first trip do-over, the TR: or.....sorry, i got stuck in a tour group! UPDATED 3-14

[Imbri]

Yay, update! Will read in a sec, answering your question.

You go "edit" on your first post, then in the bottom right hand corner (I think) of the post, there should be a button that says "Go Advance(d?)", hit that, and it'll let you edit your title.

 

[STLMickeyMom]

day 1--this IS a royal room!

our room was awesome! we had a royal room on the ground floor, corner of the building. as soon as we walked in, i started taking pictures of all the cuteness. the girls were so excited and rich was just glad to sit down out of a crowd. after looking around, madison stood in the middle of the room and declared "wow! this IS a royal room!" she was impressed! i know everyone's probably seen these rooms, but here's a few pictures....

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we were in love with the firework headboards! we took pictures, video and had to watch them every night before bed!

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i think the new bedding is pretty. i loved the mickey towel!

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letter from tiana!

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the princes. there was actually another one of these, and i know i took a picture, but i can't find it.

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the princesses

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maddie and tiana!

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magic carpet

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cute sink!

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and there were a ton of other touches that i meant to get pictures of, and just didn't.

after we had looked around, we decided to head over to downtown disney. we found the boat to take us and were on our way....

 

[STLMickeyMom]

Yay, update! Will read in a sec, answering your question.

You go "edit" on your first post, then in the bottom right hand corner (I think) of the post, there should be a button that says "Go Advance(d?)", hit that, and it'll let you edit your title.

THANK YOU!!! that was driving me nuts!

 

[RGirl]

Phew! for getting out despite impending bad weather. That’s always so nerve-wracking!

I didn’t realize you would be staying at POR - I love reading about that resort; it is my top choice for a moderate (we were booked there for August until the 30% discount on deluxes came out ). And I am obsessed with the Royal Rooms - I almost didn’t switch our resort just because I so wanted Willow to see a Royal Room. Love the pics!!!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Love It! The room looks so pretty and both girls just look overjoyed!

I always felt like I just didn't take enough pictures. I would just get so caught up in the moment I would forget to take pictures. When we returned home I was talking about that with my mom and she said lots of people have done studies about how people constantly take pictures now and they are effecting the ability to remember and react to situations because they just take pics all the time. I may not have too many pics of my trip, but I sure do remember it vividly. So, maybe its better you don't have too many pics. Now you'll have the memories!

Love the MO references in POR totally did not realize they were there!

I am so glad you got out before the snowstorm the whole city was down until Thursday! But since by Friday the rain melted most of the snow, its like it never happened to you all! And, I guess Hannah didn't end up miss as much school as you thought! So, it all turned out for the best.

 

[missangelalexis]

I'm glad you guys made it down there safe and sound, and how lucky that you were one of the last planes out!

Omgosh the room looks GORGEOUS! So magical!

 

[wiigirl]

Great pics!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

I didn’t realize you would be staying at POR - I love reading about that resort; it is my top choice for a moderate (we were booked there for August until the 30% discount on deluxes came out ). And I am obsessed with the Royal Rooms - I almost didn’t switch our resort just because I so wanted Willow to see a Royal Room. Love the pics!!!

I loved POR! I wanted the girls to stay in a royal room while they were still so into princesses. it was a perfect choice for us, and in our budget since we went in January. I'm afraid it might have ruined us for ever staying in a value resort again!

I always felt like I just didn't take enough pictures. I would just get so caught up in the moment I would forget to take pictures. When we returned home I was talking about that with my mom and she said lots of people have done studies about how people constantly take pictures now and they are effecting the ability to remember and react to situations because they just take pics all the time. I may not have too many pics of my trip, but I sure do remember it vividly. So, maybe its better you don't have too many pics. Now you'll have the memories!

Love the MO references in POR totally did not realize they were there!

I am so glad you got out before the snowstorm the whole city was down until Thursday! But since by Friday the rain melted most of the snow, its like it never happened to you all! And, I guess Hannah didn't end up miss as much school as you thought! So, it all turned out for the best.

there are a bunch of French named cities around the ceiling in the lobby area--I thought it was cool that 3 Missouri ones were right there together. the lobby was pretty! I wish I would have gotten more pictures. but--after reading what your mom said--maybe i'm glad I didn't. I don't want to end up always watching my vacation through the camera and not living in and enjoying the moment.

not that I was happy the weather here was miserable, but I was kind of excited when they cancelled two days of school for Hannah! she only ended up missing 3 days instead of 5!

Omgosh the room looks GORGEOUS! So magical!

totally loved POR and the royal rooms. I wish I would have taken more pictures outside. we had the cutest flower garden in the courtyard of our building.

Great pics!

thanks! I did everything on my phone this year. I just did not want to carry around my phone, a camera and the camcorder. I think my phone did ok. I actually found an app that makes it possible to do fancy schmancy stuff with the camera on your iphone, but I didn't download it before we left or really figure out how to use it, so I just worked with what I had.

 

[STLMickeyMom]

day 1--downtown Disney

it was fun to take the boat from port orleans to downtown disney. we've never stayed somewhere where it was an option and we really enjoyed it. it was nice and relaxing to float along.
when we got there, we wandered around a little. we passed rainforest cafe and hannah had to visit with this guy. she's so brave--birds freak me out!

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rich then took the girls on a carousel ride while i ran into the make a tee store. i had wanted to make vanellope shirts for the girls and i and an incredibles shirt for rich, but the choices were very slim and i left empty handed. bummer.....

i watched the girls finish their carousel ride with daddy and we all headed here....

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we had a 4 pm reservation and were about 45 minutes early. we were starving though, so i thought i'd see if they could get us in early. no problem! we got right in!

the girls really liked the dinosaurs and animal decorations. i loved the room we were sitting by. it was an ice cave and changed colors. we were also right under where the meteor shower played.

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the girls loved this little mastadon guy. this was the best picture i could get....sigh!

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i remember we liked the food well enough. i had a pulled pork sandwich, the girls both had mac and cheese, and rich had some chicken dish. they take the dining plan here, but we didn't use it for this meal. our bill was reasonable for where we were though and our server was awesome! the one thing i didn't like was how LOUD it was! i know the place is huge and packed with people, but it was just so noisy! i was happy to get back outside when we were done.

a hidden mickey hannah found on the way out! she was having fun looking for them this trip.

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up next.....we play with some legos!!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

day 1--downtown disney cont

after dinner, we went over to a VERY crowded lego store.

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loved these snow white ones!! just realized I only got 6 of the 7 dwarves though...oops!

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hannah loves superheroes!

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madison and i left rich and hannah there building and went over to world of disney. madison had a gift card burning a hole in her pocket!

stopped for princess pics first.....of course!

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she picked out a frozen light up wand and a cinderlla feathery pen. we left and found rich and hannah who couldn't leave the lego store without a couple of sets. we played with stitch for a bit (he spits!)

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and then went over to once upon a toy. rich and the girls made some potato heads while i wandered around. we didn't stay long....the girls and i were fading fast. soon enough, we were riding back to the hotel to get ready for bed

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random picture of the ribbon tinkerbell clippie i made for the girls. I also made a Rapunzel one and I did a Cinderella one for a friend once. they were fun to make!

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even though we were exhausted, we had fun at downtown disney. it was the first time the girls had been there and they liked what they saw. i'm a little disappointed we didn't decide to just go to disneyquest while we were there. the girls had really wanted to play fix-it felix, but it just seemed like such a long walk to play one game. we also didn't do the characters in flight balloon ride. i really wanted to but the girls thought it looked too scary and i was too tired to try to convince them it would be fun. back on the list for next time, i guess. still, it was a fun afternoon!

 

[missangelalexis]

Sounds like a fun first afternoon! I like the idea of going to DtD on your arrival day because it it's not as intense as rushing straight to a park, but you also still get that Disney feel! The girls look so cute in front of the legos!

 

[wiigirl]

Great update!

 

[RGirl]

The bird pic with Hannah is so cute! But YEESH!!! You know my feelings about birds!

Glad you enjoyed T-Rex. I always think it looks like a lot of fun. We have plans for Rainforest Cafe at DLR on our first evening.

Love the Lego pics. I wish we had managed to go in the actual store there - dang that August heat!!!

Awww - Madison is so cute with the princess statues.

The Tink clip is adorable!

 

[Jackiemarie21]

We have always gone to DTD as our first day up until this trip. I think that is the perfect way to ease into the trip! T-Rex looks like fun I will have to add that to the list of things to do when Charlotte gets a little older.

There is an app for the I-pad where you can play the fix it felix video game, since you all didn't make it to play it at Disney Quest.

It is so funny to see the pics of you guys in short sleeves knowing that we had ten inches of snow back home. Not sure why that amuses me, it just does.

The Tinkerbell clip is super cute! Love it! I stopped making bows because Charlotte refused to wear them for the last few months. All of a sudden this week she always wants to be "pretty", which means princess dress, bow, sparkly shoes, nails and toe nails painted. So, maybe I can start making bows again!

 

[anniebabymu]

LOVE the updates!!

I'm soooooo glad you were able to get out of St. Louis! My BIL had a job interview in Virginia with the company my husband works for (his wife just got a job there and is living there, but he's still back home trying to get the house ready to sell! But he got the job and will be moving soon!) that Monday after the storm. He had a 6am flight out of STL on Sunday and it was cancelled! It was a nightmare trying to get to Virginia!

We stayed at POR in a Royal Guest Room last April and loved them! Perfect for princesses our girls age! And I totally missed the Missouri cities when we were there! Great eye!

Looks like you had an awesome first day there!!

 

[ljcrochet]

Looks like a great first day.
Downtown disney doesn't look to crowded either. It was jammed packed the day we went.

 

[shan23877]

I love being able to take the boat to DTD from POR. Such a nice perk.

Cute pics of the girls, and I love the hair clip!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

Sounds like a fun first afternoon! I like the idea of going to DtD on your arrival day because it it's not as intense as rushing straight to a park, but you also still get that Disney feel! The girls look so cute in front of the legos!

I really did like going to downtown the first day. we didn't have to rush and it was pretty laid back. we might have to do that again next time.

Great update!

thanks!

The bird pic with Hannah is so cute! But YEESH!!! You know my feelings about birds!

Glad you enjoyed T-Rex. I always think it looks like a lot of fun. We have plans for Rainforest Cafe at DLR on our first evening.

Love the Lego pics. I wish we had managed to go in the actual store there - dang that August heat!!!

Awww - Madison is so cute with the princess statues.

The Tink clip is adorable!

you and me both! she got her bird bravery from my DH that's for sure. he used to breed and hand-raise African grey parrots. he had some when we first met--oh they creeped me out!

we like rainforest too. trex and rainforest are very similar.

we love the lego store, but it was super crowded that night. I think a tour group may have been there at the same time we were. rich and Hannah braved the crowd though--they are serious lego addicts!

thanks! I saw them on pinterest (of course--love that website) and found free directions to make them. they were easier than I thought. doesn't willow need some clippies?

We have always gone to DTD as our first day up until this trip. I think that is the perfect way to ease into the trip! T-Rex looks like fun I will have to add that to the list of things to do when Charlotte gets a little older.

There is an app for the I-pad where you can play the fix it felix video game, since you all didn't make it to play it at Disney Quest.

It is so funny to see the pics of you guys in short sleeves knowing that we had ten inches of snow back home. Not sure why that amuses me, it just does.

The Tinkerbell clip is super cute! Love it! I stopped making bows because Charlotte refused to wear them for the last few months. All of a sudden this week she always wants to be "pretty", which means princess dress, bow, sparkly shoes, nails and toe nails painted. So, maybe I can start making bows again!

trex was fun to do once. It won't be a must do for us, there's too many other things to try, but we did like it.

I didn't know there was an app for fix it felix! we don't have an ipad, but I wonder if I can get it on my phone? i'm gonna have to check that out! the girls would love it!

I kept laughing about all sorts of weather related things on this trip. we got off the plane in winter coats and pants and it was 80 degrees and sunny there! we were so excited to be in the sun! there will be more funny weather stuff to come.....

if I can find them again, I can get you the free instructions I found for the tink clip. it's not too hard to figure out how to do any of the princesses once you have that. they're really pretty easy and you can make them for way cheaper than they sell them for online.

how cute that charlotte is back into dressing up. maddie went through a phase where she wore her Cinderella dress everyday over her clothes. it was exasperating when we couldn't leave until it was on, and trying to buckle her into her carseat was a pain, but it's a fun memory now.

LOVE the updates!!

I'm soooooo glad you were able to get out of St. Louis! My BIL had a job interview in Virginia with the company my husband works for (his wife just got a job there and is living there, but he's still back home trying to get the house ready to sell! But he got the job and will be moving soon!) that Monday after the storm. He had a 6am flight out of STL on Sunday and it was cancelled! It was a nightmare trying to get to Virginia!

We stayed at POR in a Royal Guest Room last April and loved them! Perfect for princesses our girls age! And I totally missed the Missouri cities when we were there! Great eye!

Looks like you had an awesome first day there!!

how exciting that your BIL got the job he wanted! and thanks goodness he finally got out too! I was a little worried, and really wishing we had left Saturday, but our pixie dust obviously started early this trip!

I really loved the royal rooms. we stayed at all star movies last time and it seemed a little cramped. really though, we don't spend a lot of time in the room anyway. I DID enjoy those queen size beds though! especially the night maddie insisted on crawling in our bed. how can the smallest family member take up the most room in the bed?!?

Looks like a great first day.
Downtown disney doesn't look to crowded either. It was jammed packed the day we went.

thanks for joining in! downtown was more crowded than we'd ever seen it, but it wasn't horrible. I think the crowdest place was the lego store. I think we all decided to play with legos at the same time!

I love being able to take the boat to DTD from POR. Such a nice perk.

Cute pics of the girls, and I love the hair clip!

thanks! the clips are super easy to make and I think they're pretty cute. i'll have to try to remember to post a pic of the Rapunzel one sometime.

I loved that boat ride! I wished we could have taken it everywhere! we even took it to POFQ one morning for breakfast even though we could have easily walked over there.

 

[bugsmama11]

Just started following along! So happy you guys made it out of STL that day! We ended up with no power from 6pm Sunday til almost 4pm Monday...we couldn't leave our house and woke up to it being 44 degrees INSIDE! We finally made it out around noon Monday and went to my mom's to warm up.

We did DTD the first day of our big family trip and it was a nice way to ease into the trip. We all went for a boat ride from OKW to Ghiraradelli's for ice cream after dinner!

 

[STLMickeyMom]

monday, january 6: day 2--a yeti, a safari, and royalty--oh my! part 1

we woke up at about 6:30 the next morning. we were spending our first day at Animal Kingdom and had an 8:10 ADR. unfortunately, rich was not feeling great this morning. he decided to stay in bed for awhile and meet up with us later. the girls and i headed out to get the bus. we didn't get to see much of these matching shirts (every morning rich would look at the clothes i had laid out and tell the girls to get their "uniforms" on. am i so lucky to be married to such a comedian or what? ), it got colder all day long and the girls pretty much wore jackets most of the day, rich too.

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it was a pretty quick ride, and we got through bag check quickly. they were checking ADR people in right at the front gate and soon enough we were at

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first, we met donald. maddie is always a little slow to get into the swing of things in the morning and she just wasn't having anything to do with donald.

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the buffet looked so yummy and everything smelled SO delicious! our waitress poured us some jamba juice

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YUM! the girls couldn't get enough! (ok, ok, me either!)

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before we could get up for food, the characters were on their way! mickey was up first

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then we saw daisy...

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goofy was on his way next. goofy is hannah's favorite character and she could barely sit still she was so excited! i love this picture!

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i could NOT get a picture that wasn't blurry. goofy was very silly and hannah was very excited!

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maddie wouldn't have anything to do with goofy either.....

we could finally get up for some food! i was so hungry and everything looked so good. i can't remember what all they had but it seemed there was a little of everything--fruit, breads, pastries, oatmeal and cold cereal, MICKEY WAFFLES, sausage, potatoes......you couldn't go wrong here!

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this is definitely a breakfast we will do again!

while we were eating, the girls joined the parade with the characters. we had more juice, checked in on rich, and finally made our way out into the park. we had a fast pass for the safari to use.....