"You Can't Make Disney Your Permanent Residence." COMPLETE! 10/21 x 2

[dawnmichele]

We found the bus to Epcot and hopped on.
When we got there, Hannah decided she wasn’t feeling so great and wanted to head back to our room.
By the time Danny and I got inside the park, we realized we were feeling kinda tired ourselves and decided to make it a short visit.

We headed for the Visa Character Spot. Because why not. Except the line was really long. It’s usually just a couple people - if any - when we stopped by, but this time there were several. The group ahead of us was a really big 3 generation family. They were kind of adorable and made me wish I could go to Disney with my parents.

I always get so excited to see a character once I get up there and make “eye” contact. I was happy to hug Goofy.

Her’es Danny meeting Mickey.

Why is my shirt tucked into my pants like that? And why didn’t anyone tell me??

Awww. I love you Mickey.

Danny gets so blushy when Minnie kisses him! I love it.

We hopped on Spaceship Earth after that. I really never get tired of that ride.

Welcome to your future.

We went to pick up our Visa print and we couldn’t find our paper voucher, but they gave us a print anyway. Because Disney is the ruler of customer service.
I found the Photopass photographer on my way out. Danny had decided to stay a little later on his own.

As we were getting off the bus my brother called again. He would be there in two days! We were both super excited.

It was early enough we we got back that I was able to get some stuff done before I went to sleep. I checked out all the purchases we had made earlier and had sent to our room. I moved all my stuff from the bad wallet that things fell out of to my new pink Mickey wallet. I looked at the pins I’d traded that day...

I moved photos from the SD card to the computer, went outside to call Alan (we had zero signal in our rooms, but the minute we walked out the door we had plenty) and I even took a glance at the disboards! I noticed we had a message on our room phone so I listened and it was the CM who had checked is in making sure everything was good and that we were having a “colorful” stay. Because we were staying at the Art of Animation. Get it?

My notes also say Hannah’s blood sugar was really high this night and she took a full correction bolus at bedtime, that Danny got back a little after 10, and that I felt like I was forgetting things because it always seemed like we were rushing in the park and I wasn’t making time to write things down. I was definitely annoyed by FP+ and how I felt like it was bossing us around all day.


Up Next: Kinda good at what they do.

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[dawnmichele]

Ok people. I obviously can not decided if I like my posts to be centered, or regular (left justified).

What do you like?

 

[sue_88]

Really nice photos of the gorillas!

Your character pics are very nice too. And I love those matching shirts you are wearing! Danny always looks so happy!

Nice that all of you enjoy your time together and also are comfortable splitting up when you want different things. That just makes it so much more relaxed and vacationy.

Thank goodness its Friday! Have a great weekend!

 

[dawnmichele]

I have absolutely no notes about this day whatsoever. Not this day or the next few days. I guess it was such a whirlwind of fun and excitement I couldn’t make time to jot down anything. Of course I am annoyed with myself now, but I was probably doing my best then and I’m sure it’s a better choice to live in the moment than to miss it to “capture” it, you know?

Anyway, there are pictures. And although I am older than I used to be, my brain still works pretty well.

It was Friday, and our 8th day. We planned to spend our morning at Hollywood studios. Danny loves breakfast at Fairfax Fare so we were up and on our way early.

Once we got to Sunset Blvd, D & H turned right for their breakfast, and I headed into Staring Rolls for mine.

Chocolate Peanutbutter or Butterfinger cupcake. Such decisions!

I carried my cupcake down the street and found my family. Then I unwrapped my chocolate peanut butter dream…

Oh, I so made the right choice. It was so, so good. I can’t even say.

This is what those two got

which I’ve had before and it’s tasty, but what can compare to that cupcake?

After breakfast, Hannah and I had a FP+ Tower of Terror. Of course she didn’t want her picture taken, but Danny and I posed for our terrified picture in front of the ride. Well, not exactly in front of the ride, but that’s where they do it.

Hannah and I rode my favorite ride, and once again I’m not sure where our ride picture is! What is even up with that? Did I not get them or did I misplace them? The world may never know.

None of us had ever checked out the animation building before (how is that even possible) and we figured it was about time. Especially since our kid is currently in animation school.

It was very interesting and definitely worth checking out. Plus it’s very air conditioned, and there are benches to sit on all over. I had to sit on a few benches because the girl really wanted to check out these displays more than I did. And of course Danny always has his own seat.

Oh look. I think they might be kind of good at what they do.

We ended up in the gift shop full of fantastic things. And there was a guy there inking in some of his drawings. On this trip, Hannah had been talking to a lot of animators and CMs in general about working at Disney and advice for people wanting to get into animation. Most of them were super friendly and helpful. This guy seemed annoyed. And he probably was because he was trying to work - but he was obviously out there in public to talk to people. When H asked if he had any advice, he said to go to animation school. Ok. I think the girl asked one more question before we moved on.

I wanted to do the animation class, but no one else did, so we moved on the meet some characters. We got in line to meet Ralph and Vanelope.

A CM came around handing out baseball like cards with the characters, some info and their “signature” since neither of them sign. I never get character signatures but I kind of liked this I wouldn’t mind if all characters did this. You could collect the cards and that would be fun.

I got a great hug from Ralph.

We left there and I found another line but wasn’t sure who it led to. I’m not sure if it was supposed to be a mystery of what, but I got in line, and Danny decided to join me. Hannah did some of the color a character or whatever those things are you can do in that big room because she doesn’t really love meeting characters.

I would like to see this movie.

I told Minnie I loved her dress. I did. It had sparklies on it.

This office looks perfect.

Up Next: Kansas City is important, people!


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[Tink2Day]

Great report so far

Love the pictures and the M&Gs look like you had a blast!
Seriously, what is wrong with those two? Breakfast sandwiches when there are delicious cupcakes available??? I think a cupcake intervention was in order

 

[dawnmichele]

..

 

[dawnmichele]

Really nice photos of the gorillas!

Your character pics are very nice too. And I love those matching shirts you are wearing! Danny always looks so happy!

Nice that all of you enjoy your time together and also are comfortable splitting up when you want different things. That just makes it so much more relaxed and vacationy.

Thank goodness its Friday! Have a great weekend!

Thanks. I love taking pictures of animals. In another life I might have loved being a wildlife photographer.

I think my character pics come out fun because I am genuinely having the best time in them. Danny does always look so happy! It's one of the reasons I love to go to Disney with him.

I can't imagine a trip where I had to be with the same people all the time! And at Disney it's not like we are ever that far apart if anybody needs anything or gets bored or lonely. You are so right about how being apart sometimes helps our time together.

Happy Weekend to you, too.

 

[dawnmichele]

Great report so far

Love the pictures and the M&Gs look like you had a blast!
Seriously, what is wrong with those two? Breakfast sandwiches when there are delicious cupcakes available??? I think a cupcake intervention was in order

Thanks! I am a serious goof about M&Gs. I turn into 100% dork. I love it!

And I know! Seriously a sausage sandwich over that cupcake? I don't get it. They both love chocolate and treats, but neither of them feel the cupcake love like I do .

 

[dawnmichele]

I’m not sure if Frozen was out in theatres at that point, but we certainly hadn’t seen it. It was a big deal while we were there though. You’ve probably seen some of the banners in some of the previous pictures.

In the animation buildings at HS there are a couple little theatres that run movies about -- I can’t really say because I didn’t see any of them. But one was dedicated to Frozen. We didn’t stay for the movie but they had lots of things on display. Hannah was pretty impressed with some of the animation and things they did with character design. She’s the expert.

And then we were done with the animation building.

The sun was bright.

Hello Little Mermaid!

A nearby cart reminded us it was time to split a Mickey Bar!

Always so yummy.

We wanted to look through One Man’s Dream and watch the movie.

I love the models in here.

Maybe this is a good time for me to point out a rant I have. If you’ve seen that movie, which most of you have, you should know that Walt used to live in Kansas City. In fact if you’re a big Disney fan you should know that. And not just live here, he got started as a professional animator in Kansas City. People who know about Disney should know about Kansas City.

But no one ever does! When CMs ask me where I’m from and I say Kansas City, they should all say “Oh hey! Walt got his start in animation there!” or some such thing. But they never, ever do. Doesn’t matter if they’re still earning their ears or they have on shirt and a tie. Nothing. This disappoints me.

And while I’m still kind of on the subject - of course my brother and I have been to visit Laugh-O-Gram studios. It’s in terrible disrepair right now, but they haven’t torn it down yet. It’s great to visit and imagine the man before all his dreams came true. It’s inspiring.

Yeah, so back to our trip, we enjoyed our movie and then they kicked us out.

Hannah was feeling like her blood sugar might be a little low during the movie, so as soon as we got out she checked.

She had a snack from her bag and we decided it was time to eat!

Now here’s the bad part of not having notes. Is this the time we went to Backlot Express and had the crazy CM? Or is this the time we were standing in line and I overheard a guy on the phone asking a CM where he was and then on the phone saying “We’re somewhere called the Backlotic Express - I don’t know it’s just called the Backlotic Express.”

I think it was the second time, and I LOVE that story so I’m going to go with that. He said it slowly and clearly like it was in a foreign language. Now everyone in my family calls it the Backlotic Express.

We also like it because I am in love with that turkey sandwich and the fantastic bread it’s served on. And then there are the free refills on beverages. Plus I just kind of dig how it looks.

Now I don’t know why we always seem to ride this ride just after we eat - but we do. Hannah and I do. Danny never does. He always says he might, but he never does.

This might be my favorite ride photo ever.

Up Next: First time at Fantasmic!

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[sue_88]

As you can imagine, I am totally behind you on the Kansas City thing!! You are sooo right! Why don't cast members comment on K.C. being important in Walt history?
Also, another fun connection is that a Disney artist (Leonard Sebring) was from Gardner. He worked on Snow White with Walt and when he moved back to Gardner he added elements to his moms house to look like the seven dwarfs cottage!

 

[NaughtyQueen]

Just starting to read your report. What were the dates of your trip?

 

[mtabh]

Loving the recent updates, thanks for sharing! Can't wait for more.

 

[dawnmichele]

As you can imagine, I am totally behind you on the Kansas City thing!! You are sooo right! Why don't cast members comment on K.C. being important in Walt history?
Also, another fun connection is that a Disney artist (Leonard Sebring) was from Gardner. He worked on Snow White with Walt and when he moved back to Gardner he added elements to his moms house to look like the seven dwarfs cottage!

I'm glad you're with me, Sue. I wonder what happens if you say you're from Marceline.

I did not know that about Gardner! Do you know where the house is? I'd love to drive there (it's not far at all) and check out the house. I love Snow White.

 

[dawnmichele]

Just starting to read your report. What were the dates of your trip?

Welcome and thanks for reading along!
This trip took place between November 29 and December 14.

 

[dawnmichele]

Loving the recent updates, thanks for sharing! Can't wait for more.

You are so welcome! I love writing these, and appreciate that you took the time to say hi!!

Hope you'll enjoy the rest of it

 

[dawnmichele]

Another popular Disney World thing we’d never done was Fantasmic. I know! People live for that show and somehow we’d never worked it into our plans. Until this night. It was kind of early, we’d done everything we wanted to and so we decided to head in.

The scooter section was right in the middle at the way back. I don’t know if that’s a good spot or not, but we liked it just fine. It was the Pocahontas section.

It was pretty empty when we got there, but it definitely filled up!

And then it started.

It was a pretty good show! I was impressed often, and seriously impressed that the quality of night time spectacles Disney puts on every single night! And man. They know how to put on a show.

As we were waiting a bit to leave, Hannah realized her pump site had come out. That means she wasn’t getting any insulin at all which is bad and potentially dangerous, especially since she had had some crazy snack before the show started. So her blood sugar was super high, and she needed to get a new site in asap. I told her to just stay calm and we’d sit there while she did what she needed to do.

After a bit a CM came and told us we had to get out. I explained to her what was up and she was super nice. She told us to take our time and just leave when we were finished.

As we walked out I noticed the foggy sky and the gorgeous moon above the Hotel. I tried halfway hard to get a good picture, but halfway wasn’t really good enough.

Everything looked cool that night.

Fancy people stay at the Hollywood Tower Hotel.

It was about time to head out.

Goodbye Hollywood Studios.

Up Next: On to Epcot!

 

[dawnmichele]

Hello Epcot after dark!

Are you ready for a bunch of Spaceship Earth shots? Because they come.

Like I said, I will never get tired of this ride, so we got in line to journey through human history. We knew we didn’t have much time before Illuminations, so we headed to the World Showcase.

Eventually we picked a place kind of in the trees near Germany. I left Danny there while I thought I’d take a quick trip into Karmel Kuche. Except that place was so crowded and busy! The line moved slowly and we could all hear Illuminations starting while we were still in there.

Look at the popcorn!

I got my caramel and headed back to my family. I didn’t end up missing too much.

This shot is my favorite.

Up Next: Goodnight Disney World

 

[gracer9977]

Hurray!! I have been MIA for awhile but I have found you again and I am so excited to read about this awesome trip.

Looking forward to all your pictures and hearing about how magical this trip was for you.

 

[dawnmichele]

Hurray!! I have been MIA for awhile but I have found you again and I am so excited to read about this awesome trip.

Hooray that you're back! I wondered where you were and if you just got bored

Looking forward to all your pictures and hearing about how magical this trip was for you.

Thank you!
I have got to sit down and upload the rest of the trip pictures - that's what's holding me up right now - but you know how life is. It's not all bad though - earlier this week I got to work everything out to make FastPasses for our October trip - it's in less than 2 months. Exciting!

I'm glad you're back

 

[dawnmichele]

I keep putting off this update because I haven’t chosen or uploaded the photos for the rest of this trip! So after this, I can’t just keep moving on to the next update. But this has sat around on my hard drive ready to post long enough so here you go. Maybe it’ll put the fire under to me to get at least day 9’s pictures up tomorrow.

Apparently I was hungry after that, because I have this picture of delicious food from Tangierine Cafe. Hannah and I shared it perfectly. On the right there’s some kind of Moroccan beer, but I don’t know what it was because they poured it for me and threw away the bottle.

I love the Moroccan pavilion. Especially after dark. But I haven’t yet had the time to take pictures like I’d really like to of it. We always seem to be rushing past.

We were tired and on a fast track out of the park and back to our prefered home at the Art of Animation.

“Oh Eric, run away with you? This is all so sudden!”

This is the elevator. We saw it several times a day.

Third floor please

Goodnight Ursula

Some nights it seemed like our room (at the very end of this hallway) was So. Far. Away.

Here’s how our room looked after 7 nights.

The beds looked great thanks to housekeeping.

Eric and Max, our guard dog.

Up next: Epcot morning and my first Dismeet.