and we're back. [Walt, Wizards, and....Woolungasaurus?]

[bumbershoot]

It's good to know that people like Epcot! 3 days there? Wow! I'm not surprised you didn't do it all; I mean, how many times have we been to DLR since '05 (2005: 1 family day... 2006: 1 family day... 2007: 2 family trips... 2008: 1 solo 2-days, E's b'day, 1 solo day, 1 family trip...2009: 1 solo/divas trip, E's b'day, 1 day in DCA me and E, 2 day trip just me and E, 1 family trip for my b'day!), and I know we still haven't seen or done it all!


*************
Look further in the website I was looking at for Kim Possible...I'm reading all about Kidcot! What a fun thing that sounds like!!!!

I can totally picture...Molly gettin' a drinkie poo every few countries while the kidlet does crafts and gets stamps and finds out how to write his name (obviously, phonetically)...yay! Now what would Robert be doing, since he's not a kid and doesn't really drink? Hmm...babysitting us?

Ooh I like this (thanks to stitchkingdom!):

One of the most magical aspects of the World Showcase is that the Cast Members are citizens of their respective countries and are only in the United States for a short period of time, making them an excellent resource for learning about life abroad. You may want to make a game of this advantage by learning a bit about each country prior to visiting Walt Disney World or building your knowledge of foreign languages by asking the Cast Members to teach you simple phrases such as Hello, Goodbye and Thank You (or simply feel free to use them if you already know them).

Hmm. "An alternative to the free masks is the World Showcase Passport which is generally more suitable for older children." So is a 6 year old considered a little kid, or an older child? Hmm.

Looking at the map and info on wdwinfo (right here at le diz), I can't really see anything I wouldn't want to do or see. I can imagine skipping the American Adventure, seeing as how I live here and all, but if others insisted I wouldn't run screaming.

I haven't looked at the menus recently, but I would want to try either the Grey Goose Slushie or the Grand Marnier slushie. I'd also think of eating at Sunshine Seasons as it seems they have good veggie stuff! Depending on the menus as we get closer to the trip, I'd consider Coral Reef (they've had nummy sounding veggie things in the past), one of the Morocco places, and I've read there's a crepe place (Crepes des Chefs de France, or something like that?) and the Patisserie. Mmm, food....

I might need to go there 3+ days just to eat all I want!

Viking ship playground? Sounds good to me!

Wow, the shopping sounds like fun in China. I might have to make sure to check out my semi-local Uwajimaya before we go, to make sure I can't get something here for much cheaper!

Back to food...I recently read a trip report by someone who is usually vegan, sometimes vegetarian, and she had a good meal at the Biergarten. But her family isn't veggie as well...I wonder if it would be worth a visit, when all 3 of us are veggie?

Italian pastries, wines and Italian Margaritas? What, do tell, is an Italian margarita? Sounds intriguing.

Reading further about the American Adventure, that might be something better for later on, when E is older.

Gah. This is what wdwinfo says about France.

When you think of France, two things come to mind, wine and perfume.

Gag. I babysat these two adorable children. Their dad was from France, and used cologne in the traditional way...to mask the fact that he didn't like to bathe. Now don't get me wrong...if someone doesn't want to wear deodorant (and I'm totally in favor of ditching that scary antiperspirant, I mean, that's just not right, to not sweat!) that's fine...but don't cover it up, ya know?

Anyway....

Moving on, "the seamless blend of architecture that takes you from the streets of London to an English cottage"...that sounds cute. I'd rather it was set in Ireland, but I can't have everything. I'd rather they swap out Korea for China or Japan, too, and they haven't yet done that! Hasn't anyone contacted the Lotte corporation about that?

"the most photographed items in the World Showcase, replicas of UK phone booths. You can’t miss these bright red structures, nor will you be able to resist taking a picture of them."

Oh I bet I can. I'm the person who looks just one more place AFTER finding what I'm looking for, just so it wasn't in the "last place I looked"...I bet I can keep from taking a picture. Take THAT, wdwinfo!

Oh boy. I think I've found where Robert and Eamon will be hiding out:

In “The Toy Soldier", medieval castle playsets, swords & shields, real feather quills...

Now that I'm looking at a menu, I might have to rethink the crepe place. 1, their menu doesn't sound that good, and 2, there's an awesome little crepe place in Seattle just across and up from Cheesecake Factor that sounds much much better! Yay, one less place to snarf in Epcot, meaning more calories available for other things.



Future World sounds like fun. If their Innoventions is/are like the one at Disneyland, I know Robert and Eamon will get lost in there (while I run and get another drinkie poo, perhaps).

There are two play fountains. One is near Test Track, the other is by the center walkway that connects the two sections of Epcot. The kids delight in "testing the water" not knowing if it's going to be a trickle or a deluge. It's a great way for them to cool off, but be sure that they're dressed appropriately or have a change of clothes as they can get saturated.

Anyone who has read my trip reports will know that I will definitely be prepared for the saturation of E's clothing!

The Behind the Seeds Tour sounds nice. And a fairly reasonable cost, too!

Oh, just found something I can probably skip (read as "definitely")...I just don't much like Turtle Talk! I know, it's heresy. But it just embarrasses me. Thankfully, my wee bairn can understand. But HE loves it. So Robert and Eamon can go visit Crush while I go off and...yeah, you get the picture. My prepretrip report self seems to be a massive LUSH!

(ooh, LUSH...I know there's a Basin in DTD...oohhhh...)

How claustrophobic is Mission: Space? Just looking at pictures taken in there make me catch my breath (I have to routinely look up at the bottom of the top of the water while on the Nemo subs, to give you an idea of my phobia, and you would never EVER catch me spelunking). Is it just the perspective of pictures in that small space? Or is it really as close as it appears?

The Universe of Energy is 45 minutes long? omg.

And that concludes tonight's reading and typing about Epcot.

 

[kaoden39]

I love your new title Molly. I got a giggle from it.

 

[DLR29]

How claustrophobic is Mission: Space? Just looking at pictures taken in there make me catch my breath (I have to routinely look up at the bottom of the top of the water while on the Nemo subs, to give you an idea of my phobia, and you would never EVER catch me spelunking). Is it just the perspective of pictures in that small space? Or is it really as close as it appears?

The Universe of Energy is 45 minutes long? omg.

And that concludes tonight's reading and typing about Epcot.[/B]

Yeah, Mission: Space is really a small, cramped space. I really liked it though. This upcoming trip, my brother is going to try it too! And Universe of Energy is really long, but I love Ellen, which makes that 45 min very entertaining.

 

[bumbershoot]

Yeah, Mission: Space is really a small, cramped space. I really liked it though. This upcoming trip, my brother is going to try it too! And Universe of Energy is really long, but I love Ellen, which makes that 45 min very entertaining.

Oh gosh, you say it's a cramped space, and you're a rather thin guy from the pix you've shown us! Oh dear...

We generally really enjoy Ellen too...but wow 45 minutes...

 

[QueenDoOver]

Hi Molly,
I love reading your trip report but am hard pressed to offer meaningful feedback. I will tell you I admire the level of research you are doing, and I plan to benefit from it immensly (however that is spelled).
I can tell you that I found the Mission to Mars attraction to be utterly horrid and it nearly ruined my day it made me so sick. It is a very tiny space that you are locked into. Easy to skip in my opinion, but the simulaton of being in space is excellent. Just don't think I was meant to be an astronaut.

New news for my family. I bid on a batch of 11,000 Worldmark points on Ebay and won! That is enough points for my family to get a two bedroom condo for a week everyyear. So of course with banking and borrowing there is potential there. So that is where we will likely be staying. Assuming it closes, right?

 

[bumbershoot]

Tracey, that's awesome news about the Worldmark points! Congratulations! And they have a place at DLR, right?

I'm glad that my research might help your trip.





So this has nothing to do with disney, but it made me sad last night. We've been recording Saturday Night Lives, and I just haven't been in the mood to watch it. Finally Robert convinced me to watch one last night (while the DVR was recording last night's, LOL), and it was from Dec 5th. And on the news update part, they talked about Brittany Murphy being fired, and had one of the cast members do an impression of her. It was so shocking, b/c of course she hadn't died at that point (that happened less than 3 weeks later, I believe). I cried a bit...even though I wasn't a fan AT ALL, not even in Clueless, it's still so sad.

I have a headache today. I think it's from my glasses, as I'm not wearing them all the time and I'm not getting used to them as fast as I would. But I just don't want to do research right now, so you'll have to forgive me.

 

[DLR29]

Hi Molly,
I love reading your trip report but am hard pressed to offer meaningful feedback. I will tell you I admire the level of research you are doing, and I plan to benefit from it immensly (however that is spelled).
I can tell you that I found the Mission to Mars attraction to be utterly horrid and it nearly ruined my day it made me so sick. It is a very tiny space that you are locked into. Easy to skip in my opinion, but the simulaton of being in space is excellent. Just don't think I was meant to be an astronaut.

New news for my family. I bid on a batch of 11,000 Worldmark points on Ebay and won! That is enough points for my family to get a two bedroom condo for a week everyyear. So of course with banking and borrowing there is potential there. So that is where we will likely be staying. Assuming it closes, right?

Ooh, I've stayed at the Orlando Worldmark! It's really close to the parks. Probably the longest drive (to AK) was 10 min from leaving the resort. And the whole place is really nice. Fortunately, this time, we're using WM points to do an exchange through RCI to get a DVC place (I know, lots of exchanges), and so we're only paying like a couple hundred dollars in exchange fees for a 2BR SSR place for a week!

Tracey, that's awesome news about the Worldmark points! Congratulations! And they have a place at DLR, right?

I'm glad that my research might help your trip. :

They have 2 places near DLR. I just stayed at the one closest to the Gardenwalk. Really really nice and they have a cool top floor with private fireworks viewing area and jacuzzi.

 

[bumbershoot]

DLR29, you are one lucky dude, to have experienced all this fun travel!

 

[Brady's Mom]

DLR29, you are one lucky dude, to have experienced all this fun travel!

Just think, Molly, E will be like dlr29 with all of HIS travel since you now have DVC and will use it regularly. Maybe E will grow up to be a well-seasoned Disney-phile and share his words of Disney travel wisdom with a new generation of Disney lovers!!

 

[bumbershoot]

Ooh, nice idea!

I still have remnants of this stupid headache! Robert's calling it a migraine, but I have no interest in calling it that. I think I'm just sleeping floopy, could do with a chiro visit, and I'm getting used to these glasses that I don't have to wear for everything (and are mainly for astigmatism). I also don't want to call it a migraine because I haven't taken anything (besides 4 doses of a homeopathic remedy) for it. It did occur to me that this would be a perfect time to dump the coffee, because it was already worse than a caffeine withdrawal headache, but I thought about that after it had started to lessen already.

However, I've switched to black tea, because frankly coffee was tasting disgusting to me during the headache. I love my Red Rose tea...tastes like growing up. [and then I was going to make a joke about having tea as a kid and being short, but then went a'looking, and there's no evidence either way...can't prove it stunts growth, can't prove it doesn't...interesting!]

 

[kaoden39]

I love drinking tea. I am always a little unwilling to label headaches migraines. There is so much there that I don't want to include. Kody my 15 year old gets headaches and last year we went the gamut of medical tests including two spinal taps to figure out what was causing the headaches and to help her. I so regret all those tests now. We are no further now than we were there with "medical" help. I finally decided to go the homeopathic route and try something different on her headache and it helps. She now has relief, the dr route was awful and she just ended up suffering for it. I hope your head feels better Molly.

 

[bumbershoot]

Oh, poor Kody! Glad homeopathy has helped her, though. It's brilliant and mysterious, isn't it? My symptoms and general disposition matched one of the remedies that sounds scary, LOL.


My cousin just contacted me by FB, yay. We have a plan to chat by phone! Woo! So I think Robert's wrong by thinking that I've mortally offended her. Whew!


It's just the remnants of the headache, almost like a hangover. Little bits of owie flotsam roaming about. If that makes any sense. Much better than the brutality that was my noggin several days ago!

 

[kaoden39]

It is wonderful and mysterious. I have started taking some different stuff I found for my nerve pain that I have from an injury I received when I was in the hospital for so long. It helps me a little, but it really helps my DH Scotty. He suffers from sciatic nerve pain, and nothing has helped him at all.

I am glad that Robert was not right about your cousin. I was pretty sure that you hadn't

It almost like you have a headache hangover. I get them, it's like a fog that follows the headache.

 

[QueenDoOver]

Ooh, I've stayed at the Orlando Worldmark! It's really close to the parks. Probably the longest drive (to AK) was 10 min from leaving the resort. And the whole place is really nice. Fortunately, this time, we're using WM points to do an exchange through RCI to get a DVC place (I know, lots of exchanges), and so we're only paying like a couple hundred dollars in exchange fees for a 2BR SSR place for a week!



They have 2 places near DLR. I just stayed at the one closest to the Gardenwalk. Really really nice and they have a cool top floor with private fireworks viewing area and jacuzzi.

Oh, that is great news! Wow, how many points did you have to trade in to RCI to get a DVC place for a week? The whole exchange thing is such a mystery to me right now, but yep, I'm hoping for some nice stays, including Florida and California

 

[QueenDoOver]

Molly, glad your headache is receding! When you make it to the Auburn Disney Store tell me about any good stuff, k?

 

[DLR29]

Oh, that is great news! Wow, how many points did you have to trade in to RCI to get a DVC place for a week? The whole exchange thing is such a mystery to me right now, but yep, I'm hoping for some nice stays, including Florida and California

I don't remember the exact numbers, but it was quite a bit (I think it cleared us of them, but then we bought some more). The exchange process was a little complicated, but we finally figured it out and we're so excited to go in June!

 

[bumbershoot]

It almost like you have a headache hangover. I get them, it's like a fog that follows the headache.

Yep. Robert said "see, you're dehydrated!" He's now using sparkpeople to track what he eats and he's being AMAZING about it. He just realized his 20th reunion is this year and he won't go if he's the size he is now, and he really wants to go b/c he loved high school. But anyway, because he is watching what *he* is eating, he's watching what I am eating too. So he listed off all the things I'd had that had caffeine in it for the last, oh, 3 days.

Dieters...whattayagonnado?

Molly, glad your headache is receding! When you make it to the Auburn Disney Store tell me about any good stuff, k?

I will I will! That might be a good activity to do next week while Robert's off on another adventure.

 

[kaoden39]

I am guilty of doing that too, sometimes, but boy do I get ticked if Scotty does to me. I am pulling fro RObert I know it isn't easy.

 

[QueenDoOver]

Oh dieters are the worst! Have to confess to being one right now. Everytime I see someone eating, I am converting it to points, and sometimes I can't help myself but comment out loud. I am glad to report my husband is on the bandwagon with me this time, so is a good support. Fortunetly he goes to bed early and I get to stay up late and eat my 2 points worth of popcorn in peace!

 

[bumbershoot]

I am guilty of doing that too, sometimes, but boy do I get ticked if Scotty does to me. I am pulling fro RObert I know it isn't easy.

He started this diet...which is of course vegetarian, based on his current weight, with special carb considerations of course. And he's astonished at how much he needs to eat, but also how much FAT he was eating before. And I'm sure he's watching me dip my carrots into the blue cheese, and just tsking about it. "Did you measure that?" Well no, but I'm also NOT going to be eating all of what I scooped. Harumph.

But he's already lost 5 pounds. You know how there are those silly sounding HCG diets, where you pay OOP for the drug and it supposedly helps you lose some extra weight? What's funny is that drugs.com has big warnings saying that there's no proof it works, don't use it without a prescription, etc. But Robert's endocrinologist (who specializes in diabetics and pituitary disorders...was he a PERFECT find, or what?) actually TOLD him that he would probably start losing more weight once he started the HCG. So what's up with that?

I think that the combo of reducing the prolactinoma, using the HCG to help with the problems that the prolactinoma has caused, and really watching his fat intake are really going to blast that weight away. Yay Robert!

Oh dieters are the worst! Have to confess to being one right now. Everytime I see someone eating, I am converting it to points, and sometimes I can't help myself but comment out loud. I am glad to report my husband is on the bandwagon with me this time, so is a good support. Fortunetly he goes to bed early and I get to stay up late and eat my 2 points worth of popcorn in peace!

Go Tracey, go Tracey, go Tracey!


All I'm doing right now is exercising. And even though I'm doing the same thing for the same amount of time, I've started to push myself just a little bit more. Woo!

Unfortunately, I found out that the scale in the women's locker room is not accurate! Argh!