Don't Put Your Hand on Mickey's Hat-A Family Vacation--NEW TRIP REPORT 5/24/14

[MEK]

Adorable picture!

Nothing wrong with taking the monorail over to MK and doing one attraction! It looks like a beautiful afternoon for a ride in the sky!

Looking forward to your CP breakfast. That is one of my favs!

 

[jash08]

Ash didn't tell you about the time the castmembers let us stay on the #@$&**ing boat and let us ride Small World twice in succession. Thank God we had reservations at King Stefan's Banquet Hall (people who remember Lake Buena Vista Shopping Village I'm sure will remember King Stefan's). so we had to get off. Where the $#&*@ was her mother?

She was hiding, which meant being smart

Wow, you guys got a LOT done before 2:30! Great job!
I love early morning Crystal Palace breakfasts. Pooh is super cute.

I know! We really like to get up early and get going. We find we get so much more done that way.

I love them too! It is a great way to start the day!

Adorable picture!

Nothing wrong with taking the monorail over to MK and doing one attraction! It looks like a beautiful afternoon for a ride in the sky!

Looking forward to your CP breakfast. That is one of my favs!

It was excellent! It is in the post before and we got pictures with all of the characters this time! I like to see them all if we are doing a character meal, but when I am done, I am done. I do not want to sit there for 30 minutes for a character so I was super happy this time.

 

[jash08]

We got back to the resort in short order and decided to drop off some of our stuff before we headed to Downtown Disney. This greeted us:





We were getting several towel animals and they were playing with our pillow pets. It was nice to get them since we do not have children and usually don't get them. By the way, those pillow pets are amazing for car rides! They are the perfect size. They are also great for laying on the couch at home and watching tv, or so I would think.

We decided to ride a bus this time since it would drop us off at Pleasure Island and it was a short walk. We went to the window and got our admission tickets. Here is our only pic from Disney Quest:





What did we think? Wow, this place is really run down. It needs some major overhaul. There are only a few major attractions and they had long lines and honestly, I wasn't that impressed with them so did not want to wait in line. We played a few arcade games and played air hockey for a good while. I am glad the admission came as a freebie with our package because there is no way I would pay this much for this place. I would have been really upset if I had paid out of pocket for this.

After leaving Disney Quest, we wandered in some shops and took some pictures and headed to Splitsville to look around and we definitely considered bowling. Here are the pictures:














As I said, we considered bowling, but it was a tad expensive. It was $20 per person for an hour. We were tired and I was not sure that I wanted to bowl for an hour plus I felt $40 was a lot for bowling. We decided to head back to POFQ and grab a bite to eat and head to the room. We had a long day and it was starting to catch up with us.











A bus was pulling up as we got to the bus stop and we climbed on. We had to share with Riverside so we went through those stops first. We got on the bus at 5:25 and made it to POFQ at 5:50. As you can see, we were not at DTD very long, just over 2 hours. You can also see that it can take a bit to get through both resorts. We headed to the food court and I got the tuna sandwich with pasta salad and Jeremy got the shrimp and fries. We both got apple slices for the next day.








The pasta salad was not good. I think they forgot to put dressing on it. It was dry as a bone, no flavor to the noodles of course and just a few veggies. We went back to the room and watched tv for a while and then it was time for bed as we had another early day!

 

[teekathepony]

I didn't really like Disney quest either. We also had free admission so I wasn't too sour about it. DH liked it a bit but he loves arcade games.
Yikes, splitsville is a bit expensive isn't it?

 

[burly]

The Pillow pets,,,,,,,,holding the towel animals. So darn cute.
Great Report so far.
Looking forward to more...


KIM

 

[MEK]

Splitsville looks pretty cool. Those are the first pictures I've seen of it. But, yeah, $40 for two people to bowl - which, of course requires extra energy and motivation when you've already been hoofing it around the parks. I probably would have passed too!

 

[jash08]

I didn't really like Disney quest either. We also had free admission so I wasn't too sour about it. DH liked it a bit but he loves arcade games.
Yikes, splitsville is a bit expensive isn't it?

You can tell that Disney Quest was something, but now it just feels forgotten.

I thought Splitsville was expensive. Now that I know how much it is, I might try to budget it in because it was pretty cool in there and they had an AMAZING outside bar.

The Pillow pets,,,,,,,,holding the towel animals. So darn cute.
Great Report so far.
Looking forward to more...


KIM

Too cute, right? It was really nice to get those since we usually don't. I always assumed it was because we don't have children. I hope we get them when we go back. They are a nice surprise.

Glad you like it so far!

Splitsville looks pretty cool. Those are the first pictures I've seen of it. But, yeah, $40 for two people to bowl - which, of course requires extra energy and motivation when you've already been hoofing it around the parks. I probably would have passed too!

It was pretty neat inside. For me, it would have to be a we did a lot at the park, go rest, then head to DTD for fun. We might try to budget it in, but who knows? I may want another souvenir or a nicer meal!

 

[jash08]

Wow! What a long week. I had to go out of town to St. Louis for 2 and a half days for a conference. Had a good time, learned some things, visited with some friends. Back to work it was. I had to dig out from that and then it was more work, new clients, etc. I am looking forward to my three day weekend!!!!!

It is now the start of our 6th day! We have 2 more park days to go! This is when you are glad you still have some time left, but are also sad as you only have a couple of days left. For me, this is when thoughts of "next year" start swirling around. The plan had been to get up early and go to Animal Kingdom for EMH at 8. Instead, we slept in and made it to the Animal Kingdom at the much later time of 9. We basically just took longer to get ready. We got up about 20 minutes after we planned on getting up for EMH and dawdled while getting ready. Of course, not getting to AK until 9 was like sleeping late to us. We get up at 5:30 Monday-Friday, 6:15 on Saturday, and 7:30 on Sunday. Gotta love work!

We headed to It's Tough to Be a Bug first. Jeremy had never done this, so he was looking forward to it. Some pre-show pics:








It was so cute! I didn't tell Jeremy about the stingers, so one got him! He whined about it for a bit and said it hurt. Whatever, I laughed.

We headed on back to Expedition Everest so Jeremy could ride as this was our last trip to AK for this vacation. He rode twice and enjoyed it, but did not have anyone fun by him this time. We discussed riding Dinosaur, but the wait was at 35 minutes. We decided to take advantage of our Park Hoppers and head out! You have got to love Park Hopper. Here are pictures we took while wandering around.


























And of course we had to stop on the way out for some photopass pictures.











So now where? It is fairly early (around 11!) and we have no big plans until a dinner ADR. Come back, and find out where we were headed! Here is a clue: there are no windows and no doors!

 

[teekathepony]

Oh! Oh! Pick me! I guess DHS!
I won't do ITTBAB. I do not want to get stung! Haha
9 isn't a bad time to get to AK. It's such a laid back park! And two go-rounds on EE is pretty awesome!

 

[wiigirl]

Great pics!

 

[cbeeindisney]

Read your whole trip report so far, loving your 1st trip report, great pictures!

 

[jash08]

Oh! Oh! Pick me! I guess DHS!
I won't do ITTBAB. I do not want to get stung! Haha
9 isn't a bad time to get to AK. It's such a laid back park! And two go-rounds on EE is pretty awesome!

Close!

It is a pretty cute show. He was such a baby

We thought it was a good time to get there also. Sometimes, you have to take your time.

Great pics!

Thank you! Can you tell we like to take pictures?

Read your whole trip report so far, loving your 1st trip report, great pictures!

Welcome! So glad you could join. I am glad you are enjoying so far. Please keep coming back!

 

[jash08]

And I am back! Between being out of the office, having a holiday weekend, and trying to get caught up, I have been very busy! Now time for an update.


We had just left the Animal Kingdom and decided to park hop. Off to the Magic Kingdom we go! Transferring to other parks is pretty easy to do at the Animal Kingdom in our opinion. Just head to the far end of the bus stop!

When we got to the TTC, we took the monorail over, of course! Number one, the monorail is just cool. Number two, it just screams you are at Disney. Number three, you get to go through a hotel, hello?!?!?! And finally, you get to see this guy:





In case you can't tell, that is a little Mickey sitting on top of that building.


Soon we were walking down Main Street, and guess who was out? The Fire Chief! To me, this is one of the best experiences of Disney, the cast members who are in character. He was wonderful and really made my day. We stopped and chatted with him for a few minutes and he told us all about the Fire House and that he was out making sure everyone was safe. Love it! Here he is:





After we spoke with the Fire Chief, we decided to make our way to Pirates. But before we could head to Adventureland, we had to stop and get this of course:





Now we can go and see the redhead. We did not encounter a wait until we got to the loading area.




See?


We had a wonderful cruise and I am definitely considering the Pirate's life for me! I have always loved this ride. It is my momma's favorite ride and she always tells me to ride it for her. We wandered in the dump shop for probably 20 minutes. We decided it was now time to get some lunch as it was around 12:30. Since we were right there, we headed over to Pecos Bills. We both love the toppings bar here. Jeremy got a boring cheeseburger, fries, and chocolate cake. He did put sautéed onions on his burger and fake cheese on his fries. I on the other hand, got the taco salad and chocolate cake. I loaded that bad boy up FULL of toppings. It was excellent! The meat was well seasoned and I loved that I could make it how ever I wanted. I just wish that along with salsa, they had Pico de Gallo to put on it too. After eating that I was pretty full so I only ate about 3 small bites of the chocolate cake. It was way to rich for me. Maybe if I was only eating that I would be fine, but I couldn't eat it along with everything else.

We now felt refreshed and rehydrated! We always keep two bottles of water with us (my backpack has two side pockets on the outside that are the perfect size for water bottles) but you tend to ration those. I always drink unsweet tea and the tea at Disney isn't bad. I always feel well hydrated after a meal there! After a quick bathroom break, we headed over to the Haunted Mansion for a ride! We love this ride so much. We love it enough that when we were having our Honeymoon portraits shot in the Magic Kingdom, we had the photographer take a few shots of us at the Haunted Mansion. She opened the gate and we got to stand right in front of the hearse!

After visiting the 999 haunts, we decided to head to Tomorrowland via the hub. The Move It, Shake It, Celebrate It parade was going on. Here are a couple of pics:







Baloo!!!!


We grabbed a fast pass for Buzz and then headed over to the Carousel of Progress for another spin! This is a once a trip show for us. If we watch it more than that, it is a "I am killing time waiting for my fast pass return time and I want to sit and rest in the AC" move.

After we took a spin on CoP, we headed to the People Mover of course! Once we got off the best people watching ride ever, it was time for Buzz. Jeremy, as per usual, won again. It was now around 1:30. We had an ADR at 5:00 so we decided to head out to some place else. Come on back to see where we headed and the celebrity I got to see!

 

[teekathepony]

I realized after I posted that I was thinking that quote was from ToT, but it was actually from haunted mansion! Haha oh well, sounds like a great time at mk so far!

 

[MEK]

Celebrity sighting? Nice.

Cute picture in your bug eyes. Too funny about the stingers.

And you know its crowded when.....Dinosaur is a 45 minute wait.

Cool picture from inside Pirates.

Nice PP pics from MK

I hear ya on Cop!

Fun updates.

 

[jash08]

I realized after I posted that I was thinking that quote was from ToT, but it was actually from haunted mansion! Haha oh well, sounds like a great time at mk so far!

No worries!!!! We had a great time. Of course, as you can tell probably, we try to have a great time every place we go. Now, I won't lie, we argue and pick at each other just as much as anyone, but we really enjoy spending time together. I work Monday through Friday and he works Friday through Tuesday. So the only time we actually get to spend an entire day together is when someone takes a day off from work. As you remember, he works as a dealer at a casino, so he works ALL holidays. So I am sure you can imagine we are usually GREAT on vacation!

Celebrity sighting? Nice.

Cute picture in your bug eyes. Too funny about the stingers.

And you know its crowded when.....Dinosaur is a 45 minute wait.

Cool picture from inside Pirates.

Nice PP pics from MK

I hear ya on Cop!

Fun updates.

Jeremy loves to take pictures. He hates pictures of himself, but loves to take pictures of everything. We usually go with several memory cards, just in case.

I think CoP is a great resting place. If I want to sleep, we head to Hall of Presidents. Much darker there!

 

[jash08]

Stayed home today so I have time for an update. Before I do my next update, I wanted to throw in a real life update. Prayers going out to the people in Oklahoma and also St. Louis last night with the tornados and bad weather. Now, as you may remember I live in Western Kentucky. It is a town of about 30,000 people called Paducah. If any of you watched the Weather Channel today, you would have noticed they were speaking about Paducah. That same storm line rolled through here about 3:00 am. No tornados, but we received about 4.5 inches of rain in 3 hours. We had MAJOR flash flooding. I am very lucky as we had no damage. Our yard was flooded and so was our road, but it drained mostly away by noon today. Our house has a crawlspace so we are fairly elevated, but I was worried for a bit. We were very lucky as about 2 miles from my house there was bad enough flooding that people had to be rescued by boats at a hotel. There are several pictures on the internet. You can go to our local NBC affiliate, WPSD Local 6 or West Kentucky Star online to see pictures. Prayers for everyone who was effected here!


Ok, back to fun things...


So when I left you, we were leaving the Magic Kingdom, our second park of the day. Well, dinner was at a third park, so we were hopping again. We are two wild and crazy guys! Sorry, went a little into a Steve Martin/Dan Akroyd mode. So where was dinner? Tokyo Dining so we were heading to Epcot! Soon we were on the monorail heading to the TTC.





Here are some construction pictures from the Grand Floridian.











We get off the monorail and walk over to the Epcot platform and the cast member says the monorail is down and to go down the ramp to catch a bus. But I want to take the monorail.... Oh well, we schlep our way over to the bus stop and a bus is waiting. It was pretty full so we go ahead and take off. We were at Epcot shortly, but monorail is definitely the better way to go.

We of course stop and ride Spaceship Earth. Jeremy saw some hidden Mickeys. The scrolls I saw earlier and a water stain on the ceiling. After we traveled back to earth, we decided to get a snack. We shared a scoop of popcorn and wandered around Future World. We decided to go see Figment and then head to World Showcase.

After visiting with the dragon that is a royal purple pigment, we decided to go to World Showcase on the walkway that runs next to the Imagination Pavilion. Before we headed over, we saw this handsome couple out and took a picture.





We walked along and people watched some and took some pictures.








We stopped in France for some photopass pictures.











We took our time making our way to Japan. Once we got there, Jeremy decided he wanted to go in a shop some. I decided to stay outside and sit on a bench and check in with home. He left the camera with me and I took some scenery pictures.




I had a little squirrel buddy hanging out with me.








Now, I mentioned yesterday that I had a celebrity sighting. I have called home to check in both with family and with work. I am not paying attention other than taking some pictures of the scenery. I take notice that a group of people have sat down at two benches a few down from me. They are talking about what to do next and I notice the lady's voice sounds familiar but not super familiar and I hear someone say we love your show and her say thank you. As they get up to leave, I look over and see that it is Honey Boo Boo and her family. Here is the picture I got as they were walking away.





I don't watch the show, but I thought I would share.

Jeremy soon comes out and we go upstairs. We are seated promptly and have an AMAZING window seat. Here are our views:








We had a wonderful waiter and this place was so romantic. Jeremy and I both ordered the tempura shrimp and chicken and the green tea cheesecake for dessert.








We were soon stuffed and on our way. we decided to make the rest of the loop. Apparently we were in a food coma as we took one more picture for the night.





For those of you who are Dr. Who fans, I am sorry. My husband is a huge Dr. Who fan and literally stopped and said weeping angel! For those who are not, I am sorry as this picture will make no sense.

We stopped for one last picture on the way out.





We walked out to the bus stop and hopped right on a bus. As soon as we got back to the hotel, we grabbed a drink and went back to the room to rest and watch some TV. Three parks in one day, whew! Will we be completely insane and do it again tomorrow? Come back and find out!

 

[teekathepony]

Very scary stuff with the tornadoes and the flooding. I'm glad you guys got away without any damage.

That might just be the best Snow White I've ever seen! Great pic!
Lovely view at Tokyo Dining, looks like a great meal!

 

[buggieboo2]

Looks like a super trip! Great photos and love the pillow pets. Great find on those!

 

[cbeeindisney]

Glad you are okay! What a scary time that must've been for you!

Love your pictures of WS, I get a little snap-happy there also, so pretty and so many things to look at!

Dinner looked great- how was that green tea cheesecake? It looks good! I always have to end my meals at hibachi restaurants with green tea ice cream, wonder if this is just as good!

Love the picture of you two at the end of your post, the sky looks beautiful next to Spaceship Earth! It looks like you had a great night