*1/3 New Trip Report* Pole Dancing and Food Porn

[shannn]

As Minnie approached our table, she ran into her sweetie Mickey. They shared a quick kiss as they crossed paths.

Lily loved the kiss!

And then it was her~ MINNIE!

Just like Morgan had babbled at Minnie, now it was Lily's turn to go nuts. "You're my favorite. I'm going to be you for Halloween. I already wore my Minnie costume to your boyfriend's Halloween party. I bought a stuffed Minnie yesterday to take home with me because you're my favorite."

Look how she's cuddled up!

Poor Minnie. I'm not sure Lily's ever letting go.

After the characters had moved on, they brought me a cupcake for my birthday and the napkin waving began.

We all enjoyed the celebration (even if I didn't try the cupcake) and the kids set out to find some desserts.

They found the dessert area and Dad had to snap a few more pictures.

We visited the restroom which I don't think really fits the popularity of this restaurant. It's down those narrow steep stairs and I bet could get extremely crowded!

We were ready to go back to try and help Kim save the world again, so we went back up the escalator to grab a monorail to Epcot!

Coming up next: a park hopping day and a CG night

 

[jenjolt]

Great update!!!

WOW that is certanitely awesome of the IPO to help you like that!! I'm sure your students loved getting the leis, I know I would have!!!

Chef Mickey's is always so much fun I enjoy eating there and visiting with the characters!!!! You can tell the kids had so much fun!!!!!

Can't wait to find out if you were able to save the world!!!!!! Great update!

 

[praisehisname]

That was really generous of the IPO office to give you all that stuff for your class!

OMG, the looks on both of the kids' faces at Chef Mickey's are priceless! So adorable!!!

 

[MaryAz]

Great updates. looks like everyone was having an awesome time!

 

[manntra]

Your kids have absolutely the best pictures with characters! The expressions on their faces each time is like they are seeing them all for the first time, every time!
What a great idea you had for your class! They are very lucky to have such a creative and caring teacher!
Good luck saving the world and you have me worried about your luggage at ASMu

Tracy

 

[Native NYer]

Chef Mickey's is so great. Love the matching t-shirts your kids are wearing.

 

[wigdoutdismom]

Another great update! The kids were sure happy for the camera this fine morning!

I think I have about twenty maps of each of the parks, plus a MNSSHP edition set of maps all laminated.
We did a map skill/scavenger hunt activity with them. My fourth graders had so much fun with that lesson.

 

[Happydog]

Great update and wonderful photos from Chef Mickey's!!! We liked it too, but honestly it was too cold in that restaurant for me to enjoy my meal. We were all FREEZING the AC was too strong! But the food was nice! I liked CP better than CM, but we are trying a few other Character breakfast buffets this December so I am curious to see how they all compare... Your kids have such happy faces!!!

 

[shannn]

Great update!!!

WOW that is certanitely awesome of the IPO to help you like that!! I'm sure your students loved getting the leis, I know I would have!!!

Chef Mickey's is always so much fun I enjoy eating there and visiting with the characters!!!! You can tell the kids had so much fun!!!!!

Can't wait to find out if you were able to save the world!!!!!! Great update!

My students loved the leis. Giving up the concierge is one of the downsides to DVC. Both at the BC and Poly, the IPO has been completely amazing to us!

That was really generous of the IPO office to give you all that stuff for your class!

OMG, the looks on both of the kids' faces at Chef Mickey's are priceless! So adorable!!!

My kids adore the characters. It's so much fun to watch!!

Great updates. looks like everyone was having an awesome time!

We were!

Your kids have absolutely the best pictures with characters! The expressions on their faces each time is like they are seeing them all for the first time, every time!
What a great idea you had for your class! They are very lucky to have such a creative and caring teacher!
Good luck saving the world and you have me worried about your luggage at ASMu

Tracy

I love seeing the looks on their faces with the characters. They absolutely still believe in the magic!

Yes, the luggage story is still coming...

Chef Mickey's is so great. Love the matching t-shirts your kids are wearing.

Thanks. The outfit Lily is wearing was actually a custom resell on ebay. That's why it didn't have her name on it. I bought Morgan's from a different seller custom made with his name.

Another great update! The kids were sure happy for the camera this fine morning!

I think I have about twenty maps of each of the parks, plus a MNSSHP edition set of maps all laminated.
We did a map skill/scavenger hunt activity with them. My fourth graders had so much fun with that lesson.

Ooooh...what a great idea!! I think I should search out some more maps for mine. I wonder if I can get some while we're there NEXT WEEK!

Great update and wonderful photos from Chef Mickey's!!! We liked it too, but honestly it was too cold in that restaurant for me to enjoy my meal. We were all FREEZING the AC was too strong! But the food was nice! I liked CP better than CM, but we are trying a few other Character breakfast buffets this December so I am curious to see how they all compare... Your kids have such happy faces!!!

We absolutely loved Chef Mickey's (but I'm never cold...) Courtney and I are trying it for lunch next week. We'll see how that goes. My kids aren't big on the Pooh characters, so I doubt we'll go to CP. Although I do think the building itself is absolutely gorgeous.

 

[shannn]

Our plan this day was quite disjointed. We had thought about going to Animal Kingdom for a while, but if you'll recall, Dr. Drakken had infiltrated the computers on Thursday and Wade was trying to fix them. We needed to go back to Epcot to see if we could help to save the world.

First, we stopped off to get Grammie a ECV and I realized I hadn't taken the daily pictures of their outfits so I snapped these.

(This was staged, but it was definitely based on reality!)

We headed for the KP Recruitment Center and volunteered for a mission. Our start time was 1:15 in Norway, so we had some time to kill. I wanted to hit my favorite store in Disney, Mouse Gears, for some shopping. Lily & Morgan still could get one thing each (I'd promised them each a furry friend and one other thing) so they were anxious as well. I ended up with these:

(Guess who this was for...)

(I tried to talk her out of it!)

(for my van)

We left there and took a slow walk around the World Showcase clockwise. This was the area that we had toured after dark earlier in the week so we wanted to check it out in the light. As we reached France, we saw Marie the kitty cat and Lily ran to meet her:

I, however, had my own personal mission in France. I had something yummy on my mind.

A Grey Goose Slushie!!

I had read so much about these goodies that I just had to have one. And it was just as good as everyone had reported. In face, it has given the Dole Whip a run for its money as the yummiest thing in WDW!!!

The kids & Sam got ice cream and the grandmothers decided to get crepes. Since we had the late breakfast at CM's, we were all a little hungry so this hit the spot. (Since mine was alcohol and not food, it really hit the spot!)

We wandered on a bit more:

And soon it was time for our mission to begin.

Now, before I begin, please remember that this was a Saturday. In October. In the World Showcase. Which means? Food & Wine Festival!! It was wall to wall people!! I'm usually a seriously TGM'er so I've never been to a park that was this busy. Just keep that in mind.

We reported for our mission and were given a Kimmunicator. Wade came on and told us our mission for the day. If you want an amazing description of this mission, please visit the report by TheCappellDad. He had all the details, but honestly I didn't write them all down. Basically, the Kimmunicator sent us to different areas of Norway and we had point our Kimmunicator at different spots. When we did, cool things would happen. Here are some pictures (since I'm doing an absolutely crappy job of describing it):

My take on Kim Possible:
1) The technology is amazing!! It's so cool to watch things happen because you stood in the right space and pushed the right buttons.

2) I noticed things in the Norway pavillion that I never would have seen on my own.

3) GO on an uncrowded day. I can't stress this enough. Mom had to quit following us because it was just too crowded to maneuver her ECV around. We could hardly hear because of the (drunk) people too.

4) Get a Kimmcommunicator for each kid!!!! I can't tell you how much mine fought over it. It would have been nice for them each to have their own.

However, Morgan's face was absolutely shining when he said:
"I helped save the WORLD, Mom!"

Since the WS was soooo crowded, we decided to get out of there after that, and hop over to Animal Kingdom a quick visit before our dinner reservation.

Our our way out Mom was carrying Morgan's hat and stuck in on her head. I'm framing this picture for her for Christmas. Isn't it great??

Coming up next: Do we get to do anything at Animal Kingdom??

 

[manntra]

Great picture of your Mom and the two kids!
I noticed a lot of drunk people too! Wasn't used to that!!
Mmmmmm Grey Goose....even though it is in the 20's today I would still drink one!

Tracy

 

[kcandbella]

The Kim Possible Mission looks like fun! We may have to work that in, too. My nephews who are going are 10 and 8 and it seems like something they would like.

Great pic of the kids with your mom! She will love it!!!

 

[Native NYer]

Thanks. The outfit Lily is wearing was actually a custom resell on ebay. That's why it didn't have her name on it. I bought Morgan's from a different seller custom made with his name.

Do you recommend a seller? I'd LOVE to order some shirts for my nephews for our next trip.

 

[Dizneydawn]

So my dearest, I am toatlly caught up here - from page 8 when I fell off the planet and can't wait to see the faces with the stories and names I have read so much about.

By the way - I want in on first dibbs to be Lily's agent.

 

[bunkkinsmom]

WHEW!! I made it through the first 20 pages!!! We leave in 5 weeks and 5 days, so I am in for the rest!!!

 

[shannn]

Great picture of your Mom and the two kids!
I noticed a lot of drunk people too! Wasn't used to that!!
Mmmmmm Grey Goose....even though it is in the 20's today I would still drink one!

Tracy

I love that picture. I've ordered it from Shutterfly in a 5x7 so I'm excited to see how it turns out.

Grey Goose will definitely be on my list in...oh what is it now? 5 days!!!!

The Kim Possible Mission looks like fun! We may have to work that in, too. My nephews who are going are 10 and 8 and it seems like something they would like.

Great pic of the kids with your mom! She will love it!!!

Your nephews would love the KP mission. My suggestion is to get them each a Kimmunicator! It would have really solved the fighting headache that I got...

Do you recommend a seller? I'd LOVE to order some shirts for my nephews for our next trip.

I'll PM you with some names.

So my dearest, I am toatlly caught up here - from page 8 when I fell off the planet and can't wait to see the faces with the stories and names I have read so much about.

By the way - I want in on first dibbs to be Lily's agent.

Can't wait to see you in 2 days!!!

WHEW!! I made it through the first 20 pages!!! We leave in 5 weeks and 5 days, so I am in for the rest!!!

I'll probably be finished here in 3-4 more updates, but we're leaving for our adult trip in 5 days and I hope you'll come along for the ride on that one too!

 

[shannn]

We jumped on a bus to AK hoping to get away from the crowds at Epcot. This park isn't our favorite and actually wasn't on the plan at all this time. We do have a couple of rides we like, the Safari and Kali River Rapids; and we love It's Tough to be a Bug, so we were hoping to squeeze those in before we had to head back for our California Grill ADR that night.

Grammie went off to get an ECV and we grabbed a map. For the other parks, I had downloaded maps on my iPhone, but not thinking we were going to go to AK, I didn't get one. Apparently, while we were getting the map, a cast member approached Sam and asked him if we wanted to be in the parade. Knowing that we only had a few hours to be there, he said no and didn't even tell me about it until hours later. I would have said yes of course, but it was probably for the best since who knows how the timing would have worked out.

Morgan was thrilled that to grab the map and be our tour guide. He has just gotten really confident with reading and loves to show it off.

We decided to head to the Safari and stand in line since we were hoping to grab FP for KRR then see ITTTBAB while we were waiting for the FPs.
Lily loves birds, especially flamingos, so she had Daddy take a lot of bird pictures along the way.

We jumped in line for the Safari which said it had a 30 minute wait. We didn't think it was that bad considering what time it was. We saw these guys in the queue:

I wonder why they don't have the TV screens throughout the line. My kids were enjoying the animal shows that were playing when they could see them.

The 30 minutes turned into 45 because we discovered that there were only a few buses that the ECV people could transfer to. We waited quite a while in the ECV/wheelchair area. Our guide turned out to be called Will and he was excellent!

There were actually a lot of animals out, and we really enjoyed the safari.

(baobab tree, which no one but me is interested in. We have a story in our reading book about one of these trees so I was thrilled to get a picture of it!

(I kind of played around with the contrast on this one to make it easier to tell what it is.)

Once we left the safari, we decided that we didn't have time for KRR so we headed straight for our favorite bug movie. I adore the movie posters in this queue so Sam humored me and took lots of pictures.

This show makes my kids giggle. I know a lot of kids are scared of it, but mine think it's hilarious! They LOVE the stink bug ~ he was one of the few things that Lily remembered from our '06 visit.

After the show, Sam took this which I WISH he had looked at in the camera after he took it...

I know, I know...my eyes are closed and I look like carp, but isn't my daughter just gorgeous?? (Okay, I'm just a little prejudiced!)

On our way out, we saw some more birds.

(I love the water in that one.)

Thus ended our few hours at AK. Yes, we actually went to a park and did 2 things, but it was a fun afternoon anyway. We left at 5:15 so we could get back for our 7:20 ADR with plenty of time.

Coming up next: Will we make it to California Grill? (remember that luggage story?)

 

[manntra]

Ohhhh that would have been so fun being in the parade! But like you said...not enough time.
Love the flamingo pictures!
Also you got a great picture of one of my favorite safari animals....I can never remember what they are called but it is the brown guy with the white head. So cute! They are always over by the ostrich eggs and are usually hiding.
IABL cracks me up too! I secretly find it funny when there are kids freaking out all around me!

Tracy

 

[Native NYer]

I'll PM you with some names.
Can't wait to see you in 2 days!!!

Thanks!!!

 

[shannn]

Ohhhh that would have been so fun being in the parade! But like you said...not enough time.
Love the flamingo pictures!
Also you got a great picture of one of my favorite safari animals....I can never remember what they are called but it is the brown guy with the white head. So cute! They are always over by the ostrich eggs and are usually hiding.
IABL cracks me up too! I secretly find it funny when there are kids freaking out all around me!

Tracy

I think it would have been fun to be in the parade too; but I tried to get over it when he told me that it wasn't to be.

My kids are always surprised when people freak out at the bugs. They find it hysterically funny!