The Darling Family June 2010 Trip Report: When are the Parents Showing Up?11/5 New TR

[FairyGodmotherJen]

The other thing I noticed about this time was a large group of tie dye clad folk. I knew from our PTRs that Jen and Shelley’s clan was going to be at Crystal Palace that morning and were planning on the matching shirts. I was pretty sure it was them, but didn’t want to scare their family with a crazy stranger walking up announcing we were DIS friends. Jen did pass by during the parade and recognized me (which was pretty impressive because she didn’t have the advantage of all the matching shirts.) We said a quick hello, but didn’t have time for any more right then.

Yep, that was us - the large group of people in tye-dye!! It was pretty hard to miss us that day.

We definitely did NOT win the Dumbo Dash this trip!!! Oh, well, maybe next time. Congrats on getting that first ride! I knew you got out of there pretty quickly, because I went back after the character parade to say hi and you were already gone! We also ended up having to wait a long time for Pooh at this meal, so we didn't get out to the park for a while after we were done eating. I'm with you - I love breakfast food, and this is one of my favorite meals at WDW. I did get an idea from Debby's report, though - they went to an EMH morning, got a ton done, and then hit CP for a 10:45 breakfast time. I might try that next trip, because DH has decided that Crystal Palace breakfast is just as much of a "must do" for us as Chef Mickey's dinner. I would miss getting in early, though.

 

[DrMomof3]

Too funny about the Dumbo Dash!!!

Amanda

 

[kcandbella]

That is so scary about your husband. I am glad he is ok.

Looks like a great morning at the MK! Yay for winning the Dumbo Dash!!!

I had a friend at WDW at the same time you were there, and she said she heard reports from other travelers about it taking 5 hours to make it into WWoHP. I'm hoping you had better luck than that!

 

[dvc at last !]

Great pics of the boys at the CP. I love the CP, too.
I love dinner there. We have an ADR there during our October trip.

 

[mermaid764]

What an awesome breakfast at Crystal palace and a bonus that you were able to be the first ones at the rope drop.

What an exciting moment for your boys to "win the dumbo dash"

Looking forward to more

 

[Stefy]

Sounds like a great breakfast and how lovely and empty was Fantasyland

I like the idea of paying for your check after you got your food, might have to steal that idea off you

Loving the Dumbo pics, the boys really look like they are having a ball

More more!!!

 

[jmskinner]

You gave some great tips for breakfast and rope drop. I never would have thought about that. We are hoping for an anniversary trip in Jan, trying to let the DH plan everything, but I am giving him suggestions, and this will be one of them. I'm not a breakfast eater, but he is. I'll eat breakfast to do the Dumbo dash, which I have never been on.

Love the pics with the characters and any Dismeet is good, no matter how long or short it is.

 

[heaven2dc]

jmskinner - I can't believe I missed your TR from last summer (w/DSD!). I am thoroughly enjoying it now - you are SO lucky to live so close to WDW!!

I am showing pics of Universal Studios and IoA to my sons. We are visiting WDW in late November 2010 and we are hoping to head over for one day to see the new Harry Potter attraction. Have you seen it yet? I can't believe how strict they are with "no pics" rules.

 

[dismagiclover]

Oh my word, I am so very happy to hear that your family made it out okay. I have said a prayer for the family of the young main who died. It's times like that that make you really appreciate your family.

Hooray for winning Dumbo Dash!

Thank you. I can tell you many prayers were offered the day of the accident. My heart goes out to the family that wasn't as lucky as ours.

Yep, that was us - the large group of people in tye-dye!! It was pretty hard to miss us that day.

We definitely did NOT win the Dumbo Dash this trip!!! Oh, well, maybe next time. Congrats on getting that first ride! I knew you got out of there pretty quickly, because I went back after the character parade to say hi and you were already gone! We also ended up having to wait a long time for Pooh at this meal, so we didn't get out to the park for a while after we were done eating. I'm with you - I love breakfast food, and this is one of my favorite meals at WDW. I did get an idea from Debby's report, though - they went to an EMH morning, got a ton done, and then hit CP for a 10:45 breakfast time. I might try that next trip, because DH has decided that Crystal Palace breakfast is just as much of a "must do" for us as Chef Mickey's dinner. I would miss getting in early, though.

You were definitely easy to spot that day. I've thought about doing late character breakfasts. Then the meal could serve as both lunch and dinner. But you are right. It would be hard to give up that early entry before park opening.

Too funny about the Dumbo Dash!!!

Amanda

It was pretty funny to see the boys so excited about their success

That is so scary about your husband. I am glad he is ok.

Looks like a great morning at the MK! Yay for winning the Dumbo Dash!!!

I had a friend at WDW at the same time you were there, and she said she heard reports from other travelers about it taking 5 hours to make it into WWoHP. I'm hoping you had better luck than that!

Thank you. I don't want to spoil too much about the Harry Potter stuff, but I can tell you we would never wait 5 hours in a theme park and we definitely were able to experience most everything we wanted to. Eventually I'll get to that part of the story.

Great pics of the boys at the CP. I love the CP, too.
I love dinner there. We have an ADR there during our October trip.

We've never done dinner there. I originally scheduled dinner for this trip, but I switched because I just couldn't give up that early morning breakfast. Maybe one of these years.

 

[dismagiclover]

What an awesome breakfast at Crystal palace and a bonus that you were able to be the first ones at the rope drop.

What an exciting moment for your boys to "win the dumbo dash"

Looking forward to more

The Dumbo Dash win was the highlight of the morning for the boys!

Sounds like a great breakfast and how lovely and empty was Fantasyland

I like the idea of paying for your check after you got your food, might have to steal that idea off you

Loving the Dumbo pics, the boys really look like they are having a ball

More more!!!

I think that paying for our check at the beginning of the meal was a stroke of genius. It is what got us out of there so fast. I actually repeated it at another buffet later in the week.

You gave some great tips for breakfast and rope drop. I never would have thought about that. We are hoping for an anniversary trip in Jan, trying to let the DH plan everything, but I am giving him suggestions, and this will be one of them. I'm not a breakfast eater, but he is. I'll eat breakfast to do the Dumbo dash, which I have never been on.

Love the pics with the characters and any Dismeet is good, no matter how long or short it is.

You've never done the Dumbo Dash even after all your trips to Disney! Wow! I have to confess I'm looking forward to the day that it isn't a staple of every trip. Though I'm sure I will miss it when the kids don't want to do it anymore. I also wonder if it will be as necessary with the new Double Dumbo that is coming.

I am showing pics of Universal Studios and IoA to my sons. We are visiting WDW in late November 2010 and we are hoping to head over for one day to see the new Harry Potter attraction. Have you seen it yet? I can't believe how strict they are with "no pics" rules.

If you stick around you'll get to see our pictures from Universal and IOA. Hopefully I'll have them up before you go in late November!

 

[dismagiclover]

After Dumbo we headed straight over here.

Always a fun ride. Next up we headed over to Peter Pan, a Darling family favorite. I’d initially thought I may have to get a fastpass for this ride, but the line was still under 10 minutes so it wasn’t long before we were flying over London. Love this ride

We’d done all the long liners in Fantasyland so we headed over to Frontierland for John’s favorite ride. Who did we see with no line on the way over?

John is a huge Donald fan and we’d never met him in this outfit. I mistakenly thought John had a Donald pin so I told John to show Donald his pins. Turns out he didn’t have one After this he decided he must collect Donald pins and had a number of them by the end of the trip. Here are a few more pictures.

So after this unplanned encounter we headed to Big Thunder Mountain. The line was very short here so before we knew it we were racing through a western canyon on a runaway train.

We had so much fun on this adventure that we snagged a fastpass for later. The boys were thirsty so I pulled over to the side for a quick drink of water and I saw a familiar face passing by. I called out to Jen and had a quick unofficial DIS meet. They were at the end of their trip. We didn’t talk too long, but Jen did mention how hot the week had been. I think we were lucky because by the time we’d shown up it was hot, but the record breaking heat had passed. We had John snap a quick picture of us. He didn’t cut off anyone’s head.

We said quick goodbyes and headed on. Jen, it was fun to meet you! It made me excited to get home and hear about your trip here on the DIS. I tried to persuade the boys to go on Splash Mountain, but they weren’t interested. Instead they wanted to head over to Toontown. I agreed and had the brilliant idea of taking the train over Believe it or not I had never been on the train so this was a first. Needless to say the stop was empty at 9:40 am so we got first choice of seat and we headed for the front car.

We were the only ones in it.

We passed a few sites as we headed around to Toontown.

Before we knew it we were heading into the station. What did we do first?

 

[jmskinner]

jmskinner - I can't believe I missed your TR from last summer (w/DSD!). I am thoroughly enjoying it now - you are SO lucky to live so close to WDW!!

I am showing pics of Universal Studios and IoA to my sons. We are visiting WDW in late November 2010 and we are hoping to head over for one day to see the new Harry Potter attraction. Have you seen it yet? I can't believe how strict they are with "no pics" rules.

Oops Jenny, didn't mean to cause a disruption to your thread. I wondered why this was here, then realized, oh my old thread is closed. DUH.

Glad you are enjoying heaven2dc! The Disneyworldholic is my newest, just started. No plans for Harry Potter, but sure hope to next year (hopefully crowds will be down) or maybe sooner depending on what Jenny shows us.

 

[dismagiclover]

Oops Jenny, didn't mean to cause a disruption to your thread. I wondered why this was here, then realized, oh my old thread is closed. DUH.

Glad you are enjoying heaven2dc! The Disneyworldholic is my newest, just started. No plans for Harry Potter, but sure hope to next year (hopefully crowds will be down) or maybe sooner depending on what Jenny shows us.

No worries! You can disrupt away! I need to stop by your newest TR too!

 

[jmskinner]

Oops, sorry to double post, you posted your update as I did that previous post.

I love the pic of John and Donald realizing there are no Donald pins. That's a great one!

And now I am surprised that you had never been on the train before.

 

[Angies1274]

Love your pictures at Crystal Palace! It sounds like you had a great breakfast! And... YAY! for winning the Dumbo Dash!

What a nice surprise to see Donald on your way to BTMRR! Great pictures! on the DIS meet!!

Can't wait to see what you do next!

 

[praisehisname]

It's been said numerous times already, but I'm so glad for you and your family that your DH is OK.

Your PP session on the way to CP gave you some beautiful pics! Very nice! I love breakfast food, but haven't tried CP yet. Hopefully someday. We've done dinner there and weren't thrilled. But breakfast is always better! Great tip to ask for the check right away.

So funny how the boys were so intent on winning the Dumbo Dash. Thankfully everything worked out for them!

Great pics with Donald! Do your boys not like Splash Mountain at all, or just not this day?

 

[stobaugh6]

I have really enjoyed reading your trip report!

 

[Stefy]

Love this photo, its like John is saying "but I thought I had some on there"

Great update and coolbeans that you met up with a fellow Diser Awesome that you got the train to yourself too. I love the WDWR, the steam trains are awesome and its a nice pleasant ride after some of the hectic ones around

 

[DrMomof3]

You are getting me SO excited for my trip!!! I'm really enjoying the pics of all of our favorites rides.

Amanda

 

[dismagiclover]

Oops, sorry to double post, you posted your update as I did that previous post.

I love the pic of John and Donald realizing there are no Donald pins. That's a great one!

And now I am surprised that you had never been on the train before.

It is a bit suprising I'd never been on the train before. We are usually big walkers so I've always preferred walking to riding the train. I'm glad we gave it a try. Maybe someday I'll do the rest of the loop.

Love your pictures at Crystal Palace! It sounds like you had a great breakfast! And... YAY! for winning the Dumbo Dash!

What a nice surprise to see Donald on your way to BTMRR! Great pictures! on the DIS meet!!

Can't wait to see what you do next!

The Dumbo Dash Win was pretty exciting And it was great to see Donald with no line! Love those spur of the moment character encounters. More like it was when I was a kid. Definitely few and far between these days!

It's been said numerous times already, but I'm so glad for you and your family that your DH is OK.

Your PP session on the way to CP gave you some beautiful pics! Very nice! I love breakfast food, but haven't tried CP yet. Hopefully someday. We've done dinner there and weren't thrilled. But breakfast is always better! Great tip to ask for the check right away.

So funny how the boys were so intent on winning the Dumbo Dash. Thankfully everything worked out for them!

Great pics with Donald! Do your boys not like Splash Mountain at all, or just not this day?

Thanks for the well wishes for DH! I love those PP pictures from that morning! Symbolize the whole trip for me. We all look so happy and you can tell we love each other! Little boys sure to love their mommy! It's awesome. Splash Mountain is a bit much for my boys. John likes it ok, but Michael really didn't want to go on it this trip and so I didn't push it.

I have really enjoyed reading your trip report!

Thank you! I'm glad you've stopped by

Love this photo, its like John is saying "but I thought I had some on there"

Great update and coolbeans that you met up with a fellow Diser Awesome that you got the train to yourself too. I love the WDWR, the steam trains are awesome and its a nice pleasant ride after some of the hectic ones around

I like the picture with Donald too. It definitely helps me remember a cute conversation. The train was a fun ride. Just a relaxing moment of fun!

You are getting me SO excited for my trip!!! I'm really enjoying the pics of all of our favorites rides.

Amanda

I'm excited for your trip too! I can't wait to hear all about it (though that means it is over so we don't want that to happen too fast.)