Four Families, One World: A Mome Rath Meets Beverly! May 29-June 5, 2011

[annmarieda]

What great updates! I am sorry to hear you were hurting so bad! That is not at all fun. Looks like you had a prety good day though

 

[jenseib]

I'm not exactly sure what those building are, but I think they are new. I know one gal I follow had lucnh there when she did the new African adventure trek. I'm not sure if anyone can get ot it, or just those on special treks.

 

[Caretames1]

Good Job on tempting the Jinx Fairy! I hate squishy shoes so much! We met Jimmny Cricket at the same place too. I heard he was a rare find.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Y'all remember that busy time I prefaced? Yeah... it's here! Sorry for the delay!

Ewwww.....

I've gotten soaked on Kali before, but fortunately, I was wearing flip flops. Oddly enough, after that, it started raining. And then we got on the bus and it was POURING. Getting on a cold, air-conditioned Disney bus while you're soaking wet? Not the most pleasant experience.

I can imagine! Cold and wet is horrible!

I am SOOOOOO jealous you got your picture with Jimminy, he was my first "fav" character growing up

and you getting wet this is all I have to say

Um... if you and Adam would have gone to brush a goat...

Let's make a quick trip back Rafiki's in December!

Aww the baby gorilla is sooo adorable!

She is a doll! I've followed her story because of the DIS. She was born several months early... they knew momma was expecting, but wasn't due for sometime. The caretakers came in one morning and SURPRISE! Little kiddo has fought the whole time!

What great updates! I am sorry to hear you were hurting so bad! That is not at all fun. Looks like you had a prety good day though

It's been a pain, literally! I love, love, LOVE AK but all the hills make it for a rough day! I can't get enough of that place. Every time we go, we end up missing an entire part of the park. Today, we skipped two. One of these days though... I'll make the whole park in one day!

I'm not exactly sure what those building are, but I think they are new. I know one gal I follow had lucnh there when she did the new African adventure trek. I'm not sure if anyone can get ot it, or just those on special treks.

It was surreal to see them out there. We actually passed one of the Africa Trek trucks while on safari. They were getting some great action from the animals that morning! I think the one thing that would bug me would be the actual ride vehicles coming through, obstructing my view!

Good Job on tempting the Jinx Fairy! I hate squishy shoes so much! We met Jimmny Cricket at the same place too. I heard he was a rare find.

He's rare in the sense that Rafiki's is the only place you can find him. He's regular enough back there for people to know where to find him though.

You want to know my rare find wish?? Anyone from Robin Hood! I've seen the Sheriff in parades, but I would if I saw Prince John, Little John, or Robin!

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

We decided to try to be the family of the day today, so we knew we needed to get there E.A.R.L.Y.. Well, it didn’t work as we got to MK around 8:15a. We got separated at the parking gate (I was a dummy and put my purse, WITH MY MONEY IN IT, in the trunk with the rest of our crap. So once we got up to the gate, I had to get out of my car to retrieve my purse to pay for parking.

Therefore, we got separated in the parking lots as well. Both vehicles had handicapped placards, again, not knowing who would be in what vehicle, and at this point, my leg some slight resemblance to its former self, but the fact of the matter is, I was down to 2 pairs of pants (shorts really) that I could wear without going nuts. Other than my shorts, the actual pant leg of my capris that I brought was restricting and very uncomfortable.

Have I mentioned that I’m REALLY thankful for a washer/dryer in the condo?? No. Well I am. Otherwise I’d be up *S* creek without a paddle…

I considered our separation a lucky mistake. Following the blue line is a whole new concept, and sans caffeine, I missed it somehow. This is where the luck comes in. I went into the regular lot. And was the SECOND car in the front row. The only stinker here was that I had to deal with the little hill that the buses drive under when they drop you off. But it wasn’t bad… this morning.

We met back up at the gate. My compadres waited for us in the handicapped lot. And waited… and waited… I assumed they went on, so off to the monorail we went. The express monorail wasn’t running so we got on the resort monorail. We had just passed the GF when my phone rang.

“Where are you?”

“On the monorail. Where are you?”

“Waiting for you in the parking lot.”

“Oh. Oops… meet us at the gate.”

It was already crowded, so we headed to the left side. The rest of the group slowly trekked up to the gate and we took our positions in front of the turnstiles. We tried chatting with the CMs to no avail… they were a lot on the grumpy side. After a bit, the CM let us through the turnstiles and we stayed to the left side of the entrance area.

I dropped some Mickey mail in the mailbox and we struck up a conversation with the CM guarding the rope.

Now, we all decided to dress identically today to help increase our chances to noticed. We put the girls in princess dresses, the boys in Cars shirts, and us ladies were wearing these SUPER cute striped shirts that Norma picked up just days before the trip.

See what I mean about the collar Janet??? It’s a “signature” of the dress!

Since we now had an hour to kill, the kids got really antsy! We used every tool in our arsenal as the crowd began to pack in tighter and tighter.

The train rolled in, and while we couldn’t see it, the familiar sounds of the opening ceremony was loud and clear. Suddenly the show was over and all hell broke loose. Literally. We were getting trampled and run over from all sides.

There is a reason I avoid the blockbusters on Black Friday. This was a similar experience and I have absolutely NO DESIRE to do it again.

I hadn’t talked to the group about what we were going to do first, I just plowed through the gates and over the Exposition Hall where I pulled up a bit of real estate and parked the stroller. Along the way I saw the characters grabbing people by the hand and leading them off into the park. I saw Alice (she hadn’t nabbed anyone yet), greeted her with a upbeat, “Good Morning.” She returned the salutation and went off into the crowd.

Once we all reassembled at Expo Hall, we grabbed our things and went to line up for the princesses. We got through the long queue and had to wait a few minutes for the princesses to line up. We didn’t wait very long and off into the new room we went.

I was really impressed with the new set up. It was nice and cool and a fun little room to be in. First up was Aurora. (See?? Aren’t the adult shirts cute?)

Then Belle.

And finally Cinderella. One of the 2 princesses we didn’t catch in EP.

Darnit… I just realized I neglected to tell you about a small project we were working on that week. Grandma Norma found a small poster with Jasmine, Cindy, Aurora, Mulan, Snow White, and Belle on it. She bought one for each of the girls to get signed and later framed. Seeing Cinderella this morning nearly completed DD’s poster.

Walking through the gift shop, DD stopped in her tracks and wouldn’t budge until I bought her an Aurora doll. At this point, I’m REALLY glad my FIL gave each kid $20 to spend. That was her major purchase for the trip.

Leia and the other kids didn’t wait for us, so we met up with them back in line for the other side of Expo Hall so Philip, Bella, and Leia could see Mickey and Minnie as Bella LOVES Minnie and hadn’t seen her yet. DD began to complain that her feet hurt (and I’m not surprised… she was wearing jelly shoes and I came prepared for that – I packed sandals for when this happened).

She opted not to see Mickey and Minnie so she and I hung back with Debbie and Linzie while Norma sought a new GAC – one that matched the one we got at DHS.

Norma also grabbed an EVC for that day as well. She was feeling the distance by this point too and opted to not feel like carp.

She rejoined the group outside of Expo Hall and I went over to Guest Relations for a new GAC as well.

We changed both girls out of the princess dresses and into matching super adorable Minnie Mouse tees. You remember those sandals I mentioned earlier?? Yeah… they were MIA. I had to stop at the Emporium and overpaid for a doggone pair of Mickey Crocs so we didn’t get shipped over to hillbilly island!

Everyone got back together and we decided to head over to Tomorrowland and get Buzz knocked out before the lines got crazy. The kids absolutely love this ride. I prefer it over TSM because we get to control the spinning!

Upon getting off the ride we found some more CMs training and stopped to trade pins. After ransacking all four lanyards and hip packs, we saw Stitch head out into Tomorrowland, and of course the kids were off to see him!

The boys decided to ride Stitch’s Big Mistake... er… Great Escape – the ONLY attraction on the planet besides Mission Space and Star Tours that I outright refuse to go on – so I volunteered to take the girls on one of my personal favorites, Carousel of Progress! The girls loved it! They didn’t budge during the entire show!

It started to sprinkle so we found the rest of our group, parked the strollers and ran over to Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor. We submitted a joke, and used a shameful plug so the joke was used. Part of this trip was part of Philip’s 5th birthday present from Grandma so that’s how we signed the joke.

Moving on… it was still sprinkling so we decided to hop on the People Mover in hopes the rain would let up while we were on it. Boy, were we ever wrong! It poured just after we pulled out of Space Mountain!

We were about to have a full on food riot by the kids so off to Cosmic Rays we went. We had packed a lunch for the day, but by this point, we were sick and tired of PB&J! There were no seats inside because of the shower but we found a couple tables outside that were far enough under an overhang that they were pretty dry!

 

[DISNEYaddict4evr]

Um... if you and Adam would have gone to brush a goat...

Um... if you guys hadn't taken so long to get there and then break for lunch for an hour

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Um... if you guys hadn't taken so long to get there and then break for lunch for an hour

UM... SHOULDN'T YOU BE DOING HOMEWORK????

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

As we were eating, the table behind us began to expand further and further towards our table. DD panicked a bit – she’s a lot like me – has a VERY large space bubble. Well someone spooked her and she fell right out of her chair, face first, onto the pavement below. She was fine, but the people who spooked her just stared at me like I struck her. I couldn’t believe it!

We noticed that the line for the Speedway was pretty low, so Leia and I took the kids over for a quick spin. We got a great look at the FLE construction and saw a lot of the details starting to emerge on the village. I didn’t take any pictures though. I was busy driving and trying to stop the kid behind us from ramming into my car (on purpose) after the 3rd time he did it, I had to stop my car and tell him to back off. And of course THAT worked.

Moving on…

After the Speedway, we headed towards Fantasyland and rode the Teacups.

The rain began again, so we decided to grab FPs for Pooh and then head into Philharmagic. The Pooh FP machine was spitting out bonus FPs for Philharmagic, so we got right in line. We covered our strollers in plastic, parked them under some awnings and went inside.

That show never fails to surprise and wow me. It’s just a little gem of an attraction that is grossly overlooked.

We left the theater to find another downpour waiting for us outside. Leia’s stroller remained unmoved. Mine did not. And I had a LAKE in the stroller seats. Someone had removed the plastic cover and then a very cruel CM moved the stroller out into the rain.

I have never been so angry in my life.

Trying not to lose it in front of the kids, Norma came to my rescue and sought out the stroller police to find out what/why/how it all happened. She also purchased 2 Disney ponchos for the kids to sit on in my stroller. We got really lucky that the posters didn’t get damaged (too much). DD’s poster got a bit wet and got stuck to Bella’s but luckily none of the autographs were messed up. I will have to trim it down a bit when I go to frame it, but it’s okay.

The CMs around the strollers were no help whatsoever. They offered us a towel to dry up the water in the seats. When we asked them to compensate us with a rental stroller, they told us no. I told them that wasn’t an acceptable answer. They told me if I had a problem with it that I could take it up with Guest Services.

Guess where I was off to?

 

[DISNEYaddict4evr]

Um... if you guys hadn't taken so long to get there and then break for lunch for an hour

I was waiting for you to finish reading it

As per the stroller LAME!!! and more LAME!!!!!

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

I was waiting for you to finish reading it

I sent it back before I posted!

As per the stroller LAME!!! and more LAME!!!!!

I know... I was hot to trot. Not cool and it did damper our day BUT the sun did come out again IYKWIM.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

When I got to Guest Relations, they did give me a loaner for the day, but gave me the schpiel that they reserve the right to move strollers, yadda, yadda, yadda.

What I told her I had a problem with was that my stroller cover was taken, THEN it was moved outside, unprotected, then the CMs were rude about it. There’s no reason they should have been so snippy when we asked why in the world they would purposely move a stroller that was under an awning out into the rain!

We got our double, and they offered to hold our stroller for the remainder of the day. This was all fine and dandy with me. The next thing I had to deal with was transferring all of my junk to a stroller with very little storage space.

Now… if you have ever put your stuff on the Disney strollers, you’ll know they tip over very easily. That was one…

I called Leia to see where they were at. They were headed over to Splash. Since we were already wet, I figured, why not?

Just before we queued up, again, familiar sounds filled the air. The Celebrate a Dream Come True parade was just around the bend.

DD and DS found a little bit of real estate right along the rope so they cozied up while I hung back a few feet with the stroller. Lack of children in the stroller equals in imbalance.

That’s two.

And three…



DD went BONKERS when the princess float drove by. I’ve not seen her jump with that much excitement, well… ever.

The parade ended and we drove the kids over to the play area near Splash. Debbie decided to sit this one out. So did DS. He didn’t care for Splash last September and wasn’t any more fond of it now.

Debbie decided that she was over it for the day. We made her get up early, she was wet, tired, and hot. They decided to go back to the condo for the night. There was NO WAY I was going to burn a day in the parks and DS was begging to ride the Magic Carpets and Jungle Cruise, so we stayed behind.

Looking at the time, I decided that we would try to catch Alladin and Jasmine before riding any more rides.

Guess what? We got up to the queue just in time for them to tell us, “Sorry!” I asked the gentleman if they were coming back in a few and he said that they were done for the night, but I could find them over in EP. I told him that we had tried a couple days before and they were away. He told me that they would be back starting at 9:30a so I told him that we would try then. I noticed a couple of pins on his lapel that I needed to snatch up. One was a Han Solo Donald, and the other was Beaker with mouse ears. When I went to grab our traders, he stopped me. He said that he didn’t want anything in return since we’d had a time finding Jasmine.

My hero!

I decided to take one more chance that night. I knew Tiana’s spot was really close by. We were going for it!

I rushed over to a pretty meager line and when I got up to the queue, the CM gave me a look.

“PLEASE don’t tell me they’re done for the day!” I cried out.

“Absolutely not! Come on in!”



We waited for a good amount of time, but the kids were entertained by a duck. Me… not paying attention… well…

That’s four.

I ended up kicking the stupid thing after that. Was it the right thing to do?? Probably not. Did it make me feel better? Temporarily.

A Photopass photographer came out, so I knew the time was drawing near. She went down the line doing magic shots for all who wanted to. DS jumped on the opportunity but didn’t quite understand why he was getting his picture taken with his hand put out.

DD saw Tiana and Naveen come out and proceeded to jump up and down like a mad woman. Tiana and Jasmine are her current favorites. She was so excited to see her. Then she COMPLETELY froze up when it was our turn.

The last time she did this was the first time she met Cinderella. She was so completely star struck that she was frozen solid. Tiana and Naveen were absolutely wonderful! They tried so hard to get her to come around, but it just didn’t happen.

From there, we went back over to FINALLY ride Carpets. After that, DS asked to ride Jungle Cruise. Since we were right there, I figured, why not? We went down the little hill and showed the CM our GAC and they pointed us to the FP line… that stretched half way up the hill we just walked down. Seriously… the FP line was the LONGEST I have ever seen it before. I’d venture to guess that it was nearly as long as the regular line. From prior experience, I will NEVER go through the normal line for JC. It gets backed way too easily so we took off to ride Haunted Mansion instead.

I really dug the new additions to HM.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Guess what?

Just got word that Norma got our Photopass CD yesterday!



I'll get to finally show you some of the shots that actually prove I went on vacation!!!

 

[Caretames1]

Wow, I sense some anger issues towards strollers JK, I would have been just as mad if my covering had been pulled off my stroller. Did you find it, or was it just gone?

Love the Teacup photo. I love how you got the spinning in the backgound!

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Oh... it was gone. DD's ears as well. IDK if it was at the same time or later, but they were definitely gone

I kept calling lost & found and we DID get them back, a week and a half later. I actually cover all of this in an upcoming post or two.

I think I will definitely be glad when I get to do WDW without a stroller! (With my kids... December doesn't count!)

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Oh and Care... all I did for the spinning background was to slow my shutter speed down. It was deep clouds that day, so it worked, otherwise, late in the day (dusk) or nighttime works best for that effect.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

We did go back to JC to a much more tolerable line. I guess everyone with FPs opted to cash them in at 6p. Most likely before dinner. Note to self…

It was nearing 7:30p and my silly self thought that MSEP was due to start around 8. We grabbed some Dole Whips and went to see if there was any chance we could find a spot on the hub.

And we did. We found a lovely couple that had some space near them and we cozied up to our spot. on the curb. Two Dole Whips down, 8p passed and no start to the parade. Well… crap. The parade starts at 9! There was no way I was giving up our spot to go back to the hotel so we played with our toys and enjoyed the scenery.

Next thing I know, the people sitting next to us on the curb welcomed about 20 friends… and they started trying to push their way in! I spread out as much as I could (I’ve been told I can be a bit intimidating…) but the poor family next to us gave way to the new comers. Their poor kids had no chance to see the parade at all because the jerks actually decided to STAND! Me being me, I assumed there would be an issue, so any chance I got, I stretched out more and more – inch by inch, I gained quite a bit of ground. I stretched my legs, adjusted where my big ole rear was turned to sit in front of our stroller, etc.

Finally night fell and the announcement that the parade was about to start filled the park air. It was close!

MSEP is by all means, my absolute favorite parade. It’s a classic! There is something about the music that takes me back to my childhood.

FLASHBACK: My parents don’t do parades. Especially mom. I inherited my exceptionally large space bubble from her. We would watch fireworks from the Contemporary parking lot or just catch glimpses of them from Frontierland and we would always watch MSEP from afar as well. One night only. The rest of our trip, we would utilize the fact that everyone else on the planet was tucked in tightly down Main Street to catch the nighttime spectacular to ride rides like BTMR or Space (my youth trips pre-dated silly attractions like Splash…). We could ride over and over with very little wait!

That extra space I claimed during our wait, I offered to the kids, now standing, next to us. Their parents were grateful for the offering and took me up on it without a second thought.

I know they have made some changes in the line up. I greatly missed seeing the Blue Fairy lead the parade but I enjoyed it nevertheless!

We left for home after MSEP. The kids were tired and didn’t want to wait for Wishes. As we packed up, I told our neighbors that we were leaving and they could take our place. There were people standing behind us (and leaning on our stroller – but that’s a whole other thread…). So they way we pulled out, the family slipped into our spot as we left.

The kids opted to take the ferry back to the parking lot so onto the boat we went. Wishes had just started as we reached the dock. We stopped for a brief minute but pressed on. While we were on the boat, I received a phone call asking to pick up some necessities at the grocery store.

 

[DISNEYaddict4evr]

Wow, you and the kids sat there for an hour and a ahld not including parade time? I would have gone loony , yep that is why I don't do parades must be doing something all the time... you get one parade at that is at the party and my mom doesn't do fireworks here ears are to sensitive, hope you got your fill on this trip...

and YES I am just about to start my homework I've been home for an hour and needed a breather I'm getting there I SWEAR!

haha just kidding I meant this...







































But sadly this is not Santa Barbara so I can not procrastinate doing that I'll get to it really How about I say the dog ate my computer?

 

[jenseib]

Love the updates. How frustrating about the stroller. Can't wait to see the photopass.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

It’s no secret that we had our share of less-than-stellar CMs during the course of this trip, but you know what? For every stinker there were at least three others that rocked our socks. I already told you about the training CMs we met outside of Buzz – we probably chatted with them for 15 minutes. The girls were full of life and just the sweetest group of people! The CM holding the rope in EP on our first day was a delight to chat with. The CM that told us that Snow White was FINALLY there. The fabulous CM and ride manager at Star Tours! And don’t forget the super sweet gentleman in Agrabah. He knew I could use a little extra magic and even though what he did was something so small, it really lit a little spark in my system.

I want to tell you about a young man that I encountered during BOTH of our MK days. I had originally not planned to do it, but last night, I got to thinking about him, and how he is exactly the type of CM that would make Uncle Walt proud. He wasn’t over the top, he was actually rather soft spoken, but he had a grin that stretched from ear to ear and he was genuinely engaged in each of the two conversations I had with him. That made him memorable.

The first time I met him was at the turkey leg cart in Frontierland on our first MK day. DS was complaining that he was hot and thirsty, but didn’t want any water. My tank was getting low so went to grab some caffeine. It was a brief interaction and exchanged normal small talk. I asked him a question concerning them actually being open. The rain shower forced them to close for a bit and they were just reopening when we decided to stop. Honestly I just stopped there because there was no line… He kept apologizing for me having to wait but honestly, I didn’t mind. I welcomed the break. We concluded the transaction and he sent us off with a smile. From what I remember, I think his nametag said “Billy” but I can’t remember for sure.

The next day we were walking through Liberty Square and I saw our friend from yesterday standing alone, just outside of Tiana’s garden. There was a big crowd blocking the way so I went around by Tiana’s to avoid the mess. I noticed today that he was wearing a pin pouch that had pins that weren’t standard stock. I asked to see his pins and found one that I knew Norma was looking for.

She was trying to complete a set of the alphabet. Each letter has a different character that starts with that letter.

“Billy” had the letter P. I was separated from the group at the time so I traded him for it. We talked about how one of my group members was trying to finish her set and he made mention that he too was trying to complete his alphabet set and was looking for the letter A. I told him I knew Norma had a few extras with her that day and I would see what she had. I asked him what time he was off and if he would still be at that location. He replied yes and smiled and off we went.

I can’t remember why we split up for a bit that day, but once I did get a hold of them, I asked Norma if she had an extra A. She did. So off I ran to Tiana’s garden.

I was late and missed “Billy” by 15 minutes. I felt bad that I couldn’t get over there before he left for the day. I asked the girls who replaced him to tell him that I tried and that we wouldn’t be returning to the Magic Kingdom the rest of our trip.

I wish there was a way that I could thank him but I didn’t pay close enough attention to his nametag to send in a little note to Disney.

The moral of the story, thank the CMs early and often. They really deserve our appreciation and deserve to hear it outside of the obligatory pleases and thank yous!!!!!

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Wow, you and the kids sat there for an hour and a ahld not including parade time? I would have gone loony , yep that is why I don't do parades must be doing something all the time... you get one parade at that is at the party and my mom doesn't do fireworks here ears are to sensitive, hope you got your fill on this trip...

I actually told Debbie when she asked on day 6 if we wanted to see the parade again or go home... I deferred to the kids. When they said yes I leapt... I won't lie. Debbie looked at me funny and asked me why I was so excited - I told her it was because you wouldn't be letting me watch the parade in December...

And hey! I thought the plan for fireworks was to watch them from the beach at the Poly!

and YES I am just about to start my homework I've been home for an hour and needed a breather I'm getting there I SWEAR!

haha just kidding I meant this...

<insert holding breath smiley HERE...>

But sadly this is not Santa Barbara so I can not procrastinate doing that I'll get to it really How about I say the dog ate my computer?

Sister, if Peanut ate your computer... I'd give you $1 million. It's bigger than she is.