EDGAR --- The Crutch That Came on Vacation ..a 9/2014 Trip Report

[mickeystoontown]

What a great time you had at Animal Kingdom...with and without the rest of your family. I would have no problem, whatsoever, wandering around a park all by my lonesome. You can tell that Victoria has Peter wrapped around her finger. Why else would he have agreed to take her to the mall. You and Victoria are very lucky to have found such a great guy.

What a wonderful "day of rest". A little swimming, a dinner at the Rainforest Cafe and shopping. That's my kinda day!

 

[MonsterWDWmom]

What a great rest day!

And yes that clothes hanger is perfect

A day at the AK alone seems awesome and it is great that Victoria got Peter to take her to the mall

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Up next in our adventure is my favorite: HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS!!!! Yay!!!! And this sweet baby:



But first, we have a fastpass for RnR (10am) so that’s where we were headed. By “we” I mean Victoria and I as Peter does not ride this beast. He sits over by the exit of the gift shop where he can feel the a/c from the door opening. Ok, bye dear!! Victoria and I ALWAYS ask for the front seat. We love it!













I made my fastpasses one per hour, so once the 10am RnR was done, we had until 11am until we could ride ToT. That’s one thing I want to do next time ---- be more conscious of how I plan out the fp’s. For example, knowing that we would probably be off RnR in about 20 minutes, I should have made the Tot one a little sooner than 11am. We didn’t really have much time to do anything. We did decide to go over to the Great Movie Ride and see what the wait time was……. 10 minutes I believe so we ended up doing that. I knew we could return to Tot anytime between 11 and 12 so we were ok. I hated the fact we had to go back to ToT ---- just for the backtracking it involved. That’s a lot of walking for Peter. Oh, and you are probably wondering if Edgar joined us on this day ----- nope. Peter decided he had to break up with Edgar….that Edgar has been slowing Peter down and he wanted to be rid of him. Ok, fine by me!!

So, GMA…….we were lucky and got some Pixie Dust. We got the Cowboy scene!! I didn’t even ask for it!! Awesome!





Hey Dude…..your head is in my shot!!! Yes, your big elephant head!! LOL!



We then had lunch at the Commissary. We always seem to have lunch at the Commissary. My favorite thing there is the cheeseburger with the shrimp on top…..I think it’s item #1. Peter gets the seafood plate and Victoria gets the chicken strips. After the trip Victoria asks why we always eat there as she hates it. Ok, I didn’t know that!! Could have told me before, although there’s not a whole lot of quick service places at HS. A note is made for next time.







And I love this shot of my 2 monkeys….



Awwwwwwwwwwwwwweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

After we hit our ToT fastpass, we decided to see Beauty and the Beast show and cry….like I always do….every.stinking.time!!! It’s really great too that it was the same actor playing the Prince as it was the last time we saw it. Now, HE is gorgeous!!



And then, my love…..Gaston…..







Ok, ok, just one more….



You’re welcome!!!

 

[Victoriasmom98]

After BatB we decided to have another go around on the Great Movie Ride. Victoria wanted to see if we’d get the Gangster scene this time and sure enough, we did!!







Whoo hoo!!!

We saw the Voyage of the Little Mermaid show which was as wonderful as ever, although the darned people who stop in the middle of the row to plop their butts down. ‘MOVE ALL THE WAY TO THE END” people!!! Grrrr…..see, I wait around and try to estimate where we’ll end up before I pick a row and move all the way down. People who stop in the middle of the aisle wreck my planning!!!





We tried going to the animation class but it would be 2 full classes before we would get in…..nope, not gonna wait for that one so it was off to ride Star Tours. Yay!!! That was followed up by a lovely show of the Muppets!! I love Kermmy!!

It was then time for our ADR’s at Sci Fi Diner. This is a favorite for our family. We were seated in a big car and shared it with a couple of guys. Victoria just loves same gender couples. She thought they were so cute. I gotta admit they were both very handsome!











After a wonderful meal, with our bellies full, we headed over to Streets of America for Characterpalooza which I’ve read about on Kenny the Pirate’s website. It was towards the end of the time frame when the characters would be out, so we didn’t meet a whole lot but some of them. It was really cool!!! I definitely want to do this again!!





Oh lookie there……we found more Disney Ducks!!! This time they were in the pond and I wasn’t about to let Victoria in the pond to go get them!!! Although, I wouldn’t put it passed her! LOL!







It really was a beautiful day at HS!!! Even though my beloved American Idol Experience (and hottie Greg) was not there.





How’s that for a picture to end the day with……Beautiful!!!

 

[MonsterWDWmom]

Love the RNR picture!!!

Yay for no Edgar again!

I am so jealous you got the cowboy scene without asking I rode 2 times in Sept and each time I got the gangster, next time I am asking for cowboy

That is such a nice picture of you guys walking out of HS!

 

[SarahDisney]

I love the picture of you and Victoria on RnR!

Yay for getting the cowboy scene - I've never gotten it and I wish I had on my last trip!

I love that picture of Victoria & Peter at ABC Commissary!

Sounds like a great day ... and you picked a perfect picture to end the day!

 

[Victoriasmom98]

It’s Magic Kingdom day number 2!!





This day started bright and early with breakfast in the Business Lounge (did I mention how much I loved this place??!) and a wonderful ride in the Disney Bus! I had no issues with the busses whatsoever and maybe stood twice? Oh, there is one time a bus left with Victoria and without us, but that’s later in the report……

Anyways we started out the day in Tomorrowland and our goal was to head west to Fantasyland and hit the park that way. We really love Tomorrowland. I think it’s everyone’s favorite! Victoria and I wanted to hit Space Mountain first as it only had a 10 minute wait! Gotta love early September!





Peter was left to fend for himself on a bench somewhere….actually, we found out later he just stayed on the People Mover for about 4 rotations. So, what did Victoria and I want to do after Space Mountain? You guessed it --- PEOPLE MOVER!!! I’m sure the cm’s knew Peter by name by now. And we decided to stay on for 2 rotations. I think Peter could say the spiel without too much trouble by now. LOL! Yes, Victoria and I are evil! Mr Morrow? Mr Tom Morrow? HA!









Up next for us was Buzz Lightyear Spaceranger Spin! Love, love, love this ride!!!! That was followed up by Carousel of Progress. It’s a great big beautiful tomorrow!!!!













We also ran into Buzz outside the attraction:



Finishing up with Monsters Laugh Floor and Stitch’s Great Escape and we had all of this finished up by 9:30am with a Fast Pass scheduled for 10am at the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train!





Ok, you want to know my honest opinion of 7DMT???? Meh! First of all it’s too short a ride. It’s like “is this it?” I just can’t imagine all the money put into that attraction for that. It’s cute enough, but nothing special. I’m sorry if you don’t agree with my opinion……. I didn’t even bother to take pictures --- that’s how unimpressed I was. Sorry.

After this, it was time for lunch. We had quick service at Pinocchio’s Village Haus. I love the flat bread pizza there! We weren’t able to get a table overlooking it’s a Small World, though.

It’s time for Winnie the Pooh!!! Yay!!! This is the first time since the new queue was constructed that we’ve been on it. OMG!! The queue is so darned cute! There is this touch screen type thing that shows a picture if you move away the “honey”. It’s really cute! Victoria and I played with that one a lot!! Good thing there was a couple of them or else other little kids wouldn’t have had a chance. Ok, I’m just kidding. We did let the kids play. I loved this attraction! We all did!

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Love the RNR picture!!! Yay for no Edgar again! I am so jealous you got the cowboy scene without asking I rode 2 times in Sept and each time I got the gangster, next time I am asking for cowboy That is such a nice picture of you guys walking out of HS!

I love the picture of you and Victoria on RnR!
Yay for getting the cowboy scene - I've never gotten it and I wish I had on my last trip! I love that picture of Victoria & Peter at ABC Commissary! Sounds like a great day ... and you picked a perfect picture to end the day!

All you have to do is ASK for the cowboy scene. The cm's have always been wonderful about placing us in that queue. It's definitely worth it!! Thank you for the compliments on my pictures. Yes, Victoria and Peter have a wonderful relationship!!

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Up next was our time spent with Anna & Elsa…..we had a fast pass for 2:30pm.

I thought the interaction was wonderful!! They were both delightful. The only issue I had was that a number of photos we had with Elsa were not in focus. Hey, I’m happy to get one, I suppose!!









We ended up in the princess gift shop after meeting with the girls and Victoria just loved these ears.

 

[Twoboysnmygirl]

I'm reading and replying in my head when I don't actually reply, I swear! It's only going to get worse with the holiday weekend, I'm slammed with work!

Anyway, I love your shirts for this day! Some of our favorite shots are in our mickeyhead tie dyes!

You made great time! Gotta love rope drop. I heard the same thing about 7DMT. I'm sure we'll ride it once, but I'm probably not going to use a FP for it...not that I can get one anyway, I heard they are hard to get 30 days out and that's when we'll go, when we hit MK during Playlist.

You really got some great shots only using your phone, I'm impressed!

 

[SarahDisney]

I love the Space Mountain picture! And your face in the Buzz Lightyear picture is hysterical.

PeopleMover four times ... awesome.

I'm sorry to hear you weren't impressed with 7DMT. I guess it's not for everyone - not everyone can be impressed with everything.

I love the honey thing on the Winnie the Pooh ride ... it's just so fun to see what the pictures are!

I'm glad you had a good time with Anna and Elsa! I hate when the pictures don't come out well, but I'm glad you got one good shot!

Sounds like you were having a pretty good day!

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

I am finally catching up with your TR! I will try to keep my response a reasonable length, but I’m not making any promises! I think your iPhone pictures turned out well! The Business Class privileges at Coronado sound nice, and the room, pool, and the rest of the grounds were so pretty! I need to get back to Coronado since that is the first place I took my kids in WDW. It looks like you had a fairly relaxing check in day. I love that you were wearing a tiara and your princess shirt for your first MK day! I’m glad you and your family had such a great time at CRT! Your interaction with Gaston sounds like a hoot! I have to find him next time we are there! It looks like you had a great time at BOG! Your EPCOT day looked like fun, too! I am not surprised that there were people who commented on Victoria holding the ducks! Some people just need to mind their own business! Victoria is turning into a little farm girl with your chickens and the Disney Ducks! And squirrels?!? Pretty cool! As far as your AK day, what are you talking about, you don’t get good safari pictures? That is a great picture of the giraffe! I’m sorry that Peter couldn’t continue on with you in AK that day, but how cool that you got to experience the park by yourself! I think the kids and I need to do the single rider line on EE! Your bathroom selfie is the best! Ten points for creativity! Your rest day looked nice, as did your HS day! You and Victoria are clearly having fun on RnRc! I am with Victoria on the ABC Commissary! Hate it! But you are right that there are not many places to eat a quick service meal in HS. Oh well. Looks like you had a great 2nd day at MK, too! I’m so jealous you got to meet Elsa and Anna! OK, I’m all caught up! Can’t wait to hear more!

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Sorry that I’ve been missing in action guys…..busy, busy, busy time of year and we also have a bunch of stuff as a family we are dealing with. First of all Peter is still in physical therapy for his foot. He seems to think it’s getting better, so that’s a good thing, but he had to take a sleep study last week due to what we feel is sleep apnea. Hopefully we will be hearing back with the results soon. It would mean he loses his hazard certification on his driver’s license if he does have it. I’m not sure what that all means and how limited his driving will be (he has a Class A), but I’m hoping for good results. He’s also been so stressed out with his job lately. There was a fire in the warehouse about a month ago and the warehouse was destroyed including a boom truck and some other equipment. Thank God the propane truck was moved out of the way by a fast-thinking employee of his or else the whole property would have been levelled. He is just so tired of the company politics, customers, and the long drive from home every day, so he’s been cranky and hard to deal with. Ugh! He also has to go for an endoscopy on Wednesday as he’s been having trouble swallowing food for a while now. He just blows it off, but finally I made him consult with a gastroenterologist to see what was going on. In a way I hope they find something so there’s an answer, but I’m also afraid they’ll find something.

As for me, Victoria informed me that she is no longer interested in going to Playlist Live 2015. WHAT???!!!! Ok, well, since the trip is for her and she no longer wants to go, I am cancelling the trip. Cancelling the hotel (Animal Kingdom Villas) was easy --- they just will bank the points we would have used. Cancelling Jet Blue flights?? Not so easy. It was a $100 charge per ticket to cancel or change. WTH??!!! I didn’t even pay that for the fares. (well, with taxes & fees I did) Ugh! So, there’s $200 down the drain, but hey, I have a $57 credit with JetBlue now for next time. (There will not be a next time!! Jet Blue now charges bag fees and knowing they charge this much for change fees, I will NEVER be flying JetBlue!)

Oh, and guess what is NON-REFUNDABLE after December 1st ---- the actual Playlist Live tickets themselves. I paid for Business Day so that’s $340 of tickets that we will not be using….OMFG!!! I mean really! I cannot handle such a hit to my finances for NOTHING!!!! I have emailed Playlist Live a couple of times begging and pleading for a refund but I haven’t heard anything yet. I understand there are rules and policies put in place for a reason, but ugh! It’s Christmas time, Playlist, please, please, please just do this for me. We’ve gone for the last 2 years…..isn’t loyalty worth something??!! I’m just so upset now. I just don’t know what to do. I can’t even sell them to anyone else because they are also NON-TRANSFERABLE after December 1st. So I really am stuck. I have a feeling I’m just going to have to take this loss. There’s nothing more I can really do.

Oh, I also need to mention that we lost one of our chickens to an unknown illness. Now we have one of our roosters in the house with an impacted crop. We don't think he's going to make it.

So yeah, that’s my life. How’s yours???

 

[SarahDisney]

Wow, it sounds like things have been a mess for you lately, Ann. I'm so sorry to hear about everything that's been going on. I hope you get a Christmas miracle and everything works out okay with Peter, his work, and the Playlist refund.

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

I am really sorry that so much has been going on, Ann! That must be especially tough during the holidays! I hope that everything gets better with Peter’s health. I was sorry to hear about you guys not doing Playlist - because I was really looking forward to hanging out with you - but being out all of that money, too? I don’t blame you for not wanting to be bothered with flying Jet Blue. It really isn’t a discount if you have to pay for bags. I hope that Playlist will give you a refund for the tickets, though! I am going to keep my fingers crossed for a Christmas miracle for you, too!!!

 

[Victoriasmom98]

I know it’s been forever since I’ve updated. Sorry. Life gets in the way sometimes….ugh! I hope everyone had a great holiday season, but I for one am glad it’s over!

We left off still in the Magic Kingdom after just meeting Anna & Elsa. According to my pictures we were off to the Haunted Mansion – one of my favorite rides!





I also made my family wait in line to take pictures with Woody & Jessie. They were so thrilled!









We did end up in Adventureland

Apparently met Peter Pan


and hit up Pirates and then Jungle Cruise. The cm’s at the Jungle Cruise were funny, so I took a picture of them. I love fun cm’s!












Our evening ended early with a 6:30pm dinner at Tony’s. As usual, Tony’s was excellent! I truly love it there! It was a party night (MNSSHP) so we got to see lots of people in costumes before we left. That was fun! I really hope to do MNSSHP next September, but I don’t think the dates are going to line up unless they start the parties earlier than this year. We’ll see….






Here we are on September 17th and our day at Hollywood Studios was planned as follows:
11:15am Rock n Rollercoaster FP
12:25pm Tower of Terror FP
4pm Lights, Motor, Action FP

We first started out with breakfast at O’Hana’s. This is usually a breakfast we love, but this time it wasn’t as magical. I think our server was handling too many tables and just wasn’t attentive enough.





For example, we didn’t get juice or soda refills nor food refills very quickly. It was just disappointing. I don’t like how they do the photos anymore either. There is no longer a place set up prior to the meal. The photopass photographer does come around when Stitch comes around and that’s the photo download you get.







Oh well. Maybe we’ll have to try something else next time. After breakfast we went down to the bus stop and waited for a bus to take us to Hollywood Studios. Apparently, everyone else at the bus stop had the same plan because it was full!!! I believe it was about 20 minutes before a bus for HS came. Little Miss Victoria always tries to be one of the first ones on the bus which usually works out pretty well for all of us but not this time. Yep, SHE made it onto the bus, but guess who didn’t ---- Peter and I!!!! The bus was full, with my child on it. Some of the other people at the stop freaked out but I said it was ok, she was 16 years old and knows HS like the back of her hand --- she will be fine! I actually thought it was kind of funny and thought it would serve her right by not staying with us! Another bus came about 10 minutes later and Peter and I were on our way to go to HS and find our daughter! Oh never fear people, she was right there by the turnstiles waiting for us with her little “oh hi, what took you so long” attitude! Again, I thought it was funny. Peter ---- not so much!







Our first ride of the day was The Great Movie Ride --- a nice, relaxing ride through the movies!



We then headed over to Rock n Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror. I love to get there early and get the headliners done!



It was off to the Backlot Studio Tour to ride it for the last time in its existence and to get the Catastrophe Canyon shot of Victoria that we take every single time! I’m going to miss this ride/experience. I just hope all the new things they will be adding to this park are just as good!

OOopppps just went over image limit....continued in next post!

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Oh Karen ---- guess what we found---- THE UMBRELLA!!!! Yes, the one that I never ran into in the umpteenth times I’ve been to HS including the times it was MGM!!! Thanks to Karen, we found it! I didn’t know it rains on it. That was cool!!!





Afterwards we went to the Indiana Jones stunt show! Nope, I didn’t get picked as a volunteer this time but that was ok. We enjoyed the show. And that was it for our HS day.







We did go back and hit our fastpasses but we didn’t go to LMA. There was just no time it seemed. While Victoria and I were headed to our ToT fastpass, we stopped by the DVC kiosk just to do some pin trading. Well, the dude there was very persuasive as we ended up having an appointment for a DVC tour the next morning. Peter was going to kill us…..but we would receive a $50 gift card and 3 fast passes each to whatever we wanted! Why not?? We told Peter and he seemed ok with it.

When we got back to the resort, we ran into one of the maintenance guys riding in the golf cart and he offered to give us a ride to our room. We told him we were just around the corner and then he asks if we wanted a tour of the property. Sure!!! So we got to see the entire resort via golf cart ride!! How cool is that!!?? I still think we were in the prettiest section of the resort and I’m glad we were staying in the Cabanas!!

 

[Victoriasmom98]

Good Morning Coronado Springs!!!

Ahhhhh here we are on September 18th Our actual 4 year anniversary! This was going to be a special day and it was going to start with a trip over to Saratoga Springs via DVC van for a tour of the villas of the DVC. Hey, I knew we couldn’t afford it --- I was just in it for the gift card and fastpasses. I wasn’t silly enough to believe that we would actually be buying into it. While we were waiting we were offered various breakfast items and juice/water. We were taken into one of the offices and met with Karen Medina of the DVC Sales. We listened to the presentation ----actually Victoria and I listened to the presentation. We thought Peter was tuning out most of it. We then went for a tour of both a Grand Floridian studio & one bedroom villa and a one bedroom villa from Aulani in Hawaii. OMG!!! They were all so beautiful. It was so amazing. I kick myself now for not taking pictures!! After the tour we went back to the office to discuss numbers. It’s not a really hard sell, but I think Peter said no at least 4 times. Ms. Medina finally came out with an offer Peter could accept ---- 100 points at Saratoga Springs for $165 per point with 5% down and finance the remainder for 10 years at 12% (I can’t remember right now!!). PETER AGREED!!! HE SAID YES!!!! OMG!!!! Knowing how Peter is with money (so tight he squeaks!!) I never in a million years thought he would do this! The deal is, though, that he’ll put the $500 down we needed that day and it was up to me to pay $350 by November (the remainder of the deposit) and then start making the monthly payments of $208 (this includes the maintenance fees) in January 2015. The figures come out to be $2,496 per year which is less than we usually pay for a vacation to Disney per year. And we will be staying in villas as opposed to the moderates we usually stay in. The downside of this is that the dining plan (if we chose it) and park tickets are separate. You also cannot book a resort other than your home resort until 7 months before you plan on vacationing. You can book your home resort (Saratoga Springs) 11 months out. We currently have a ressie at Saratoga to make sure we can stay someplace come September. But we want to take my Mom to the Grand Floridian for a couple of days as it has always been a dream of my parents to stay there, but Dad died before they could realize it. We will have 200 points by September 1st (100 points from 2014 and 100 points will be put in our account on September 1st 2015). That will put us in a one-bedroom villa in the GF for 4 days if I’m figuring it out correctly. I’ll know on February 4th if the GF is available for the dates we want in September. I hate waiting, though. You all know this to be true!!! I so want to be able to do this for my Mom.

Ok, so there was my little tangent!!! I’m so excited!!!!!!






Yep, her first handwash as a DVC member!! LOL!!!!

 

[Tink-erin-belle]

You have some great pictures from your MK/HS day! Especially the one with you in front of the Sorcerer Mickey hat (I’m going to miss that!) and under the umbrella! That was too funny that Victoria just hopped on the HS bus without you guys! So, DVC Member, it sounds like you are really happy with your purchase! I’m glad you didn’t take pictures, because then I might be tempted to do a tour, too! It sounds really beautiful, though, and it seems like a good deal for you all. I hope you get GF once February rolls around!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I finally had time to get caught up with your report. First off, I hope that Peter's test results have come in and you now have a plan of action (or no plan would be even better since it would mean that everything is A o.k.).

Congrats on buying into DVC! I wish that we had thought to do that many years ago. I'm thinking that's probably what we will do in a couple of years.