1 crazy family+2 resorts+5 parks+1 snake+1 surprise=A Mickeystoontown report 4/3x2

[KatMark]

I'm back and caught up, Lisa.

As longtime DIS friends, I know you'll understand that I skipped ALL of the photos from the slow boat to China. I mean, I had to sit through it last week with Mark and that was enough until I am there with the girls in May.

I'm sorry momma had troubles getting on the boats. And I don't blame her for being tired after 10 days (I can't believe I'm doing 9 days with the girls this year!).

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the silhouttes. We did the "cartoon drawing" when the kids were little, but never the silhouttes. I may try to talk Mark into that in September.

Good for you and John getting an escape. We ate at WCC at the WL in December. It really is a beautiful resort (although I still don't want to stay there). I love the totem pole.

 

[DisneyJo]

My childhood BFF had a silhouette done in about 1985 and I've always wanted to get ours done but never have. I really must get it done this trip as they're such a great unique souvenir

 

[eandesmom]

Sigh, I read the WL/FW on the phone and as usual, it would appear I didn't post! Arrgh.

Lovel the boat rides to both and I think both stores have some wonderful, unique items. Pancake turner not one I would have expected but glad you found it. Nice that you could get another silhouette to add to the collection, now Jesse really is official!

I am one of those odd ducks who likes the tiki room, but also preferred it under new management.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Okay, ya'll, I need your help. It's been a few years since we've purchased the Water Park & More Option on our tickets. I think that I remember how they work but I wanted to get your thoughts.

My scenario:

We purchase 8 day park tickets with the water park & more option which entitle each of us to:

8 park admissions
+
8 minor park admissions...Disney Quest, Typhoon Lagoon, Blizzard Beach & Wide World of Sports (not sure if it also includes mini-golf but I don't think so)

Because we don't have park hoppers, we can go to only one theme park per day. But, we can go to a water park in the morning and a theme park that night. Or a water park and then Disney Quest in one day. This would use one park admission and one minor park admission.

Am I correct so far? If I am, the following schedule should work and we should have enough admissions to do it all.

5/26: Magic Kingdom
5/27: Epcot
5/28: Disney Quest and Downtown Disney
5/29: Hollywood Studios
5/30: Water Park in the morning
Magic Kingdom in the evening
5/31: Animal Kingdom
6/1: Resort day
6/2: Water park
6/3: Nothing planned other than dinner at Downtown Disney
Possible revisit to Disney Quest
6/4: Possible tour at the Magic Kingdom which would require park admission
6/5: Epcot
6/6: Magic Kingdom

Using the above schedule (which is just an example), am I correct that we would be using:

8 theme park admissions
4 minor park admissions included in the water park & more option

As I said, it's been quite a while since we've had the water park & more option added to our tickets. Gotta make sure that I am thinking correctly.

THANKS IN ADVANCE!

 

[jenseib]

You are correct!

 

[nolacindy]

But your going to miss the slumber party! Trying to get myself geared up for 24 hours at the Magic Kingdom and I remembered you pictures from last year and everyone one laying on the ground watching movies.

Those silhouettes turned out great.

Ahhh AC and nonpooping birds, I love the Tiki Room! But now I'm going to be singing that song all day long....In the tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki room....

Pancake flipper? Is this different than a spatula? If so I may "need" one of these!

 

[MEK]

Finally back to read!

Love the silhouette. It is beautiful and that really is a great souvie! Sorry the guy had the personality of a wet noodle.

When you talk about the blazing heat it just reminds of when we there in June several years ago and it was so sickening hot. The kind of hot where you take 3 steps outside and you want to die. Ugh! I don't think I will miss June too much this year.

Fun update!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Great updates!
My DH almost bought a similar flipper last week at DL.

Silhouettes are so cool - we had the girls' done on their first trip! Love that souvenir!

That heat - it's been a few years since we went in summer and we contemplated going in June this year, but have since come to reality that I would be miserable and think we might try to go after Christmas.

Love Jesse's shirt! Lacey did a nice job!

 

[BridgetR3]

I agree with all of your thinking except the spot where you said that you could do a water park and DQ on the same day. Those are both minor parks. Could you use two minor park tickets on the same day at different places?

 

[jenseib]

I agree with all of your thinking except the spot where you said that you could do a water park and DQ on the same day. Those are both minor parks. Could you use two minor park tickets on the same day at different places?

yes you can

 

[BridgetR3]

yes you can

That is good to know!!! Thanks!!

 

[momabbate]

Oh my, I know how your Mama must feel, I got tired just catching up on your trip. Love the pic of Hunter resting his head on Mama's head. I got lost on the tickets. I really need more time for Dissing to stay focus. That said I always love hearing about your trips.

 

[Villainess]

Hi!

I've been away from the DIS for much too long, but I always remembered your trip reports and how much I enjoyed reading them. With a trip in our future, I had to read your latest and yes, they are just as I remembered - absolutely fantastic!

 

[Mommy Poppins]

Your plan looks great, Lisa. My only note (as someone already mentioned) is that the water park and Disney Quest would be two minor park visits.

Hope you guys have a great time! It is getting close!

Our daughter is playing softball at Disney's ESPN Sports Zone in July and we're just "starting" to plan for that trip. Not sure if we will do the parks or not (yeah right, not sure who I'm trying to kid!) but I'm just excited to be going back!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Any of ya'll still out there? I'm so sorry that it has taken me so long to post on my own darn trip report. I've been fiddling around with our May/June, 2014 plans but think that I have everything in order now.

The weekends have been consumed with cleaning out the cabinet shop and getting things back in order. You know how you just throw this there, place this here and then toss that over in the corner? Well, that's what we have done in the shop and it was a complete mess. Not any more! We cleaned the heck outta the place and I even swept the rafters much to my eyes' dismay. Just in time for John to build a couple of quick cabinets for an old customer. And, one of John's friends wanted to know if he could use the shop to do a cabinet job and give John a cut since he would be using our electricity and equipment. The price was right so we said yes. Gotta love the extra Disney money.

Hunter's prom is coming up soon too so we had to go tie shopping this weekend. Yep, all I had to buy was a tie and fabric to make a pocket square. Thank goodness we had the foresight to buy that nice new suit when it was on sale around Christmas time. He wore it to the Christmas banquet and now he can wear it to prom. No need to do a rental.

Anyway, sorry that I haven't posted much. I hope to wrap this trip report up soon so that I can start a pre-trip report. We are pretty close to being at the 60 FP+ mark.

Okay, shutting up now. Let me go write something up before the boss gets back from court. I'll be back to post and to reply to ya'll's comments.

 

[Millie12591]

Way to go Mama! Sounds like a great and productive weekend!

I love it when things come together for a big event, not having to buy or rent a suit must feel so great! Now y'all are only out the money for the prom tickets, corsage and dinner! Oh, and maybe a limo.

Loving the silhouettes by the way, I've always wanted to get them done of the kids but never took the time to it. I think that will have to happen when we go back.

Which should be May 2015, I think it will end up being a Mom and Son trip this time, to celebrate his graduating college. I thought for sure this Oct., but I'm afraid that might not happen.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I don’t have time to eat! I’m taking selfies with the characters!

As I said in my last installment, I am pretty sure that we did other things between seeing the Tiki birds and our dinner reservation but I couldn’t find pictures so I’m not sure what those “other things” were.

Tonight, we were having our traditional “last supper”. Where would that be? The Crystal Palace which is one of our favorite meals. Not only do you get to see the characters but the food is good too.

I checked us in, given a buzzer and was told to stay somewhere near so that we could hear our name when we were called. Yeah, hear our name even though we had a buzzer. We found something unusual....there were empty benches on the porch which, as I said, was unusual for us. Usually, they are all full and we end up standing around waiting to be called. There were castmembers walking around letting guests know that they had ice water near the restaurant entrance and we were welcome to help ourselves.

Hunter, Jesse and Lacey were all on their smart phones while John and I just sat there like old fogies.



This is the thing, we don’t have smart phones. What? In this day and age, you don’t have smart phones? Why the heck not? You see, this is the thing. Our kids (Lacey’s not any more but she was until about a year ago.) and my Mama have all used our free upgrades at some point in time. A phone would break, wouldn’t stay charged, or get washed in the laundry (in my Mama’s defense, she was quite upset about my aunt’s passing and didn’t realize that she had picked up her phone with dirty clothes) and either John or myself would let them use our upgrade. So, for years now, we have had plain old slider phones. STOP LAUGHING! I’m getting a big girl phone before we go to Disney. Everybody has strict orders that they can not break, mutilate, drop or wash their phones before we go. Mama’s gotta have her big girl phone.

In all honesty though, I don’t give two hoots about a phone “in the real world”. I don’t give a crap if I have a fancy smancy phone “in the real world”. I don’t care if I look like a old timer with my slider phone “in the real world”. But, we all know that “in Disney World”, a smart phone is now a must.

Back to the Disney story, while everybody was sitting around playing on their phones, John took the buzzer and made it look like he was playing around on his phone too.



We didn’t have to wait very long before a castmember came out and called out our name and then our buzzer went off. We were shown to our table and our waiter was right there taking our drink orders and asking if we had been there before. When we told him that we had many times, he pointed us in the direction of the buffet and said that he would have the drinks on the table by the time we got back.

Now, I’m not going to pretend to know which plate belongs to which person but I can tell you this. If you see a plate that has the food separated and nothing is touching, I’d place bets that it was either my plate or Lacey’s. We don’t like our stuff touchin’. Hunter’s will probably be the one with the least amount of food on it unless it’s a plate of pizza. I also won’t try to make any guesses of what is what on the plate so I’ll just say meat, veggies, salads and breads. How’s that?













Looks like this is Lacey’s plate because I see her shirt in the picture:



Soon after we were back to the table, the characters came to our table:



I love this one:







**Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

Hunter sit down and eat! I don’t have time to eat! I’m taking selfies with the characters!









The characters were spot-on that evening and, even though I didn’t get a lot of pictures, they came to our table twice and we had loads of fun with them.

Speaking of loads, it was time to load up on sweets from the buffet!











Oopsie, somebody had already dug in by the time I got a picture of the swirled ice cream:



A few pictures on our way out of the restaurant:









I hated that Mama missed out on the dinner and characters because she has enjoyed The Crystal Palace in the past but I can also understand why she chose to stay at the resort. Lacey called her when we were done and Mama said that she had a lovely dinner from the grill in the food court. They only serve dinner and have a more traditional dinner menu. She said for us to continue having a good time and stay as late as we wanted. She was fine and dandy and enjoying the rest time. We told her goodnight and set off lookin’ for more trouble...I mean adventure!

***Up next: Shaking our money makers and having a blast!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Yay Crystal Palace!!! Love seeing all of the food pictures, since we will be eating there for dinner for the first time in May. All the food looks yummy and so do the desserts! Hunter's selfies are pretty funny too.

Oh, and I can't stand my food to touch each other either! I'll do multiple trips up to the food at a buffet to avoid that happening.

 

[Tiggerrn2]

Great updates.

And before I forget, my DD said Piglet matched very well with John's shirt!

Looks like you had a lot of fun with the characters.

We have only done CP for breakfast, but all that food looks mighty tasty! I might have to choose this as an option some time in the future.

I love the close up picture with Hunter and Tigger. Long eyelashes are wasted on boys, I tell you!!