Compromise is a Disney word: Taking one for the team over Thanksgiving 2016* August PTR link! 5/28

[mousehappync]

Hi. I've read all your reports, and have been so slack about commenting-- thing to lurk less! I think it's great that you a) got it to work out with your family's crazy schedules and b) got some alone time with Chris! I love solo time with my kids at Disney-- it is even better than "real world" solo time! This sounds like my day with my kids-- I do a lot of bargaining with my kids to try and do things I like that they don't I also am feeling the pain of holiday travel coming on-- my oldest is only in 4th grade, but this year we took him out for a week in California (and Disneyland!!) and are going again to WDW in 18 days (!!!!) and it's been....challenging. They have SO much work-- I can't even imagine planning around sports practices and high school!! I think we are going to have to become high season people sooner rather than later. You still got SO much done, despite the season!

 

[ariane37]

Hi Ariane! I am LOVING your trip report!!! And, counting down the days until our next trip...I get to make dining reservations January 3rd, and I'm already stressing. I can't IMAGINE going through what you did! Great job!!!

Hi there and thanks! That's right, your next trip is in July! Jan. 3rd gives you something to look forward to right after the holidays I don't expect to ever have to double plan like that again lol, at least I'll do everything in my power to avoid it!

First of all, what a mess trying to figure it all out!! Glad you did and you were all able to have Thanksgiving together at Disney.

Looks like the newly renovated room? I look forward to checking these out!

That is SO cute!! We never made it to the Beach Club this trip

I about died inside reading breakfast and 10 AM in the same sentence. I'm usually ready for lunch by then! LOL!


So sweet he offered to ride with you, though my first thought was just to head inside and make him wait :-D how old is he again? When is that acceptable?! LOL


Wow, once again you're so much nicer than me. I don't enter anything with 20+ minutes on the clock...

and thanks so much for coming over. First I need to apologize for not quoting your quotes individually, my multi-quote functions doesn't work It was definitely a mess for quite awhile there planning this trip and I was relieved 1. once we knew Ricky made the team and who would be going down when and 2. once we were all down there. It was great getting to spend Thanksgiving there, especially after me getting sick on the holiday last year.
It was a newly renovated room we had and in that respect it was nice, especially the daybed with Donald on it. The decor is a bit bland but I found that at the BW too. I think the best part of the Epcot resorts is their proximity to, well, Epcot (and HS)!
LOL on 10:00 breakfast. At home during the week I eat breakfast at about 7:30; Ricky eats his at 6:20 before jumping on the bus at 6:33. But if I had my way I'd sleep in until 9 every day and since I knew we'd be tired, I figured this was a good day to do it.
Um, and normally I'm with you and don't wait more than 20 minutes for anything which is why getting in the TSMM line kind of hurt , but in the end I was glad I did it. And believe me I debated leaving him in the gift shop of TOT and riding! We always leave him and Ricky and started leaving Ricky alone with Chris when Ricky was 11 and Chris was 8 (Chris is 11 now) but that's always when it's all 4 of us. I know it may sound dumb but, for some reason I felt uncomfortable leaving him when it was only he and I. Like for some reason nothing will happen when Steve's there but something might when he's not lol??

Great picture with Ariel's statue. I can understand your challenge with your son's basketball - we have to plan our trips around my daughter's ballet. Thanks for sharing your trip report.

And thanks for reading The things we do for our kids, right? It would be nice if Ricky only played part of the year and we could plan for the rest of the year, but he plays just about YEAR ROUND!!! I don't know how ballet works but I'll bet that, like sports, it only gets worse as they get older lol.

Loved that Chris decided to ride TOT and for walking to HS
I'm glad you were able to meet up with Whitney
Chris looks so happy in the TSMM pics DD always beats me too but it's so much fun
I didn't know they had a cowboy we've only gotten the gangster I'm glad Chris liked it
Looking forward to your next installment which I know is hard with Christmas so close

I'm glad I was able to meet up with Whitney AND you and Kathy! Two Dismeets are better than one
Yes the cowboy scene is neat, I know at least a few years ago they weren't running the cowboy scene as often as the gangster so you weren't as likely to get it. In fact, I had read on here that they only did it during high crowd times and you knew you were getting it if you were seated in the 2nd set of cars, and after reading that it held true for a couple trips but now appears more random. Once we asked specifically if we could have the cowboy scene b/c at that point Ricky had never seen it; the CM said yes and we just had to wait for the next car. Maybe you can try that in March!

Way to go using some "Momma guilt" to get Chris to ride ToT! And good for him for willing to try it again.
So cute how Chris kept mentioning Whitney.
Glad your Toy Story wait wasn't quite 70 min

It was cute. She told us she was heading to DS for the afternoon and we ended up going there at night; Chris must have asked 10x if I thought Whitney was still there lol
I'm VERY glad TSMM wasn't 70.......don't think I could've handled much more " I Spy"

Yay for Chris riding ToT and for a Dis meet! I'm really glad you are getting some alone time at Disney with Chris. Reminds me of the DHS Friday morning I had with AJ, waiting to get him signed up for JTA, seeing Buzz & Woody and riding TSMM. Such a fun morning! And I'm sure I would've waited too. For one, I know Disney tends to inflate the wait times to steer people away from the E ticket attractions and two, he asked so nicely and did ride ToT, like you said. Pretty much I did almost wait that long (40 minutes) with AJ for JTA sign ups. The things we do for our kids, right??

Looking forward to reading about Captain's Grille on your DR and reading more about your DHS day here.

I am so thankful Chris and got that time alone and we both enjoyed it more than I thought we would! Occasionally we'll go to a movie alone on a night Steve is working, and Ricky often isn't interested in the movies Chris is now, but that doesn't happen all that much and it's just different than actually being on vacation alone
We found inflated wait times on a few occasions this trip so in the future if we really want to ride something, can't get a FP and aren't in a rush, I may continue to take my chances lol.

 

[ariane37]

Hi. I've read all your reports, and have been so slack about commenting-- thing to lurk less! I think it's great that you a) got it to work out with your family's crazy schedules and b) got some alone time with Chris! I love solo time with my kids at Disney-- it is even better than "real world" solo time! This sounds like my day with my kids-- I do a lot of bargaining with my kids to try and do things I like that they don't I also am feeling the pain of holiday travel coming on-- my oldest is only in 4th grade, but this year we took him out for a week in California (and Disneyland!!) and are going again to WDW in 18 days (!!!!) and it's been....challenging. They have SO much work-- I can't even imagine planning around sports practices and high school!! I think we are going to have to become high season people sooner rather than later. You still got SO much done, despite the season!

Hello and I just commented to another poster that our Disney alone time was definitely different than regular alone time, and we both enjoyed it so much!
When Ricky was in 5th grade and Chris in 1st, we actually went to Disney twice so they missed 2 full weeks - one in Nov. and another in May. We pulled Ricky out of school every year kindergarten through 6th for Disney for a week and Chris k-2, only stopped b/c jr. high honors was just too much work for Ricky to miss/make up a weeks worth. Most teachers over those years were great and either told them not to worry about work, had them write a short journal or just gave them a little work to do; only when Ricky was in 6th did he HAVE to do a decent amount of work. It's definitely a concern though and even in jr. high and this year in high school it took Ricky a couple days to catch up on 1-2 days ofr missed work!
I'm going to head over to your report asap, it sounds very interesting

 

[buzzrelly]

Hi there! I am all caught up…somehow, I had lost track of your report. I noticed your comment in someone else's report and clicked the link in your signature which brought me…NOT here. It's a link to an expired page or something

Anyway, I LOVE the updates! That fireworks view is awesome! The one time I stayed at BC we were looking at trees and a wall or something. You do seem to get lucky with your views! And I am so happy Chris went on TOT with you! What a trooper! I used to hate TOT but I go on it now and even kind of (secretly) enjoy it

 

[kastoney]

Hi there! Merry Almost Christmas!

Looks like a great day with Chris in MGM. What a trooper riding ToT with you. I'm hoping to get Casey on it this trip but I'm not feeling very confident about that. Of course it doesn't help that her Daddy won't ride it either I'm hoping the presence of my manipulative brother may help. I haven't ridden it in forever so I'm looking forward to it.

Glad he was able to ride the shooting lady ride though. What is it with kids and that ride? I love it cause its so freaking bad its good, but that irony has to be lost on Casey and Chris, right?

48 minutes for ToT sounds much better than 70, but I must say anything more than 4 minutes of ispy sounds a bit brutal. Casey likes to play in the car and I can only take so much of its the sky or a tree

 

[wdwnut61]

I'm glad I was able to meet up with Whitney AND you and Kathy! Two Dismeets are better than one
Yes the cowboy scene is neat, I know at least a few years ago they weren't running the cowboy scene as often as the gangster so you weren't as likely to get it. In fact, I had read on here that they only did it during high crowd times and you knew you were getting it if you were seated in the 2nd set of cars, and after reading that it held true for a couple trips but now appears more random. Once we asked specifically if we could have the cowboy scene b/c at that point Ricky had never seen it; the CM said yes and we just had to wait for the next car. Maybe you can try that in March!

I'll definitely try asking in March thanks for the tip. I have 2 DD's Kathy is the youngest. Her sister is 7 years older married with 2 kids. Now I really feel old lol.


Nora and Owen

 

[ariane37]

Hollywood Studios, Part Two
​

OMG guys no lie, I've started (and almost finished) this post TWICE and then it deletes on me I am NOT happy!

Let's try again: when I left off Chris and I were finishing up a snack outside TSMM. We went to the FP kiosk by the ride to see if there were any SDFP left worth anything - nope. Not Thanksgiving week last year and with the exception of MK, not this year. I did get one for Muppets just in case the line was long, ha ha! It was about 20 minutes out so we headed in that direction, since I wanted to see the outside of PizzaRizzo which had opened 3 days prior:



I'm sure the inside is themed cute but we didn't feel like going in. We did however catch this guy sneaking in or out of the apartment above the firehouse:



And I finally got a picture of at least one of my kids with the HS snowman!



It was now time for our FP but Chris asked to go in the store that sells all the Muppets stuff, because apparently he loves Kermit? Who knew!! So we left there having a huge Kermit face pillow being sent back to the resort lol.
As we headed over to the Muppets theater I expected to cruise right through the FP line - NOT!! Holy Moly the SB line was weaving back and forth and there was even a line of people waiting to scan their bands in the FP line! Biggest shock our whole trip! I was glad we had the FP because a show had just started and no way would we have gotten in the next one SB, and I'm not even sure we'd have gotten in the one after that. Crazy! Anyway Chris and Steve did this last Nov. but it's been a year in a half or two since I did, and I'd forgotten how cute it is even if it's dated. I enjoyed it!

When we were done it was time to go back to Beach Club. Someone wanted to try out Stormalong Bay before our evening plans, and it wasn't me! I mentioned earlier that today was quite a bit cooler than yesterday with a high around 70. Now, at about 3:30ish it was already cooling off. We were originally going to take the boat back but that line was long also, so Chris suggested walking! It felt good to walk again and with the cool weather, it was nice.

Upon returning to the resort we saw what I think was a wedding being set up outside the Yacht Club:



And I guess the reception on the beach:



We went up to the room and both changed into our bathing suits despite the chilly weather. And the fact that there are very few things in life I detest more than putting on a bathing suit. Really. I hate swimming, I hate pools, and I really hate hate hate wearing a bathing suit! By the time we got back outside it was pretty damn chilly. The first thing we did was try out the lazy river; if I'm forced to get in the water lazy rivers are something I usually can tolerate. Well. I don't have pictures since I was in the water, but I know I looked like a complete moron, I could feel it, and if any of you were there you would not be disagreeing with me. The tubes aren't comfortable and I couldn't get in it the way I wanted. I was also trying to keep my hair from getting wet, because we were going back out later and my hair sucks in general but when it gets wet it's impossible to get back in shape in a reasonable amount of time. So I'm trying to situate myself with my neck in the air trying to keep my hair out of the water, but I forgot a hair tie, and I keep almost falling off the tube and then freaking out, and Chris floated away from me (on purpose I think) so I couldn't make him help me Needless to say one time around was enough for me! Plus every inch of my body that was out of the water was ice cold. We got out of there and this New Yorker was downright freezing so I told Chris he was on his own:



This was over where there's sand on the bottom and Chris thought it was the best. Here he kept bringing sand over to the pools edge trying to make a little sand castle lol. Didn't work!



After awhile I had to get tough and pretty much threaten him to get out of the pool. He just kept saying "nope" to me when I told him it was time to go and the lifeguard that was near him was laughing. Finally I gathered up all our stuff, said good-bye to him and started walking to the gate, which only worked when I yelled, "I'm going to get dinner!" Otherwise he wouldn't have cared that I was leaving him there.
We quick got changed and went down to the bus stop. We didn't have a dinner reservation but we were hungry, and we were both looking forward to checking out some new stuff in Disney Springs!

**JUST WANT WISH YOU ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HANUKKAH, OR JUST A PLAIN OLD GOOD WEEKEND!!! I PROMISE I'LL UPDATE QUICKER AFTER THE HOLIDAY!!**

UP NEXT: UMM, WHERE ARE WE??​

 

[ariane37]

Hi there! I am all caught up…somehow, I had lost track of your report. I noticed your comment in someone else's report and clicked the link in your signature which brought me…NOT here. It's a link to an expired page or something

Anyway, I LOVE the updates! That fireworks view is awesome! The one time I stayed at BC we were looking at trees and a wall or something. You do seem to get lucky with your views! And I am so happy Chris went on TOT with you! What a trooper! I used to hate TOT but I go on it now and even kind of (secretly) enjoy it

LOL!! Yup, that's because I am technologically challenged and every time I start any type of report, I forget how to do the links correctly! Steve tried for like 2 hours with this one and he can't remember either So I'm stuck with a non-working link and I have to hope that nice people like you just go searching for it anyway. So, I'm glad you found me again!
You should keep it to yourself that you actually enjoy TOT, because then your kids will think you're doing them a favor going on it and that they owe you one Enjoy the holidays!

Hi there! Merry Almost Christmas!

Looks like a great day with Chris in MGM. What a trooper riding ToT with you. I'm hoping to get Casey on it this trip but I'm not feeling very confident about that. Of course it doesn't help that her Daddy won't ride it either I'm hoping the presence of my manipulative brother may help. I haven't ridden it in forever so I'm looking forward to it.

Glad he was able to ride the shooting lady ride though. What is it with kids and that ride? I love it cause its so freaking bad its good, but that irony has to be lost on Casey and Chris, right?

48 minutes for ToT sounds much better than 70, but I must say anything more than 4 minutes of ispy sounds a bit brutal. Casey likes to play in the car and I can only take so much of its the sky or a tree

Merry Almost Christmas to you guys, too
We have to play I Spy any time we're in a Dr's office too When we were on line down there, at one point Chris picked this thing the woman in front of us had hanging off her backpack. I couldn't guess it (mainly because I'd given up paying attention at that point) so when he told me he was kind of loud and the woman looked back at us like we were going to steal it. I explained what we were playing - she had like 8 little kids with her-so then she gave me a look of understanding and pity lol.
Ha, I forgot it's actually the shooting lady ride! Yes it's ok but certainly not worth the ridiculous lines it gets.
I hope your brother gets Casey on TOT, I'd love to see that ride photo

I'll definitely try asking in March thanks for the tip. I have 2 DD's Kathy is the youngest. Her sister is 7 years older married with 2 kids. Now I really feel old lol.

View attachment 211573
Nora and Owen

OMG they are adorable in their matching pj's Well my stepsons are 28 and 25 and while they aren't technically mine they could be. So I'm right there with you feeling not-so-young

 

[buzzrelly]

HaHa! I feel your pain about your hair! I actually love going in the water when it's hot but I HATE getting my hair wet for the same reason! That pool looked very empty! It must've been nice to have it almost all to yourselves. When I stayed at the BC it was August and every square inch of space in that pool was taken and the water was warm, like over 100 degrees. It was kind of gross and not at all refreshing and I couldn't even get a tube because there were so many people in there. I think I'd prefer what you had…a cool day with nobody in there.

I'm dying to try PizzaRizzo…we were HUGE fans of Pizza Planet though (unlike MOST people). I like how they added that to the outside sign

Merry Christmas to you and your family! I'll be working all day today and tomorrow so we are getting up and opening presents at 5 before I leave tomorrow morning. This early morning time is usually my Disboards time, but I guess I can make an exception for Christmas

 

[wdwnut61]

Ariane you're killing me I laughed so hard I almost peed Listen you are a wonderful Mom and brave too because I wouldn't have gotten in the water! I'm like you regarding swin suits and the water. When my kids were too young to go alone DH would take them. Now they know Mom will watch but she isn't getting in Love your pics and tell Steve the lady from the computer says Hi

Enjoy your time with your family MERRY CHRISTMAS

 

[ariane37]

HaHa! I feel your pain about your hair! I actually love going in the water when it's hot but I HATE getting my hair wet for the same reason! That pool looked very empty! It must've been nice to have it almost all to yourselves. When I stayed at the BC it was August and every square inch of space in that pool was taken and the water was warm, like over 100 degrees. It was kind of gross and not at all refreshing and I couldn't even get a tube because there were so many people in there. I think I'd prefer what you had…a cool day with nobody in there.

I'm dying to try PizzaRizzo…we were HUGE fans of Pizza Planet though (unlike MOST people). I like how they added that to the outside sign

Merry Christmas to you and your family! I'll be working all day today and tomorrow so we are getting up and opening presents at 5 before I leave tomorrow morning. This early morning time is usually my Disboards time, but I guess I can make an exception for Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! That stinks you had to work but I hope you had a great (early) morning with the family Our last guest left around 8:30 so I quick vacuumed and mopped the kitchen, and now I'm taking a breather before I do MORE cleaning. Another 11 peeps here tomorrow so we're doing it all again!
Yes, the pool was fairly empty that day I'm sure due to the cooler weather. I'd say there were maybe 15 people in the lazy river with us but Chris was the only one in that area of the pool, and then there was a family of like 6 playing volleyball and the mom was shivering on shore with me lol.
I like the "best pizza on the planet" nod too, love when Disney does things like that

 

[ariane37]

Ariane you're killing me I laughed so hard I almost peed Listen you are a wonderful Mom and brave too because I wouldn't have gotten in the water! I'm like you regarding swin suits and the water. When my kids were too young to go alone DH would take them. Now they know Mom will watch but she isn't getting in Love your pics and tell Steve the lady from the computer says Hi

Enjoy your time with your family MERRY CHRISTMAS

Thanks for your vote of confidence Tammy I was trying so hard to please him while it was just the two of us but after my horrific and cold ride around the lazy river I had to end that! Steve likes swimming so never minded going in with them when they were smaller; I was also smaller then lol and wasn't quite as uncomfortable in a bathing suit, although the last time I actually liked being in one I think I was 22 or 23.........
Gave Steve your message and he laughed

 

[ArielSRL]

Merry Christmas! Glad you got a FP for Muppets the one time you needed it!

Looks like Chris enjoyed his pool time, at least! Lol.

Oh and I'm glad I'm not the only one whose kid tells her no. I'm glad I can still use spankings and time out at my boys' ages!

Looking forward to reading about your DS time!

 

[kastoney]

OMG guys no lie, I've started (and almost finished) this post TWICE and then it deletes on me I am NOT happy!

Wonder what is going on, I've been having a heck of a time lately. I type stuff and the dis seems to be about 30 seconds behind me all the time. Not sure what browser you are using, but I've started using google chrome and it seems to be better.

As we headed over to the Muppets theater I expected to cruise right through the FP line - NOT!! Holy Moly the SB line was weaving back and forth and there was even a line of people waiting to scan their bands in the FP line! Biggest shock our whole trip! I was glad we had the FP because a show had just started and no way would we have gotten in the next one SB, and I'm not even sure we'd have gotten in the one after that. Crazy! Anyway Chris and Steve did this last Nov. but it's been a year in a half or two since I did, and I'd forgotten how cute it is even if it's dated. I enjoyed it!

I thought you were a crazy woman picking up a fast pass for Muppets, but certainly didn't expect for you to have to use it. That is crazy!!!! I don't think we've ever encountered anything more than just walking in. Hopefully this isn't a crowd omen for the rest of your trip.

And the fact that there are very few things in life I detest more than putting on a bathing suit. Really. I hate swimming, I hate pools, and I really hate hate hate wearing a bathing suit! By the time we got back outside it was pretty damn chilly.

Now I like swimming and pools, but just not the whole bathing suit thing so much. Which is why I generally stay in my cover up and just drink. Makes me forget there is even a bathing suit going on

o I'm trying to situate myself with my neck in the air trying to keep my hair out of the water, but I forgot a hair tie, and I keep almost falling off the tube and then freaking out, and Chris floated away from me (on purpose I think) so I couldn't make him help me Needless to say one time around was enough for me! Plus every inch of my body that was out of the water was ice cold. We got out of there and this New Yorker was downright freezing so I told Chris he was on his own:

Oh dear lord I would have totally paid money to see this!!!

After awhile I had to get tough and pretty much threaten him to get out of the pool. He just kept saying "nope" to me when I told him it was time to go and the lifeguard that was near him was laughing. Finally I gathered up all our stuff, said good-bye to him and started walking to the gate, which only worked when I yelled, "I'm going to get dinner!" Otherwise he wouldn't have cared that I was leaving him there.

Dinner 1 Pool 0

**JUST WANT WISH YOU ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS, HAPPY HANUKKAH, OR JUST A PLAIN OLD GOOD WEEKEND!!! I PROMISE I'LL UPDATE QUICKER AFTER THE HOLIDAY!!**

Merry, Merry to you all!!!!!

 

[ariane37]

Merry Christmas! Glad you got a FP for Muppets the one time you needed it!

Looks like Chris enjoyed his pool time, at least! Lol.

Oh and I'm glad I'm not the only one whose kid tells her no. I'm glad I can still use spankings and time out at my boys' ages!

Looking forward to reading about your DS time!

Hi Renee, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and Santa was good to the boys
Can you believe we needed a FP for Muppets??? I'm thinking about all those people down there now, I'll betcha they'd all love a Muppets FP
LOL I tell Chris no ALL the time, and he tells me no just as often. Yeah he's too old for time outs and spankings but taking awaw his electronics works, and if he has a playdate or birthday party coming up I threaten to cancel or that he can't go. Usually does the job
Um, you'll definitely get to hear about your DS time but you may have to wait a bit I'm a dork, and you'll see why when I do my next update!

Wonder what is going on, I've been having a heck of a time lately. I type stuff and the dis seems to be about 30 seconds behind me all the time. Not sure what browser you are using, but I've started using google chrome and it seems to be better.

I thought you were a crazy woman picking up a fast pass for Muppets, but certainly didn't expect for you to have to use it. That is crazy!!!! I don't think we've ever encountered anything more than just walking in. Hopefully this isn't a crowd omen for the rest of your trip.

Now I like swimming and pools, but just not the whole bathing suit thing so much. Which is why I generally stay in my cover up and just drink. Makes me forget there is even a bathing suit going on


Oh dear lord I would have totally paid money to see this!!!


Dinner 1 Pool 0


Merry, Merry to you all!!!!!

OK no Steve's computer tonight so I'm quoting your whole post
I've been using google chrome and it's still acting up; today isn't so bad so hopefully whatever the problem was has resolved itself. Until the next Dis issue comes up.............
I may still be crazy but in the back of my head I think I had a small idea that the Muppets FP might com e in handy! That is something I most definitely would not wait in line even 20 minutes for and since Chris really wanted to do it, worked to my advantage.
I know the lifeguards that saw my messed up lazy river debacle were telling the other lifeguard CM's all about the old lady who apparently didn't know how to swim but went in the water anyway and then let her child float away from her AND had a stupid old lady bathing suit on too! Believe me, I do not go in if Steve is there or another kid present to swim with mine. Again, trying to keep this one happy But I know I was able to provide entertainment for those lifeguards and so I did my good deed for the day.

I hope you all had a fantastic MAGICAL Christmas

 

[Whit64130]

The temp was going to be a tad chillier than yesterday, only about 70,

Which I ended up freezing this day!!

Chris was apologizing for not wanting to ride and I was all "it's ok, it's ok my dear" "No big deal, it's just mommy's favorite ride that I love almost as much as you and Ricky but, no biggie. We'll just do what YOU want to do ALL DAY". And Whitney is texting that her friend Miranda is on line for TOT and I'm texting that our FP window is ending and Chris won't ride and I'm sad, when all of a sudden Chris says he's not happy about it but he'll ride!
Do you think I told him he didn't have to?
Do you think I almost pulled his arm out of the socket trying to get there within 5 minutes after our FP window ended?
Do you think I texted Whitney that "HE JUST SAID HE'LL RIDE TOT WITH ME!!!!"

So glad he rode with you! I'm having riders remorse (if that is such a thing). I wish I wouldn't have been a chicken!

@Whit64130! We talked for a few minutes which was fun; she kept saying "boggin" which totally threw me because I was wondering why she brought her sleigh (toboggan) to Disney, and Chris fell in looooove He said hello and spent the rest of the time we were talking hiding behind me; then as soon as we walked away told me how pretty she was, asked how old she was, and said how cool her accent was lol. He brought her up like 500x in the next 2 hours! It was cute.

Glad everything worked out so I could meet you and Chris!!! Chris is sweet! I just figured he was being shy and thinking gah mom quit talking to this crazy lady and lets go ride something!

I would've been the kid on the second row holding someones arm and covering my eyes.

Luckily it was only about 48 minutes, and we spent the entire time playing I SPY. Yup, 48 minutes of I SPY It was worth it once we were on and Chris was enjoying himself:

Yay for shorter times posted!

Fancy!

So I'm trying to situate myself with my neck in the air trying to keep my hair out of the water, but I forgot a hair tie, and I keep almost falling off the tube and then freaking out, and Chris floated away from me (on purpose I think) so I couldn't make him help me Needless to say one time around was enough for me! Plus every inch of my body that was out of the water was ice cold. We got out of there and this New Yorker was downright freezing so I told Chris he was on his own:

This makes me cold just reading about this!!!!

 

[kittylady1972]

Wow I am shocked by your Muppets line description. We ended up doing it on our trip with no FP but we got there early right after a show had already started so we were waiting a bit in the pre-show area.

What a good mom for braving the pool and your description of trying to get comfortable in the inner tube was great. I didn't even bother putting on a bathing suit when the kids did the pool for our trip on the last night. They are okay going it Alone!

 

[xlsm]

I'm back and all caught up!!

Chris feels about ToT the way X does about Everest - he finds every reason he can to skip it. I told him he has to at least do it every other ride.
I'm glad he rode with you and you got to have your Dismeet!!

We never even made it to the Muppets side of DHS this trip! I'm super sad. No Star Tours, no Muppets, no character meets...
So I'm glad to see your pictures and live vicariously!!

It's funny you encountered a wedding, too. I swear there was a wedding at the Boardwalk every day of our trip! We stumbled upon a bridal party photoshoot one morning, too, and met a couple on their way into Epcot for an engagement session. I guess the Boardwalk/YachtBeach area is wedding central.

On our Yachtsman night, the kids fell in love with Stormalong Bay. They are fixated on it now! The boys wanted to swim during our week, and we were semi-close to the quiet pool, so I let them a couple times. We never made it into the Clown pool, but went by to see it...it's so small! It looks big in photos, but I was shocked at how small it looked in person. Stormalong on the other hand, was very impressive to see!

 

[ariane37]

It Sucks Getting Old; Tell Me Again How We Finished Our First Full Day??​

I'll tell you this: we didn't finish it in Disney Springs like I said at the end of my last update I want to blame it on the season and my extra holiday house guests, but who am I fooling? I'm old and I'm lucky I remember my kids' names let alone what I did on any given day last month! I failed to check my notes or picture order before finishing up that post so hence, the mistake However if you really want to hear about our trip to DS and what we did there, great! That means you'll have to keep coming back and read a little longer........
Since I don't have many pictures of what we actually did, I'll start this post with a couple pictures from our Christmas celebrations. And BTW, I hope all of you who celebrated something this weekend had a wonderful time!


My sister came up from Georgia with her 3 boys; we went out to a really good Italian restaurant Christmas Eve which was new for us, usually Steve cooks. But first we did presents!
Ricky is all the way on the left and Chris is 2nd from the end on the right.

Because I feel bad that I almost always forget to mention my stepsons in my trip reports, here they are on Christmas Day (just ignore all the holiday mess in the background!)


My oldest stepson Jason 28 and his fiance, Candace whom we love. You can't tell in the picture since Jay still has his jacket on for some reason but they're wearing matching shirts and yes, we make fun of them. This became their Christmas Day "thing" a few years ago so now every year I buy them matching shirts from Hollister. The ones they're wearing in the picture are the ones I got them last year


My younger stepson Eric 25 and Chris in one of his new basketball Jerseys:


Oh, and one of our cats Jackie
And that's all I'll bother you with: back to our trip!

I left off dragging Chris out of the pool with the ringing of the proverbial dinner bell, and I led you all to believe we were eating in DS. Which we did. Just not tonight. We did however get fancied up a bit for our dinner at Narcoossee's! We all ate here for the first time last Nov. and enjoyed it; the boys loved it and even though it would just be the 2 of us Chris did not want to cancel. I tried moving the reservation to a night Steve and Ricky would be down but even with continuous checking and a TP request on the dining finder, no luck.
I wish I'd had someone take a picture of us on our way to dinner, we both looked so fancy! Because someone moved verrrrrrryyyy slowwwwwly from pool to room to being dressed, we did not get to the bus stop at 5:30 like I wanted to. It was more like 6, which sucked since we had to bus to MK and then either boat or monorail to GF. We waited 15 minutes for the bus and it was quite a bit more chilly than when we left Stormalong Bay. I had a light sweater over my dress and Chris had a short sleeve dress shirt but no jacket, so he put on my sweatjacket I'd brought for after dinner. We arrived at MK and because it was cold we didn't want to take the boat; monorail it was and we headed up the ramp. Except.......we could only get half way up the ramp because the line for the resort monorail was ridiculous! It was now 6:35 so I was ok as our reservation was 7:10. I'll just say we ended up being 20 minutes late to Narcoossee's. Two monorails came and the CM's announced they were going out of rotation for the night Apparently when this happens there's a whole process of backing the monorail up to get it in the "garage", and of course no other monorails can pass and sometimes it takes a few tries. These 2 monorails must have been new to the circuit lol, because it took forever. A grandmother and her 17 yo granddaughter in line behind us had 6:45 Citricos reservations, so they were over 30 minutes late.

Eventually we arrived, booked it out back to the restaurant, explained the monorail issue but there was no problem whatsoever. Like Capt. Grille they were running behind anyway, so we waited about 10 minutes to be seated.
I won't review the whole meal here but I'll say we again enjoyed it! One cool thing was the menu they handed me:


See the "welcome back" on the top? I thought that was so neat! They didn't ask when I checked in if we'd been there before so they knew some other way. Mickey is always watching.............
We ended up leaving before 10:00 Wishes which was fine, I hadn't planned to watch from there anyway. I did go out on the deck to take a picture of MK across from us because I think it's a pretty shot all lit up. It's a bit blurry but you get the idea:


After leaving we went in Basin, I love the smell! Chris exfoliated his hands like 20 times lol. We also bought soaps for the first time. They have so many and the had Christmas scents, so I think I spent upwards of $80 in there! I bought for the 2 school secretaries at Chris's elementary school (normally I wouldn't but they help me a lot with all my PTA crap), Chris's teacher, my stepsons fiance whose birthday was a couple days after Thanksgiving, and myself I didn't take pictures in the store and the bars you buy are all wrapped up, but here's a picture of the peppermint scented Christmas soap sitting in my bathroom. I also bought it for the secretaries:


It smells so good when you walk by the bathroom downstairs, and it's not overpowering. The other Christmas soap was evergreen which I also bought for the secretaries and my future DIL. It had green fir trees and Mickey heads on it.
Finally, we couldn't leave without going downstairs and taking the obligatory picture with the GF gingerbread house:



That was it! We got back to our room about 9:30 so we missed both Illuminations and Jingle Bell Jingle Bam, so I still wasn't sure if we'd see any high fireworks from that show from our balcony. It was ok though, we had more time We called to check in at home and tell them about our fantastic dinner and then got ready for bed after I made a quick trip over to the Marketplace to fill our mugs. We had a very early morning ahead of us-rope drop-but not Disney Springs yet!

**One more quick bit of info: you may have noticed I have a new ticker. Steve and I are doing our next adults only trip in May for Flower and Garden It's a short trip, May 18-22nd, but a short trip is better than no trip! Right now we're booked at the WL. I'm very excited and I can't wait! Only thing I'm bummed about is that at least 3 of my Dis friends are going in May: @xlsm, @Raeven and @kittylady1972 , and our trip doesn't overlap with any of them Some day, ladies!**

UP NEXT: HEY, YOU MISSED US AGAIN!​

 

[xlsm]

Crying ALL THE TEARS that our May dates don't overlap! Surely we'll get those paths to cross at some point!

Are Eric and Chris good buddies? Sitting there together, they look like they could get up to some serious shenanigans! I love that Jason and his fiancee wear matching shirts, LOL!

I loved seeing the GFlo all dressed up for Christmas. The tree was gorgeous and I was in awe of the gingerbread house! It was all just so beautiful. I like Chris wearing your hoodie! I bought the 2017 version (yep, the 2017 stuff is all over the place now!) at Epcot because it was freezing cold and drizzling and I forgot to grab my fleece from the room. And by the time I realized I needed it, I did NOT want to walk all the way back to our room.

I also love the "welcome back" on your menu! I'll mention this in my TR, but we sat through the DVC tour thing on our last day, and then that night in the Beach Club, we were waiting to meet Mickey and Minnie in an outfit I'd never seen before, and we struck up a conversation with a guy in line with us who just gushed on and on about how awesome DVC was...we were convinced they somehow tracked us and planted the guy in line with us!! Mickey IS always watching!!