Jan '12 It's Cold, Let's Go to Disney!!(NEW 3/27 EP, DHS, AK & Pouts)

[cherbear]

I just don't know how I missed joining in on this from the PTR side of things, but I'm here now and caught up, and will be able to give more detailed comments now!

A couple more things I forgot to mention, I love that June was so excited that you were all in purple. That made a REALLY cute pic Did you get her autograph to put next to it in your scrapbook?

I would not ride Kali in January either. Y'all are brave! (even in ponchos)

 

[Marshay]

I wish you didn't get so sick right before the trip, yikes!

I know...I was worried

that is crazy, I hope you're not allergic to the sugar gliders!! Did you/Will you find out?

I'm positive it was the sheep skin. I stopped sleeping with it when I got home (and of course we didn't have it with us in WDW) and my symptoms all disappeared. I was tested for Lyme disease and it showed up negative.

Then the other day I took a nap on the sheepskin in my family room where we keep it now, and when I woke up my throat and eyes were scratchy. So I'm going to assume that was it.

I always forget which is which. I always get confused because when I think of GREEN I think of THIS green... which is what many people look like after coming off of the spinning side (which I assume from your post is the orange side?) LOL

Yeah, green is go for kids/wimps and orange is for those who like it wild!

AWESOME!

that is perfect! Glad it worked out in your favor!

that looked great! I'll have to try that next time if the certificate is available. I have a few restaurant.com credits saved up in my account, just a matter of picking some restaurants to use em on! (Hardly anything in my area)

mm...now that sounds good too!

that booth looked so cool!

You do mean Garden Grove right?

Yes, I meant Grove! Thanks for correcting me and I went back to change it. We do love Garden Grill, too but that is completely different.

what a great first couple of days!! DISmeets sound great, the laid-back-ness of the trip sounds heavenly. That balcony is awesome!

Can't wait for more pics and more stories!

Thanks! It was great!

 

[Trentmom]

See I missed an update

Looks like a great relaxing day.Love the pic with all of you and June...Very cute

Your balcony looks great. Must have been nice to eat outside at table in nice weather

That is great you met up with old friends. Yay Rachel for getting Mike on Everest. Very cute how he has his hand in front of her in pic, protecting her

Sounds like a great day!!

Love that one pic of light with spider....very neat

 

[Marshay]

what a great first couple of days!! DISmeets sound great, the laid-back-ness of the trip sounds heavenly. That balcony is awesome!

Can't wait for more pics and more stories!

Thanks! When we talked about going in January it was mainly to get a final trip in before Elie turned 3 and we'd have to pay for her. We were really expecting cold, weather and lots of BTGs.

So we were so pleasantly surprised by the warm (and even hot some days) weather and low crowds.

I love all the DVCs but generally like the Hotel ones better. But I must say that I wouldn't hesitate to go back to OKW -- it's beautiful and has the cheapest points and the largest rooms!

Now I do know that some rooms face the road ... and if we had that view, our experience would not have been the same. Part of our love for OKW was our gorgeous view.

I just don't know how I missed joining in on this from the PTR side of things, but I'm here now and caught up, and will be able to give more detailed comments now!

A couple more things I forgot to mention, I love that June was so excited that you were all in purple. That made a REALLY cute pic Did you get her autograph to put next to it in your scrapbook?

I would not ride Kali in January either. Y'all are brave! (even in ponchos)

Glad you are caught up too!

Although Rachel had all the H&V character's signatures (except Jake), I started working on Elizabeth's siggies for her book that I still need to make. So to answer your question, yes!

What's really funny is that when I packed the ponchos, I just grabbed 4 of them ... never checked the sizes and the one I am wearing is actually a kid's size. So on that pic of us on Kali, the poncho is really only covering my shirt. My bottoms were SOAKED!! But we went around 3pm so it was the warmest part of the day and between the warmth and EE, I was dry within 1-2 hours.

See I missed an update

Looks like a great relaxing day.Love the pic with all of you and June...Very cute

Your balcony looks great. Must have been nice to eat outside at table in nice weather

That is great you met up with old friends. Yay Rachel for getting Mike on Everest. Very cute how he has his hand in front of her in pic, protecting her

Sounds like a great day!!

Love that one pic of light with spider....very neat

Yes, it was a great day. I really like park-hopping and this just worked out for us on this day as AK was open later than normal that day.

The balcony was great -- both in the day and at night.

Yeah, I saw in that photo that Mike is definitely protecting Rachel!

 

[pld5]

By now we were hungry so off to Flame Tree BBQ for dinner. The girls were acting up b/c they were tired/hungry and said they didn't like BBQ. Now who doesn't like BBQ??? We love this restaurant. After dinner we wandered around the seating areas admiring all the details in the lights.

Now who doesn't like BBQ? Nice pictures of AK. We didn't make it to AK this time, but if we do on a future trip it will be for Flame Tree BBQ, and the Lion King and Nemo show.

Edward loved the characters at our H&V lunch and the dancing, too.

 

[okw19]

Whew, I am all caught up on your TR! You have an adorable family and I'm loving reading about your trip. We love the balconies at OKW, glad to see you made use of yours!

 

[Marshay]

Now who doesn't like BBQ? Nice pictures of AK. We didn't make it to AK this time, but if we do on a future trip it will be for Flame Tree BBQ, and the Lion King and Nemo show.

Edward loved the characters at our H&V lunch and the dancing, too.

I know...how can you not love BBQ? Ribs, pork, beans - -yum!! ANd we always get the two different mousses here, too. They are surprisingly good -- chocoloate and key lime.

We used to skip AK but now it has become one of our favorite parks. Rachel and Elie, too, are big enough for most of the rides and the shows are amazing. I really like going here at night, too, to see all the great lights and Everest at night is awesome!!

I'm glad Edward like H&V, too. We just have so much fun here!

Whew, I am all caught up on your TR! You have an adorable family and I'm loving reading about your trip. We love the balconies at OKW, glad to see you made use of yours!

Welcome back! Yes, we loved the balconies. They are so huge.

I do think though there are some really bad views at OKW -- we just were lucky to get one of the good ones!

 

[cherbear]

hope since you're still on, that it means you're churning out another update soon!

 

[Marshay]

hope since you're still on, that it means you're churning out another update soon!

I just uploaded 65 pics for the next installment! Hopefully today or tomorrow I'll have it updated.

Thanks!

 

[princessmorgan]

You were brave to ride Kali! We were going to do it, but then we saw a couple who had come from there over to Dinoland. They were soaked! They warned us not to do it It was warm, but not that warm where I wanted wet underpants for hours! Maybe when we go on our adult only trip in May....in all of my many trips, I still have not ridden it.

The Garden Grove actually looks pretty good. I still have a restaurant.com certificate from a year ago. Thanks for the pictures and the review!

Your view looks like our view did at OKW, except we were on the other side where the DTD boat goes through. It was very pretty, but I did get annoyed by the boat after a couple of days when the novelty wore off. They would sound their horn when they passed another boat. The kids enjoyed waving to the people though.

 

[Marshay]

You were brave to ride Kali! We were going to do it, but then we saw a couple who had come from there over to Dinoland. They were soaked! They warned us not to do it It was warm, but not that warm where I wanted wet underpants for hours! Maybe when we go on our adult only trip in May....in all of my many trips, I still have not ridden it.

The Garden Grove actually looks pretty good. I still have a restaurant.com certificate from a year ago. Thanks for the pictures and the review!

Your view looks like our view did at OKW, except we were on the other side where the DTD boat goes through. It was very pretty, but I did get annoyed by the boat after a couple of days when the novelty wore off. They would sound their horn when they passed another boat. The kids enjoyed waving to the people though.

Yeah, some people really got wet. Disney does not turn off the water so you can get as wet in summer as in January. We were just lucky!

I do recommend Garden Grove, esp if you aren't using a park day but want to still see characters and eat good food!

I had heard that people who get a canal with the boat have complained a lot about the noise. Then when we took the boat to DTD, we understood. They just lay on that horn a lot. Although it would have been neat to see that boat traffic, we were happy with our quiet, non-activity view of the canal.

 

[Marshay]

Today is Sunday, January 22nd and I made today a "relaxed" day since I figured we would be out late at AK the night before.

For the girls "pixie-dust" surprises, Elizabeth got Duffy Bear and Rachel got a new Leapster cartridge and Finding Nemo book. Rachel then declared that she wanted Duffy, too!

We ate breakfast in the room and then took the boat to DTD.

The boat launch

This day was wonderful -- the sun was shining brightly...we didn't need to be anywhere in particular and we had the boat taxi all to ourselves.

Jerry chillin' out

This was my view from the front seat looking down the river going to DTD.

Coming closer to DTD and what is that we see in the air?? Hmm, that sure does look like fun...don't you want to try it? It's safe, secured by a tethered steel "rope" and if the balloon would ever get away, the pilots are all certified hot air balloon drivers so they could land it anywhere!

Wonder what we're going to try next? and which one of us will freak out?

 

[Trentmom]

Knew Rachel would want Duffy once she saw Elle... Trent was swept right into the Duffy madness too


Cliffhanger...Don't leave us hanging too long okay

 

[Marshay]

Knew Rachel would want Duffy once she saw Elle... Trent was swept right into the Duffy madness too


Cliffhanger...Don't leave us hanging too long okay

Yeah, I felt a little bad about the Duffy thing, with only one of them getting one but then I was also thinking that Rachel has a TON of stuffed animals and does she really need another one?

I won't leave you in suspense much longer...

 

[kaoden39]

I kind of understand the Duffy thing. Sometimes it isn't easy to be the big sister. Kacy never liked dolls until Kody had two 18 inch ones that she loved to pieces. So for Kacy's birthday all she wanted was an 18 inch doll with clothes. So I got it for her. I knew that it was a passing faze and that she probably would be over it quickly. I was wrong, she loved that thing to death. She did her hair and dressed her really pretty. I learned how to sew clothes for those darn dolls even. Kody had one that was a Disney doll with Disney clothes. Thankfully they shared the clothes.

 

[Marshay]

So, we head on over "just to look" at Characters in Flight, the tethered hot air balloon (actually I think it is helium balloon, not hot air, but you know what I mean).

It does seem pretty costly but since Elie is free we only have to pay for 3 of us. I go to buy the tickets and Rachel starts freaking out. Crying, not wanting to stand with us...walking away, etc.

She does not want to go on it b/c it is too high and she is afraid that it will come loose. Darn me for even mentioning anything at all about that!

So we have Rachel go over and talk to the pilots and basically I tell her that Daddy and I would never make her do anything that would hurt her and she needs to trust us that she WILL love it.

Then I proceed to remind her about Splash Mountain and how I had to practically drag her on it and threaten that I'll get kicked out of the park for her crying (yeah, NOT one of my finer moments ) but afterwards she loved it and it was her favorite ride and she thanked me for pushing her to go on it.

I told her the balloon was the same way. I just knew she would love it. She just had to be given the chance. Here she is, still not convinced

So we all climb into a big red bucket and the pilot tell us all to spread out. Here is the cable attachment

going up

A self-portait!

Here is what is keeping you attached to the ground

the "bucket" is attached to the balloon

400 feet in the air

Once she got in the bucket and we started going up nice and slow, Rachel was having a lot of fun. Here she is with our pilot -- the smile is genuine.

At the top, you were allowed to move around if you wanted to. Some people stayed frozen in their spot as they didn't like the way the balloon shifted with your weight... but I wanted to get photos from each angle, so we did.

here are some views from the top

Typhoon Lagoon

Epcot

Coming down

I like this photo a lot -- Elie was enjoying it but didn't want to pose for the camera -- she was too busy/concerned about that view down below

I am glad we did Characters in Flight. It was really neat to look around and to be that high up in the air. However, the flight was super-short, like only 10 minutes. It really needs to be cheaper or longer.

As we got off, Rachel asked us with a big smile if we could do it again!! She said she loved it.

Tonight at dinner, I asked her when she stopped being afraid of the balloon and she said once she got on it, there was so much to see that she stopped being scared. The fear was all in her head!

After the balloon ride, we walked toward DisneyQuest, stopping at shops along the way, and then took the water taxi over to Marketplace. This was our first time taking the free boats at DTD and was a nice little ride for the girls.

CONTINUED in post #200

 

[Marshay]

I kind of understand the Duffy thing. Sometimes it isn't easy to be the big sister. Kacy never liked dolls until Kody had two 18 inch ones that she loved to pieces. So for Kacy's birthday all she wanted was an 18 inch doll with clothes. So I got it for her. I knew that it was a passing faze and that she probably would be over it quickly. I was wrong, she loved that thing to death. She did her hair and dressed her really pretty. I learned how to sew clothes for those darn dolls even. Kody had one that was a Disney doll with Disney clothes. Thankfully they shared the clothes.

Glad it worked out for them. Sometimes it take sibling jealousy to know what you want, eh?

Hint: this was NOT the case for Rachel, I'm sad to say....

 

[kaoden39]

Glad it worked out for them. Sometimes it take sibling jealousy to know what you want, eh?

Hint: this was NOT the case for Rachel, I'm sad to say....

The balloon ride looks amazing. The views from it are great. I love the Ferris wheel in DCA is really tall and I love to go on it and look at the views that you see from it. I know a lot of people that will not go on it.



I can hardly wait to hear the rest of your story.

 

[Trentmom]

So glad Rachel ended up liking it

Does look kind of scary to me too

 

[Marshay]

Next up was a lunch ADR for:

Now we haven't eaten here before but we loved the atmosphere of Rainforest Cafe when they were at our local mall, so we definitely wanted to try this restaurant.

They were a bit busy so while we were waiting for our food, we let Rachel go explore.

We ordered the kids food first ... this is something we are starting to do more often. But when theirs arrived, I was hungry ... hungry enough to eat the plate.

Elie was too!

Jerry got the country-fried steak and I got a chicken salad.

Mine was delicious. The chicken was just scrumptious and I was upset that I could not finish it all. Rachel got pizza and I think Elie got Mac and cheese, which they shared. Jerry loved his, too!

We were lucky to be seated in the meteor room so about every 20-30 (?) minutes or so the place got dark and loud and meteors flashed across the sky and the hillside caught on fire and the dinosaur roared, etc.

The food was good and we will definitely go back. The portions are large, as Elie found out ... "I can't believe she ate the whole thing"

Ok, she didn't but it makes a cute photo.

By this time she crashed.