10 of us together and whose taking bets on when the bus will get here! UPDATED 10/6

[MICKEY4EVER!]

I cannot believe the wait for Safari was that long. And you missed the parade too. That stinks.

On the plus side, you got some great animal pictures. Really, they were all wonderful!

Cute character pics, too.

 

[aaaateamsgrandma]

Get them all prepared for sure. Be sure to catch the parade. I think it is one of Disney's best.

 

[bballbabe]

I cannot believe the wait for Safari was that long. And you missed the parade too. That stinks.

On the plus side, you got some great animal pictures. Really, they were all wonderful!

Cute character pics, too.

I would have liked to have seen more animals on the safari. they also must have been hiding when we went through. The parades this time around are a MUST for us this year

Get them all prepared for sure. Be sure to catch the parade. I think it is one of Disney's best.

DEfinitely making sure we get to see it this year.

 

[bballbabe]

I know, I know, I have been procrastinating andnot done a update in awhile, but things have been hectic around here. THe girls start high school in a week and we just went through orientation and I just got back from my parents house. The girls went to Hershey Park again with their cousins for a day and tackled a BIG hurdle. They rode Great Bear and even rode in the front seat. This is one of those hanging roller coasters with loods and corkscrews. They are so loking forward to going down to Disney now and riding EVERY RIDE. Anyhoo, I am hoping to do an update this weekend between volleyball tryuouts and the Phish concert Sat. night.

 

[aaaateamsgrandma]

I know, I know, I have been procrastinating andnot done a update in awhile, but things have been hectic around here. THe girls start high school in a week and we just went through orientation and I just got back from my parents house. The girls went to Hershey Park again with their cousins for a day and tackled a BIG hurdle. They rode Great Bear and even rode in the front seat. This is one of those hanging roller coasters with loods and corkscrews. They are so loking forward to going down to Disney now and riding EVERY RIDE. Anyhoo, I am hoping to do an update this weekend between volleyball tryuouts and the Phish concert Sat. night.

The girls are primed and ready to tackle it all. Great

 

[bballbabe]

Day 5 – EPCOT part 1

Sorry for taking so long to post the next update, but like I said it has been busy around here.

I forgot to tell a very funny story that happened to us at Animal Kingdom. It wasn’t until I was at my parent’s house visiting this past week that my Dad reminded me of it. As you remember, my sister took my niece Lauryn 3 times to ride EE and all 3 times she chickened out at the last second. Well on the third trip, when we were waiting outside the restaurant for our dinner ADR, we started taking bets on whether or not Lauryn rode on the ride. My niece Beca was getting very upset that we would actually bet REAL MONEY on whether or not Lauryn would get on the ride. The poor girl was in almost in tears and VERY upset with us. As soon as my sister and BIL came back with Lauryn, we were all like well and we found out she didn’t ride. We started joking with each other to pay up on the bets. Needless to say, Beca was not happy and my sister told her to lighten up we were only kidding.

Anyway, back to the report. When I last left off we had just spent the day at Animal Kingdom. We awoke to another beautiful morning. We couldn’t believe how lucky we were getting with the weather. Friends of ours had been down the week before and it was HOT. Now if we could only have this same type of luck with the buses! As we were all getting ready that morning, my Mom informed us that my Dad’s stomach was very upset and was spending quite awhile in the bathroom, so we were going to be delayed heading to the park. No one wanted to go on ahead without everyone and my Dad felt bad for keeping everyone from heading to the park. The girls went to explore some more and my mother went to find some Pepto Bismal for my Dad. He finally started to feel better and we headed over to the park around 10:30. I think our wait for a bus was only about 20 minutes. Yeah! As soon as we got to Epcot I headed to get fast passes for Soarin and everyone else got in line to see the characters. I think the wait was only about 40 minutes and we figured that if the girls wanted to see Mickey and the gang, this was going to be the only time. I first took a pic.

I came back with the FPs for Soarin and our return time wasn’t until 5pm. I made my way back over with everyone to wait to see the characters. First up was this guy:

Then came:

Next up was this lady:

My sister joined in the next one because Chip n Dale are her favorites.

Last but not least was:

After posing with the characters we headed back to WS, but not before we found a PP person.

I wish the Tinkerbell was a little larger

While we were walking, we came across some of the topiaries that are around the park.

Our first country was Mexico. We took the boat ride inside, which I think is a little corny and not that exciting, but everyone seemed to enjoy it. We also looked around the inside of the building taking in the mexican atmosphere. I bought the girls the Passport to keep them occupied and interested while we visited the countries. The girls also enjoyed visiting the Kidcot areas of the countries.

When we came out we noticed that Donald would be out in a few minutes, so we decided to wait for him. While we were waiting we watched a little of the mariachi band.

Then it was time for Donald

Up next more countries and more characters

 

[aaaateamsgrandma]

I love Epcot. I loved the flower and garden show while we were there too. The girls looked like they were really having a good time. I love the pictures. Sorry about your Dad. Hope it didn't last long. Nothing is worse than being sick on vacation.

Ginny

 

[dismagiclover]

Great character pictures and the group photopass picture is really good too. I love all those topiaries. Someday I want to go during the Flower and Garden Festival!

 

[bballbabe]

I love Epcot. I loved the flower and garden show while we were there too. The girls looked like they were really having a good time. I love the pictures. Sorry about your Dad. Hope it didn't last long. Nothing is worse than being sick on vacation.

Ginny

Because my Dad's stomach was bothering him, we really didn't do Epcot proprerly and didn't see too much of anything. I did enjoy seeing all of the topiaries as we walked. I would have liked to been able to explore more. We are really looking forward to doing Epcot this year.

Great character pictures and the group photopass picture is really good too. I love all those topiaries. Someday I want to go during the Flower and Garden Festival!

We did manage to see a LOT of characters when we were at Epcot (more to come). I woukld have loved to have explored more of the gardens and topiaries while we were there. This year we get to go during F&W, so there should be a lot to see again.

 

[MICKEY4EVER!]

Awesome Update! Loved the pictures. You got some great character interaction. I think the pluto topiary is my favorite. He just looks so playful!

 

[bballbabe]

Awesome Update! Loved the pictures. You got some great character interaction. I think the pluto topiary is my favorite. He just looks so playful!

Thanks. We had good luck this day with the characters and had some great interaction with them. My favorite topiary I haven't posted yet, but it is of snow white & the 7 dwarfs.

 

[MICKEY4EVER!]

Thanks. We had good luck this day with the characters and had some great interaction with them. My favorite topiary I haven't posted yet, but it is of snow white & the 7 dwarfs.

Well, I have a feeling that will be my favorite, too! They had those topiaries up when I was there in March, but my family doesn't take the time to "stop and smell the roses" so to speak! They take their time getting to the parks, then GO, GO, GO once we get there. Unless of course, they want a snack. They WILL stop for snacks. Lots of them.

I'm going back w/out them next time!

 

[aaaateamsgrandma]

I loved all the topiaries. It was a great time of year to be there. Sorcerer is still my fav but that is just how I am. I loved how they were green and the color in just the right places. As you can tell. It doesn't take a lot to please me.

 

[bballbabe]

EPCOT Day 5 Part 2

After we left Mexico, we headed over to Norway and had a small snack. While everyone was eating, Meghan and I took a walk thru the gift shop to see what they had. Meghan found this lovely item.

Here are some pics of our visit to Norway

Since my Dad was still not feeling too well , we decided to go character hunting. My Dad would take his time with my mother from walking from one country to the next. They also did a lot of people watching. Since there was no one in Norway to see, we headed over to China in hopes to catch Mulan and Mushu. While we were waiting for them to show up, the girls went to the Kidcot stop to get their passports stamped.

With a little wait, we were able to see Mulan and Mushu.

Here are some pics from around China

After China, we started to head around the rest of WS, but not before the girls had to stop and play some music.

Our next stop on the character hunt was Germany to see Snow White and Dopey. The line here was long. So while the girls were in line, I decided to take a few pics of the country.

Okay, I could only find 1 in photobucket.

There was also this beautiful topiary near by.

After I was done taking pics of Germany I got back in line with the girls. Just as we were about to get our turn, Snow White was going to go on her break. So I quick snapped a pic of her.

At least Dopey wasn’t leaving, so we got to meet him.

It was at this point that my father wanted to sit and people watch, so I took Rachel, Meghan and Beca to find more characters. The next character location was Morocco. So off we went. As we walked along the way, I tried to get some pics of the countries as we walked pass them.

When we got to Morocco, there were no characters out so we headed to France, but not before I got a pic.

Cont in next post

 

[bballbabe]

Continued

After looking around France, we finally stumbled upon Sleeping Beauty. Sleeping Beauty is Rachel’s favorite princess, so she was excited to see her. It wasn't until they got up close to her, how disappointed they were with the CM. Apparently she needed to have her eyebrows tweezed and had lipstick on her teeth. The girls thought that it was a riot that she wanted to know if their princes were off slaying dragons. You can tell by the girls expressions that they were not very excited about meeting this character.

After Sleeping Beauty, we headed back to meet up with everyone else when we saw The Beast.

Because the Beast is one of the larger characters, he kept stepping on Rachel’s foot.

When we got up to Morocco, we saw Aladdin, Genie and Jasmine. The line for meeting the characters was too long, so I just snapped a pic of them.

It was at this point we met up with the rest of the family. Since we had early ADRs for the Coral Reef for dinner, we headed out of WS and headed for the restaurant. As we walked, I tried to grab some pics along the way.

The girls were quite excited about eating here. They couldn’t wait to be able to see the fishies as we ate dinner. The waitress that we had was EXCELLENT. She took such good care of the girls, who were sitting at there own table. The food we had was also fantastic. This was a must return to restaurant to go back to this year. While we were eating, the divers were swimming around the tank.

When we had finished dinner we headed in to see Nemo & Friends. This was a pretty cool ride. It is reminiscent of the Haunted House cars.

We then headed in to see Turtle Talk with Crush. This is a fantastic show. We all thought it was neat how Crush interacted with the audience, especially the kids that were asking questions.

After we were finished walking around and looking at the exhibits and the fishies in the tank, we headed over to finally use our FPs for Soarin. Because I get motion sickness and have a hard time with these types of movies, I decided to sit this ride out. The rest of the family got in the FP line which had a wait of 60 minutes. Stand by was at 120 minutes. I decided to people watch while I was waiting for them. When everyone got off the ride, they simply raved about it. Had the wait not been so long, they probably would have ridden it again. We decide to head over to Mission Space. Along the way we see the pin station. One hundred dollars in pins later (I told you it became an obsession) we arrive at Mission Space. Again, I sit this ride out and the girls chicken out at the last minute. So we all played around with the gadgets while we waited for everyone to get off the ride.

Since we still have FPs for Test Track burning a hole in our pockets, we head over to that ride. As we are all waiting to go on the ride, the production that they put on to ride the ride freaks out Meghan, Lauryn and Beca and they decide that they were not going on the ride. Rachel was a little nervous, but we managed to talk her into going on the ride.

By this time we are all tired and exhausted so we decide to head back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep. When we got back to the room, this is the set up that we saw.

Coming up next: We’re off to Ride the Waves

 

[aaaateamsgrandma]

What a wonderful update Sheilagh. Your pictures are wonderful and those cute girls. The only character we say was Mulan. You were lucky. It didn't looked super busy either. My husband is like you with the rides. He did enjoy Soarin and I was surprised. I don't think he did many rides anywhere.

Loved your day. It so reminded me of when we were there. I'm so ready to go back.

Ginny

 

[mickeystoontown]

Well, I got behind again but I had a good excuse....I was in Disney World for 10 glorious days. We were thinking about trying Port Orleans but after reading your horror stories, I'm beginning to think we might not.

I'm all caught up again now.

 

[bballbabe]

What a wonderful update Sheilagh. Your pictures are wonderful and those cute girls. The only character we say was Mulan. You were lucky. It didn't looked super busy either. My husband is like you with the rides. He did enjoy Soarin and I was surprised. I don't think he did many rides anywhere.

Loved your day. It so reminded me of when we were there. I'm so ready to go back.

Ginny

Thank you for the complement. I think we got lucky with a couple of the characters last year (Mushu, Kim Possible, Ron Stoppable), because it looks they are not there anymore from reading different posts.

I get BAD motion sickness and it has only gotten worse as I have gotten older. I know which rides I can handle and which ones I can't. I am thinking about trying Soarin this year and keeping my eyes closed if it becomes too intense for me.

Well, I got behind again but I had a good excuse....I was in Disney World for 10 glorious days. We were thinking about trying Port Orleans but after reading your horror stories, I'm beginning to think we might not.

I'm all caught up again now.

Glad to see you are back. I've been reading the new report. That car crash made me sick to me stomach. We just had one of our Girl Scout troop leaders pass away last month in a helicopter crash. I almost threw up after I heard that and I still get the chills every time I think of it.

As for POR, we are staying there again in Oct. Since Mom & Dad are paying for all of us, they got to pick the resort. My mother just liked the way it felt there. Me, I wanted to stay at CSR or CBR. Next time we go, we will be at one of those two. When I get back, I'll let you know how transportation was.

 

[aaaateamsgrandma]

The CSR advantage is they have their own busses. No sharing with other resorts. Direct to park and back. It is a nice feature. They have 4 stops and run about every 15 minutes. We were going to do Riverside because of the trundle then found out CSR had the queen beds. It was a no brainer for us. We have no small people in our group.

 

[dd50]

You hit the jackpot with all the characters. We didn't see any in WS, but then again we had about an 1 to 1 1/2 of rain.