Bumps, bruises, too many teenagers & swimming with sharks! NEW 11/17 pg. 32

[MEK]

I used to ride bikes, like almost competitively, so its hard to imagine it being that difficult. But those things probably weigh a ton and moving a bike forward depends on how light the frame is. I'm sure even those small hills around the boardwalk can turn into mountains when you are on something that heavy.

Congrats to Alex for his gold medal.

Your NYC plans sound so fun. $80 for parking. Yikes!

One of the things on my bucket list is seeing the 9/11 memorial. I did not realize that you actually need tickets.

 

[JPFamilyMom]

Your NYC plans look like fun

Sorry the bike ride ended up being not so fun

can't wait to read about the rest of your trip

 

[KatMark]

Love the Surrey bike story. I decided long ago that I am just too darn old for one.

 

[DisMomAmy]

Enjoyed your update! It's too bad the weather did not cooperate more for your resort day. SAB is certainly more fun in the sun.

The nighttime pictures from your balony were awesome!

Sorry you didn't enjoy the Cape May meal more- we have been twice. The first time was on our arrival night, and we discovered that a buffet was not the best choice when we were exhausted. We enjoyed it much more when we planned a meal there mid-week.

Too funny about you and Doreen and the noodles. You are not the first (nor will you be the last) to collect them and then forget to take them to the pool. The poor things, they they think they are going to the big dance, and then... It's lonliness in the room.

I loved our view from the balcony! It was great no matter what the weather was outside!

Cape May might have been good on a different night... I know they serve different things on different nights of the week too.

I wish the weather had been better too... I'm sure we would have enjoyed the pool more & probably would have used the noodles more too!

well this doesn't inspire me to want to get a surrey bike! Pretty funny story though!

Busy busy you are but all good things

Surrey bike = bad!


Only two more weeks to go until school lets out for summer... then things should slow down.

I used to ride bikes, like almost competitively, so its hard to imagine it being that difficult. But those things probably weigh a ton and moving a bike forward depends on how light the frame is. I'm sure even those small hills around the boardwalk can turn into mountains when you are on something that heavy.

Congrats to Alex for his gold medal.

Your NYC plans sound so fun. $80 for parking. Yikes!

One of the things on my bucket list is seeing the 9/11 memorial. I did not realize that you actually need tickets.

The bike was pretty ridiculous! Down hill was fun though.

Three more gold medals yesterday, so Alex has a total of four from the weekend!

I didn't know about the 9/11 Memorial tickets either until Brook filled me in!

Your NYC plans look like fun

Sorry the bike ride ended up being not so fun

can't wait to read about the rest of your trip

I'm really looking forward to NYC. There's so much to do, four days is nowhere near enough time!

Love the Surrey bike story. I decided long ago that I am just too darn old for one.

I'm just too darn out of shape for one!

 

[DisMomAmy]

Day 4: Sunday 4/22 – Epcot Day!

This morning we were up bright & early but all had a good night’s sleep. We all got ready & finished packing up our things. We were planning to put all of our bags into the van, except for our refrigerated items, which we would leave in a cooler with bell services. Today we would be moving to Sheraton Vistana Villages, our 2BR home away from home for the next 7 nights. We were really hoping to be in the St. Augustine section at Vistana. I’d gotten a text message from Heidi the day before that they had checked in & were able to get St. Augustine! I was crossing my fingers all day hoping we would be as lucky.

Once we got checked out, we headed to Epcot!!

You can see it was still overcast but not raining!

I love entering Epcot through the International Gateway! My notes show we were at the IG at 8:45 but had to wait a few minutes because the turnstiles weren’t working. Luckily they got them fixed in no time & we were on our way in.

Continued...

 

[DisMomAmy]

Hey! We saw that movie yesterday! Oh and by the way, today was Earth Day!

On our way to Future World, we grabbed a KP FP. We wanted either Mexico or Norway (the only two we hadn’t done) & the CM hooked us up with exactly that! We got Mexico. We were getting our KP FP right around 9:00.

Our plan for rope drop?

Zach was very nervous to find out if he’d be tall enough to go upside down. We thought he would be tall enough but only being measured by a CM would tell for sure!

Looks tall enough, right? Nope! He measured himself going into the queue (that’s the picture above) but then when we got to the front of the line, they measured the boys and handed Alex a red card & Zach a purple card (plus one for each parent). Zach thought he’d made it but Alex noticed the different colored cards and knew what that meant. He spoke up and asked the CM. The CM said he was just under. Zach lost it! He buried his face in my shirt & started bawling. I told the CM that we thought he was tall enough & he was looking forward to finally being to go upside down… so he measured him again! And said he was tall enough! Woo hoo!! But now I was nervous… was he really tall enough? Would his little stick figure body slide out of the seat?

I made him ride with me and everything was just fine! Zach & I got finished before Tim & Alex so I was able to get some shots of their ride:

After SoAT, we headed to Mission: Space! But first we had to take a bathroom break & check out Test Track. So sad!

We couldn’t ride TT, but the sun was starting to come out!

On to Mission: Space! Alex was excited to assign us our jobs.

After Mission: Space we headed toward Soarin’.

Continued...

 

[DisMomAmy]

It was snack time! On our way to The Land, we bought a popsicle for Alex & then we stopped at Sunshine Seasons for the rest of us. It was about 10:15 so we didn’t want to eat too much – we had lunch at noon at Teppan Edo with Heidi & her family! Tim & I shared a breakfast platter & Zach got a cinnamon roll.

After our snack break, we got in line for Soarin’. When we were lined up on our little triangles, there was a man next to us on a scooter. The man struck up a conversation with Alex asking him if he’d been on the ride before. They chatted for a minute but Alex looked a little confused. Finally, pointing to the man’s scooter, Alex says to him, “You know you can’t take that on there.” It was pretty cute because I imagine what was going on in his head as he tried to figure out how the man would ride Soarin’ in his scooter. The man explained that he would get into a seat then they would park his scooter for him. Soarin’ really needs an update! I hope it’s next after Test Track is done.

Living with the Land was on my list of new rides for the boys but the line was pretty long so we moved on to another new ride… Figment!

The part at the end when the song starts up & it’s really loud scared Alex but then he was laughing about it. We played for a few minutes in the play area:

Zach made this to email home:

We also ran into Heidi & her gang. We said hello & good-bye as we’d be seeing them soon. It was about 11:20 so we had a little time to kill before lunch. We decided to head to Japan via Mexico.

The clouds were back.

Alex had his Guide to the Magic book & wanted to get started on his stamps. We bought Zach a passport in Mexico. We also rode Donald’s boat ride.

When we came out of Mexico it was raining again and about 11:45. We threw on our ponchos & headed straight to Japan.

Continued...

 

[DisMomAmy]

Dodging raindrops & puddles, we made it to Japan just before noon. Then we had to de-poncho & fold them up to put them away. We made it inside & Heidi's gang was there waiting for us. We checked in & were seated in no time. As always it was a great meal! It’s become one of my favorites too because it is so consistently good.

Alex even tried his chopsticks!

It was fun sharing a table with people we knew & especially fun to hang out with Heidi & her family. After lunch we said good-bye, but not for long as we’d be seeing them again at the resort. We had a few things left to do at Epcot, then we’d be going to check-in at Vistana Villages.

When we headed back outside after lunch, the sun had returned! So it was time for dessert!

First we visited the Kidcot station in Japan. Then we split up. I took Zach & his Kaki Gori to Mexico to do his KP mission while Tim took Alex around to the various Kidcot stations between Japan & Mexico.
Pictures as we walked:

This Haiti area was pretty cool:

Continued...

 

[DisMomAmy]

Tim & Alex hadn’t arrived yet so we moved on to do a KP mission in Norway. This one was hard!

Tim & Alex showed up just in time. There was one clue that Zach was supposed to ask a CM for some information but he was being too shy so Alex volunteered to do it for him! Alex also had a gift for Zach – he had bought him a little karate guy in the Japan store. Then we took a little break from our mission to ride Maelstrom since we were right there next to the entrance. After Maelstrom we finished our mission (which only took a few more minutes) and headed back to the Beach Club through the IG. We still had our keys so we could have gone back up to the lounge but we were anxious to get to Vistana. I was really hoping we’d be in the St. Augustine section! I hadn’t had the best luck requesting specific sections in the two previous years we’d stayed at Vistana Resort. I was hoping Vistana Villages would be different! I had also hoped to say hello to Teena (a greeter at the BC & regular on the YC/BC FAQ thread. But unfortunately she was tied up and I didn’t want to ask the gang to wait for me to say hello to a stranger. We collected our cooler bag from bell services & made our way out to the parking lot saying good-bye to the Beach Club.

Up next: Checking in at Vistana Villages... Would we get St. Augustine? Would we be near Heidi?

 

[KatMark]

WOW....massive update.

I love the pictures of World Showcase from the International Gateway entrance (so nice to get pictures without a million people in them).

Sounds like a very productive and fun day at Epcot.

That was sweet of Alex to buy Zach a gift.

Teppan Edo is always on my mind, but we do hibachi with Nicki and Todd in Naples so we always end up skipping it. But it does look yummy.

Love your departure pictures of the Beach Club (the one resort I still want to try).

Keeping fingers crossed that you get the section you requested at Vistana Villages.

 

[MeMom]

Such pretty pictures of the Beach Club area.

Teppan Edo - so good!

I love that Alex bought Zach a gift.

 

[JPFamilyMom]

WOW!!! Great update, you got a lot done so far this day.

Love all your pictures, you really captured each country. So sweet of Alex to buy Zach a gift. Love your meal, Jack liked looking at the pictures, and can't wait to eat there in Sept.

Glad Zach was able to ride Sum of all Thrills.

Your pictures of Beach Club are great, can't wait to see if you got a room near Heidi.

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

Loving your TR so far, but I'm just wondering why you think that Soar'n needs an update? If it's a problem with the film they can easily just change that out as it is just a loop of IMAX film which is the largest film format used today. If you are waiting for it to be done in digital don't hold your breath on that one as it's not very likely as right now the only projector that IMAX is happy with the overall quality of for a digital projection of IMAX film is made by Kodak and is fairly expensive right now and not likely to be put into a theme park attraction any time soon.

The main reason for this is because of the overall size of an IMAX film and the screen everything is magnified and the bulb is so bright that you could see it from the moon. Also with film they are able to show colors as they are in real life where as current digital technology tends to no show black and darker colors well as film does.

 

[disneyfan61]

You did get a lot done on that day.

Ah I just love walking thru the IG in the morning. Another reason I love staying at BC.

Great job to Alex for 4 medals!!!

 

[jeremysdisneymom]

Wow, mega update! You got a lot done at Epcot that morning.

So, did they let you in the IG right at 9:00 a.m. or before? When we were there for EMH, they didn't let us in until right at 8:00 a.m. It was frustrating as we wasted a lot of the EMH walking to the front of the park (I don't run!!! like most everyone else was). I really expected there to be a rope that would let us go so far and then wait, kind of like what they do at the front of the park.

Trust me, even if the kids could have pedaled it wouldn't have helped on that surrey bike!!! Jeremy was up front the first time around and on the back the second time and it didn't make a difference either time. Based on your story, I think it must be a yelling match for the spouses as I was accused of not pedaling either! Hate that it happened to you but I am glad it just wasn't me.

Anxious to see if your request comes through.

 

[mommytothreeboys]

Wow! Great updates....so much accomplished on moving day!

So glad to see the sun came out for you!

 

[ddluvsdisney]

great update.
You did accomplish a lot.
I love love love!!! walking through IG early in the morning. It's great to get pics with no other people in them.
How long does a KP mission take?
Can't wait to hear about Vistana.
We liked SVR.
Teppan Edo is delish

 

[Angies1274]

Zach's pictures turned out great!! I'm thinking about having Noah do the same on our trip. He loves to take pictures and did a great job when we were at the lake last year. It will be interesting to see what he comes up with.

Aww..that's too bad about Cape May. We have been wanting to see Chimpanzee! Glad you enjoyed it!

Wow! Love your Epcot update! We can't wait to ride Sum of All Thrills for the fist time! I'm glad Zach was able to ride after all!

 

[Chicago Mo]

Was reading "mom2k" TR and she posted this..
I thought you would enjoy this as well....


http://www.shmoolok.com/Blog/tabid/62/EntryId/51/Snow-Whites-Scary-Adventures-A-Retrospective.aspx

 

[Charleston Princess]

Oh, that surrey bike -- I can promise you that we will not be doing that!

Your New York trip sounds like lots of fun! I am sure you are looking forward to it.

Your Epcot day sounds just about perfect -- so glad everyone was able to go upside down on Sum of All Thrills.