"It's a Small Town" and "Slow Pass" - 3 days in Disney 1/2012

[dara00]

Hello and welcome to my very first trip report! We just got back from Disney this past Sunday. We were in Florida from 1/15-1/22 and our Disney days were 1/16, 1/17, and 1/20, plus Downtown Disney on the last day of the trip!

As for who we are...(copied from my pre trip report!)

My name is Dara, I'm 33 yrs old, and looove Disney, though I have not been there nearly enough times in my life as of yet! My husband and I went together to Disney when we were in college (spring break!) and did such things as wander into Chef Mickey's not even knowing it was a character meal and riding in the front of the monorail and receiving Mickey Mouse licenses...totally unplanned, unappreciated at the time Disney Magic.

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/399882_10150558606971900_659036899_11193497_117965 2718_n.jpg
This is me in 3/07 with my then almost 2 yr old dd (now 6) and my now 4 yr old ds in my belly!

My husband is Dave, not as much into Disney as I am, but enough into it that he fits in small trips for us here and there.

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/387230_10150558648786900_659036899_11193674_140324 0698_n.jpg
Here we are with Chip and Dale in 12/07 with our then 2.5 yr old dd and our then 6 mos old ds - who came down with bronchiolitis while we were there and did not quite enjoy the magic!

My 6 yr old is Gabbie. She's in 1st grade and loves the princesses, Jessie from Toy Story, Minnie, Mary Poppins, etc. etc. She is very excited to go back and this time collect signatures from characters. Though she thinks if she doesn't meet a character she will just write his/her name for him/her!

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v4190/222/113/659036899/n659036899_3219820_8216918.jpg
Here she is at age 4 with her then almost 2 yr old brother meeting Cinderella. She had made pictures for the princesses (and pooh) and passed them out as we met them.

My 4 yr old is Zachary. He's very into Toy Story and watches all 3 movies over and over. He loves Cars as well and sleeps with a stuffed Sorcerer Mickey (and now a stuffed Woody as well). He may just be tall enough to ride Splash Mountain and thinks he wants to try it!

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v4190/222/113/659036899/n659036899_3219840_6671965.jpg
Here he is when he was 2, meeting Tigger. He just loved the characters even when he was 6 mos and sick, and I think this trip should be awesome for him character wise!

Finally, we have Simon, who is 17 months old - the same age my dd was on her first trip to DLR! He's most likely going to be dragged along and made to go along with everything we do, but as long as he is not scared of the characters, hopefully he'll get some time with them as well! Simon loves animals, books, balls, cars and trains, and his big brother and sister!

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/401584_10150555207741900_659036899_11179014_973779 372_n.jpg
Here is the little guy!

Hope you'll join me in reliving our trip!

[dara00]

Introduction post #1 is above!
Trip Background (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=43861908#post43861908)

Sunday Jan. 15:
Is It Time Yet? (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=43878844#post43878844)

Day 1, Monday Jan. 16:
Let The Memories Begin (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=43886445#post43886445)
It's My Favorite Color! (Vidia the Fairy) (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=43888171#post43888171)
A Staring Contest With Tinkerbell (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=43893123&posted=1#post43893123)
On A Magic Carpet Ride (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=43896251#post43896251)
A Great Collection (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=43899707#post43899707)
Small Town (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=43904253&posted=1#post43904253)
Move, Shake, Celebrate (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=43912836#post43912836)
Dociousaliexpilisticfragicalirepus (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=43915679#post43915679)
The Big Hill, The Funny Ghosts, and Pirates (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=43935141#post43935141)
What Time is the 3:00 Parade? (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=43938600&posted=1#post43938600)
Fantasyland and A Flashback (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=43947770&posted=1#post43947770)
I Have a Laser and I Will Use It (and What is Slow Pass?) (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=43963338&posted=1#post43963338)
The End of Day 1 (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=43971906&posted=1#post43971906)

Day 2, Tuesday Jan. 17:
The Characters Ride the Train Once Per Morning (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=43985961#post43985961)
Rapunzel and the Fairy Godmother (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=44003698#post44003698)
2 Rides and How We Became Pin Traders (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=44019170#post44019170)
Meeting Alice and The White Rabbit (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=44032130#post44032130)
Riding the Train (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=44057449&posted=1#post44057449)
Dream Along With Mickey (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=44086551&posted=1#post44086551)
Meeting Snow White and the Mouses (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=44108391&posted=1#post44108391)
Photos with Princesses (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=44127240#post44127240)
The Rest of Day 2 (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=44149347#post44149347)

Side Trip to Tampa:
Day 1 in Tampa (Jan. 18) (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=44170048&posted=1#post44170048)
Day 2 in Tampa (Jan. 19) (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=44197117#post44197117)

Day 3, Friday Jan. 20:
Toy Story Mania (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=44219218#post44219218)
Lightning and Pirates and a Mermaid (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=44236239&posted=1#post44236239)
Zachary and Simon have Magical Meetups (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=44260923#post44260923)
Muppets and Rockin! (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=44289432#post44289432)
He IS Real! (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=44300626#post44300626)
The Great Movie Ride (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=44340437#post44340437)
Pixar Pals (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=44386187#post44386187)

Saturday Jan. 21:
Pictures from Birthday Party (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=44405820&posted=1#post44405820)

Sunday Jan. 22:
Downtown Disney Part 1 (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=44443381#post44443381)
Downtown Disney Part 2a (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=44486506#post44486506)
Downtown Disney Part 2b (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=44486564&posted=1#post44486564)

Summary:
Photopass Photos (http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=44512207#post44512207)
Wrap Up Post (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=44681362&postcount=144)
Then and Now Photos (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=44686484&postcount=145)
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=44686484&postcount=146

[Moodyzblu]

I'm here !! :banana:

Looking forward to your report and pics ! Your kids are all so cute and I love seeing little ones experiencing the Disney Magic ! :love:

[dara00]

I'm here !! :banana:

Looking forward to your report and pics ! Your kids are all so cute and I love seeing little ones experiencing the Disney Magic ! :love:

:wave2:

Thank you! I was beginning to think no one would follow along, and what fun would that be? :rolleyes1

[mom2rtk]

I found you! Can't wait to hear how it all went!

[dara00]

I found you! Can't wait to hear how it all went!

yay! thanks for joining!

[dara00]

I found out we were going to Disney approximately a month out from our trip date. My husband travels a lot for work and one of his offices is in Tampa FL. So he decided to take us along this time. Yay!

I started my research with a plan of doing one day at the Magic Kingdom. I had a plan that included many character greetings, a few rides, a bunch of parades, and basically all the Disney magic I could fit into one day.

But I started feeling like one day just wasn't enough. I told my husband I wanted to come back to Disney for a longer time in June. He said "why don't you just stay another day with the kids?" in Orlando, instead of coming to Tampa after that 1st day.

I thought about it and couldn't decide if I could handle 3 kids in Disney by myself, but decided I wanted to do it. I would do a second day in the MK so if we missed anything on day 1 or just wanted to do something again we could do it on day 2. This would also relieve some of the pressure for day 1, knowing we'd be back.

So I told my husband the plan...and he didn't think it was a good idea. Yeah, it was his idea in the first place, but he was worried, and logistically it was an issue getting him to Tampa while I kept our rented car in Orlando. So I moped.

And then...I discovered a way to get discounted tickets. My husband looked at the prices and decided it was worth it and I should go ahead with my 1 more Disney day. So I bought 3 3-day passes and 1 2-day pass (2 days at the MK for us, one for him, plus one day at DHS for everyone). This changed our first morning plans because we had to pick up the tickets near Universal at 8 AM, and most likely wouldn't make rope drop, but it was ok since we'd be back for day 2!

[isabelcampana]

Can't wait for more

[Bonniec]

subbing!

[dara00]

Our flight to Orlando was in the afternoon on Jan 15, which was strange because we are used to getting up and going. This led to my kids being hyper and impatient about when we would actually leave! We did have time to deliver our fish to our friends:

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/405546_10150614111096900_659036899_11406648_151284 0571_n.jpg

and photograph our Mickey and Minnie nails! Thanks to the disboards for the inspiration! (Gabbie and me):

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/401418_10150614111251900_659036899_11406649_415648 269_n.jpg

Finally it was time to go to the airport. Here is Simon at the airport as we waited for Dave and the kids to get back from parking the car. (around 1:20 PM)

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/396169_10150614111486900_659036899_11406651_211564 4894_n.jpg

Here are the others (1:45 PM):

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/405626_10150614111741900_659036899_11406652_965286 622_n.jpg

Looking for the plane (2 pm):

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/409284_10150614112011900_659036899_11406653_552452 849_n.jpg

On the plane (2:45)

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/401315_10150614112231900_659036899_11406654_120605 1407_n.jpg

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395731_10150614112471900_659036899_11406655_157838 901_n.jpg

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/409199_10150614112591900_659036899_11406656_752917 504_n.jpg

And...in Orlando! (6:30 - EST)

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/408822_10150614112721900_659036899_11406657_190410 529_n.jpg

Our first taste of Disney:

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/400315_10150614112931900_659036899_11406658_117082 2380_n.jpg
See how excited Zachary looks? We got our first Mickey stickers, which Gabbie proceeded to lose! I stuck some on the stroller as well.

We headed to the car rental and proceeded to choose a car, followed by deciding against that car and moving everything into another car! (van).

This is Dave with car #1 (7 PM):

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/407311_10150614113021900_659036899_11406659_241899 836_n.jpg

We arrived at our hotel (Country Inn & Suites near Universal - we had a voucher there and it was close to where we had to pick up our tickets) around 8 PM.

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/398740_10150614113211900_659036899_11406660_110512 7893_n.jpg

We grabbed dinner and were going to check out Universal's City Walk but didn't want to pay for parking, so we just tried to get everyone to sleep. Not easy with so much excitement!

To be continued with our first Disney day!

[dara00]

Can't wait for more

subbing!

thanks to both of you for reading!

[Mrs. Sojourner]

You have adorable kids and I can't wait to hear how your trip went! :)

[OziJo]

The Magic of Disney with little ones! How wonderful:cheer2: That's something I've never experienced. My kids were 15, 12 & 10 when we first went. We tend to by-pass character interactions and head straight to the rides. If I ever have grandchildren I will be volunteering to help out on Disney trips!!

[dara00]

You have adorable kids and I can't wait to hear how your trip went! :)

Thanks!

The Magic of Disney with little ones! How wonderful:cheer2: That's something I've never experienced. My kids were 15, 12 & 10 when we first went. We tend to by-pass character interactions and head straight to the rides. If I ever have grandchildren I will be volunteering to help out on Disney trips!!

The first time I went to Disney myself I was 10. My brother was 6. Ooops! We were actually 12 and 8!! So I'm loving experiencing everything through my kids' eyes! They are lucky enough to have been to Disney a few times already! (this was the first trip for the youngest, but the oldest has been 4 times!)

[dara00]

We got up on Monday morning the 16th ready for a great day! Since we had to pick up our tickets at 8 AM, we knew we wouldn't make it for rope drop, as had been our original plan. We planned on doing that on day 2. We got breakfast in the hotel, picked up our tickets, and were on our way.

At about 8:30 AM we saw this:

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/407482_10150614113426900_659036899_11406661_164044 208_n.jpg

and then this:

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/397967_10150614113781900_659036899_11406664_105830 6399_n.jpg

We parked at:

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/404602_10150614114116900_659036899_11406665_112755 950_n.jpg

Gabbie, Zachary, and I took the tram while Dave walked with Simon.

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/401371_10150614114336900_659036899_11406666_170018 8569_n.jpg

When we got to the monorail it wasn't running for some reason and everyone was being directed to the ferry. It was a little disappointing, but I remember taking the ferry boat as a kid and knew it wouldn't be awful! The ferry was just leaving, so we got on the next one. It was now 8:50 AM.

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/403802_10150614114736900_659036899_11406668_133477 0842_n.jpg
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/397048_10150614115041900_659036899_11406669_193749 0877_n.jpg
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/401526_10150614115171900_659036899_11406670_184542 2642_n.jpg
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/402055_10150614115346900_659036899_11406671_198372 0272_n.jpg

And finally at 9:10 AM, it was time to let the memories begin!

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/395261_10150614115871900_659036899_11406674_757280 425_n.jpg
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/402477_10150614116091900_659036899_11406675_138720 3501_n.jpg

We stopped for a few photopass pictures and headed inside the park. To be continued!

[dara00]

Our original plan was for Dave to head to Space Mountain while the kids and I got in line for Rapunzel, but when we found out we would be a little later getting there then originally planned, we decided to save Rapunzel for day 2. So Dave went off to Space Mountain with an assignment to get our first set of fastpasses - for the Buzz Lightyear ride - while we headed to Adventureland.

This picture was taken at approx 9:15 AM:

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395514_10150614116566900_659036899_11406677_142891 3168_n.jpg
I love it!

And soon we were here:

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/394156_10150614116796900_659036899_11406678_105957 3502_n.jpg

As you can see, the crowd level this early was non-existent! It did get more crowded later - I guess the Brazilian tour groups start out a bit later than we did.

If you haven't already guessed, we were on our way to meet some characters! First stop: Pixie Hollow. A bit about my kids' autograph books - we used Disboard Disigns - thank you if they are yours! I had each character that I thought we might meet printed out and sorted in alphabetical order. Each kid had 25 cards, 2 of which were generic, in case we met someone we hadn't thought we would. I brought a few sharpies, which were purple, green, pink, yellow, and orange. As it turned out, it would have been good to have blue and red as well! After each autographed was obtained, the kids would put their autographs in their albums (in the order we met them, not sure if that will change) and would leave a blank spot for us to add the picture of them with that character. I took photos myself and am getting photopass pictures. Sometimes my photos are better and sometimes ours are, so it's good we have both options (esp. when my battery died at the end of the day!)

After a short line, we were led into Pixie Hollow. I asked the CM outside who was inside with Tinkerbell so that we could get our card ready for her, but she said no one! Luckily she was wrong! Our first greeting (at approx 9:30 AM):

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image1.jpg

We handed her a purple marker and she remarked that we chose her favorite color. Zachary really enjoyed choosing each character's favorite color, and he told most of them he had picked their favorite for them!

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image3.jpg

I did a bit of border adding on my photopass pics as you can see. As a random aside, I'm pretty irritated that the borders are exactly the same as they were 2 years ago and that they can only be added to the bottoms of pictures - there were many that would just block my kids' faces if I added them!

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image4.jpg

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image5.jpg

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/407362_10150614116961900_659036899_11406679_207584 0309_n.jpg

[Moodyzblu]

Great pictures ! I love how empty the park was at that time. :thumbsup2

[DisneyDad79]

I'm along for the ride! Great report so far, your kids are adorable! :thumbsup2

[OziJo]

Where are all the people? You sure you were WDW? Well I suppose that Castles a give away :thumbsup2 So pretty...

[dara00]

Great pictures ! I love how empty the park was at that time. :thumbsup2

It was pretty nice! I can't say the crowds were bad at all, but they definitely got more crowded than they were at 9:30 AM!

I'm along for the ride! Great report so far, your kids are adorable! :thumbsup2

Thanks and hi!

Where are all the people? You sure you were WDW? Well I suppose that Castles a give away :thumbsup2 So pretty...

Yeah it was pretty empty that early in the morning! It did pick up later, but not horrible at all! We got pretty lucky with our early morning activities, as you'll see!

[dara00]

After we met Vidia, we moved on to Tinkerbell. She was really cute and my kids enjoyed her. Simon was not so sure about who these characters were just yet, so he was standing a bit off to the side, while the bigger two went straight up to Tinkerbell. She asked them about him and then proceeded to pretend to have a starring contest with him!

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/402604_10150614117166900_659036899_11406681_107679 3417_n.jpg

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image7.jpg

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image8.jpg

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image9.jpg

She said Simon won, which Gabbie found quite funny! She then showed them a little snail that was part of the decor - I think she said his name was Shelly - and said that Simon should try a starring contest with him! (or her?) Sadly we didn't get a picture of Shelly.

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/404247_10150614117436900_659036899_11406682_384773 383_n.jpg

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/398527_10150614117706900_659036899_11406684_602559 606_n.jpg

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/406384_10150614118211900_659036899_11406688_595039 233_n.jpg

Next up - we go on a ride!

[DsnyMama]

I'm in! We've been once in January before (2008) and will be going again next January! I love January TR's!

[Mrs. Sojourner]

I love the story/pics about your little guy's staring contest with Tink; too cute!

[dara00]

I'm in! We've been once in January before (2008) and will be going again next January! I love January TR's!

:wave: Thanks for joining in! We had great weather for January!

I love the story/pics about your little guy's staring contest with Tink; too cute!

Thanks! It all happened really quickly, I'm glad we got the pictures to remember it with!

[dara00]

The kids and I left Pixie Hollow at approximately 9:35 AM. So far, we've met two fairies while Dave is still off riding Space Mountain. Our next goal was to meet some princesses. (Our overall plan was character greetings while collecting fast passes in the morning and rides in the afternoon.) So we started off through Adventureland, not sure if we would find Ariel or Jasmine first.

We came upon the Magic Carpet ride and Gabbie showed us that Jasmine was actually riding! The kids wanted to go on too, so we parked the stroller and got in line. Keeping in mind that Dumbo was closed, I thought this was a great first ride for us! The CM at the line told us where Jasmine's meet and greet area was and said she would be there soon. Soon it was our turn to go on!

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/409561_10150614118791900_659036899_11406690_203128 7515_n.jpg
Simon was super excited!

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/403051_10150614118986900_659036899_11406691_208031 7758_n.jpg
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/406570_10150614119216900_659036899_11406692_850284 558_n.jpg
Gabbie and Zachary sat in front of Simon and me. I tried to explain how to make the carpet go up and down, but they basically kept pushing the lever up, then down, then up again over and over, so it was kind of jerky, until I told them just to let us stay up!

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/408858_10150614119411900_659036899_11406693_106682 8395_n.jpg
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/409452_10150614119576900_659036899_11406694_201675 8488_n.jpg

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/406380_10150614119846900_659036899_11406695_444091 196_n.jpg
Simon didn't want to get off! Zachary also said right away he wanted to do it again.

As we exited the ride, we headed straight for Jasmine's line. There was probably about one family in front of us and soon it was our turn to meet her. Apparently Dave had called my cell phone twice and I didn't hear it, but somehow he found us, so he joined us just as it was our turn! (it was now approximately 9:50 AM).

There was no photopass near Jasmine, and Aladdin was missing as well! (One of our autograph cards that we didn't get to use was the one for Aladdin).

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/400193_10150614120291900_659036899_11406697_544217 564_n.jpg
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/402442_10150614120751900_659036899_11406699_560968 406_n.jpg

I asked Jasmine where Aladdin was and she told us a story about a magic carpet race with Genie and how she had won the race, but Aladdin hadn't arrived yet! I am curious if he was also missing at that morning's opening show!

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/155411_10150614121031900_659036899_11406702_895247 033_n.jpg

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/402731_10150614121276900_659036899_11406704_530732 238_n.jpg
Simon cracks me up in this picture!

It was time to secure another fast pass, so we headed out towards Splash Mountain!

[Moodyzblu]

Love the pics of the kids on the Carpet Ride !! :love:

What a great family pic (even though Aladdin was off racing) .. it's a nice pic of your family and Jasmine. :thumbsup2

[dara00]

Love the pics of the kids on the Carpet Ride !! :love:

What a great family pic (even though Aladdin was off racing) .. it's a nice pic of your family and Jasmine. :thumbsup2

Thanks, I like them too!

Yeah that family pic is pretty good, but stay tuned for some that I like even more! :)

[OziJo]

Your photos are gorgeous!!! It's pouring rain here in Sydney and between my photos and yours I'm missing the beautiful weather we had In Orlando and Hawaii.

[dara00]

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/398569_10150614121376900_659036899_11406705_157951 9297_n.jpg

We headed over to Splash Mountain to get fast passes for later. There was basically no line for it at that time (10 AM), but it was still pretty chilly out, so we figured waiting till later would be better. We did stop for a measurement on my shorty 4.5 year old!

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/407444_10150614121576900_659036899_11406706_201657 6254_n.jpg

From there, we asked how to find Woody and Jessie and after we walked the wrong way, we finally found it. They weren't out just yet but were on their way out (10:10 AM) and we were first in line!

We are big Toy Story fans, esp. Zachary, so we were all very excited. The kids had their Jessie and Woody dolls out. They were also wearing Toy Story shirts which their human CM's pointed out. Jessie pointed to Buzz on Zachary's shirt and made a heart sign. Awwww.

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image12.jpg

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/407044_10150614122261900_659036899_11406710_137516 4042_n.jpg

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image13.jpg

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/398646_10150614122526900_659036899_11406714_204697 3040_n.jpg

Simon was still a bit unsure.

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image14.jpg

My favorite family photo:

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image16.jpg

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image18.jpg

From there it was back through Adventureland to find Ariel. We were still right on target with our plan and were meeting Ariel and Eric at 10:20 AM.

Not sure if you've noticed in any previous pictures, but Zachary and Simon both had their names on their shirts. A lot of people were calling Zachary by name and later on Dave asked me where on his shirt his name was! (It is kinda obvious...) So anyway, Ariel pretended to try to guess his name, which he thought was pretty funny. Eric made a comment about being awful at guessing names and hadn't been able to guess Ariel's when he met her.

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/394083_10150614123656900_659036899_11406722_216415 309_n.jpg

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image19.jpg

Next, Ariel pointed out Simon's pacifier clip and called it a great collection! It was really cute.

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image20.jpg

I love these photos of the kids and the family too!

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/404744_10150614124186900_659036899_11406728_150880 8293_n.jpg
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/405275_10150614124386900_659036899_11406732_915706 755_n.jpg

Next on our time schedule was the 11 AM dance party at the hub, but we had more time, so we headed for Fantasyland!

[DsnyMama]

Love the update! Love the pics with Woody & Jessie!!

[dara00]

Your photos are gorgeous!!! It's pouring rain here in Sydney and between my photos and yours I'm missing the beautiful weather we had In Orlando and Hawaii.

thanks! yeah we had great weather in florida. luckily here in kansas city we are having 60 degree weather (Fahrenheit!) in january!

Love the update! Love the pics with Woody & Jessie!!

thanks! I love Woody and Jessie, they are so fun!

[Mrs. Sojourner]

It looks like you had some wonderful character interaction...and in record time! The crowds must have been pretty low? You got some really great photos too. I love the family one with Woody & Jessie!

P.S. I heart Keens. :)

[dara00]

It looks like you had some wonderful character interaction...and in record time! The crowds must have been pretty low? You got some really great photos too. I love the family one with Woody & Jessie!

P.S. I heart Keens. :)

yeah we were doing great time wise! The crowds picked up later on but I can't complain!

Thanks on the photos - I love that one too! :love:

We love our keens too. Not sure if you noticed, but myself and the two big kids all have them. I got them for less than $25 per pair in December and knew they'd be perfect for the trip! Someone actually stopped me in a ride line later in the week and commented on how much she loves Keens!

[dara00]

After our super character meet and greets, we headed towards Fantasyland to get another fast pass and get on a ride before the parade / dance party at 11. On the way we passed through the hub. We had some photopass pictures done but I don't really like them. There are a lot of people in the background for some reason. Anyway, here are the ones I took:

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/396577_10150614124706900_659036899_11406737_579682 123_n.jpg
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/403306_10150614124976900_659036899_11406740_106411 7395_n.jpg
Please note the pigeon on Walt's head!

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/403776_10150614125171900_659036899_11406745_435500 974_n.jpg
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/409489_10150614125476900_659036899_11406748_148694 4509_n.jpg
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/406424_10150614125771900_659036899_11406752_658502 923_n.jpg

Passing through the castle:

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/396677_10150614126046900_659036899_11406757_145033 1924_n.jpg

And we arrived at the ride we wanted:

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/405817_10150614126161900_659036899_11406760_144357 614_n.jpg
This photo was taken at 9:37 AM and the first one I took on the ride was at 9:40. Nice. Now I know you've all seen countless Small World pictures, but I'll just share a few!

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/405269_10150614126641900_659036899_11406763_503057 757_n.jpg
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/402386_10150614126871900_659036899_11406764_107667 403_n.jpg
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/403760_10150614127621900_659036899_11406767_943833 521_n.jpg
These were Gabbie's favorite - they say "ooh la la!" and she kept saying that during the trip!

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/402478_10150614130011900_659036899_11406786_120862 8961_n.jpg
Not sure what they're looking at...

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/395432_10150614132376900_659036899_11406801_129931 1198_n.jpg

I guess I should interject here with the story behind the first part of my trip title - "It's a Small Town." I really don't know when it started, but Zachary started calling this ride "Small Town." It's Gabbie's favorite ride, and when we asked Zachary what his favorite ride was he would say "Small Town!" It was just really cute and I had to quote him here!

At the end of the ride Simon looked like he was about to fall asleep! I guess he found it relaxing. On our way back to the hub, we almost got in the Fairy Godmother's line but decided to hold off, as it was already 11 AM!

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/407784_10150614132741900_659036899_11406803_364303 347_n.jpg

Next up - the Move It Shake It Celebrate It Parade!

[Moodyzblu]

Great pics ! :thumbsup2

Love the kids shirts ! SO cute ! :love:

[dara00]

Great pics ! :thumbsup2

Love the kids shirts ! SO cute ! :love:

:) I love the shirts too. I'm glad we got them!

[dara00]

We arrived in the hub just as the Move It Shake It Celebrate It Parade was arriving. This was a cute and high energy parade which we enjoyed seeing.

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395640_10150614133076900_659036899_11406805_212177 5828_n.jpg
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/396233_10150614133576900_659036899_11406811_107062 7686_n.jpg
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/401422_10150614133846900_659036899_11406812_118117 7339_n.jpg
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/396751_10150614134276900_659036899_11406814_203724 3378_n.jpg
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/398689_10150614136061900_659036899_11406827_125490 0804_n.jpg

Chip and Dale came down near us to dance.

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/407127_10150614136266900_659036899_11406829_174850 9700_n.jpg
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/396769_10150614136426900_659036899_11406830_446130 610_n.jpg
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/403184_10150614136761900_659036899_11406832_578867 932_n.jpg

I thought the kids would rather dance near Woody and Jessie, but Gabbie wasn't interested and Dave tried to get Zachary close but it didn't really work, so we moved on. Next in the plan was meeting more characters! As we headed down Main Street, the kids wanted balloons so I told them they could have a picture of the balloons! Not a very good one though.

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/409109_10150614137186900_659036899_11406835_202022 6292_n.jpg

I also took a picture of this cute shop window:

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/393816_10150614137371900_659036899_11406837_209441 8715_n.jpg

and this pretend shop window:

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/403673_10150614137566900_659036899_11406839_750850 710_n.jpg

Can you tell whose line we were getting into? As a hint, we also got our fast passes for Mickey and the Princesses while waiting!

[dara00]

Well since no one feels like guessing, I'll just tell you! We were in line for Mary Poppins! It was an interesting meet and greet - I don't think she liked me very much!

We had two goals when meeting Mary - show her Gabbie's Mary doll and get her to say Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious backwards. Showing the doll was easy enough - Gabbie was holding it! Mary commented that you don't see many dolls of her around, and I explained that Gabbie got her at Mary's show on Broadway.

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/155403_10150614138016900_659036899_11406842_936744 418_n.jpg

Mary said this was Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, so I right away said "can you say that backwards?" I got this look from her:

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/396605_10150614138151900_659036899_11406843_116260 7145_n.jpg

as she said "why yes, you can say it backwards..." and I interrupted her with "can YOU say it backwards??" That's the part I don't think she liked. So she continued, "Yes, you can say it backwards two ways. You can say it backwards by syllable like I do which is Dociousaliexpilisticfragicalirepus, and in my show I say it backwards by letter, which is Suoicodilaipxecitsiligarfilacrepus!" I got those spellings from wikipedia! So this Mary can say it both ways! Impressive. Also note in the above picture that Gabbie's doll Mary has a similar umbrella to character Mary - Mary touched them together which was cute.

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/407499_10150614138321900_659036899_11406845_173013 7325_n.jpg

At this point, it was 11:30 AM, and my original plan was to watch the castle show at 11:40 - but there is no castle show at 11:40! Actually before we left I read that there was no castle show Monday at all, which turned out not to be true, but in any case, I moved that to our day 2 plan and it all worked out in the end.

We headed through the middle of the square to get this picture:
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/397833_10150614138526900_659036899_11406846_137165 3398_n.jpg

Simon had fallen asleep:

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/402475_10150614138821900_659036899_11406848_811952 920_n.jpg

and while we were in line for our next meet and greet I ran into City Hall to get him that pin! I think there's supposed to be somewhere you can get pins where they'll write your name and the date on them, but I didn't know about that.

Anyway, we waited in a short line for Pooh and Tigger and met them at 11:45.

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/407563_10150614139546900_659036899_11406852_161878 8777_n.jpg

From there, the kids and Dave jumped onto a horse drawn streetcar (trolley?) while I walked with the stroller.

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/408892_10150614139856900_659036899_11406854_179784 9867_n.jpg

I walked through the stores and had to snap a few photos! I'm sure they'd be better if I had a better camera...

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/402268_10150614140046900_659036899_11406855_190924 3995_n.jpg
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/155398_10150614140516900_659036899_11406859_392139 147_n.jpg
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/400135_10150614140761900_659036899_11406861_504491 999_n.jpg

Since Simon was sleeping, we decided to hold off on lunch for a bit longer and get onto Splash Mountain!

[MelMel11]

Count me in!! Great pictures!!

[Moodyzblu]

Wow .. I'm impressed by Mary. I can't even read it backwards .. never mind SAY it ! :lmao:

Great pics ! :thumbsup2

[dara00]

Count me in!! Great pictures!!

welcome! and thanks!

Wow .. I'm impressed by Mary. I can't even read it backwards .. never mind SAY it ! :lmao:

Great pics ! :thumbsup2

I know! I can read the version from the movie, but not from the play. It was pretty cool, even though I interrupted her! :rolleyes1

[dara00]

12:15 PM
After a stop at our favorite bathroom (the one between Adventureland and Frontierland) where we did some wardrobe adjustments (Gabbie took off her leggings and socks, I took off my socks, and Dave changed from jeans to shorts) we headed here:

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/404422_10150614140941900_659036899_11406863_111456 9181_n.jpg

We got a rider switch pass and (after they measured Zachary again and he was still tall enough to ride) Dave went first with the kids while I stayed with Simon. I wasn't sure how long it would take or where to walk to, so I mostly hung around right in the area of the ride and inside the shop at the exit.

It actually took awhile and it wasn't my turn until 12:40! When they came out of the ride, Dave said he didn't think either kid was going to want to ride with me. :( However, Zachary said he was willing. He was scared though - he kept his head hidden against me the whole time until after the big hill, as he called it! Simon had woken up, so I think Dave and Gabbie took him to the little play area while Zachary and I rode the ride.

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/396433_10150614141666900_659036899_11406869_485448 307_n.jpg
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/407865_10150614142236900_659036899_11406876_712214 318_n.jpg
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/400150_10150614142421900_659036899_11406878_294762 300_n.jpg
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/408095_10150614142596900_659036899_11406879_187495 9181_n.jpg

Here's our picture - oh yeah, we were in the front row!

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/400504_10150614144196900_659036899_11406890_503759 331_n.jpg

It was now 12:55 and we were ready for lunch! We headed over to Columbia Harbor House. Dave and I shared a tuna sandwich and vegetarian chili and Gabbie and Zachary both had mac and cheese kids' meals. Simon shared some mac and cheese, grapes, and yogurt.

By 1:40 PM, we were here:

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/401419_10150614145301900_659036899_11406901_577734 88_n.jpg
It actually wasn't a 20 minute wait because by 1:50 we were in the stretching room! We didn't do the interactive queue though.

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395972_10150614145611900_659036899_11406903_141066 8145_n.jpg
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/405487_10150614145686900_659036899_11406905_217216 051_n.jpg
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/397177_10150614145986900_659036899_11406908_975978 717_n.jpg
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/397824_10150614146271900_659036899_11406913_257454 590_n.jpg
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/408877_10150614146571900_659036899_11406918_410359 928_n.jpg
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/405372_10150614146896900_28306002_n.jpg

I had told the kids this was a "funny ghost ride" so they wouldn't be scared to go on. They didn't seem to care one way or another about the ride! We got the ghost that switched our heads around, which was funny - too bad they don't do pictures of your doom buggy with the hitchhiking ghosts!

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/407826_10150614147096900_659036899_11406925_201933 1102_n.jpg

After that ride, Dave went back to get fp's for Pooh and he didn't realize the FP machine isn't by the Pooh ride (it's in the middle close to Peter Pan actually) so it took him forever to get back. I was annoyed and calling him repeatedly because we were running behind on our next item on our plan - the 2:15 Pirate Tutorial show. When we finally made it over there though, the kids weren't really interested, so we just hopped onto the line for Pirates. It was about a 15 minute wait.

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/396377_10150614148196900_659036899_11406935_104325 8771_n.jpg

The kids were a little scared of the battle scene. We had a discussion with the people sitting behind us on whether the ride used to be really different before the movie came out. I don't remember it, but they said it was much better before.

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/402355_10150614148471900_659036899_11406937_181008 9412_n.jpg
Pirate Zachary

We finished up at Pirates at about 2:50 PM. I bet you can guess what came next!

[NLD]

Dara, found your TR~! It's great! Your family is adorable. And WOW, have you packed a lot into one morning at MK already. Looks like you're all having a blast.

Love the narrative and all the pics....

[Moodyzblu]

At least your kids will go on Splash, mine won't even consider it ! :sad2:

So, what was next ??:yay:

[dara00]

Dara, found your TR~! It's great! Your family is adorable. And WOW, have you packed a lot into one morning at MK already. Looks like you're all having a blast.

Love the narrative and all the pics....

thank you! yeah we did a ton that first morning, it was awesome!

At least your kids will go on Splash, mine won't even consider it ! :sad2:

So, what was next ??:yay:

I highly doubt they will want to go on Splash again any time soon...maybe in a few years. Next up...3 PM!

[dara00]

As it turns out, in Frontierland, the 3:00 parade is at 3:25.

We had been told to find a spot to watch the parade near Country Bears. We found a spot on the other side of the street, across from the Trading Post store, which was under construction. It didn't make a beautiful backdrop for my photos, but oh well.

At 3 PM, the Main Street Philharmonic came by:
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/407575_10150614148651900_659036899_11406939_132806 0490_n.jpg

And then we hung out and waited.

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/407571_10150614148826900_659036899_11406942_680162 187_n.jpg

Zachary made up some game with his water bottle. He said it was Big Thunder Mountain. He must have heard us talking about that ride, since it was closed and he didn't get to go on it! (he might have even liked it, who knows!)

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/406456_10150614149026900_659036899_11406945_193221 9851_n.jpg

Oh, here comes the parade!

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/402121_10150614149306900_659036899_11406949_188109 8465_n.jpg
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/397070_10150614149541900_659036899_11406952_159098 29_n.jpg
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/394020_10150614149686900_659036899_11406955_828920 543_n.jpg
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/396520_10150614149966900_659036899_11406957_166171 8454_n.jpg
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/400209_10150614150111900_659036899_11406959_856566 005_n.jpg
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/396472_10150614150481900_659036899_11406962_187600 49_n.jpg
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/155418_10150614150651900_659036899_11406963_166254 6104_n.jpg
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/403797_10150614150861900_659036899_11406965_141144 4137_n.jpg
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395235_10150614151061900_659036899_11406969_487924 1_n.jpg
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/401979_10150614151301900_659036899_11406972_169250 3303_n.jpg
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/409304_10150614151671900_659036899_11406973_849329 219_n.jpg
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/405676_10150614151861900_659036899_11406975_184931 1700_n.jpg
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/396999_10150614152656900_659036899_11406984_138489 4866_n.jpg
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/404175_10150614153146900_659036899_11406987_143366 4213_n.jpg
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/397095_10150614153486900_659036899_11406991_187053 2540_n.jpg
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395972_10150614153626900_659036899_11406992_100176 6004_n.jpg
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/400410_10150614153796900_659036899_11406994_175357 9400_n.jpg

Next up: We use our fast passes!

Oh, and in real life news - we are going to see Aladdin, the play, today!

[OziJo]

Love all your character and parade pics. That's the difference between traveling with teenagers and traveling with younger kids, teenagers will only stop for character pics if they don't have to wait ie our Toy Story pics) the character is "cute" not just cutesy (ie Peter Pan) or can have breakfast too (ie Crystal Palace all you can eat buffet breakfast):thumbsup2

As to the parades they weren't in our schedule but manged to a glimpse of a couple.

[NLD]

Love the parade pics... looks like you sitting down and shooting up? Nice perspective.

[dara00]

Love all your character and parade pics. That's the difference between traveling with teenagers and traveling with younger kids, teenagers will only stop for character pics if they don't have to wait ie our Toy Story pics) the character is "cute" not just cutesy (ie Peter Pan) or can have breakfast too (ie Crystal Palace all you can eat buffet breakfast):thumbsup2

As to the parades they weren't in our schedule but manged to a glimpse of a couple.

aw, yeah we love meeting characters. I didn't do much of it myself when I was a kid, so I live vicariously through my own kids! And we really enjoyed the parades too.

Love the parade pics... looks like you sitting down and shooting up? Nice perspective.

yes, I was sitting and snapping pics. I didn't do it on purpose, it was just what worked at the time! I'm not a very good photographer in general! But thanks, glad you liked them!

[dara00]

3:40 PM
We headed over to Fantasyland to use our collected Fast Passes. First stop was here:

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/402758_10150614153916900_659036899_11406995_148774 0296_n.jpg

This was the one and only ride where the CM gave us a hard time for coming back after our FP window was past. I haven't heard about Disney no longer allowing you to come back late, but that's what this CM wanted us to believe.

Anyway, we enjoyed the ride and next up we had magic FP's for this:

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/407892_10150614154371900_659036899_11407002_122051 224_n.jpg

We were led into the corner of the holding room where we stood and waited - same as we would have without the FPs. I guess these are worth it when there's actually a line outside of the room.

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/402540_10150614154541900_659036899_11407006_834658 025_n.jpg

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/409534_10150614154681900_659036899_11407009_102161 091_n.jpg
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/408876_10150614155006900_659036899_11407016_789706 489_n.jpg
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/407875_10150614155101900_659036899_11407020_184231 8500_n.jpg
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/407521_10150614155241900_659036899_11407022_100463 4442_n.jpg

We loved this show, as usual. Simon wouldn't wear his glasses, but seemed very interested in watching anyway. Zachary said he felt like we were moving at certain points in the show. Everyone liked Donald hitting the wall at the end of the show.

And now for a small flash back:

We bought this Minnie Mouse for Gabbie at her first trip the Disneyland when she was 17 mos old:

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/379544_10150558563896900_659036899_11193377_213595 3446_n.jpg

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/404183_10150558564011900_659036899_11193378_901663 212_n.jpg

Then, Minnie returned to the land on our most recent trip in 2009:

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v4190/222/113/659036899/n659036899_3219801_5669692.jpg

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/396309_10150558518646900_659036899_11193098_395906 053_n.jpg

Don't ask me what Zachary's holding, it was some bear he had!

But we couldn't find Minnie Mouse anywhere before we left for this trip. So, after PhilharMagic, we found Gabbie a new Minnie Mouse. We actually found the same one, wearing the princess shirt, but slightly bigger.

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/398696_10150614278911900_659036899_11407813_166450 1045_n.jpg
There's the new Minnie, riding the teacups. I don't do the teacups, so Dave took the kids while I walked over to get in line for our next character meet up.

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/405631_10150614155591900_659036899_11407030_183436 8137_n.jpg

Taken on my way:
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/398446_10150614155766900_659036899_11407034_213826 5388_n.jpg

Next up:
A few more rides and characters, and what exactly is Slow Pass?!

[corgi_monster]

I'm loving all the pics on your TR. Can't wait to find out what a slow pass is!

[dara00]

I'm loving all the pics on your TR. Can't wait to find out what a slow pass is!

thanks for the comment! and I will explain it coming right up!

[dara00]

When we left off, I was headed across Tomorrowland to get in line for our next character greet - Buzz Lightyear! Dave was taking Gabbie and Zachary on the teacups. They joined me in line and Zachary excitedly pointed out the Peoplemover, telling me he wanted to ride Slow Pass. HUH? Honestly, I don't know where this came from, but for some reason Zachary, in all of his 4.5 year old wisdom, renamed the Peoplemover as Slow Pass. He had heard us talking about using our fastpasses, so I guess he figured with no fast pass for that ride, it must be a Slow Pass. OK then. I assured him we'd ride it tomorrow.

At 5:10 PM it was our turn to meet Buzz. It seems we waited about 20 minutes for him - our longest wait for a character!

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/401314_10150614156016900_659036899_11407039_154933 8731_n.jpg

When Buzz stamped his name onto our photo cards, the photos got stuck to the stamp! Luckily that didn't ruin them.

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/404612_10150614156236900_659036899_11407043_919699 053_n.jpg
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/407296_10150614156421900_659036899_11407047_980069 12_n.jpg
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/400257_10150614156601900_659036899_11407049_145395 7284_n.jpg
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image22.jpg

Zachary also tried pushing the red button on Buzz. It was pretty funny, but I will let you find out yourselves what happens if you are so inclined!

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image23.jpg

Carrying on the Buzz theme, we used our earliest obtained fast passes for the Buzz ride. I'm hearing this strategy won't be allowed on future park visits - makes things much harder to plan!

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/401246_10150614156746900_659036899_11407054_136739 2436_n.jpg
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/397847_10150614156986900_659036899_11407057_174337 2990_n.jpg

I rode with Zachary. For some reason I felt like my laser wasn't working at all, but I was getting some points. Zachary wasn't getting any. So I reached over and shot his laser for him, one time. And this happened:

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/407939_10150614157231900_659036899_11407063_773679 398_n.jpg
huh?

On our way out we had to stop for this picture:

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/406506_10150614157431900_659036899_11407068_588336 468_n.jpg

[OziJo]

LOL at People Mover=Slow Pass. Very clever!
Love Buzz Lightyear. Great Pics!!

[dara00]

LOL at People Mover=Slow Pass. Very clever!
Love Buzz Lightyear. Great Pics!!

thanks as always for your comment!

[dara00]

5:30 PM and one more ride fast pass to go! Believe it or not, we basically stuck to my strict schedule all day!

Our last ride:

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/396627_10150614157606900_659036899_11407073_560017 191_n.jpg
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/404577_10150614157801900_659036899_11407075_926676 368_n.jpg
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/409332_10150614158021900_659036899_11407079_336839 599_n.jpg

Now we had one more thing on the schedule before the parade. We had originally thought we could sit and wait for the parade while eating a dinner we'd bought to go. That didn't quite happen, but it still worked out in the end. Our last order of business - use our fast passes to meet the Princesses and Mickey and Minnie!

On our way there, we stopped at the bakery to buy some food to eat for dinner.

Gabbie had a quick wardrobe change - her Sleeping Beauty dress went on over her other clothes. We used our fast pass but I don't think we really needed it. At 6:30 PM we were meeting Aurora - and then my camera battery died! So we have two photos by me and the rest on photopass!

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/405848_10150614158281900_659036899_11407082_173330 501_n.jpg
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395396_10150614158436900_659036899_11407085_160949 6336_n.jpg
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image24.jpg

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image25.jpg
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image26.jpg
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image27.jpg
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image28.jpg
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image29.jpg
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image30.jpg
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image31.jpg

Cinderella wasn't there, so we'd have to come back tomorrow! We headed to Mickey and Minnie next. Mickey came and knocked on a door, then led the group to his room. While we were getting our autographs, Simon announced loudly "ELMO!" lol.

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image32.jpg
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image33.jpg

We headed outside and the Main Street Electrical Parade was about to start. We had wanted to watch from Frontierland, but we decided to just grab a spot on Main Street. We were a few rows back, which didn't matter since I didn't have a camera! We ate while we waited the few minutes for the parade to come. And then Zachary had to go potty so he and Dave left, the lights turned off, and I didn't know if they'd find us when they got back! But they did.

After the parade, we stopped at the bakery again to get an ice cream cookie sandwich, and made our way closer to the castle for the Magic, the Memories, and You show. We were on one of the paths off to the right, towards Tomorrowland. Gabbie sat on a garbage can. I wish I could have gotten pictures of her watching! The castle show was really neat, but all the pictures were not from today - there were Dumbo pictures and Dumbo is closed!

Next up were the fireworks, which we enjoyed thoroughly. Tinkerbell flew just about right over our heads!

With everything we had wanted to accomplish that day done, we headed out of the park. We took the local monorail and the kids decided they want to stay at a monorail hotel next trip! Zachary had been waiting all day to ride the monorail, so he was very happy.

Back to the car and back to the hotel for the night - I took some time to go over my plans for day 2, and everyone went to bed!

[dara00]

On our first day in the Magic Kingdom we:

Met 13 characters
Rode 11 rides
Saw 3 parades
Saw the fireworks

Had a great time!

[dara00]

Day 2, Tuesday January 17

We all got up and ate breakfast at the hotel, but today was the day I was on my own with the kids! Dave got us out and into the van and he set out to rent another car and drive to Tampa, where he'd be working for 3 days. We'd be driving to meet him tonight, but first we had another day in the Magic Kingdom to enjoy! We had debated whether I should take the kids to a different park than the one we'd already done, but ultimately I decided I would need more than a full day at Epcot and we weren't planning to stay a whole day, and we wanted to do DHS on Friday, so the only other option was Animal Kingdom. I asked the kids what they thought and they opted to repeat Magic Kingdom, to do the things we missed and the thing we enjoyed and wanted to do again.

So the kids and I drove off to the Magic Kingdom! We arrived at 8:10 AM and parked here:

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395753_10150614537551900_659036899_11408576_750728 135_n.jpg
Perfectly close, as we were not going to take the tram with the stroller!

When we got to the front we saw that only the local monorail was running, so we hopped on. Zachary was thrilled:

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/401554_10150614537886900_723460843_n.jpg

And the kids enjoyed seeing the monorail resorts and talking about staying there one day. :rotfl:

We entered the park only to have to leave again to use the bathroom, but were situated in the middle by 8:40 AM.

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/403894_10150614538346900_659036899_11408580_551436 873_n.jpg

I snapped a few pictures:
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395702_10150614538586900_659036899_11408581_605151 961_n.jpg
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/397960_10150614538846900_659036899_11408583_895323 324_n.jpg
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/398464_10150614539071900_659036899_11408584_200775 6142_n.jpg
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/407474_10150614539571900_659036899_11408586_202091 4017_n.jpg

The kids played a bit:
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/404656_10150614539241900_659036899_11408585_898462 315_n.jpg

And we spotted this doll waiting for the show as well:
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/406404_10150614539906900_659036899_11408587_195923 6490_n.jpg
(we won't even let Gabbie take her American Girl out of the house!)

At about 8:55 the mayor came out and explained that the characters ride on the train once per morning. Zachary told everyone this for the next week or so! Then they did their Good Morning show, which was very cute and we all enjoyed!

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/166962_10150614540051900_659036899_11408588_298900 410_n.jpg
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/407550_10150614540231900_659036899_11408589_153903 8867_n.jpg
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/404596_10150614540856900_659036899_11408592_139616 5801_n.jpg
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/400545_10150614541081900_659036899_11408593_595632 623_n.jpg
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/408055_10150614541271900_659036899_11408594_132631 9041_n.jpg

And then it was time to enter and hurry off to greet Rapunzel!

[dara00]

We headed straight down Main Street headed towards Rapunzel's meet and greet. I thought it was pretty cool that we were walking along with most of the characters! As we veered off to the right, we met another mom heading to the same place - but she'd sent her husband ahead to get into line! So she was ahead of us, but we still made it on time for the first group to enter the garden.

In front of us in line was a lady in a motorized scooter. She was told she would have to park her scooter, as the line entered on a ramp but exited by stairs. I was worried for her, but she said she could manage it! We got to talking and it turns out she was alone in the park while her husband was golfing (I think?) and she was meeting characters! She had a handmade scrapbook for autographs, but she quite liked our photo cards. I asked her if she goes on the disboards and she said yes! So I told her where I found them.

Of course, we had to ditch our stroller as well, which is slightly hard with Simon not wanting to stand still! But he was happy!

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/404344_10150614541546900_659036899_11408595_128708 1753_n.jpg

By 9:30, it was our turn to meet Rapunzel. I'm not sure if she is looking at Gabbie's Rapunzel doll or her Mickey/Minnie nails in this photo!

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395794_10150614541776900_659036899_11408596_229630 580_n.jpg

Books were signed and photos taken:
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/409092_10150614542351900_1854696813_n.jpg
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/402372_10150614542616900_659036899_11408601_203099 4302_n.jpg

While I read other trip reports I wonder why neither of my boys got any princess kisses! (and also, why no one comments on mine!)

Next on our plan was to meet the Fairy Godmother, but she wouldn't be out until 9:45, so we had time to do a ride. We chose Pooh! There was no wait, and we wanted to check out the interactive queue!

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/401226_10150614542901900_659036899_11408602_923855 819_n.jpg
That's Simon's head blocking the photo!

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/403824_10150614543166900_659036899_11408603_140795 8352_n.jpg
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/401205_10150614543376900_659036899_11408604_446152 517_n.jpg
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/396477_10150614543701900_659036899_11408606_420908 839_n.jpg
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/400974_10150614543956900_659036899_11408607_286144 054_n.jpg
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/395581_10150614544146900_659036899_11408608_397903 178_n.jpg

With other people starting to come in behind us and Simon wanting to run in the other direction, I hurried the kids past this last part of the line. I later found out that there were characters hiding in the honey! I told Gabbie this and she told me she knew! She saw Rabbit in there! Why didn't she tell me? Well, because I was saying let's go! Sigh.

We were on the ride at 9:40 AM.
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395227_10150614545126900_659036899_11408612_734250 260_n.jpg

And we were third in line for the Fairy Godmother at 9:50. Who was first? Our friend in the motorized scooter from the Rapunzel line! What a cool lady!

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/407327_10150614545391900_659036899_11408613_128332 2390_n.jpg
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/405853_10150614545756900_659036899_11408615_580782 50_n.jpg
What is Gabbie doing in this photo? lol!

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/395572_10150614546006900_659036899_11408616_129818 5556_n.jpg

Next up: the two most requested rides of our trip!

[marDgreen88]

I'm not sure why it took me SO LONG to find this TR but I finally did, yay! Your kids are precious! I'm kinda in awe of how much yall did and how many characters you met on your first day!

[dara00]

I'm not sure why it took me SO LONG to find this TR but I finally did, yay! Your kids are precious! I'm kinda in awe of how much yall did and how many characters you met on your first day!

thanks for checking in! yeah, we did awesome on our first day, I was so proud! :)

[dara00]

I am seriously thinking I want to do the Wine & Dine 1/2 Marathon on November 10.

It's been a goal of mine to become a runner. I'm nowhere near there yet...I'm doing the couch to 5K and I'm up to 5 minute run times. Basically I'm doing 2 miles in 30 minutes. Which isn't horrible, but I want to be able to run more and walk less...which is what the Couch to 5K has you do each week. I am planning to do a 5K in June. My husband said if I can manage that, then we can do the 1/2 marathon in Disney!

So November is sooner than the official 1/2 and full marathon in January, but here is why I want to do this one:

I'm not a morning person. This one is at night!
November 10 is my birthday!

So my plan would be to fly down on Thursday night. (Just my husband and me!) On Friday we'd go to the expo and get all signed up. Saturday we'd rest. We'd be up most of the night on Saturday night doing the race and the after party, so we'd sleep on Sunday and possibly fly home Sunday night. If we can, it would be great to add in a park day on Monday and fly home Monday night! I don't know that I want to spend the money for park tickets when we'll only have partial days at the parks, so the plan might be just to be at Epcot at night after the race. Maybe my husband would be willing to stay on site if we weren't also paying for park tickets???

[dara00]

It was now 10 AM and we had on our plan that we wanted to meet Alice at 10:30, so we took the opportunity to do a few more rides. First requested - Small Town!

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395227_10150614546146900_659036899_11408617_189604 306_n.jpg
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/166960_10150614546316900_659036899_11408619_134739 4204_n.jpg
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/397053_10150614546516900_659036899_11408621_132962 5211_n.jpg

Next up - Slow Pass! (the Peoplemover, or as Zachary says now, the Peoplemove.)

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/403278_10150614546871900_659036899_11408623_864386 63_n.jpg
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/404923_10150614547066900_659036899_11408625_170400 6960_n.jpg

I like this ride for seeing all the sights. The kids enjoyed it too - mostly!

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/404403_10150614547341900_659036899_11408626_185449 9743_n.jpg
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395518_10150614547521900_659036899_11408627_140493 6664_n.jpg
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/409211_10150614547751900_659036899_11408628_140151 0460_n.jpg
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/401285_10150614547996900_659036899_11408629_187079 5604_n.jpg
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/407987_10150614548191900_659036899_11408630_113859 8400_n.jpg

The part the kids didn't like so much was the inside of Space Mountain! They are just a little scared of the dark. So I took a picture!

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/405574_10150614548541900_659036899_11408631_181198 0249_n.jpg

More views from the ride:
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/393961_10150614548876900_659036899_11408632_124803 1397_n.jpg
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/408900_10150614549086900_659036899_11408633_125369 7769_n.jpg

Exiting the ride, I had my one scary experience of being alone with the kids at the park. Gabbie and I (holding Simon) stepped onto the moving walkway to go back down to Tomorrowland. And Zachary didn't step on! So I was moving farther away from him and he was afraid to step! Luckily, a man (obviously a father) came up behind Zachary and quickly asked if he could pick him up. I said yes, and Zachary was delivered safely to my side!

It was now 10:30, but we didn't make it back to Alice right away - we got distracted by shiny things. Pins! I had thought we wouldn't have much time for pin trading and didn't buy any ahead of time, which might have been a good idea. But suddenly we decided to become pin traders. I bought Gabbie a Tinkerbell set with the lanyard and 4 pins. Zachary picked out a black Disney lanyard and a pin set of Buzz and the alien guys from Toy Story (2 pins). I got a locking back set for my Kermit wearing Mickey ears pin that kept falling off! I made conversation with the CM at the stand - she was from a town in NJ that I knew (I grew up in NJ and moved to Kansas 2 years ago), only I was confusing her town with a different town! Oh well, I tried.

So, I don't have pictures or info on when exactly the kids traded pins, but I do know that Zachary switched out his alien pin for a Mickey pin which he later traded for a Donald and then traded that one for a different Mickey pin! He was so cute with trading - he would look at the pins and then very seriously point out which pin he wanted. I had to remind him that to get a new pin he would have to trade one of his! He knew he wanted to keep Buzz, so he kept trading his other pin.

Gabbie was a little more picky about which pins she wanted. She thought she would trade 3 Tinkerbells and keep 1, but she wasn't sure which to keep. She had an Ariel pin at one point and then she had a cute Minnie Mouse, but that one fell off and she lost it. :( She wanted a Mary Poppins pin so I bought her that one and put a locking back on it - after I finally figured out how to use the locking backs! In our next line I was fighting with the mechanism and ended up dropping and losing the key that locks the pins! Luckily at another stand later the CM there taught me how to do it, and gave me a new set! More about pin trading later. And since I've babbled on, I'll end this update here!

[marDgreen88]

Hahaha, I was wondering what your title meant! :thumbsup2

I totally agree, the views from the PeopleMover are incredible!

[OziJo]

Ooooo we didn't do the "Slow Pass" ride. Now I wish we had. Nice pics :thumbsup2

[dara00]

Hahaha, I was wondering what your title meant! :thumbsup2

I totally agree, the views from the PeopleMover are incredible!

If you look back to Day 1 (in the chapter links), I explained when he first started calling it that! It had something to do with fast pass and that ride not having fast passes, I think!

Ooooo we didn't do the "Slow Pass" ride. Now I wish we had. Nice pics :thumbsup2

It's a nice relaxing one which we wouldn't have gotten to do without coming back for day 2! you'll have to try it next time!

[dara00]

11 AM

Like I said before, I tried to get my locking backs to work on my pin while we waited for our next character greet. I'm not too sure what the kids were doing in line, but they weren't complaining! After we waited for a bit, it was our turn to meet Alice and the White Rabbit.

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395770_10150614549506900_659036899_11408636_476163 179_n.jpg
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/403766_10150614549696900_659036899_11408638_730821 007_n.jpg
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/402011_10150614549826900_659036899_11408639_174748 7180_n.jpg
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/398488_10150614549986900_659036899_11408640_354106 57_n.jpg
I love this picture!

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395924_10150614550701900_659036899_11408643_181227 9789_n.jpg

From there, we headed towards Main Street with the goal of meeting Snow White. We stopped on the way for some photopass pictures and of course some of my own!

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395695_10150614551016900_659036899_11408645_160990 912_n.jpg
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/401442_10150614551281900_659036899_11408647_878220 800_n.jpg

Gabbie did the magic Tinkerbell shot:
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image34.jpg
http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image35.jpg

Zachary didn't want to get a magic shot. By the time we got to Snow White, her line was closed. We took note of when to come back, got fastpasses for the Princesses and Mickey (where the CM tried to stop me, thinking I was trying to enter Mary Poppins' line), and decided to take a ride on the railroad.

View from the railroad station:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/405856_10150614551491900_659036899_11408648_189684 7995_n.jpg

Originally I wanted to just take the train to Frontierland, but I couldn't fold the stroller with the things I had underneath, so we decided to go all the way around. Next up: all the things we saw along the way.

[marDgreen88]

Great pictures! I'd love to meet the white rabbit.

[Moodyzblu]

I love the pics of Alice and the White Rabbit !! They're my dd, Jills, favorites. :love:

The pics of Gabbie and Tink are great .. how cool is that ??

[PirateKate]

I can't believe how much you all did on the first day! I don't think I'd ever be able to stick to that much of a schedule with my boys. Actually, I probably couldn't stick to the schedule even without them. :rotfl:

Running the half marathon sounds exciting. I'm thinking of trying it, too. Or maybe the Tower of Terror Ten Miler instead. Just in case those last three miles are the hardest.

[dara00]

Great pictures! I'd love to meet the white rabbit.

He's really cute!

I love the pics of Alice and the White Rabbit !! They're my dd, Jills, favorites. :love:

The pics of Gabbie and Tink are great .. how cool is that ??

Thanks! It was our first (and only) magic photopass picture and it was fun!

I can't believe how much you all did on the first day! I don't think I'd ever be able to stick to that much of a schedule with my boys. Actually, I probably couldn't stick to the schedule even without them. :rotfl:

Running the half marathon sounds exciting. I'm thinking of trying it, too. Or maybe the Tower of Terror Ten Miler instead. Just in case those last three miles are the hardest.

I know, I was so proud we pulled it off. Day 2 was much more relaxed.

I originally was looking at the info for the Tower of Terror Ten Miler but just below it I saw the info for the Wine & Dine 1/2 and saw it's on my birthday, so I was sold! From what I've read so far though, everyone says mile 12 is the hardest!

[Nermel9]

Hi, I'm sorry it took me so long to realize you have a TR going on! :scared1: I'm here now, though! I just wanted to sub, but I have to go back and catch up, so it might take me a day or two, but I'm here!

[dara00]

Hi, I'm sorry it took me so long to realize you have a TR going on! :scared1: I'm here now, though! I just wanted to sub, but I have to go back and catch up, so it might take me a day or two, but I'm here!

thanks for joining in!

[dara00]

11:50 AM
We got ourselves settled on the train, towards the back, as the conductor told us that the people in the back get a longer ride. :lmao:

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/409551_10150614551741900_659036899_11408649_707166 001_n.jpg

The train can be interesting because you get to see the outskirts of the lands. This was behind Frontierland:
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/396462_10150614551941900_659036899_11408650_340501 222_n.jpg

The work on BTMR (it was cute, the construction workers all waved!):
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/406565_10150614552191900_659036899_11408651_188467 3234_n.jpg

Part of the Jungle Cruise:
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/399852_10150614552356900_659036899_11408652_178050 6259_n.jpg
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/407804_10150614552641900_659036899_11408653_162120 3385_n.jpg

They also have lots of pretend scenery to look at:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/407439_10150614553611900_659036899_11408657_175030 5174_n.jpg

Then we went behind the Fantasyland construction and I took a picture of the poster.
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/404910_10150614553881900_659036899_11408658_105172 1735_n.jpg

When we got back, we had to go down the exit ramp and back up the entrance ramp to get our stroller back - fun. Then the kids got some pressed pennies under the train station. When we got back onto Main Street we saw:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/409171_10150614554436900_659036899_11408660_161919 4205_n.jpg
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/396212_10150614554631900_659036899_11408661_189846 9211_n.jpg

We also saw the Mayor a bit farther down on the street but he was talking to someone else. We were hungry, so we kept going. I tried to get a few balloon pictures:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/402017_10150614554826900_659036899_11408663_106978 487_n.jpg
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/401424_10150614555016900_659036899_11408664_602700 190_n.jpg

We went to Cosmic Ray's Cafe for lunch. I got a veggie burger and for the kids I asked if I could have cheese sandwiches instead of turkey for the kids' meals they offer. They said yes, but it was confusing for the workers to figure out what we wanted and we had to wait a little while, meanwhile blocking all the people behind us. Oops. Luckily though a CM helped me carry our tray to the condiment bar and a table. Simon had fallen asleep, so the big kids had their sandwiches and chocolate milk and we saved yogurt and grapes for Simon.

Next up: we watch a show!

[marDgreen88]

I can't believe I've never ridden the train before! Lots of cool sights to see! :)

[dara00]

I can't believe I've never ridden the train before! Lots of cool sights to see! :)

haha, yeah, the train is great fun if you're 4!

[dara00]

1:15 PM
It was time to watch the Dream Along With Mickey show! This had been on our original day 1 plan but it didn't end up fitting in. Today it worked out perfectly. Simon was still sleeping:

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/393868_10150614555191900_659036899_11408665_994793 227_n.jpg

Zachary was very interested in the show - he'd watched a bit of it on youtube and wanted to see it for real!

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/397283_10150614556211900_659036899_11408668_777023 462_n.jpg

Some pictures of the show:
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/408866_10150614556491900_659036899_11408670_284332 695_n.jpg
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/395242_10150614556851900_659036899_11408672_310076 602_n.jpg
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/395512_10150614558111900_659036899_11408684_174674 2655_n.jpg
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/399811_10150614558826900_659036899_11408688_205664 4872_n.jpg
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/399920_10150614559421900_659036899_11408690_177127 2454_n.jpg

Zachary watching again:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/393789_10150614557926900_659036899_11408683_772582 786_n.jpg

Ooh, fireworks:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/395541_10150614559966900_659036899_11408693_588814 022_n.jpg
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/402635_10150614560276900_659036899_11408695_200384 0581_n.jpg
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/409277_10150614560536900_659036899_11408697_402499 918_n.jpg

After the show, we were ready to meet more characters. On our way, Gabbie tried on some hats:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/396468_10150614560851900_659036899_11408698_183030 8033_n.jpg
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/397003_10150614561091900_659036899_11408699_373912 679_n.jpg

Stay tuned to see who we planned to meet next!

[marDgreen88]

Aw, gotta love Dream Along with Mickey! It's such a cute show. In one picture, Goofy looks like he's really gettin down! :cool1:

[Moodyzblu]

I actually enjoy the train ride ! It's nice and relaxing (like the people mover ;))

So sad to see BTMR is closed. :sad2: We're gonna miss it on our trip.

Gabbie and the hat pics :love: so cute !!

[dara00]

Aw, gotta love Dream Along with Mickey! It's such a cute show. In one picture, Goofy looks like he's really gettin down! :cool1:

We enjoyed it! The day before I'd heard the random fireworks from the show and didn't know what they were from! it's cool that they have random fireworks during the day.

I actually enjoy the train ride ! It's nice and relaxing (like the people mover ;))

So sad to see BTMR is closed. :sad2: We're gonna miss it on our trip.

Gabbie and the hat pics :love: so cute !!

Yeah I guess it was kinda relaxing. We got to do another slow "relaxing" ride later, stay tuned!

I think Zachary would have liked BTMR and I'm sad it was closed too. Another reason to go back!

Thanks!

[dara00]

2 PM
As I was saying, we had some more characters to meet! First up was a lady who said Simon was our Dopey!

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/409351_10150614561421900_659036899_11408700_187123 0434_n.jpg
Yup, Snow White. This is the squeaky voiced Snow White, unless they all speak like that!

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/400300_10150614561661900_659036899_11408701_114893 2169_n.jpg
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/397212_10150614561871900_659036899_11408702_556159 795_n.jpg
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/401217_10150614562236900_659036899_11408704_799156 430_n.jpg

Next, we were ready to use our character fast passes. Since we had seen the princesses first last night followed by Mickey and Minnie, we decided to do Mickey and Minnie first today. We didn't end up using our fast passes because there was no wait at all. We had already gotten autographs, so today was just for pictures, plus Gabbie had made some drawings she wanted to give to them, and she wanted to show them her Mickey/Minnie nail polish. The CM was very sweet, pointing out Gabbie's skirt matched Minnie as well.

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/404341_10150614562506900_659036899_11408705_285856 204_n.jpg

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/401539_10150614562671900_659036899_11408706_163812 2072_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/407276_10150614562876900_659036899_11408707_291504 385_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/407950_10150614563126900_659036899_11408708_899504 211_n.jpg

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/403042_10150614563301900_659036899_11408710_820745 252_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/409212_10150614563551900_659036899_11408711_708380 57_n.jpg

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image36.jpg

http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb145/dararachel/disneyphotopass/Image37.jpg
Favorite photopass picture! My CD should be here soon!

[marDgreen88]

Haha I met the same Snow White. I thought she was great. The pictures are so cute!

[Nermel9]

I'm finally caught up! :cool1: Wow, I cannot believe how much you got done on your first MK day...actually, the 2nd day too! And with 3 kids! :worship: It's just me and my DH right now, and we cannot do full park days, we need breaks or we will...well, I'm not sure what will happen to us, since we've never tried it, I'm just assuming something horrible might happen if we didn't take breaks! :rotfl:

Your kids are so cute, and I love all of the pictures you got with all the characters, you met SO many of them! What happens when you push Buzz's red button?

I'd really like to be in MK for the afternoon parade sometime, we always miss it, due to our afternoon breaks! But it looks so cute!

I'd love to do the Wine and Dine half, I tried doing the Couch to 5K last year, but I stopped when the weather got to be too hot, but I'd like to pick it up again. I'd actually rather do the Tower of Terror 10 miler, but I feel like I don't have enough time with that one! We'll see what happens!

[dara00]

Haha I met the same Snow White. I thought she was great. The pictures are so cute!

we liked her too! thanks!

I'm finally caught up! :cool1: Wow, I cannot believe how much you got done on your first MK day...actually, the 2nd day too! And with 3 kids! :worship: It's just me and my DH right now, and we cannot do full park days, we need breaks or we will...well, I'm not sure what will happen to us, since we've never tried it, I'm just assuming something horrible might happen if we didn't take breaks! :rotfl:

Your kids are so cute, and I love all of the pictures you got with all the characters, you met SO many of them! What happens when you push Buzz's red button?

I'd really like to be in MK for the afternoon parade sometime, we always miss it, due to our afternoon breaks! But it looks so cute!

I'd love to do the Wine and Dine half, I tried doing the Couch to 5K last year, but I stopped when the weather got to be too hot, but I'd like to pick it up again. I'd actually rather do the Tower of Terror 10 miler, but I feel like I don't have enough time with that one! We'll see what happens!

yeah we got a ton done. our breaks are show and parade watching! only problem with our strategy is that now I feel like paying money for a ticket to the park is only worth it if we stay the whole day there!

we met a ton of characters - I have to count up the total when I'm done with the report! what happens when you push Buzz's button is supposed to be a secret! but I'll tell you - it turns him off.

we did enjoy the parade, and like I said, we got to sit and rest while watching!

I am doing the couch to 5K now. I just did week 5 day 2 last night. I do it on the treadmill right now. I looked into the tower of terror 10 mile but then I saw that wine & dine is on my b.day and I thought what better motivation! I'm really excited. I have a lot of training to go though!

Thanks for the comments!

[dara00]

2:15 PM
When we finished meeting Mickey and Minnie, we headed back to the Princess meet and greet. Last night we had met Aurora and Belle, but not Cinderella, so we planned to have Cinderella sign our photo cards, get pictures with Belle, and have Aurora sign Gabbie's hat.

Flash back time! On our last trip, to Disneyland, Gabbie had her princess hat signed by Snow White, Belle, Cinderella, and the Fairy Godmother, but we did not meet Aurora. A few pictures:

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/409080_10150558526751900_659036899_11193187_818036 171_n.jpg
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/4190_113090956899_659036899_3219822_229430_n.jpg

Anyway, here are the photos from the present!

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/396078_10150614564276900_659036899_11408716_164075 7806_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/421149_10150700536921900_659036899_11639747_446315 244_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/421885_10150700537036900_659036899_11639748_142644 9132_n.jpg

Belle admired Zachary's train hat and asked whether the kids wanted their books signed. They told her she'd already signed and then Gabbie told me she didn't remember them. So I told her it was because she sees so many kids each day.

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/404231_10150700537311900_659036899_11639751_241027 405_n.jpg

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/403701_10150614565106900_659036899_11408724_190742 0817_n.jpg

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/408116_10150700537586900_659036899_11639754_208457 2571_n.jpg

Aurora and the hat:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/429377_10150700538191900_659036899_11639759_116229 1198_n.jpg

I didn't have the right pen for her to sign with and it took her a little while to get it to work!

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/420135_10150700538641900_659036899_11639765_624463 930_n.jpg

The kids posed with her but Simon didn't want to get in.

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/424332_10150700539711900_659036899_11639776_183791 8482_n.jpg

Then she was nice enough to spend some time with Simon! (excuse the hair in his eyes!)
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/430656_10150700540491900_659036899_11639783_153423 6545_n.jpg

And that was the last of our character greetings for the day! I think it was around this time that we walked over to see how long the wait was for Woody and Jessie, but it was too long for us. We also checked out the pin trading booth outside of BTMR. My camera was starting to fill up so I didn't take as many pictures over the rest of the day.

Stay tuned to find out how we occupied ourselves after our character greetings were finished!

[dara00]

Does anyone know how to resize photos when uploading to photobucket?

[Moodyzblu]

Great Princess photos ! One thing I miss with my boys is meeting the Princesses. :sad1:

[marDgreen88]

Photobucket confuses me sometimes, too. My pictures always come out weird sizes if I've cropped them or something.

Aw, more cute pictures! That Aurora is actually pretty! Hahaha.

[dara00]

Great Princess photos ! One thing I miss with my boys is meeting the Princesses. :sad1:

Aww, too bad you can't get them to meet princesses, I bet the princesses would love them!

Photobucket confuses me sometimes, too. My pictures always come out weird sizes if I've cropped them or something.

Aw, more cute pictures! That Aurora is actually pretty! Hahaha.

I edited the above post with the photos on facebook instead. I know they are still huge but maybe not quite as huge??

Yeah, she is pretty! On day 1 we saw a Belle who was not very pretty at all!

[dara00]

3 PM

We were over in Frontierland checking out the line for Woody and Jessie and the pin trading area outside BTMR. Before we headed back to Fantasyland, we stopped to buy some ice cream. Gabbie chose an ice pop actually, Zachary got a Mickey Bar, and I got Dibs, those bite sized ice cream bars, so I could share with Simon. However, Zachary took one bite of his Mickey Bar and handed it over to me. Okay then.

We finished up our ice creams and took a ride on another kid favorite - the carousel.

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/396379_10150614566911900_659036899_11408738_166645 6128_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/398459_10150614567231900_659036899_11408740_138070 1903_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/396766_10150614567411900_659036899_11408741_198603 9262_n.jpg

After the carousel we had a bit of discrepancy as to what to do next. Zachary wanted to do Mickey's PhilharMagic and Gabbie did not. I asked Gabbie if she would prefer to leave now, and she said yes. Needless to say, we didn't leave. Gabbie agreed that she would take off her 3D glasses if she got scared during the movie. We lucked out with the timing - they were about to close the doors, so we were able to hurry in and get our seats with no wait.

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/409144_10150614567671900_659036899_11408743_641663 922_n.jpg

I really enjoy this show because of all the scenes from the movies that were my favorites as a kid. Funny story - we took the kids to see a production locally of Aladdin and when they did A Whole New World, Zachary turned to us and said "this is also in Mickey's Silver Magic!" (yes, that's what he calls it - another renamed ride by Zachary!)

And our next ride was once again It's a Small World. That was ride #2 of the day and #3 of the trip!

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/403333_10150614567971900_659036899_11408746_366675 535_n.jpg

I think at this point we did a bit of looking around stores and some pin trading, because I have no pictures for 1/2 an hour. I know we were planning our next ride, and it is a ride that leaves every 1/2 hour - also a ride I never thought I would go on. But Zachary got his way, and at 4:30 we got on the Liberty Belle Riverboat! We sat on the ground and it was kinda relaxing. Also kinda boring, but what can you do?

When we got off the boat, Gabbie realized she was missing one of her pins, so we did a bunch of retracing our steps looking for it. It didn't turn up. By now, we were ready for dinner so we could get ready to head out of the park and off to Tampa to meet Dave. The kids wanted mac & cheese again so we went to CHH - but it closed at 5 PM and we missed it. So we went over to Pinochio's Village Haus. I think we got some pizza and mac & cheese, who got what I am not sure. We got a seat that overlooked It's a Small World - a lady was nice enough to let us sit there, and later complimented us / me on my well behaved kids and me doing Disney alone for the day.

So that brings us to the end of day 2 - 3 kids and 1 Mommy survived the Magic Kingdom! We made our way out, stopping for more pin trading and getting Gabbie's Mary Poppins pin. We took the monorail and returned to our car. We set out for the 1.5 hour drive to Tampa. I am not used to long drives like that anymore! The kids were hyper and crazy the whole way there too. My GPS was wrong getting us to our hotel which was a stressful situation, but we made it!

Next up, a brief summary of our side trip to Tampa. I leave you with this:

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/408851_10150614568401900_648090091_n.jpg
My very own Sleeping Beauty!

[dara00]

On Day 1 we:
Met 13 characters
Rode 11 rides
Saw 3 parades
Saw the fireworks

One Day 2 we:
Met 10 characters (4 were repeats)
Rode 7 rides (2 were repeats - one of them a double repeat! and I'm counting PhilharMagic as a "ride")
Saw 2 shows

[Moodyzblu]

Great update ! :thumbsup2

Philharmagic is one of our favorite things and I'm glad Gabbie decided to do it for you. :3dglasses I just love all the scenes and music.

What's with the riverboat anyway ? I've never done it and have no idea what it's all about. Is it just a cruise around the water ? :confused3
Sounds like maybe a nice break ... Or will my boys get bored ? Hmmmmm

Looking forward to your next update ! :goodvibes

[marDgreen88]

I give you credit for doing that whole day for yourself! Yall really got a lot accomplished! :thumbsup2

[Twoboysnmygirl]

I'm reading and reading Dara! Not caught up yet, but I'm working on it!! :goodvibes

[dara00]

Great update ! :thumbsup2

Philharmagic is one of our favorite things and I'm glad Gabbie decided to do it for you. :3dglasses I just love all the scenes and music.

What's with the riverboat anyway ? I've never done it and have no idea what it's all about. Is it just a cruise around the water ? :confused3
Sounds like maybe a nice break ... Or will my boys get bored ? Hmmmmm

Looking forward to your next update ! :goodvibes

Gabbie is pretty funny with the things she gets scared of! But I'm glad she agreed to do it too.

Yeah the riverboat is just a cruise around Tom Sawyer island. I didn't pay attention to the scenery we passed - I think I was deleting photos to try to make room for more or something! But yeah, it's a nice break, especially if your kid really loves boats!

I give you credit for doing that whole day for yourself! Yall really got a lot accomplished! :thumbsup2

Thanks! I was nervous, but it went well!

I'm reading and reading Dara! Not caught up yet, but I'm working on it!! :goodvibes

Thanks for joining in!

[dara00]

Wednesday, January 18th - Tampa

Everyone got up and ate breakfast in our Tampa hotel and then my husband headed to his office to work. Since we still had 2 rented cars, he drove himself. The kids and I went back to the room and then met up with a friend of mine and her 2 sons at the new children's museum (http://glazermuseum.org/). I'm actually not sure how new it is, but it was not there the last time we visited Tampa! (in 2007). It was really nice! The kids could have stayed there all day. Just a few pictures:

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/400298_10150614568621900_659036899_11408751_267839 3_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/395725_10150614569456900_659036899_11408756_160799 4816_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/409146_10150614571036900_659036899_11408764_526171 168_n.jpg

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/398442_10150614571681900_659036899_11408767_133059 0322_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/396752_10150614572006900_659036899_11408768_211153 8520_n.jpg

From there, we headed to the Tampa Aquarium (http://www.flaquarium.org/). Somehow I remembered this place being much bigger - we went through everything in an hour! I am glad I only planned it for 1/2 the day. However, we did get to meet the penguins, so that was a lot of fun!

They take your picture when you first get there:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/431185_10150617974696900_659036899_11417377_201240 1051_n.jpg

Some more photos:

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/396444_10150614572271900_659036899_11408770_668106 725_n.jpg

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/405950_10150614573076900_659036899_11408774_198480 5166_n.jpg

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/402157_10150614573371900_659036899_11408776_283381 868_n.jpg

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/395468_10150614574451900_659036899_11408782_778209 824_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/409411_10150614575161900_659036899_11408788_187632 9201_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/409070_10150614575721900_659036899_11408791_126106 6735_n.jpg
We found Nemo!

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/400328_10150614577131900_659036899_11408798_419460 634_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/405610_10150614577331900_659036899_11408800_145441 7269_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/401071_10150614578206900_659036899_11408806_155360 7074_n.jpg

It started to rain before we left and the way back was very rainy. The kids didn't seem to mind - and I used the very long Tampa lights to snap a few pictures of them:

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/409552_10150614579936900_659036899_11408818_219365 453_n.jpg

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/405362_10150614580096900_659036899_11408820_190183 7587_n.jpg

I went through a Dunkin Donuts drive through and then parked by our hotel while the kids slept. When they woke up we went inside the hotel until Dave called and told us to pick him up at work. Once again my GPS failed me and I was directed to the totally wrong place! When I finally found Dave, we all went to have dinner with his co-worker and his family. He uploaded all my pictures for me so I had more room on my camera again - yay! Here are the kids at his house:

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395244_10150614897291900_659036899_11410080_186962 3115_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/403908_10150614897461900_659036899_11410081_127622 359_n.jpg

Next up: Day 2 in Tampa

[dara00]

On our second morning in Tampa I woke up with a bit of a sore throat. I figured I was getting a cold - ooh yay. The kids and I headed off to the Lowry Park Zoo. We love zoos and are members of our zoo in KC, so we get half price admission to many zoos around the country, this one included! By the time we got to the zoo though, I started feeling feverish and achy and my sore throat was becoming much worse...more on that later. Pictures from the zoo:

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/396307_10150614901111900_659036899_11410101_107712 7468_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/404781_10150614901411900_659036899_11410102_386922 188_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/406568_10150614902166900_659036899_11410106_192845 8182_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/403641_10150614903501900_659036899_11410111_108106 7678_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/407393_10150614903816900_659036899_11410113_137729 4219_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/404868_10150614903961900_659036899_11410115_263460 59_n.jpg

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/399998_10150614904691900_659036899_11410118_130791 5802_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/407314_10150614905771900_659036899_11410123_125243 1954_n.jpg

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/401463_10150614908146900_659036899_11410133_165397 8904_n.jpg

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/396167_10150614909071900_659036899_11410136_119837 6781_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/409395_10150614910726900_659036899_11410147_222851 793_n.jpg

After lunch the kids discovered the fountains. I didn't want to let Simon into them though because he would have gotten soaked!

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/396185_10150614909486900_659036899_11410139_210804 2368_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/402703_10150614911331900_659036899_11410151_852728 062_n.jpg

To get back to the sore throat thing...I decided that I needed to find out what was wrong with me. The feeling feverish thing definitely gave me a clue that something wasn't right. I knew there was a CVS near where we were staying because when I'd gotten lost on the way there Dave met me at the CVS. So we went there, but they didn't have a clinic. They were kind enough to direct me to a nearby Walgreens which did have a clinic. So picture me, feeling sick, and 3 kids sitting in a Walgreens waiting to be seen. Not fun. I was ready to leave, but they finally called me back.

I had a fever, an ear infection, and strep throat. Oh my. The doctor (nurse?) was very kind and helpful and sent me to Publix where you can get free antibiotics. Good to know! I also got ibuprofen and gatorade and snacks for the kids. We went to the hotel and I lay on the bed while the kids built some kind of fort out of the couch cushions and put their Minnie and Mickey dolls to bed.

The meds made the fever go away and by the next morning my sore throat was totally gone.

I am truly thankful that 1. It was me who got sick and not one of the kids. 2. It was not on a Disney day. 3. I was fully back to functioning for our next day plan - no way I could have ridden Rockin Roller Coaster on Thursday, but by Friday I was all set!

[marDgreen88]

Looks like yall had a lot of fun in Tampa! Sorry you got sick, but glad it was gone so soon!

[Moodyzblu]

Tampa looks fun ! :thumbsup2 Bummer about getting sick though. But like you said, at least it wasn't one of the kids !! Thank goodness for those clinics. :goodvibes

[dara00]

Friday, January 20 - Disney Hollywood Studios!

The kids were sound asleep at 6 AM:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/396514_10150614911626900_659036899_11410154_707637 236_n.jpg

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/404700_10150614911991900_659036899_11410156_129256 2649_n.jpg

Soon after that, we got everyone up so we could head back to Orlando. We brought our breakfast in the car and were on the road by 6:45 AM. We arrived by 8:30 AM and parked here:

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/430671_10150614912406900_659036899_11410158_316742 587_n.jpg?dl=1

Somehow we were in a cast member lot?? We asked someone and they said it was fine, so we headed off to the entrance - well after we got the kids out of their pajamas and into their clothes!

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/396450_10150614912751900_659036899_11410160_159744 7935_n.jpg
That's Dave's head on the lower right!

The turnstiles opened around 8:45 and we headed in, of course we went straight to Toy Story Mania.

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/405429_10150614913096900_659036899_11410162_435861 288_n.jpg

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/407949_10150614913546900_659036899_11410166_161793 6042_n.jpg

We got fast passes but there was no line, so we went straight in. I tried to grab some pics in the queue:

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395427_10150614913901900_1688065550_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/402386_10150614914121900_659036899_11410169_163603 8496_n.jpg

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http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/402544_10150614915281900_659036899_11410173_202630 2928_n.jpg

And then we were grabbing our glasses!
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/401065_10150614915586900_659036899_11410175_576102 207_n.jpg

I sat with Zachary:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/400411_10150614915821900_1845628999_n.jpg

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/397067_10150614916596900_659036899_11410181_172251 7600_n.jpg

After the ride, we crossed the street and Dave got some coffee and I got a danish of some sort and then we got in line to meet Buzz and Woody. We were first! Simon had some fruit loops in the stroller and when the CM took the stroller to park it, they fell out. Oops. So in we went:

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/404906_10150614917216900_659036899_11410186_192269 6404_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/396683_10150614917426900_659036899_11410187_169473 0168_n.jpg

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http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/405860_10150614917796900_1930313754_n.jpg

This Woody was very good at interaction - when he first came out he went straight to Dave and gestured that he wanted his coffee!

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/408779_10150614918001900_659036899_11410193_199938 5516_n.jpg

Zachary headed to Buzz:
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/397014_10150614918591900_659036899_11410197_100693 5113_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/402575_10150700540751900_659036899_11639786_162110 2998_n.jpg

And Woody gave me a kiss:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/421831_10150700541301900_659036899_11639793_171623 1904_n.jpg

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/416979_10150700541496900_659036899_11639796_196037 0927_n.jpg

Woody held Woody:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/419513_10150700541746900_659036899_11639798_188348 5008_n.jpg

And we all stood together:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/424913_10150700542301900_659036899_11639805_180762 5399_n.jpg

As we exited the meet and greet area, the CM who spilled the fruit loops handed us a ticket for free popcorn. And by 9:30 AM we were off to start another magical day!

[Moodyzblu]

TSMM is one of our fav rides ! I showed my boys your pics and they got so excited. :goodvibes

[marDgreen88]

The TSMM line is just the cutest thing! I've never seen Mr. Potato Head though! Always in the fastpass line I suppose.

Looks like yall had a fun Buzz and Woody meet and greet! But I must ask, WHERE is Woody looking in the group shot, out the window? :laughing:

[dara00]

TSMM is one of our fav rides ! I showed my boys your pics and they got so excited. :goodvibes

I'm glad the boys liked the pics! Your trip is coming up!

The TSMM line is just the cutest thing! I've never seen Mr. Potato Head though! Always in the fastpass line I suppose.

Looks like yall had a fun Buzz and Woody meet and greet! But I must ask, WHERE is Woody looking in the group shot, out the window? :laughing:

Disneyland TSMM doesn't have fast pass! I stood in that line in front of mr. potato head forever! haha. this time we went by too fast.

don't know where Woody is looking, but in the other pics he was bent over patting Simon's head...oh here:

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/417683_10150700542081900_659036899_11639803_146901 7387_n.jpg

[dara00]

OK, so this update connects with one that happens later in the day, but I want to keep everything in order, so it's going to be suspenseful as to why this was so important!

Well first, we stopped at the Singing in the Rain umbrella:
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/407603_10150614919756900_659036899_11410204_293347 974_n.jpg
I couldn't get it to rain though!

And then we headed over to see Lightning McQueen. Zachary has always been a big fan - here he is at 2!

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/399511_10150558520016900_659036899_11193108_782929 787_n.jpg
(Simon is wearing the same shirt Zachary wore in this picture, and Zachary is wearing it in a bigger size!)

So when we got there we were the only people there and the CM asked Zachary if he would like to wipe down Lightning. So he did.

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/417076_10150700542686900_659036899_11639810_904391 831_n.jpg

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http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/431170_10150700542891900_659036899_11639814_141675 6414_n.jpg

And the pose:
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/422068_10150700543706900_659036899_11639824_219385 025_n.jpg

After that fun encounter (which you will have to remember for later!) we were off to the Disney Jr. show for the 9:45 showing.

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395917_10150614921331900_659036899_11410216_199240 1118_n.jpg

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http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/400059_10150614922466900_659036899_11410225_195922 3316_n.jpg
Zachary is kinda obsessed with Jake and the Neverland Pirates right now, but was just getting into them when we were in DHS, so we didn't meet him! We just saw him in this show!

Captain Hook:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/405259_10150614923141900_659036899_11410230_102780 844_n.jpg

After that show was over, Dave decided to head over to the Tower of Terror for a fast pass. I took the kids across to:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/404276_10150614925601900_659036899_11410249_372482 676_n.jpg

Soon after we got inside, they sent us on into the theater. Dave didn't make it back on time! He didn't care - instead he rode Rockin Roller Coaster on the single rider line! The kids enjoyed the Little Mermaid show even though Daddy missed it.

Next up - if you guessed more characters, you're right!

[hochuli]

I'm loving your trip report! :)

Where did you purchase your boys' shirts for Day 1 at MK? I would love to get one for my little guy!

[marDgreen88]

Aw, cute pictures. Hmm... I wonder why the Lightning thing is so important? :confused3

[dara00]

I'm loving your trip report! :)

Where did you purchase your boys' shirts for Day 1 at MK? I would love to get one for my little guy!

they are from Magical Memories by Jessica (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Magical-Memories-By-Jessica-Boutique/46807318514) - I contacted her with what I wanted and she did a great job!

[dara00]

After the Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Dave was not back from riding Rockin Roller Coaster, so the kids and I headed into the Animation Building. I sent Dave a text saying we were going to look for Mickey! Zachary has had a Sorcerer Mickey that he's slept with for years, so meeting Sorcerer Mickey was a big deal for him!

I love this photopass picture!
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/428700_10150700543946900_659036899_11639826_171703 3347_n.jpg

Zachary had some great interaction here:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/419010_10150700544291900_659036899_11639831_189491 9712_n.jpg

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/424103_10150700544486900_659036899_11639834_139383 9509_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/401111_10150700544806900_659036899_11639837_896244 570_n.jpg

And we managed to get a good group shot too:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/396492_10150700545121900_659036899_11639841_923177 946_n.jpg

After that, the kids ran amok a bit in the Animation Building. For some reason I had been fine spending a day with them in the Magic Kingdom, but being alone with them in this building was super stressful! I couldn't figure out how to help all of them at once. I did get one picture of Gabbie:

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/395768_10150614924551900_659036899_11410242_186864 7117_n.jpg

And soon after that, Dave found us! We then decided to line up to meet Pooh, because Simon had been sleeping when we met him at MK and we knew he would love him.

In the line for Pooh - I'm a knitter, so I took this picture!
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/398769_10150614924741900_659036899_11410243_331678 199_n.jpg

Just thought this was cute:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/409477_10150614924956900_659036899_11410245_195421 7878_n.jpg

When we got to the front of the line (after Pooh took a honey break), Simon had his magical experience. He was sooo excited!

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/419375_10150700545391900_659036899_11639845_427239 086_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/431609_10150700545546900_659036899_11639847_145609 1971_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/397157_10150700545876900_659036899_11639851_588867 640_n.jpg
Sorry about the pacifier in all his pictures...

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/417216_10150700546911900_659036899_11639859_851191 848_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/420356_10150700547796900_659036899_11639870_704621 965_n.jpg

And one more character meetup before we stopped for lunch:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/407863_10150614926106900_659036899_11410252_193940 831_n.jpg

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395940_10150614926391900_659036899_11410255_100738 5125_n.jpg

[marDgreen88]

Yay for meeting Sorcerer Mickey! That's something I have yet to do. And Simon looks SO CUTE and excited to meet Pooh! He's also pretty brave for meeting the green army man... those things freak me out! :rotfl:

[dara00]

Yay for meeting Sorcerer Mickey! That's something I have yet to do. And Simon looks SO CUTE and excited to meet Pooh! He's also pretty brave for meeting the green army man... those things freak me out! :rotfl:

Yeah, if you notice he was the only one brave enough! but we have another one who got braver later on!

[dara00]

We ate lunch at Pizza Planet, but we brought our own food today. The kids were disappointed that they didn't see the Pizza Planet game with the aliens inside, and we couldn't find the Pizza Planet car.

After lunch, it was time for some Muppets!

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/409239_10150614926956900_659036899_11410259_213071 6660_n.jpg

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http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/407562_10150614927331900_659036899_11410262_977296 10_n.jpg

We had a bit of time in the pre show room:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/405846_10150614927621900_659036899_11410264_105389 1195_n.jpg

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/398455_10150614927781900_659036899_11410265_131057 7981_n.jpg

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http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/403801_10150614928301900_659036899_11410268_143508 3666_n.jpg

I had noted in my notes on our trip to Disneyland in 09 that Gabbie was terrified of Muppets 3D. I don't know if the show is different there at all (don't think it is), but no one was scared at all. I love sharing the joy of the Muppets with my kids!

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/407887_10150614928851900_659036899_11410271_725045 87_n.jpg

After the show, we split up a bit. Dave took the kids on the Backlot Tour. I was to meet back up with them at the 1:15 Lights Motor Action Show.

First, I did some shopping.

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/409289_10150614928561900_659036899_11410270_933636 548_n.jpg

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http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/407484_10150614929656900_659036899_11410276_992071 879_n.jpg

I didn't buy any of that stuff, but I did get the Kermit toque winter hat. The CM actually asked if I wanted to wear it - it was practically 80 degrees out!

After I purchased my hat, I headed off to my next destination, walking through stores and taking pictures on the way!

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/403058_10150614929906900_659036899_11410278_123601 8572_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/402020_10150614930411900_2118426425_n.jpg
Nope, not my destination!

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/395857_10150614930736900_659036899_11410283_197415 8215_n.jpg
There it is!

I was super excited to ride the Rockin Roller Coaster! In the past I did not like upside down roller coasters, but I loved California Screamin when I rode it at DL, enough to ride it twice! I heard this ride is similar, just in the dark! So I headed on through the single rider line. I was seated with a boy, probably from one of the tour groups.

I loved the ride! I loved the parts where you could see the signs and hear the music. I believe our song was Sweet Emotion. I had my bag under my feet and could feel it sliding around - that was a little disconcerting! But my bag and I made it to the end - I asked the boy sitting with me if that was it! I don't think he spoke English though.

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/402006_10150614930981900_659036899_11410284_192654 2104_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/397337_10150614931251900_659036899_11410286_517077 630_n.jpg

I still had some time before I had to meet up with everyone else, so I took some more pictures!

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/394037_10150614931486900_659036899_11410287_647966 340_n.jpg
Yup, the skywriter was out!

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/406516_10150614931716900_659036899_11410290_487163 078_n.jpg

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/405633_10150614931881900_659036899_11410292_212786 1467_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/395612_10150614932156900_659036899_11410293_210894 5165_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/403079_10150614932321900_659036899_11410295_299427 263_n.jpg

I ended up getting our stroller and meeting Dave and the kids at the exit to the Backlot Tour. They said they had enjoyed it!

Next up - Magical Moment of Joy!

[marDgreen88]

Yay for the Muppets! Those Kermit eyes mugs are too funny. Glad you enjoyed Rock'n'Roller Coaster! It's a good one!

[dara00]

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/395821_10150614932691900_659036899_11410297_204979 3217_n.jpg

The Lights, Motor, Action Stunt Show was not on my original "must do" list, but I am so glad we did it because it included one of my favorite magical moments of the whole trip!

The show stadium is huge but our seats were pretty good. The kids seemed to like watching the cars racing around.

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/407976_10150614932861900_659036899_11410298_323529 869_n.jpg

Soon came the part I had heard was going to happen, but since I wasn't sure, I hadn't told anyone. At first I thought his appearance was just this:

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/407178_10150614933146900_659036899_11410300_195004 5585_n.jpg

But nope! He was there!

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/407679_10150614933281900_659036899_11410301_181409 1367_n.jpg

Remember how Zachary wiped down Lightning earlier? And how I said to remember that? Well, he turned to me and said, "I didn't think he was real, but he IS!" It was just so exciting for him and I loved feeling that joy with him!

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/401378_10150614933516900_659036899_11410304_207921 065_n.jpg

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/400547_10150614933931900_659036899_11410307_219126 120_n.jpg

The rest of the show was enjoyable as well.

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/166978_10150614935461900_659036899_11410316_151240 4739_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/405392_10150614935711900_659036899_11410318_189413 0975_n.jpg

The kids kept asking us how Lightning got from the Meet and Greet to the show, and how this guy caught on fire!

[Moodyzblu]

I showed the boys the Pics of Lights Motor Action and they love that Lightning McQueen makes an appearance !

Great pics ! :thumbsup2

[marDgreen88]

Aw, how precious! I'm glad that he knows that Lightning is 'real' now. :goodvibes

[dara00]

It's been a few days since I last updated - I guess the closer I get to the end the less I want to work on this!

It was now 2 PM and we had a few more things to do before it was time to leave DHS. We headed over to the Great Movie Ride. Gabbie was very interested in this display:

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/395436_10150614936241900_659036899_11410321_126962 19_n.jpg

And I was excited to see this:

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/395882_10150614936651900_659036899_11410324_214052 5596_n.jpg

Simon however was very tired and not happy. I tried to put him in the baby carrier I'd brought along but he wasn't having it. Dave ended up taking him out of line since he was screaming and therefore missed the ride. Gabbie, Zachary, and I got right on though.

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/407210_10150614936866900_659036899_11410326_212929 964_n.jpg

The one thing I remembered from this ride when I was a kid was a scary alien on the ceiling. I did not see it this time. The kids were scared by the gangster scenes though. They did like these parts:

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/409359_10150614937111900_659036899_11410328_223650 752_n.jpg

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/404959_10150614937341900_659036899_11410330_156110 9686_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/397960_10150614937641900_659036899_11410332_703301 958_n.jpg

When we came out of the ride, we decided to find a spot for the parade. We sat in the shade of the hat, right where the parade would head towards us and then turn down the main street. I parked Simon - he looked like this:

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/401565_10150614937781900_659036899_11410333_759405 854_n.jpg

Dave headed off to use his Tower of Terror fast pass while I waited with the kids. Where we were sitting got a bit crowded and someone (teen pretending not to know English) tried to sit right on the feet of the people next to us and in the way of Zachary. Both myself and a CM asked her to move. We'd been there for 1/2 an hour!

After that Dave came back with our free popcorn (that we'd earned when a CM spilled Simon's Fruit Loops) and we munched on that while the parade headed our way.

[Moodyzblu]

I must be under a rock ... I didn't know there was a parade in DHS. Is it new ??

We love The Great Amercan Movie ride !! :goodvibes

[dara00]

I must be under a rock ... I didn't know there was a parade in DHS. Is it new ??

We love The Great Amercan Movie ride !! :goodvibes

hmm, I don't think it's new? it's the pixar pals parade. I'll post pics soon!

[JDUB]

I like how you and yer DH split up and ride yer FP. We also have little ones but do the child swap. Although this trip, only ride not high enough for youngest is RRC. Love the TR - Makes me wanna go now instead of Oct!!! :thumbsup2

[dara00]

I like how you and yer DH split up and ride yer FP. We also have little ones but do the child swap. Although this trip, only ride not high enough for youngest is RRC. Love the TR - Makes me wanna go now instead of Oct!!! :thumbsup2

actually he was the only one to ride tower of terror - I don't like that ride - so that's why he went alone! For RRC we did single rider line which is either the same or faster than fast pass / rider swap. And we did split up for those so the kids weren't bored waiting for us! We did do rider swap in MK at Splash, which was ok aside from the hanging out waiting for the other ride to finish part!

[JPFamilyMom]

Just read through your whole trip report to this point.

I love how easy going your kids are and WOW!!! you guys got a lot done in 2 1/2 days. Lots of fun magical memories and pictures. You have a great family. :-)

I love the story of you ordering tk/chz sandwhiches without the tk. I have done that at burger places, :lmao: I say can I have a cheeseburger minus the burger, they usually give me a crazy look.

Can't wait to see what else you got accomplished on your DHS day.

[dara00]

Just read through your whole trip report to this point.

I love how easy going your kids are and WOW!!! you guys got a lot done in 2 1/2 days. Lots of fun magical memories and pictures. You have a great family. :-)

I love the story of you ordering tk/chz sandwhiches without the tk. I have done that at burger places, :lmao: I say can I have a cheeseburger minus the burger, they usually give me a crazy look.

Can't wait to see what else you got accomplished on your DHS day.

Thank you! Your comment made me smile.

That is funny about the cheeseburger w/o the burger - are you vegetarian?

DHS day is almost over, sadly enough! I will try to get around to the next update soon!

[dara00]

When I left off, we were waiting for the DHS Pixar Pals Parade. And soon enough, it came! My camera battery was running out again, but here are the pictures I took:

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/395179_10150614938051900_659036899_11410335_338520 018_n.jpg

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/401024_10150614938556900_659036899_11410340_206124 8606_n.jpg

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/395492_10150614938786900_659036899_11410341_149628 9822_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/399978_10150614939026900_659036899_11410343_278440 00_n.jpg

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/403665_10150614939196900_659036899_11410344_184988 2697_n.jpg

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/409564_10150614939461900_659036899_11410346_172113 6169_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/405623_10150614939836900_659036899_11410348_605539 094_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash2/155415_10150614940056900_659036899_11410349_187009 4636_n.jpg

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/402164_10150614940261900_659036899_11410351_196218 434_n.jpg

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/401147_10150614940496900_659036899_11410353_112564 8710_n.jpg

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/397814_10150614940696900_659036899_11410354_118792 1727_n.jpg

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/409339_10150614940911900_659036899_11410355_120752 158_n.jpg

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/406990_10150614941086900_659036899_11410357_107346 6368_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/395277_10150614941276900_659036899_11410359_184536 6076_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/404771_10150614941551900_659036899_11410360_382041 602_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/399825_10150614941766900_659036899_11410362_512409 91_n.jpg

After that, we were off to use our Toy Story Mania fast passes!

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/407766_10150614942131900_659036899_11410365_150532 5345_n.jpg

Everyone else had the same idea, and we waited longer in the fast pass line than we had that morning in the standby line. Oh well. After the ride, Zachary decided he actually DID want a picture with this guy:

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/400072_10150614942371900_659036899_11410367_830691 11_n.jpg

And then it was over. :( We were headed out of the parks to go meet up with Dave's family to celebrate Dave's dad's 70th birthday. His parents and our family stayed in one house while his sister and her family were in a house across the street. My kids had a great time with their cousins, aunt, uncle, and grandparents! Just a few pictures:

This is at our house:
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395439_10150614942616900_659036899_11410368_181931 035_n.jpg

Outside our house, so happy to see Aunt Jodi!
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/403625_10150614942866900_659036899_11410369_145025 4414_n.jpg

Up next, a few more family pictures from our celebration, and Downtown Disney.

[marDgreen88]

That Pixar Parade is pretty cute, although the music is slightly repetitive. :rotfl: Cute photos! Ryan Seacrest in the background of one of the photos is making laugh.

[dara00]

That Pixar Parade is pretty cute, although the music is slightly repetitive. :rotfl: Cute photos! Ryan Seacrest in the background of one of the photos is making laugh.

oh! I forgot to write the part about the song Dave and I were singing after the parade, lol! I don't wanna work...

And I almost mentioned Ryan being in the background there - good job spotting him!

[dara00]

haha, I had to share somewhere...Zachary is watching the new Muppets dvd (which I got the day it came out!) and he told me he wants to go see Muppet Studios. I told him I don't think there is a place like that (there should be!! New DHS attraction!) and he said there is where they live - and they live in Small Town! So of course I said that Small Town is his favorite ride at Disney and he was quick to tell me that it is called Small World!

Also, I keep forgetting to mention that we FOUND Gabbie's lost Minnie Mouse! She was in a drawer.

[JPFamilyMom]

I'm not a vegetarian, but I don't eat meat :rotfl: I was full vegetarian when I was younger, but I eat fish and some poultry

It's so cool that you saw so many parades, we caught about 5-10 minutes of one on our trip. I use to love parades growing up, glad your kids seem to enjoy the same things as you, including your love of muppets, too fun

I like the little update about small town and small world:goodvibes kids are so funny

[Moodyzblu]

We just might have to stop and try to catch the parade (at least once) !

Cute pics of the kids and the characters ! I hope mine want to meet up with some this trip. They usually avoid them .. But I'd love some pics of them with at least a few. :goodvibes

[dara00]

Summary of Day 3:
Characters: 7 (counting Lightning and Mater!)
Rides: 5 (one of them 2x)
Shows: 4
Parades: 1

So in total:
30 characters
23 rides
6 shows
4 parades
1 fireworks!


---
On Day 1 we:
Met 13 characters
Rode 11 rides
Saw 3 parades
Saw the fireworks

One Day 2 we:
Met 10 characters (4 were repeats)
Rode 7 rides (2 were repeats - one of them a double repeat! and I'm counting PhilharMagic as a "ride")
Saw 2 shows

[dara00]

Just wanted to share some pictures from my father-in-law's birthday celebration, which took place on Jan. 21 - his b.day! We have a brand new cast of characters for this post! My in-laws and Dave's sister live in NJ, btw!

This is 2 of my nephews and one of my nieces with Gabbie and Zachary:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/407896_10150614943461900_659036899_11410373_173530 2938_n.jpg

Now my other nephew joined the picture, and in the background are my in-laws:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/405219_10150614943676900_659036899_11410374_178324 2597_n.jpg

This is everyone watching the video that Dave's sister made for their dad:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/400193_10150614945291900_659036899_11410390_135921 4080_n.jpg

Here is Simon with 2 of his cousins:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/398515_10150614945606900_659036899_11410393_170553 8113_n.jpg

Gabbie and Grandma:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/407014_10150614945891900_659036899_11410397_117596 3726_n.jpg

And next up will be Downtown Disney.

[Moodyzblu]

Wow .. you guys got a LOT done in a short time !! Good job. :thumbsup2

[dara00]

Sunday, January 22

When we got up, everyone was hoping to go swimming in the pool on our patio. We actually tried it Saturday too, but the heater didn't seem to be working correctly. This morning, it was too cold for me to even try!

Gabbie was ready! (she is with Aunt Jodi)
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395676_10150614947711900_659036899_11410415_175679 0838_n.jpg

Simon was ready too!
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/396622_10150614947986900_659036899_11410418_484506 927_n.jpg

And there's Zachary!
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/408030_10150614948221900_659036899_11410420_152776 3273_n.jpg

In the lukewarm hot tub:
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/408875_10150614948781900_659036899_11410427_843766 410_n.jpg

And in the pool:
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/398409_10150614949146900_659036899_11410429_101353 565_n.jpg

I imagine having a private pool like this would be very nice in the summer time!

The boys:
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/403360_10150614949781900_659036899_11410434_165741 6812_n.jpg

After everyone was dry, we packed up and headed out for some shopping. Our first stop was the outlets. I would recommend if possible to actually go to the Disney store first on a Disney trip - we found a set of 4 pins for $8 which were perfectly tradeable! The CM's in the outlet are even traders! We didn't trade anything right away, but we did later. We also bought Gabbie a new pair of sneakers at the Stride Rite outlet and both boys got a shirt at Gymboree outlet.

Then we were off to Downtown Disney!

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/395637_10150614950496900_659036899_11410447_100904 7018_n.jpg

First stop was the Lego Store.

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/405425_10150614950781900_659036899_11410448_875644 216_n.jpg

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/393991_10150614951066900_659036899_11410451_133277 1280_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/404485_10150614951496900_206907160_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/401502_10150614951851900_659036899_11410457_190421 8726_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/405275_10150614952111900_659036899_11410459_159898 6339_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/396104_10150614952496900_659036899_11410463_164762 2054_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/396002_10150614952761900_659036899_11410466_132888 4951_n.jpg

We didn't buy anything, just looked around! Gabbie will be getting some Lego Friends for her birthday this coming Sunday though!

Next we went into the World of Disney Store. Took a few photos:

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/398601_10150614952996900_659036899_11410468_500758 233_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/403082_10150614953271900_659036899_11410472_192079 3991_n.jpg

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/403902_10150614953531900_659036899_11410475_651753 63_n.jpg

And I believe we then bought Simon his Mickey ears. We chose the Sorcerer Mickey hat ears, which is funny, since Sorcerer Mickey is really Zachary's character! But we liked it. While Dave was checking out, I did some stalking of CM's for pin trading. Today I was pin trading instead of Gabbie because she did not want to wear the pins we bought at the outlet! I guess she didn't understand that she'd be trading them away anyway...oh well! This way, I had 3 pins (2 were to trade, one is my Kermit pin that I am keeping!) and Zachary and Gabbie each had 4.

Next stop was with Dave's parents, who met up with us - Ghirardelli! (ooh, that is hard to spell!)

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/404458_10150614953891900_659036899_11410478_170447 0674_n.jpg

I think Dave's parents each had cones and the kids each had ice cream with sprinkles or something original like that.

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/396637_10150614954241900_659036899_11410481_168511 7868_n.jpg

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/405819_10150614954456900_659036899_11410484_908065 087_n.jpg

Simon shared. I think Dave and I got a sundae of some sort!

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/404292_10150614954776900_659036899_11410488_419245 361_n.jpg

From there, we went off looking for a place to get Simon's name on his new ears, and Gabbie's name on her old ears. We'd never added her name to the ears she got in 2007! We found the place and the CMs were very curious as to why Gabbie's ears don't have elastic to hold them on her head! I guess in 2007 they weren't made like that? I didn't tell them we'd gotten them so long ago!

Dave, his parents, and the kids decided to take a boat ride to one of the resorts (turned out to be Port Orleans) while I stayed back and explored the stores. Can you believe I didn't buy a thing? I did trade my pins and ended up with the Minnie Mouse cupcake pin and a pin with Belle and Jasmine. Zachary ended up with a Captain Hook pin that is a Hidden Mickey pin - the kind you can't buy and can only trade for, so that is pretty cool! He also has a Pluto, his keeper Buzz, and he lost a Mickey pin which I hope to replace for him! Gabbie still has 2 of her original Tink pins, her Mary Poppins keeper, and a Minnie Mouse. I plan to buy more pins before our next trip!

Next up: lots and lots of pictures of stuff I didn't buy at Downtown Disney!

oops, I forgot to mention something else we did after ice cream and before we split up - will post that in the next post too!

[dara00]

I am sorry to have left my 3 readers hanging! When we left Ghirardelli and before I went on my photo taking extravaganza, we wandered into the photopass center. Inside, we discovered that we could get professional family photos taken and have them added right onto our photopass card! I know normal people would probably do this in one of the parks, but this was our only day with Dave's parents, and it just seemed like a fun idea to try. Here are a few of the results!

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/404905_10150700550826900_659036899_11639905_139731 7626_n.jpg

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/431115_10150700551871900_659036899_11639925_166521 4691_n.jpg

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/417518_10150700552181900_659036899_11639931_394768 807_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/422718_10150700552376900_659036899_11639935_995934 387_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/409550_10150700552876900_659036899_11639944_200363 4428_n.jpg

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/423624_10150700553011900_659036899_11639946_427258 745_n.jpg

I will share more photopass pictures that we did take in the parks at the end of the TR. Mostly the ones with characters that I've already posted came out the best, but I want to share a few other posed shots too! I feel that the photopass photographers could have done more with us. Like having the kids alone some of the time, or just the parents, or some of the cute shots you see around where the parents kiss and the kids cover their eyes...no one suggested any of that stuff to us. Oh well!

Anyway, after we split up, I started out in the Art of Disney Store. WOW! I wanted everything in there. Basically I had to just settle for photos.

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/398570_10150614955036900_659036899_11410491_245597 998_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/393874_10150614955461900_659036899_11410495_113293 6180_n.jpg

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/393909_10150614955756900_659036899_11410497_128315 8788_n.jpg

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/404795_10150614956026900_659036899_11410499_206142 0950_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/401100_10150614956391900_659036899_11410502_183371 4700_n.jpg

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/397031_10150614956736900_659036899_11410504_281374 794_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/403718_10150614957181900_659036899_11410507_306400 062_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/407555_10150614957481900_659036899_11410509_109946 1212_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/398660_10150614957731900_659036899_11410511_145595 8383_n.jpg

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/394114_10150614958071900_659036899_11410514_108992 9765_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/409134_10150614958401900_659036899_11410516_213468 7296_n.jpg

Too many photos - continued in next post!

[dara00]

At some point I left the Art of Disney store and continued my wanderings!

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395394_10150614958656900_659036899_11410519_156938 3521_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc6/155460_10150614958931900_659036899_11410521_205642 6078_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/403587_10150614959271900_659036899_11410524_170319 2468_n.jpg

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/166982_10150614959611900_659036899_11410529_110815 2122_n.jpg

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/404391_10150614959941900_659036899_11410532_513736 876_n.jpg

Last time we were here in '07 we did the fill a box of Potato Head parts. I wish I could buy some more parts separately, but it doesn't work like that!

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/407204_10150614960301900_659036899_11410535_786617 965_n.jpg

Sad collection of Muppets merchandise:

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/409349_10150614960741900_659036899_11410538_160936 3834_n.jpg

Don't forget to look up!

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/406476_10150614961246900_659036899_11410543_195905 3389_n.jpg

I love these!

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/402754_10150614961591900_1680450489_n.jpg

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/405194_10150614962111900_659036899_11410548_108544 036_n.jpg

Soon enough, it was time to meet the family back at the car. I tried to get a picture of the cool window displays at World of Disney, but the reflections were in the way. However, I kind of like the balloon in the background!

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/403182_10150614962791900_659036899_11410553_412256 802_n.jpg

On my way out, I was right behind these Fairy Godmothers in Training:

http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/402663_10150614963151900_659036899_11410557_175449 6020_n.jpg

I'm not sure what they were doing!

We all left Disney :sad1: and went off to eat off property, then my family headed out to the airport.

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/405211_10150614963471900_659036899_11410561_142979 2559_n.jpg

On the airport monorail:

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash2/155477_10150614963661900_659036899_11410563_175050 2995_n.jpg

And that, sadly, is the end. I will be back with those extra photopass pictures to share, and a wrap up of the trip. Thanks for reading along!

[marDgreen88]

Cute photos! Hahaha I'm sure I would have wanted a lot of the stuff in the art store too! Too cute.

Those multi-colored Mickeys weird me out a little bit. I'm a classic Mickey fan, I guess!

Aww, it's over! That 'see ya real soon' is just like adding salt to the wound! Ugh.

[Moodyzblu]

So sorry to see it end !! :sad1:

LOVE the photo pass pic of the family and the 3 kids !! :love:

I also love the last pic, perfect way to end your trip. :thumbsup2

It was fun watching your trip unfold as mine is about to begin. Thanks for sharing !! :goodvibes

[dara00]

Cute photos! Hahaha I'm sure I would have wanted a lot of the stuff in the art store too! Too cute.

Those multi-colored Mickeys weird me out a little bit. I'm a classic Mickey fan, I guess!

Aww, it's over! That 'see ya real soon' is just like adding salt to the wound! Ugh.

Thanks so much for all of your comments! I just hope the See Ya Real Soon is true. I'm still trying to convince my dh to go back in June! At least I know I'll be there (for another super quick trip!) in November!

So sorry to see it end !! :sad1:

LOVE the photo pass pic of the family and the 3 kids !! :love:

I also love the last pic, perfect way to end your trip. :thumbsup2

It was fun watching your trip unfold as mine is about to begin. Thanks for sharing !! :goodvibes

Thank you also for all your comments! I'm so excited for you and your trip! I can't wait to hear all about it. I hope you'll write a TR!!

Now, I'm wondering if I should write a PTR for my trip in November. It would mainly be about training for the 1/2 marathon. I just ran my first 5K yesterday. I'm not thrilled with my results, but I just have to hope I'm going to keep getting better! I hope to do at least one official run per month until November, to keep me motivated and work on my goals. So I'd like to write about that somewhere, just not sure if the PTR section is the place!

[dara00]

Right now I'm in the midst of packing up for a trip to visit our families in NJ for Passover! So what do you think I feel like doing instead? Sharing those photopass photos I mentioned before! Like I said earlier, I wasn't too impressed with the photopass photos we got outside of the character shots. It seems that each photographer just centered (or tried to) the pictures and shot off a bunch in a row - you can see the moving people in the background as you flip through them! Nothing exciting, no trying to get the kids to look, etc. I'm going to post the ones we got though (the best ones of each bunch) so you can see!

Day 1:

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/424331_10150700495816900_659036899_11639390_138926 5684_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/430047_10150700496326900_659036899_11639394_213129 3038_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/424940_10150700516141900_659036899_11639531_214553 6535_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/420663_10150700516396900_659036899_11639534_889060 1_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/429691_10150700516646900_659036899_11639537_211452 2311_n.jpg

Day 2:

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/429813_10150700529956900_659036899_11639680_135971 4764_n.jpg

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/404467_10150700531721900_659036899_11639696_106412 2131_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/421216_10150700532021900_659036899_11639699_959268 554_n.jpg

I tried cutting Simon out of the pictures because he wasn't looking, and this way I could add borders without covering him up anyway!

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/399823_10150700532196900_659036899_11639701_185525 4003_n.jpg

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/432292_10150700532551900_659036899_11639705_421375 525_n.jpg

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/426224_10150700532826900_659036899_11639707_944445 73_n.jpg

Day 3:

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/396436_10150700548026900_659036899_11639874_152008 5621_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/395213_10150700548356900_659036899_11639877_139224 5355_n.jpg

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/401365_10150700549171900_659036899_11639884_204392 1484_n.jpg

http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/396540_10150700549261900_659036899_11639885_138702 5333_n.jpg

[marDgreen88]

I think you got some really good ones! I couldn't help but laugh at Simon's face in some of the pics... he looks like he'd rather be doing anything but taking pictures! Also, did you notice that on your day 1 castle shots that there is a bird right on Walt's head?! :rotfl:

[PirateKate]

I can't believe how much you all did in such a short trip!

I loved the comment about Lightning McQueen being real. I can just imagine the look on Zachary's face when he saw the real Lightning McQueen.

We always seem to get basic Photopass photographers, too. Oh, well, the pictures still turned out cute, which is the important thing.

[dara00]

I think you got some really good ones! I couldn't help but laugh at Simon's face in some of the pics... he looks like he'd rather be doing anything but taking pictures! Also, did you notice that on your day 1 castle shots that there is a bird right on Walt's head?! :rotfl:

Simon's face - yup. That was part of my issue with the pictures! It's either he's staring off into space or he's got his pacifier in. Sigh. NO! I did not notice the bird, but that is hilarious because I actually took a picture of the statue with a bird on Walt's head, and I saw someone else's tr with a similar picture, and I commented that the bird really likes Walt's head because he's always there. And there he is again!

I can't believe how much you all did in such a short trip!

I loved the comment about Lightning McQueen being real. I can just imagine the look on Zachary's face when he saw the real Lightning McQueen.

We always seem to get basic Photopass photographers, too. Oh, well, the pictures still turned out cute, which is the important thing.

I am really wishing to take a longer trip and slow it down a bunch! We had a lot of really great moments and I'd love to experience even more! Zachary's comment was definitely a highlight for me!

[Moodyzblu]

Love all you're PP pics ! Yeah, what can you do with the little one. He's gosh darn cute anyway, even if he doesn't like to look for pics! :love:

[JPFamilyMom]

Love the family pics downtown Disney. Agreed you got to do A LOT in your short time. I love all the artwork you captured in downtown Disney.
Your PP pics are great. What great memories.

[dara00]

Hello again! I have been MIA from my own TR for a bit because I just don't know how to end it! Or, I just don't WANT to end it. Makes sense, huh. I was hoping we would be hitting Disney again in June, but it looks like we'll be going to San Antonio instead. Of course, I'll be back in November for the Wine & Dine and my birthday, so it shouldn't be too hard to last until then without Disney World!

Anyway, to wrap up, I thought I'd list some of the highlights of the trip - although I am worried that could be every single thing we did! We really had a great time all around. I would also like to post some comparison pictures of my kids on past trips and this trip.

So, Day 1 Highlights!

- That first moment entering Disney World and then the Magic Kingdom
- Tinkerbell having a staring contest with Simon
- Our first ride - the Magic Carpets
- Seeing Zachary was tall enough for Splash Mt.
- Being first in line for Woody and Jessie and having them play with our toys
- Ariel enjoying Simon's "collection" (his pacifier clip)
- The kids all loving It's a Small World
- Meeting Mary Poppins
- Gabbie dressing like Aurora to meet Aurora
- Simon getting special attention from Belle
- Simon saying "Animal!" when he say Mickey, but we all thought he said "Elmo!" (He now knows how to say Mickey!)
- Watching Gabbie watch the fireworks

Any regrets?
- My camera battery dying before the MSEP and the fireworks!
- Not having all the Sharpie colors I might have wanted.
- Big Thunder Mountain being closed.

Day 2 Highlights!

- The fact that there was a day 2
- The fact that I did it myself with the 3 kids!
- The opening show and Zachary's amazement with the characters on the train
- Riding Small Town! (Small World) and Slow Pass! (People Mover)
- Watching the castle show (Dream Along with Mickey)
- Pin trading
- Mickey's PhilharMagic (aka Mickey's Silver Magic)

Any regrets?
- Not spending more time at the interactive queue for Pooh.

Day 3 Highlights!

- Walking on to Toy Story Mania first thing in the morning
- Being first on line to meet Buzz and Woody
- Woody giving me a kiss
- Zachary wiping down Lightning McQueen
- Zachary meeting Sorcerer Mickey and showing him his own Mickey toy
- Simon meeting Pooh
- The kids not being scared of the Muppets 3D
- Rockin Roller Coaster (I'd go back to DHS just for this ride!)
- Zachary seeing Lightning McQueen in the Lights, Motor, Action show

Any regrets?
Just that Zachary is now totally into Jake and the Neverland Pirates and we missed meeting him! Also if we went back I would probably want to watch the Beauty and the Beast show.

And then there's the regret that we couldn't have been there longer!

I will do the picture post tomorrow (or asap) because I have a cold and I think I'll head to bed now! Just want to shout out to Marissa for encouraging me to conclude my TR!

[dara00]

Meeting Belle

2006 (Gabbie's first ever character meet!)
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/375525_10150558560571900_659036899_11193357_149500 6646_n.jpg

2009
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/398057_10150558523351900_659036899_11193161_136464 9644_n.jpg

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/384552_10150558523506900_659036899_11193162_195321 181_n.jpg

(same trip, different day)
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/391865_10150558528761900_659036899_11193200_171117 1205_n.jpg

2012
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/420162_10150700526251900_659036899_11639646_140491 5332_n.jpg

Meeting Mickey Mouse

2006
http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/391789_10150558569266900_659036899_11193418_159238 4338_n.jpg

Early 2007
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/409551_10150558606516900_659036899_11193492_519361 961_n.jpg

Late 2007
http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/381798_10150558648216900_659036899_11193670_120975 7616_n.jpg

2009
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/4190_113090846899_659036899_3219803_7411805_n.jpg

2012
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/432247_10150700529301900_659036899_11639674_143727 349_n.jpg

Meeting Pooh (and Friends)

Early 2007
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/395093_10150558613286900_659036899_11193562_178360 7679_n.jpg

Late 2007 (Gabbie was terrified!)
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/403665_10150558649641900_659036899_11193683_183586 4947_n.jpg

2009
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/407617_10150558533086900_659036899_11193236_143118 5711_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/4190_113091046899_659036899_3219837_1601218_n.jpg

2012
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/426627_10150700518371900_659036899_11639561_614997 565_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/426244_10150700547901900_659036899_11639872_396570 742_n.jpg


To Be Continued!

[dara00]

Riding It's a Small World

2007
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/374574_10150558650386900_659036899_11193690_715631 872_n.jpg

2012
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/402386_10150614126871900_659036899_11406764_107667 403_n.jpg

Mickey's PhilharMagic / Toy Story Mania (3D glasses)

2007
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/378761_10150558651316900_659036899_11193699_106062 9036_n.jpg

2009
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/4190_113091256899_659036899_3219872_7459888_n.jpg

2012
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/409534_10150614154681900_659036899_11407009_102161 091_n.jpg

Meeting Cinderella

2009
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/4190_113090936899_659036899_3219820_8216918_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/380991_10150558522776900_659036899_11193156_204337 8418_n.jpg

2012
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/407170_10150700537196900_659036899_11639749_429251 150_n.jpg

Meeting Snow White

2009
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/380104_10150558530521900_659036899_11193217_180677 3065_n.jpg

2012
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/401217_10150614562236900_659036899_11408704_799156 430_n.jpg

Meeting Lightning McQueen

2009
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/386257_10150558519706900_659036899_11193105_153486 7437_n.jpg

http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/383140_10150558525471900_659036899_11193180_116687 023_n.jpg

2012
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/402735_10150700542796900_659036899_11639812_850370 853_n.jpg

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/407207_10150700543581900_659036899_11639823_415992 236_n.jpg

Meeting Tinkerbell

2009
http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/390284_10150558535866900_659036899_11193255_890980 742_n.jpg

2012
http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/425942_10150700503001900_659036899_11639476_211633 6752_n.jpg

On the People Mover

2007
http://sphotos.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/401734_10150558652736900_659036899_11193714_210694 662_n.jpg

2012
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/403278_10150614546871900_659036899_11408623_864386 63_n.jpg

Ok, I think that's enough! Hope you enjoyed!

[marDgreen88]

Great wrap up! It's nice that yall had so many awesome memories. (Thanks for the shout out! Hahah) The comparison photos are awesome, I always love to see those. So cute! :goodvibes

[Moodyzblu]

I loved your before and after pics ! Your kids are so cute and growing up fast !! Great report ! :)

[kmedina]

I just noticed your trip report link. It is nice to put a face to your name. Got a lot of catching up to do, but I am excited to read about your trip.

[kmedina]

Your kids are adorable. They all have such big, bright smiles. My DH does not like Disney as much as I do either, but he always appeases me and enjoys himself when we go. Crap used to travel a lot for work. He had a trip (which he never ended up taking) planned for Orlando and told me we could not come. I was devastated. We took a last minute trip to WDW for our honeymoon, so I did not do any planning. I love the cool things you stumbled upon. The Mickey’s driver’s license sounds awesome. Your matching Minnie fingernails are so awesome. Yet another reminder of how much I want a daughter. It is awesome that Zachary walked through Disney. Xander needs to do that. After our Disneyland trip in June, I will not let him to use a stroller anymore not matter how much he complains. Five is old enough to walk, especially if your four year old can do it.

I am not surprised the monorail was not running based on the luck we had. It seems to be a theme across a lot of trip reports. Cool pictures with the fairies. My kids do not know them yet. Simon is so cute standing off to the side. It is cute that he won. How cute that Simon did not want to get off the carpet ride. Glad Dave found you before the Jasmine picture, because that is a cute family picture with her. More great family pictures with the characters. I love the one of Ariel and Eric with Gabbie and Zachary. It is cute that Zachary calls IASW, Small Town. That makes your TR title that much cuter. We rarely watch the parades, because DH does not enjoy them. It is cool to see the pictures. I would watch them more if seating was easier to come by.

You really had a lot of meet and greets before noon. What great timing you guys must have had. I love that you got Pooh and Tigger at the same time even though Simon was napping. It was smart of you to take some items of clothing off before riding Splash. Glad all the kids did well on HM. Crap took forever to get the Pooh fastpasses for the exact same reason as Dave. The biggest change to PoTC post movie was that Captain Jack Sparrow was added into three scenes. Most of the other changes were small, although the ride is a little better at Dl. The drop is bigger and I like seeing the atmosphere to include the Blue Bayou.

I love that the 3:00 parade starts at 3:25. What time is the 3:00 parade is one of my favorite questions but a truly valid one depending on where you are. Xander does not like to wear the 3D glasses either. Surprisingly, I loved Philharmagic too. Minnie has been to WDW more than a lot of kids (even though she was new the third time). That is cool. Thanks for sharing those pictures. We met Buzz there two trips ago and also waited a bit for him. Twenty minutes was one of our smaller waits to see a character. Love the picture of the kids in jail with Zurg.

I cannot believe how much you got done in one day. The family picture with Mickey and Minnie is pretty great too. I will start Day Two next time I log in.

[dara00]

Your kids are adorable. They all have such big, bright smiles. My DH does not like Disney as much as I do either, but he always appeases me and enjoys himself when we go. Crap used to travel a lot for work. He had a trip (which he never ended up taking) planned for Orlando and told me we could not come. I was devastated. We took a last minute trip to WDW for our honeymoon, so I did not do any planning. I love the cool things you stumbled upon. The Mickey’s driver’s license sounds awesome. Your matching Minnie fingernails are so awesome. Yet another reminder of how much I want a daughter. It is awesome that Zachary walked through Disney. Xander needs to do that. After our Disneyland trip in June, I will not let him to use a stroller anymore not matter how much he complains. Five is old enough to walk, especially if your four year old can do it.

I am not surprised the monorail was not running based on the luck we had. It seems to be a theme across a lot of trip reports. Cool pictures with the fairies. My kids do not know them yet. Simon is so cute standing off to the side. It is cute that he won. How cute that Simon did not want to get off the carpet ride. Glad Dave found you before the Jasmine picture, because that is a cute family picture with her. More great family pictures with the characters. I love the one of Ariel and Eric with Gabbie and Zachary. It is cute that Zachary calls IASW, Small Town. That makes your TR title that much cuter. We rarely watch the parades, because DH does not enjoy them. It is cool to see the pictures. I would watch them more if seating was easier to come by.

You really had a lot of meet and greets before noon. What great timing you guys must have had. I love that you got Pooh and Tigger at the same time even though Simon was napping. It was smart of you to take some items of clothing off before riding Splash. Glad all the kids did well on HM. Crap took forever to get the Pooh fastpasses for the exact same reason as Dave. The biggest change to PoTC post movie was that Captain Jack Sparrow was added into three scenes. Most of the other changes were small, although the ride is a little better at Dl. The drop is bigger and I like seeing the atmosphere to include the Blue Bayou.

I love that the 3:00 parade starts at 3:25. What time is the 3:00 parade is one of my favorite questions but a truly valid one depending on where you are. Xander does not like to wear the 3D glasses either. Surprisingly, I loved Philharmagic too. Minnie has been to WDW more than a lot of kids (even though she was new the third time). That is cool. Thanks for sharing those pictures. We met Buzz there two trips ago and also waited a bit for him. Twenty minutes was one of our smaller waits to see a character. Love the picture of the kids in jail with Zurg.

I cannot believe how much you got done in one day. The family picture with Mickey and Minnie is pretty great too. I will start Day Two next time I log in.

thank you for all of your comments! It was like reliving my trip again. :)

The Mickey Mouse driver's license thing was way back when people were allowed in the front of the monorail. Too bad they don't let you do that anymore.

Having a daughter for things like fingernails is great! I'm so happy I had my girl first, but I love the boys too, they are so fun! Yes Zachary did great walking at Disney. I had brought a carrier to put Simon in and figured Zachary could sit if he wanted, but he never even complained. I forgot that Xander is older than Zachary! Is he in kindergarten?

thanks for all the compliments on the photos! we got some good ones for sure. I had one of them printed (the one with Jessie and Woody) to frame and I can't find it! I'm reorganizing my office room now and I should find it! speaking of finding things, we found the missing Minnie Mouse! she was sitting in a drawer. ugh!

thanks again for reading!

[kmedina]

Xander turned 5 in December, so he missed the cutoff for Kindergarten. He has been going to preschool two days a week for almost 2.5 years, so he is ready. Entering full time school in the fall is part of the reason I decided our June trip to Disneyland would be his last trip in a stroller. If he is old enough to get up each day, go to school, walk all over the school, etc, he is old enough to walk at Disney. Our next trip is not planned until October 2013. If we throw in any extra trips between the two, he will walk! I am glad you found Minnie.

I love that you took all three kids into the park by yourself while DH worked. If I am lucky enough to get a daughter on our next try, I will have three kids. DH always jokes about getting a job at Disney. I am all for it, because I would take the kids all the time while he worked. That doll you spotted is adorable. Her grandparents must have had a lot of fun carrying her through the parks. I went into the American Girl store in LA (in hopes of a future daughter). After seeing those prices, I would not let the doll out of my house either. Thanks for sharing the pictures of rope drop. In all of our trips to Disney, we have never seen a rope drop. Yay, Simon got in there with Rapunzel. Seeing the interactive queue at Pooh makes me sad. Xander loved the Pooh playground. I am glad they moved the pieces to the ride but wish the playground was still intact.

It is cool when you keep running into people, so seeing the lady in the Rapunzel line is neat. There were people staying at our hotel last trip who we ran into three times. (<<<Spell check wants me to change the who in the previous sentence to that, but I do not think that is right). You took them on Small Town again. You are a patient Mama. I love the picture of Gabbie and Zachary on the PeopleMove when they went through Space Mountain. People are so kind when they see a Mom needing help. How nice of that man to grab Zachary off the PeopleMove. Xander received a lanyard with pins in his gift basket. He loved the pins and did not want to trade them. It is cute that your kids do the trading. We forgot to ride the train on our last trip. It was not on our must list, but Xander does love trains. Glad you go to ride it longer than everyone else (I will remember that tip).

Zachary was really into the castle show. It looks like Mickey had a lot of fun with Zachary’s doll. I love the look on his face. You got some great shots there. There are a lot of princesses in that meet and greet. It is like CRT only Belle actually has on her beautiful yellow dress. I can hardly talk DH into the princess meals. He is not going to let us do any princess character meets until I have a girl, I bet. Looks like Simon enjoyed the carousel. You rode Small Town a third time. Wow, you are the most patient Mom ever. Riding it once each trip is more than enough for me. Kids love that ride though, and I am glad Crap and Xander rode alone the second time.

Xander loved those mini carts when he was little too. Simon looks adorable behind it. The Children’s Museum in Tampa is neater than the one we have here. Looks like all of the kids had a good time at the aquarium. I adore the picture of all three of them sleeping in the car afterward. A Mom can dream for moments like that. It is rare when two sleep at the same time, so they must have burned off a lot of energy. Looks like the kids enjoyed dinner. Lots of smiles all around.

Looks like everyone had a great time at the zoo. I love that you posted the picture of the bat upside down. It is official that you are the most patient Mom ever. The last time I had strep, I could barely get out of bed. My temp was 104.6. Luckily, Xander was in preschool that day, so I only had Connor. DH had to leave work at 3pm to care for the kids. It was also our wedding anniversary, but we spent our evening at Urgent Care rather than the fancy evening he planned. He brought Connor into me for feedings and took him away. You took your kids to the zoo!

We once got into a cast member line at AK pre-opening (never saw a rope drop though). The park was scheduled to open at 9am. It was already a couple minutes after that when we arrived, but the lines had not moved yet. By the time we realized we were in the wrong line, the regular lines were super long. Around 9:15, the park opened (not sure why they were late). We did not enter until almost 9:30. Glad you did not have to move your car. You got fastpasses and rode Toy Story with no line. That is awesome. Way to plan, Mom. How cool to see an empty Buzz and Woody line! It’s awesome that you were first. Crap and I thought the interaction was awesome there too. I am bumming big time that we did not do all of those character stops early in the morning like you guys did. Being the only one in line for Lightning too is pretty awesome. It seems like we spent our whole HS day moving from one character line to another. I am learning what to do from your report. Thank you.

The more I read, the more I am tripping. You did the same Playhouse Disney and Voyage of the Little Mermaid like we did. Our days are so similar so far only you did some of the characters we waited forever for while we were in line for Piglet. I should edit mine to say do read your day for what to do and mine for what not to do. Sorcerer Mickey and the kids is a great picture. It is nice to see that the Photopass photographer took more than one picture of your family with Pooh. I think the Muppets show is still the same although DH did not want to watch it last trip, so I cannot be sure. Glad Gabbie did better this time. It has been a few trips since I rode RnR, but I like it more than I like California Screamin. Glad you had a good time.

We have not seen Lights Motor Action since Lightning was added. That is so cute that Zachary thought he was real. Love it. You are making incredible timing again. Thanks to all of the long character waits, we never got to do the Great Movie Ride. You even managed to get in a parade (which we rarely watch) before riding Toy Story again with your Fast Pass. Amazing. I am laughing that you got more done at HS than I did, and still had time to spend the evening off site with your in-laws. How nice that you had that time with the family.

Looks like you had a great time at Downtown Disney and everyone enjoyed the ice cream. I love your professional photos. We did that (have not written about it yet), but our pictures did not come out great. Ours were not done in the park either, so I think it is fine you waited for your in-laws. One day, I would love to get a drawing from the Art store for our home. They are all beautiful. I want them all too.

You got a lot of excellent PhotoPass pictures. I love that there are some where all five of you are looking at the camera. That does not happen often with such a short shoot. Thanks for sharing all of the recap pictures from previous trips. The one of Zachary with Lighting made me think of Xander. I love the smile of Gabbie’s face when she was a baby with Belle. Gabbie as a youngster on Small Town is a magical picture.

Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful family with us. I really enjoyed reading (and learning what to do).

[dara00]

oh, so Xander is about 1/2 a year old than Zachary. Zachary is 5 in June. He is going to start kindergarten too. I bet they would get along well! :)

Gabbie just got another American Girl doll! She is spoiled by her grandma. (I do not know if the one I took a picture of was bought by a grandma - but Gabbie's both were).

I have pictures of Gabbie at the Pooh playground. I actually did not know what happened to it until reading your tr. I did recognize the little house, but don't remember what else was there last time we were there in 2007. I do remember there was a Pooh, Tigger, and Darby meet and greet nearby.

It's funny that you think I'm patient - I'm really not! But Disney brings out the best in me. :) I actually like IASW though. It's not so awful. Reminds me of a record album I used to have as a kid!

I think the tip about the back of the train having a longer ride was actually a joke. :)

My DHS day was pretty lucky timing wise! I do have to say that with the new fastpass enforcement, we wouldn't have been able to hit up TSM again at the end of the day like we did - I'm sure our fastpass time had past! I do definitely recommend doing character meets first thing though. We were first in line for Woody and Jessie in MK and Woody and Buzz in DHS and that was great! We also got Jasmine and Ariel pretty soon after their lines opened. We also had low crowd levels!

Thanks again for all your comments! I look forward to reading more of your tr!

[kmedina]

oh, so Xander is about 1/2 a year old than Zachary. Zachary is 5 in June. He is going to start kindergarten too. I bet they would get along well! :)

Gabbie just got another American Girl doll! She is spoiled by her grandma. (I do not know if the one I took a picture of was bought by a grandma - but Gabbie's both were).

I have pictures of Gabbie at the Pooh playground. I actually did not know what happened to it until reading your tr. I did recognize the little house, but don't remember what else was there last time we were there in 2007. I do remember there was a Pooh, Tigger, and Darby meet and greet nearby.

It's funny that you think I'm patient - I'm really not! But Disney brings out the best in me. :) I actually like IASW though. It's not so awful. Reminds me of a record album I used to have as a kid!

I think the tip about the back of the train having a longer ride was actually a joke. :)

My DHS day was pretty lucky timing wise! I do have to say that with the new fastpass enforcement, we wouldn't have been able to hit up TSM again at the end of the day like we did - I'm sure our fastpass time had past! I do definitely recommend doing character meets first thing though. We were first in line for Woody and Jessie in MK and Woody and Buzz in DHS and that was great! We also got Jasmine and Ariel pretty soon after their lines opened. We also had low crowd levels!

Thanks again for all your comments! I look forward to reading more of your tr!

They probably would get along well. Xander loves everyone. I mean literally. He always tells people he just met that he loves them. Scary. I know. He will not play alone until he is 16!!!!

I said the Grandparents carried the American Girl Doll, because the doll's Mom would be the little girl who owns it. That is funny that her Grandma or the doll's Great Grandma bought her both of the dolls though.

Xander met Pooh and Tigger near that playground before, but we never met Darby. He would have liked to meet her, since he was a fan of the show.

I like the joke about the back of the train but have never played on the joke with Xander. We need to do that next time (if I remember).

You are probably more patient than you realize. My sister who is very patient (and single) will not visit a theme park with her two kids unless someone goes along to help her.

I am going to do characters first thing from now on. Thanks again.