Flowers, Segways & DIS Meets, Oh My! - Updated 10/26, Final Thoughts-FINALLY!

[2Tiggers]

I don't know why you thought that - we're just past the halfway point! Summer has me hoppin' and unable to update as often as I'd like!

I am glad that my boys are dedicated to their sports, but they sure interfere with things I'd like to do at times!



I think you'll like Kona, it's one of my favorites! The chefs pic three was listed right at the top of the menu, our waiter also pointed it out to us to make sure we were aware of the option.

I bet they could make some kind of a non-alcoholic drink in a pineapple for your DS, can't hurt to ask

Congrats on the baby...she is soooo sweet! What a gift!

You say that Kona cafe is your favorite, so what else have you got besides the shrimp and scallops? I was thinking the pork chop or the noodle bowl. Do you have any input on these dishes? Oh pictures would be nice too...

 

[SoonerGirl]

The dessert party looks sooooo yummy! If we had less people, I would have liked to have done it!

Congrats on the birth of your niece! They grow up so fast...my "baby" niece just had a baby of her own! So I am a great aunt and I am loving having a newborn to hold...as I'm sure you are too!

The dessert party was yummy! They had tables of all sizes set up, large parties were more than welcome. Of course, getting everyone to agree to do it might be another thing...

You're just a baby yourself, I can't believe you're a great aunt! It is fun having a newborn to cuddle

Welcome to the world Baylee! She is a doll, Michelle. You are such a great photographer!! I bet her parents will love those close ups you took of her. You have talent!

Thanks Kelli! I did put all of the pics that I've taken so far on a disc and took it to them, hopefully there are some on there that they'll love.

You don't have to hold back, you know! I love baby pics!

Well, if you insist........

Me too! Last night I saw a proud Daddy pushing a double stroller with 2 baby girls in it - dressed exactly alike, and sitting exactly alike - they both had the same foot propped on top of the snack tray. It was adorable!

Oh, how sweet is that?! I always thought I wanted twins when I was growing up, but after I had kids I couldn't imagine dealing with more than one infant at a time

Congrats on the baby...she is soooo sweet! What a gift!

You say that Kona cafe is your favorite, so what else have you got besides the shrimp and scallops? I was thinking the pork chop or the noodle bowl. Do you have any input on these dishes? Oh pictures would be nice too...

Thanks!

Well, Kona is one of my favorites, I don't think I'd go so far as to call it my absolute favorite. This was actually only my 2nd time to eat there, I'd like to go back more often, but there are so many restaurants that I want to try and so few opportunities to try them! The first time I ate there I had the shrimp and scallops too, I wanted to try something different this time, but in the end, I liked the shrimp and scallops so much the first time that I couldn't bring myself to try something else!


********************

Sorry for the delay in updating! I am about to reach my maximum allowed bandwidth usage on photobucket and my month doesn't reset until the 11th I hate to wait that long to continue though so I'm thinking of upgrading to pro for at least the next month or two until I finish the report. I hope to have an update up sometime today

On another note, I'm a little bummed right now because Don is in full blown Disney Grump mode this morning. He's done a 180 on the cruise and is now saying that he won't pay for us to go on a Disney cruise when we can probably go on another cruise line for much less money I'm depressed............

 

[MHTeacher]

On another note, I'm a little bummed right now because Don is in full blown Disney Grump mode this morning. He's done a 180 on the cruise and is now saying that he won't pay for us to go on a Disney cruise when we can probably go on another cruise line for much less money I'm depressed............[/COLOR][/SIZE]

I say we send Mr. Grumpy Pants #1 (Don) and Mr. Grumpy Pants #2 (Kevin) on vacation together, and the rest of us will all go to DisneyWorld AND a cruise!

 

[KatMark]

I say we send Mr. Grumpy Pants #1 (Don) and Mr. Grumpy Pants #2 (Kevin) on vacation together, and the rest of us will all go to DisneyWorld AND a cruise!

I feel for you two gals. I am SO glad that I don't have a Mr. Grumpy Pants (even though I call him that in my PTR ). He loves Disney as much as me. The guy woke up this morning and told me how many days until our flight. I wish I could help you gals out. I could lend you my DH for a little bit if you want.

 

[SoonerGirl]

I say we send Mr. Grumpy Pants #1 (Don) and Mr. Grumpy Pants #2 (Kevin) on vacation together, and the rest of us will all go to DisneyWorld AND a cruise!

Uh Oh, Kevin is being a Mr. Grumpy Pants???

I'm totally up for dumping the DHs and heading off together! I'm sure our soon to be 9th graders would have a blast hanging out in the teen club on the ship!

I feel for you two gals. I am SO glad that I don't have a Mr. Grumpy Pants (even though I call him that in my PTR ). He loves Disney as much as me. The guy woke up this morning and told me how many days until our flight. I wish I could help you gals out. I could lend you my DH for a little bit if you want.

I think it would be great to go to WDW with Mark, he sounds like so much fun! Maybe he could just try and teach our Grumpy boys how to relax and enjoy Disney.

 

[Lovemy3babes]

On another note, I'm a little bummed right now because Don is in full blown Disney Grump mode this morning. He's done a 180 on the cruise and is now saying that he won't pay for us to go on a Disney cruise when we can probably go on another cruise line for much less money I'm depressed............

I'm so sorry. You know my husband has no Disney love either. Is there any way you can sneak a trip in with just the boys? Maybe a long weekend? I would be depressed too.

I feel for you two gals. I am SO glad that I don't have a Mr. Grumpy Pants (even though I call him that in my PTR ). He loves Disney as much as me. The guy woke up this morning and told me how many days until our flight. I wish I could help you gals out. I could lend you my DH for a little bit if you want.

You're lucky!!!

 

[praisehisname]

Thank you, thank you, thank you for posting those sweet baby pictures! That bow she's wearing is super adorable!

So sorry Don isn't feeling the Disney cruise. I hope he has a change of heart.

 

[kschafer]

Sorry about the cruise news I almost had Greg convinced to try one when Disney announced kids sail free on their Mexican cruises and it included one on our spring break but the only rooms left with the deal were about 50% more than we originally started discussing. That idea went right out the window!

Yes, other cruise lines are quite a bit cheaper but they just don't hold the same appeal to me! (that and I'm not trapping hubby on a boat with a casino...we'd probably spend less on paying for a Disney cruise up front)

 

[2xcited2sleep]

I have a proposal for Disney Cruise lines. "They" are reading your report, right?? So, new itinerary... special cruise.

Stop # 1: Grumpy Island. Those of us "saddled' with non-Disney lovers (who surely have other nice qualities outside of vacation choices ) drop our grumps off to do whatever it is they choose to do...

Stops # 2 ++: proceed as planned. Just a minor detour for those of us with "special needs."

Stop # x: I suppose we have to pick the grumps up...

Your new addition to the family is BEAUTIFUL!!

Hope the cruise works out for you!

 

[Charleston Princess]

Love Baylee and her cute bow!

Actually, I read somewhere that a Disney cruise is actually on par with the other cruises because everything except tips and alcoholic drinks is included in the price, and that's not always the case on other cruises. Maybe pointing that out to Don would help.

 

[Happydog]

Love Baylee and her cute bow!

Actually, I read somewhere that a Disney cruise is actually on par with the other cruises because everything except tips and alcoholic drinks is included in the price, and that's not always the case on other cruises. Maybe pointing that out to Don would help.

The other thing to consider, is that the cruise prices do often drop as the cruise comes closer, OR they upgrade you a little to make room for less expensive packages, AND CP is right, there is much included. The entertainment and service is part of the deal, too -- clean, no BOOZING college students. I saw a few boats parked next to ours in Nassau where the majority of the deck was up with blaring bad techno music, and a lot of clearly younger types drinking and partying. Which is OKAY if that is what you want. If you want to avoid that, you have to be careful. I am sure other cruise lines are not all like that, but this was my first impression for two of the cruise ships I saw in dock with the Wonder. I think less of the singles crowd do Disney for obvious reasons. Now Disney doesn't have the rock climbing wall, or the surfing you can do on Carnival, I think it is, for instance, BUT you have other great fun to have there. There is wine and beer tasting, and other neat adult stuff. I enjoyed the peaceful decks. I don't know that you could find that as readily on other cruise lines? All things to consider. If only b/c you are looking for ways to sway your DH! BUT also consider a quick winter cruise maybe for the two of you to "test" the waters? DH and I LOVED it, and he was all about other cruise lines too, at first, but agreed the boat and everything was just so nice and for the little extra (maybe $50.00 in that season) it was fine. Now we have two booked! SO consider it! In January and February, they are CHEAP for the 3 or 4 day cruises.

 

[wdwgirl03]

Very cute baby pictures. My roommate from my freshman year of college just had a baby girl yesterday...I now feel really old.

 

[brookelizabeth]

Love that little bow! So adorable!

I'm sorry to hear about Don's change of heart...seems like everyone is giving you some good tips, so hopefully you can do some comparison work and find that Disney's cruises aren't that much - or any - more when you factor everything in!!

 

[SoonerGirl]

I'm so sorry. You know my husband has no Disney love either. Is there any way you can sneak a trip in with just the boys? Maybe a long weekend? I would be depressed too.

You're lucky!!!

Kathy is a lucky lady isn't she?!

At least your DH is open to you taking trips with just your kids Kelli, mine wouldn't care if we had enough entertainment dollars in the budget for us to take two vacations (one famiy and one with just me & the boys to WDW). Unfortunately for us, that is not the case.

I'm still hoping he'll come around!

Thank you, thank you, thank you for posting those sweet baby pictures! That bow she's wearing is super adorable!

So sorry Don isn't feeling the Disney cruise. I hope he has a change of heart.

Isn't that bow cute?! I love all the little girl stuff

I'm keeping my fingers crossed, I got some good advise from HappyDog that passed along

Sorry about the cruise news I almost had Greg convinced to try one when Disney announced kids sail free on their Mexican cruises and it included one on our spring break but the only rooms left with the deal were about 50% more than we originally started discussing. That idea went right out the window!

Yes, other cruise lines are quite a bit cheaper but they just don't hold the same appeal to me! (that and I'm not trapping hubby on a boat with a casino...we'd probably spend less on paying for a Disney cruise up front)

The other cruise lines don't really appeal to me either, I'd rather not go and do something else. Don just doesn't understand that, neither do my 'real life' friends for that matter. I was complaining about my situation to them this morning during our walk and don't get it Neither of them have ever been to Disney but say that they wouldn't like it because it would get on their nerves.

I have a proposal for Disney Cruise lines. "They" are reading your report, right?? So, new itinerary... special cruise.

Stop # 1: Grumpy Island. Those of us "saddled' with non-Disney lovers (who surely have other nice qualities outside of vacation choices ) drop our grumps off to do whatever it is they choose to do...

Stops # 2 ++: proceed as planned. Just a minor detour for those of us with "special needs."

Stop # x: I suppose we have to pick the grumps up...

Love that itinerary Christine!

Your new addition to the family is BEAUTIFUL!!

Thanks!

Hope the cruise works out for you!

Me too! I'm not giving up yet!!

 

[SoonerGirl]

Love Baylee and her cute bow!

Actually, I read somewhere that a Disney cruise is actually on par with the other cruises because everything except tips and alcoholic drinks is included in the price, and that's not always the case on other cruises. Maybe pointing that out to Don would help.

Thanks Jackie, the more ammo that I have in my corner the better!

The other thing to consider, is that the cruise prices do often drop as the cruise comes closer, OR they upgrade you a little to make room for less expensive packages, AND CP is right, there is much included. The entertainment and service is part of the deal, too -- clean, no BOOZING college students. I saw a few boats parked next to ours in Nassau where the majority of the deck was up with blaring bad techno music, and a lot of clearly younger types drinking and partying. Which is OKAY if that is what you want. If you want to avoid that, you have to be careful. I am sure other cruise lines are not all like that, but this was my first impression for two of the cruise ships I saw in dock with the Wonder. I think less of the singles crowd do Disney for obvious reasons. Now Disney doesn't have the rock climbing wall, or the surfing you can do on Carnival, I think it is, for instance, BUT you have other great fun to have there. There is wine and beer tasting, and other neat adult stuff. I enjoyed the peaceful decks. I don't know that you could find that as readily on other cruise lines? All things to consider. If only b/c you are looking for ways to sway your DH! BUT also consider a quick winter cruise maybe for the two of you to "test" the waters? DH and I LOVED it, and he was all about other cruise lines too, at first, but agreed the boat and everything was just so nice and for the little extra (maybe $50.00 in that season) it was fine. Now we have two booked! SO consider it! In January and February, they are CHEAP for the 3 or 4 day cruises.

Thanks for all the advise HD! This was just what I needed! I told him about the party atmosphere on the cheaper cruises because that is the price point that most younger people can afford - he said that made sense and that obviously that is not what we are looking for for a family vacation. You may have gotten me over the hump with that one little piece of advise!!!

Very cute baby pictures. My roommate from my freshman year of college just had a baby girl yesterday...I now feel really old.

HA! You can't feel old until you get to be my age and all your friends are done having kids because they've hit 40!

Love that little bow! So adorable!

I'm sorry to hear about Don's change of heart...seems like everyone is giving you some good tips, so hopefully you can do some comparison work and find that Disney's cruises aren't that much - or any - more when you factor everything in!!

She has tons of those little bows, she was wearing another one for the 4th - should I post that picture?

I think HDs advise really helped me make up some ground on the Disney cruise, we'll see! He did say that since the info came from my Disney friends that it was tainted, but agreed that it made sense I'll do some extra research on my own and get some more info

 

[SoonerGirl]

Who is Elton you ask? Only the best CM I have come across - EVER! But, I'm getting ahead of myself, let me start at the beginning of our day........

Day 5, Wednesday May 5th

We got up a bit earlier than normal this morning because we had to be at Epcot Guest Services and checked in for our Segway Tour no later than 8:15am. We arrived at Epcot and got through bag check with plenty of time to spare. I saw a line, a very loooooong line at one turnstile. I asked a CM walking around by the line if that was the one we needed to be in or if there was a different one for the tour. She told me that we just needed to walk to the front of the line and someone would check our name off of a list and let us enter. So we went to the front of the line and asked the CM there about it, they looked at me like I had two heads and said they didn't know anything about a list and that we would need to wait in line. OK, it would be nice if these people would get on the same page!

We went back to the end of the line, which had grown even longer now. I was a bit nervous not knowing when the gates would be opened and I also knew that there was a tour that started before ours and wondered how those people had entered the park. I was slightly concerned that we were not where we were supposed to be. A security CM walking by asked what we were there for (I guess the fact that we had no little girls dressed in princess dresses tipped him off that we weren't there for a character breakfast ). I told him we were doing the Segway tour and that we were supposed to check in by 8:15 for our 8:30 tour. He said that was just a suggestion and we would be fine even if we got there 10 minutes late.

Finally, a CM with a clipboard came walking down the line checking names and reservation times, so there was a list - the first CM was right! We still got into the park with enough time to take a few pictures. It was overcast and muggy this morning, and my camera lens fogged up as soon as I removed the cap - made for a few foggy pics to start

We made our way over to Guest Services and this is where we got our first glimpse of Elton, we had no idea at that time that we would be spending the next couple of hours with him. We checked in and got our name tags. We were then introduced to Amber, she was going to be our safety instructor. We were all entertained watching Elton work and Amber told us a little bit about him while we waited for everyone in our group to get checked in. She then told us to all say "Bye Elton", we did and began our trek over to Innoventions for the training portion of our tour. It was 8:25, glad we didn't arrive 10 minutes late like the other guy told us we could! Amber informed us then that Elton would be joining us shortly and that he was going to be our guide for the day. I was very excited to hear this, as he just had an endearing personality and an infectious energy that was evident from just the short time we had gotten to be around him during check in.

We started off by watching a video about the Segway and how it works, I was a little nervous that I wasn't going to be able to figure it out and would look like a total fool just trying to stand and balance on the thing after seeing the video, but that nervousness was soon eased when we went out and actually began using them. The hardest part is just getting the feel for it, after that it's not really hard at all. I was shocked to learn how you make it go and stop though, I assumed that there were hand controls or something, but it is all run by where you place pressure on your feet - pressure forward, you go, pressure back, you stop. But, you can also make yourself back up by putting too much pressure on your heels - it's quite the balancing act! The only thing I had any trouble with was going downhill, that took me a couple of times through to get the hang of it.

Soon we were all ready to go and we headed out towards World Showcase. We stopped in several different countries and Elton told us stories and kept us entertained. He was AWESOME, he was funny and a great storyteller. You could tell that he not only loved his job and loved Disney, he loved life. He was such a joy to be around! We stopped in Italy for our one photo op. Elton took this photo of us. Aren't our helmets super cute? I love that I had that awful poof on the side of my head and Mom didn't bother to tell me

We then got to just drive around and play on our Segways for a bit before moving on. A funny thing happened as we were doing that, there was a group of CMs, seems like they were new and training or something. Anyway, they were doing some kind of contest thing and they had to come up with a photo demonstration of some way to die in the park (I know, morbid, right?). One of them came up to Elton and asked if we would be willing to stage us running over one of them with the Segways. Elton laughed and asked if they were trying to get him fired, he said we had all just learned how to drive them and chances are we actually would run over them! Needless to say, the answer was no.

All too soon our tour was over and it was time to head back to Innoventions. This part was just a bit unnerving. Future World had been open for a couple of hours by this point and there were people everywhere, I was so afraid someone was going to try and walk between us or cut me off and I wasn't going to be able to stop. Most people were very good about giving us our space however and many had serious looks of envy on their faces, wondering how they could drive around on their very own Segway!

We parked our Segways and went back into the room where we watched our video so that we could return our helmets and retrieve our belongings (you aren't allowed to carry a bag with you, it has to be left in the room, there is a case on the front of the Segway that you can put things in though). We also were given this pin to remember our tour by

I would highly recommend this tour. Yes, it is pricey, but it was so much fun and something Mom and I will always remember. And, I don't know if you can request certain tour guides or not, but if I ever do it again, I'll ask for Elton. He was a big part of why we enjoyed this tour so much!

Coming Up: Cinco de Mayo margaritas with DIS friends!

 

[KatMark]

Michelle, what a great update. I love the F&G pictures -- you got some really good ones. The tour sounds like a lot of fun, and Elton sounds like a real winner...a keeper in my book!

 

[cdotla]

Oh Michelle! So disappointed to hear about Don's about-face on the cruise, but thank goodness for Dissers providing you with ammunition! I hope the visions of college kids partying on the cruise decks is enough to turn this back around to Disney for you!

Reading your report about the segway tour has me SO regretting my decision to nix this. You will remember, I had thought about doing this the same day as you guys as it was my birthday, and my MIL would have been more than game to watch the kids so Chris & I could have done this.

Darn! Now I really, really wish I had signed up!

How many people were on the tour with you? And did you bring your own camera or did they have one that they used to take the pics?

Sounded like an awesome experience! I am definitely going to do this on a future trip!

 

[micandminforever]

I enjoyed reading about the segway tour. My dh tried the segway tour at Ft Wilderness on our last trip and loved it.

 

[Charleston Princess]

The Segway tour sounds like tons of fun!!! I am so uncoordinated, though, that I might actually manage to hurt myself or someone else! How wonderful that you were able to get a CM as cool and entertaining as Elton! The stories he told probably made the tour that much more fun! I am seriously envious of the pin you earned for your morning adventure! Oh, and I laughed out loud over your comment about the poof on the side of your head, and your mom not mentioning it! It isn't bad at all and the picture is very cute!