Crossing over Crocodiles, Runaway Trains, & Birthday Wishes Updt 10/18

[kathleen27]

Hey!
Enjoying your report! read it all tonight and can't wait to hear more! I have the same yeti as your daughter, LOVE it! it's awesome that she is trying new rides! The Wild Africa Trek looks really cool! Can't wait for more, especially about universal, I'll be there for the first time on my next trip!

Thanks! I liked that Yeti best too, he was a good choice! It was such a relief to have her try new things, her friends had dragged her on some things at local places, so that helped.

Love the PP pic of the 3 of you. Wow at Jacob being taller then you. My little sister is taller then me and she's still growing!

I'm glad you guys enjoyed Beaches and Cream. We are hoping to eat there on our trip so am looking forward to an ice cream and having some fun with the Jukebox!

It's a shame you guys did not get to spend much time at SAB. Great pics from the dock

I really have to look up to Jacob. My little sister is the opposite. Hannah will be taller than her soon! My brothers are really tall though.

The ice cream was good. If you can figure out the jukebox, send Jacob directions. It was fun just to flip through it though.

Great update! I wanted to get over to Beaches and Cream, but we didn't make it this trip. One day when the kids are a bit older, I want to order the kitchen sink to see if we can finish it off???

The kitchen sink was very impressive in person! It was fun to see them bring it out. They make a big announcement too!


Sorry, I don't have an update. I hope to get one done in the next couple of days, but haven't started yet. Though the pictures for the rest of this day are sorted and ready to go, so that should help!

 

[kathleen27]

Finally getting an update in


We are in the hurricane watch zone, so we will probably lose power at some point tomorrow.
We are as prepared as we can be.
Looks like we'll start to experience heavy winds by dawn, and expect the storm will have past by midnight.
We should be safe from flooding, which is a big concern in our town for tomorrow.

The kids were supposed to start school on Tuesday, but they've already postponed it a day. We will see when they go back, since bus routes, electicity, and use of schools as shelters, may cause an even later start.

I hope everyone else on the east coast is alright.
Stay Safe!



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We arrived back at DHS a little before 5pm.

The Magic of Animation Building and Honey I shrunk the kids playground would be closing the soonest. Hannah has taken a photo with the ant at the playground both previous trips and we had planned to take another. It was a bit crowded though, with much younger kids. She ended up not wanting to wait to get in the picture, and just took a photo of the ant.

We wanted to see what characters were at Magic of Animation.

Hannah was super excited to find out Lotso was there. She and I waited in line, while Jacob went to find if there was a drawing class starting soon. There wasn’t so he just wandered around playing on the computers.

Hannah met Lotso!

There was a photopass photographer here-

Lotso smelled like strawberries.


Sorcerer Mickey was there too, but there was a really long wait. We will have to meet him some other time.

We went to meet Frozone…

… and Mr. Incredible.

Three years ago we met Mr. & Mrs. Incredible here, so it was nice to meet Frozone this time.



As we left the animation building we passed by displays of drawings from Snow White. The kids loved this display and they both stopped to take photos. Jacob is very interested in art and animation, and knows quite a bit about how all the movies were made. He’s always loved to draw, and by the time he was three years old, he could draw better than me!

Here are Jacob’s photos:

And Hannah’s:

If we had more time, we would have liked to take a drawing class, and see the little film with Mushu, since it has been awhile.

We still had some other things we wanted to do though.

And it was time for our Toy Story Mania fastpasses!

First though we were distracted ...

 

[kathleen27]

We were distracted by the gift shop-
This is the store with all the artwork.
Hannah took a lot of photos in the store this trip. She would make a good Disser.
She loves to shop, and would buy as much as possible.
She really liked all the figurines.

I think I would choose this one here, if I were going to bring one home.

I didn't bring anything home, but Jacob did. He saw something he really liked, and came back at the end of the night for it.

 

[wdwgirl03]

OK, I have to admit when I read your update with "Art of Animation" I thought you meant the new resort and maybe you had some inside information or something. LOL. I guess I'm tired and should get to bed.

Bummer you weren't able to do one of the drawing classes. That has become a new favorite attraction for us. But yay that Hannah got to meet Lotso.

Stay safe with the hurricane approaching!

 

[Happy Elf]

Stay safe...you will be in our thought and prayers!

Glad Hannah got to meet Lotso. I would have liked to do a drawing class too, but didn't fit it in this trip. Had I know that in about 10 minutes after we left the sky was going to open up and pour we might have waited for the next class.

We love the art store too! Hannah came home with a Rapunzel drawing to hang hang in her bedroom. I just wish I had the money to buy the painting I liked. I think my favorite one was over $1,000....needless to say I didn't get to bring it home.

 

[TanzUnited99]

Hope you all stay safe!

Yay on Hannah meeting Lotso - am not happy that he will not be there on our trip.

Love the pics of the drawings and the art of animation shop - think I would want to buy everything!

Looking forward to seeing what Jacob bought and I'm finally watching The Incredibles tomorrow!

 

[kathleen27]

Very windy here, but we are all fine.
Hoping everyone else is too.
Irene arrived here as a tropical storm.
A constant wind, with more severe gusts throughout.
A big concern was flooding, though not for our house, so hopefully those areas are not too bad.

We still have power (knock on wood), but its not over yet.
We're lucky, 250 thousand customers in RI without it now.
I had wanted to bake something this weekend, and need to do more laundry, but I don't want to start either in case power goes out.
We've had several power drains, and quick on & offs of less than a minute.

OK, I have to admit when I read your update with "Art of Animation" I thought you meant the new resort and maybe you had some inside information or something. LOL. I guess I'm tired and should get to bed.

Bummer you weren't able to do one of the drawing classes. That has become a new favorite attraction for us. But yay that Hannah got to meet Lotso.

Stay safe with the hurricane approaching!

Actually I'm the one who is confused, art of animation is the new resort. Being in the store with the art I forgot the name of the building was Magic of Animation. When I read your post, I knew I had it wrong, but took a minute to think of the right name. Thought of it as I was looking it up. fixing it now.

The art classes we've done before were fun, I hope we can take one another trip. At least we know we can rotate through stuff, since its difficult to do everything in one trip.

So far we are doing ok. Thanks!

Stay safe...you will be in our thought and prayers!

Glad Hannah got to meet Lotso. I would have liked to do a drawing class too, but didn't fit it in this trip. Had I know that in about 10 minutes after we left the sky was going to open up and pour we might have waited for the next class.

We love the art store too! Hannah came home with a Rapunzel drawing to hang hang in her bedroom. I just wish I had the money to buy the painting I liked. I think my favorite one was over $1,000....needless to say I didn't get to bring it home.

Thanks! So far a lot of wind, but we are ok.

Its hard to fit everything in. I hope you can take one another time!
A Rapunzel drawing sounds great, we loved that movie, I'm sure it looks cute in her room.
A lot of the art was so expensive! I know I won't be buying any at that price.

Hope you all stay safe!

Yay on Hannah meeting Lotso - am not happy that he will not be there on our trip.

Love the pics of the drawings and the art of animation shop - think I would want to buy everything!

Looking forward to seeing what Jacob bought and I'm finally watching The Incredibles tomorrow!

Thank you, so far we are ok here.

I'm sorry Lotso will not be there during your trip, do you know who will?
We actually did not know until we walked in.
The Incredibles / Frozone have been there for a long time.
The spot Lotso was in changes often though.

Hope you enjoy the Incredibles.

 

[TanzUnited99]

Thank you, so far we are ok here.

I'm sorry Lotso will not be there during your trip, do you know who will?
We actually did not know until we walked in.
The Incredibles / Frozone have been there for a long time.
The spot Lotso was in changes often though.

Hope you enjoy the Incredibles.

Glad to hear you are ok.
It's Winnie the Pooh instead of Lotso and feel a bit meh about it as will be seeing him at 1900 Park Fare and lots of other places as well.

It's on tomorrow - I hope I enjoy watching it as well

 

[RachelNinja]

Catching up! It's been a really long time since I've been here!

Wow, Jungle Cruise really does look so different in the dark! I've read about that being a good way to ride it, but I guess it never crossed my mind to actually do it while we were there. That might make it nice and creepy! Hopefully, not too creepy!

That must've been so scary to see Hannah's level drop below 60. When I fainted once at the doctor's office, they took my levels and it was crazy low (I was in HS so I don't remember the numbers). They gave me a small cup of soda, waited a few minutes, took it again, and BAM, it shot up so quickly. I couldn't believe how quickly my sugar levels drop and rise (I'm just hypoglycemic, so I have to carry sugary things with me too although soda works the best because I can just drink it). I keep chocolate in my desk at work too because sometimes I'll suddenly feel so weakened, and I'm in the middle of teaching! I asked Howard for the Hershey's drops for my birthday just for that purpose (we're saving for annual passes, so we're kinda skipping presents this year).

I love Jacob's panorama shots in AK! Those are amazing!!! I don't remember AK at all, as I've only been there once a few years after it opened. I can't wait to see everything in real life.

I love this: In Jacob’s words “Better to think you might be low & have something for it, than to know you are low & not be able to do anything”. I wish he could have been one of my students!!! Is it weird that I <3 your kids?

This tour looks like so much fun! What are you clipping your harnesses to? I saw the ones from the bridge, but is it the same when you had to clip for the hippos? Haha, never mind! I saw the harness track with the alligators! Oh wow, this looks like SUCH a cool tour! I showed many pictures to Howard, but then I looked at the price. Probably a little too steep for right now especially because we're dying to do the Keys to the Kingdom. With the planned APs, we'll at least save some money on that too.

How awesome that Hannah conquered Everest! I'm a little scared of it. Okay, maybe more than just a little! I'm so afraid of potentially getting dizzy because I read some people did. But yay she got to pick such cute stuff afterwards! That hat is the greatest! I JUST saw it on another DISer's report today (catching up everywhere)!

Did the lazy river have any sprays or waterfalls? The one at our timeshare has all those waterfalls and random shots of water, so we would get off of the float to walk along the side and cover our faces to some degree. Haha, I hate water on my face! It makes my eyes feel weird with my contacts.

Cute! I've never seen Chip/Dale and Donald/Daisy in those costumes before!

Wow, it must've been so fun for Jacob to walk around DHS by himself! I still haven't done anything by myself yet, haha, and I'm 26! Going with Howard by ourselves for part of our last trip was really fun though.

 

[kathleen27]

Glad to hear you are ok.
It's Winnie the Pooh instead of Lotso and feel a bit meh about it as will be seeing him at 1900 Park Fare and lots of other places as well.

It's on tomorrow - I hope I enjoy watching it as well

That is disappointing that its a character you can see so many other places.
I know you've already taken your trip & our back now, I'm looking forward to reading about your trip as soon as I get some free time to catch up on here!

Catching up! It's been a really long time since I've been here!

Wow, Jungle Cruise really does look so different in the dark! I've read about that being a good way to ride it, but I guess it never crossed my mind to actually do it while we were there. That might make it nice and creepy! Hopefully, not too creepy!

That must've been so scary to see Hannah's level drop below 60. When I fainted once at the doctor's office, they took my levels and it was crazy low (I was in HS so I don't remember the numbers). They gave me a small cup of soda, waited a few minutes, took it again, and BAM, it shot up so quickly. I couldn't believe how quickly my sugar levels drop and rise (I'm just hypoglycemic, so I have to carry sugary things with me too although soda works the best because I can just drink it). I keep chocolate in my desk at work too because sometimes I'll suddenly feel so weakened, and I'm in the middle of teaching! I asked Howard for the Hershey's drops for my birthday just for that purpose (we're saving for annual passes, so we're kinda skipping presents this year).

I love Jacob's panorama shots in AK! Those are amazing!!! I don't remember AK at all, as I've only been there once a few years after it opened. I can't wait to see everything in real life.

I love this: In Jacob’s words “Better to think you might be low & have something for it, than to know you are low & not be able to do anything”. I wish he could have been one of my students!!! Is it weird that I <3 your kids?

This tour looks like so much fun! What are you clipping your harnesses to? I saw the ones from the bridge, but is it the same when you had to clip for the hippos? Haha, never mind! I saw the harness track with the alligators! Oh wow, this looks like SUCH a cool tour! I showed many pictures to Howard, but then I looked at the price. Probably a little too steep for right now especially because we're dying to do the Keys to the Kingdom. With the planned APs, we'll at least save some money on that too.

How awesome that Hannah conquered Everest! I'm a little scared of it. Okay, maybe more than just a little! I'm so afraid of potentially getting dizzy because I read some people did. But yay she got to pick such cute stuff afterwards! That hat is the greatest! I JUST saw it on another DISer's report today (catching up everywhere)!

Did the lazy river have any sprays or waterfalls? The one at our timeshare has all those waterfalls and random shots of water, so we would get off of the float to walk along the side and cover our faces to some degree. Haha, I hate water on my face! It makes my eyes feel weird with my contacts.

Cute! I've never seen Chip/Dale and Donald/Daisy in those costumes before!

Wow, it must've been so fun for Jacob to walk around DHS by himself! I still haven't done anything by myself yet, haha, and I'm 26! Going with Howard by ourselves for part of our last trip was really fun though.

Jacob would have loved to have been in your class!

I would love to go on the keys to the kingdom tour. I'm looking forward to doing that one someday, but I'm waiting for at least Jacob to reach the minimum age. Maybe in 2013. We had a much lower price for this tour since it had just started. I know it went up a lot after the second month. It was still expensive though.

Hannah really loved Expedition Everest, she wouldn't go near anything like that a couple of years before! There's a difference in the front and the back rows. I forget which is which now, but one is a little more disorienting than the other. When you back up, one of them almost feels like you go upside down.

The lazy river had a few sprays at different points, but they were not too bad. Not too many of them, and they only sprayed over half the river. You could avoid them. Hannah kept trying to push me into them, but when I was on my own, I did a pretty good job of avoiding them.

Jacob had fun on his own throughout the trip. He had a good mix of time on his own & with the family. He is getting very grown up.

 

[kathleen27]

I have not had much time to be on here in the last month.
We lost internet for a week after my last post the day of the storm!
Since then I've been super busy with work / overtime, back to school stuff, including open houses, and several dr. appts (routine), family visiting, Hannah's yard sale, and a few other things.

I've also been trying to find some time to be more active, since I spend most of my day at work sitting. I've been walking & a little bit of very slow running. This is actually related to Disney in a couple of ways. This past trip for the first time, I had a lot of leg pain at Disney. It made me realize I'd stopped being active in the last two years.

I'm hoping some of the extra stuff will start to calm down and I can be back on more. More likely it will just get crazier, but I'll try to squeeze some DIS time in anyway!

I want to get back to the trip report & finish it! And it looks like we will probably be spending a weekend in Disney World next February & a weekend in Disneyland sometime in the summer! I'm excited to at least get some Disney time in even if its short.

Next February we are going to visit my Dad & stepMom in Florida. They live in Ft. Lauderdale now but are moving to the Palm Beach / Jupiter area soon. I made air reservations to visit them when the flights went on sale for SW. I booked the flight down into Ft. Lauderdale, but the flight home out of Orlando.

I figured I could always change it later if it didn't work out.

I priced flying from Ft. Lauderdale to Orlando or renting a car, and they were both more than I expected! I had given up on the Disney plan due to price and feeling guilty over cutting the family visit short, but had been procrastinating changing the flight.


My Dad was in town visiting us last week. He asked if we were planning to visit Disney while we were down. He encouraged me to go, and said he would drive us and spend a day or two there with us!!!


So, I am currently planning on a weekend at Disney!!! And at this point airfare has gone up, so it would cost more to change my flight.

We will be there the weekend of the 24-26th and head home on Mon the 27th. (My Birthday!) Right now I have a reservation for an early breakfast at MK on my birthday morning before we leave.

I'm not up to this part in the TR yet, but the Princess half marathon took place over are last trip. We saw a lot of the participants from the race. I learned there is also a 5K race which is 3 miles, and can be walked or part walking/running. I am around the minimum speed! I'm planning on signing up for the 5K for our trip! Its a great motivator to get me moving!

No idea where we will stay, how many days of park time, or anything else!

One more thing - the Kids have NO Idea! Only my Dad knows about the plan! It was discussed as possilble in front of Hannah, but she has no idea about the flights. I have to figure out when I'm going to tell them. I almost told Jacob a couple of days ago! I'm not very good at keeping a secret! Jacob's birthday is coming up, then Christmas, so those are possibilities. I thought of waiting until we are ready to go, but I think they'd like some time to plan and pack accordingly.


As for Disneyland, Jacob is planning to look at colleges in California, so there's no way we can be that close to Disneyland and not visit! I've never been there or anywhere out west! That trip is still in the pre pre planing stages!

 

[TanzUnited99]

on having another trip in the works!!! How exciting!

I love that you will be celebrating your birthday during your trip. You sure have plenty of opportunities coming up to tell the kids.

If Jacob is thinking of looking at colleges in California then of course a trip to Disneyland has to be in the works

Btw I thought of Jacob when seeing the Jukebox at Beaches and Cream.

 

[kathleen27]

on having another trip in the works!!! How exciting!

I love that you will be celebrating your birthday during your trip. You sure have plenty of opportunities coming up to tell the kids.

If Jacob is thinking of looking at colleges in California then of course a trip to Disneyland has to be in the works

Btw I thought of Jacob when seeing the Jukebox at Beaches and Cream.

I am so excited. We will see how long I can keep a secret. Its hard not to slip up!

I love that you thought of Jacob. He did love that jukebox! I definately think of friends from the DIS while I am in Disney. I think it definately adds to the experience.

 

[kathleen27]

OK, since we’ve probably all forgotten where I was-
Tues 02/22/11 Day 4, spent at DHS & Beach Club

It was 6pm & we were going to use our Toy Story Mania fastpasses!
The ones we’d gotten around 10/10:30 in the morning!

It was Hannah’s first time riding!

Even with fastpasses there was still a wait, and the kids took some pics in the line.

These ones are all Jacob’s-
the kids photos were all taken from their itouches.

Andy’s room is lots of fun, though a bit messy.

I love the drawings on the wall!

Only a few photos from Hannah- of course she took one of herself.

We all had a great time on the ride, its so much fun!
Hannah and I rode together.
She was a little disappointed that my score was higher than hers. I pointed out that she was more accurate, and I was just shooting as much as possible.

Jacob rode on his own. Here is his score. He beat us both.

Top Scores-

We made a quick stop at the Singing in the Rain Umbrella.
If you haven't seen this one, you stand on a sensor, and it rains around the umbrella.

Hannah was not quite sure what to think of it-

Then headed to dinner at Pizza Planet. We’d never been here before, and I thought the kids would like the atmosphere.
Plus if they could they’d eat nothing but pizza all trip!

We love toy story, so it was a lot of fun to be here!

We found a quiet table upstairs to have dinner.

Hannah really loved her dessert. Rice Krispy treats are one of her favorites! What could be better than a Mickey shaped one! While ordering I had decided to surprise her with a souvenir cup! Its in the photo on the left. (Jacob had gotten the refillable resort mug). She loved it! Those aliens are so cute! They gave it to us empty, and we didn't put the drink in, so it would stay dry to carry around.

The CMs here were super nice & friendly. The one who took our order was talking to me about my pins, and another walking around upstairs cleaning tables stopped to chat with us too.

After dinner the kids wanted to play a few arcade games.

When we walked out of pizza planet we saw Lightening McQueen & Mater. They had just arrived and they didn’t have a line yet, so we headed over.
Hannah was excited to meet them! Jacob wanted to do a few things on his own, but I convinced him to get in the photo too!

They had photopass there as well-

 

[TanzUnited99]

Love the photos of TSMM - it sure is a great ride!

The umbrella didn't work when I stood under it.

Yay on Hannah getting a souvenir cup - I think it looks cute as well.

I'm glad you managed to convince Jacob to get into the McQueen and Mater shot as they came out well. He seems to have got the solo touring bug! I got to experience a bit of that on our trip so can understand why he loves it so much

 

[kathleen27]

Love the photos of TSMM - it sure is a great ride!

The umbrella didn't work when I stood under it.

Yay on Hannah getting a souvenir cup - I think it looks cute as well.

I'm glad you managed to convince Jacob to get into the McQueen and Mater shot as they came out well. He seems to have got the solo touring bug! I got to experience a bit of that on our trip so can understand why he loves it so much

Thanks!

I'm sorry the umbrella didn't work when you were there.

Jacob definately enjoyed being able to spend a bit of time on his own. He did this a lot over the trip. I don't think I've ever really had much solo time in Disney! I have often thought of a quick weekend trip on my own, but can never justify the expense.

 

[kathleen27]

After dinner we split up-
Jacob wanted to buy a few things he had seen during the day, and head back to the room to rest & relax (watch tv & use the computer). Unfortunately some of the shops were closed, so he wasn’t able to get everything. He wasn’t able to get a Mike/Monster’s inc shirt he had seen earlier. He did buy a poster at the art shop, and a Pixar shirt (with the lamp on it). The poster is hanging on his wall! And he wears the Pixar shirt all the time!

After that he headed back to the resort.
Some photos Jacob took on his way out.

Hannah was definitely not ready to call it a night. She wanted to stop at the Toy Story character stop & see Voyage of the Little Mermaid. We had fastpasses for VOTLM.

We had a long wait (maybe 45 minutes at toy story).
We were told early on that it would only be Buzz though.

There is a lot to do in the line.
She tried out Buzz’s spaceship.

Was chosen by the claw.

And strapped to a rocket.

She met Zurg.

She got stuck in Stinky Pete’s box.

And Rode the luggage carriers.

And Finally she made it to Andy’s room. Where we met Buzz!

The photopass photographer was very nice & friendly. He asked for my camera to take photos with both of us.

Of course he also took photopass pics!

Buzz gets a thumbs up! She really enjoyed meeting him.

 

[TanzUnited99]

Jacob took some great photos

Yay on Hannah meeting Buzz Lightyear - looks like she had lots of fun at the character stop.

 

[kathleen27]

Jacob took some great photos

Yay on Hannah meeting Buzz Lightyear - looks like she had lots of fun at the character stop.

Thanks,

She was excited, she had wanted to go in there all day, but the line was always very long!

 

[kathleen27]

We then headed over to Voyage of the Little Mermaid. We just missed a show, but were let right into the inside waiting area, we were the second ones in. We were really tired and there was no way I could stand for the whole wait time, so we sat down along the side of the waiting area. The couple who came in before us must have been tired too, because they then sat down. By the time the show was starting, I looked up and noticed almost everyone was sitting. The end of a long Disney day for everyone. Hannah and I chatted and talked over plans for the next few days. It was a fairly relaxing wait.

We enjoyed the show, which we had seen before, but not in years.

We then slowly made our way to the entrance taking photos. The parks look so different at night. The sorcerer’s hat was lit up!

We both took photos on our way out-

I took a LOT of photos to get a few good ones.

I like the stars.

Hannah took a lot of photos too.

I love the light shapes on the ground.

We stopped for another photopass picture so we would have one at night time.

Hannah pointed Pluto out to me! We both thought he was cute!
He was wagging his tail!

We had a long wait for the boat. While we were waiting we could hear Fantasmic going on in the park. I had asked the kids if they had wanted to see the show, and they had not been interested. But waiting for the boat, Hannah changed her mind and was suddenly interested in seeing the show. She wanted to come back on Sunday night to see it. I told her we would wait & see. We didn’t make it back though.


We rode the boat back to the resort. A quick photo of all the lights outside at the back of the Beach Club.

Jacob was back in the room relaxing.

He was excited about his purchases:

A Tomorrow land Poster:

And a Pixar shirt:

It was almost 10pm by the time we were back to the room, I tried to get the kids to settle down & get some sleep. Being teenagers they would stay up all night, and sleep through the morning. But I wanted them to get up in time to make the morning show at MK.