"Excuse me, could you tell me what time it is please?" UPDATE! To DVC or not?

[ash-n-brensmom]

Day Five!!

Ahhhhh...it's our relaxing day! No rope drop, no parks, no stress!!! I got up and Stitch and I headed over the the food court to get us some REAL breakfast this morning!! We brought it back to the room and we all had a nice hot meal together. I threw some laundry in (that was one benefit to having the pool practically right out our room!). Everyone slowly got showered and dressed and we headed out for some shopping at DTD. It wasn't the warmest day so far, not cold by any standards, but not hot enough to swim so we took our time shopping and enjoying the day at DTD.
We had lunch at T-rex which was a surprise to Rapunzel..she had been asking for it for two years....

She's not too happy is she?

Stitch liked it too!

Check out that huge jelly fish...the color was cooler in person:

We were seated across from the ice room and during the "meteor storm" it changed from this:

To this:

This place was so neat!!

Ferb and I got the Supersaurus Sampler:

The girls got the kids' ribs one had apples and one had carrots:

The food here was fantastic and we will definitely come here again!

After lunch we walked around a bit, the girls really wanted to get their hair wrapped so we did that next. The woman doing it was from Rochester, NY so we had lots to talk about. The girls were very happy with their hair! We moved on from there to WOD...again the place where we can get into lots of trouble!!

Like I said, lots of trouble:

Ferb was trying to find a shirt to buy and couldn't find one anywhere that really spoke to him..I on the other hand found a purse that not only spoke to me, but was screaming out my name. It was from the Nerds collection. Let me begin that my two obsessions are Disney (of course) and purses. I don't allow myself to indulge too often in the purse obsession, but Ferb tried to talk me into buying it. I walked away with the knowledge that if it was still screaming to me later in the trip, I knew it was available elsewhere in Disney. We didn't walk out empty handed, though...we got a bag of pin backs, a rapunzel pin, a stitch pen, and the girls got the mickey head stretchy bracelets for their besties!

We walked out of there and headed right for Ghirardelli!! I had wanted to try this out last year. Time got away as it always does, but today we had lots of time! Oooohhhh, it is soooooo gooooood!!!

Rapunzel got the root beer float, Stitch got the Banana split and Ferb and I shared a caramel sundae with hot fudge added!!! I need to hit the gym just from looking a that picture! We slowly wandered back to the bus area and took some pics along the way. And if you can believe after all that sugar we actually stopped at Goofy's Candy Shop to buy more We just picked up some prepackaged candy for the girls to have when we got home.

Hey look, Ferb, Disney still has their Christmas lights up too!!

We headed back to the hotel to rest and swim, it was colder than hoped so swimming didn't last. I got the laundry that I didn't finish earlier and we got cleaned up and went to the food court for dinner. We had another surprise tonight that we needed to be at the Riverside Mill for! Dinner was chicken nuggets, a beef and blue sandwich, and cheese pizza. I also picked up some of those mickey straws to match the girls refillable mugs.
Our surprise was scheduled for 6:30..or so I thought, so we took our time with dinner and headed out towards the marina behind Riverside. I walked up to the carriage driver and asked if there was a reservation for the *****'s thinking like I did with the Wishes Cruise and surprising the girls..little did I know I was the one surprised when she said we were supposed to be there at 6!! Oh no!!! But, it was okay because she was free for the next half hour and could take us still!! WHEW!!! That was a close one!!

Here's our carriage!!

It was a nice ride over to FQ and back:

When we returned Ferb had another surprise, this time for me! He had run into WOD earlier that day to grab some cookies for a co worker and when he did he bought my purse!! And inside the purse he had another surprise..my wedding ring newly engraved with "Disney 2011"!! That was so sweet and thoughtful...this trip was a new beginning for us, and a healing one as well...I was in tears...
It was time to head back to the room, it was chilly that night and between that and swimming we were ready for some sleep!! Up next..Epcot day two!!

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

The hair makeovers look great!

Mr Smee's costume does look a bit out of sorts on the cruise! Am glad you all still managed to have a really good night and have a really special meet n greet with Peter Pan!

Yay on making the TSMM dash and being successful! That Fantasmic line does not sound good - we will be lining up in September and am hoping it is not that bad!

We did the second Fantasmic show and I hear that's the better one to be at if you can..less crowded maybe? They were a very aggressive crowd once they let us in, too!! So be careful!!

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

I'm here!!!

I can't believe all of the updates so far We were suppoesed to stay at POR last week too but POFQ opened up and we jumped for that but your pics of POR look nice We just like the smaller size of FQ and now the queen beds hehe

I love all the food porn I could use that LC Steak right now!!!!!!!

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

I'm here!!!

I can't believe all of the updates so far We were suppoesed to stay at POR last week too but POFQ opened up and we jumped for that but your pics of POR look nice We just like the smaller size of FQ and now the queen beds hehe

I love all the food porn I could use that LC Steak right now!!!!!!!

That's so funny, because we tried to get into FQ when I heard about the refurb..nothing was available!! Would have loved those queen beds!!

Oh, and

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

That's so funny, because we tried to get into FQ when I heard about the refurb..nothing was available!! Would have loved those queen beds!!

Oh, and

We were the same way! We were booked at POR and canceled when POFQ finally showed up with my AP discount. The funny thing is that it went from having NOTHING to having every category open and it stayed that way until the day we left so I'm guessing they had blocked rooms for something else..maybe rack rates, they never sold so they opened back up AP holders which worked out for us!

Right now, I can't seem to get a discount for Summer (none out there) and my friends CM discount is only showing Pirate rooms at CBR (um no!) so we considering booking rack rate at POFQ and then seeing what happens in the coming days and weeks!!

 

[MyPeanut&Bug]

Ok, I'm only caught up to day 2. Gotta get reading!

I love their hair! Too cute! And Stitch's face in the first picture is too funny.

The cruise sounds wonderful!! I laughed about Capt. Smee's "wardrobe malfunction" - that's just annoying!

 

[luckylady]

All caught up from day one pt 2. Love that you surprised the girl. Ponytails looked great. And the food....yum. can't wait for more.

 

[3pletprincesses]

Love all the surprises for the girls. We have a few of those for our girls too.

 

[GaRain]

Nope, I still haven't made it into any of your trip pictures!
I don't get the ESPN weekend stuff either....
I love Fantasmic - but I hate the wait for it!
What a great "day off" for you guys - so glad you got the purse!!!

 

[Kurby]

O M G - those Ghirardelli desserts....... i think i just gained 5lbs looking at the pics.

i've never gone there but i had to put it on our list for our next trip.

 

[kslo69]

I have never rode TSM ans am looking forward to doing so in May. can I ask what time you got your FP for it adn what time th FP said to return to ride it? I heard if you don't get a FP early you will most likely not get one.

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

Ok, I'm only caught up to day 2. Gotta get reading!

I love their hair! Too cute! And Stitch's face in the first picture is too funny.

The cruise sounds wonderful!! I laughed about Capt. Smee's "wardrobe malfunction" - that's just annoying!

Think of it like a distance learning class..you can go at your own pace..I won't quiz you at the end, though, I promise!
Yeah, it's a good thing none of the little kids seemed to notice his costume..that would have been a shame...I keep thinking of what would Walt think if he saw it? I know, corny, but really they need to work on their standards..IMHO.

All caught up from day one pt 2. Love that you surprised the girl. Ponytails looked great. And the food....yum. can't wait for more.

Well done! I was very pleased with the girls' hair..I can't remember exactly how much it was..maybe $7.50 each..and it was really cute!!

Love all the surprises for the girls. We have a few of those for our girls too.

Don't you just love surprising your kids? It's so much fun!!

Nope, I still haven't made it into any of your trip pictures!
I don't get the ESPN weekend stuff either....
I love Fantasmic - but I hate the wait for it!
What a great "day off" for you guys - so glad you got the purse!!!

HAHA!! Sorry...keep checking..you never know!

O M G - those Ghirardelli desserts....... i think i just gained 5lbs looking at the pics.

i've never gone there but i had to put it on our list for our next trip.

Seriously? You have GOT to do it!!! It was soooooo gooood!!!!

I have never rode TSM ans am looking forward to doing so in May. can I ask what time you got your FP for it adn what time th FP said to return to ride it? I heard if you don't get a FP early you will most likely not get one.

The TSM mad dash is scary for little kids..but worth dodging your way through, if you can handle it, and you can ride at least 2 times that day if you get there early enough. Our return time escapes me right now...but no later than 11AM, and we got that at park opening! But there was a loooooong line to get them behind DH so they go very quickly.

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

Day Six!!

I just want you all to know that I am sitting here typing away to the sounds of WDW Park Music in the background!! I am sure you all know what that feels like!

Back to the TR!!

We went to Epcot this day and it was a beautiful sunshiny day, if not a little chilly in the AM. We had such a relaxing restful day at DTD and hanging out at our resort, that we made it to RD this morning with no problem! Today was Mardi Gras and LA was IN THE HOUSE!!! I have never seen so much purple in all my life!! Everyone was so excited and happy to be celebrating in The World!! We headed right for Test Track this morning since we had waited for so long in line the other day. We rode fairly quickly and grabbed FP's for later. Then we wandered over to where the Fairies Meet and Greet was set up. The line was already pretty long so we stayed put. It was a little confusing at first, because there were two spots to line up, but I checked it out and the other line was for the second "round" of fairies. We were going to meet Tink and Terrence on the first round. While we waited Rapunzel took this pic with our camera:

Not bad! Can you see a cloud in the sky? NOPE!!! It was a bit of a wait, but well worth it!!

Standing there we had already warmed up nicely!! So what next? The Fairy Garden of course!! Rapunzel wanted to get the paper to rub the Fairies' signatures.

Don't mind the hair...this was one of those days where their bad haircuts couldn't be tamed!! URG, can't stand bad haircuts!!

I have no idea what Rapunzel is doing here?

Next Stitch and Ferb wanted to ride Mission Space..I took Rapunzel to go get FP's for Soarin and walked around waiting for them.

As soon as we met up Stitch had to get this pic!!

Monkey see, monkey do!

At this point Ferb told me that he saw a t-shirt and wanted it!! We headed into the MS gift shop and he got a Tron shirt!! It's pretty neat!!

Continued in next post!

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

Now we are getting hungry..so we headed towards the WS to see what looked good...unfortunately this is another instance where a watch would have come in handy. The WS wasn't open quite yet, so we thought about where to eat and sat in the gazebo in Mexico to wait. Here's what we got:

Stitch didn't like her empanadas

Rapunzel was good to go with the kids chicken tenders

Ferb and I had seen these last year and wanted to try them...Oh yeah!!!

And finally I got a Margarita..

It's not the Fiesta Margarita, but I though that the Raspberry one would be easier to take...Holy Crow!!! Do these people realize this is a family park?! I am not that much of a drinker..I know, my PTR says otherwise ..but seriously, this was WAY too strong for me...I even used the girls' pink lemonade to try to water it down. I couldn't finish it. What a waste

After lunch we headed into the Mexico pavilion to grab the girls a passport stamp and took this silly shot of Rapunzel...she insisted!!

We decided to head out and swim, it was warming up nicely! We took this pic along the way out...

We had packed a bag with swimsuits and sunblock so we could go directly to the pool at POFQ and check it out. It was the best thing we could have done that day!

The pool there is really nice, the slide is a little small for Stitch but perfect for Rapunzel. And the water was soooo warm!! The main pool at POR was still freezing at this point. Actually, I don't know if I mentioned this before, but it was cold the whole week and Ferb saw them fixing it when we were leaving to go home. At least we had the quiet pool out our door and we could use this pool at POFQ.

What I unfortunately don't have pics of is the parade that ran through the resort while we were there!! It started with Tiana and Naveen in an open carriage. They were followed by at least a dozen golf carts all decorated with different Disney movie themes....it was soooo cute. All the CM's were giving away candy, beads and masks as they slowly drove by. The girls loved it. We started to get chilly from being out of the water and decided to head back. We took the river boat back, a bit of a wait but a nice ride! We hung out and rested before heading back to Epcot!

Oops, edited to add what we found in our room when we got back:

Continued in next post:

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

After resting and showering we headed back to Epcot. We took some cool PP pics when we got there and then headed over to SPE. While we were waiting to get our picture taken I heard "Ash-n-brensmom..." I thought I was losing my mind! But it was a fellow Diser who recognized us and saw the LGMH hanging on my bag!!!! It was Bickiana aka BMC423!! We had been posting on each others PTR and it was great to meet each other. Her son is so cute!!! We talked for a few minutes comparing notes but then parted ways...not for long, though because we both had the same idea to ride SPE!!

We rode that and as always I had to take these!! Stitch got mad at me!

We rode TT and Soarin with our FP's and then walked around taking more pics.

We tried to ride Figment because Stitch all of a sudden was dying to ride, but unbeknown to us it closed early...bummer...gonna have to hit that next time...2012.

Soon enough it was time for our dinner reservation at The Rose and Crown. If you read our PTR you will recall my stress surrounding this ADR. Well, maybe not stress, but I was definitely FOCUSED on this ADR. I was determined to get in at the right time to get a good view of Illuminations without having to search and plot for a spot. We saw Illuminations on our first trip with my cousin, however Stitch had to use the washroom and I missed most of it. Each year since we have been too tired to stay for it. Well, I was bound and determined this year!! I figured if food was gonna be on the table we wouldn't leave!! We got a great ADR time at 7:50. We got our pager and Stitch wanted to use the washroom and then insisted on having this pic taken!!

The buzzer was going off when we got back and we walked in to find out where we would be sitting for the fireworks...and we got an AWESOME table right inside the patio...!

Here are some pics of dinner:
I got two appetizers because I was feeling a little queasy and the food on the menu didn't help.

This was delish!!

This was just enough food for me that night!

Ferb's Fish and Chips

Ferb is Welsh..right off the boat! Well, plane actually, and that was when he was 17...but if he knows anything, it's British food, and this wasn't it!! He was soooo disappointed.. Too bland.

The girls got pizza:

I rallied and felt good enough to have TWO of these!!

The Welsh Dragon!!! YUMMY!!

Desert for me and Ferb:

It was good, but it was pretty small and we shared it.

It was soo cold that night, they had a tarp up to block the wind but they opened it for the show..Stitch was FREEZING and I think this was the end for her...her voice was starting to sound pretty scratchy. I thought it was from the late night, but she was getting sick. Little did I know, I was next!!
Continued next post!

 

[ash-n-brensmom]

But here are pics of the reason for this reservation...it certainly wasn't for the food... These turned out surprisingly well considering it was with our dinky point and shoot camera and all the smoke coming from those fireworks!

We paid for dinner and headed out. It wasn't too bad getting back because by the time we got there the crowds had already thinned out. It was hard saying goodbye to Epcot. We had two great days there getting almost everything done that we wanted to. Up next MK day two!

 

[teachermommy78]

You've been a busy little bee since I last visited your TR! And where are the pics of the purse? That Ferb always manages to pull at my heartstrings! How sweet is he? I'm loving all the updates! It's making me so excited for our trip!

 

[TanzUnited99]

Love the relaxing day at DTD and the Ghiradelli Sundaes!

Sounds like you all had a great time at Epcot (yay on a DIS meet) and what a cool way to see Illuminations!

 

[MyPeanut&Bug]

Ok, I've neglected my children this morning and caught up. Just kidding, I at least threw them some breakfast.

Yay for everyone liking TT! I'm hoping in the next few years my son will be willing to try it again - so much more fun when we can all 4 ride together! Love the face painting at Epcot too - I asked the kids if they wanted to do that and was shocked that they didn't, especially my DD.

That TSM madness is unlike anything I've ever seen there - and it was way worse this time than our 09 trip. We love the ride too but geez, I carry DD and won't even let her walk b/c people just get so freaking nuts! Glad you enjoyed Fantasmic!

Your slow paced day at DTD sounds lovely. We LOVE DTD - I swear my son like it as much as any park. T Rex is such a fun place to eat too - we got seated in the ice cave this trip and it was so cool! Glad your girls enjoyed it. What size Nerds bag did you get?? My mom surprised me with one while we were there too. I LOVE it - makes me happy at home just carrying it.

I'm jealous that your Spaceship Earth pic showed up on the screen. Everyone else in our group did but some reason my pic didn't show up. I even made an appropriately goofy face. Sorry to hear your food at Rose and Crown was disappointing but what a great table anyway!

That little parade thru PO sounds so cute! We stayed at PO back then it was PO and DL and again at POR on our honeymoon - I just love the surroundings there, so pretty.

What WDW Park Music do you have? I'm always on the lookout for more ways to bring Disney into the house.

 

[GaRain]

Great finish to the day at EPCOT! I never did get my picture with the fairies - what is Tink wearing?????
Wait - I see me, across the lake, during Wishes - do you see me over in Mexico!?!?