Better Late Than Never, Right? A Sept/Oct 2009 TR **FINISHED 3/25/10!!**

[that's nice]

I guess I'm not that great of a PIMP. Not one person is here yet. I guess I'll give em another day before I gotta break out my PIMP hand!!!!

 

[Mommy2LittleVols]

I guess I'm not that great of a PIMP. Not one person is here yet. I guess I'll give em another day before I gotta break out my PIMP hand!!!!

 

[Mommy2LittleVols]

Day 2, Part 1: Did we make it to our reservation??

We had a 7:00 am ressie at Chef Mickey's this morning. We had agreed for everyone to meet outside our room at 6:30 to head to the bus stop. DH, the kids, the IL's, and I were there, but SILs weren't. One of the DNephews said that he thought they wanted to sleep in. We called them and they said they were just getting up and would meet us at the restaurant, so we headed to the bus stop. We were in luck! A bus was just pulling in! It was just us and one other family on the bus, so the driver said that he would drop us off at the Contemporary. Yay!

We got to CM's right on time, and I checked in and explained that we were waiting on 2 members of our party. Normally they make you wait until your entire party is present to seat you, but they said they would go ahead and get us in and SILs could just join us when they arrived. Sweet! We got our pictures taken and sat down in the waiting area. We only waited about 5 mins before we were seated. Our table was in the back room where the characters come out. I loved the location! SILs arrived about 2 mins after we sat down.

I know that some people don't care for CM's, but we had a really great experience! The character interaction was wonderful, and the food was really good, too! Goofy was the first character to come out, then Mickey, Donald, Minnie, and Pluto was last. I was a little worried about how the babies would react to characters. Dakoda would get really excited when he first saw them, but then when they got close to him, he would dive for his Daddy. Sarah Kate LOVED them! She even gave Mickey a big kiss on the nose! (And of course, I didn't get a picture. ) Donald was so funny. We weren't paying attention when he got to our table, and he hit it really hard and made us all jump. Minnie was really cute. She flirted with DNephews and FIL. I got some good pictures, but I really wish I had thought to bring my video camera. I'll remember next time!

I love this picture of my 15-year-old nephew with Goofy.

Dakoda's reaction to Goofy

Zach and Kristy (DH's sister) with Mickey

Landon and Cynthia with Mickey

Family picture with Mickey. Dakoda's still not sure about him.

Cute picture of Darren and Dakoda

Darren, Dakoda and Sarah Kate with Donald

And me with Donald

Landon and Cynthia with Minnie

Minnie flirting with Zach

Pap and Minnie

And with Mam and Pap (I think Pap was smiling bigger when Mam wasn't in the picture, don't you? )

And one of my favorite pictures from the whole trip:
Sarah Kate and Minnie

This is where I leave you for now. When we return, we'll be headed to the Magic Kingdom! Stay tuned!

Next installment

 

[momof2TNboys]

Great update! I loved CM too, but we liked dinner better. It seemed on our days, the character interaction was better at dinner.

 

[racefanof88]

Coming over to join in here too!! We were at Pop the same time you were............ This was our room:

We were all right there at the same time in September and will be in Disney at the same time in May .

We were there September 26-October 3, well actually October 2nd. We had to leave a day early because DS came down with H1N1 and I had it 2 days later .

 

[Mommy2LittleVols]

Great update! I loved CM too, but we liked dinner better. It seemed on our days, the character interaction was better at dinner.

We've never been there for dinner. We may need to try it!

Coming over to join in here too!! We were at Pop the same time you were............ This was our room:

We were all right there at the same time in September and will be in Disney at the same time in May .

We were there September 26-October 3, well actually October 2nd. We had to leave a day early because DS came down with H1N1 and I had it 2 days later .

Too funny!! If you heard any ear-piercing shrieks in the middle of the night, it was probably my daughter. Yikes about H1N1!!!! I'm really glad we avoided that one (at least while we were at Disney World).

 

[aharbin88]

Hi! I love your signature, btw!

Count me among the non-CM fans. I've never been there for b'fast, though, so maybe that could change my mind. I do think that CM has great character interactions! We had a lot of fun with the Fab 5 last time we were there. Caroline (my 2 year old DD) hated the characters, but warmed up to Pluto a bit while we were at CM, and Mickey had a little fun with me. He came up behind me and scared the dickens out me. I had no idea who was grabbing my shoulders! Luckily I didn't have any food in my hand.

I love Sarah Kate's dress! Soooo cute! I may have to steal your idea and plan an all-orange wardrobe day while we're there.

 

[Mommy2LittleVols]

Count me among the non-CM fans. I've never been there for b'fast, though, so maybe that could change my mind. I do think that CM has great character interactions! We had a lot of fun with the Fab 5 last time we were there. Caroline (my 2 year old DD) hated the characters, but warmed up to Pluto a bit while we were at CM, and Mickey had a little fun with me. He came up behind me and scared the dickens out me. I had no idea who was grabbing my shoulders! Luckily I didn't have any food in my hand.

I love Sarah Kate's dress! Soooo cute! I may have to steal your idea and plan an all-orange wardrobe day while we're there.

Thanks! I got it last fall at Alumni Hall. (Do they have those where you are? ) We actually wore UT apparel several days while we were there.

 

[Mommy2LittleVols]

Day 2, Part 2: Why do you want pictures of our food?

After we finished our breakfast with Mickey and friends, we caught the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom. We made it in time for rope drop! Our first stop was City Hall to pick up a GAC (Guest Assistance Card) and a stroller tag. *Side note: Dakoda was diagnosed with PDD-NOS last fall. For those not familiar, PDD-NOS stands for Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified, and it is an Autism Spectrum Disorder. Basically, it means that Dakoda exhibits some symptoms of autism, but not enough to fit the specific criteria for "classic" autism or Asperger's. For the most part, he acts like a normal little boy, but he does have a few issues that would make normal park touring difficult. For one, he doesn't understand the concept of waiting - for anything. As soon as he sees me get out the pots and pans and start dinner, he thinks it is time to eat; he doesn't understand that he has to wait for the food to cook. So as soon as he got out of his stroller, he would expect to walk right onto an attraction. Another issue is that whenever he decides that he wants to do something, he HAS to do it, and if you try and stop him, he goes into full meltdown mode and starts stimming. Once that happens, he can become hysterical within a matter of minutes and it can take up to an hour to calm him down. For those reasons and a few others, we decided that we would use the GAC to allow us to keep him in his stroller while in lines and waiting areas. It was really a lifesaver!*

After we left City Hall, we hit up some attractions. According to my notes, we rode Dumbo, Pooh, and Peter Pan, and then we watched Mickey's Philharmagic. We then rode It's a Small World and the Haunted Mansion (which Dakoda LOVED! He actually fell asleep on it!), and watched the Country Bear Jamboree. Here are some pictures from our morning.

This pic is kind of blurry, but I wanted to show you the crowd at rope drop

Fall decorations

Zach, Darren, and Landon

Zach and Landon with the Fairy Godmother

We had a 12:35 ressie at Tony's Town Square. It was really crowded and there was about a 30 min wait. Here are some "waiting" pictures.

Miss Sarah Kate being cute

And I think here we had let Dakoda run around a little bit and he had taken off his shoes so Kristy was trying to put them back on and he was NOT having it. And Zach was trying to look cool.

Here's the awesome Lady and the Tramp fountain

Continued in next post...

 

[Mommy2LittleVols]

Day 2, Part 3: Food Pics, Spectro, and a Monsoon

After we had waited for about 30 minutes, our table was finally ready. They put us in the back corner of the restaurant, near the kitchen. Perfect place for a large, loud party like us! We placed our orders and our food was out fairly quickly. I passed my camera around the table and made everyone take a picture of their food. They thought I was crazy, but they did it. However, these are the last food pictures I got that week! I must have had other things on my mind later....

And now, for your viewing and salivating pleasure, the food pics.

I *think* this is the Chicken Florentine Calzone (FIL)

Spaghetti w/ Sweet Italian Sausage (MIL and I both got this)

Tony's Flatbread w/ Italian sausage, pepperoni, caramelized onions, mozzerella, and roasted red pepper sauce (Landon's choice)

*Not sure what this is - Shrimp Scampi? Salad of some sort? (Cynthia)

Eggplant Catasta - Layers of eggplant, caramelized onions, fresh mozzerella, and parmesean w/ marinara sauce over penne pasta (Kristy)

Chicken Parmagiana (Darren and Zach both got this)

And dessert!

Chocolate Gelato (what I got)

Ice Cream Bomb (what I should have got)

Sorbet?

Chef's Signature Cheesecake (this was pretty good, too)

Spumoni?

Lemon Walnut Layer Cake (MIL loved this!)

After lunch, Darren and I took the babies back to the resort for a nap.

We might have taken one, too. We got back to the park around 6:30 pm.

We rode Pirates of the Caribbean, and Dakoda loved it so much that we turned right around and rode it again! I took a picture of the two of us in the queue. Please excuse my shiny face. It was HOT!!

And here is Darren posing with the guns

I tried to get a picture of the kids, but Dakoda kept making goofy faces. He's really not into having his picture taken.

We explored Adventureland a little bit, and then it was time to stake out a spot for Spectro. We went up to the front of Main Street where the floats come out and they were just getting ready to put up the rope. We got a great spot right behind the rope. We parked the stroller and Darren went to Casey's to get us some dinner while I sat with the kids. It took FOREVER for him to get back with the food!! I guess because everyone else was trying to get food from there, too. While we waited, the vendors came through with balloons and Dakoda went nuts over them! I had Mam and Pap watch the kids and I went and bought him one. He loved it. The parade was AWESOME! I got the entire thing on video and I tear up every time I watch it. I haven't put it on Photobucket, but I will if anyone wants to see it. I will warn you that it's really shaky and there were some foreign kids beside me that pretty much talked the entire time. Unfortunately, since I was recording, I didn't get a single picture of the parade. (Not that my camera would have taken good ones anyway. )

At some point, I took this picture of Dakoda watching the parade.

After the parade ended, the entire crowd seemed to make a mad dash for the castle to watch Wishes. So we followed. We ended up directly in front of it. I mean we had a great spot! Darren put Dakoda on his shoulders and we waited for the show to start. SILs and the boys said they would rather ride than watch Wishes, so they headed to Adventureland.

Unfortunately, about 2 minutes later, it started to sprinkle. And then it started to rain. And then it started to POUR!! By the time we got Dakoda back in the stroller and got the rain cover on it, we were soaked, so we didn't bother digging out our ponchos. We just ran for cover! (Well, as much as you can run down crowded Main Street.) We decided to wait it out under the bridge until it let up a little, and then we would make a mad dash for the bus stop. Mam and Pap said that they would wait on SILs and the boys (who were stuck in the Swiss Family Treehouse during the storm).

I don't remember which one it was, but one of the bus stop areas was flooded. Seriously, the water was probably 2-3 inches deep. That was fun to walk through! It took a while for a bus to Pop to arrive. Right before it got there, SILs and the boys walked up - without Mam and Pap! They didn't know they had been waiting on them, so they just came on to the bus! Mam and Pap were still sitting outside the park entrance! We debated waiting on them so that we could all head back together, but the babies were getting really cranky, so we decided that Zach would go with us to help out, and Landon and SILs would wait on Mam and Pap. When we got back to the hotel, we got out of our soaking wet clothes, gave the kids a quick bath, and fell into bed. We had to be up the next morning for rope drop at Epcot!

Next installment

 

[that's nice]

You are on a roll!!!!

Glad you liked CM's. We sat probably 1 or 2 tables over from you when we had our breakfast there. It really looks like everyone had fun. I still like your nephews pictures.

And one of my favorite pictures from the whole trip:
Sarah Kate and Minnie

This is too cute! I think every baby/kid has to touch the characters noses.

I love the picture of Sarah sticking her tongue out while you were waiting at Tony's. It reminds me of Juliana when she was a baby. (It almost makes me want to give in to my DW and have another child too! )

It seems like you guys accomplished a lot at MK but I'm sooo sorry you missed Wishes. I think it is my favorite part of WDW. Was is still hot after the rain? Just think the next week was even hotter when we were there.

 

[Mommy2LittleVols]

You are on a roll!!!!

I love the picture of Sarah sticking her tongue out while you were waiting at Tony's. It reminds me of Juliana when she was a baby. (It almost makes me want to give in to my DW and have another child too! )

It seems like you guys accomplished a lot at MK but I'm sooo sorry you missed Wishes. I think it is my favorite part of WDW. Was is still hot after the rain? Just think the next week was even hotter when we were there.

DH had a 3 day weekend thanks to the snow, so I snuck in some extra DIS time while I could.


I'm with Mel - Juliana definitely needs to be a big sister!!

Not to worry, we caught Wishes later in the week and LOVED it!

 

[aharbin88]

Thanks! I got it last fall at Alumni Hall. (Do they have those where you are? ) We actually wore UT apparel several days while we were there.

No, we don't have those, I don't think. It seems like I saw one in Knoxville, though. We have Hounddogs (Houndogs?) up here. I will have to see if I can find one in Knoxville when we're there in a few weeks. That would be great for Ella Kate this summer!

Tony's looks great! I've never thought about eating there, but your pics make me want to check it out! That calzone looks super yummy.

Can you believe I've never seen Spectro? It's definitely on my "Must-Do" list. I've never seen Illuminations or Fantasmic, either. They're all on my list! I've seen Hallo-Wishes, and we are going to MVMCP this year, so I'll see Holiday Wishes then. I am going to do my best to get all the fireworks displays into this one trip, but we'll have to see. I am hoping that, even if the kids can't stay up for it, we can take them back to the room and DH and I can go back to the parks to see them. If the kids are too tired to stay up, I'm sure MIL and FIL would be willing to stay at the room with them.

Boo on the rain! That would be miserable. I bet you were ready to hit the sheets after that!

 

[Mommy2LittleVols]

No, we don't have those, I don't think. It seems like I saw one in Knoxville, though. We have Hounddogs (Houndogs?) up here. I will have to see if I can find one in Knoxville when we're there in a few weeks. That would be great for Ella Kate this summer!

Tony's looks great! I've never thought about eating there, but your pics make me want to check it out! That calzone looks super yummy.

Can you believe I've never seen Spectro? It's definitely on my "Must-Do" list. I've never seen Illuminations or Fantasmic, either. They're all on my list! I've seen Hallo-Wishes, and we are going to MVMCP this year, so I'll see Holiday Wishes then. I am going to do my best to get all the fireworks displays into this one trip, but we'll have to see. I am hoping that, even if the kids can't stay up for it, we can take them back to the room and DH and I can go back to the parks to see them. If the kids are too tired to stay up, I'm sure MIL and FIL would be willing to stay at the room with them.

Boo on the rain! That would be miserable. I bet you were ready to hit the sheets after that!

There are two Alumni Hall stores in Knoxville. One is in the mall (close to the Disney Store! ) and the other is in Turkey Creek, close to Belk. They have the cutest clothes! And you can usually find good deals there. We really enjoyed Spectro, and I am not really a parade person. I've seen Fantasmic! and Wishes, and I've seen Illuminations, but it was 8 years ago, so I don't know if it's changed since then. I've never seen Hallo-Wishes or Holiday Wishes, but I'm dying to see both!!

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

Julia, it's too bad you got rained on right before Wishes! I'll be reading to see if you got to watch it further on in the trip!

 

[aharbin88]

There are two Alumni Hall stores in Knoxville. One is in the mall (close to the Disney Store! ) and the other is in Turkey Creek, close to Belk. They have the cutest clothes! And you can usually find good deals there.

Oh yeah! I totally forgot that was the name of the store! It is down where Dillard's is, right? I REALLY need to get back to West Town. We will be in Knoxville soon, so maybe I can sneak in a trip. My ILs live in North Knox, and they sometimes think that going "out west" is like going to another state! When we lived there, I lived in North (Gibbs), and worked out West (in West Town at one time, then across the street), and I'm so used to the drive, it doesn't bother me. To them, it has to be an ordeal just to go to the mall!

 

[praisehisname]

Great updates and pictures! Did they end up cancelling Wishes or did it still go on in the rain?

 

[miabellarose]

Too bad that it had to rain right before Wishes started. I hope you had a chance to see Wishes later in the week because that was one of my favorites things to watch and experience!

 

[KathyRN137]

Julia,

How did I miss the start of your report??

Anyway, wow! You are accomplishing so much with two little ones it's not even funny! By the time you left the MK for your nap I was ready to take one too!

Sarah Kate is such a sweet little puddin'!

Dakoda didn't do so bad with the characters... Billy wouldn't go anywhere near them on our first trip and he was five!!


Kathy

 

[Mommy2LittleVols]

Julia, it's too bad you got rained on right before Wishes! I'll be reading to see if you got to watch it further on in the trip!

I might have....

Oh yeah! I totally forgot that was the name of the store! It is down where Dillard's is, right? I REALLY need to get back to West Town. We will be in Knoxville soon, so maybe I can sneak in a trip. My ILs live in North Knox, and they sometimes think that going "out west" is like going to another state! When we lived there, I lived in North (Gibbs), and worked out West (in West Town at one time, then across the street), and I'm so used to the drive, it doesn't bother me. To them, it has to be an ordeal just to go to the mall!

Yes! That's the one. I love West Town Mall. Too funny about your ILs!

Great updates and pictures! Did they end up cancelling Wishes or did it still go on in the rain?

Thanks! I'm pretty sure they still did it. We couldn't see anything from under the bridge, but we kept hearing booms that I thought were fireworks. (Didn't sound like thunder.)

Too bad that it had to rain right before Wishes started. I hope you had a chance to see Wishes later in the week because that was one of my favorites things to watch and experience!

I know. That darn rain! Luckily that was the only time that it rained on us all week! (I think.)

Julia,

How did I miss the start of your report??

Anyway, wow! You are accomplishing so much with two little ones it's not even funny! By the time you left the MK for your nap I was ready to take one too!

Sarah Kate is such a sweet little puddin'!

Dakoda didn't do so bad with the characters... Billy wouldn't go anywhere near them on our first trip and he was five!!


Kathy

Probably because I waited two months to start it. I was amazed at how much we were able to get in each day. I know that it was in very large part due to the GAC. Without it we would have been in meltdown mode within the first hour. Would you believe that was the only day we actually left the park for a nap? The rest of the week we just kept going until we dropped!