Food, SQUIRREL, and When We Are Old...A March 2012 TR

[cajunfan]

I had a great Mother's Day weekend. My Mother's Day gift was ordered last week, and it came in the mail Saturday...well, most of it. Brian ordered me the Disney family car decals. The problem was that the online Disney store was out of little boys!??? So, he had to order "Gabriel" from ebay. The rest of the family came in on Saturday, and Gabe just came in today. Here is our Disney Family:

And just for fun~ here is the license plate I have had on the front of our car since our trip in March 2011:

Saturday we started our fun with lunch at Chic fil A , and then we finally got to go to Opry Mills. It had been closed for two years due to the Nashville floods in 2010, and reopened about a month ago. It is so much better now! All of the children's and family stores are together in their own wing of the mall.

We visited the Disney store. We got the kids some stuff. Gabe got a Mickey ball cap. Charity got a Minnie t-shirt and Mickey flip flops, and Jillian picked out a Mickey beach towel:

We also visited the Lego store....that store is so much fun!!! The kids had a ball playing with the Legos and the Lego computer games. Then we bought some Lego sets for them. We played in the "musical" playground in the middle of the mall, and had some ice cream.

After we got home, we had a junk food dinner (Hamburger Helper, which I VERY RARELY make), and watched Horton Hears a Who. It truly was a great day, and the kids went on and on about how much fun it was.

They played with the new Lego sets all weekend, and have grand plans now of expanding their Lego collection. Brian is making plans now to build a hobby table for them.

When were you at the store??? I worked from 10-12:30 and 1-3:30! I was at the register all that time! Next time you are there ask if I am working! I love meeting DISers there!

Lynn

 

[oopsiDAISY]

When were you at the store??? I worked from 10-12:30 and 1-3:30! I was at the register all that time! Next time you are there ask if I am working! I love meeting DISers there!

Lynn

AH man! I looked for anyone with a Lynn nametag! There were three girls working, one out in the store and two at the registers...none of them were "Lynn". We were certainly noticed by the other employees since we were all five wearing our WDW t-shirts...yeah I am THAT much of a dork. I made the whole family dress for our visit to the Disney store! I bet I was there while you were on your lunch break! I should have just asked for you and they could have told me you were on lunch break and would be back! We were at the mall for at least three hours, and never left that one side. The farthest we went from Rainforest Cafe was the food court. I am so mad at myself now!!! I will definitely try to let you know ahead of time next time we plan to be there. I will PM you or something. So sad I didn't get to meet you!

 

[oopsiDAISY]

I'm totally coming to your movie nights. Can we go back in time so I can attend the last one?

Loving your updates! I told DH the story, and he was all "How did he get sick????? Nasa does way worse stuff to them than that." I told him that he doesn't know all the variables. Leave it to him to ruin a hilarious story.

Waiting for more!

Come on out for Mulan night! We are ording Chinese take-out~ what will you and your kids want to eat?

Too funny about your DH asking that~ Brian and I had a similar discussion and his conclusion is that "your body doesn't hold up to that kind of stuff well after you get that old". He really is a nice man, but we are still a bit confused about the whole relationship since she is 30-something and he is almost 80...

Love the decals I'm going to have to check those out in July!

I wanted them when we were there in March, but had already used my souvie $ on pick a pearl. I had thrown out big hints that maybe we could just use the debit card to get them, but Brian didn't take the bait. So then when he orderd them last week he made the comment that we should have just gotten them then...ya think?

 

[oopsiDAISY]

DAY 4, MARCH 11, 2012

This day was the day you dream about for months and months, the day that will always be perfect, the day that you will go to the "happiest place on earth"...the day that always rains for us...Magic Kingdom Day!!! And yes, it turned out to be yet another rainy MK day for us. It happened in 2011 and it happened this year. RAIN! This was the ONLY day we planned for MK and this was the ONLY day it rained on our entire vacation.

I must say that once again this update may not have many pics...it rained, and apparently Brian chose not to use the camera at all the first half of the day. Am I not the worst Diser ever? The second half of the day is loaded with photos.

All that being said, there was a Kingdom to conquer and we would NOT let the rain stop us from having a magical time!

We rolled out of bed, had a breakfast on the go (poptarts, snack cakes and other such nonsense) and headed to MK. We did not try to make it for rope drop. When we arrived (app. 9:30am) we decided to go against the traffic flow and board the train for Frontierland rather than run with the crowds to Fantasyland. After arriving safely in Frontierland we had a small errand we needed to take care of before continuing on in our journey to fun...we headed into the nearest gift shop to purchase a couple of card pockets for lanyards. We keep our KTTW and gift cards for souvies in our lanyards for easy access, and couple of the plastic pocket thingies had torn away and were about to be completely off. While in the gift shop Gabe found a sheriff's badge with his name on it that he wanted. He used a bit of his souvie money to purchase it, and I pinned it to his backpack strap...remember this small fact for later.

After getting that taken care of we were off to Adventureland! Our first ride of choice? Pirates of the Caribbean! As I stated at the start of this TR, Gabe has become quite the fan of anything involving Pirates, so he was more than excited to go on this ride. Little does he know, Mommy has other Pirate surprises for him on that particular day.

After riding POC we had to spend lots of time in the dump shop. We knew this is where Gabe wanted to spend the bulk of his "booty". Yeah, sometimes I make myself laugh harder than I make anyone else laugh... Ahem...back to the story! We shopped around and Gabe chose a sword and POC pirate hat. (I DO have PP pics of him wearing his purchases that I will post at the end of the Day 4 updates) After securing the purchases Jillian notices that the sheriff's badge is gone from his backpack strap. Folks, we spent the next half hour backtracking ALL OVER that dump shop looking for his badge. We asked all the CM's, we backtracked through the hall coming off the ride...no badge. We finally gave up and just left our info at the desk in case anyone found it, and promised Gabe we would check again later that night. I think the rest of the family was more upset about it than him, though. He had his new pirate gear and that had his full attention now.

We left POC and decided to take a trip on a Magic Carpet. We normally take the time to stand in line for Jasmine and Aladdin, but since it was raining and we already had pics and autographs from last year we just skipped that. The camels were not spitting on this particular ride since the sky was doing plenty of spitting water.

We debated riding Jungle Cruise after the carpet rides, but I had my heart set on an evening cruise. MK was open until 3 am that day for EMH, so I knew we would be able to ride it that night...or would we? Hmmmm...guess you will have to wait and see!

Leaving Adventureland we were ready to tackle a few things in Fantasyland. We decided to save some of the rides with longer waits for those EMH times. Here are the rides we did tackle that morning: the Carousel, Tea Cups, Philharmagic and Small World.

After a busy morning we were definitely hungry. We had made the decision early on in the trip that we would have lunch at 11:30 every day so that we could avoid the big lunch crowds. So with lots of fun under our belts, we headed to Columbia Harbor House for some lunch before leaving the park for some time to rest up for a LOONNNNG evening of fun.

Brian and Jillian got in line for food while Charity, Gabe and I headed upstairs to scope out a table with a view to enjoy lunch at. I soon discovered that with all the construction going on at Fantasyland, the views were not fantastic. I was able to score a table with a nice view of the Haunted Mansion though, so that is where we parked. Here are some pirated photos of what we ate that day:

Brian had a Lobstah roll

I had a Shrimp plate

And we both chose the Apple Crisp for dessert

Charity and Gabe had chicken nuggets, nothing fun or exciting there. I stole these pictures from Lidian's TR since I hadn't taken any, and they basically ate the same things we did when they were there. Don't worry, I asked permission. Anywho, Jillian had the Clam Chowdah, but no one from Lidian's party did, so no picture...

This was our first time eating at CHH thanks to some super reviews from the Dis, and I would just like to add my own for this CS restaurant. The food was fantastic, and we all enjoyed it immensely and will definitely return!

Since we had spent our lunchtime looking out over HM and realizing there was hardly a wait time we decided to give it a whirl before we headed back to the room. I asked the kids if they wanted to wait until dark to go on it and was answered with a resounding NO! Charity is still a bit afraid of this ride, so she always rides with me and I always have to narrate it for her telling her what part is coming up and why it is not scary. We enjoyed the ride, we enjoyed the new cue, and we enjoyed the ghosts who switched our heads around at the end.

We had a fun morning at MK packed with lots of rides. To keep record, here are the rides/attractions we decided to wait until EMH to do:

Jungle Cruise
Snow White
Peter Pan
Laugh Floor
Space Mountain
People Mover
Buzz Lightyear
Tomorrowland Speedway

Wow, that is a lot to tackle...besides the other ADR's we have scheduled~ yes, I said ADR's, as in plural. Don't forget Mommy had other Pirate surprises for Gabe! You must stay tuned to see if we are able get all these things done! And do stick around, because there are lots of pictures for the rest of the day at MK, promise!

 

[solana131]

Sounds like a good morning. Sorry it was raining

I am excited to try Columbia Harbor this time around. But my goodness...what was in that lobster roll? Was that lettuce, or celery, or green onions?? I'm sorry, but I am from Maine....we take our lobster seriously up here and there is not supposed to be anything other than mayo and lobster in that roll. Glad you posted it, because I would probably have ordered it. Not with all that green gook

 

[Moodyzblu]

I thought the food pics looked familiar !!

Sorry about the rain ! Ugh. (and the badge)

Funny story .... My boys had left their Peter Pan swords behind one trip and we never did find them. Well about a week after we got home a package arrived in the mail (odd shaped) and lo and behold it was the boys swords !! My dd must have given lost and found our info and when the swords were found they mailed them to us. I thought it was a riot as well sweet of them.

 

[Corrine 1973]

Just want to cheak in and let you know that I am still around. I have some reading to do because I fallen far behind, but I am present and can't wait to read about your many adventures at WDW.

 

[CatNipRules]

I'm loving your trip report! I can't wait to read more!

 

[Lidian]

I thought I recognized those pictures when I was reading. You'd have thought I'd remember you asking permission, but it slipped my mind.

Sorry it rained, and sorry DS lost his badge. I hope it turns up later!

Sounds like a good morning. Sorry it was raining

I am excited to try Columbia Harbor this time around. But my goodness...what was in that lobster roll? Was that lettuce, or celery, or green onions?? I'm sorry, but I am from Maine....we take our lobster seriously up here and there is not supposed to be anything other than mayo and lobster in that roll. Glad you posted it, because I would probably have ordered it. Not with all that green gook

DH doesn't remember all the ingredients, but he did say it was lobster, mayo, celery, and green onion and he said it was DELICIOUS! You can ask a CM for the ingredient list if you want, and decide for yourself if you'd want to try it. He said he's looking forward to eating it again next year. I, however, don't do shellfish. Yuck. I think I did try a bite, and it was okay, but like I said, I definitely do not like lobster (or crab, oysters, etc.) ... so it wasn't for me.

 

[wakica]

I'm back! and finally caught up Looks like a GREAT trip!!! I LOVE the ring and necklace you chose for your pearls! I've always considered doing that with my dd but never have done it. one of these days maybe.

Sorry your MK day rained hopefully it kept some people away and made for less crowds for you at least.

 

[DMGeurts]

I loved your update Oopsi!!! For some reason - I feel like I missed one though... I will have to go back and look.

I know how you feel about the rain that day - it was awful... A total ALL DAY rain. I pray your next MK day is dry!

And the food looks fabulous... I did want to try CHH on this last trip - but I thought I read somewhere that they weren't on DDP? Can you confirm or deny???

Thanks for the wonderful update - I can't wait to read about Gabes pirate adventures!

D~

 

[cajunfan]

DAY 4, MARCH 11, 2012

This day was the day you dream about for months and months, the day that will always be perfect, the day that you will go to the "happiest place on earth"...the day that always rains for us...Magic Kingdom Day!!! And yes, it turned out to be yet another rainy MK day for us. It happened in 2011 and it happened this year. RAIN! This was the ONLY day we planned for MK and this was the ONLY day it rained on our entire vacation.

Remind me that the next time I go to MK to make sure you are not going! LOL! Just kidding! I am glad you guys had so much fun anyway!

Lynn

 

[solana131]

DH doesn't remember all the ingredients, but he did say it was lobster, mayo, celery, and green onion and he said it was DELICIOUS! You can ask a CM for the ingredient list if you want, and decide for yourself if you'd want to try it. He said he's looking forward to eating it again next year. I, however, don't do shellfish. Yuck. I think I did try a bite, and it was okay, but like I said, I definitely do not like lobster (or crab, oysters, etc.) ... so it wasn't for me.

Thanks Liddy. Not sure how I missed that in your TR I guess I will skip it, I can't do onions. They are the only thing in the world I can't eat. But everything else looks good at CHH, so we will try it out

 

[oopsiDAISY]

Sounds like a good morning. Sorry it was raining.

I am excited to try Columbia Harbor this time around. But my goodness...what was in that lobster roll? Was that lettuce, or celery, or green onions?? I'm sorry, but I am from Maine....we take our lobster seriously up here and there is not supposed to be anything other than mayo and lobster in that roll. Glad you posted it, because I would probably have ordered it. Not with all that green gook.

Yes, the Lobster Roll definitely had celery and green onions in it. Brian really liked it, but I don't think I would have liked it that much, not a fan of raw celery unless it has peanut butter and raisins in it. Good to know that it's not really authentic...if I make it up to Maine someday I will definitely have an authentic one that does not include the celery!

I thought the food pics looked familiar !!

Sorry about the rain ! Ugh. (and the badge)

Funny story .... My boys had left their Peter Pan swords behind one trip and we never did find them. Well about a week after we got home a package arrived in the mail (odd shaped) and lo and behold it was the boys swords !! My dd must have given lost and found our info and when the swords were found they mailed them to us. I thought it was a riot as well sweet of them.

That is an awesome story about your boys' swords, it's like you got sprinkled with pixie dust right there at home! You will have to wait and see if Gabe ever gets reunited with his badge...

Just want to cheak in and let you know that I am still around. I have some reading to do because I fallen far behind, but I am present and can't wait to read about your many adventures at WDW.

Good to see you back, Corri!

I'm loving your trip report! I can't wait to read more!

Welcome!!! Glad you are enjoying it. I want to draw out the story as long as I can since our next trip won't happen for another 17 months...but I also do not want to drag it out so long I bore people. Gotta find that delicate balance!

I thought I recognized those pictures when I was reading. You'd have thought I'd remember you asking permission, but it slipped my mind.

Sorry it rained, and sorry DS lost his badge. I hope it turns up later!


DH doesn't remember all the ingredients, but he did say it was lobster, mayo, celery, and green onion and he said it was DELICIOUS! You can ask a CM for the ingredient list if you want, and decide for yourself if you'd want to try it. He said he's looking forward to eating it again next year. I, however, don't do shellfish. Yuck. I think I did try a bite, and it was okay, but like I said, I definitely do not like lobster (or crab, oysters, etc.) ... so it wasn't for me.

Yep, that is some great photography...so great I had to borrow it!

Hmmmm...will Gabe be reunited with his long lost badge?

I'm back! and finally caught up Looks like a GREAT trip!!! I LOVE the ring and necklace you chose for your pearls! I've always considered doing that with my dd but never have done it. one of these days maybe.

Sorry your MK day rained hopefully it kept some people away and made for less crowds for you at least.

We love our pearls and are so glad we had the experience. I highly recommend it for you and your DD!

Crowds WERE a bit thinner that morning, but not as thin as I remember them being last year...

I loved your update Oopsi!!! For some reason - I feel like I missed one though... I will have to go back and look.

I know how you feel about the rain that day - it was awful... A total ALL DAY rain. I pray your next MK day is dry!

And the food looks fabulous... I did want to try CHH on this last trip - but I thought I read somewhere that they weren't on DDP? Can you confirm or deny???

Thanks for the wonderful update - I can't wait to read about Gabes pirate adventures!

D~

I don't think you missed any updates. I haven't done a TR update lately...mostly just RL stuff like the movie night and Mother's Day weekend.

Yeah, the rain was pretty bad... not the normal Florida sprinkles. We DID get enough good weather for Gabe's Pirate adventures later...

CHH is definitely on the DDP! We used CS credits for that very meal. You should add that to your list for next time, it was delicious.

Remind me that the next time I go to MK to make sure you are not going! LOL! Just kidding! I am glad you guys had so much fun anyway!

Lynn

Lynn, you literally made me LOL on that one! Yes, we have had some bad luck with MK weather. But even a rainy day at MK is better than a sunshiny day in the Real World!

 

[Lidian]

I loved your update Oopsi!!! For some reason - I feel like I missed one though... I will have to go back and look.

I know how you feel about the rain that day - it was awful... A total ALL DAY rain. I pray your next MK day is dry!

And the food looks fabulous... I did want to try CHH on this last trip - but I thought I read somewhere that they weren't on DDP? Can you confirm or deny???

Thanks for the wonderful update - I can't wait to read about Gabes pirate adventures!

D~

I can confirm, too, that CHH is on the DDP, and has been for years. It was on the DDP in 2009 when we first enjoyed the place.

Thanks Liddy. Not sure how I missed that in your TR I guess I will skip it, I can't do onions. They are the only thing in the world I can't eat. But everything else looks good at CHH, so we will try it out

No worries! I don't think I talked about the ingredients in my TR at all. Just a pic and said DH ate and loved it.

You should totally try CHH. We've dined several times there and loved it!

 

[petals]

joining in. Luvin the video at the start and the faces from Club Cool We never did make it in there last year. I think after Figment though Momma wouldn't have trusted me anyway (it pays to read in advance )

 

[oopsiDAISY]

joining in. Luvin the video at the start and the faces from Club Cool We never did make it in there last year. I think after Figment though Momma wouldn't have trusted me anyway (it pays to read in advance )

Welcome!!! Glad to have you on board! Your comment about Figment made me smile. I just love that crazy ride! Gabe actually LIKES the skunk smell part...cracks him up every time.

Work is busy this week. I have not had a chance to post another update. I will try to do that by Friday, though. Saturday is our next movie night~ Mulan. I have had so much fun planning it. I will take pictures and post a movie night update next week.

 

[petals]

Welcome!!! Glad to have you on board! Your comment about Figment made me smile. I just love that crazy ride! Gabe actually LIKES the skunk smell part...cracks him up every time.

Did you see my trip report update on that morning. Momma saw me blocking my nose and went to do the same and I told her not to and hit her hand down just as the skunk smell came

 

[oopsiDAISY]

Ah, another day, another chance to talk about Disney! This week has been busy and frustrating at work. I have been grumpy and just blah. So glad to be feeling happy again today! So without futher ado...

DAY 4, MARCH 11, 2012 cont.'d

We got back to our room for a loooooooong nap, because we knew it was going to be a looooooooong night. We actually went ahead and took showers when we got back to the room. We knew we would be BEAT by the time we made it back to the room later and wanted to get that done and out of the way. So after waking from our nap it was back to the MK for dinner. On this night we would have our only character meal for the trip~we would be dining with Pooh and Friends at Crystal Palace!

I had heard mixed reviews about the food here, but I really wanted to book a character meal since we are not ones to stand in line to get pictures and autographs normally. We did Chef Mickey's last year, so we opted for CP this time. I must say, we were NOT disappointed. The food was delicious, and we enjoyed the characters. We really aren't big into actually engaging the characters, so there are no fabulous character stories to tell. Sorry. Here are pictures of our kids with Pooh and his pals:

Tigger made his rounds first.

Yeah, the only thing we can figure caused that weird look on Jillian's face is that maybe she was using her tongue to clean out food from her braces...ew!


When Pooh came around Jillian and Charity commented on the fact that he kept squeezing them hard! And is it just me or does Pooh actually look kind of creepy in the picture...there is no smile there!

Piglet didn't go around to the tables. They just had everyone go into the front atrium to do autographs and pictures with him. Not sure why.

We had finished our dinner and desserts and Eeyore had still not made his rounds yet. So while we waited I took a goofy picture of Brian with Gabe's new pirate hat on:

I seem to always get at least one goofy picture of Brian at our character meals. Last year I got one of his mouth wide open as we was about to shove one of those Mickey "Mousse" desserts from Chef Mickeys into his pie hole...and he posed for it!

After waiting just a little longer Eeyore finally came.

Dinner was finished and it was time to get started on our LONG list of must do's. We had only an hour and a half before our next ressies. What to do? We headed into Fantasyland to snag some FP's for later and to catch a ride or two. We got Peter Pan FP's. Gabe was especially excited to ride this since he was all about the pirates! After snagging the FP's we crossed the way and took a spin on the Carousel:

This picture is special to me because there is a picture of me on the carousel from our 2006 trip where I was pregnant with Gabe. You can see my little preggo belly in the picture! I will have to locate that pic and get it on here.

Teacups were close by when we got off the Carousel, so we gave those a whirl...I rode with Gabe because I cannot do fast spinning and I knew he wouldn't be able to get it to go around very fast.

Doesn't my little guy just look so happy?

After getting off the teacups we saw that we had about 45 minutes before we needed to be at our next ressie. Brian thought we should go ahead and head that way, but me? Not so much. I thought we had just enough time to do the Monster's Inc Laugh Floor. It was a great show as always. We left the Laugh Floor and headed toward the park entrance. We needed to be at the Contemporary for our next destination. So we head out of Tomorrowland, over the bridge into the hub and...OOPS! Folks were lining up for the first MEP! Oh no!!! It took us FOREVER to make our way through the crowds at the hub and on Main St. After a lot of "excuse me" "excuse us" and "I'm sorry, can we get by you?" We made it to the front gate and out of the park. We made the decision to walk rather than try to get up to the monorail and over to the Contemporary. Let's just say we walked VERY FAST! We were late. Where were we headed? To the Pirates and Pals Fireworks Voyage!!! We were supposed to be there at 8:45 for snacks, drinks and a meet and greet with Captain Hook and Smee. As we rushed up to the check-in desk at 8:55 the guy says "You must be the Sink Family". What? How did he know? Because we were the last ones to arrive. Brian is pretty mad at me at this point since HE thought we should not try to do the Laugh Floor. He was right, I was wrong...there I said it!

The guy checked us in and gave us bandanas that all cruise goers had to wear. We got our little bandanas and tied them on, and headed into the ballroom where the festivities were well under way. The line for the meet and greet was dwindling down, so I got in line to hold our place while Brian and the kids went and got some snacks to take on our cruise. Let's just say since we were the last to arrive, everything was extremely rushed...not off to a very good start. The kids finally made it up to Captain Hook and Smee, but the handlers were rushing us BIG TIME as the group was about to leave to go board the boats. Everything was on a tight schedule. Here is our picture of the kids with the Captain and Smee:

They divided eveyone into two groups with two different boat captains. Each group had a character to walk them out to the awaiting boats. We got escorted by Capatain Hook himself. They sang songs and made a big to do with our walk down to the boats. After all the rain that we had had that day, the night turned out clear and cool...a PERFECT night for the fireworks cruise!

Here is where I will leave you, and save more for another update. Will Brian get in a better mood? Would we get to do all our must do's for the MK? Will we make it til 3am?

 

[DMGeurts]

Loved the update Connie! Glad you made it in time for your Fireworks cruise... Phew! It looks like everyone had a great time at CP - that is our favorite. And how strange that Pooh didn't make the rounds?

D~