coloredimage
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2009
Those pictures in front of the Tree of Life are adorable! And I love Minnie in that outfit so much <3
"First Of All, How Dare You" A November 2015 TR! **New TR Link!**
- Thread starter MarieLightning
- Start date
MarieLightning
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 23, 2012
The Tree of Life makes the best backdrop for good pictures
And she is so adorable!It is a great show and makes me emotional every time! I do love Everest, can't wait to ride it in the dark
Thanks! And to be honest, we didn't spend a whole lot of time with them from that point on
MarieLightning
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 23, 2012
Thanks for joining in!
Drama isn't quite as bad when you were anticipating it. We were able to take it in stride pretty well, so that's something.
More coming up soon!
Victoriasmom98
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2009
NOOOOOOO!!!!! You didn't make ride number 10??!!! Oh man! Next time, right? That's actually an awesome plan ---- single rider line until you puke....ok, so not really but almost!! So, Aunt Sarah and I would DEFINITELY NOT GET ALONG!!! Hey Sarah, pick up a freakin map yourself, act like a grownup and get yourself to your destination. Ugh. She sounds entitled and I cannot stand people like that!
That is a riot about you and Amber speaking French so the others don't know what you're saying! Our parents used to do that to us kids all the time as French is their primary language. I absolutely loved the picture of Amber writing in her trip journal for the photopass pic. OMG!!! Too funny!! I'm really enjoying your report, even if Aunt Sarah is in it.......
That is a riot about you and Amber speaking French so the others don't know what you're saying! Our parents used to do that to us kids all the time as French is their primary language. I absolutely loved the picture of Amber writing in her trip journal for the photopass pic. OMG!!! Too funny!! I'm really enjoying your report, even if Aunt Sarah is in it.......
MarieLightning
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 23, 2012
NOOOOOOO!!!!! You didn't make ride number 10??!!! Oh man! Next time, right? That's actually an awesome plan ---- single rider line until you puke....ok, so not really but almost!! So, Aunt Sarah and I would DEFINITELY NOT GET ALONG!!! Hey Sarah, pick up a freakin map yourself, act like a grownup and get yourself to your destination. Ugh. She sounds entitled and I cannot stand people like that!
That is a riot about you and Amber speaking French so the others don't know what you're saying! Our parents used to do that to us kids all the time as French is their primary language. I absolutely loved the picture of Amber writing in her trip journal for the photopass pic. OMG!!! Too funny!! I'm really enjoying your report, even if Aunt Sarah is in it.......
I know, I wish I had! But I mean, if I have to skip on ride number 10 of Expedition Everest to get to Festival of the Lion King, I'll do it.
We love Aunt Sarah, we really do... most of the time. She's always been super welcoming of me in the family, and I was always thankful for her presence when Amber was sick. But she does have her tendencies. We just figured we can't vacation with her. At all. Now we know that.
That was one of the things she was most excited about when starting to learn French - knowing we'd be able to talk together in front of other people and they wouldn't understand what we were saying
We do try to figure out ways to make our ride pictures fun - if we're gonna have that many of them, might as well
MarieLightning
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 23, 2012
Real Life Update #4
Hey all!
There will be a trip update following this shortly, but I figured I should share that this will be my last update for a short while.
Our friends are coming to visit for a week, and a couple of them are arriving today! As such, I won't have much time for the Dis, let alone updating.
But fear not! I will return
I hope you all have a great week!
Hey all!
There will be a trip update following this shortly, but I figured I should share that this will be my last update for a short while.
Our friends are coming to visit for a week, and a couple of them are arriving today! As such, I won't have much time for the Dis, let alone updating.
But fear not! I will return
I hope you all have a great week!
MarieLightning
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 23, 2012
Day 6, Part 4 - No Room In Your Luggage? No Wonder!
We caught a bus before too long, and made our way back to the resort.
The bears had once again been arranged by MouseKeeping.
We find it nice that they always know Mariebear and Ambear must be together at all times.
We relaxed in the room for a bit, and then called the boys' room to see if they were up for dinner at Disney Springs.
Originally, we had planned on hitting up Disney Springs the next day, as it was our 'off' day, before the Christmas Party. We'd wanted to hop over to Animal Kingdom Lodge to try out The Mara for dinner, just to say we'd been there.
In the end, we decided to skip that idea, and since that freed up our evening, we figured we might as well head to Disney Springs then and there! That way we'd actually be able to enjoy our day off the next day, rather than running all over the place like we usually still do whenever we say we'll be planning a day for relaxing.
So, we told the boys we'd meet up with them in the lobby, and headed to the bus line for Disney Springs.
As did the rest of Creation.
What is this?!
We haven't seen this yet! Where did it come from?!
New Jersey?
Man, should've known.
It was a Senior class, on their graduation trip, there for a few days. They were rowdy. They were pretty annoying.
Their chaperones weren't much better.
We got on the bus (obviously standing) and were lucky enough to be surrounded by these lovely folks. One of the chaperone was sitting on what we assume was her son's lap. Clearly, intent in demonstrating safety measures when traveling. Doing a great leadership job on the behavioral front.
Amber made a point to ask the group what time they were planning on heading back to the resort. She said around 11.
We decided we had to be out of there at 10:30.
She also asked them what their plans were for the next few days. Next day wasn't matching up with ours - good, good.
Following day was also different plans. Awesome.
And then... Magic Kingdom. Let us down.
Oh well, they'd get lost well enough in the crowds at the park itself, and if we had to take the bus to the Music again we'd just have to do it.
So we endured our annoyingly loud bus ride (as we fondly remembered another bus ride with a school group of teenagers during which the chaperone had had some gumption enough to tell their kids they ought to be respectful of others and quiet down some...) and rushed off as soon as the doors were opened.
See, their plans upon arrival at Disney Springs was to eat.
Our plans upon arrival at Disney Springs was to eat.
Yeah, that's not gonna work.
Thankfully, they had to regroup some before heading off, and I knew most of them would probably be unaware of the inner workings of Disney Springs, so even if they had plans of heading to the same place we did, they would go in through the small gate, around the Christmas Store and so on. We had this.
We took the shortcut (aka, walking on the sidewalk along the parking lot) and made our way to Wolfgang Puck Express. The chaperones got there three minutes later.
Win for us.
We headed in and put in our order. By then, Amber had convinced Kameron to share a BBQ Chicken Pizza with her (thus enabling her to be a freeloader on his meal credit). We got our numbers and headed off to find a table, which we did without too much trouble.
Here is the brownie that never got eaten that night, because we had better dessert plans, but was still obtained from the meal credit.
And soon, food was brought to us.
The coveted BBQ Chicken Pizza, which Amber and Kameron shared (and both loved, of course).
Curtis got the bacon wrapped Meatloaf. He raved about this. He could not believe this was considered quick service. He was like, the rest of Disney's quick service needs to get on this level.
I got the chicken tenders with fries, which were very tasty.
Full and happy, we headed off to do some browsing and shopping. Our first stop - the Pin store!
While we were in there, browsing, a guy approached Amber with his wife and asked her if she had any pins she was willing to trade. At that point, she had mostly all traders, so she said that everything was pretty much up for grabs, although she unfortunately didn't have very many good ones. They chatted a bit, and the wife just stood quietly while they did, then we parted ways.
A few minutes later, the wife came up to us, handed Amber a small merch bag, said "Here, this is for you" and left.
This is what was inside.
We were definitely taken aback. Especially at first as she just handed the bag and then left before we could really say anything. I guess they had approached Amber to try and get a feel of her, and see if she would be the kind of person to keep the chain of kindness going.
We also found it interesting that she got her a Canada Mickey head, since that never came up, and it's not like Amber has a Canadian accent! She of course still has that pin, although I'd traded for one of those a couple of years back. Now we each have our own Canada Mickey head pin.
We found a MouseKeeter Hat pin, as we thought it was cute enough that anyone should like it, and Amber stroke up conversation with a girl a little while later. It turns out it was her birthday that day, and she and her friends were there to celebrate. Amber passed on the pin with the Pay It Forward message, as she felt it was a good time and person to do so with. The girl was very excited, teared up a little and gave Amber a hug. We're pretty confident she kept the chain going, so that's good.
We bought a few pins for ourselves as well, and then headed on our way out. We visited a couple more places (namely World of Disney and Once Upon A Toy). We were on the hunt for Tsums, so we knew the latter was more likely to have a better selection.
We also came across this.
No room in your luggage? No kidding!
It's as big as my suitcase! Who *could* have room in their luggage?!
After exploring Once Upon A Toy, we briefly split up from the boys, because they wanted to look around a few more stores, and we wanted to have a look in the Co-op. Also, we would ultimately end up in World of Disney, and there's no finding one another anymore once you split up in that store. You are forever lost to one another.
We eventually met back up with them in a designated meeting spot, at a designated time.
And what was that?
Ooooh yeeeaaaah.
We ended up all splitting up the Chrissy Fields Cookie Sunday (or whatever it's called, I know it's close to that).
Last time Amber had had it, they were out of chocolate chip cookies, so they substituted toffee. It was a delicious substitution, and we had planned on doing that again.
Except... now they were out of toffee cookies.
We still destroyed it, and we were very happy with our pick.
By then, it was time to head back to the resort. We were getting tired and most stores would be closing soon anyway. Not to mention, we wanted to beat the high school kids to it.
We got back to a still fairly long bus line, which probably makes sense considering the time.
We had some laughs, I made up crazy analogies that everybody thought were insane (I still hold they had an amount of logic to them) and then it was time to head back to the resort.
We were pretty reasonable with our purchases that night. Here is what we got.
Tsums! They were 3 for 15$
We got Duffy, Sally and Jack as Sandy Claws.
And pins!
I really wanted a Tiana and a Lilo & Stitch pin. I also offered to get Amber the Winnie the Pooh pin, as it was one she didn't have.
We put our purchases away, and turned down before too long for a nice night of sleep - with no wake up call set!
Click for next post
We caught a bus before too long, and made our way back to the resort.
The bears had once again been arranged by MouseKeeping.
We find it nice that they always know Mariebear and Ambear must be together at all times.
We relaxed in the room for a bit, and then called the boys' room to see if they were up for dinner at Disney Springs.
Originally, we had planned on hitting up Disney Springs the next day, as it was our 'off' day, before the Christmas Party. We'd wanted to hop over to Animal Kingdom Lodge to try out The Mara for dinner, just to say we'd been there.
In the end, we decided to skip that idea, and since that freed up our evening, we figured we might as well head to Disney Springs then and there! That way we'd actually be able to enjoy our day off the next day, rather than running all over the place like we usually still do whenever we say we'll be planning a day for relaxing.
So, we told the boys we'd meet up with them in the lobby, and headed to the bus line for Disney Springs.
As did the rest of Creation.
What is this?!
We haven't seen this yet! Where did it come from?!
New Jersey?
Man, should've known.
It was a Senior class, on their graduation trip, there for a few days. They were rowdy. They were pretty annoying.
Their chaperones weren't much better.
We got on the bus (obviously standing) and were lucky enough to be surrounded by these lovely folks. One of the chaperone was sitting on what we assume was her son's lap. Clearly, intent in demonstrating safety measures when traveling. Doing a great leadership job on the behavioral front.
Amber made a point to ask the group what time they were planning on heading back to the resort. She said around 11.
We decided we had to be out of there at 10:30.
She also asked them what their plans were for the next few days. Next day wasn't matching up with ours - good, good.
Following day was also different plans. Awesome.
And then... Magic Kingdom. Let us down.
Oh well, they'd get lost well enough in the crowds at the park itself, and if we had to take the bus to the Music again we'd just have to do it.
So we endured our annoyingly loud bus ride (as we fondly remembered another bus ride with a school group of teenagers during which the chaperone had had some gumption enough to tell their kids they ought to be respectful of others and quiet down some...) and rushed off as soon as the doors were opened.
See, their plans upon arrival at Disney Springs was to eat.
Our plans upon arrival at Disney Springs was to eat.
Yeah, that's not gonna work.
Thankfully, they had to regroup some before heading off, and I knew most of them would probably be unaware of the inner workings of Disney Springs, so even if they had plans of heading to the same place we did, they would go in through the small gate, around the Christmas Store and so on. We had this.
We took the shortcut (aka, walking on the sidewalk along the parking lot) and made our way to Wolfgang Puck Express. The chaperones got there three minutes later.
Win for us.
We headed in and put in our order. By then, Amber had convinced Kameron to share a BBQ Chicken Pizza with her (thus enabling her to be a freeloader on his meal credit). We got our numbers and headed off to find a table, which we did without too much trouble.
Here is the brownie that never got eaten that night, because we had better dessert plans, but was still obtained from the meal credit.
And soon, food was brought to us.
The coveted BBQ Chicken Pizza, which Amber and Kameron shared (and both loved, of course).
Curtis got the bacon wrapped Meatloaf. He raved about this. He could not believe this was considered quick service. He was like, the rest of Disney's quick service needs to get on this level.
I got the chicken tenders with fries, which were very tasty.
Full and happy, we headed off to do some browsing and shopping. Our first stop - the Pin store!
While we were in there, browsing, a guy approached Amber with his wife and asked her if she had any pins she was willing to trade. At that point, she had mostly all traders, so she said that everything was pretty much up for grabs, although she unfortunately didn't have very many good ones. They chatted a bit, and the wife just stood quietly while they did, then we parted ways.
A few minutes later, the wife came up to us, handed Amber a small merch bag, said "Here, this is for you" and left.
This is what was inside.
We were definitely taken aback. Especially at first as she just handed the bag and then left before we could really say anything. I guess they had approached Amber to try and get a feel of her, and see if she would be the kind of person to keep the chain of kindness going.
We also found it interesting that she got her a Canada Mickey head, since that never came up, and it's not like Amber has a Canadian accent! She of course still has that pin, although I'd traded for one of those a couple of years back. Now we each have our own Canada Mickey head pin.
We found a MouseKeeter Hat pin, as we thought it was cute enough that anyone should like it, and Amber stroke up conversation with a girl a little while later. It turns out it was her birthday that day, and she and her friends were there to celebrate. Amber passed on the pin with the Pay It Forward message, as she felt it was a good time and person to do so with. The girl was very excited, teared up a little and gave Amber a hug. We're pretty confident she kept the chain going, so that's good.
We bought a few pins for ourselves as well, and then headed on our way out. We visited a couple more places (namely World of Disney and Once Upon A Toy). We were on the hunt for Tsums, so we knew the latter was more likely to have a better selection.
We also came across this.
No room in your luggage? No kidding!
It's as big as my suitcase! Who *could* have room in their luggage?!
After exploring Once Upon A Toy, we briefly split up from the boys, because they wanted to look around a few more stores, and we wanted to have a look in the Co-op. Also, we would ultimately end up in World of Disney, and there's no finding one another anymore once you split up in that store. You are forever lost to one another.
We eventually met back up with them in a designated meeting spot, at a designated time.
And what was that?
Ooooh yeeeaaaah.
We ended up all splitting up the Chrissy Fields Cookie Sunday (or whatever it's called, I know it's close to that).
Last time Amber had had it, they were out of chocolate chip cookies, so they substituted toffee. It was a delicious substitution, and we had planned on doing that again.
Except... now they were out of toffee cookies.
We still destroyed it, and we were very happy with our pick.
By then, it was time to head back to the resort. We were getting tired and most stores would be closing soon anyway. Not to mention, we wanted to beat the high school kids to it.
We got back to a still fairly long bus line, which probably makes sense considering the time.
We had some laughs, I made up crazy analogies that everybody thought were insane (I still hold they had an amount of logic to them) and then it was time to head back to the resort.
We were pretty reasonable with our purchases that night. Here is what we got.
Tsums! They were 3 for 15$
We got Duffy, Sally and Jack as Sandy Claws.
And pins!
I really wanted a Tiana and a Lilo & Stitch pin. I also offered to get Amber the Winnie the Pooh pin, as it was one she didn't have.
We put our purchases away, and turned down before too long for a nice night of sleep - with no wake up call set!
Click for next post
Last edited:
Criickette
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 30, 2016
Enjoying your trip report so much! Very wise to ask about the group's plans...and such a sweet pin trading story. Can't wait to read more!
MarieLightning
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 23, 2012
Thank you so much, I'm glad you're enjoying it!
We figured it was the best way to make sure we wouldn't get stuck in that group again, though we weren't entirely able to avoid it.
It really was nice to just be able to relax and walk around without worrying about anyone else
We found it very sweet, though it definitely came as a surprise! But we were glad to have been able to be part of that chain of kindness
MarieLightning
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 23, 2012
Real Life Update #5
And I'm back!
It's been a pretty awesome week (as it always is when it is spent in good company), although I can't say we're upset to have our place back in order. Fitting six people in a one bedroom apartment is not ideal, especially when bathroom counter space consists of like, a square foot.
But we love our friends and miss them lots throughout the year, so it was pretty easy to put up with the lack of space.
We had some great times just chilling at home, playing board games, watching movies and so on, but we also did some fun touristy things around Montreal, which was pretty nice. Sometimes it's good to explore where you live, which we hadn't really done before! Even simple things, places that are partly tourist spots but primary part of people's every day lives, like the Market in Jean Talon, where we got some nice, fresh fruits and veggies.
Merranda and Tyler arrived Friday night (the 10th) so we started a few things off with just the two of them, seeing as Veronica and Joshua weren't arriving until Sunday.
That weekend was actually pretty chilly, so we admittedly didn't do a whole lot. We did get ourselves some nice pastries in Little Italy (goodness that chocolate cannoli...).
Browse aforementioned market.
Sunday, late morning, Veronica and Joshua arrived! They brought a bunch of goodies (we had a few belated birthday celebrations), and did not forget Kiara (though she may wish they had).
We also had put together a couple of Welcome to Canada bags for our friends, which they seemed to enjoy (Veronica and Joshua especially seemed to enjoy their Fudgeo cookies).
We made time to go to the Botanical Garden.
And climbed up Mont Royal to the observation point (So. Many. Stairs.)
We made it to the amusement park (La Ronde) and had some nowhere-near-as-magical-as-Disney fun times.
And we spent some time just walking around Old Montreal, the Old Port and Downtown, checking out souvenir stores and walking along the blocked off pedestrian streets, just enjoying the sights. We didn't take nearly enough pictures because we forgot our camera, but it was really pretty.
We also attempted (and failed) an Escape Room, though we apparently made it pretty far for first timers (apparently I booked one of the hardest scenarios they offer... oops).
We found our way out of a maze that's set up in a factory in the Old Port every summer. We had some good food and good laughs. We walked a lot. Overall, it was a really nice time.
Which I concluded by getting my four wisdom teeth removed this past Friday morning. Crowning glory, right?
Now that things are settling back to normal, I'll be able to return to your regularly scheduled Disney Trip Reporting!
Hopefully, I'll be able to get an update done tomorrow!
And I'm back!
It's been a pretty awesome week (as it always is when it is spent in good company), although I can't say we're upset to have our place back in order. Fitting six people in a one bedroom apartment is not ideal, especially when bathroom counter space consists of like, a square foot.
But we love our friends and miss them lots throughout the year, so it was pretty easy to put up with the lack of space.
We had some great times just chilling at home, playing board games, watching movies and so on, but we also did some fun touristy things around Montreal, which was pretty nice. Sometimes it's good to explore where you live, which we hadn't really done before! Even simple things, places that are partly tourist spots but primary part of people's every day lives, like the Market in Jean Talon, where we got some nice, fresh fruits and veggies.
Merranda and Tyler arrived Friday night (the 10th) so we started a few things off with just the two of them, seeing as Veronica and Joshua weren't arriving until Sunday.
That weekend was actually pretty chilly, so we admittedly didn't do a whole lot. We did get ourselves some nice pastries in Little Italy (goodness that chocolate cannoli...).
Browse aforementioned market.
Sunday, late morning, Veronica and Joshua arrived! They brought a bunch of goodies (we had a few belated birthday celebrations), and did not forget Kiara (though she may wish they had).
We also had put together a couple of Welcome to Canada bags for our friends, which they seemed to enjoy (Veronica and Joshua especially seemed to enjoy their Fudgeo cookies).
We made time to go to the Botanical Garden.
And climbed up Mont Royal to the observation point (So. Many. Stairs.)
We made it to the amusement park (La Ronde) and had some nowhere-near-as-magical-as-Disney fun times.
And we spent some time just walking around Old Montreal, the Old Port and Downtown, checking out souvenir stores and walking along the blocked off pedestrian streets, just enjoying the sights. We didn't take nearly enough pictures because we forgot our camera, but it was really pretty.
We also attempted (and failed) an Escape Room, though we apparently made it pretty far for first timers (apparently I booked one of the hardest scenarios they offer... oops).
We found our way out of a maze that's set up in a factory in the Old Port every summer. We had some good food and good laughs. We walked a lot. Overall, it was a really nice time.
Which I concluded by getting my four wisdom teeth removed this past Friday morning. Crowning glory, right?
Now that things are settling back to normal, I'll be able to return to your regularly scheduled Disney Trip Reporting!
Hopefully, I'll be able to get an update done tomorrow!
MarieLightning
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 23, 2012
Day 7, Part 1 - Sleeping In At Disney Is A-Ok
Our 'off' day started out as a perfect off day ought to.
It started out with sleep.
We slept in. It was glorious.
Granted, sleeping in at Disney and sleeping in at home are two vastly different concepts, but it happened nonetheless. We didn't get out of the room until mid morning, and it was great to just chill by ourselves for a bit.
We're not quite sure what the rest of the family did with their day off. We may have spotted them at one point or another in the resort pool, but that was it. Getting a day to just the two of us was definitely a great perk.
Kameron and Curtis did end up heading back to Hollywood Studios though. We had suggested it to them when discussing what off day plans may entail, especially as they had enjoyed DHS and would have liked to return, but didn't want to miss out on a second visit to Epcot and Magic Kingdom. So we told them it would likely be just about ten dollars each to add an extra day to their park tickets, and they went ahead and did that.
Here are some of the Photopass pictures they got while they were there.
As for Amber and I, our first instance of stepping out of the room was for lunch. It was an early lunch, but it was lunch time nonetheless.
Amber had the kids' spaghetti meal, which again proved to be plenty of food for her. I may have had the mac and cheese, or the pizza, but I also had a kids' meal.
We then spent a nice part of our afternoon swimming around in the quiet pool, which was supposed to be closed for renovations but actually was not, as we had found out a couple of nights before when cutting through the All-Star Music parking lot to get back to the hotel.
We were definitely glad for that as either most people were unaware of that fact, or plenty happy with the main pool, because we were alone in that pool for a pretty decent amount of time, throwing a beach ball at each other and just enjoying the magical 82 degrees water.
We did force ourselves to get out at some point though, as we had our own special plans for the evening. We returned to the room, washed up, got ready and headed out for a party!
Decked out in (somewhat) holiday style with our festive ribbons. And red and green outfits, respectively.
Our plans was to enter the park with our party tickets right on the dot at four. We got there a bit early, as it is.
We waited a bit for the time to come, and headed in to get our wristbands.
As we stepped onto Main Street U.S.A., we spotted something that we obviously could not pass up, although we did have a FastPass to catch.
But I mean, TinkerBell with a ten minutes wait? Erm, yes please?
We headed in and met this cutie of a fairy.
It was a brief meet, but that was fine by us.
We did figure we still had a bit of time before it would get too tight for our FastPass window closing though, and got ourselves a mini photoshoot around Main Street.
The PhotoPass photographer was really great. Very energetic and enthusiastic, and more than happy to get us plenty of nice shots.
Although the lighting didn't make it very easy for this tree picture, but I still like it.
At that point, we actually did have to get a move on, so we started heading toward our destination.
I miss this castle. I can't wait to see this castle again.
We cut around Cinderella castle, over through Fantasyland and Liberty Square, and finally made it into Frontierland.
We had to ride Big Thunder! A day in the Magic Kingdom is not complete without a ride on Big Thunder. Well, it will be in August cause refurb (sob). But not really entirely.
We got our wild ride on, and that was it for our Frontierland adventure of the day. Getting wet on Splash was not part of the plans for that evening, and we (as usual) bypassed Country Bear Jamboree, because, well, we just did. Amber does say we need to do it again. I'm sure we will.
Someday.
We headed back toward Fantasyland, because that was where the remainder of our FastPasses would take us before the actual party started.
Of course, when taking that route, one must stop and take pictures of the most photogenic bathrooms in America (is that the official tagline now?)
That mirror still gets me every time. I still don't get it.
Such detailing for a bathroom.
One would think they could spend that much attention to detail in say, Epcot, but I digress.
In the meantime, we get to have a pretty potty spot!
With Pascal peeking around.
Click for next post
Our 'off' day started out as a perfect off day ought to.
It started out with sleep.
We slept in. It was glorious.
Granted, sleeping in at Disney and sleeping in at home are two vastly different concepts, but it happened nonetheless. We didn't get out of the room until mid morning, and it was great to just chill by ourselves for a bit.
We're not quite sure what the rest of the family did with their day off. We may have spotted them at one point or another in the resort pool, but that was it. Getting a day to just the two of us was definitely a great perk.
Kameron and Curtis did end up heading back to Hollywood Studios though. We had suggested it to them when discussing what off day plans may entail, especially as they had enjoyed DHS and would have liked to return, but didn't want to miss out on a second visit to Epcot and Magic Kingdom. So we told them it would likely be just about ten dollars each to add an extra day to their park tickets, and they went ahead and did that.
Here are some of the Photopass pictures they got while they were there.
As for Amber and I, our first instance of stepping out of the room was for lunch. It was an early lunch, but it was lunch time nonetheless.
Amber had the kids' spaghetti meal, which again proved to be plenty of food for her. I may have had the mac and cheese, or the pizza, but I also had a kids' meal.
We then spent a nice part of our afternoon swimming around in the quiet pool, which was supposed to be closed for renovations but actually was not, as we had found out a couple of nights before when cutting through the All-Star Music parking lot to get back to the hotel.
We were definitely glad for that as either most people were unaware of that fact, or plenty happy with the main pool, because we were alone in that pool for a pretty decent amount of time, throwing a beach ball at each other and just enjoying the magical 82 degrees water.
We did force ourselves to get out at some point though, as we had our own special plans for the evening. We returned to the room, washed up, got ready and headed out for a party!
Decked out in (somewhat) holiday style with our festive ribbons. And red and green outfits, respectively.
Our plans was to enter the park with our party tickets right on the dot at four. We got there a bit early, as it is.
We waited a bit for the time to come, and headed in to get our wristbands.
As we stepped onto Main Street U.S.A., we spotted something that we obviously could not pass up, although we did have a FastPass to catch.
But I mean, TinkerBell with a ten minutes wait? Erm, yes please?
We headed in and met this cutie of a fairy.
It was a brief meet, but that was fine by us.
We did figure we still had a bit of time before it would get too tight for our FastPass window closing though, and got ourselves a mini photoshoot around Main Street.
The PhotoPass photographer was really great. Very energetic and enthusiastic, and more than happy to get us plenty of nice shots.
Although the lighting didn't make it very easy for this tree picture, but I still like it.
At that point, we actually did have to get a move on, so we started heading toward our destination.
I miss this castle. I can't wait to see this castle again.
We cut around Cinderella castle, over through Fantasyland and Liberty Square, and finally made it into Frontierland.
We had to ride Big Thunder! A day in the Magic Kingdom is not complete without a ride on Big Thunder. Well, it will be in August cause refurb (sob). But not really entirely.
We got our wild ride on, and that was it for our Frontierland adventure of the day. Getting wet on Splash was not part of the plans for that evening, and we (as usual) bypassed Country Bear Jamboree, because, well, we just did. Amber does say we need to do it again. I'm sure we will.
Someday.
We headed back toward Fantasyland, because that was where the remainder of our FastPasses would take us before the actual party started.
Of course, when taking that route, one must stop and take pictures of the most photogenic bathrooms in America (is that the official tagline now?)
That mirror still gets me every time. I still don't get it.
Such detailing for a bathroom.
One would think they could spend that much attention to detail in say, Epcot, but I digress.
In the meantime, we get to have a pretty potty spot!
With Pascal peeking around.
Click for next post
Last edited:
MarieLightning
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 23, 2012
Day 7, Part 2 - If They Wave At Me, I'll Wave Back
After our pit stop, we headed over to our next FastPass of the evening.
Nobody say I don't try to make my wife happy.
Somehow, whenever we go in to the Magic Kingdom for a short amount of time, or have a short amount of time to use up FastPasses on, Winnie the Pooh still always ends up on the list.
But of course, she'll just bring up how I don't appreciate it to its full value. Where's the gratitude, I ask?
Since we had planned on catching that second FastPass toward the beginning of its window, and we didn't want to use up our third one until practically the very end of it, we did have a bit of time to kill.
We decided it would be the perfect time for dinner, seeing as we hadn't wanted to eat during the party anyway.
Off to Pinocchio Village Haus we go!
Now, anyone who's read our previous trip reports will know this about our experience with Pinocchio Village Haus, but just to catch you up.
First trip, we ate there. Amber had a meatball sub, she liked it. I had a chicken Caesar salad - I did not like it.
Second trip, we ate there again. We both had a meatball sub. Amber liked it. I did not.
So, third time's a charm, right?
Really, I do have to take the blame for the Caesar salad mishap. It was our first trip. I was an inexperienced Disney go-er. I had no idea that the Caesar dressing, as one might think it a fairly important aspect of a Caesar salad, was with the condiments. I wept into my cold iceberg lettuce and tasteless, limp chicken strips.
But seriously. Who needs the dressing on the side when it's a Caesar salad?
You know what, I take it back. I'm not taking the blame for it.
Get it together, Disney!
Anyway.
This time, I figured a safe option was in order.
We ordered our food and found a spot by the window overlooking It's A Small World.
We both got the kids' pepperoni flatbread.
See? Safe.
Also, notice that side Caesar salad? Notice how it's dressed? Do you see that?
Do we agree that if they can dress the side salad they can also dress the full sized ones?
I'm glad we agree.
Moving on for real.
The meal was actually good. Not sensational, but the pizza was good, the (dressed) salad was good. We enjoyed our tiny waters. We did not experience a third failure, which is a win in my book.
We spent a bit of time relaxing once we were done eating, waving at the sailers of the happiest cruise that ever sailed when they waved at us. (I will not instigate a waving party, but I'll sure join in).
Amber proudly displaying her party wristband.
Notice the tiny white bit of loop on the top? She got her thumb stuck in there three, count them, three times that evening. I captured the last instance on video. She did stop after that.
We finally decided to get a move on around six or so, and headed over to the Princess Fairytale Hall.
This was the one day we had managed to snag a FastPass for Anna and Elsa, which was fine by me because honestly, I did not want to have to try and get one of those for eleven people.
The wait wasn't too bad, and before too long, we were headed in to meet the sisters.
Elsa was first, regal as usual.
(I continue to love attention to detail).
And then we skipped over to Anna's side.
Amber was glad to finally get to have her chat on with Anna. The other two times we'd met the Frozen gals, they were still meeting as a combo, not separately, and Amber somehow ended up on the side of the Elsa conversation both times.
Which you know, is fine too, but in terms of conversation, it's like chatting up Cinderella versus Rapunzel. Both are great and sweet and all, but one's just got to have more spunk than the other (rightfully so, of course).
As soon as we were done with this meet, we headed out and got right back in line!
We had planned this FastPass at the end of its window because we knew they would open up the line for the party meets a little before seven. We waited a bit for that to be the case, and then got right in line.
In front of us was a family with young daughters who kept letting them play on the chains. Running off and all over the place and basically just making you wonder, how long til she heads face first into a pole.
Thankfully, they soon decided that they did not actually care about the potential special guests accompanying the princesses on party nights, they just wanted to meet the girls, so they got out of that line and headed into the regular one.
Before too long, we were back into the Fairytale Hall, through the proper entrance this time.
Which is good because don't you just love these portraits?
I'm actually pretty excited about Tiana moving in there. Although definitely sad about no more Naveen. I wonder what her previous spot will be for. Maybe Naveen by himself? (It's happened before). Elena of Avalor? Emptiness?
Right now they're all fair guesses.
We didn't wait too long before being directed into our meeting room, and as expected, the ladies were accompanied!
Amber was a bit disappointed because the girl meeting them before us asked Flynn about the crown in the satchel, so she decided not to. But you know, that's what happens when that kind of information starts getting around. Honestly, I think it's a wonder Disney still somehow manages to make special things happen to some people. It's gotta take a lot of creative mind.
Next in the room was Cinderella and her Prince Charming.
Apparently, I was deep in conversation with them about something.
I do not remember what about.
The hand gesture is a poor hint.
We headed out of the Fairytale Hall shortly after the party had officially begun, having already met the one set of special characters we really had plans for. There's not exactly that many around during the Christmas Party anyway, so it's not the same hassle as for the Halloween Party, but we still like to get it done early.
We knew we wanted to wait until the second parade, so we tried to figure out what to do with our time before finding spots for the fireworks.
We decided to go a-sailing.
I dare you to look at these pictures and not get the song stuck in your head.
Go on, try.
Can't do it, can you?
That's fine, neither can I.
Click for next post
After our pit stop, we headed over to our next FastPass of the evening.
Nobody say I don't try to make my wife happy.
Somehow, whenever we go in to the Magic Kingdom for a short amount of time, or have a short amount of time to use up FastPasses on, Winnie the Pooh still always ends up on the list.
But of course, she'll just bring up how I don't appreciate it to its full value. Where's the gratitude, I ask?
Since we had planned on catching that second FastPass toward the beginning of its window, and we didn't want to use up our third one until practically the very end of it, we did have a bit of time to kill.
We decided it would be the perfect time for dinner, seeing as we hadn't wanted to eat during the party anyway.
Off to Pinocchio Village Haus we go!
Now, anyone who's read our previous trip reports will know this about our experience with Pinocchio Village Haus, but just to catch you up.
First trip, we ate there. Amber had a meatball sub, she liked it. I had a chicken Caesar salad - I did not like it.
Second trip, we ate there again. We both had a meatball sub. Amber liked it. I did not.
So, third time's a charm, right?
Really, I do have to take the blame for the Caesar salad mishap. It was our first trip. I was an inexperienced Disney go-er. I had no idea that the Caesar dressing, as one might think it a fairly important aspect of a Caesar salad, was with the condiments. I wept into my cold iceberg lettuce and tasteless, limp chicken strips.
But seriously. Who needs the dressing on the side when it's a Caesar salad?
You know what, I take it back. I'm not taking the blame for it.
Get it together, Disney!
Anyway.
This time, I figured a safe option was in order.
We ordered our food and found a spot by the window overlooking It's A Small World.
We both got the kids' pepperoni flatbread.
See? Safe.
Also, notice that side Caesar salad? Notice how it's dressed? Do you see that?
Do we agree that if they can dress the side salad they can also dress the full sized ones?
I'm glad we agree.
Moving on for real.
The meal was actually good. Not sensational, but the pizza was good, the (dressed) salad was good. We enjoyed our tiny waters. We did not experience a third failure, which is a win in my book.
We spent a bit of time relaxing once we were done eating, waving at the sailers of the happiest cruise that ever sailed when they waved at us. (I will not instigate a waving party, but I'll sure join in).
Amber proudly displaying her party wristband.
Notice the tiny white bit of loop on the top? She got her thumb stuck in there three, count them, three times that evening. I captured the last instance on video. She did stop after that.
We finally decided to get a move on around six or so, and headed over to the Princess Fairytale Hall.
This was the one day we had managed to snag a FastPass for Anna and Elsa, which was fine by me because honestly, I did not want to have to try and get one of those for eleven people.
The wait wasn't too bad, and before too long, we were headed in to meet the sisters.
Elsa was first, regal as usual.
(I continue to love attention to detail).
And then we skipped over to Anna's side.
Amber was glad to finally get to have her chat on with Anna. The other two times we'd met the Frozen gals, they were still meeting as a combo, not separately, and Amber somehow ended up on the side of the Elsa conversation both times.
Which you know, is fine too, but in terms of conversation, it's like chatting up Cinderella versus Rapunzel. Both are great and sweet and all, but one's just got to have more spunk than the other (rightfully so, of course).
As soon as we were done with this meet, we headed out and got right back in line!
We had planned this FastPass at the end of its window because we knew they would open up the line for the party meets a little before seven. We waited a bit for that to be the case, and then got right in line.
In front of us was a family with young daughters who kept letting them play on the chains. Running off and all over the place and basically just making you wonder, how long til she heads face first into a pole.
Thankfully, they soon decided that they did not actually care about the potential special guests accompanying the princesses on party nights, they just wanted to meet the girls, so they got out of that line and headed into the regular one.
Before too long, we were back into the Fairytale Hall, through the proper entrance this time.
Which is good because don't you just love these portraits?
I'm actually pretty excited about Tiana moving in there. Although definitely sad about no more Naveen. I wonder what her previous spot will be for. Maybe Naveen by himself? (It's happened before). Elena of Avalor? Emptiness?
Right now they're all fair guesses.
We didn't wait too long before being directed into our meeting room, and as expected, the ladies were accompanied!
Amber was a bit disappointed because the girl meeting them before us asked Flynn about the crown in the satchel, so she decided not to. But you know, that's what happens when that kind of information starts getting around. Honestly, I think it's a wonder Disney still somehow manages to make special things happen to some people. It's gotta take a lot of creative mind.
Next in the room was Cinderella and her Prince Charming.
Apparently, I was deep in conversation with them about something.
I do not remember what about.
The hand gesture is a poor hint.
We headed out of the Fairytale Hall shortly after the party had officially begun, having already met the one set of special characters we really had plans for. There's not exactly that many around during the Christmas Party anyway, so it's not the same hassle as for the Halloween Party, but we still like to get it done early.
We knew we wanted to wait until the second parade, so we tried to figure out what to do with our time before finding spots for the fireworks.
We decided to go a-sailing.
I dare you to look at these pictures and not get the song stuck in your head.
Go on, try.
Can't do it, can you?
That's fine, neither can I.
Click for next post
Last edited:
Victoriasmom98
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2009
Awesome update, as usual!!!! You have such a fun writing style! So, do tell me about the crown in the satchel. I have no idea what you are talking about and I'm too lazy to google it! LOL! The cm's didn't question you when you ordered kid's meals? Hmmmm I may try to do that instead of big meals all the time. That sounds like a great idea!
coloredimage
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2009
I love both your dresses! They're so pretty!
I am so excited for Tiana and Aurora to be meeting together - I jokingly told Jey that now PFH is made just for us - each of our favorite old school and new school princesses meeting together makes for easy meets! But I am sad that Naveen will be gone; he was always a fun character to interact with.
I am so excited for Tiana and Aurora to be meeting together - I jokingly told Jey that now PFH is made just for us - each of our favorite old school and new school princesses meeting together makes for easy meets! But I am sad that Naveen will be gone; he was always a fun character to interact with.
MarieLightning
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 23, 2012
Thank you
When Flynn meets with Rapunzel (which is typically just during Halloween and Christmas parties), he wears the satchel he has in the movie. If you ask him what's inside, he'll show you the crown. It's pretty cute.
You can order kids' meals at any quick service and they won't bat an eyelash. For one thing, they can't say if you're not ordering food for a kid already sitting at a table, but even so, I just don't think they really care at all. I've never tried it for Table Service meals, though. I think for those, you can ask for menu items that are on the kids' menus and they'll make an adult portion out of it, so it'll cost more than the kids' pricing cause it's adult sized. But even so, I don't think they're very restrictive. The only place I think wouldn't allow you to do that is Via Napoli.
Thank you!
I love meeting Tiana, she's always so incredibly gorgeous. I can't wait to see her in her new setting. I wonder if they updated the decor a bit, seeing as PFH was closed for refurb for a bit while they were moving Anna and Elsa out of there. I don't see any reason to close it unless they were making some modifications to it, so who knows. Maybe they'll bring in some of the elements they had when she was meeting in the Heritage House. Although if they do that, it'd also make sense to have elements for the other princesses in the meeting rooms, which they don't really have.
Last edited:
amberg93
here, queer, etc
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2013
Day 7, Part 3: You Better Watch Out
Once we'd finished sailing around the world, we decided to go in search of more of that free hot chocolate.
But we had to stop for a quick castle picture. Not quite as beautiful from this angle, but still beautiful nonetheless.
Marie enjoying her hot chocolate once we grabbed one.
And then turning the camera on me.
Since it'd been a while, we decided to head over to New Fantasyland and chill there.
Enchanted Tales with Belle was open and it'd been a while since we'd been inside, so we decided to give it a go.
The cottage was ready for Christmas.
And very beautiful.
We had just missed a show it seemed or they were waiting for more people to arrive, because it took like 15 minutes before we were let back in.
However, that did leave time and space for some pictures of the inside of the cottage, which was nice.
The cutest portrait
We were again blown away by the mirror transformation and thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the little kids participate, since neither of us got picked.
Belle was a beauty as usual.
Once we had finished reliving the night that Belle and the Beast fell in love, we decided to hit up Gaston's Tavern.
Not to get anything, but to just look around without a mass of people inside.
Look at that manly man.
Gaston's chair was empty since there was no one around really and we took advantage.
I use antlers in all of my decoraaaating.
Marie doesn't. She's proper like that.
Satisfied with our look about, we decided to go check the waits for Journey of the Little Mermaid and the princess herself.
First though, we stopped for a photopass picture.
A super cute frame picture, in fact.
The wait time for Journey of the Little Mermaid said 10 minutes, but it was a walk on.
An enjoyable walk on.
Ariel's wait also said 10 minutes, and we probably waited closer to 5.
She was nice, but nothing memorable. I couldn't tell you what we chatted about.
Next, we made our way over to Storybook Circus because we had a goal in mind.
Dumbo, at night! It was also pretty much a walk on and we had a blast soaring above the kingdom in the dark.
Plus, Santa Claus is Coming to Town played which amused me greatly because Marie told me the story of her younger cousin not knowing the words when she was very little (since French is her first language) and only singing "You better watch out, you better watch out, you better watch out, you better watch out, Santa Claus is coming to town". It cracked me up so much that we decided to follow suit (hence the singing in the trip video) during our flight.
Having conquered most of New Fantasyland, we headed over to my favorite land of the park, Tomorrowland!
Which was displaying a nice projection to remind us that we were at the party.
Click for next post
Once we'd finished sailing around the world, we decided to go in search of more of that free hot chocolate.
But we had to stop for a quick castle picture. Not quite as beautiful from this angle, but still beautiful nonetheless.
Marie enjoying her hot chocolate once we grabbed one.
And then turning the camera on me.
Since it'd been a while, we decided to head over to New Fantasyland and chill there.
Enchanted Tales with Belle was open and it'd been a while since we'd been inside, so we decided to give it a go.
The cottage was ready for Christmas.
And very beautiful.
We had just missed a show it seemed or they were waiting for more people to arrive, because it took like 15 minutes before we were let back in.
However, that did leave time and space for some pictures of the inside of the cottage, which was nice.
The cutest portrait
We were again blown away by the mirror transformation and thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the little kids participate, since neither of us got picked.
Belle was a beauty as usual.
Once we had finished reliving the night that Belle and the Beast fell in love, we decided to hit up Gaston's Tavern.
Not to get anything, but to just look around without a mass of people inside.
Look at that manly man.
Gaston's chair was empty since there was no one around really and we took advantage.
I use antlers in all of my decoraaaating.
Marie doesn't. She's proper like that.
Satisfied with our look about, we decided to go check the waits for Journey of the Little Mermaid and the princess herself.
First though, we stopped for a photopass picture.
A super cute frame picture, in fact.
The wait time for Journey of the Little Mermaid said 10 minutes, but it was a walk on.
An enjoyable walk on.
Ariel's wait also said 10 minutes, and we probably waited closer to 5.
She was nice, but nothing memorable. I couldn't tell you what we chatted about.
Next, we made our way over to Storybook Circus because we had a goal in mind.
Dumbo, at night! It was also pretty much a walk on and we had a blast soaring above the kingdom in the dark.
Plus, Santa Claus is Coming to Town played which amused me greatly because Marie told me the story of her younger cousin not knowing the words when she was very little (since French is her first language) and only singing "You better watch out, you better watch out, you better watch out, you better watch out, Santa Claus is coming to town". It cracked me up so much that we decided to follow suit (hence the singing in the trip video) during our flight.
Having conquered most of New Fantasyland, we headed over to my favorite land of the park, Tomorrowland!
Which was displaying a nice projection to remind us that we were at the party.
Click for next post
Last edited:
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