Our Poly Dream Vacation - April, 2012 TR *Update 08/26 pg8*

[jennyjinx3]

Oh my gosh!! I feel silly! But as long as other people have mentioned it to, I guess that makes it ok?

 

[204charity]

Oh my gosh!! I feel silly! But as long as other people have mentioned it to, I guess that makes it ok?

Of coarse it's ok! Don't be silly! M sure my mom will love to hear someone thinks we look alike!

 

[jennyjinx3]

Of coarse it's ok! Don't be silly! M sure my mom will love to hear someone thinks we look alike!

 

[204charity]

Day 2 - Part 2 (Downtown Disney)

This next update will be short, I don’t have many pictures and actually, not much to say - Then I’ll jump right into Day 3 of our trip….sorry it has been taking so long between updates everyone. Life has been very busy for us lately, and to be honest - the warmer weather is here, and I am just really enjoying be out in the yard, enjoying the sunshine with my family.

We left off last at Hollywood Studios - we knew we wanted to go and check out the shops at DTD, and I wanted to eat at Wolfgang Pucks Express, and this was the only day where we knew for sure that we would have time.

So, after leaving Hollywood Studios at around 3:30/4:00, we headed back to the Poly to shower and get changed. We were all really excited to go see what Downtown Disney was all about. We caught the DTD bus and we were there lickity-split. We were all VERY hungry, so we went straight to WPE. WOW! What a menu! DD ordered the Fettuccini Alfredo, Dad ordered the rotisserie chicken, Mom ordered the Chicken Aioli Pocket Sandwich and I ordered the Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf. We were given our order # and we found a nice corner table by the windows. I think we were all really surprised to see the restaurant was so empty at this point in time. It must have been around 5:30 by then. We sat for a short while, and were served our meals quickly. Our waiter was so cute - he came to our table, and he said “Good evening. How are you all today?” Well, I guess I didn’t realize how excited I was - cause when I answered him “GREAT!” He just looked shocked and said “Wow - someone’s happy to be here!” We all laughed - it was funny for me to realize my energy was so high. I hadn’t even noticed.

We all ate our meals quickly (we were STARVING cause our lunch at Pizza Planet just didn’t cut it for us all) even switching plates, and everyone tasted everyone else’s food. I quite enjoyed my meatloaf, but my Mom’s sandwich was SOOO flavourful - I recommend both to anyone eating there. My dad said his chicken was “so-so” and he didn’t realize it came with mashed potatoes and he HATES mashed taters, so that was a bit of a disappointment. Lucky for him, DD LOVED them, so he gave them to her and she licked the plate clean! LOL!

When we were done eating, our waiter was outside on the patio clearing a table, I went outside and gave him a tip. He said to me “Thanks again for being so happy - you really made my day!” Awe. That made me feel so good. It felt good to know that I was spreading joy without even trying.

After dinner, we decided that to keep things easy for us, and to not miss anything, we would just walk up DTD on the left, and back on the right. All four of us LOVE to shop, so we were excited to get started! We went straight to Disney’s Store of Christmas and went in search for a Christmas ornament to commemorate our big trip - well, all I have to say is - there was SOO many choices, we couldn’t decide and we left with ZERO ornaments for ourselves!!! I did find an adorable Xmas Ornament of Minnie & Mickey (Bride & Groom) sitting inside of a HUGE diamond ring, and I knew that it would be the perfect gift for my DH’s cousin’s bridal shower the following weekend. (She is a HUGE Disney fan and Christmas is her favourite day of the year, actually her fiancé proposed to her on Christmas, so she absolutely LOVED the ornament)

Just as filler for this BORING update - here's a pic of my parents with DD -

I am not sure what store we hit up next, but I do know that DD loved Pin Traders, I think she could have spent the entire evening there, but we had other stores to go to, so after she bought a pin for her cousin, and my Dad picked up a Star Wars started set for DS back home, we headed on down the line of stores.

DD had bought a pair of adorable black and white Mickey Mouse canvas runners while in DHS and she made the mistake of wearing them to DTD. Well, as you can imagine - her feet were KILLING her, and the canvas was stiff on the shoes and rubbing in her ankles, so we ended up buying some flip-flops at one of the stores along the route. After a quick footwear change, we were just about at Lego Land - HOLY CROWDS BATMAN! It was ridiculously busy here. My mom needed a quick puff (UGH - annoying!) so we had to sit around in the madness and wait for her. We snapped some pics of the Lego statues and walked over to the railing to take a pic of the Sea Monster Lego statue. We turned around to head back to the smoking area and we LITERALLY could not walk! The sea of people was so congested. It was really overwhelming because up till this point we had managed to really not have to deal with heavy crowds at all. I flagged my Mom down eventually and we thought briefly of heading over to T-Rex to get some pics, but when we looked over in that general direction, we saw that paramedics were taking a stretcher into the restaurant and figured we should probably keep our distance, as nothing draws a crowd more than an emergency vehicle, right?

Some pics of the Lego stuff (I like the dragon one that's super dark - I think it's kind of a neat way to see the dragon in a different way than most people photograph)

I like this one of my Dad and DD checking out the sea monster too:

Heading back towards the exit of DTD we came upon the Little Miss Matched store, and this was a “must-see’ on DD’s list, so we went inside. LOL - funny story actually. My Mom lasted all of 3 minutes and then said “This store is making me have a panic attack - socks are meant to match. And be in pairs of 2, NOT sets of 3!” and she left the store! Hahahaha! We looked around the store and DD settled on 4 sets of socks. (We bought all different heights - that was dumb, cause now she has 4 extra socks, of all different heights laying around in her sock drawer that she LITERALLY can’t wear with any other socks!) I tried ordering some online for her, but they don’t deliver to Canada, so we are out of luck for now I guess.

After Little Miss Matched was over and done with, we had a quick photo session with the Winnie-the-Pooh bench (hahaha - took WAY longer than planned cause Dad's camera was acting up):

After that, we caught our bus and headed back to the hotel. My Dad always skyped with his family that lives in BC (they are 3 hours behind us) and updated them on our daily adventures. After chatting with them, we hit the hay - HARD. We were all excited for tomorrow - our water park day!

 

[HalloweenNut]

Great update! I wished we had more time at DTD and thought of going there solo one night but it didn't work out.

 

[204charity]

Great update! I wished we had more time at DTD and thought of going there solo one night but it didn't work out.

You know what? It's funny, because we thought we would have loved it alot more than we actually did. I think because we had already looked through all of the shops at DHS and our hotel and we started to already see the same stuff over and over and over again....we thought there would be way more original stuff, when it fact, it really wasn't.

We all walked away from DTD and said - "OK, that was good, but we don't have to go back there again."

 

[the_green_machine]

AHHHHH....When I read " bacon wrapped meatloaf I figuratively/borderline literally drooled on my t-shirt. I must have it!!!!

 

[204charity]

AHHHHH....When I read " bacon wrapped meatloaf I figuratively/borderline literally drooled on my t-shirt. I must have it!!!!

Well - look what I found for you - just so you can salivate a bit longer....

Oh. So. Good.

 

[the_green_machine]

Sweet mother....ALRIGHT!!! It's on my 2013 list.

 

[204charity]

Sweet mother....ALRIGHT!!! It's on my 2013 list.

Oh yeah baby!! I saw a picture of it last year and I was just like you - MUST HAVE BACON WRAPPED MEATLOAF. And well, I had it. An easy-to-cross-off bucket list item, right?

Can't wait to hear what you think of it when all is said and done....the fried onions were sooo good. The gravy....oh good lord....I want some NOW!

 

[mindystar]

Love DTD, and can't wait to go again this year. Really looking forward to the Vinylmation Glad you had fun, but also had your fill as well. Cute pics

 

[204charity]

Love DTD, and can't wait to go again this year. Really looking forward to the Vinylmation Glad you had fun, but also had your fill as well. Cute pics

Yes, DD loves her Vinylmations. Can't say that we saw any more there though than the parks.

 

[Winnie the Goof]

.

 

[DisneyStitch626]

Love the updates! We ended up liking HS the best too! The atmosphere was great. Nice to see you saw Stitch there. We only saw the characters in the animation studio and that's it.

We also ate at Wolf Gang Puck Express and loved it.

 

[204charity]

I don't remember if any of his friends ever call him Pooh Bear, but Pooh did refer to himself that way in "Rumbly in My Tumbly" song. So you're alright! If you haven't already, read the book if you want the whole story behind Winnie the Pooh's name. It's funnier when you read about it in context. (Great book, by the way.)

I love the Citizens of Hollywood. The way Disney uses actors as part of the show outside of the rides gives so much texture to the atmosphere.

I laughed at that overstuffed tray at Pizza Planet. If that happened to me, I don't know if I would been annoyed or impressed. (Maybe both. )

Bacon-wrapped meatloaf???........It sounds heavenly!

Yes, we LOVED DHS. I can't wait to go back one day. While I would LOVE to take DS to Star Wars Weekends, I just don't know if I could bear the crowds during those times....apparently it's SHEER MADNESS.....so I dunno. Maybe just taking the kids their during a regular time would be better. I think DS would love it there, and it would be a totally different trip with DS their, because he would want to do "Lights, Camera, Action Motorshow' & Indiana Jones and stuff like that.

"Citizens of Hollywood" hey? I didn't realize they had a title. Very cool! In retrospect, I think we all sort of wish instead of doing DTD that we had went back to DHS for the evening....ah well. There's always next time!

And thanks for the Winnie-the-pooh information. I will certainly look it up!

Love the updates! We ended up liking HS the best too! The atmosphere was great. Nice to see you saw Stitch there. We only saw the characters in the animation studio and that's it.

We also ate at Wolf Gang Puck Express and loved it.

We saw Donald Duck too! I just don't have my Photopass pics yet - soon, soon!!

 

[auprincess]

Love your update!! We spent minimal time at DtD...we went to WPE for dinner after our waterpark day and then later in the week, when it was raining, we went to DisneyQuest just to get out of the hotel room. I know I'm in the minority, but I don't just love DtD, either. I love to shop, but maybe just b/c of the ages of my girls, for me it's just a place to have them constantly saying, "I want that!"

 

[204charity]

Hey everyone. Just wanted to say I am ALIVE! I hope I haven't lost too many readers by now....things have been very busy for us lately, and to be honest, I think I just finally realized why I have REALLY been staying away, and I think it's because it's just so darn depressing to realize I am not going back anytime soon.

 

[wakica]

I found your trip report

Looks like it was a great trip!!! sorry you've been down in the dumps Hope you cheer up. I felt grumpy for the 1st 4 days after being home but then we started doing some fun things like watching Avengers at the movie theatre and getting some really yummy desserts for suppers just to add little touches of happiness here and there and I'm doing better. Make sure to do some fun stuff - it really helps.

Can't wait to read/see more.

 

[Moodyzblu]

I found your trip report

Looks like it was a great trip!!! sorry you've been down in the dumps Hope you cheer up. I felt grumpy for the 1st 4 days after being home but then we started doing some fun things like watching Avengers at the movie theatre and getting some really yummy desserts for suppers just to add little touches of happiness here and there and I'm doing better. Make sure to do some fun stuff - it really helps.

Can't wait to read/see more.

I agree with this!

It's a downer coming back from such a great vacation. But I find it better when I treat us to fun stuff .. Like going to the movies or planning a "stay cation" .. We have plans to spend the week at the beach in July. it's not Disney, but it's still a get away !

Looking forward to more of your trip !

 

[auprincess]

Hey everyone. Just wanted to say I am ALIVE! I hope I haven't lost too many readers by now....things have been very busy for us lately, and to be honest, I think I just finally realized why I have REALLY been staying away, and I think it's because it's just so darn depressing to realize I am not going back anytime soon.

I keep checking in ~ glad to see you are still here!!

I can totally relate to how you are feeling ~ so bummed that I have no clue when we are going back. Even if I just had a date, I think it would be a little easier. Geez, ppl who don't "get" disney would probably think I was crazy if they read that, lol! In the meantime, we are looking forward to seeing Brave come out next month! My oldest has some birthday money saved up, and yesterday at Target I saw that they have some Brave merchandise. Maybe I'll take her and give us all a little Disney pick me up (like we need more toys in this house)!