wilma-bride
<<This space intentionally blank>>
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2005
- Messages
- 22,681
Friday 14th March
Happy 21st Birthday to my beautiful baby girl.
From this...
to this...
and now this...
I am not going to wax lyrical but please indulge me for just a moment while I reminisce a little. There was a time, during her late teens, when I thought that Sian might not make it through to adulthood with both of us still alive (or at the very least my sanity still intact). But she did make it through and has turned into a wonderful young lady. She is a fantastic big sister, an amazing daughter and step-daughter and both Gary and I are incredibly proud of her. I absolutely loved spending this week at Disney with her and we had many, many laughs and a few niggles. In fact, the whole week was very representative of our relationship - Like a roller-coaster; lots of ups and downs, a few hairy moments but overall a lot of fun.
Anyway, on with the trip report and the Friday fun.
So, I was up super early this morning (whats new?) and decorating the table in our room with confetti, ready to lay out all of Sians cards and presents that Id brought with me.
Despite my banging around and clearing my throat several times, Sian seemed somewhat reluctant to wake up this morning so I resorted to jumping on the bed next to her, pulling one eyelid up and whispering loudly Wanna build a snowman? It didnt really have the desired effect but I persisted (evil, impatient Mother that I am) and eventually she dragged herself out of bed while I bounced around the room singing Happy Birthday while she opened her presents and cards.
Quite a haul! She got lots of lovely presents from various family and friends. Obviously, mine and Garys gift to her was the holiday and the La Nouba tickets so just a box of chocolates from us, but she was very spoiled and got lots of cash, which she used to treat herself to a few things later in the trip.
We decided, since we were up and about, that we might as well go to Epcot earlier than planned and Sian said she would quite like to meet Anna and Elsa. After showering and getting dressed, we arrived at International Gateway around 8.45 to find that they were already letting people in. Now I had read in advance about long lines to meet the Norwegian princesses but nothing had quite prepared me for what we witnessed. As we walked through Canada and approached World Showcase plaza, there were people literally running up towards Norway. Dads, kids, women with strollers, kids running and pushing their own strollers because Mom couldnt go fast enough .It was unbelievable. We continued walking round and when we got to the entrance to Norway, that was where we found the end of the line. The beginning (well, middle) is in the picture below.
And this is where the line was when we arrived.
The line came all the way round and down to where Norway meets Mexico. The CM you see on the left of the picture is the end of that part of the line, stopping anyone else from joining and redirecting them to where we are, across the walkway forming the beginning of the next part of the line. After we were moved across there, another CM came past with a counter asking how many in each party and informing them of the approximate wait time. When she got to us, I braced myself but did not expect what I heard Your wait time from here will be approximately 4 and a half hours!!!
We were going to wait. After all, it was Sians Birthday and it was all about what she wanted to do. So I told her If you want to spend half of your Birthday waiting in line to meet two people dressed up as princesses from a cartoon then, my darling daughter, that is what we will do. Seriously, if she had chosen to wait then we would have waited but, luckily, she realised that it wasnt very sensible and we discussed changing our plans slightly to come another day and try to beat the rush. Hat decided, we headed off to Future World to continue our day.
We started off at The Land, where we waited in standby for Soarin (about a 20 minute wait, which wasnt too bad since it was around 9.30 by the time we actually got there). We got front row, just off to the right and were sitting next to a couple who were obviously riding for the first time. I love to see the reactions of first timers. It still wows me even now, after more times than I can count, so it is incredible to see how it gets people who havent experienced it before.
After Soarin it was time for a Birthday breakfast. Due to a bit of a problem in Sunshine Seasons, we ended up sharing an Apple Caramel Crunch. We had approached the bakery section, with the intention of getting a couple of pastries to share. Everything in the display cabinet was labelled incorrectly and I was having difficulty working out what a few things were. In the end, I asked the CM behind the counter about a couple of things and she responded that a small rectangular cake item was banana loaf. Well, I love banana bread so I chose that and Sian opted for the Apple Caramel Crunch. When we took it to the cash register, the banana loaf showed up as banana NUT loaf. I detest walnuts and, knowing that walnuts are often the type of nut in banana loaf, I asked what kind of nuts were in it. I wont bore you with the exchange between myself and the (somewhat rude CM) but it culminated in me having been blamed for not asking in the first place if there were walnuts in it? Apparently, I should have declared that I had an allergy (although I did explain that it was a preference, not an allergy) and asked if anything had nuts in (to which I then explained that it wasnt all nuts, just walnuts). Anyway, we ended up not having the banana NUT loaf and sharing the Apple Caramel Crunch (which did have nuts but they were hazelnuts so perfectly fine). It was actually really nice but both of us were a bit peeved after the exchange.
Breakfast finished, it was time for our Soarin FP+ so we rode again and then headed out. After stopping for a quick photo opportunity with Chip and Dale, we strolled over to the other side of Future World for Mission: Space and Test Track, taking a detour past Spaceship Earth, which had the longest standby line Ive ever seen. It said 20 minutes but I cant believe that it was.
[
After Mission:Space it was time to build ourselves a super car in Test Track. I have said it before but I love this addition to Test Track. It really adds an element of interest to an otherwise fairly dull ride (with the exception of the end, of course). I let Sian design our vehicle.
We got best in the car and an overall score of 202 (best of the day at that time was 221). It was around 12.30 by now and we were both feeling pretty peckish so decided to snack around World Showcase a little bit. We were due to have dinner at Yachtsman Steakhouse tonight but neither of us were in the mood for steak so we cancelled the ADR (no penalty as it had been booked prior to the new policy) and booked Via Napoli for 8.30 instead.
Happy 21st Birthday to my beautiful baby girl.
From this...
to this...
and now this...
I am not going to wax lyrical but please indulge me for just a moment while I reminisce a little. There was a time, during her late teens, when I thought that Sian might not make it through to adulthood with both of us still alive (or at the very least my sanity still intact). But she did make it through and has turned into a wonderful young lady. She is a fantastic big sister, an amazing daughter and step-daughter and both Gary and I are incredibly proud of her. I absolutely loved spending this week at Disney with her and we had many, many laughs and a few niggles. In fact, the whole week was very representative of our relationship - Like a roller-coaster; lots of ups and downs, a few hairy moments but overall a lot of fun.
Anyway, on with the trip report and the Friday fun.
So, I was up super early this morning (whats new?) and decorating the table in our room with confetti, ready to lay out all of Sians cards and presents that Id brought with me.
Despite my banging around and clearing my throat several times, Sian seemed somewhat reluctant to wake up this morning so I resorted to jumping on the bed next to her, pulling one eyelid up and whispering loudly Wanna build a snowman? It didnt really have the desired effect but I persisted (evil, impatient Mother that I am) and eventually she dragged herself out of bed while I bounced around the room singing Happy Birthday while she opened her presents and cards.
Quite a haul! She got lots of lovely presents from various family and friends. Obviously, mine and Garys gift to her was the holiday and the La Nouba tickets so just a box of chocolates from us, but she was very spoiled and got lots of cash, which she used to treat herself to a few things later in the trip.
We decided, since we were up and about, that we might as well go to Epcot earlier than planned and Sian said she would quite like to meet Anna and Elsa. After showering and getting dressed, we arrived at International Gateway around 8.45 to find that they were already letting people in. Now I had read in advance about long lines to meet the Norwegian princesses but nothing had quite prepared me for what we witnessed. As we walked through Canada and approached World Showcase plaza, there were people literally running up towards Norway. Dads, kids, women with strollers, kids running and pushing their own strollers because Mom couldnt go fast enough .It was unbelievable. We continued walking round and when we got to the entrance to Norway, that was where we found the end of the line. The beginning (well, middle) is in the picture below.
And this is where the line was when we arrived.
The line came all the way round and down to where Norway meets Mexico. The CM you see on the left of the picture is the end of that part of the line, stopping anyone else from joining and redirecting them to where we are, across the walkway forming the beginning of the next part of the line. After we were moved across there, another CM came past with a counter asking how many in each party and informing them of the approximate wait time. When she got to us, I braced myself but did not expect what I heard Your wait time from here will be approximately 4 and a half hours!!!
We were going to wait. After all, it was Sians Birthday and it was all about what she wanted to do. So I told her If you want to spend half of your Birthday waiting in line to meet two people dressed up as princesses from a cartoon then, my darling daughter, that is what we will do. Seriously, if she had chosen to wait then we would have waited but, luckily, she realised that it wasnt very sensible and we discussed changing our plans slightly to come another day and try to beat the rush. Hat decided, we headed off to Future World to continue our day.
We started off at The Land, where we waited in standby for Soarin (about a 20 minute wait, which wasnt too bad since it was around 9.30 by the time we actually got there). We got front row, just off to the right and were sitting next to a couple who were obviously riding for the first time. I love to see the reactions of first timers. It still wows me even now, after more times than I can count, so it is incredible to see how it gets people who havent experienced it before.
After Soarin it was time for a Birthday breakfast. Due to a bit of a problem in Sunshine Seasons, we ended up sharing an Apple Caramel Crunch. We had approached the bakery section, with the intention of getting a couple of pastries to share. Everything in the display cabinet was labelled incorrectly and I was having difficulty working out what a few things were. In the end, I asked the CM behind the counter about a couple of things and she responded that a small rectangular cake item was banana loaf. Well, I love banana bread so I chose that and Sian opted for the Apple Caramel Crunch. When we took it to the cash register, the banana loaf showed up as banana NUT loaf. I detest walnuts and, knowing that walnuts are often the type of nut in banana loaf, I asked what kind of nuts were in it. I wont bore you with the exchange between myself and the (somewhat rude CM) but it culminated in me having been blamed for not asking in the first place if there were walnuts in it? Apparently, I should have declared that I had an allergy (although I did explain that it was a preference, not an allergy) and asked if anything had nuts in (to which I then explained that it wasnt all nuts, just walnuts). Anyway, we ended up not having the banana NUT loaf and sharing the Apple Caramel Crunch (which did have nuts but they were hazelnuts so perfectly fine). It was actually really nice but both of us were a bit peeved after the exchange.
Breakfast finished, it was time for our Soarin FP+ so we rode again and then headed out. After stopping for a quick photo opportunity with Chip and Dale, we strolled over to the other side of Future World for Mission: Space and Test Track, taking a detour past Spaceship Earth, which had the longest standby line Ive ever seen. It said 20 minutes but I cant believe that it was.
[After Mission:Space it was time to build ourselves a super car in Test Track. I have said it before but I love this addition to Test Track. It really adds an element of interest to an otherwise fairly dull ride (with the exception of the end, of course). I let Sian design our vehicle.
We got best in the car and an overall score of 202 (best of the day at that time was 221). It was around 12.30 by now and we were both feeling pretty peckish so decided to snack around World Showcase a little bit. We were due to have dinner at Yachtsman Steakhouse tonight but neither of us were in the mood for steak so we cancelled the ADR (no penalty as it had been booked prior to the new policy) and booked Via Napoli for 8.30 instead.
Delicious looking food at Via Napoli, not tried there yet.
:
I can think of a better place to turn 21, what a fab day.
Yes, Sian was a very cute baby 
