3rd Annual We are "NEVER" going to Disney in the summer again"

[MickeyT]

Thanks for sticking with me, Mike!

Boma is a great place to indulge after the workout. Have you been? I'm sure you will enjoy it! And there is PLENTY of food. I think "Boma" means "Gluttony" in Swahili.

You're trip is coming up quickly! I'm sure you are getting more and more exicted by the day. How many of your are going? And running? Teena ran the race last year with some DIS friends.

Yeah.....We have started our 'This time next month we'll be at....' thing.

We (wife Lee Ann, sister Mary Jo, husband Bobby, sister Jan and husband Rodney) are all doing the Half. Third year going down. All of us did the half 2 years ago, 3 of us (me included) did the full last year and all of us are doing the half again this year. Figure if we can make through the snow/sleet/freezing last year we can make a go of it again. Any excuse to go to 'The World'.

DW and I are going down on the 3rd and staying at the Grand Flo for the first time for a few nights. Got an AP rate and figured we'd give it a try (with a little Beach Club guilt). Wife thinks we are staying at WL. I'm going to make a 'wrong' turn once we get there and pull up at the Grand.

The second part of the trip we have a 2-br at SSR. The DS's and family are coming in the 7th and spending the weekend. This our first DVC trip. We bought into resale at BCV but nothing was available there when we booked.

So as you can see we have a plan. Ressies and ADR's all made. Just got to get through that pesky Christmas thing!

Oh yeah.....Second trip to Boma but Lee Ann wasn't feeling well the last time we there so thought we would give it another try. Also sisters and family have never seen the AKL and since we would be running the race the early part of the day I thought this would be a good place to go relax and do some resort hopping.

 

[pixarmom]

Hi Dee!

I've been enjoying your trip report (although I'm so glad to know that you don't really mean that you're NEVER going in the summer again!) As a fellow mom of boys, I'm relating to the souvenir purchases.

Love the recent updates - how happy to be thinking about summer memories at WDW!

Mickey T - we'll be at WDW for Marathon Weekend too! But we're not running - it's our youngest son's birthday and this is another excuse to use our APs. Same here - a little BC guilt. We're staying at the Poly because we've been to BC twice in 2010 and we'll be back in February 2011. So we wanted to do something a bit different, I love the Poly and a monorail resort will work because we'll spend extra time at MK for our pre-schooler's birthday.

Good luck with the surprise for your wife, and the marathon - have a great trip!!

 

[natebenma]

Yeah.....We have started our 'This time next month we'll be at....' thing.

We (wife Lee Ann, sister Mary Jo, husband Bobby, sister Jan and husband Rodney) are all doing the Half. Third year going down. All of us did the half 2 years ago, 3 of us (me included) did the full last year and all of us are doing the half again this year. Figure if we can make through the snow/sleet/freezing last year we can make a go of it again. Any excuse to go to 'The World'.

DW and I are going down on the 3rd and staying at the Grand Flo for the first time for a few nights. Got an AP rate and figured we'd give it a try (with a little Beach Club guilt). Wife thinks we are staying at WL. I'm going to make a 'wrong' turn once we get there and pull up at the Grand.

The second part of the trip we have a 2-br at SSR. The DS's and family are coming in the 7th and spending the weekend. This our first DVC trip. We bought into resale at BCV but nothing was available there when we booked.

So as you can see we have a plan. Ressies and ADR's all made. Just got to get through that pesky Christmas thing!

Oh yeah.....Second trip to Boma but Lee Ann wasn't feeling well the last time we there so thought we would give it another try. Also sisters and family have never seen the AKL and since we would be running the race the early part of the day I thought this would be a good place to go relax and do some resort hopping.

Wow! Sounds like a a great trip! Except for the running part

I'm excited to hear about how the surprise stay at GF is. Way to go!

 

[natebenma]

Hi Dee!

I've been enjoying your trip report (although I'm so glad to know that you don't really mean that you're NEVER going in the summer again!) As a fellow mom of boys, I'm relating to the souvenir purchases.

Love the recent updates - how happy to be thinking about summer memories at WDW!

Mickey T - we'll be at WDW for Marathon Weekend too! But we're not running - it's our youngest son's birthday and this is another excuse to use our APs. Same here - a little BC guilt. We're staying at the Poly because we've been to BC twice in 2010 and we'll be back in February 2011. So we wanted to do something a bit different, I love the Poly and a monorail resort will work because we'll spend extra time at MK for our pre-schooler's birthday.

Good luck with the surprise for your wife, and the marathon - have a great trip!!

I think I started posting this trip report, and added the title to my signature after trying to convince you that the summer is really not that bad! And it's not! The heat doesn't really bother our family and Disney has plenty of places you can go to cool down.

Sounds like a fun January trip for your son's BD. The Poly would be my second choice for a stay after the Beach Club. I love the tropical theming there, the fireworks from the beach, quick monorail to MK and EPCOT and the wonderful food options. It's all about the food!

 

[natebenma]

The monorail ride to EPCOT is great! It is fun to look at the sights, you get to sit in the air conditioning just long enough to recharge and the loop around Future World really helps build up the excitement of entering our favorite park.

Our initial plans for EPCOT did not work out. We like to go onto Space Ship Earth when we enter the front of the park, because it is usually a walk-on. This time the line stretched pretty far in front and on the sides of the big ball, so we opted to keep moving.

Next up, we thought we would try Ellen’s Energy since we have not gone on this trip. It is a 45 minute experience, so this was a good time to check it out, during “bonus” EPCOT time. Unfortunately, according to the TIP board, the ride was down.

What to do? The boys suggested Club Cool. So off we went to the place with sugary sodas and sticky floors. It was a lot more interesting when building was shaped like a giant igloo. I guess this is where Ben took one for the team and asked me to film him sampling the Beverly. I mentioned the video before, and I will post it here with the warning that you shouldn’t watch it if you will be offended by a 9 year old saying “Crap” a few times.

The first shot below is a photo, the second is the video.

After Club Cool, we encountered a photopass photographer taking pictures in front of the fountain with Space Ship Earth in the background. The photographer took a bunch of great photos, all different zooms, and the boys did not ruin the pictures with frowns or tongues.

The previous day, the guys tried the new simulator attraction: The Sum of All Thrills.

You design your own course for a rollercoaster or bobsled or jet. The line looked to be about 15 minutes long, so we tried it. The first time Nate and Mark worked together to design their ride (Total Sum of Thrills, 700) and Ben and I worked together (422). I think you can put in 3 “features” into your ride like corkscrews and inversions, although because of Ben’s age (or height), we couldn’t design a course with an upside-down loop. The courses you design also have to fit in to some conventions of physics, so you need to test and adjust your course before hand to make sure it will work.

This was the first time I had tried a simulator and I was a little nervous, because I don’t do well on spinning rides. The ride was fine, and when we finished the line for another ride was even shorter, about 10 minutes, so we did it again.

While we waited in this line, a very nice cast member talked to us about this attraction. She told us that the technology used in the Sum of All Thrills is just like the one in the Harry Potter attraction in the “Theme¬¬-Park-Which-Must-Not-be-Named” She said that the capacity for this ride is very small, about 1,500 to 2,000 people per day. She said this is the same amount of people that can ride Soarin’ in an hour! So they don’t have this attraction on the EPCOT park maps, since so few people can ride it, and they are doing fine with word of mouth. She also shared with us that the previous week, one of the tour operators from Brazil arranged for their clients, 850 girls, to ride this after it had shut down for the day. Wonder what they paid for that!

It was our turn again. This time Mark and Ben went together and Nate designed a coaster for us, but he wouldn’t let me watch what he was doing!

It didn’t turn out to be very punishing. Our score was 500. I’m not sure what score the other guys had on their ride.

When we exited the Innoventions building it was bright and sunny. Ellen’s Energy Adventure had reopened and was in progress when we went by, so we joined Ellen’s dream.

As we exited the theater, the skies were menacing. It had become very dark and the wind was whipping. We knew a storm was coming and it would probably be a nasty one!!! We hoofed it at a very brisk pace to the International Gateway. We looked over our shoulder a few times as we hurried along but I didn’t even dare stop to take a picture of the darkness because the storm was closing in on us and we were scared we would be caught in a terrible downpour. The first big drops of rain started to fall as we exited EPCOT.

There is a side entrance/exit to the Beach Club building right after you get through the gateway. It is near room 1501 at the Beach Club and we learned about it on the Beach Club board, of course! We reached the side entrance JUST as the sky opened and the downpour started. It was bad. Very bad! Pouring rain, frequent flashing of lightning and roaring thunder.

We made our way through the maze of hallways to the Beach Club marketplace and did a little bit of shopping. I had promised one of my friends (Robyn, Disneymomx7) that I would check out the flavors of gelato available in the freezer. The beach club had just changed over from the “fresh” scoops of gelato available at the counter to the prepackaged containers. This change caused quite a stir on the Y&BC thread when it happened, but I believe the space that the gelato counter took up is now used to serve additional breakfast and snack items, offerings which are truly needed due to the lack of counter service options at the Beach Club.

I purchased the MINE MINE MINE coffee mug for myself.

It was a bit pricey- around $18- but I decided to indulge because I knew I would use it every morning as I enjoy my coffee and catch up on e-mail and the DIS. This turned out not to be a terrific purchase. Within a couple of weeks, the interior metal part separated from the outside plastic. It was not even something that could be repaired with super glue. So I called Disney merchandising, and as expected, they sent me a new mug without any hassle. But I am having issues with this one, too. The seagull decorations are wearing off (they are kind of like a felt material) and when I wash the mug (always by hand), the rubber coating on the bottom forms an air bubble so it doesn’t sit flat.

My family returned to our room, but I decided to stay behind and view my photopass pictures. There is a little kiosk in the Beach Club lobby staffed by CMs. Today there was a very nice young woman- we talked about where I was visiting from and she told me her boyfriend is from Boston.

Looking at the pictures was another mistake, I think. I am almost positive that when we were reviewing the pictures I saw the ones taken at Hollywood Studios in front of the RNR guitar. Because I remember thinking, “Oh, yeah, I forgot we had those taken” But when we got home and I loaded my card onto the photopass account, these pictures were not there. I even followed up with photopass support a couple of times since I knew exactly when and where the photos were taken, what we were wearing, and I of course had pictures of us from that same day. But no luck. According to photopass, the pictures were gone! So here’s another piece of advice I had read, but not followed- don’t review your photopass pictures while in the parks or at the resorts.

When I got back to the room, everyone was out on the balcony. The rain had let up quite a bit, but there were some awesome lightning strikes off in the distance. The strikes were exactly where I watched the Nightastic fireworks explode, so I imagine that the storm was directly over the Magic Kingdom. I felt really sorry for the folks who were trying to enjoy the afternoon there. I also felt badly for everyone at the waterparks. And finally, I was really glad that we nixed our plans to visit Typhoon Lagoon that afternoon!


I tried to take a picture of the lightning, but I didn't succeed. Here is one picture, but it really does not do justice. The second shot shows the storm clearing out, but if you look carefully you can see water dripping down from the roof.

At 5 PM, the Concierge Lounge opened for evening appetizers. Today probably had the best offerings we had encountered all week. Shrimp Empanadas. Potstickers. Some kind of yummy pink cheese. And Lobster Salad!!! Even though our dinner at the Cape May Café was in less than an hour, we still managed to sample a few goodies.

We returned to our room, and Ben was able to squeeze in a 15 minute nap before it was time to head downstairs to the restaurant.

Next up- Cape May Café

 

[TwiddleDeeTwiddleDum]

Hello again, I've been MIA from reading my favorite TR's but I'm now caught back up with yours. I just love reading your TR & looking at your fantastic pic's You really crack me up with you b-fast at Kona's, forgetting to take a food pic, but wait! Got one from another trip

We did Sum of all Thrills too. I think it is a really neat hidden gem at Epcot. Had it not been for the DISboards I wouldn't have know about it either. It reminds me of that attraction we did over at DisneyQuest a few years back. It was more fun this time since DS likes to be more adventurous with his coasters now

I really liked seeing the pool pic's & your getting to see Illuminations from the pool - that would've been a great way to end a hot summer day - then getting to see MK fireworks from your balcony. I think I'm going to have to save up to try the B&Y Club one of these trips. I'm always hestitate to spend that kind of money for a hotel room but maybe I've been looking at it the wrong way We usually just don't spend that much time at the resort, although one of the trips I took my mom we stayed at the Swan & I have to admit, the location was really convenient. So yeah....

Looking forward to more although my reading is sporadic now that I'm done with my TR & buzy getting ready for my FAVORITE time of the year

 

[shellspb]

Don't you just love reading about people who are this enthusiastic. What a heartfelt report, it is the best time spent with family ever. That's why when ours were young we would take them out of school and go when it wasn't insanely busy. They didn't miss a thing and learned much more at EPCOT

 

[natebenma]

Hello again, I've been MIA from reading my favorite TR's but I'm now caught back up with yours. I just love reading your TR & looking at your fantastic pic's You really crack me up with you b-fast at Kona's, forgetting to take a food pic, but wait! Got one from another trip

We did Sum of all Thrills too. I think it is a really neat hidden gem at Epcot. Had it not been for the DISboards I wouldn't have know about it either. It reminds me of that attraction we did over at DisneyQuest a few years back. It was more fun this time since DS likes to be more adventurous with his coasters now

I really liked seeing the pool pic's & your getting to see Illuminations from the pool - that would've been a great way to end a hot summer day - then getting to see MK fireworks from your balcony. I think I'm going to have to save up to try the B&Y Club one of these trips. I'm always hestitate to spend that kind of money for a hotel room but maybe I've been looking at it the wrong way We usually just don't spend that much time at the resort, although one of the trips I took my mom we stayed at the Swan & I have to admit, the location was really convenient. So yeah....

Looking forward to more although my reading is sporadic now that I'm done with my TR & buzy getting ready for my FAVORITE time of the year

So glad to see you back! I've missed you!

A little confession now about Kona- my husband reads my TR on his commute (train, not car) and he came home one night and said "I don't think I got the Big Kahuna this year" He's right. He ordered the Tonga Toast, too. So I'm not guilty of forgetting to snap a picture of his meal (already had the Tonga Toast shot), just guilty of forgetting the details. I'm glad I posted the picture of the Big Kahuna breakfast though.

Same deal with my upcoming Cape May post. I have to dig into "the vault" for photos of the restaurant and of the Oreo Bon Bons.

It will be interesting to see how much promotion Sum of All Thrills gets in the next year or so.

We definitely don't take advantage of all of the great things at the Beach Club. We don't spend nearly enough time at the awesome pool and slide. We haven't attended the nightly movie or campfire/marshmallow roast. But the location is just outstanding. I love being able to go to Sunshine Seasons or Morocco or France and bring back dinner to our room. As you know, it's all about the food for me!

Hey, if I don't "see" you again before Christmas, I hope your family enjoys a spectacular holiday!

 

[natebenma]

Don't you just love reading about people who are this enthusiastic. What a heartfelt report, it is the best time spent with family ever. That's why when ours were young we would take them out of school and go when it wasn't insanely busy. They didn't miss a thing and learned much more at EPCOT

Thank you so much for your nice comments.

We have never taken the kids out of school for a Disney trip, but when they were younger we did have them miss a week for a family reunion cruise (39 family members) and for a trip to Jamaica. There are definitely learning experiences that you can't get at school.

But once my older son started middle school, missing school for family vacations is strongly discouraged. By both us and the school.

So we are stuck going on trips during really crowded February or April vacations, or during the hot summer. And of course the prices for trips during school breaks shoot WAY up because the tour companies know we don't have a choice.

 

[natebenma]

This was our third trip to the Cape May Café.

In 2008, we dined at the Character breakfast. This is my favorite character meal ever. At that time Chip and Dale, our favorite characters were there. It is really cute to see them, Goofy and Minnie in their beach attire. Great interaction- the characters write on the paper table coverings. We were talking about Boston when Chip came to our table and he wrote “Tell Goofy, Boston”. When we did, Goofy jumped up and down excitedly. We enjoyed the food too!

By the way, do you know how to tell Chip and Dale apart? Chip has a brown nose, like a chocolate CHIP and Dale is the other one (red nose)

Last year, I scheduled our Cape May dinner on our arrival night. We thought it would be a good idea since we were staying at the Beach Club and it would be very convenient after a day that started at 3:30 AM and included a 3 hour plane ride, 2 bus rides plus visits to two theme parks (MK and EP). Unfortunately, we were too tired to fully appreciate the restaurant. It was noisy in there and none of us had the patience to deal with the buffet lines. And then we had to work to get at some of our food (the clams and shrimp). The famed Oreo Bon-Bons did not blow me away.

This year we scheduled the meal at Cape May near the end of our trip. Even though we weren’t that enthusiastic last year, we were really looking forward to the meal, especially since they added snow crab legs to the buffet.

The following descriptions are from the DIS Restaurant Board Site. The pictures are mine:

The Cape May Cafe is a bright, airy buffet restaurant. The decor is reflective of the beach theme. The outer rim is ringed with colorful canvas beach umbrellas.

Cape May Cafe New England Clam Bake Dinner: Unlike the usual buffet set-up, this restaurant features a central island where the selections are displayed. There are large steam trays that are continuously filled with snow crab legs, clams and mussels. These popular items are always available hot and freshly prepared.

Other offerings on the buffet:
Carved Roasted Pork Loin in addition to the carved Top Beef Sirloin / Citrus Couscous Salad / Chicken Arugula Pasta Salad / Tomato Cucumber Mozzarella Salad / Quinoa Shrimp Salad with Hearts of Palm / Green Mussels with Spicy Seaweed Salad / Sautéed Beef Tips with a Gourmet Brandy Cream Sauce / Tortellini with Lobster Sauce / Seafood Pot Pie / Hand-Battered Fried Tilapia or Cod (Sundays and Fridays) / Fried Calamari (Tuesdays and Thursdays) / Fried Shrimp (Mondays Wednesdays and Saturdays) and Kids Fish Nuggets.

The restaurant, and the food, did not disappoint!

Clam Chowder

Calamari

The only complaint is that Mark and I both spent a lot of time helping Ben with his crab legs and other seafood. Ben eats a lot and it was really difficult to keep up with him! By the time we started our meals, the boys were already onto dessert and were getting restless, so we hurried through our meal. Everything was really really good. And this endorsement comes from a lifelong New Englander!


The restaurant recently introduced a new dessert, warm lava cakes which are made almost to order. People have raved about them, but I thought they were just ok.

The Oreo Bon-Bons, though, I enjoyed a lot more this year. This photo is from the Concierge Lounge, I didn’t get a good picture of them from the buffet.

How did we finish up our evening? We wanted to return to EPCOT. But would the weather impact our plans?


Next up: Can I drag my feet long enough to keep us at EPCOT until the 9 PM Illuminations show?

 

[natebenma]

When we left the Cape May on our way to EPCOT, we were pleased how much cooler it was after the storm had gone through. As we walked through UK it started sprinkling. When we were approaching the gift shop that is dead center between Canada and Mexico, the skies opened and it started pouring. We ducked in to keep dry and to figure out if it was going to be worth sticking it out if it was going to rain all night. The gift shop was super crowded with others also trying to stay dry. A bunch of kids who were part of a tour group were there sitting on the floor and making it pretty difficult to walk around. Pretty obnoxious!

The rain let up and we decided to forge ahead. We wanted to check out Space Ship Earth, since we had skipped that earlier in the day. No line, so we walked right onto the ride.

When we left SSE and got outside, it was a beautiful night. It had stopped raining and was pleasantly cool. We made our way to Mexico, where the boys each got churros. Seriously, didn’t you guys just finish eating?

We went inside to check on the boat ride, but the ride was surprisingly long. There is NEVER a line there! So we passed on doing that.

It was probably around 8 PM at this point. My goal was to time our walk around the World Showcase so that we would have a chance to watch Illuminations together. I had gone earlier in the week solo to see the fireworks show, and I went twice last year alone but I really wanted Mark and the boys to enjoy the show, especially since it was such an amazingly beautiful night. It had probably been more than 15 years since Mark had seen Illuminations (when they used to light up the countries and there was no globe). The boys had never seen it.

I walked verrryyy sssloowwlly… not a pace I’m accustomed to at Disney! The boys had no interest in Norway or China, but I was able to distract Ben with the miniature village in Germany. The trains were not running, but we had fun looking at all of the little details.

We caught up with Mark and Nate and then proceeded to the Crepe Cart in France. More Food??!!!??

We started to hear the loudspeaker announcement “In 10 minutes, EPCOT presents Illuminations, Reflections of Earth” The boys, reluctantly, agreed to stay for the show. We had a so-so view from the bridge between France and UK. The boys were not nearly as impressed as I am with the show. They don’t really think fireworks are “all that”.

I don't think I actually took any pictures that night- these are from a previous night

I did take this picture right after Illuminations:

I’m really glad we all stayed and watched. It was a quick exit out of the International Gateway to the Beach Club, and after a brief stop at the Concierge Lounge for- you guessed it- MORE FOOD- we were settled in our room by 9:30. In plenty of time for me to get everyone ready for bed and then go out on the balcony to watch Nightastic. Alone.



Next up- Last but not Least- our final day:
Toy Story Mania, 4 times by noon!
Rubbing Elbows with Stormtroopers
No Brulee for you!
Racing the heat. Who wins?
I swim with the fishes.
Ohana means… (Exhausted) Family
A spectacular, solitary finale!

 

[TwiddleDeeTwiddleDum]

The Cape May dinner looks good! We've always hit it for a late character breakfast after a morning at EPCOT but I'm going to have to rethink dinner now

Have yourself a Merry little Christmas too

 

[natebenma]

The Cape May dinner looks good! We've always hit it for a late character breakfast after a morning at EPCOT but I'm going to have to rethink dinner now

Have yourself a Merry little Christmas too

Thanks for the Christmas wishes! Just finished making the traditional holiday pork pies with my dad.

We really really liked the Cape May this year! Another buffet, like Boma, where there is an abundant, delicious selection of offerings.

So many restaurants, so little time!!!

 

[natebenma]

Let’s see if you can spot our mistake before we do…

Danish of the Day and other breakfast treats in the lounge:

Today our schedule would take us to Hollywood Studios in the morning. There were two reasons for this. The first- it was the EMH park, opening at 8 AM for resort guests. The second- we had a Give-A-Day voucher and thought this would be the best park to use for a Fast Pass Exchange.

For those of you who may not be familiar with the GAD program, it was Disney’s 2010 promotion to encourage volunteerism. If you volunteered for an activity with an authorized organization, you would earn a GAD voucher which could be used for a free day of admission at one of the Walt Disney World parks or could be traded in for a Fast Pass Exchange, which would grant up to 6 members of your party immediate fast passes for a number of rides.

We had hoped to find a volunteer opportunity that the whole family could participate in. A lot of the programs did not accept volunteers who were under age 10 (Ben is 9). Mark found one in the nick of time- street sweeping in Beverly Mass, the city he worked in. Ben qualified. The only problem was the date of the scheduled sweeping, April 9, was also a double-header performance of Peter Pan, so both boys and I were unavailable that day. But not to be discouraged, Mark organized a group of people at work to volunteer with him. Shortly after he took on this planned assignment, Disney had fulfilled the million voucher goal they had set and discontinued the program to future volunteers. His volunteer day was in jeopardy, too. The day of the street sweeping, there was a pouring rainstorm. The clean sweep was cancelled for everyone except those who had signed up through the Disney program. So wet, cold and tired, he came out of the streets of Beverly with a GAD voucher. Yeah, Mark!



After breakfast in the Concierge Lounge, we walked out the front door of the Beach Club lobby towards the bus stop.



DOH!!! There are no buses to the studios! Boat only! So we turned around, went back into the lobby and out the back. There was a boat at the dock. We started running and then heard a voice over the loud speaker from the boat “You’re not going to make this boat” or something to that effect. The boat pulled away, and we were one of the first families in line for the next boat.

As I mentioned a couple minutes ago, the Fast Pass Vouchers we had were valid for up to 6 people. Since there are only 4 members in our family, we thought we would spread the magic and look for a couple and see if they wanted to join us when we redeemed the passes.

We saw one couple waiting on the dock, so I approached them and asked if they knew what Give a Day is, and if they want to come with us. They told us they were redeeming their tickets that day, too. All of the other groups we saw were 3 or more. Boat arrived and we took our seats.


We were seated next to a woman who was with her two young children, like maybe 6 and 4. I decided to ask her if she wanted to share our GAD. She was THRILLED! It was their last day, and it was just her and the two kids so this was going to make her morning much easier- no rushing to Toy Story Mania. I explained that that the redemption was only good for 2 passes for her, and she would have to take a leap of faith and hand over her park tickets while Mark redeemed the vouchers (but he would be in view the whole time).

We arrived at HS a little past 8 (late for us). Mark went to the will call window. It took a little a little bit of time- the manager had to come to override the system to give our party 7 exchange passes.


As Mark was leaving the window, he saw the couple we had talked to on the dock and they said our suggestion had inspired them to find another family to share with! More pixie dust!


We now had 6 immediate FP EACH in hand. 3 were good for any combination of TSM, RNR and TOT. The other 3 were for Star Tours, Voyage of the Little Mermaid and Lights Motor Action, I think (which doesn’t use FP!)

We were a bit late for the TSM dash, I think we arrived at Pixar Place around 8:30.

Mark put in our tickets to get regular FP (redemption time: was probably around 10 am). We then split up- Mark and Nate went to ride RockNRollercoaster and Ben and I waited in the standby line for TSM.

We had about a 30 minute wait. It was kind of fun though. Behind us was a family of 4. There was a young boy named Paul who was behind us and we talked for the whole time. Paul is 4 years old, his family lives in Tennessee, they are staying at Boardwalk. He asked if we could come visit him at his resort. I said, no, unfortunately we were leaving for home the next day. We chatted about our favorite rides and things to do at Disney.


I offered to take a picture of his family with Mr. Potatohead and they took a picture of Ben and me.

Finally, it was our turn: Ride Number 1


When we got out of the Toy Story building, a Green Army Man was heading to his post. One of Ben’s favorite toys is army men, so before our trip, I thought to myself I would love to get a photo with an Army Man from Toy Story. I asked (ok, begged) to get a quick picture of him with Ben.
This is our only “character” photo of the trip!

After Ben and I completed our encounter, we met up with Mark and Nate and rode again with our GAD FP: Ride Number 2

It was not quite time for regular TSM FP, so we decided to do some other exploring. We went to Star Tours.

There wasn’t really a line, but since we didn’t have anything else we wanted to use the second-tier FPs on, we used the machine to get our FP, and went through the FP line.

There was nobody in line and the CMs gave us a funny look for using FP.

All of a sudden, Storm Troopers appeared from a door. We were in their way as they were attempting to get to the Jedi Training show. I think one of them asked us to move out of their way. I was stunned and I wish I had gained my composure a second quicker, I could have gotten an excellent picture! Instead, this is what I got.

This would be our last Star Tours before it shuts for refurbishment!


We walked through empty Streets of America

We popped into Muppets 3D to watch that a final time.



Continued in the next post...

 

[natebenma]

When the muppet show was over, it was time to use our TSM FP. But first, the boys wanted to burn a few snack credits. We found a snack cart and ordered a Mickey Bar, an ice cream sandwich bar and a Izkadoodle popsicle thing. We were out of water and Ben begged for a bottle of water. He didn’t appreciate our explanation that a bottle of water is not the smartest use of a snack credit, plus you can request a free cup of ice water from other counter service stands. But he was thirsty, so we got him a bottle of water. What great parents!

After our snacks were consumed and the water finished, we headed back to Pixar Place. There were still FP available, for sometime in the afternoon. I knew we wouldn’t be staying at HS that long, but I was tempted to pull FP anyway, because we COULD, and then give them to someone as we were leaving the park. But Mark thought that wasn’t really fair to the people who were already there at the park. So we didn’t get them.

We handed over our FP for my Third TSM ride of the morning.

We had used 4 of our 12 “First Tier” GAD FP. We planned one more go on TSM as a family, leaving 4 GAD FP. Once again, we split up. Mark and Nate went back to RockNRollercoaster and Tower of Terror, and Ben and I rode The Great Movie Ride.

I was pretty psyched when we were seated. We were on the opposite side from our previous ride, so I had an opportunity to take pictures (without flash, of course) on this side of the attraction.

I was even MORE psyched when our ride vehicle did not stop at the gangster scene. We got the COWBOY!!! The Cowboy scene was really really good!

After the ride, Ben and I went to the Animation Courtyard, where we planned to meet Mark and Nate when they were done with their rides. But first, we saw these guys walking by:

Once the four of us were back together again, we made our final trip of the trip to Pixar Place to ride TSM. Now the FP were all gone for the day, but there was one machine that stayed open for GAD FP. Mark went to redeem our final FP, created a little commotion when some people saw him getting the FP and wanted to know why.

It was before noon, and Ben and I were riding Toy Story Mania for the FOURTH TIME!

The Give A Day program ROCKS!!!


Photopass photos on the way out:

Next up: A boat ride with an entertaining duck. Not Donald!

 

[jmskinner]

Wow, you got me beat yet again. We've only been able to do TSMM 3 times by Noon. But I couldn't have done a 4th, my arms were so sore after the 2nd time.

Cool that you got the boys to stay for Illuminations. It is a great show, didn't realize it had been around that long.

 

[natebenma]

Wow, you got me beat yet again. We've only been able to do TSMM 3 times by Noon. But I couldn't have done a 4th, my arms were so sore after the 2nd time.

Cool that you got the boys to stay for Illuminations. It is a great show, didn't realize it had been around that long.

Yeah, we were done with TSM by the fourth time. I don't think I would have wanted to do it again!

I think that the show has been called Illuminations all this time, but I certainly could be mistaken. I remember that music from each of the countries (except maybe Morocco) was played and each pavillion was lit up individually, then the lights all cycled. I don't remember fireworks and the globe is definitely "new" to us.

Sounds like it has been unusually cold in Florida this winter. We are in the grips of an overnight "blizzard" here in the northeast. Good chance to sit tight and catch up on DIS!

 

[TwiddleDeeTwiddleDum]

Your anniversary kiss picture with DH

But the boys expressions in the same picture

That is a great picture

I AM SOOOOOO JEALOUS YOU RODE TSM 4X'S B4 NOON

ANd that's even missing your boat trying to catch the bus - were you having a Led Zepplin moment wondering if anyone had seen that confounded bus

Hmm, a duck that isn't Donald? Let me guess, you decided to walk back to your resort & raced a family of ducks swimming?

 

[DrMomof3]

Wow! That's amazing that you rode TSM 4 times! It was down for refurb when we were there in August.

Amanda

 

[mickeystoontown]

Holy smokes woman! I can't believe you rode Toy Story Mania four times! We're doing good to get in one ride per visit.