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

[mickeystoontown]

Hi Lisa! Great update!! I don't understand why they keep the buses so cold either!!! It's always freezing!!! I wonder how they are during the "colder" months!! I see Hunter was at it again!! Such a ladies man!!

Hey girl! Yep, Hunter is going to be a heartbreaker one day....if he hasn't already.

Wow.....Hunter was working it pretty hard, wasn't he?! Gotta love it! Did I miss the snake part yet???

Hunter was getting the girls on this trip. Nope you haven't missed the snake yet but it's coming soon.

You are an updating machine!

Great photos of Illuminations (we are finally going to sit and watch it as part of the CP package next month; we just aren't big fans in general).

I love the family picture...it turned out great!

Hunter is quite the ladies man.

I hear you on the bus situation with the freezing temperatures and then having to go to the bathroom. It's even worse when you are drenched, your bus driver gets lost, etc. (yep, happened to me in August).

I have so much more to write so I figured that I better get a move on.

I am a sucker for any Disney fireworks show (or anything Disney for that matter) and I could have kicked myself for not seeing Illuminations that one trip. I said that I wouldn't do that again.

I remember your bus ride from heck.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Love the illuminations pics! I love that show.

I can't remember how old you said your Mama was, but she looks just amazing! If she has trouble going in and out of boats, you'd never know it by looking at her.

Your dinner at Via Napoli looked great! Another must try I think!

I love Illuminations too!

Mama is 79 and I think that she looks very good for her age. Just the other day, we were talking and she said "You know. I'm blessed. I am relatively healthy. I can still drive. I can still do a lot of things by myself. I am not dependent on others for everything that I do. Yep, I am blessed." And, she is and so are we.

Love the picture of Hunter with the girls! You know he was enjoying himself.

Oh yeah, the boy was definitely enjoying himself.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I wanted to share some kinda cool/neat news. Willie and Korie from Duck Dynasty just bought my brother-in-law's house. Actually, he's my ex-brother-in-law but he was in the family for so long that we still refer to him that way (and no, my sister and her husband don't mind) and my kids go to his house quite a bit to fish and visit and stuff. Like I said, kinda neat.

It's turned cold here and I'm sitting in my Malificient jammies catching up on the Dis and looking at Disney menus. We are going to Tennessee to see Lacey and Jesse over the Thanksgiving holidays and I can book our ADRs while we are there. I know that several of our favorite restaurants are going on the list but, as we always do, we want to add at least one or two new restaurants. Always something "new" to try at Disney.

I did a "trial run" using early May dates to see if some of our choices were available and all were except for Be Our Guest which we haven't actually decided on yet anyway. If it does make our list, then I'll just have to do some maneuvering around to see if a time will pop up.

Some have asked if I have heard anything about the Disney Parks Moms Panel yet. I have not. I submitted my Round 2 answers and video and they are now in the hands of the Disney powers that be. There's a lot of chatter on the Disboards and on Facebook about what's next but I have chosen to stay calm and not get too involved in the speculation. What good would it do me?

As I said before, I did the best that I could on my answers and video. I stayed true to myself and didn't try to act like someone that I was not or answer in a "brochurey" type way. I could be wrong but I don't think that Disney wants an actress or copywriter. I think that they want someone who has a genuine love for Disney and who wants to share the knowledge that they've gained over the years. So.....HERE I AM DISNEY! TAKE ME TO YOUR PANEL!

No, seriously, I do sincerely hope that I make it to the next round and, ultimately, to the Panel. It would be an amazing job, I am sure.

Okie dokie ya'll, I'm off to look at more menus. Just like Santa Claus, I have my list and I'm checking it twice. Gonna find out what's yummy and full of spice. Flor-i-da, we'll soon be driving down! Oops, right tune, wrong lyrics.

 

[jenseib]

As you know, we loved via napoli too...and the balls just melt in your mouth!!!

I wondered if John's brother ended up going or not. Glad they did get there.

So will Willy move into the house? I mean I know he has a gorgeous house already so I wonder if he planned on moving or if it's going to used for someone else?

 

[scottny]

Gran Fiesta is becoming a fun ride to me. It took a while though.
Glad she did well with the boats.
LOL. Protective over your balls there. I used to get them at the street fairs in NYC and they were so good.
Nice you got to watch Illuminations with family.
That would be a funny story if you tinkled on a bus but I do agree they are very chilly. I also hate the lights turning on.
All caught up again.

 

[dismagiclover]

This update just cracked me up! Only you could make a restroom stop entertaining! And that boy of yours definitely has swagger! I bet he likes that picture of him with 3 girls.

 

[Kathy Jetson]

I can't believe those parents were letting their kids run around and push people. I would never let River act like that. We did UoE this year, River hasn't been on it since he was 4ys old so it was like a new ride to him.

I love how much you take care of your mama. My mom and River are the only family I have. I have a brother but haven't seen or talked to him in years. With the way he chooses to live his life I can't have him around River (drinking,drugs,and just his attitude). When my mom gets to old to be on her own I will move her in with me. I hope River will want to take care of his old mama when I'm older.

I see Hunter was really attracting the girls this trip!

I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for you to get on the Mom's Panel.

 

[jusero]

Was Mama in Columbia, MD, yesterday?? I saw this lady walking through the home department and had to take a triple take. She looked so much like her I almost said hi!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

I know I haven't commented, but I have been keeping up. I won't comment on everything I have read except to say I'm loving following along!!

Oh, and the dessert John had at Via Napoli was Coppa Brutti Ma Buoni. The description on WDW's website is: “Ugly But Good” Amarena cherry & vanilla gelato sundae.

 

[mickeystoontown]

As you know, we loved via napoli too...and the balls just melt in your mouth!!!

I wondered if John's brother ended up going or not. Glad they did get there.

So will Willy move into the house? I mean I know he has a gorgeous house already so I wonder if he planned on moving or if it's going to used for someone else?

I would love to have some of those desserts right now even though it's only 10:30 in the morning.

Yes, Willie and Korie are moving in. They actually wanted to have Thanksgiving in the barn which is not the typical barn but they can't move in until December. My brother in law lived in the barn (which could be called a second house since it's never seen an animal in it's life) while they were building the main house. My niece and her husband are living there now and have been looking for an apartment closer to where her husband is working. The house where Willie and Korie are living now is easy to access by the public. My brother-in-law's house is out in the country, way back off the main highway, has a gated, secured entrance and you wouldn't even know that there's a house back there. I'm sure with the show's popularity, they needed someplace that's more secure.

Gran Fiesta is becoming a fun ride to me. It took a while though.
Glad she did well with the boats.
LOL. Protective over your balls there. I used to get them at the street fairs in NYC and they were so good.
Nice you got to watch Illuminations with family.
That would be a funny story if you tinkled on a bus but I do agree they are very chilly. I also hate the lights turning on.
All caught up again.

Mama did very well and was quite pleased with herself. I hate getting on the buses when they are so cold.

This update just cracked me up! Only you could make a restroom stop entertaining! And that boy of yours definitely has swagger! I bet he likes that picture of him with 3 girls.

Hunter was definitely loving the attention from the girls.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I can't believe those parents were letting their kids run around and push people. I would never let River act like that. We did UoE this year, River hasn't been on it since he was 4ys old so it was like a new ride to him.

I love how much you take care of your mama. My mom and River are the only family I have. I have a brother but haven't seen or talked to him in years. With the way he chooses to live his life I can't have him around River (drinking,drugs,and just his attitude). When my mom gets to old to be on her own I will move her in with me. I hope River will want to take care of his old mama when I'm older.

I see Hunter was really attracting the girls this trip!

I'm still keeping my fingers crossed for you to get on the Mom's Panel.

I have never let my kids run around like crazy when they are standing in lines. I understand the need to let kids be kids but they also need to learn to respect the elderly.

Kathy, I have no doubt that you will be a wonderful companion for your mother and River will be there for you as well.

Was Mama in Columbia, MD, yesterday?? I saw this lady walking through the home department and had to take a triple take. She looked so much like her I almost said hi!

You know what? She was going for a very long time and she came back saying she made a run to the grocery store. I wonder if she made a quick trip to MD instead.

I know I haven't commented, but I have been keeping up. I won't comment on everything I have read except to say I'm loving following along!!

Oh, and the dessert John had at Via Napoli was Coppa Brutti Ma Buoni. The description on WDW's website is: “Ugly But Good” Amarena cherry & vanilla gelato sundae.

I understand Stephanie. Yep, that's the dessert that John had. I actually didn't think that it was that ugly but it certainly was good.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Epcot Photopass pictures:

Before moving on to the next installment, I'm going to share our Photopass pictures of our Epcot day:





Yeah, we didn't take advantage of Photopass that day now did we?

 

[francis6306]

I'm all caught up!! YAY!!

I love that Hunter is such a Ladies man!

I want to try Via Napoli JUST for those little balls of yumminess! I wish I could just walk up and get an order of those to go!

How neat about your BIL's house! I have a SIL like that! We always say that we kept HER in the divorce!

I haven't done Mission Space with Cortlyn yet… I wonder how she would like that…

 

[mickeystoontown]

Brothers don’t shake hands! Brothers gotta hug!

I totally forgot something in the last installment. At some point in time, Lacey called to let us know that she and Jesse were going to hit the road early even though it was late afternoon instead of waiting until the next morning to leave. They weren’t sure if they were going to drive straight through or if they would stop for the night.

We spoke to them on an off during the afternoon and evening. After we got back to the resort, we talked to them again and they really wanted to continue on to Disney instead of stopping on the road. This would mean that they’d arrive at the resort in the wee hours of the morning.

I had their reservation numbers and they were linked with our reservation so John and I walked down to the front desk to pose a few questions. The Custom House looked like a ghost town as well it should that late at night. The castmember told us to come on over and we told them the situation. The three of us guesstimated what time they would arrive and she said that their computers would probably be down at that time and they couldn’t check them in.

She pulled up the reservations and noticed that Mama’s reservation was linked to our’s as well and that Mama was in a room alone. I asked if Lacey and Jesse could stay with Mama that night and she said that it would be fine since the rooms held up to four people. I was prepared to pay the extra adult charge in the room but she didn’t say that it was needed. So, the problem was solved. I called Lacey and gave her the building and room numbers. She said that they would call when they got to the guard gate.

We told Mama what the castmember had said and she said that was an excellent idea and she didn’t mind at all. Oops, we forgot to ask her didn’t we? But, I know my Mama and she’s not going to let her babies sleep in a car.

Honestly, I can not remember what time we got the call that they had arrived. I know that it was late/early and we had a time trying to keep quiet. After all, we hadn’t seen them since Christmas. They brought in just the necessities and hit the sack.

Originally, our schedule was that we would sleep in and have a late breakfast at Whispering Canyon if we could get an ADR online, go to one of the resorts to explore and then go to our dinner ADR. With the change in Lacey and Jesse’s plans, we decided to not go to breakfast but to sleep in and then go to Downtown Disney. Jesse and Lacey snuck into our room the next morning. Jesse was lying in one of the beds and woke up Hunter to tell him that they were there. I thought this picture was funny. Two brothers reaching out to one another:



We chatted for a little while and snacked from the snack stuff that I had ordered but our rumbling stomachs told us that snacks weren’t going to cut it. We needed more sustenance. How about something from Downtown Disney? Everyone thought that Wolfgang Puck Express sounded good so we all got ready and walked to the Martinique bus stop.

On our way!





Not long after, we had arrived:


There weren’t any tables large enough to fit all six of us so we split up into two tables of three. I ordered the chicken caesar salad:



John and Mama ordered a rotissiere turkey sandwich:



Hunter ordered a cheese pizza:



Lacey ordered some sort of bbq sandwich:



Jesse ordered a pizza too:



Or maybe Jesse ordered the sandwich and Lacey ordered the pizza? I’m not sure. Everything that we ordered was really good. John didn’t really care for the bread on his sandwich only because he said it was too hard. Looking at the picture, it did look a little overdone.

We did a little window shopping but it was getting pretty hot. Jesse, Lacey and Hunter all wanted to go to Disney Quest with their package admissions. I could tell that the heat was getting to Mama so we came to a mutual decision that the kids could go and we’d take her back to the resort. Looks like Hunter took just one picture inside Disney Quest before they got serious about the games:



As we were walking toward the bus stop, Mama spotted a jewelry store that we just had to pop in to. It was a tiny little store and there was hardly room to turn around in but we looked at almost everything there. Mama found two costume jewelry rings that she liked and bought both of those. Rings tucked into her purse, we continued on to the bus stop.





Mama felt like she was dragging us down because we were having to take her back to the resort but we told her it wasn’t a big deal. We didn’t have any definitive plans that day other than our dinner ADR. We hadn’t been at the bus stop maybe 5 minutes when a bus to Caribbean Beach pulled up with another resort bus right behind it. Just then, Mama had a great idea!

**Up next: Going exploring! Why are you running? Because Aunt Lisa is!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I'm all caught up!! YAY!!

I love that Hunter is such a Ladies man!

I want to try Via Napoli JUST for those little balls of yumminess! I wish I could just walk up and get an order of those to go!

How neat about your BIL's house! I have a SIL like that! We always say that we kept HER in the divorce!

I haven't done Mission Space with Cortlyn yet… I wonder how she would like that…

Oopsie! Just posted another installment.

Hunter was definitely the ladies man on this trip and he was loving it.

I wonder if you could get the desserts to go? They do have a walk up window don't they?

It's going to be neat to see the house on television.

 

[momabbate]

Wow I don't know if it was just because I was playing catch up but it seemed you were on a roll cranking out your updates. I enjoyed them all. Don't have much to comment on. Just wanted you know that I'm still reading. Although seeing all your pizza pictures makes me hungry for pizza.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Going exploring! Why are you running? Because Aunt Lisa is!
Part 1

Mama had boarded a bus to Caribbean Beach but which resort bus had John and I boarded? We were off to see another moderate resort that’s been on our radar for a while. Coronado Springs Resort!

We got off at the bus stop near the main entrance and immediately went to the gift shop. My boss had me on a mission to purchase a 3X Grumpy t-shirt. Ya’ll will probably remember that my boss is one of the grumpiest people on the planet and he knows it. I call him Grumpy and it’s become a tradition for me to bring him back a t-shirt. Problem is, it’s hard to find a t-shirt that big. You’ll see a lot of 2X but not many 3X. We went into the shop and one of the first things that we found was the Grumpy tee. Yay! We made our purchase and then looked around a little in the lobby before walking outside to see the rest of the resort.

I looks as if I was too busy just looking and didn’t concentrate on taking pictures. And, it was super hot out that day and we were a bit sleepy from getting up in the early morning hours and moving Lacey & Jesse in. I guess that put me in a non-picture taking mood. I did take a few though:







The pictures do not do this resort justice. It’s really pretty and there were beaches which is a plus in our book. I looked around trying to find a mousekeeper to ask if we could look at one of the rooms but there were none to be found. We also wanted to get a peek at the main pool but it was so busy with the afternoon activities and I couldn’t get a decent look or picture. It was our original intention to make the entire loop around the resort but, in all honesty, it was simply too hot outside. When we saw the sign that pointed the way to a bus stop, we took it.



The view from the bus stop looking back at the resort:



I wish that we had gone to the resort at another time of day. As it was, it was mid-afternoon, hot and sticky and it didn’t make for a nice trip over. We took the first park bus that pulled up 15 minutes later and it was a Hollywood Studios bus. We hopped into the air conditioning and it felt so good. Now, ya’ll, I’m from Louisiana and when we left home it was already in the 90s and super humid so we are used to the heat but this day was something else.

When we pulled into Hollywood Studios, we walked back over to the Caribbean Beach Resort bus stop and I took a picture while we waited:



Once we got back to the resort, we rested a bit before it was time to freshen up for our dinner ADR. Jesse and Lacey were eating at the resort that evening (remember, they weren’t supposed to arrive until that afternoon/evening). Hunter took a shower and got dressed for dinner as well.

Our dinner ADR was at a “new to us” restaurant and, instead of taking a bus to a park and then transferring to another bus, we were going to drive to our destination. Normally, once we park the car, it stays there until we leave for home. However, it seemed that it would be easier to just drive. We took a left turn out of the resort and continued straight on until it was time to take the exit to our dinner destination....Boma!

I told the guard at the guard station that we were eating dinner at Boma, he pointed us in the right direction and we continued on....and on.....and on....where the knick knack paddy whack was the parking lot? We had seen on directional sign and had followed it but still nothing. Finally, we saw a parking building and found a parking spot. A castmember happened along and we asked which way we needed to go to get to Boma. She said “Oh just walk that way and stay on the sidewalk. You’ll see the sign.”

Off we went...and went....and went....and went...for the love of a.....where was the sign? We must have parked on out the back savanna because we had been walking forever and two days. Had I not been afraid that hyenas would get me, I’d have plopped right down on the sidewalk and waited for security to come find my bones the next morning. Seriously, it did seem like we walked forever until we saw the front of the resort.

John’s brother and his family were supposed to be meeting us for dinner. Our ADRs were just five minutes apart and the Disney Dining castmember that I spoke to said that we could request a table together. We were going to wait for them in the lobby so that we could all check in together.

It wasn’t until I had caught my breath that I saw just how stunning the resort is. Again, pictures don’t do it justice.











You can see Mama and John in the background of the picture above. Probably still catching their breaths.

**Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

About five minutes after we made it into the lodge, John’s sister in law called and asked me where the restaurant was. They had just gotten off the bus and they were walking the same sidewalk we had. I told her to just keep on going, don’t give up, carry a big stick, watch out for hyenas and they’d soon find us. In the meantime, we looked around a little more:














We continued to keep an eye out for the rest of the family and, bless their hearts, when they walked into the resort, they had that same “Holy crap, I just walked forever to get here” look on their face. Poor them, they didn’t have time to rest though because we were getting close to our ADR time. As a matter of fact, we were right at it. We took the elevator and then stood in line for the check-in desk. I asked if we could all be seated together and the castmembers fiddled around on the computer and then told us that it was all done. They had canceled our two reservations and rebooked us as one. We were given a pager and we waited.

I have to say that it was quite loud near the restaurant. There was a group playing the drums and singing rather loudly. It was nearly echoing in the restaurant it was so loud. I hoped that they wouldn’t keep that up all night as I know that Mama is sensitive to loud noises. Also, there really wasn’t much in the way of a sitting/waiting area. We finally saw someone get up from a rock, yes, I said rock wall and we had Mama inch her way over so she could at least get a little pressure off her feet.

Apparently, I took a picture of the ceiling while waiting:



And attempted a picture into the restaurant but it’s blurry. Still, you can see how crowded it was:



**Part 2 of Going Exploring! Why are you running? Because Aunt Lisa is!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Wow I don't know if it was just because I was playing catch up but it seemed you were on a roll cranking out your updates. I enjoyed them all. Don't have much to comment on. Just wanted you know that I'm still reading. Although seeing all your pizza pictures makes me hungry for pizza.

I've cranked out some updates lately haven't I? Gotta get 'em posted as I can. I would love to have one of those pizzas for my dinner tonight.

 

[scottny]

MMMM, love WGP.
Ooh you left with what Mamas great idea was. Looking forward to more. Okay reading the next installments now. I missed them somehow.
Sounds like you parked in Kidani.
Jambo House is gorgeous. Love that resort.