How EMH saved our trip-Doing the World on West Coast Time! Completed. Stop by my PTR!

After finding Wall-E we headed off to enjoy the park. We still had a little bit of time before our FP's were ready for TT, and frankly I was still shaking. so...snack time! We tried the Fountainview Cafe first but the line was so hideous we headed off to Sunshine Season instead. Espresso may not have been the best idea for me, still shaky from the lost kid episode but it did taste great!

Soaring still had a 2 hour wait, no thanks! So snacks, then a ride in some clams to see Nemo. Some serious playing with the squirting fountain for everyone including Scrooge. You can see Tink trying to "get" him.

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Then...Honey I Shrunk the Audience. So far, our timing, as long as we skipped the "big" rides was amazing. Walking right on!

After that the line had gone down at Fountainview so Steven got the first of many many trip smoothies.

FINALLY....it was time. It felt like it had taken all day. OH WAIT! It had.

Which meant,
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.
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.
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MY favorite Epcot ride. Test Track!

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Love those dummies.
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Tink was freaked out about the concept. Check her out in the picture! This picture kills me everytime I see it. She actually liked the ride and had fun. This was the first in a series of Tink looking petrified pictures on the trip. I think this is the best picture of it though!

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Look at me grinning like an idiot.


We actually video taped the ride (as you can see with Scrooge holding up the camera), it's a riot to watch!

After TT, and plenty of gift shop poking around, it was time to head towards the WS. First, a stop in Mexico to ride with the Three Caballeros.

I confess to being entirely lame in the past about really checking out each country in the WS. So we went "into" Mexico as I've not done much more in the WS than eat, drink and watch Illuminations. And really, there is nothing wrong with that! It was nice to see the TS restaurant, the kids kept asking why we weren't eating there and were mesmerized by the fact that it looked like we were outside, but we weren't.

The ride CRACKED me up! All those old cartoons...set in a Mexican "It's a small world". So cheesy it was absolutely delightful. Everyone got a kick out of it except Scrooge.

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Next. The Biergarten, an Illuminations Fiasco AND.....some "first" lanyards aka the creation of the pin monsters. To be followed by.....the souvenir that got away and EMH Rocks!
 
Our first day dawned beautifully! Sunny and 70 at wakeup was a perfect way to be greeted. We sat outside on our deck while the big kids slept.

Enjoying breakfast on our deck
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Our views
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We decided, once the lazy people were up and finished playing around, to walk through the Fort and take the long way to Epcot. While we could have just grabbed a bus and gone straight to Epcot, it was EMH day and I wanted to at least SEE where we were staying.

Playing around with the towel hats...

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On our stroll we went by the swimming hole (otherwise known as the quiet or cabin pool). The "Big" pool is under a major reconstruction. The fun part of that meant we had access to WL's pool and we planned on hitting that later in the week.

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We enjoyed walking through the fort, seeing the cabins, then the RV's and tent sites. The Fort was quite full!

Then it was off to the Marina to catch the boat to the MK.

View from the dock, the beach at the Fort

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Waiting for the green boat

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It's a pretty boat ride, one we did many times. Seeing the abandoned River Country is something else...a movie should be set there and Discovery Island was just beautiful. It was also nice to be "up close" to a few of the MK resorts.


Sailing by the Contemporary.
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And finally, the MK is in sight!

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Two short monorail rides later and
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Epcot!

Or as Wall-E says...Ecpot. While the child still can't say it right is beyond me!

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Next...the reality of WDW during President's week and moving Illumination hours

Oh My Gosh... Tink looks like the girl in that cruise commercial... where the family is trying to find the girl's smile. ????? and they catch it on camera, and then it's GONE! Cute pics.
 
Oh My Gosh... Tink looks like the girl in that cruise commercial... where the family is trying to find the girl's smile. ????? and they catch it on camera, and then it's GONE! Cute pics.


Awww! Thanks :) Lots of pics of her smiling as the trip went on. Thanks for peeking, inspiring me to get back to this TR! Funny though as I'm about to start a PTR! Whoo hoo!
 
Awww! Thanks :) Lots of pics of her smiling as the trip went on. Thanks for peeking, inspiring me to get back to this TR! Funny though as I'm about to start a PTR! Whoo hoo!

When are you going back? How do you stay soooo organized? I was really on top of it for our Sept. trip but then Hurricane Ike hit us and I got a little off-track for the Dec. trip and just "winged" most of it... we still had a blast, but like you said you started shoving your toiletries in any available space on the morning of... yea, kinda like that A LOT though! Glad I inspired you.
 


3 weeks later..yikes! Time to pick this back up :)

After riding with the 3 Caballeros, Scrooge and Steven headed back to our locker to get our jackets, we'd known it would cool down and it was definitely time for another layer. The rest of us headed over to check in at the Biergarten. We noticed crowds forming around the WS and just figured it was normal dinner time. Should have been a RED FLAG! but we were clueless.

Upon checking in we were informed that they would not seat us until our entire party was present. Rats, hadn't realized that and we could have gone in right away! Instead we went back out into the courtyard and I ordered a beer for Scrooge and I from the "Bier" cart. A very very yummy Spaten Ocktoberfest. That took forever to get but was worth the wait.

Kids entertained themselves by the fountain.
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Upon Scrooges and Steven's arrival we re-checked in and then had to wait another 15 minutes. It was a very enjoyable meal and a great dinner show, a great "first night" dinner. My pictures are pretty crummy, low inside light :(

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The Bavarian cheesecake was the bomb!!! During dinner we kept an eye on the time, not wanting to miss Illuminations. We rushed to pay our bill (server kind of fell of the map towards the end of dinner and headed outside.

To.find.the.WS. EMPTY!

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaattttttttttttttttttttttt???????????????

I had specifically timed our ADR's so we would be done eating in time for the 9pm Illuminations based on no less than 3 different calendars I had consulted. I had not however re-checked those calendars in the past 21 days. We'd chosen Epcot for our first day for EMH. The EMH part was still correct but THEY MOVED ILLUMINATIONS to 8pm!

Illuminations is our FAVORITE fireworks in the world and DH and I were devastated. None of the kids had a clue. While Goofy and Wall-E had seen it before, they were 4 and 5 at the time and didn't remember what they were missing.

The worst part was now it was 9pm and I'm realizing that our entire week of ADR's was now potentially in conflict with all the fireworks shows (well MK and Epcot, we couldn't get a fantasmic package and the wait with 4 kids, no matter how cool that show is, just wasn't worth planning on doing plus it wasn't on an EMH night).

I felt ill.


I still feel ill.


I have to go back and fix this for the next trip.


So...morosely we strolled around the WS and dove straight into....THE FIRST LANYARD.

Somehow we had missed this on other trips but not this one.

Right by the America Pavilion we hit a pin cart and a wonderful wonderful CM who educated the kids on the joys of pin trading, hidden mickeys and special CM only pins.

He went so far as to point out HIS hidden mickey pin and Fast Pass pin...basically telling the kids (without saying so directly) to ask him to trade. It took a lot of hinting until finally, Goofy asked to trade for the hidden mickey!

It was a ton of fun. Here they are with their new bling.

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That eased my pain a little. We strolled around the rest of the WS, saw a mug I really wanted in the window of a shop but didn't go in. Figured we would be back in 2 days for dinner anyway.

I know better! When you see it, you BUY it. Now known as the souvenir that got away. A white mug with mickey heads in each countries flag. 2 days later, after dinner, on a non EMH night...that shop was closed. MUST GO BACK AND GET THE MUG NEXT TRIP! (hey any excuse for another trip, right?)

We headed over to Soarin to see if now that it was EMH we could actually get on. It was still a 60 minute wait! We decided to do it as it was the only "main" ride we still hadn't been on and we were concerned about getting back to it later in the trip. Glad we did as we did not really do any Epcot rides again though we did go back to the WS for dinner 2 days later.

Even though it was drizzling on the way out we made it back to the cabin, full, happy and ready for some good sleep and a new day of adventures. A very very good day, missed fireworks and all.


Next...VALENTINES DAY at the world!
 


After showing this picture to my family we are 100% positive my dad is in the background:eek::eek::eek: We were eating in Mexico when the band was playing and we were at EPCOT that day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


OMG that is so funny! My Dh and the older boys were in line getting CS food, I took this while Tink and our youngest and I headed off to Tangerine Cafe for our late lunch. Small world!!!!!!1
 
I love FW...so this report caught my eye. Don't wait three weeks to update!!!!
 
OMG that is so funny! My Dh and the older boys were in line getting CS food, I took this while Tink and our youngest and I headed off to Tangerine Cafe for our late lunch. Small world!!!!!!1


it is LOL first I was reading the TR thinking "wow we were there the same time" then I saw this pic and I was like "i remember that band" then I noticed my dad


i dont know if i said this before but great TR, cant wait for more:)
 
Scrooge makes fun of me for it but it does generally pay off. It's funny, our last WDW trip we completely winged it, just showed up. And it was fine. But it was really really nice to have a plan, still have flexibility but know that the big things were taken care of. And I had fun with my surprises...there were more in store for the crew.

We are traveling by airplane as well from MI and its our first time staying in the cabins. Where did you order your food from? :hippie:
 
Valentine's day dawned sunny and lovely! We (I) had some special plans for the day, not all of which the crew knew about. It was somewhat of an open day, no EMH anywhere so it was a day we'd planned to let the kids decide where they wanted to go. MK was the winner for a couple reasons, 1) boat straight there from the Fort and 2) dinner was booked at the Poly.

First up.

Scrooge. I had shipped some of Scrooge's favorite candies ahead and gave them to him that morning with a card. This place is the BOMB! The Tiffany's of chocolates.

http://www.woodhousechocolate.com/

Scrooge is a caramel freak and their salted caramels are well, a slice of heaven.

In planning the trip we had tried to figure out something special for each person. Today we were starting with Tink. She and I arose a wee bit early and headed off too...

The Grand Floridian! For pedicures :) Nothing like some girly girly stuff on Valentine's day!

I had let her choose which spa she wanted to check out and this was her top choice. We had hoped to arrive in time for breakfast prior to the pedicure but of course, did not. The pedicure was lovely. I think Tink was more interested in the GF and the idea of staying there someday, the spa was a little sedate in their polish color choices for her preference but she was impressed with all the extra treatments (leg wraps etc...must have used 3 different treatments on our legs and feet) versus the standard pedi she's had before. The spa was strewn with rose petals, a nice touch.

Afterward we wandered around and checked out the GF and then hit Gasparilla's for lunch. Yum! Tink and her incredibly healthy (NOT) lunch of dorito's, pizza and a coke. Note the refillable mug. It lasted 3 days before she left it somewhere. I think I still saved money but it was a bummer!

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While Tink and I wandered, checking out pools, lobbies and beaches, the other natives had gotten restless and began their trek to the MK. We told them to go eat and we'd meet them.

Finally she and I finished and headed over to MK. After grabbing FP's to Space Mountain (the boys had theirs) we met them at Cosmic Rays.

A note. It took us forever, it felt, to get to Space Mountain, and then to Cosmic Rays. Of course, part of that could have been the stop for a photopass picutre or two but the place was PACKED! Like non stop parade (Celebrations was going as we walked in) can't walk down main street, can't move to even get to the FP line, packed. I have never seen crowds like this. While the rest of the trip was pretty ridiculous crowd wise, this was one of the worst. And ultimately a bit of a bummer as the effect, as the week went on, is that we never "really" got a full day at the MK and when we were there, it was insane. We still had fun though!

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After finally getting to the boys (it was so warm, I stopped and changed to something sleeveless, Tink had done that back at the GF) we sat with them and waited for them to get their food.

And waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Steven had wanted a cheeseburger and had gone in ahead of Scrooge and the boys who had waited for Tink and I to head in so we could save the table. Scrooge and the little boys came back out with their food. Still no Steven.

Finally we call him.

He's still in the cheeseburger line. Scrooge had skipped it as it was so long!

I know Cosmic Rays gets good reviews and the boys seemed to like their food but it looked pretty basic and the crowds were ridiculous. I have to admit it will not be on my top list of CS to try the next time at MK (for me).

By now it is yes, once again 1pm and we've done not a single ride. Everywhere we go the lines are so bad, we opt out. Still a little too early for another FP. So we decide to split up, the big kids and Scrooge head off to Big Thunder and the little boys and I head off to....

the Main Street Barber! I had peeked while grabbing a locker (I'd run back once everyone had food) and there wasn't much of a line. All the boys knew was...they could get a haircut. Which they really really wanted (and needed). What they didn't know about was...

Pixie Dust!


The "Before Picture"

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Next.....

Pixie Dust, a lime green mickey head...MORE parades (TWIRL Mania) and finally! A RIDE!!
 
I'm in! We're staying at the cabins again in Nov/Dec. Can't wait. I already noted a special cleaning after my last visit. :goodvibes Dust free those babies are going to be a lot of fun!
 
I'm in! We're staying at the cabins again in Nov/Dec. Can't wait. I already noted a special cleaning after my last visit. :goodvibes Dust free those babies are going to be a lot of fun!

A special cleaning? We had no dust and incredible mousekeeping..

Oh wait...pixie dust! ???? in that case I hope you are NOT dust free. lol.
 
Ok, a little backstory here.

My kids LOVE to get their hair cut. I'm not sure why but they think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. And they needed one. Big time. I'd planned to do it before they left and had originally booked them for a "cool dude" at DTD's BBB but when I found out about the Main Street Barber, I cancelled it.

Scrooge was happy about that, he didn't want to be tied to heading to DTD for boy glitter lol. So I had mentioned to the boys that they could get a cut at MK and they had been asking...when when when...since we arrived. I'd made them leave their hats in scrooges backpack (visions of them being forgotten at the barbers) and as you can see, it was bright! Wall-E is squinting away. He isn't unhappy, just blinded by the sun. It was a GORGEOUS day!

Check out their hair...yikes!

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Scrooge is calling and texting as they head over to try and get on Thunder Mountain. All the lines are pretty bad, 60 minutes+ and no FP's. They then get stopped by celebrations and are kind of stuck. He's not happy. Tink and I had seen the front end of it before we met them at their lunch and I couldn't believe it was the same parade but who knows.

The line had increased by the time we got to the MSB. For those who are not familiar with it, it's a basic barber shop, with 2 CM's giving haircuts and pixie dust and a truly magical 1st haircut for babies. We got to watch 2 of those, one of the babies slept thru the entire cut! They each got a first set of ears embroidered with my first haircut, and a special certificate.

After the babies, a dad was up. He had a cut, and then a BOUQUET OF ROSES created on the back of his head! It was very very cool. I should have taken a picture. His kids were up next, for girls they would do an updo of some sort (one pony or 2 pigtails) and then get them with the pixie dust, boys would get a cut and then pixie dust. After those kids were done we still had a 19 year old and an older man in front of us. The kids were pretty patient and happy to be out of the sun during this.

Waiting in the shop...
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Pretty soon we realized we had some live entertainment outside our window. Twirl Mania!

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The boys were not all that into it, far more fun to play in the chair and watch other people get their cuts.

Finally it was our turn! I think we waited about 30 minutes, not too bad!

First up, Goofy.

The Barber. I was SOOOOOO impressed with the barbers as stylists. Goofy wanted a buzz cut so not a big deal. Wall-E on the other hand has tricky, nightmare hair and likes a little boy cut (precision) that is hard to get right and can be a disaster. These guys took their time to get it right and were so entertaining and friendly, you can tell they love their job.

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Next....Pixie Dust! Goofy requested "lime green" so the mixed up a special blend to create the color, just for him.

A little on the top
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Followed by a liberal sprinking of pixie dust
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and...

A Hidden Mickey!


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One happy little boy. He will be stopping at MSB for the rest of his life. I am convinced. He will be the dad getting a bouquet of roses on the back of his head. I love it!

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Next up. Wall-E

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We could NOT convince Wall-E to get dusted. He had a bad bad experience with colored hair spray a couple of years ago (sensitive skin, super dry scalp, BAD reaction). not good. Since then, no go on the color. Tried to convince him it was gel, not spray and it'd be fine, but no dice.

These big girls were all for it though!

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Finally....two MUCH better looking little boys!


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After we came out from the barber, guess what, Celebrations parade. AGAIN!

Scrooge was stuck too, just coming out of Pirates. We agreed to head over to the Haunted Mansion and meet them there.

Here's a few pictures of Celebrations. The boys were not that into it, until they saw goofy. They LOVE Goofy.

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Next....Off to meet up with the rest of the gang, first ride of the day and....

THE FIRST MICKEY BAR!
 
The boys look so handsome with their new haircuts!!! I love the Mickey in green!!! We are planning to take DS (2) for his first haircut. I'm not sure he will go for the paint and glitter though. Hoping he won't scream!!!

I just got caught up on the rest of your TR. That stinks that they changed the times of all the fireworks!!!:rolleyes1 I mean I know it's within their right to do so, but it just makes it so hard for all of us who have planned for months to make sure we got to see them. :mad: It's one of my biggest fears because we are a party of 9, and it would be impossible to get new ADR's for anything.

Looking forward to hearing more about your trip!
 
Hi, just thought I would pop on over. Great start and enjoying reading your report popcorn::

Until I read this I did not know you could pixie dust your hair at the barbers, I am so there next year :cool1:

Can't wait to read more :thumbsup2
 
Hi, just thought I would pop on over. Great start and enjoying reading your report popcorn::

Until I read this I did not know you could pixie dust your hair at the barbers, I am so there next year :cool1:

Can't wait to read more :thumbsup2

Thanks for popping over! I've been rather behind on it as I keep trying to con folks into a trip for next fall but...I don't think it's going to happen.

I'm hoping one of these days to go with just my siblings and we would be ALL over it! The girls anway...one of my brothers shaves his head so...maybe just a mickey for him! LOL!

Not going to work this fall, sadly. The barbers were amazing, there was one set of girls who popped in and didn't have time to wait so they just sprayed the heck out of them with hairspray and sprinkled away on the pixie dust. Didn't even charge them! It is one of the best deals there, even if you are paying!
 
Well it makes it all the more exciting for next year as you have that to look forward to, didn't you say you wanted to go for 2010, how cool would it be if we were there at the same time :)

I don't know if I could go nuts and let them spray away, as I am v picky with my hair. How much do they charge? Also, do they do close shaves with real barber straps or strops (don't know the name of them)?
 

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