The MAGIC, the MEMORIES, the storms, and HEY! Where's Perry? Aug 2011 TR (upd: Oct21)

[DisMomAmy]

After a wet ride on vacation in July:

At a Red Sox game in July:

 

[beebeeryan]

After a wet ride on vacation in July:

At a Red Sox game in July:

OMG that sign is hysterical! That is awesome! Glad we're not the only ones. Be sure to have them dress like that on your trip!

 

[Disney9.9.10]

Great start to your trip! Isn't it great when you get your room requests? And how funny about your boys and their teams - it is nice that people had fun with it.

 

[Kat in GA]

I can't believe how quickly you have your trip report started!! We just got home tonight - and what an amazing trip it was! Now I need to decide if I am going to write a trip report or just piggy back on Pixie Mama's report

Looking forward to reading more about your trip!

 

[beebeeryan]

Great start to your trip! Isn't it great when you get your room requests? And how funny about your boys and their teams - it is nice that people had fun with it.

Yeah, it was fun! I gotta say, I really liked the Garden Wing, it was nice and quiet over there and so convenient to the pool which we used a lot. It was nice not having stairs or elevators to deal with either.

I can't believe how quickly you have your trip report started!! We just got home tonight - and what an amazing trip it was! Now I need to decide if I am going to write a trip report or just piggy back on Pixie Mama's report

Looking forward to reading more about your trip!

OH BOO! It's nice to be home, but sad when the trip is over. Although I don't feel very sorry for you, you're going back so soon!!!

 

[beebeeryan]

So, we left off it was late afternoon (4pm) and we decided to head back to the hotel and take a dip in the pool. We decided to try out the Monorail to get back. We stopped on the 4th floor to pick up a few things for the room, some bread for Matthew's Nutella sandwich breakfast and some morning drinks. Not to mention some adult beverages as well. Then off to the room to change into swimsuits and hit the pool.

View of the pool from our patio

The boys were in for less than 2 minutes when they decided to try out the slide and Eric who is 5 and could not swim last year (really can only swim under water even now) and was too afraid to go near the much smaller slide at the Wilderness Lodge, went up first, alone, and came down without hesitation. Crazy kid! Matthew was next. That was it, they were up and down the slide for an hour with us taking turns waiting for them at the bottom and alternating going off for a drink. Pina Colava...YUMMY!

My water camera came in handy...

The clouds...it was overcast every time we got to the pool pretty much.

A little slide video​

​

By 7pm we were starved again and headed to the Contempo Cafe for dinner. Kids had the kids Pizza meal, I had the Hot Turkey Sandwich - topped with Brie, apple butter and arugula on Challah bread and DH had the 1/3 lb Angus Cheeseburger - served with cheddar cheese.

Then we shopped a little and WE FOUND PERRY!!! Two of them that came home with us to our room. Making that Perry noise all the way there.

We headed back to the room and to an early bedtime since we'd been up since 4am. Thus ends Day 1. The bonus day.

Up next...
First Steps into the Future!

 

[kokotg]

Another all boy mother joining in! I even have an 8 and 5 year old, too (although with a 10 year old thrown in for good measure). Hooray for a bonus day! It's nice that something good came out of the hurricane

 

[15isto2]

I love the "Hit my day" picture

 

[taymacsmom]

Hi! Joining in the fun! We flew home on Aug. 26. We were lucky that Irene changed course and did not hit Orlando but we got home to CT and she hit us on Sunday morning and we were out of power for 2 days. No major damage though so I guess we were lucky. Looking forward to hearing all about your trip. We were also in MK on Thursday around the same time and rode HM. Maybe we saw one another!?!

Kelly

 

[Pixie*Pirate]

Joining in!!

 

[beebeeryan]

Another all boy mother joining in! I even have an 8 and 5 year old, too (although with a 10 year old thrown in for good measure). Hooray for a bonus day! It's nice that something good came out of the hurricane

YAY for boys! Looks like your trip is coming up soon!

I love the "Hit my day" picture

It's great isn't it?!

Hi! Joining in the fun! We flew home on Aug. 26. We were lucky that Irene changed course and did not hit Orlando but we got home to CT and she hit us on Sunday morning and we were out of power for 2 days. No major damage though so I guess we were lucky. Looking forward to hearing all about your trip. We were also in MK on Thursday around the same time and rode HM. Maybe we saw one another!?!

Kelly

I'll bet we did see each other. We pretty much lived in Frontierland every time we were at MK with brief visits to Tomorrowland and Adventure Land.

We lost a tree in the backyard and the basement was a little wet, but not bad. We didn't lose power for long though, 15 minutes maybe according the the neighbors. I'm glad we weren't here for the storms. The area was hard hit though. One of the guys that was working on our front porch lost his house, washed right away. Crazy stuff!

Joining in!!

 

[beebeeryan]

Friday morning we asked the boys where they wanted to go, since we had no specific plans, this was supposed to be our arrival day and MK was planned, but we did that yesterday. We did have ADR's at MK that evening, but that was a long ways off.

The boys chose Epcot and it was EMH there so off we went to the monorail. We arrived at Epcot just a few minutes past the 8am early opening. They chose Test Track as the #1 ride so we went straight there.

video on Test Track
​

We rode and I videoed the ride as best I could while screaming. We grabbed FP for later. Then DH and Matthew rode Mission Space, the bad side. Eric and I just waited for them, was only a 10 minute wait. We went to look at the cars at the Test Track exit and Eric climbed into a few of them for fun. We met up and went straight across to Soarin and waited about 15 minutes for that ride. Then we went on The Land which I'd never done or at least when I was a kid I think it was different.

After that, I was able to grab FP for Soarin before we left the Land Pavillion. We had a little snack drink break too. Next we headed over the the Seas and rode Nemo. Got off and looked around the Aquarium. The boys could just stand there all day if we let them. They kept asking why we weren't going to eat in that restaurant like last year. We didn't find the food at Coral Reef that great, service slow, and it was super expensive for what you got. Although the view was great.

Anyways, we head out of there and I suddenly realize, I don't have my waist pack anymore. I had it slung over my shoulder, not around my waist. Because I am an idiot obviously. I run back inside to the exit of the ride, sure I left if in the friggin clam shell. The guy at the exit says anything they find gets sent to the gift shop. So we go back into the gift shop and ask there. She goes to look, but finds nothing and a cashier says to check with Guest Services at the park entrance a little later on. They send everything there several times a day. But this just happened like 20 minutes ago!!! Nothing I can do about it and luckily nothing of serious value was in there, I had the KTTW cards in a lanyard around my neck, my camera too. My RX sunglasses were in the pack and the Epcot Passports I made for World Showcase. That's it. I won't die without my sunglasses I guess, just can't see as well.

It's now just about 11am so we start heading towards World Showcase bound and determined even without the passports I especially made to see a few countries this trip. I went straight for the left side figuring at least there are rides in Mexico and Norway to keep the kids interested. We rode the the Mexico ride and then Maelstom in Norway which the kids liked a lot. We even got stuck in the dark on the first part for about 5 minutes. They liked that too. We backtracked to Mexico for lunch outside at La Cantina. DH and I shared Tacos con Carne and Nachos. Kids had chicken strips. I stuck with water, but DH had a Margarita.

I was ready for a few more countries...but the kids started whining so we turned around and headed back to Test Track to use our FP. They must have been down for a bit because the FP line was backed up, it was a 15 minute wait. It was ridiculous. But the boys chose to wait.

After that, they wanted to go, it was after 1pm and they were ready for swimming. I knew we weren't coming back, but completely forgot to give away the Soarin FP I had. I intended to if we didn't use them, but remembered I had them when we got back to the hotel. Oops. I like spreading some pixie dust when I can.

On the way out, I stop at Guest Services and wait probably 15 minutes for someone to tell me they don't have it there yet, but to check back in an hour after the next Lost and Found drop off. I tell her we're leaving Epcot now and won't be back today. She tells me overnight anything they get is sent to the main Lost and Found at Magic Kingdom and proceeds to tell me where that is, at the ENTRANCE TO MK. Check there tomorrow. Off I go.

Next up...
Back at the pool

 

[Mom&RN]

Enjoying your trippie so far! I am the Mom of one DS who is now 16. Not sure where the time went!! We are also proud members of the Red Sox Nation, go Sox!! Though we live in Texas now I grew up in New England. We've been going to Disney regularly since DS was 10 or so. My husband opts out, he came the first time and it just isn't his thing, he doesn't like rides, he hates crowds, etc. So its a nice mother-son trip that we get to do almost every year. Can't wait for the next installment. btw - I love Fineas and Ferb, even though my son claims he has outgrown it and yet we seem to watch it at bedtime a lot when we're at WDW!!

 

[reelmom]

Oh no! I hope you find your waist pack. It is a horrible feeling when you lose something. Thankfully you didn't have your wallet in it.

 

[DisMomAmy]

She tells me overnight anything they get is sent to the main Lost and Found at Magic Kingdom and proceeds to tell me where that is, at the ENTRANCE TO MK. Check there tomorrow. Off I go.

Hmmm... a little foreshadowing here... DH lost his wallet on RnRC in 2009 so we know a little something about Lost & Found.

Aside from the lost waist pack... it sounds like it was a great morning at Epcot!

 

[beebeeryan]

Enjoying your trippie so far! I am the Mom of one DS who is now 16. Not sure where the time went!! We are also proud members of the Red Sox Nation, go Sox!! Though we live in Texas now I grew up in New England. We've been going to Disney regularly since DS was 10 or so. My husband opts out, he came the first time and it just isn't his thing, he doesn't like rides, he hates crowds, etc. So its a nice mother-son trip that we get to do almost every year. Can't wait for the next installment. btw - I love Fineas and Ferb, even though my son claims he has outgrown it and yet we seem to watch it at bedtime a lot when we're at WDW!!

You can't outgrow Phineus and Ferb, they are awesome. It's a good show, DH and I love it too. That's kinda nice, a mother son annual trip.

Hmmm... a little foreshadowing here... DH lost his wallet on RnRC in 2009 so we know a little something about Lost & Found.

Aside from the lost waist pack... it sounds like it was a great morning at Epcot!

Yes, you get my drift. She was quite specific too with her lovely British accent. I wasn't too concerned, I could live without the sunglasses, it was overcast most days anyways. LOL I was just glad there was nothing much in it, it was just the convenience of having a place to put cameras and stuff, now everything was hanging off my neck or in DH's pockets which means he never used them unless I told him to. Annoying.

 

[beebeeryan]

We left Epcot and headed back to the resort for a pool break. I didn't bring the camera to the pool this time. The kids, of course, because I didn't bring my camera, decided they were going to do something they have never and probably never will, do again. They went and joined into the poolside activities. They spent an hour playing games and things. I never bothered to go get the camera, because I knew the second I did, they'd stop. Even my shy little Eric was over there playing games, hula hooping, dancing, playing a fill the bucket game in the pool. And I have no proof. They refused to do it again the rest of the week.

Eventually is was time to go change and head to MK for dinner, ADR at Tony's was for 5:40pm. I'd heard a lot of mixed reviews of Tony's and almost cancelled the ADR, but we decided to just go ahead. I dug out the good camera and took some resort photos on the way. We saw several people wearing Perry shirts in the first few days and the kids bought Perry's so this is when DH and I started saying, "Hey, we found Perry!" or "Hey, where's Perry?" Every time we saw someone wearing the shirt. The kids would then search them out. 2 guys on the walkway to MK were wearing them in front of us. By the end of the week the kids were sick of us.

Before we left...

We headed to Tomorrowland when we got to MK and DH and Matthew rode Space Mountain and Eric and I went on Buzz. Waits were 5-10 minutes, not even.

Then we headed back towards the castle and caught the Dream Along with Mickey show. We'd never stopped to watch this before, but there weren't a lot of people around so we stopped.

​

Time to head to Tony's.

We head up Main Street and check-in at Tony's 5 or 10 minutes before our ADR time. Lots of people are waiting and lots of people are walking in trying to get a walk up. None available. We only waited a few minutes and were seated. Josh was our waiter and apart from bringing me the wrong drink he was good. The kids got...guess...yup, pizza. I had the Lamb Shank with Creamy Polenta and DH had the Shrimp Scampi and an appetizer of Calamari. Now, I'm not a big Calamari fan, although I like other fried seafood, just the thought of what it is bothers me, but I tried it because DH said it was the best he'd ever had and he gets Calamari everywhere. He loves it.

Food porn...

When I say my Lamb Shank was fall off the bone tender, I mean it. It was so good. And the polenta was yummy and the sauce, divine. Very good meal. We shared a Ice Cream Bomb for dessert and the kids got their kids sundaes.

We left Tony's and were heading back up Main Street and DH had both boys and I was behind them taking pictures when a woman grabs/slaps my shoulder and it spins me around. I'm thinking what the heck is wrong with this chick and I look at her and OMG I know her. But it takes a second to click. It's someone I went to high school with who I haven't seen, other than maybe a few pictures on Facebook, since high school. 21 years ago if you must know. How on earth she recognized in the mass of people walking down main street not haven seen me in 20 years...I don't know. She knew from Facebook that we were going, she hadn't mentioned it so I didn't know. So bizarre. Of course, I didn't even think to take a picture even though I was holding the camera in my hand. We spoke for a few minutes and that was it, they were heading out.

Next it's off too Frontierland for the other 2 mountains again. I had the big camera so I didn't venture on Splash Mountain the first time. I decided to try and take pictures of the boys riding it. It would have worked out just fine had the sun not decided to set right then and I lost my lighting.

I managed to get this, but in the time it took them to get to the drop, it was even darker so that drop photo didn't come out.

And this one when they came around the bend to go under the bridge after the drop.

The boys wanted to ride again and there was no wait. I pulled out a ziplock freezer bag and covered the camera around my neck and went with them. The entire week Splash did not have the jets on, so no water soaking the walkway, no jets soaking the logs heading up the first incline from the drop across the way. We barely got wet really. We called it Splashless Mountain until the last 2 days when we finally got to sit in the front and got wet. We hit Pirates again on the way out. Back to the resort and bed we go.

Up next...
104 days of Summer Vacation and We're Gonna Do it ALL!!! Or are we?

 

[BerrysGirl]

Ok all of your Phineas and Ferb references are making me SO happy! I love the pictures you got of the show too... the only time you can catch Mickey blinking!

I'm so glad you liked Tony's. I'm still a little apprehensive about my ADR but you gotta try everything once. Right?

 

[beebeeryan]

Ok all of your Phineas and Ferb references are making me SO happy! I love the pictures you got of the show too... the only time you can catch Mickey blinking!

I'm so glad you liked Tony's. I'm still a little apprehensive about my ADR but you gotta try everything once. Right?

OH wow, I never noticed Mickey blinking until you said that and I looked at the picture. How cool is that! I got tons more pics, but only posted a few. I'll have to check them out for blinks.

We drove the kids crazy with the Perry stuff all week and every once in awhile I'd throw in a "watcha doing" a la Isabella. I admit it, I did, I did buy a Perry shirt. I wore it on the plane ride home. LOL a few people at the airport commented on it.

 

[Mom&RN]

Putting my 2 cents in on Tony's. I see it get panned a lot on the boards but my son and I have eaten there a lot and we've always had good meals there so.... I guess its like everything else, some people love it and some don't. The first year I had ADRs at Tony's I almost cancelled but now I'm glad I didn't and we've never had a bad meal there.