2 Disneymoons (Oct. and Dec. 2007) and 1 Anniversary Trip (Sept. 2008)--Updated 2/20

[Momof2princess]

Great Trip Report!!!!!! Please keep writing. I remember your TR from when you got engaged....how cool.

I love the pink princess Mickey Ears that you got, I have not seen any like that either, where did you get them?

I am like you, I keep thinking one day when I go into the scrapbooking store I will be surprised.....so far that has not happened.


Can't wait to read the rest of your TR.

 

[TLC371]

You're back...

I realize doing a TR takes alot of work. But you write such good ones and your pics help the flow of your report. Your MIL's timeshare looks really nice. Too bad about the noise. Good thing they have time limits. I'm looking forward to the rest.

I'm so glad you enjoy my TR! I'm embarrassed that it has taken me so long to get back and work some more on it!

The timeshare we stay at is really nice, although I think some of the fabrics could use a little updating!

Great Trip Report!!!!!! Please keep writing. I remember your TR from when you got engaged....how cool.

I love the pink princess Mickey Ears that you got, I have not seen any like that either, where did you get them?

I am like you, I keep thinking one day when I go into the scrapbooking store I will be surprised.....so far that has not happened.


Can't wait to read the rest of your TR.

Thank you so much....I'm so glad you like my trip report! And that you remember me from my last one! I'm sorry it has taken me so long to get back and write more!

I got those pink princess ears at Mickey's Groove at Downtown Disney on the West Side, but we saw them all around Disney at different stores. Those are my favorite ears now!

One day, I swear I'm going to go into that scrapbooking store and be shocked at what they have....although I'm sure that isn't going to be anytime soon! They really are missing the boat on some big business!

 

[TLC371]

First, for anyone still reading, I'm so sorry it has taken me so long to get back and work on this some more. I really have no reason, other than being lazy! But I'm back, and I promise I'll be better with updates and I will finish this one!

We've started planning more of our next trip. I got the dates for sure from my MIL and she's got her timeshare from 9/21/08 to 9/28/08. Roy and I will most likely be bringing his daughter this trip with us and I think we are going to fly, so I'm excited about that. We are going to fly down on 9/20 and find a hotel room for the night since MIL won't be there until that Sunday to check into her timeshare. Then we'll fly back on 9/27 so we have Sunday to do laundry and get ready for heading back to work that Monday. I'm so excited! My sister and her family might be going down the same time as well, but if they do, she said they will be staying on Disney property, probably the Poly.

Anyway....on with the report!

Monday, December 10, 2007

Epcot! We hadn't been back to Epcot since we got engaged there in September 2006, so I was excited to go back!

We got there right after 9:00 and of course, had to stop and get some pictures done!

We passed by the topiaries all decked out for the holidays...

Close up of the Epcot ball...

It was at this point that I had to break the news to my wonderful DH that I was not sure if I had it in me to ride Soarin'. I am terrified of heights, and although I love that ride, the last time I rode it in 2006, I was nervous the whole time and couldn't shake that feeling that I was going to fall out of the seat...even though rationally I knew that wouldn't happen, I just was freaked out about it. I really wanted to ride it again, especially since it's a great ride and we both like it, but I didn't know if I could do it. I could tell he was a little upset with me, he couldn't understand how I could get on a plane and be fine, but not ride Soarin'. I think because on the plane my feet were on the ground and I wasn't looking out the window...I don't know. So instead of heading right toward the Land like normal, we went to the Living Seas building first.

We wanted to ride this:

But the ride was down! Or as they were saying, Nemo swam off and he'd be back later.

Oh well!

We walked around the rest of the area instead...

Made friends with some sharks:

I don't know how well this will show up on the screen through Photobucket...but we found a Hidden Mickey in the aquarium!

We walked around through there for a bit and then decided to head over to the Land pavilion. My DH thought it was pointless to go over there, but I was trying to work up my courage to go on Soarin' so we headed that direction...

 

[TLC371]

So, anyway, we head over to the Land and we go and look at the Standby time for Soarin'....and this is my own doing, not DH trying to push me into riding and I just can't do it. I told him that we should go on Living With The Land and maybe when we get off that, I'll feel better about going on Soarin'.

We went on Living With The Land, got on that right away. We always love going on that ride.

Banana anyone?

Alligators...we're pretty sure we don't want to know the reason why they raise alligators there at Disney!

Winter Melon

Anyone want to make some lemonade?

So, we got off the ride, and I finally decided that I was going to be ok if I did Soarin', I've done it before, I can do it again, I didn't want Roy to be disappointed by not being able to go on that ride! So we head that direction and the line was now at a 45 minute rate and Roy decided he didn't want to wait that long to go on the ride! So I worked myself up over nothing! I suggested we get Fastpasses, but he said by the time our return time came around, we'd be too far away to come back. So after all that, we ended up not riding Soarin' after all!

I think my problem is that I worked it way too much in my mind and it scared me. The first time I rode it, I didn't know what to expect so I was nervous but did ok. The second time I forgot how nervous the ride made me. That third time, I remembered and let my nerves take over. So I am thinking the next time we go back to Epcot, I'll make sure I ride it again.

 

[TinkyCheeks]

I'm glad you're back! I swore I posted here before, but I guess not. Anyway, congratulations on your marriage. I read your proposal story--made me cry!

Great TR! I look forward to reading more!

 

[TLC371]

After we left the Land pavilion, we headed over towards Test Track, because I was feeling guilty and somehow Roy talked ride chicken me into going on that ride! It's not a ride I normally do, I don't like being jerked around or going really fast, but there I was going on that ride.

The wait time was about 30 minutes, and with that wait time, I was half expecting him to say forget it, and I was also thinking about talking him into going back and trying Soarin' instead. But we got in line and in no time we were in the front of the line. Somehow, I don't know how it happened with all those people in line, maybe because we were honeymooners, but I don't know, anyway, we ended up in a car by ourselves, so that was cool!

The ride was ok....nothing I was overly thrilled about, not my kind of ride, but I'm glad I went on it, especially for Roy. I really was hating him having to miss out on rides because I am such a ride chicken.

After that I asked him if he wanted to go on Mission:Space, he could do the single rider line while I waited, but he decided against doing that.

At that point, I think we decided that we wanted to go and get an early lunch. We had ADRs at 3:30 for our Candlelight Processional dining package, and we wanted to make sure we'd be hungry for that, so an early lunch was a good idea. We decided that since the Electric Umbrella was right there, we'd just do lunch there, keep it simple. So I had chicken fingers and he had a burger. Can't get any more simple than that!

After we left lunch, we decided to make our way to the World Showcase....but not before some more Photopass pictures!

Of course they made us kiss...

I think this one was an accident, but I like how it turned out...

Then of course we stopped to do pictures of the tree!

Gotta go take care of something for work...but up next will be making our way around the World Showcase!

 

[TLC371]

I'm glad you're back! I swore I posted here before, but I guess not. Anyway, congratulations on your marriage. I read your proposal story--made me cry!

Great TR! I look forward to reading more!

Thanks so much! I'm so glad you are here! How sweet that you cried over my proposal story! I get teary eyed sometimes when I think back about it! It was so magical!

I promise to be better about updating and finishing this report!

 

[Vivianne]

Hey, glad to see you back!

Yea, I know lazy...I indulge in lazy once in a while.

We're going to see

next week. So I'm raring to go.

As always, you take great pictures. How romantic. You look great together.

Keep 'em coming....

 

[TLC371]

Hey, glad to see you back!

Yea, I know lazy...I indulge in lazy once in a while.

We're going to see

next week. So I'm raring to go.

As always, you take great pictures. How romantic. You look great together.

Keep 'em coming....

Thanks so much for the compliments on the pictures! I'm a picture junkie!

Oooh....you are there this week, aren't you?! I can't wait to hear about your trip when you get back!

 

[TLC371]

Hello lurkers and readers....I know there are lurkers out there....view counts don't go up on their own....or maybe they do...hmmmmm.....anyway, I wish some of you lurkers would out yourselves and say hello. I don't bite, I promise!

Anyway, got a free minute, I'm the only one at the office for the rest of the afternoon, or at least the next hour and 15 minutes, then I'm outta here for the day and on my way to an appointment!

Let's see...where did I leave off....we were heading towards the World Showcase...normally we start at Canada and work our way around to Mexico. But since we had the reservations at LeCellier at 3:30, we decided to go the opposite way this time. So on to Mexico for us it was!

We walked in and just looked around some of the merchandise in there, and Roy modeled the finest in sombrero wear...

We walked around and then made our way to the boat ride. We hadn't been on it since they changed it and I'm still not quite sure what I thought of the ride. I think I was expecting more. When we left the pavilion, we were walking by and saw Donald out to the side of the building and of course we had to stop!

When it was our turn with him, I guess he decided that I didn't need to be with Roy anymore, because he started walking off with me!

Then thought better, and stopped and brought me back to Roy

Here I am, somewhere between Mexico and where we ended up next, in China...

After our pictures were done, we decided to go and start catching some of the holiday storytellers. We walked into the China area and the Monkey King was just finishing up his story. We were bummed that we missed it, but we did stop and get our picture taken with the Monkey King! He said it was good luck to get your picture taken with the Monkey King and who were we to argue with him?!

The Monkey King finishing up his story:

And our good luck picture!

 

[TLC371]

While we were in China, we decided to see if any of the characters were out, we were really hoping for Mushu to be out. We overheard someone mention that characters would be out in a minute, so we waited, and it was just Mulan, but of course we got our picture with her anyway.

When it was our turn, she saw that we were just married and she said something along the lines of 'Oh, you must have gone to see the matchmaker" and I told her that yes, we did. Then she asked Roy where his sword was at, but I don't remember where his answer was, something like he forgot it at home or something like that. I was just glad something dirty didn't come out of his mouth!

Here we are with Mulan...

We walked around China when we were done with her, and then headed over towards Germany. When we were walking by, we saw that Snow White was out and since her line was still open, we got in line for her. While the family in front of us was in line, we got to talking to the character handler that was there with her, his name was Rob. I thought he looked familiar to me, I think we talked to him as well when we went to MNSSHP during our October trip. Anyway, he was asking us about being newlyweds and we told him that we had gotten engaged at Epcot the year before and he told us to make sure that we told Snow White that, said she would love hearing it. When it was our turn with her, she said to me that I must have found my prince and was so happy for us. We told her that we had gotten engaged there the year before, and Rob was right, she loved hearing it.

It's funny, I hadn't realized until I went and checked our Photopass pictures online later, how many pictures that the photographer took of us chatting with Snow White!

When we finished talking with Snow White, we went into the pavilion and walked around, looking at the store and such. I loved seeing all the Christmas decorations in Germany!

The German pavilion:

 

[TLC371]

Next we decided that we wanted to head to Italy, because we wanted to hear the storyteller, La Befana, and she was getting ready to come out. So we got there, found a spot to sit down at and she was out soon after that. We loved her story and the way she told it. It was one of our favorties from the day. After she was finished, we stayed and got a picture with her. She was laughing and saying "Look at me, I'm coming between the newlyweds!"

Telling her story...

Coming between the newlyweds!

When we left Italy, I saw that the Isola was open to people to go out on. Every time I had been there to Epcot, I wasn't able to go out on there, and since I've read several wedding TRs that took place on the Isola, I wanted to go see it!

A picture across the lagoon from on the Isola

I guess sometimes its the little things that make me happy!

We realized that Helga, the German storyteller, was getting ready to come out and do her story, and so we decided to head back to Germany so we could listen to her. I guess since so many of our traditions come from German traditions, I really enjoyed hearing her story!

Here she is with the large Nutcraker:

And here we are with them:

When we were done there, we decided to head over to Norway, because Roy wanted to do the ride there, and somehow he managed to talk ride chicken me into going on it. He said it wasn't that bad at all, so I decided to trust him, even though I hate drops! Thank goodness that drop wasn't as bad as I had made it out to be in my mind!

Up next, the rest of the World Showcase, and the most amazing dinner ever!

 

[sunlver]

Hey there fellow Va Beach neighbor...still keeping up with your trip report. Love the pictures

 

[TLC371]

Hey there fellow Va Beach neighbor...still keeping up with your trip report. Love the pictures

Hi neighbor! I'm so glad you posted! Thanks! I'm glad you are enjoying my TR and the pictures!

 

[TLC371]

Ok...I'm back, and working on more of my TR. Sorry for anyone that is reading that it takes me forever between posting reports. I think seeing the post view count go up so much and then not that many people commenting makes me sad, but I'll get over it, and I'm so glad for the ones that do post, I really appreciate it and I promise to finish this TR for you!

Let's see...where did I leave off...we had just left the ride in Norway...

When we got done with the ride, we decided to head towards the American Adventure pavilion, because I was thinking how many times as an adult will it not be weird to go and get a picture with Santa with no children with me. So we headed that way, and of course when we got there, Santa was getting ready to take a break and his line was closed. Oh well....we figured if we got a chance, we'd go back and see if we could get a picture. We saw that the Hanukkah story teller was supposed to be out, so we went in search for her and saw her inside the building. When we took one look at her, we both recognized her as the actress who was Miss Jewel when we went to Capone's in October! We thought it was pretty funny to see her there at Epcot! She did an excellent job telling the story of Hanukkah!

When we left there, I saw a Photopass photographer out by the big Christmas tree and I wanted to get some pictures done, so we stopped...

We left there and headed to Morocco because we knew the storyteller would be out soon, and we found a nice bench to the side of where the storyteller would be at and sat down to rest for a bit. When the storyteller came out, we kept our spots and enjoyed the music that was being played although we couldn't hear much of the actual storytelling.

While we were sitting there, we had 2 Photopass photographers come up to us, it looked like one was training the other one, and they wanted to do some pictures of us. So we smiled for the camera:

And I was very excited when they had us do the Tinkerbell pictures too!

 

[TLC371]

When we left there, we saw that Father Christmas would be out in the Great Britain area, so we headed over there because he was another one that we really wanted to see. I think he was our most favorite of all the storytellers! We loved him!

And of course we got our picture taken with him...

At this point, it was getting close to our ADR time at Le Cellier, so we didn't want to go too far, so we went and hung around the Canada pavilion. We looked around for a little bit, then walked over to stand by the water and look across the World Showcase. I loved being able to just stand there and relax for a few minutes.

While we were standing there, I turned and there was the Photopass guy that was training the other Photopass person earlier, and he was taking pictures of me and Roy. I guess he was bored, and it looked like a good photo-op for him. I'm not overly thrilled with them, I look so fat in them, and it's not a great angle for me:

After he took the pictures, we chatted with him for a few minutes. We told him that we were waiting for our time to get in at LeCellier for dinner and he was so impressed that we were able to get in there and to enjoy our meal. This was the second time a Disney employee had said that to us, so we knew we were in for a treat.

We finally decided to go and check in for our reservation, and we stood outside and waited for our name to be called. We got to talking to the girl that worked the check in area for a bit, she let us look over the menu, explained how the whole Candlelight Processional thing worked. We were amazed how many people came up and tried to get in the restaurant without and ADR. The girl was telling us that they were booked for the next 2 weeks solid and couldn't take any walk ups at all! I was so glad that I had booked early for us to eat there!

They called us and brought us to our table and I was surprised how tiny it was in the restaurant...I guess that's one of the reasons it is so hard to get in to! Our server was Jason, and he was wonderful, we really liked him a lot! He brought us our bread, which was so good! For our appetizers, Roy had the cheddar cheese soup and I had a salad. Then we both got the prime rib for our entrees. It was so good, melt in your mouth delicious! For dessert, I can't remember what Roy got, but I had the mandarin sorbet, also really good! We loved eating there, it was all so good, and one of the best meals we've ever had. So worth the money! We're hoping to go back and eat there again sometime.

When we left there, we headed towards France because we wanted to see Pere Noel and his story. On the way over, we saw a Photopass photographer on the bridge and I had to stop and get pictures. One reason was because we had gotten engaged in France at Epcot the year before. And the other reason, I remember standing in that same spot the year before, as Roy was trying to kill time to make sure his mom and stepdad got there in time to see the proposal, when all I wanted to do was go and see if Belle and the Beast were out! So, Roy humored me and we got our picture taken on the bridge, with France behind us:

We had some time before Pere Noel came out and saw that the Beast was doing pictures, but his line was so long, we figured it would be closed and wouldn't get a chance to meet him, so we just hung out and waited for Pere Noel. I was disappointed we weren't going to see the Beast, but I knew I wanted to see them at the MVMCP so I got over it!

Here's Pere Noel and his story:

And this time only I got my picture with him, because the CM that was there with him was helping another guest, so Roy took the picture

 

[Vivianne]

Hey, I see you've been busy with your TR. Great job and pics!

We got back from our 1 wk trip. We went to Epcot (Swan) & MK (Pop Century) and stayed at a pool home for the remaining time. We also went to P&P Party & La Nouba. The weather was great, although there were some awful downpours here and there. You're so much better with your pics and descriptions. I'll be baaaaack....

 

[TLC371]

We decided that we were going to go up to the front now, because we wanted to get a good spot for the tree lighting ceremony. We got a nice spot, right up front, off to the side. While we were standing there, it got more and more crowded, and as I was looking around at the other people waiting, I spotted some people that looked famiiliar to me. They were on the same flight down to FL from Norfolk with us! They were in line behind us to get on the plane, sat across the aisle from us and we chatted with them a bit the day we flew down. As I pointed them out to Roy, they noticed us and we waved at each other. It was pretty cool that we saw them.

The tree lighting ceremony was cute! I got it on video, and I so wish I could figure out how to get my video on Photobucket so I could post some of it. But here are some pictures:

Up next....Candlelight Processional, Illuminations, and random Photopass pictures....

 

[TLC371]

Hey, I see you've been busy with your TR. Great job and pics!

We got back from our 1 wk trip. We went to Epcot (Swan) & MK (Pop Century) and stayed at a pool home for the remaining time. We also went to P&P Party & La Nouba. The weather was great, although there were some awful downpours here and there. You're so much better with your pics and descriptions. I'll be baaaaack....

Hi! Yep....I've been working on it....slowly!

Ooh....I'm so jealous you went to the P&P Party! I want to go to that so bad, and keep trying to convince DH that we need to take a long weekend trip down to go to that...so far he hasn't agreed with me! But we are going again in September and going to the MNSSHP so I guess I can't complain too badly!

Sounds like you had a great trip...those downpours suck, but at least they don't last all day!

 

[Vivianne]

Hi! Yep....I've been working on it....slowly!

Ooh....I'm so jealous you went to the P&P Party! I want to go to that so bad, and keep trying to convince DH that we need to take a long weekend trip down to go to that...so far he hasn't agreed with me! But we are going again in September and going to the MNSSHP so I guess I can't complain too badly!

Sounds like you had a great trip...those downpours suck, but at least they don't last all day!

I really liked the P&P parade and fireworks, DH even snagged a Crystal Palace dinner resv. at guest services. However, DH and I prefer MNSSHP Party, we went last year and it was fun! Any special event is good, I think.