A Heaping Helping of Disney with a Side Dish of Drama - June 2013 TR

[dismom9761]

Great updates! Too bad about the potatoes, I am the same way about food. Your boys are adorable!

 

[teekathepony]

I was really excited for this post, I wanted to hear what you thought of Beach Club! And I am not disappointed! So happy to hear you were treated so well and loved it so much. It's an absolutely gorgeous resort, definitely in my top 5 wish list.
I'm a smell person too. Certain smells trigger my memories stronger than anything else!
Great job on the Kitchen Sink! Holy crow that's huge!

DH [...] is now fully convinced that we need DVC!

LOVE this!!

My parents have been to Daytona a few times, my dad's a big NASCAR fan. The banking is something like 30 degrees I think, craziness! Some day I really want to see that beach, it looks amazing.
Too bad Captain's Grille was a bit of a disappointment. I hate it when favourite things change... (I don't handle change well! )

(p.s. I feel like I should know this, but what are your dates in November?)

 

[BridgetR3]

Great updates! Too bad about the potatoes, I am the same way about food. Your boys are adorable!

Thanks for the compliment on the boys!! We think they are cute but we might be a bit biased!

I know, I was SO disappointed in the Captain's Grille.

I was really excited for this post, I wanted to hear what you thought of Beach Club! And I am not disappointed! So happy to hear you were treated so well and loved it so much. It's an absolutely gorgeous resort, definitely in my top 5 wish list.
I'm a smell person too. Certain smells trigger my memories stronger than anything else!
Great job on the Kitchen Sink! Holy crow that's huge!



LOVE this!!

My parents have been to Daytona a few times, my dad's a big NASCAR fan. The banking is something like 30 degrees I think, craziness! Some day I really want to see that beach, it looks amazing.
Too bad Captain's Grille was a bit of a disappointment. I hate it when favourite things change... (I don't handle change well! )

(p.s. I feel like I should know this, but what are your dates in November?)

Kitchen Sink was ENORMOUS!!!! We did our very best to finish it though! lol.... The people of the Beach Club were wonderful. I don't know that DH ever felt downright comfortable there because we are "country folk" and it was definitely upscale but I felt right at home!!

Yep I think they said it was 31 degrees banking. CRAZY HIGH!!! The straightways where my family walked up the track was "only" like 18 degrees but it was still too much slant for me to walk it.

Don't feel bad for not knowing my November dates - even I had to look them up! We will be there from November 21 -29. We leave 51 days from today!!

 

[BridgetR3]

After picking up the boys from the Sandcastle Club (which they LOVED), we decided that we weren't ready to go back to our room. Actually over dinner DH and I had discussed the chance to go to Hollywood Studios since it was an evening EMH til midnight.

So we headed out to the lighthouse to catch a boat...



After just a couple of minutes, a boat came and our fearless Captain stepped out.



A picture of my absolute FAVORITE CM of the week, our fearless Captain Redbeard. This guy was hilarious!! He had us laughing the entire time by telling us jokes, stories and just being silly.



A view of TOT from the boat



A view of Fantasia Mickey with my thumb on the lens



It was cloudy and may even rain but we are HERE! And what do we do first?? Go to the bathroom of course!! I took photos while the boys went potty.







If I remember correctly, DS7 needed it first and sweet DS11 waited until they came out to decide that maybe he needed to go as well. Ugh, off to take more pictures....





Where are we headed?



To Star Tours!! The boys had all ridden this before but I have never tried it because of my motion sickness. They convinced me that it would NOT make me sick so I decided to try it out!

The verdict?? I had to close my eyes the entire ride so that I wouldn't get sick and nope I won't ride it again but I can at least say that I tried!!

While walking around the back of the park looking for Phineas and Ferb, we found Lightning and Tow Mater!!



There was no line so we were able to walk right up. After getting our picture taken with them, we decided to check out Backlot Tour which I thought closed at dark. DH really wanted to ride it and didn't think it closed at dark. We take off in that direction to find it closed......so we kept walking. The pirate thing (great description I know) was closed as well and of course Toy Story had a 180 minute wait so we kept walking. Up next, we crossed another first off of our list - The Little Mermaid!



I really thought it was good. We enjoyed it.

After Little Mermaid we went on a family favorite - The Great Movie Ride!!!



Kinda funny story on this ride....we were seated right behind a group of around high school girls with a couple of moms. The girls looked VERY innocent. In the row right in front of us one of the moms would cover the eyes of the girl sitting right next to her EVERY time there was something "bad" like alien or the wicked witch scene. In the gangster part of the ride the girls were all cowering down on the bottom under the seats. My boys peeked over the seats to make sure that they were okay and hadn't been shot!





FOLLOW THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD, FOLLOW THE YELLOW BRICK ROAD



CONTINUED IN NEXT POST

 

[BridgetR3]

With our journey through the movies over and Toy Story Mania still at 120 minutes we decided to split our party. The kids and I would head over to meet Buzz and Woody while DH rode TOT and Rockin Roller Coaster.



I love that the queue has different things to take photos in but it always seems like someone is either in your way or you are in someone else's way to take the pictures. It is just too small!!



DS7 describing to me how we are going to get to Buzz and Woody after reading the map.







So DS7 didn't understand to make a "scared, I'm flying on a rocket" face but I think DS11 got the idea!!



He got it so well that he continued that face into the next photo op.



No clue what DS7 was doing for that one either! It was late and we were silly!



Fist bump from Buzz!



After getting our pictures taken with Buzz and Woody, we stepped out to go to a party!!!



No not there although that was very pretty all lit up at night!! The dance party was here....



My boys LOVED this dance party!! This is the only thing they asked to do again on next trip!!



Warming up....



Congo line!



The DJ was awesome!



Balloon animals!



Bubbles!



And characters!!

We danced until the EMH was almost over. DH came to meet me after his rides and we noticed that Toy Story was down to 45 minutes. Should we go now or wait til later in the week? Hmmmm......

CONTINUED IN NEXT POST

 

[BridgetR3]

Yep, go now it is!! We decided that since we had never actually waited in the real queue for Toy Story that it would be nice to see the entire thing so we went through the line.





About at this point, we heard a pretty loud boom like someone dropping something REALLY heavy. We looked around to see what it was but couldn't find anything.









I LOVE the queue!



Our friend, Mr. PotatoHead.....wait, something's wrong.....isn't he missing an ear???





Oh my!!! He sure is!!! What happened to his ear?!?!?



Then a CM comes out from the back, climbs over a few things, picks the ear up off the floor and screws it back in!!!! At this point we realize that THIS is what made the boom earlier.



After screwing in the ear, EVERYONE in line cheers for him!



Love the details!



I don't remember who I sat with but I think it was DS11. I didn't do as well as I normally do but I'll blame that on how late it was!!

After finishing our game, we decided to head out.





We hopped on a boat and headed back to our resort, exhausted but happy!




Up next - Our Epcot day

 

[Moodyzblu]

Really enjoying your TR ! The kids are cuties and it's fun seeing you guys having such a great time !

 

[dismom9761]

My youngest DD loved the dance party last time! My others were in Art of Animation. Glad you enjoyed the EMH!

 

[teekathepony]

Star Tours is the only ride at Disney that turns my stomach! But I usually give it a spin once every second trip.
@ those girls on the Great Movie Ride... wow! Sheltered much?
Sounds like an awesome night at DHS, glad you got on TSM! (And I laughed out loud at poor Mr. Potato Head's ear misfortunes!)

 

[BridgetR3]

Really enjoying your TR ! The kids are cuties and it's fun seeing you guys having such a great time !

Thanks!! I'm enjoying reliving it!

My youngest DD loved the dance party last time! My others were in Art of Animation. Glad you enjoyed the EMH!

We really enjoyed the dance party!

Star Tours is the only ride at Disney that turns my stomach! But I usually give it a spin once every second trip.
@ those girls on the Great Movie Ride... wow! Sheltered much?
Sounds like an awesome night at DHS, glad you got on TSM! (And I laughed out loud at poor Mr. Potato Head's ear misfortunes!)

Oh I don't think I will EVER go back on it. What really scares me is that it looks like A LOT of Universal's rides are the same thing and we plan to go there next summer. Looks like I may be shopping in the dump shops a lot!

They were really sheltered!! lol....it was funny to watch them.

Thankfully Mr. PotatoHead ended the night with both ears!

 

[BridgetR3]

The next morning we slept in a little and let the boys sleep in some as well. I am a pretty early riser no matter how late I go to bed so I sat out on the balcony and enjoyed the sunshine.



If you look under the tall part on the right side, you can see TOT.



I watched this CM replant a lot of the plants around the edges of the sidewalk.


We then walked over to Epcot. I absolutely LOVED being so close to Epcot. We did find that we spent more time there on this trip and I think it was because we were always a 5 minute walk from the entrance.



Epcot!!!



Loads of people entering the park today!!



On our way to Future World



At this point I agreed to be the fastpass runner so I ran across to grab fastpasses for Test Track!!! YAY!!! I've never ridden it so I was very excited that it was open this trip!



Love the fountain. It's probably my favorite in all of Disney!



Success!!!!!



Character Spot entrance was under construction.

I met up with the boys and we decided to ride Nemo!



I'm not really that into this ride. I mean it's okay but I also don't mind skipping it if we need to. I don't have ride photos but I did find Nemo....





SEE??? Nemo! and ......Nemo!! and...... Nemo!! and......

After finding Nemo, we played around in the "aquarium" part of the building.





Love this guy's camouflage.

About that time, Turtle Talk with Crush opened up and we went in. Scratch off another first for us. I've never watched this show because we always seemed to just miss it.



Bad photo of Crush! The show was cute. It was air conditioned. Not my favorite but Crush was funny.



Stroller hell!! I'm so excited that we are stroller free so far!!

After leaving Nemo, we went to Sunshine Seasons for lunch.



I had the kids' baked chicken leg and mashed potatoes as usual. Sadly, I have no pictures. I seem to remember having to share a two person table for everyone because it was super packed. This made for a rough lunch but we survived albeit without pictures.


CONTINUED IN THE NEXT POST

 

[BridgetR3]

Next up - Living with the Land







Love this flower!





Hidden Mickey!



I love sunflowers!



Crazy big pumpkins



The makings of a hidden Mickey....I wonder if they move it out into a park/hotel once it fills out.



It amazes me how many bell peppers they can grow on one plant.



Hidden Mickey!





Hidden Mickey!

Up next - "With just a spark of inspiration....."

 

[BridgetR3]

My pictures are always huge compared to other people's pictures. How do you make them smaller?

 

[teekathepony]

Mmmm enjoying the sun on that balcony looks fantastic! Some day I have to stay at a hotel in walking distance to Epcot.
I enjoy Nemo, but I've always wished they did a little something more with it. I do love the aquariums though! I could watch those for hours!
Living with the Land is one of our favs, we even did the behind the seeds tour!

 

[teekathepony]

My pictures are always huge compared to other people's pictures. How do you make them smaller?

What website do you upload them to? Photobucket?

 

[BridgetR3]

What website do you upload them to? Photobucket?

Yep it's photobucket.

Thanks for reading along!

 

[Deesknee]

photobucket has an option under edit for resizing. I usually go down 1 or 2 hundred from what it has it as....it auto adjusted the second number. Now, for some reason mine come out a decent size. I don't remember saving the size, I may have though. Or...it just figures after you resize it numerous time it auto saves for you.

I love the Land and we didn't do it this trip. So, thanks for the photo's.

Turtle Talk with Crush is most definitely better if your child is involved.

I also am not a fan of the Nemo ride. Although, I do think the aquarium part is very cool.

OH, yeah, I LOVE being walking distance to Epcot!! The best part of when we stay BWV.

 

[BridgetR3]

photobucket has an option under edit for resizing. I usually go down 1 or 2 hundred from what it has it as....it auto adjusted the second number. Now, for some reason mine come out a decent size. I don't remember saving the size, I may have though. Or...it just figures after you resize it numerous time it auto saves for you.

I love the Land and we didn't do it this trip. So, thanks for the photo's.

Turtle Talk with Crush is most definitely better if your child is involved.

I also am not a fan of the Nemo ride. Although, I do think the aquarium part is very cool.

OH, yeah, I LOVE being walking distance to Epcot!! The best part of when we stay BWV.

OOOOH thank you Dee!!!!! Your little hint about how you weren't sure if you saved them or if they did it for you made me look for a setting so as not to have to go in and resize ALL of my pictures. I found a setting where I can tell it how big to upload the photo. Going try it out now!

 

[BridgetR3]

lol....it seems that no matter how hard I try these photos are still super huge. I'm sorry for that and I will keep trying!

 

[BridgetR3]

Very quick update this morning because I am supposed to be running out the door right now to a family reunion but I'm dreaming of Disney in my house clothes so.......I figured I would update!!

After leaving the Land, we headed over to one of our absolute favorite rides with Figment. This is one of the songs that we sing ALL THE TIME at home even though no one really knows the words.





Not sure what DS7 is doing in this picture but DS11 was happy to smile for a pic!

We actually had a bit of a wait in Figment on this day (first time it has ever happened) so I took the time to take some pictures but only have one to post here.



Soon we were on the ride.....




Oh silly Figment!



I LOVE this ride and hope that they don't close it like I've heard recently.



Getting our eyes checked until.....



Figment pops up!!

We had a BLAST!!! (get it? That part scared the crud out of DS7 the first time we rode it but now he prepares for it.)



"With just a spark of imagination...."



DS7's favorite part - the Man in the moon



It's beginning to cloud up. Would we get rained out?? We had big plans for dinner on this night but they are at Hollywood Studios. Here's hoping it doesn't storm!