Been There, Done That and ThenSome:Timandlesley Do Disneyfor18days!11/2 TR IS UP!pg79

[DisMomme]

Welcome home! Glad you had a great time and glad you're back!!!!!

 

[IBelieveInTheMagic]

Glad to hear you guys are home safely!! Yeah for another update soon!! HEE HEE....

Enjoy your Sunday!

Heather

 

[Queenofallthings]

YOU'RE HOME So happy for you that you had another wonderful vacation.......can't wait until tonight, at least now I know what I'm doing tonight, reading your TR

 

[tiggrbaby]

Welcome back!

 

[luvfigment]

Glad you guys had a nice vacation! The last update was great. DH and I got stuck in the same area at Le Cellier our last trip. One of the couples next to us was really nice and we chatted with them a little during dessert. It was funny b/c it all started with the woman taking pictures of her food for scrapbooking. Looking forward to your next update!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

I'm glad you had such a nice vacation! I'm also glad you're back - I missed you

 

[alice325]

It was so fun to see you guys in Grand Haven! Glad we ended up running into each other that last night. If we're there again at the same time next year, we have to go to the "Magical Karaoke" together. We can leave Abby with the kids - she's a great baby-sitter!

Tim, we didn't end up stopping for a waffle-on-a-stick. Maybe next time!

Loved your last update. I hadn't read it before we left for Grand Haven because I was at work late on Friday and didn't get home until 6:00 and hadn't really packed a thing yet so I had a busy night with no time for Dising.

Dole Whips are awesome! So refreshing. Usually I'm a total chocolate dessert person, but I do make exceptions for certain things. Your date night looked like so much fun. We've never done that at Disney. I would love to walk around Epcot with just Chris and a couple drinks.

Abby just read your title - she's pretty jealous about the 18 days. I won't tell her you're going back again in October. I just saw that they're offering free dining again in October and November. Maybe I can work around the work and school schedules and figure something out.

We're headed out for sno-cones. After ice cream every night in Grand Haven, we can't just sit home tonight. Not quite the same as ice cream on the Boardwalk with the lighthouse in the distance, but it'll have to do.

Can't wait for the next update.

Alice

 

[caralyn817]

I'm absolutely loving your trip report! Can't wait for more!

 

[lmillercrew]

Totally thought I'd signed on to your TR, but since I hadn't gotten any updates for umm... a LONG time, I must not have. Subbing and will finish reading later. I'm on Day 4 and you had just had some bad news and then some happy times with Diane.
Can't wait to keep reading.

 

[timandlesley]

Day 7 6/27
So…. On this day we didn’t set an alarm (you will see this trend starting on this long trip : ) and we woke up around 9:00. Tim decided that he wanted to take it easy that morning, it was our last morning at Animal Kingdom Lodge and he wanted to stay back and have some coffee and do some laundry for us before our switch over. Hey, how could I refuse him wanting to get the laundry done for us. So the kids and I hit Epcot by ourselves this morning. We ate breakfast in the room (poptarts for everyone – I had brought them from home). Lauren wanted to wear her yellow Belle dress because we were dining with the Princesses at Askershus.
It was another hot and hazy day, here are the kids waiting for the bus:

When we pulled up the kids and I noticed a plane writing things in the sky. It kept writing “Trust Jesus” over and over in the sky, it really was beautiful:

The kids and I do the parks so differently when Tim isn’t there, I just kind of let them guide me to what they want to do. They immediately saw Character Spot and wanted to go in.

We went in and there was quite a line. They saw Mickey and Goofy in the distance and waited like2 minutes, then Lauren looked at me and did the funniest thing, she gave me the cutting motion in front of her throat like they do in the movies and I said “so you guys want to bail out and not wait to see your favorite characters?” They said, “yeah, let’s go do something else” and Lauren kept making the cut motion with her throat, too funny. SO we bailed.
I was glad we did because as we were coming out we got to see the Jammitors, LOVE these guys!

Of course they announced it was Junior Jammitor day and the kids ran up to get their stickers:

I asked the kids what they wanted to do next and they choose Nemo. On the way over to Nemo I stopped and got Kim Possible Fast Passes, I promised Luke we’d squeeze a mission in this morning, of course he was THRILLED.
We arrived at the Living Seas:

Such a cute ride and no wait so I was happy. Here are the kids in their clammobile:

After that they wanted to see Turtle Talk with Crush, great idea kids!

It was cool because Luke got picked by Crush to ask a question. Luke said “What is your favorite Disney character?” Crush said “Well, I don’t know, WHAT’S YOURS?” Luke said “Well, . . . . .I guess…… YOU!” And Crush laughed and said “well, then I guess I’ll go with you then dude!” It was cute and Luke was on CLOUD NINE that he got picked- really made his day. I just love that show, it’s adorable, I’m a big Crush fan.
I had in my head (again, should have looked at my reservation information in my purse) that our ressie for Askershus was at 11:00, so after Turtle Talk we headed to Norway for our lunch.

Lauren got some fairy dust from a CM outside, she thought this was the greatest thing:

We were called quickly and Lauren was thrilled Belle was in the greeting area:

Luke was a great sport and I am very fortunate he’s still at the age where he kinda likes seeing the princesses (even though he won’t admit it) but the lack of complaining tells me that : )
I noticed right away by looking around that they were still serving breakfast. I was confused (since I was in the mood for lunch and thought for sure it was a lunch reservation) and asked the CM when they started serving lunch, her response was “not until 12:00 and we are all booked up”. BUMMER, well I took my seat. THEN I pulled out our card from my purse and realized our ressie was indeed at 12:00, OOPS! Well, I wasn’t going to say anything now, kids were excited to see the princesses, we’d already had our pic taken with Belle, BREAKFAST it is then, we had only had pop tarts anyway right!?!
The breakfast was actually really good. They had a large buffet with fresh fruit, etc. that was good then they served breakfast potatoes that were out of this world, sausage, bacon, and eggs family style.

The kids and I kept scarfing it down. Here is a pic of Lauren’s plate:

All of our favorite princesses were there and they came by fast and furious! Princess Aurora came by first:

Then Snow White:

Lauren was very excited to meet her, she LOVES Snow White, she talked to her for a bit.
Then Cinderella came up. She was GREAT. Luke was being shy and she asked him what we were going to do after our meal, Luke was shy and kind of stammered on his words, so I answered for him and said “he’s dying to do a Kim Possible mission after this.” She said “OHHH, my, are you going to save the world for me???” He got all red and got up and gave her a hug, so cute!

Both kids with Cindy:

Then came Ariel. Now, if you read my trip report last year the Ariel here was GORGEOUS (in fact I went on and on about it). I don’t want to be mean here, but this Ariel was hideous. She had PLASTERED on makeup and didn’t interact with the kids at all, big disappointment, the kids didn’t seem to notice, but I did.

After we finished our breakfast/lunch we headed immediately the Norway station to turn in our Fast Pass for our Kim Possible Mission. Here is a VERY enthusiastic Luke running there as fast as he can:

We were assigned China, which the kids were thrilled about, here the kids are getting their initial instructions:

We made our way to China following our instructions:

The clues starting coming fast and furious, here are some of the shots I took throughout the mission:

CONTINUED IN THE NEXT POST!

 

[timandlesley]

WRONG Lion again Luke, maybe OVER THERE!!!

FOUND IT!

Can you tell they were a LITTLE intense throughout the missions : )

We went inside the big Chinese theatre which I had never been in, it is so cool inside there. This is one of the interactive displays in here that gave them the next clue:

I took a picture of one of the displays inside because I thought it was so cool:

There was a lady in there with her son, and her son kept listening to the phone. She asked me what it was and I tried my best to explain the Kim Possible missions to her. She said “cool, sounds like a great way for Disney to keep the kids entertained while we get to enjoy the World Showcase exhibits”. I hadn’t thought of it like that, not exactly……. But I was able to see a lot of great things I had never experienced before in the World Showcase.
At this point in the mission Lauren got a bit freaked out. It led us to this door:

The door is VERY interactive. The phone tells you to pull on it, which Luke did but there is a resistance and the door pulls shut real fast and you hear “bad guys” yelling at you, etc. I was a teenie bit distracted at this point because Lauren was so upset thinking the bad guys were behind the door coming to get her, she REALLY thought they were real and there. That goes to show you how cool these missions are and how realistic they are. Both of my kids were CONVINCED they were saving the world ; )
I calmed Lauren down and she helped us to find the last location in China, here she is telling us where to go:

It lead us over to a goldfish pond, this area is SO pretty!

Do you see the monkey in the water?? That was the jade monkey we were after, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

I had told Luke we could do more than one mission IF the phone allowed us to this time. At the end of every mission if they don’t have a demand for you to bring the phones back Kim will come on and say they could use some more help and you can opt to do another mission or turn your phone in. There are times that even if you WANT to do another mission, you can’t because they will tell you to turn the phone in. Luckily (for Luke : ) they did need more help on this day, so he choose Norway and we headed over to Norway to save it from destruction.
Before we left I took some pictures of the kids in China, just love it there!

This was Laurens impression of the monkey we had saved ; )

The Norway mission was REALLY cool (my favorite actually). It was super interactive. Here are a few pics of it:

Then you come to this location below and the phone tells you to look up and smile for a magazine photo shoot. It is SO COOL because your picture (the pic of all 3 of us) appeared on the phone on a Viking Magazine photo, GOTTA LOVE DISNEY AND THEIR TECHNOLOGY!!! The kids and I thought that was REALLY cool!
Then the clues had us head to Maelstrom:

Luke was told to go to the CM at the front of the ride and say “Vikings are all the rage”, he did and she said “yes, they sure are, and handed him a card:

The card had a secret numerical code on it that Luke typed into the Kimmunicator:

It then led us inside one of the gift shops. Luke got “ready for battle”

Lauren’s turn to run the phone inside the store, it was cool, you had to scan several photographs and it gave you x ray vision of the posters (again, this mission was WAY cool!)

Then it led us to this sign:

And the sign flipped over to reveal the end of the mission, VERY COOL!

Then Kim told Luke he needed to return the phone for other agents:

So MISSIONS accomplished, we decided to ride Maelstrom for the first time this trip. Once again, I was not anticipating Lauren freaking out, but she cried and said it was scary and I had to talk her on the ride, she had a great time riding it though (even though I’m realizing now it doesn’t look like it in this photo):

CONTINUED IN NEXT POST!

 

[timandlesley]

Luke took this of me in the Norway town as you exit:

Then we headed over to Mexico to ride the boat ride there, Luke got into the Mexican spirit:

Kids in front of Mexico:

I don’t know why, but I love this ride:

It just makes me smile : )

Then the kids BEGGED to go to Club Cool. I figured, why not, perfect way to cool off on a hot day before heading back to the resort.

Luke for SOME WEIRD REASON wanted to try to Beverly.

Here I am enjoying the tasty beverages:

Mezo Mix is my FAVORITE- YUM!!!
CHEERS!

Then we headed back to the resort. We stopped at the Ball for a (almost) family photo:

When we got back Tim had a big smile on his face, he had REALLY enjoyed his lazy morning of coffee and laundry. I REALLY enjoyed coming back to a spotless room and folded laundry- WIN WIN!!!
The kids were DYING to go down to the pool, so that’s where we headed!

HOW COOL IS IT that at Animal Kingdom lodge, you can walk two feet from the pool and see awesome animals! Here is Lauren discovering that fact:

We saw a mama duck and her babies:

Flamingo’s:

Here was Tim checking things out:

And we saw a mama giraffe and her babies:

Have I mentioned that I LOVE ANIMAL KINGDOM LODGE!!!! Definitely my new favorite!

Now on this day when Tim was in the pool playing with the kids Luke NAILED his knee (the one he had surgery on back in December) and his knee was NOT the same the rest of the trip, you will see it get progressively worse as the trip goes on.
We headed up to the room, this picture of Lauren cracks me up:

Tim’s knee was killing him so I was trying to brainstorm the best option to get us to the Hoop De Doo Review. We decided a cab was the way to go, so we ended up taking a cab.

I would DEFINITELY do it again, such a quick and easy way to get to Hoop De Doo. The people we were sharing a bus from the campground STUNK so bad though. At one point I got a text from Tim on the bus ride back to the Hoop De Doo and it simply said “got B.O.!?!” Yeah……… it was THAT bad!!!
Well…….. we made it to the show:

When we checked in the lady said “can everyone in your party easily navigate going up and down the stairs” , I instantly said “yes” (I wasn’t thinking), Tim piped in and said “really, no, I injured my knee today and going up and down the stairs will be very difficult”. She said “oh, o.k.,let me see what I can do”. At this point I was nervous because we had tier 2 seating and I wanted good seats for the show. She changed them and we figured it was up to fate to determined where we would end up. We had time to kill before they started seating us so the kids enjoyed the playground:

When we got in I was actually pleasantly surprised with our table. We were ALL the way in the back but we were DEAD center with a great view. Here is the view from our table:

CONTINUED IN NEXT POST!!!

 

[wdwgirl03]

OK, that is it, I am definitely doing the Kim Possible thing! It sounds like so much fun!

 

[timandlesley]

We watched as tons of people complained to the manager about their seats, one family actually left because they were behind a pole.
Here is happy Lauren at the table ready for the fun to begin:

Our server was pretty nice. He brought us out cornbread (DELISH- OMG this was so yummy, it was gone quickly!) and salad- I was the only one who ate it but it was good. Of course he took drink orders too and Tim and I took advantage of the free beer and wine, YEAH!
Luke enjoying his cornbread:

Then we realized once again what good seats we had, we were right by the back doors, they started shaking and Lauren was freaked out:

The entire cast came bursting through the doors and headed up on stage, it was really cool!
Tim and Luke getting into the show:

Then they brought out yummy fried chicken (it was really good) mashed potatoes that were out of this world, ribs (which Tim loved) and baked beans (that I thought were gross). Here is Tim giving Lauren some chicken:

Happy family enjoying the meal and entertainment:

I was REALLY enjoying the bottomless wine : ) You can tell by my flushed face.

Dolly kept coming up to our table, she was a RIOT:

She came back and asked Luke if he would go up on stage with her later, he SAID YES!!! I couldn’t believe it. He was picked to be in the show- YEAH!
We continued on with the fun while we waited his cue:

Tons of slapstick humor and great singing, we really enjoyed the show, as I think you can tell from this pic:

Then they brought out the strawberry shortcake desert:

Just as Luke finished his first bite Dolly appeared and took a nervous Luke backstage, I WAS SO PROUD OF HIM!!!!

Luke was the Texas Ranger:

He followed their directions great, played like he was shooting them up and saving the day:

Then the other female lead kissed him on the cheek to thank him for saving her and he had to stick out his tongue and say “AUGHHHHH!” which he did nicely. He stayed on the stage for the rest of the show. At the end they had him come back to center stage and awarded him with a certificate of bravery, which he was SO proud of (I was just a wee bit proud too : )

Here is my VERY proud boy with his certificate:

Here is a video of the performance if you would like to see it, Tim was a little shaky because he was trying to watch and tape at the same time. Enjoy (click on it to play:

Then they brought out washboards to all the tables and we had a blast:

O.K, so SOME of us enjoyed these a LITTLE TOO much : )

Tim had me cracking up, he wanted me to take this one to show you his washboard abs:

After the WONDERFUL show (I can’t say enough great things about this show, it was AWESOME, we loved it, highlight of the trip for sure!!!) we weren’t ready to go back to the room so we decided to jump on a boat and head to the Magic Kingdom:

We got to see the Electrical Light Parade on the boat ride over which was cool:

CONTINUED IN NEXT POST!

 

[timandlesley]

We got to Magic Kingdom right at 9:50 and I was so excited to see WISHES. I saw an abandoned stroller at the entrance and snagged it for Lauren. Tim and Luke decided they didn’t want to see the fireworks and would rather ride rides, so they went in one direction and Lauren and I headed towards the castle to find a spot quick. We got a pretty decent spot by Caseys:
Here was our view of the castle from our spot (not too shabby):

I busted out the light up things I had brought from home and Lauren was thrilled:

Then Wishes started, I LOVE WISHES!!! I found myself singing along as the fireworks rang out. Here are a few of the pics I took:

After the show was over I was so excited we were going to stay for Spectro and I didn’t have to fight the MAD RUSH of people heading towards the exit. IT WAS CRAZY to just sit there by Casey’s and watch (and a GREAT feeling not to be in it). I called Tim, they had ridden Buzz light year and ridden Indy Speedway two times and then they were going to get on Stitch and then head our way. After the crowds were gone Lauren and I EASILY found a spot right on Main street. It was so wonderful not having to fight crowds for a spot:
We got to see the little zambonies come and clean the street which I had never seen before:

They have quite the system down to get Main Street back in working order quickly for the later Spectro Show. I sat there in peace on Main Street and just took in the sights, WITH NO CROWDS, it was HEAVEN!

Tim and Luke found us:

I scored a few Casey’s hot dogs and waters for us to share as a snack. Then the 11:00 Spectro Magic parade began:

I just LOVE Spectro Magic. I was on cloud nine, I got to see WISHES and SpectroMagic and didn’t have to fight crowds for a spot, WONDERFUL NIGHT!!!
We went to the bus stop and there really wasn’t a long line which was AWESOME but we did have to stand and it was a LONG bus ride home standing when all of us were so tired, it was hard for the kids especially. What I can’t understand is why people don’t give up their seats sometimes. Now, me and my kids are older and we’re perfectly capable of standing, no problem, it happens. But there was this poor guy carrying his toddler child that was obviously very heavy and the poor guy was STRUGGLING to stay on his feet as the bus was twisting and turning. There were men in their 20’s and 30’s and teenage boys sitting all around him who didn’t even care, COME ON PEOPLE, give up your seat for this poor guy!!! (sorry, rant over!)
We got back to the Animal Kingdom lodge at a little after midnight, it was such fun staying out at the parks this late, a first for us. WHAT A FANTASTIC DAY!!!!!!!!!! I was sad because it was our last night in our Animal Kingdom Lodge beds, time to say good bye to the Animal Kingdom Lodge and head over to Saratoga tomorrow, I was so sad, I was expecting a disappointment from Saratoga, but HEY LESLEY we were in DISNEY, who am I to complain right!?!

FOR DAY 8 OF OUR ADVENTURE CLICK HERE:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2224335&page=34 Scroll down a bit past the comments for Day 8

 

[shannon47142]

Fantastic for Luke to get picked for the show
he did so well, too

besides Tim's knee, what a great day

thanks for sharing

 

[froglover2]

What great pictures!!!!

 

[ctmomof4]

What a great report!!!! I can not wait to see how you liked your next "home"... Animal Kingdom sounds amazing.. what a wonderful experience... will you be staying there again in the fall? Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful vacation with all of us!!!!

 

[LuvnDizney]

Great update!!! Do you think a 10yo and 13 yo would enjoy the Kim Possible mission? They sound like great fun to me. How exciting for Luke and what an awesome memory, I would never get my boys up on stage, he is very brave. Can't wait to read more and read what you think of SSR.


Melissa

 

[IluvXU]

What a fun day you all had. I wish someone here would volunteer to do laundry. Your kids sure enjoyed their missions.

I am super glad you enjoy the show... Doug and I did that during our honeymoon.... I want to take the kids in the next couple of years. What a fantastic night at MK too!

Oh Lesley you need to read my trip report to see terrible bus moments... (two in one day)!