"A for effort, C for execution." A September 2014 TR **07/04 THE END!*

[amberg93]

Do so excited for this TR! I've been waiting so long!

We're excited to have you here again! And I know, we've been slacking on this like woah. I apologize.

Looking forward to your trip report. We were there the same time as you.

That's so cool! Maybe we crossed paths unknowingly while we were there. I hope you enjoy it.

 

[amberg93]

Day 2, Part 1: "Wait, are you serving everything?"

On our first day, we had a wake up call scheduled for 8 AM but I woke up at 7:30 and was so ready to go.

Let me tell you, having a good night of sleep on your first Disney day... it's Heavenly. I highly recommend it to you if you can manage it.

Marie wasn't so ready to get up though, so she didn't get up until 8 when the wake up call happened and then she wanted to shower and get ready. Basically, we didn't end up leaving the room until 8:35.

I was planning on wearing a white dress originally, but looking outside it was raining. That put a damper on that idea.

We donned our ponchos though and headed outside, where the rain had let up a little. Down to a drizzle instead of the downpour that was there when I woke up.

Before leaving, we set out the tipping envelope:

We were just so excited about starting Disney that some drizzle wasn't going to get us down.

The view out of our door.

And the other way.

Since the rain wasn't too bad, the walk up to the bus stop wasn't bad either. And given the weather and the fact that value bus stops are uncovered, they had the lines under the covered area.

Our line was on the left, the Hollywood Studios line was on the right.

Marie snapped a fab poncho picture of me while we were waiting to show my excitement:

Ready to get rained on!

We had to stand on the bus, but since it was the first day it wasn't too bad. Besides, we arrived at the Magic Kingdom at 9:20. Not too bad.

By that point the rain was really just sprinkling.

Monorail!

Bag check wasn't too bad so we were soon inside and past the entry point.

I do like the fall decorations, I won't lie.

Especially this lady.

And this gentleman.

Other park goers donned for the weather.

And the moment of truth! The first Castle picture. I know, I've outdone myself in terms of Castle pictures.

Since we had the Memory Maker again, we decided that we'd grab a picture in our ponchos. Even more since the craine wasn't up yet (it would be later in the day).

And a closer one. My hair is being cray in the weather. I apologize for its unruly nature.

We also got this gem. Marie and I aren't too crazy about this pose to begin with, but as you can see the shot is poorly focused and despite being blocked by us the guy right between Marie and I seems to be the star. You go random smiling guy who is in focus. You go.

Marie was hungry, so she wanted to stop at Main Street Bakery and get something. As neither a breakfast fan or coffee drinker, this option held little appeal for me.

We still went.

Maybe five minutes later, Marie had her breakfast.

Chocolate croissant was her choice.

Also, sup kid in the background. You remind me of smiling guy from the last picture.

Now that Marie was happy, we set out on our way for our first adventure.

I got a little distracted by ducks along the way.

But, who doesn't love ducks?

Into Adventureland!

But we weren't staying, we were just utilizing the walkway over to Frontierland.

When we happened to be walking by the little building across from Peco Bill's and I stopped suddenly. Marie was confused, but I saw corn dogs inside and even though it was 9:40 in the morning, I'm all for not eating breakfast food. In fact, you know how there are breakfast all day places? There needs to be like lunch all day places. If I want a hamburger at 7 AM, I shouldn't be judged.

So, I stopped then and there and asked the woman working inside if they were serving everything and she assured me that they were!

Disney magic!

Anywhere you can get a corn dog before 10 AM is a win in my book. I was so happy, as you can tell. I wasn't even bothered by the drizzling that was happening.

With a belly full of corn dog, I was then ready to let Marie and I keep going on our way.

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[DisDance]

Looks like people were plotting to get their smiling faces in your pictures. I hope the weather got better later in the day for you guys! Amber you're in disney, you can eat whatever you want, whenever you want. There are no rules!

I wish I had half the artistic ability as you two, those mouse keeping envelopes rock! Seriously I think people would buy those on Etsy

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Still loving the tipping envelope, but not so much the rain starting that day.

Yeah yeah yeah, you got a castle picture first thing. Rub it in

Geez, I hope smiling guy was in on your Memory Maker share.

Haha, smiling kid seems to have an eye on Chocolate Croissant.

Clearly everyone wanted to be in your pictures and they were just happy about that.

Especially in Disney, any food any time is totally appropriate, so no worries there at all.

 

[courtneybelle]

I LOVE the Mousekeeping envelope!!! So adorable!

MK in fall is so gorgeous. I'll see it in person one day…

YAY for corn dogs in the morning! Not gonna lie, my biggest complaint about my July Disney trip is that I generally couldn't get ice cream before 11 a.m. so I definitely appreciate that you got a non-breakfast food at breakfast time.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

As always, love your mousekeeping envelopes - love the idea of character-izing the mickey head

Glad the rain lessened up ... I mean, even super rainy days in Disney are better than days out of Disney, but drizzle is a ton better than downpours

We should totally make up a story / background about all the other people that are in your pictures ... like maybe the kid in the chocolate croissant photo is the unknown long lost son of the guy from the Castle picture who, just inherently, nows how to photobomb pictures. ... they would meet each other later that morning when trying to photobomb the same picture and literally bump into each other

In the Northeast of the US we have tons of restaurants that serve lunch and dinner all day long... they are called diners and you can get anything from their 137 page menu at any hour of the day. Shrimp Scampi at 8:30am? Sure .... pancakes at 11pm? sure? Get them together at 3am? Sure!

still though - very cool that you each were able to get what you wanted

 

[frzndaqiri]

I am making a note that corn dogs for breakfast are an option because that is awesome to me as well!

 

[amberg93]

Looks like people were plotting to get their smiling faces in your pictures. I hope the weather got better later in the day for you guys! Amber you're in disney, you can eat whatever you want, whenever you want. There are no rules!

I wish I had half the artistic ability as you two, those mouse keeping envelopes rock! Seriously I think people would buy those on Etsy

I know, smiling photobombs. At least they're pleasant additions

Thank you. That's all the justification I need. I'll keep this in mind for next time.

I have zero artistic ability. I promise. It's all Marie and it takes her a long time. After this trip she said she's done with all the elaborate envelopes. But i can imagine that she's lying a little

Still loving the tipping envelope, but not so much the rain starting that day.

Yeah yeah yeah, you got a castle picture first thing. Rub it in

Geez, I hope smiling guy was in on your Memory Maker share.

Haha, smiling kid seems to have an eye on Chocolate Croissant.

Clearly everyone wanted to be in your pictures and they were just happy about that.

Especially in Disney, any food any time is totally appropriate, so no worries there at all.

Marie is so talented with the tipping envelopes.

If you hadn't broken Disney law, I wouldn't have to?

He should have been. Smiling like it was his job.

I'm not surprised, chocolate croissants are like dessert for breakfast.

I just want them to be appropriate all the time.

I LOVE the Mousekeeping envelope!!! So adorable!

MK in fall is so gorgeous. I'll see it in person one day…

YAY for corn dogs in the morning! Not gonna lie, my biggest complaint about my July Disney trip is that I generally couldn't get ice cream before 11 a.m. so I definitely appreciate that you got a non-breakfast food at breakfast time.

I've passed all this praise onto Marie as she deserves all of it. I just wrote words on the envelope.

It is very gorgeous. If you're more concerned with weather than crowds, I'd advise October as the choice month. We had much better luck with it.

Why no ice cream before 11? Don't they know us non-breakfast people just want sweets or greasy food to start the day? Clearly we need to be more vocal and get ice cream and hamburgers served always.

 

[amberg93]

As always, love your mousekeeping envelopes - love the idea of character-izing the mickey head

Glad the rain lessened up ... I mean, even super rainy days in Disney are better than days out of Disney, but drizzle is a ton better than downpours

We should totally make up a story / background about all the other people that are in your pictures ... like maybe the kid in the chocolate croissant photo is the unknown long lost son of the guy from the Castle picture who, just inherently, nows how to photobomb pictures. ... they would meet each other later that morning when trying to photobomb the same picture and literally bump into each other

In the Northeast of the US we have tons of restaurants that serve lunch and dinner all day long... they are called diners and you can get anything from their 137 page menu at any hour of the day. Shrimp Scampi at 8:30am? Sure .... pancakes at 11pm? sure? Get them together at 3am? Sure!

still though - very cool that you each were able to get what you wanted

That wife of mine is super talented. I was just going to draw borders on the envelopes and write in pretty colors. Marie wasn't down for that for some reason

Agreed 100%. Sun is better than rain though. I'd take heat over rain any day.

You know, that's probably true. Maybe it's a DNA thing and they just can't help smiling photobombing people and that's how they realized that they were related because they feel the same pull to photobomb

Actually, thinking about it there are diners in Michigan. Like Steak and Shake and Dennys and smaller ones. However, there are none around here in Quebec. Or if there are they're probably in Montreal and I don't want to have to bus into Montreal. Like, there are 5 breakfast all day places in my city and no diners?! Where is the justice?!

It did help the first day get off to an even better start

I am making a note that corn dogs for breakfast are an option because that is awesome to me as well!

Glad to be of assistance

A word of advice though, when we walked by at like 9:10 AM on another day there weren't any out yet because they were still in the process of opening. So I don't know what time they start putting them out. Maybe 9:30? I'll look closer next time.

 

[1Grumpy9]

I have to remember to pack envelopes for MouseKeeping...put that on my list...LOL!!!

There are sometimes I want a big breakfast and then there are times I just will wait until lunch. Usually the weekends are the times I like to have a bigger breakfast...or when I am traveling. Most of the times in Disney I don't eat breakfast and just eat an earlier lunch.

I noticed that some of our pictures from last December with MM/PP+ were blurry and out of focus. I hope some of that has changed for my upcoming trip.

 

[amberg93]

I have to remember to pack envelopes for MouseKeeping...put that on my list...LOL!!!

There are sometimes I want a big breakfast and then there are times I just will wait until lunch. Usually the weekends are the times I like to have a bigger breakfast...or when I am traveling. Most of the times in Disney I don't eat breakfast and just eat an earlier lunch.

I noticed that some of our pictures from last December with MM/PP+ were blurry and out of focus. I hope some of that has changed for my upcoming trip.

Plain envelopes are good

I'm all for early lunch. Sometimes I get hungry though before lunch and need food to keep me from getting sick. It just sucks that it's not more socially acceptable/catered to to decide to have 'real' food.

Unfortunately, I think it's an issue with PP photographers who aren't either checking things right or who haven't been working long. It happened more on the trip too I just am glad that it wasn't like a thing where it was our only trip and it was the best picture of us that was out of focus. You know?

 

[amberg93]

Real Life Update #1

As my Facebook friends will know, I dropped my laptop yesterday.

As is my luck, I broke the hard drive and so recovery of my documents seems unlikely Marie's godfather works for IBM and will take a look but I'm not holding out hope of getting my things back.

The good news is that all the pictures we took with our camera are still on the memory card so I can have those with no issue and the May pictures Marie still has.

The bad news is that the photopass pictures can't be downloaded again because our group account had so many issues that they couldn't even help over the phone. They're going to be sending out some discs and I'll get a copy of my pictures that way but there's no saying how long it will take.

So, until I can figure that out and get adjusted to my new computer (going from Windows 7 to Windows 8 thus far hasn't been a pleasant experience) I'm not sure when I'll next update this TR.

Hopefully, we'll get something figured out soon and hopefully my documents can be recovered or something. But I just wanted to keep you up to date and apologize.

Also, another thanks to people following along. I hope your week/weekend turns out far better than mine. ​

 

[DisDance]

So sorry about your computer Amber, that is horrible. Good thing you have those pictures on the memory card still tho!

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Oh Amber. Computers sure are great until they're not. This is just awful. It's amazing how much stuff we collect and I guess take for granted that it's there until something like this happens. So sorry about this.

So glad you at least have your pictures though. I didn't know there were issues with the memory maker share. That sucks too.

And UGH, Windows 8. When I built my current computer I made a point to not use Windows 8. I just did not like the looks of it. I'm pretty computer literate and Windows 8 just baffles me. Keep at it though and you'll get it.

I'm going to do a full backup right now. I sometimes neglect that until I hear these awful stories. Hopefully you'll be back and posting soon!

 

[TraciDisNewbie]

Corn dog before 10AM please count me in. Should have gotten one last time. I love Corn Dogs. We are much alike in this way. This why you my Twinny!!

Also sorry you dropped your laptop, and yes Windows 8 seems to be difficult, but you will get all the things worked out, you always do.

 

[1Grumpy9]

Sorry about your laptop. I had a hard drive die on a laptop and I lost all of my hockey pictures I had taken that year. I have also had issues with external hard drives...I put pictures on there and somehow (don't know how), they were erased and I lost a whole bunch of pictures then.

Lucky for you your pictures are still on the camera.

I hope I will see some good news when I get back from WDW about your computer!!!

 

[courtneybelle]

Aw Amber, I'm so sorry to hear about your hard drive what a frustrating situation!! Hang in there, and we'll all still be around whenever you can update next!

 

[amberg93]

So sorry about your computer Amber, that is horrible. Good thing you have those pictures on the memory card still tho!

Thank you. And yes, it is. Though Marie had them on her computer so it would have been okay either way. But very lucky.

Oh Amber. Computers sure are great until they're not. This is just awful. It's amazing how much stuff we collect and I guess take for granted that it's there until something like this happens. So sorry about this.

So glad you at least have your pictures though. I didn't know there were issues with the memory maker share. That sucks too.

And UGH, Windows 8. When I built my current computer I made a point to not use Windows 8. I just did not like the looks of it. I'm pretty computer literate and Windows 8 just baffles me. Keep at it though and you'll get it.

I'm going to do a full backup right now. I sometimes neglect that until I hear these awful stories. Hopefully you'll be back and posting soon!

Even weeks later I'm still upset with myself. Like, why didn't I save my laptop before it met its end.

I've got a CD of the images now though and that's probably even better because I can keep it forever. So yay!

Hahhaha that's still a no. I just installed a program that gave me back all the functionality of Windows 7. I've got a start bar and start menu and I go straight to the desktop now. You made a good choice avoiding Windows 8.

And I'm glad that someone else is learning from my lack of preparation.

 

[amberg93]

Corn dog before 10AM please count me in. Should have gotten one last time. I love Corn Dogs. We are much alike in this way. This why you my Twinny!!

Also sorry you dropped your laptop, and yes Windows 8 seems to be difficult, but you will get all the things worked out, you always do.

If I had known, Traci, it would have totally happened. Don't worry. In the future. Us and our corndog love is what makes us twinnies

Or I'll change them to make them how I want them. Which is what I did. Much easier.

Sorry about your laptop. I had a hard drive die on a laptop and I lost all of my hockey pictures I had taken that year. I have also had issues with external hard drives...I put pictures on there and somehow (don't know how), they were erased and I lost a whole bunch of pictures then.

Lucky for you your pictures are still on the camera.

I hope I will see some good news when I get back from WDW about your computer!!!

Technology sucks when it wants to. Never again will I neglect my backups. Once is enough.

I can use it, I have pictures again. Hopefully that's good news! But I'm so jealous that you were in Disney! I hope you had an amazing time

Aw Amber, I'm so sorry to hear about your hard drive what a frustrating situation!! Hang in there, and we'll all still be around whenever you can update next!

Thank you Courtney and that day is today!

 

[amberg93]

Ahh, first and foremost: apologies. I haven't updated this in too long. But life and computer and lack of photopass pictures. Excuses, etc. I'll be better about it.

Secondly, Happy Halloween! If you're going out tonight have a good time and if you're staying in watch some good Halloween movies.

Day 2, Part 2: "No photography, videos, selfies or social media of any kind."

Of course we were headed to Splash Mountain. It's already misting, we might as well go on.

Clearly, not everyone else felt the same way.

We walked right on.

And then were fab in our picture.

Afterward, we walked over to BTMRR.

As you can see, it says there was a twenty minute wait.

Our sort of twenty minute wait.

We rode in the very back and got misted on but we so didn't care.

In fact, we enjoyed it so much that we got right back in line and rode again.

When we came back through the guy at the front said, "Welcome back Agent P!" and for a minute I was so confused. You know, until I remembered my shirt.

This time we did have to wait for a train to go through. But still, definitely not a twenty minute wait.

That done we decided to go and use our FP+ for Buzz.

First though, Marie had to express her sadness about the refurb of Philharmagic. The CMs were equally as sad. The girl in the pink, not so much.

We took a peak at the wait time for Anna and Elsa too.

Marie actually won, in a weird twist of events.

And then, because we knew that it would be in refurb later on, we decided that we had to go and do a classic.

Guys, I am so glad we went then. Our host was hilarious. We get in and he goes, "Those of you seated in the first two rows should know that it's the splash zone, so if you don't want to get wet, you might want to move."

People moved.

And then he goes, "Under your seats you'll find your 3D glasses, so if you could put those on now."

And again people looked. It was pretty humorous.

Finally, he got serious about the safety stuff. Until he added the rest of what is the title of this chapter.

"No photography, videos, selfies or social media of any kind."

It was great. We were cracking up before we started on our journey to celebrate the various holidays with the American family.

After exiting we had our next FP+ time open up.

Marie still has her fears from Veronica about being scalped, so you know, she ducked her head the whole time. So adorable.

We had a lunch reservation to make after that, so we started to make our way out of the park.

I took this very telling picture of our journey.

But then we made our way to wait for a boat over to Fort Wilderness.

It wasn't too long before Bon Voyage pulled into the dock and we were on our way.

There is something relaxing about traveling by boat and getting ot take in the different views.

We enjoyed our ride and it wasn't too long before we were off of the boat.

It was clear now but evidence of rain lingered on.

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