A newbie, a nana, two princess, and......the Planner! (Updated 1/4--DTD & head home)

[disneymom1980]

Oh that is the sweetest thing! What a special dream. And that Belle is so pretty. She looks like the one in the movie! She'll never forget that! I also love the ears! They're so cute.

I hope your grandmother is better now.

Anna was SO excited. She wanted to call all of her friends from school and tell them. That was an awesome dream for her because she's such a princess fanatic. I really think that the ears helped get us noticed . That and the shirts. I got lots of CM comments about our matching shirts.

Grandma got out of the hospital yesterday, but they didn't figure out what was wrong, and she still isn't feeling very good. I don't have a lot of faith in our hospital, and I really wish she would see a doctor somewhere else.

what a cool dream! i don't think i've ever seen that dream before. i'm sure anna was just thrilled!

i can't believe in 5 trips to WDW in the 2 years of a million dreams that i didn't one ONE!!!!

Anna was thrilled We had seen so many people walking around with Dream Fastpasses and stuff, but this was the only time during the trip that we actually saw Dream Team members up close. I think it might have been even more exciting because it was our last ful day.

I really enjoyed your trip report! Your daughters are too cute!

I'm glad you're enjoying it.........there's just a little bit left. Thank you for the compliment on the girls....I love my littl e sweethearts .

Oh how awesome for you guys!! That is a wonderful experience you guys will be able to treasure forever! I got chills reading it!

Hope your grandma is doing better.

I'm so glad we got good pictures from it because that is something that Anna can always remember. Plus, the CM had told all of the princesses her name, so that were calling her Anna as soon as we walked in. She thought it was awesome that they knew her name.

Grandma is out of the hospital but still not feeling great. They didn't find anything wrong with her, but I think that this may be partly due to the fact that the doctors here aren't real smart.

 

[disneymom1980]

After our fun with the princesses, we went to use our second set up fastpasses for Toy Story Mania. Anna and I combined our scores in an attempt to beat DH, but he still came out ahead.

Anna had seen some pictures of Sorcerer Mickey in the building with the princesses and she really wanted to meet him, so we headed to the Magic of Disney Animation. We didn't realize that you could enter through the gift shop, so we entered where you see the movie, and we were really glad we did! The movie was really interesting. When the movie was over, we headed for Mickey. Unfortunately, the Photopass guy's camera wasn't working and the pictures he took with our camera didn't turn out very well.........

Adam and Anna also wanted a picture with Wall-E.

Anna had fun playing with the animation programs on the computers there too. She colored this picture of Flounder.

By this time, it was getting close to time to get in line fo Fantasmic, and time for mom and Addy to come back. We were all starving, so we headed to Backlot Express to get some food and wait for Mom and Addy. We all had cheeseburgers and fries. Nothing great, but not bad either. Mom and Addy showed up just as we were finishing eating, so we all headed to get in line for the show.

We waiting for what seemed like forever, and the crowds were crazy. Luckily we had some really nice people around us, and we did some chatting. I had Addy sitting up on the wall to rest my arms, and Anna wanted to sit there too. I somehow managed to get the cutest picture

Even the people around us were talking about how cute it turned out.

We finally got in for the show, once again surrounded by really nice people. Dh took quite a few pictures, but most of them didn't turn out very well. Here's a few.

Addy feel asleep shortly into the show, and would startle at some of the loud noises, but sat pretty nicely most of the time. Anna enjoyed the show, but during the part with the giant snake, Anna got really upset and loked at me and said, "It's REAL mommy, it's REAL!!!!" She was crying, and I spent the next 10 minutes trying to convince her that it wasn't. I finally told her that it was like the Beauty and the Beast show we had seen earlier, and she was ok with that.

By the time the show was over, both of the girls were exhausted, and so were we. We followed the giant crowd to the buses and luckily didn't have to wait to long too long to catch one. Anna was alseep before we got back to the hotel, and DH wound up carrying her to the room.

Up next........Downtown Disney and the end of our trip .

 

[Girldreamer02]

I love that picture from while you guys were standing in line for fantasmic! Adorable! Makes me a little sad that they won't be with you this month...I'd love to meet them, but am looking forward to meeting up with you two to say hello! I can't believe I'll be in disney in 18 days i am so excited! I just got home last night from about two weeks at home for the holidays and got to see our wiener dog who lives with my parents. I miss her! She was so happy the first night we walked in the door and once dh and I sat down she plopped down right between the both of us and slept. While we were home we got our disney paper work in the mail with the magical express vouchers and all that jazz and I was looking at the booklet that had like where we are staying and all that and dh grabbed it away...I was like hey! He was like well I guess you can look at it...we'll see if you notice. I looked at it for a few minutes and then realized we weren't staying at Coronado...we are staying at animal kingdom with a savanah view!!! He had been checking with our travel guy every day since he rebooked the trip to see if we could get the 4/3 deal at animal kingdom and one slot finally opened. I was so excited I cried! Now we get to see the animals again when we wake up in the mornings. Are you getting all excited too?! I loved your updates and I'm sad your trippie is almost over, but I am looking forward to meeting you two and starting my own trippie when I get home! Will be you doing another one as well? You should b/c you do a great job! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and new years!

 

[disneymom1980]

I love that picture from while you guys were standing in line for fantasmic! Adorable! Makes me a little sad that they won't be with you this month...I'd love to meet them, but am looking forward to meeting up with you two to say hello! I can't believe I'll be in disney in 18 days i am so excited! I just got home last night from about two weeks at home for the holidays and got to see our wiener dog who lives with my parents. I miss her! She was so happy the first night we walked in the door and once dh and I sat down she plopped down right between the both of us and slept. While we were home we got our disney paper work in the mail with the magical express vouchers and all that jazz and I was looking at the booklet that had like where we are staying and all that and dh grabbed it away...I was like hey! He was like well I guess you can look at it...we'll see if you notice. I looked at it for a few minutes and then realized we weren't staying at Coronado...we are staying at animal kingdom with a savanah view!!! He had been checking with our travel guy every day since he rebooked the trip to see if we could get the 4/3 deal at animal kingdom and one slot finally opened. I was so excited I cried! Now we get to see the animals again when we wake up in the mornings. Are you getting all excited too?! I loved your updates and I'm sad your trippie is almost over, but I am looking forward to meeting you two and starting my own trippie when I get home! Will be you doing another one as well? You should b/c you do a great job! Hope you had a wonderful Christmas and new years!

I'm so glad that you guys are going to be there the same time as us !!! Your hubby is one awesome guy.....as much as DH would like to surprise me with a trip, I don't think he'd go through all of that just to get a better hotel. I'm really excited to go again. I made a countdown calendar last night that's hanging on our mirror.

I'm also glad to hear that you're going to do a trip report. You'll have to include the cruise too because I'm trying to convince DH that we should take a Disney cruise someday. I am planning on doing another trip report, in fact, I took some pictures last night to start a pre trip report with. I just wanted to get this one finished up first.

 

[sunny_stace]

That is such a sweet photo of your girls! You guys really had a magical time at DHS! I'm jealous of your sorcerer mickey photos! I never made it over to the Magic of Animation on the last trip! And Wall-E is so cute too! I'm glad your grandma is out of the hospital, hopefully you'll all have nothing but good health for the new year!

 

[disneymom1980]

That is such a sweet photo of your girls! You guys really had a magical time at DHS! I'm jealous of your sorcerer mickey photos! I never made it over to the Magic of Animation on the last trip! And Wall-E is so cute too! I'm glad your grandma is out of the hospital, hopefully you'll all have nothing but good health for the new year!

We did have a great time! I wish the lighting wasn't weird on the Mickey pictures.......I'm not sure what happened there. We really enjoyed the Magic of Animation, and we plan to do it again during our January trip and do the Animation Academy. Plus, I really want to see the Bolt characters that are there now .

 

[disneymom1980]

We didn't really have anything planned for today since we were headed out and we didn't have park tickets for the day. The limo was scheduled to pick us up at 2:00, and we knew we wanted to go to DTD since we hadn't made it there yet. We checked out of our rooms and checked our bags. We had a ton of snack credits to use up (Goofy's, here we come!), and we figured we should have an easy time finding lunch there.

We rode the boat from Port Orleans, and it was a nice, relaxing way to travel. Anna really wanted a make your own Mr. Potato Head, and we still wanted to pick up some pins. Plus, I needed to get a few souveniors for friends.

First we went to Wolfgang Puck's Express. It was probably one of the best meals we had all trip. It was early, so there was pretty much no one there. I can't remember what my mom had, but I had the rosemary chicken with garlic mashed potatoes. It was really good, and the serving was HUGE!!! Anna shared with me and ate at least as much as I did. We got macaroni and cheese for Addy, and Adam had a pizza.........I think it was pepperoni, which he absolutely loved and no one else got to taste.

After we finished eating, we went to Goofy's, made several of the make your own treats, and Anna picked out suckers to give all the kids from her class at the Halloween party. We also went to the pin store and bought several pins. We spent some time wandering around the World of Disney store and then went to Once Upon a Toy so Anna could get her Potato head (which she dressed like Tinkerbelle). Here are a few pictures.

By this time, we figured we better head back to the resort. I had to take a few picture outside of the Rainforest Cafe before we left.

Once we got back to the resort and had a potty break, it was time to head to the airport. We got through security easily and boarded our plane during family boarding. The flight home was a bit rough.........a couple of times, the captain even told the stewardesses to sit down. It was a little scary for us since we're not used to flying anyway.

When we landed, my cousin was there with our van to pick us up. We took her home and then found a hotel close to her house for the night. The next morning, we stopped at a Cracker Barrel for breakfast and then drove the rest of the four hours home. It was kind of sad really because we'd had so much fun, and I wasn't ready to return to the "real" world.

I hope you all enjoyed our trip report........I had fun sharing it with you. We had a great time, and I can't wait for our January trip! I also can't wait to be able to take the girls again. Seeing Disney through Anna's eyes was fun, and I'm sure it will be the same with Addy. Addy is much more adventurous than Anna as well, so that could be interesting . I think Disney is a great way for families to bond and spend time together. I'm pretty sure that I have DH convinced that Disney is pretty awesome too .........after all, the January trip was his idea.

 

[disneymom1980]

I will have a link to my pre-trip report for our January trip posted soon, maybe when I get the girls to bed, if anyone's interested

 

[punkin413]

i think the lighting in the sorceror mickey area is weird because our pics from there aren't very good either. although i do think yours are good! but you can tell the lighting is just different.

i'm glad you liked wolfgang puck express! that's our favorite counter service in all of disney. such a great place!

i'm sad your trip is over but i'm happy you have another coming soon! and of course i'll be along for that one!!!

 

[disneymom1980]

i think the lighting in the sorceror mickey area is weird because our pics from there aren't very good either. although i do think yours are good! but you can tell the lighting is just different.

i'm glad you liked wolfgang puck express! that's our favorite counter service in all of disney. such a great place!

i'm sad your trip is over but i'm happy you have another coming soon! and of course i'll be along for that one!!!

I don't know what did it with those pictures.......I really wish the photopass person had been able to take some. Maybe they would have turned out .

Wolgang Puck was wonderful..........DH wants to eat there again on our next trip.

I hope you will join me on my next trip........I've definitely enjoyed several of yours . I'm going to put a link to the pre-trip report in the next post.

 

[disneymom1980]

Ok everyone........I've loved having you all along for the ride, and I hope you enjoyed it too. I finally started the pre-trip report for our January trip--a belated honeymoon and birthday trip for me. I hope you'll join me there as well .

Donald and Daisy Dive into Disney

 

[Girldreamer02]

aww its over....so sad! I love downtown disney! The Christmas store is my favorite, but world of disney is right up there too of course! I'm heading over to your pre trippie. I was thinking about making a count down calendar today...dh bought me a cricut expression for Christmas with a bunch of the disney cartridges too so I think it would be fun to play with all that to make th calendar. I enjoyed your trippie tons!

 

[tink713]

I just read your trip report and I'm not sure if anyone has asked this but what kind of camera did you use? You took such beautiful pictures!

 

[Girldreamer02]

I meant to ask that as well I'm curious!

 

[disneymom1980]

I just read your trip report and I'm not sure if anyone has asked this but what kind of camera did you use? You took such beautiful pictures!

Thanks (see the rest of the post too )

I meant to ask that as well I'm curious!

Shortly before the trip, DH got me a new camera.......it's a Nikon D60, a digital SLR. It is an awesome camera. We rarely ever get a blurry picture or anything like that. Plus, even though it's an SLR, it's still very easy to use. I bought the "Dummies" series book that goes with it, but I still haven't had time to really learn how to use all of the functions.

 

[Girldreamer02]

We have the cannon rebel xt, which is also a digital slr, bought it before we went on our 07' disney trip so we could have awesome pics! We use it tons b/c we're into photography if you want to see some pics there are some in my trippie see my siggy. Your pics really are amazing. I love digital slr's and the nikon d60 is a pretty awesome cam!

 

[disneymom1980]

We have the cannon rebel xt, which is also a digital slr, bought it before we went on our 07' disney trip so we could have awesome pics! We use it tons b/c we're into photography if you want to see some pics there are some in my trippie see my siggy. Your pics really are amazing. I love digital slr's and the nikon d60 is a pretty awesome cam!

I'm pretty much a picture freak, so I really wanted a good camera for the trip. Plus, I take pictures of the girls almost daily. I look back through Anna's pictures when she was little, and I just can't believe how much she's changed. Sometimes when I'm feeling nostalgic, I'll just pull out all of the photo albums. DH jokes that some days he's going to have to build me a room just for my pictures.

Your pictures are great too.....I love seeing other people's pictures almost as much as I like looking at my own .

 

[OneTreeHillAddict]

What a great ending to your trip report! I thought your Mickey pics turned out nice. The thing about the animation room is all that flourescent lighting. It's makes a lot of pictures look yellow. Most cameras have a setting on them that can be adjusted in that type of lighting. I never take the time to change mine. I always forget. Then I get home and the pictures in there are, YELLOW.

I enjoyed your TR! I can see now...you guys have the bug bad! I see at least one annual trip for your family, maybe two! I think the bug bit my sister too. I hope so. I think it may have infected my parents a little too. Can't wait for the next one! I'm heading over to the PTR right now!