4 Trips + 1 Premier AP = Priceless Memories ~ WDW Plans posted!

[lovethattink]

I need to go back and catch up. Sorry I'm lagging behind. That Aladin show looks great. Love the Genie! Wonder if that blue is hard to get off? Great Cheshire Cat drawings.

 

[DisNorth]

Great trip so far You were up early and got lots done! Cars land looks amazing!

 

[lovethattink]

Carsland looks great. Some very unique rides. I don't think I've seen pictures before of the tire ride that Megan's on. The water slide looks great, love the monorail theming.

 

[mommy2mrb]

We would love to meet up at the pool! I have heard wonderful things about it but have yet to go there. As soon as Kara can get her ear wet ... Hopefully next month!

Enjoying reading about your trip!

Jackie

just let me know when you'd like to go! hope Kara's ear will be better soon, can't miss out on swimming during your trip! thanks for reading along!

Lisa, some really great updates and pictures! Your hotel looks so nice, and WOW what a pool area!!!

Looks like a lot of fun at CarsLand, and nice job on the TSMM score! I didn't realize they had an Animation Academy at DCA.

And what a wonderful surprise Michele sent for Megan's birthday! How cool that she is 13 and the accent on 13 on the picture frame that goes along with it. That didn't register to me until I noticed that!

BTW Tink, you made a small appearance in my latest TR update where I finally got around to posting about Rachel's performance at HoB........

thanks! the hotel is really nice, they did a big reno to both the rooms and pool back in 2011! it was a sweet surprise! helps that Megan was born in 2000 to keep track!

You did get a lot of things done so early in the morning!! I don't think we've ever left a park before noon! We would have pushed through and done at least a couple more things.

But I will say I may have to start rethinking where we stay if we can get into the parks early more than just once per trip so we can experience the lower crowds.

having EMH was a big advantage, esp later in the trip! we really wanted to have some down time this trip, so our breaks were very nice!

Hi Lisa, You and Megan got to do quite a bit on your second day and got to relax too at the neat pool area at your hotel. I love the Aladdin show and so glad that they have kept it going. Love all the pictures you took of the Carsland rides to see more of the details there.

we did get a lot done! Aladdin is so great, they just brought back the flying carpet recently too! you and Billy need to get out to DL and experience it for yourselves!

I need to go back and catch up. Sorry I'm lagging behind. That Aladin show looks great. Love the Genie! Wonder if that blue is hard to get off? Great Cheshire Cat drawings.

not sure, he does wear a body suit, must wear make-up on his face. Megan wasn't to happy with hers, think she rushes through it a bit!

Great trip so far You were up early and got lots done! Cars land looks amazing!

was the only way to do it this trip! crowds got crazy later in the week!

Carsland looks great. Some very unique rides. I don't think I've seen pictures before of the tire ride that Megan's on. The water slide looks great, love the monorail theming.

it is really great Tink, JJ would love it too! they re-did the theming during the reno, used to be a Peter Pan theme before.


sorry for no updates over the weekend, my cold has settled into my chest and coughing now, didn't do much over the weekend other than rest! will hopefully get another one posted Wed!

hope everyone has a wonderful day!

 

[kaoden39]

 

[addictedtonostalgia]

Hope you are feeling better from your cold.

I loved looking at the trip report pictures! I just LOVE the resort you stayed at, the fireworks headboard was such a cool idea! The pool looks like a lot of fun too. Sounds like a pretty great 13th birthday.

Loved seeing more of Carsland, and you guys sure got a LOT of rides done that morning. The Aladdin show looks beautiful in your pictures.

 

[mommy2mrb]

Michele, thanks for the wave! continued P & PD for you guys!

Hope you are feeling better from your cold.

I loved looking at the trip report pictures! I just LOVE the resort you stayed at, the fireworks headboard was such a cool idea! The pool looks like a lot of fun too. Sounds like a pretty great 13th birthday.

Loved seeing more of Carsland, and you guys sure got a LOT of rides done that morning. The Aladdin show looks beautiful in your pictures.

I'm finally feeling better Meredith, thank you! the headboard is a great touch to the rooms! we did commando style each morning, was worth it to ride what we wanted! The Aladdin show is hard to photog, my photos don't do it justice!

 

[mommy2mrb]

Day 3 - Easter Sunday!

we slept in a bit since we didn't have our breakfast ressie until 830am at Storytellers Café at the Grand Californian. They had a special Easter Brunch buffet and getting to meet characters added to the fun!

































after we stuffed ourselves with a great breakfast we headed over to Disneyland...we had our Welcome to Disneyland tour at 1030, so we had a little time to do a couple rides, we were pleasantly surprised there weren't a lot of people in the park yet!

first up.....a ride neither one of us had ever ridden Indiana Jones Adventure, wait time was 10 minutes!!!









this has a very LONG queue going through cavern's...more photos in next post

 

[mommy2mrb]

we finally got to the ride...









WE LOVED IT!!!!!!! after we survived the ride and the long walk back to the entrance, we checked time and wait time was only 15 minutes! so we jumped back in for another adventure with Indy!!!

we ran over to ride check on Pirates, was a 5 minute wait, still couldn't believe how quite the park was! after getting our Pirate cruise finished
we still had about 20 minutes before we checked in for our tour, so we did a restroom stop and picked up a bottle of water before walking back to the entrance to get checked in!

This tour was $20 with our AP/AAA discount and even though we really didn't learn anything new getting but getting to ride a few rides and getting some FP's, lanyard and pin was worth it to us! they also would make any ressies for a meal if we wanted....since we hadn't made any for dinner we choose to eat at Wine Country Trattoria in DCA that night...I didn't even take any photos from the tour for some reason, I know bad DIser

after everyone got checked in, we headed over the DCA for some history about the park and the new renovations. we headed down through Hollywood and the back entrance to Bug's Land where we watched It's Tough to be a Bug, then we walked past Carsland on our way over to Paradise Pier area, over through Grizzly Peak where we got FP's to watch World of Color, before heading back up to the entrance, we took a break before we headed back over to DL.

we walked down main street over to Frontierland and AdventureLand where we were supposed to ride Indiana Jones, it was down at that point so we got FP's from the tour guide instead. we continued on over to New Orleans Square learning about the different lands throughout the walk, before boarding the train for a ride over to Tomorrowland, after a quick overview of Tomorrowland we walked over to everyone's favorite slow cruise around the world.....Its a Small World!!!

after that we returned through Fantasyland back down Main Street to the entrance we were given our dining ressie info, priority seating passes to see Aladdin, FP's for Soarin' over CA, Screamin' and Star Tours!

we said our good-byes and thank you's and went to use our FP's! and more rides!
think this tour would be great for first time visitor's to DL!

first up Star Tours....I hadn't ridden it since forever and Megan had never ridden it....wasn't as jerky as I had remembered and we both enjoyed it!













so since I'm not a Star War's lover, don't know the name of the adventure we went on....it was the snowy planet version, Tink I'm sure you'll know which one it is

we continued our space adventure with a ride on Space Mt...wait time was only 20 minutes and it was about 1pm! then took a spin with Buzz!

a couple photos of the hub...can you tell why my allergies flared up! the flowers and trees were beautiful!





we wanted to go over to watch the Belle storytime in Fantasy Faire, but was already started, so we decided to have a snack of the yummy twist pastries and shared a apple-boysen drink and did some people watching until the next show started!

 

[mommy2mrb]

presenting Beauty and the Beast! we didn't have great seats, sorry for the pole in the photos, we enjoyed the show (although thought the Rapunzel one was better)

 

[mommy2mrb]

presenting Beauty and the Beast! we didn't have great seats, sorry for the pole in the photos, we enjoyed the show (although thought the Rapunzel one was better) it had the same men and maids playing the different parts...Mr. Smyth and Mr. Jones did a great job yet again!



























after the show we walked over to see if Indy was back up to use our FP's, where happy to see it was, so we jumped into the FP line for another adventure! we then walked around and did some window shopping through New Orleans Square and Main street before heading back to our room for a rest around 3:00....it was a fun day so far and having such light crowds made it even better! we decided to just hang out in the room for a couple hours, Megan wasn't wanting to go swim, I took a short nap and was planning on doing an update when I realized my Kindle battery was dead and I forgot my charger.

headed back into DCA around 500 and still had light crowds, had dinner ressies at 720 and had planned on seeing the 600 Aladdin show, but changed our mind's and did some rides instead!

first up was Tower of Terror, then Monster's Inc.

 

[mommy2mrb]

after we got our "scare on" we went over to Animator's academy to see what character was up next for drawing, it was mickey which we already had, so we went to check out Sorcerer's Workshop











we did the interactive test to see which character we are most like....Megan's






my photo didn't come out....I was Eva from Wall-E!

we had a little bit of time before our dinner ressie, so we took a break at the academy area, it was a huge waiting area with benches around the edges and they play different Disney movie clips and photos, its always a great place for a break away from the crowds and heat....we watched a bunch of little kids dancing around to the music and brought back happy memories of when Megan used to do that!

it was time for dinner, so we walked over and checked in, hoping for a terrace table to enjoy the sights of the evening, unfortunately we were put inside and there were 3 large groups of people being very loud, didn't make for a nice quite, relaxing dinner....we shared an appetizer of caprese Megan ordered a shrimp scampi dish and I had quarttro pomodoro with fresh tomatoes, basil and garlic. it was good and filling, but we had to get out of the room, it echoed all the voices and was giving me a headache.

after dinner we walked around a bit, but decided to not see World of Color or do anymore rides and head back to our room so we could be up and rested for another early morning! got settled in and watched a little bit of tv until about 10.

 

[marvali]

What a busy day......you got so much done!!! And for $20 that tour sounds like a must-do, even for someone who has been there before! That sounds like a whole lot for the price!

Sounds like the Aladdin show is really great, and funny with the genie ad-libbing...... Of course, I'm sure he isn't as funny as Robin Williams would be since he is one of the best at it!!! I bet the Indy ride is a lot of fun! I guess they could do a whole lot with that one since it looks like they are using the same ride vehicles they do in Dinosaur at AK.

Glad you had some good meals, and lots of characters at the breakfast to meet. Sorry about the noisy meal at dinner!

 

[ladylyons]

Very busy day!! Glad you guys got to walk onto Indy twice!!! We love the ride too!! Jeremy can't wait until he's tall enough for it!

The tour sounds like fun but not something I'd be doing anytime soon.

Love Storyteller's!!! Jeremy would be so jealous you got to see the Briar Fox and Briar Bear!! Guess I need to book that one again soon and hope we get that lucky!!!

Next time you know to sit to the end of the rows so you don't have the issue with the pole. I was just to the left of that pole in the front row of the benches. Did you meet Belle afterwards?

I watched Monster's Inc with the kids last night and it kept making me wish we were back in DCA riding the ride.

Glad you had another fun filled day with little to no waits!!!!

 

[mommy2mrb]

What a busy day......you got so much done!!! And for $20 that tour sounds like a must-do, even for someone who has been there before! That sounds like a whole lot for the price!

Sounds like the Aladdin show is really great, and funny with the genie ad-libbing...... Of course, I'm sure he isn't as funny as Robin Williams would be since he is one of the best at it!!! I bet the Indy ride is a lot of fun! I guess they could do a whole lot with that one since it looks like they are using the same ride vehicles they do in Dinosaur at AK.

Glad you had some good meals, and lots of characters at the breakfast to meet. Sorry about the noisy meal at dinner!

it was, but we got so much done! the tour was good, happy I didn't pay more than the $20 though!
The Genie is up there with Robin Williams
never done Dinosaur so not sure if its similar!
food was good, characters fun, noise not so much!

Very busy day!! Glad you guys got to walk onto Indy twice!!! We love the ride too!! Jeremy can't wait until he's tall enough for it!

The tour sounds like fun but not something I'd be doing anytime soon.

Love Storyteller's!!! Jeremy would be so jealous you got to see the Briar Fox and Briar Bear!! Guess I need to book that one again soon and hope we get that lucky!!!

Next time you know to sit to the end of the rows so you don't have the issue with the pole. I was just to the left of that pole in the front row of the benches. Did you meet Belle afterwards?

I watched Monster's Inc with the kids last night and it kept making me wish we were back in DCA riding the ride.

Glad you had another fun filled day with little to no waits!!!!

Megan is now a thrill ride junkie going to be tough getting her back onto some of my fav's!
not sure if they had added extra characters since it was Easter, was some fun interaction with them!
we got into the line too late for the Belle show, so we had to sit where we could, initially we were in two different rows behind each other until a couple moved for us! no we didn't meet Belle, never saw a line forming for it so we left!
we love Monsters Inc too, can't wait for Monster's U to come out this summer!


****************

got my PP+ CD yesterday so will get those uploaded today!
not much going on here in the next couple of days, nice to have some quiet days! hope everyone has a wonderful day!

 

[KatMark]

Lisa, I am all caught up...finally.

What a lovely room, and what a lovely surprise from Tink and her family for Megan's birthday.

Your first couple of days sound like great fun and you got so much done. I love the pictures with the characters...very cute.

 

[ladylyons]

Megan is now a thrill ride junkie going to be tough getting her back onto some of my fav's!
not sure if they had added extra characters since it was Easter, was some fun interaction with them!
we got into the line too late for the Belle show, so we had to sit where we could, initially we were in two different rows behind each other until a couple moved for us! no we didn't meet Belle, never saw a line forming for it so we left!
we love Monsters Inc too, can't wait for Monster's U to come out this summer!


****************

got my PP+ CD yesterday so will get those uploaded today!
not much going on here in the next couple of days, nice to have some quiet days! hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Just tell her she still has to ride the slower one's too!! Makes for a well rounded day!

Yeah didn't think about it being Easter so yeah that could be why you had the extra characters.

I was told the only show Belle doesn't do a meet after is the last show of the day so if that's the one you went to then you probably did miss her. She would meet to the right of the stage and from what I was told as long as you were in the theater for the show you get to meet them. At least you got to see the show though.

Can't wait to see your PP+ pictures!

 

[p00h4me]

Loved seeing all your pictures of your 2nd day! Some day we'll have to go back to DL and CA. So many new rides since the last time we went. Never been on the Monster Inc one. The last time I did the interactive test, the character it showed me I was more like was Belle. Glad you both rode the Indiana Jones ride! It is a fun ride!

 

[mommy2mrb]

Lisa, I am all caught up...finally.

What a lovely room, and what a lovely surprise from Tink and her family for Megan's birthday.

Your first couple of days sound like great fun and you got so much done. I love the pictures with the characters...very cute.

thanks for stopping by Kathy! our room was great! the gift was amazing! we did have a great time during the entire trip! the characters were fun and playful!

Just tell her she still has to ride the slower one's too!! Makes for a well rounded day!

Yeah didn't think about it being Easter so yeah that could be why you had the extra characters.

I was told the only show Belle doesn't do a meet after is the last show of the day so if that's the one you went to then you probably did miss her. She would meet to the right of the stage and from what I was told as long as you were in the theater for the show you get to meet them. At least you got to see the show though.

Can't wait to see your PP+ pictures!

oh she does, but we have to do her picks first
it might of been the reason, think the last time we ate there was in 2007 and don't remember having briar bear and fox there!

we might of just missed it then, did hang out for a few minutes but didn't see anyone queuing up for it oh well....Belle makes an appearance later on our last day

will do an update hopefully Monday!

Loved seeing all your pictures of your 2nd day! Some day we'll have to go back to DL and CA. So many new rides since the last time we went. Never been on the Monster Inc one. The last time I did the interactive test, the character it showed me I was more like was Belle. Glad you both rode the Indiana Jones ride! It is a fun ride!

thanks Gail! you definitely need to get back to DL! DCA is so much better and prettier since the renovations! oh sweet! we seem to get different characters each time Megan does the interactive test even though she answers the questions the same!
Indy is definitely a new favorite!

we were talking last night and the only rides we have left in WDW to ride are Dinosaur, RnRC and Mission Space - will do the green version! ...so we are going to be brave and try them!

 

[petals]

Luvin all the pictures from the birthday trip especially the surprise pressie from lovethattink