10th Anniversary Trip 8/27-9/1

[Stitcheriffic]

Okay, I've been reading these long enough that I have been inspired. I may actually have a laptop with me when we go, in which case I will post daily (or so), otherwise you'll get updates when we return.

The Cast:
DH 38 , me, a one-time WDW visitor who luckily married the most wonderful woman on earth Aug. 31, 1997 (the day Princess Diana died - we actually had our honeymoon in Paris, where Di died, and it left an impression).

DW 34 , who has been to WDW many times but has never stayed in Poly until now - her dream come true.

DD 7 , who went to WDW for the first time a mere nine months ago
AND HAS NO IDEA WE ARE GOING BACK ON MONDAY!!!

We are making our lists and checking them twice. The kid will stay and Granddma's Friday night so we can pack. She has no idea I am taking off next week from work. She thinks we are simply going to go somewhere the night of our anniversary (8/31).

She thinks it might be Pittburgh.

I'll give a brief rundown without giving away too many details:
We fly Monday a.m., go to MK and end the day at MGM
Tuesday is EP and PPP
Wednesday is hanging at Poly and going to AK
Thursday is TL and fireworks by the pool
Friday (anniversary day) is MK, CRT lunch, San Angel dinner, EP all night
Saturday is back to MK and then away

Right now there are six days, nine hours, 30 minutes til our flight. I may check in again beofre, I may not. Either way, I'll keep an eye on this board. I look forward to your comments.

 

[Lilo'sMom]

Sounds familiar...

 

[luvmyboys]

How exciting!! Hope the suprise is well received, and that you guys have a terrific trip.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!

 

[mt mommy]

HOW FUN!!!!!! I LOVE SURPRISING PEOPLE YOU LOVE. We just spent our 10 year anniversary at the Poly in February. You will absolutely LOVE IT! Make sure you wear your Anniversary Pins, you'll get some fun perks b/c of it!! Can't wait to hear all about it when you get back!

 

[Stitcheriffic]

Oh my goodness - let the story telling commence.

At 4:15 a.m. we crept into DD's room and put on "When You Wish Upon A Star." I was wearing her pirate ears, and we woke her up.

Me - Hey, remember how I told you I was planning a special surprise for our anniversary at the the end of the week?
DD - Yeah
Me - Well, we're going to Disney World. The plane leaves in two hours. We're headed there right now. Surprise!
(Big hug)
ME - Oh, and we're staying at the Polynesian.
(Even bigger hug)

So we made our way to JFK, and though it was only 5:30 a.m., DD was pretty excited

The flight was uneventful, and before we knew it we were waiting for Magical Express to whisk us off to the Happiest Place on Earth

We checked in at the Poly, where they gave us red leis, gave my DW and I Happy Anniversary buttons and our DD a Happy Birthday button, even though her birthday was still four weeks away.

We immediately headed for the Magic Kingdom, which we assumed might be a little on the empty side.

We were able to get right in and find a place to sit for a moment while we figured out where to go first.

We headed over to Pirates of the Caribbean, and cooled off in the dark,

After getting reacquainted with our surroundings, we headed back over to Main Street to check out some familiar faces

and then over to Gasparilla at the GF for lunch.

We had ordered a cake for our anniversary from the GF bakery to be delivered to Gasparilla (which they do not usually do) because we were meeting up with some friends. The friends, however, got delayed in Chicago and weren't going to make it, and we got there later than expected ourselves, so by the time we even thought about the cake we were already getting ready to leave the GF. They were kind enough to put the cake in a box for us and let us head back over to the Poly to put it in the fridge.
Did I mention that this was at 1:30 p.m. on a 96-degree day, and that we were traveling with ganache?

Needless to say, we took the long way home, getting on the Monorail and doing the full loop from GF to Poly - but at least we were in the front.
When we got back to Poly, Kona told us they could not hold the cake in their fridge (even though we had reservations for that night) because of liability issues. Also, our room was still not ready, so we had to improvise. Thankfully, the bell captain has a refrigerated compartment, and we were able to store the cake (I'll show pictures soon) with them while we went for a dip in the VOLCANO POOL!

After we were done we showered and headed to Kona for dinner, which was amazing. DD ended her meal with the make-your-own sundae

while I got a Year of a Million Dreams sundae of my own.

We picked up the cake, deciding to eat it for breakfast, and headed back too the room, where Mousekeeping (the first of many adventures with them) had left us DD's dolls all dolled up.

We headed over to MGM for EMH, hoping to knock out all we could in one night - it turned out that the calendar on the WDW site was wrong, and that EMH had been changed - we only had a little while there, but got in what we could...

...met whoever was available...

...and saw the sights.

Exhausted from having gotten up at 4 a.m., we headed back to the Poly and crashed out until the following morning...

Stay tuned...

More to come...

 

[Lilo'sMom]

keep it coming....

 

[heaven2dc]

Great start! How exciting to surprise your daughter right up to the last minute - loving the pics so far - can't wait for more

 

[IkeandMike]

Happy Anniversary!!!! Can't wait to read more.

 

[Stitcheriffic]

Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Day Two

After a marathon day that began at 4 a.m. and did not end until after 11 p.m., we hit the sack hard and got up at 6:30 a.m. to be able to take a quick shower, eat some in-room breakfast and head over to Epcot.

Clearly, not everyone was well-rested.

Though waking up was a slight challenge, breakfast was a real treat. Remember the story of the cake at Gasparilla? That was breakfast.
Here it is from above...

...and from the inside.

With a bit of sugar in our bellies and granola bars for the ride we headed out to the TTC to get over to Epcot for EMH, but we just missed the right monorail, so we had to wait about 15 minutes. By the time we started the loop through Future World, we could see them opening the park and the crowds rushing in.

We wisely headed over to The Land to fastpass Soarin', which told us to come back after 10:05 a.m. and it was only 8:20. Given how light the crowd was, as you can see from the picture below, it's a wonder anybody ever gets on Soarin.

From there we were off to Mission Space, which had a 5 minute wait on the green line and only 10 minutes on the orange. When we got out it was already 9, and the green line was still 5 minutes, but orange had jumped to 40.

Over to Test Track, which DD did not want too go on at first - she thought she was going to have to actually drive a real car on a real test track. Once she got through, her feelings changed and she was ready to git the open road on her own.

We made our way back across innoventions, when we stumbled across this mechanical wonder headed our way.

We ducked into Character Spot and waited (at this point it was a little after 10, and we still had most of an hour left on the FP). We managed to find ways to amuse ourselves while we waited for Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy and Chip & Dale.

Finally, after only about 40 minutes, we got to see the big cheese and all his furry friends.

From there we headed to Soarin, which also made DD a bit nervous before heading on (she was also kinda tired), but she pushed through.

After the ride, at about 11:20, we saw that the Fastpass return was already at 3:30. We stopped in to the cool zone and sampled the Coke products from around the world, telling people near us:
"You need to try the Beverly from Italy, it's a very different flavor."
I think the official flavor is yuck.

Refreshed, we went to the pin traders and DD stocked up on some new pins and a new lanyard while I took some scenic shots.

We decided that we would handle the other Epcot rides as well as World Showcase when we came back on Friday for our anniversary dinner. In the meantime, we headed back to Poly and Captain Cook's for lunch.
BTW, there is some great CS food at Captain Cook's. The Aloha pulled pork sandwich is delicious, the grown-up grilled cheese is a treat and how can you go wrong with Dole Whips on tap?
Of course they also have a wide selection of food for kids to play with.

Heading back to our room, we saw that Mousekeeping has done another bang-up job, and left DD's characters placed in interesting ways around the bed.

Take a good look at Minnie - she's on the lamp, which we left off while we took a quick dip in the pool, showered, napped and then got ready for the Pirate and Princess Party that night....

... which I will try to get to later today.

More to come...

Keep reading.

 

[Lilo'sMom]

bump!

 

[Avivasmom]

isn't it a great place to spend your anniversary. We are going back for the 4th year in a row for our 11 anniversary with our DD.

Your dd is to cute...and that cake looks very yummy!

Great pics.

 

[Stitcheriffic]

Aug. 28, 2007
Day Two, Part Two

Rested after a good nap DW slipped into something a little less comfortable, I donned my appropriate attire ad DD transformed into Elizabeth Swann (minus the boot toppers).
The party was fantastic - they have thought of every detail, right down to the Pirate & princess red carpet for the party guests.

We made our grand entrance

and made our way over to the only place that could get this party started right

After having a boat practically to ourselves, we came back over toward the entrance to Adventureland and a line was already forming (before 7 p.m.) for Captain Jack Sparrow. We got on line and in less than 30 minutes we were face to face with the most clever pirate what ever sailed the seven seas - Captain Jack Sparrow.
As you can see, once a pirate always a pirate; he tried to steal DW's blue sapphire 10th anniversary ring.

With the biggie out of the way we were able to walk right on to the Magic Carpets of Aladdin

and head over to Pirata y Perico for dinner. It was a refreshing change from the burgers and chicken sandwiches found in most of the CS restaurants. The tacos were well-filled and the fixins bar had plenty of toppings to help make the meal hearty.

From there we headed over to Big Thunder Mountain, where I tried to take a bunch of pictures, but you don't realize until the g-forces whip your hands around exactly why they tell you to keep you hands and arms inside the vehicle at all times.
I did get some a good shot of the goat at the top of the mountain, bit mostly I got empty sky. Pictures from Aladdin were much easier to take, and gave a great perspective of the party.

But I think if you want to see the shot that really sums up the sheer lunacy of the party, you have to see this:

That's right - Darth Vader in a princess dress with mickey ears and a butcher knife. Now THAT'S a costume.

The place was crawling with characters, and was considerably more empty than it had been when we went too the MVMCP in December. But this wasn't on display then, and I'm not sure that they take it out for pictures on any other occasion:

Just like in the other parties where they project images onto the ground, this party was no exception. From Jolly Rogers to castles, coaches and dresses, they had it all. Of course they had hearts, too:

We hung out in Fantasyland for a while, checked out Philharmagic

and then made our way into Toontown for Goofy's barnstormer and the secret path behind that leads straight to Space Mountain, for which, to our surprise when we got there, the sign read a 20 minute wait. I asked at the gate and the CM said "It takes 20 minutes to walk there."
Pretty close to that, at least.

After SM we hung out at thee side of the castle and checked out the best fireworks show ever done by Disney (so say many people besides me, my experience is not that detailed).
The princesses love the castle...

Then the pirates begin their attack...

Victory belongs to the pirates...

But Tinkerbell saves the day and the castle is returned to the Princesses...

From the fireworks we headed over to Tomorrowland where pirate games and a big character dance party were underway.
DD tried her hand at some of the games

and then we entered the party.

Now here is where I have to explain something.
DD was barely 2-1/2 when I took her to see Lilo & Stitch. A week later she had her Lilo doll - the original kind that they haven't made in at least the last four years. Lilo has been her best friend, her sister, her mom, her daughter, her student and her No. 1 travel companion. Lilo goes everywhere. DD is about to turn 8 and Lilo is in bed with her every night.
When it was time t register for Pre-K, the woman at the school asked DW if DD was the only child. DW said yes, and DD said, no, what about my sister?
Who?
Lilo!
Oh.
She met Lilo last year when we came in December. She got to see her briefly this year as we entered the dance party. Lilo was leaving and her handler was walking her out.
DD would not take no for an answer. In this picture you clearly see the handler trying to pry DD off Lilo, to no avail.

True love lasts forever.

As the night was drawing to a close we headed back to Adventure land for one more ride on POC. Th lighting was intense, there was fog everywhere and it looked like Adventureland had just survived some sort of battle. It was a pirate lair, and we had the Pirate King on our side.

We said our Argh's and farewells to the party and boarded the launch back over to Poly.

Now remember that lovely picture of DD's dolls placed along the bed with Mickey/Jack on one lamp and Minnie in a grass skirt on the other?

Now picture turndown service. They come and turn down the covers, set up chocolates on your pillow and turn the lights on dimly so you don't walk into a dark room.

Ten minutes later and the room might have been on fire.

We walked into the room and Minnie was still perched on the light, her grass skirt melted to the lampshade and the lightbulb.

And as Stinky Pete would put it, her biscuits were burning.

We called the front desk and within a 10 minutes somebody was at our door to assess the situation. She got the overnight manager on the phone who told us that they would "make it better."

We were safe, we were tired and we were a bit saddened, but we had faith that WDW would come though for us. We went to bed and dreamt pirate dreams. W wold not let this bring us down.

More to come....

Keep reading

 

[Lilo'sMom]

OMG!

 

[Lilo'sMom]

So what happened????