I Can't See a Thing and Tiger Lady, Oh My! A Nov Mother & Daughter TR Update 5/7

[NiniMorris]

I believe that was the NEXT time we saw you . You were at Sunshine Seasons and we were walking to Soarin'. Glad you had a great time.... and when I sleep in (even on weekends) I am up before 6:30 as well! But somehow I have problems getting the family up on vacations before 7.....


Nini

 

[Pluto0809]

Sunshine Seasons is the only place where I have to eat breakfast. Otherwise I just do a granola bar, but I love their platter.

Great pictures in the aquarium! Interesting though as the CM I spoke to told me that there are five turtles in that tank. I only saw two last trip, the big old guy, and a smaller one.

Yep, Sunshine Seasons is a great place for breakfast. I also love eating lunch there.

That is funny that we got different stories from the CMs. I was told there are three. The one I got pictures of was a male. The CM said there was one female and two males in the tank.

oh i love looking in all the tanks,I spend alot of time in there with my girls n usually whoever is with us gets annoyed LOL but we are just amazed in there

I can definitely waste some time watching all the pretty fish!

You slept in yet were still up before 7am?

I love the Seas so much. Both Ron and I could spent hours in there.

Thanks to this past trip I now have a love/hate relationship with breakfast at Sunshine Season.

In real life, I'm up at 5:00 am every day so 6:30 is sleeping in for me!

A great start to your morning. We love spending time at the aquariums (truthfully, if I didn't drag hubby away we'd be there all day). I'll be sure to look for that sea turtle next visit.

I found him again this trip. You will definitely see him if you ever eat at Coral Reef. He likes to hang out by the windows there. I saw him again this last week. He's easy to pick out because he is much paler in color than the other ones in the tank.

I believe that was the NEXT time we saw you . You were at Sunshine Seasons and we were walking to Soarin'. Glad you had a great time.... and when I sleep in (even on weekends) I am up before 6:30 as well! But somehow I have problems getting the family up on vacations before 7.....


Nini

I totally missed you that time. I guess we were too involved in our food to look around! I was also texting with my Cousin so I probably had my nose buried in my phone.

 

[Pluto0809]

As we headed out of the Seas building, we stopped for a minute in the exit shop. I had seen a onesie there that I wanted to get for a lady at work who was adopting a baby. The onesie had the seagulls from Nemo on it and said “Mine, Mine, Mine”. Purchase made, we headed out and over to the Land building.

My plan was to ride Living with the Land first and then Soarin’ but the line for LWTL was all the way over to the entrance to Soarin’ and the wait time said 40 minutes. So we headed to Soarin’ instead.

We were on Soarin’ fairly quickly with our FPs, probably about 10 minutes. I can’t remember for sure but I think we were in row 2. As soon as the ride started, I noticed three large black spots on the screen. I wondered if maybe I noticed them because I had read about the defects in the film on the DIS. But Mom leaned over halfway through and asked if I saw them. After the ride, I explained about the defects in the film to her. She was relieved because she thought there was something wrong with her eyes. We both love Soarin’ but were somewhat disappointed because of the spots. They are very distracting while you are riding. I did discover during my latest trip that you may or may not see the spots depending on your seat location. That’s probably why some people mention seeing them and some don’t.

We debated about pulling a second set of FPs but the return time was around 5 pm at this point and we knew we would be somewhere in the World Showcase by then. So we headed over to LWTL to see what the wait time was. I had to get one more picture of the balloons and light fixtures:

LWTL now said 25 minute wait but it didn’t look that bad so we decided to get in line. I found a Hidden Mickey in the mural while we waited:

We only waited about 10 minutes before we were in a boat and headed out. I can never get good pictures in the first part but always take a lot in the greenhouse. Probably nothing you haven’t seen before. I do always try to get a picture of the chickens in the farmyard but have never been successful. Those chickens have a special place in my heart. Let’s flashback 14 ½ years…….

DH and I went to Disney for our Honeymoon in Oct 1998. That was back before FPs and before you had to have ADRs for all the restaurants. We decided to have lunch at Garden Grill on our Epcot day and walked right in. As we were slowly rotating around, we came upon the farmyard scene. DH looks at me and says, “Wow, those chickens are well trained to stay in one place like that”. I laughed and said “I don’t think they are real”. But he was insistent that they had to be real. So much so that he asked the CM waiting on us if they were. Without missing a beat she replied “Sure they are real. We just nail their feet to the ground so they don’t wander too far”. DH actually turned to me to say “told you so” before what she said sunk in. I still tease him to this day about his “real” chickens…….

Alrighty then, back to the regularly scheduled TR. Where were we? Oh yeah, pictures from LWTL.

I thought it was neat how they decorated the Rosemary for Christmas:

Mom really enjoyed LWTL. She said she didn’t remember ever riding it prior to this trip. I know we missed it in 2010 because it was closed for renovation.

After LWTL we were done in the Land building. I had seen the Lion King movie in 2011 and didn’t care to see it again. When I described it to Mom, she had no desire to see it either.

We headed out and towards the Imagination Pavilion. I drug Mom kicking and screaming (well not really but she’s not much of a fan) onto the Figment Ride. I love me some Figment and figured she could tolerate it for one ride.

We actually spent some time playing in the area after the ride but I didn’t get any pictures. Mom really liked the part where you could “conduct” music.

Then we headed up towards Captain EO just so I could get some pictures of the fountains.

It was getting close to 1 pm by this time and we had finished up everything we wanted to do in Future World. Even though neither of us was very hungry after our big breakfast, we knew we had to eat lunch before too long so we would be hungry for our 7 pm ADR.

We headed into World Showcase to find some food, stopping along the way for some PP pictures with Mickey and Minnie. It was a bit windy as you can probably tell by my hair.

Up next: Tiger Lady, Oh My!!

 

[oopsiDAISY]

Well, I took Friday off work and missed an update...caught it this time along with the new one. Of all the pictures I have seen of LWTL, I had never seen the "monkey puzzle tree". If I am honest, I must admit that I have not been on LWTL since I was a little girl. I thought it was boring, and so as an adult I have not wanted to bore my kids with it. I do miss the Kitchen Kabaret show, though! veggie, FRUIT FRUIT, veggie veggie, FRUIT FRUIT!!!

Um, those home fries look DELICIOUS!!! I just may have to make myself some for dinner now. I mean, I do have potatoes, and I happen to have some onions, and I even have mixed bell peppers...so it's not like I would have to go out of my way to make myself some Disney magic, you know?

FIGMENT!!!! That is just the cheesiest ride, but it is a MUST DO!! I make up reasons to visit one of our professors often, because he has a Figment stuffie in his office!

I feel the need to head over to youtube now and visit some Disney rides...

 

[PhoenixStrength]

That is so funny that your husband thought the chickens were real!!

I really enjoy LWTL and love all of your pictures from it!

 

[katt789]

Yay!

So, Soarin, totally thought they had fixed the spots, as in Feb I didn't see any, but remember seeing them in the past, didn't know it could depend on where you were sitting!

How funny about the chickens!! I haven't been on LWTL in a few years now, lol, don't remember much about it!

 

[Pluto0809]

Well, I took Friday off work and missed an update...caught it this time along with the new one. Of all the pictures I have seen of LWTL, I had never seen the "monkey puzzle tree". If I am honest, I must admit that I have not been on LWTL since I was a little girl. I thought it was boring, and so as an adult I have not wanted to bore my kids with it. I do miss the Kitchen Kabaret show, though! veggie, FRUIT FRUIT, veggie veggie, FRUIT FRUIT!!!

Um, those home fries look DELICIOUS!!! I just may have to make myself some for dinner now. I mean, I do have potatoes, and I happen to have some onions, and I even have mixed bell peppers...so it's not like I would have to go out of my way to make myself some Disney magic, you know?

FIGMENT!!!! That is just the cheesiest ride, but it is a MUST DO!! I make up reasons to visit one of our professors often, because he has a Figment stuffie in his office!

I feel the need to head over to youtube now and visit some Disney rides...

Glad you got a day off! I do that too, the only time I spend on the DIS is at work. Got to find someway to avoid actually working at work.

I'm surprised that I had a LWTL picture that you had never seen! I find the Monkey Puzzle Tree to be fasinating for some reason. I don't find LWTL boring but then I love the Tiki Room, Country Bear Jamboree and COP too so I may not be the best judge.

I have vague memories of Kitchen Kabaret from my Honeymoon trip. That one and another one that involved body parts. Not body wars, this was a stage show. I need to find those on you tube and watch them again.

The home fries were really good, I'm glad Mom shared some with me.

Figment is one of my favorites! I have a picture with him and Dreamfinder from when I was 12. I need to get some of those old photos scanned.

That is so funny that your husband thought the chickens were real!!

I really enjoy LWTL and love all of your pictures from it!

It was so funny at the time, especially with the CM's quick response.

Thanks, I took lots more on my latest trip so I'll have those to share once I start that TR.

Yay!

So, Soarin, totally thought they had fixed the spots, as in Feb I didn't see any, but remember seeing them in the past, didn't know it could depend on where you were sitting!

How funny about the chickens!! I haven't been on LWTL in a few years now, lol, don't remember much about it!

I rode Soarin' three times this last trip and noticed different degrees of spots each time. I also sat with some ladies who were FL residents and they were talking about the best places to sit to not see the spots.

You should give LWTL another try. It's a very relaxing ride and I love seeing all of the different plants they have in the greenhouse.

 

[Pluto0809]

So I saw a hip specialist today. I have some kind of abnormality on my pelvic bone. They gave me too different things it could be so I did some research on the internet. First one is fibrous dysplasia. Here's what I found out:

"Fibrous dysplasia is a bone disorder in which scar-like (fibrous) tissue develops in place of normal bone. As the bone grows, the softer, fibrous tissue expands, weakening the bone. Fibrous dysplasia can cause the affected bone to deform and become susceptible to fracture. Most people with fibrous dysplasia are diagnosed during adolescence or early adulthood. Mild cases usually cause no signs or symptoms. More-serious cases of fibrous dysplasia may result in bone pain and deformity. The basic cause of fibrous dysplasia is unknown. There's no cure for fibrous dysplasia. Treatment focuses on relieving signs and symptoms."

Second option is a Liposclerosing myxofibrous tumor (try saying that three times fast).

"Liposclerosing myxofibrous tumor (LSMFT) is a benign fibro-osseous lesion that is characterized by mixture of histologic elements including lipoma, fibroxanthoma, myxoma, ischemic ossification, and fibrous dysplasia (FD)-like features. Liposclerosing myxofibrous tumor (LSMFT) is benign fibro-osseous lesion that has been reported in the intertrochanteric region of the proximal femur. On imaging studies, the lesion is seen as a centrally located mixed lytic and sclerosing lesion. The histology shows pagetoid bone with admixed fat, xanthomatous tissue, and fibromyxoid tissue, much of which may be considered reactive. It has been suggested that this lesion represents the end point of a traumatized focus of fibrous dysplasia or other pre-existing benign lesion."

So next step is an MRI, I'm just waiting for the Dr's office to call me to schedule. Neither option sounds like fun as they both seem like cronic conditions that I'm just going to have to live with.

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Yuck to both options! I hope the MRI looks good and you find out its a third option that they didn't think of at first, one that's able to be cured easily!

 

[oopsiDAISY]

YUCK! I would ask for Door #3... I will keep praying and you keep us updated!

 

[Pluto0809]

Yuck to both options! I hope the MRI looks good and you find out its a third option that they didn't think of at first, one that's able to be cured easily!

YUCK! I would ask for Door #3... I will keep praying and you keep us updated!

Thanks guys! I really don't like either option! I've got the MRI scheduled for next Thursday 3/21 and then a followup with the specialist on 3/27. Hopefully after that I will know something more.

 

[KatMark]

I am sitting here on the floor over your husband and the chicken story.

I've seen those spots on Soarin' too...it really takes away from the whole attraction in my opinion.

I'm glad you made mom do Figment...he needs some extra love as he doesn't get enough on here.

Either diagnosis does not sound good...hoping he MRI shows them to be wrong and it is something fixable.

 

[ronnmel]

Oh man, that really sucks about your hip!

 

[Pluto0809]

I am sitting here on the floor over your husband and the chicken story.

I've seen those spots on Soarin' too...it really takes away from the whole attraction in my opinion.

I'm glad you made mom do Figment...he needs some extra love as he doesn't get enough on here.

Either diagnosis does not sound good...hoping he MRI shows them to be wrong and it is something fixable.

I still chuckle when I think about the chicken story.

The spots do distract from the movie. My eyes just want to follow them for some reason.

I agree that Figment doesn't get enough love! Mom just doesn't like the skunk part. I'm not too fond of that either but I like the rest of the ride enough to tolerate the smell.

I'm not happy about the diagnosis at all!

Oh man, that really sucks about your hip!

I know, I'm not happy. But at least once all the tests are over, I'll know what is wrong and how to deal with it.

 

[Pluto0809]

So we’ve finally come to the part in my TR where I get to explain the second part of my title. But first, we were on a quest to find some food.

We headed towards Canada because I wanted to look at the hockey shirts again for DH. I didn’t take any pictures of the pavilion since I had done so on the first day. I wrote done the Hockey teams that were available so I could text DH and see what team he wanted. While we were looking, another family came in the store specifically to find the hidden Mickey that is in there. So Mom and I started looking too. It was actually pretty hard to find and a CM had to give us some hints.

Then we moved onto UK.

We were headed here to get some lunch:

While I picked up some napkins and condiments, I sent Mom on ahead to find a table. She came back and said there were none available so I said follow me. I zigzagged through the crowd and back to the little courtyard where the British band plays. We found a nice bench in the shade to sit and eat our meal. There’s only one thing to get at Yorkshire so here’s our food:

I took a few pictures of our view while we ate.

It was very quiet back there except for the groups coming through to do the Agent P missions. And the food was delicious! The fish was light and crispy and the fries were just awesome. I ate every bite of mine even though I wasn’t all that hungry. And the sugar cookie? Well, I really don’t like sugar cookies but I decided to try a bite. I ended up eating all of mine and half of Mom’s. I’m not sure what it was about them but them but they were so good.

After we ate, we stopped at the restrooms in UK and I got done quicker than Mom. So of course I took some pictures while I was waiting.

I know we walked through the UK shops but I can’t remember if it was before or after the pit stop. We didn’t find anything that interested us so we moved on to France.

There was a PP photographer by the fountain so we got in line. Unfortunately the fountain turned off just as we sat down for the pictures. Mom said, “Oh no what happened to the fountain”? The CM said quite rudely that it was on a timer and she couldn’t do anything about it. I’m sure she was asked that several times a day but she could have been a lot nicer. Well her rudeness carried through to the pictures and they turned out awful. I’ll just post a few since they were so bad. These two were about the best.

After that, we headed further into France because I wanted to see the movie. It was one I had never seen and wanted to check it off my list. This guy was in the lobby and he was really neat:

The movie was mostly scenes from France with pretty music playing. It was really nice because there were seats so you didn't have to stand like the one in Canada and China. We did enjoy it but it made me feel sleepy after all that food. So what do you do after a sleepy movie? You get an orange Grand Mariner slushy of course:

The orange one was mine and Mom opted to get a Lemon Grey Goose one. I realize looking back that I didn’t take any more pictures of France. We started walking towards Morocco sipping our drinks. I was trying to walk, drink my drink and take pictures all at the same time and managed to spill my slushy down the front of my shirt. So we stepped over to the side so I could get a Kleenex out of my purse and clean myself up. Lesson learned… drinking, walking and picture taking at the same time do not mix.

While we were standing there, we saw one of the strangest sights of the week. Unfortunately I had put my camera away and didn’t get photographic evidence. A lady walked by wearing a tiger Santa hat. She also had a lot of tiger accessories, for example her purse and water bottle were also tiger striped. Ok, so that‘s not too strange, she was just fond of tigers. I wear a lot of Pluto stuff and that doesn’t make me strange, right? Well, she was pushing a double stroller (one of the ones where the kids sit one in front of the other) full of stuffed tigers that were all dressed in Disney costumes. There were at least six or seven tigers and I know for sure I saw one dressed as Ariel (it even had on a red wig). And she was completely alone. Maybe she had family elsewhere in the park but it really looked like she was taking her stuffed tiger family for an outing at Epcot dressed in their Disney costumes. I’m afraid to admit that both Mom and I starred at her as she walked by, there was just no looking away. We talked and speculated about her the rest of the trip.

After that strange sight, we stood for a while sipping our drinks till we got them down to manageable levels. We headed into Morocco and I took a lot of pictures. I think Morocco is the prettiest of the pavilions.

Oh, and the drinks. I did like my orange one but it got too sweet towards the end. I’m afraid I threw it out before I was completely finished. Mom loved her lemon one and I also took a sip and loved it. I think next time I’ll get the lemon one.

I think I’m pretty much out of picture space for this update so I’ll leave off here.

Up Next: So Sad, My Pearl is too Big

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Yeah, tiger lady sounds very creepy. I really hope she had a kid or kids somewhere else in the park that they were for!!

 

[Pluto0809]

Yeah, tiger lady sounds very creepy. I really hope she had a kid or kids somewhere else in the park that they were for!!

We couldn't decide if she was creepy or just sad. I do hope there were kids somewhere that the tigers belonged to but by the way she was dressed I just don't think so.

 

[ronnmel]

What a weird lady.

I also think Morocco is the prettiest pavilion.

I love the Grey Goose slushie!

 

[Pluto0809]

What a weird lady.

I also think Morocco is the prettiest pavilion.

I love the Grey Goose slushie!

She was very strange. I always love people watching at Disney because there is always some interesting sites.

I love Morocco and also like brousing in the stores. They have some beautiful stuff but I've never bought anything because most of the stuff is not for every day.

 

[Pluto0809]

So you have probably guessed by the title of this installment where we were headed next.

We stopped for a few minutes to watch the candy lady. That was the first time I had watched her and she was amazing! We couldn’t believe how quickly she made the candy animals. We watched her make a monkey from the beginning to the end and I don’t even think it took five minutes.

Then we headed into here:

I had never done Pick a Pearl before and really wanted to try it. I wanted to get the Cinderella’s Carriage necklace or a ring. I bought my Pearl and waited a bit till my number was called. We watched a few people picking pearls:

Then it was my turn. I gave Mom my camera and she did a pretty good job of photographing the whole experience.

Picking my oyster (Mom must have caught me mid blink)

Learning to count to three in Japanese:

Time to open that oyster:

There it is, a huge 7 ¾ mm pinkish pearl. Mom didn’t know how to zoom in with my camera or she would have gotten a picture closer up:

Celebrating my pearl with a little drumming:

I loved the whole experience, it’s really quite the adrenaline rush. We headed over to the jewelry counter so I could pick a setting. The CM helping me said right away that the pearl was too big for the Cinderella necklace, the pearl has to be 7 ¼ mm or less to fit. Bummer but I would just go with my backup of a ring. There were only two styles in the rings that would hold the larger pearl and they didn’t have my size in either. So sad, I had picked a pearl that was too big for what I wanted. I finally ended up picking the only cage that would fit my pearl.

It was going to be about ½ hour till my necklace was ready so we spent some time browsing the store while waiting. Mom found a really cute little owl change purse that she decided to buy. Remember that she had bought a Minnie Mouse one the day before. She decided she liked the owl one much better and ended up returning the Minnie Mouse one the next day. She also bought one of the little good luck owls. Mom’s been kind of obsessed with owls lately which explains this next picture she had me take:

I’m surprised she didn’t buy more than she did, there was a lot of owl stuff in that store. While we were shopping I was still bumming about not getting the Cinderella necklace. Mom finally said, why don’t you try again? It didn’t take much for her to talk me into it, so we headed back and I bought another pearl. This time I got 7 ½ mm pearl, still too big for the necklace! I decided I was done at that point so we picked up my necklace and headed out. I just kept the second pearl in the bag it came in and didn’t get it set.

All in all I think we spent about an hour in the Japan pavilion so we were running behind to finish the world showcase before our dinner ADR. We headed to the American Pavilion next:

That’s the only picture I have because all we did was go into the store for a few minutes. Once again Mom was hoping for some Americana stuff for my Brother but it was mostly Duffy stuff. I did get mobbed by the three CM’s in there because they loved my Pluto bag. I had to show them every inch of it and give them information on how to get one of their own before I left.

We went into the Italy store but only stayed briefly, the perfume smell was too strong for me and I wanted to sneeze. I took some drive by photos along the way:

When we got to Germany we went into the glass store and the Christmas store but didn’t buy anything. Then we went to Karamell Kuche to check out the sweets. I’m not a big fan of caramel and Mom didn’t want anything so we just walked through.

We were both feeling tired and a bit run down at this point (foreshadowing for the next day) but we were determined to finish up the World Showcase so we trekked on.

Up Next: Finishing up World Showcase