12-13-2010, 09:13 PM
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#1 |
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DIS Veteran
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Southern Ontario
Posts: 3,356
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A Disney Dream Come True - Nov/Dec TR ~ Oct10 Another TR :)
 Hello and welcome to my family’s November/December trip report. If you’d like to read the planning that went into this trip, check out my PTR, complete with Handy Manny chapter links --> HERE – Disney Dreaming!  To summarize the details, we stayed at the Pop Century Resort from November 27th to December 7th. This was our fifth trip to the Happiest Place on Earth but it was our first time going at Christmas and the first time ever for my oldest son’s girlfriend who joined us. Our August trip last year was all about slowing down the pace and not trying to do everything. An easier philosophy on your fourth trip at the same time of the year….. but this trip was about trying to accomplish as much of a Disney Christmas as possible, because I didn’t know if we could ever do it again. Did we find the balance? I hope you keep reading to find out, I’d love to have you follow along! My family chided me the entire trip about how many photos and video I took  so there’ll be lots to see if you do….. Yay you’re still reading! Ok, so without further ado, here are my Cast of Characters.  Me – Tracy I’m the emotional one in the family, always striving to find family time. I’m the glass half full person always looking for the fun in things and the planner extraordinaire of this vacation. I put a lot of heart and soul into this trip and had to learn to not take things personally if someone wasn’t enjoying themselves as much as I was.  DH – George George is also a glass half full kinda guy and he’s brutally honest about everything. His tell it like it is manner can be taken in different ways depending on what you want to hear and how well you know him. He was reluctant to let go of the slower pace for this vacation and it took him a few days in to relax and start enjoying himself.  DS15 – Alex Alex gets his goofiness from his Mom and his height from his Dad, or Pops as he calls him. He’s a bright, caring young man who also looks for the fun in things. He’s a budding director hoping to pursue a career in the film industry and this past summer we split the cost with him of a good hard drive video camera that he brought with him. He was very happy we extended the invitation to his girlfriend to join us…..  DS15GF14 (boy that looks weird eh?) – Kathryn Kathryn’s personality is strikingly similar to George – very sarcastic and tell it like it is. So of course, they clash - but George eventually found the best way to deal with it. She’d never been to Disney before and was very excited about coming with us. There was drama in the days leading up to this trip and a question if she could even go, but in the end all the pieces fell into place. DD14 – Ariana Ariana is the inspiration for our Disney trips. She absolutely adores anything and everything to do with Disney, with a particular fondness for Princesses. Her days are spent quoting favorite scenes from Disney movies and her free time consists of surfing the net and watching youtube videos of anything remotely connected to Disney. Her favorite holiday of the year is Christmas – the trees, the presents, the Christmas carols, snow angels, lights and decorations……. so going to Disney at Christmas was The Dream. Ariana was diagnosed with autism at the age of three and struggles with communication, attentiveness and sitting still. She tends to wander as she has little sense of danger and if she sees something she wants, she goes for it. That came into play a LOT this trip.  DS5 – Demetri Demetri loves our Disney vacations almost as much as Ariana does. He’s always asking how soon until our next trip and he was really excited about all the new rides this year he was tall enough to try. He’s freakishly cute and energetic and wants to do everything. This was also the first trip in which he deemed himself too old for naps…… So there you have it. Our party of six. Welcome aboard and I hope you enjoy reading along as I share our trip with you! Chapter Links: Welcome and Cast of Characters – you’re here! Day 1 - Arrival Day and Checking in! HERE Day 2 - Magic Kingdom and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party PART ONE PART TWO PART THREE PART FOUR PHOTOPASS PICS NOW HERE! Click here to catch up on Day 2 and HERE TOO Day 3 - Hollywood Studios PART ONE PART TWO PART THREE PART FOUR PART FIVE Day 4 - Hollywood Studios PART ONE PART TWO PART THREE PART FOUR PART FIVE PART SIX PART SEVEN Catch up on Photopass Pics for DHS days - click here! Day 5 - Animal Kingdom PART ONE PART TWO PART THREE PART FOUR PART FIVE PART SIX PART SEVEN PART EIGHT PART NINE Day 6 - RESORT and DOWNTOWN DISNEY PART ONE PART TWO PART THREE PART FOUR PART FIVE PART SIX PART SEVEN Day 7 - Epcot PART ONE PART TWO PART THREE PART FOUR PART FIVE PART SIX Day 8 - Magic Kingdom / Boardwalk PART ONE PART TWO PART THREE PART FOUR PART FIVE PART SIX PART SEVEN PART EIGHT NON-TR STUFF... Our Lion King the Musical Day
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Tracy
 (Me) | George  (DH) | Alex  (DS17) | Ariana  (DD16) | Demetri  (DS7) DINGLEHOPPERS AND SNARFBLATS! A Sept/Oct 2012 at AoA TR  OUR GAWRSH DARN SPOOKTACULAR HALLOWEEN TRIP! A Sept/Oct 2011 TR SPECTRUM MOM'S TAKE ON THE WORLD! A Jan 2011 Group PTR/TR A DISNEY DREAM COME TRUE! A Nov/Dec 2010 TR TEN SLEEPS IN DISNEY WORLD! An Aug 2009 TR- Last edited by Mickey_Mom; 10-10-2011 at 03:47 PM. |
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12-13-2010, 09:20 PM
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#2 |
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DIS Veteran
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 4,164
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I'm here!
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 Danielle In progress TRs: Business Trip to San Diego? I'M GOING TO DIDNEYRAND!!! - Apr 13 TR And This is Why They Added DOORS to the TRAM!!!! - Nov 12 TR Dork Wars Episode II: The Revenge of Joaquin - A Nov. 12 / Jul. 13 PTR Um, Where's the Ice?! - A July European and DLRP Adventure Completed TRs:Jan.12 Nov. '11 July '11 Feb. '11 Nov. 10 and Jan. 11 Oct. '09. |
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12-13-2010, 09:24 PM
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#3 |
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DIS Veteran
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Southern Ontario
Posts: 3,356
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Saturday, November 27th
Day 1 – Arrival Day Weather: high of 70 degrees, low of 58 degrees What we wore: pants and t-shirts The morning we left for the airport, I wasn’t sure what to expect. We’d heard the night before of a snow storm in Buffalo  so we knew to factor that into our travel time to get there, plus we were anticipating the worst crossing the border from Canada to the US because Kathryn was with us. Kathryn’s parents are divorced so it’d been recommended to us that we have an abundance of documentation proving that she had permission to travel with us and leave the country. Her Canadian passport had not arrived until the last moment – the aforementioned drama - but we had it with days to spare and we were also armed with her birth certificate, proof of her Mom’s custody, a letter from her saying we had permission for her to accompany us and a letter from her Father acknowledging permission too. We’d called ahead to Southwest and confirmed they didn’t need anything over and above her passport to travel with us, but just in case, we wanted to make sure we gave ourselves plenty of time. So having finished the majority of the packing the night before, we all got up at the obscene hour of 5:30am to ensure we were pulling out of the driveway at 6:00am. Yuck!First stop – Tim Hortons!  Fellow Canadians know of this vital first step for the best cup of coffee to ensure your day starts in the best possible way. Next, on to the US / Canadian border to hopefully choose the line that had the nice border guard. We were confident we had all we needed, but you never know. When it’s our turn, we roll up and open the sliding door of the van so all occupants can be seen and we dutifully hand over all of our passports to the very solemn looking guard. Being the comedic bunch that we are, we crack a joke to make the guy smile, but no such luck and he just wants to know where we’re going. George pipes up, “Disneyland” and I clamp my lips shut.  After what seemed like an inordinate amount of time inspecting our passports but not asking for anymore documentation then that – he finally waves us through. A quick Facebook post to announce our victory and we’re off! We made it!This time there’d been a bit of a wait in the line up to cross the border, but we were still ahead of schedule. The weather in Buffalo ended up not being a factor at all and though you could tell it had snowed, there was nothing left to indicate it’d been anything substantial and would delay our flight. Heading straight to the airport - like our August trip, we once again stopped first at the Denny’s to have breakfast. George and I talked about what might happen should Ariana have to go through those new body scanners at the airport. I’d watched a video from the Southwest website before leaving to know what to expect and wondered what might happen if Ariana was in a ‘mood’ and refused to do it. We’d have to wait and see.  After breakfast, we had no problems parking and shuttling into the terminal and the body scanners ended up being a non issue. For whatever reason they weren’t having anyone go through them at all. Woohoo!  Passing through security and down to our gate, we settled in for a short wait for our plane to arrive. They made an announcement that our plane was being deiced….   …. and we had just enough time to skip over to the airport gift shop for a quick look around.   I’d forgotten until pretty late the night before to do the online check-in with Southwest for our flight, so we were among the last to board. The ‘families with strollers rule’ changed this time and only families with children four and under were allowed to board first. By the time we got on the plane, no two seats were left together and we each sat in six different seats. I should have piped up and requested earlier that we get at least two seats together so Ariana wouldn’t be on her own, but the best they could do in the end was find two that were in front of one another and across the aisle so George could keep her in his site. She did well for the two and a half hour flight and most of the rest of us napped. Landing at MCO was a huge thrill and I loved the huge tree they had up.  On the Minnie monorail it felt nice not having the air conditioning blowing on us full steam to combat the August humidity. We walked straight through the Magical Express lines to an awaiting bus – our first time on a Cruise line bus.    Demetri loved looking out the porthole windows…   …. and very quickly, one of my very favorite videos started up.  The bus driver announced we were approaching the welcome arch but because we’d been the last family to get on board (again!) we were literally in the last seats available and I had no chance at getting a picture.   Seemed our usual good luck at timing was ‘off’ so far on this trip. Well, it was early…. can we really expect pixiedust all the time? Arriving at Pop Century, we hurried in to see where we’d end up. I’d requested an upper level in a refurbed room in the 50’s building. We’d had Building 1 for our August trip and it was the perfect spot, steps away from the main building and really convenient. Not that there were any ‘bad’ rooms at the Pop, but we were hoping to get that again. There was no one in the on-line check in area so we didn’t even pause for decorations, we just headed straight in. We’d been set up with two co-joining rooms in the 90’s section on the third floor almost exactly where we’d been on our first trip in 2006. Not the 50’s building, but it too was really convenient to just cut across the parking lot to the main building.       CONTINUED IN NEXT POST.....
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Tracy
(Me) | George (DH) | Alex (DS17) | Ariana (DD16) | Demetri (DS7) DINGLEHOPPERS AND SNARFBLATS! A Sept/Oct 2012 at AoA TR OUR GAWRSH DARN SPOOKTACULAR HALLOWEEN TRIP! A Sept/Oct 2011 TR SPECTRUM MOM'S TAKE ON THE WORLD! A Jan 2011 Group PTR/TR A DISNEY DREAM COME TRUE! A Nov/Dec 2010 TR TEN SLEEPS IN DISNEY WORLD! An Aug 2009 TR- Last edited by Mickey_Mom; 12-21-2010 at 04:34 PM. |
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12-13-2010, 09:29 PM
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#4 |
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DIS Veteran
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Southern Ontario
Posts: 3,356
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     The Pop rooms are small but with three of us in each room and the door between always open, it wasn’t too bad at all. I’m sure I’ll be spoiled with the extra space we’ll have on the Spectrum Mom’s trip, but then again – there will be seven of us!  The plan for arrival day had always been to grab a rental car from the airport which George would drive in while the rest of us were on the ME, get to the Pop and unpack and decide from there what order we would go in to accomplish swimming if it was warm enough, eating counter service dinner and shopping at Walmart for room snackies and souveniers. George decided instead to come in on the ME too and get a rental when we reached the resort. Don’t do this. We ended up paying twice the amount and he wasted a lot of time being picked up and he got lost coming back. He also ended up seeing a discount store on the way back to the resort and decided he wanted to go there before Walmart for souveniers. Don’t do this. We ended up paying too much for the exact same merchandise and wasted a lot of time because we got lost trying to find the darn store. We’d completely settled in and decorated the room windows while George was getting the rental car and then we headed to the main building through the gift shop for dinner and entertainment.     Finally got to try the tie dye cheesecake and LOVED it. Soooo good! While everyone was finishing up dinner, I wandered and finally started to look at all the Christmas decorations throughout the lobby area and gift shop.       CONTINUED IN NEXT POST......
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Tracy
(Me) | George (DH) | Alex (DS17) | Ariana (DD16) | Demetri (DS7) DINGLEHOPPERS AND SNARFBLATS! A Sept/Oct 2012 at AoA TR OUR GAWRSH DARN SPOOKTACULAR HALLOWEEN TRIP! A Sept/Oct 2011 TR SPECTRUM MOM'S TAKE ON THE WORLD! A Jan 2011 Group PTR/TR A DISNEY DREAM COME TRUE! A Nov/Dec 2010 TR TEN SLEEPS IN DISNEY WORLD! An Aug 2009 TR- Last edited by Mickey_Mom; 12-21-2010 at 04:36 PM. |
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12-13-2010, 09:37 PM
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#5 |
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DIS Veteran
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Southern Ontario
Posts: 3,356
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        My family joined me and we headed out the front to our rental and to embark on our far-too-long shopping excursion to the discount store and Walmart.      As we were heading back to the resort, I was excited to approach the Welcome arch again – I can get a great picture after all!  Oh well.   Settling back into the rooms, Alex had just hopped into the shower when we heard fireworks going on outside. We stepped out of our room to see….   What a treat for our first night! After a few pictures I switched to video – enjoy!  And so wraps up our first day.  Hope you continue along on my TR…. for now, here’s a sneak peak at my next update. Where do you think we were? See you then!
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Tracy
(Me) | George (DH) | Alex (DS17) | Ariana (DD16) | Demetri (DS7) DINGLEHOPPERS AND SNARFBLATS! A Sept/Oct 2012 at AoA TR OUR GAWRSH DARN SPOOKTACULAR HALLOWEEN TRIP! A Sept/Oct 2011 TR SPECTRUM MOM'S TAKE ON THE WORLD! A Jan 2011 Group PTR/TR A DISNEY DREAM COME TRUE! A Nov/Dec 2010 TR TEN SLEEPS IN DISNEY WORLD! An Aug 2009 TR- |
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12-13-2010, 09:38 PM
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#6 | |
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DIS Veteran
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Southern Ontario
Posts: 3,356
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Quote:
You're fast, I haven't even sent the link out yet!
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Tracy
(Me) | George (DH) | Alex (DS17) | Ariana (DD16) | Demetri (DS7) DINGLEHOPPERS AND SNARFBLATS! A Sept/Oct 2012 at AoA TR OUR GAWRSH DARN SPOOKTACULAR HALLOWEEN TRIP! A Sept/Oct 2011 TR SPECTRUM MOM'S TAKE ON THE WORLD! A Jan 2011 Group PTR/TR A DISNEY DREAM COME TRUE! A Nov/Dec 2010 TR TEN SLEEPS IN DISNEY WORLD! An Aug 2009 TR- |
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12-13-2010, 10:03 PM
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#7 |
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Loves All Things Disney!
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Home in Florida and Texas
Posts: 8,157
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I'm here I'm here!!!
I just love DIsney at Christmas time!!!! Can't wait for more!
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 My Magical Trips to Disney:6/2012,1/2012,10/2011, 6/2011, 5/2011, 1/2011, 5/2010, 1/2010, 10/2009, 5/2009, 1/2009, 3/2007, 5/2005 , 10/1992: First Trip to Disney (Thanks Dad!) |
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12-13-2010, 10:14 PM
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#8 |
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I'm just a big Disney Freak! :-)
I will throw a party the day I get a tag!!! I am pretty wimpy when it comes to thrill rides 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 12,041
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I'm here to get my Disney holiday fix! Great start...you sure do have a lot of pictures. haha
Looking forward to more...
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I *HEART* WALT DISNEY WORLD!! been there, done that, GOING BACK!
'91-Disney villas '93, '95, '97, '99, '01, '02-Polynesian '03-All Star Sports '05-All Star Movies; offsite- Universal/Disney Oct. '06, Dec. '07/Jan. '08-Saratoga Springs May '08-Animal Kingdom Lodge Dec. '08-Beach Club Villas Aug. '09-Villas @ the Wilderness Lodge April '10-Kidani Village Aug. '10-Saratoga Springs Mar. '11-Old Key West Oct. '11-Saratoga Springs April '12-Boardwalk Villas April '13-Bay Lake Tower UPCOMING TRIPS: ??(hopefully) Dec. '13-Saratoga Springs?? *DVC member since 2006* Disneyland- '04, '06 Check out my past TRs: Mar./April '11 Oct. '11 CURRENT TR: APRIL '13 TR APRIL '13 PTR facebook Twitter/Instagram:mugirl0307    |
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12-13-2010, 10:15 PM
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#9 |
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DIS Veteran
Join Date: May 2009
Location: 1.5 hours from WDW in Bradenton, FL
Posts: 844
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I'm here! What a great start!!!! Would you believe that I didn't end up taking a single picture of the decorations at POP?! Well, actually I did, I took a picture of our window all decorated! Can't wait to read more!
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Me (Erin)  DH (Toby)  DD4 (Olivia)  |
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12-13-2010, 10:31 PM
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#10 |
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Jambo Wildbunch Gang
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 11,146
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I'm joining in! I can't read it all right now, DH is itchin' to use the computer, but I WILL be back!
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Jan Disneyland TR: No way Jose! We are going to Disneyland! Blog: got mickey bar?  Aug 2011 - Pop/YC/OKW ... May 2011 - ASMo ... Feb/March 2011 - BWV/BLT ... Sept 2010 - BWV ... Dec/Jan 2009/10 - AKV ... Sept 2009 - CSR ... Jan 2009 - SSR ... Nov 2008 - WL ... Oct 2006 - AKL |
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12-13-2010, 10:36 PM
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#11 | ||||
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DIS Veteran
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Southern Ontario
Posts: 3,356
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Quote:
Quote:
Oh I took a TON of pictures! Quote:
It was so nice to just relax and watch the fireworks right outside our door. Can't wait to get started on your TR too! Quote:
Glad you've joined in!
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Tracy
(Me) | George (DH) | Alex (DS17) | Ariana (DD16) | Demetri (DS7) DINGLEHOPPERS AND SNARFBLATS! A Sept/Oct 2012 at AoA TR OUR GAWRSH DARN SPOOKTACULAR HALLOWEEN TRIP! A Sept/Oct 2011 TR SPECTRUM MOM'S TAKE ON THE WORLD! A Jan 2011 Group PTR/TR A DISNEY DREAM COME TRUE! A Nov/Dec 2010 TR TEN SLEEPS IN DISNEY WORLD! An Aug 2009 TR- |
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12-13-2010, 11:29 PM
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#12 |
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DIS Veteran
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Northern New York
Posts: 2,355
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I'm here!
So happy you started!! I'm loving all your pictures at Pop!! Ahh...it brings back such great memories!  The Christmas decoration look amazing!!!So glad you liked the tie dye cheesecake! Yum! It's a must have for me!  Sorry you didn't get the 50's section....but I agree that the 90's is great too!! Especially with that view!! Wow! What a great way to end the night! (loved the video too....so cute!)
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Angie (me)  DH  DS12 DS10WDW trips-- (POP Century)--April 2008,April & August 2009,April 2010,July 2012 |
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12-14-2010, 01:02 AM
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#13 |
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DIS Veteran
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: East York (Toronto), Ontario, Canada
Posts: 1,933
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Just a fellow Canuck coming bye to subscribe and say Hi! Also the term you were looking for for your room type is Connecting not Co-joining
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Heading West for DPN WestFest 2010 - TR underway F & F at the DLR! Fun and planing for DPN WestFest 2011
You can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world, but it takes people to make the dream a reality. - Walt Disney |
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12-14-2010, 08:59 AM
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#14 | ||
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DIS Veteran
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Southern Ontario
Posts: 3,356
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Quote:
 Our rooms were in a great spot, very little outside noise and no plumbing noises either. The kids played a game every day spotting the different license plates through the parking lot and though we didn't catch the fireworks again for the rest of the trip, it was the perfect way to end our first night. Not sure if you caught Demetri in the video close to the start, but he'd turned to Kathryn and said, "Holy macaroni! This is your best day of your life - it has to!"  Quote:
guess I made up that word. Hello fellow Canuck and
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Tracy
(Me) | George (DH) | Alex (DS17) | Ariana (DD16) | Demetri (DS7) DINGLEHOPPERS AND SNARFBLATS! A Sept/Oct 2012 at AoA TR OUR GAWRSH DARN SPOOKTACULAR HALLOWEEN TRIP! A Sept/Oct 2011 TR SPECTRUM MOM'S TAKE ON THE WORLD! A Jan 2011 Group PTR/TR A DISNEY DREAM COME TRUE! A Nov/Dec 2010 TR TEN SLEEPS IN DISNEY WORLD! An Aug 2009 TR- |
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12-14-2010, 10:09 AM
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#15 |
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DIS Veteran
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Central CT
Posts: 563
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I am here and loving all the pictures.
Looking forward to hearing all about it! Kelly
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Me (Kelly)
, DH (John) ,DD (20), DD (18), DS (7)May '82 - Off-site ~ May '98 - ASSp ~ May '02 - ASMo ~ Apr '06 - ASMo ~ Aug '09 - POR ~ Aug '11 - ASMu ~ Aug '13 - AoA  |
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