Better Late than Never - Trip Report Jan 2012 - Updated 6-27

[Marshay]

We had a wonderful week at Disney. Perfect weather, great experiences, wonderful accomodations, excellent and entertaining meals.

I will be closing this out and starting a Trip Report some time this week.

Some highlights of the trip:

Upgraded to Courtyard view at WL - Beautiful!

3 parks in 2 days (MK, Epcot and DHS) -
MK - DS liked Buzz and fireworks, Extra magic hours rock!,

Epcot - Le Cellier - yum, Soarin, and Snow White read us a story,

Hollywood Studios - dance party was fun! Got to meet Marshay and her family, DH and I got to ride TSM and Star Tours, and found a beer.

Hollywood Studios during day time - Jedi Training was very entertaining, H&V was just okay, but Edward liked meeting Jake and Oso. My parents got two anniversary cupcakes from Pizza Planet because the staff were amazed at them being married for 50 years. And we did Animation Academy.

Off site day - Fantasy of Flight on Wednesday was more entertaining than expected and visit with Great Aunt was nice.
MK on Thursday - CRT was great! EMH still rocked - Buzz twice and Pooh once before breakfast. Pirates Tutorial was very entertaining. Wishes Dessert party - great view, seating and yummy desserts. Swimming at WL during the afternoon break.

Friday - Chef Mickeys was the best breakfast buffet ever. The characters came around fast and we got to enjoy the food without having to keep looking for them. Epcot for exploring the countries, eating at Biergarten and after one more Soarin ride, my parents took DS back to WL and DH and I got to drink around the world. Then we did Test Track and Mission Space.

Saturday we had to leave.

What a great week. My dad was amazed at how much we did and my mom said to thank the Disboards for all of the ideas that as casual visitors, they would never have known about. DS had a fantastic time, and DH did too.

I'll start a full trip report with pictures and everything later this week.

So awesome!! Glad you had a great time and can't wait to see your pics.

Post a link to your new TR, please!

 

[pld5]

This is my family at Biergarten in January. I'm gearing up to finally write my trip report.

 

[pld5]

After taking great notes and tons of pictures on my trip, I can't believe it has taken me over 2 months to get around to doing this. I have not been on the boards much because the thought of not planning a trip was depressing me, but now that I've been reviewing everything I have collected, I'm excited about the trip all over again!

So on to the report.

Day 1, January 22. We woke up to this weather near Pittsburgh.

Yes, that it was 16 degrees at 7am.

My DS did not care, he was ready to go.

We got to the airport in good time, got some breakfast at McDonald's and we were ready to go to the gate.......
where found out we had a 2 hour flight delay.

We got a little bored, but we were very, very happy to see this!

DS loved being on the plane! His exact words were "That was AWESOME!"

Me? I loved finally getting on Magical Express. We landed around 2:30, and originally were supposed to land at 1pm, so we caught a nice tailwind and made up some time on our way there.

My DH looks like he really wants a beer.

I wish I had gotten some pictures of us coming up the driveway to Wilderness Lodge, but as luck would have it, I had a low blood sugar as soon as we were reaching that point (thanks 2 hour flight delay that threw me off my meal schedule!) and was happy, but a little distracted. We pulled up to unload and I could see my parents waiting outside on a bench for us. DS was thrilled to see them as they had left their house the day before to drive down.

We got to our room, and saw this.

Then we discovered we were upgraded to a Courtyard View - connecting rooms with my parents, which was very convenient for DS. Funny story about this, I had to pull out my Unofficial Guide to confirm what type of room we were in. I knew we had paid for a Woods View room, and we were looking at a pool, so I knew it had changed. It turns out (from the Guide anyway) that the rooms we were upgraded to near the end of the U are some coveted rooms. I was just happy to see that my parents really liked them and the view.

The other funny story about the view is that we had a 5 year old who immediately wanted to go swimming, but our luggage had not yet been delivered so we dealt with calming some tantrums with good old fashioned bribery that day.

We went to walk around and explore. I don't know why I didn't take a picture of the view from our room right away, but I did take it several times throughout the rest of the week.

Here are some pictures of us the views we saw (or made) while walking around.

Our rooms were immediately under the green awning on the 5th floor, the 2nd and 3rd balconies in from the left.

DS and my mom.

Now, we had been up since 5am and by this time, it is about 5pm and we were ready to drop. So what did we do? We went to Magic Kingdom because they were having EMH that evening. I could not justify being so close to the MK and not see the castle, you know! So we went to wait for the boat to take us there.

Up next, a few night pictures at MK. I don't ever recall seeing MK at night and I loved every minute of it.

 

[pld5]

An evening at Magic Kingdom, with Extra Magic Hours.

We had a pleasant boat ride from WL to MK - no more than 20 minutes. My camera does not take the best night shots, so I only have a few photos of that first evening, and one photopass shot where we all look exhausted, but it had to be done.

We walked down Main Street and got our bearings, and oohed and aahed at the big giant box that used to be the bakery storefront , and of course, the castle all lit up at night. DS got his first bribe of the trip, a lighted sword sold in front of the castle.

We went to Tomorrowland and rode the Peoplemover. Then we got a bite to eat at Cosmic Rays and used our Free Dining plan for the first time. DH and I split a Counter service meal because it was so much food. He ate ribs and i had chicken - from the same meal! We finished eating and went to ride Buzz Lightyear, and when we came out of Buzz, DS heard something, ran outside and yelled "you guys better get out here!". It was time for Wishes to start and he loved it. Since I knew we had reservations for later in the week to see Wishes with the Tomorrowland Terrace Dessert party, I looked at DH and asked my mom if she could take DS and we ran to ride Space Mountain. We walked right on because everyone else was going to see Wishes. We then met my parents and DS at the bottom of the Peoplemover that they rode again while waiting for us after fireworks and walked through to Fantasyland and we all rode Winnie the Pooh. By then they were checking room keys because EMH had started and as much as I thought the cue play area was cute, it would give me twitches on a busy day with inpolite people. Thankfully we did not have to worry about it. We bought DS his second bribe of the trip, which was a stuffed Tigger. We started to walk over to Adventureland but stopped for a ride on Its a Small World first. DH and I got to ride POTC (also a walk on), but DS was afraid and my parents waited with him while we did. Then we went decided to call it a night and headed off to catch a boat to WL. Extra Magic Hours rock.

On their favorite ride, the Peoplemover.

The end of a successful first day of vacation.

DH finally got his beer.

A successful use of my first snack credit. Yummy brownie. And first charge to the room: Chardonnay.

 

[Marshay]

Yay! You started!! I just finished my TR ... couldn't believe it took me 2 months to do, too. Now I don't feel so bad

Congrats on the upgrade and the Connecting rooms!

You all must have been wiped out -- 5am to PM -EMH!! whew!! It sounds like EMH wasn't crowded at all, either!

The pics of your parents on the Peoplemover is great!! They look so happy.

I love the pic of your son with his two bribes -- esp the sword still lit up and him all asleep!!

 

[pld5]

Yay, you're here to read, Marshay!

EMH wasn't crowded at all. MK was more crowded than I expected when we first got there being that it was a weekend day, but EMH totally made it worth it for us.

One last moment from the first night I forgot to mention is that while we were waiting for the boat back to WL, we saw the Electrical Water Pageant for the first time. DS loved it, and made a point of watching it from our room as many nights as he was there to hear it come by WL.

 

[Marshay]

Yay, you're here to read, Marshay!

EMH wasn't crowded at all. MK was more crowded than I expected when we first got there being that it was a weekend day, but EMH totally made it worth it for us.

One last moment from the first night I forgot to mention is that while we were waiting for the boat back to WL, we saw the Electrical Water Pageant for the first time. DS loved it, and made a point of watching it from our room as many nights as he was there to hear it come by WL.

yes! I love the EWP!! So fun and we never get tired of hearing the music!

 

[Marshay]

forgot to mention Jerry and I stayed at WL, pre-kids, and loved it! I love teh lodge and the views on the lake. I remember we had ducks that would walk right outside on our patio (we had first floor) or sleep there. It was so neat!

 

[pld5]

forgot to mention Jerry and I stayed at WL, pre-kids, and loved it! I love teh lodge and the views on the lake. I remember we had ducks that would walk right outside on our patio (we had first floor) or sleep there. It was so neat!

We swam with the ducks in the pool.

 

[pld5]

So one would think after doing so much on our travel day, I might sleep in until the last minute before our breakfast reservation at Whispering Canyon. Nope, I started stirring around 5am with the biggest smile on my face. I couldn't wait to look outside and see the view of the courtyard on our first full day of vacation. Once the sun started rising, I peeked out of the curtains and saw this:

and this:

and this:

and this:

By this time, I need to wake DH and DS to share my excitement with them. DS was already mesmerized by Stacy on the TV.

We all got dressed to go to breakfast at Whispering Canyon. We started a habit for the week where DH, DS and I would walk down the stairs that were close to us that would exit facing the pool for us to walk across the courtyard, and my parents would walk down the hall to take the elevator and meet us in the lobby.

Once at Whispering Canyon, it seemed to take us a long time to be able to place an order and even longer for them to fill it. The breakfast, once it came, was very good and filling, but they brought us our food before our silverware and it seemed to take forever for little things like butter to be delivered. My dad who is not patient at all, was not happy, but once he ate, he calmed down significantly. I was making notes to myself like "ok, got it, no shtick for dad, just food." DS loved it though, especially getting to ride the wooden ponies around the place. Twice. And taking ketchup to other tables. But, he was already disappointed about not going swimming so he had a little meltdown when our host pretended to be stealing his seat and eating his pancakes. Our host, George, definitely made up with DS before the end of the meal though, and we made sure that George did not think he had done anything wrong, just walked in on an unknown tantrum.

Here is DS riding the pony. He has on a brown shirt.

George is standing to the right of him.

PapPap and DS doing mazes.

We had important places to go from breakfast. Like a busride to Epcot. With a stop at Fort Wilderness to pick up any guests there.

Once we got into Epcot, we got the obligatory Spaceship Earth shot and then we sent DH on to get fastpasses for Soarin.

We had an appointment through AAA for a Storytime Experience in Epcot because we booked our trip through AAA. We didn't know which character would be reading a story to DS, but it would be a very small gathering and he (and we) would be able to get some pictures or autographs with the character.

Here is DS waiting on the stage.

Here is the AAA staff member explaining to the children that someone would be coming out, and explaining to the parents that we were free to move around and take pictures, and wait around afterwards to talk for a bit.

I was very excited to see Snow White come out with her storybook.

Now, we do not do autograph books, but AAA gave everyone a bookmark that Snow White could sign, so DS handed that over for signature and was ready to walk away.

Snow White called him back, and she did give him a kiss. He was beaming!

Then Mom and I wanted our pictures with Snow White and Snow suggested we all do the princess pose.

My DH had the biggest crush on her after just hearing her voice reading.

From our storytime, I think we walked over to do the Nemo Ride and see the Turtle Talk with Crush show. DS got picked by Crush to ask a question and he was thrilled. "little dude in the brown shell" DS didn't ask a question though, he told Crush that he likes to play with cars.

Then we went to Club Kool and DH and my parents tried a few of the cokes. DS and I liked one with some orange flavors, but I can't recall exactly which one.

By then, we headed over to Canada, and what I was hoping would be our picture on the International Gateway to France. But my parents decided to stop and have a seat while waiting for our reservation at LeCellier, and wouldn't walk with us to get our picture. So I got one done with the three of us.

When we made it back to Canada, of course we need a picture of this.

Chocolate Mousse at LeCellier

The food in this place was fantastic. We would definitely go back, but I'm not sure it is worth 2 table service credits for dinner. We went for lunch (2:30), so it was only 1 credit. They brought my parents a special dessert in honor of their 50th anniversary.

On our way back to the Land to redeem our Soarin Fastpasses, we ran into Belle.

 

[pld5]

We decided to get our pictures with the Fab Five in Epcot at the Character Spot around 4pm or so, because at that point, we were wondering if we would be too tired to make it to the Disney Jr Dance Party at DHS that evening.

Donald Duck met DS's White Angry Bird, to which he very pointedly gestured that he, Donald, is the angry bird. The characters really seemed to enjoy the white angry bird. I'm sure it was a little bit original.

From there, we rode Spaceship Earth and headed on over to DHS on the bus.

We had one goal at DHS - Disney Jr. Dance Party. But we got to DHS at 6pm and the dance party was not to start until 7, so we decided to try to find out where TSM was. Surely there would be a reasonable line or fastpasses available at 6pm, right? Nope, it was a 90 minute wait. We walk around a bit through Walt, One Man's Dream, but don't stay for the show. My parents found a bench, which was conveniently located under this sign.

We love the Muppets.

We walked on over to Animation Courtyard to wait for the dance party. Now this is something I discovered from Marshay that is only offered during EMH at DHS. I thought DS would really enjoy it because he loves to dance.

He was jumping up and down with excitement while waiting to go in, and once we got inside, he didn't stop jumping for a while. You have to figure after we have made him hold our hands and pose for pictures all day, this was a bit of freedom for him.

Waiting to go in. Unfortunately, I took no pictures inside because my camera fails to do anything justice in the dark, but DS Loved this. Thanks Marshay! It was so nice to meet you there, too! My parents remembered the bench in the back of the room from when we had seen the Playhouse Disney show in 2010 and went straight there.

We stayed here about 30-40 minutes and then my parents decided to call it a night. They offered to take DS back to the lodge with them, and DH and I got to ride TSM with a 40 minute wait, but we figured it would never get any better for us since we are not morning people.

We also rode Star Tours (walked right on), and thought about Rock and Roller Coaster, but decided to pass. We were exhausted at this point, but found a beer at a hot dog stand and walked slowly to catch a bus back to Wilderness Lodge.

The bus took about 10 minutes to WL from DHS. Walked around in the courtyard to watch the Electrical Water Pageant and looked up and saw DS with my parents watching from their balcony. (night 2 of EWP) Mom said they were able to glimpse some of the MK fireworks from their room, too.

We went up to our room and saw this:

We never did get another Towel animal, but got a few towel shirts and ties during our week there.

We went to bed exhausted, but satisfied after seeing 3 parks in 2 days.

 

[pld5]

After accomplishing so much on the first two days of our trip, we slept in until 8:30am on Tuesday. We met my parents for breakfast at Roaring Forks and then granted DS his wish to swim at the resort that morning. We had a 1215 reservation at Hollywood and Vine that day, and I was extremely stressed about missing that reservation, and pretty much decided while I was in the pool with DS that if we had to miss it and be charged $50 for not cancelling a reservation for 5 people 24 hours ahead of time, that $50 was worth the price of my DS needing the pool time. After all, it was really unfair to be able to see it right from our room and not let him use it!

But, it turned out that he was perfectly okay with only 45 minutes in the pool and we still had time to get showered, dressed and catch the bus to Hollywood Studios. That kid really goes with whatever we plan for him, but I'm proud that he stood his ground on needing to enjoy that pool!

Did we make it on time to our Dining Reservation? Here's a hint.

And another.

Sadly, in real time on April 19, I have to call it a night, but I will update more of our Hollywood Studios day this weekend.

 

[Marshay]

Yay! You updated. Sorry I missed your earlier updates.

Love your view from the balcony -- you had the best of it all -- lake, pool and buildings.

We love WC but yeah, it's definitely not a quick place to eat. The servers are so busy just serving the meal and then you add on all the antics and games and it's a slow meal. But very fun!!

Wow, this was a very busy day for you with WC, Ep and HS Dance Party!

We love Le Cellier but I agree it doesn't live up to the standard of a true Signature Dining, IMHO, like CG or Narc.

I love that Chocolate Mousse!

The Storytime sounds great and the pic of your son with Snow White is precious!!

We've yet to get a photo of Belle in Epcot...and we want to meet Beast, too!

I'm so glad we were able to meet at the Dance Party! That was a lot of fun.

Wow! If you remember from my H&V photos, we had a breakfast and the place was empty! So different to see all the people in the background.

Yes, our family really loves H&V ... it's not for the food really but one of the best character interactions and all the dancing and singing.

Way for you to give pool time! That is so important to kids. It's that old joke of "we spent $3,000 for a trip to WDW and little Suzy loved the pool the best!"

In November 2009 we stayed at BLT for our first time and once Rachel got a look at the little beach area outside our room, that was it. I asked her what park or ride or character she wanted to see first ... her answer: I want to play on the beach.

So I changed all our plans and first full day there, we played on the beach. It worked out well and taught me that sometimes the best plan is to not plan (but don't ever tell my DH that!!)

 

[pld5]

Yay! You updated. Sorry I missed your earlier updates.

Love your view from the balcony -- you had the best of it all -- lake, pool and buildings.

We love WC but yeah, it's definitely not a quick place to eat. The servers are so busy just serving the meal and then you add on all the antics and games and it's a slow meal. But very fun!!

Wow, this was a very busy day for you with WC, Ep and HS Dance Party!

We love Le Cellier but I agree it doesn't live up to the standard of a true Signature Dining, IMHO, like CG or Narc.

I love that Chocolate Mousse!

The Storytime sounds great and the pic of your son with Snow White is precious!!

We've yet to get a photo of Belle in Epcot...and we want to meet Beast, too!

I'm so glad we were able to meet at the Dance Party! That was a lot of fun.

Wow! If you remember from my H&V photos, we had a breakfast and the place was empty! So different to see all the people in the background.

Yes, our family really loves H&V ... it's not for the food really but one of the best character interactions and all the dancing and singing.

Way for you to give pool time! That is so important to kids. It's that old joke of "we spent $3,000 for a trip to WDW and little Suzy loved the pool the best!"

In November 2009 we stayed at BLT for our first time and once Rachel got a look at the little beach area outside our room, that was it. I asked her what park or ride or character she wanted to see first ... her answer: I want to play on the beach.

So I changed all our plans and first full day there, we played on the beach. It worked out well and taught me that sometimes the best plan is to not plan (but don't ever tell my DH that!!)

Hi Marshay! We really did have a great view and it was just so peaceful to look out at that view in the morning.

With WC, I'm just glad that all we had to do was walk downstairs to the lobby for it. If we had had to travel by bus or boat to get there for breakfast, and then had that wait, Dad would have probably made me cancel all of our remaining ADR's for the week and finding a McDonalds!

Monday was very busy for us, but we got so much done, it took a lot of pressure off of us for the rest of the week and we were able to slow down and relax a bit and take it all in.

I bet your girls would love the Storytime experience if you ever get the chance.

Belle was located around the corner to the left from the Character Spot if you are walking towards The Land. She was also in France but in her blue and white oufit.

The dance party was so much fun and I'm so glad you told me about it. If we had missed it, I know I would have kicked myself the rest of the week for not letting DS experience something aimed at him.

H&V was fun. I'll write about the rest of Tuesday and our H&V experience later today or tomorrow.

The pool was a lot of fun, too but the air was much cooler than it looked. That certainly helped in DS's decision to be okay with 45 minutes of it!

 

[pld5]

So, I last left you wondering whether we made it to our Hollywood and Vine ADR for lunch. We managed to make it there on time for our reservation (thank you Disney transportation!) and had a few minute wait outside for our table to be ready. Of course, before we went to H&V, we had to do this.

We were seated and told to help ourselves to the buffet, and noticed that a few characters were already on their way to see us. We saw June and DS was thrilled!

Next up was Oso and DH was thrilled!

He went up to dance with Jake and Manny.

And then he gave Jake a big hug!

I had to hug him, too.

Now a word about the actual meal experience. The lunch buffet was just okay. My parents and I enjoyed being able to sample a bit of everything, but my DH did not care for anything there, and let us all know. It didn't help that our waitress was rather gruff and did not really mesh well with the whole happy kids in Hollywood and Vine experience. DS ate fruit, butter bread and ice cream. He didn't care for his chicken and the brocolli was uncooked.

DS enjoyed the characters, Jake more than the rest, but he would have LOVED this on our last (his first) trip in 2010. He was probably just at the threshold of the target audience for this place.

Now at this point, in response to my DH pouting through the whole meal, I told my mom that I was going to punch my DH. She said "Just tell me when to take DS away so he doesn't watch." I love my mom. For the record I have never punched my DH.

We had been on our trip for 3 days now and during this meal it became very clear that when 5 people are traveling, only 4 will ever know what the plan is at any given time.

We had dessert of apple cobbler and ice cream and DH's mood (and mine) began to change for the better.

We left there at 1:15 (from a 12:15 ADR) and decided to walk past TSM on our way to the Studio Backlot Tour. Fastpasses were gone and we weren't in the mood to make a 6 year old wait in a 40 minute line for a ride that we had already decided would frustrate him, so on to the Backlot Tour we went.

DS liked the Coke bottle.

And we enjoyed most of the tour.

DS was TERRIFIED at the stunt scene when the truck caught on fire. Except for that experience, I'm glad we did this tour. It has been closed the last 2 times I was at DHS.

After a quick bathroom break, we stumbled upon Sully and Mike Wazowksi. I love DS's expression looking at Mike.

After that, we left DS with my parents at the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground so I could look in the shop outside of the Backlot Tour. I missed it because of the need to find DS a restroom, fast.

We then collected my DS and my parents and were ready to go to find Lightning McQueen, see the Muppets and find Phineas and Ferb. While he was playing on the playground, he decided he wanted a "Perry with a Hat". They had stuffed Perry's at the shop directly across from the playground, but none with a hat on. (Agent P). So we had to keep looking.

By this time, we are feeling the heat, and it it just so happens that the Lights Motor Action Stunt show is letting out at this same time. So we found some shade and just sat it out and DH went to find a beverage.

I should have gotten a picture of the crowd because I have never seen that many people leaving anything at WDW all at the same time before. They just kept coming and coming. Once the crowd passed, we made our way to Lightning and got our picture taken there after a 10 minute wait. While we were waiting, DH noticed the kiosk there was selling Perry's with hats. Score!

We found the umbrella. And took a picture of a perfect stranger in front of it.

And then went to see the Muppets. DS wore the 3D glasses this time (he refused in 2010) and actually enjoyed the show!

 

[pld5]

I had planned to do more from Day 3, but photobucket has stopped cooperating for tonight, so I hope to post more tomorrow from our Phineas and Ferb Meet and Greet, the kind gesture of the cast members at Pizza Planet, my complete meltdown at my DH over snack credits (no punches thrown), watching Jedi Training, Animation Academy and Winnie the Pooh, Sorcerer Mickey, Meeko, Chip and Dale and Mary Poppins.

 

[Marshay]

Now a word about the actual meal experience. The lunch buffet was just okay. My parents and I enjoyed being able to sample a bit of everything, but my DH did not care for anything there, and let us all know. It didn't help that our waitress was rather gruff and did not really mesh well with the whole happy kids in Hollywood and Vine experience. DS ate fruit, butter bread and ice cream. He didn't care for his chicken and the brocolli was uncooked.

Ok, sorry to your DH, but a person who can't find anything to eat at a buffet has something wrong with them!

We love H&V but as you said you aren't going there for the food. We actually think it's good (i.e., not great!) but never go away hungry. My kids love that they can go up and get their own food off of the kiddie bar.

DS enjoyed the characters, Jake more than the rest, but he would have LOVED this on our last (his first) trip in 2010. He was probably just at the threshold of the target audience for this place.

Yep, I figure we won't be doing H&V too much longer either. Rachel keeps wanting to go there and I'd like to do something else ... but then again, she won't want to associate with those characters much longer so maybe we should just continue to eat there for another year or so. She's really hoping they will add Izzy from J&TNP.

Now at this point, in response to my DH pouting through the whole meal, I told my mom that I was going to punch my DH. She said "Just tell me when to take DS away so he doesn't watch." I love my mom. For the record I have never punched my DH.

Oh, your mom is hilarious!! Sounds like she was a bit perturbed as well!!

We had been on our trip for 3 days now and during this meal it became very clear that when 5 people are traveling, only 4 will ever know what the plan is at any given time.

Hey, if you can get 4 people knowing what to do and when, that's pretty good!!

DS was TERRIFIED at the stunt scene when the truck caught on fire. Except for that experience, I'm glad we did this tour. It has been closed the last 2 times I was at DHS.

Wow. I'm surprised. I thought a boy would love to see a truck and better yet, have it blow up. I'm going to take Rachel to see this for her first time in July. I will warn her about this scene though.

After that, we left DS with my parents at the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground so I could look in the shop outside of the Backlot Tour. I missed it because of the need to find DS a restroom, fast.

We have still to do this playground. Every time we try to stop by, it's closed. How was it? The only thing I remember hearing was that is it sooooo darn hot in there.

Oh, yeah, that crowd from the Lights show is enormous! We finally watched the show in January and it was pretty bad just walking in it. You seem to walk forever just to get to your seat!

I had planned to do more from Day 3, but photobucket has stopped cooperating for tonight, so I hope to post more tomorrow from our Phineas and Ferb Meet and Greet, the kind gesture of the cast members at Pizza Planet, my complete meltdown at my DH over snack credits (no punches thrown), watching Jedi Training, Animation Academy and Winnie the Pooh, Sorcerer Mickey, Meeko, Chip and Dale and Mary Poppins.

Oooh, this sounds promising!

Can't wait to hear about your meltdown. We always seem to have one or more, two in our family. Nice to know that we are the only ones!

 

[pld5]

The HISTK playground was hot, and it was hard for my parents to find a place to sit/lean on and still keep an eye on DS. But he found a slide, and once they knew where it let out, they were okay with it.

The truck that catches fire was so hot, and DS was having a little trouble differentiating between make believe and what was real and he honestly thought that thing was going to explode on us. We could feel the heat on our faces. If I never have to see that look of terror on his face again, that will be just fine with me. I had never done the Backlot Tour before so I didn't know what to expect or what to explain about ahead of time.

 

[Marshay]

The HISTK playground was hot, and it was hard for my parents to find a place to sit/lean on and still keep an eye on DS. But he found a slide, and once they knew where it let out, they were okay with it.

The truck that catches fire was so hot, and DS was having a little trouble differentiating between make believe and what was real and he honestly thought that thing was going to explode on us. We could feel the heat on our faces. If I never have to see that look of terror on his face again, that will be just fine with me. I had never done the Backlot Tour before so I didn't know what to expect or what to explain about ahead of time.

Imagine what HISTK is like in summer time!!

Yeah, the whole reality vs make believe is big for them right now. Rachel told me the other day that she knows there are just people inside the costumes!

We did the tour years ago when it was a lot bigger (prior to the lights, action motor show). Rachel really wants to do it this July.

 

[pld5]

After the Muppets, we went out to do the Phineas and Ferb Meet and Greet.

Before the Muppetshow, DS posed with Ducky Momo and we knew at 2:30 that P&F would be back at 3:10.

The P&F que has a nice show going on with an MC for the crowd watching and waiting. They reenact some songs and routines with audience participation and it is a nice way to pass the wait. We had a wait of about 15-20 minutes in the heat, but DH got picked to announce one of the acts. I think it was Backyard Beach.

P&F with DS. And Perry with a hat.

P&F with my DH. Look how happy he is. Not for long......

We headed over to Pizza Planet and I said that I wanted to get a beer and a cookie to refresh myself after standing in the heat. My mom said she only wanted water, so since we were still relatively new to the dining plan, I was explaining to her that she could use a snack credit on a bottle of water. DH heard this and got confused and thought that I wanted to use snack credits on bottles of water. Now how he heard this, but not my earlier statement about wanting a cookie and a beer, I'll never understand, but suffice it to say that I do know that DH does not listen.

So he goes to the counter and orders 3 bottles of water and one beer. He comes back to the table and I see that there is no beer for me, no cookie and 3 freaking bottles of water that now we will be forced to carry through the park and that I just know that we will want to use those snack credits on something else later in the week and we won't have them to use. Not the most rational thought, I know, but I'll blame the heat and low blood sugar. So after I went to buy my OWN beer and use a snack credit on a COOKIE, I came back to the table and yelled at him and cried. My mom told me after I calmed down that I lasted a lot longer than she had expected me to before crying that week.

My Dad took DS to play a video game while this meltdown was occuring, and after I calmed down, DH replaced Dad. Two Pizza Planet cast members struck up a conversation with my parents over their anniversary buttons and were thrilled to hear they were celebrating their 50th. We all decided to leave after our snacks and were outside when one of the cast members came out to find us to tell us "You left! We have something for your parents!" So we went back in where they presented them with two huge cappucino cupcakes in a to go container. How sweet of them to do this and totally unexpected!

DS at Pizza Planet

My parents and their surprise cupcakes.

We went to the Muppets gift shop to get a few things so we would have a bag to carry home their cupcakes. (and the extra bottles of water. grr.) We started to make our way across the park to Animation Academy and came across Jedi Training just as it was starting. We decided to watch in the event this may be something DS would like to do some day. DH would do it in a heartbeat if given the chance!

The Jedi Master was hilarious. Very dry sense of humor and good with the children. He told one young padawan it was completely necessary to duck as he was really small. He also said "or you could stand there and do nothing" to another young one who was doing exactly that. To a young girl: "The dark side is no match for a pink poofy." To an older child: "You mean to tell me you are wearing a Darth goofy shirt. To Jedi training." This was very enjoyable and another thing we may have completely missed from not being on these boards. My Dad even laughed out loud several times.

You can see how close we were from my DH's hat.

DS was mesmerized

After that, we did make it over to Animation Academy which had a 15 minute wait. The que was almost full so we waited. I had to go outside to get my dad because he didn't realize we were doing anything in the building. We all enjoyed this experience. Another thing we would not have known about if not for these boards. DS was a little upset because he was a little too small to reach the drawing table, but after I pulled him onto my lap, even his drawing resembles Tigger. In order below, DH, DS and mine.

Mary Poppins was very charmed by DS. She liked how he said his first name very matter of fact and straightforward. She also liked DH's hat.

She came back later to steal my child

To meet Meeko (who we had to look up later to figure out who he was......) But he gave DS a treasure box (somebody's leftover popcorn bucket, but DS was thrilled!)

Winnie the Pooh (sorry Marshay!)

Sorcerer Mickey - He was so cute. He and Minnie were running towards each other and waving at each other and blowing kisses all night. He pointed to me to kiss his nose after our picture and I told him I didn't want to make Minnie mad. He looked over where she was standing and gestured to me "we're okay". It was a very fun character interaction.

After this, we made our way to the bus to WL - a full bus this time and it took about a 20 minute ride. We think the bus driver took a wrong turn. We grabbed a bite to eat at Roaring Forks, did a little shopping in the Mercantile and then called it a night. DS heard the EWP sounds and when I wouldn't wake up to go see it with him on our balcony, he went over to grandma's room. Thank you connecting rooms!