ABCs of Trip Reporting, Pt. 2-Life Can Be Crappy and Then You Move On (3/7)

[All7OfUs]

Liesa,

I recall your text from ITSW! I have to admit, it's still funny and ironic. It is SO much prettier at DLR, as is Pirates, I'm glad you were able to do that as well.

I am too- I wished they had put the extra effort into designing them the same at WDW. Although fun, they're a bit of a let down after seeing them in Anaheim.

QUOTE=eandesmom;42625120]I was totally about your description of how women ask each other if they are hungry. So very true! [/QUOTE]

I can imagine you got to see a bit of that on your ladies' trip too.

QUOTE=eandesmom;42625120]Well I don't feel all that bad. I finished my TR, a year later (so 2 years in total with PTR and TR) but I'm actually ahead of you. Far behind in actual pages though. Clearly I skipped a lot of chatter, and I love (and miss) the chatter. I'm hoping (soon) that life will settle now that school has started again. We will see. [/QUOTE]

I know... I feel badly that I've drug it out so long, but life just sort took over this summer for me. Like you, with school back in swing I hope I can be here more.

QUOTE=eandesmom;42625120]Seriously though, I know your are crazy busy but stop by the cruise TR if you can, you are missed my friend.

[/QUOTE]

I will follow the link in your siggie!

Oh yes Liesa I am still here but bust with working a lot ,I know who meThen of course there are 2 Free trips coming up , to plan for pheeeewwww

2?! You are so lucky!! I'd work overtime too to get free trips!

 

[PirateKate]

I loved reading about Tate's adventures with all the other spuds. His new nose looks great!

I thought it was funny that you all went to Beaches and Cream and Girhardelli. The ice cream looks like it was delicious, though! I almost wanted to try to add DTD to our plans this time.

I love the Splash Mountain gift shop in Disneyland. Those carrots are awesome. POTC looks a lot different than it does at Disney World, but I thought Winnie the Pooh looked very similar.

 

[All7OfUs]

I loved reading about Tate's adventures with all the other spuds. His new nose looks great!

I thought it was funny that you all went to Beaches and Cream and Girhardelli. The ice cream looks like it was delicious, though! I almost wanted to try to add DTD to our plans this time.

I love the Splash Mountain gift shop in Disneyland. Those carrots are awesome. POTC looks a lot different than it does at Disney World, but I thought Winnie the Pooh looked very similar.

Ahhh, Tate- yeah he smells pretty good now.

We pigged out pretty good that day, and I was pretty satisfied until later that evening....

I think everything's the same about WoP except the ride cars and the pre-show, which are both so charming! The differences are certainly enough to notice and love

 

[tinacaplan]

Liesa -- beautifully written post about DLR. I mean that, you painted an indelible picture with your words about the fireworks at the end of the day.

Mary -- you are so admirable for all that you do!

 

[eandesmom]

I am too- I wished they had put the extra effort into designing them the same at WDW. Although fun, they're a bit of a let down after seeing them in Anaheim.

I agree. Same thing with Soarin' though the reverse is true with TSM.

I can imagine you got to see a bit of that on your ladies' trip too.

Actually no. which was wonderful! We all wanted to eat and drink...um..all the time.

I know... I feel badly that I've drug it out so long, but life just sort took over this summer for me. Like you, with school back in swing I hope I can be here more.

I hope you know I'm just kidding! Heck, take 2 years, works for me

Though I'll miss even more chatter at the rate I roll these days.

With school back in swing I'm sitting here online monitoring homework instead of hitting the gym. Hopefully it will level out soon.

I will follow the link in your siggie!

Holding you to that.

 

[Flossbolna]

Liesa,

I really love your DL updates - makes me want to return there more and more every time I read a new update. The pommes frittes look delicious - but at lest in Belgium they were a thicker cut. However, they did have all kind of mayonaise with spices available in Brussels, so I think your sauce looked pretty authentic!

I think DL's fireworks show has changed since 2005, but I remember that in 2005 I thought it was much better than Wishes. I think the smaller castle actually works better with the fireworks... Ah, I love all Disney fireworks, but now I really want to see them at DL again...

I am sorry that your daughter hates school, I hope things will improve over time! Hopefully she will soon find a few friends who will make her feel more welcome there!

And finally: good luck with your own first day at school! That's coming up soon as well, isn't it?

 

[TarzansKat]

Phew. I am slightly less confuzzled.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Liesa,

Sorry I've fallen behind. I've been stuck in all-day training sessions and haven't been able to catch up on the DIS for a couple of days. I read the latest DLR chapter and am more determined than ever to go and see the differences between them and WDW for myself! At the very least, I need a Monte Cristo and some fancy-pants french fries!

 

[jenb1023]

Howdy!

Mary - I am so glad you were able to share with everyone and that the indictment got handed down. I so hope you friend that is caught in the crosshairs can find her way free. No matter how hard - you did the right thing.

Liesa - another great DLR update! It is so interesting to me to hear the differences between DLR and WDW. We hope to get to DLR in the next year or two. The detail of the carrots through the roof is so cute and so Disney - glad you captured it. Love the description of the fireworks - no photos necessary - you painted a lovely visual with words! So sorry to hear that Anara is struggling with school. I hope it gets better for her. I am sure it is very hard for her to relate to other girls whose biggest focus/worry in life is cool clothes from Justice, Justin Bieber, etc.

 

[Pimama]

I think DL's fireworks show has changed since 2005, but I remember that in 2005 I thought it was much better than Wishes. I think the smaller castle actually works better with the fireworks... Ah, I love all Disney fireworks, but now I really want to see them at DL again...

The DL fireworks in 2005 were beautiful but I was much less impressed last Sept. In 2005, it was the 50th anniversary show and it was much bigger. This last year it was still beautiful but it was all off to the side of the castle. I thought we had a great spot in the middle of the street but we were too far down the street and some of it was behind a tree.

We also enjoyed those "fancy pants French fries" on our last trip. They were tasty and it's just fun to say pomme frites. Later in the week we walked by the restaurant and there had been a fire in the kitchen. They had evacuated everyone and I wish I had taken a picture- all the different tables abandoned at various stages of dining was almost eerie. Those people just finishing made out pretty good, but I felt sorry for the people who were at the tables that had just gotten their plates, I think I would've tried to take it with me!

 

[All7OfUs]

Hey All!

I have not forgotten about you or this TR! Just been super busy with various projects including getting all like 75? pounds of pears done up into 23 quarts of sauce, getting a dress made for next weekend's re-enactment, and hosting a movie night for a bunch of friends tonight. I'll be back soon

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Hi Liesa! You are such a suzy homemaker! Your family will really appreciate all your canning efforts in the months to come!

I'm sorry about school - Anara? It is sometimes so hard to hit your stride in a new classroom. I hope things go better soon. I didn't see your post on Tuesday - I've been thinking about you alot. I'm leaving town this evening for an Arbonne retreat up at McKenzie River. Jim will be home in a few, so maybe next week? Miss You!

 

[teedee]

I was a little behind, our modem went out and we had to wait a week for ATT to get us another one. We coud have bought one, but it was free if we waited for them to send us one so that's what we did. I had no idea how dependant I was on the internet until we didn't have it!

Anyway, I loved your last DW & DL updates. Especially the Disneyland one. I have only ever spent one day there and loved it. As much as I love Disneyworld, being at Disneyland seemed more magical to me somehow.

Liesa, I hope you don't mind if I make a prayer request here. The mother of a little girl who goes to my school was murdered by her husband, who then abducted the child. (He is her step father, not her natural father). Thankfully the little girl was found alive and well, but please keep her in your prayers. Her real father is deceased, and the authorities are trying to find relatives to place her with. She is one of the sweetest girls in the world and it is so sad that she is having to go through this. Please keep her in your prayers. Sorry to post this here, but I'm a big believer in the power of prayer and this child can use all she can get!

Terri

 

[All7OfUs]

I was a little behind, our modem went out and we had to wait a week for ATT to get us another one. We coud have bought one, but it was free if we waited for them to send us one so that's what we did. I had no idea how dependant I was on the internet until we didn't have it!

Anyway, I loved your last DW & DL updates. Especially the Disneyland one. I have only ever spent one day there and loved it. As much as I love Disneyworld, being at Disneyland seemed more magical to me somehow.

Liesa, I hope you don't mind if I make a prayer request here. The mother of a little girl who goes to my school was murdered by her husband, who then abducted the child. (He is her step father, not her natural father). Thankfully the little girl was found alive and well, but please keep her in your prayers. Her real father is deceased, and the authorities are trying to find relatives to place her with. She is one of the sweetest girls in the world and it is so sad that she is having to go through this. Please keep her in your prayers. Sorry to post this here, but I'm a big believer in the power of prayer and this child can use all she can get!

Terri

WOW, Terri! Of course we'll all be praying! What an awful, awful situation for this poor little girl!! God- please give this little one hope for a bright future; hold her close to you right now and give her peace!! IJN ~ Amen!

Thanks for sharing with us- you can know for sure I will be standing with you in this!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

WOW, Terri! Of course we'll all be praying! What an awful, awful situation for this poor little girl!! God- please give this little one hope for a bright future; hold her close to you right now and give her peace!! IJN ~ Amen!

Thanks for sharing with us- you can know for sure I will be standing with you in this!

Amen. Father I pray for healing and restoration for her poor little mind - that the enemy will not have any hold in this situation, but she will be set apart for your Glory. IJN

 

[All7OfUs]

Hey Looky There!! I nicely exectuted the Glennbo technique without even trying!


We’re HERE! We’re HERE!! Time to clown around! (As if we hadn’t been doing a whole bunch of that already.) Actually, it was time to watch a bunch of other clowns get their act on, and boy were we pretty excited!!

The clouds continued to threaten as we walked up to the will call window to grab our tickets that Mary had so incredibly generously bought as a gift for us! Mary, once again, THANK YOU for treating us to such an amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experience!!

It was early enough that they weren’t letting anyone through the doors quite yet, so we just found a bench and hung out for about a half hour until the doors opened. It was nice to just sit for a while and talk without anything else to do but enjoy each other’s company. The sky threatened and it sprinkled, but we were dry and happy under the huge white awnings that covered the Cirque venue.

Finally, we were ushered in and given a VERY stern warning that photography of ANY kind was strictly forbidden. Cameras were put away, and we settled in for the show. But Mary was NOT happy….!!

As for the show, I’ll say that it COMPLETELY blew me away! I have NEVER seen anything, except possibly Les Mis, that was so completely mesmerizing, amazing, and theatrical as this. But it was also quite puzzling. Had the 3 of us not taken time to study up a bit on the plot, characters, and storyline for this production while waiting for the show to start, we would have been completely like, HUH?! BIG piece of advice here: If you go, (and I HIGHLY recommend that you spend the money and do someday!) PLEASE read a good synopsis and character list beforehand. Although it’s a beautiful in and of itself, knowing something of what you’re watching will ratchet up the enjoyment by a hundredfold.

Here’s a link to a good brief overview for those of you who are interested. In a couple of sentences it is very interpretive and highly abstract, but stunning and quality if every way. Did you know the music is done LIVE for the entirety of the show?? The story is a very loose thread that holds it all together, but is enough to leave one very confused if not studied just a bit prior to seeing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Nouba

The evening was young yet, and we still had a bit of enjoyment planned so, after a bit of goofing off, we left for “home”- after all, it was our last night in our tropical paradise. So what haven’t we done yet to make sure we made the most of our Deluxe stay?


LOTS!!

First of all, we hadn’t watched the fireworks from the beach. That was very near the top of all of our lists of must-do’s, so we made our way from the TTC over to the beach area by the pool. Ladies and Gentlemen, I cannot find perhaps the most hilarious video we have of our trip yet, but imagine this:

There are some poles evenly space across one section to keep cars from driving over to the Poly on the sidewalks. I imagine this has happened before- most likely after someone has had a Lapu or two more than they should have…. So anyways, there are some poles…. Evenly spaced. By now, we are completely loopy from lack of sleep, and a massive overdose of having too much fun, so Mary decides to do some slalom. I yell out, “I’m gonna die laughing if she gets herself hung up on one of those things!”, and I swear on my mother’s Laila perfume that’s exactly what she did!! But only briefly. By now, she had gotten pretty good with that chair and although the passersby thought we were probably totally hammered, we were just caught up in the moment laughing our brains out and hoping there’d be empty chairs on the beach.

Luckily, we still had a bit of time to grab some grub before settling in… I headed straight for the bar. So? What of it? I had two objectives. Lay on the beach with a tropical drink, and eat sushi from the Kona place. The Tambu had treated me quite well the first time around, so I ordered up a Mai Tai: that-just-as-tasty- but-much-less-spendy alternative to the Lapu. It was tall, it was sweet, it was cold and perfect! While sipping on it (just getting a head start) I ordered a Combo sushi that came in a box that left the presentation wanting. You’ll know what I mean when you see the picture in a bit…

LOOKY!! EMPTY CHAIRS!! We cozied ourselves right up on those chairs after drying them off with the complementary beach towels the Poly Is so generous with. After all, wants IBS. And that’s not Irritable Bowel Syndrome. It’s Itchy Butt Syndrome, as we’ve discussed before. Then again, after a Mai Tai from the Tambu those things really aren’t a problem, are they?

Ok, moving on.


We got settled into our chairs and the magic started passing right before our eyes!! “But fireworks don’t pass before our eyes,” you say to yourselves. No, Dear Readers, they don’t. But Electrical Water Parades do. What to our wondering eyes…. We got DOUBLE WHAMMY! For just as the parades passed in front of our vantage, Wishes began bursting forth in all its wondrous glory above and behind the twinkly lights of the barge barrage. I’m not sure I can adequately put into words the spellbinding, marvelous scene unfolding before us. They piped in the Wishes music (thank Heavens they were not playing both soundtracks!) and we sat nearly hypnotized by the beauty given to us. Imagine soft sand on our toes, warm evening air, children bursting with excitement at every new design, a sweet drink in hand, and the best company one could dream of. Of the many moments on this trip, this was quite possibly one of the best. Sit back and enjoy a few of the better photos that turned out. As usual, I blame the POC- I’m sure the Mai Tai had nothing to do with what you get.

(I put this one in because, although you can’t see the octopus “float” –see above pic- the firework looks almost like one just above it!)

After the show, we moved over to a pool table, and finished eating. That’s a table by the pool, not a table of billiards. At this point, I couldn’t really see my meal. I had been sort of digging around and eating it blind, so to speak. Imagine my horror when I took the requisite picture for you all, and looked at my preview screen finding THIS!!!

Holy Messaroni!! It tasted great, but my opinion sure took a nose dive at seeing that globby chaos. Of course I finished every bite (I’ve eaten messier globs) and it still tasted great, but I was left rather underwhelmed with the way it was packaged. Yeah, stupid thing to even comment on, but that’s what TRs are for, right?

We talked, we laughed, we ate, we were rather highly disappointed that the Pool Bar closed at some ridiculous hour (like 8:00 or something!), and we laughed some more. Mary eventually pooped out, and was still not feeling completely well, so she decided to call it quits and wheeled off towards bed. LeeAnn and I, on the other hand, were determined to try out the pool, as it was the last thing we hadn’t crossed off our must-do list for our Hawaiian Haven.

But when we got to the room, we discovered why Mary REALLY went back to the room early:

She had had some amazing cute pillow cases sewn up by one of the DISBoutiquers for each of us, and that’s what we used from then on to gather character autographs. They were so sweet, and personalized with our favorite characters! AGAIN, thank you, Mary! I absolutely adore mine!

Finally it was time to call it the end of day 6. We took stock of our growing list of granted wishes, and went to bed dreaming dreams of Disney delight.

 

[jenbear123]

I like your insight on La Nouba. I found the one I saw in Vegas, called KA, to be very abstract as well. I'm guessing all their shows are like that? I love the abstract style and acrobatics don't get me wrong. I was just confused at times what was going on. At least it's a show that makes you think once it's over. I must say you did well eating sushi in the dark. Who cares what it looked like so long as it tasted good, right? Actually Bubba did the exact same thing once - eat sushi on the beach. That sounds kind of seductive doesn't it? She had a hard time eating it too. It's one of those things that requires the presentation to be eaten properly. Great pillow cases!

 

[eandesmom]

what a sweet idea on the pillowcases, those are adorable!!!

It sounds like an amazing night all around, full of wonder, awe and lots of laughs. Perfection.

 

[maroo]

Yeah...It is true. I feel so bad...I have not been on here in months and my first post back is a complaint...but it is true...at this point in the trip, I was actually unhappy with Disney.

We sat down in our great (and relatively cheap) seats for the show. We were in a GREAT section - for those of you guys that don't have this memorized from well over a year ago...

We had GREAT seats!


But we had a bit of a problem. They were filming the show... a fancy, smancy TV crew of some sort was filming the whole show with this camera that went all over the place right in front of us.

It was not a huge camera - but it was on this long bent bar and moved the entire show. It would have been pretty interesting to watch if I had seen the show before...because the camera tricks were pretty cool, too - but I was so distracted!

I am so ADD...I could not even concentrate on the show at all because I kept watching the camera go here and there and back here and there. I would be watching this AMAZING scene on the stage and all the sudden this thing would come flying out of my peripheral vision and just ruin the little moment I was having in my head.

I honestly wanted to ask for comp tickets. It totally messed up the show for me.

But, alas...the show was really good! I totally agree with Liesa - it was abstract and it would have been smart to look over the plot before the show.

I am so glad we got to go!

 

[Poolrat]

When I went I was in section 205. Just put up that post. As for knowing the story to help- yeah that would have been helpful, I had no idea there really was a storyline. It just seemed random. Great show but random.


You did my every trip must do - a Mai-Tai on the beach with EWP and Wishes.

You had them going at the same time?????? Usually it is EWP and then Wishes unless wishes it at 9 then it should be Wishes then EWP.

I so can see Maroo going through those poles. Find that video.!!!