First -- I am extremely sorry for the long wait (a month later!!!) I finally finished my photopass pictures last week. What was really funny is that in the past I have just done it within a few days/week. However, this time since I was much slower, Disney Photopass kept adding Bonus Photos to my account...so I ended up getting a lot more of the "stock" photos -- in fact, when I called, they said I already had all of the bonus content available! Yay!
Second -- dara -- welcome to the TR! It is certainly an adventure having tall children! Elizabeth (my youngest) actually rode Goofy's Barnstormer at 1yo!!
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Off to Florida!!
Back on January 19, 2012, we took Rachel to school for a 1/2 day and then picked her up around 11:45am. Again, Jerry was not finished packing, but we were a LOT further along and were able to leave by noon. This time we decided to skip McDonalds and just purchase food at the train station. The thought was good (why not eat while we are waiting for the train) but the execution left something to be desired (dry, expensive sandwiches). Next time I may try to pack our own sandwiches to save some money.
Tuna Salad Sandwich, Ginger Ale and a bag of Bugles (approx 2 servings) were $12.25!!
As we walked into the station we realized this was going to be a very different trip. There were NO kids!! I should have realized this when the movie was "Breakfast at Tiffanys". Oh well, Rae/Elie found a quiet corner where Amtrak had some markers and they colored while eating some lunch. The train was packed with "Snow Birds" -- those elderly people who travel south for the winter. Our family felt sooooooo out of place! Now some of the people were really nice and I could tell they loved kids/grandkids ... but some of them were the 'grumpy old men' (and women) who I could just tell were going -- crap, I hope those kids aren't in my car!
Off to board the train.
(Now that picture above is actually a cardboard cut out of the train (about 18 inches) but I thought it looked really good.
Lessons we learned in the past were to go to the Lounge car as soon as you board...and we did, getting one of the very last booths available. This worked out great and we brought toys for the girls to play with this time. The main game was Disney Yahtzee, which helped put us in the mood even more!
Rachel and me
Jerry and Elie
As you can see the colors for this trip were Purple and Brown.
We ate the usual snacks -- crackers, cheese, veggies, fruit ... and I had a glass or eight of wine
Which really put me in a relaxed mood
We had a very pleasant conversation with the people in the other booth and stayed in the lounge car until 4:30pm. Then we went back to our room and let the girls play a bit before dinner.
5pm came and we were not hungry, so we waited until the 2nd dinner bell call and off we went through the train cars to the dining car. As you can see there isn't much room ... which is a good thing when the car goes bumpity-bump!
Here is the menu.
And here is the table set up:
I still was not hungry since I ate a lot of snacks/wine earlier but ordered the salmon. It was ok. The beef has always been tasty in the past and I should have stuck with that.
They had a chocolate Tort for dessert and I gobbled that up!
Jerry and Rachel
Then we went back to our rooms to brush our teeth/potty/put on PJs for the girls and take our evening walk. This time Rachel and I found a "secret" lounge car booth - pretty cool for a large group. It was located underneath the regular lounge car.
Rachel got Tiana (her 2nd favorite princess) for Christmas.
I ended up talking to Conductor Steve in this booth section for a bit (very nice) and then we headed back to our room. I grabbed a couple of cookies and some hot chocolate on the way.
We went to bed early.
Around 3am, Elie fell between the crack of her bed and mine and cried as she didn't realize where she was. We woke up at 6:15am but lounged around until 6:45am and had breakfast at 7am.
All in all a good first day!
We went to the Dance Party last Monday, but only stayed for a few minutes, because the girls wanted to hit MK again before we left. We did do the characterpalooza before, but we only stayed until about 5:30 so we could see Beauty and the Beast. They had an extra dance party the week before when the President was in town, so maybe my girls were all partied out 
