exwdwcm
wishes she was Wendy Moira Angela Darling
- Joined
- Aug 19, 1999
- Messages
- 5,046
Me- Michelle, 32, marketing manager, married to a non-disney guy, no kids (but trying now!), former cast member (wdwcp in 1996), the pefectionist/organizer/trip NAZI
Mom- "MawMaw", 50s, married 35 years, recently retired, the generous one! Had brain surgery (pitutary gland)last year that might slow her down a bit this trip as she gets tired more
Dad- "PawPaw", 50s, along for the ride, our driver and constantly pulling out his wallet to pay for stuff!
Great Aunt- Marion or "Auntie", 60s, first time ever to WDW! recently retired as well!
Sister- Mandy, "NeNe", 28, special ed teacher, not big into disney, but loves to go with us, calls her "schmoopy" (boyfriend for those that don't get the Seinfeld reference) every night
Sister- Wendy, 30, paralegal, married with 2 year old, huge Disney NUT and the comedian of the family
Bro in Law- Mike, turned 30 on the trip, married to Wendy, and another comedian and great dad to little Ally
Ally- Mike and Wendy's little angel, 2.4 years old (terrible twos!!!), the first grandkid in our family and completely SPOILED ROTTEN (we love it!)
Friday, December 9
Today was an early one- once again, Mickey and Stitch were hung up on ..poor Mickey! It was overcast all day. We were up at 6:45am, planning to make early entry for Magic Kingdom. We loaded the van, got Ally strapped in and hit the usual curb on the way out of POR. Yes, Dad, it is still there!
We arrive at MK by 8am and Ally wants to do the carousel. We actually do it twice and she loves it.
She is really getting a hang of this ride thing. We get a cute pic of them all holding hands, so Mandy and I decide we need one of us holding hands from the back.....I am sure other guests were wondering why two grown adult women were holding hands.....
Next it was Pooh and we bounced along with Tigger. We then headed to Splash and Wendy and Mike sat out with Ally. The music wasnt working through the first 2/3s of the ride, so it wasnt near as good. I am sure the people behind us appreciated us singing instead ..Then I sat out with Ally while everyone rode it again, this time with full music. Darn my luck! Ally played on the playground there and was trying to copy an older kid and fell and bumped her head. Then some of us ran over to Big Thunder for another ride. We had grabbed a fast pass for Peter Pan earlier, so we used it, no wait and our second time to ride this on our trip.
By now it is nearing 10am and we have 10:30 reservations for Crystal Palace character breakfast with Pooh and friends. We wanted to schedule it later, so that the crowds would be less in the restaurant, plus we could tackle some rides early morning. We waited about 15 minutes and were seated. Great food again- love the cheesy potatoes- I went back for seconds of those. They probably had to cook more since we were devouring them all! We dined on eggs, biscuits and gravy, pancakes, mickey waffles, breakfast lasagna, cereal, fruit, omelettes, bacon, sausage well you get the point, we pigged out!
Tigger, Pooh, Eeyore and Piglet made the rounds and we got to spend extra time with them as the restaurant was almost empty.
After breakfast, we split up. Mike and Wendy took Ally their own way. My dad, Mandy and I wanted to do Space Mountain, so my mom and Auntie said they would catch up with us. Well space was a 40 minute wait and we werent going to wait more than 20 minutes for anything on this vacation, so we got a fastpass for space mountain and then rode stitch and wedway people mover, both with no lines. Stitch was disappointing, I much preferred the Alien Encounter, but maybe that was too scary for kids? Not a big Stitch fan. Now it was time for our Space Mtn fastpasses, so we walk past all the standbys waiting in the long line- its a great feeling! Just as we get in the main part of the building, the ride breaks down and the lights are on. Interesting to see it with the lights on. We were told we could wait or leave. We decided to wait for a bit. It turned out to be about 15 minutes. There was a large Pop Warner group of football boys and their chaperones in front of us from Ohio. We chatted with them for a while, seemed like great kids. Again, we never experience problems in the parks with Pop Warner. We saw some of them, but not a ton, only in the hotel was it a problem and then it was only the cheerleaders. The chaperone told us about riding mission space and how one of his kids was sick afterwards, literally puking ..poor kid! Finally the lights came back on and everyone cheered!
During this time, Auntie and my mom went to see Carousel of Progress. They enjoyed having a seat for a while! Wendy, Mike and Ally had spent the afternoon in toon town and did Hall of Presidents and rode the train.
She got to meet Cinderella finally---one on one, which was a big relief. Mike and WEndy were pretty upset they couldn't get the breakfast with her- after countless early morning calls and even trying once we were there for cancellations, but no luck. Ally was just in awe of "rella"
They also spent some time on Tom Sawyer island.
After our tomorrowland adventure, we met up with my mom and Auntie and decided to head to Toon Town and see if we could run into Ally and them. No luck. We just got on the train instead. By now, my parents and Auntie were getting tired, so they got off at Main Street and left for a break. Mandy and I stayed and got off in Frontierland. We did Pirates again and then I got a Dole Whip float. Yummy! Mandy wanted to do Swiss Family treehouse, so she did that while I enjoyed my float! That is my favorite snack at WDW. Vanilla and pineapple blended frozen yogurt with pineapple juice! Nothing beats it. Then as we are walking towards the hub, we spot Wendy, Mike and Ally. So we went over to Tomorrowland with them and rode Wedway again. Paging Tom Morrow! Mr. Tom Morrow.
What kid doesn't love the peoplemover?
By then we were pooped too. So we headed back on the bus and relaxed in the room. Mousekeeping left us little towel elephants! Yes, we did tip them everyday, but only a few bucks and they did something cool each and every day for us.
TIP- do mousekeeping evelopes, decorated with stickers etc before you come and then just set them out each day!
We got drink refills at the food court at POR and walked over to the pool area to check it out. Weve used the pool here on previous trips and loved it. Today, however, it was overrun by drunken chaperones and cleavaged cheerleaders. We just people watched and saw a female chaperone taking pictures of her cheerleaders as they played in the pool. I dont remember being that well-developed at that age, but they sure were! The chaperone asked them to not show so much cleavage, so she could post these on the internet. She had a beer in her other hand and a soft sided cooler loaded with beer next to her. There were empty cans near her too. She obviously had been having a good time here for a while. I am all for beer, I am quite a beer drinker myself, especially by a pool. But when I am chaperoning young girls and trying to set an example, I dont agree that that is the best behavior. You want a drink- have one. ONE. Or go to the piano bar at night with the other older folks and enjoy it then. Get plastered all you want- I have no problem with it- I might have a drink with ya! I just thought it was irresponsible to be plastered when you were watching these young girls. Their parents entrusted their safety to the drunk chaperone. Oh well, it wasnt my place to say or do anything. Mandy and I just laughed at the scene and once again vowed to avoid Pop Warner week just because of moments like these.
We then returned to the room and started doing some packing and organizing. With 4 adults and one 2 year old in a POR room, it can get very crowded and unorganized! We didnt spend a ton of time in our rooms, other than sleeping and an hour or two break midday. It worked for us, but I think next time Wendy, Mike and Ally will need and want their own space. It was their first time bringing Ally and I think they realized having their own space might have been better. I cant blame them. I know when I have kids and go, Ill want my own space. But its all a learning experience.
Did a bomb go off in here?
By 4pm or so, we were ready to head out. Auntie wasnt feeling well, so she decided to stay in. The original itinerary (yes, it is laminated on notecards and we each have a copy!) was for us to go to Epcot and have dinner at Biergarten and enjoy Illuminations. Well, we had all decided Biergarten wasnt for us and we didnt want to dish out that money for food we might not enjoy. So we changed our plans. We decided to hit downtown Disney and get our shopping done. We originally planned to do that tomorrow, our last day- Saturday, but I knew DTD would be a madhouse then. So we did it Friday afternoon. It worked out well for us. We all donated our funds to the house of mouse once again and got some great stuff, including Christmas ornaments, pens, pads, calendars, toys and more. We stopped for dinner at Earle of Sandwich. Hardly any line today, which was nice. We all enjoyed a great dinner, for the second time here. Ally just loved the tomato soup and was trying to eat it on her own- it kept falling into her bib. I cant say enough about this place. I eat here everytime I am in town, whether on business or vacation. Cant beat the food and the price.
good thing her bib had a pocket at the bottom to catch all the tomato soup she was missing!
After some more shopping, Ally started coughing again. It didnt sound good and she was a bit warm. So Mike and Wendy decided to take her to the doctor. I knew there was a primacare type place just outside of DTD on 535.
So they dropped the rest of us off at the Boardwalk and went on to the doctor with her. My parents and Mandy and I toured the Boardwalk quickly and then strolled down to the Epcot entrance there. Ive never been in this entrance before and it was easy to get to. Must be great for those resort guests to use.
We decided to do a few more things we missed last time- like the 360 movie in France. I have the soundtrack/song for this movie and love it- all classical music- some of it you may recognize has been used in other movies, like Oceans 11. Anyways, good movie and then we strolled along a bit- checked out the stores in the UK and Canada. Found a birthday present for Mike finally- a great soccer jersey in the UK. We were making our way towards the front of the World Showcase and discussing Illuminations. We found a bench near some bathrooms and a fry stand and took our spots. Mom went to the bathroom- after like 20 minutes, we got worried and I went to look for her- she was just coming out- turns out there was only like one stall in this bathroom and the line was out the door! So it just took forever. Mandy and I decided to go grab some drinks and churros before the show started- we ran over to Mexico and stopped in some stores along the way. We made it back just as the show was starting. While we didnt have a perfect view, we could still see pretty well and it allowed my parents to sit for a bit too. The show was great. We left towards the end to try and beat the crowds out. Remember, we let Mike take the rental van, so we have to use the bus. Good thing we left a little early, the line was already huge. We waited through one bus. We finally got on, and got seats. We usually would stand, but mandy and I were pooped and there were no other elderly or kids needing seats, so we sat. There was however, more cheerleaders ..and we got to listen to them all the way home go back and forth about so and so winning and how so and so sucked and how so and so would not be back next year. They were just totally into it. Cheerleading and football is big business here in Texas, so it wasnt anything I wasnt used to hearing. AT least they were not cheering!
We finally make it back to the room and Ally is looking better. Turns out the doctor didnt think it was croupe, but just a sore throat. They gave them a prescription, but it was late and werent sure they could fill it. They found a WalGreens that was closing the pharmacy already, but apparently they were really nice and spent a few more minutes to fill Allys prescription. Ally looked in a good mood and was getting ready for bed. That little trip to the doctor wasnt cheap though- I think it was a couple of hundred dollars when all said and done. But at least she was feeling better. So we all fall asleep knowing tomorrow is our last full day of magic.....but some of us are ready to go home, because I am wearing everyone out!
Stay tuned for our final full day.....Who will get soaked on Kali River Rapids? how many times can I lose my sunglasses on Dinosaur? Will we survive the mob at MGM? Will we manage to fit everything in our bags again?
Mom- "MawMaw", 50s, married 35 years, recently retired, the generous one! Had brain surgery (pitutary gland)last year that might slow her down a bit this trip as she gets tired more
Dad- "PawPaw", 50s, along for the ride, our driver and constantly pulling out his wallet to pay for stuff!
Great Aunt- Marion or "Auntie", 60s, first time ever to WDW! recently retired as well!
Sister- Mandy, "NeNe", 28, special ed teacher, not big into disney, but loves to go with us, calls her "schmoopy" (boyfriend for those that don't get the Seinfeld reference) every night
Sister- Wendy, 30, paralegal, married with 2 year old, huge Disney NUT and the comedian of the family
Bro in Law- Mike, turned 30 on the trip, married to Wendy, and another comedian and great dad to little Ally
Ally- Mike and Wendy's little angel, 2.4 years old (terrible twos!!!), the first grandkid in our family and completely SPOILED ROTTEN (we love it!)
Friday, December 9
Today was an early one- once again, Mickey and Stitch were hung up on ..poor Mickey! It was overcast all day. We were up at 6:45am, planning to make early entry for Magic Kingdom. We loaded the van, got Ally strapped in and hit the usual curb on the way out of POR. Yes, Dad, it is still there!
We arrive at MK by 8am and Ally wants to do the carousel. We actually do it twice and she loves it.
She is really getting a hang of this ride thing. We get a cute pic of them all holding hands, so Mandy and I decide we need one of us holding hands from the back.....I am sure other guests were wondering why two grown adult women were holding hands.....
Next it was Pooh and we bounced along with Tigger. We then headed to Splash and Wendy and Mike sat out with Ally. The music wasnt working through the first 2/3s of the ride, so it wasnt near as good. I am sure the people behind us appreciated us singing instead ..Then I sat out with Ally while everyone rode it again, this time with full music. Darn my luck! Ally played on the playground there and was trying to copy an older kid and fell and bumped her head. Then some of us ran over to Big Thunder for another ride. We had grabbed a fast pass for Peter Pan earlier, so we used it, no wait and our second time to ride this on our trip.
By now it is nearing 10am and we have 10:30 reservations for Crystal Palace character breakfast with Pooh and friends. We wanted to schedule it later, so that the crowds would be less in the restaurant, plus we could tackle some rides early morning. We waited about 15 minutes and were seated. Great food again- love the cheesy potatoes- I went back for seconds of those. They probably had to cook more since we were devouring them all! We dined on eggs, biscuits and gravy, pancakes, mickey waffles, breakfast lasagna, cereal, fruit, omelettes, bacon, sausage well you get the point, we pigged out!
Tigger, Pooh, Eeyore and Piglet made the rounds and we got to spend extra time with them as the restaurant was almost empty.
After breakfast, we split up. Mike and Wendy took Ally their own way. My dad, Mandy and I wanted to do Space Mountain, so my mom and Auntie said they would catch up with us. Well space was a 40 minute wait and we werent going to wait more than 20 minutes for anything on this vacation, so we got a fastpass for space mountain and then rode stitch and wedway people mover, both with no lines. Stitch was disappointing, I much preferred the Alien Encounter, but maybe that was too scary for kids? Not a big Stitch fan. Now it was time for our Space Mtn fastpasses, so we walk past all the standbys waiting in the long line- its a great feeling! Just as we get in the main part of the building, the ride breaks down and the lights are on. Interesting to see it with the lights on. We were told we could wait or leave. We decided to wait for a bit. It turned out to be about 15 minutes. There was a large Pop Warner group of football boys and their chaperones in front of us from Ohio. We chatted with them for a while, seemed like great kids. Again, we never experience problems in the parks with Pop Warner. We saw some of them, but not a ton, only in the hotel was it a problem and then it was only the cheerleaders. The chaperone told us about riding mission space and how one of his kids was sick afterwards, literally puking ..poor kid! Finally the lights came back on and everyone cheered!
During this time, Auntie and my mom went to see Carousel of Progress. They enjoyed having a seat for a while! Wendy, Mike and Ally had spent the afternoon in toon town and did Hall of Presidents and rode the train.
She got to meet Cinderella finally---one on one, which was a big relief. Mike and WEndy were pretty upset they couldn't get the breakfast with her- after countless early morning calls and even trying once we were there for cancellations, but no luck. Ally was just in awe of "rella"
They also spent some time on Tom Sawyer island.
After our tomorrowland adventure, we met up with my mom and Auntie and decided to head to Toon Town and see if we could run into Ally and them. No luck. We just got on the train instead. By now, my parents and Auntie were getting tired, so they got off at Main Street and left for a break. Mandy and I stayed and got off in Frontierland. We did Pirates again and then I got a Dole Whip float. Yummy! Mandy wanted to do Swiss Family treehouse, so she did that while I enjoyed my float! That is my favorite snack at WDW. Vanilla and pineapple blended frozen yogurt with pineapple juice! Nothing beats it. Then as we are walking towards the hub, we spot Wendy, Mike and Ally. So we went over to Tomorrowland with them and rode Wedway again. Paging Tom Morrow! Mr. Tom Morrow.
By then we were pooped too. So we headed back on the bus and relaxed in the room. Mousekeeping left us little towel elephants! Yes, we did tip them everyday, but only a few bucks and they did something cool each and every day for us.
TIP- do mousekeeping evelopes, decorated with stickers etc before you come and then just set them out each day!
We got drink refills at the food court at POR and walked over to the pool area to check it out. Weve used the pool here on previous trips and loved it. Today, however, it was overrun by drunken chaperones and cleavaged cheerleaders. We just people watched and saw a female chaperone taking pictures of her cheerleaders as they played in the pool. I dont remember being that well-developed at that age, but they sure were! The chaperone asked them to not show so much cleavage, so she could post these on the internet. She had a beer in her other hand and a soft sided cooler loaded with beer next to her. There were empty cans near her too. She obviously had been having a good time here for a while. I am all for beer, I am quite a beer drinker myself, especially by a pool. But when I am chaperoning young girls and trying to set an example, I dont agree that that is the best behavior. You want a drink- have one. ONE. Or go to the piano bar at night with the other older folks and enjoy it then. Get plastered all you want- I have no problem with it- I might have a drink with ya! I just thought it was irresponsible to be plastered when you were watching these young girls. Their parents entrusted their safety to the drunk chaperone. Oh well, it wasnt my place to say or do anything. Mandy and I just laughed at the scene and once again vowed to avoid Pop Warner week just because of moments like these.
We then returned to the room and started doing some packing and organizing. With 4 adults and one 2 year old in a POR room, it can get very crowded and unorganized! We didnt spend a ton of time in our rooms, other than sleeping and an hour or two break midday. It worked for us, but I think next time Wendy, Mike and Ally will need and want their own space. It was their first time bringing Ally and I think they realized having their own space might have been better. I cant blame them. I know when I have kids and go, Ill want my own space. But its all a learning experience.
Did a bomb go off in here?
By 4pm or so, we were ready to head out. Auntie wasnt feeling well, so she decided to stay in. The original itinerary (yes, it is laminated on notecards and we each have a copy!) was for us to go to Epcot and have dinner at Biergarten and enjoy Illuminations. Well, we had all decided Biergarten wasnt for us and we didnt want to dish out that money for food we might not enjoy. So we changed our plans. We decided to hit downtown Disney and get our shopping done. We originally planned to do that tomorrow, our last day- Saturday, but I knew DTD would be a madhouse then. So we did it Friday afternoon. It worked out well for us. We all donated our funds to the house of mouse once again and got some great stuff, including Christmas ornaments, pens, pads, calendars, toys and more. We stopped for dinner at Earle of Sandwich. Hardly any line today, which was nice. We all enjoyed a great dinner, for the second time here. Ally just loved the tomato soup and was trying to eat it on her own- it kept falling into her bib. I cant say enough about this place. I eat here everytime I am in town, whether on business or vacation. Cant beat the food and the price.
good thing her bib had a pocket at the bottom to catch all the tomato soup she was missing!
After some more shopping, Ally started coughing again. It didnt sound good and she was a bit warm. So Mike and Wendy decided to take her to the doctor. I knew there was a primacare type place just outside of DTD on 535.
So they dropped the rest of us off at the Boardwalk and went on to the doctor with her. My parents and Mandy and I toured the Boardwalk quickly and then strolled down to the Epcot entrance there. Ive never been in this entrance before and it was easy to get to. Must be great for those resort guests to use.
We decided to do a few more things we missed last time- like the 360 movie in France. I have the soundtrack/song for this movie and love it- all classical music- some of it you may recognize has been used in other movies, like Oceans 11. Anyways, good movie and then we strolled along a bit- checked out the stores in the UK and Canada. Found a birthday present for Mike finally- a great soccer jersey in the UK. We were making our way towards the front of the World Showcase and discussing Illuminations. We found a bench near some bathrooms and a fry stand and took our spots. Mom went to the bathroom- after like 20 minutes, we got worried and I went to look for her- she was just coming out- turns out there was only like one stall in this bathroom and the line was out the door! So it just took forever. Mandy and I decided to go grab some drinks and churros before the show started- we ran over to Mexico and stopped in some stores along the way. We made it back just as the show was starting. While we didnt have a perfect view, we could still see pretty well and it allowed my parents to sit for a bit too. The show was great. We left towards the end to try and beat the crowds out. Remember, we let Mike take the rental van, so we have to use the bus. Good thing we left a little early, the line was already huge. We waited through one bus. We finally got on, and got seats. We usually would stand, but mandy and I were pooped and there were no other elderly or kids needing seats, so we sat. There was however, more cheerleaders ..and we got to listen to them all the way home go back and forth about so and so winning and how so and so sucked and how so and so would not be back next year. They were just totally into it. Cheerleading and football is big business here in Texas, so it wasnt anything I wasnt used to hearing. AT least they were not cheering!
We finally make it back to the room and Ally is looking better. Turns out the doctor didnt think it was croupe, but just a sore throat. They gave them a prescription, but it was late and werent sure they could fill it. They found a WalGreens that was closing the pharmacy already, but apparently they were really nice and spent a few more minutes to fill Allys prescription. Ally looked in a good mood and was getting ready for bed. That little trip to the doctor wasnt cheap though- I think it was a couple of hundred dollars when all said and done. But at least she was feeling better. So we all fall asleep knowing tomorrow is our last full day of magic.....but some of us are ready to go home, because I am wearing everyone out!
Stay tuned for our final full day.....Who will get soaked on Kali River Rapids? how many times can I lose my sunglasses on Dinosaur? Will we survive the mob at MGM? Will we manage to fit everything in our bags again?
)
I took some photos of what we saw while we were there. Like the fence where Huck painting loves Becky. 
