4 Parks + 5 Staples in the Baby's Head = 9 Magical Days!! (9/17 The Last Hurrah!)

[All7OfUs]

Sorry it's been a spell since I've last visited! My DH has been working on setting up wireless in our house for the last couple of days, and it's just really knocked out our internet for longer than I had hoped. But ahhhh, the comfort of sitting in an armchair to see all the fun you had is a definite bonus. NO MORE hard kitchen stool at the desktop! 7


LOVE, love, love the pic. of DS leading his sister out of the maze. I remember being in a maze in France when I was a kid, and completely freaking out. I remember being able to see the view towers up above, but could not see a way out- it was pretty scary. Now they just remind me of The Shining!

Anyway, glad they weren't too traumatized

Hey, ?? for you... Since you were able to do both the Coral Reef AND the Biergarten, which one would you recommend for a trip of just me and a girlfriend whose agreed to go with me? I'm sorta thinking that the Biergarten would be fun, but maybe is more for families with kids. Since it is just us, maybe we should opt for the more "quiet" Coral Reef where we can actually have a conversation?? WHat would you do?

Another ??... Did you do the prepaid Photopass CD?? How does that work? You just pay the $125 beofre your trip, then get everthing they take?? Confused on how that works...

Well, until next time!

 

[Lady Lallie]

I love the toy shop in England but I am super bummed that I never saw the Mary Poppins book, that is on the list for next time. I think I was too preoccupied in finding Mary Poppins herself!

I am so amazed that you were able to get through all of WS, we did that on our last trip and as two adults were absolutely exhausted by the end of the night. Good for you!!

 

[thecapells]

I love the family pic with the Pooh Family, so the food at Teppan Edo was good?

I loved my filet and Mom thought the shrimp was good (not great).
DD enjoyed her shrimp as well.

Hey, ?? for you... Since you were able to do both the Coral Reef AND the Biergarten, which one would you recommend for a trip of just me and a girlfriend whose agreed to go with me? I'm sorta thinking that the Biergarten would be fun, but maybe is more for families with kids. Since it is just us, maybe we should opt for the more "quiet" Coral Reef where we can actually have a conversation?? WHat would you do?

Biergarten was a blast but Coral Reed and Le Cellier are, by far, my favorite two restaurants in EPCOT (and probably all of Walt Disney World).
I'd vote for Coral Reef.

 

[thecapells]

Another ??... Did you do the prepaid Photopass CD?? How does that work? You just pay the $125 beofre your trip, then get everthing they take?? Confused on how that works...

Okay, I definitely recommend pre-purchasing the Photopass.
The deal is as follows:

Photopass records all your pictures onto a set of Photopass cards - each with its own number.
You can then edit all the pictures and add borders, signatures, etc as well as zoom, crop, etc.
You do this by entering the Photopass ID# onto the website after creating a free Photopass account for yourself.
All of the edited pictures are saved to your account in addition to your original pictures.
If you order a Photopass CD, you received EVERYTHING in your account - that is, all of your orignals and all of your edits.
We had about 330 originals and about 660 edits once I was done.

The prices are as follows:
Photopass CD = $125 plus shipping for all the pics (there is no limit to the amount of pictures and you may receive more than one CD)
Pre-order CD = $100 and free shipping for all the pics (there is no limit to the amount of pictures and you may receive more than one CD)

PhotoBook = $50 plus shipping for a 20-page digital scrapbook with Disney-themed backgrounds and layouts
Professional PhotoBook = $70 plus shipping for a 20-page digital scrapbook with Disney-themed backgrounds, layouts, and a customized leather cover

Pre-order Book and CD Combo = $150 for CD, professional photobook with unlimited pages and free shipping for both.

So I pre-ordered the combo for $150.
The trick is that you can do it when you get back.
You basically can pre-order up until you enter your first Photopass ID# into the system.

And I just received the PhotoBook and it looks great!
Does all that make sense?
Does it answer your questions?

 

[All7OfUs]

So exactly HOW do you preorder it? Is there a phone number to call, or do you go to a website??

And you do "this" before you enter any card #s into the system, right?

Thanks again...

 

[thecapells]

So exactly HOW do you preorder it? Is there a phone number to call, or do you go to a website??

And you do "this" before you enter any card #s into the system, right?

Thanks again...

Ah, the "how".
It's easy - there's a website and you get sent a coupon code via email.
The site is:
http://www.disneyphotopass.com/previsitcdplan.aspx
There's some samples and more info there as well.

 

[thecapells]

Sorry gang - my bandwidth ran over.
Apparently too many people checked out my pics.

Pics should turn back on Feb 12th.
I'll have a new update then as well.

 

[All7OfUs]

Okay, that was weird! Looking forward to whenever you post next!

 

[Ariel on Land]

that's what happens when you take such good pics!!! Looking forward to the report getting back up and running!!

 

[lovethecastle]

Hi, I just finished reading your tr. I took me several tries to get through it. Too many people needing my attention to sit & read it all at once.
I really like it. My family never seems to spend too much time in epcot. I always say we need to see more of it. Maybe one day.
We like the rides alot. I know you say you don't like the rides but you should definetly try Mission Space on the green side. It doesn't spin or whatever it does on the orange side. There is a video going on a screen & there are a ton of buttons & levers to push. Really fun.
So what day of your trip are up to? I confused.

 

[thecapells]

Hi, I just finished reading your tr. I took me several tries to get through it. Too many people needing my attention to sit & read it all at once.
I really like it. My family never seems to spend too much time in epcot. I always say we need to see more of it. Maybe one day.
We like the rides alot. I know you say you don't like the rides but you should definetly try Mission Space on the green side. It doesn't spin or whatever it does on the orange side. There is a video going on a screen & there are a ton of buttons & levers to push. Really fun.
So what day of your trip are up to? I confused.

I plan to try Mission: Space (the tame version) next time around when DS is a little older.
He didn't reach the height requirement this time around.
And I'm sorry you read the whole report without the pictures.
My photobucket should reset on Feb 12th and you can revisit with the pictures then.

As for where we are in the Trip Report, I have one final segment for EPCOT which I plan to post once my account resets.
And then it's on to Day 6!
I hope everyone will bear with me and stay tuned!

 

[lovethecastle]

Not to worry about not seeing the pictures. I did see about 1/2 of them before they stopped being visable. I will be back to read the continuing tr.

Have a magical day!

 

[thecapells]

Hey gang - photobucket reset, the pics are back, and it looks like I'm good for another month hopefully.
I'll get the next segment up today or this evening.
Sorry for the delay and I hope you're all still out there waiting...

 

[CruisingCamper]

Looking forward to reading more!

 

[thecapells]

Before we leave the World Showcase, I thought I’d add a little section on the Kidcot mask.
I’ve mentioned it in passing and even included DD’s in several pics.
But, for those who are interested in Kidcot, I thought I’d explain a bit more.
At one’s first Kidcot stop, you can choose a mask. A wooden “handle” is then fastened to it with staples.
Children (young or old) are encouraged to color their masks and the charms that are received at each station.
The CM's will then attach the charms to the mask.
In addition, the CM will stamp the handle of the mask at each country.
Bonus stamps include your “year” at China – DD got the Year of the Monkey stamp.
And on the back of the mask, CM’s wrote DD’s name in Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese.
Here’s some shots of the completed mask.

Notice the origami bow from Japan above and the stamps on the handle below:

And here’s the name translations on the back:

Now back to your regularly scheduled trip report…

 

[thecapells]

Thanks for waiting for my pics to reset and I hope you enjoyed that little "bonus" segment about the mask.
As for our world travels, we left off as my family headed back towards Future World and the EPCOT entrance.
It was about 7 or so and we desired an early exit so we could get a good night sleep, take baths, and do some laundry.
At Innoventions Plaza, we again found Photopass photographers and had to have our last photos taken.
I cropped this one as a salute to EPCOT:

Afterwards, I spied MouseGear and detoured inside.
I wanted a souvenir shirt - one which I could wear on our last day (I didn’t like the one we brought).
After looking all around, I decided on a “Four Parks, One World” shirt, purchased it, and we headed out. (You can see it later)

Then it was time for our last good-byes at EPCOT as we would not be returning this trip.
This was a big deal since this was all of the kids’ first visits to EPCOT.

Everyone was sad we would not be returning to EPCOT.
Soarin’ was, by far, everyone’s favorite ride and the kids adored Kidcot.
But we had lots more to get to on our magical trip so we said good-bye with a smile:

Mom and I were a bit disappointed that we didn’t have enough time to really enjoy the Food and Wine Festival.
Mom suggested that next time we don’t make any reservations and just snack around the world.
I liked the snack booths okay but I just LOVE all the dining in the World Showcase and would rather have a nice sit-down than lots of snacks.
But we’ll fight that fight next time.

We grabbed a bus back to Pop Century, bathed the kids, and got everyone into bed.
Mom worked on laundry while I headed to the front desk.
I applied some of our Disney rewards to the room balance as I wanted to make sure we wouldn’t max out our KTTW card.
I really enjoyed just charging everything (souvenirs, tips, and excursions) to the KTTW card.
I also stopped by Everything Pop and filled up our mugs with Hot Chocolate for Mom and myself for dessert.

When I got back, Mom was still doing laundry.
So I downloaded our pictures to my laptop and updated my spreadsheet with what we really did (as opposed to what I had planned).

Wow, that was a long day – I hadn’t realized just how much we crammed into one day until I finished writing it all down here.
That just goes to show all those people asking about long it takes to cover the World Showcase.
We spent an entire day “wandering the world” and that’s after hitting Mexico and Canada the day before and skipping lots of movies and shows.

By now, we all needed a good night’s sleep.
We were a little more than ½ way through the trip and, while EPCOT and Animal Kingdom were behind us, we had plenty more to come!
And tomorrow was another big day. It was time to turn our world travelers into royalty and buccaneers. Stay tuned…

 

[DisneyMom5]

Nice update! Love the masks. We've never done that.

 

[smithpack]

I just love all the ideas you are giving me for our trip. Thank you so much for taking the time to write all of this info out for us! I am just curious, how many pages are in your photopass book that you got with the unlimited page count. I am so doing that on our trip. I love that you can crop pictures and add borders. Thanks again for all the helpful information!!

 

[thecapells]

I just love all the ideas you are giving me for our trip. Thank you so much for taking the time to write all of this info out for us! I am just curious, how many pages are in your photopass book that you got with the unlimited page count. I am so doing that on our trip. I love that you can crop pictures and add borders. Thanks again for all the helpful information!!

I love writing this all down as it will be a nice memento down the line.
I'll probably print it all out and make a Trip Report Book when I'm done.

As for the PhotoBook, I ended up breaking mine up into 2-page layouts - one 2-page layout per theme.
Themes included "Breakfast with the Princesses", "Fantasyland", "Downtown Disney", "Animal Kingdom", "Cinderella's Castle", etc.
It actually works really well with the princess themes as the layouts are designed to match up with each other.
That is, if you choose a Cinderella layout on one side and Cindy on the other side too, the stripes match up on both sides.
The same is true for each of the princess layouts so they look really nice.

All in all we totalled 32 pages. I wasn't sure all the additional pages would be free so I tried not to go too far overboard.
But all the extra pages and shipping was all free.
It was a great deal!
I'd recommend pre-order the Photopass & Book Combo!
That way you get the professional book with the nice customizable cover for the cheaper price.

 

[All7OfUs]

I think WDW is the only place in the whole world I actually LIKE doing laundry. Last time we were there we were at Fort Wilderness camping, and the laundry rooms are so clean and there's so much to see and do, while your clothes sud and spin.

Yeah, I think you'd have to have days-even weeks- to see and do everything in WS! Even with careful planning, there just isn't time to do squeeze in the shows, live entertainment, Kidcot, etc...

But, in the end, I'm really glad you could leave "with a smile"!

Thanks for another great installment!