Friends go to Disney for dinner and turn it into a week long trip! New updates 12/4

[Lesprivate]

That was nice of the cm to give your the whole car on Star Wars to yourselves . I love Beauty and the Beast, it is such a great show, we took Andrew in August while the kids rode rides and he love it.

 

[tazdev3225]

That was nice of the cm to give your the whole car on Star Wars to yourselves . I love Beauty and the Beast, it is such a great show, we took Andrew in August while the kids rode rides and he love it.

It was very cool to have a car to ourselves. They really weren't that busy but there were people in line. I wanted to see the show in August because Ella loves that movie but we couldn't work out the time and her father was being miserable because his back hurt and he couldn't get to a smoking spot fast enough. We had to see Indiana Jones instead which I don't think she was as thrilled to see. Just gives me a reason to take the kids again one day.

 

[tazdev3225]

Sorry for the delays getting back to this but we had a hurricane coming and my grandson had baseball playoffs. The hurricane is here and my grandsons team got robbed of the championship. What better way to deal with this - update my TR of course.

DAY 1 - continues on

When I left off we had seen Beauty and the Beast and did not want to go to the 8 PM Fantasmic. What to do? Of course we will ride

And a slightly artsy type pic. I was looking for an unusual angle

There was again almost no line. I knew it was a longshot but I asked if the cowboy side was running. It wasn't. Oh well gangsters here we come. I took another weird shot

Yes I know it's my ankle and foot. I was trying to get away with the splint and my leg was glowing orange. OK Mr. DeMille on with the show. I take pics on this ride all of the time. This trip was no exception but I went for the unusual

Finally got some decent shots of the Alien scene - with NO FLASH!

Switching from one scene to the next but the view behind the car

Wizard of Oz but a flower and lightpost

Our trip to the movies over we headed back to

Our FP time window had opened up. Now TOT is one attraction that is not ECV friendly. I offered to sit and wait while Kristel rode without me. She told me to go park by the exit and she would meet me there. No problem. She did meet me there in seconds with a wheelchair. She was pushing me through the line and I had no say in it. This was one of the reasons I had wanted to cancel out because I didn't want my friends to have to deal with me. They didn't care. Of course I did complain in a good natured way. She picked a chair that didn't open right and had me sitting on a metal bar - that I felt on EVERY SINGLE BUMP. It really was fun though, she complained that getting to the ride was all uphill so she was looking for the bumps.

A light in the queue

The ghostly apparition of the 5 guests that never came back

View when the door opens, not as good as it's hard to focus while moving in the dark

And a pic of our ride photo - Kristel teased me that while everyone else was screaming there I was with the camera in my face

She made sure to hit some more bumps getting me back to the ECV. We still had a couple of hours til the 9:30 Fantasmic show so we shopped. I should say Kristel shopped I browsed. I never like to buy anything the first day.

Sunset Blvd

A window display of Donald I took for my DH. Jim loves Donald Duck. Can you tell we belong together he likes an angry duck and I like a Grumpy dwarf.

ceiling display in one of the shops

I told Kristel she should buy the hat, it just made her outfit

The hat all lit up. I like the shot because the lights from Great Movie Ride sparkled and looked as if they were part of the hat

Continued in the next update.

 

[tazdev3225]

DAY 1 - Fantasmic

We headed back to get in line for Fantasmic around 8:30 or 9. I didn't want to brave the rush with the scooter and we both knew that I would be in the top of the theater. Scooters don't go down steps very well.

We were both thirsty so we stopped for drinks. Kristel got a coke and I got a large Iced Tea. They don't travel in the cups holder on the scooter well and my foot got a little wet. We were shown our seats at the top but in the center so not too bad.

I present Fantasmic

The park was closed after Fantasmic so we headed to the bus stop and back to the resort. We actually didn't have a long wait for the bus and were back to POFQ by 10:30.

One final update for Day 1 coming

 

[tazdev3225]

Day 1 - the end

When we got back to the resort I took pics all of the way to the room. I had never stayed here before so I needed night shots. These are the walk towards the pool and some of the pool area.

We got to the room and I got ready for bed and planned on watching the news for the weather or something else. By the time Kristel got out of the shower I was sound asleep. It had been a long day but fun day.

 

[scottny]

What a fun update. I loved the Fantasmic pics. I did not get to see it this trip but your pics are fantastic.

Nice pic of Kristel with the hat.

The resort pics are nice.

You always take pics on TOT. I saw on the photopass you did it the next night too.

 

[tazdev3225]

What a fun update. I loved the Fantasmic pics. I did not get to see it this trip but your pics are fantastic.

Nice pic of Kristel with the hat.

The resort pics are nice.

You always take pics on TOT. I saw on the photopass you did it the next night too.

I hadn't done Fantasmic in awhile so I was glad we did it.

Kristel did look good in that hat.

There are more resort pics to come.

I do take pics on TOT all of the time. We joke about it alot. I am determined to get a really good shot when the doors open.

 

[Lesprivate]

Great photos of the Great Movie Ride, I still have not ridden TOT (I don't like drops) that was so nice of Kristel to get the wheelchair.

Fantasmic is such a great show; I didn't see it this year but Frank and I did last year.

 

[tazdev3225]

Great photos of the Great Movie Ride, I still have not ridden TOT (I don't like drops) that was so nice of Kristel to get the wheelchair.

Fantasmic is such a great show; I didn't see it this year but Frank and I did last year.

Thanks I was going for offbeat on the Great Movis Ride. I would never ride TOT because I don't like drops and was afraid of my back but I love that ride now. She was really awesome the whole trip making sure I stayed off my ankle as much as possible.

I do like Fantasmic and haven't been there for a few trips so I was happy we did it.

 

[tazdev3225]

Day 2, October 8th

I don't know about everyone else but when on vacation I have a hard time sleeping in, I was up at 6:30 AM. I tried to be as quiet as I could so as not to wake Kristel. This was where my new method of packing came in handy. I knew what shirt I wanted so I found the bag using my little flashlight and headed in to take a shower. By the time I was out of the shower 10 minutes later Kristel was awake. She said I didn't wake her. It did mean I could dry my hair at least. I made a cup of coffee and headed out. I love to just wander the resort early and watch it come to life. I sat by the Sassagoula River, listened to my I-Pod and ook some pictures.

This was the "street" outside our building

Building 1 from the courtyard

Hoped to ride this

The waterway resort map

Boat dock

Street Sign

Pool by day

Walk to the lobby

Fountain in the lobby

CM who greets arrivals, I loved his outfit

The bar, we never made it here although we did see the entertainment a couple of nights heading back to the room

And the food court

continued

 

[tazdev3225]

Day 2 continues

While at the food court I got my resort mug and filled it with Gold Peak White citrus tea. I love that stuff. I debated getting Kristel her mug but wasn't sure what handle color to get. Then I headed back to the room

I loved the lamp posts with the street names

A fountain in the courtyard

More lamp post/street signs

This is one of my favorite pictures from that morning. I think the bridge goes to Riverside

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While I was sitting along the river I called my mother but have no idea why. I think just to tell her I was having fun and how pretty the sunrise was. She is always up that early. I then called Walker and told them about the issue with the key on the scooter. They didn't think it was good either so they said that a new scooter was on the way. I went back to the room and took the lights off of my scooter. Kristel was almost ready to go. She is a little more high maintenance than I am.

Finally ready we headed to the food court for breakfast. We both got the Bounty Platter the only difference was that I had all bacon. I'm not a huge fan of breakfast sausage. We finished around 9 and I still hadn't heard from the Walker driver. As we headed towards the lobby I saw the Walker truck leaving. A quick phone call and the scooter was waiting at Bell Services for me. We exchanged my scooter for the new one and headed back to the room.

Kristel and I then fully decorated my wheels for the week

I got a lot of comments on it. Most people wanted to know what they had to beware of, was I that bad a driver. Personally I think the eware was a warning about Kristel. She would really get mad at people cutting me off or walking in front of me and then saying something about people in scooters. It did make picking the scooter out easy when I had to leave it somewhere.

We were then on our way to the bus stop and our park of the day

We had a busy morning already in just a couple of hours. Up next where did we go?

 

[Lesprivate]

POFQ is such a beautful, peaceful resort, we stayed there in 2006 and loved it, I love walking around the resorts early in the morning by myself.

Emily has always packed her clothing in baggies for each outfit per day; she started this when she went to Girl Scout sleepaway camp and they suggested it in case their bags got wet the clothes remain dry.

 

[tazdev3225]

POFQ is such a beautful, peaceful resort, we stayed there in 2006 and loved it, I love walking around the resorts early in the morning by myself.

Emily has always packed her clothing in baggies for each outfit per day; she started this when she went to Girl Scout sleepaway camp and they suggested it in case their bags got wet the clothes remain dry.

It really is a peaceful resort. I started walking around the resorts early in the morning when I went down with Jim a few years ago. It is just a great way to start the day.

I never did the baggie thing before but I will be doing it from now on. It made the morning so much easier to get ready and the extra outfit or 2 I packed was still clean when I got home. I was in girl scouts but hated camping so I must have missed the lesson on baggie packing.

 

[scottny]

Pretty pics. I have only walked around there twice but it is a very pretty resort.

Lots of people up already there. I slept in a lot this trip.

Glad the scooter got there so quickly. Are they are on the list for approved vendors? I read somewhere about it happening.

Looking forward to more.

 

[tazdev3225]

Pretty pics. I have only walked around there twice but it is a very pretty resort.

Lots of people up already there. I slept in a lot this trip.

Glad the scooter got there so quickly. Are they are on the list for approved vendors? I read somewhere about it happening.

Looking forward to more.

I like the values to save some money but love the moderates for scenery. POFQ was a very pretty resort to wake up to.

If I had 13 days I may have slept in too but then again probably not. I get a little hyper on my trip not wanting to miss a thing.

Walker is a fantastic company to deal with. They are not on the approved vendor list. I actually called over the weekend to find out what is up with that. Effective yesterday only a handful of Disney approved companies may leave a scooter at Bell Services at the resorts. If you do not use one of these companies you have to make arrangements to meet a driver for pick-up and delivery of the scooter. You can still rent from the non-approved vendors but Disney is making it harder to do that. Walker is still trying to become an approved vendor so I am hoping by my next trip this will change otherwise I'm not sure what I will do. It means calling them from ME to get delivery and then losing time on the last day to return the scooter. Less park time. The other companies have a good reputation so I may have to rent from one of them but no more decorating the basket.

 

[tazdev3225]

When I left you all hanging we had swapped the scooter, decorated the new scooter and we also got some water and were off.

We got to the bus stop and the first bus there was packed. The CM who co-ordinates the buses in the mornig was fantastic and called dispatch to let them know they had a scooter waiting. We had a new bus there very quickly. We were arrived at the park of the day around 10 or so. I always seemed to pick the line for bag check with the slowest guard who wanted to look through everything. I know I really look like a bad guy. Anyway we got through the turnstile - again I picked the one with all of the problems and made our way into

Yep our park of the day was the Magic Kingdom. For some reason in August I took NO pics of the castle or Main Street. I made up for it this trip. Anyway we had a choice - what to do first. I really wanted to ride the train. Kristel hadn't been on it in a few trips so we tried to find the accessible entrance. We had a bit of trouble but weren't the only ones. Found the ramp and up we went. Took another pic towards Town Square

Then the train arrived. You leave the chair at the station and ride the whole loop but it was very relaxing. I give you our train ride
The train pulling into the station

Frontierland: Woody and Jessie meet and greet area

BTMRR - a lucky shot but I liked it

Another artsy shot. I liked the lights on the ceiling of the car

All we saw of the new circus themed area of the trip

Adding water to make the steam

The conductor and engineer

Saw the Avenger monorail

And we were back where we started. Took a pic looking up Main Street

Kristel wanted a shoe shine

Another shot up Main Street. We decided to skip the main walkway and cut through the Emporium.

Came out about halfway down Main Street to see some entertainment

Kristel actually went over and took the shot for me because I was once again invisible and a family parked themselves right in front of me.

Love the decorations

Zoomed in to see some of Dream Along With Mickey. I was actually still about halfway up Main Street. My camera has a great zoom

We moved on but which way did we go? Stay tuned.

 

[tazdev3225]

When I left you hanging we were leaving Main Street but where to go? That was easy, we were off to Adventureland. As we entered I saw

I never realized that they grew bananas in MK and I really liked the big flower at the end of the bunch. As we wandered in we stopped for some great entertainment. I knew the camel at Aladdins Magic Carpets could spit water at people. I didn't realize the head moved around to do it. I either never saw it at all or just didn't pay attention. We were having a lot of fun watching the camel hit unsuspecting people.

We moved on to take a cruise, a Jungle Cruise that is. I didn't want to stay in the scooter, that really gets tiresome so I hobbled onto the first boat they let us on and sat right next to the step. We then went to the main dock and boarded the rest of the passengers.
The view while we aited to board the other passengers

And our tour guide. He was really great and when I took his pic told me that he was happy I got his good side

As we pulled away from the dock for our cruise I looked at Kristel with pure panic on my face. I left my bag in the scooters basket. Jim got me a Baggalini for my birthday since I didn't want to carry a backpack or camera bag this trip. All of my money and credit cards were in the bag. There was nothing I could do but pray it would still be there when we returned. I tried to enjoy the attraction and took a few pics

Shirley and her Temple

I really wish I could have enjoyed the ride but I was in pure panic mode. We got held up in a traffic jam that didn't help me calm down. Finally we hit the dock and of course I was the last to get off. I hobbled over to the scooter and there safe and sound was my bag. It also had everything in it so I was very relieved and made sure not to repeat that mistake.

After the cruise we knew we had to head over to

This is another ride that you have to transfer for. The scooters can't make it through the queue. I wanted to hobble but by the time I had parked the scooter Kristel had one of the waiting wheelchairs there for me. I had my cane but she was pushing me around literally. We had almost no wait. I think the time posted was 10 minutes but it was practically a walk-on. I liked the light fixture

I took pics but this was my favorite

I tried to hobble off the ride and up the walkway but Kristel was there with the chair right away. I think she liked pushing me around. We made a potty stop and then headed through the dump shop. It was crowded so we went back to get the scooter.

Next up was Splash Mountain but the wait time was around 30 minutes and the FP return time was about the same thing. We got FP's and went to a favorite - BTMRR. Now as much as I love the ride I shouldn't really go on it, and this was one time I wish I had paid attention to the warning. We headed up the exit ramp and waited. I got a pic of a train arriving

One of the CM's at the exit asked about the camera as I had it on. She didn't get how you can get pics on the ride that came out since you move pretty fast. I take pics all of the time and have actually taken a few good ones since I don't aim - I just shoot and hope for the best. I got a few good ones this trip too

One final pic after we exited

Our FP window was in about 15 minutes so Kristel wanted to head back to Splash Mountain. I told her to go ahead I wasn't going on. She looked at me and realized that I had a problem. I was practically in tears. My ankle got slammed into the side of the car we were on and I was in really severe pain. I actually had broken out into a cold sweat from the pain. I did mean it when I told her to ride Splash but she refused. This was one of the reasons I had wanted to cancel the trip on my end. I didn't want to be a burden. I knew we were friends but realized then that I had a really great friend.

We headed over towards Liberty Square and Kristel posed to try and get me to laugh I think

We decided we had to see which of us would join the 999 ghosts. As we walked over that way we decided to spread some We found 2 women who were celebrating their birthdays together and I heard them say they were going to see how long the wait was for Splash. We gave them the FP's. It made me feel really good that even though we weren't going on Splash we made 2 strangers really happy. Still in pain but happy we went to Haunted Mansion.

I got a pic in the stretch room

Then I was shown where to wait. Now I was a little concerned here because the CM's at HM do not have a great reputation when it comes to guests needing assistance. I shouldn't have worried, they were great and even slowed the walkway down for me. I took some lousy pics and we were off. When we got to the cemetary I saw Mr. Toad

Then I saw what I thought was Dumbo. Kristel looked at me like I was crazy, I am I readily admit it but couldn't understand why she thought so at this time. She just said, "It's a duck!" I still think it looks like an elephant

Then a gargoyle, or a demon cat? I liked it though

And I will stop here so all may question my sanity or creativity plus I have no more room for pictures.

 

[Lesprivate]

Great ride photos on BTM, I could never take any photos while on that ride because I am always too busy holding on for my life.

 

[tazdev3225]

Great ride photos on BTM, I could never take any photos while on that ride because I am always too busy holding on for my life.

I hold on with one hand and take pics with the other hand. It takes my minf off of the fact tha A) I hate roller coasters and B) my left leg will go numb when I get off. I don't know why I ride it and this time I really wish I hadn't.

 

[scottny]

great photos and updates.

I remember you telling us that happened to you on BTMRR. Nice you gave the passes to others.

I would have been in a panic also over the bag. Glad it was all there.

Looking forward to more.