Feeling Hot Hot Hot! The Rain Curse is Broken! Two Weeks of Fun in the Sun! COMPLETE

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I've been following your trip report for quite awhile, but never commented. I think the term is lurker but for some reason I hate that name.

Thanks for taking the time to do this. I love being able to get my Disney fix.

I don't normally watch videos but I didn't want to disappoint Alek and Erich. I just have one question - Did Erich step on the crying baby? Right when he says, "Oh, I stepped on something, or someone "- the baby starts crying. Just saying......

Yes, he did! Just kidding! It was really just fortuitous timing. Can you imagine if a parent had their baby crawling around on the ground in the hub after Wishes, talk about negligent parenting!

 

[OhMari]

It's been awhile and I"m caught up.

Why you say? Well we had to make enough room in the car so that the back row of seats would be able to pop up by the time we left so that there would be room for Aunt Mary in the car

I can't believe no one mentioned the Griswold Family vacation with dead Aunt Mary in the car. I actually laughed for awhile, sorry I get amused easy.


Would you believe that me and my sisters walked to that exact same spot, when the Electric Parade started! It was a cold nasty day and didn't stop raining till 6:30 that day. The park was absolutely empty. We stood across the street by that little hut. I told my sisters, the spot we were standing in on any other given day, was an area that you had to get to at least 2 hours before the parade. They just shook their heads at me, like I was nuts.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

It's been awhile and I"m caught up.

I can't believe no one mentioned the Griswold Family vacation with dead Aunt Mary in the car. I actually laughed for awhile, sorry I get amused easy.

Was her name really Aunt Mary in the movie?

Would you believe that me and my sisters walked to that exact same spot, when the Electric Parade started! It was a cold nasty day and didn't stop raining till 6:30 that day. The park was absolutely empty. We stood across the street by that little hut. I told my sisters, the spot we were standing in on any other given day, was an area that you had to get to at least 2 hours before the parade. They just shook their heads at me, like I was nuts.

Wow, lucky break!

 

[PlutosRHM55]

Wow, I really fell behind this time... Time to catch up!

Oh those Liberty Slushes look SOOOO GOOD! I must be on the lookout for those when I'm in Liberty Square again

Love your pictures of the castle and around Fantasyland. I cannot wait until the newly expanded Fantasyland is opened. The Seven Dwarfs Mine Ride has definitely caught my interest and the whole concept for the Beauty & the Beast themed area is very intriguing. Definitely a chance to really enhance FL

LOL @ "Prince Erich" and Ariel... very creative And too bad you didn't get pictures of some of the bigger changes for the FLE :/ Disney has just mastered the talent of really keeping the refurb progress a secret, darn you Disney! lol

Oh the Wishing Well area is so pretty. I can never manage to find that area, because usually we bypass to Tomorrowland not to the Hub from Fantasyland :/ I definitely must check that out next time.

You guys definitely picked great spots for the parade, smart move getting their so early. A big thumbs up to Mario (; And the dad dressed up as Prince Charming is so cute, same with the other crazy dad, it seemed they happened to all show up on this day, just something to keep you occupied while you wait. Love the castle pictures at night!

MSEP, WOOT! Love the pics and the videos! It is such a fun parade, but I agree Spectro was better. Though I never got to see the full parade of either, Spectro's music and the whole introduction just seems to flow well with all of the other nighttime shows where MSEP... it's just out of place. I think MSEP should go back to DLR (they need a nighttime parade) and WDW gets Spectro again

The Magic, Memories and You is going to be the death of me! I have yet to see it and I'm beating myself up so much for not seeing it when I could've last time I was there. At least I get to see the DL version But it looks really cool, great photos and love the videos, btw Same with the Wishes photos, which I think pretty unanimously is totally epic

Oh my gosh, that video! I never knew exiting the park could be so entertaining. Apparently Casey's is now the Coca Cola place and an Ice Cream Parlour sells parlours with just ice cream added into the title... who knew?!

That's awesome you got to see a little of the EWP, another thing I must go try and see, it looks so neat And don't you mean TTC not TTA?

Can't wait to read about your day at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

 

[IheartDDuck]

Your pics of the Chateau and the area were just beautiful.

Okay, your story of Erich reminds me of my brother. He got pulled up to participate in the Hoop de Doo Revue. Let's just say everyone else on stage had no idea what was going on.

Love that Erich made a video just for the DISboards. Crazy that it was that bad to get out of the park. That happened to my dad and I when we visited over New Years. Absolutely insane.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Wow, I really fell behind this time... Time to catch up!

Sorry for being so speedy with the updates!

Oh those Liberty Slushes look SOOOO GOOD! I must be on the lookout for those when I'm in Liberty Square again

They are super yummy!

LOL @ "Prince Erich" and Ariel... very creative

We thought so.

Oh the Wishing Well area is so pretty. I can never manage to find that area, because usually we bypass to Tomorrowland not to the Hub from Fantasyland :/ I definitely must check that out next time.

It is a cute little spot, definitely worth checking out if you have the time.

Oh my gosh, that video! I never knew exiting the park could be so entertaining. Apparently Casey's is now the Coca Cola place and an Ice Cream Parlour sells parlours with just ice cream added into the title... who knew?!

That's awesome you got to see a little of the EWP, another thing I must go try and see, it looks so neat And don't you mean TTC not TTA?

Oops! There I go messing up my Disney acronyms.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Your pics of the Chateau and the area were just beautiful.

Okay, your story of Erich reminds me of my brother. He got pulled up to participate in the Hoop de Doo Revue. Let's just say everyone else on stage had no idea what was going on.

The same happened when Alek and Erich volunteered for the Backlot Tour, I think the lady in charge was not expecting them to be so enthusiastic!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Sad? news on the Disney vacation front. Mom and I have decided to cancel our plans for the Fantasy cruise in May 2012 and we are instead going to save up for a Med cruise in the summer of 2013. Will it be a Disney Med cruise? We will have to wait and see about that as they haven't released their 2013 itineraries yet. It will also depend on how much they are asking for if they do cruise the Med that summer and of course it will depend on the ports! In the meantime I am investigating other cruise lines to see what they offer and to get a baseline in regards to price comparison should Disney announce Med sailings.

I would love to do an Adventures By Disney land tour but they are way too expensive! A cruise will get us to more places for around the same price.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

The Crazy Stepmother Chronicles: August 2011

Day Eight: Banff: Plain of the Six Glaciers Hike

I woke up bright and early, I think it was around 6am. Nobody else was awake yet. I stumbled my way over to the washrooms, shivering the whole way.

When I got back to the campsite it turned out that Dad was awake and had been sitting in the car reading with Marcus. I joined them so I could get out of the cold. I bundled myself up in my coat and the toque that Maria had lent me. It annoys me to have to say that she did a nice thing giving me that hat the night before.

Once everybody woke up Maria made breakfast. I think we had eggs that morning and noodles. An odd combination, I know.

I was so cold! Nobody else seemed to be bothered. The temperature was 4 degrees Celsius, that is 39 for all the Americans. I think you will all agree with me that that is cold! Luckily as the sun came up and the day progressed it got much warmer. I guess the cold nights and mornings are just part of being in the mountains!

After we finished eating and Maria washed up the dishes, we got our packs ready and then hopped in the car and drove over to Lake Louise.

We would be hiking the Plain of the Six Glaciers Trail which starts at Lake Louise. Dad says it is probably the most popular trail in all of Banff. Dad also wanted to add on the hike to Lake Agnes if time permitted.

It was still pretty early when we arrived at Lake Louise and the parking lot was fairly empty. A big difference from the day before when it was packed and there were tourists everywhere.

That is the Victoria Glacier in the background.

We followed the path around the lake

Yes, Maria does have Marcus tied around her waist. That is his hiking leash. It is more secure that way, he can't run off as easily if he is anchored to one of us. He was also wearing his own pack this day which was absolutely adorable. He got lots of attention, people kept stopping to take his picture. Forget the lake and the mountains, there is a dog with his own hiking pack! He carried his own water and food in his pack. Dad would joke to everybody that commented on it that we made him carry the beer. Dad humour.

Continued in next post

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

As we were nearing the back end of the lake we came upon a rocky area and we spotted the most adorable creature ever, a pika! Well okay, maybe red pandas are cuter but this guy was a close second!

Lots of people think they are rodents but they are actually related to rabbits. They are super cute!

You didn't think I was done with the pika pictures did you?

Alek, Erich and I were discussing the name and we pondered if perhaps the creators of Pokemon got the inspiration for Pikachu from pikas! Dad called us nerds and told Alek and Erich they would never attract a girl if all they talked about was video games and anime. Ummm Dad, lots of girls are into that stuff nowadays.

This cute little guy was hanging around the area as well

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

As we were admiring the cute little critters these big guys came strolling through, Marcus was very interested, I think he wanted to make friends but he was restrained from doing so.

The trail started to climb at this point. Nothing too steep yet, just a gradual incline.

We passed by this cliff face Do you see what I see?

See that couple in the background? We would end up hiking with them but that story will come later.

That is where I will leave you for now. As you can see from the pictures we had gained a bit of height already but we still had higher to go. Lake Louise kept getting smaller and smaller in the distance.

 

[GeminiAngel]

Its not sad news that you changed your cruise plans, its awesome! A bigger and better cruise.


Its so nice that you guys spend time together like that at the most beautiful places. We have lots of different mountain ranges here in Vegas, and just outside of the Vegas valley, I hate hiking.

 

[AKL LOVER]

Your pictures of the lake are beautiful. I just love the color of it. It makes it look so inviting...like the color of the Caribbean ocean. But obviously not the same temperature so not as fun to swim in!

*Sigh* I haven't seen Wishes in a couple of years and I really miss it. Next trip I am definitely going to see it--even if it means going by myself!

 

[CandleontheWater]

Wow, each of your photos are prettier than the last! I love the Banff springs hotel- it is gorgeous! And the pica and little ground squirrel are too cute! I would have flipped out if I saw something that cute!

Please keep up the photos, I love them!

 

[orangecats2]

You didn't post a pic of Marcus in his hiking pack!

What is that scum on the lake?

Not real sure what you see on the cliff face?

 

[Tink2Day]

Thanks for the beautiful photos of Lake Louise, brings back great memories of when I was younger and we went on a one month tour of Canada. LOVED Banff.
Absolutely GORGEOUS photos!

Love your reports!

 

[NancyLuvsMickey]

What beautiful pictures of the mountains and lakes... Breathtaking...

And from the few pictures I've seen of the step-mom, I would say that yes, she does look old enough to be your mother... Your Mom on the other had looks young enough to be your older sister...

My sister and BIL have been on three 2-week Disney cruises... Two thru the Panama Canal (California to Florida both times) and once from Europe to Florida... They said those cruises were cheaper than the 1 week cruises... So you might want to check them out too... And they buy their plane tickets thru Disney so the price for the 1-way tickets are very reasonable...

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Its not sad news that you changed your cruise plans, its awesome! A bigger and better cruise.

That is the way I am looking at. It is hard to pick a cruise than especially as we don't know if Disney is doing the Med that summer.

Its so nice that you guys spend time together like that at the most beautiful places. We have lots of different mountain ranges here in Vegas, and just outside of the Vegas valley, I hate hiking.

I like/hate hiking. I love seeing all the beautiful sites BUT hiking is really hard for me as I am out of shape and my body just wasn't designed for hiking. I am short and stubby which makes for hard going sometimes.

Your pictures of the lake are beautiful. I just love the color of it. It makes it look so inviting...like the color of the Caribbean ocean. But obviously not the same temperature so not as fun to swim in!

*Sigh* I haven't seen Wishes in a couple of years and I really miss it. Next trip I am definitely going to see it--even if it means going by myself!

Yes, the water is probably just a tad chillier than the Caribbean.

I hope you get to see Wishes on your next trip. It isn't a WDW vacation for me unless I have seen Wishes.

Wow, each of your photos are prettier than the last! I love the Banff springs hotel- it is gorgeous! And the pica and little ground squirrel are too cute! I would have flipped out if I saw something that cute!

Please keep up the photos, I love them!

Yeah, I squeal like a little girl when I see cute little animals. The ground squirrels we saw all over the place but the pika was a first sighting for me.

You didn't post a pic of Marcus in his hiking pack!

What is that scum on the lake?

Not real sure what you see on the cliff face?

Don't worry, there will be lots of pictures of Marcus in his hiking pack, just haven't gotten to them yet.

I don't think that was scum, I think that was really shallow water and that was mud.

The cliff face looked like a face/head.

See it now?

Thanks for the beautiful photos of Lake Louise, brings back great memories of when I was younger and we went on a one month tour of Canada. LOVED Banff.
Absolutely GORGEOUS photos!

Love your reports!

Thank you! I am glad that you are enjoying the report and that it is bringing back memories for you.

What beautiful pictures of the mountains and lakes... Breathtaking...

And from the few pictures I've seen of the step-mom, I would say that yes, she does look old enough to be your mother... Your Mom on the other had looks young enough to be your older sister...

My sister and BIL have been on three 2-week Disney cruises... Two thru the Panama Canal (California to Florida both times) and once from Europe to Florida... They said those cruises were cheaper than the 1 week cruises... So you might want to check them out too... And they buy their plane tickets thru Disney so the price for the 1-way tickets are very reasonable...

The trans-Atlantic sailings do look nice (the ones I have seen in the past) but they usually occur in April and September thus conflicting with school.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

May 17th

I woke up very excited on the morning of the 17th. We were going somewhere we had never been before and I was really pumped! I had done tons of research for this part of the trip and I was crossing my fingers and hoping that it would all pay off.

Where were we headed? We were off to Universal Studios! We had discussed a big Florida blowout trip for 2012 way back in 2007 in which we would visit all the major Florida theme parks. Then Universal announced that they would be adding a Harry Potter section to their parks and that cemented our desire to visit even more. When I got the great pin code for May 2011 we decided that we would transfer our two week trip from 2012 to 2011 and do WDW and Universal. We opted to save the other Florida parks for another year so we would have a more relaxing vacation.

We would be spending the next two days discovering what Universal Florida had in store for us.

I had slated Islands of Adventure for our first Universal park day. It was a Tuesday in mid-May so I was hoping that the crowds would not be too bad. I was nervous as I had read all the reports about the insane crowds at the Wizarding World and how if you didn't get there super early you would have to stand in line just to get into the Wizarding World and then once in you would have to stand in crazy lines for each individual ride. Would that come true or would we get lucky?

I wasn't going to risk getting stuck at the back of a big crowd so I planned for us to be at the park gates a full hour before the park was slated to open. That meant we were up and out the door around 7:30. I made sure to bring the Hogwarts acceptance letter I had made up for my cousin, Caroline. She had no idea we were in Florida and going to Hogwarts so she would be in for a huge surprise! It would not have been good if I forgot it in the room, this was our only day at Islands of Adventure. The letter looked really nice. I printed it on parchment paper with green ink in a flowy handwriting font. It looked just like in the movies/books. I even included a book and supply list! Caroline is a HUGE Harry Potter fan and I knew she would go bananas when she got a Hogwarts letter via Owl Post.

Getting to Universal from WDW is really easy. You just hop on the highway and drive north for maybe 20 minutes and then you are there.

We paid for our parking at the entrance booth and then drove into the massive parking garage. Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios share the same parking garage and it is massive! It is kinda nice though as your car isn't roasting in the sun all day long and thus boiling hot when you get back into it later in the day.

We got to park in the Jaws section.

I was traveling light for our Universal days as you can't take a bag on most of the rides at Universal and I didn't want to deal with the lockers. The whole day I had a feeling that I was missing something. It was an odd feeling travelling without my bag in the parks. Turns out I could have brought a bag anyways as Mom didn't go on the rides that required you to store your bag so she could have just held onto it, oh well!

After parking the car we took the escalator up a level and started our journey out of the parking garage structure. They have those moving sidewalks to speed the walk up, good thing too as it would have been quite the hike without them.

There is also a bag check in the middle of this moving sidewalk area.

The moving sidewalks eventually dump you out at Universal's City Walk which is comparable to Downtown Disney. You need to walk through this area to get to both of the parks. There are tons of restaurant and shops and a massive movie theatre. Looks like a fun place to hang out.

The Hard Rock Cafe with Rip Ride Rockit (Universal Studios) behind it. I was looking forward to riding that but not until the next day!

The Islands of Adventure Lighthouse in the distance!

We arrived at the entrance to Islands of Adventure right around 8am and there were only a few people waiting in front of us, alright!

We grabbed our spots in line and took a look around us. I was already liking what I was seeing. Nicely themed! The Port of Entry (main entrance area) was really pretty!

A decorative gate at the entrance. Each of the circles/islands represents a different area of the park. You'll note that there are already people in the park, those are resort guests, they get early entry to the Wizarding World.

Note the game system in Erich's hand. I told you they don't go anywhere without them!

Well it was a good thing we showed up super early as they opened the park early, nearly 30 minutes early! Sweet! No crowds and early entry! Time for the mad dash to the Wizarding World which is located at the back of the park!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

We walked as quickly as we could to the the back of the park. I managed to snap a few shots without slowing my pace. I wish we weren't in such a hurry as everything around us looked so neat and it would have been nice to slow down and take it in. We couldn't though as Harry Potter was calling to us!

You enter the park through the Port of Entry

Alek has his hands on his head. He is probably saying something like "Oh my god! Harry Potter!" in his crazy voice, not in a serious way but in a funny mocking way. He is not that big of a Harry Potter nerd.

You then hang a right and pass through Seuss Landing which looked pretty awesome!

Seuss Landing then turns into The Lost Continent. I love the theming for this section of the park since I am a big mythology buff.

Mythos, this is a restaurant that gets really great reviews and has an awesome theme!

What comes after The Lost Continent? The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

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