"A Fresh Start" WDW Vacation with a Newbie and the Boyfriend!- Nov TR COMPLETE 2/16!

[rachel09985]

I got several updates behind and tried to catch up this morning before work. At work I have a restricted computer and can't see any photobucket pictures. It's so annoying.

So - how was the veggie burger at AoA? I tried one at LTT and it was not all that great. BK's veggie burger was better.

Your food pictures all turned out really well. Everything looks so yummy.

Funny story about the American vs the European diet. I know the European breakfasts include better protein options like cheese and meat. No wonder they only ate fruit which keeps me full for about 2 seconds.

Great pictures in the queue at ToT and your pictures turned out really good - great colors and lighting.

Not bad waits at all for the big three.

The veggie burger was pretty good! I loved the chunks of edamame. It was definitely made fresh and I could tell. It was actually pretty good! I think it would have been better at a peak time but it was still good.

I haven't even tried to go on the dis at my new job! I am too scared. I did at my old job though! Haha. Fruit doesn't keep me very full either. Unless its watermelon! I loved my pics too. Especially the inside pictures. I though it would be harder to photograph inside.

Thanks for commenting! I feel like no one is reading anymore

I'm caught up!!

Looks like you are going to have a GREAT time at your new job! I wish that I could do something fun like TRAVEL for my training somewhere!

I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by all the buses at AoA other than the stupid MK buses! That just never seemed to run "every 20 minutes" like they say. And you are SOOO right about the Deluxe buses!

Hi! I am so glad you are here!!!

So far I love my new job! I don't feel overwhelmed and I feel like I fit in. Yeah the buses weren't too bad. Sometimes they were but more often they were fine. Boo on deluxe buses too!!

 

[MEK]

More great pictures inside GMR! They turned out really good. I enjoy seeing that attraction every few trips, although I wish they could get rid of the alien scene. I hate that. Yuck!

 

[marDgreen88]

Oh my gosh, I LOVE Wreck-it Ralph! I've seen the movie more than once hahah, I just love it! I would love to meet them!!!

 

[jecskc]

We loved Wreck-it Ralph !!! I hope Ralph and Vanellope are there in January so we can see them !!

 

[rachel09985]

Since we still have a few minutes to kill until Lights Motors Action at 4:30 we decided to walk around One Man's Dream. I am posting this in honor of Walt's Birthday, which is tomorrow. I wish he got to see more of Walt Disney World. He would be so happy, even with the booze in the MK!

I think we have only walked through this once before and it was a while ago and I probably wasn't a fan like I am now so it was more meaningful.

I decided to use my 50mm lens which made it hard because that lens is "zoomed" all of the time.

Look at Mickey back then! He had human hands and not big mouse gloves!

I really enjoyed looking at Walt's desk!

Here is this cool looking Mickey rocker.

And Dumbo up in the air!

Well hello there Walt! Thanks for buying all of that Florida land!

I love this next picture. I loved how they showed all of the park icons in mini form in the glass cases! This one is just beautiful

And here is the new Fantasyland model. I told Emily we would probably be seeing the new Fantasyland on our MK day.

I wonder what they are going to put here when Fantasyland is opened for good on Thursday.

So we left here and headed to Lights Motors Action for our showtime.

 

[emmysmommy]

Wow!! So many wonderful updates! Seems like I've seen those chicken nuggets and the eclair before! Honestly, the buffalo chicken nuggets look so good.

You take such awesome photos - especially from the Great Movie ride. I may have 1 in 12 photos that are halfway decent from that ride but then again, I have not clue how to change a setting on my Nikon camera so what do I expect?

You and Emily look lovely in all your photos. You two are very photogenic.

bummer about your feet hurting... hope it didn't bother you too much for the rest of the trip. I know you had bought new shoes for the trip - which I love the pink by the way! At least you are not silly like me and try to walk around Epcot for 8 hours in flip flops - no bueno!

Happy birthday to Walt! Thanks for the reminder.

 

[MEK]

I, too, love One Man's Dream! It's such a great exhibit!

 

[Disney9.9.10]

All caught up! Thanks for giving me the info about the veggie burger - sounds delicious! I'm sorry that you didn't get to do the animation studio - that is one of my favourite things to do when I'm there. Hopefully next time.

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

didnt realize you had this going on.

Yeah, definitely couldn't change the baby in the bathroom! That would be a little difficult! Lol! It was right when we got on and the plane was sitting at the gate. You would think she would change him/her before but it must have been an accident. It was kind of funny yet stinky!

saw you guys talking about this, there is usually at least one of these on the plans, they have a shelf/table that folds out of the wall on the side, then goes across and makes a complete closed in area.

i figured a picture would be better to describe it, the baby lays down there, and the adult stands in the open area, think the area that doesnt have the toilet is open the closed off area is above the toilet.

im sure my son loved me taking this picture while the plan is moving around 5 miles up, but he was little so i win.

took me awhile but finally found this picture for you.

We finally got to our room (#8837) and it was HOT in there!! I turned the air down but it never did get really cool. You can't turn the thermostat past 68 and even that didn't feel like 68.

Value pillows suck. Luckily I brought my pillow so I slept good.

we had the same issue, we actually called maintenance, and the guy came and said that 68 is the lowest it goes because of trying to be energy smart etc.
he did however move the grates, or the way the air came out, he said most are pointed toward the wall but he turned them into the room and that helped a ton, we didnt have an issue after that.

as far as the pillows i get what you are saying, i find that in alot of hotels now the pillows are really small..here is what you do.

take the pillow out and put it back in the pillow case by turning it 90 degrees, then take another pillow out of the case and do the same thing, you can fit two of those little dinky size pillows in one case and make a giant pillow about 1 and a half times bigger than a normal pillow.

They had an artist there signing. His name was Larry Dotson. I was about to buy a print and have him sign it but I decided against it. Some of the prints were absolutely beautiful. Actually they all were..

we have met him personally on our last three trips, each time we buy something and have him sign it, he has signed a first visit one for each kid...and made others out to our family.

we have two shots of the castle christmas and normal fireworks, each of the other parks major icons.

and the walt disney train at the MK station.

you can order right from his website as well and see when he will be there again.

 

[marDgreen88]

Aww, what a perfect update for Walt's birthday! One Man's Dream is so incredible. Good point though, as of tomorrow, nobody will care nearly as much about that model as they will the real thing!

 

[rachel09985]

More great pictures inside GMR! They turned out really good. I enjoy seeing that attraction every few trips, although I wish they could get rid of the alien scene. I hate that. Yuck!

Haha the alien scene is creepy! I tried to take pictures of that, they did not turn out that well. None of my pictures from the earlier scenes of Indiana Jones or that area turned out well.

Oh my gosh, I LOVE Wreck-it Ralph! I've seen the movie more than once hahah, I just love it! I would love to meet them!!!

I just noticed your little icon with them! They are so cute. I hope they are there next time you are there so you can meet them.

We loved Wreck-it Ralph !!! I hope Ralph and Vanellope are there in January so we can see them !!

I am sure they will be. They normally keep that area up a long time. Did you not have time to see them on your Thanksgiving trip?

Wow!! So many wonderful updates! Seems like I've seen those chicken nuggets and the eclair before! Honestly, the buffalo chicken nuggets look so good.

You take such awesome photos - especially from the Great Movie ride. I may have 1 in 12 photos that are halfway decent from that ride but then again, I have not clue how to change a setting on my Nikon camera so what do I expect?

You and Emily look lovely in all your photos. You two are very photogenic.

bummer about your feet hurting... hope it didn't bother you too much for the rest of the trip. I know you had bought new shoes for the trip - which I love the pink by the way! At least you are not silly like me and try to walk around Epcot for 8 hours in flip flops - no bueno!

Happy birthday to Walt! Thanks for the reminder.

My feet did bother me for the rest of the trip! Shoes didn't help. I think I need some insoles or something from a podiatrist. Emily is photogenic, not me!! I am glad some of my photos turned out good. It was hard to do and I used my auto settings on my camera a lot!

I, too, love One Man's Dream! It's such a great exhibit!

It is great! It is an awesome little walk through!

All caught up! Thanks for giving me the info about the veggie burger - sounds delicious! I'm sorry that you didn't get to do the animation studio - that is one of my favourite things to do when I'm there. Hopefully next time.

I know I was sad I did not get to do that. I will be there again though someday.

didnt realize you had this going on.


saw you guys talking about this, there is usually at least one of these on the plans, they have a shelf/table that folds out of the wall on the side, then goes across and makes a complete closed in area.

i figured a picture would be better to describe it, the baby lays down there, and the adult stands in the open area, think the area that doesnt have the toilet is open the closed off area is above the toilet.

im sure my son loved me taking this picture while the plan is moving around 5 miles up, but he was little so i win.

took me awhile but finally found this picture for you.

we had the same issue, we actually called maintenance, and the guy came and said that 68 is the lowest it goes because of trying to be energy smart etc.
he did however move the grates, or the way the air came out, he said most are pointed toward the wall but he turned them into the room and that helped a ton, we didnt have an issue after that.

as far as the pillows i get what you are saying, i find that in alot of hotels now the pillows are really small..here is what you do.

take the pillow out and put it back in the pillow case by turning it 90 degrees, then take another pillow out of the case and do the same thing, you can fit two of those little dinky size pillows in one case and make a giant pillow about 1 and a half times bigger than a normal pillow.




we have met him personally on our last three trips, each time we buy something and have him sign it, he has signed a first visit one for each kid...and made others out to our family.

we have two shots of the castle christmas and normal fireworks, each of the other parks major icons.

and the walt disney train at the MK station.

you can order right from his website as well and see when he will be there again.

Hi! I am glad you stopped by! Cool pic of the changing table in the plane. I didn't know they had that. In that case the woman should have went to the bathroom. Haha, oh well. Good tip on the pillows! I will have to try that next time.

That is cool that you have all those signed photos from him. They were really pretty. I will have to see if I can buy one on his website or in a store next time. I wanted one of the castle, either plain or in the christmas lights.

Aww, what a perfect update for Walt's birthday! One Man's Dream is so incredible. Good point though, as of tomorrow, nobody will care nearly as much about that model as they will the real thing!

I know, now they need to replace it with the future expansion plans of Hollywood Studios! I don't know if that will actually happen, but I hope it does. Hollywood Studios does need an overhaul in that back area.

 

[rachel09985]

So we had the perfect plan. Lights Motors Action at 4:30 then Indiana Jones at 5:30, then go back to the hotel and change before dinner.

So we headed to Lights Motors Action. We got decent seats!

These people were sitting at the tables on their phones the entire time. I wonder who they were.

I apologize now, this will be a boring post with only a few words and lots of pictures!

We started the show with a little racing action.

Then we had a little Lightning McQueen. Aw, what a happy little car!

The remote control is always funny. Emily really got tricked. She thought it was so cool that they had a real remote control car. Then when the driver turned around she laughed. I love tricking her knowing the secrets and not telling her! Muahhaha

Then some more action!

Emily really liked the show! She is a huge car lover so I knew she would like this.

Then we went on to Indiana Jones. Now, she was really excited about this show. This is the one show that she said she for sure wanted to see.

So we get into the show and get awesome seats!

Right on time, the show started and the stage manager came out and said he had good news and bad news, what did we want to hear first.

The audience said bad news.

So he proceeds to tell us that the back scenes aren't working and we won't be able to do any of the scenes that involve the other scenes(the plane scene and village scene)

The good news? They could still do the opening scene. Woopie, the big 5 minute opening scene. Haha. So a 25 minute show turned into a 5 minute show! Of course that would be our luck!

Oh well I wasn't too upset. I just felt bad for Emily because she wanted to see it. I just wish when we entered they could have told us it wasn't working for most of the show instead of starting the show for that one scene. You would think they would have known 10 minutes before it was going to start that it wasn't working!

Here is our pics from the 5 minute Indiana Jones show

thanks Indiana!

 

[emmysmommy]

Ohhhh... I've never been to the Lights, Motor, Action show so I have no clue about any surprises. Guess I need to go next time!

Bummer about the Indy show... now I have seen that one! Uhhh Indy looks really young!

Again, great photos!

 

[Pixie*Pirate]

I'm all caught up and loving your TR! You have taken some great pictures. Love the safari pics for sure. Ready for more!

 

[Megan Nicole]

Subbing in!

 

[francis6306]

All caught up! Amazing what all I see that I "missed" at HS looking at your report! That's the joy of the TR's though! Always getting to see what I want to add to the "must do's" next trip!

 

[rachel09985]

After our short Indiana Jones show we decided to head back to our hotel. I promised Emily we would go back because she was cold last night and wanted to change before our dinner tonight.

But since we still had a little bit of time we wanted to look around the shops.

We went into the Hollywood Store with all the jewelry and Dooneys and I had to stop for a photo opp with the turkey leg trucker hat.

Attractive...

Then a cast member approached us and asked if we wanted to play a game. We said sure. The game was that we had to guess the character name and movie from the cards. Each card had a Disney character on it. We did pretty well, we only missed a couple. At the end she just said Thanks for playing. Haha I felt like there was going to be a prize for doing good!

Now it was time to leave Hollywood Studios.

Corey and I stopped for a picture and we also got some more photopass shots.

I like this picture. My shirt kept riding up on the one side though.

We headed back to Art of Animation to change and to relax for a few minutes. I haven't taken photos yet of the Little Mermaid section so I decided to do that.

I really like this section. Of course Cars is the coolest section but this section is nice. I think my favorite thing in all of the sections is the huge piece of wood in the Lion King section with Simba walking across.

Here is the outside walls of the Lion King section. Did you know those black outline paintings is not actually paint? The black part is some sort of material so when you look at it the black part is raised out.

Here is our far away Little Mermaid section.

I really loved this walkway going to the buildings. Those lights and palm trees are just so pretty.

I loooved the Prince Eric statue!

Ta-Dah! In front of Sebastian!

Hi King Triton!

Look! He even has a 6 Pack!!! Kind of funny, white hair with a 6 pack!

Happy dancing fishies!

The star of the show! Ariel with Flounder.

I loved her hair. It was so cool to walk underneath it and see it flowing.

We get back to our room and see our housekeeper put my Minnie mouse on the dresser with the towel animal friends. I specifically brought my Minnie mouse plush to try to get Mousekeeping to do cool set ups.

I feel sometimes they don't do as much if they know only adults are in the room.

There were two hidden mickeys in the shower. I loved them! One was a classic hidden mickey the other was an actual hidden character mickey.

We relaxed in the room, I gave myself a foot massage because my feet were in so much pain!

Emily changed into pants and I changed into a long sleeve hoodie.

 

[Disney9.9.10]

That is too bad about the Indiana Jones show! I haven't seen that show in years and hope to go on my next trip, hopefully they have it figured out by then Thanks for posting all of your AoA pictures - I love seeing pictures from new stuff. And that Prince Eric statue looks exactly like the one from the movie - well done, Disney, well done.

 

[rachel09985]

Ohhhh... I've never been to the Lights, Motor, Action show so I have no clue about any surprises. Guess I need to go next time!

Bummer about the Indy show... now I have seen that one! Uhhh Indy looks really young!

Again, great photos!

Indy was young! And cute! You should go next time before it closes eventually. It is cool if you like things like that.

I'm all caught up and loving your TR! You have taken some great pictures. Love the safari pics for sure. Ready for more!

Thanks so much for reading along!

Subbing in!

Thanks for subbin in!

All caught up! Amazing what all I see that I "missed" at HS looking at your report! That's the joy of the TR's though! Always getting to see what I want to add to the "must do's" next trip!

I feel like we didn't even do a lot at HS! There was still a lot I wanted to see that I didn't do. I am excited to read your HS day to see the fun stuff you guys did

That is too bad about the Indiana Jones show! I haven't seen that show in years and hope to go on my next trip, hopefully they have it figured out by then Thanks for posting all of your AoA pictures - I love seeing pictures from new stuff. And that Prince Eric statue looks exactly like the one from the movie - well done, Disney, well done.

I hope they figured it out too. I still wonder what was wrong with the set.

 

[rachel09985]

In honor of Christmastime (my favorite time of the year) I am going to post some of our Christmas decorations. We live in a tiny apartment but we still have two trees and a village!

We also are in the midst of getting 6 inches of snow so I took some cool snow pics today!

Just kicking back and relaxing

Mickey and Minnie decorations

Cool lights

Sleepy pup

I love this one so much!

Now snow pictures!

Here is my disney christmas village.

Here is Lola and Me!