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

After taking the requisite tree picture, we headed into World Showcase starting with Mexico. We walked through the pavilion and hopped right on the ride (Rio del Tiempo?) which was just as I remembered it--It's a Mexican Small World :joker:

Afterwards we staked out the Kidcot station and Tink started her mask.

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Afterwards we headed to Norway. Once again we hopped right on Maelstrom with no wait. I obviously had forgotten this ride. How could I have forgotten the trolls that keep popping our or the fact that half the ride is spent backwards?!

We skipped the movie (THAT I did remember from the last trip) because we were starving at this point--afterall we didn't have breakfast and it was almost noon. We grabbed a quick snack at the Kringla Bakery.

I have to stop here because I need to take Tink to softball tryouts.
 
Great start! I can't wait to read more! And, I hope Tink did well at softball tryouts! :cheer2:

I have to ask, though... we're the Christmas decorations still up in the resorts when you arrived? We're planning a huge family trip for right after Christmas this year, and I'll be so disappointed if the decorations are down already...
 
Great start! I can't wait to read more! And, I hope Tink did well at softball tryouts! :cheer2:

I have to ask, though... we're the Christmas decorations still up in the resorts when you arrived? We're planning a huge family trip for right after Christmas this year, and I'll be so disappointed if the decorations are down already...

Thanks, the tryouts went great :cheer2: (she's looking like she's going to be one of the better kids in the league which is always nice).

As for Christmas decorations at the resort, I don't remember seeing any at our hotel. However we were staying at POP so maybe they just don't decorate as much. Especially since technically the holiday season didn't end until January 5 which was a day after we arrived.

I'm pretty sure that the Contemporary at least was still decorated when we arrived because our family picture was taken with some Christmas decorations (and we got a picture of the tree out front).

It did seem like by the end of the week most of the holiday decorations were gone.
 

The girls and I tried the lefse (it tasted like a tortilla with sugar and butter, kind of bland--probably should have listened to the Disers and had the skool bread instead). Jack stuck to what he knew--a fruit cup!

After the snack we hit the kidcot stop and then for a quick look around the shops (I fell in love with the ski jackets, of course living in CA we don't have much need of them) and to visit the troll.

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Then we headed on to China.

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We went into the pavilion and waited a few minutes for the movie to start, but then saw that it was going to be awhile still so decided to skip it.

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We staked out the kidcot stop and then looked around the shops a bit.

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Jack loved the marionettes outside the pavilion. If I thought he'd actually play with it at home I so would have bought him one. I wish I'd gotten a picture of it.

We then passed through the Outpost without stopping then headed for Germany. Found the Kidcot stop and looked around the shops.

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This is the gorgeous view near Germany.

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Outside of Germany, we spent a few minutes admiring the model train town which was decorated for the holidays!

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Then we moved on to Italy. Tink talked to the not overly friendly kidcot CM about the fact that she'd just been to Naples where he was from (EX took her on a cruise to Italy before Thanksgiving).

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Finally we arrived in the American pavilion. We missed the American Adventure, but Tink hit the kidcot station (where interestingly there was an "American" CM from Beijing! I actually questioned whether she spoke much English after reading what she wrote in Tink's passport) and I looked in the shop.

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Afterwards I decided we needed to head towards Canada for our 2pm ADRs at LeCellier. We stopped in the UK on the way and the kids were excited to see the King Arthur show. So while they watched the show I hit the stores and then watched the rest of the show with them.

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The kids loved the show! Tink still repeats "gitchi gitchi wawa yaya" around the house.

The show ended just in time for us to make it for lunch.

To be continued...
 
We checked into LeCellier shortly before our 2pm ADR time and were told to go have a seat and wait for our buzzer to go off.

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Patiently waiting for a table to be ready.

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Jack was complaining that his stomach hurt. I was worried that he was getting sick, but thankfully he felt better after we ate (so he probably was just starving, afterall he had only had a few pieces of fruit all day).

Not long afterwards we were buzzed and we went inside and taken to a table in the back right corner. Our waitress was pretty attentive and the food was amazing--we'll definitely be coming back here.

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The amazing pretzel bread. We all fought over it, unfortunately we only got one piece and when we asked if we could get more the waitress brought out ONE piece!

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Tink had the Cheddar Cheese Soup as one of her sides and she really liked it.

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Jack and Minnie both liked the sourdough bread as well.

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Minnie and I both ordered the Filet Mignon with Mushroom Risotto. It was delicious. I think this was Minnie's because she likes her steak pinker than I do, however she isn't a mushroom fan so she actually ate around all the mushrooms.

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We both loved it. It was one of my favorite meals all week.

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Tink ordered the Hot Dog with French Fries which she at least ate which is saying something since the hot dog looked burnt.

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Jack ordered the Steak with French Fries (and can't forget the pool of A1 :rolleyes: ) and really liked it. We were all excited that there was steak on the kids menu and it was a pretty good size. He loved it.

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If you look close you can see the pile of mushrooms (which I later ate, yum :cool1: ).

Tink was the only one who wasn't too stuffed for dessert.

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She ordered the Make Your Own Sundae.

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After paying the bill and a quick bathroom break, we headed back out and towards the Canada kidcot stop.

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Then we checked out the shops in Canada before taking our normal mask picture.

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Minnie wasn't tall enough to reach the top hole so Tink climbed up instead (you can see her foot near Minnie's head).

Then we went quickly through the UK pavilion.

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Then we headed for France. In the shop Tink had to pose with this:

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Just outside the pavilion there was a show starting, a really cool acrobat show. popcorn::

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This guy was amazing. The kids were enthralled.

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After the show we went looking for somewhere to take our group shot, but it was so crowded this was the best we could do.

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After locating the kidcot stop and having Tink add a "piece of bread" to her mask (by this point she was drawing things relevant to the country on her mask :p ) we headed for Morocco.

I walked around the shops while Tink did her mask and then Jack insisted I take a picture of this:

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Which I love because I actually have a picture of his dad and grandpa wearing those same hats from our last trip.

When Tink was done with her mask we searched for somewhere to take the group picture.

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This is what we ended up with. For those that may not recognize it, it's where Jasmine & Aladdin usually take pictures but they were nowhere to be found. Can you spot the Hidden Mickey though?

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On the way out of the pavilion, Tink insisted on taking this picture (she's such a ham :rotfl2: ).

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After leaving Morocco we headed for Japan. Jack loved looking in the shop which had a bunch of his favorite characters: Pokemon, YuGiOh, Bakugan... Plus they watched someone get an oyster.

We posed for the group shot:

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What do you think he's thinking about?

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At this point it was getting late and I knew that Future World would be closing soon, so we decided to take the ferry across.
 
Your children are beautiful, and what a great trip report! Love your upbeat attitude:)
 
Wow! You're quick to update! I likey. ;)

Enjoying your report.

And BTW your children are beautiful!

Liz;)

Your children are beautiful, and what a great trip report! Love your upbeat attitude.

Thanks for reading (and I agree the kids are beautiful :goodvibes )! I have to update quickly before my memory gives out :lmao: . I try to keep an upbeat attitude, but I can say there are times (like today) where I'm still trying to keep looking forward--I swore that 2009 was going to be a much better year than 2008 (unfortunately EX makes that very difficult, but I'm trying).
 
We all boarded the ferry and picked a seat. Jack picked a seat on the left front side, but Tink insisted on sitting in the seat behind them so Minnie and I chose to sit on the right side across from her.

A few minutes before the ferry left a family came in and sat down, most of the family behind Tink but one of the women sat down right next to Tink. It was a bit annoying because Tink was blocked in and when the ride was over the woman didn't get up to leave so we were stuck waiting until she moved (the really annoying thing was that the ferry was next to empty so there were plenty of other seats--Tink actually looked like she wanted to move, but unfortunately didn't feel comfortably asking the woman to move).

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The views from the ferry.

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As you can see I couldn't get a picture of Tink :sad2: .

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We're here!

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On to Future World!
 
I can't think of a better place to start a new life! Great pictures of the kids...they're so photogenic!
 
I can't think of a better place to start a new life! Great pictures of the kids...they're so photogenic!

I totally agree and the trip was the happiest I've been in quite a few years. The kids and I can't wait to go back--unfortunately funds are preventing it from being too soon. At this point Disneyland is a good temporary fix.
 
We entered Future World just in time to see this

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Jack was excited for us to see the show because it's rare for us to stop and watch shows (parades, fireworks, etc. only get seen if we happen to be in the right place at the right time when we're with me :blush: ).

Afterward Tink was excited to spot this:

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After watching the show and checking out the local pin cart we headed to Spaceship Earth. Tink & I rode together while Jack & Minnie rode together. It was fun, but the kids favorite part was the pictures. They insisted that we needed to ride again before the end of our trip and make funny faces.

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Jack was excited to see some of his favorite DL Innoventions games were at the end of Spaceship Earth so we spent a few minutes letting him have a video game fix before encouraging him to move on to WDW Innoventions--Innoventions East to be exact.

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At this point I decided that I really needed a new shirt to wear the next day--my birthday! I had originally planned on wearing one of my favorite Disney shirts to breakfast, but it was long sleeves and I knew I'd be sweltering in it. So I left the kids in Innoventions East where they played the recycling game while I went shopping.

In one of the nearby shops I found it, the perfect shirt. Unfortunately it didn't come in my size (they had S, M, & XL--the sad thing in that moment was the knowledge that I had recently lost almost 40 lbs., 6 months ago I would have picked up the XL and been on my way). I left the store and returned to Innoventions to find the kids.

The kids liked Innoventions (although it's nothing like the video game heaven that we have at DL), especially this thing where you pull the rope to try to break a television screen.

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I was getting a bit tired of watching the kids do the same thing over and over so I convinced them to leave. We headed out and I decided to try one more time to look for THE SHIRT. I checked a couple other stores--no dice. Noone else seemed to have it. I decided to go back to store #1 to see if they knew where else it was sold. The CM said that it should be in all the stores (as it turns out it was, the next day!!) so I rezined myself to picking out a different shirt. Just as I was getting in line to pay for it, the CM came out with THE SHIRT in my size!! She had found it in the back. I was so happy.

At this point Future World was closing and I knew that DS was having EMHs so we decided to head over there.

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Our last view of Epcot.

We entered the Disney Studios parking lot and parked pretty close considering the time. It was a bit disconcerting walking in to see the max exodus of people leaving the park as we were going in, but we trudged on.

We wandered around the park looking for Rock N Rollercoaster (sadly I was too exhausted the day before to remember the layout of the park at this point) and passed The Great Movie Ride. I convinced the kids that we should ride it. The line was claiming a 15 minute wait so we decided to go on.

The ride was just as I remembered it. The tour guide was good albeit maybe a bit too perky for my taste. We had the gangster and even though Jack knew it wasn't real he was a bit nervous.

We left the ride and went over to Rock N Rollercoaster (I finally got my bearings back), a 90 minute wait! We hadn't eaten and it was almost 8:30pm so Minnie and I convinced Tink & Jack to go eat first.

We found someplace open at Sunset Ranch. I hopped in line at Catalina Eddie's (I think) and ordered pizza for Tink & Jack while Jack stood in line at Rosie's for me. Unfortunately both lines creeped along at about the same pace and when I finally finished ordering Jack was almost to the front of the line and the people in back of him gave me a dirty look when they saw that I was going to "cut." So being the non-confrontational person I am, I went to the back of the line. I sent Jack, Tink, & Minnie over to pick up the pizzas and after a horrendous wait ordered a cheeseburger for me and chicken nuggets for Minnie.

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Tink liked her cheese pizza.

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Jack really loved his pepperoni. He kept wanting to order pizza after this.

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Minnie's chicken nuggets and fries. Nothing exciting.

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My cheeseburger and fries. Nothing exciting, but I was so starved by this point that it didn't matter.

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Tink loved that they gave her a chocolate chip cookie with her dinner--such health food :rolleyes2 .

Once we were done eating we headed back to Rock N Rollercoaster ready to conquer whatever the wait was--55 minutes!! :cool1:

By the time we got off the ride EMHs were over and everything was closing. The kids loved the ride and were already planning when we could ride again (and who was going to ride with who). :drive:

A quick photo

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and we were headed for the exit. It was kind of cool to see the park so empty. I wish I had my flash (my external flash broke a couple months ago and I haven't had the money to replace it) because I would have taken a ton of pictures. We exited the park, hopped in the car, and went back to the hotel for baths and bed. :faint:
 
Happy Birthday to me! pixiedust:

I woke up extra early this morning to shower and journal. After getting ready I woke up Minnie to shower and then got Tink up (one of the few days that she got up easily). Jack wasn't happy about having to be up so early, but soon we were all ready to go.

We hopped in the car and headed the the TTC parking lot arriving around 8am. We hopped on the monorail and were on our way to the Magic Kingdom! :drive:

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Not the best picture of us, but I felt like I had to get a picture of me.

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I'm not sure what this is a picture of. If anyone wants to help me out with identifying it? I think it's a picture taken from the monorail, but I'm not sure where it is. :crazy2:

We made it to the Magic Kingdom and I got in line at Guest Services. The line wasn't too long, but I did see how the line could get really long because they were funneling all the Birthdays to 2 windows and kept 2 windows free for Other services. I picked up my $70 gift card and we entered through the restaurant reservations entrance--almost an hour before park opening!!

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It was amazing to be walking down Main Street with only a handful of people around. We took some pictures with Walt & Minnie:

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Then we headed for the castle.

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We took some pictures of the castle, but now I wish I'd taken more. It was really cloudy which made it harder to get a great shot without my flash.

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really enjoying your report and all the fantastic photos :thumbsup2
 
Another quick shot in front of the castle before heading inside.

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We entered the castle and I was actually surprised how many people were standing around in the corridor. Lots of people trying to take pictures of their kids against the wall murals. I didn't even bother. We went and checked in at Cinderella's, we were still almost 15 minutes early for our 8:55am ADRs. We were the first to check in for our seating so we were first in line to see Cinderella who wasn't there yet.

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We waited about 10 minutes for Cinderella to arrive, but when she did Tink was excited to get her autograph.

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We got our group shot taken and one of the CM's took my camera to take a picture which I was thrilled about, especially when I saw the photo they gave us--it was pretty bad, not even in focus.

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After taking our pictures we were told to take a seat and wait for our family to be called upstairs. It was only a minute later that we were called. We went up the stairs and were seated at a table towards the middle of the room.

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Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the food, but we weren't overly impressed. Jack had been excited that we were going to have an all-you-can-eat breakfast (rare for us, we usually have a quick breakfast) because he was looking forward to chowing down on the bacon, but when it came time to ask for more he felt uncomfortable about it (and I might add, they never offered so if I didn't know that it was all you can eat, we wouldn't have asked--thankfully for Jack I knew so I ordered him some more bacon :thumbsup2 ).

Otherwise I think the kids just had scrambled eggs with bacon and sausage plus orange juice (which none of them liked--too much pulp). Minnie and I had the blueberry stuffed french toast which was pretty good (although tasted nothing like french toast to me) and I think we also had scrambled eggs, bacon, and sausage.

At some point during the meal the kids were given their wands and swords (which Tink loved, I think she'd have preferred her own sword :lmao: ). Plus the Wish star which we never were told what to do with (I only know of the importance of them now, from reading OTHER trip reports).

After we finished eating the princesses made their entrance. The frustrating thing is that even though we were first seated we seemed to be the last family visited. So even though we were done eating (and some of the other tables were just getting their food! :confused3 ) we had to sit and wait for the princesses to come over.

First up was Aurora

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Then Jasmine, probably the only princess that took the time to talk with the kids.

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Then Belle

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And finally Snow White

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At this point we were just ready to go (afterall we had been done eating for probably 20 minutes or more, and I'd like to point out that thanks to the date stamp on my pictures I can say that we spent exactly 9 minutes total with all the princesses). So we left as soon as Snow White left the table which seemed like a kind of anti-climatic end to our visit. Oh well. I made a quick stop at the bathroom on the way out and Minnie took these while they were waiting for me.

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:rotfl2: she looks like the evil queen in Snow White.

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We left the castle and entered the park slightly before 10am. We won't be eating at Cinderella's Royal Table again (unless another little girl comes into our family at some point in the future). While I can say it's nice to have had the experience, I feel it definitely wasn't worth the money.

The fact that we were able to enter the park before opening though totally made up for the experience so I wasn't too annoyed. THAT was worth the money, but I'd never do CRT after park opening.
 
really enjoying your report and all the fantastic photos :thumbsup2

Thanks :blush: with 4 cameras between us we took ALOT of pictures. The only bad part is that the date stamp on the cameras were not all synced up which has created some extra work on matching up when the pictures were taken.
 












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