Mom, my hands smell-A first timer's TR-Completed 4/12

[luckylady]

What a grat report you have writen! I have so enjoyed following along with you and the folks while you traipsed(sp?) through the world. 5 years till a trip with your friend huh? Well at least it gives you lots of time to save so you can stay on property.

 

[piratechick]

Hello, I was a fellow lurker and your TR just made me want to join this forum along with a few other reasons. I really like your TR! It was very well-written and creative. Glad to know that you enjoyed your first trip to WDW, even though you had a very sad event happened to you. I'm sorry to hear about your dog. The picture of her is adorable. I would feel the same way if either of my baby cats passed away (*crying just even thinking about it*). My family once stayed at the Knights Inn a few years ago and it was the first and last time we will ever stayed there again. That inn is just horrible. Your parents are funny! If I name my parents after one of the seven dwarfs, my dad would be Grumpy and my mom would be Happy.

I know what you mean about the Brazilian Tour Groups. They are crazy! The first time I'd ever encountered them, I thought they were stalking me as well.

I love how your mom handles the camera, my mom is the same way. That is why whenever we go on trips, my dad is the one in charge of the camera.

Good luck with school and your play!

 

[NotSoEvilStepmother]

Good to hear that you had a chance to get some revenge on Knights Inn.

I never saw the ocean until I was 21 then made up for it by living in the Bermuda Islands for two years. You never get tired of seeing all that water.

Will be watching for your final thoughts.

Sometime later this week. They're all written but I'm stretching it out in hopes that I don't have to end this TR so...soon.

What a grat report you have writen! I have so enjoyed following along with you and the folks while you traipsed(sp?) through the world. 5 years till a trip with your friend huh? Well at least it gives you lots of time to save so you can stay on property.

Thanks for reading and joining in with the fun.
I'm excited for 5 years from October/ November (She's sitting right next to me as I type this.) I just keep wondering what will change at WDW between now and then. Hopefully everything for the better. Who really knows?
Of course, I do have the fear that the DIS'll slow down in the next 5-6 years and I'll have to keep the story of our trip to myself.

Hello, I was a fellow lurker and your TR just made me want to join this forum along with a few other reasons. I really like your TR! It was very well-written and creative. Glad to know that you enjoyed your first trip to WDW, even though you had a very sad event happened to you. I'm sorry to hear about your dog. The picture of her is adorable. I would feel the same way if either of my baby cats passed away (*crying just even thinking about it*). My family once stayed at the Knights Inn a few years ago and it was the first and last time we will ever stayed there again. That inn is just horrible. Your parents are funny! If I name my parents after one of the seven dwarfs, my dad would be Grumpy and my mom would be Happy.

I know what you mean about the Brazilian Tour Groups. They are crazy! The first time I'd ever encountered them, I thought they were stalking me as well.

I love how your mom handles the camera, my mom is the same way. That is why whenever we go on trips, my dad is the one in charge of the camera.

Good luck with school and your play!

Thanks for joining in!
Knight's Inn=no go. Though, if it came to staying at WDW again, I'd go with the Knight's Inn just to be there.

Brazilian Tour Groups=

Wow. You have a LOT of trips under your belt and the CP. Wow. It's always kinda been my dream to do the CP in college.

 

[grandpaof3]

Almost forgot.

Tarantara, tarantara, tarantara, tarantara, taranta ra ra ra.

 

[NotSoEvilStepmother]

Final thoughts—

What can I say to sum up this trip? It was an adventure. It was magical. It was wonderful. It was sad. And it was so much more. It was indescribable.
So many things went on during this trip and I can’t possibly recall every one of them. I do, surprisingly, remember a lot though. Our trip was made up of a series of moments. Good moments, bad moments, sad moments, and happy moments. Each moment can be classified in a different category, but here’s some of the most memorable moments.

Moments Best Forgotten:
-Knight’s Inn
-Our fights the first 2 days

Funny Moments:
-“Mom, my hands smell”
-The friends on TSM who took a picture of me after I’d taken one of them. Weird.
-The CM switch on Small World
-Our video at Spaceship Earth, the first time
-When the questionnaire CM asked us to describe our accommodations, and Sleepy came up with “Dump.”

Saddest Moments:
-Losing Missy
-Driving away on our final night

Magical Moments:
-Riding Everest and seeing all of Walt Disney World beneath us
-Watching Finding Nemo: The Musical
-Doing Spaceship Earth
-The thrill of traveling “the world”
-Meeting Princess Aurora
-Seeing the White Rabbit our last night @ Magic Kingdom
-Fantasmic
-Dining beneath a volcano
-Walking down Main Street for the first time and seeing all the CM’s waving.
-SpectroMagic
-Being a goof with my mom
-Making fun of Grumpy cuz he was grumpy…come to find out, he’d like to go back as much as anyone else

I can’t even remember all of the wonderful, magical moments. There were too many.


Moments We Can Learn From (a.k.a. Things to Remember for Another Trip):
-Touring plans are not always the best things. Sometimes taking it easy is nice.
-Taking more pictures
-6 days is not enough
-Staying on property is a must do
-Downtown Disney deserves a day (or two)


Attractions/ Shows I Loved:
• Animal Kingdom: Everest, Kali, Safari, Nemo
• Epcot: Test Track, Figment, Spaceship Earth, Soarin’ (eh), Grand Fiesta, Maelstrom
• Magic Kingdom: Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder, TTA, Carousel of Progress, SpectroMagic, Peter Pan, PhilarMagic
• Hollywood Studios: Toy Story Mania, Tower of Terror, Great Movie Ride, Fantasmic

Attractions I Can Live Without:
• Animal Kingdom: Dinosaur
• Epcot: Mission Space, Nemo
• Magic Kingdom: Stitch, Monster’s Inc., Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise
• Hollywood Studios: Star Tours, Backlot Tour, Little Mermaid

Up Next: Not done yet! Scrapbooking!

 

[grandpaof3]

Your final thoughts are wonderful but I must disagree with a few of your likes and dislikes.

Nemo: The Musical. Will not do again; fell asleep half way through it.

DTD: Maybe two half days.

Soarin: Once was enough. Not worth waiting in line for again. SORRY!

Mission Space: Loved it.

Monsters Inc., Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean: Loved them!!!

Little Mermaid: Call me weird but how can you not like this one???

Star Tours: Could be better but will do at least twice this year.

Driving away on the last day: "Sad" doesn't come close to covering it!!!!!

Other than those I'm With you 100%

 

[NotSoEvilStepmother]

Your final thoughts are wonderful but I must disagree with a few of your likes and dislikes.

Nemo: The Musical. Will not do again; fell asleep half way through it.

DTD: Maybe two half days.

Soarin: Once was enough. Not worth waiting in line for again. SORRY!

Mission Space: Loved it.

Monsters Inc., Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean: Loved them!!!

Little Mermaid: Call me weird but how can you not like this one???

Star Tours: Could be better but will do at least twice this year.

Driving away on the last day: "Sad" doesn't come close to covering it!!!!!

Other than those I'm With you 100%

Nemo: I'm a theatre nut. To me, this was absolute beauty.

DTD: Having never done it and wanting to take in everything, one or two 3/4 days would be sufficient. DTD @ DL is lame in comparison

Soarin', Monster's Inc., Jungle Cruise, and Pirates: I'm not all too crazy about Monster's Inc but I would do it again if I had the time. But the other three, DL has much better versions by comparison. Pirates at DL blows WDW outta the water

Mission Space: It was kind of lame in my opinion. I might think differently if I tried the Orange side, but it just isn't my fave.

Little Mermaid: As a theatre nut, I should like this. I appreciate the work they put into this show, but it just isn't that great. Most of it is on video screens and in my book, that's kind of lame.

Star Tours: Again, DL is better. This one was too tame and the film is getting grainy. Most of the ones on my list of attractions I could've lived without were ones that were the same or worse than the attractions at my home theme park.

I couldn't sum up in words the feeling of driving away on the last day, knowing that most likely, I wouldn't be back for years and years. Maybe never. In a place where you're entirely happy, it's hard to let it go and join the rest of the world.

It's just my thoughts, so sorry if they contradict your own.

 

[grandpaof3]

There is no need to be sorry about our thoughts contradicting. After all it's still a free world.

Soarin, Jungle Cruise, Star Tours & Pirates: Having never been to DL I have nothing to compare them to. Therefore I will bow to your vastly superior knowledge on All Things Disney and take your word for it.

Mission Space: There's not much difference on the orange side.

Little Mermaid: You're right about the Video thing but I still like it.

Driving away: I've done it 14 times and it's on top of my list of things that I really don't want to do. With luck I'll live long enough to do it a few more times.

I'm sure you will be back in the World many times. You have your whole life ahead of you and I can picture you walking down Main Street with your own family someday and smiling like never before.

 

[NotSoEvilStepmother]

Happy Easter, guys.

Hey! So guess what, everybody? Today is exactly one year (to the date) from when we booked our WDW vacation. It's seemed like an eternity. Really. But, in the spirit of one year since booking, I've decided to do my...final...update. Scary.

First off, I just want to say thank you to all of you for joining me over the past several months as I did my best to describe this marvelous adventure. Next, I've been debating changing my screenname, so if someone else pops up with the same siggy, that's me. I'm not sure if I am or not, but I don't feel my screen name reflects me and who I am anymore. Just a heads up...

So, here we go, the FINAL update (in 2 parts)

Scrapbooking

Ok. As most of you know, I made a scrapbook for Sleepy for Christmas. Before the trip, we’d gotten tons of supplies, believing we’d do a scrapbook. But when we got back, life got in the way and we never did make those scrapbooks. Around Thanksgiving, I was struck with an idea of what to get for Sleepy for Christmas: A scrapbook. I did some research and found a great website called winkflash (http://www.winkflash.com/) who had a promo for any 4x6 print for 6 cents each (the promo is still going on, in fact). This was cheaper than any other site, so I went a little overboard and ordered 250 pictures at least. I pulled out our supplies and started woking.

This is at the very end, what was left.

3 days before Christmas, I finished.

Here’s the final result:

Cover/ Front page:

Travel Day (Meet the Characters)/ First things first (front entrance, room key):

Animal Kingdom (the background is leaves and dirt from our front yard):

Pictures @ AK (background is shavings from a palm tree):

Safari pictures (background is grass):

I hand drew Spaceship Earth on our first Epcot page:

Living with the Land:

The Seas:

Norway and Mexico:

China:

Germany and Italy:

Magic Kingdom:

Cinderella’s Castle:

Main Street & Small World:

The Rest:

Continued in next post

 

[NotSoEvilStepmother]

Spectro:

Canada:

England/ France:

Japan/ Morocco/ San Angel Inn

Hollywood Studios

Fantasmic:

The Beach (got sand for the background):

I hand drew a seashell in the center of this page after I took the picture:

Highlights of the trip:

Downtown Disney:

Tickets:

Parking for a Week: $55; Groceries for a week: $46; Seeing the smiles on your families faces at the happiest place on earth: Priceless (angry Donald in the middle, receipts as the backgrounds)

Our planning:

Wishes do come true:

I know these pictures aren’t the best but if you have any questions about them please comment or PM me. I can give you most information about how I made it, etc.

Wow. I guess that’s it. Ending a trip twice is hard. Hopefully, I’ll be planning another trip within the next couple years. If not, feel free to join me in 2013, when I start planning my WDW Extravaganza with my BFF. I want to thank you all for sticking with me for so long. Nearly 10 months now. Wow.

So, as they say at Disney…

Have a magical day!

 

[Charleston Princess]

What an awesome scrapbook! You did a fantastic job on it!

 

[grandpaof3]

Terrific scrapbook Chels.

It's been a pleasure spending the Winter with you. When I first checked in on your TR I never thought it would last this long. I gave me something to look forward to and your perspective of the World was entertaining to say the least. As I've said before, I hope you get back to WDW a lot sooner than you expect.

If you ever see a somewhat short 70's plus man with white hair and beard walking down Main Street it might be me.

If I don't run into you again on the boards here's wishing you all the best from the North Country.

Have a wonderful life Chels. You deserve it!

 

[NotSoEvilStepmother]

What an awesome scrapbook! You did a fantastic job on it!

Thanks so much. It really was a lot of fun (if I had the time and money, I'd most definately make another one). I came up with a new idea every day. Originally, it was meant to be a 20 pg or so scrapbook but it just sort of blossomed.

Terrific scrapbook Chels.

It's been a pleasure spending the Winter with you. When I first checked in on your TR I never thought it would last this long. I gave me something to look forward to and your perspective of the World was entertaining to say the least. As I've said before, I hope you get back to WDW a lot sooner than you expect.

If you ever see a somewhat short 70's plus man with white hair and beard walking down Main Street it might be me.

If I don't run into you again on the boards here's wishing you all the best from the North Country.

Have a wonderful life Chels. You deserve it!

I'll be looking. Lol. Thanks for joining me. I still don't quite understand how a 6 day trip could be spread out over 9 months, but I guess it's possible.
Have wonderful future vacations.

 

[piratechick]

I really love your scrapbook. Now, I know why your mom started crying. It looks like a lot of love and work went into it. Mine always come out either too messy or too plain. I plan to do one for my cp this fall and I hope it comes out at least decent.

I miss the beach. I've never been to Cocoa Beach or the beaches close to it. It looks beautiful in your pictures.

5 years before you go to Disney? Wow, that is a long time. You will never know, maybe you can go earlier than that. But, if you don't, have fun with your friend when you do go.

Yeah, the cp had always been a dream for me when I was growing up, so I was so excited when they accepted me. Good luck in trying out for cp when you start college. (Heck, if you don't have any plans after you graduate high school, why not try out for the Career Start program, so you can go even earlier. Its only for one semester, so think of it as a break before you start college.)

Your TR is one of the best ones I read so far. You are really good at writing. Good job on writing such a fantastic TR and is hoping to read more from you.

 

[NotSoEvilStepmother]

I really love your scrapbook. Now, I know why your mom started crying. It looks like a lot of love and work went into it. Mine always come out either too messy or too plain. I plan to do one for my cp this fall and I hope it comes out at least decent.

I miss the beach. I've never been to Cocoa Beach or the beaches close to it. It looks beautiful in your pictures.

5 years before you go to Disney? Wow, that is a long time. You will never know, maybe you can go earlier than that. But, if you don't, have fun with your friend when you do go.

Yeah, the cp had always been a dream for me when I was growing up, so I was so excited when they accepted me. Good luck in trying out for cp when you start college. (Heck, if you don't have any plans after you graduate high school, why not try out for the Career Start program, so you can go even earlier. Its only for one semester, so think of it as a break before you start college.)

Your TR is one of the best ones I read so far. You are really good at writing. Good job on writing such a fantastic TR and is hoping to read more from you.

Thanks for joining me. CP sounds like so much fun and I'm debating possibly doing it. Although, I might just work there in the summers.... Who knows. Yeah, 5 years til Disney World. Hopefully less, but, you never know.

Ok. So for everyone who's interesting (and I'm sure most of you aren't) here's a picture of me from "Pirates of Penzance" just a few weeks ago. A fellow policeman and I were going around the auditorium to sing "If you're scared of pirates (and you know it) clap your hands". This is a posed picture someone took of me (had to crop the other chap out).

 

[grandpaof3]

Just had to comment on the Penzance pose. I'm not too afraid of pirates but I wish I could say the same for Police with Rosy cheeks!!!!!

Somehow I don't think you were following the original script. I saw the Movie version the other day with Linda Ronstadt and your lines were not in there.

The English version was called A Slave Of Duty. Penzance was first performed in the USA on Dec, 31 1879 & in England on April 03, 1880.

Did you know, I'm sure that you do, that The town of Penzance is in Cornwall England?

 

[NotSoEvilStepmother]

Just had to comment on the Penzance pose. I'm not too afraid of pirates but I wish I could say the same for Police with Rosy cheeks!!!!!

Somehow I don't think you were following the original script. I saw the Movie version the other day with Linda Ronstadt and your lines were not in there.

The English version was called A Slave Of Duty. Penzance was first performed in the USA on Dec, 31 1879 & in England on April 03, 1880.

Did you know, I'm sure that you do, that The town of Penzance is in Cornwall England?

The movie version is weird. All we "said" in the show was tarantara, but beforehand, we went and interacted with the audience. Hence the made up song.

You have the dates mixed up, but yes indeedy I did know the premiere dates. I've actually had to tell people that Penzance really does exist. Good to know the history.

 

[grandpaof3]

I double checked the dates and believe I was correct. There was a single earlier performance in England On Dec. 30, 1879 , with a different cast, to secure the British copyright.

Roger on the history.

 

[jelloarms]

I don't know if you still check this anymore but I really really enjoyed your TR. It was so entertaining! I truly hope you get to go back one day.

 

[NotSoEvilStepmother]

I don't know if you still check this anymore but I really really enjoyed your TR. It was so entertaining! I truly hope you get to go back one day.

Thanks for reading and following along! (I didn't even realize my thread was still open, haha). I'm hoping to get back one day soon, too. Who knows?