Basking in the Glow of the (not so) Creepy Clown -2/11-Pictures, Final Thoughts, PTR!

[CJsMom]

Well, I have only been to NYC once, and yes, I was one of the NYC newbies who paid $$$$ to skate at Rockefeller Center! It was at least 15 years ago, so it probably wasn't $19 then, but I'm sure it was more than I should have paid. Oh well, memories! Your pictures are great - I've never been in the city at night.

Photopass pics are so cute - I love the one of Henry looking up at Goofy!

 

[that's nice]

Love the Pluto pics and the one of Henry looking up at Goofy! Oh yea, I can't forget your nice pose on TT!!!! LOL

Great Pics!

 

[Flossbolna]

Brook, I seem not to be able to keep with commenting on all your updates!! I love the Goofe pic with Henry and the Tomorrowland family pic. Wonderful colours in the last one!

Thanks for all the NYC pictures! I really would love to return to that city for a visit! I loved it when I was there in 2008 and despite my BF who I travelled with at that time is now an ex-BF we both still cherish the memories of that trip! We really enjoyed exploring Rockefeller when we were there, so I actually can place your pictures very well! We did a wonderful guided tour about the architecture of Rockefeller, I can very much recommend that tour! And the Top of the Rock is definitely the most wonderful place to go for a view!!

Oh, and of course I knew exactly what place in Central Park you were talking about!

 

[Charleston Princess]

Adorable Photopass pictures! My favorites are the ones of Henry with Goofy and Buzz! So cute!

 

[MeMom]

I really like this one.
Simple, but so cute.
I'm thinking those two could get into quite a bit of mischief together.

 

[hcmommy]

Great update. Cute pictures and your meal at Rose and Crown looked delicious.

Love the picture of NYC. We want to take the boys in a couple of years. We really want to go on a Christmas break but I don't know if I or the kids could stand the cold. I am thinking more like October If you are from Mn and saying it's cold I don't know if this Texan could take it!

We drove from the Houston area to Dallas this weekend for Holiday in the Park at Six Flags over Texas and were out at night in the cold and were dying! And my 2 year old is really sick now On the car ride down I got very sick (throwing up) and we couldn't do anything that night and then my 4 year old woke up doing the same thing the next morning. By that afternoon we were fine and able to go to the park. Fun was had by all in the end but it pales in comparison to WDW. It's so hard to go to other parks after you have been to WDW, especially at Christmas . They had some Christmas lights dancing to music and my Dh and I were looking at each other like "whatever!" I said "My Grandmother could do that!" We've seen Osbourne Lights man, we are spoiled

 

[brookelizabeth]

I am behind...but not as bad as I thought I would be. for Henry making height on Test Track and a bigger for liking it. I often forget that you can get to Image Works without riding the ride too. We've eaten at Rose & Crown probably about five times an dwe've only had really slow service once so I think it was a fluke for you. I love the photopass pictures.

Isn't that nice - I spent the last few days finally getting caught up on the DIS and it was relieving to get to a report I wasn't 20 pages behind on!

I'm glad to hear from everyone that it seems like our experience at R&C was a fluke - we def will be back someday! We have so many other places that we want to try that it takes a while to repeat, but it will be someday.

Cute photopass pictures. I am now more convinced than ever that I want to order a CD this time.

I also forgot to mention that I am just straight up jealous (and really happy for you guys ) that your son is tall enough for TT and Soarin'. I was so hopeful, but my short little guy is nowhere near tall enough! Oh well.

And that's fantastic that you've already been there so many times with him.

We did a Photopass Share, so it only ended up being less than $20 per person. It was a GREAT deal! I hope to do the same for this coming trip. I won't pay full price for it, but I do like the family shots and cute borders!

Aw, that's too bad about your little guy being too short! Henry is on the taller end for his age, he takes right after both Joe and I in height! Soon enough your guy will be there though-and I'm sure he'll love it! Plus there are SO many things he can do already, he won't even miss it. (And you and your DH can take advantage of the FPs - use his ticket to grab one for Soarin' and your ticket to grab one for Test Track, then use the Baby Swap pass for the other person - you can hold 2 FPs at once that way! )

Great pictures! I love the ones with Goofy.

We had great interaction with Goofy - he was kinda dancing all over and Henry just laughed at him.

Brook! Those NYC pics are amaaaaazing! Love them! Oh, it just makes me wish I was there experiencing basking (stole that word from your TR title!)in the Christmas ambience! I've dropped very pointed hints (ok, I said it outright) to DH that I would LOVE to go to NYC for Christmas one year. That could be my present! He said not this year so I'll have to console myself with the new camera lens I know he's getting me!

Your photopass pics are really great too! We never seem to get a good one of all of us, someone always is looking like they were sucking on a lemon or something! But yours are all so sweet! Love the ones of Henry with Goofy, Pluto and Donald Duck. I've already said it but is sure looks like this was a perfect trip for you guys! Well, minus that mysterious meltdown you keep eluding to...

ETA: Ok, is it just me or does that NYC Woody look pregnant? Or is he just retaining water?

I hope you make it hear some year for Christmas then! If you do, we def have to meet up!

We have our share of bad Photopass pictures, Henry isn't looking in many of them - he was at that stage where he didn't like having his picture taken. Thankfully he's already leaving that and will even ask that I take his picture sometimes. Good thing for a Mommy with a camera almost permanently attached to her face.

It really was a VERY smooth trip. Only this one bit of drama and a tad of rushing later...I think it was our best trip to date!

Great photopass pictures Brook! I like the ones with Mickey, but the ones where Henry is looking up at Goofy are really cute. And the magic shots with Simba and Tinkerbell turned out really well.

I was so surprised that Henry would pose for those magic shots! The Photopass Photographer demonstrated the face he should have with Tinkerbell and he DID it. Joe and I were shocked and thrilled! Of course he's not exactly looking at the right spot, but still...! Maybe we should put him into modeling.

Great photopass pictures!!! Love the family pic in front of the castle and the one of Henry with Stitch. I just love how they add those special details to some of the pictures

I really like that Stitch one too! I figured they were going to do something with the box, but I never thought of it being Stitch - so clever!

 

[brookelizabeth]

Well, I have only been to NYC once, and yes, I was one of the NYC newbies who paid $$$$ to skate at Rockefeller Center! It was at least 15 years ago, so it probably wasn't $19 then, but I'm sure it was more than I should have paid. Oh well, memories! Your pictures are great - I've never been in the city at night.

Photopass pics are so cute - I love the one of Henry looking up at Goofy!

It makes sense for someone who wants that experience though! When I was taking pictures at one point I was behind a young gal who shouted to 2 people on the ice who stopped and smiled, right there in front of the tree - it was a GREAT shot. I'd say they got their moneys worth for sure, they looked like they were having a wonderful time too!

Plus, how many people can say they have done that???

Love the Pluto pics and the one of Henry looking up at Goofy! Oh yea, I can't forget your nice pose on TT!!!! LOL

Great Pics!

I had a caption under that Test Track picture of "Imadork." I gotta get Joe to dork out with me next time!

Brook, I seem not to be able to keep with commenting on all your updates!! I love the Goofe pic with Henry and the Tomorrowland family pic. Wonderful colours in the last one!

Thanks for all the NYC pictures! I really would love to return to that city for a visit! I loved it when I was there in 2008 and despite my BF who I travelled with at that time is now an ex-BF we both still cherish the memories of that trip! We really enjoyed exploring Rockefeller when we were there, so I actually can place your pictures very well! We did a wonderful guided tour about the architecture of Rockefeller, I can very much recommend that tour! And the Top of the Rock is definitely the most wonderful place to go for a view!!

Oh, and of course I knew exactly what place in Central Park you were talking about!

Isn't it neat that you can place yourself and picture the surroundings halfway across the world?! If/when you do come back for a visit, we will have to meet up and tour the City together a bit!

That architecture tour sounds amazing! I've never even heard of that one! I bet Joe would like it too. I'll store that idea away for a day we have to spend together!

Adorable Photopass pictures! My favorites are the ones of Henry with Goofy and Buzz! So cute!

I really like the ones with Buzz too. He was sooooo excited to meet him. I need to get some of these printed out for a little book for him! All the "famous stars" he's met.

I really like this one.
Simple, but so cute.
I'm thinking those two could get into quite a bit of mischief together.

I like that one too - one of my favorites! I don't think I have ever seen it before either, so it might be something new they have started.

And yes, I can only imagine what my house would look like if Stitch came to play with Henry for an afternoon....

Great update. Cute pictures and your meal at Rose and Crown looked delicious.

Love the picture of NYC. We want to take the boys in a couple of years. We really want to go on a Christmas break but I don't know if I or the kids could stand the cold. I am thinking more like October If you are from Mn and saying it's cold I don't know if this Texan could take it!

We drove from the Houston area to Dallas this weekend for Holiday in the Park at Six Flags over Texas and were out at night in the cold and were dying! And my 2 year old is really sick now On the car ride down I got very sick (throwing up) and we couldn't do anything that night and then my 4 year old woke up doing the same thing the next morning. By that afternoon we were fine and able to go to the park. Fun was had by all in the end but it pales in comparison to WDW. It's so hard to go to other parks after you have been to WDW, especially at Christmas . They had some Christmas lights dancing to music and my Dh and I were looking at each other like "whatever!" I said "My Grandmother could do that!" We've seen Osbourne Lights man, we are spoiled

ya, most light displays don't even compare to Disney's! We are all spoiled!

I'm so sorry to hear of your little ones getting sick! That is stressful! Thankfully they recovered and you were able to enjoy it all though. The weather here in December varies - we've so far had 1 day in the 60's, a couple in the 50's, a few in the 40's and some in the 30's. It's not too bad weather wise, but the WIND will whip right through ya. It's right off the ocean, so it's colddddddd. But, overall it's much more easy to bear than MN! MN is already hovering in the teens with 2 feet of snow. We haven't gotten any here!

 

[lovealldisney]

Brooke,
I LOVED all your NY pictures! I have found myself the last few years in not a very Christmas mood. I don't know what it is but have been in a Christmas funk, maybe because Christmas come earlier and earlier each year or maybe people have seemed to have forgotten what the true meaning of Christmas is. But your pictures have really helped the site of you and your family and just enjoying the season is wonderful to see. Thank you so much, I would love to come to NYC to celebrate Christmas.

 

[dekkerdisneydreamer]

I love all of your pictures from NYC! The Macy's windows were very sweet. I thought the angels were absolutely gorgeous, I'm sure pictures don't do them justice! I honestly think my favorite was the huge lights with the large plug! That is quite clever!

I'm glad you wrote about your Rose & Crown experience. DH and I will be going there in April, so I'll make sure to use the bathroom before we go in! The food does look good, though. I don't think I would've been as patient as you were. Good thing Henry was distracted.

Great PP pics! I can tell how unbelievably hot it was in AK because poor Henry's hair is sticking to his head! I love the Tink one, too! Your expression is priceless!

 

[brookelizabeth]

Brooke,
I LOVED all your NY pictures! I have found myself the last few years in not a very Christmas mood. I don't know what it is but have been in a Christmas funk, maybe because Christmas come earlier and earlier each year or maybe people have seemed to have forgotten what the true meaning of Christmas is. But your pictures have really helped the site of you and your family and just enjoying the season is wonderful to see. Thank you so much, I would love to come to NYC to celebrate Christmas.

I'm glad they helped! It seems my little post about NYC Christmas has helped a few people in various ways! I understand the Christmas funk - the last couple of years were very hard on me because I was unhappy with where I was in life and felt stuck. Thankfully some of that has changed within this last year, moving here to NYC was a big factor too. We are finally un-stuck!

I hope that funk disappears for you!

I love all of your pictures from NYC! The Macy's windows were very sweet. I thought the angels were absolutely gorgeous, I'm sure pictures don't do them justice! I honestly think my favorite was the huge lights with the large plug! That is quite clever!

I'm glad you wrote about your Rose & Crown experience. DH and I will be going there in April, so I'll make sure to use the bathroom before we go in! The food does look good, though. I don't think I would've been as patient as you were. Good thing Henry was distracted.

Great PP pics! I can tell how unbelievably hot it was in AK because poor Henry's hair is sticking to his head! I love the Tink one, too! Your expression is priceless!

Isn't that a cool display?! I loved the big 'ol plug! There was a sign about how all the Christmas displays were with energy efficient lights, kinda interesting!

Glad my Rose & Crown story helped you! I figured there had to be a mother or father eventually reading my report that would need that tip. The bathroom is tiny, in the bar and no changing table - NOT good! I hope your service isn't as slow as ours, it does seem it was a fluke by other peoples responses.

It was HOT! Poor Henry is a hot little boy-its rare that he's cold. So when it's warm out, he's even worse. But it doesn't seem to phase him much thankfully.

 

[tinkgurl]

Aw, you got some good photopass pics! My favorites are the ones with Goofy!

 

[mickeystoontown]

First off, the Christmas pictures are absolutely gorgeous! We have nothing that comes close to that here in our part of the country. If we see some trees covered in lights, we get all excited.

The Disney updates are great. We have only eaten at Rose & Crown once and it was for dinner. Our server wasn't super slow but she was a little. Like you said, thank goodness for Buzz Lightyear.

I, too, adore the picture of Henry with Stitch popping out of the box. It's so simple yet so cute.

 

[brookelizabeth]

Henry has a friend over today for a play-date, so I actually have a few moments to myself while they are playing! As I type this Henry just came into my bedroom where our desk is and threw a complete tantrum.

Moving on.

We left off after a delicious, but very long, meal at Rose & Crown.

According to my notes my 3 Things for this day were:

1. Disney Visa Meet & Greet
2. Soarin'
3. Test Track

Well, we have already finished this list! What to next?

Let's go this way through the Rose Garden, back to Future World...

We need to visit one of Henry's favorite things in all of Epcot - the fire truck!

I never realized it, but on the one side of the firetruck there are a few interactive elements. You can get your picture taken - which we did, but I forgot to save it out of my email and the picture is no longer available, and another element was a computer where you could select various fire departments around the United States and read some statistics on them - it was really interesting!

After a visit to the fire truck, we had to go visit the little house. Henry, as usual, went straight for the bed! I think I have a picture of him on this bed from 4 our of his 5 trips!

He was sooooo tired. It was past nap time at this point!

This little girl was climbing out the windows, so Henry had to follow suit.

After we were done with the fire truck and the house, we circled around Innoventions.

He really enjoyed this - obviously he had no idea what he was doing, but answering all the questions on a touch screen was a big thrill!

Up next was the Velcro frog exhibit. I thought Henry would get into this - but nope! I designed our frog, Henry couldn't give two hoots and kept running out of the room.

But, then we saw the Great Piggy Bank Adventure and that looked exciting to all of us - so we waited in a very short line and soon it was our turn!

I have to say, this is one of the cutest light fixtures in all of Disney World!

This is a fun exhibit. In case you aren't familiar with it, you get a pig, your bank, and you carry it around to various stations where you do different activities in trying to save money and balance a budget. It's completely geared for kids - so it's a fun way to teach them about money. At the beginning you set a goal of something to purchase, a vacation and other big ticket items and all the stations are to work toward that goal. You have to put the pig into each station in different ways - which is a lot of fun!

We were saving for a kickin' playground.

This one the pig went up in the tube into the machine, it was cute!

Continued in next post

 

[brookelizabeth]

Continued from previous post

Getting closer to our goal! Would we make it???

Henry loved carrying the pig around and putting him into the stations.

We made our goal!

Thankfully Henry didn't inquire where our playground set actually was...

After our adventures in Innoventions we went back out into the heat and figured we'd take advantage of those Soarin' FPs gathered earlier today and take another flight! When we told Henry we were going on the "airplane ride" he was sooooo excited! He was dragging a bit in Innoventions, being it was nap time, but this surged with energy and ready to go!

We got downstairs and knew the CMs would need to measure him again, so we went right up to the guage...a CM came over and...

He shrunk!

He was just a few hairs BELOW the stick! Joe and I were a bit in awe - we had ridden this just the other day without issue, and we rode Test Track earlier! He was at that stage where he was tall enough in the morning (or with the right shoes...!), but not in the afternoon. Henry was completely confused on why he couldn't ride and why he suddenly wasn't tall enough. He took it well and didn't meltdown or anything, but he was visibly sad and kept asking "Why?" "No airplane ride?". Joe and I felt so bad for him! We both opted not to ride at that time and just to move onto the next attraction...

Which had just a 5 minute wait. It was a good move, all of us quickly cheered up.

Henry really enjoyed the first part with the scenes of the farm and such. I know I took pictures of it (and I know there was another DISer here who possibly wanted a pic of the farm scene? I can't remember who it was!), but apparently none of them came out and I deleted them, because they aren't here. I'll have to try again next trip!

Love the Mickey head lettuce!

Halfway through the ride...

He didn't completely fall asleep, but just took a little rest.

Back out into the heat

I know I say it every trip, but I just LOVE this area of Epcot! So does Joe. There is just something about it that we love. Seeing these pics instantly transports me there...

We aimed ourselves for the big 'ol ball. We thought surely Henry would fall asleep on this ride, it has worked in the past and even works for some adults...

Which was another easy 5 minute wait.

Henry and Joe took one car and I rode alone.

Buzz also rode with Joe and Henry.

Continued in next post

 

[brookelizabeth]

Continued from previous post

I adjusted a few settings on our camera and came out with a few decent ones. I still gotta work on those dark shots though!

(okay, I started writing this 2 hours ago. Pre-play-doh whipping across the room, pre-throwing all pillows on the floor and tumbling onto them, pre-meltdown number 832982 from Henry because-his friend has something of his....now both boys are sleeping soundly...whew.)

And oh my.

My "This is your Future" picture is so unattractive I'm having a hard time allowing myself to post it.

...

Henry and Joe...

Looks like Joe almost has his eyes closed and Henry has zero expression.

Wow, what a bunch of winners! One sleeping guy, one with no care in the world and one crazy woman!

After our ride - in which Henry did NOT fall asleep, but talked through the whole thing - we spent some time in the after-show downstairs. We have always wanted to, but never have - so it was pretty fun exploring a few of the things they have.

First we found our pictures up on the big screen:

And we sent the postcard to Joe's Mom and saw it come up on the big screen:

I think this one is hilarious! Seeing Henry with a baby face on an adult body!

We wandered around a bit

and Joe found a game he wanted to try. We had to wait just a few minutes until someone wrapped up with theirs and then Henry and Joe took the floor. If I remember correctly it was some sort of game where you had to either build power plants, or get power to houses...something like that...I'm helpful. I know.

Henry obviously had no clue what he was doing, but had fun anyway!

Their final ranking

Continued in next post

 

[brookelizabeth]

Continued from previous post

After Spaceship Earth fun, we moseyed over to

We hadn't done this in a couple trips, and I wanted to see if Joe would remember about the Beverly, I also wanted to try to get Henry to drink it. He he.

My plans backfired.

Joe remembered the Beverly and Henry wanted NOTHING to do with that one. He only wanted the Fanta. And even that he didn't like so much. So far he's a non-soda liking kid out of the very few times he's had a taste.

We explored the shop a bit

I'll take one of each please.

After we were refreshed and sugared up, we continued on our way in Future World.

Coming up next...dancing aliens and will we ever make it into the World Showcase? Would Henry skipping a nap result in a mega-meltdown?

 

[lovealldisney]

Are those silly bands I see! Those are all the rage with my teenage DD! Me I don't get it.

Ah the joys of toddlers learning to share! Good luck!

 

[KatMark]

Great updates, Brook. I can't believe Henry was a full "hairs" short for Soarin'. I guess it really does depend on the shoes, etc., but how could he be tall enough for Test Track that morning and not Soarin?

I have problems with my camera settings too for dark photos.

Love the photo of Henry sleeping in the "bed."

Sorry the kids are giving you hassles, but glad they are now napping for you.

 

[BLLB]

Great trip report and pictures. Thanks.