening next summer. I do have him considering DL next spring...

DL in the spring would be super fun. I know it use to be that it didn't take a ton of days to get it done since the two parks are just a walkway apart. I think the most we ever did was a 5 day and that was a stretch. Now with the new stuff... I bet 5 wouldn't be. However... 5 days away is a lot more affordable than 2 weeks. Not sure how long a drive it is for you either. I know people here drive to it..(not me.. too long a drive) In any case, if you do go... I HOPE you do a PTR. I would so be there!!!

lilpixiebabe101

04-20-2012, 04:34 PM

I'm here! I just finished up "almost" another round of class... waiting on my last two sections of my final project to be graded and returned and then I will submit the entire project this week. SO far, all is well, so it's a matter of piecing it all into one and resubmitting. Ready for another break. :goodvibes

Going back through my PTR and this TR, I don't think I've ever told you about my 'day job' that pays the bills! :goodvibes We've discussed that I taught school for ?? years, and am working on my masters in school counseling - my DH is a teacher and a coach but my day job has nothing much to do with education. I'm excited to tell you about it now because of the new facility we just finished building and all of the theming we put into it.

I am a healthcare director for a pediatric/adolescent healthcare clinic, private practice, and we have 5 providers and a staff of 15. I basically make sure that the circus continues in as organized fashion as possible. ;) A couple of my staff call me 'the ringmaster.' How did this happen you ask? As many of you know - teachers are OCD/anal/particular/meticulous... tend to think outside the box and try to solve life's problems and annoyances... (am I correct, Tammie??) Anyway - I have a brother who is actually a pediatrician in his own practice that had a colleage/friend who was looking for someone to organize his business, handle his staff, take over his financials, and he asked me. That was over 4 years ago.

I should back up and say that my last year of teaching school, I'd learned how to do some medical billing on the side for my pediatrician brother - he had a girl that didn't do a great job for him and over a Christmas conversation I opened my big mouth and said "I could do that..." so I did it from home for him as a side job... unfortunately, teachers in Oklahoma are not paid so great and with three kids, the extra pay sounded wonderful! But that opened a door for me that has been a blessing - and I owe it to the skills I developed as a teacher. I work while my kids are in school - downside is I work while they are out of school on breaks but I try to schedule my vacation time with their breaks, with the exception of summer. Upside is it gives my family a better income which used to drive Eddie bonkers but he's adjusted. It also pays for my Disney obsession and allowed me to take my kids to Disney as planned this past Christmas as opposed to my DH who had to stay behind a few days to finish up the school semester.

ANYWAY - the whole reason behind that information is what I really want to tell you now... the owner of our clinic is also a huge Disney fan and has a passion for the Polynesian. SO the new clinic we just moved into has exactly that... little touches of Disney, little touches of tropical Hawaii... and even though we've only been in there for a week, it's been a wonderful transition for us all. Some of you have seen the picture updates on my fb page. I will try to get some on here as well. But I've told him a couple of times we need to take some shots to send in to the Polynesian and Disney 'just for fun.' But who am I kidding... I secretly hope they'd reward us with a highly discounted trip back to the World. :rotfl:

And that's my day job...

Now I'm going to go work on an update for this TR. I think it's actually our last full day there... but I still have photopass pics to share with you all after that! :goodvibes

Glad you updated us because I agree, I had no idea either what you did after you posted the pictures! I love all the Disney touches!

I am thinking I will never finish mine. I am coming to the end of 12/18... but then there will be 12/19, 12/20, 12/21 12/22 and then I will do a wrap up for 12/23 (since we arrived home technically on that day and had vacation drama then) That is a lot of updates I still have to do. I just hope to get to them before my trip in the fall.:rolleyes: I put a ticker on... but I can't manage a TR and a PTR...so for now, no PTR.

And no future trip? What about 2013? You could put a ticker on for that. I would... I might still. I bet that once we get into the summer I might. Sheesh, I know when we all started talking about it 20 months seemed so far. Now with the thought that summer is around the corner, fall 2013 will be a year away in no time. I think we should plan for September. Any thoughts? I will be honest... my reason is that if Betsy and I are sucessful in doing the run in September she wants to then do the princess half in (?) february. If we are also going again in the fall... then getting an AP might make sense for me...but getting it this September means going before it expires...so would have to go next September with all of you.

And...speaking of the princess half... are you planning that?

Ok, I am rambling on...on YOUR TR. I need to go to bed. :rotfl2:

I have no problem with September or October. Either is fine with me. I know Ashley can't go into November though cause of Garrett, her son. He will be turning 2 then.

And I feel like I'm saying this a lot today... but a lot of random messages to your posts!

Oh geez about the service lady. I cant believe she was really going to give you the chicken like that! The boys look like the food was not even a little okay!

Not bad parenting! If was your vacation too, and if your kids had been all under like 6-7 range.. maybe bad parenting, but with older kids you knew you could enjoy yourselves a bit! Glad you did!

I think we all had the exact same peter pan!

KatMark

05-02-2012, 09:17 PM

HI AMY!!!! Just popping in to say hi.

shocky5

05-17-2012, 02:25 PM

Hello! WOW! I can't believe I'm actually in a quiet home with some time to do a little more updating! I finally got the photopass pics uploaded to my computer but as I'm typing this out I realize I don't have them uploaded to photobucket yet.:headache: So the tocks clicking until I have to go pick up Erin and Nate from their 2nd to the last day of school... last day is tomorrow and then it's summertime for the kiddos!

My mom brags... Erin had her awards assembly yesterday. She got several academic awards and then was honored with a presidential award for her gpa through her middle school years. Let's hope that carries on through high school...she's officially NOT a middle-school kid anymore after 3:10 tomorrow.

Nolan had his 5th grade graduation today and also received several academic awards, and he also received an award for his 4.0 gpa that I know I've shared with a few of you how diligently he (and encouragement from mom and dad) to earn those grades. It does not come easily to him as it does his sister.

Then Nate, who is also a good student, but as you know my little challenge, informs me he is also getting a special award tomorrow for something. Pray for this friends... :rotfl2: I'll let ya know!

Now to go get some of those photopass pics on here!! I'll be back!

KatMark

05-17-2012, 02:44 PM

Awesome job to the kiddos!!!

Good to see you back...I've missed you. :hug:

momabaarjo

05-17-2012, 02:52 PM

And here I thought I would come and find a TR update and pictures...:confused3:rotfl2:

Actually I like your proud mama brag lots! Way to go Shocky Kids making the parents proud! :goodvibes

Welcome to HS, well almost Erin and super job at the awards ceremony!

Way to go Nolan and the 4.0 and on to middle school!

Well, we have our own Nate (smarter than the 2 older put together, but the smarts just dont seem to show up for the good...). I wonder what the special award is...:rolleyes1, I hope it is something awesome!!!!

My kiddos have 9 1/2 more days...and well just when I think I was getting July for vacation it looks like plans are changing! :confused3

shocky5

05-17-2012, 02:59 PM

Awesome job to the kiddos!!!

Good to see you back...I've missed you. :hug:

Thanks Kathy! I've missed you, too! I've done a 'decent' job keeping up with your daily life on fb, but I'm so behind on TR's here! And your ticker is quickly moving in on another trip!!!

And here I thought I would come and find a TR update and pictures...:confused3:rotfl2:

Actually I like your proud mama brag lots! Way to go Shocky Kids making the parents proud! :goodvibes

Welcome to HS, well almost Erin and super job at the awards ceremony!

Way to go Nolan and the 4.0 and on to middle school!

Well, we have our own Nate (smarter than the 2 older put together, but the smarts just dont seem to show up for the good...). I wonder what the special award is...:rolleyes1, I hope it is something awesome!!!!

My kiddos have 9 1/2 more days...and well just when I think I was getting July for vacation it looks like plans are changing! :confused3

:rotfl2: You nailed Nate to a "T" with your description of your #3! He's very excited so I will definitely let you all know.

What's going on in July?? I'm beginning to think your family would warrant a cross over the state line and starting 'fresh.' :goodvibes

shocky5

05-17-2012, 03:08 PM

These were my favorites I picked out from our disc. We have a lot... I'm starting to toy with the idea of a video montage... :lmao: Sadly I'm not kidding... throw a little Disney music to it... and I could watch our vacations over and over...

Arrival Day - dinner at WL

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/WL3.jpg

Epcot - Day 2
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/Ep1.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/Ep6.jpg

Magic Kingdom - Day 3

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/MK3.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/MK1.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/MK19.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/SpaceMountain1.jpg

Hollywood Studios - Day 4

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/DHS2.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/DHS6.jpg

And Animal Kingdom up next!!!!

shocky5

05-17-2012, 03:13 PM

Animal Kingdom - Day 5

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/AK2.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/AK3.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/AK6.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/AK7.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/AK8.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/AK9.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/AK14.jpg

Next up... photopass pics with Eddie! :)

shocky5

05-17-2012, 03:25 PM

Epcot - Day 6 with Dad back on the scene!

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/Ep12.jpg

This Test Track is my absolute favorite!!! Shows our personalities perfectly! Poor sweet young single rider girl who got stuck in our car... she looks horrified! :rotfl2:

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/TestTrack6.jpg

Day 6 Evening at Osborn Lights

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/DHS12.jpg

Hollywood Studios - Day 7 morning

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/DHS15.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/DHS19.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/DHS20.jpg

And I love love love this family pic! :goodvibes

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/DHS21.jpg

Animal Kingdom - Day 7 afternoon

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/AK18.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/AK20.jpg

Magic Kingdom - Day 8 (where my TR has currently left off)

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/MK26.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/MK28.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/MK37.jpg

Again... this pic shows my kiddos true personalities... Anyone shocked by this? :rolleyes1

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/MK40.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/MK48.jpg

This is us with our friends from home whom we met up with periodically. It was 'snowing' on Main Street that night in the Magic Kingdom... that's all I'm going to say because I need to finish my update on this day!

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/MK50.jpg

To Be continued.... (I've got to go pick up kids!!)

annmarieda

05-17-2012, 03:38 PM

Congrats to the kids!!!

And love the photo pass pics!!!

momabaarjo

05-17-2012, 05:33 PM

OMG...I love the pictures. You had such better luck with Photopass than I did!

What is Erin doing on Test Track...that poor girl in your family car probably ran from that picture!:rotfl2:

momabaarjo

05-17-2012, 05:35 PM

I like the video montage...I think if you kept playing it over and over again Eddie would have to relent and take you back, it could be your secret weapon of torture until he gives in! :rotfl2:

shocky5

05-17-2012, 08:34 PM

Congrats to the kids!!!

And love the photo pass pics!!!

Thanks, Ann!!

OMG...I love the pictures. You had such better luck with Photopass than I did!

What is Erin doing on Test Track...that poor girl in your family car probably ran from that picture!:rotfl2:

Erin was attempting to get a slam in on the boys (aka her dad and Nolan) being 'gross' :rotfl: Don't know how else to explain it.

I like the video montage...I think if you kept playing it over and over again Eddie would have to relent and take you back, it could be your secret weapon of torture until he gives in! :rotfl2:

I know, right?!?!?! :thumbsup2

KatMark

05-17-2012, 09:40 PM

I love the photo pass pictures. I was getting worried hubby wasn't in any...but then he was there. :). Can't wait to see the rest.

shocky5

05-19-2012, 01:28 PM

I love the photo pass pictures. I was getting worried hubby wasn't in any...but then he was there. :). Can't wait to see the rest.

Thank you Kathy! We had to wait for Eddie to finish up the semester so he came later and got in the park pics - round 2. :goodvibes

shocky5

05-19-2012, 01:47 PM

(After checking my own TR because it's been sooo long... :rotfl:)

I left you in the midst of our final full day at Disney World of which we'd been enjoying the Magic Kingdom. I did indeed find the rest of my pictures I failed to upload to photobucket and I'm grateful or I might not have remembered exactly what we did! :upsidedow

After we rode SM, we worked our way back up Main Street to ride the train. On our way, we encountered this fun parade!

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1217.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1223.jpg

And then we made our way up to the train depot.

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1225.jpg

For some reason, I think Nate did not want to ride the train... and I can't remember what his argument was... I think he may have been wanting some ice cream or something and we kept putting him off...

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1227.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1228.jpg

After the train ride, we made our way to the hub to watch the Christmas Parade. The kids and I had missed this opportunity at MVMCP and we were happy to see it with Eddie before leaving MK for our 'Ohana ADR.

We found ourselves "here"
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1229.jpg

And sat down "here" and looking at my kids with Mickey bars in hand... this definitely was what Nate was upset about... :rotfl2:
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1230.jpg

And before too long, we saw "this"
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1231.jpg

I was somewhat frustrated that I did not consider the placement of the sun... I had a hard time getting pictures without it overbearing the exposure and quality of the pics...

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1243.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1255.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1259.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1273.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1278.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1286.jpg

I must say... I do remember feeling bad for the performers in the parade... so many costumes replicating the winter/Christmas theme and it was HOT this day!!! :firefight

We enjoyed the parade and Santa calling people out by name - wishing them happy birthday, etc.

We left after the Christmas Parade to catch the ferry back to the Polynesian so we could get ready for our dinner ADR.

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1287.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1289.jpg

And back to the Polynesian we go!! I know at this point of our day, I couldn't believe we were quickly approaching our last night... :sad:

We found ourselves riding this ferry back and forth more than the monorail on this trip. It's just so peaceful.

shocky5

05-19-2012, 02:16 PM

We love 'Ohana... sometimes I think it's the one pull that keeps my hubby saying "yes, let's go back to Disney World." :goodvibes We had a pretty early ADR, 4:50 or 5:00 if memory serves me correctly, but we were ready. We'd had an early lunch at Peco's Bill and everyone was hungry! One thing I noticed right off the bat with my kids... they weren't intersted in the coconut race or hula lesson this time! :scratchin Wonder what that is supposed to be telling me....

But here we are (minus the picture taker - me) getting our 'eat on' at 'Ohana.

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1291.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1292.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1295.jpg

I have no complaints about 'Ohana. Service was great, food was good and we left with what we'd came for... full tummy's. ;)

I know I was happy to use Nolan's leftover TS to pay for Eddie's meal and grateful to the Plaza for not charging us for Nolan's uneaten food when we were there earlier in our trip. Just a little Disney magic... after dinner, we were basically left with 1 little QS credit for our departure day... and I'll tell you when I get to that point of our trip just how we used that...

After dinner - we were headed back to the Magic Kingdom to close down our trip. We planned on meeting up with our friends from home and closing the park DOWN. It was getting 'darker' outside and I really had to push back the Post Disney Depression I know we all feel as the trip comes to a close....

SO we caught the monorail (one train behind our friends who were eating at GF) and met up with them at the monorail station in MK. We walked into the park to this....

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1300.jpg

We went back to SM. Actually, Lisa and I took the kids over there and watched the Christmas show in Tomorrowland while waiting for Eddie and Chris to grab us fp's for BTMRR. We all gathered in line, went through the fp line and seriously, the fp line was longer than the standby... only in SM, you don't really know that until you are up in to the queue line... As we reached the loading area, we discovered that our youngest in our party (Chris and Lisa's) was just a tad too short... so Lisa left with him and the rest of us stayed to ride. They gave her a complimentary FP for all of us to use later in the evening because he was so upset... another little bit of Disney magic.

Here are the boys getting ready to load up:
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1301.jpg

Next, we headed to BTMRR. Tonight was all about re-riding our favorites and whatever else we felt like doing. We rode BTMRR twice, the walk on was surprisingly short for some reason and we had fp's as well. We had a lot of fun trying to snap pics on the ride...

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1303.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1307.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1306.jpg

And my personal favorite..... :rotfl2: See... he really does have fun!!!

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1304.jpg

We braved Splash Mountain one more time... the crowds really thinned out as the evening wore on and we walked on to this as well... and then headed over towards Peter Pan. We had not ridden this ride on the entire trip and we were going to use the complimentary for it. On the way, of course, the boys had to have their pics here:

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1322.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1323.jpg

Just as we arrived to Peter Pan, Wishes had begun. We stood smack in the middle of Fantasyland with this right above our heads. Even though we were constantly having debris from the fireworks falling on us, there was something magical about being here amonst so few people with these right above your head. You don't get the 'whole effect' you get from mainstreet but it was still spectacular:

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1311.jpg
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1317.jpg

After Wishes ended, we hopped on to Peter Pan. My pictures were NOT GOOD so I opted to just quit trying to take some and enjoy the ride. Because after Peter Pan... we would be leaving the park until another time... :(

We said goodnight to our friends, hopped the ferry boat back to the Polynesian for the last time and found a very quiet, sleeping resort...

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1325.jpg

I love this pic of Erin wading through the volcano pool one last time headed to our room...

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1327.jpg

My last view of the castle at night from the beach area...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1330.jpg

A very empty concierge lounge... because you know we needed one more drink from here...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1329.jpg

And it was off to bed for the kids and packing time for Eddie and I...

Wonder what our departure day will hold... it will be Christmas Eve and we have to fly back home... (the real cliffhanger here is how long is it going to take me to come back and finish the departure day of my report... :rotfl2:)

shocky5

05-19-2012, 02:22 PM

Double Post (sorry!!!)

annmarieda

05-20-2012, 01:19 AM

sjs314

05-20-2012, 09:42 AM

Loved reading your TR! Thank You for shareing your wonderful trip. Your family is beautiful as are alespecially, especially your photopass pictures. We will be taking our first trip to WDW at Christmas time this year and after reading your TR I am more excited than ever!

shocky5

05-20-2012, 09:59 PM

:sad1:great... snifff :sad1: sniff :sad1: update. Makes me so sad though. :sad2: It seems as though we all planned and planned FOREVER and then the trips were over and done before we knew it.

I love the pictures of you all having fun... and the last "good bye" ones (even if they make me sad)

I like seeing Wishes from inside Fantasyland. I know it isn't the view that everyone likes, but some how having it all right over head is quite beautiful too.

Ok... even though I am sad your TR is nearing an end... don't leave us hanging too long. I want to know how you used your last cs credit!:goodvibes

I know! And being back on here to try to get caught up with eveyone and finish my own TR just makes me that more determined to get a ticker on here soon!!! :wizard: I'm a bit teary eyed sitting here replying... I distinctly remember exactly how I felt getting off of the ferry and walking back to our longhouse/room and having the Polynesian all to ourselves... :sad1: I've told myself I'm trying someplace "new" when we do go back... and I felt that on our final night at the Polynesian... but it's got sooo many good memories for our family... our first trip, our first Christmas trip... I need a :hug:

I'm going to attempt to do our final day here in a second... so maybe some of you are still 'awake' tonight! :goodvibes If not, it will be there waiting for you all tomorrow... hopefully give you something to do while at work. :lmao:

Loved reading your TR! Thank You for shareing your wonderful trip. Your family is beautiful as are alespecially, especially your photopass pictures. We will be taking our first trip to WDW at Christmas time this year and after reading your TR I am more excited than ever!

You are so welcome! Thank you for the compliments! Very sweet! You will love WDW at Christmas! It was truly magical for my family and I as you've read. The entire place is beautiful in a way I'd never seen before visiting there at Christmas! Lots of pixie dust for a magical trip for you! pixiedust:

shocky5

05-20-2012, 10:10 PM

I was thankful that our departure day was on Christmas Eve. It forced upon me a couple of reasons why... 1) I was completely 'ready' for Christmas prior to our trip so we could just come home and enjoy the holidays and 2) I am so depressed when we leave Disney World that having Christmas to look forward to helped buffer that a little bit.

Because it was Christmas Eve, we wanted to do something special prior to leaving the Polynesian so we opted to take the kids to breakfast at 'Ohana and see Mickey, Pluto, and Lilo and Stitch before we headed to the aiport. We'd been to this breakfast before and we loved it this time around as well. :goodvibes

Eddie and I had finished packing the night before, other than what we would need in the morning, and we woke the kids up about 7:00 to get dressed. We were scheduled to eat breakfast at 8 a.m., then we'd need to get our luggage checked in and wait for our transportation back to the airport.

Because we still had the one counter service credit remaining, I turned to my DH and said "How would you like to try something we've never tried before but I've always heard is phenomenal??" I told him we could get it at Captain Cook's - each of us have a taste, maybe we wouldn't even eat it all, but we'd still be able to use our last credit... He agreed and off we headed to Captain Cook's.

Any guesses what we purchased?

Nope... not Erin - but thought this was a cute picture I took of her in Captain Cooks... :rotfl: She looks sleepy but happy and content!
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1335.jpg

We purchased......TONGA TOAST!!! And we loved it!!!

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1336.jpg

Here's a picture of Eddie eating it... and honestly... he wasn't doing a very good job of sharing!

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1337.jpg

Next, we took a few pictures in the Great Ceremonial House before heading up to 'Ohana.

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1333.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1332.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1334.jpg

And it was off to 'Ohana next....

shocky5

05-20-2012, 10:29 PM

We arrived at 'Ohana and right off the bat, they took a family picture of us...I liked it and purchased I think because it was Christmas Eve, we were all smiling, and we were at the Polynesian... again... that tickle in the back of my mind that we might not stay there again next time we go...

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/Ohana2.jpg

We were seated fairly quicky which was nice and immediately food and fun began happening all around us.

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1339.jpg

The kids (unlike the night before at 'Ohana) elected to participate in the kid parade with Lilo, Mickey and friends....

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1340.jpg

Eating and waiting for the characters to come by...
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1341.jpg

Eddie and I got so tickled because there was a table close by to us that had the most precious, energetic girl who would give each character the biggest and hardest hug she could muster... she was so very excited and her energy was contagious!

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1342.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1344.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1345.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1346.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1347.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1348.jpg

Before we knew it, breakfast had come and gone and it was time to go back to our room, gather the luggage and wait for our transportation back to the airport.

I snapped a few more pictures...

The Grand Floridian
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1349.jpg

More beach and a little bit of the Contemporary
http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1350.jpg

Luggage checked, boarding passes in hand... and we are a sad lot sitting outside of the Polynesian waiting for the dreaded ride back...

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1351.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1352.jpg

Loaded up and on our way...

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1353.jpg

http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h330/aherchock/Disney%202011/IMG_1354.jpg

Now, I have to tell you... our ride back to the airport was a little crazy... :rolleyes1 I don't know how our driver couldn't see the cars whose lanes he was infringing upon... more car honks at us than I've had in my lifetime... but he deposited us 'safely' and I use that word loosely simply because we did arrive in one piece... and we were through security with no problems and waiting at our gate.

The trip home was uneventful from Orlando to Houston. However in Houston, and some of you are aware of this... our plane were trying to board had mechanical issues and we were delayed for several hours in that airport. We were even relocated to a different terminal to catch a different plane and believe me when I say the pilot of our plane was in just a big of a hurry to get us to Tulsa as we were... she made excellent time, through a rain storm I might add and while I don't like flying in rain storms (mostly the turbulence scares the dog out of my kids which makes it stressful for mom), this pilot did a great job and after our extended layover in Houston, we arrived home much earlier than I could have ever imagined. We were able to go to my parents after our 40 minute drive home from the airport, visit with my youngest brother and his wife and kids for a bit, and then headed home to get kids to bed and prepare for Santa. We totally cheated on cookies... we made the pre-prepared kind that you just slap on the cookie sheet? I assure you Santa didn't care.... :rotfl:

And that my friends... makes me the FIRST of the OCD TYPE A PLANNERS to complete her TR. ;)

momabaarjo

05-21-2012, 12:05 AM

shocky5

05-21-2012, 05:44 PM

Okay...I am going to come back and offer lots more comments...but I have to get in the first blow to your last comment...the first of the OCD to finish their TR....Really you had to go there? I know you just want to be the first to put up a ticker! LOL :rotfl2:

:rotfl2: I went there! I honestly don't even know how I had the time to sit and finish it up but thought I'd better take advantage lest it be another two months before I get back on here!!! :scared:

I played with trip pricing today... :rotfl: daydreaming about September or October... it'll never happen but I'm 'wishing!' pixiedust:

But no ticker on here.... yet.... :scratchin

momabaarjo

05-24-2012, 08:28 PM

annmarieda

05-25-2012, 02:47 AM

And that my friends... makes me the FIRST of the OCD TYPE A PLANNERS to complete her TR. ;)

:rotfl: How funny, but... yes... last to start, but first to finish.

Hey, if you end up going this fall... you HAVE to let me know so we can try to meet up. I know... I know... you say it isn't happening... however I know what playing with pricing does.

Great family pic, btw!!!

Grumpy's Wife

05-25-2012, 07:37 AM

I really enjoyed reading along on your wonderful journey. Thanks so much for sharing it with all of us.

lilpixiebabe101

05-25-2012, 09:34 AM

Okay...I am going to come back and offer lots more comments...but I have to get in the first blow to your last comment...the first of the OCD to finish their TR....Really you had to go there? I know you just want to be the first to put up a ticker! LOL :rotfl2:

HAHAHA! Oh Yeah she went there!

So we have to have our TR's finished before we are allowed to put our tickers up? Eeek I might not get to put one up at all! I need to re-add the photopass pictures to my computer.

Love all your goodbyes Amy. We like watching the fireworks from there too. We keep forgetting that the restaurant in "Belle's castle" will be open when we go. I bet that would be an amazing spot to watch the fireworks from if it has windows opening that way!

shocky5

05-25-2012, 07:21 PM

Hey maybe you and I could sneak away....hee hee! I am now thinking when we all go that we watch the fireworks from fantasyland!!!

I am so glad you got the Tonga Toast...of course that was an ADR we cancelled...I am guessing Eddie loved it!

He did LOVE the Tonga Toast!! I was glad to finally see it 'live and in person' and not just via food pics. It was yummy! HUGE

I need to sneak away!! The fireworks in fantasyland were mesmerizing!

:rotfl: How funny, but... yes... last to start, but first to finish.

Hey, if you end up going this fall... you HAVE to let me know so we can try to meet up. I know... I know... you say it isn't happening... however I know what playing with pricing does.

Great family pic, btw!!!

Of course, Ann, I would absolutely let you know!! And yes, playing with pricing makes you really start to think "hmmm...not as out of reach as maybe I think...." but not there yet... :goodvibes

I really enjoyed reading along on your wonderful journey. Thanks so much for sharing it with all of us.

You are welcome! Glad you enjoyed!!

HAHAHA! Oh Yeah she went there!

So we have to have our TR's finished before we are allowed to put our tickers up? Eeek I might not get to put one up at all! I need to re-add the photopass pictures to my computer.

Love all your goodbyes Amy. We like watching the fireworks from there too. We keep forgetting that the restaurant in "Belle's castle" will be open when we go. I bet that would be an amazing spot to watch the fireworks from if it has windows opening that way!

Oh no, Ashley - that's not the deal. I don't think anyone has said that about being done with TR's before tickers go up. I just said that because now that this is done, I will only be posting on all of your TR's and I want a trip to talk about still! ;)

I wonder what type of scenery Belle's castle will offer as well.