5th timers 1st experience with DDP(free!) TR!

[zipuzee]

I see it now. Birthday Stitch being mailed all around for trips to WDW and beyond.

 

[lori1043]

I will post tomorrow, I have had a LONG day. One that I was not really looking forward to but took lots of time to prepare for yesterday:

8am- get up and finish preparing for classes today
9am-breakfast and beg DD9 to GET UP
10am- science class(teach)
noon-lunch
1pm-CPR(assist)
2pm-Louisiana History(teach)
4pm-clean up duty after co-op
6:15pm-DD11's bible study
ate dinner with DD9 and friends
8:15-pick up DD11 from bible study
9:00- make DD11 some bacon and eggs for a late 'dinner' to tyde her over(all she had was fruit/cookie/cheese at bible study)
10:00-DH calls from stinking Fla(on business), talks to kids, prayers....
10:30-sitting here pooped!

10:31- wanna post day 3 in EPCOT, but not even awake enough to open photobucket....
10:32-hunched over laptop.....................................................
10:33- this is I got for ya tonight............................................................................................
...................
10:35........signing off...............

 

[shovan]

Loving your TR! I was thinking that the iphone app sounded really cool, but I'm confused enough already.

Enjoying all the pics of the girls! It sure is bittersweet seeing them grow out of the princess stage. BUT We are so grateful that they both will grow out of it. Praise the Good Lord for that!

Sorry your bootie is hurting! I fell on mine years ago, unfortunatly it takes forever to stop hurting.

 

[rie'smom]

Lori, when I saw the picture with the 3 girls, I was like, "Wait, she only has 3 daughters." The I realized the tallest daughter was you!!!

 

[jordanyosh]

Okay....I'm here...Did I know you were going? I think you told me right?

Sorry about TL and your bum...

I think Capn Jacks recently changed their menu and I've heard some good things about it......

Did you ever get the desserts to go? Some servers offered it to us as it came with the DDP.

 

[Stefy]

All caught up

Capn's Jacks looks quite yumma, like others this is one restaurant that we have overlooked in the past, but I think I might have to go check the menu out now. TRex also looks awesome too

Ouchio about BB, I would have been the same as you too. But I am glad it didn't affect you too much and you were able to enjoy the rest of your day.

Nice pics of 1900 PF, you daughters are adorable.

Can't wait to read more

 

[lori1043]

Loving your TR! I was thinking that the iphone app sounded really cool, but I'm confused enough already.

Enjoying all the pics of the girls! It sure is bittersweet seeing them grow out of the princess stage. BUT We are so grateful that they both will grow out of it. Praise the Good Lord for that!

Sorry your bootie is hurting! I fell on mine years ago, unfortunatly it takes forever to stop hurting.

It was a GREAT app, except for that glitch! It had all of our info in it that had confirmation #'s...
Thanks and YES I am SO thankful they are GROWING UP!

And, yes, my butt STILL is in pain-still taking aleve/ibuprofen for it. Someone tols me a chiroprachter(sp?) would do the job-not sure though...

Lori, when I saw the picture with the 3 girls, I was like, "Wait, she only has 3 daughters." The I realized the tallest daughter was you!!!

woohoo- you can hang around any ole time you want!

Okay....I'm here...Did I know you were going? I think you told me right?

Sorry about TL and your bum...

I think Capn Jacks recently changed their menu and I've heard some good things about it......

Did you ever get the desserts to go? Some servers offered it to us as it came with the DDP.

Yes, they asked us if we wanted to take it to go, but we were going to Disney Quest and hanging out at DD, so we couldn't keep it anywhere.

Yeah, my FB entry that day was "I fell on my bum..... bummer"

Jordan, I went to srart a PTR, but planning was kinda low key b/c my kids didn't know until 26 days before-then it was just a time constraint!

All caught up

Capn's Jacks looks quite yumma, like others this is one restaurant that we have overlooked in the past, but I think I might have to go check the menu out now. TRex also looks awesome too

Ouchio about BB, I would have been the same as you too. But I am glad it didn't affect you too much and you were able to enjoy the rest of your day.

Nice pics of 1900 PF, you daughters are adorable.

Can't wait to read more

Thank you, thank you!! I think the adrenaline and excitement took over my very low lower back pain. My DH thinks it is mental b/c it actually hurst worse since we've been home... go figure.

 

[lori1043]

The plan is to get to EPCOT at rope drop.

Something you should know or may know about us is that we are NOT rope drop kinda people. It's our vacation and an 8 hour rest is really imperative... so we rarely, if ever, have made rope drop. Yes, we are the anti- TGM'ers. I did not use good ole TGM this time b/c I think using his wonderful info once is enough. I felt we got our tips from him that we still use, some we already used, and enjoyed the new ideas enough to try to put them into effect.

THIS trip, the GOAL was to make rope drop in every park, so we could see all the hoopla, and you'll see how we did each day....

So we have Mickey and Stitch call to wake us up each day-THAT service was disappointing this stay-it was the same every day! My kids didn't even care if they picked the phone up or not by day 3! It could've been just plain not wanting to get out of bed syndrome, or their interest in the message had floundered. We liked the times when you didn't know WHO was gonna be waking us up! I am not complaining, I love Mickey and Stitch to call me in the morning....

I still cannot believe that it was one week and 2 days ago today that we headed to EPCOT at 8:30am and made rope drop! We have only made 1 rope drop in our 5.5 family stays there-and it was for our hurrication last September, for Gustav. In MK!

We are in the park and no one is moving and we wondering WHY...
Because rope drop was inside the park, not outside like MK. New to me!!!

We headed straight for those golden Soarin' FP's........... and saw that the line was like 5 minutes, so we rode. I LOVE the smells in that ride. We asked for the 1st row-my kids do not like seeing feet of the people above us in that ride. They say it takes from the "soarin'" experience. I secretly agree as does my DH.

I'd love a bottle of that smell, please.

I think Soarin and SM are my alltime favorite Disney rides.

Flying over MK in DL brings back really good memories too.

hmmm.......................................................................................................................................
.........................Napa................... I know why people love California. If it weren't for those pesky earthquakes and ridiculous cost of living......

ohh, daydreaming...

Then we headed to Test Track............ DD9, who swore she would ride everything before leaving, had already decided against BTM. So, I wasn't sure she was gonna do it. She reminded me right before that she LOVED it last time(oops momma forgot).... so we got FP's and rode it 2x. Then we got more FP's. The lines were NIL this trip- it was amazing! We wound up not using most of our FP's, nor did anyone want them.... more on that in AK, too.

I have some video of the ride itself, but it takes so long to download, I may just post a link when I get it done.

Okay, so the next pic was for DH....

When he was in Texas about a month ago, he got an upgrade on his rental...... and THAT camaro was it. He said the only difference was that this one was maroon and the one he drove was fire engine red! I think his tongue was hanging out when he saw it at the end of Test Track......

We were getting hungry at about this time with little to no breakfast. DD11 had a granola bar every morning that we didn't have a scheduled breakfast. Today our ADR was for Teppan Edo at 8pm (the corrext time).
I purposely made out ADR's late b/c I do not like crowds and so i like to avoid the traditional 5-7pm times unless i have no choice. We'd either eat earlier or later than that. I do the same thing with lunches-avoiding 11:30-1:30. Most of the time we were eating lunch at 11am b/c neither DH, DD9 or myself had anything but a coke or juice that morning.

Now for Mission Space, I knew it would be DD11 and I doing the orange version(non winpy) and DH and DD9 doing the green version(wimpy). I think I have those colors correct. I am sure someone will let me know!

DH has had inner ear issues before with uncontrollable ummmm.........vomiting.............in the past and the last time he did this ride he felt BAD the rest of the day, so he knows his limits and was happy to do the non twirling version with DD9.

So we rode it 2x! No lines at all! DD11 and I rode non wimpy while they did the other one, then we all rode wimpy version together- and heck, I was pleasantly suprised that it was still GREAT! I thought I'd be disappointed. You still feel some sensation, and even a little G's in the lift off-but no slingshot(my favorite part) around the moon-but it was all good!

Then we walked to WS, b/c we were hungry.. and found this on the ground......

always looking for Mickeys, even if they are gross.......

not good of DD11, but pretty anyway....

DH and I were definitely going to have fish n chips from Yorkshire County Fish house, so while he got that, I walked over to France with my non fish eating kids to get croissant ham and cheese sandwiches from La Boulangerie Patisserie.... where we had an smallish interesting experience...all this in a sweet french accent....

french guy #1-bonjour, can I help you?
me-(I didn't know what to expect about DDP in here)- I have DDP and would like 2 ham and cheese croissants, what can they get with that?
french guy #1-um, I don't understand, talk to him(and he points to a guy on the other side)he knows english
me- to french guy #2- I'd like 2 hamd and cheese croissants, what comes with that on DDP
french guy #2- you need to talk to him(pointing at yet, another french guy back on the other side.

Thank goodness there was no one else in there b/c then I woulda felt rushed on top of it all

me- can I please get to ham and cheese croissant sandwiches-and what comes with it b/c I have DDP(NOW I am feeling like I should read a bit more)
french guy #3- yes mam, and here's what you can get as a side(he shows me all the desserts(I really didn't know if they got chips or something with it, ???). My kids pic out a darn chocolate chip cookie out of all those pastries(ugh) but whatever makes em happy is good with me.

So, DH has our fish and we sit to eat.....

and another not so good mid bit pic of my poor DD11(who is obviously not happy with this pic....

The ham and cheese were good but our memory of the fish n chips was much better than what was in front of us. It was NOT that good this time at all. Sorta slimy.

Here is a pretty duck begging for some food. DD11 named him Abner(she names all animals that cross her path-she's goofy!!)

Then off to UK...

Ugh!!!!!!!! These booths smelled like some strong BO!!! It was completely nasty. DD11 loves the HP books and she loves visiting these phone booths.... but jeez, I think mousekeeping or whomever SKIPPED disinfecting. The kids were OUT quick!

A fun and never done before thing for us was the Kim Possible phones. We really enjoyed it, even if it took a bit of time.....

We had Mexico.

We saw some other kids later that had Germany.

In Mexico, we watched the glass blower for a while....

He was making an octopus. So cool.

Norway.........

Germany...............

DH likes that German beer

and we went to the candy shop.......

Okay, so that ones shows something I used to do with gummy bears as a kid-so we all got goofy and bit off heads and tails of bears and mixed them up. Gross I know.

gotta do the masks-still!

Another Mickey...

Continued.........

 

[lori1043]

Japan.....

Then we walked back to FW and can you guess where we went next?

Just love the above pic..... and the below....

we must have gone back to TT too......

and ice station cool.....

The funny thing about this day was that we skipped Journey into Imagination AND The Seas. It bothered none of us. It was kinda cool to be able to NOT stress over missing something. The Land was closed. We did go do the stupid Ellen's Energy thing-my family loves it- but I wanted to skip it. I rested in the coolness though, but it made me tired!

The NOT stress part was a joke b/c we decided to take a risk and head over to Ohana. I had wanted to have dinner at Ohana but it was booked immediately and I missed out. 2 CM's told us that it was so slow this time that we should be walk in's and we should get in pretty easily. It was 6pm and our Teppan Edo was for 8pm-so we took the monorail to TTC,

got on the Poly monorail and went to Ohana-and thier computers were down and the manager was flipping out busy and told he he couldn't guarantee we could get in b/c he had NOidea who was even ON the reservation list.......

so we hightailed it back to EPCOT and our feet were killing us by this time and we were dragging and DD9 was starting to melt down and we made it back to WS. At the bottom of WS!!! Then I felt like it was the marathon all over again........ "cmon you can do it", "get up off the ground kid we're ALMOST to Japan!", "look it's RIGHT THERE" on the other side of the world. (The boats across the lagoon had stopped 10 minutes before we got to it)......

FINALLY

We waited about 15 minutes then got called, we wound up having a BLAST here....

esp after a drink!

look at the monorail meal!

This was not the best meal, but it was the best time. Our hibachi mates were wonderful and we got along great and we had a fun time! They were from Virginia and it was thier last night at WDW. It was a family of 4, they had a 15 and a 10 year old- who left mid dinner to go to DHS to ride TOT and RRC one more time!

We have a wonderful Japanese place here in Covington, Louisiana and nothing, not even Disney hibachi in "Japan" beats it- it is called Osaka. So, where the food was really good in Disney, and probably healthier, Osaka kicks its butt-but I have seen the butter and stuff they use, where teppan Edo did not. That is my plug for Osaka. there is one in Slidell too.
There is also one in Destin, but it is not the same people and not the same food.

We celebrated DH's 40th here- and he has the hat and we both have the red faces from the ONE drink we had there(it doesn't take much)

So we left Teppan Edo at about 10pm- our ADR was for 8, we got sat about 8:15-8:30, we had such a good time, EPCOT was empty as we walked back.

We got outside and the busses were scarce- all those cabs were there trying to get us to use them.......

thankfully we waited just a few more minutes and bus came for us....tired...

One to leave you with.........

 

[Stefy]

Excellent update, sounds like you had an eventful day in Epcot.

I am the same as you, I love having Stitch wake us up, he's so naughty!

I can't believe you rode TT twice and got FP's plus a 5min wait for Soarin'! Wow. The crowds were on your side that day

Teppan is awesome, we tried it out last year and had such a blast and the two families we were seated with were really cool. We have a similar restaurant here in the UK called Benihana and we love it, although it gets alot of birthday celebrations there, so you are always hearing the happy birthday song. Can't wait to go back to TE next year as I have discovered the taste for shellfish and am loving prawns right now

Can't wait to read more

 

[D!SNEYgram]

Great update. I understand about not being "rope drop people". We are not either. However, we are in the group that "closes the park down".

 

[lori1043]

Excellent update, sounds like you had an eventful day in Epcot.

I am the same as you, I love having Stitch wake us up, he's so naughty!

I can't believe you rode TT twice and got FP's plus a 5min wait for Soarin'! Wow. The crowds were on your side that day

Teppan is awesome, we tried it out last year and had such a blast and the two families we were seated with were really cool. We have a similar restaurant here in the UK called Benihana and we love it, although it gets alot of birthday celebrations there, so you are always hearing the happy birthday song. Can't wait to go back to TE next year as I have discovered the taste for shellfish and am loving prawns right now

Can't wait to read more

Yes, I love shrimp/prawns too-they are my favorite next to crawfish. But my all time favorite seafood is crab.

We have a Benihana too!

The crowds were like this all week!! It was great!

Great update. I understand about not being "rope drop people". We are not either. However, we are in the group that "closes the park down".

Same here! It was kinda ironic that the week WE pick to do rope drop, the rides are walk on. We LOVE closing down the parks too-it is so quiet and peaceful. We swore not to push ourselves, but this trip was not as planned and we wound pushing ourselves a little more and we felt it on our last day... but more on that later.

Usually EPCOT takes us a day and a half-we just love this park. But it has been an aquired love. EPCOT WS was the bane of my Disney trips prior to our 2005 trip. Until we got to really "know" it.

Now we know it well, we LOVE WS.


One of my best friends who was htere the same week as we were, and her family's first time, hated EPCOT, with exception of Soarin(her favorite ride of all). BUt they really didn't get to know it now did they?!!

I do credit a lot of my love for Disney to loving it's history's founder!
She doesn't have that. But they had a wonderful time and are like us-having post WDW blues!

 

[TigerKat]

Lori – I couldn’t agree more about sitting in the first row on Soarin! It makes a huge difference IMHO. We are so not "rope drop" people, we've seen one and it was totally unplanned.

Really enjoying your TR!!!!

 

[portocall]

Oh thank god you can go to WDW and not make rope drop and STILL have fun... I was getting worried about that. (and a ton of other things) We are so not an early bird type of family...

I am glad you had a much better experience in Teppan Edo than we did. Table mates and hibachi chefs make all the difference and in our case, neither were good. I saw all the other lucky ppl who had really funny chefs (can't speak about their table mates though) and they were laughing up storm.

Loving you TR so far....

 

[zipuzee]

We have a wonderful Japanese place here in Covington, Louisiana and nothing, not even Disney hibachi in "Japan" beats it- it is called Osaka. So, where the food was really good in Disney, and probably healthier, Osaka kicks its butt-but I have seen the butter and stuff they use, where teppan Edo did not. That is my plug for Osaka. there is one in Slidell too.

Osaka is pretty good; we go several times a year. We ate in Japan in the restaurant before they redid it and agree that we don't need to do hibachi there when we can get it here.

 

[rie'smom]

There's an Osaka in Houma too. I haven't been yet.

 

[jordanyosh]

What a fantastic day at Epcot and a full one at that! Doing both the WS and Future World is very bold indeed, but since it was so slow....

Teppan Edo...heaven....but now I guess I need to make a trip to your neck of the woods for some great Osaka!!!!

 

[Charleston Princess]

You are super sneaky, Lori!!! I didn't know you had started a TR! I am here and off to catch up!

 

[lori1043]

There's an Osaka in Houma too. I haven't been yet.

Hmm, I wonder if it is the same peeps? Since Katrina, we go there every Christmas Eve, after service at church. We used to go to IHOP, but after Katrina IHOP never opened back up for MONTHS and Osaka was one a a few places open-and it became a tradition. Even when we are moved to Houston, we will come home for Christmas Eve and go to Osaka. It is simply the BEST hibachi ever! haha- we went from a $30 meal to a $100 meal on Christmas Eve!

What a fantastic day at Epcot and a full one at that! Doing both the WS and Future World is very bold indeed, but since it was so slow....

Teppan Edo...heaven....but now I guess I need to make a trip to your neck of the woods for some great Osaka!!!!

No, Teppan Edo had nothing on Osaka, except maybe less butter! I AM from Louisiana, home of the BEST FOOD EVER! Also has very high heart attack rates! And I am sure we are high on the obesity scale too. But we brag really good food, and rightfully.

It was NO LINES, seriously not exaggerating. It was a GREAT time to go. I have been to WDW in February 2x(Mardi Gras not during Presidents week), March 2x, October, January, June, and September 2x now- and September seems to be really low crowds like January. June is totally unacceptable crowd wise for our family.

Some busier attractions like Soarin's signs SAID 20 minutes on the wait, but we walked all the way in every time. The only wait we had was for a bus an hour and a half after MK was closed one night- and that was ridiculous as we saw Pop/ASmusic/ASmovies had bus after bus, sometimes 2 buses, but we had one, then 10 minutes later came another, then 10 minutes later was another. The line was LONG-all the way to the fence that seperates the wait lines from the greenery by the water of 7 seas(I think) lagoon. We waited 40 minutes for that-and we soooo didn't whine b/c we have been in worse and we were sooooo happy to have NO waits in any park.

More on that night later.

 

[lori1043]

You are super sneaky, Lori!!! I didn't know you had started a TR! I am here and off to catch up!

I am glad you are here!!!

I must admit it is neither as creative as yours nor as descriptive! But we had a blast and like I said, it was a very different type of Disney trip for us!!

Lori