~A XMAS STORY~decorations, crowds, pixies..AND A BLOODY NOSE~ACTUAL UPDATE 11/9 p190

[LISAMWDW]

Just follow you over from your PTR! I'll have to come back and catch up! I can't wait!

 

[punkin413]

I usually just lurk on these TR's, but I am definitely subbing to this one! I read some of the preTR and was so excited to see this up now.

I love the condo you stayed in. I actually found their website not too long ago and am considering booking with them...haven't quite made up my mind yet,but they seem like really great people and I LOVE all the detail.

I may start picking your brain in the future as you seem to be the master planner and this will be our first ever Disney trip!

thanks for reading!!! i love when lurkers come out and say hi. the owners of that condo are wonderful and i'd highly recommend them for staying off property. and pick away - i'm happy to answer any questions!

You're report is great - once again! I'm so glad I found it. I've followed you on a few others. You look great, by the way! We are on our way to CBR tomorrow. I still cannot believe it!

thanks so much! you're so sweet to say that. i've gained back like maybe 7 pounds but nothing i can't undo once the holidays are over. hope you're having fun on your trip!!!!

Awww, thanks for sharing your Christmas pics!! Your brother is soooooo tall!!! He and Jordan look so cute together!

That is funny about the Alabama player! My sis is a huge Georgia fan...so I told her I am going to cheer for Tennessee next year just to go against the grain. I refuse to cheer for Tech!!!

yeah, brett is 6'5". a giant! now if he would only gain about 40 pounds he'd look good. i cheer for anyone but georgia. i can't help myself. there's something about moving into a state where black and red are shoved down your throat and it's UNHEARD OF not to cheer for a certain team - i just can't do it! it's kinda like living in nashville and cheering for tennessee - i couldn't do it then either!

It was fun to see what you were upto over Xmas, wow you were a busy girl!

I really miss the big family get togethers we used to have. So nice that you could all come together for the holidays. I know what you mean about your grandparents. My gramma is visiting us right now, she's 90 and every year I hope its not the last. I have no other living grandparents.

What's up with that huge pig? He's either a pet or a years worth of bacon...

I am pleased to know your gifts were Disney related. You can never have too many Tink mugs.

Glad to see you could meet up with your friends too, especially vandyfan. Your BFF has cute kids.

Thanks for sharing.

i don't know what was up with that pig - i'm just glad he had some food to keep him preoccupied. my uncle's wife said if she's not eating she would've been right on our heels all the way to the front door. not that i'm scared of a pig, but it may have freaked me out a little!

Joining in! I was reading your PTR for this trip and I got behind so now I'm picking up on the TR instead. Glad to read your review of the condo you guys stayed in. Sounds like a nice place to save money! I bookmarked their web site for future use.

Looks like you had a wonderful Christmas! Thanks for sharing all the pictures. Sorry you had to be away from DH, though.

thanks so much for reading! i've seen you over on winkers TR.

ok too much to comment on but all caught up.

great updates and pics.

I loved the decorations at the resorts.

looks like you had a nice Christmas.

thanks! i did have a nice christmas but i'm glad to be home.

VERY CUTE!!

She is adorable!! I'm sure this baby girl will be just as beautiful!!

How sweet!!!

Oh you should have!! We will all definitely have to get together next time!!

Wow Dawn you were very busy on your trip , and I am SO thankful that I got to see you TWO TIMES!!!! I had a great time and I'm so glad we got to visit while you were here! And THANK YOU for my eeyore shirt! (using Eeyore's friend since there isn't one)

yeah, consider yourself lucky. i'm totally kidding. and you're welcome. i couldn't resist getting that shirt for you!

I love your trip reports and this mini Chistmas one was evne better as you showed us more of your family!!! It appears you had alot of fun with your extended family and that surely is what the holidays are all about--thanks for sharing!

thanks so much!

Just follow you over from your PTR! I'll have to come back and catch up! I can't wait!

thanks for reading, lisa!

 

[punkin413]

scott's making me look bad so i figured i should do an update! this will be the last one until i get my photopass CD because the next installment will include photopass pictures. but i don't expect to have to wait too long. the last person on our share is uploading her pics right now and i'll order the CD in a couple of days and they're usually pretty fast about getting them out.

oh, and two more things....

one, my boss told me she's taking her family to disney world next december for christmas. so i get to help her plan the trip! i'm such a dork.

and, two, ray and i are thinking of renting a pop-up camper and taking a trip up to tallulah gorge state park in march. we've been considering buying a pop-up for awhile now and decided we wanted to rent one first to see if we liked it. so that's another thing that will preoccupy me with not having a disney trip of my own to plan!

on to the TR!

---------------------------------------------------------------

last i left you were were trudging out in the rain, leaving the beach club and heading for epcot to get something to eat. i have never in my life seen such rain. the raindrops were HUGE and unmerciful!!!! by the time we got to the international gateway, we were all soaked. ray and i, who were ahead of anna, chris and luke, stopped under a covered area before we got to the ticket turnstyles. we waited for the rest of the gang to catch up and as anna was walking up to me she and i just starting laughing.....ISN'T THIS FUN?????? you can't help but laugh. what else can you do?

i told ray that we'd had such good luck with rain before -- on our 2007 trip it rained on us about 20 minutes on our MGM day and in 2008 it rained while were having dinner at mama melrose and that was it -- that it was all catching up with us now! we seriously got more rain in that one hour than our fair share from all 3 trips put together!

after going through the international gateway, we made our way through england and canada and over to the land. it was so wet that ray and i actually stopped under the monorail at one point just to get a break from the rain. i was so glad i had my crocs on instead of sneakers and socks!!!

once we made it into the land, everyone took off their ponchos and assessed the damage.....

wet rats!

the first place we went was the bathroom to dry off. i literally took off my shoes and poured the water down the drain in the bathroom floor! ray said he put paper towels in his sneakers to dry out his socks - he kept them in there all day!

after drying off we headed towards sunshine seasons. anna snapped this shot on the way....

can you see all the people down in the sunshine seasons area? yeah....it was madness!!!! it was around 12:30 at this point. and because it was raining, i think everyone had the same idea we did! stay dry and eat lunch!

so i went to get a table while everyone else got in line to get food. i told ray to just pick something out for me, but that i was hungry so get me something good.

i wandered around the seating area aimlessly for about 10 minutes before realizing i was going to have to just stand there and watch for someone to finish up their meal. i saw a family of 4 who looked like they were packing up to leave. i went over and told the mom that i didn't mean to hover, but i was gonna snag their table when they got up. she said it was fine, that she had to do the same thing too, so don't worry about it. i hate being rude! i'm glad she was nice.

so i got the table and started watching for the rest of my group. anna and chris saw me first then ray followed not too far behind. as soon as they got there, i got everyone's ticket and went and got fastpasses for soarin before i started eating. our return time wasn't until 3:48!

i returned back to find this in front of me....

ray had gotten me the rotisserie pork chop, carrots and rice. it actually was REALLY good! it was huge though - i didn't finish it, but chris did!

i didn't take pics of anyone else's food. i know that ray got a kids sandwich meal and so did luke. anna got the pork chop too and chris got some sort of roasted chicken. everyone said their food was really good!

after that we checked outside and the rain had died down a lot. it was still sprinkling but nothing bad like it was. so we headed over to ride nemo!

i love this shot!

this was anna, etc.'s first time riding and luke loved it! if you read my very first TR, you know that ray and i had a HORRIBLE experience on nemo the first time because we sat next to a woman who was BEATING her child the whole time. so this time was definitely better!

continued in next post: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=29373038&postcount=144

 

[punkin413]

when we got off we started to go towards turtle talk but there was a long line, so we decided to go see some fishies instead.

we found him!

we looked at the dolphins too but they were being very elusive that day. we only saw them once.

turtle talk was still crazy so we left the seas and headed towards spaceship earth. luke had been talking about it all morning - he was really excited about seeing it! he kept saying he was gonna go up in a rocket ship when he went inside.

on the way we passed club cool and decided to make a pit stop there.

ray being silly while sampling sodas....

luke jumped right in with us and started trying different sodas, stating whether he liked this one or that one. it was cute!

we kept waiting for chris to try the beverly and finally he got to it. i tried to get his reaction but you can't really see it here. he made the traditional beverly, "what the heck did i just drink???" face!

anna had to try it too!

right as we were about to leave, luke put his cup up to the beverly and tried it. none of us told him to - he just did it. as soon as he tasted it he made a face and poured the rest out, but didn't say a word about it! i think he's pouring it out here.

we left club cool and headed towards SE. you can see the skies are still very yucky, but at least it had stopped raining!

the park wasn't too terribly crowded that day, i think because of the rain. it's just that everyone was at sunshine seasons getting lunch while we were there!

luke was amazed at spaceship earth!

we hopped on with no wait. i love this part!

ray and i never rode this in our prior trips together. i think it's been closed both times we've been there. i rode it with erica in september so i let him fill out the "your future" part at the end. when he was done, we waited and waited....and waited...AND WAITED for our future to come up but the screen that said, "building your future" just stayed on the screen the whole time. we got jipped!!!!!! i hated that too because that's my favorite part and i had made a crazy face! i think ray's face was just a stunned look. i really wish we could've seen our future!

here's anna, chris and luke's!

that's all for now. i have to stop here because my next installment involves photopass pics!

next up....mission space, our first encounter with brazilian tour groups and will luke go soarin?????

 

[disneymom1980]

I love the pictures from Spaceship earth! I'm going to have to try to get pictures of ours when we're there in January. I didn't get any on the last trip because I didn't know when they were on.

Gotta love the Beverly faces.......DH knew there was one that I was waiting for him to try, but he didn't know which one it was. When he finally tried it, I kept waiting for him to react, but all he said was, "That's not to bad."

We were at Sunshine Season right at lunch time too, and it was nuts. I had to hover for a table too, but I was holding DD #2, and a family offered me theirs and the husband even pulled up a chair for me to sit in while I waited. I agree that it's definitely a lot easier when people are nice about it.

 

[Spartangirl]

Glad you had a better experience on Nemo this time!

I LOVE when people try Beverly for the 1st time......the expressions are priceless! Although, seeing peoples' expressions makes me think of that horrible, all-too-familiar taste.

That stinks that your "future" didn't come up on SE. I can't wait to see that portion of the ride when we eventually make it back to WDW.

As always, can't wait for more!!!

 

[Happy Elf]

What a crowd at Sunshine seasons. Your pork chop looks amazing! Great pics of the fish. I'm looking forward to riding Nemo.

 

[hlrababy]

Sooo glad that a lady wasn't beating her kids this time on Nemo!!

Wish I could have seen Luke's face when he tried the Beverly. That stuff is nassssssstayyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[scottny]

great update and pics.

I have 2 installments ready to go.

I am not waiting for my photopass. I will do a special photopass segment when it arrives. I think I missed 30 or so pics already.

looking forward to more. Nemo I say I will not go on but always do.

 

[DisneyLaura]

now i'm just relaxing with a glass of vanilla vodka and cranapple juice (sounds odd but it's good!).

Welcome back home, I had vanilla vodka and cranberry juice, yummy. Long story, short. I was at a party for my aunt and my cousin rented a bartender. I'm not a drinker so to speak so if I can taste the liquior I don't want it so she made me a cheesecake martini minus the martini and that's what it was - cranberry juice and vanilla vodka. It was like drinking juice.

I saw your ticker that your going to NYC, cool I'm in CT. I wanna see Mary Poppins on Broadway as well. Me and DH went to the city for our anniversary in October and it was awesome, just the two of us. Make sure you go to the WOD store, awesome! They have meet and greets upstairs around 12 I believe. I saw Minnie and Goofy in their halloween costumes. I can't wait to go back hopefully in the spring.

You did have a busy holiday back home. Glad you had a great time and thanks for the mini TR.

Loved your Spaceship Earth pictures, I cannot get enough of that "ball". I think it photographs great.

 

[Ally192]

Great update!! I can't believe how wet y'all were! That's insane.

Beverly faces are so great! My family has been to Disney probably a dozen or more times so we've all tried Beverly and know it's horrible but drink it every trip...I don't know why! Actually, I went to World of Coke a few months ago with my sister and her boyfriend and got a really great picture of her.

 

[TigerKat]

Once again I'm late to the party, but I did catch up! The condo looks really nice but I think you nailed it, only worth it if it's a long stay.

Thanks for all the Boardwalk & Beach Club pics. We love the EPCOT resorts and are super excited to be staying at the Beach Club for the first time Oct '09!

I'm a PF Changs junkie too! I had no idea they offered wine flights, can't wait to go back now.

Dawn, I'm really enjoying your reviews. You are very good at this!!!!

Happy New Year!!!

 

[Philadisney]

Yay I found your TR!! Looking forward to catching up on your Christmassy adventures this weekend

 

[MeMom]

In her very quickly developing southern brogue, Brooklynn would say you guys are wey-yut!
Very wey-yut!

Glad that didn't deter you, though! Just gotta be happy you are in Disney World and know that it will get better!

The pork chop looks good. I'll have to try that someday, but I can't get past that chicken whenever I go there. That chicken is delicious!

I love Luke's face as he is quickly and quietly disposing of his Beverly!

 

[FauntleroyFAN07]

great update, glad to hear the photopass is coming soon, i cant wait to get them

 

[KristinAnne]

Oh my, you were wet!! Looks like you made the best of it though! I hope Luke goes Soarin!

 

[tinkgurl]

Geeze you guys did get soaked! But, it is one of those things you just have to laugh about otherwise it'll be a damper on your whole day! As you know, I love Sunshine Seasons so I'm glad you ate there. That's the one part I hate about Counter Service, trying to find a table and if there aren't any, then you have to stand around and wait for one to open up and run to it before someone else gets to it! I love the picture of Luke and Chris looking up at Spaceship Earth!

 

[xoktenox]

First, I noticed your ticker says you're heading to NYC...thats so cool, I'm right out on Long Island about an hr or so away. Take in as much as you can, idk if you've ever been there before but its amazing! Theres soooo much to see and do.

That picture of Luke and Chris in their future is so cute, Luke is cheesin' it up big time! And wow, Sunshine Seasons was PACKED. I guess that could be expected because of the weather. I'm glad you guys didn't let it ruin your time though. I'm nervous to hear your account of the Brazilian tour groups in your next post!

 

[starlight_003]

I can't wait to have my DH try the Beverly. You guys did get wet. This happen to us at Seaworld in 07 and DS and I had fun splashing in the puddles.

 

[ArielSRL]

he plays football for the alabama crimson tide. he had a shirt on that said alabama and my dad asked him. when i heard him say yes i said, "oh, you guys beat georgia. roll tide!" and he started laughing. i thought allie would get a kick outta that! sorry - i don't know his name.

Man, I really wish you would quit with this GA stuff!! I'm a nice GA fan and I am reading your TRs...take it easy on me!