A Disney-addicted mom braves the August (2010) heat! *11/28 Update!*

[lexmas]

Sounds like a busy morning! I read it all and then realized that was one day!

Strange about the sweatshirt. We had a similar experience last trip when we realized we had forgotten shoes for DS (Yeah, I don't know how we did that, he was 21 months, it's not like he was tiny!) and I searched the gift shops and my options were basically to buy $30 crocs for him. I would have even been happy with socks, but nothing. It was very odd.

It was sweet of you to share snacks...I'm sure the mom was very happy. Never good to realize you don't have something and your kid is about to melt down!

Using the GAC on Pirates sounds great. I would think it would be more complicated on a ride that doesn't begin and end at the same place?

Great chance meeting with Pinocchio. We don't generally seek out the characters, but it's always nice when you just happen to find them!

Sounds like a complicated way to get back to the hotel, but sitting on the floor of a bus is always worse.

Can't wait to see where the mousekeeping story is heading...

 

[klacey1]

Pinocchio is a scary movie! I don't blame Nathaniel for being scared of it! That's cool that you got to meet such a rare character, though.

 

[DrMomof3]

I've just caught up.
Your Nathaniel sounds just like my oldest son - same age, same personality, and mine also plays violin! Suddenly he has become a daredevil though - rode the Corkscrew at Cedar Point this summer (he is really tall for his age) and we couldn't believe it - with that he has already surpassed his mother's level of daring! I think he and DH will be on Space Mountain on our upcoming trip!

Kindred spirits!!! Nathaniel loved Space Mountain!!!

I couldn't help but laugh at your "bodily fluid" problems comment. I do not know what it is but every time we went on vacation while my youngest was in diapers, we had some sort of poopy disaster. Many of these in WDW. I have actually thrown away a number of pieces of clothing in the WDW baby centers/restrooms! No way I was trekking those home! Finally he was out of diapers on our last trip (in May).

That's totally us! I've totally thrown out poopy clothes!!!

Sounds like those ponchos are getting their workout this trip. We had only used ours like once each trip until May 2009. Days and days of continuous rain. There was just nothing we could do - no stopping indoors to wait it out because it never stopped! We were soaked day in-day out, thank goodness it was warm so we weren't wet and freezing.

We were there in May 2009 but managed to miss the downpours!

We actually love the walk to DHS from Boardwalk area and the monorail-walk through Epcot to the resort and have done both many times. But, we would much rather be walking than on any of the transportation in general (except DS6 loves the monorail).

I wanted to walk back but DH vetoed me.

I am really enjoying your report so far!!!
I know how hard it is to update when back to the real world. I so meant to do a TR for our May 2010 trip but here it is Sept and no time!!!
Can't wait to hear more

Thank you!!!

p.s. I also find the LTT bathroom too small and yucky - I have actually taken the kids out of there to the nearest restroom in the park and come back to our meal.

I'll have to remember that trick!

I had that problem when I was there a few weeks ago. There was one day when we left for the park at 4:00pm and the room had not been done yet. We're not too fussy but it was done. My friend said they work up till 5pm so I guess we must have been the last room but it was a huge check-out day that day she said so they would do all the other rooms first for those checking in!

They told us Mousekeeping was available until 4:30 I think. And she also told us about the check-out rooms 1st.

Uh oh! I'm a bit worried about Mousekeeping stories to come.

Not what you think at all!!!

Amanda

 

[DrMomof3]

I found it and I'm reading! So you liked Via Napoli?? It's TS, right? I'm thinking about adding it to our list. What did you think about the cantaloupe on the pizza? Were the kids pizza's fancy too or just pretty basic?

Hooray! I loved the melon and prosciutto pizza. I ate half and brought the other half back to the room (and ate it the next day for snack!). The kids had regular cheese pizza. It was definitely a bit fancier than what we're used to eating at home but they were starving and ate it!

Sounds like a busy morning! I read it all and then realized that was one day!

Strange about the sweatshirt. We had a similar experience last trip when we realized we had forgotten shoes for DS (Yeah, I don't know how we did that, he was 21 months, it's not like he was tiny!) and I searched the gift shops and my options were basically to buy $30 crocs for him. I would have even been happy with socks, but nothing. It was very odd.

Us too! Zachary puked on the flight down in December and his sneakers were disgusting. I tried washing them but they never dried. I didn't have back-up shoes for him (he wasn't quite walking yet). We ended up spending the $30 on crocs for him and just bought them in a big size.

It was sweet of you to share snacks...I'm sure the mom was very happy. Never good to realize you don't have something and your kid is about to melt down!

It felt really good to help someone else out!

Using the GAC on Pirates sounds great. I would think it would be more complicated on a ride that doesn't begin and end at the same place?

They had the stroller at the exit. Don't ask, don't tell!

Great chance meeting with Pinocchio. We don't generally seek out the characters, but it's always nice when you just happen to find them!

Tom isn't one to wait in line for character meets so this was lucky!

Sounds like a complicated way to get back to the hotel, but sitting on the floor of a bus is always worse.

Can't wait to see where the mousekeeping story is heading...

I'm getting there! I swear!!!

Pinocchio is a scary movie! I don't blame Nathaniel for being scared of it! That's cool that you got to meet such a rare character, though.

Pinocchio IS scary. Nathaniel is a bit anxious and I think the whole donkey scene plans into his fears. He worried about being bad so it's not a good movie for him!

Amanda

 

[DrMomof3]

Tuesday night was Princess night. We were heading over to Norway to eat with the princesses. We've never eaten at the castle. I'm sure it's magical but it just seems exorbitant, especially since I've heard the food is so-so. We'd tried Norway before and liked it. In December we did 1900 Park Fare which was also nice. I asked Jessica which dinner she wanted and she picked Norway. She likes seeing many princesses instead of just Cinderella (although she had a HUGE crush on Prince Charming!)

An example of her crush from December!!!

We had already picked up a mission to do KP in Norway after dinner. I bribed Nathaniel to be nice about dining with Princesses so he wouldn't complain too loudly. And we were off to Norway....

Amanda

 

[DrMomof3]

We got there a few minutes early and the kids were a little bored so we did some photos:

The Princess.....Jessica!

And the Princes... Nathaniel and Zachary!

Amanda

 

[DrMomof3]

Our name was finally called and we entered the Royal Palace. 1st stop was a photo session with Belle. I had them take a pic of just Jessica with Belle. It came out fabulously well and I'll post it when I finally get my photopass CD.

We were taken to our table which was near the salad bar/appetizer buffet. For those who haven't done this dinner, I like it quite a bit. For starters there's a salad bar type area. There are all sorts of cold salads, deli meats/cheese, and yummy smoked salmon (which is called bagel fish in our house!) For the more adventurous amongst us (and my DH), they have herring. You then order an entree off the menu. If you finish your entree (or dislike it), they will bring another.

We ordered drinks (Tom and I tried yummy Norwegian cocktails!) and ordered food. Then it was off to the salad bar. Jessica must have eaten 5 slices of smoked salmon! I was in shock! The salads were tasty!!! I ordered a mahi mahi entree which was quite good. I can't remember what Tom ordered but he finished it and ordered something different. The boys had hot dogs. Jessica ordered the pizza which was quite yucky and exchanged it for a hot dog.

Of course, the main purpose of this meal is the princesses!!!!

1st up: Aurora

She was sweet and went through all of her various names: Aurora, Sleeping Beauty, Briar Rose. (The last pic was taken by Nathaniel.)

Amanda

 

[DrMomof3]

I found some pics of the King and Queen of the castle:

Next up was: Cinderella

Then... Snow White

And finally.... Ariel!

There's actually a story behind this last pic if you're patient!

Amanda

 

[DrMomof3]

A few comments on the dinner:

The food was pretty good. It's not the generic, boring food that you'll eat everywhere on property. The fish is generally excellent. With the exception of the children's pizza (which was disgusting), it can be a decent dining experience. My mahi mahi was not exotic or weird. It was good fish, cooked in a yummy sauce. With a little faith you can eat well here!

You may be asking yourself, "Why is an almost 39 year old woman in all of the princess pictures?" Not out of desire to be photographed! I'm a better photographer than Tom (or Nathaniel) but Jessica suddenly felt shy and insisted on having me there. You'll see she got braver by the end with Ariel.

I really enjoy having character interactions with face characters. It's so much more interactive. There are only so many yes/no questions you can ask Leo before it gets boring. The princesses talked to us and asked the kids questions. They all admired the autograph books that I'd made and looked through them. It's a nicer experience in my mind.

I forgot to have Belle sign our books on the way in. The initial photo with Belle was before I was ready and I didn't get the autograph books out. I asked the waiter if he could get her to sign the books and he did.

Ariel. Ariel was the most endearing of the princesses that we met. She was funny and charming. After the photos with Jessica and the autograph books (which she took time to flip through), she noticed Nathaniel taking pictures. She walked right over to him and commented on how good looking he is. We told her the story of how he is already engaged to another 6 year old but there's another girl who likes him, etc. She was so funny. She was flirting with him and getting him involved. We are still teasing him that Princess Ariel wants to take him on a date. He explained that he's a little young to date Princess Ariel...

Dessert is a platter with one of each dessert on it. Frankly there wasn't anything terribly yummy.

There were definitely a few rude guests eating at the same time. None that affected our meal at all (we had a really fun time at this meal!) but it was noteworthy. One man was arguing over an included tip (he was part of a large party and I guess there's an automatic 18% gratuity if you have a larger party) and saying that he wouldn't pay it. I'm opinionated about that kind of thing. I understand the right to NOT tip if the service is bad (although I can't imagine not leaving a tip). The service here was very good. Everyone was pleasant and helpful. Tips are part of their wage!

Amanda

 

[DrMomof3]

I got a work phone call during the last post. Sorry about that!

Anyway I get annoyed by people being rude to Cast Members. It's just one of my buttons. I'm sure there are times when the CM is wrong but many times I think it's just a ploy by the guest to "get" something!

After dinner we grabbed our Kim-municator and did a fun mission in Norway! After we saved the world (yet again!), we headed back to the hotel. Everyone got into jammies and we watched the fireworks from the balcony. I can't remember if I mentioned this but we were able to see part of Wishes off to the left as well as Illuminations off to the right!!!

So ends Tuesday....

Amanda

 

[-Hope-]

Wishes AND Illuminations from the balcony!!

Jessica looks so cute in her princess dress! I wish we'd been able to take Kya when she was young enough to enjoy dressing up like this. *sigh* Oh well, I'll have to get by with the Halloween memories.

Your dinner sounds magical! I love that they made it fun for Nathaniel too. It sounds like you had some great character interaction.

I totally agree about people being rude and that unless the service is bad a tip should be given! I also don't understand why they were surprised by this? My ADR confirmation clearly states that a gratuity will be added for parties of 8 or more. I know its standard because our reservation is for 4 so it must just be part of the form email sent to everyone. They should have known this in advance and if they didn't it's simply because they didn't bother to read the email.

Another full and magical day! I'm enjoying reading about your trip so much!

 

[DrMomof3]

Wishes AND Illuminations from the balcony!!

I told you we were blessed!

Jessica looks so cute in her princess dress! I wish we'd been able to take Kya when she was young enough to enjoy dressing up like this. *sigh* Oh well, I'll have to get by with the Halloween memories.

We're starting to outgrow the princess phase already. Jessica wants to be Hannah Montana for Halloween instead of being a princess.

Your dinner sounds magical! I love that they made it fun for Nathaniel too. It sounds like you had some great character interaction.

We had a few character meals where one of the characters made sure that Nathaniel was included. That always impressed me!

I totally agree about people being rude and that unless the service is bad a tip should be given! I also don't understand why they were surprised by this? My ADR confirmation clearly states that a gratuity will be added for parties of 8 or more. I know its standard because our reservation is for 4 so it must just be part of the form email sent to everyone. They should have known this in advance and if they didn't it's simply because they didn't bother to read the email.

I think it was an issue with free dining and not budgeting for tips. I would feel sorry for the family but there's a way to handle these things and way NOT to handle these things.

Another full and magical day! I'm enjoying reading about your trip so much!

Our trip was full of magic! I'm glad that it's fun to read because it was sure fun at the time!!!

Amanda

 

[DrMomof3]

Side Note: I'm trying to edit my photopass pics so I can order the CD. I'll add those pictures later. I will say that we didn't get as many photopass pics as I would have liked but we did get some good ones. Some days we were just too hot and tired to bother. I regret that we didn't do a better job with photopass but I think there are a few choices for our holiday card and that *is* the most important thing!

Wednesday was Albatross Cruise Day for Nathaniel and Jessica. I hate taking time in the morning for sit-down breakfast but I thought this would be the right day to have the Cape May breakfast since the cruise starts at 9:30am. We had a 7:30am ADR. When I made that, it seemed very reasonable (given that Zachary has been up since 4:45 this morning - for example). After several days at Disney, a 7:30am ADR seemed painfully early.

Nonetheless, we only had to go down to the lobby and we somehow made it. Some of our party was crabbier than others (Nathaniel is NOT much of a morning person and frankly neither is Tom). While we were waiting for our beeper to go off, we took some crabby pictures.

Jessica, Zachary, and I are the morning people!

We eventually got seated (not a long wait) and we were ready for a big breakfast buffet.

Amanda

 

[-Hope-]

Haha- I love Jessica's "crabby" pic! I feel Tom and Nathaniel's pain- I'm not much of a morning person either.

 

[dismagiclover]

Love the details about the Norway dinner. Especially liked that Ariel went out of her way to include your DS. My boys won't have anything to do with princesses these days. I'm looking forward to your Albatross Cruise report. We did that as well (though I still haven't gotten to it in my trip report and we did it 2 months before you.)

 

[DrMomof3]

Haha- I love Jessica's "crabby" pic! I feel Tom and Nathaniel's pain- I'm not much of a morning person either.

Jessica needs the most sleep of anyone in our house but she's pretty good in the morning.

Love the details about the Norway dinner. Especially liked that Ariel went out of her way to include your DS. My boys won't have anything to do with princesses these days. I'm looking forward to your Albatross Cruise report. We did that as well (though I still haven't gotten to it in my trip report and we did it 2 months before you.)

Ariel was great! I really enjoy the Norway dinner.
I'll get to the Albatross Cruise sometime this weekend (I hope). I'm worried about forgetting all the little details of each day!!!

Amanda

 

[emmysmommy]

We were at the BC during the same dates.... in fact, I believe we saw your family headed to the pool one day while there. I remember the two boys and your little girl.

Thanks for sharing your review and pictures!

Anyway, I'm just getting started on my own report and didn't realize how time consuming uploading and editing (re-sizing) the photos can be! Now I appreciate all that everyone does to share their experience all the more!

 

[natebenma]

Hi Amanda- I enjoyed your Princess update. With two older boys, I won't be experiencing that dinner anytime soon, so I appreciated living it through your great descriptions and pictures. Jessica is a BEAUTIFUL princess!

 

[jillianml]

I found your trip report late last night and stayed up way too late reading it!(I had to be up for work today at 4am!)I loved your report on the Norway dinner.My DD age 11,her best friend just moved to Oslow Norway!I am planning a surprise Disney trip for this December and our 1st ADR is here!I cant wait to eat the food and then tell our Norwegian friends all about it!I think it will be a great experience for My DD,she misses her friend sooo much!

 

[DrMomof3]

We were at the BC during the same dates.... in fact, I believe we saw your family headed to the pool one day while there. I remember the two boys and your little girl.

Thanks for sharing your review and pictures!

Anyway, I'm just getting started on my own report and didn't realize how time consuming uploading and editing (re-sizing) the photos can be! Now I appreciate all that everyone does to share their experience all the more!

That's so cool that you saw us! We used the pool less often than we expected, in part because of the rain.
I haven't done a good job of fixing the red eye in my photos. I'm so worried about forgetting all the cute little details!

Hi Amanda- I enjoyed your Princess update. With two older boys, I won't be experiencing that dinner anytime soon, so I appreciated living it through your great descriptions and pictures. Jessica is a BEAUTIFUL princess!

Thank you! I think Jessica is a very pretty girl. She quite tall for her so many people think that she and Nathaniel are twins! I'm going to be sad when Jessica outgrows the princesses because it is such a nice dinner!!!

I found your trip report late last night and stayed up way too late reading it!(I had to be up for work today at 4am!)I loved your report on the Norway dinner.My DD age 11,her best friend just moved to Oslow Norway!I am planning a surprise Disney trip for this December and our 1st ADR is here!I cant wait to eat the food and then tell our Norwegian friends all about it!I think it will be a great experience for My DD,she misses her friend sooo much!

Welcome and thank you!!!! I often get up at 5:30am for work. 4am is quite impressive. One of Nathaniel's girlfriends is from Norway (she started kindergarten not speaking English at all). I saw her mom in town this week and told her that we thought of them while visiting Norway, Epcot.

Amanda