A skeptical family of First-Timers take on WDW Nov 15-22** NOV 28 update

[swwake]

hooray for Mickey Mail!!

 

[skier_pete]

Awesome on the Mickey Mail! Yup, it usually comes about 35-40 days out. I love you posing with it...that funny. One of the ten symptoms of Disney addiction...taking photos of your mail. (Or is that DIS addiction.)

We've never seen the country bears movie, and can't STAND the attraction. (Kind of a "kill me now" feeling sitting there watching it.) Even DD can't stand it. Much like the Beatles - while WDW has acheived perfection in many cases - not everything can go right. I had a special hatred for it when the Tiki room was "under new management" that when I sat through the bears I would spend the whole time thinking: "They ruined the tiki birds but left THIS in tact?"

Needless to say, we pass by the CBJ without entering. You'd do best to keep it low on your list of things to do.

 

[fastergoofy]

Oh gosh! The Country Bear Jamboree is a running joke in our family now. Rent A Goofy Movie and it will make the attraction hilarious. I don't recommend going to CBJ on a first visit, though.

On our last visit, we dragged in two people who had never been before; my teenage son and my mother-in-law. While my daughter and I kept whispering, "Who's yer fav'rite possum?!"* to each other and trying not to laugh, my son kept looking at me suspiciously. Then it gets to the song, "Blood on the Saddle", and he deathglared at me. Soooo funny.

To make things better/worse, my mother-in-law and I couldn't keep a straight face because the lovely hostess for the show had a very strong native Japanese accent and she was trying her hardest to do a hillbilly twang. "How-dee ya-all!"

*a line from A Goofy Movie

 

[FosterA]

hooray for Mickey Mail!!

I know!!! So fun

Awesome on the Mickey Mail! Yup, it usually comes about 35-40 days out. I love you posing with it...that funny. One of the ten symptoms of Disney addiction...taking photos of your mail. (Or is that DIS addiction.)

We've never seen the country bears movie, and can't STAND the attraction. (Kind of a "kill me now" feeling sitting there watching it.) Even DD can't stand it. Much like the Beatles - while WDW has acheived perfection in many cases - not everything can go right. I had a special hatred for it when the Tiki room was "under new management" that when I sat through the bears I would spend the whole time thinking: "They ruined the tiki birds but left THIS in tact?"

Needless to say, we pass by the CBJ without entering. You'd do best to keep it low on your list of things to do.

Pretty safe to say that most people wont recommend taking my skeptical first-timer husband to the Country Bears very first We'll save it for our Grand Finale final attraction maybe and that might help us not feel so bad about having to leave the World.

Oh gosh! The Country Bear Jamboree is a running joke in our family now. Rent A Goofy Movie and it will make the attraction hilarious. I don't recommend going to CBJ on a first visit, though.

On our last visit, we dragged in two people who had never been before; my teenage son and my mother-in-law. While my daughter and I kept whispering, "Who's yer fav'rite possum?!"* to each other and trying not to laugh, my son kept looking at me suspiciously. Then it gets to the song, "Blood on the Saddle", and he deathglared at me. Soooo funny.

To make things better/worse, my mother-in-law and I couldn't keep a straight face because the lovely hostess for the show had a very strong native Japanese accent and she was trying her hardest to do a hillbilly twang. "How-dee ya-all!"

*a line from A Goofy Movie

That's awesome!! I can totally picture a Japanese hostess trying to pull off the twang!
OK, I better add the Goofy Movie to my lineup since I have no idea what this possum stuff is all about!

 

[joy13]

I am jealous of your Mickey Mail - I am at 33 days and haven't gotten it yet Hopefully soon!

 

[heathsf]

Yay for Mickey Mail!!!!! It's just SO exciting! I can't help but do a dance when I get mine!

 

[momabaarjo]

Not even thinking about Pooh size...thinking a determined and CRAZY DISer waiting for a prize! The poor mailman did not have a chance!

 

[FosterA]

I am jealous of your Mickey Mail - I am at 33 days and haven't gotten it yet Hopefully soon!

Did you get it yet???

Yay for Mickey Mail!!!!! It's just SO exciting! I can't help but do a dance when I get mine!

I know, it was the most exciting thing that happened to me all week. I'm confused though...should I get two sets of mail? So far, just got magical express mail.

Not even thinking about Pooh size...thinking a determined and CRAZY DISer waiting for a prize! The poor mailman did not have a chance!

I wonder if I'm the only DIS er in my neighborhood that this mailman has ever had to contend with?

 

[heathsf]

I know, it was the most exciting thing that happened to me all week. I'm confused though...should I get two sets of mail? So far, just got magical express mail.

Yeah, ME usually comes first. You will get separate Mickey Mail with your vacation package information. So something else to look forward to!!

 

[FosterA]

Today marks 29 days to go

It's 5 a.m. and I'm already up because I haven't been able to sleep well for the last couple of weeks! I know you are not supposed to sleep well the night before you fly out but is it normal to not be able to sleep 29 days out!
Well...it's not so much that I've got Disney on the brain but more that my dumb dogs keep waking me up all the time now and since David is still out of town, I flip out and think that the dogs are stirring around because they hear some chainsaw wielding maniac breaking in. So....since I now get up every morning around 4 or 5, I have plenty of time to obsess and plan my Disney trip.


Unfortunately I don't have any spectacular updates for everybody but just a couple little snippets of what I've been up to. Random thoughts.


Ian is a big collector of all sorts of nic nacs and whenever we go somewhere that has pressed penny machines he wants to do it so I took some time the other day to dump out our huge bucket of change and dig out quarters and shiny pennies. And then....thanks to the fab tips on this board, I stacked and layered them into a M&M tube. I'm not sure how long the collecting of pennies will interest him when he gets a load of all the other things to do but if anything I'll have plenty of quarters for the washer and dryer at the Poly! Yes, I am planning to do some laundry about midway through. When I went to Disney back in Feb with Julie, I picked up one of these penny collector books at the airport (since I forgot to actually buy it at the parks). I've already got it stacked onto the Disney Pile for when I get ready to pack.

And then....Allison has a huge pain in the butt Biology teacher this year who is meaner than a rattlesnake (she says) and he lays on tons and tons of homework so I'm feeling a little anxious about her letting him know that she's going to ditch his class 4 days in a row soon. Well...the other day I heard something about this guy that gives me a glimmer of hope. Allison was telling me that somehow or another a discussion about aquariums came up in class and the teacher got all excited and started telling the kids about the aquarium thing at Epcot and how his MOST FAVORITE thing in all of Disney World is the Crush Talking Turtle attraction (OK?...of all things??). Allison said he got excited talking about how he was going to take his grandkids there soon and he couldn't wait to see Crush. I asked Allison if she mentioned to him that she would be going soon and she said "no". But..the point is that this pesky mean teacher seems to be a Disney fan which might help our case when I yank Allison out of school.



Now both my kids seem to be getting a little more excited about the upcoming trip but honestly they are more excited about just not having school more than the "trip". Like my husband, the kids are utterly clueless about what to expect at Disney so I guess it's hard to get excited about something you have no idea about. Ian has watched some of the Disney parks DVDs (box set from Sams Club) so what is shown in these videos are the extent of his Disney expectations.

I've had to lay some ground rules for my husband the other day when he called from Korea. You see, he's been out drinking EVERY SINGLE night since they arrived. He says they haven't been "drinking alot" (yeah right) but he insists that in Korea, the people will be offended if they offer to take you out and buy you beer and you turn them down. So....it's part of his "job" to drink basically. Well David tends to get on these "health food, no drinking, exercise" kicks every so often and I have a feeling that when he gets back from his Korean trip that he's going to want to "detox" and lay off the eating out and drinking. WELL....I told him that he better not be a big dud on our vacation and try to be all healthy and boring because I have big plans on drinking lapu lapus at the Poly and all sorts of things at Epcot not to mention tons of great food. So he'll have two weeks after getting back from Korea and before we head out to do his "detox organic kick" and then he needs to be ready to pig out and get his drink on again


Ok....one last thing. I'm thinking of placing an order with Garden Grocer and need advice! Have any of you used them? We will not have a car of course and we're staying 7 nights. The only thing I really really HAVE to order is about two or three 6-packs of Ian's Ensure Plus since he's a horrible eater and these drinks have kept him alive for 11 years. I don't really want to waste suitcase space for heavy drinks if you know what I mean. The other thing I'd order would be bottled water. I don't drink soda at all but go through tons of water and I know bottled waters at Disney are probably 3 bucks. So, so far all I know I'd order is bottled water and Ensure which doesn't seem "that" worth it but it sort of is at the same time. Anyway...I gotta think about it for another couple days. If I place an order I want to do it this Friday (payday) so I need to make a decision already.

More later.....

 

[skier_pete]

Your husband sounds a little like my wife...she always seems to decide to go on a diet when we are on vacation. Though - I don't think it will be a problem at Disney. I always try to pre-lose weight myself, as I know typically 3-4 pounds gets added while we're there. (We usually don't do a lot of drinking, I hate paying $7 - $10 for a drink that's got one shot of alcohol in it. Same reason I won't drink much at football/hockey games, to pay more for a crappy beer than I pay for a 6-pack of the good stuff....no thanks. We will probably have a few at food and wine though.)

Our DD likes the pressed pennies, too. A relatively cheap souvenir, however just realize there are litterally HUNDREDS of them, so don't expect to "collect them all". And watch out for those evil pressed quarter machines. (At $1.25 a pop.)

 

[FosterA]

Your husband sounds a little like my wife...she always seems to decide to go on a diet when we are on vacation. Though - I don't think it will be a problem at Disney. I always try to pre-lose weight myself, as I know typically 3-4 pounds gets added while we're there. (We usually don't do a lot of drinking, I hate paying $7 - $10 for a drink that's got one shot of alcohol in it. Same reason I won't drink much at football/hockey games, to pay more for a crappy beer than I pay for a 6-pack of the good stuff....no thanks. We will probably have a few at food and wine though.)

Our DD likes the pressed pennies, too. A relatively cheap souvenir, however just realize there are litterally HUNDREDS of them, so don't expect to "collect them all". And watch out for those evil pressed quarter machines. (At $1.25 a pop.)

Yikes, I didn't even know there was such a thing as pressed quarter machines! I'll need to be sure to steer clear of those.

 

[fastergoofy]

the teacher got all excited and started telling the kids about the aquarium thing at Epcot and how his MOST FAVORITE thing in all of Disney World is the Crush Talking Turtle attraction

You seem skeptical but this attraction is pretty awesome! I think he must like it because it's a learning experience for kids. (It's entertaining too, so be sure not to skip it!)

Maybe your daughter could ask her teacher if there's anything special she could do at Epcot that would make up for missing four days? If she shows an interest in learning while she's there, he'll probably be excited for her. There's also Animal Kingdom, which of course has tons of animals, as well as Rafiki's Planet Watch, which is up where the vets are.

 

[shan23877]

We've never used Garden Grocer. If it proves to be too expensive, maybe you could take a cab to Walmart/Target and grab what you need?

Your trip is getting so close! Keep an eye on the travel channel. As it gets closer to the holidays they usually run some disney specials focusing on things like the christmas decorations, flowers, etc. Not too exciting but better than the disney parks series IMO.

 

[Desiree]

I'm a lurker here but I've really been enjoying your PTR and your excursion to get the lay of the land! You're time is getting so close! I'm so excited to see and hear about your families reacton to "The World"! Hope you have a fantastic time!

 

[joy13]

I've never used Garden Grocer, but I've read about people using them and liking them.

 

[FosterA]

You seem skeptical but this attraction is pretty awesome! I think he must like it because it's a learning experience for kids. (It's entertaining too, so be sure not to skip it!)

Maybe your daughter could ask her teacher if there's anything special she could do at Epcot that would make up for missing four days? If she shows an interest in learning while she's there, he'll probably be excited for her. There's also Animal Kingdom, which of course has tons of animals, as well as Rafiki's Planet Watch, which is up where the vets are.

Great idea about Rafiki's planet watch. We really need to butter this teacher up. I'll definitely check out Turtle Talk and see how cool it is. I just thought it was funny that this teacher raved about it so much because he's sort of a big tough football coach manly man so I would have guessed his favorite attraction at Epcot would be drinking beer in Germany.

We've never used Garden Grocer. If it proves to be too expensive, maybe you could take a cab to Walmart/Target and grab what you need?

Your trip is getting so close! Keep an eye on the travel channel. As it gets closer to the holidays they usually run some disney specials focusing on things like the christmas decorations, flowers, etc. Not too exciting but better than the disney parks series IMO.

Hey, never thought to check out Travel Channel. I'll definately have to keep my eyes peeled.
I'm going to just go with Garden Grocer and not worry about how overpriced it is. The fact of the matter if that I spend half my life at Walmart and I'm just not sure I can take going there on vacation. I just need to remember that it's all about the convenience and not saving money exactly. Down here I can get the Walmart Ensure for about 7 dollars a six-pack and it's probably 12 dollars at Garden Grocer which is not fun to think about....but getting a cab and going to Wally World for the millionth time this year isn't fun either. ugh.
Thanks for continuing to follow along

I'm a lurker here but I've really been enjoying your PTR and your excursion to get the lay of the land! You're time is getting so close! I'm so excited to see and hear about your families reacton to "The World"! Hope you have a fantastic time!

awww thanks! and

I've never used Garden Grocer, but I've read about people using them and liking them.

Yep, I think I'm just going to go with them for the convenience. I'll be sure to update ya'll on how it worked out when I do my trip report!

 

[lilpixiebabe101]

You could always order some breakfasty type things or late night snacks for in room instead of hoofing it to grab some grub too early or too late in the day!

 

[moonpie85]

Yeah we've used Garden Grocer a few times. I would highly recommend them

 

[FosterA]

You could always order some breakfasty type things or late night snacks for in room instead of hoofing it to grab some grub too early or too late in the day!

I think that if I bother to get the water and Ensure than I may as well have them toss in some chips and granola bars too. Good idea about breakfasty stuff, we'll probably get tired of the stuff at Cook's after a couple of days.

Yeah we've used Garden Grocer a few times. I would highly recommend them

Ok, good to hear!