I made up the plan. It is MY plan! - A March 2015 TR - update 6/30 Epcot morning

[ksl5f123]

I wonder if different CM's narrate the safari differently? I'm pretty sure ours used the two week tour bit, at least.

I don't know. Ours talked a lot about how the animals might not be out due to the rain and we needed to watch near the trees. I didn't know if it was the "new spiel" or if he just didn't want us to get our hopes up.

That bird show looks really cool..I never seem to have time for the shows at the parks because everyone is so ride focussed...maybe if we had a longer trip...sigh. That little snack pack sounds perfect...I want one!! Too bad about not getting to ride Kali together...but at least you got to go!

The shows at AK are all so good! There aren't a lot of rides at AK that appeal to my non-thrill riders, so it is pretty easy to fill our day with the shows. The snack pack was great. It was the perfect size lunch for a two year old.

Nope because I type up my posts in Word and then copy and paste them on to the Disboards as needed. I've got the bulk of the text written and edited for pretty much the rest of my PTR already done. All I have to do is scan over it for final edits and then insert the correct links for the pictures in the right spots.

I used to do that, but I have been having so many issues with my word processor eating my documents that I gave up. Guess I can't win either way right now.

 

[ksl5f123]

You got some really nice safari pictures - even if not all the animals were out. That zebra really was very close - so cool!

I've heard they give you a grace period if you're a little late for your FP+ ... but ultimately it's up to the CM there. I'm glad you got a CM who let you go on with no problems.

Sounds like you guys were having a good time ... can't wait to hear about your experience at Yak and Yeti!

I had never been that close to a zebra before, so that was a highlight for me.

The Mickey head turned green at both of the tapstyles, so I think they are set to give a small grace period.

Awe we love T-Rex! And walking around the Cars section at AoA is so cool! I love that area!!

Even with the rain, it sounds like your time at Animal Kingdom was pretty successful!! The safari pics were great!! And you are so correct on the timing to see the shows and having to backtrack some!! I'm hoping to catch FoTLK in its new home next month and also Flights of Wonder-which I have yet to see!

It was our first time at T-Rex. I don't know that we will go every trip, but it is a place I would go back to.

I try to avoid back-tracking whenever I can, but I just couldn't make the show times work any other way. You need to do FoW! Such fun - a little preachy about the environmental stuff, but still worth it.

 

[ksl5f123]

Life update - today was another of those crazy busy days. J was taking a class to become a certified babysitter. T had gymnastics. DH had to attend a ceremony at the college where we work. They were installing a new college president today. C had dance picture day. Here she is in her tap (the song is Good Morning from Singing in the Rain)

Jazz (to Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely")

and Ballet (my favorite of the 3 costumes - to "So Long, Farewell" from The Sound of Music)

Tomorrow is DH's birthday, so I have to make my once-a-year sacrifice of eating Indian food. Thank goodness I like naan or I would be really hungry!

OK, back to the Disney stuff in the next post!

 

[ksl5f123]

Our Yak and Yeti ADR was for 2:30 PM. I was surprised at how busy it was for that odd of a time to eat. We waited about 5 minutes before being taken upstairs to two tables across an aisle from each other. I was a little disappointed in that because we like to share appetizers and it was pretty hard to pass them between the tables. DH and I sat on one side with the boys while FIL, MIL, and the girls sat on the other.

MIL had the Lettuce cup appetizer as her entree - Lettuce Cups for Two - minced chicken breast, chopped vegetables, Saigon Hoison sauce, crisp lettuce cups $13.99

C, who was feeling picky and didn't think anything on the menu looked good, also had an appetizer as her entree - Pork Egg Rolls - chili plum dipping sauce $8.99

J, who at 11 years old can totally out eat me, had both this - Wonton Soup - pork wontons, clear chicken broth and vegetables $4.99 - and this - Lo Mein - Lo Mein noodles, carrots, cabbage, green onions, bean sprouts; Chicken $18.99

T, I think, had a side of chicken fried rice as his entree.

DH and FIL both had this - Malaysian Seafood Curry - Mahi Mahi, scallops, little neck clams, mussels, shrimp, zucchini, roma tomatoes, red curry coconut broth, and jasmine rice $22.99

I had this - Ginger Salmon - grilled fresh Atlantic salmon, sweet ginger glaze, Japanese Udon noodles, shiitake mushrooms, red peppers, baby bok choy, house stir-fry sauce $24.99 - I have never had bok choy before, and I liked it very much.

D had this - Vegetable Lo Mein - Served with choice of carrot sticks, applesauce cup, white rice or brown rice.; and choice of kid sized milk or apple juice $8.49 - it looked surprisingly like my udon dish. It was too much food for him, but I think either J or DH finished it for him.

I skipped dessert but DH had this - Fried Wontons - Skewers of fresh pineapple and cream cheese wontons, vanilla ice cream, honey vanilla drizzle $8.99 - which he liked VERY much and MIL, FIL, and the girls shared this - Mango Pie - shortbread cookie crust, fresh whipped cream, raspberry sauce $7.99 - which I guess they liked because they ate it all.

Since we stayed stayed for dessert and then had to wait on the check, we didn't make it out in time go get to the 4 PM Nemo show. So, I am 0 for 4 on attempts to get to that show! I asked everyone what they wanted to do next. I gave them the options of taking the train to Rafiki's or going back to the resort to swim. What did they chose?

Yep, another ride on Triceratops spin! There was a posted 10 minute wait at 4:15 PM. I think it was a little shorter than that. The kids were a little disappointed that you can't just stay on for another round at this time of the day. D didn't want to ride, so DH took him and got in line to see Pluto and Goofy. That line was moving pretty slow, so we did our 10 minute line, rode the attraction, and ate these

before D and DH got to the front of the line. It was TOTALLY worth it though because D ran to Pluto (who is his favorite right now) and did this:

Then went to Goofy and did this

Photopass version:


DH had on his Pluto shirt, so he jumped in for a picture too


Photopass says these pictures were taken at 4:28 PM. The kids then decided they were done and ready to go back to AoA to swim. We went back and all went to the pool for a couple of hours. D really enjoyed playing on the splash pad. The girls love the music that they play under the water at the Big Blue pool.

Eventually, the kids got hungry again. We sent the kids back to our room with MIL and FIL to get dry, while DH and I picked up the food. MIL handed me a $50 Disney gift card to pay it. We got corn dog nuggets, fries, and grapes for the boys, spaghetti with meatballs for J, and the chicken leg for C. I got a little package of carrots and hummus. We asked for everything packaged to go, but were then struggling to figure out how we were going to carry it all back to the room. I was a little surprised that the CM suggested we just use the tray and leave it in our room for mousekeeping.

That evening, C and I went back to do a little shopping. She had gotten a blister on her foot. Guess what we needed. Bandaids! Ugh! Amusingly the CM at the checkout guessed correctly why we were buying them. At some point, MIL had also taken T and J shopping. He got a plush Squirt (the young turtle from Finding Nemo) and she got a plush Olaf.

With that, we got everyone some showers and headed off to bed!

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Here she is in her tap (the song is Good Morning from Singing in the Rain)

Have you raised her to be enough of a Disney Nerd to notice that its part of the welcome show at Magic Kingdom? (at least from what I have seen of it on youtube)

What adorable pictures with Pluto and Goofy!

 

[KathyM2]

I love your DD's ballet dress...she could use that for a princess dress! The food at Yak and Yeti looks really good...I had never really thought about going there...And of course...yes blisters happen with all that walking!! They should totally have band-aid dispensers everywhere!

 

[KatMark]

I'm a bit behind. Sorry about the rain keeping some of the animals hidden. We have never done Flights of Wonder (not sure about birds flying that close over my head).

I love Yak & Yeti...I think we are eating there in July (I can't keep the May/July/October trips straight). I'm surprised they couldn't put you all together...I've seen large groups together.

The pictures with Pluto are absolutely precious.

Always love swimming at the resort at the end of a long day.

The dance outfits are great!

 

[ksl5f123]

Have you raised her to be enough of a Disney Nerd to notice that its part of the welcome show at Magic Kingdom? (at least from what I have seen of it on youtube)

What adorable pictures with Pluto and Goofy!

We have the 4 Parks, 1 World CD and listen to the MK opening ALL THE TIME! It is one of our very favorites!

I love your DD's ballet dress...she could use that for a princess dress! The food at Yak and Yeti looks really good...I had never really thought about going there...And of course...yes blisters happen with all that walking!! They should totally have band-aid dispensers everywhere!

The ballet is certainly my favorite this year. I liked Yak and Yeti. I didn't know what to expect, but there was a really good selection.

Bandaid dispensers - now there is a $1 million idea!!!

I'm a bit behind. Sorry about the rain keeping some of the animals hidden. We have never done Flights of Wonder (not sure about birds flying that close over my head).

I love Yak & Yeti...I think we are eating there in July (I can't keep the May/July/October trips straight). I'm surprised they couldn't put you all together...I've seen large groups together.

The pictures with Pluto are absolutely precious.

Always love swimming at the resort at the end of a long day.

The dance outfits are great!

We love Flights of Wonder. There are a couple of birds that fly right over you.

I was surprised about Y&Y too! The pictures online show plenty of big tables. I really don't understand.

D was at an awesome age for characters and Pluto and Goofy were happy to play along. All the characters at AK were very good!

 

[SarahDisney]

I love all of C's dance pictures!
I'm a little surprised that they couldn't seat you together at Yak & Yeti ... but at least you were close, and I hope you enjoyed the meal!

I love the pictures of D with Goofy & Pluto! He's so cute!

Bandaids ... I guess it's a good thing they sell them at the store (I'm guessing they overcharge, though). I'm sure the CMs are used to people getting blisters and needing bandaids ... there's a lot of walking that goes on at Disney!

 

[ksl5f123]

I love all of C's dance pictures!
I'm a little surprised that they couldn't seat you together at Yak & Yeti ... but at least you were close, and I hope you enjoyed the meal!

I love the pictures of D with Goofy & Pluto! He's so cute!

Bandaids ... I guess it's a good thing they sell them at the store (I'm guessing they overcharge, though). I'm sure the CMs are used to people getting blisters and needing bandaids ... there's a lot of walking that goes on at Disney!

Thanks! She does a pretty nice job of posing for pictures so I usually get pretty good shots of her.

I don't know what was up with the seating, but we made it work. It was really only an issue for appetizers.

D loves Pluto. I am so happy that we got great pictures with him!

I think I paid $4.25 for that box of bandaids that I would have paid $0.99 for at home. Oh well. It wasn't a big problem, but you know I won't forget them next time!

 

[ksl5f123]

Tuesday morning we woke up at the Art of Animation resort and packed our bags. We had a little confusion/bad communication between DH and I about checking out. Eventually, we had all of our stuff out of the room and we were in the lobby to do checkout.

I failed to realize/forgot that any room charges are put on your credit card before your check-out day. However, the CM said she could use our gift cards to credit our account. We had charged all of our food at Epcot and the Mickey bars at AK. We had money left on 3 gift cards - the one I had used for supper the night before, the one MIL used to buy J her plush Olaf, and the one MIL used to buy T his plush Squirt. However, only one of them would go through for the CM at AoA! She insisted the other two were empty! Eventually, I just gave up and let it go.

MIL and FIL decided they were too tired to go to DTD with us this day. They took D and went to the Contemporary where their room was already ready at about 11 AM! They hung out at the resort and took long naps.

The rest of us drove to DTD. It was fine at 10 AM on Tuesday. We parked in the new parking garage. Now, to any of you who live in a real city, I am probably going to sound like I live in the sticks. We do not have any parking garages in our city and I almost never use one unless we are on vacation. The new DTD parking garage is SO COOL! As you enter each floor, it has a board with the number of available parking spaces on that floor. Each row has a board with the number available in that row! And each space has a light above it. The light is green if it is open and turns off if it is occupied!!! How many times have you thought you found a spot only to learn there was a little Civic on the other side of that Suburban? Not at Disney! So cool! OK, I'm done being a geek - for now.

Once parked, we were off to World of Disney! The girls had 10:50 appointments at BBB. We checked in and were called back within about 10 minutes. J knew that she wanted to wear the Elsa dress that I had made her for this. C wasn't sure what she wanted to wear. I had convinced her to pack her Rapunzel dress from a previous trip, but it is itchy and she didn't really want to wear it. I tried to compromise with one of the other dresses I had made for the trip, but she kept insisting that she should just wear her AK outfit from the day before. She was absolutely certain that no other girls would be in princess dresses! Really? This is her 3rd time at BBB!! Anyway, eventually DH stepped in and convinced her to wear the Rapunzel dress. The whole exchange was not without tears. Ugh!

The girls were seated next to each other and they had great Fairy Godmothers in Training! They took the girl's magic bands and put them on the cart next to their chairs so the Photopass photographer could add pictures. We had decorated J's in an Olaf theme and C's in a Rapunzel theme and the FGIT and photographers were all really impressed.
The photopass photographer caught some before shots - My girls almost never wear their hair down - C's is well past her waist! - so I couldn't wait to see how they managed to get it all in that little bun!


OK, time to get started!

This one makes me laugh! Princess in the making or cousin It?


Adding the nail polish - They had new nail polish this time. Instead of the very pale pink or blue we had in the past, now it is silver or gold glitter. Very pretty!


Finishing the hair


Throughout the process, J was giving me looks like this


While C's were more like this


I think it makes sense that they have kids age out of this experience at 12. J will be 12 in September and she just wasn't really into it. She wanted to do it one last time, but I don't think she loved it.

 

[KathyM2]

I "do" live in a big city but that parking garage is still cool lol. There's only one mall here that I know of that has that. Glad it wasn't too crazy for you though when you went..that construction can be brutal. I hope it's almost done! Glad your girls got one more change at BBB. My DD is 9 and so far we have never managed to get an appointment that worked with whatever else we had planned...maybe next time. I can't wait to see the finished products

 

[irene_dsc]

That's a much cooler parking garage than we usually get by me, too. Or at least higher tech. Even than when I have to drive into Chicago, which I avoid as much as possible. I would've been impressed, too.

We've never done BBB, tbh. Dd hates anything on her face - she won't even wear lipstick for dance recitals. Thankfully it it's optional for what she's done so far, and this is her last year. Your dd's dance photos are great, btw! I'm always grateful that dd's school does simple costumes that therefore are pretty affordable, but then I get a little wistful when I see the full costumes other schools use!

 

[ksl5f123]

I "do" live in a big city but that parking garage is still cool lol. There's only one mall here that I know of that has that. Glad it wasn't too crazy for you though when you went..that construction can be brutal. I hope it's almost done! Glad your girls got one more change at BBB. My DD is 9 and so far we have never managed to get an appointment that worked with whatever else we had planned...maybe next time. I can't wait to see the finished products

I was REALLY worried about driving there, but it was fine on a weekday morning. I wouldn't have tried it on a weekend.
I like BBB. We first did it for C when she was 4 years old and we were there for a 10 day trip in June where it hit 115 degrees one day! She discovered how much cooler it was to have all of that hair up off her neck and she has wanted to do it every trip since. We haven't allowed it every trip, but we try to go when we can.

That's a much cooler parking garage than we usually get by me, too. Or at least higher tech. Even than when I have to drive into Chicago, which I avoid as much as possible. I would've been impressed, too.

We've never done BBB, tbh. Dd hates anything on her face - she won't even wear lipstick for dance recitals. Thankfully it it's optional for what she's done so far, and this is her last year. Your dd's dance photos are great, btw! I'm always grateful that dd's school does simple costumes that therefore are pretty affordable, but then I get a little wistful when I see the full costumes other schools use!

It was just the coolest parking garage I had ever seen. I do wonder how the technology will stand up over time, but right now everything works great!
Our dance studio tries to be reasonable with costume costs. I have seen some that are hundreds each! Ours usually run about $50/costume. It was a little bit of sticker shock this year since it is her first year of jazz, so her first year with 3 costumes. Of course, she also outgrew her tap shoes last week and needed new tights as well. It's always something.

 

[ksl5f123]

I had intended to come back after lunch on Thursday to finish the BBB post, but D decided to fight his nap and I ran out of time. So, let's get back to it.

The final stage is the make-up. The girls get eye shadow, a little blush, and lip gloss.


All done!


Time to reveal to the girls!


I think they liked it! We settled the bill and then went to check on the boys. T had built a car at the Lego store and was going to be one of the next to get to race his. We let him stay and headed off to Guest Services where they have a little photo studio for the girls who go to BBB. They did a TON of pictures for us. Here are a few of my favorites.


Continued in the next post.

 

[ksl5f123]

Continuing...


It was now about noon, and we were hungry! We got the boys and headed to Wolfgang Puck Express. We may actually have waited a little too long to eat because we had some meltdowns. C was convinced she didn't like the food here and J was having a fit that we wouldn't buy her a full adult meal. So, J chose to just get the bowl of Chicken noodle soup (her reasoning - a kid's meal wouldn't be enough food, so I will get a bowl of soup - makes sense, right? - yeah, she was still hungry). C didn't get anything. In preparation for that, I again got the 1/2 chicken. She ate everything but the breast and about 1/2 the mashed potatoes. D got the buttered pasta which was too much for him so J finished it. T got the kids pizza which I think J also finished and DH got the mushroom pizza.

All filled up, we headed out to do some shopping. I got a box of Potato head parts for D at Once Upon a Toy. I used one of the gift cards that the CM said was empty at AoA that morning. Both of them worked fine in DTD - something must have been messed up with the computers at AoA. T got 2 or 3 Lego sets (he is addicted). We then went back to World of Disney. I am trying to remember what all we bought. I know I spent about $50 because we got the discounted pin set that you could buy if you spent $50. I know C got a plush baby Rapunzel. I'll add the rest if I think of it.

We stayed at DTD until about 2:30 PM before heading to the Contemporary. We had gotten a text that our room was not yet ready and we would receive another when it was. We knew that MIL and FIL were already in their room so we just went there. When we arrived, D was in the tub because he was covered in a very itch rash! Poor little guy, it was kind of a rough week for him.

We really wanted to get settled in our room before dinner, so we went down about 3:15 to check on our room - the CM was also surprised that it was still not ready. We went ahead and put our bags in MIL and FIL's room and got ready for dinner. J then asked to take her hair down!! It had only been 4 hours! After a little discussion, it became clear that what she really wanted was her bangs out. So, I pulled her bangs out of the bun. Let's just say that took a little effort - they really plaster it down!

Up next, suppertime!

 

[KathyM2]

Love the finished products!! So pretty!! Sorry the room took so long to get ready...that is a bit of a pain!

 

[SarahDisney]

I actually really liked seeing all of the pictures from the process ... by my first trip to Disney I was already too old for BBB, so I've never seen the inner workings of how it's done, and I enjoyed seeing that.
C looks like she was loving the princess makeover ... J looks a little more like a teen who is just doing this to indulge her mother.

The princess makeovers are great and the girls look beautiful!

Sorry to hear the room wasn't ready ... that's a bit of a bummer. At least you had somewhere to hang out and dump your bags!

 

[jchurch0409]

We do not have any parking garages in our city and I almost never use one unless we are on vacation. The new DTD parking garage is SO COOL! As you enter each floor, it has a board with the number of available parking spaces on that floor. Each row has a board with the number available in that row! And each space has a light above it. The light is green if it is open and turns off if it is occupied!!! How many times have you thought you found a spot only to learn there was a little Civic on the other side of that Suburban? Not at Disney! So cool! OK, I'm done being a geek - for now.

That parking deck sounds awesome! I love the BBB pics! I am really looking forward to that on our trip!!

 

[ariane37]

I also liked seeing the pics of the girls in BBB! With 4 boys we never did it and never will.......unless we end up with granddaughters And boy am I hoping!