"Don't catch snoap flakes on your tongue!" a December 2016 PTR/June DLR TR *updated 12/13x2

[missangelalexis]

I also am finding planning a little more difficult this time around. I hate that things are so much up in the air and that the park hours keep changing! I hope you are able to move around your FPs to your liking!

 

[xlsm]

First of all, I curse you for giving me 2 new sites to check out for ordering t-shirts I recently heard about Teepublic and have been looking there, they have some great shirts but I haven't bought any yet. I did buy quite a few for all of us at Kohls and JCP though. We all have Lion King shirts but only Steve and Ricky match; but Steve found what I think is the ugliest Mickey shirt ever in Penney's and wanted it so I got them for the boys too Going to be interesting because they were less than enthused to see them!

I hear you on being frustrated with 12/17. I have a day like that next month. I can't.........pinpoint exactly what it is that I don't really like and I'm running out of time to switch things around, so I'll probably keep it like it is and deal with it. It's not like we won't have fun!
Hoping they open your date for Jingle Jam Jingle Bam! soon! Sorry I have to write it that way, and now I can't get the font size back to how I started

Umm...I could give you more shop ideas if you want...I'm an enabler. LOL!! The bad part about the ones I always end up loving, is that they're etsy/instagram sellers or run their small business solely on the web, and they have limited numbers available at a time. I hate waiting, so it's torture! Stuff sells out all the time. On the upside, when I finally manage to get something, I feel like I've won something!

I also am finding planning a little more difficult this time around. I hate that things are so much up in the air and that the park hours keep changing! I hope you are able to move around your FPs to your liking!

It is very frustrating this time! I'm not usually too concerned about closing times, but for this trip, when I actually AM, it's all crazy and changing around...sometimes it seems like it changes daily.

I hope things line up for you, too! Looking forward to see how your Sugies trip goes!!

 

[xlsm]

It's Friday again.

Seems like a pattern, huh? I don't actually have any time to sit here and write anything, but I'm shirking all responsibilities and doing it anyway.
This week has been pretty tough. I didn't mention it in my last post, but a good friend of mine passed away last Sunday. She was living overseas, and it took until today for her mother and husband to fly back to the states with her. Her services will be this weekend. I'm doing anything I can to just stay busy and distracted.

I'm sorry to be a downer! I'm very glad to have trip planning to keep my mind busy. So, with that line of thinking, let's do a quick update disguised as a chapter.

Chapter Nine: Dress You Up In My (Disney) Love


As of right now, we are 49 days away from our trip!

My shirts have all arrived...wanna see them??

First up is my holiday themed t-shirt from Happiest Tees on Earth:



I think it's so cute! I love the wording in the shape of a Christmas tree, the snowflakes, the Mickey head...it makes me happy.

Up next are our shirts from Brand By You. These are our character jerseys and I love them! I have an addiction of sorts to 3/4 length sleeve baseball style shirts...I have about five (including the one I bought last year from Happily Ever Tees with pink sleeves that says "Make a wish, and do as dreamers do...and all your wishes will come true"). Ten bonus points if you said that last "wishes" the Wishes way

Mine is Snow White, DH's is Han Solo, X is Stitch, and L is Jack Skellington.




I'm excited to wear mine with my Snow White ears



Something else exciting finally happened today, too.

Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM!! party dates past 12/10 are now bookable!! I got ours for my preferred date of 12/17. Now I'm not quite as irritated by my FP times. The party time is 5:45 with the park closing at 7:00. It makes me wonder when the show will happen...because guess what? The showtimes have not been updated yet. Grr!! I think I'm going to make evening FPs at DHS on our last park evening instead of going back to Epcot as originally planned. We can watch the Jingle Bell fireworks again sans party, and I can get my evening ride on Tower.

You know...I think I'm going to go play around with that right now.

Have a great weekend!! Hug a friend or send a message to one you haven't seen in awhile. Love you guys

 

[missangelalexis]

I'm so sorry about your friend Hugs to you.

I love the shirts you bought!! I've seen those character jerseys and always wanted one!

Yay for party dates opening up and being able to snag one!

 

[ariane37]

So very sorry to hear about your friend. I've lost plenty of family members including my dad but I don't know what it would feel like losing a close friend of mine. I hope your good memories help you heal
I love your holiday shirt I went on that site earlier today, said they were opening back up at 5pm tonight and then I never went back on....... Now it's 10:30 and I'm just too tired to shop lol! Going to check tomorrow but since we leave in 21 days!!!- not sure I could get an order for this trip anyway. But there's always next time!

Congrats on getting Jingle Bell Jingle BAM when you wanted it Ours isn't changing but I am currently trying to work out a bunch of changes due to all the other things Disney keeps announcing, like the themed trees in DS, holiday food booths in Epcot, OUAT projection show.......

 

[xlsm]

Happy Halloween!!

​

It's going to be more like summer today than fall, but my plan is to scary movie it up today while celebrating only 46 days to go 'til Disney. Less than a month until my Christmas tree goes up!! It's a day of celebration and dancing.

​

Right now, let's take a trip back in time to June, and try to get more of that first day of Disneyland finished up!

Chapter Ten: Grim Grinning Ghosts come out to Socialize

The last time I left off, we had finished a characteriffic breakfast at Plaza Inn, and stopped to see a family of Disney ducks safely make their way across the street. We had a very special place we were heading to next. We made our way through New Orleans Square...





and on to Gracey Manor.



The Haunted Mansion is probably our family favorite overall. I don't think we ride anything else more than this when we're in WDW, so of course it was a priority for us. The outside is different, obviously, and the walk through the queue inside is pretty fun...where the outside line at WDW is so spectacular with the walk through the cemetery, this one is great because you get to walk through the house a bit more.



We didn't have any wait here at all, just walked inside, through the line, and jumped into the Doom Buggies. The ride is pretty much the same as Florida, but we did enjoy seeing the Hatbox Ghost!

Outside of the Mansion, there was a fun photo op:



Poor DH...he should have been behind one of the taller ones, lol. He didn't crouch down low enough.

We were supposed to be making scary faces, but X just looks mad, I look ridiculous, DH followed directions (except for the crouching part), and L just looks like he's in pain. Memories.

Afterward, we paused for a churro break



They were warm, chewy, and amazing. DH and I didn't get one, but you can sure bet that I made the kids pay the "mom tax" and got a bite or two!

I think I've mentioned that it was a chilly morning...so what we were about to do seems a little crazy. But I had it in my head that it would be a good idea. The line was so short...



Everyone getting off the ride was dry and happy, so I felt like things would be ok.



You can see from our faces that no, things were not going to be ok.

X HATES being wet. If you've read any of my other reports, you know he wears a poncho for water rides. He and I got soaked.




X was much more wet than it looks in the photo. My face says it all. My hair is wet like I just got out of the shower.



You know who didn't get wet? This guy:



Look at that smug smile. Jerk. LOL!

We went to visit the Hundred Acre Wood in an attempt to warm up inside the ride and hopefully dry off a little



I love the ride vehicles.

We decided to go through Adventureland and take a little cruise...a Jungle Cruise.



I feel like this is when we may have picked up a Fast Pass for Indiana Jones?? I tried to take pictures every time we grabbed one, but I can't find one for this, but I know we used a FP for Indy later in the evening.

Then we detoured through the edge of Fantasyland, took a long look at the most GORGEOUS ride ever


stopped for a photopass picture



and made our way here:





The kids played around for awhile




and then we decided to head back to the hotel to dry off before our dinner reservation.

We made one last stop, a tour through Sleeping Beauty's Castle



I loved that you can do that at Disneyland! It's dark in there, and my pictures are terrible, but you get to walk through, and while you're walking there are those storybook things with different parts of the Sleeping Beauty story written on them, and then little vignettes and scenes from the movie near them. It was really cool, but there was a little kid ahead of us with his family who was SCREAMING at the top of his lungs the entire time. It's pretty narrow in there, and the walls just made the screaming more amplified.

Once we finished our tour, we made our way out of the park and walked back to HoJo for some rest and swimming...we'd be back later for more food and more fun!!

So there you go! I will try to get the last of this Disneyland day up later today so I can move on to California Adventure, and then do a couple of smaller, more condensed posts to finish up the rest of the Cali trip.

Have a happy, fun, safe, scary Halloween!

​

Life's no fun without a good scare!

 

[xlsm]

I'm so sorry about your friend Hugs to you.

I love the shirts you bought!! I've seen those character jerseys and always wanted one!

Yay for party dates opening up and being able to snag one!

Thank you Her service was yesterday, and it was tough. But we made it through.

I'm so crazy about the character jerseys! It was really hard to choose - I wanted all of them! I think I'm going to get a Moana one soon, and probably Tiana (even though I wish the picture of her was in her green dress instead of the blue picture they're using - I'm weirdly bitter about that for some reason!)

Getting our party date was such a huge relief!! I'm very excited about it!!

So very sorry to hear about your friend. I've lost plenty of family members including my dad but I don't know what it would feel like losing a close friend of mine. I hope your good memories help you heal
I love your holiday shirt I went on that site earlier today, said they were opening back up at 5pm tonight and then I never went back on....... Now it's 10:30 and I'm just too tired to shop lol! Going to check tomorrow but since we leave in 21 days!!!- not sure I could get an order for this trip anyway. But there's always next time!

Congrats on getting Jingle Bell Jingle BAM when you wanted it Ours isn't changing but I am currently trying to work out a bunch of changes due to all the other things Disney keeps announcing, like the themed trees in DS, holiday food booths in Epcot, OUAT projection show.......

Thank you
My grandpa ran a funeral home for my entire childhood, so death and dying are not something I feel uncomfortable about - in fact, most people think I'm too cold and officious about the whole thing, but I've lost a few friends over the years, and it's almost worse than a family member. I don't know why that is, but for me, it's true.

The detail on the holiday shirt makes me so happy! I can't wait to wear it to the MVMCP and stand in the snow on Main Street.

I'm also excited about the new stuff they've announced! I hope you can make your plans work around it all - I'm really looking forward to seeing your pictures and hearing all about it!!

 

[missangelalexis]

Happy Halloween! And thank you for the David Pumpkins gif, that skit has been cracking me up all week!

Sounds like more fun on your Disneyland day! Splash Mountain is so tough, you never know if you're going to walk away untouched or completely soaked! I loved the castle walk through, such a nice special touch to the castle!

 

[xlsm]

Chapter Ten, Part Two

After taking a break at the hotel for awhile, and after I changed to capris and added a light hoodie, we made our way down Harbor and across the street toward Disneyland...dinner awaits!

While planning, I'd wanted to book a dinner at Blue Bayou, but I didn't think the kids would care much for the menu. In a compromise, I made a reservation for Cafe Orleans instead.

We went through the Frontierland entrance since we hadn't walked through it yet



We checked in to Cafe Orleans just before our ADR time of 3:40 (5:40 back home), took our buzzer and explored the area and shops a bit.




Our buzzer went off and we were seated outside. It was just a teensy bit crowded...



We had a prime people watching spot

Our food came out pretty quickly...but after that, our service wasn't super great. Our waitress was kind of a mess, bless her heart. If we ever needed anything we had to ask at least twice for it to actually happen. I can't remember her name, but I remember she was from Yorba Linda. The things that stick with me...I can't explain it, LOL!

We started with pommes frites, and they were great! I looooved the dipping sauce



We also ordered the mint julep, because I felt like we had to...it's part of a complete Disneyland trip, right?



My review??

Ew.

Never again.

It was pretty though!

Moving on to our meals...

X had the beef crepes and they were delicious. I was sad I didn't get them myself. They aren't very pretty, though.



L had the French onion soup...I can't seem to find a picture of it, so I will paint a picture for you with words: It was brown. There was cheese.

I have a gift for description, don't I?

DH and I got the three cheese monte cristo. It was good, but way too rich. Neither one of us finished it. The kids picked at it a little, but most of both were still left over. We should have just ordered one to share between the four of us as an app or something, and then got a different entree for our meal. Oh well! It was worth ordering, anyway, and now we know if we go back!



After dinner, it was time for our Indy Fast Pass.

Pictures are bad, but here's a couple from the line




This was fun! I liked the theming a lot. I'd been really stressed about this ride, because in the months leading up to the trip, I kept reading about how it would break down a lot. I was glad we dodged that and made it on.

Next, we went over to Tomorrowland. We grabbed a fast pass for Buzz, then walked over to ride the Nemo subs.

Palm trees on the way over:



I love me a palm tree!

The line for the submarines was the longest we waited in aside from Space Mountain and Matterhorn that morning. It was still cool, but the sun had come out right around this time, and it made the wait kind of warm. Luckily, it's a pretty area. We caught the Jedi Training while we were waiting:



If you squint a little, you can see Darth Vader over there!

Mine! Mine! Mine!



After about a 25 minute wait, we were boarding our subs! I wasn't so sure about this, but it ended up being one of my favorite rides of the trip.



It was time for our Buzz FP, so we marched off to Space Ranger academy, and Buzz welcomed us to Star Command:






We decided to visit the Launch Bay and do the Visa meet and greet with Kylo Ren.
We saw BB8 on the way...


Then, it was time...

There was no one else in line for the Visa M&G area. The CM at the podium checked our card, and then ushered us into kind of a holding area where stoic, stony faced CMs greeted us and then BAM!
Ren popped over to the door and made us all jump backward. He was so intense, eyeing us up and down. The mood in the room was unreal. It wasn't like anything I have ever experienced before. It was intense and scary. One of my kids said they would never join the dark side, the other said he'd consider it, and then I showed him my Rebel Starbird Alex and Ani bracelet and he got mad at me...it was a great meet, and our Friend-of-Ren was AMAZING. He totally had control of the situation, and I was very impressed with his command of the role.

This is not a great picture of me, but I'm sharing it anyway:



We had had enough of the dark side and needed to lighten up...so Fantasyland was the obvious choice. It was time for my absolute MUST DO ride (ok, one of like 5 gazillion "must do" things, haha!)



Snow White's Scary Adventure!!

The details here were out of this world








I feel like the Evil Queen would be super good friends with Winifred Sanderson.

What with their love of spell books and all.

After hanging with some dwarfs, defeating evil, and partying with a prince, we decided we wanted to do one more thing before we gave it up for the night. We were tired, ya'll! It had been a long day!

We admired the castle...





and then found ourselves at the edge of Adventure...AdventureLAND that is. It. Was. Time.



Dole Whip! Dole Whip! Dole Whip!

Dole Whip in its natural environment...



I'm 100% convinced that the Dole Whip in Disneyland is better than Dole Whip in the Magic Kingdom. Maybe it's the umbrella and cherry, I'm not sure, but it was the best dole whip I've ever had, and I've had a lot of dole whip!

We capped things off with Tiki Bird concert and then headed out of the park and back to the hotel for swimming and bedtime.

On the way back we saw this:



Because in California, stretch Corvettes are apparently a thing.

There you go! Finally finished that first Disneyland day!

 

[xlsm]

Happy Halloween! And thank you for the David Pumpkins gif, that skit has been cracking me up all week!

Sounds like more fun on your Disneyland day! Splash Mountain is so tough, you never know if you're going to walk away untouched or completely soaked! I loved the castle walk through, such a nice special touch to the castle!

David Pumpkins is my favorite! I laugh so hard watching it that I get tears in my eyes...even when I just think about it I start giggling, and people look at me funny. It has gotten me through a rough week!!

I wish it was possible to do a walkthrough of Cinderella Castle...maybe some day one of us will score a night in the suite!

 

[missangelalexis]

I loved the New Orleans Square part of DL. ugh I hated the mint julep too, I wanted so badly to like it!

Sounds like a great rest of the day! I'm sad I never got to get a DL dole whip!

 

[ariane37]

I love the look on your face after you got wet on Splash Is that a Charlotte's web shirt you're wearing?? Also love the Matterhorn pp picture, that's very neat!

I tried a mint julep once because my SIL likes them and orders them often - yuck. Not my thing AT ALL. That one you tried was definitely pretty though! So did your monte cristo just have cheese? Not the usual turkey and ham, too?

I remember riding Indy when I was there 80 years ago lol, thought it was cool back then. Wonder why it breaks down so much? And boy do I miss Snow White's Scary Adventures, regardless of how cool they've themed 7DMT

 

[xlsm]

I loved the New Orleans Square part of DL. ugh I hated the mint julep too, I wanted so badly to like it!

Sounds like a great rest of the day! I'm sad I never got to get a DL dole whip!

I really loved it too! DH and I had our honeymoon in New Orleans, and so anything even remotely associated with it makes me happy
I'm glad I'm not alone in hating that mint monstrosity, it was so gross!!

You should go back to Disneyland just for the dole whip!! Honestly, I don't know if it really was better or not, but I couldn't shut up about it the whole time. It was pretty darn delicious.

I love the look on your face after you got wet on Splash Is that a Charlotte's web shirt you're wearing?? Also love the Matterhorn pp picture, that's very neat!

I tried a mint julep once because my SIL likes them and orders them often - yuck. Not my thing AT ALL. That one you tried was definitely pretty though! So did your monte cristo just have cheese? Not the usual turkey and ham, too?

I remember riding Indy when I was there 80 years ago lol, thought it was cool back then. Wonder why it breaks down so much? And boy do I miss Snow White's Scary Adventures, regardless of how cool they've themed 7DMT

Oooh I was so horrified by the wet hair...that look expressed my exact feelings in that moment, LOL!!
It's funny you asked that about my shirt, because I think the piggy looks like Wilbur under the "Some Pig" web! It's a shirt from a local company called Southern Trend. I have a gazillion shirts from them (including one that says, "It's always happy hour in the south" ). I don't like real life pigs (their noses moving irrationally creeps me out! it makes my skin crawl just thinking about it!), but I love the pig mascot.

So, this mint julep is a weirdo non-alcoholic thing. I don't mind a traditional julep because I like bourbon, but they're not my favorite either. This green nightmare tasted like mouthwash. But it sure does photograph well! And they do serve a traditional monte cristo with the ham, but this particular one was just cheese - swiss, mozzarella, and brie. It was too much for me!

I have no idea what the problem is with Indy...I don't feel like Dinosaur goes down that much, and it's so similar. I really wish Snow's ride was still in the Magic Kingdom...I love the mine train, but Snow is my girl!!

 

[xlsm]

​

Hello, Friends!!

What a morning...I had to have two cups of coffee just to get me to this point of semi-alertness. Sleep has been elusive for the last couple of weeks, I just can't seem to catch up! This weekend should offer up a chance to get back to a more normal schedule. The past two weekends in a row I've had to drive 3 1/2 hours each way back and forth to Missouri, and it's exhausting.

Tuesday was my ADR day for the trip in May with MIL...I managed to get the two I wanted: pre-park opening Akershus breakfast and BOG dinner. I did have to settle for an 8:30 am Akershus over my preferred 8am, but I was just glad to get anything. I felt weird only making two, so I did go ahead and make a 7:30am breakfast reservation at Boma for our first park day. I think I also made a Jiko reservation for our arrival night...I can't remember if I actually did or if I only considered it. I'll have to check on that one!

Alllll that aside...it's time to have some fun!
We are 43 days out from vacation, trip has been paid off for months, ADRs were made back in June with just a couple of adjustments here and there, party tickets were purchased the day they became available, Jingle Bell Jingle BAM (!) party is booked...it's time to start talking about daily plans and magic bands and all the GOOD stuff!

So, here is....

Chapter Eleven: Magic (bands) in the Moonlight

Last night we started focusing on Magic Band decorations. And by "we" I mean "me". My kids always want me to decorate their bands, but they aren't always very helpful at giving me a direction to go, so I started playing around with some designs. I googled Disney Christmas, and color themes to go with the band colors, and color specific holiday themes, and I did a little brainstorming with characters.

This morning before school, they saw my notebook of sketches on the sectional and wanted to sit down and look through them, so we made some plans! L decided to change his purple band to red (we have 11 days left before they get ready to ship!!) and go with a candy cane stripe theme. I'm thinking I'll tape off some lines with tape and do a white/silver/white stripe combo on the red band. Not sure how I'll do the Mickey head on his yet...probably silver or white, most likely with a glitter coat over the top. The stripes will probably have glitter too, for shine.

For my band, which is also red, I had planned to do an "ugly Christmas sweater" type pattern. X latched onto that idea, so his green band will have red and white sections with snowflakes, Mickey heads, trees, etc, painted on. I kind of still want to do that with my own, but I've also been playing around with making my Mickey head into a reindeer and randomly painting my band with holiday symbols like trees, snowflakes, candy canes, cocoa mugs, and things.

DH hasn't given me a lot of direction. His band is blue, and last night we looked through some ideas online...he doesn't care one way or another really if his band is decorated, but he doesn't want to leave it plain if the rest of us have a design. We talked about snowflakes and just a basic wintery type theme, or a character with a Santa hat...I thought maybe just strings of lights and a Santa hat on the Mickey head (painted black).



You can see some of my sketches on the second photo...I really want to have someone pick an Orange Bird theme on some future trip!

I had one more idea for mine that I'm still playing around with...I LOVE Ray from Princess and the Frog, so I thought maybe I could turn the Mickey head into Ray, using the face circle for his rear end and one of the ear circles as his head, and using gold glitter to represent his glow, and then kind of spread it up onto the band and transition the sparkle into snowflakes?? Does that make sense? I guess it depends on how ambitious I'm feeling!

​

So that's where we are on the Magic Band front! I'm so happy to finally have SOME kind of idea. I'd been drawing a blank for most of the time. I have a love/hate relationship with painting MBs! I love it until it's time to sit down and DO it.

While I have you here, let's go ahead and talk about our first day park plans!

Our first park day will be a Saturday. Our plane lands on Friday around 5:30pm, so barring any delays, we won't be too late getting to the resort and should be well rested and ready to go!

We will head to Animal Kingdom for morning EMH that day, and our first stop will be the Safari. We have three hours at the park this morning, so it will be a skimming kind of visit. I want to go to Everest right after the safari, and then find characters dressed up for the holidays!! If it's holiday themed, we want to do it! I also would like to try to do Nemo and Flights of Wonder this day, although both are time suckers. I'm sure the boys will want to do Primeval Whirl and Dinosaur. We're going to have to make some tough choices! I have a feeling Nemo and Flights will be on the chopping block right off the bat.

Yeah, you know what? Let's just go ahead and let that dream die right now. I know Primeval Whirl or Dinosaur will win over the shows if time allows...but in May I will see Nemo gosh darn it!!

We will leave the park no later than 11am (ideally, 10:50) and take the bus to Animal Kingdom Lodge. We'll do a little resort exploring at Jambo House, see the animals and holiday decorations, and then make our way over to Kidani Village. Depending on time, we'll either check in for our noon lunch at Sanaa or look around Kidani a bit. If we have to go ahead and check in, we'll look around Kidani after we eat if there's time.

Then, we'll hop on whatever park bus comes first (ideally, the DHS bus), and then get on a bus/boat back to the Boardwalk to take a short break.

Our evening park is DHS.

The park was scheduled to close at 8pm originally, but was changed to 7pm. I hope to get to the park around 4pm. Our fast passes this day are NOT ideal. We have Toy Story from 3:15 - 4:15, Star Tours from 4:30 - 5:30, and Tower from 5:30 - 6:30.

Right now, the plan is to really shoot for that 4pm park entry time, head right to Toy Story, zip over to Star Tours, and then take our time getting back across the park and getting on Tower RIGHT at 5:30. As soon as we get off the ride, we will immediately go check in for the Jingle Bell Jingle Bam (BAM!!!) Dessert Party.

I did try to change the times of my passes, but evening FP times for Star Tours and Tower were all gone. If we miss them all, so be it. If we make a couple, cool. If we manage to time things perfectly and do all three, well, it'll be a Christmas miracle. If you notice, there's no time set aside for dinner...I imagine we'll grab something at the Boardwalk Bakery on the way over or on the way back after we leave Hollywood Studios.


I think this day is going to be very busy but VERY fun.

I'm really, really, REALLY HAPPY that the planning is starting to feel fun again. I don't think I'll ever be booking a trip this far out ever again! We typically book 9 months ahead or so, and that works better for me in terms of the excitement factor, because there isn't quite as much down time...there's always an event just around the corner, like ADRs or FPs. None of that truly stagnant, empty time where you can do absolutely nothing. Luckily that has passed and it's full steam ahead from now on!

Have a great Thursday, Friends!!

 

[missangelalexis]

Your first day sounds super busy but so fun! I hope you get to see Nemo one day, it's a cute show! And I know Mickey & Minnie meet in adorable Christmas outfits at AK!

 

[HomeSweetDisney]

Loving reading all your plans!

I really hemmed and hawed about that jingle bell, jingle bam dessert party but ultimately decided it wasn't worth it for us.
I don't eat a lot of sweets and my son eats like a bird so we are gonna skip and just watch the show.
I am looking forward to the new show though and all the cool stuff they'll have at Disney Springs for the holidays!
I have re-worked my plans a bit to include more time at DS so we can see all the holiday stuff going on there

Our bands shipped the other day, I am so excited!

 

[ariane37]

Totally loving your MB sketches and am once again jealous that you have major artistic abilities and I have.........negative 0 I went the good old-fashioned route and bought Ricky the Sorccerer Mickey MB he wanted lol. I especially love your "ugly sweater" themed band ( which of course isn't ugly in the least) and I think my favorite is your DH's with the string of lights! Can't wait to see the end products!

 

[xlsm]

**Note...I changed my photo host to Flickr, now everything is a link?? I don't have time to fix it right now, but I'll try to figure it out tomorrow. Technology, ugh!!





Depending on when you're reading this, photobucket is down and all of my PTR pictures are showing up as little broken link thingies. It's very frustrating! I have moved all of the photos for this post and future updates to Flickr, so we'll see how that goes. Photobucket has never been super awesome, but it was easy and it's just what I've used as a host for as long as I can remember, so I've put up with it. I guess it's time for a change!

On the December trip front, I've made a couple of changes.

Because of the update to Liberty Tree Tavern's lunch menu, we very sadly decided to cancel our lunch reservation there. Instead, I changed it to Skipper's Canteen. THEN I decided to cancel the Skipper's reservation for an early dinner we had booked on our party night, electing instead to just pick something up at a quick serve, or to just gorge ourselves on free cookies and cocoa and eggnog. The four of us are going to sit down this weekend sometime and come up with a plan of attack for the party.


I also caved in and bought some Anthology Disney themed candles online the other night. Rome Burning, Black Pearl (supposed to smell like Pirates of the Caribbean), and Wilderness Lodge. They've shipped but I don't have them yet...I'll let you know how they work out!

Since the party day is next up for my daily plan posts, and we don't have it quite lined out yet, I'm going to throw it back to June and do another DLR update!

I present to you...

Chapter Twelve: I want (California) Adventure in the great wide somewhere

Our second full park day was spent at California Adventure! Soarin' Around the World was a couple days from opening, so Radiator Springs Racers was still THE big deal ride (It still is, but the new Soarin' premiere later in the week made it easier to get on!). This park had early entry for onsite guests, so I told my crew we needed to be at the gates early so I could take our tickets and head straight back to the RSR fast pass machines.

We started out with our usual terrible family selfie:


(We're a mess!!)

We weren't too far back in the line



They started letting guests in early, and then held us in front of Carthay Circle.



I zoomed ahead to get a front-of-the-pack position in the group, while the guys hung back and took their time. I was standing behind a rope with a couple hundred of my closest friends:



We were packed in there!

Luckily it paid off, and me and my fast walking ways got me to the FP machines quickly as soon as they let us go through, and I think our time was for 9:30 - 10:30. My three fellas were milling around the area and a text message reunited us once again. We stopped for a photopass picture:


(the looks of terror were real...imagining L driving is a scary thought!!)

and then kept on moving. We wanted to go to Paradise Pier!



Crowds were practically non-existent in this area first thing in the morning.





As you can see, the sky was cloudy and gray. It was the "June Gloom" that hits California. It was very chilly on this morning and L and I were freezing. X remembered to bring his hoodie!

Some of the rides were not open yet. We had planned to just ride whatever we came to since the people were all somewhere else, but we had to adjust since so many were closed. We did get to see the CMs out cleaning things, which was kind of interesting.



Goofy's Sky School was open though, and a walk on!




The boys and I rode together the first time while DH sat out, and then I let the kids go back on a couple more times in a row by themselves. They said they felt confident that they'd be able to fly a plane now, since they had so much training.

Sure.

We kept going, and here's where I get a little fuzzy...I know we stopped off to buy a hoodie for me and L, but I can't remember if we did it before or after Mickey's Fun Wheel.

Either way, the next attraction we hit was the Fun Wheel. We did the non-swinging side, because I didn't want to deal with vomit this early in the day.

I'll be honest, it was kind of slow and boring, but the view was spectacular!



Not an awesome picture, but I loved that you could see the mountains in the distance. It was beautiful.

Next up was King Triton's Carousel of the Sea



I think this was one of the coolest carousels I've ever seen!! The animals were beautiful!





We had time for one more thing before our Fast Pass for Radiator Springs opened up...California Screamin'!!

I was REALLY REALLY REALLY SUPER DUPER looking forward to this ride!! X was not. He says he doesn't like roller coasters. Although he always seems to have a good time...he was just nervous about the loops. I told him they were very small loops and he had to try it at least once.



This ended up being everyone's favorite ride of the trip! Unfortunately, we never made it back on again, which makes me sad!

As fun as this was, with the cool temps and the high speed of the ride, we were FREEZING after this. It was so surreal being this cold in June!

Finally, it was time for a Cars-tastic Pixarrific move to a different area of the park!!

Next update will be...Cars Land! Have a great night!!

 

[xlsm]

Your first day sounds super busy but so fun! I hope you get to see Nemo one day, it's a cute show! And I know Mickey & Minnie meet in adorable Christmas outfits at AK!

I'm definitely going to make it to Nemo in May! That's one big bonus to going with MIL, I know she'll be more receptive to going to the shows than DH and the kids...although they always like the shows once we're actually in them. They all love FotLK, so I am not sure what their hesitation with Nemo is. X is super into Hamilton right now, so I feel like he might not give me as much push back on shows from now on!

I'm excited to see the holiday outfits for Mickey and Minnie!!

Loving reading all your plans!

I really hemmed and hawed about that jingle bell, jingle bam dessert party but ultimately decided it wasn't worth it for us.
I don't eat a lot of sweets and my son eats like a bird so we are gonna skip and just watch the show.
I am looking forward to the new show though and all the cool stuff they'll have at Disney Springs for the holidays!
I have re-worked my plans a bit to include more time at DS so we can see all the holiday stuff going on there

Our bands shipped the other day, I am so excited!

Hooray for MB shipments!!

I hope the party is worth it because DANG I did a lot of waiting for the thing!! If the desserts are anything like the Wishes dessert party, they won't be awesome, but I'm looking forward to seeing who the special guest is (fingers crossed for Santa Goofy or Sandy Claws...mainly so I can cross those off my MVMCP to do list!).
I'm excited about the Disney Springs stuff, too! Especially the trail of trees!!

Totally loving your MB sketches and am once again jealous that you have major artistic abilities and I have.........negative 0 I went the good old-fashioned route and bought Ricky the Sorccerer Mickey MB he wanted lol. I especially love your "ugly sweater" themed band ( which of course isn't ugly in the least) and I think my favorite is your DH's with the string of lights! Can't wait to see the end products!

Thank you!! Like I said, it's a love/hate thing...I love coming up with ideas and sketching them out, but when it comes time to actually put the design onto the bands, I start wondering what the heck I was thinking. Lots of swear words run through my head as I'm working on them. Lots. I ended up really liking the string lights one too! He officially decided that is the one he wants...I think it's also going to be the easiest, so it might be my favorite

I always want to buy the character bands, especially the Tiana one, and I like that you can print your own at D Tech now, and then I kind of wanted a Dooney print one...I think MBs need to be an everyday fashion statement because they're just so darn fun!

 

[xlsm]

Good afternoon, Friends!!

Just sitting around right now, happily watching my Razorbacks have a successful first quarter vs. the Florida Gators...which is really nice after being destroyed two weeks ago to Auburn in a most embarrassing fashion (annnd I may have jinxed them because we just let Florida intercept the ball and score. Gag.) Thought I'd try to get more of the California Adventure day in June up...and hoping to figure out the mess with Flickr that made my last post such a mess!

Chapter Twelve Part Two:

We were so excited to make our way into Radiator Springs! The gloomy weather was not friendly for snapping pictures, but it looks INCREDIBLE in person

https://www.flickr.com/photos/143888229@N08/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/143888229@N08/

Our desired destination was the fast pass line for Radiator Springs Racers. You've probably seen and heard many times how well themed this area is, but nothing beats seeing it in person. The fast pass line wasn't bad at all...the area set aside for the ride queue is VERY long. I cannot even imagine how long the wait would be if it was completely full. Probably you would have to bring a tent and camp because you'd be there awhile!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/143888229@N08/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/143888229@N08/

I liked our ride vehicle because it looked like Sally!!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/143888229@N08/

RSR is similar to Test Track in terms of riding in the car, the way you move along the track, etc...BUT there is one glaring difference. This ride is so, so, so, so, SO superior because of the theming. The scenery is unreal, straight out of the movie. There is a reason this is so popular.
For us, it isn't worth standing in line for an hour, but getting a Fast Pass or getting in line when the wait is low is absolutely a must do at least once. It was a lot of fun!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/143888229@N08/

How's my hair? Nice?

After our race through Radiator Springs, we were hungry, and stopped off at the Cozy Cones for lunch.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/143888229@N08/

It was a little early for lunch, not all of the cones were open, but luckily the ones we wanted were!

L opted for pretzel bites with cheese sauce

https://www.flickr.com/photos/143888229@N08/

And X and DH ordered the chili cone queso, while I had the chicken verde cone. I love anything involving verde sauce, and it tasted really good, but the texture of the chicken bothered me. DH was nice and traded with me, and I ended up with his chili cone. Both were good! https://www.flickr.com/photos/143888229@N08/

My kids...I'm so glad they don't know when I share these not-so-flattering pictures of them! As you can see, the chili cone had fritos on top, and the chili and cheese were stuffed down inside the bread cone.

Here's the chicken verde:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/143888229@N08/

All of us had the Red's Apple Freeze (I think that's what it was called anyway!) which is similar to the LeFou's Brew at Gaston's Tavern in WDW's Magic Kingdom. It was less sweet though, which is not a bad thing! (We all also had water because it took a long time to get our apple things)

While we were eating, McQueen was out meeting and greeting:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/143888229@N08/

It was fun to watch. We had seen Mater out earlier, but didn't stop for either one.

We DID stop for the photopass photographer though!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/143888229@N08/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/143888229@N08/

After we had these pictures taken, we split up for a little bit. The kids wanted to ride Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, and for some reason DH didn't ride with us...I can't remember why. The line had a longer wait time that I preferred to stand it, I think it was 30 or 35 minutes?? It don't feel like we actually waited that long, though.

Xavier loved this thing, LOL!! https://www.flickr.com/photos/143888229@N08/

The line elements were super cute, well themed, and full of fun details:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/143888229@N08/

Soon we were at the front of the line and ready to hop into our tractors!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/143888229@N08/

Because DH wasn't with us, we all crammed into one ride vehicle. We managed to fit...not sure what this weird face is X is making?? https://www.flickr.com/photos/143888229@N08/

We had a lot of fun with this...there was much laughing!! It was really short though.

After this, we met back up with DH and moved on to something else...

Part Three up next!