Twirling Through the World: Magic, Memories, & Maladies-Sept. 2011 TR- NEW PTR 6/18!

[Fantasyland Mom]

Great picture of Sawyer and Eyore. Love the girls' dresses, they look so pretty.

Aw, thanks! This was definitely not the last of the kissy baby!

SO sweet!

Your breakfast looks like it was great! I'm really excited for our ADR there after seeing your no-crowds/yummy food pics!

It is TOTALLY worth it! I'm not even a breakfast person, but I love theirs. Really. You guys should be excited.

Yay! I'm all caught up! Crystal Palace is one of my favorite places to eat, and most definitely for breakfast! I love that shot with Sawyer kissing Eeyore! Adorable!

I love it! For a character meal, it's such a good deal! And I honestly think their breakfast is the best meal they do AND at a cheaper price! I want to be there right now eating potato casserole and drinking my coffee. Mmmm...

 

[starann]

LOVE LOVE LOVE the picture of Sawyer and Eyore!!!

Love that Ray remembered you and Pooh popped in for the picture too!

 

[tlenzendorf]

I love it! For a character meal, it's such a good deal! And I honestly think their breakfast is the best meal they do AND at a cheaper price! I want to be there right now eating potato casserole and drinking my coffee. Mmmm...

This! Totally this! Every single part of it! We ate there for breakfast again and I want to go there every single time!

 

[ronnmel]

I love the pic with the waiter, with Pooh popping in in the background!

 

[Fantasyland Mom]

LOVE LOVE LOVE the picture of Sawyer and Eyore!!!

Love that Ray remembered you and Pooh popped in for the picture too!

He is such a kissy baby!!
I was surprised that Ray remembered us (okay, not us---just Julia), but he even knew where we were sitting last year! That was really shocking!

This! Totally this! Every single part of it! We ate there for breakfast again and I want to go there every single time!

Yummy...sigh...
I can't wait to go back. I'd move to WDW just to be near that breakfast!

I love the pic with the waiter, with Pooh popping in in the background!

So funny! Julia didn't realize what was happening for the longest time! And then when she finally "got it," she ran outside to show the photo to her dad and Mamie. It was definitely a moment that made her feel a little special.

 

[Queenofallthings]

I love those early entry breakfast mornings...you sure get great pictures of a near empty park! I love the girls dresses and Sawyer is adorable....the pic of him kissing Eeyore is beyond cute!

I also love the picture of Ray! He looks wonderful....a great server makes a great meal IMO!!!

 

[kokotg]

More great character pics! I LOVE the one of Sawyer kissing Eeyore

 

[Fantasyland Mom]

I love those early entry breakfast mornings...you sure get great pictures of a near empty park! I love the girls dresses and Sawyer is adorable....the pic of him kissing Eeyore is beyond cute!

I also love the picture of Ray! He looks wonderful....a great server makes a great meal IMO!!!

Ray really did make the meal. He's wonderful! I wish we hadn't been running behind that morning so we could have gotten even more empty park pictures. We'll do better next time.

More great character pics! I LOVE the one of Sawyer kissing Eeyore

Thanks! I thought he was going to give away all his kisses on this trip and not have any for me!

 

[Fantasyland Mom]

With full bellies and partially-full autograph books, we headed out towards Fantasyland. Brandon stopped to admire the statues all done up in Halloween garb.

We hurried him along—we were ready for some rides!

As soon as we entered Fantasyland we spotted the Fairy Godmother with a very short line. The girls hopped out of the stroller and into the line with their dad. Mamie kept rolling Sawyer around on the cobblestones, and he was out in a couple of minutes. Meanwhile, I ran over to see how long the wait for Dumbo was since we were about fifteen minutes late for park opening. The sign said A34?!? What the heck does that even mean?? The line looked pretty long, so I moved on to grab Fastpasses for Peter Pan’s Flight. I arrived back at the line just in time to watch my princesses meet the Fairy Godmother.

Is she signing “I love you” or just holding her hand with flair? We’ll never know. She noticed that the girls had met Cinderella and they talked about their favorite princesses for a bit before we moved on.

At this point, we left it up to the girls where they wanted to go. Julia had been itching to ride Haunted Mansion for months, so that’s what she picked.

Just a little side note about how Julia’s brain works. ..When she’s scared of something, she often overexposes herself to the offending thing until she’s desensitized. In this case, she was scared of the Haunted Mansion scene/song on her Disneyland Fun Sing-a-long Songs DVD. In October of 2009, she began watching the scene over and over and listening to our CD of the song over and over until she found it funny, and also until our whole family (minus Sawyer) knew the entire song. Needless to say, she was determined to ride and prove she wasn’t scared anymore.

So, a sleeping Sawyer and Mamie parked themselves outside of Columbia Harbour House and off we went.

This was our first time in the new queue, and we loved it! We played for about ten minutes before going in.

We walked straight into the stretching room when we were done playing and made sure to move to the dead center of the room. I had contemplated asking for Brynn to skip this part, but in the end I just decided to let her go through it. Well, she hated the stretching room. HATED it. She began a quiet little fuss after the lights went out, and being the awesome parents we are, we told her she was fine and all crammed together in one doom buggy with the girls on our laps. Brynn was really quiet…until she heard “Grim Grinning Ghosts” start playing! Then she burst out LAUGHING!! All of a sudden, everything was so funny on that ride. She was singing and laughing, Julia was singing and laughing, and Brandon and I were high-fiving that she didn’t start crying and we no longer felt like mean parents. At the end, our hitchhiking ghost was just sitting on top of our doom buggy. I’m glad it was that one, as I didn’t know how they’d do the whole swapping heads thing when there were four heads in there. It might not look quite right. Brynn skipped out of there with pride!

I’d looked up times on the Steve Soares site before I left, but since we left on Friday and his new times don’t come out until Saturday night, I knew we were using old times. As we passed through Frontierland on our way to our next destination, I knew it was the time listed on his site for the Frontierland Hoedown. I didn’t tell anyone just in case it didn’t happen, and it’s a good thing. It didn’t happen. We let the girls take a moment to do some dancing and smelling of the flowers, but it was a no go and we moved on.

Now it was time for Brynn’s choice---Big Thunder Mountain Railroad!!

We’d gotten FPs yesterday and didn’t end up using them, and she had been disappointed---after all, she was tall enough now! This was her first roller coaster ever, and she showed no fear. There would be no easing into coasters with the Barnstormer like Julia was able to do. Nope! Full throttle. She looked so little in that seat, and I held on tight so she wouldn’t be slung all over the ride car.

Two first-timers on BTMRR! We both loved it! (And if you’re keeping track, at this point I had conquered two mountains. Before this trip? None.)
We started making our way back to Mamie and Sawyer. The girls asked if they could do “Peek-a-boo.” Huh? OOOOHHHHHH! That’s Stacey Speak for the stocks!

We got back to Mamie and Sawyer just as he was waking up from his nap. Now it was time for a potty, diaper, and drinks break over near PPF in the alcove. We just chilled for a moment, and we were pretty much the only ones in the area.

Since we were directly across from “it’s a small world,” of course we had to ride it! Sawyer had been pretty sleepy last night, but now he was amazed by all the colors and danced to the song!

Oooh, la la!

Now it was time to use these!

Okay, it was time to use the ones for Peter Pan’s Flight first, followed by Philharmagic.

Off to Neverland! (And all the other things we yell out on this ride…)

Again, this is one that Sawyer really enjoyed now that he wasn’t so tired!
We headed over to Mickey’s PhilharMagic and were the first people up to the rope of the Fastpass line. Just when Brynn and Mamie were about to hand over theirs, Brynn declared she had to potty. Didn’t we just come from the potty?! Oh. So off they went, and the rest of us went inside and waited for them. We figured they had about ten minutes and that would be plenty of time.

We waited.

And waited.

And then the doors opened, nearly smacking a too-eager Julia in the face, and we went in without them.

I love this show. I love watching the kids reach out and try to touch things. I love hearing people singing along. I love naming the things we smell. I just love it. My kids did, too.

When we exited the show, we called Mamie’s cell phone. She was in the show with Brynn, who was making her cover her ears because it was too loud, but was loving it. Oops. I had the earmuffs with me, but they made do. While we waited for them to finish, we popped into the shop at the exit and bought Sawyer a Mickey cell phone toy. The boy steals our cell phones all the time to “talk” on them and push buttons, and he just had to have this one! He showed us by grabbing it and not letting go.

With everyone reunited, we all agreed that our Crystal Palace breakfast was wearing off and it was time to eat, but where would we go? And how would another quick-service allergy dining experience go this time around?

Up next: Lunch. And rain.

 

[shan23877]

Sounds like you got a lot done in one morning! I wish DD was brave enough for HM, we're working on her.

 

[disney2mom]

Joining your TR You have a beautiful family and it sounds like you had a Magical Trip!! I love your pictures, I am getting very anxious for our December trip! This will be my family's 9th trip to DW! We all share the same love for Disney

 

[Fantasyland Mom]

Sounds like you got a lot done in one morning! I wish DD was brave enough for HM, we're working on her.

We did a lot of what we had originally planned, minus Dumbo. Things were going really well (at this point in the trip).

Joining your TR You have a beautiful family and it sounds like you had a Magical Trip!! I love your pictures, I am getting very anxious for our December trip! This will be my family's 9th trip to DW! We all share the same love for Disney

Thanks for joining us, and thank you for your kind words! Oh, I'm a little jealous of a December trip! I really want to see the holiday decorations one year. I hope you take lots of good pictures so we can live through you!!

 

[PirateKate]

Did Sawyer like Philharmagic? I've always assumed my boys were too little and would be squirmy.

I love the pictures from the Crystal Palace and the empty Main Street. Looks like a great morning!

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

You guys got a lot done! I love the pic of you holding Brynn in on BTMRR, she does look so little in that big seat! I'm glad that she and Julia conquered their ride fears!

 

[Fantasyland Mom]

Did Sawyer like Philharmagic? I've always assumed my boys were too little and would be squirmy.

I love the pictures from the Crystal Palace and the empty Main Street. Looks like a great morning!

He did like it! He didn't wear the glasses, but he could still tell who everyone was on those huge screens and danced and clapped to the music. It's not very long, so he was fine. If it were a long show, he wouldn't have been able to handle it. I think your boys would be fine. I doubt they'd squirm much once it started.

You guys got a lot done! I love the pic of you holding Brynn in on BTMRR, she does look so little in that big seat! I'm glad that she and Julia conquered their ride fears!

She looked tiny, didn't she?!? After the girls conquered these rides, there was no stopping them!

 

[999ghostslover]

Thank God for chapters. I'm all caught up. Looks like a fun morning. Those dresses are so cute. Abby had that material as sheets in her classic pooh nursery. Back when we thought kids needed nurseries. Ha!

 

[Fantasyland Mom]

Thank God for chapters. I'm all caught up. Looks like a fun morning. Those dresses are so cute. Abby had that material as sheets in her classic pooh nursery. Back when we thought kids needed nurseries. Ha!

Nurseries have their place...as storage! Before Julia was born, we had her a beautiful nursery all set up. We bought a house when she was four months old and when we moved she had only been inside the nursery one time--when we showed her around the house the first day she we brought her home!! I guess we didn't realize our parenting style until we were "in it." The other two got rooms once they were mobile, but that was (still is for Sawyer) only for naptime so they wouldn't fall off the bed while I wasn't in the room. Night time is with us .
But back on topic--yes, I love that material! My friend Miranda bought it and made the dresses without me ever seeing it, and I thought it was perfect.

 

[Fantasyland Mom]

When we left off, it was lunchtime. There was really no question as to where we would be going. In fact, Mamie and Sawyer were so excited about it that they’d spent naptime parked outside the place!

You guessed it! Columbia Harbour House!
I have a fondness for this place that I really can’t explain, except to note that it was the first Disney restaurant I ever ate in and it will always hold a special place in my heart because of this.

We parked our strollers outside and I led my crowd upstairs. A quick check around let us know that the seats overlooking Fantasyland/Haunted Mansion were taken. It was still really lightly populated upstairs and we found a quiet seat off in a corner next to a window that overlooked part of Liberty Square and our strollers down below. Once we had the kids all settled in their seats, Brandon and I went downstairs to begin the ordering process. I was nervous about another allergy-meal issue at a quick service place, but I had no need to worry. I found the first person wearing a mobcap and told her we needed the black allergy notebook. Within two minutes, we were looking through the book with a manager, who told us that allergy meals usually take an average of 4 minutes of waiting extra.
FOUR MINUTES?? You mean not the HOUR I waited yesterday?!?
Less than five minutes later we were headed up the stairs with our trays of food and drinks. AWESOME!

Brynn had the allergy-free chicken tenders, fries from a dedicated fryer, apple sauce, and apple juice.

There were more tenders than she could handle, so Sawyer happily ate some.

Julia wanted fish and fries, so I ordered her the adult meal. I didn’t realize that counter service credits are counter service credits no matter the age, so it only counted as one CS meal instead of designating it an “adult” meal.

She had to try cutting it with toothpicks since her mean mommy wouldn’t give her a knife.

“Hello, Mickey? It’s Julia. My mom won’t let me have a knife even though it would make me happy and this is the happiest place on earth…what? You want to talk to her? Sure.”

Brandon had the fried shrimp with fries, tea, and the apple turnover thing. He wanted to document the size of the shrimp and the glisten of the sugar in the dessert before eating it all so fast that no one could take a bite.

Mamie had the fish plate, too.

And I had to try the new Lobster Roll with chips. It was good, especially for theme park quick service food, but I had to tear off a lot of the bread because it was just way too big. The lobster salad actually had lots of lobster in it and a nice amount of mayo. I liked the celery bite in it, too. I was not able to finish it all, but I’d get it again.

We ate happily.

We stashed three chocolate cakes in our messenger bag since we didn’t want Brynn to see them. The plan was to eat them later, but that was not to be. Foreshadowing.

As the meal went on, it started to sprinkle a little rain. Brandon had wolfed down his food like a maniac, so I sent him to put rain covers on the strollers while we ate. It wasn’t much rain, but I just thought it’d keep the kids’ seats from getting wet.

He came back inside and we finished our meal. Just as we were about to leave, the bottom dropped out. We know how Florida storms work, so we thought we’d take a bathroom break and casually stroll down the stairs and hope the rain would be stopped by then.

When we went to change Sawyer’s diaper, we noticed it was practically hanging off of him. Half of it wasn’t fastened, and it was starting to slip out of his clothes!! We were cracking up laughing (I guess we wouldn’t have been if he’d had to go while it was like that!) and blamed Brandon for a horrible diaper-changing job on the last go-round. We found out later that this happens quite a bit with Sawyer in disposable diapers. We use cloth diapers at home and they’re fairly snug, but either we were bad at putting these on, or Sawyer was tugging at them because they felt different, or they’re just not as strong as the cloth. Whatever the reason, he was pretty much bare-bottomed now and we were laughing so hard that we had tears in our eyes! I’m pretty sure we were just really tired and anything would have been funny at this point. We apologized to Brandon later for blaming him. After we stopped laughing, that is.

The rain looked to be slacking, so I decided to don a poncho and grab the strollers. As soon as I got to them, I saw something I really COULD blame Brandon for…the covers were hardly even covering them! On the single stroller, part of it just wasn’t strapped down and it was a little damp. No problem. I rolled it over to Julia and put a camp towel down in the bottom of it. It was dry enough, and I arranged the cover correctly and zipped her up. The double stroller was a different story. Apparently he had pretty much just draped that cover over, so not only was the whole bottom section uncovered, but the top part had been collecting water the whole time because it wasn’t stretched properly over the handles, and when I went to move it??? SOAKED. Again, I put camp towels down and apologized to my children, but they didn’t seem to mind getting in and I made sure the cover was on correctly.

After taking about ten minutes to secure them in their sloshy strollers and watching people slip on the stones in front of CHH, we were ready to head out. No, the rain wasn’t scaring us off, but we had a nap planned for this time so we could stay out late tonight.

We started making our way out of the park as the rain pretty much stopped.

As we neared the Fire Station, we saw Pinocchio walking around, and we quickly followed him. We formed the beginning of a line to see him with his good old dad, Gipetto!

We had a cute interaction with them. Pinocchio signed to me and asked if I had made the girls’ dresses (amazing how much you can understand just from some hand motions!), and I told them my friend made them because she loves them very much. Then he signed that he loved them very much, too! My kids were smitten. Okay, so was I.

It was during this time that I opened my bag to discover that those three chocolate cakes from lunch had ALL popped open and now chocolate was covering the inside of the bag! I was not in the mood to deal with it, so I closed the bag and started walking.

And after that last stop, we made our way to the TTC via the monorail, which stopped several times while it waited for “clearance.” This would be one of many times that the monorail was slow-going this trip, but at least it was somewhat moving this go-round. At the TTC, I had to make a stop at the time-suck restroom that I just can’t pass without entering, and the little kids were looking a bit sleepy.

We walked to our van, which was parked really close from this morning’s early entrance, and by the time we made it back to Pop Century, Brynn and Sawyer were zonked.

They needed their rest so they could make it through tonight’s plans. As the two little ones snoozed and Julia and Mamie rested quietly, Brandon and I went to buy our refillable mugs at the food court and I got my first dose of white tea with citrus….ahhhh…craving fulfilled. Naptime was short and sweet, and then it was time to change into our matching shirts that Brandon and I made. We had a VERY important date for dinner. Actually, we had FIVE important dates ;-).

 

[inkedupmomma]

I swore I replied to your CP post, but I do not see it.. der.

We had a great breakfast there as well! Although Piglet skipped out on us lol!

Glad your kids loved HM and BTMMR!

and isn't WDW the BEST when it comes to allergies?? Really puts my mind at ease when I am there!

So awesome that you guys got that special little character treat at the end of your afternoon!

Looking forward to your night plans!

 

[MeMom]

You guessed it! Columbia Harbour House!
I have a fondness for this place that I really can’t explain, except to note that it was the first Disney restaurant I ever ate in and it will always hold a special place in my heart because of this.

I feel the same way about Pop Century. It was our first on-site stay, the trip that really turned me from a lifelong Disney fan way back from Mickey Mouse Club days into a full-fledged explosion of Disneymania. We have stayed at many other resorts, and we could easily get spoiled to the deluxes, but there is just something special about Pop Century because of that first stay, I think.

The portions at Columbia Harbour House are huge. We can easily share meals there. I haven't tried the lobster roll...yet.

I'm glad I got the chance to peek in and see all of your pictures. A day in Fantasyland - even a wet one - is a good day!