Remind me again what we did after Mission Space. JAN 2012 TR. Update, with Day 8!! [Archive] - The DIS Discussion Forums

ash-n-brensmom

01-18-2012, 03:09 PM

This is my second attempt at a TR. Ferb and I wrote one for our last WDW vacation in March 2011. This time around I was smarter and brought along a small notebook to take notes on our travels. That is where the title of this TR comes in. I found myself writing in the little journal while we were in line for rides, or waiting for meals to be served. But what was funny, was the fact that I was already forgetting everything we were doing. Good thing I brought that little book along. I was constantly having to ask Ferb and the girls what did we do after this or that. And anyone who was around for our previous TR is aware that I had to always ask someone what time it was. We didn't have a watch, or cell phone to check. On the final day of that vacation I finally bought a watch...guess what I forgot to bring along on this trip....YEP! That watch...so not only was I bugging the kids and Ferb to remember everything we did, but I was also bugging people around us for the time. Some day I will either remember that watch, or we will catch up to civilization and get a smart phone to take to the parks with us.:rolleyes1

This trip was planned by me as a surprise for Ferb. We went on an adult only vacay in Oct and I sprang it on him then as an anniversary present of sorts. We decided to keep it a secret from Stitch and Rapunzel until the day we left. We had many close calls along the way, but we managed to keep it a secret! They were very surprised...we got it on video..but I am computer illiterate and I need Ferb to post it for me. :surfweb:

Our flight wasn't until 10:55 am so we had some time to get the girls up and have breakfast before we surprised them. But because we live in Canada and need to cross the border to get to the Buffalo airport, we wanted to make sure that we had plenty of time. The night before we set the clocks ahead one hour to get the girls in bed early. :cool2: Then we got them up an hour earlier than normal to give us that time buffer. It worked well because it's winter and it was so dark they had no idea we fudged the time!:thumbsup2

According to my little book....
Ferb and I were up at 5:30 and got showered and ready. Then we got the girls up and while they were at the breakfast table we sprang the surprise on them. I don't want to give it away before we post the video..but it was cute! We got finished getting ready pretty quickly after that and headed to the airport with no problems. There was a little traffic because it was morning rush hour, but nothing to worry about. Our first flight of the day, we had a connection, was running 10 minutes late. I figure that's not too shabby considering it's January and we are in the snow belt!:thumbsup2

Here's someone who's just a little excited!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/079-1.jpg

Our first flight was a long one...we flew past our ultimate destination and on to Ft Lauderdale. Such a stupid direction...oh well. This flight was good though, no problems. We had our snacks, drinks..played on our electronic devices and we were so excited to get to WDW!!

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/087-1.jpg

I took this shot just before landing in Ft Lauderdale:
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/085-1.jpg

Our second flight was running a few minutes behind as well. We had plenty of time to find something to eat, problem was...there was very little to choose from unless we wanted to head out of the secure area and then have to go through security all over again. We grabbed some pizzas and then hunkered down and waited...it seemed like forever!!!! Finally we made it on that flight...this one was so short they barely got through drink service before we landed. :cool1:

We made it:thumbsup2 We love the Orlando airport....the smell there reminds me of VACATION!!!! We got on the fake monorail...
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/095-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/096-1.jpg

Love me some palm trees!! Another sign of vacation!!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/100-1.jpg

TexasBelle

01-18-2012, 03:30 PM

Sounds like a great adventure already!!! I LOVE SURPRISE TRIPS :cool1::cool1:
I'm looking forward to hearing about your trip but also about Wyndham Grand Resort, on Barton Creek. My daughter and I will be staying there, in March for her spring break. The pictures of the place on line look fabulous, but can't wait to hear what you have to say about it and your thoughts.

Looking forward to your TR
TexasBelle
Carolyn

ash-n-brensmom

01-18-2012, 06:46 PM

:wave2:

Looking forward to reading about your trip.

Welcome! :welcome: You are first!! :cool1:

Sounds like a great adventure already!!! I LOVE SURPRISE TRIPS :cool1::cool1:
I'm looking forward to hearing about your trip but also about Wyndham Grand Resort, on Barton Creek. My daughter and I will be staying there, in March for her spring break. The pictures of the place on line look fabulous, but can't wait to hear what you have to say about it and your thoughts.

Looking forward to your TR
TexasBelle
Carolyn

Just wanted to clarify where we stayed...it was Wyndham Bonnet Creek which is a timeshare resort. Wyndham Grand is on the same property, but is a separate hotel. We really like the amenities and location here. You will see how everything else is as this TR moves along. ;) Welcome!!!

ash-n-brensmom

01-18-2012, 07:42 PM

We left off riding the fake monorail at MCO. When we got off that we split up. Ferb took the girls with him to claim our luggage and I took the elevator one more floor down to the car rental area. We had a car reserved with Alamo using a company from the UK. The reason we went this route is because they include all the insurance with the rental at a better price. It ended up costing us just over $200 Canadian for a midsize rental for the week with all the insurance. We could have done WAY better renting through Alamo and just using our own insurance...but that is not gonna happen if Ferb has anything to do with it. Old argument...I've given up on this one.
So, I got in a longish line but it was moving quite well. Until they got to me. The guy was so confused by the voucher I handed him, he had to go in the back room a couple times to ask a supervisor about it. But, in the end all was well...I signed my life away...allowed him to put a $230 deposit on my credit card :scared1:....and walked away with a contract. Just as I was reaching the elevators to wait for the rest of my crew..there they were! Perfect timing!
We walked over and picked out a car...Ford Focus, red..easy to see in a parking lot we figured. This car was CRAP though...it idled messy and it sounded like it had a hole in the exhaust. Makes me happy I drive a Civic. Moving on....
We got out of there in record time. Thankfully we knew where we were going sort of. We forgot our GPS in our car at the Buffalo airport! :rolleyes1 So using signs and previous experience we found our way to the Walmart around the corner from WBC and headed in to shop. When we landed it was around 65 degrees...by now the sun was going down and it was still warmish, I think the car said outside temp of 63...gotta love Florida!
We got our shopping done in no time flat...thankfully we had thought about what we wanted to get ahead of time and didn't waste time wandering aimlessly. What I can tell you is that the Walmarts have amazing selection in their Disney section. I think we will hit them up on our next vacation for sure!:thumbsup2

ash-n-brensmom

01-18-2012, 07:58 PM

We left Walmart and headed over to WBC. It wasn't far, but it was dark and we were still feeling like major out of towners and took our time. When we arrived the security guard checked his list for our name and let us in the gate. Security is pretty good here. When we got to the front desk there was almost no wait....just waited for someone for a minute or so to finish up. We checked in with no problem and the staff there was very welcoming. Unfortunately we then had to go to the "parking pass" desk. I put that in quotes because they are really the sales desk. They try to talk you into taking a tour. We are owners so they said we didn't have to take a tour, just allow them to totally interrupt our vacation plans and do a survey with them in our room. No thank you, we have dining reservations in the morning. "What, every day?" Excuse me...b***h...did I just hear you correctly? That got me soooooo mad....are you saying I am lying? Well, yes I am ....but only because so are you! And no...we will not be taking your unnecessary survey...
We got our parking pass and left.
We were assigned room 417 in Tower 1. There are 6 towers and one main building with check in reception and the activities desk. We drove to tower 1, unloaded everything..luggage and groceries onto a luggage cart and brought everything up to the 4th floor.
This is where everything went down hill.
We always do a bed bug check when we stay away. Well...we put the luggage rack just inside the front door of our unit and had the girls stand there and wait while we checked their beds..all clear. Then went to check the master.....not so much. There were spots and then we found an actual bed bug...:scared1:
I called the front desk, they asked what kind of bug we found....does it really matter? Well, it's only some ants...we'll sleep with those. No, it's black spots on the mattress and mattress label at the head of the bed and a bug ran away from the light. We can assign you a new room...ya think?:headache: Would you like the 7th floor or a new tower....new tower please!!:mad: Would you like to come get the new keys or do you want us to bring them to you....What do you think, jack ***?:sad2: So now we have ALL of our belongings and our groceries hanging precariously on a rack..I don't want to have to load and unload all that again. So we decided to walk over to the next tower. Thankfully it wasn't too far, but in the dark with two scared children, worried now about bed bugs and trying to manouver this monster of a luggage rack..it wasn't fun. But then we had to wait another 10 minutes at the bottom of tower 2 for our keys...I even called using the house phone there and they said it was on the way....you know that game...I wanted to call bulls**t on them...but 10 minutes later a bell services guy shows up.
We check out the new room and it's clean...we have missed our ADR for Raglan Rd...we are all exhausted and frustrated and we have an early ADR the next morning. So we decided to just make sandwiches and go to bed, which was not easy with images of bed bugs dancing in our heads.
And...NO ONE APOLOGIZED for the situation we were in. NO ONE CALLED to check on us and see if our new room was okay.
Definitely not Disney!!!:headache::mad:
Don't worry...our vacation was awesome from this point on!:love: Oh and I promise that I won't sound like a trucker anymore either...

BMC423

01-18-2012, 08:58 PM

I'm here!!! :yay::yay: Just got home from school will go back and read now!

ash-n-brensmom

01-19-2012, 07:05 AM

I'm here!!! :yay::yay: Just got home from school will go back and read now!

:welcome:
My first repeat customer!!! How exciting! :cool1:
Hope you were able to sleep after reading the last post! :scared1:

lledman

01-19-2012, 08:14 AM

The bed bug situation totally stinks. I am soo thankful that we have our camper for most of our travels.

ash-n-brensmom

01-19-2012, 08:23 AM

We left off on this adventure after a harrowing escape from BED BUGS!!!:scared1: And just in case anyone out there is living under a rock...they aren't dangerous in the same way as a venomous snake is..more along the lines of really bad lice. Except it would cost $1000's of dollars to remove them from your home if it gets to that point. So we are very glad that we check regularly.
And here is a site you can use for reference:
http://www.bedbugbattleplan.com/content/view/26/1/

Moving on to nicer topics.....

Day 2!!

Weather.com shows this day as reaching a high of 72 but it started with a low of 44! We were bundled up a bit this morning. We had an early ADR at O'hana. Our oldest's fave is Stitch...hence her name here on the boards....but really it also has to do with her CRAZY personality!!:stitch2:
Breakfast was a surprise for her. We got up at 6 and our ADR was at 7:30. We drove to the Poly with no problems this morning and parked in Valet to give us the freedom of parking all day if we should choose. They LET you do it..the valet attendant said so! We checked in at the podium and got our leis and waited a couple minutes for our family photo...it looked really odd with our faces all screwed up funny so we didn't buy it. Then we waited about 5 more minutes for the restaurant to officially open up. The staff came out and did a little chant about Ohana and family. It was really cute. We were the first family called and we headed in with our new "cousin". At this point our Stitch heard that her Stitch was going to be here and she got way excited! Ferb and I got way excited when we saw where our table was...here was our view:
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/108-1.jpg

We had a great breakfast and everyone had something they liked to eat....Rapunzel over did it with the fruit and she paid for that later...:rolleyes1. Not to get too gross, but I don't do well with breakfast food either.:blush: This was purely for the character interaction. The food WAS delicious and the juice there FABULOUS!!:drinking1

Here is who we met:
Rapunzel with Lilo
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/120-1.jpg

Both of my babes...with Lilo ;)
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/121-1.jpg

There's a happy Stitch!!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/127-1.jpg

Rapunzel with Stitch..
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/126-1.jpg

Aloha, Mickey!!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/130-1.jpg

There's a good doggie!!!!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/132-1.jpg

Even I got a pic with Stitch...:thumbsup2
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/116-1.jpg

Can you see the book on the table? The red one...we used the WONDERFUL designs on the disign boards and ordered awesome hard cover autograph books from artscow.com. They were a hit with characters and photopass and even character handlers. Oh, and the girls loved them too!

ash-n-brensmom

01-19-2012, 09:05 AM

The bed bug situation totally stinks. I am soo thankful that we have our camper for most of our travels.

That's great! We have been pretty diligent since I read how to check here on the boards. But the website I just posted in my new installment has opened my eyes to where we have been lax. Gonna have to step it up a notch!

ash-n-brensmom

01-19-2012, 09:30 AM

With breakfast completed we took the Monorail over to MK to make it for Rope Drop. We made it just in time and headed with the crowd into the park with 2 majors goals this day. Ride Dumbo and BTMRR....the latter we needed to ride as many times as possible. It's Rapunzel's favorite ride and we knew it was going down for refurb while we were there. I scheduled 2 MK days early in our week to make sure we could ride these two both days.

So we walked down Main Street directly to Dumbo and got to ride at 9:08! Woo hoo...here's Rapunzel so excited to be going on our first ride of the week!!!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/134-1.jpg

I love riding this one first thing in the morning...not just because the line is shortest then, but it just feels good to start the day that high up and seeing so much below you!

Me and Rapunzel..
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/138-1.jpg

Ferb and Stitch waiting to go up!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/137-1.jpg

Checking out the Fantasyland Expansion:
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/148-1.jpg

After our ride on Dumbo we headed over to Frontierland to grab FP's for BTMRR. It was at 9:37 when we grabbed them and the wait time was posted at 10 minutes so we rode as well. While we were waiting they opened up the second side of the loading area and we got on a train right away! Rapunzel was so happy!! BTW, we are that crazy family that copies the spiel at the end really loudly..."This here's the wildest ride in the Wilderness"!!! We have fun! :dance3:
After this we walked over to Adventureland and met Pirate Goofy by POC!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/155-1.jpg

We knew he would be out here so we had a page made for the autograph books just for him..he liked it!

After this we tried in vain to talk Rapunzel into riding POC. So Ferb and Stitch rode while Rapunzel and I found the nearest washroom to deal with our breakfast....:sick::rolleyes1
We met back up with Ferb and Stitch and we walked back to BTMRR to grab more FP's. I wish I had checked the time on them to see now how late in the day it was. Again, that watch would have come in handy wouldn't it?
We walked over to Fantasyland but we stopped at HM on the way and again tried in vain to get Rapunzel to ride. So Stitch and I rode while Ferb took Rapunzel on SW. (Her second favorite ride at the time).

Stitch really enjoyed the new interactive queue area...
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/159-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/160-1.jpg

We met back up with Rapunzel and Ferb and decided to have some lunch...it was around 11 I think because the restaurant was still pretty empty. After lunch we grabbed FP for PPF and watched Philharmagic. After we decided to take a break back at WBC..it was going to be a late night and we had gotten up pretty early.
So we stopped to try this:
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/162-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/164-1.jpg

Someday it will happen! And then we headed out to take the monorail back to the Poly to grab the car.

ash-n-brensmom

01-19-2012, 09:55 AM

When we got back to WBC it had warmed up nicely and we decided to go for a swim. The pool just outside our building looked kinda lame so we walked towards the pool at the main building. The water was sooooooo warm. We swam and hung out in the hot tub for a while. We rested in the room for a bit after then I got a quick dinner ready and we ate there. We headed back to MK via the Poly again and used our ticket from valet in the morning to park there again....and yes it's allowed. This ended up being more expensive in the long run than parking in the lot. Valet is only $12, but when you add two tips it was more like $22. Anyways, it was more convenient for us this way with our breakfast ADR.
We took the monorail over to MK and got in just in time to see the Move it Shake it Celebrate it parade. We even got Rapunzel out there dancing with me....it was fun. We had a snack while it was starting....ice cream for Ferb and Stich, Rapunzel got cotton candy. After the parade we walked over to Fantasyland to use our PPF FP. The wait time was listed as 50 min!!:scared1: Then we headed over to Frontierland and used both of our FP for BTMRR. The wait was posted at 70 min and then 50 minutes. CRAZY!!!
Then we hunkered down in front of The Hall Of Presidents to wait for the MSEP. The time I have written was 7pm when we grabbed our spot. We had to wait an hour for the parade. We really didn't want to do anything else, though. I sent Stitch and Ferb on a mission though because they had ants in their pants. I sent them to Tomorrowland for a cream cheese pretzel and a frozen coke. :cloud9: They returned with 2 pretzels and it's a good thing too....we ate it all!
When we first picked out our spot there weren't too many people there. The ropes were already up and there was a mom with 3 little ones on the ground at the ropes and a family from Scotland on the brick wall we sat on. But it got crazy about 20 minutes before the parade started!!!
I'm not a huge fan now that I've seen this one...I prefer Spectromagic and I hope they bring it back sometime in the future. We hadn't seen this one though so it was worth seeing at least once. The girls enjoyed it!.

Here are a few decent pics Ferb was able to get with our rinky dinky point and shoot camera...
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/181-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/182-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/201-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/211-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/213-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/216-1.jpg

We followed the throng after towards the hub to hopefully get a decent spot to see the castle show and Wishes.
Ferb liked to have some fun with the camera...but you can see the bagallini I carry in the parks and the sweatshirt I got from Santa for christmas..
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/246-1.jpg

The crowds were a mess as usual, but we managed and watched both the show and Wishes. It was fun to see the christmas stuff they put in the magic memories and me show. We were exhausted at this point and headed out with the crazy crowd. It had been a wonderful day of sunshine, good food, favorite rides and even meeting some new characters. We went straight to bed....the next morning was Epcot and we only had one day here this week so we wanted to be sure to make it for rope drop. It's the marathon weekend...how is this going to go?

ash-n-brensmom

01-19-2012, 02:27 PM

Day 3

We got a decent amt of sleep the night before, merely from exhaustion and I think the bed bugs dancing in our heads had calmed down as well. We got up this morning at 6:30 to have breakfast in our room and get everyone ready to head out to Epcot today. It was the half marathon this morning, and we weren't sure how that would affect driving and parking at Epcot so we made sure we left with plenty of time to deal with it. It's a good thing, too! WBC is soooo close to Epcot it should only take 5 min or so to get there. We drove out into a mess of traffic and we figured since we drive straight into WBC from Epcot we should be able to drive straight into Epcot from WBC. Not so much...there's a reason that road is called Backstage Lane....cuz it's BACKSTAGE...meaning CM's only. We made it slowly down that road and into the employee lot and the security guard there very nicely let us keep driving through the employee lot to the other side and out onto the public roads. It was kind of neat in a way, but also kind of disappointing to drive through as CM's were parking and heading into work. You just aren't supposed to see that kind of thing, you know?
Anyways, we made it back onto the road and headed right into Epcot parking with no other problems. We parked up headed right into the park because we missed RD. No biggie...there isn't anything fun for RD anymore anyways. What we didn't realize was that the marathon ran right through FW. We got stuck waiting in a huge mess of a line to play frogger through the runners to get to Soarin! It was a MESS!! I get that the marathon is a big deal and I say good for you for running. But to make children run in between these runners is RIDICULOUS!!! Not safe if you ask me. We did have CM's there to control when you went, but still not a good situation.
We made it safely across, barely, and headed into FW towards Soarin for FP's and to ride..only when we passed the Character Spot there was NO ONE in line!! Well, I exaggerate, there were two kids in front of us when we got in there. I sent Ferb with our passes to grab FP and I took the girls in for pics and autographs. Ferb only took about 10 min and said it was a virtual ghost town in the land....that's cuz everyone is stuck still playing frogger!!

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/257-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/262-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/263-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/267-1.jpg

We ended up heading back into The Land and rode Soarin after this. The time was 9:20 when we were in line and the wait time was posted as 10 min. We headed the long way around to TT after this and got in line at 9:55 with a 5 min wait posted. Unfortunately the ride broke down for a little while when we waited...we exited the ride at 10:34.

We headed next door and managed to talk Rapunzel into riding Mission Space!:thumbsup2 I believe I bribed her with a Duffy if after riding she thought I had lied to her about how "not bad" it was. We rode the green side with a 10 min wait posted. She was pretty nervous and we tried distracting her everytime she started to get that worried look on her face while we waited. The only wait we really had was inside the briefing room. She rode it and survived and told me I had to buy her the Duffy because I said it wouldn't get dark. I told her there was a bright light in her face the whole time and it didn't count as going dark...did you notice the duffy in her arms in the pic in the first post?:rolleyes1

So we then headed into Mexico and grabbed a treat. Churros....hey where's "That guy" when you need him? We walked around the inside of the pavilion and rode Three Caballeros. It was a very nice ride with no cameras flashing and quiet people on our boat! It was 11:28 when we rode that. We let Rapunzel color a duffy on a stick while Stitch and walked around the pavilion a bit.
Outside there was a PP lady and we got our pic taken....can't wait for the CD to come in! Then around the corner we saw these guys playing...check out the singer....
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/269-1.jpg

He was really good and there was someone in the crowd watching that knew the song he was singing and the two men were singing together...it was pretty cool!!

Gotta take a break and get the girls off the bus...it's snowing up a storm out there and I don't want them to have to walk alone in this!!

ash-n-brensmom

01-19-2012, 04:51 PM

We left off walking through Mexico enjoying the music. We moved on from there and headed into Norway where Ferb and Rapunzel hung out at the kidscot station to color while Stitch and I rode Maelstrom. We tried again to get Rapunzel to ride, but just like last year Stitch and I agreed afterwards that Rapunzel wouldn't like it.
Love this guy:
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/270-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/271-1.jpg

After that we just walked the WS. Rapunzel was getting tired and to be honest, winy about all this walking. I didn't really blame her but our lunch ADR was at LeCellier and we needed to walk there so we just kept going and only stopped once in France for a pic with Photopass and to meet Marie who had a VERY short line.

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/274-1.jpg

We made it to Canada and stopped for a silly pic:
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/275-1.jpg

We checked in for lunch..we were pretty well right on time for our 1:15 ADR. Ferb took Rapunzel to the kidcot station and Stitch waited with me. We got called pretty quickly and we had a wonderful lunch...as always! We got the cheddar cheese soup to dip the pretzel bread and it was delish!

We rolled out of LeCellier and wandered out of the WS. We spotted Duffy at his M&G and Rapunzel just HAD to meet him. Stitch refused!:snooty:

Here is Rapunzel with Duffy and Duffy on a stick!;)
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/277-1.jpg

After we left WS we decided we needed to use our FP Soarin..but first a ride that we didn't get to in time in March because it closes earlier than the rest. Stitch of all people was soooo upset about this, too. So we had to ride Figment. :rolleyes: It was what we expected...no comment. Anyways, after the girls had lots of fun playing in the imageworks area:

Rapunzel has lots of energy now:
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/280-1.jpg

Stitch making music!!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/285-1.jpg

Now Rapunzel:
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/286-1.jpg

We left there and headed over to The Land to use our FP. The wait time posted said 80 min....:scared1:. It was 2:50 by now...and I felt sorry for everyone that wanted a FP because they ran out as we got in line. The FP line was pretty long too. We rode Living with the Land next. We hadn't been on this since our first trip in '08 and it was a nice change from the regular routine.
We walked out of The Land and into The Seas next!
I think they might be a bit too big for this now...:rolleyes1
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/291-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/292-1.jpg

We rode Nemo and waited after to see Turtle Talk. Rapunzel and Stitch played the games in the waiting area and we all looked at the different fish and jellyfish there. The show was funny....but even better Rapunzel got picked. She asked something about what he eats and he asked her what her fave food was...Candy she says. Really? Believe it our not her fave is Brocolli and I think he would have loved that answer too...but candy it is. Then he asked if it gave her bubbles and he then he bubbled...it was hilarious!!
We headed out of the park and rode SSE on the way. Rapunzel rode with Ferb and Stitch and I rode together. We love making funny faces for the camera....
Classy huh?
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/296-1.jpg

That's my girl!!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/300-1.jpg

This one cracked me up!!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/303-1.jpg

Our day was complete here....we rode everything on our list and we ate the BEST food. We had fun. We were back in our room by 5:50.
We had a light dinner in and headed to bed after a nice quiet night together as a family.
Tomorrow....it's the full marathon and we are headed back to MK!! :scared1: Will we make it in time for RD? Tune in tomorrow! I am off to bed now...gotta work tonight at midnight. :upsidedow

monkey30

01-20-2012, 01:23 PM

Enjoying your TR as I get ready to leave for my trip!!

ash-n-brensmom

01-20-2012, 03:30 PM

Enjoying your TR as I get ready to leave for my trip!!

:welcome: So glad to have you along...even if it is only going to be for about a week! ;)
That's exciting you only have one week and a day to go! :cool1: Read along and live vicariously through us until it's your turn!

BMC423

01-21-2012, 09:36 AM

WOW!! This TR is moving fast!

:welcome:
My first repeat customer!!! How exciting! :cool1:
Hope you were able to sleep after reading the last post! :scared1:

I'm sorry you had such a stressful check in! I can't believe they didn't apologize or check in to make sure everything was ok! You're right that is definitely not like Disney :sad1:

BTW: I like trucker you kind of sassy! ;)

I love your Ohana pics and oh my goodness those girls are growing like weeds, they are so tall!

I didn't know that they let you "play frogger" with the marathon runners! :scared1: All along I thought they would section off parts of the parks to let the runners run. :confused3

Yay for Mission Space... although I won't ride it ever again lol. Maybe if I'm bribed with another vacation :laughing:

ash-n-brensmom

01-21-2012, 12:10 PM

WOW!! This TR is moving fast!

I'm sorry you had such a stressful check in! I can't believe they didn't apologize or check in to make sure everything was ok! You're right that is definitely not like Disney :sad1:

BTW: I like trucker you kind of sassy! ;)

I love your Ohana pics and oh my goodness those girls are growing like weeds, they are so tall!

I didn't know that they let you "play frogger" with the marathon runners! :scared1: All along I thought they would section off parts of the parks to let the runners run. :confused3

Yay for Mission Space... although I won't ride it ever again lol. Maybe if I'm bribed with another vacation :laughing:

Well, I sent Wyndham an email telling them everything that happened throughout our week.. the bed bugs are the worst, but not the only problems we ran into. We'll see if we get any response.:rolleyes:
Ohana was a great breakfast..we really enjoyed it. And yes, those girls are gonna be taller than be pretty soon!!;)
I always thought that about the marathon as well...but in reality they would be mixed in with the public at some point...it was "controlled chaos" in my opinion.
We were so happy she tried something new! There's more to come of that later, too!!
Thanks for tagging along, Bickiana!! Glad to have you here!:hug:

janiejake

01-22-2012, 06:52 PM

Enjoying your TR! Time to post the next installment! (only have 4 days to read it before we are in our Happy Place).

monkey30

01-22-2012, 09:17 PM

Enjoying your TR! Time to post the next installment! (only have 4 days to read it before we are in our Happy Place).

I agree.... PUSH..... Please!!:rolleyes:

ash-n-brensmom

01-25-2012, 07:56 AM

Enjoying your TR! Time to post the next installment! (only have 4 days to read it before we are in our Happy Place).

I agree.... PUSH..... Please!!:rolleyes:

Sorry I have been absent....had a MAJOR crisis at work...almost unemployed kind of crisis. But it's been dealt with and thankfully I am still employed.

I hope you both have wonderful vacations full of this stuff...pixiedust:

ash-n-brensmom

01-25-2012, 08:33 AM

Life gets in the way sometimes and it isn't always a good thing. There was a MAJOR issue at work over the weekend involving myself and one other. No details, but I am just thankful to still have a job. So, sorry I have been absent. Now, on to much better things....

Day 4

We had a wonderful day yesterday at Epcot! We managed to get a good night's sleep and we were up at 6:30 to be at MK for a 9 AM rope drop. This was the morning of the full marathon and traffic was supposed to be a NIGHTMARE!!! So up and at em....had breakfast in our room and out the door...but here are a couple of pics of what the mornings looked like out our balcony door....

FOGGY!! And it was actually dissipating a lot at this point!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/309-1.jpg

Hot air balloons!!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/305-1.jpg

Now, my notes say that we arrived at the TTC and were forced to board one of a line of buses to take us from the TTC parking lot across to the Monorail and or Ferry. We would have walked it and been there in less than 5 minutes...but we were stuck on the bus in traffic for about 20 minutes. We managed to get into the park at 9:15. This was a MESS!! People were texting their spouses from the bus because he was at the TTC with the stroller and walked instead of getting on the bus and we were all stuck on the buses!! It was the most asinine situation. Note to self...avoid Marathon weekend like the plague!!
So, we managed to get into MK after the welcome ceremony was finished. We had the same goals today as our first MK day. Dumbo and BTMRR!! So we headed through the Castle towards Dumbo. But when we exited we saw that the Stepsisters were badgering a cute little baby and we realized there was no one else waiting. The character Nazi that was there quickly took over and got us and everyone lingering into a line along the wall and we ended up being second in line which was good because it gave us a second to grab our books and pen and camera.
They loved the girls autograph books and Lady Tremaine berated them into thanking their Mother for making them...it was funny!!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/313-1.jpg

Look...she even has the finger wag going!!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/315-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/316-1.jpg

That was fun! We headed straight to Dumbo next and rode with NO WAIT!! Note to self..I think I like Marathon weekend after all!

This time Rapunzel rode with Ferb
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/321-1.jpg

We left Fantasyland and headed to Frontierland and picked up FP to BTMRR at 9:43 and rode as a walk on. They had 10 minutes posted. Then we walked right back on again!! We left there and I had a REALLY quick unexpected meet up with princesssuzanne whom I have been talking to on the Jan board and also on Facebook. It was pretty cool meeting her in person...unfortunately you get so caught up in getting to the next ride or show and you don't take the time you should to really talk to someone. Sorry for that Suzanne. Would have been nice to really chat, my bad.
As we walked over through Adventureland we saw that they were just getting ready to set up for the pirate tutorial and we decided to stay and watch. What a great idea!! Because Rapunzel got picked (last, and only because she had a double eyepatch on!! LOL). Then they let Stitch come up at the end to take the oath too! This was so entertaining!!

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/325-1.jpg

I swirled out the other kids faces...
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/328-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/331-1.jpg

She did really well...she was the first to go up against him and I was surprised at how well she actually did!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/332-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/333-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/334-1.jpg

Can't wait until we get our Photopass CD. There are tons of pics from that!! After this we rode Aladdin and headed back over to BTMRR to grab another FP. We had lunch at Peco Bill's and my book says it was now 11. We realized we hadn't even been in Tomorrowland yet so we headed over there and grabbed FP for Buzz. We watched another funny installment of Monsters Inc and then used our FP for Buzz. When we got out of Buzz, Rapunzel reminded me that I owed her a Duffy Bear. :rolleyes: So we grabbed one at the little cart in Tomorrowland. We decided to head out for a break and stopped at the Theatre to combine all our Photopass cards. We took a nice break at WBC and had a swim! The weather was just wonderful, it had gotten up to 75 degrees and to us Canadians that is DEFINITELY swimming weather!

ash-n-brensmom

01-25-2012, 08:53 AM

We left WBC at 4:36 and we were walking into the park at 5:10...not too shabby for off site and having to park at the TTC. Much better than that morning, that's for sure!:thumbsup2
Rapunzel had decided that she just needed to trade at least one pin..we took care of that at the cart just inside the train station entrance. We got our pic taken by Photopass and she managed to time it with the fireworks with the castle show...they are sort of noticeable when I looked on the photopass site..hopefully they can be seen better when I get the CD. We walked over to Adventureland and grabbed some yummy Dole Whip! YUMMY!!!:love:
We slowly made our way over towards POC and we finally got Rapunzel to ride!!! And, she LOVED it!!:cloud9::yay: She now has this as one of her favorite rides!! I am so glad we have added another ride we can all do together as a family!:grouphug: We made our way into Frontierland to use our BTMRR FP's. It was dark by now and all I could see was a mess of people lingering. I figured they were all waiting for their FP return time...but nope...everyone had the same idea as us. This was BTMRR's last day and everyone had gathered FP's all day, and we all showed up at the same time to use them. The wait was posted at 40 minutes for standby...but they were making announcements that the delay was going to be much longer due to FP returns. Just to put it into perspective, the FP line was backed up to the wooden railing at the walkway along the water!!! So we waited and rode this ride 2 times in a row using our FP's and it was the best way to see everything lit up at night...the castle still had the holiday lights and it was so pretty!!
After saying farewell to The Wildest Ride in the Wilderness, we walked leisurely over to Fantasyland and saw the 5 min sign up at Small World. Stitch had promised to ride this if her sister would ride POC with us.
Here is Rapunzel!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/373-1.jpg

Not too excited? Such a HAM!!!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/374-1.jpg

And of course this is how her sister feels about SW..
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/375-1.jpg

But she promised and to be honest, she made this face on purpose for the camera...now who is the HAM?!

We walked over towards the hub and Rapunzel wanted to stay and watch MM&Y and Wishes. We left after this and stopped on the way home at the Hess station for milk. It's really weird when you see WDW CM's in there in their uniforms and with their name tags still on...I think Walt wouldn't like that! We made it back to WBC by 9:30.

It was a wonderful day...Marathon mess and all. We rode our faves and even got Rapunzel to add another favorite to her list!! We got a decent rest that night because we didn't need to get up early. Tomorrow is rest and DTD!! Ahhhh.....:cloud9:

ash-n-brensmom

01-25-2012, 05:40 PM

Day 5

Today is a scheduled rest day and we slept until 7:30. Not too bad considering we have a hard time sleeping in when we feel like we might be missing out on something!! We had a lazy morning and had breakfast in the room. At one point that morning we had two showers, the jacuzzi tub, the dishwasher and the laundry all on the go!! Gotta love that room!! But, what we found was that the TV in the main room was missing channels and our phone wasn't able to make outgoing phone calls. We called down about the phone and the tv at least 3 times and finally got someone to do a service call on the tv and someone fixed the phone remotely. But it took too many calls to get these things done. Coupled with the lack of customer service surrounding the bed bug issues we are disappointed with Wyndham Bonnet Creek. The amenities are wonderful, the location can't be beat...but I think that they are relying on these things to carry them and that's a shame.
But moving on, we enjoyed the morning in our condo and headed out and we were at DTD by 10:30. We had a reservation at TRex for lunch but we thought about having dinner there instead and we couldn't call out from our room yet so we decided to stop by there and talk to them in person.
Gotta get some pics here!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/377-1.jpg

We managed to change our ADR with no problems and walked from there around the Lego displays and Rapunzel decided she needed to have a pic with each one!

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/382-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/383-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/386-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/387-1.jpg

We walked over to Guest Relations so the girls could exchange some money they got from their British grandmother. We got a pretty crappy exchange rate, but the CM warned us. It wasn't a lot of money and they were just happy to have some money to spend. So with money in hand where do we head?

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/388-1.jpg

Check out how much someone has changed since 2008!!:sad1:
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/2008%20our%20pics/P9150017-1.jpg

Rapunzel likes this guy!!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/391-1.jpg
And now she is one of them since she can ride POC!! pirate:

Inside the store and it was still a Rapunzel photo shoot!!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/392-1.jpg

At WOD Stitch bought a stuffed Pumba (she was very happy to feed it the stuffed bugs that came with it :confused3) , and a mini stuffed Figaro, and Rapunzel bought a Club Penguin book and a stuffed Dug. I found it funny how they both went for characters from "older" movies. With all the new stuff always coming out they both gravitated to the oldies but goodies.

By this time we were getting hungry so we headed over to EOS! :love: Our receipt was printed at 11:20. There was a short line and we had no problem getting a table at this hour either! Ferb got the seasonal sandwich that he said was a Thanksgiving meal on a bun and was in HEAVEN!! I got the one with pineapple, can't remember the name..but it was delish! The girls ate the turkey sandwich and everyone enjoyed their lunch!

We walked out through the kitchen shop and then onto the Christmas Shop. Stitch and I each found something to buy in the adjacent store with all the Nightmare Before Christmas merchandise. Stitch got a sticker book and I found a clear purse with Jack Skellington on the ends and little pictures of the characters from the movie spread out all over the purse. I love purses and I have to use a clear one at work so this was AWESOME!!:yay: We walked across to the design a tee store.

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/393-1.jpg

Then back over to Goofys where Stitch got a sugartube and Rapunzel got a HUGE lollypop that she still hasn't finished. :rolleyes: I grabbed one pretzel rod and ate that on the way out.

Gotta stop for more pics..
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/395-1.jpg

monkey30

01-25-2012, 05:53 PM

Sorry I have been absent....had a MAJOR crisis at work...almost unemployed kind of crisis. But it's been dealt with and thankfully I am still employed.

I hope you both have wonderful vacations full of this stuff...pixiedust:

Oh dear!! That is not so good to hear!!!

ash-n-brensmom

01-25-2012, 05:54 PM

We left DTD and headed back to WBC for a swim..it was up to 75 again today!! We headed over to a new pool today between tower 5 and 6 and we really liked this one. We swam and went around and around in the lazy river. Then we took a dip in the hot tub before we dried off and walked over to play miniature golf. This was a wonderful afternoon!
We had an ADR at T-Rex and we headed back to DTD at 5:20. We walked down to West Side checking everything out along the way and back. We got seated in the Ice room and that was pretty cool! But, this time our meal was lack luster and the girls didn't even finish their dinner. We should have seen this as a sign of things to come, but we figured it was just because the food wasn't that great.
Love the decor in here
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/396-1.jpg

Even in the bathroom!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/403-1.jpg

After dinner we walked over to the pin trading store and got the girls some new pins.
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/404-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/405-1.jpg

This was when things started to go really down hill. It became pretty obvious that although we had a nice day away from the parks, we didn't get enough rest. The plan was to go to Ghirardelli for dessert. We couldn't get the girls to agree on anything and we weren't going to be buying 4 different ice creams...not at those prices!:eek: We would buy two big ones and share them with the girls. But they were having major meltdown moments and we decided to leave. Not pretty...I can assure you...and yes we probably got some pretty nasty glares on the way back to the car. But, if you can't agree on dessert, then you don't deserve it and need to go get some rest.
So, back in the room...full of apologies...the girls got ready for bed and everyone got a good night sleep.
Tomorrow....DHS!! Toy Story Midway Mania...the other Disney Marathon...or was it?

OziJo

01-27-2012, 02:05 PM

Hi!! We just got back and I'm itching to write my TR but I just want to let you know I have subbed and started reading yours. Looking forward to all those ups and downs:cool1:

ash-n-brensmom

01-27-2012, 02:30 PM

Hi!! We just got back and I'm itching to write my TR but I just want to let you know I have subbed and started reading yours. Looking forward to all those ups and downs:cool1:

:welcome: Thanks for joining, Jo!! Post a link when you get one started, so we can compare notes!! Hope you guys had a wonderful vacation..I wanna hear all about Hawaii!!!

OziJo

01-27-2012, 10:11 PM

tinkerbellandeeyor

01-27-2012, 10:58 PM

popcorn::

jenseib

01-28-2012, 05:51 AM

HEY! You snuck another trip in! I just caught up and loving it.

So are you happy you bought at at WBC then? I hope they do contact you back and use a little customer service. That is jut ridculous the way they acted.

ash-n-brensmom

01-28-2012, 06:50 PM

I have read through your TR and I'm laughing at all the similarities to our trip. We all loved POC too and there were those of us who weren't too happy to do SW (ie everyone but me!). We missed BTMR but Splash Mountain and Space Mountain were our must do's in MK. I also had a nod of the head to the references to Wal Mart. That was one of our first stops too. And also your arguments over food. We had some grumpy moments (especially DD2) and they always seem to happen over food though I know they were more a result of being over tired.

It's interesting to read about your offsite accom experiences. It's great to hear that you had pretty good travel and parking experiences. I didn't even think about checking for bedbugs:scared1. Glad you were able to sort that out.

Your girls are a little younger then ours. They were more into character opportunities than mine, though we did have a couple of impromptu experiences and they loved our Crystal Palace Character Breakfast. Otherwise your girls still seem to have the same responses to their experiences as my girls did. It really is a "Small World after all"(cue the groans on both sides of the world).:thumbsup2

BTW I am doing a mini TR for the Camping Forum. Here's the link http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2868796

Just goes to show that no matter how old you are, if you're tired or hungry...you get grumpy! That's one of the reasons we are thinking of adding a day to our next vacation. We can have another rest day in the middle and stay happy! I'm going to hop over and check out your mini TR, because I have always been curious about that resort! How did your time in Hawaii go?

popcorn::
I don't know about you, but popcorn makes me thirsty...here you go! :drinking1 ;) Hope you are enjoying the read!:thumbsup2

HEY! You snuck another trip in! I just caught up and loving it.

So are you happy you bought at at WBC then? I hope they do contact you back and use a little customer service. That is jut ridculous the way they acted.
Yeah, I was sneaky! :cool2: Thanks for joining us, Jen! Hope all is well with you...how's the Disney Travel Specialist thing going for you?
We haven't heard back from Wyndham, but I'm not really surprised. I have heard some lackluster reviews regarding their customer service.:rolleyes: I am still happy with our timeshare purchase, though. We will still have a wonderful resort to stay in when we go to Disney and have options in the future for other vacations as well.

danimaroo

01-31-2012, 04:15 PM

lledman

02-01-2012, 07:36 AM

They loved the girls autograph books and Lady Tremaine berated them into thanking their Mother for making them...it was funny!!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/313-1.jpg

Look...she even has the finger wag going!!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/315-1.jpg

We met this same exact Lady Tremaine at our dinner our first night at the parks. She was in perfect character – never missed a beat – loved her.

ash-n-brensmom

02-04-2012, 07:05 AM

Okay, I am finally all caught up! :yay:

I am definitely jealous of your many rides on BTMRR! It was definitely missed while we were there, although I was so so happy that Splash Mountain was actually open in BTMRR's absence, so it all worked out.

Love Ghirardelli, that's a bummer that it didn't work out for you guys. But it sounds like some sleep was probably needed, as kids totally get overstimulated in Disney World... and swimming can take a lot out of you!

Looking forward to reading a lot more of your TR, now that I'm home and have a little more time to catch up on all the TRs I missed while we were in Disney World! :thumbsup2

Thanks for joining us! We were so lucky with the timing of this vacation. We plan so far in advance and don't know what will be open or closed. Usually Splash Mountain wouldn't matter to us as much as you guys..we all got to ride it later in the week and had fun, but BTMRR was essential and we made sure to take full advantage of those couple of days!! Don't worry about Ghirardelli, just like BTMRR, it's all in the timing!

We met this same exact Lady Tremaine at our dinner our first night at the parks. She was in perfect character – never missed a beat – loved her.

She was really good!! Thanks for reading along! Gonna go check yours out too!

ash-n-brensmom

02-04-2012, 07:34 AM

I would like to apologize, again :rolleyes:, for being MIA this week. I have been training to become a Travel Agent and further a Disney Specialist. That has been all consuming this week, I'm afraid. I have gotten as far as I can with the training and need to take a special exam that is required here in Ontario. That is scheduled for the 16th and I need to study for that, so I am squeezing this update in here and then will need to concentrate on that exam for a while.

Day 6

After the meltdown the night before we got up pretty early this morning...6:40 and had breakfast in our room. We were on the road by 8:04 and at DHS and in line by 8:20. It's a good thing, too! They were trying a new opening procedure and we had no idea! At 8:30 they opened the turnstiles and we walked right to TSMM. Our plan was to have Ferb rush with the runners to the FP machine and we would meet him at the stand-by line to ride. We sort of followed the same plan, but it wasn't nearly as crazy as usual. We had FP's and were riding all before 9 AM!! :yay: We walked over to Star Tours next and rode that with the new updates for the first time, and we loved it!! Ferb is a Sci Fi guy and it was really good to see that they have cool stuff for guys like him! We all really liked that ride! We headed over to find where P&F were doing their M&G and we were waiting there at 9:15! We rode TSMM, got FP's and rode Star Tours and were in line for P&F all by 9:15!! :thumbsup2
This M&G didn't start until 9:30 and we were the first in line. Actually, we got there before the line opened, and the CM got a little snarky with me when I asked him about waiting. Hey, ease up buddy, you have ALL day to hear stupid questions...
So we waited and took pics...
This is right across from the line-up..
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/406-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/408-1.jpg

Here's one of the P&F area...
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/410-1.jpg

Then it was time and we were so excited!! Ferb and the girls really LOVE this show!! They were singing along with the music they have playing from the show!!

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/412-1.jpg

Notice the Perry shirts on all three?
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/413-1.jpg

Notice I'm not in any of those pics? Well, I had the VERY important job of getting this all on video! :cool2: Yea, so you're supposed to push this little button..and I did, only I think I pushed it too many times and all I got was people's feet.....:rolleyes1 I was sooooo upset about it all because it was such an amazing meet and greet experience!!! We got great interaction and we were first in line! :sad2: Ferb and the girls were great about it. I even got a hug from Ferb....no, not my Ferb.....the REAL FERB!!! I love me some Ferb!!! LOL!!

Alright, I must apologize again..this update has taken me too long and I need to get going, we have a birthday party this afternoon and we need to get going, it's about an hour away and I still need to get a present!:eek:

BMC423

02-05-2012, 10:20 AM

ash-n-brensmom

02-05-2012, 12:36 PM

Love your P&F meet! How cute I'm excited about that for our next trip. BTW I like your Ferb's Perry shirt! :laughing:

How exciting about becoming a TA! Good luck on your test! Oh and I'm sorry you had drama at work, hope all is better.

Thanks, Bickiana. Things are much better now and I seem to have settled back into a comfortable state of being and just go in and do my job without worrying all the time.
We love P&F and have been waiting for YEARS for this to happen!! And, doh! I didn't get it on tape! But, that means we have to do a re-do in Oct!!! ;)
I'm very excited about my new Travel Agent ventures!! Can't wait to start helping people have awesome vacations!!
BTW..Ferb got that shirt for Christmas from my anti-Disney brother and his wife! And, I got Disney ornaments from them! I was so surprised they actually put money into the Disney empire!! :rotfl:

ash-n-brensmom

02-05-2012, 02:24 PM

I have some quiet time right now so I will continue with Day 6's update!:surfweb:

I forgot to mention the weather for this day was beautiful!! I just checked weather.com's archive and it got to 77 and was sunny!!:lovestruc
So, we left off with a wonderful M&G with P&F! :love: We realized right away the snafu with the camera, I was upset..but Ferb and the girls were great about it.
We moved along and decided to head into Muppets 3D. We all really enjoyed this movie last year and while this attraction is dated, it still is lots of fun!

Obligatory shot in front of the fountain!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/416-1.jpg

We left there and took another run at Star Tours. We wanted to see as many sequences as we possible. This became very difficult, we kept seeing the same ones over and over. They changed up a bit, but we saw the same beginning twice, the same "transmission" each time and the same ending each time. We will have to give it another go in Oct for sure!

Another obligatory shot!!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/421-1.jpg

It was difficult to get this picture because there were some pretty ignorant people hogging the speeder and not being respectful of other people waiting. Not to mention, is it really that hard to figure out who is next? Apparently!:rolleyes: I admit that I tend to overreact in these situations. I usually have something to say under my breath, not a big deal, but I also end up overcompensating for the wait times of the people behind us. I make our kids go so fast that we tend to mess up our pics. I need to remember that we deserve our turn just as much as the next guy, and take a moment to get a good pic. There, rant over for the day.:snooty:;)

Moving on, we had to get a ride on the Great Movie Ride for Rapunzel's sake. We headed over there next. When we rode it said 11 AM on our camcorder. There was little to no wait for this. When we entered we asked the CM at the entrance..."Is this a movie or a ride?" She had NO idea what we were talking about?!
This is a must see for anyone who understands that dealing with park guests can be challenging!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L16HHxiSPXA

We were about to enter the line when I thought to ask about seeing the Cowboy scene. We have only ever seen the gangster and I thought it would be neat to see something different. The CM said to ask as we were loading. We asked and as it happens we were already loading into the correct tram, and we got to be in the front row! The "bandit" as they call it was right next to Stitch for his part of the ride. He tried to scare her so many times...it was funny, but I don't think she appreciated it and he could tell...:laughing:
I'm glad we got to see a different side to this ride. I think we might try to alternate in the future if possible.

As we exited I thought to look at our Times Guide to see what was going on. B&TB was going to start soon so we headed down that way.

Obligatory shot #1
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/423-1.jpg

Obligatory shot #2
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/424-1.jpg

Then we saw these two...they were HILARIOUS!! This poor unsuspecting woman was having a snack..and apparently these two were hungry...you should have seen how many ways they tried to get a bite of her food!!!

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/425-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/426-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/428-1.jpg

She was completely oblivious, and when she realized what they were up to, she just looked over her shoulder at them and then went right back to eating, like it was no big deal. :lmao: I offered them a snack as we were getting one for the show, they declined saying they were on a hollywood diet and couldn't eat. ;)

So, we got to have our snacks all to ourselves and watch B&TB for the first time ever. It was nice to try new things this time around. This show is really good and we enjoyed it even from the nose bleed section.

Rested and refreshed we heading into the Animation Building. I offered for Ferb to ride ToT and Stitch to ride RnR, but they both declined saying they weren't feeling up to it today. I warned them that this was their only chance...nope, not gonna happen. I think when you know that you'll be back, you don't have the same sense of urgency to ride everything. It felt good actually.

Pics along the way:
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/429-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/430-1.jpg

We didn't have the best timing here, we never seem to. We got to see Mr Incredible and Frozone and Winnie the Pooh, we could have seen Sorcerer Mickey but chose to pass on that.

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/437-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/440-1.jpg

We headed out and watched VOTLM at 12:30 according to our camcorder. We got in the front row...not a good place to be, you can't see any of the lower part of the show. Then we used our TSMM FP. The wait time was posted at 70 min when we entered and then 50 min when we exited. :scared1: I love this ride, but I would never wait to ride.
Continued in next post

ash-n-brensmom

02-05-2012, 02:27 PM

By now it was time to eat..we had an ADR at Sci Fi for 1:20. Lunch here was good as always...

Mmmmm....milkshakes!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/442-1.jpg

I had to doctor this pic...it's so dark in there..but look...SHORTS!!! YAY!!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/444-1.jpg

After lunch we walked over towards the Back lot tour and saw where the Monsters Inc M&G was. We decided to wait and meet Mike Wazowski. I asked if Sulley was ever out and the CM told me if I was willing to wait an extra 5 min he would be out. :thumbsup2 Talk about timing!!

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/446-1.jpg

We headed onto the Back lot tour next..the time was 2:30. We were having a wonderful day..look how happy we all are!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/447-2.jpg

They shortened this ride since the last time we have been on it...we missed seeing the POC bone cages and it just seemed lackluster to us...
Couple of nice shots:
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/451-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/463-1.jpg

Love me a little sci fi!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/474-1.jpg

After this we rode Star Tours one more time...
Better shots this time..
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/479-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/480-1.jpg

By now it was time to make a decision...do we stay for Lights Motors Action, or do we call it a day? Ferb really wanted to see this so we stayed. I am glad we did. This was a pretty cool show. We can now say been there, done that, and not do it again. We aren't really car enthusiasts, but it was fun!

Cool pic on the way in..
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/483-1.jpg

After the show, we followed the throngs towards the front of the park. We walked down Pixar Place and Rapunzel saw this guy
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/484-1.jpg

We had a great day at DHS. Did everything we wanted and had wonderful weather! We took a minute to take a photopass shot on the way out. We got in the car and surprised the girls with a stop at DTD before we headed back to WBC.

Ghirardelli's!!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/486-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/487-1.jpg

Goofing around waiting for our ice cream!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/488-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/490-1.jpg

Ferb and Rapunzel shared this delight
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/491-1.jpg

Stitch and I shared this one
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/492-1.jpg

It was a wonderful way to end the day...and not a meltdown in sight!
We were back at WBC by 6:30 and in bed and sleeping like babes by 9...good thing to. Back to MK in the morning!!

OziJo

02-05-2012, 07:33 PM

jenseib

02-06-2012, 04:42 PM

Congrats on becoming a Disney specialist! :banana:

Welcome to the club.! LOL

Sounds liek you had a pretty smooth day at DHS.

ash-n-brensmom

02-06-2012, 09:53 PM

That's a great day at DHS! It was raining a little the day we went but we still had a fantastic time. I'm on my way to write up our first day at DHS. It was my girls fav park in Disney:cool1: We ended up doing an extra half day there. :yay:

Yeah, it was a good day. I just read yours all the way through so far...looking good!

Congrats on becoming a Disney specialist! :banana:

Welcome to the club.! LOL

Sounds liek you had a pretty smooth day at DHS.

Thanks, Jen. Like I said, I have an exam to take that's required here in Ontario and then I am good to go! Can't wait to get started doing something I love...how's things going for you? I saw on Facebook that you've been able to take some very informative, and fun trips...

jenseib

02-07-2012, 08:06 AM

Thanks, Jen. Like I said, I have an exam to take that's required here in Ontario and then I am good to go! Can't wait to get started doing something I love...how's things going for you? I saw on Facebook that you've been able to take some very informative, and fun trips...

It was great! If you ever get a chance to go on an Agent Edcuation program (AEP) do it!!!!!! We toured so many resorts (and the Dream) and got to do some fun things too. I hope to do another in the future.

ash-n-brensmom

02-07-2012, 03:35 PM

Day 7

We got a great night of rest and were up and at MK by 8:16. We had made appt's for the girls to get their hair all funkified at The Harmony Barbershop. The appt was for 9 AM and we were told by the CM that made the appt that we could enter the park early because we needed to check in 15 minutes ahead of time. I was skeptical, but excited to see if this was true! It wasn't. :rolleyes: But that's okay...we waited right at the rope and weren't able to see the Welcome Show, but we got over to the Harmony Barber Shop first..before 9 actually, so it was worth standing where we couldn't see. As soon as we got in they took both of the girls.
Stitch getting pulled and yanked...:rotfl:
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/493-1.jpg

Rapunzel before:
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/494-1.jpg

Getting all gelled up!!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/495-1.jpg

After shots:
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/496-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/499-1.jpg

While this was going on Ferb had headed straight for the Rapunzel M&G so he could wait in line for us. This worked too well...he had to let some families go in before him and when we got to him we were part of the second group that went in. They aren't doing the dance anymore, and because it was damp they didn't even color, and of course no Flynn. :sad2: Still, this was a good experience and a necessary one...Rapunzel is our fave right now!!

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/503-1.jpg

Rapunzel loved the girl's hair..she's always looking for new ways to do her own, you know!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/506-1.jpg

Another time that they got lots of interest in their autograph books..
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/509-1.jpg

She was a good Rapunzel...had a great personality, but a little pale..and too skinny...just sayin' :snooty:
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/512-1.jpg

We left here and headed over towards Fantasyland and saw Alice and the White Rabbit with only a couple people in line...
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/518-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/520-1.jpg

And then off to the tea cups...we hadn't done this since our first trip in 2008 so I figured it was time...

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/521-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/525-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/522-2.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/526-1.jpg

We had so much fun..Ferb stayed on solid ground while we spun away. When we got off, Ferb handed me a Photopass card...apparently we were having so much fun that a wandering Photopass guy decided to take some pics. Ferb figured we would end up on the castle if they turned out. We saw them when we were editing and they are pretty messy...doubt we made it to the castle that night. But, it was pretty neat to have someone else notice how much fun we were having!:dance3:

Next we headed over to tide Winnie The Pooh. The interactive queue is pretty neat..
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/534-1.jpg

OziJo

02-07-2012, 04:12 PM

You guys are having so much fun:yay::woohoo: Saw a lot of girls walking around with "funkified"(great word:thumbsup2) hairstyles. I asked my girls if they wanted that done and they all said no way. Party poopers:rotfl:

ash-n-brensmom

02-07-2012, 04:14 PM

We decided to head over to Adventureland next and saw Peter Pan with a short line...
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/537-1.jpg

He was great and got the girls all flustered with questions..
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/539-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/542-1.jpg

We rounded the corner and saw a pretty short wait for the Fairies...

Rosetta:
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/549-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/552-1.jpg

Tink
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/556-1.jpg

She loved the books..but wanted to know who made them, I was named by the girls and I got in trouble for doing them wrong...apparently I wasn't supposed to put a Wendy Bird in there..:guilty:
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/557-1.jpg

She took care of that and drew a mustache on the Wendy Bird!:rotfl:
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/559-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/560-1.jpg

Walking further along we saw Aladdin and Jasmine...they were great and having a good old time!!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/561-1.jpg

They asked the girls where they were from and they got all nervous and flustered..
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/563-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/570-1.jpg

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/571-1.jpg

Rapunzel became obsessed with everything that squirted on this trip...Stitch at WoD at DTD, the Camel on Aladdin and these guys..
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/573-1.jpg

ash-n-brensmom

02-07-2012, 04:15 PM

We saw that there was a 5 minute wait at this point for the Jungle Cruise so we headed that way. The time now was 11 AM. This turned out to be the most bizarre Jungle Cruise we have ever had. We got on the boat and I took one look at the skipper and thought, this can't be good. And it wasn't. I have never had such a horrible experience on any ride or attraction at WDW! He was the WORST! You couldn't hear him correctly, which I figured at first wasn't his fault..but then when you could hear him, you could hardly understand what he was mumbling about. No personality at all, total deadpan and not in a funny way either. So, when we disembarked, I found a mgt CM and complained. Ferb didn't want me to, and normally I don't. But something told me it had to be done. You'll never guess what the CM told me. He is famous for being the worst skipper ever...he even told me to look him up on youtube. What? This is known and is allowed to continue? He apologized and told me to try later in the day when the CP CM's are on because they have more enthusiasm. Total cop out...so when we got home I sent an email to WDW and complained about this guy, while praising the CM on our Safari at AK that we had the next day.

Here is an example of Frank, The Worst Skipper EVER!!! Enjoy :rolleyes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvBNvKpRFHs

We were getting pretty hungry by now and wandered around trying to figure out what we wanted for lunch. We ended up at Cosmic Rays and had a great meal there...so much to choose from. We were done with lunch by noon and not wanting to ride anything too extreme we grabbed FP's to Space Mountain and headed up to the People Mover.

Ferb and Rapunzel
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/574-1.jpg

Me and Stitch
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/577-1.jpg

We headed over to the Buzz M&G and waited in a surprisingly slow moving line...considering he can't talk and only stamps his name it should move a bit quicker you would think. No worries normally but it had started to rain a bit and they kept making an announcement that they might have to move the M&G..I was thinking what a mess that would be and really wished everyone would just hurry up! :thumbsup2 We made it though...

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/581-1.jpg

Then of course we had to ride Buzz! Check me out!! I'm a menace!!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/584-1.jpg

Obligatory shot
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/585-1.jpg

By now we had our ponchos on because it was a steady rain...not heavy, but steady. KWIM? After this we walked back towards Fantasyland and Ferb and the girls rode SWSA while I had a moment with the nearest restroom.:rolleyes1 We left Fantasyland and headed towards The Haunted Mansion and you'll never guess who rode? Yep Rapunzel....but we bypassed the stretching room. She really enjoyed the new queue area, the ride..well, maybe, maybe not..she was not too keen, but not totally scared either. Not sure if we will ever get her on it again. But, she tried it...so proud of that girl!!

We walked over to Frontierland and grabbed FP's to Splash Mountain. Then we all rode POC together!!! :grouphug:

Rapunzel insisted on this pic...
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/589-1.jpg

We checked out the line to meet Ariel and Eric, too long for the girls. So we walked back towards Splash Mountain and I grabbed the girls some Frozen Lemonade to share. We used our FP's and rode Splash Mountain with our ponchos on..even though it had stopped raining by this point. Good thing, too...we would have gotten soaked...not by the ride, but when the log meandered outside it had started raining...HARD!! It was so funny because it was drier on the ride than off!!

Check out this HORRIBLE pic...Ferb is pretending to pick his nose :sick:
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/591-1.jpg

We headed back over to Tomorrowland and Ferb and Rapunzel headed into Monsters Inc while Stitch and I rode Space Mountain. We were going to ride back to back, but when we got off we realized once was enough for us that day ;) and we gave away our other FP's. We grabbed a cream cheese pretzel and a frozen coke to share with the others and waited for them to exit. They had a good time, but I guess Rapunzel's crocs were slippery and she fell...poor thing.

It was now just after 4 and we decided to walk up to the entrance to see what the wait was like for the Princesses and Mickey Mouse. Mickey was a 5 minute wait and the princesses were 10. So in we went...

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While we were waiting to meet the princesses we witnessed some very bizarre behavior. A little girl was licking the metal posts. Not just a random lick or two...but full on licking the posts!! It was sooooooo gross!!:scared1: If you learn anything from this TR...#1 Check for Bed Bugs...and #2 Use hand sanitizer!!!

We had a dinner ADR for The Plaza and we headed that way...the ADR was for 5:20 but they let us in at 4:45. It was eerily quiet. Good for us! We had a very pleasant dinner and the girls enjoyed their dessert here!

Rapunzel's Mickeylodeon
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Stitch wanted whipped cream on her ice cream and the server made sure she had enough!
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This ended our last day at MK. We killed that place over the 3 days we were there. Got everything done on our list and then some!! We hated saying good bye, but we really needed to get back so I could pack us up for the next day...:sad1:

ash-n-brensmom

02-07-2012, 04:28 PM

jenseib

02-08-2012, 09:17 AM

ash-n-brensmom

02-08-2012, 12:08 PM

Claire did that...licking a poll on the bus one year...and of course a day or two later got VERY sick and we spent most of the day in the room while she threw up and rested. UGH! I saw her doing it and about freaked....why would you do that??? "I don't know" was her reply :scared1:

OMG!! That's hilarious!! I can imagine a child doing that once..you know, they're tired or zoned out and just happen to be leaning on a pole and stick their tongue out...but this kid was constantly being told to stop and every time she moved up in line she would go right up to the nearest pole and start licking again....it was BIZARRE!! My DD's were totally freaked out by the whole thing.:eek:

ash-n-brensmom

02-08-2012, 05:41 PM

Day 8

It's our last day here in WDW and we are sad...
But, we still have a pretty full day ahead of us and it's an early morning. We are up at 6 AM and showered and finished packing and cleaning up the condo. We had returned the pool towels that we had signed out with the activities desk at WBC, but they couldn't find the paperwork when we returned them. If we didn't return them we would get charged $25 per towel. They weren't that nice and we did return them, I had a feeling that we might get charged if they all of a sudden found that paperwork with no returned stamp on it. So we headed back to the activities desk to check on that when we checked out at the front desk. We got no response from the activities desk the night before or from mgt and it was getting a little ridiculous with the lack of customer service in this place. And this morning there was no one at the desk...we had to go behind the desk and knock on a closed door to get anyone to come out. At least this time we got the guy to stamp our copy of the rental with a returned stamp.

So, we are now checked out and all set to head out to AK!! It was 7:47 in the car when we left and we got to the park at 7:55. Not bad considering this is the farthest park. WBC may have it's issues, but location isn't one of them.

We had an ADR at Tusker House for 8:05 so we booked it over there...but along the way I felt something wet on my butt. It took me a minute to realize it was coming from my park bag. One of the girls' lanyards lost a pin and it poked a hole in the can of Diet Pepsi in my bag....and now my bag and my butt were covered in DP! :headache: So we grabbed a towel from a CM along the way and cleaned it up as best we could. We made it to TH and were taken in at 8:12...we got our pic taken with Donald outside and then we were shown to our table right away. I didn't like the fact that Donald was outside..I wish I had gotten a pic with our own camera because their pic turned out pretty bad. Oh well...we made up for that later!:thumbsup2

I have mentioned I think my aversion to heavy breakfasts and even though this one cost an arm and a leg I tried to eat a light as possible. Didn't want my tummy to protest later...:rolleyes1
The food here was good and the atmosphere is pretty cool in there...pretty soon the characters were out and we got some pretty nice shots considering there is a dirty table with half eaten food and other people and their half eaten food and dirty tables in the way...:lmao:

First up is Safari Mickey
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/614-1.jpg

Then Safari Daisy...we hadn't taken the time to meet Daisy earlier in the week because I knew we would be here...
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/617-1.jpg

Rapunzel "found" a Hidden Mickey on her plate!
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I can't recall why I jumped in this pic...I do love Goofy, though!
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/621-1.jpg

We finished up right away because we knew the park was opening soon...our server told us we could duck out the door right behind us instead of trying to make our way to the front of the restaurant...this was the best advice EVER!! When we stepped out I looked over to the right and there was the rope with the CM's walking with everyone from RD!! We JUST beat them and decided that we were supposed to ride the Safari first today..even though it was a ride we thought we could miss this time. So glad we rode, though, because this ended up being a really great experience. We had an awesome CM and like I said previously I named her in the email I sent to WDW.

I know that we have all been bored to death with everyone's Safari pics in the past...but they turned out pretty good and so scan past if you want..I'll understand, but here they are..
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This guy was AMAZING!! We got so lucky because just as we pulled up and stopped to look he got up and started to make this sound..not a roar, but deep in he chest and short like if he was a dog it would be a woof...but it was like a roar-woof...I know, I know, you had to be there...bit was AWESOME!!!!
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ash-n-brensmom

02-08-2012, 06:33 PM

We left the Safari and I stopped to ask our CM's name and let them know how AWESOME she was. We didn't know what to do next and we were walking along when wouldn't you know it....yep, breakfast was making it's presence known.:sick: I told Ferb to head on over to Camp Minnie Mickey with the girls and I would catch up...eventually..:rolleyes1

When I did catch up they were waiting for Minnie to show up for her M&G, and they were third in line!:thumbsup2 Well done! So we waited a bit and talked about what to do next when Minnie arrived...

http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/680-1.jpg

Next up was Safari Donald!! And we totally made up for the lack of Donald time at his Safari Breakfast. It seems Donald was hungry already and wanted to eat Stitch's powdered candy!!
Is this for me? He asks..
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/Walt%20Disney%20World%20Jan%202012/685-1.jpg

He tries to get some out...
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Oh well..he settles for another kind of sugar instead...;)
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We have always gotten great interaction with Donald. Even way back in 2008
Here he is trying to take Stitch's hair wrapping for himself!
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Oh man...those girls have grown!!

We headed in to see FOTLK for the first time. We were early for the 10:30 show but we really wanted to see this, and I knew if we went and did something else we would miss it entirely. We sat and waited and it was worth it...what a wonderful show!! We didn't take any pics, sorry...we just really wanted to enjoy the show.

I must confess that now I have run out of notes..I must have given up at this point..I know we grabbed FP's for EE as we walked around the park...

We wanted to ride Primeval Whirl because it had been down for an extended time when we were here last and then we skipped this park altogether on our last vacation. So we headed over to Dinoland and the wait was pretty long, so we rode Triceratop Spin and then we saw the wait was down to like 5 min as we got off. So we got jerked around time and were thinking our Chiropractor was gonna love us when we got home!!:headache: I really do like this ride, but it's sooooo jerky!

It wasn't time for EE yet so we headed over to see A Bug's Life...something we hadn't done since 2008 and we thought it would go over better now that the girls are older....I forgot how frightening it could be!:scared1: I took some pics on the way in...
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Somethings never change...Stitch in 2008
http://i1111.photobucket.com/albums/h468/verbs00/2008%20our%20pics/P9210254-2.jpg

Stitch in 2012!
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Me too, Rapunzel says!!
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Some kid was SCREAMING behind us...they left, but I totally felt for both the Mom and the kid...this show is pretty intense at times. I'm glad we saw it though.

Now we had to make a decision because of time...I really wanted to ride EE and so did Stitch...we had those FP's but sometimes even with those it can be a long wait...we took a chance and Ferb stayed with Rapunzel to check out the Dig area while Stitch and I RUSHED over to EE and rode that..only once and we gave the other FP's to a Dad and his son who seemed to really enjoy EE!! It was a great ride and we got on right away, but then I felt guilty about possibly making us late for our flight...we still had to return the car and get checked in for the flight. We rushed back and met up with Ferb and Rapunzel and headed out of the park. We had a good morning here and I think we discussed adding a day to our week in Oct and trying to spend a whole day here. We always seem to do only a half day and I would like to try some new things next time. We've never seen Nemo and we missed KRR this time.

Anyways, our flight home was at 4 something..can't remember for the life of me. We had to drive back to the airport and return the car, but we needed to top up the gas. Only the way we went we never saw a gas station....and plus we had to pay a toll with no operator in site and we didn't have any change left so we had to take an envelope to mail it in...what a disaster...live and learn. So we paid WAY to much to the rental company for their gas charges and we over paid for the toll because I had to get a money order to send to them. Oy! But we made it to the airport with time to spare and got something light to eat and hunkered down to wait. Then our flight got delayed...not by much, but just enough to be a pain. Then our connector in Baltimore got delayed....
We got stuck waiting there in a crowded terminal with lots of angry people because Chicago was shutting down. What a mess for those people. I was so happy we had a place to land!!! So we made it home...late and we got home and CRASHED!!!!

All in all....we had an AWESOME vacation!! I can't wait to go back in October and experience F&W and MNSSHP again!! Will we stay at WBC again? Yeah...but only because the location can't be beat and they have wonderful units and amenities. We will be more seasoned in Oct and have a better understanding of what we will be dealing with when it comes to their lack of customer service. Hope everyone enjoyed reading along and if I helped anyone with their planning then that's great!! Thanks for reading!!