A Birthday Trip for a New Life - NEW UPDATE - 1/29

[DisDreamz]

We entered the park and discussed which ride would be first on our agenda. For some reason Minnie really wanted to go on Stitch's Great Escape. I guess the guidebooks made it sound fun . The line wasn't too long so we were on pretty quickly. However it was just as bad as I had heard--especially the smell .

After exiting the ride we headed for Space Mountain. We loved the queue, but the ride itself wasn't as enjoyable as we're used to. Interestingly we found that most of the DL/WDW rides we preferred the WDW queues, but the DL rides themselves. The ride wasn't quite as fast and was a lot bumpier, plus we all missed that you didn't get a ride picture at the end.

Afterwards we decided to head towards Haunted Mansion and ran into this on the way:

My shot

Their shot

Unfortunately Tink refused to sit in the front and wouldn't let anyone sit in back with her (which made Minnie look huge), but they liked sitting in it anyway.

 

[DisDreamz]

Sorry, I've been gone so long. I've had some EX drama occur over the past week and I took an impromptu DL trip on Sunday to try to destress. Plus my internet has been driving me nuts, it's down quite a few times during the day lately which makes getting on here hard

While walking through Liberty Square we came upon this

We jumped on Haunted Mansion which was a lot different than DL. Now, almost a month later, I don't remember exactly why however I do remember being really surprised that noone screamed in the elevator (someone ALWAYS screams when the lights go out which always makes the little kids in the room cry ).

We took a couple pictures

and then headed onward. We passed It's a Small World and Minnie really wanted to go on. So we convinced Tink and Jack to give it a try (neither of them are fans of the DL version).

Once again they weren't impressed and I definitely prefer DL. The one thing Jack was looking forward to was the clock chime, but either we missed it or it's not as elaborate as DL (especially during the holiday visits when it had a really cool light show display every 30? minutes).

 

[DisDreamz]

At this point we decided that we really wanted to ride Big Thunder Mountain. So instead of just hoofing it, we took the train.

I think this may have been on the train platform, but I'm not sure (it looks almost like the castle exit, but I don't remember going that way to catch the train ).

After a pretty short wait we hopped on the train

It was nice to get a tour of the Kingdom. We hopped off the train and it was time for a bathroom break--for me so the kids took the opportunity to take pictures (most of which came out horrible).

There was a little boy and girl sitting nearby from England (probably given their accents) and I laughed a bit that they were fighting just like Tink and Jack do--sibling rivalry is a world wide issue .

After I was done, we headed to Big Thunder. The line was pretty long, but the ride itself was fun.

By this time it was getting late and we were starving. So we decided to head towards Fantasyland to find something to eat. We went to Pinnochio Village Haus for lunch. Or I should say that the kids ate there. I actually ordered food for the kids and then left them to go search out a hot dog (I really wanted to have Casey's for lunch, but none of the kids wanted hot dogs so I ended up at the Fry Shoppe). Unfortunately by the time I got back, this is what was left of the kids food:

Jack's plate. I think he had pepperoni pizza.

Minnie's plate. Again, I'm going on memory which I believe points me to chicken strips and fries.

Tink's plate. The only one not finished by the time I got back. As you can tell she had the macaroni & cheese with french fries.

Of course I can't complain too much, because I was so hungry that this was the picture of my plate when we remembered Hot dog and fries.

We left Pinnochio's and headed into Fantasyland.

 

[DisDreamz]

We walked passed Dumbo and as we came to the Mad Tea Party Tink insisted that she really wanted to go. Unfortunately none of the rest of us wanted to go, so she decided to go by herself.

Standing on line by herself.

Jack and Minnie waiting for Tink to get off.

Tink loved taking pictures while she rode.

Self portrait

It was funny to watch her spin herself while also taking pictures (and looking at the pictures she took ).

Then we decided to head to the kids new favorite "ride," the Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor.

The kids loved it so much when we went on Sunday night that they were looking forward to going again. Tink and Jack both really wanted to be picked to be part of the show (Jack wanted to be Randall or THAT GUY ). Tink was so excited to be someone who "doesn't know there's a monster under the seat." This definitely became the kids favorite thing at Magic Kingdom.

 

[DisDreamz]

Sorry this is taking so long. Between my internet connection problems, EX drama, and just getting work done around here it's rare for me to be able to sit down and give full focus to the report.

So we hopped on the TTA and happily took a tour around the land. Even though this is a slow paced ride, we all enjoyed it and I enjoyed the different views that we got of the park.

After going on the TTA Tink really wanted an ice cream and the rest of us were looking for a good snack as well. I was hoping to find a pretzel cart, but of course I never can seem to find the carts when I want them (that's true at DL as well, thankfully there I know where at least one cart always is).

So I convinced Tink that we should go have ice cream at Auntie Gravity's instead of buying from the cart. This was a good decision as I was happy to get a rootbeer float (which Tink got to share) and Tink was still able to get her vanilla ice cream (there was some complaining that it wasn't in a cone, but she ate it without problem and I was happy to avoid the mess that a cone can sometimes leave). Minnie and Jack both enjoyed their strawberry-banana smoothies, too.

After finishing up our treats we browsed in a couple stores looking for something to buy me for my birthday (the $70 gift card was burning a hole in my pocket ). The kids really wanted to buy me something, but they had all forgotten their cash at home (my mom had given each of them $20 to buy me a birthday gift) so I agreed to give them money and they each could buy me a pin.

They each picked out one for me and while they were shopping I picked up a couple myself (you'll have to wait to see pictures of all the pins until the end, but I didn't get to see their picks until we got back to the hotel that night).

Then we decided to head towards Pirates of the Carribean. On the way, we passed these picture opportunities that couldn't be passed up:

After this we ran into the Swiss Family Treehouse and decided to give it a quick tour.

Definitely not something we'll probably do again (just like the one in DL), kind of boring and unlike DL there isn't anything fun to do at the end.

When we came out though, we did come upon these water sprayers so Tink and Jack took it upon themselves to try to get soaked.

 

[DisDreamz]

We finally made it to Pirates and the line was almost a walk on!

The sad thing about this is that we didn't really even get to enjoy the queue because we walked through so fast and the ride itself seemed much shorter than the DL version.

We exited into the store and the kids had a ton of fun browsing the pirate stuff.

By this time we decided that we had seen everything we wanted to see and we were getting kind of hungry for dinner so we headed for the exit.

We passed this on our way and just had to take pictures:

If you can't tell, it's Splash Mountain with no water! We were a bit disappointed that Splash Mountain was down during our entire trip because it's one of our favorite DL rides, but that's what happens when you choose to go in the off season.

We made it to the exit and took a few more pictures of Main Street before heading out.

After exiting the park, I decided to quickly check with Guest Services to find out if I could use my gift card at the hotel and unfortunately the answer was no. So I ran back inside the gates and stopped at the nearest shop to spend the last $15. I found a picture frame which holds one of our Chef Mickey pictures and it only cost me less than a dollar!!

We hopped on the monorail and headed for the Grand Floridian. We arrived at 7pm for our 8pm ADRs (I made almost all our ADRs to be the last seating of the night which ended up being a great thing and it was rare for us to NOT get seated early) at Grand Floridian Cafe. They happily sat us early and the kids loved the offerings (while my kids love "kids food" they also like things that you can usually never find on a kids menu like steak and salmon).

Unfortunately I was so tired that I totally forgot to take pictures of the food. I had the Shrimp and Prosciutto Penne Pasta which the waitress had recommended, but I actually found a bit boring. Kind of like macaroni & cheese with bacon. Minnie and Tink both had salmon while Jack had the grilled chicken breast with broccoli. They all loved their food.

Just as we were about to order dessert (I was eyeing the Chocolate Fondue, but the table next to us ordered it and really disliked it), they came out with a cake!! It said "HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHANNON from Mom and Dad" and was on the most delicious chocolate cake (Tink and I ate it for the next few days in the hotel room) and came with a birthday tiara. I called my mom who confirmed that it was from them (my parents are divorced and I don't call her husband DAD) and they had also prepaid for the meal!! It was a great birthday present!

 

[Disneychix]

Your family is lovely!! It's great that you were able to celebrate the start to a great year with them!! From the looks of all these pics you all had a fabulous time.

Happy belated birthday!