Tears, Treats, Tumblr and Tropical Storm Isaac

[mommytocalliesue]

Originally Posted by Victoriasmom98

Yay!!! The airport!! Now all we have to do is park, get on the shuttle, get pass security and get to the gate area. Simple, right?! Oh, c’mon now folks…..you must know us better than that by now. We checked our bags in at the curb and we headed to security. Oh, guess who had to have the full body pat down? You guessed it, ME! ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?! WHAT THE HECK???!!! So, I was stopped last year for the roll of pressed pennies and I’m stopped this year? Apparently my shirt had sparkles in it and the body imager doesn’t like those. Um….airlines ---- please post that warning on your sites so innocent people like me don’t have to get felt up in the middle of the airport when they are already running late in the first place? A little heads up might be nice. After a nice pat down, I was free to go, but then they needed to have me go over to the side so they can go through my carryon. No one ever told me what seemed to suspicious to them. Yeah, I really look like a security risk, don’t I?

I feel your pain! I went to Denver this summer...and had some sparkles on my...rear end!! I ended up getting a full pat down...especially around my behind area! I was with my girl friends who thought it was quite humorous...I did not! Let's just say, I wore NO sparkles on the way home!

Looking forward to reading more on your trip!

[Tink-erin-belle]

Whew! I was really feeling the anxiety with you when you were describing your morning! I hope Peter's interview went well! Thank goodness you made it to the airport on time, but when you said you were stopped for a pat down, I got anxious all over again! I felt better once I saw the Disney sign I'm so glad you made the connection to the bus. When you said you forgot your camera, I said to myself, "Oh no! No food pics!" but your iPhone takes great pictures Your meal looked fantastic! What was that shrimp dish? Yum!

[Victoriasmom98]

Originally Posted by tygrrlily

Great pic and love the title! Can't wait to read about your trip

I hope you enjoy it!

Originally Posted by micandminforever

Joining the fun.

Awesome!!! Love having you here!

Originally Posted by Twoboysnmygirl

Ooooh, and you have your ticker for next trip up already!

Of course I do!

Originally Posted by LarryFmScotland

Can't wait for the rest.

Cheers Larry

Thanks Larry and

Originally Posted by Tink-erin-belle

I love that you added your chickens to your family members! I don't know why I am so obsessed with them! I must've lost count, though, because I didn't remember that you had six. I guess you guys still liked each other in those pictures, too because you all look like you're having fun

Of course the chickens are my family! I love those birds!

Originally Posted by mommytocalliesue

I feel your pain! I went to Denver this summer...and had some sparkles on my...rear end!! I ended up getting a full pat down...especially around my behind area! I was with my girl friends who thought it was quite humorous...I did not! Let's just say, I wore NO sparkles on the way home!

Looking forward to reading more on your trip!

It's embarrassing as all heck, isn't it. I really think they need to let you know this kind of information!

Originally Posted by Tink-erin-belle

Whew! I was really feeling the anxiety with you when you were describing your morning! I hope Peter's interview went well! Thank goodness you made it to the airport on time, but when you said you were stopped for a pat down, I got anxious all over again! I felt better once I saw the Disney sign I'm so glad you made the connection to the bus. When you said you forgot your camera, I said to myself, "Oh no! No food pics!" but your iPhone takes great pictures Your meal looked fantastic! What was that shrimp dish? Yum!

Believe me, Erin, your anxiety is nothing compared to what mine was. I think I calmed down by day 4! Yes, I had a surf & turf type of meal! It was soooo yummy! I couldn't believe how yummy it was!

[momjeeps]

Subscribing. Yum dinner looked good!

Sent from my iPhone using DISBoards

[JDailey]

YAY you are back!!! I'm so happy you guys made the plane, I was a little worried about that. Can't wait to hear ALL about it.

[Victoriasmom98]

Let me take a moment and talk about the room/resort. We were given room 4507 which was extremely convenient to the busses and the food court. We had to just walk across the bridges of Caribbean Cay and boom, there we are at CenterTown which is where the food court, main pool and gift shop are. Our room was exactly what I had hoped for. There was a burn hole in the bedspread of Victoria’s bed, but that’s not really something I’d complain about. I am surprised that they are still using that particular bedspread. As for Mousekeeping, she did a good job with supplying towels & soaps, but we didn’t get any towel animals. I really was hoping for some towel animals during this trip. I know they aren’t guaranteed, but still, it would have been nice to have a least one. We did tip her daily and left our envelopes right on the mirror above the sinks. There are double sinks and a privacy curtain separating the beds from the sink area. It wasn’t until our rest day that we found the quiet pool and laundry. Again, we were very close to that as well.










This was the view right outside our door.

I just want to say right here that we didn’t find it any more hot and humid in August than we did when we come in September. It was very tolerable and for me to say that, it must have been since I’m always so hot. I even bought frog toggers to take with us, but we never needed them. I’m not sure if this was due to Tropical Storm Isaac or if this was the norm, but again, we were comfortable.

Saturday, August 18th Animal Kingdom Day

We had an ADR for Tusker House for 8:05am. This means we needed to be on the Animal Kingdom bus by at least 7:15am and would you believe we actually made it on time for this one? Yep! I tried taking a nice picture of Victoria and I at the bus stop, but it was so humid that this is how it came out:



We got to AK and made the trek over to Tusker House. I must say this is one of my favorite meals. Not so much for the character interaction, but for the food itself. I love breakfasts and especially when they are in buffet form. We had a nice server and great character interaction. Of course Victoria just loves the Guava juice --- they might as well just left the pitcher on the table for her! Victoria was also now in the habit of picking out cute guys. Every time I offered to get a picture of one, she’d get all embarrassed and freak out. I’m glad I’m not 14 years old!








I did manage to get this picture for Victoria. She likes the server with dark hair. I could have gotten a pic with her and him, but NOOOOOO, she was too embarrassed for that!

After breakfast it was off to the Kilimanjaro Safari. It was in this line (yes, I said LINE) that I encountered what was to be the first of many lines we were going to have to wait in during this trip. There is quite a bit of difference between August crowds and September crowds with September being a lot lower than August. Well, we had no choice. We had to go in August due to Victoria entering high school. It wasn’t THAT bad, 20 minutes, but still. We are not used to having even that for a wait time for the safari. We went to Rafiki’s Planet Watch as I just love it in there. I love watching the vets work on the animals. We saw an owl demonstration and of course, had our picture taken.











As always we loved the safari and the animals were quite active. We also went to Festival of the Lion King and It’s Touch to be A Bug. We were going to go to the Flights of Wonder show for 11:30am, but it was then that the skies decided to open up and POUR!!! We were let into the theater just to get out of the rain. They cannot do the show when it’s a thunderstorm so that there’s no chance of the birds getting hurt. Boy, did it rain! We sat there for a good hour as it was that bad! We then donned our ponchos (yes, my wonderful handmade Disney bag poncho) and headed out. Here’s where the trip started to go downhill fast for me. Now there were some really nice comments I overheard about my poncho. But then, there was this witch who said how low class I was to wear something like that! EXCUSE ME? The witch was just jealous that she couldn’t do something that creative! But even knowing that, her hurtful comment made me not wear it for the rest of the trip. Really people? Can’t you keep your hurtful comments to yourself?











We were able to do Expedition Everest before it started to rain again. Not pouring, just annoying. We went into Finding Nemo just to get out of the rain. We also got to ride Dinosaur, too. Lunch was at Restaurantosaurus and was just the usual burger stuff. Yeah, burgers for counter services was going to be annoying by the end of the trip, too.




And here Peter got to see a chicken since he was missing the chickens at home so much. (seriously, he was!) I made it my mission for the rest of the trip to find all the chickens I could.


Peter is being silly!!!



We stayed until about 6pm and then headed back to the resort. We just ate at the food court, filled our mugs, and went to the room for the evening.

[Victoriasmom98]

continued....






Now please notice what Victoria is doing……online updating her Tumblr blog. This is another cause of annoyance for me throughout the trip! Ok, fine….let’s tell it like it is ---- I WAS FREAKING PISSED THAT SHE WOULDN’T GET AWAY FROM THE INTERNET THE ENTIRE FREAKING TRIP! If it wasn’t her laptop, it was her iphone! NOTE TO SELF: Online usage will be limited to evenings at the resort on any future trips that she may come along on. That part right there is still very debatable!!

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Ann, first off, I cannot believe ANYONE said a thing about your poncho! I would be PROUD to wear it, and it clearly was MADE and took time. Some people are just negative no matter what, it really really is an awesome poncho, I wish I could figure out how to make one!

Secondly, what a fabulous picture of you and Victoria! I loved it so much that I wanted to fix the fogginess of it for you. Is that ok? I couldn't do it in color b/c the colors got messed up when I fixed the fogginess, so it's in B&W, but it's such a pretty picture, I wanted you to have it for your scrapping! Hope that's ok! You should be able to just right click it and save it to your computer.



As for Victoria on her internet, I think that's pretty normal! I figure I like my time to decompress, whether it be reading or getting online, so I'm pretty laid back about my kids doing it. Of course, they weren't doing it IN the parks, but the boys did take a day they didn't go to the parks...more out of exhaustion though, we didn't have free internet in January! They got it right after we left!

[Victoriasmom98]

oh Karen......thank you so much for fixing the picture! I love it and I'm definitely going to print it for the scrapbook! Yeah, I shouldn't have let that woman get to me, but I just couldn't shake it off. Ugh! I am going to make a few adjustments to it (ie longer length and a zipper or velcro up the front. I won't give up......maybe.......

[Angies1274]

I'm here! Great start so far!!

Glad you enjoyed your breakfast at the Tusker House! It's one of our favorite places to eat as well. The food and juice are always so yummy!

Sorry that lady was so rude!! I thought your poncho was so cute and very creative.

Great picture in front of the Tree of Life!!

[JDailey]

I am shocked that someone had the nerve to make a mean comment about your poncho!!!! I thought it was so cute and very creative. She was probably just mad because you looked better than her! I really like the picture of you and Victora. Karen did a great job taking off the fog and I really like it in black and white.

[mickeystoontown]

What a mean woman to make such a comment on the poncho that you worked so hard on! I've come to the realization that people just don't care what they say anymore...it can be hurtful, mean, mean spirited, etc....they just don't give a flying fig.

I'm glad to hear that you were enjoying the resort. I can't wait until I am back there again.

I hear you on the fact that teenagers are on the internet way too much. I don't even bring our laptop on vacation with us. Well, I take that back. I took it to Tennessee last Thanksgiving but only so I could make our Disney ADRs the day after Thanksgiving.

[ginny_lynn]

Originally Posted by Victoriasmom98

Peter pulls in the drive at 8:10am. He made a quick change into shorts and off we go! Will we make it to NH in time? I don’t know! It takes 3 hours from our house to the Manchester airport, so we were going to be cutting it close. I knew we were going to make it (I assumed) once we saw this:

We drove over this bridge on our way home yesterday!!!!

I am excited to read the rest of your report CBR is in the running for a trip next year, as my boy LOVES pirates!

[Judgey Judgerson]

Joining in a little late but excited to hear about how the parks were during the Isaac fiasco!

[Victoriasmom98]

Sunday, August 19th Magic Kingdom Day

So, let’s see……this morning we were headed to MK! We all had gotten snacks last night at the food court that could also be considered breakfast, so that’s what we did --- had breakfast right there in the room. I don’t think many people wanted to go to MK that morning as this was our bus:



Victoria loves Tomorrowland, so that’s where we headed first. It was a nice non-poncho wearing day, as I recall. Someone might have to correct me on that one, but that’s what I remember. Our first stop, as always, was the People Mover. Again, there were lines for Stitches encounter and Buzz Space Ranger Spin. I just don’t get it. Yes, I didn’t expect to walk into every ride, but I’m not used to these lines! We definitely utilized the fast pass system to the fullest. I don’t think I’m going to pay attention to crowd calendars anymore, as I thought this day was WAY off. I don’t know what I was expecting, but not this. Here are some of the pictures:







Then we met up with Buzz Lightyear. There wasn’t much of a wait line for him, so we decided to get into it. Other than that one we didn’t really wait for any of the characters. Most, if not all, of our character interaction was at the character meals. Thank goodness I had a lot of those scheduled or else I probably wouldn’t have gotten to hug anyone!


Please excuse the fat rolls you can see through my shirt! Oh, and that’s another thing I’m annoyed with but it’s totally my own doing ---- I LOOK SO DAMNED FAT IN PICTURES. I keep saying next year and next year I’ll lose weight….grrrrr.





We headed off to Buzz and then Victoria and I hit Space Mountain! I still say that ride is very jerky. I’ll say it here that I loved having the photopass plus for all the ride photos and dinner photos! I think it’s so worth it! I was able to get Peter & Victoria’s car and my car ---- 2 pics that would have cost me at least $19 per pic! We then did Stitch’s Great Escape. I know some people hate that attraction, but I think it’s funny! We had lunch at the Starlite Café --- I think we all had the roast chicken. It was SO BUSY and it was hard to find a table. Again, I’m just not used to crowds. (you are all feeling sorry for me now, aren’t you….poor Ann, in Disney, with crowds…awe!!)









Finally we were able to leave that section of the park and head to Adventureland. Our first stop was POTC!!! Love, love, love this classic. And yes, there was some idiot using flash photography! Oh, whatever!



Jungle Cruise was next and we had a really funny skipper! I just love the back side of the water!





Since I had read about the referb coming for Country Bear Jamboree, I made sure we got to see that. It was scheduled to be closed on our second MK day so I knew it was important not to miss.






Oh look, it’s a picture of me and my roundness…….

Now you all know just how much I love the Haunted Mansion and how much I look forward to it on every trip, right? Well, Peter went into his own Doombuggy and Victoria and I shared one. Halfway through the ride she looks at me and says “where’s my croc?” I’m thinking what? Aren’t they on your feet? One was. One was somewhere lost along the buggy track now. Are you freaking kidding me?! Apparently she was kicking her feet and didn’t realize there was a space between the floor and the door of the buggy and off it went! OMG!! Then the ride stopped for about 10 minutes. I was so upset that she had lost that croc. It wasn’t cheap, either. It was a red Pirates of the Caribbean croc which I paid quite a bit for. Then Victoria started freaking out because she thought her croc was the cause of the ride stopping. Oh yeah, I really enjoyed the rest of the ride --- NOT! As soon as we got out, we explained to the CM what happened and she got a manager. The manager gave us a credit slip for a new pair of crocs on Disney’s bill. Wow! Now see that was incredible and definitely pixie dust. They did not have to do that as it was Victoria’s carelessness that caused the situation. Now, do you think anywhere in the MK would have crocs? Um, we were about to find out. We went into Yankee Trader and explained the situation. One really nice CM called each of the merchandise location throughout the park and it was either they didn’t have them or not in her size. Great. My child is now walking around with one croc. He did suggest that the place outside POTC may have some shoes that would work. Ok, fine, so Victoria is walking barefoot in the park to the store. Ugh! We finally found a pair of canvas shoes that was going to be ok. All this was going on as we were counting down the minutes to our 1900 Park Fare ressie. We no longer had an hour to make it there. Good thing you can take the resort monorail from MK to the Grand Floridian.

So, are we all getting the feeling this is working out not to be the trip of my dreams? Yeah, I thought so.


The infamous new canvas shoes, which it turns out, hurt Victoria’s feet……

The rest of the evening was nice, even though I was frazzled by the day’s events. We did get to our ressies within minutes of the time, so that was good. Of course I think the buffet there is excellent, so that was a good thing, too!






I don’t even want to know what Victoria said to Prince Charming that caused this face…




This is Victoria’s favorite step sister.

We did go back to MK to check with Lost and Found, and to get our pic taken with Mickey.



Oh, I do remember now that it was raining as we left as we had to put our ponchos on for the walk to the bus. Speaking of busses, we really didn’t have any problems with them at all. The monorail on the other hand……well, that’s a story for another day…..