A Surprise Christmas, 15th Anniversary, We're taking your MOTHER??? Trip- 3-8Finished

[MadilynnsMomma]

Hey Melanie - I am all caught up!!! I still can not believe you brought you MIL - God bless ya! Mark my words - NEVER GONNA HAPPEN!!!

 

[raider97]

Loving your trip report! I have more, but I had to jump on to tell you that we were at AK that same day. We had lunch at Flame Tree around 1:00 p.m. Hit the next Finding Nemo show and then went to the last Lion King show too! We were seated in the lion section. I remember your husband getting picked on. You might have seen me. I had to leave early, in the middle of the show, with Christopher who had to make an emergency bathroom pit stop.

Too funny that we were together all day and despite looking at all your pictures on your PTR I didn't put 2 and 2 together!!

Stephanie

 

[raider97]

I can't believe your MIL and the sandwiches! It would have driven me nuts too! And losing her medicine and having to unpack the car when it was already in her room. You have a lot of patience!!

Overall, it sounds like you had a smooth trip. Love your Poly picture with your friends and it sounds like you had a nice night at MVMCP. Too funny about DH on Splash. My two little ones rode Splash this time and I was worried, but they handled it really well. We were at Epcot this night. Even though the sprinkling was kinda annoying I was very happy it wasn't really raining! Know what I mean?

We were at Magic Kingdom on the 18th too! We didn't arrive until late though.... but you were probably in the Dumbo line when we walked by headed from IASW right after the party started towards toontown. Oh and my kids were the same way with my mother. Not wanting to ride the rides with her, it made me feel terrible! But I think their reasoning was the same as your kids.... she was enjoying the ride, not really interacting with them at all.

And as I was reading your update on Animal Kingdom and her issues with meeting you guys there I wondered if we actually were talking about the same person!! You will have to read about my mom too!

I'm all caught up... sorry I haven't been posting much. I have been reading for the most part, just haven't had the time to sit down and post. Can't wait to hear the rest! We were at Epcot on Sunday too!

Stephanie

 

[Happydog]

Well I guess I needed to get over here, didn't I!? I am glad I did! NICE photos!!! I am so jealous that you made it in time for the MVMCP! I really wanted to attend, but we couldn't take more than the three days off since we were staying through Christmas. Turns out we didn't need to take those days off since there were snow days, so fortunately we now get to take a cruise! You have some great photos! Too funny that your DH was called to join the show for FOTLK So cool! And glad you enjoyed HDDR! So did we -- it will show up on my TR at the end! I think your next day is the first day we were there! Can't wait to read more!

 

[jordanyosh]

I have to say Dinosaur scares me much more than EE...

So funny that your DH and DD got picked.

I've heard so many good things about Hoop Dee Doo....mos def will have to try it.

What a great day.

 

[Disney owl]

great reports thanks for sharing

 

[DisneyMom14]

I REALLY apologize for taking so long to get back here guys! Thanks for reading along and I will most definitely give you some long updates this weekend! Life has been a little hectic but I'm hoping to squeeze in some Dis-time tomorrow.

I just ordered my photopass cd (yay!). I only had 2 days left to order it and I prepaid! I made it though! I also uploaded my own photos and created/ordered a calendar and the cd with my uploaded pics.

I think I really got a deal because I paid less than the $149 for the photopass by pre-ordering it then we were pleasantly surprised with a 20% off code from Disney in our hotel room for our anniversary! To my surprise, it applied to the WHOLE order including the $149 photopass cd that I already had a credit for!!!! I also had the 40% off code from the MVMCP card but it only applied to photos (not your whole order). I couldn't get the photopass site to accept both discounts so I took the 20% as it gave me a better value. Now that I will have the cd's, I don't need to order expensive prints. I'll just get them printed at Walmart, etc.

Anyway, I am exhausted even though we only had a 4 day week. It was the busiest 4 day week I've had for a while! I will work on an update tomorrow. Until then, I want all of you to be cheering for my Saints who are soooo close to our 1st Superbowl!!!! GEAUX SAINTS!!!!

 

[DisneyMom14]

I love the t-shirts you all have on for AK day!

Do glad you got to ride EE and liked it!

The parade looks like a lot of fun!

HDDR sounds fun, too! I want to do that on our next trip!

Thanks!
Me, too!
It was.
You should!

YAY!! Great updates!! So glad you got to ride EE--I want to ride it in May--it was shutdown due to rain last May! LOVE that the characters at Camp Minnie Mickey are dressed in Christmas clothes--sooo cute!! And I loved both the Nemo and FOTLK shows--how fun that your DH got picked to participate!! Ally (who was 4 at the time) rode Dinosaur with my DH last May and she LOVED it! I couldn't believe it!! I worried about her the entire time! HDDR looks like a lot of fun--I've never done that meal before!

I hope that you can experience EE next time! Soooo worth it!
I was also excited about seeing the characters dressed up!
DH was a good sport. We love both shows as well.
Wow! She's brave! I was scared.
HDDR is a GREAT show!

Hey Melanie - I am all caught up!!! I still can not believe you brought you MIL - God bless ya! Mark my words - NEVER GONNA HAPPEN!!!

YOU are tooo funny! I don't think it'll ever happen again. I'm glad my kids got to enjoy it while it lasted (if they actually did). I'm sure one day they'll look back and remember it hopefully fondly. My grandmother came with my family when I was 4 and the only child at the time. All I remember was riding the bus back to the hotel with her but it is a nice memory.

Loving your trip report! I have more, but I had to jump on to tell you that we were at AK that same day. We had lunch at Flame Tree around 1:00 p.m. Hit the next Finding Nemo show and then went to the last Lion King show too! We were seated in the lion section. I remember your husband getting picked on. You might have seen me. I had to leave early, in the middle of the show, with Christopher who had to make an emergency bathroom pit stop.

Too funny that we were together all day and despite looking at all your pictures on your PTR I didn't put 2 and 2 together!!

Stephanie

Wow! I can't believe we were sooooo close to meeting in person! Crazy! I don't think I remember seeing you leave. Shux! I really gotta' catch up with everybody's trip reports. I'll try to come over and say hi soon.

I can't believe your MIL and the sandwiches! It would have driven me nuts too! And losing her medicine and having to unpack the car when it was already in her room. You have a lot of patience!!

Overall, it sounds like you had a smooth trip. Love your Poly picture with your friends and it sounds like you had a nice night at MVMCP. Too funny about DH on Splash. My two little ones rode Splash this time and I was worried, but they handled it really well. We were at Epcot this night. Even though the sprinkling was kinda annoying I was very happy it wasn't really raining! Know what I mean?

We were at Magic Kingdom on the 18th too! We didn't arrive until late though.... but you were probably in the Dumbo line when we walked by headed from IASW right after the party started towards toontown. Oh and my kids were the same way with my mother. Not wanting to ride the rides with her, it made me feel terrible! But I think their reasoning was the same as your kids.... she was enjoying the ride, not really interacting with them at all.

And as I was reading your update on Animal Kingdom and her issues with meeting you guys there I wondered if we actually were talking about the same person!! You will have to read about my mom too!

I'm all caught up... sorry I haven't been posting much. I have been reading for the most part, just haven't had the time to sit down and post. Can't wait to hear the rest! We were at Epcot on Sunday too!

Stephanie

Glad you "feel" my pain with MIL.
Yes, I didn't like the sprinkles of rain but definitely better than a pourdown!
So funny that our schedules were so alike. Do you use TGM?

Well I guess I needed to get over here, didn't I!? I am glad I did! NICE photos!!! I am so jealous that you made it in time for the MVMCP! I really wanted to attend, but we couldn't take more than the three days off since we were staying through Christmas. Turns out we didn't need to take those days off since there were snow days, so fortunately we now get to take a cruise! You have some great photos! Too funny that your DH was called to join the show for FOTLK So cool! And glad you enjoyed HDDR! So did we -- it will show up on my TR at the end! I think your next day is the first day we were there! Can't wait to read more!

Glad you came by! I'm so jealous about your cruise! I'll be trying to catch up with everyone's trip reports again this weekend.

I have to say Dinosaur scares me much more than EE...

So funny that your DH and DD got picked.

I've heard so many good things about Hoop Dee Doo....mos def will have to try it.

What a great day.

Dinosaur scare me more than EE too!

HDDR is definitely corny/slapstick humor but great nonetheless. You should definitely try it. As Wendy's kids get a little older, they'll get a kick out of it too. My DD8 was catching most jokes and my DS4 just liked the physical humor of it.

I know your trip is coming up soon and no way have I been able to keep up with your pretrip report lately. So I just want to say I hope you have a totally wonderful trip and I will go back to your PTR to ready your updates. I can't wait for the trip report that will follow.

great reports thanks for sharing

Thanks so much! Sorry I've been out. I hope to update soon!

 

[ladybugmom]

YAY for 20% off of PP!!!! NICE!!!

 

[emmakatbaby]

Hi Melanie ,

I am really enjoying your TR. I am so glad to see I am not the only disney addict from Louisiana. I have read many TR's, and so far yours is the only from form LA. I love it!!! GEAUX SAINTS!!!!!!

 

[DisneyMom14]

YAY for 20% off of PP!!!! NICE!!!

It was great!

Hi Melanie ,

I am really enjoying your TR. I am so glad to see I am not the only disney addict from Louisiana. I have read many TR's, and so far yours is the only from form LA. I love it!!! GEAUX SAINTS!!!!!!

I was pleasantly surprised that there are quite a few of us disney addicts around here. I'm honored to be your first LA trip report!

About to start the next chapter....

 

[DisneyMom14]

Sunday was our long awaited Epcot day. Since we arrived, DS has been asking if today was the day we could go on the "fast cars" aka Test Track. I'll note that he didn't even want to ride the go-carts at MK because they went too slow. Our only ADR today was for Candlelight Processional so we ate something quick in the room and got to the bus early to make the SOARIN' STAMPEDE! I really don't care for the stampede situation at Epcot or at DHS but if you want to ride them more than once, it's almost necessary. We don't run, push, or anything. We just go with the flow.

We (including MIL) arrived early at Epcot and waited in the "holding area" for the countdown to opening. We made our way to the Land and dropped hubby off to get fastpasses as we made our way in line. Before anyone flames me, I know there are a lot of opinions about whether doing this is appropriate. I'll just say that if one person needs to catch up or an adult needs to bring a little one to the restroom, I'm fine with that. I don't mind anyone else doing it and if DH doesn't catch up with us soon, we let a WHOLE BUNCH of people pass us up until he does and we do it BEFORE we get to the loading area. To me it seems a better idea than 4 people standing in the FP area making it crowded unneccessarily. Anyway, that's what we did and we did have to step to the side and wait for him. While we were waiting in line, we tried to re-explain to MIL what she was in for. She doesn't ride a whole lot of rides and doesn't like heights but for some reason, I thought she would enjoy this. We reminded her that if she looked to the side, she would get rid of the "soaring" feeling if she needed to. We also reminded her NOT to look down. This was also my DS's first time and he was VERY excited although he was aggravated that he couldn't ride the "fast cars" first. We had a wonderful ride pointing out for everyone to smell the oranges and the pine trees. I love this ride. It is so relaxing!

From Soarin' we made our way over to Test Track. On the way, we stopped to meet a few characters.

We had decided to skip Nemo and Crush as the kids were more interested in riding the big rides. Couple that with the middle of the day ADR and candlelight procession and time was going to be tight.

We left MIL outside on a bench as we waited in the standby line for Test Track. I don't remember how long the wait was but I can tell you that I don't wait in lines over 30 minutes. Here are the kids waiting in line. Can you sense DS's excitement?

He LOVED it like we knew he would. It was great experiencing both Soarin' and TT with him.

When we left TT, we wanted to sign up to play Kim Possible. We picked up our "Kim"municator around the International Gateway then made our way to our destination for our mission: United Kingdom. This game is REALLY cute. We loved playing the game. Your Kimmunicator will tell you where to go, give you clues, tell you to do something and reward you with something that happens and another clue. I hope they keep this around because it was something we could enjoy as a family in World Showcase. We did the kidcot stations last trip but the kids weren't excited to do them again. They do, however, want to play Kim Possible again.
Here's my DD8 with her Kimmunicator. She wants a cell phone really bad (and she ain't gettin' one) so we let her hold on to this. She was happy.

We didn't get to finish our mission before we had to go to our ADR at San Angel Inn Restaurant in the Mexican pavillion. We have always wanted to eat here because it is so beautiful. The food was ok. I don't know if we'll eat here again, but I'm glad we tried it.

We had the CP package for the 5pm show and our ADR was at 2pm. We didn't have much time but we hiked back over to UK to finish our mission then made our way to America for the show. Even though we were probably 20 - 25 minutes early, we could barely get a seat. Thank goodness we had a "reserved" section. Our narrator was Whoopi Goldberg. She was pretty good and had a nice personal message. The show was beautiful and if you're going during the Christmas season, you should definitely try it. It's very popular so plan to spend time and money doing the package and arrive EARLY even for the not as popular 5pm showing.

This picture is of the Voices of Liberty when they performed. Remember when DH said the guy in the Barbershop Quartet was the guy from the Voices of Liberty? There he is. All the way to the left.


After CP, we didn't want to try to do much so we used our Soarin' and Test Track fastpasses and leisurely walked world showcase. We made sure to get churros in Mexico, school bread and cloudberry horns in Norway, and of course, ride Maelstrom. The kids love it! We were able to ride Maelstrom 2x's in a row as there was no wait. Sometimes, that ride has a very long line so we were pleased. Illuminations was at 9:30 tonight so a little before 9pm we headed to Mexico to a little spot I noticed earlier that might be a nice place to see the show. I know we were supposed to have a "special viewing area" from the CP package but I had heard mixed reviews. We have ALWAYS watched Illuminations from around the Ferry dock by the store in the area between Future World and World Showcase. This new place was very nice. We sat right up against a railing so no one was in our place. We chose to stay sitting so the people who walked up behind us could see. We didn't take any pics of the fireworks because....we always do. This time we just watched.

Here is a picture of the Christmas tree instead:

After Illuminations, we took the bus back to Pop. The kids were already excited that we would be coming back to Epcot the very next morning! We usually don't park hop but this trip we would.

Next update: a split day
Epcot AM
MK PM (reservations at Pirates League)

 

[Happydog]

Wow great news on your PP CD! Yes, I got a prepaid one too, but I never seem to remember to take photos!!!! But how cool you made a calendar! I bought two mousepads for the Grandparents!!! I love all your photos from Your Epcot day, seems that you got to do plenty all considering! We didn't try the CP... we were on the fence about it. We did hear it from afar, but your photos are lovely! I am sure we'll see it at one point. Can't wait to hear how your Pirate's League goes!!!

It is nice to just watch the fireworks, isn't it? I get caught up in what I am enjoying and forget to take photos, and I am glad it happens that way sometimes...

 

[DisneyMom14]

One thing that kept me away from the Dis for a while was my DS's 5th birthday. He wanted a Star Wars party and because of his peanut allergy, I made his cake. I've made a pirate ship and a life-sized guitar covered with fondant. THIS cake (star wars) was supposed to be the easy one. NOT! Nothing went right with this cake. Good thing I started Saturday morning cuz it took me until noon on Sunday to finish it. I made 3 batches of buttercream icing. It was my first time I got my icing to turn black but it also turned bitter. The white background icing didn't crust so I couldn't smoothe it. My banana filling didn't thicken. The image I got blown up to carve the logo wasn't tall enough so I couldn't carve it because I would have lost too much cake. Just one thing after another.

We did pull this party off and the cake at least tasted good. It's not my best work and I have vowed to find someone more talented than me to make our cakes. It has to be someone I can trust to take his allergy seriously.

We had a very large crowd of people and I ran out of goodie bags (I made 16!) and not everyone showed up! It was GREAT! The kids had Jedi lightsaber training by using a foam lightsaber (we made) to hit balloons that we blew up with glow sticks in them hanging from the ceiling in my hall. We also played "Pass the Deathstar" which was just hot potato to Star Wars music. The Deathstar was a black balloon. We didn't have time to finish the rest of the games before the party started because of the cake disaster. He really enjoyed his party and that's all that counts.

 

[praisehisname]

Loved your Epcot update! We had thought about doing the CP, but decided to save the money. Now I wish I had gone! Maybe next year...

The Star Wars cake looks great!

 

[lovegrumpy]

The cake looks good. Looks like he had a great time.

 

[ladybugmom]

What a great Epcot day!! The CP looks AMAZING!!! I cannot wait to do this in Dec.!! Glad to hear that you enjoyed it. Now tell me how the CP package works--if you are on the DDP, how many TS points does it require?! What a great Star Wars cake!! My DH is a huge Star Wars fan!!

 

[DisneyMom14]

We are having a WHO DAT SUPERBOWL BABY!!!!

I will get back to you guys soon but after this gut-wrenching game, I need to celebrate!

 

[emmakatbaby]

What a game!!!! WOOOHOOOO! Our small town is celebrating, fireworks, horns even the local police are saying "Who Dat" on the loud horn!!

By the way, I read your latest update. I love it too .

 

[jordanyosh]

Great day at Epcot! You got to do so much!

I have not had the school bread. So many people talk about it. I guess I'll be trying it out!

Sorry about the cake. It all worked out in the end and it tasted good!

Cool theme!