BrerMama
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2000
- Messages
- 2,205
To read Day 7, click .here
We're up again this morning, and dressed quickly. Today we're eating breakfast with the Princesses!
It's Epcot's EMH and the plan was to do Test Track and FutureWorld before heading to Norway for our breakfast. The girls had really cute dresses that my mom had made for them with the Daisy Kingdom Princess fabric, so I decided to try and get a family picture this morning.
As soon as we got through the gate, I grabbed a photographer and he got busy. The only problem was that he positioned us so that we were looking into the sun. Mykiah squints badly. But he took 2 pictures of the family and 2 of the kids and we still had plenty of time to wait for the actual rope drop.
Chesney was still upset from missing the character bus at opening on Saturday, so the plan was that Dan and the kids would go to Test Track, grabbing a Fastpass on the way, ride it, then we'd all go back and ride it together. Meanwhile, I'd follow the character bus and Ches would get to see her characters.
Except that the character bus doesn't run on Wednesday's for opening. It runs at the regular 9 am time. So Dan and the kids had taken off for Test Track, while Chesney and I had nothing to do. We went ahead and walked to the Test Track exit. It wasn't until my family returned that I discovered Dan hadn't stopped for FastPasses on the way in. Fast Pass return time was now so late that it conflicted with our breakfast. I was supremely ticked about this. My wonderful dh was telling me that we could still use our FP after our return time (which seems to be true) but if we didn't spend our time before the breakfast on Test Track, we really didn't have much to do that morning.
So we're standing close to the FP machines arguing and a very nice woman comes up and explains that their Fast Pass return time is too early. They wanted a FP for the time we have because they had a different plan for their morning. Would we switch? Feeling a bit like a fool for getting caught having a petty argument, I made the switch. Our new return time was only 20 minutes away, so we walked over to MouseGears to finish up our souvenir money. Dan and Mykiah got t-shirts, Chesney got a huge Figment, and we picked up a few more things. Then it was back to Test Track.
We're giving up our Fastpasses when Chesney decides she'd rather not do the outside part of this ride again. She doesn't like driving on her side. So I ask for a Rider Switch pass and the CM actually hassles me about it. "She's tall enough to ride, ma'am." Of course she is, but she doesn't want to ride it. Is there a rule that says you can only rider switch when a child is too small to ride? I thought you could use it any time one adult needed to wait with a child who was too young to wait unattended.
But I got my pass and Dan and the big kids went and rode. They came out and the kids and I went to ride. Honestly, I just think this ride is OK. Not worth a huge wait, for sure.
After our Test Track rides, I'd promised we'd do Figment (JIYI) again. I was surprised to run into a line here. This was our 4th or 5th time riding it and we'd never waited. The line looked like 20 minutes plus, and we had Princesses to meet, so I promised Ches we'd wait on the way back to the hotel.
We took a nice leisurely walk over towards Norway. It was only just after 9:30, but I had no idea how long it would take to walk there. It didn't take long, so I went ahead and checked us in at 9:45 ish. There was quite a crowd milling around outside, so I was fully prepared to wait until at least our 10:20 PS time. We wandered over to the waterfall outside Maelstrom and took some pictures and it wasn't 5 minutes and our name was called. We were seated at a table just inside the door. Our server arrived as we were sitting down and took our drink orders while leaving us a fruit plate and the best caramel rolls I've ever had. Even now, almost a month later, my mouth salivates thinking about those rolls. I ate more than my fair share, because the kids didn't want theirs. They ate fruit, I ate pastries. Sounds good to me!
Pretty quickly after bringing our drinks, our server went ahead and brought out our hot skillet. The princesses were starting around and she wanted us to have a chance to eat before they arrived. We actually thought the food was very good. We ordered seconds of everything except potatoes and that was only because our server didn't hear Dan request them. Miracle of miracles, our kids actually ate -- and well -- at a character meal. We used the breakfast vouchers from our Prince/Princess add-on to pay for this breakfast, so I don't have a total. Although the voucher includes tax and tip, we did leave another $5 for the tip because our server was so great.
We had Mary Poppins, Jasmine, Belle, Mulan and Snow White for our breakfast and they were all great. Brady was being this "I'm too cool for Princesses" dude, but Mary Poppins wasn't having any of that. When the girls got up for a picture, she walked over behind Brady so that he was in the picture regardless. I had decided not to give Brady a hard time about not getting his picture taken with characters, but I did appreciate Miss Poppins being true to character and not letting him slide. She told him she wasn't a princess, she was a nanny, so he could get his picture taken with her.
We were done eating by 10:30 or so, but the World Showcase was the plan for the rest of the day, so we just killed some time in the Norway pavilion. The kids played on the boat. OK, Dan did, too. Then we got in line for Maelstrom, which actually opened early. Brady, my little gotta-know fiend, was freaking about the drops on this ride. He knew there were drops, but couldn't remember the ride. His fear rubbed off on Chesney, who started screaming just as our boat arrived. Dan had to carry her onto the boat and surprise -- they sent our boat off without any other passengers. She stopped crying as soon as we started moving and both Brady and Chesney enjoyed the ride, with Brady even asking to ride again. I felt guilty though, because I had sworn I wouldn't force the kids to ride anything they didn't want to ride. But what do you do when you're standing at the gate and the boat is there?
After our actually uneventful boat ride, we hustled over to American Adventure. This was my one "must do" left on the trip. The cast member working the lobby was very nice and chatted with the girls about their dresses. He talked to Brady about it and then told him there was a rumor floating around that soon there would be an Adventurers breakfast for boys with characters like Aladdin and Hercules. Brady's a little done with the whole character thing, but I think this would be a sell-out for younger boys.
I really do think I'm getting jaded because this show just didn't ring the same bell for me that it has in previous years. Usually I'm half teary by the end and this time I was like, "That was good." After the show, we walked through World Showcase until the United Kingdom, where we stopped to get caffeine. By this time, I had realized that I had a niggling headache, probably due to lack of caffeine. So I drank it down while we walked to the Imagination Pavilion.
We rode the ride for what we knew would be the last time, then decided to get Chesney a Figment t-shirt. Of the 3 kids, she was the least spoiled so far, and she had been fairly open to rides, so she earned it.
The line for Spaceship Earth was once again huge, so we just ducked into the photo shop to see our pictures from earlier. There was one decent family shot, so we bought it. I didn't really look at the kids only pictures, but Dan said they were good. We just always buy a family picture on vacation, so I was focused on the group photos.
That done, we headed back to the resort for the daily rest and swim. I was still battling a headache and I popped Advil twice during this break, trying to beat it back.
When we had purchased our Disney bears earlier in the week, the clerk had told us about the Disney Bear character greeting starting today at 4, so we wanted to get to DTD and take some pictures. We left at 3:30 for DTD and arrived at 3:45 to find a sign outside Once Upon a Toy that said the Bear was appearing from 4:30 to 8:30. I was a bit disappointed, but we decided to go ahead and eat, then head into the store. The kids wanted McDonald's so we went there and got them Happy Meals. Total was $12 for 3 Happy Meals.
The minute they got their food, I became ravenously hungry. I had taken those Advil in the room on what was basically an empty stomach (although I had eaten a huge breakfast, I hadn't eaten anything else that day). I stole fries and hustled the kids along so that we could get to Earl of Sandwich and I could eat. It took them a half hour to eat (as I can tell from reading my receipts), and then we went to Earl for our dinner. We walked in and I smelled the food and my stomach immediately started rolling. I gave Dan my order and then went to sit down because I was starting to feel like I was going to pass out. By the time Dan arrived with the sandwiches and iced tea (because it calms my stomach), I was in full migraine mode. I took one bit of my sandwich but knew it wasn't going to work. I ended up eating a few plain chips and giving my kids the sandwich. While Dan ate, I put my head on the table and prayed for mercy.
By this time, I just wanted to get my pictures and leave. Somehow we got over to the toy store a few minutes early, only to find that the sign was wrong and the bear was about to leave. I got pictures of him with each of the girls, but none of the 3 of us with him, which had been the whole point. I just didn't want to know what I looked like at that point. I was so out of it by then that I ended up laying down on the floor at Once Upon a Toy. I seriously did not know how I was going to get back to the hotel because I didn't think I could handle the bus or boat. I was considering calling a taxi. I actually asked Dan to find out if they had first aid at DTD, which he didn't do. Finally, after 20 or so minutes, I felt able to walk. We hustled to the bus stop and by the time we got on the bus, I was starting to feel human. And man, was I ticked that I had missed my sandwich at Earl. In fact, I was really ticked because I had decided I wanted a salad from Earl and Dan wouldn't go get me one. In retrospect, it was for the best as I really couldn't responsibly watch the kids, but I was sick and it sounded good and I know that were it Dan that was sick, I would have sent him home on the bus, taken the kids, gotten the salad, and caught the next bus home. But he wasn't near as confident in his Disney navigating skills.
What I decided to do was get off the bus at French Quarter and check out the muffaleta. I sent Dan on to Riverside to fill up mugs and took Mykiah with me to find the FQ food court. We got the muffaleta rather quickly, then got on the first bus that pulled up to FQ since I knew their next stop would be Riverside. We actually beat Dan, Brady and Chesney back to the room.
About this time, Wendy (Wendyismyname from Passporter) called and we started chatting. Dan decided to take the kids to the quiet pool so I waved goodbye while we were chatting. When I hung up, I changed into my swimsuit. As I stepped out, I realized it was starting to rain. I turned to go back in the room, figuring my family was on the way back and realized I was locked out. So I headed towards the pool, where I found them all just swimming away. What's a little rain when you're wet anyway? When it started to lightening, I insisted they all get out, so we went back and put on our PJs about 8:30.
Just about then, the phone rang and it was another internet friend, Deborah, who always happened to be staying at POR. She was leaving the next morning, so we agreed to meet at the food court for a Coke. Only problem is that I assumed she meant meet in the food court, while she had never been to the main building except to check in and had no idea where the food court was. So she was waiting in the main lobby. We finally found each other and what I meant to limit to a half hour meeting lasted an hour and a half. We just clicked -- we have similar jobs, we were enjoying our trips and we love scrapbooking. By the time I got back to the room, everyone was asleep. I joined them, thankfully.
To read Day 9, click here
We're up again this morning, and dressed quickly. Today we're eating breakfast with the Princesses!
It's Epcot's EMH and the plan was to do Test Track and FutureWorld before heading to Norway for our breakfast. The girls had really cute dresses that my mom had made for them with the Daisy Kingdom Princess fabric, so I decided to try and get a family picture this morning.
As soon as we got through the gate, I grabbed a photographer and he got busy. The only problem was that he positioned us so that we were looking into the sun. Mykiah squints badly. But he took 2 pictures of the family and 2 of the kids and we still had plenty of time to wait for the actual rope drop.
Chesney was still upset from missing the character bus at opening on Saturday, so the plan was that Dan and the kids would go to Test Track, grabbing a Fastpass on the way, ride it, then we'd all go back and ride it together. Meanwhile, I'd follow the character bus and Ches would get to see her characters.
Except that the character bus doesn't run on Wednesday's for opening. It runs at the regular 9 am time. So Dan and the kids had taken off for Test Track, while Chesney and I had nothing to do. We went ahead and walked to the Test Track exit. It wasn't until my family returned that I discovered Dan hadn't stopped for FastPasses on the way in. Fast Pass return time was now so late that it conflicted with our breakfast. I was supremely ticked about this. My wonderful dh was telling me that we could still use our FP after our return time (which seems to be true) but if we didn't spend our time before the breakfast on Test Track, we really didn't have much to do that morning.
So we're standing close to the FP machines arguing and a very nice woman comes up and explains that their Fast Pass return time is too early. They wanted a FP for the time we have because they had a different plan for their morning. Would we switch? Feeling a bit like a fool for getting caught having a petty argument, I made the switch. Our new return time was only 20 minutes away, so we walked over to MouseGears to finish up our souvenir money. Dan and Mykiah got t-shirts, Chesney got a huge Figment, and we picked up a few more things. Then it was back to Test Track.
We're giving up our Fastpasses when Chesney decides she'd rather not do the outside part of this ride again. She doesn't like driving on her side. So I ask for a Rider Switch pass and the CM actually hassles me about it. "She's tall enough to ride, ma'am." Of course she is, but she doesn't want to ride it. Is there a rule that says you can only rider switch when a child is too small to ride? I thought you could use it any time one adult needed to wait with a child who was too young to wait unattended.
But I got my pass and Dan and the big kids went and rode. They came out and the kids and I went to ride. Honestly, I just think this ride is OK. Not worth a huge wait, for sure.
After our Test Track rides, I'd promised we'd do Figment (JIYI) again. I was surprised to run into a line here. This was our 4th or 5th time riding it and we'd never waited. The line looked like 20 minutes plus, and we had Princesses to meet, so I promised Ches we'd wait on the way back to the hotel.
We took a nice leisurely walk over towards Norway. It was only just after 9:30, but I had no idea how long it would take to walk there. It didn't take long, so I went ahead and checked us in at 9:45 ish. There was quite a crowd milling around outside, so I was fully prepared to wait until at least our 10:20 PS time. We wandered over to the waterfall outside Maelstrom and took some pictures and it wasn't 5 minutes and our name was called. We were seated at a table just inside the door. Our server arrived as we were sitting down and took our drink orders while leaving us a fruit plate and the best caramel rolls I've ever had. Even now, almost a month later, my mouth salivates thinking about those rolls. I ate more than my fair share, because the kids didn't want theirs. They ate fruit, I ate pastries. Sounds good to me!
Pretty quickly after bringing our drinks, our server went ahead and brought out our hot skillet. The princesses were starting around and she wanted us to have a chance to eat before they arrived. We actually thought the food was very good. We ordered seconds of everything except potatoes and that was only because our server didn't hear Dan request them. Miracle of miracles, our kids actually ate -- and well -- at a character meal. We used the breakfast vouchers from our Prince/Princess add-on to pay for this breakfast, so I don't have a total. Although the voucher includes tax and tip, we did leave another $5 for the tip because our server was so great.
We had Mary Poppins, Jasmine, Belle, Mulan and Snow White for our breakfast and they were all great. Brady was being this "I'm too cool for Princesses" dude, but Mary Poppins wasn't having any of that. When the girls got up for a picture, she walked over behind Brady so that he was in the picture regardless. I had decided not to give Brady a hard time about not getting his picture taken with characters, but I did appreciate Miss Poppins being true to character and not letting him slide. She told him she wasn't a princess, she was a nanny, so he could get his picture taken with her.
We were done eating by 10:30 or so, but the World Showcase was the plan for the rest of the day, so we just killed some time in the Norway pavilion. The kids played on the boat. OK, Dan did, too. Then we got in line for Maelstrom, which actually opened early. Brady, my little gotta-know fiend, was freaking about the drops on this ride. He knew there were drops, but couldn't remember the ride. His fear rubbed off on Chesney, who started screaming just as our boat arrived. Dan had to carry her onto the boat and surprise -- they sent our boat off without any other passengers. She stopped crying as soon as we started moving and both Brady and Chesney enjoyed the ride, with Brady even asking to ride again. I felt guilty though, because I had sworn I wouldn't force the kids to ride anything they didn't want to ride. But what do you do when you're standing at the gate and the boat is there?
After our actually uneventful boat ride, we hustled over to American Adventure. This was my one "must do" left on the trip. The cast member working the lobby was very nice and chatted with the girls about their dresses. He talked to Brady about it and then told him there was a rumor floating around that soon there would be an Adventurers breakfast for boys with characters like Aladdin and Hercules. Brady's a little done with the whole character thing, but I think this would be a sell-out for younger boys.
I really do think I'm getting jaded because this show just didn't ring the same bell for me that it has in previous years. Usually I'm half teary by the end and this time I was like, "That was good." After the show, we walked through World Showcase until the United Kingdom, where we stopped to get caffeine. By this time, I had realized that I had a niggling headache, probably due to lack of caffeine. So I drank it down while we walked to the Imagination Pavilion.
We rode the ride for what we knew would be the last time, then decided to get Chesney a Figment t-shirt. Of the 3 kids, she was the least spoiled so far, and she had been fairly open to rides, so she earned it.
The line for Spaceship Earth was once again huge, so we just ducked into the photo shop to see our pictures from earlier. There was one decent family shot, so we bought it. I didn't really look at the kids only pictures, but Dan said they were good. We just always buy a family picture on vacation, so I was focused on the group photos.
That done, we headed back to the resort for the daily rest and swim. I was still battling a headache and I popped Advil twice during this break, trying to beat it back.
When we had purchased our Disney bears earlier in the week, the clerk had told us about the Disney Bear character greeting starting today at 4, so we wanted to get to DTD and take some pictures. We left at 3:30 for DTD and arrived at 3:45 to find a sign outside Once Upon a Toy that said the Bear was appearing from 4:30 to 8:30. I was a bit disappointed, but we decided to go ahead and eat, then head into the store. The kids wanted McDonald's so we went there and got them Happy Meals. Total was $12 for 3 Happy Meals.
The minute they got their food, I became ravenously hungry. I had taken those Advil in the room on what was basically an empty stomach (although I had eaten a huge breakfast, I hadn't eaten anything else that day). I stole fries and hustled the kids along so that we could get to Earl of Sandwich and I could eat. It took them a half hour to eat (as I can tell from reading my receipts), and then we went to Earl for our dinner. We walked in and I smelled the food and my stomach immediately started rolling. I gave Dan my order and then went to sit down because I was starting to feel like I was going to pass out. By the time Dan arrived with the sandwiches and iced tea (because it calms my stomach), I was in full migraine mode. I took one bit of my sandwich but knew it wasn't going to work. I ended up eating a few plain chips and giving my kids the sandwich. While Dan ate, I put my head on the table and prayed for mercy.
By this time, I just wanted to get my pictures and leave. Somehow we got over to the toy store a few minutes early, only to find that the sign was wrong and the bear was about to leave. I got pictures of him with each of the girls, but none of the 3 of us with him, which had been the whole point. I just didn't want to know what I looked like at that point. I was so out of it by then that I ended up laying down on the floor at Once Upon a Toy. I seriously did not know how I was going to get back to the hotel because I didn't think I could handle the bus or boat. I was considering calling a taxi. I actually asked Dan to find out if they had first aid at DTD, which he didn't do. Finally, after 20 or so minutes, I felt able to walk. We hustled to the bus stop and by the time we got on the bus, I was starting to feel human. And man, was I ticked that I had missed my sandwich at Earl. In fact, I was really ticked because I had decided I wanted a salad from Earl and Dan wouldn't go get me one. In retrospect, it was for the best as I really couldn't responsibly watch the kids, but I was sick and it sounded good and I know that were it Dan that was sick, I would have sent him home on the bus, taken the kids, gotten the salad, and caught the next bus home. But he wasn't near as confident in his Disney navigating skills.
What I decided to do was get off the bus at French Quarter and check out the muffaleta. I sent Dan on to Riverside to fill up mugs and took Mykiah with me to find the FQ food court. We got the muffaleta rather quickly, then got on the first bus that pulled up to FQ since I knew their next stop would be Riverside. We actually beat Dan, Brady and Chesney back to the room.
About this time, Wendy (Wendyismyname from Passporter) called and we started chatting. Dan decided to take the kids to the quiet pool so I waved goodbye while we were chatting. When I hung up, I changed into my swimsuit. As I stepped out, I realized it was starting to rain. I turned to go back in the room, figuring my family was on the way back and realized I was locked out. So I headed towards the pool, where I found them all just swimming away. What's a little rain when you're wet anyway? When it started to lightening, I insisted they all get out, so we went back and put on our PJs about 8:30.
Just about then, the phone rang and it was another internet friend, Deborah, who always happened to be staying at POR. She was leaving the next morning, so we agreed to meet at the food court for a Coke. Only problem is that I assumed she meant meet in the food court, while she had never been to the main building except to check in and had no idea where the food court was. So she was waiting in the main lobby. We finally found each other and what I meant to limit to a half hour meeting lasted an hour and a half. We just clicked -- we have similar jobs, we were enjoying our trips and we love scrapbooking. By the time I got back to the room, everyone was asleep. I joined them, thankfully.
To read Day 9, click here
Can't wait to finish the rest!
