Birthdays, surprises, Magic & Merriment *3/25 New PTR Link We leave in 47 days*

[Montana_Disney_Fan]

WOW!!!

 

[Montana_Disney_Fan]

At least it didn't RAIN!

 

[DisMomAmy]

It sounds like the night had the potential to be outstanding... I'm sorry it fell short. I think they should hire Bill for sure!

I can't wait to see those lights!!

I'm glad you had the regular buses available to get back to POP - I can't imagine a second go around with the Mears bus!

 

[mrsksomeday]

Sorry it was a rough experience. Hopefully they will learn from it and improve the experience for everyone in the future! It makes me wonder if event planning companies have people who specialize in mobility issues and special needs of other kinds. Perhaps Bill can become a consultant which would mean you'd have to travel to all kinds of spectacular places with him!

I made sure to fill out the D23 survey they sent me and I held nothing back. Bill and I have joked about him becoming a consultant.

I have never done the CLP. I will have to do it one day. That sounds like a real frustrating situation with the buses. As well as Disney accomodates the mobility challenged, they also fall really short at times.

the Osborne lights are definitely one of my favorites around the holidays. I love that gingerbread house. I would like to get one someday but getting it home would be the problem. Hope you were successful with that.

It was very frustrating. The Osborne Lights without thousands of people was amazing, the ticket price for the D23 event was worth it just for that and the Castle Suite tour.

Wow these updates are packed! Osbourne lights are awesome! How come you only had 5 mins. I missed that.

I lost Kevin to a belly dancer too. Freedom at last!!

I think I am wanting to get done with the TR and maybe start a PTR . The speaker at Osborne Lights talked for like 15 minutes or more, I know the Mears busses were on a schedule so that is why we only had a limited time to see them after the speech.

Awesome Updates !!! I see how mesmerized Bill was at the Belly Dancer !!!

She was a really sweet person.

Hi Tracy!

I don't think I've posted here before, but I wanted to tell you that I sure do love your trip reports. You and Bill are both very blessed to have each other! You're not planning on being in WDW in June, are you? I'm taking my DD on a graduation trip. A grown-up Mommy and Me vacation if you will. Grown up, nothin'! We're doing the Bibbidy Bobbidy Boutique together! Anyway, If you're going to be around the 19th-24th we sure would love to say hello. I hope that doesn't sound creepy. I feel like I know you from your reports, but you've never "met" me before!

We got to see the Candlelight Processional back in 2003. David Ogden Stiers was the narrator and he was wonderful! Do they still use the Christmas story from Luke? It was the King James version back then.

I'm sorry you had such a difficult time with the wheel chair during this event. Disney has plenty of CM-s who use them so I'm surprised they don't take advantage of that resource and make sure ahead of time that chair users won't have any difficulties!

Can't wait to hear the rest of your story! Thanks for writing!

Lori in East Podunk

Hi Lori!! Thank you so much for reading. We won't be back in WDW until December (I know we are C R A Z Y !!) We went in June once and I almost melted . You don't sound creepy at all, we love DISmeets.

I love the plans you have with your DD, I hope you do a TR, if you do please PM me the link .

As far as I know they use the same story they do every year for CLP.

Great update Tracy! I loved Whoopi!!! I'm sorry you guys had some troubles but I hope you had a good time anyway!

Can't wait to see the Castle Suite Pictures!

Whoopi was great. We did have a good time that night over all, I guess we just know it could have been so much better.

WOW!!!

It was amazing to get to see the lights with only 190+ others.

At least it didn't RAIN!

Thank goodness for that, but it did rain the next day. I can't believe you didn't say anything about the belly dancer?

It sounds like the night had the potential to be outstanding... I'm sorry it fell short. I think they should hire Bill for sure!

I can't wait to see those lights!!

I'm glad you had the regular buses available to get back to POP - I can't imagine a second go around with the Mears bus!

You will LOVE the lights!! I was going to find a way to get away from Mears no matter what, I was NOT happy with how things were handled with them at all.

 

[Montana_Disney_Fan]

Haha! Belly Dancer = Gud

 

[mrsksomeday]

Haha! Belly Dancer = Gud

 

[mrsksomeday]

Cinderella: [to the clocktower chiming] Oh, that clock! Old killjoy. I hear you. "Come on, get up," you say, "Time to start another day." Even he orders me around. Well, there's one thing. They can't order me to stop dreaming.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dec. 12, 2010

Well we didn’t make it to bed until around 1:30am so we were really tired. The brunch at the Top of the World Lounge at Bay Lake Tower was 10am – 11:45am. We didn’t get up until 8:45am. I have to get me ready and help Bill, needless to say we were running late.

Now here is where I totally messed up. I had been trying to think of the quickest way to get to BLT. I should have had us take the bus to Epcot hop the monorail and go from there. The bus to MK was an option, but since we were staying at Pop we would have had to walk all the way around past all the other bus stops. So what did I do?? Hmmm, lets take a bus to DHS then take a bus to the Contemporary, we would be right there!!! NO, No, no. I didn’t know that Contemporary busses didn’t start running until later in the day so we had to take a bus to the Ticket and Transportation Center then take a monorail to the Contemporary. We got there and saw the Tronorail:

That picture was taken at 10:19am, do you think I was panicking at this point?? Well I was but what could I do about it? The monorail finally got there and we made it to the Contemporary. (As many times as I have typed Contemporary, we could have a drinking game… if Tracy types “Contemporary” take a drink!!!)

Contemporary

Contemporary

Contemporary..... are you drunk yet? If not refresh the page and start reading the installment again!!


I took these two pictures on the way to BLT:

Last picture was taken at 10:43am, oh my goodness. We were welcomed in and escorted up to the Top of the World Lounge. I kept thinking “it’s ok the brunch is going on for another hour.” We checked in and got our MVMCP tickets for that night and two DVC bags. There wasn’t much food to choose from, again I didn’t take pictures, I am kicking myself. We sat down with a man and his Mom and chit chatted for about 5 minutes when they started announcing that it was time to clear out of the lounge?? HUH?? Well guess what people, we are going to eat what is on our plates before we leave. We learned that Mickey had been there taking pictures but was gone already . After Bill was done eating we wanted to go on the balcony and look around.

Did we step out into a tornado? Straight line winds? It was so windy out there, Bill wasn’t able to see over the wall anyway so he stayed back. My lanyard whipped around my neck like an invisible person was trying to choke me, I saw a pin was gone off the lanyard but Bill and I couldn’t find it and I decided this stupid wind wasn’t going to stop me from getting a couple pictures. I started taking them at 11:19am:

That last picture was taken while we were waiting for the elevator, that is the view just outside the elevator, it amazed us.

We saw that the clouds were blowing in and they looked angry so we went to the Contemporary to figure out what to do. We went up to the floor with the shops. My head was pounding, stupid sinuses, so I bought a water and took some pain meds. Bill told me to just sit and he would go exploring.

Sometimes I like people watching, sometimes I want to smack people. There are bathrooms all over the resort, why would you take your child to one of the seating areas and just change a diaper? A messy one at that, to me that is inappropriate and it wasn’t someone from a foreign country, they were Americans. After precious was changed the parents proceeded to let her walk all over the seats, jump on them, and come over to my area jumping around me. I was afraid she would fall and hurt herself. I kept reading on my blackberry to try and ignore it.

Just about when I had had my fill of the situation, Bill came rolling up with a HUGE smile on his face. This means he had to have found something to buy, in this case mystery Pixar Short Pins. We had gotten one pack of them in DTD that is all they had left. We went a little crazy and bought 3 more packs. We decided to head over to MK but it was raining and the thought of being wet and cold didn’t appeal to us. We decided to try out their counter service place.

I guess I expected more out of a Deluxe counter service place. There were not many places to sit, they were all taken. They had the self ordering kiosks that I CAN’T STAND. I like seeing and talking to CM’s, I don’t like technology taking away jobs. It annoys me. I ordered for us, grabbed drinks, paid, and we waited for our number to be called. We got the food and tried to figure out where to go to eat, a CM suggested we go to the waiting area at Chef Mickey’s there were seating areas there, no tables but we had Bill’s tray so we could use that.

Football was on the tv there so Bill was happy. I kept seeing something moving out of the corner of my eye and finally saw what it was:

Birds, everywhere. I counted over 10. I would say they get in through the monorail hole, but it kind of grossed me out that they were walking all around the Chef Mickey area, if they are walking around there they are doing other stuff too. I think the weather was just making me irritated with everything.

We looked at the time and decided we better get over to MK for our Cinderella Castle Suite tour. We got on the monorail, got to the T&TC and sat there. Oh no, would we get to MK on time? What would happen if we missed our tour time?


Next installment…Cinderella Castle Suite Tour

 

[emilodious]

Of course we want to hear more!! Everyone loves your updates!!! They are wonderful...

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Sorry you were having a yukky day I am a little leary of those birds, too. Maybe they should put seed outside for them to attract them and they wouldn't come in.

Of course we want to see your castle tour - we are holding our collective breath!

 

[All7OfUs]

Sounds like a lot of irritating things were just piling up, tracy! I sure hope this day gets better for you!

 

[jcc0621]

(As many times as I have typed Contemporary, we could have a drinking game… if Tracy types “Contemporary” take a drink!!!)[/COLOR][/FONT]

Contemporary

Contemporary

Contemporary..... are you drunk yet? If not refresh the page and start reading the installment again!!

I knew I liked you

Sometimes I like people watching, sometimes I want to smack people. There are bathrooms all over the resort, why would you take your child to one of the seating areas and just change a diaper? A messy one at that, to me that is inappropriate and it wasn’t someone from a foreign country, they were Americans. After precious was changed the parents proceeded to let her walk all over the seats, jump on them, and come over to my area jumping around me. I was afraid she would fall and hurt herself. I kept reading on my blackberry to try and ignore it.

THat would have irritated me even if I didn't have a headache

Birds, everywhere. I counted over 10. I would say they get in through the monorail hole, but it kind of grossed me out

Me too...GROSS

Next installment…Cinderella Castle Suite Tour - If you would like me to post it, let me know!!

Yes, yes, yes

 

[tazdev3225]

The pics of the view were beautiful.

I know that yucky weather not feeling so good feeling. I get a vicious headache when there is a big storm approaching. I have had to change a diaper in a less than opportune spot but I agree at Disney there is no need for that. There are rest rooms everywhere that your child can wait a few seconds to get to one. I have 6 grandkids and I take them everywhere with me. The youngest is 2 and if they act like your description they are disciplined promptly. Two of my grandkids are special needs with behavioral issues and I never have a problem taking them anywhere, they know the acceptable boundaries. And the birds that would freak me out. I have been afraid of birds for as long as I can remember. I will now look around nervously when we go to Chef Mickey's for dinner in August.

Looking forward to seeing if your day improved.

 

[MRYPPNS]

I guess I expected more out of a Deluxe counter service place

All the deluxe resort cs places are much less then the ones at the mods and values. But seating is better at some.

And boy do you still sound irritated! Was something else going on besides the weather?

 

[mrsksomeday]

Of course we want to hear more!! Everyone loves your updates!!! They are wonderful...

Thanks so much!

Sorry you were having a yukky day I am a little leary of those birds, too. Maybe they should put seed outside for them to attract them and they wouldn't come in.

Of course we want to see your castle tour - we are holding our collective breath!

I just thought it was really odd that they birds seemed to have free access to the Chef Mickey area to walk and possibly poop all over everything .

Sounds like a lot of irritating things were just piling up, tracy! I sure hope this day gets better for you!

It had to get better, we were going to MK .

I knew I liked you

THat would have irritated me even if I didn't have a headache

Me too...GROSS

Yes, yes, yes

The funny thing about drinking, I don't do it UNLESS we are in WDW .

The pics of the view were beautiful.

I know that yucky weather not feeling so good feeling. I get a vicious headache when there is a big storm approaching. I have had to change a diaper in a less than opportune spot but I agree at Disney there is no need for that. There are rest rooms everywhere that your child can wait a few seconds to get to one. I have 6 grandkids and I take them everywhere with me. The youngest is 2 and if they act like your description they are disciplined promptly. Two of my grandkids are special needs with behavioral issues and I never have a problem taking them anywhere, they know the acceptable boundaries. And the birds that would freak me out. I have been afraid of birds for as long as I can remember. I will now look around nervously when we go to Chef Mickey's for dinner in August.

Looking forward to seeing if your day improved.

I completely understand if there is a diaper emergency, but this clearly wasn't and there was a bathroom right down a hallway from us. I never saw the birds when we were having dinner, just during the day when Chef Mickey's wasn't open.

All the deluxe resort cs places are much less then the ones at the mods and values. But seating is better at some.

And boy do you still sound irritated! Was something else going on besides the weather?

I know this update was very unTracylike. I usually try to stay so positive at Disney, but between the rain, the cold, the fact that we paid $470 for these tickets and it was so unorganized for persons in wheelchairs/ECV's (they should have had some type of plan), and the announcement that D23 members needed to leave the BLT lounge area 40 minutes before the listed time, it was piling on me.

It does get better, I promise.

 

[DisMomAmy]

It does get better, I promise.

I want to hear about the better.

 

[ortholablady]

Can't wait to hear about the castle suite. I would love to be able to see that in person some day.

 

[lovegrumpy]

Can't wait to hear about the Castle Suite.

 

[mrsksomeday]

I want to hear about the better.

You will really soon .

Can't wait to hear about the castle suite. I would love to be able to see that in person some day.

I never thought we would see it, it was amazing.

Can't wait to hear about the Castle Suite.

Coming up.

 

[All7OfUs]

You'll never guess who I just met this morning...

Then again, I'll bet she's already told you all about how much fun we had. She did say that, right??

 

[mrsksomeday]

Dec. 12, 2010

We sat there on the Monorail for what seemed like forever, it was probably only 10-15 minutes, but it seemed like an eternity. We had to meet the other D23 members by Sleepy Hollow. We went through bag check, got into the park and OH NO a parade.


We have to get through all these people!! One good thing about the DIS and going to MK so many times you know ways to get around things. We went to the left and made our way to the Emporium, weaving back and forth through people and out the exit of Casey’s Corner, to the left, past Crystal Palace over the bridge, go straight, until you get to Sleepy Hollow. We were supposed to be there 30 minutes ahead of time, we were only about 5 minutes late.

(These pictures do NOT do the suite justice, it was so gorgeous!!!)



They called our group and we were off to the castle.

Before we went in the door to wait for the elevator, I asked the VIP guide how people got to stay the night in the castle.

She stated it was given away as a prize when there are Travel agent conventions, it is a prize for sweepstakes, and it also is auctioned off so that the proceeds go to Give Kids the World and Make a Wish. Also some celebrites stay there. The weekend of the Christmas party taping Mariah Carey was there. Other celebrities that have stayed there include Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, also one of the Jonas brothers and his wife.

So if you see sweepstakes for it, enter, enter, enter!! Or become a celebrity!!


DisneyJo had told me that the elevator was very small so I had a plan. We got taken in front of the door to wait:

Sorry about it being blurry, I was so excited at this point. Here is the inside of the little room where you wait to go up in the elevator:

The elevator doors:

The VIP CM explained that the elevator was small and I suggested they take everyone else up and we would go up second. I knew then on the ride down Bill, me, and a CM would be the only 3 in the suite

It looks a little tight doesn’t it?

When you get off the elevator:

Now pictures of the suite:

If you stay in the Suite, they engrave a slipper for you:

More details:

The signs say “show ready”. It means the room is ready for the next guest and don’t sit on stuff!!!:

The box next to the phone has an alarm clock under it:

This is in the sitting room, it is a mirror and a tv, the drawers below hold dvd’s and a dvd player:

Opposite wall of the beds, the picture of Cinderella turns into a tv too:

On either side of the Cinderella tv:

Continued in next post Cinderella Castle Suite part 2 :