"Anythings possible, for a Possible!" - Oct 15-25 TR(Final thoughts 5/25-Post 249!)

[panze]

so happy....

 

[Disneychix]

Happy Belated Birthday!! Glad you had something like PRESENTS to look forward to after all that snow-blowing!

Perhaps you can't remember the dessert because you had a bottle of wine?? That would do it for me!
Lovely pic of you and DW BTW!!

 

[skier_pete]

We are home one week today and it is soooo bitter cold - I am dreaming of our days at the pool- and I thought 68 was a bit cool - silly me! ps: I agree - the shogree donuts with chocklet are my favorite waterpark treat, too!! - that journal is priceless!

- That's how you tell a Northerner at Disney World - their in the pool in December!

Great update on Jiko! I must get myself there sometime. Love the food porn.



Happy Birthday! or Happy 20th Anniversary on turning 21. It's summer in Oz...it's already wetter than normal, hotter than normal and much more humid than normal. If there was a big MOUSE around, I could almost pretend it's Disney! Enjoy your winter!

Thanks for the birthday wishes! I mostly don't mind the winter - I can take the cold better than the summer...but those days that drop down to below 10 F (like -10 C), which we fortunately don't get many of here, you really can't help dream of warmer places. It's too cold to even jump in the hot tub!

so happy....

Huh?

Happy Belated Birthday!! Glad you had something like PRESENTS to look forward to after all that snow-blowing!

Perhaps you can't remember the dessert because you had a bottle of wine?? That would do it for me!
Lovely pic of you and DW BTW!!

Well, I only had half a bottle of wine. I need at least a whole bottle to start forgetting stuff! Thanks for the birthday wishes. DW got me "Epic Mickey" for the Wii. Pretty awesome game for the Disney(land) geek on your list.

My photopass pictures showed up yesterday too...I gotta get those downloaded to Photobucket and post some of them.

 

[onescgirl]

The daily journal entries by your daughter are just priceless!!!!

 

[skier_pete]

The daily journal entries by your daughter are just priceless!!!!

Thanks, I just looked through them again and I get such a kick out of them. I love her giant apostrophe on Soarin'.

I know I'm slow with the updates - it's trying to find the time to load the pictures to photobucket!

SkierPete

 

[skier_pete]

Finally got my photopass pics. The disadvantage of the photopass share...it takes so long to get them. The advantage, they only cost $20!

Day 1 at AK. We are all wet from just riding KRR!

Day @ Epcot - meeting the big man himself:

PLUTO:

MINNIE:

DONALD - DW snuck Mickey into the pictures - Donald would have been ticked off!

GOOFY:

Test Track:

Love that expression on DW face - complete nonchalance. DD said of this picture: "It was too loud!". I was hamming it up for the camera:

DD was anti-photo in this one - way overexposed by the camera person, though:

Meeting Duffy - the Marketing Bear. More incompetence in the photopass people. Use your flash when the subject is in shadow! And these are the "best" ones:

I promise to be back with more updates soon. Christmas is hitting us all hard.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Great PP pictures Pete. Have a great Christmas and hope to catch you on the Boards soon.

 

[Disneychix]

Nice PP pics!
Love the ones with the characters!

Merry Christmas!

 

[khertz]

LOVE your DD's expression on Test Track! Priceless!

Overall, good PP pictures, but some of those photographers should have a different job description. And I love that DW snuck Mickey into the picture with Donald, although it would have been pretty funny if he'd caught her!

Hope y'all have a Merry Christmas!

 

[skier_pete]

Great PP pictures Pete. Have a great Christmas and hope to catch you on the Boards soon.

Nice PP pics!
Love the ones with the characters!

Merry Christmas!

LOVE your DD's expression on Test Track! Priceless!

Overall, good PP pictures, but some of those photographers should have a different job description. And I love that DW snuck Mickey into the picture with Donald, although it would have been pretty funny if he'd caught her!

Hope y'all have a Merry Christmas!

Thanks everyone. I still might squeeze an update in before the holiday arrives. I have most of the pictures loaded for day 4.

Hey KHertz - are we JUST going to miss eachother next November?

 

[khertz]

Hey KHertz - are we JUST going to miss eachother next November?

Looks like it. We finally decided on our dates, November 4th-12th, so that we can see the Festival of the Masters at DTD and hopefully (*crosses fingers*) the Osborne Lights! The 4th & the 12th will be our travel days.

 

[skier_pete]

Looks like it. We finally decided on our dates, November 4th-12th, so that we can see the Festival of the Masters at DTD and hopefully (*crosses fingers*) the Osborne Lights! The 4th & the 12th will be our travel days.

Well, we are hoping to come in on the 10th at night - with the 11th being our first park day...so maybe there's a chance! (I think we're doing MK that day - but can't say the schedule is "firm" just yet.) DD has the 11th off for Vetran's day, which we are hoping to use to extend the trip - and also the 18th for PTC (parent-teacher), so we figure by going that week, we only miss 4 days of school. (Also miss PTC, are we bad parents, or what?)

SkeirPete

 

[skier_pete]

As I was planning this trip, I partly had a hard time with a few things. One of them was that we were arriving on a Friday night, and we wouldn't be entering the Magic Kingdom until Tuesday. That seemed like way too long into the trip, though typically we don't hit MK the first day.

In the end though, it wasn't a problem, but we were all looking forward to our favorites. In was yet another beautiful day, and we got to the park about 30 minutes early. The opening crowd seemed pretty normal size, but seemed like a LOT more people were there early so we were still pretty far back. The halloween/fall decorations were all in place.

The opening show, which we've now seen about a dozen times, was nice as usual. But, damn I still want to open the park! The show was actually a little early, which seemed common on this trip to open things early. We got into the Dumbo Dash, with DW pushing DD in the stroller while I snapped some pics as we went...

Boy, that kid is just WAAYYYY too big for her stroller, isn't she. We continue to use it at WDW just because it is so much easier, but I have declared that the next trip she has to walk. I think DW would push her around until she's 12.

DW continuing her bob and weave towards our goal....

..the castle and what was behind it....

...another surprise - usually there is a secondary rope drop in Fantasyland...but surprisingly there wasn't one, so we marched right on up to Dumbo...and as usual got on the second ride of the day:

I don't care much for Dumbo as a ride, except for the location in Fantasyland. Now, there's a second reason to ride it, you get a look at what's going on behind those walls. You can see in the shot below, looking towards the back of toontown - that concrete building is what will eventually be the Little Mermaid show building. Right behind the wall is where 20,000 Leagues used to be, and also Pooh's Playful Spot.

This second shot - not as good - behind DW and DD shows the area where Ariel's Grotto was, and soon the "Be Our Guest" / "Gaston's Tavern" will be rising. I kind of like the idea that after next November we won't be back until 2013, so rather than see things a bit at a time, it should all be complete by our next trip.

After Dumbo, we headed over to Peter Pan, one of DD favorites, but first we grabbed FP for Peter Pan, and at the same time, the machine spit out a bonus set. The bad news - it was for Philharmagic! Oh well, any is better than none. We rode Peter Pan. Then, with It's a Small World close, DD was not interested in the remaining rides of FL, she was ready to head to Adventureland and Jungle Cruise!

Next up - Aventure and some Magic Moments!

 

[onescgirl]

Great photo pass pictures. I have never seen or heard of Duffy the Bear before. I'm clueless who he is.
Looks like a great MK morning so far!

 

[skier_pete]

Great photo pass pictures. I have never seen or heard of Duffy the Bear before. I'm clueless who he is.
Looks like a great MK morning so far!

Duffy is Mickey's teddy bear. It's a new thing that started I think in Hong Kong Disneyland. Duffy likes to travel, so they brought him to world showcase. You can buy the bear and then buy different outfits in each World Showcase country. Duffy has absolutely no actual history with Mickey Mouse, it's just a way for Disney to get into the teddy bear business...which is why I call him Duffy, the marketing bear. I love Disney, but don't love some of things they do to squeeze money out of tourists. I refuse to buy any Duffy products, but I'll take my picture with him!

 

[laashley]

Hope you and your family had a very Merry Christmas. Our pre-christmas trip to Disney was absolutely wonderful. The crowds were there, but I was about 2 steps ahead of everyone most of the time, so it wasn't too stressful. I wish we could go back every year at that exact time.

Now on to the update- I really can't believe we didn't see you guys that day. We toured the exact same way, well except our dumbo dash had to be put on hold for a dash of not so great fun.

 

[skier_pete]

Hope you and your family had a very Merry Christmas. Our pre-christmas trip to Disney was absolutely wonderful. The crowds were there, but I was about 2 steps ahead of everyone most of the time, so it wasn't too stressful. I wish we could go back every year at that exact time.

Now on to the update- I really can't believe we didn't see you guys that day. We toured the exact same way, well except our dumbo dash had to be put on hold for a dash of not so great fun.

Thanks, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you as well. Glad to hear the crowds were easily dealt with. Though I've never done it myself, I would guess good touring strategies and limiting expectations would make it bearable.

We've had Dumbo Dash problems ourselves in the past. I was looking for you guys, too...we must've just managed to stay one step ahead of you!

SkierPete

 

[If U Had Wings]

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas Pete!

Your meal at Jiko looked wonderful. One of these days I'm going to have to try that place.

 

[skier_pete]

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas Pete!

Your meal at Jiko looked wonderful. One of these days I'm going to have to try that place.

Thanks! It was pretty good. The house looks like it was hit by a train.

We did enjoy Jiko very much. I think I liked California Grill better though.

 

[skier_pete]

Back from a busy holiday season - I hope everyone is off to a good start in 2011!

Where we last left off, we had hit the two main rides we wanted to hit in Fantasyland (Dumbo and Peter Pan) and had decided to head over to Adventureland via Liberty Square and "potty shortcut" (you know what I'm talking about).

On the way, we saw Frontier Donald with basically no wait (it was only about 9:30 at this point). DD again didn't want to see Donald, so just DW and I got a picture. (Notice the "classic" 25th anniversary shirt DW was wearing, and a new HM for me that my DW bought as a surprise present when we arrived.)

The next part of our trip was probably the highlight of the trip, and I'll let DD describe it first:

We headed into Adventureland, and started with one of DD favorite, the Jungle Cruise. I didn't take any pictures, because I was videotaping, but quite a story to tell. As we were finishing up in the elephant bathing pool, the Skipper was giving her speil, when she spotted hanging off the canopy of the boat opposite her (front right) a HUGE SPIDER. And I mean it was a big MF - probably at least 4 inches across. After a few seconds of crawling along the edge of the overhang, it crawled back up on the outside of the boat roof, but you could still see the shadow through the canvas. While I wouldn't quite says Skipper Erin freaked out, she could no longer stay in character, and basically wigged out a bit until we pulled up to the dock. The people directly below the spider did a good job of not plunging overboard screaming. I kept the videotape rolling, and if I ever get the time to download it to photobucket, I'll provide a link. However, I did not get a very good shot of the actual spider, as it wasn't below the canopy for very long. (I was able to freeze one frame where you can sort of see it.) The CM at the dock helpfully knocked the bugger into the water as we were disembarking. I cheerfully told Skipper Erin "Best Jungle Cruise ever!" but I think she was too busy hyperventilating to notice. On the way out, I pulled a set of FP for Jungle Cruise for later in the day.

Next we went on Aladdin's Magic Carpets, since there was no wait what-so-ever. DD wanted to sit by herself in the front, so we let her take some pictures of us in the back:

And her at the controls:

Then, we had one of those "magical moments" that can only happen at Disney. We saw Jasmine and Aladdin had a pretty short wait. Again, DD didn't want to meet the characters, and she wouldn't even wait in line, so we told her she had to sit next to the Magic Carpet ride while we were in line. Once we got to the front of the line, I mentioned to Jasmine and Aladdin that DD was being shy. Aladdin wanted to know where she was:

So Aladdin said to Jasmine - "All right, we got a mission to bring Adriana over here. You go around that way, and I'll distract her." So he started calling out to DD, while Jasmine went around the other way.

I'm not sure what Jasmine said to her exactly, but she brought DD back to the picture place. I didn't realize it at the time, but this was an all-time highlight for DD. She always talked about walking through the park with Mickey or one of the other characters, and so in her mind that is what she did here, even though they probably only walked 20 feet:

Once they brought her back, both Aladdin and Jasmine spent a good deal of time with her. (I wonder if the other people in line were steaming about all this?)

They also posed for a couple of shots with the whole family:

This was seriously "highlight of the whole trip" moment, and one DD still talks about. Also, Jasmine is now DD favorite Princess, and she actually started watching Aladdin and listening to the soundtrack when we got home. Of course, next time she says she wants to ride the rides with Jasmine, though we've been telling her that the characters can't do that because they have to meet so many people that they can't just go off with one person.

Surprisingly, after that wonderful experience, she STILL didn't want to meet the characters! (Or maybe she just kept hoping they would come and get her.)

BTW, these pictures are a combonation of our camera being wielded by the CM / character handler, and the photopass guy. Honestly, can't say you can much tell the difference. Again, I was able to videotape the whole thing, so if I can post that up as well, I will.

From there, we headed over to the PofC ride, which had no line either. We came out, and DD wanted to buy something in the store. We picked up a sword, which was a fixture in my camelback for most of the trip. It was really handy for quick-draws, though!

Next up - The Wildest ride in the Wilderness!