Surprised the kids, wife, and my readers w/ a 2 week trip to AoA!(*NEW* 11-7)

Nice spot for the parade! Seeing it at the beginning makes a lot of sense. I think Noelle should have done the "McKayla is not amused" face. :rotfl2:

Wow! Nice work on Buzz! One day I'd love to be on that ride when they have to stop and load. But your wife's score with Noelle on her lap is amazing! :worship:

Nice job Parker on eating the icing. Can't let dad have the good stuff. :thumbsup2
 
Yay for Parker getting a high-five (or is it a high-"one" from Hook?).

Too funny about Parker needing to be picked up in the Monsters crowd. You know what they say: if you're not the lead dog, the view never changes. :rolleyes:

So, were you able to beat Candi's score the second time on Buzz?
 


Looks like you found a good spot! Parker got lots of attention! :woohoo:

I have to say something off topic! Parker's eyes remind me of my Little Guy's. they get me every time!

I haven't posted it yet, but we were stuck in one scene of CoP for 3 times on the honeymoon! :headache:
it was a great spot one we will be looking forward to using in the future.

he gets that alot...we pretty much have the same shade so people always say so thats where he gets that blue from.

ouch thats a long time to see it over and over again. good time to find all the little details.





Love all your updates. Your family is so CUTE and energetic.
thank you so much, very much appreciated.

Too cute! And, yes, Noelle looked like she could care less. Give her a year or two. Then the fun begins!

Nice score on Buzz - shame on you for giving away your secret to a high score (similar thing happened to me last June and I was riding alone - so double high score!)

I love CoP. One of my favorites.

I never thought of watching the parade from the firehouse - but I like that. You got some great shots from that vantage point.

So which Princess for Candi - well I definitely think Belle, Cinderella, and Snow White. But I also think she would make a wonderful Mary Poppins. I love Mary Poppins - she always carries herself so well.

Anyway - right wig and makeup and she could do almost all of them.
yep the next trip for her will be awesome when she gets ALL the magic.
i had to give away the secret a little bit, help when you stop to just keep shooting like crazy.

ill let her know she loves belle so will be happy you said that.


Looks like you had a great view for the parade. Awesome character interaction :thumbsup2

:thumbsup2

I stink at Buzz ride. I know where some of the big points are, but just can't manage to aim right :rotfl:

Cute vinylmation

Love COP. When we were there, one person left, then 2nd person, like almost whole theater. We too had to do a 2nd rotation. I hate when people can't follow simple instructions :(
once i find my laser then i can usually do really good, just need to find yours in that see of red flashing dots.

we were hooked on the vinylmations, we had a blast doing that. i even got some more for my birthday and christmas, i should take a picture and show them to you guys.

that stinks you had to sit through that as well...they should just sit and take it, not like you could just get up and leave other rides you dont like say in the middle of splash mountain or space mountain. :rotfl:


Wow! Candi got that kind of score while holding Noelle? :worship:

I agree with you 100% about the last scene in COP. It's almost laughable now because all of that technology is outdated. Give someone a tablet or something.
the wife has buzz blaster skills is all i can figure out, juggling two kids has given her super powers ;)

i did notice in there talking they have added a little bit of new stuff but nothing at all to make it current with props.


Great parade interaction!:cool1: I love Parker's big smile after the attention from Hook and the Queen!

Good for Candi for her Buzz score! I can't seem to get past 46000 :rotl:

Looks like you are having an awesome day - I think the cupcake frosting is almost a hidden Mickey! Did the band pop up and perform while you were eating?

Thanks for the update.
that is a great reaction smile thanks.


nope no band, i have seen them once when i was a teenager pop up, but nothing since them...i wonder if there is a schedule of performances like that?


Love the updates. Reading the first one I wondered how Aurora looks so nice in the heat wearing that outfit? Must be Disney magic? Noelle's reaction will probably be the same as my son's when we take him for his first birthday. Your family seems to really love that Buzz Lightyear ride :rotfl2: I don't get why people can't listen to directions. If COP is that horrible, just take a nap...


if i remember that day wasnt that hot so maybe thats why she looked good still.

well since he is a boy he might flirt to get some kisses.::yes::

we love buzz always have had a great time on it.



What a fun update. Parker is just at that perfect perfect age to soak it all up, to ask to be lifted up so he can actually see, to find Hook a blast and a half and to concentrate like heck on Buzz. Seriously magical moments, lots of them!

he really was, hope he continues that same reactions next trip, im sure he will, maybe more so being a little older and going on more of the big kid rides.

thanks.
 
Nice spot for the parade! Seeing it at the beginning makes a lot of sense. I think Noelle should have done the "McKayla is not amused" face. :rotfl2:

Wow! Nice work on Buzz! One day I'd love to be on that ride when they have to stop and load. But your wife's score with Noelle on her lap is amazing! :worship:

Nice job Parker on eating the icing. Can't let dad have the good stuff. :thumbsup2

thats funny, if she did that face i would have had to taken a picture of it.

we go on it quite often so seems like every other time it stops for us....here is a hint, wait till you see someone in a wheelchair go in the exit then enter the line...:thumbsup2

happens to the deserts it seems eat all the good stuff dad gets the dry cake left.:(

Great update Dan !!How cool that Capt Hook High fived Parker !!! Cosmic Rays is always good !!!!
we love cosmic rays a visit every trip quaranteed. i was sad they took away the cheese steaks, those were awesome.


Yay for Parker getting a high-five (or is it a high-"one" from Hook?).

Too funny about Parker needing to be picked up in the Monsters crowd. You know what they say: if you're not the lead dog, the view never changes. :rolleyes:

So, were you able to beat Candi's score the second time on Buzz?
i guess it depends which hand/hook he gets you with. :)

very true words, it would really stink to be at his level at a chili cookoff competition. :lmao: literally.

nope didnt beat her the second time, she rocks at that game.




YES!!! That crossed my mind as I was reading Dan's post too. :rotfl:

:lmao:
 
Hi Dan! For some reason I thought I subscribed to your TR but for some reason it didn't take my request. I did read the whole thing so I'm all caught up. So much to comment on. Love your kids so cute. My two boys disliked the characters but my daughter loves them. Her first trip she was 4. Looking forward to reading more.
 


Hi Dan! For some reason I thought I subscribed to your TR but for some reason it didn't take my request. I did read the whole thing so I'm all caught up. So much to comment on. Love your kids so cute. My two boys disliked the characters but my daughter loves them. Her first trip she was 4. Looking forward to reading more.

no worries all is forgiven.:)

well at least you are at 33% for character love.:thumbsup2

thanks for finding me again and reading along.
 
I'm playing catch up yet again. Love the parade pictures and so cool that Captain Hook picked Parker out of all of the kids for a high five. Noelle looks like she enjoyed herself, and she looks very happy with her vinylmation.

Love Cosmic Rays for dinner. :rotfl2::rotfl2::rotfl2: on your chocolate cake.

I'm not sure whether or not Roy & Minnie are forever in their new place. I know they were there in September and December, but that is the Halloween and Christmas seasons at Disney and maybe they move it back other times of the year? :confused3
 
I'm playing catch up yet again. Love the parade pictures and so cool that Captain Hook picked Parker out of all of the kids for a high five. Noelle looks like she enjoyed herself, and she looks very happy with her vinylmation.

Love Cosmic Rays for dinner. :rotfl2::rotfl2::rotfl2: on your chocolate cake.

I'm not sure whether or not Roy & Minnie are forever in their new place. I know they were there in September and December, but that is the Halloween and Christmas seasons at Disney and maybe they move it back other times of the year? :confused3

it was a great parade experience for sure.

she loves the vinylmations hard to keep her away from them.

i think they will be there until the other character spots open up. there was alot of interaction in that center hub there, like 4 characters there so i think that was another reason they moved it for the time being.
 
Chapter 28. Me vs. the Parade who will win Part 1.

Last Chapter left off with dinner, it was raining pretty hard out so we had eaten a little slower toward the end, but it was time to carry on and go to our next destination.

We made our way in light drizzle over to one more ride before we needed to get a spot for the parade.

None other than everyones favorite, the happiest little cruise that ever sailed.

If anything the kids seemed to be excited to be in line again and had another hug session.
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Mommy even got a few hugs, but something seems fishy with this expression.
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Hmm...moving on, we are soon loading our seats and noelle seems to think that she needs to stand:scratchin hmmm something seems afoot here.
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Its about this point that we can see our lunch location where we ate in the second window over from the right hand side.
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and also this point that we "smell" what the hug and standing was all about.

yep time for the cruise to commence.
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in all honesty and to her credit she kept the stink level to about a 2 on a scale of 5 for the ride, so i dont think the people around us were that affected or even noticed it.

but the diaper changing dash when we got off did put us a little behind schedule. (no pun intended.):blush:

now it was time to find that perfect parade spot.

the location we had in mind was just over the bridge as you enter liberty square. the following pictures will help you with the location.

As we find our spot right in front of the stand that sells umbrellas. i figure what better time to get the family that tub of popcorn that you can take home in the souveniour cup.

Well as I am in line for the popcorn, i realize that we are cutting the parade start time a little closer than i would have liked.

The lady who is making it has to stop ringing people up and make a new batch,

score one for us on a new batch,
score minus one for waiting for that batch to pop.

what was my hurry you may ask well i realized that the main reason we got that locker that morning was to stash away the kids light up toys for the night parade and not carry them around all day.

my mind starts to run through as many scenarios as it can within a minute before i order.

1. take popcorn back to kids stay silent, hope they forget about light up toys.
= all is well for the night

2. take popcorn back to kids stay silent, they remember the toys after a little bit and you run up to get them.
= you waited to long to run up and get stuck by the parade.

3. take popcorn back to kids, you run up to get them right away.
= you might make it back in time.

4. take popcorn back to kids, they remember toys and you say sorry to close to parade time, you stay put.
= kids get cracky and you are not nominated for dad of the year award.

5. take popcorn back to kids, you leave right away to get the toys, you make it back in time.
= kids love you, wife loves you, you win dad of the year award and they name something after you. :thumbsup2

well thats it im sold, option 5 sounded pretty good to me.

so what did take place.

well, i take popcorn back, quickly to the kids, tell candi the situation with the toys, she says all nuts, gives me her version of option 1 saying the kids will forget, i tell her to look around at all the other kids with light up toys, parker over hears me say that and asks where his is at.

I say on my way buddy check my phone we are 17 minutes till parade starts at the front. a family next to us was listening in on the conversation and before i departed the dad gave me the look like "yeah right dude no way you are going to make that"

i took that as challenge accepted.::yes::


obviously he didnt know i was a track man my who life, not running but throwing and could throw people out of my way on my race to beat the parade.

Im almost across the bridge when i start to get second doubts. but i keep on.

I use candis PMS skills (people maneuvering skills) i have learned from her over the years, and dodge in and out of people seeing the openings a few moves ahead before they happen. I only knock over a few people and hip checked one old lady on the way to the locker. (just kidding no one was injured i am a professional after all)

Get in locker grab items close locker. check phone, head back. All I need to do is beat the Parade out of its starting gate and Im good to go.

Well No need to keep you in suspense, I could have stopped for a photopass pic with mickey i was crushing the time.

Same skill set on the way back to the family, i made it back in 11 minutes flat. Still had time to catch my breath before they even started on main street.:banana:

Once back with the family i could not resist i glanced over at the dad next to us and gave the yeah thats right, i crushed it look.

:smooth:

something like that, but im sure glenn has a few better smiles for the occasion.


the kids ate some of the popcorn, and parker loved playing with his light up buzz so that is all that mattered.

on with the parade...i was pretty pleased with my pics with my new camera...no flash on any of them, just pulling in all light available to take these.

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parkers favorite float until he saw captain hook a little later.
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he loudly told us this was his favorite and loved yelling for him.

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i was a fan of the dwarfs float.
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and you have to love some american patriotism.
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continued in the next chapter
 
Chapter 28. Me vs the Parade who will win? Part 2


with the parade over it was time to hit up main street for the fireworks. we needed to see them tonight as they were only playing one other night MK visits and we didnt know if we would see them then or not.

a decent of people leaving and waiting for them.

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i will have to say that this was the busies i have ever seen the parks this time of year. almost as packed as the summer when we have gone.

parker found a little friend next to us we talked to the parents and the kids had flashy light spinny wars. they held them like this for a few minutes and just became friends.
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this is our view of the castle good enough to see all the fireworks, and even a few heads in our way, but i guess i have learned no view of them is perfect. either you are to close or to far away or someone is standing too tall.

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as far as the new camera and fireworks shots? i was pretty pleased with them for not practicing ahead of time on these sort of shots. candi took these and i was happy with them....i was videoing and holding a little girl who was trying her hardest to cuddle up to me and make herself little. but she did keep turning around to check them out.

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it was about this time that the one arm was getting pretty tired with her the other with holding the camera up in the air to film, but disney firework power kicked in and let me tough it out.
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the grand finale.
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fireworks over, we head out of the park, but of course stop to get the rest of the stuff from the locker, turn in the key, and make it to the bus line, which now was getting pretty long.
someone was looking a little tired and getting comfy on mommy.
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they were sure ushering buses towards our line pretty fast, we counted 5 buses that came and went and we were still a few rows back in the line.
looks like the tiredness got the best of her.
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as they were loading up a bus in the normal spot another one pulled in next to it and the driver hopped out opened the chain told the people in line to start filling it up now we were going to get out of there quicky. okay dont have to tell us twice lets go.

we load up throw the stroller under the bus and head out.

parker had a window seat. in fact we all had our own seats this bus? huh wait what?

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we loaded so quicky i didnt get a picture till we got off but this is our transportation back that night.
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yep a mears bus took us home. everyone was sort of like HUH? when it came up but no one questioned it we all just got on and took off.

it was nice having a seat for everyone on the trip back to the hotel and able to just relax.

Noelle had woken up when we got off the bus and was ready to go again.

we stopped in the store, but not sure if parker got these this night or before, if not then here they are...his new monorail vinylmations.

we also had our mugs in the locker that day so we had them and didnt have to do the nightly drink dash to the main building when we got back.

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and the one mickey vinylmation that we kept from the days trading.
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the mouskeeper put all of parkers stuffed animals up in his bed.
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and moved all of noelles around in her bed as well.

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it was time to kick off the shoes and relax and go to bed. for a fun relaxing day ahead. yep another water park day is coming up .:banana:
 
Oh dear, it may not have been the happiest cruise that ever sailed for you and Candi! There is nothing worse. Glad it was only a 2 out of 5!

What a dad on the light up toys AND popcorn. Seriously you are SO much nicer than we are.

Weird on the mears bus but at that hour, I'd have just gotten on it too!
 
Oh man, I had a feeling that was the issue. I am glad it was only a 2 :rotfl:

Great job with the light dash:thumbsup2

I was wondering how you were putting your stroller underneath on a disney bus, that explains that :goodvibes
 
Oh dear, it may not have been the happiest cruise that ever sailed for you and Candi! There is nothing worse. Glad it was only a 2 out of 5!

What a dad on the light up toys AND popcorn. Seriously you are SO much nicer than we are.

Weird on the mears bus but at that hour, I'd have just gotten on it too!
im glad it was low on the stinker scale too, otherwise would cruise would have really stunk :)

i might have also really wanted to souvenir cup the popcorn came in.:thumbsup2

we were just happy we didnt have to wait for another bus.



Oh man, I had a feeling that was the issue. I am glad it was only a 2 :rotfl:

Great job with the light dash:thumbsup2

I was wondering how you were putting your stroller underneath on a disney bus, that explains that :goodvibes

i think everyone on the boat was glad it was only a 2

any other disney bus i would not have put the stroller under it but i made an exception for that one.:thumbsup2
 
I remember our son pulled one of those messy diapers just as we had gotten on the Universe of Energy. Trust me...his was NOT a 2 out of 5, but closer to a 3.5; it was a long ride. :rotfl2::rotfl2::rotfl2: I'd say it's a good thing you didn't get stuck on It's a Small Boat to China or it could have been worse.

You get SUPER DADDY in my book managing to get up to the front of the park and back to your parade spot with minutes to spare to make your children happy. :thumbsup2

Great parade and fireworks pictures.

Noelle is so cute sleeping (well, she's cute all the time, but she looks just so innocent while sleeping).
 
I remember our son pulled one of those messy diapers just as we had gotten on the Universe of Energy. Trust me...his was NOT a 2 out of 5, but closer to a 3.5; it was a long ride. :rotfl2::rotfl2::rotfl2: I'd say it's a good thing you didn't get stuck on It's a Small Boat to China or it could have been worse.

You get SUPER DADDY in my book managing to get up to the front of the park and back to your parade spot with minutes to spare to make your children happy. :thumbsup2

Great parade and fireworks pictures.

Noelle is so cute sleeping (well, she's cute all the time, but she looks just so innocent while sleeping).

good thing about her is she usually keeps her halo of it pretty close to the source sometimes you dont even know she goes.

ill accept your super daddy this time, just wait till i am up for the award the next day:headache:

thanks i think she is pretty darn cute as well:thumbsup2
 
The stinkiest cruise that ever sailed. :laughing: At least it's a short ride!

Nice mad dash skills to beat the parade!

The fireworks pictures turned out really well. I love Wishes.

It definitely was more crowded than I'm used to for that time of year! Is there such a thing as low crowds at DW anymore?
 
Impressive! Nice job on beating the parade. :thumbsup2

Once back with the family i could not resist i glanced over at the dad next to us and gave the yeah thats right, i crushed it look.

:smooth:

something like that, but im sure glenn has a few better smiles for the occasion.

Dang, the one I picked out doesn't work anymore. Darned smiley owner/creators who delete their smileys without consulting me.

I think we're looking for something between this
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and this
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Your fireworks pictures turned out really well too.
 
Another fantastic ending to a day! I have to say Cosmic Rays is one of my favorite places to eat, there's so many options!! Something for everyone! Yay! :cool1:

Love the hugging photos, so cute!!

Nice job with the parade! I'm impressed!! It definitely takes some weaving around people (and easier to do on your own) to get through crowds at Disney, I'm definitely the designated fast pass runner because of it. Good job on getting the light up toys in time!

How awesome that the busses were so efficient, I definitely noticed that AoA busses were a little bit better than the Pop busses have been in the past, they seemed to be prepared for that!
 

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