"I've got a WICKED magic hangover." Trip Report ***FINISHED 12/7***

[sarasotamom]

Ahh!!! Your kids and hubby are so cute. Great trip report!!! My kids are all grown now, married or away at college, but you brought back memories of their cihldhood to me. I will never forget the magic in their eyes. Cherish these moments, believe me, they make lasting memories.

[julezdisney]

Originally Posted by Roxychica7

Great TR so far! I LOVE going to Disney during Christmas because of the decorations and the more I look at it, I think I like the Halloween ones just as much. They're so beautiful! I will definitely have to get down there someday during October. Subbing! Keep it coming!

And I can't wait to see it sometime for Christmas!

Originally Posted by xoktenox

Wow what a great night! You're kids are so cute, they "partied all the way til tomorrow." Excited to see how your day at DHS goes

Ahhh... the days of "partying till tommorrow" have passed to our children... at the tender ages of 5 and 6!

Originally Posted by AZMickeyfans

"Its a mall!" Oh my gosh that made me spit out my water. Dont you love the strange things kiddos say sometimes.

honestly, I cannot believe that CM didnt let you in. I understand they have to do their job, I was one of them but with no one around and clearly you had a disappointed child and it was a party that night they could have let you sneak in i would think. that stinks.

I cant imagine you making the 7:45 ADR but I'm so curious if you do.

BTW POTC is better at DL! Just my opinion of course. You'll have to come back this way now and try it out wont you!

Cute sign by Wheezy!

Yea, I don't know. I just feel like CM's always should be on the lookout for an oppurtunity to make some magic and she really missed one there, y'know?

A mall! Yup- even since we've been home I've heard them talking:

"Remember when we went into the castle?"
"Yea, and it was a mall?"
"Yea, wasn't that funny?"

Originally Posted by sarasotamom

Ahh!!! Your kids and hubby are so cute. Great trip report!!! My kids are all grown now, married or away at college, but you brought back memories of their cihldhood to me. I will never forget the magic in their eyes. Cherish these moments, believe me, they make lasting memories.

and
Glad you're enjoying it. I def. have fun and look forward to a no-kids trip someday, however, wouldn't trade these trips for the world. Seeing things through their eyes is amazing. Even if I remember more then they do- it's more for me I think then it is for them.

[julezdisney]

The date on this post says the 29th, but today is the 30th. Becuz I accidently posted twice. So I'll use my own post space to say I was woefully DIS-less all day while the internet was out and now I am trying to catch up!

I am freezing.

My toes and my fingers are frozen, I swear. Tommorow is supposed to be highs in the upper 60s. Woopee.

Ugh.

Happy Halloween! I'd wanted to put an update in today but since the internet at our house was WACKY I couldn't. And with the Halloween activities after work tommorow, working on Saturday, and DH's stupid Halloween party here Sat. night- I prolly won't get a chance until Sunday! Oh well- everyone have a happy HOWLiday!

[julezdisney]

Again, Happy Halloween,everybody!

[Charleston Princess]

HAPPY HALLOWEEN, JULIA! HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT TIME WITH THE KIDS TONIGHT!

[bob6sims]

Really enjoying reading your TR

Your kids are so cute and look like they are having a great time .

There nothing that beats the first visit to WDW .

[xoktenox]

Hope you and your family had a wonderful halloween, make sure to post some pictures soon!

[Poohtigeey]

Julia, I really love reading your report. You really capture the hapiness, and still have those moments of aggrivation that we all have. Too bad you couldn't get Sara's attention. That would have been fun for you guys to meet. I can tell you from experience she's a great gal! You guys really had a magical trip it seems. Can't wait to read more!

[julezdisney]

Ok, it's been tooo long since the last update and I am very sorry!

Ok, so....those of you that guessed that we did NOT make our 7:45 ADR for Cape May Cafe were......

yea. SO RIGHT. There was just no way. We were so exhausted. My internal clock woke me up at 7:20 and I had enough of a mind to call the ressie line and cancel our ressie for 4- hopefully tha was enough time to satisfy any walk-up that was crazy enough to try for that morning. The CM was laughing at me because my voice was like a frog and I said, "The halloween party is a lot of fun. A lot." and told me to get some sleep!

Which I did. We all slept in until 9:30!!

DH said, with a groan, "I've got a WICKED magic hangover."

So the plan for this day was to hit up the infamous Wal-mart that I've heard about on the DIS. The one with the "huge" WDW merchandise section that trumps any Disney apparel and merchandise of any Wal-mart in the US.

Also to hit up Character Outlet at Lake Buena Vista Factory Shops. The discontinued and hugely underpriced authentic WDW merchandise.

Next, was Gatorland. Good for a couple hours of entertainment. Hoping to let the kids wrestle an alligator.

Dinner was Arabian Nights. A dinner show spectacular highlighting horses, magic, romance, and a 3-course meal. Better reviews than the Pirate Show in Orlando and I get to use utensils!


So how close did we follow this schedule? Well, with the dropping of Cape May right off the bat, we got a pretty late start. After a breakfast of cereal in the room, coffee in hand, we headed out to the Kissimmee Wal-mart about 11. I'm thinking we got the wrong Wal-mart. Either that- or these other DIS-ers are easily pleased. I picked up two kitchen towels and the kids got 1 tee shirt each. I didn't see anything that said WDW '08 that I liked enough to buy. I didn't see any Disney apparel that was any better than what I can find in my local Wal-mart, or on Clearance at the local Hot Topic.

Disappointed, and pinching myself as I viewed the 88cent Mickey & Minnie ponchos on our way through check-out, we headed to LBVFS for the Character Outlet! Yay! I picked this particular Disney outlet due to the fact that there was a Character Outlet near DisneyLAND that I'd planned on hitting when our original plans were to go to CA. So, I wanted to preserve something of our original trip, y'know?

LBVFS was a decent stop. First we went to the Food Court. They had AWESOME pizza that was HUGE. Jim and I each got a slice and got the kids one to split. We all got small refillable fountain drinks. I think we spent $13 for the four of us. It was nice to see non-Disney prices for the first time in 2 days.





We got ice cream after we ate from there. It was awful. If you go there- DON"T GET THE ICE CREAM! The texture was like sandpaper. Ugh.

We went to the KB-Toy outlet. I don't remember what Ebin got. Rachael got a bear that you stuff yourself. "Annika Bear" would stay with us the rest of the day after I put her together in the car.

The Hard Rock outlet store had AWESOME prices. Unfortuneately, I'm not into that stuff. The pins were like, $1.50. Worth a stop if you're a fan of Hard Rock.

We stopped into the Ecko outlet 'cuz DH wanted to look at hats. He didn't like the choices but they had great prices as well. And a giant rhino in the window. The kids wanted to take it home. It WAS pretty cool. Rhino's are Rachael's favorite zoo animal.



And Rach w/her bear, after I spent, like, 20 minutes stuffing the dang thing:



On to my destination! Character Outlet! Right away Rachael spotted a Mickey Mouse umbrella she wanted. She's been needing an umbrella back home so SCORE! $4.00. I picked up two "Studio 28" by Disney shirts. A long-sleeve Alice in wonderland for $3.99. A Mary Poppins hoodie zip-up for $12.99 (reg. price was formerly $29.99) Picked up some cute bowls, a souvenir book from WDW circa 2001 or 2001-ish (I love that kinda stuff- I'm uber dork) for $5.99, some scrapbooking stickers for less than anyplace back home (wish I'd bought more!) In total I spent $50. I kicked myself for forgetting my $5 off coupon w/every purchase over $45 in the car.

It was totally worth the stop. There were a TON of Minnie/Mickey golf polo shirts, if that's your thing. $10. Lots more menswear then womens. Lots more infants then children clothing. Next trip, I'll try a different outlet. There's 3 and I think the one in Orlando Premium is the one highly recommended by Froders? Also the guidebooks all say the flea markets are AWESOME to get current or recent park items.

By this time, it was about 2:30, I think. Arabian Nights check in started at 4:30. Pre-show at 5. Dinner at 6.

With 2 hours to kill, DH suggested finding the Lego store! We'd stayed mostly toward one end of DtD when we'd gone two nights earlier, so we hadn't seen it. We saw the T-Rex Cafe and rued the fact it wouldn't be open for a couple days, our arrival-to-home day, in fact.



The kids loved the 'sculptures' made of Legos. They played just a little bit with the outdoor station, but not very long. They liked looking in all the little windows w/the Legos inside. The guy w/the TV in his torso was pretty cool. Rach didn't get anything- she couldn't care less about Legos- even the pink ones. Ebin got a teeny character keychain. Somebody's girlfriend? From Star Wars maybe? I have no idea. I'm totally unhip to that stuff.











I do have to say though- how the heck did someone build the Taj Mahal? Seriously?

With a pose w/the bronze Hamburgler outside McD's, we bid farewell to DtD for the final time this trip. The kids dont' even know who that is but they just had to have a pic w/the guy.



Next Up: Are Arabian Nights like Arabian Days?

[xoktenox]

Glad you got some good stuff at the outlet! The kids are, as always, so cute and apparently very well behaved too. They seem to be easily pleased and go with the flow. Score for you and DH!

[mom2mek]

Originally Posted by Poohtigeey

Too bad you couldn't get Sara's attention. That would have been fun for you guys to meet. I can tell you from experience she's a great gal!

Awww....thanks Monica!


Julia, great update! Not surprised you didn't make that ADR! I can't tell you how late we slept that morning - have to wait till I get to that day in my report...I've got to pick up the pace I think! Sounds like you found some great bargains at the outlets. Yuck on the sandpaper ice cream though!

Those Lego displays always amaze me! I think I would rather drive toothpicks under my fingernails than build something like that! I just don't have the patience! T-rex looks cool and I've heard good things from some about the atmosphere and food (and cotton-tinis)!

Can't wait for Arabian Nights!

Sara

[Lady Lallie]

Another great update!

I am interested to hear how you liked Arabian Nights. I went back in 2005.

[Charleston Princess]

Too funny about the Hamburglar! Haven't thought about him in YEARS!

We have got to get to the character outlet on our next trip!

Can't wait to hear about Arabian Nights!

[tiggerfan1]

Hi julez! I hope you had a great Halloween!

The CM was laughing at me because my voice was like a frog and I said, "The halloween party is a lot of fun. A lot." and told me to get some sleep!

[B]So the plan for this day was to hit up the infamous Wal-mart that I've heard about on the DIS. The one with the "huge" WDW merchandise section that trumps any Disney apparel and merchandise of any Wal-mart in the US.

Also to hit up Character Outlet at Lake Buena Vista Factory Shops. The discontinued and hugely underpriced authentic WDW merchandise.

I HAVE to visit these places!! I could use some more Tigger stuff! That Lego place looks really cool, too.

[travelmel]

Looks like fun! We went to Legoland in So Cal last year... I thought it would be a dud but it turned out to be a really fun place! Who knew?

I love seeing your family all wrapped up around WDW and seeing all those new sites. I'm so happy for you guys!