How Disney turned Grumpy's Frown Upside Down! August 2010 TR!

[Mickey_Mom]

Happy New Year!! I'm glad to hear you're planning a trip this year

You have some great Wishes shots!

 

[flamestarrdust]

Happy New Year!! I'm glad to hear you're planning a trip this year

You have some great Wishes shots!

Thanks! I can't wait to get caught up on your PTR and TR! I had thought I remembered that you were going in December 2010. I am so excited to see how your trip went! I hope you had a wonderful time!

 

[annmarieda]

What amazing pictures you took of Wishes. Lots of great shots. Thank you for sharing.

Very cool that you are definitely going back in 2011. I really wish I could plan more by having a good discount...it 12 months is a bit far out for that. One thing I have been able to do is pick up clearanced Christmas stuff. If you are thinking of going at Christmas time...I would highly recommend checking out some stores like Walgreens. I picked up some really cute stuff that will be perfect for next year if in fact we do go to WDW. I almost wonder if it would be too cold in December though... but September was WAY too hot. What are you considering when deciding between August and December?

 

[flamestarrdust]

What amazing pictures you took of Wishes. Lots of great shots. Thank you for sharing.

Very cool that you are definitely going back in 2011. I really wish I could plan more by having a good discount...it 12 months is a bit far out for that. One thing I have been able to do is pick up clearanced Christmas stuff. If you are thinking of going at Christmas time...I would highly recommend checking out some stores like Walgreens. I picked up some really cute stuff that will be perfect for next year if in fact we do go to WDW. I almost wonder if it would be too cold in December though... but September was WAY too hot. What are you considering when deciding between August and December?

Thanks for the suggestions about Christmas decorations. I already picked up a few clearanced ones since I am a huge clearance addict...lol. I guess the biggest thing that will be the deciding factor for August or December is prices. I've even considered staying offsite at one of the Allstar Vacation Homes. Our biggest issue this time around is that we have a friend joining us on the trip so our group has gone from 4 to 5 which has significantly changed the price and our room options. I am still hoping they will either re-release free dining for August since I missed the 12/20 cutoff date or that free dining will be released for December. As for the temperature in December, I am not sure but when I went in February 2006, it felt nice, not cold. On a couple nights, I needed a light jacket but not much more than that.

 

[flamestarrdust]

I have been dreading writing this post since this might be one of the worst and embarassing moments of our trip. However, to move onto the better moments, I have to write about this one. So here we go. After Wishes, we made our way to Tomorrowland to use our SM fastpasses. Before I continue, I should mention a little bit about my girls' fears. Of course, we have established that Haylee has a fear of fireworks. Well, Alleyah's is rollercoasters. In preparation for the possibility of riding rollercoasters at WDW, I prepared her with youtube videos of rides and deep explanations of them and really wanting to go along with the fun, she promised me week after week that she would ride them because it was Disney. Unfortunately, being just as excited about the trip as she was, I believed her. The minute we receive the FPs, Alleyah starts sulking. Haylee wanted to skip Wishes so we could make our FP time and Alleyah was completely against this. Not so much for the love of fireworks but more about the possibility of missing SM. Much to her dismay, we get to SM just in time for our FPs. So we all get in line and are happy to not be waiting in the really long line. Since Alleyah is scared, she has decided she is going to ride with her Dad, which is just fine with me and Haylee who get to ride together. We get to the line where you are about to board. We are second in line at this point. This is when Alleyah realizes she is not going to be able to sit beside her Dad but behind or in front of him and completely panics. It gets worse when it's our turn to board and we try to convince her to get in and she starts yelling and crying. I must mention that later in the trip, I saw this same thing happen with a kid who was about 4. I love her but sometimes I really don't understand her. So DFi and Alleyah get off the ride and out of line while Haylee and I go ahead and ride. As DFi and Alleyah exited the ride, the CM was nice enough to give them new FPs to ride anytime. Afterwards, DFi is sitting outside on the little bench trying to convince her the ride is not that bad. Haylee and I do the same since we just rode it. So we thoroughly tried to convince Alleyah to ride. Finally she gave in since DFi really wanted to ride SM and ofcourse, again I believe her. This time was worse. She kicked and screamed trying to get out of line. DFi brought her out again. This time with no extra FPs. Needless to say, we were all extremely aggravated. Especially, DFi who really wanted to ride SM but was too annoyed at that point try again. Sadly, he didn't get to ride SM at all. Next trip, it is a must that he gets to ride it. As for the rest of the trip, I will say this, we did try to convince Alleyah to ride other rollercoasters but never put her in the line for one again.

Up Next, EMHs, does our evening get better or worse?

 

[flamestarrdust]

After the SM Meltdown, we decide to cheer ourselves up with a snack and some rides. We head to Aloha Isle for my very first Dole Whip. I apologize for not taking pics but at this point, we were all very frustrated and very tired so taking out my camera for the snacks was the last thing on my mind. However, I do remember what we all had. I got the Pineapple Dole Whip which was a dream. Everyone tried it and loved it, even DFi who is not a big fan of anything to do with pineapples. DFi had a large coke. Alleyah had a plain vanilla ice cream and Haylee had a coke float. We were trying to save up our snack credits for another day so I paid OOP for this. After our yummy and refreshing snacks, we cheered up and decided to enjoy the thinning EMH crowds and ride a few rides. First, we decided to ride the Jungle Cruise. I have rode it in the past but never at night which I heard is the best time to ride. Next we decided to check out the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse.

Alleyah and Haylee being silly in the treehouse

View of SM from the treehouse

Another shot of SM

After SFR Treehouse, we rode POTC and saw the Enchanted Tiki Bird Show. It was after EMH so DFi got one last shot of the castle before we headed back to POP for a good night's sleep for our first day at AK.

Up Next, a late start and a run in with Rhinos...

 

[annmarieda]

I am glad you got through that post on SM. It wasn't so bad to read.. I know from your perspective it must have been hard. Believe me... I have my oldest who has her meltdowns still... When she get something in her head there is not convincing her. On occasion it has been embarassing. I think (or at least I hope) most parents go through it with at least one of their kids.

As for the rest of the update... I love dole floats!

As for your next trip... I hear ya on discounts. I really was thinking we would go regardless. Now I am not so sure.... last week I would have said there was a 90% chance of going at Christmas. Now I would think there less than a 50% chance. I will be anxious to hear what you decide. I can always live vicariously

 

[flamestarrdust]

I am glad you got through that post on SM. It wasn't so bad to read.. I know from your perspective it must have been hard. Believe me... I have my oldest who has her meltdowns still... When she get something in her head there is not convincing her. On occasion it has been embarassing. I think (or at least I hope) most parents go through it with at least one of their kids.

As for the rest of the update... I love dole floats!

As for your next trip... I hear ya on discounts. I really was thinking we would go regardless. Now I am not so sure.... last week I would have said there was a 90% chance of going at Christmas. Now I would think there less than a 50% chance. I will be anxious to hear what you decide. I can always live vicariously

Thanks for that. It felt really horrible at the time. But I think it had more to do with all of us being so exhausted.

I think we are about at 90% right now. I am pretty sure we will go regardless. I think our biggest issue at this point is we really wanted to go in August because of the girls' school. However with no discounts, we may have no choice to go in December. Mostly because even without a discount, it gives me more time to pay off the trip. Not that it's a bad thing to go in December. I have always wanted to go around Christmas time. The kids are just bummed because they will have to wait a little longer to go.

 

[flamestarrdust]

On a normal day, everyone in our family loves to sleep in. However at Disney, this rule changes. I had set the alarm for around 10:30 since we had such a late night and we were going to have another one on our AK day. However, we were all wide awake by 9am. The night before we had wanted to swim when we returned to POP but once we arrived back at our room, it was pouring down rain. So we told the girls that we would go swimming before going to AK the next day. Once up, the girls ate some poptarts while I went to the food court to grab some more soda in my refillable mug and some snacks. While I was there, I picked up a bag of chips for DFi and a side of bacon to go with our poptarts. Once I was back we ate our mini breakfast and changed for swimming. I also decided to do some laundry during our pool time. We swam until around 11:00. Then we went back to the room to change. My plan was to get to AK around 11:45 or 12:00 and it worked out perfectly. We decided since we had such a small breakfast that once we got to AK, we would grab lunch. We picked Pizzafari and were glad we made this choice. I also forgot to take pics of this food but by the time we got there we were so hungry, I was more interested in food than taking out my camera. We decided to also keep our lunch light to conserve our QS credits, the heat diminishing our appetites and because we had a huge dinner at Boma later in the evening. DFi and I both got the Pepperoni Pizza with Caesar Salad and split this with Haylee. Then I paid OOP for Alleyah to get the Kids Cheese Pizza with grapes, carrot sticks and apple juice. DFi and I both got the Chocolate Mousse for dessert. The Pizza was delicious but the mousse was just ok. We all ended up sharing food and were completely stuffed. After lunch, DFi needed to smoke so we grabbed a few pics on the way to the DSA.

Up Next, It's Tough to Be a Bug and a run in with Rhinos...

 

[annmarieda]

I think we are about at 90% right now. I am pretty sure we will go regardless. I think our biggest issue at this point is we really wanted to go in August because of the girls' school. However with no discounts, we may have no choice to go in December. Mostly because even without a discount, it gives me more time to pay off the trip. Not that it's a bad thing to go in December. I have always wanted to go around Christmas time. The kids are just bummed because they will have to wait a little longer to go.

Maybe you should call and see if you have a pin. I called today (horrible wit...waited 30 minutes on hold ) to find out if I had one so that I could book a honeymoon trip for my dd. Sure enough there was one... I just wish it was for dates all the way through to December. Oh well....

On a normal day, everyone in our family loves to sleep in. However at Disney, this rule changes. I had set the alarm for around 10:30 since we had such a late night and we were going to have another one on our AK day. However, we were all wide awake by 9am. The night before we had wanted to swim when we returned to POP but once we arrived back at our room, it was pouring down rain. So we told the girls that we would go swimming before going to AK the next day. Once up, the girls ate some poptarts while I went to the food court to grab some more soda in my refillable mug and some snacks. While I was there, I picked up a bag of chips for DFi and a side of bacon to go with our poptarts. Once I was back we ate our mini breakfast and changed for swimming. I also decided to do some laundry during our pool time. We swam until around 11:00. Then we went back to the room to change. My plan was to get to AK around 11:45 or 12:00 and it worked out perfectly. We decided since we had such a small breakfast that once we got to AK, we would grab lunch. We picked Pizzafari and were glad we made this choice. I also forgot to take pics of this food but by the time we got there we were so hungry, I was more interested in food than taking out my camera. We decided to also keep our lunch light to conserve our QS credits, the heat diminishing our appetites and because we had a huge dinner at Boma later in the evening. DFi and I both got the Pepperoni Pizza with Caesar Salad and split this with Haylee. Then I paid OOP for Alleyah to get the Kids Cheese Pizza with grapes, carrot sticks and apple juice. DFi and I both got the Chocolate Mousse for dessert. The Pizza was delicious but the mousse was just ok. We all ended up sharing food and were completely stuffed. After lunch, DFi needed to smoke so we grabbed a few pics on the way to the DSA.

Up Next, It's Tough to Be a Bug and a run in with Rhinos...

What a nice morning. I always want to take better advantage of the pools...but either it has been too cold or we have hurried around too much. I always say next time... sadly...it always ends up being the thing that gets cut out.

 

[flamestarrdust]

Maybe you should call and see if you have a pin. I called today (horrible wit...waited 30 minutes on hold ) to find out if I had one so that I could book a honeymoon trip for my dd. Sure enough there was one... I just wish it was for dates all the way through to December. Oh well...

The day after you suggested this I received a pin in the mail. Which is odd for me because I've never received one in the mail before, just email and only a couple. The one I received was the best one I've ever gotten between me and DFi. It is 35% off values and mods, and 40% off deluxes. The best part is the dates it covers which are:

2/27-3/5, 5/8-5/27, 5/31-6/4, 8/21-10/8, 10/23-10/29, 11/27-12/3, 12/11-12/24 plus Jan and Feb 2012. Expires 2/28/11

So now we are definitely leaning more towards December which is what my ticker is currently set at. It may change depending on Free Dining. We chose Dec vs. Aug because it gives us more time to pay off the trip instead of trying to rush to get it done. Plus being at WDW close to Christmas is one of mine and the kids' dreams.

What a nice morning. I always want to take better advantage of the pools...but either it has been too cold or we have hurried around too much. I always say next time... sadly...it always ends up being the thing that gets cut out.

I have always skipped them in the past, too, but the kids and DFi demanded pool time so I gave in. It really did relax us a lot more.

 

[annmarieda]

The day after you suggested this I received a pin in the mail. Which is odd for me because I've never received one in the mail before, just email and only a couple. The one I received was the best one I've ever gotten between me and DFi. It is 35% off values and mods, and 40% off deluxes. The best part is the dates it covers which are:

2/27-3/5, 5/8-5/27, 5/31-6/4, 8/21-10/8, 10/23-10/29, 11/27-12/3, 12/11-12/24 plus Jan and Feb 2012. Expires 2/28/11

So now we are definitely leaning more towards December which is what my ticker is currently set at. It may change depending on Free Dining. We chose Dec vs. Aug because it gives us more time to pay off the trip instead of trying to rush to get it done. Plus being at WDW close to Christmas is one of mine and the kids' dreams.



I have always skipped them in the past, too, but the kids and DFi demanded pool time so I gave in. It really did relax us a lot more.

looks like we will be going around the same time!!

That is a great pin isn't it. I got that same one. It isn't quite as good as fd for us...but almost. If fd does come out, I will be on the phone trying to modify my reservation.

Now you have to finish up your TR and start a PTR

 

[flamestarrdust]

looks like we will be going around the same time!!

That is a great pin isn't it. I got that same one. It isn't quite as good as fd for us...but almost. If fd does come out, I will be on the phone trying to modify my reservation.

Now you have to finish up your TR and start a PTR

That would be so great if we went around the same time. Maybe we could meet up one day. If FD comes out, I will be doing exactly the same thing.

 

[flamestarrdust]

After a quick visit to the DSA, we went to KS to grab fastpasses. Our FPs were for 2:50. It was a little after 2:00 so we decided to see if there were any attractions we could check out before our FP time. We walked by It's tough to be a bug which had only a 10 minute wait so got in line for that.

We all enjoyed this. It was especially fun at the end when Haylee and Alleyah tried to crawl under the bench to get away from the scary bug.

Up Next, Kilimanjaro Safaris...

 

[annmarieda]

That would be so great if we went around the same time. Maybe we could meet up one day. If FD comes out, I will be doing exactly the same thing.

It would be! We will definitely have to watch and see if our plans mess up at some point. We have like a year for things to get set in stone. I did have to put together a ticker from the same site you used just to see how our dates match. If I went with that ticker it would read " 10 months 29 days" So if our dates don't change we should be there on overlapping days.

After a quick visit to the DSA, we went to KS to grab fastpasses. Our FPs were for 2:50. It was a little after 2:00 so we decided to see if there were any attractions we could check out before our FP time. We walked by It's tough to be a bug which had only a 10 minute wait so got in line for that.

We all enjoyed this. It was especially fun at the end when Haylee and Alleyah tried to crawl under the bench to get away from the scary bug.

Up Next, Kilimanjaro Safaris...

What neat pictures of the tree!

 

[flamestarrdust]

After It's Tough to be a Bug, we made our way to KS. We made it just in time for our FP time and only waited in line about 5 minutes.

Continued in next post...

 

[flamestarrdust]

By this point, we were all thoroughly enjoying our safari, so DFi took a pic of my Disney happy face

Continued in next post....

 

[flamestarrdust]

Continued in next post...

 

[flamestarrdust]

Continued in next post...

 

[flamestarrdust]

This is the time where our safari differs from others. We slowed down a bit to let the other safaris ahead of us catch up. Of course this would be the time that a rhino decides to cross on the path in front of us and he does this very slowly. However, it gave us plenty of time to grab some great photos.

Continued in next post...