Oh the places We Go, The People We see

jenseib

Mommy to Claire
Joined
Oct 28, 2006
Welcome to my newest Trip Report. For those who don’t know me, I am Jen.

claireandiatdinner.jpg


That’s my Daughter Claire with me.

We just got back from an amazing vacation with several family members.
We traveled Nov. 1st thru the 15th, 2012. We rested our headed at 6 different places on this trip, and though it wasn’t always easy to keep moving from place to place, I am happy to have tried some new resorts out and stayed at some familiar ones as well.

This trip came about over a year ago. My Mom’s cousin Vicki wanted to take a trip with her and my Aunt Mary. Her Daughter Katie also wanted to come along.
After some talking and planning it became a group of 16 traveling. I was elected ring leader since I have quite a bit of Disney experience.
Plans were made, some were changed, and some were a little slower at making decisions than others.
My husband Skip is what is known in the Disney groups as a resistor and he decided NOT to come along. He was not so happy about the amount of time I was going to be gone.

The dates for the cruise were set first, Nov 4 through the 8th on the Disney Dream. We all planned to arrive a day early and stay at the Residence Inn near the port. Soon I decided that I must add a few Disney days, and so did everyone else eventually. I thin decide…heck lets add some more, and Claire and I ended up staying 3 more days after the rest left.
Then after doing some research and with a heads up from my good Dis-friend Carey, I was alerted to the fact that the last Halloween party was on Nov. 2nd. How could I pass that chance up? So Claire and I decided to fly in a day earlier than everyone else to hit that party. Claire and I also decided to fly out of Columbus. My family lives near the Toledo, OH area, and the best direct flights are out of Detroit. My youngest sister, who was not going on the cruise, lives in Columbus, and I was able to get a decent priced direct flight from there, so Claire and I drove down Nov. 1 and spent the night before our early flight.

Plans were finally all set in stone and we just had to wait for our time to arrive. Not an easy task, but we all managed.

Let me introduce you to the crew. This is a picture of a picture. My sister has the CD with the actual digital copy, but hasn’t yet loaded it to the computer, so I had to go with this for now till I can get a copy.

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In the back row, left to right, we have my parents, Joe and Paula, next to them is my Uncle Geoff. Next to Geoff is cousin Vicki and her son in law Thad. Next to Thad is Pete, Vicki’s husband and then me. Aunt Mary is on the end, she is married to Uncle Geoff and my Mother’s sister.
Down towards the front, left to right, is my nieces Alexis and Abby with their parents Rob and Gail. Gail is my sister. Front and center is Claire. Behind Claire are Jude, and Katie. Katie is married to Thad and is Pete and Vicki’s Daughter. And then we have baby Luke in the stroller. He is only about 9 months old and what a cutie he is.

This trip had the usual ups and downs that most every family will have, but I have to admit things went much smoother than I planned. We never felt the need to kill each other for the most part. LOL
We had several cruise newbies and several Disney World newbies as well.

Please join me in reliving a very magical trip with all the places we traveled and all the people we met along the way!
 
If my links are not correct, please let me know.

Nov. 1, 2012, Thursday
On Our Way
Cheesecake Factory


Nov. 2, 2012 Friday
Flying to Florida
Magical Express
Arriving at AKL
Lunch Time
Pool Time
The Slide
Flamingo Overload
Exploring 1
Exploring 2
Browsing Zawadi
Finally! A Room
A tour of the room and off to MK
Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party
A meet up with Carey
A Spin on Dumbo
Barnstorming
Daisy and Minnie
The Great Goofini and Donaldo
Goofini and Donaldo 2
Back up Main Street
Be Our Guest Tour
Gaston
Ariel and Stephanie
Woody's Dance Party
Little Mermaid Queue
Under the Sea!
From the Sea to the Headless Horseman
Parade Time
Parade 2
Parade 3
Pirates
An End to a Long Day

Nov. 3, 2012, Saturday
Morning Views and a Meet
Ellen and Boma
The Family is on ther way and more Animals
Hot Tub
A Final Swim at AKL
The Family Arrives

Nov. 4, 2012, Sunday
Early Morning Chaos
Enjoying the Resort and Another Dis Meet
Port Canaveral
Boarding Time
Meeting Pluto
Lunch Time & Our Room
Pool Time
Bon Voyageeeee!
Beautiful skies as we sail away
Enchanted Garden
After Dinner Fun
Chip and Dale
A Wander Around
Pluto and Mickey and Dopey and Donald

Nov. 5, 2012, Monday
Good Morning Beautiful Sky
Senses
Senses Salons and Cove Cafe
Cove Cafe and a Walk on Deck
Sports Deck
Pulling into Nassau
Breakfast and Detective Agency
Views of Nassau
Pink and Lunch
Our Excursion
Driving Around the City
Ardastra Gardens
Pete The Bird Man
Bird Feeding
Flamingoes and Peacocks
Famingo Show 1
Do NOT Touch the Flamingoes
Scary Flamingoes
On to Fort Charlotte
Fort Charlotte and Driving Around Town
Fort Fincastle and the Queens Stairs
The Creepy Man and Our Lovely Ship
Princess Palooza
Minnie, Daisy, Nassau Views and Dinner at the Royal Palace
Dinner at the Royal Palace
A Stroll Around the Ship
Karaoke Fools
A Late Night Walk Around the Ship
Time For Bed

Nov. 6, 2012, Tuesday
Paradise Ahead
Docking at Castaway Cay
A Little Ship Roaming
Soaking Up the Castaway Cay Views
Time for Breakfast and Pete and Geoff go Parasailing
Pete and Geoff go Parasailing and we Arrive on the Island
Castaway Rays Stingray Adventure
Snorkeling With the Rays
Time to Jet Ski!
Lunch Time
Walking Around Castaway Cay
More Castaway Cay
My Wait at Pelican Plunge
Our Last Look at CC
Good Bye Castaway Cay
Pirate Night and Our Surprise Pirate!
Pirates and Appetizers
A Feast for a Pirate
Pirate Claire
A Pirate Party
A Pirate Photo Shoot and Fireworks
A Pirate Buffet

Nov. 7, 2012, Wednesday
Empty Cabanas
Deck 14
Alexis the Genius and Palo
Gorging Ourselves at Palo
Swimming and Shopping
A Late Lunch for Claire and Dinner
Dinner at Animators Palate
Dinner and a Show and just Hanging Out
Till We Meet Again

Nov. 8, 2012, Thursday
Goodbye Dream, Hello Beach Club
On to Animal Kingdom
Lunch Time
Safari Time
The Geebras are Out!
Family Photopass Time
Dinoland USA
Conquering Everest
Jungle Jingle Parade 1
Jungle Jingle Parade 2
Jungle Jingle Parade 3
Everest and Dinoland Again
Beach Club Room and a VERY crowded Epcot
Princess Delight
Getting Silly on Spaceship Earth
Meeting Tim and Juliana

Nov. 9, 2012, Friday
The Beach Club
Our Walk to Hollywood Studios
Disney Channel Rocks and Some Photopass Shots
ToT, Star Tours and BAD Bus Mojo
The Wonderland Tea Party
Toy Story Mania, Lunch and Tattoos
Tattoos and Toy Story Again
Cape Mays Good Food and Bad Service
A Beach Club Walk
Swimming in Storm-along-Bay

Nov. 10, 2012 , Saturday
Toy Story Mania, Here We Come
Exploring DHS
Another Flight on Star Tours
Ice-Cream Lunch
From the JW Marriott to Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom in All Her Christams Glory
Small World and time for "the" Appointment
BBB1
BBB2
BBB3
BBB4
BBB5
BBB6
BBB7
BBB8
Photo Shoot 1
Photo Shoot 2
Photo Shoot 3
Pooh, Dumbo and Dinner
Ohana's and the Most Beautiful Castle Ever
Laugh Floor and COP
Tea Cups and Dumbo in the Dark
Barnstormer, Dumbo, and Wicked Possession
Wishes, COP and Buzz
Too Tired to Go On

Nov. 11, 2012, Sunday
Good Bye Beach Club, Hello DTD
T-Rex 1
T-Rex 2
Strolling around DTD
Goofy's and AoA
Lion King and Little Mermaid
Our Little Mermaid Room
Off to Hollywood Studios
The Osborne Lights
More Lights and a Round of TSM again
Magic Kingdom and a bite to Eat
A Walk Around the Park All Lit Up
Back to AoA for the Night


Nov. 12, 2012, Monday
The Little Mermaid Section
Animal Kingdom
Expedition Everest
Tusker House
A Wild Safari Ride
Safari Animals
Good Bye Animal Kingdom
Time For a Swim in Big Blue
Big Blue and More of AoA
Magic Kingdom Princess Meet
The Big Cheese
Don't Fly Away Claire
Dinner at the Castle
Let's Make a Wish
Aurora, Ariel and that Darn Sword
Small World and Party Time
Enchanted Tales with Belle
Philippe
Belle
Photos with Belle
Another Dinner
Be Our Guest
We Proudly serve Your Dinner
Little Mermaid Again
Fireworks in the New Fantasyland
Pooh and the Parade
Party Parade 2
Party Parade 3
Party Parade 4
Party Parade 5
Uncle Scrooge and Snow
Time to leave the Magical Party


Nov. 13, 2012, Tuesday
Our Room and Epcot
Figment
Spaceship Earth and Club Cool
Our Mexico Mission
Gran Fiesta
Strolling to Lunch
Via Napoli
A Leisurely Walk Through World Showcase
On To Soarin' and Nemo
Agent P in the UK
Some Fun Photopasses
Touring the Cars Section at AoA
More Cars
Cars Cabanas and Mr. Ray
Blowing Off Some Steam
Off To Dinner
Spirit of Aloha
Spirit of Aloha 2
Rapunzel and Aurora
Aurora and Cinderella
Meeting Joy and Maddie and our AoA Surprise


Nov. 14, 2012, Wednesday
Early to Rise and AoA decked out for Christmas
AoA Christmas Decor
A Walk Around the Poly
Checking Out More of the Poly
Spirit of Aloha in Daylight
'Ohana Breakfast
Slow Service and Time to Mosey On
Last Stop, Magic Kingdom
Another Walk Around AoA, with Pop Calling Us
Pop Century Holdiay Decor
Pop is Watching You
One Last Look at Pop and AoA
Time for Unmagical Depress
MCO and Home



My Thoughts
 
WooHoo! First??

edited... YES I AM!!!

Oh yeah, I'm so here!:rotfl2:

edited again... Beautiful opening picture of you two!

one more edit...Hey! I just had to return the favor, our 7 day trip went to 11 on your advice!:lmao:
 




WooHoo! First??

edited... YES I AM!!!

Oh yeah, I'm so here!:rotfl2:

edited again... Beautiful opening picture of you two!

one more edit...Hey! I just had to return the favor, our 7 day trip went to 11 on your advice!:lmao:

Yay! You win the prize of.....nothing! :rotfl2:

Yep, it was easy to add days. I think we were a bad influence on each other...or maybe that was a good influence?


Woo HOO!!!!!!!

Third!

Jill in CO

Welcome! :cool1:


You made it to the first page. You go guy! :thumbsup2

I'm here!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to you too!


Hello and welcome! :yay:


Welcome!!! :cheer2:

Looking forward to this one��

Thanks. I have a lot to tell. It was so much fun.

I'm here, I'm here!

Yay!!!! :grouphug:

I'm here!

Yay!!! :dance3:


You must be caust up again to see my bat light out. LOL

I'm here....joining from Nov FB group!

Welcome. I hope to get more up today. I have been opnline shop[ping this morning....I need to put the credit card away and do something els.e :rotfl:

I am in Jen!
Now going back to read!

And :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo: I made page 1! :cool1: :cool1: :cool1:

You JUST made it. I still haven't even started catching up on yours yet. I am amazed at how fast you can catch up and subscribed to the new one too.

:thumbsup2 I am here :thumbsup2

Hello Penni! How you had a fabulous Thanksgiving with your grand baby.

Hey, just saw that your TR was up! Not first page, but second will do!

Hello! Second is always good too! I just decided last night I should at least get it started, even if it isn't much.


Set...go! Hello Nikki!
 
Nov. 1, 2012, Thursday

Today was the day….the day we had been looking forward to for so long. But it was a busy day too.
Claire had to go to school today. Of course she tried to figure ways to be able to stay home and help, but I wasn’t going to fall for it. I had a lot to do, actually the whole week had been busy, so it was more helpful for me for her to be away from the action.

The night before had been Halloween. I worked hard that day to get as much ready as possible before we left for the big trick or treating extravaganza.
Claire was a “nice” vampire. So nice that she refused to put in her teeth. Even for pictures. We went with some friends and here is a picture of the kids.

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So with a sugar and Disney high, I sent her off to school. That poor teacher.

I had a project I had to finish and deliver before I could leave, so I spent my morning on that and then loaded my car up with luggage.

Before I knew it, it was 2:30 and time to pick Claire up. She was beyond excited…and so was I.

We went home and changed her clothes and had a little time to waste before leaving. We couldn’t leave too early or we would get to my sister’s house before she was home from work.
I told Claire to be sure she put on her white tennis shoes, as those were going to be her main park shoes for the trip.

We said our good byes to Skip and lots of hugs and kisses were given. He acts like he is Mr. Cool, but I know he was going to miss us.

I think we hit the road around 3:30ish, give or take.
This was going to be boring. Within 10 minutes, Claire asked how much longer. LOL She had her ipod and played with that for most of the trip and I had “Mocking Jay” (the last book in the Hunger Game series) on CD, so that kept us both occupied.

Not too far out of the Toledo area we ran over something. It appeared to be just a piece of rubber road “stuff” sticking up. All the cars were running over it and when I saw it I quickly tried to avoid it by having it go down the middle of my car. It looked harmless, but you never know. Well my car made a horrible noise when we went over it. I was surprised because I didn’t appear to hit it with my tire. A few curse words “might” have escaped my mouth and I told Claire that I sure hope we don’t get a flat tire as we had a long ways to go yet. Things kept running smoothly after that and no flat tires appeared while driving. Thank goodness!

As we go closer, my sister Amanda called and said she was on her way home from work. I think we still had about 45 minutes to go, but we were assured she would be there when we got there.

As we got closer, we thought about using the bathroom, but we decided we could make it. Claire was more interested in finding a McDonalds anyways. I told her no, because we had a dinner date a little later that evening.

We arrived at Amanda’s and used the potty and sat and relaxed a little bit. Claire was talking a mile a minute with Amanda.

amandaandclaire.jpg


I pulled out my kindle to check out what was happening in the real world ….aka facebook. LOL

I was sitting in a chair and just looked up and my glance fell on Claire’s shoes sitting on the floor ……and it clicked. Claire had her school shoes with her, which meant the white tennis shoes were still sitting on the floor in my living room. UGH!
I quickly panicked. “Where are your tennis shoes?” She swears I never told her to put them on, yet I know I told her at least 3 times. Plus she had known for weeks that those shoes were what we planned to wear “on the plane”. So a quick trip to Target was in order before our dinner date.

We found the exact same shoes that she has at home and they were purchased and luckily didn’t break the bank. We also picked up some headphones for her ipod since I did leave those at home in another bag. I just never thought about it till we were on the road and I kept hearing the ipod noises.

Next stop was the Cheesecake Factory.

cheesecakefactory1.jpg


I visited one for the first time in Florida last year and I was hooked. Boy that food is darn good.

When I realized my sister lived right down the road from one I insisted we eat here tonight. We were also meeting a Dis/facebook friend, Carrie, here too. She said she likes any excuse to come there as well.
We arrived a little earlier than planned so I texted Carrie and let her know we had arrived and were seated and to just ask for the Jennifer table.

cheesecakefactory2.jpg


This actually worked out really well for me. I have to admit, I wasn’t sure exactly what Carrie looked like …..because she doesn’t post many pictures of herself online ……shame on you Carrie. I knew she would probably recognize me first, since I am kind of unusual, LOL, but this worked out great.
She was brought to our table soon after we arrived and we introduced her to Amanda and Claire and we all chatted. She was really easy to talk to and a big Disney fan as well.

We soon were brought bread, which was really good, and Claire devoured a lot of it.

cheescakebread.jpg


Then we settled in to make our dinner choices.
 

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