More Fun Than Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock-Adventures of the Sweet 16!New8-15

[Queenofallthings]

I didn't realize I had missed two updates....but I'm all caught up now!

Haley looked beautiful...I love that dress! Can't believe the jerk on the bus....but there always seems to be at least one on every vacation

We too love hanging out at the GF a little early when we have an ADR there. The flower arrangements take my breath away....stunning.

Your story about the rain at DTD had me laughing out loud...nothing better than when we can laugh at ourselves!!!

 

[Lady Lallie]

Great updates!

I had to laugh at you running into the planter, I would totally do that.

Dinner sounds great. I want to get over to GF on my next trip, I have never seen it before and it just looks so pretty.

 

[marvali]

Those are some great updates I've missed over the last few days while I was gone! Some fantastic pictures of the Electrical Parade. I love Spectro too, but I really hope Electrical Parade is going when I get there after Christmas. DW and I saw it once before at Disneyland in 1985 and really enjoyed it. I need to locate those pictures and see if any are worth scanning into the computer to share.

 

[disneydreamingdebby]

I am back from Disney and all caught up!

Jen - My girls first visit to Disney World was at 6-1/2. They weren't very into princesses, but I made a lunch ressie at the castle. They did enjoy seeing the princesses, and we had to see Ariel before leaving. We did multiple character meals. At Tusker House, my one didn't want to get Daisy's autograph..but when her sister said she was getting it (with some prompting from me), they both did. My daughter loved Daisy, but was in that in between stage of thinking that it was babyish to love her. The memory is priceless to me.

On our first trip (we did Disneyland when we were in CA when the girls were 3-1/2) we did the autographs and interactions. This trip they had to pose with characters at meals for me to take a pic. Some characters we do a family shot! It is very nice not having to wait in character lines and not having plans derailed by seeing a character. I am still hoping that when my girls are a bit older they will be silly excited over characters. LOL

I would be totally stressed by having a large group and having to follow a different path. It is bad enough when you have kids, but add to that others. The positive was that great adult time you were able to enjoy!

Shelly- Downtown Disney somehow becomes a disaster each time we go; hopefully, in the future, we will find some humor. Are you decided on an Epcot resort for next time? We stayed at both BC and BW and it was great to be able to walk to Epcot. I think that those resorts are even better for adults than families because of the access to Jellyrolls and the Dance Hall as well as the quick walk to World Showcase.

Sorry to be long-winded - I had 12 days worth of reading to comment on.

 

[belle8306]

I didn't realize I had missed two updates....but I'm all caught up now!

Haley looked beautiful...I love that dress! Can't believe the jerk on the bus....but there always seems to be at least one on every vacation

We too love hanging out at the GF a little early when we have an ADR there. The flower arrangements take my breath away....stunning.

Your story about the rain at DTD had me laughing out loud...nothing better than when we can laugh at ourselves!!!

That guy was really rude. It is fun to explore all of the different resorts. They are all so different. The rain was an adventure for sure!

Great updates!

I had to laugh at you running into the planter, I would totally do that.

Dinner sounds great. I want to get over to GF on my next trip, I have never seen it before and it just looks so pretty.

You would love GF! It so beautiful!

Those are some great updates I've missed over the last few days while I was gone! Some fantastic pictures of the Electrical Parade. I love Spectro too, but I really hope Electrical Parade is going when I get there after Christmas. DW and I saw it once before at Disneyland in 1985 and really enjoyed it. I need to locate those pictures and see if any are worth scanning into the computer to share.

I am glad that I got to see the Electrical Parade. It was fun to see.

I am back from Disney and all caught up!

Jen - My girls first visit to Disney World was at 6-1/2. They weren't very into princesses, but I made a lunch ressie at the castle. They did enjoy seeing the princesses, and we had to see Ariel before leaving. We did multiple character meals. At Tusker House, my one didn't want to get Daisy's autograph..but when her sister said she was getting it (with some prompting from me), they both did. My daughter loved Daisy, but was in that in between stage of thinking that it was babyish to love her. The memory is priceless to me.

On our first trip (we did Disneyland when we were in CA when the girls were 3-1/2) we did the autographs and interactions. This trip they had to pose with characters at meals for me to take a pic. Some characters we do a family shot! It is very nice not having to wait in character lines and not having plans derailed by seeing a character. I am still hoping that when my girls are a bit older they will be silly excited over characters. LOL

I would be totally stressed by having a large group and having to follow a different path. It is bad enough when you have kids, but add to that others. The positive was that great adult time you were able to enjoy!

Shelly- Downtown Disney somehow becomes a disaster each time we go; hopefully, in the future, we will find some humor. Are you decided on an Epcot resort for next time? We stayed at both BC and BW and it was great to be able to walk to Epcot. I think that those resorts are even better for adults than families because of the access to Jellyrolls and the Dance Hall as well as the quick walk to World Showcase.

Sorry to be long-winded - I had 12 days worth of reading to comment on.

Welcome Back! I hope that you had a great trip! Our adventure at DTD turned out to be very memorable even with all of the rain. I will have to check out your resort pictures. I am sure they are beautiful!

 

[FairyGodmotherJen]

Now that our Photopass discs have arrived (all four of them...I told you DH added a ton of borders!), I thought I'd post some of my favorites. Please bear with me...there were a lot to choose from, but I'll try not to overload you!

Going in order, starting with DHS and Star Wars Weekends:

(Doesn't he look so determined here?)

A few group shots:

I love this one of Grandma and Great Aunt Jane:

Meeting the Fairies:

(Continued next post...)

 

[FairyGodmotherJen]

These were taken at BBB. First the boys:

(that's his backpack monkey/child leash thing that he's cuddling with )

Then Haley:

The first time she sees herself in the mirror (I love this one!):

And the photo shoot:

I promise there's an actual update coming soon. I have it written, but I need to upload photos (and I hear stirring upstairs, so I'm sure Will is waking up). School starts for me a week from tomorrow (the kids start a week from Thursday), so it's crunch time to get the TR done!! I'm sure Shelley will want to share a few of her favorite Photopass pics as well. She and Tim are much better at stopping for pictures than we are!

 

[disneydreamingdebby]

I love the very first one of Haley and Jack, and Haley's expression. Great group shots; those alone were probably worth the cost!

Sorry that you go back so soon!

 

[Lady Lallie]

What great photos!! They are all so great.

 

[glennbo123]

Great photos! I especially like the first one and the Jedi training ones and the BBB "reveal".

 

[Queenofallthings]

Those are great pictures! Love the ones of the girls and the family shots are great, love the matching tees

 

[dismagiclover]

Great photopass pictures! 4 CD's! Wow! I really like the Star Wars borders from this year. They look better than the ones we got last year!
Shelley: I hope you post some of yours too

 

[Whisker Biscuit]

Great pictures! I love your TR!

 

[mickeystoontown]

The Photopass pictures are wonderful! I love each and every one of them.

 

[FairyGodmotherJen]

I love the very first one of Haley and Jack, and Haley's expression. Great group shots; those alone were probably worth the cost!

Sorry that you go back so soon!

I was surprised by that first shot - that's definitely one ofmy favorites. Some of our group shots are pretty funny! Plus, each one is a slightly different group of people. We actually never got ALL of us in one Photopass photo. The most we have is 14. But we do have a group shot from our 'Ohana dinner.

Yeah, it's a bummer to be going back. I'm excited about some new things I'm doing, but it's been a really quick summer!!! We got out earlier than people in other places, though, so we go back earlier. Our governor would like to set an "earliest possible start date" - and it would be Sept. 1. But I think it's a good idea to leave it up to the individual school corporations.

What great photos!! They are all so
great.

Thanks! We had a good group!

Great photos! I especially like the first one and the Jedi training ones and the BBB "reveal".

There were Photopass photographers rolling around on stools during the training academy session. DH was excited, because they could go places and get shots that we couldn't. And as you can see, they got some awesome ones! Did they do that when James did it?

Those are great pictures! Love the ones of the girls and the family shots are great, love the matching tees

Thanks! We got a lot of comments on the t-shirts. Tim, Bryan, and Sue did a great job with them!

Great photopass pictures! 4 CD's! Wow! I really like the Star Wars borders from this year. They look better than the ones we got last year!
Shelley: I hope you post some of yours too

Yeah, DH went a little overboard with the frames.... But they're a lot of fun to look at. I don't think his grandma is going to want to fish through 1400 some odd pictures though! We did have a lot to begin with.

Great pictures! I love your TR!

Thanks - we tend to have lots of pictures whenever we go anywhere. I spent time this weekend putting together a folder of photos to upload to Walgreens for the kids' autograph books, for scrapbooking, to take into school. But I'm going to have to order them in stages. See, there are 700 of them in the folder!!

The Photopass pictures are wonderful! I love each and every one of them.

Thanks, Lisa! It's so nice to be able to go back and see all the moments! I especially love it when the Photopass people take the time to get something other than just the standard posed shot. I think that's why that first one I posted is one of my favorites!

 

[glennbo123]

There were Photopass photographers rolling around on stools during the training academy session. DH was excited, because they could go places and get shots that we couldn't. And as you can see, they got some awesome ones! Did they do that when James did it?

No, they didn't do that then. That was back in 2005, which was probably the first or second year for jedi training academy.

 

[FairyGodmotherJen]

Friday

I was very excited for this day – it was Keys to the Kingdom day!! We had signed up for the earliest tour, and since Bryan wanted to be at rope drop for EMH at Hollywood Studios, they’d have to be out even earlier! We got up and got everyone ready, and Bryan left with the kids (and Tim and Shelley) by 7:15.

Our group consisted of myself, Mom and Aunt Dee, Sue and Stoney, and Uncle Tim. Doesn't everyone look excited?

This was actually a birthday/Father’s Day present for UT and Stoney from Tim, Shelley, Bryan and I, as well as a Mother’s Day gift to me from Bryan. To our surprise, I got a text from Bryan while we waited for our bus…they were at DHS! They’d caught a bus right as they’d walked up to the stop at 7:15, and were at the park by 7:30. Even if we hadn’t had any bus problems during the trip, it would have been impressive! We had missed a MK bus as we were walking up to the stop, but another came up within five minutes. We were at the park in plenty of time to clear security and enter.

I love pictures of an empty park!!!!

We headed to City Hall to check in and order our lunches (they have them ready for us so we don’t lose time during the tour – very nice!) from Columbia Harbor House. Then we wandered around and took a few more pictures.

We also stopped a Photopass photographer.

As we were checking in, I remember hoping that it was the girl that was there that would be our tour guide and not the gruff older gentleman that she was with. Then he called us all over to get our headsets, and I realized I was out of luck. However, I was pleasantly surprised. Fred might have been a little gruff at the beginning, but he was a wealth of Disney knowledge. He had worked for the company for about 20 years, and had taken on extra responsibilities on his own – organizing storage areas and separating items that could be recycled. They ended up setting a day aside for these jobs officially in his schedule a few years ago. He enjoyed working for the company, and took pride in the level of service that was expected.

I won’t go into details of the tour, as I’d hate to spoil it for anyone else who might take it. But I do have to tell you that, as a Disney fan, this was a wonderful opportunity. It was also a WONDERFUL Mother’s Day gift! Not only did I get to learn about and see things I’d never seen before, even though it was my 8th trip, but I got to soak in the details that Disney does so very well without needing to worry about my kids. I did miss Bryan several times, knowing that he would have enjoyed the tour just as much as I did, but I made myself a promise that WHEN (not if) we manage to take a trip down there just the two of us, we’ll do that tour together. One of my favorite things about the tour was just being able to sit in little alcoves or out-of-the-way places, that I’d either never seen before or hadn’t taken the time to enjoy, and just look. I can at least share some of the pictures I took…

We talked a bit about the windows on Main Street, which I knew about but never had time to really look at. Even Walt's Dad had one! I didn't get a chance to get a pic of one I was really interested in - Walt's publicist wrote a book called Spinning Disney's World. It's full of anectdotes from almost every park opening and everything in between. His name was Charlie Ridgeway, and I thoroughly recommend the book! His window is on Main Street, but I didn't get a picture of it. I did get this one...though I can't remember who he was!

This is one of his daughters and her family (they actually did own a ranch)

I had a picture of Roy E. Disney's window, which was a sailing company because he loved sailing. I can't seem to find it in Photobucket, however. Walt's window is, of course, the biggest, and faces the castle:

Some pictures I took as we went from place to place:

I never even saw this board, let alone knew a CM was always stationed here to give information:

(This is the "pet cemetary" outside Haunted Mansion. In the upper left hand corner is a memorial from one of my favorite rides from my childhood, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. It's grainy because I really had to zoom in, but he's there!)

I wish I’d have taken pictures of us at the Columbia Harbor House. This is now Stoney’s new favorite restaurant on Disney property because he loved the shrimp meal he had there! I’d never eaten there before (my picky kids wouldn’t eat anything on the kids menu), but I really liked it. Shelley had told me before about the upstairs area where she and Tim liked to eat. It was so quiet and peaceful! Plus, the girls in our group were seated at a table next to a window so that we could people watch as we talked and visited. They’d seated UT and Stoney together at a table next to ours, which became a bit of a running joke with our hostess (something about not wanting to sit with us anyway because we were trouble). It was a nice break!

I can't tell you how many times I wished I could take out my camera in the backstage areas!! At one point, my aunt joked that she didn't think they'd be able to wipe the grin off my face for the rest of the day! As I said, I’d recommend this tour in a heartbeat! It was about $65/person with our AAA discount, and I learned and got to see so much! Plus, lunch (and a water bottle) is included, and you get a pin as well. I’ve had a great experience with both the Disney tours I’ve taken (Shelley and I took the Behind the Seeds tour with Sue and her sister back in 2007), and can’t wait to fit a few more in on future trips!

One last picture, and it's out of order, but it's funny. We were walking down Main Street and listening to Fred when he pulled us down the little side street where the signing lesson window is (another think I'd never taken the time to hear). He said he wanted to let us rest up in the shade, but also that we were close to park opening and he hoped to miss it. Well, we were actually ready to move on right after it opened, so we had to join in the throngs of people. I turned and snapped this picture really quickly:

From empty to that in about 30 seconds! I have, of course, been in that mob before, but it was interesting to see from that viewpoint.

As we were wakling back towards City Hall to end our tour, we noticed that the clouds were looking pretty scary again. Mom and Aunt Dee wanted to high-tail it out of there after their experience on Thursday (Sue didn’t seem to have been quite so traumatized ), so after stopping to get Aunt Dee a tub of popcorn we headed to the bus. Sue, Stoney and UT followed along after talking to a lady that had also been on our tour that was from a town not far from theirs. She also wanted to know how Sue had made our shirts. We all ended up on the same bus, though, and managed to get back to CBR before it started raining too badly.

We ended up hanging out for a bit that afternoon. Bryan, Tim and Shelley had arrived at CBR with the kids to eat lunch not long after we’d eaten, and I knew they were back there waiting for us. It turned out that Will had melted during lunch, and Shelley took him back to their room where he promptly fell asleep. This allowed Bryan and I a little more freedom as we began (unfortunately) to consolidate our many purchases in preparation for packing the next day. I hopped online and worked a little on my class, and we all had a nice, relaxing afternoon before heading to our reservation at ‘Ohana that night.

Up next – would we finally make it to an ADR on time without rushing??

 

[Happy Elf]

Sounds like a fun tour! I've wanted to check it out but haven't been able to yet.

 

[Lady Lallie]

That sounds like a truly amazing tour!! I'm so glad you were able to enjoy the tour, you needed a touch of Disney magic.

 

[disneydreamingdebby]

Jen, Your tour sounds wonderful and makes me excited to look into it! I am glad you had some time to yourself to enjoy it (adult time).