Bringin' the HAPPY back! A (do-over) Spring Break TR!

[KathyRN137]

BREAKING NEWS ON THE JUNE TRIP!!!!!

I just checked the DVC website, and....


OUR WAITLIST CAME THROUGH! We'll be at Wilderness Lodge instead of SSR for John's birthday trip!

That's fantastic news! Congratulations!


Kathy

 

[michellem1118]

That's fantastic news! Congratulations!


Kathy

Thanks, Kathy! We're really excited about it!

 

[MHTeacher]

Love the Wilderness Lodge. It's so peaceful!

 

[michellem1118]

Love the Wilderness Lodge. It's so peaceful!

We really liked it when we visited for dinner in December. I can't wait to stay there!

 

[michellem1118]

After our morning at Animal Kingdom, we headed back to BCV to plug the camera in to charge, and then we headed to DTD to explore a bit. By this point, we didn't have any money left to spend, LOL, so we just wandered through the art galleries again, and quite probably made another trip through WoD. After a bit, we headed back to BCV to get the camera and then head out for evening.... we had dinner reservations at

So, after getting back to BCV, we grabbed the camera and headed into Epcot. We had quite a while before our reservation, so we decided to stroll around Epcot for a bit before dinner. Of course, I took pictures.

Our original plan was to drink around the world for St. Patrick's Day, but as it turned out... we didn't order a single drink as we wandered around!

We checked in to Chefs about an hour early, and they were able to seat us right away. Around this time, I texted wigd to see if she & shocker wanted to join us at Epcot later for Illuminations, but they were having a late dinner and weren't sure if they'd make it over.

DH & I both ordered from the prix fixe menu, and the food was excellent... our waiter made us order in French, though! The one drawback to Chefs was that the service was SLOW... and, we had some fairly drunk and REALLY obnoxious college kids at the next table.

After dinner, it was getting close to time for Illuminations, so we went to stake out a spot. I believe DH took video of the show, and I was able to get some pretty good photos.

After Illuminations, we made our way back out the International Gateway (it's so much easier to fight the crowds at this end of the park, LOL) and headed back to BCV. When we walked into the lobby, we ran into shocker, who was waiting for wigd to finish up some souvenir shopping. We chatted in the center of the lobby for a bit, and then moved here

and continued chatting for quite a while.

Around 10:30, we said good-bye to our new friends, and headed back to our villa to pack. Tomorrow evening, we fly home.

 

[vamassey1]

You got some really great shots of the World Showcase. I see something new every time I look at everyone's pictures.

So sorry that is almost time to go home.

 

[michellem1118]

You got some really great shots of the World Showcase. I see something new every time I look at everyone's pictures.

So sorry that is almost time to go home.

Thanks! I love the architecture in the WS, such good photo opportunities. On this particular night, all the people were in line for , so I was able to get some photos of just the surroundings, without the random people in them.

Our last day is full of fun, though.... more coming up soon! I'll be home much of the day tomorrow & Thursday - I'm proctoring AP exams in the mornings, and I get comp time for the afternoons - so I'll probably try to finish up then.

 

[wigdoutdismom]

You did get some great pictures of WS and of Illuminations!
Ugh about the drunk college kids near you at Chefs...

We had the best visit in that conversation area in the Beach Club lobby, do you suppose Baylor will let us have a moments peace this summer?
Maybe if we try to visit while he's in the pool...

 

[MHTeacher]

Time to go home already?

 

[tinkgurl]

Loved your WS pics. Looks like we got a lot of the same shots!

I can't believe it's already time to go home.

 

[michellem1118]

You did get some great pictures of WS and of Illuminations!
Ugh about the drunk college kids near you at Chefs...

We had the best visit in that conversation area in the Beach Club lobby, do you suppose Baylor will let us have a moments peace this summer?
Maybe if we try to visit while he's in the pool...

Thanks!

The college kids wouldn't have been so bad if they weren't so loud, and so close to us. And if one of them hadn't spent a semester studying abroad in Paris, and therefore thought she was the expert on French cuisine.

I think ... well, I hope! ... that Baylor will let us visit for a bit this summer.

(p.s. you have less than a month til your next trip, you better get working on your TR!)

Time to go home already?

Yep. But... only a month until the next trip!

Loved your WS pics. Looks like we got a lot of the same shots!

I can't believe it's already time to go home.

Thanks! I probably have hundreds of photos of the architecture in WS!

I'm sad to be wrapping up this TR, but in just over a month, I'll have another one to write! AND a third one in early August!

 

[tinkgurl]

Just wanted to let you know I did an update! Look through the herd for you guys!

 

[wigdoutdismom]

Maybe, just maybe I can get a two day update done this weekend.

 

[michellem1118]

Maybe, just maybe I can get a two day update done this weekend.

I'll keep my fingers crossed! Updates will be a nice distraction from grading the mock AP exams my kiddos are taking this week, in preparation for next week's REAL AP exam!

 

[wigdoutdismom]

Just finished up grading unit language arts today, unit math yesterday, unit writing will be tomorrow, this grading is wearing me OUT!

 

[michellem1118]

Just finished up grading unit language arts today, unit math yesterday, unit writing will be tomorrow, this grading is wearing me OUT!

Grading is my least-favorite part of teaching!

___________________________________________________________

After an exhausting day of watching 12th graders take an AP test, spending an hour on the phone with the IRS, and spending another 30 minutes on the phone with AirTran trying to use a set of our flight vouchers (finally, with some success!), I have no energy left for a real update. So, instead of telling everyone about my last day, I'm just going to share some more of our F&G Festival pictures.

In a display just behind the farmer Mickey & Minnie, all of their crops were displayed:

And some more photos from Animal Kingdom, since we don't go back there on the last day:

And some more PhotoPass pictures that didn't fit in the last update:
from Epcot:

From AK:

Well, hopefully that will hold everyone over until the weekend, when I hope to use the DIS as an excuse to not grade mock AP exams and write the next update .... or more realistically, until NEXT weekend, when my kids are done with their AP exam!

 

[MHTeacher]

That is a beautiful photopass pic of you and John in Epcot!

 

[vamassey1]

Great pictures and I got a kick out of the garden. The photopass picture in France is outstanding. You really got some frame-worthy photos

 

[michellem1118]

That is a beautiful photopass pic of you and John in Epcot!

Thanks! That's actually one of our least-favorites... of the ones I've shared!

Great pictures and I got a kick out of the garden. The photopass picture in France is outstanding. You really got some frame-worthy photos

We got a kick out of the garden as well, that's why I took so many pictures! We're really happy with most of the PhotoPass pics that we got on this trip, and I'm hoping for a repeat in June.

 

[michellem1118]

Thursday, March 18, 2010

We awoke to a bittersweet Disney morning - it was our last day. We quickly finished our packing, and headed down to the lobby. We needed to get checked in for our flight home & get our boarding passes, and drop off our bags with bell services to hold for the day. While dropping off the bags, we were asked by a CM to fill out a survey. It took about 5 minutes, but it really set us back a bit.

After finishing the survey, we headed out to DHS for our final morning. We just barely missed rope drop, making it through the turnstile at 9:02am. Of course, we headed straight to TSM. What a difference five minutes makes! When we were near the front for RD, our FP return time was 9:45, and the standby line was under 15 minutes.... but missing rope drop by 5 minutes, this was the view of the FP line behind me:

That's a photo from my phone, so the quality isn't great, but by 9:08, the FP line stretched back beyond VotLM!

DH had gone ahead to try to jump in the standby line, but it was already out the door! So instead, I sent him down towards ToT to wait while I got FPs. I got us two sets - one instant-return set with our "magic" FPs from the DVC tour, and one regular set with our APs. The return time on the regular tickets was already 11:30 or so.

FPs in hand, I headed down to meet DH at ToT. The posted wait time was 60 minutes, but I felt pretty sure that it would be shorter than that, so we got in line. While waiting, I took more pictures of the queue:

Our actual wait time was just under 30 minutes. ToT is one of our favorite rides, I love that the drop sequence changes a bit each time!

After surviving ToT, and exploring the gift shop a bit, we headed back to Pixar Place to use the first set of TSM FPs.

DH won, as usual, but my accuracy was still better!

As we exited TSM, we debated meeting Woody & Buzz, who are some of DH's favorite characters. We even waited in the line for a couple of minutes, but it wasn't moving at all, and I lost interest. So we headed out. As we walked away, I noticed a crowd of people in front of the TSM line, and looked up....

...

...

...

...

and saw Luxo, Jr!!!

I even got some video!



I was so excited to see Luxo! Around this time, I was texting with wigd, and I shared my excitement about Luxo with her.

It was getting close to 11 at this point, and DH & I were getting hungry. We decided to go see if we could get into Mama Melrose without an ADR (as a sidenote, we've never had a problem getting in to Mama Melrose at any time of day, any time of year) but discovered that they don't open for lunch until 12! So, we resigned ourselves to CS for lunch, and headed into Pizza Planet. We ordered a pepperoni pizza meal to share, and it was very nearly enough food.

Tummies full, we still had a little while before we could use our other set of TSM FPs, plus we were hoping that wigd and shocker would make it to DHS before we had to leave. How would we spend the rest of our last day in Disney?