Grumpy turns sixty, where else could we be ?? *Updated 10/04*

A new trip report! :yay: Loved all your past ones and so glad I joined the party for this one! :cheer2:
 
Thank you for the update! Can't wait to go home tonight to see your pics! Looking forward to more updates! I agree that you had the perfect start to the New Years. Happy 2009!
 
Well, us, or a couple of leprechauns. Wanna see what $120 gets you 10 miles from Charles de Gaulle Airport ?
That picture of the room, was really funny. Sorry your mom fell out of bed.

We just ate breakfast last Sunday at the PepperMarket. Lunch at the PepperMarket is really good, not so good for breakfast. I don't know what I was thinking. We decided next time we go to WDW, we definately want to stay at Coronado.

Hey, did you see the Cruise Ship Wonder is going to be in Europe, in 2010?
We are seriously thinking of doing the cruise, except our flight is almost as expensive as the Cruise, which airline do you use.
 
Thanks for the pic of the Christmas tree--we will be at CS in December! No other happier place to start a new year than Disney!
 

OK I just caught up so I'm a little behind the times:

1) How in the Disney World did you not pack like 2 weeks before you left? I always have my suitcase packed and ready to go! I have been known to wear the same pair of pants every day the week before we go to Disney just so that I can complete my packing!

2) If my mom had to pack my stuff for me I would end up with 3 suitcases. She is notorious for overpacking. I was like that at first but I have seriously lightened up over the years. Seriously...I would have had a bunch of t-shirts that I didn't want to wear, every pair of socks and underwear I own, every pair of pants/capris, 3 or 4 pairs of pajama pants, and 1 bra. :confused3 But i would have had bandaids, 2 toothbrushes, my own tube of toothpaste, and a hairbrush but no shampoo or conditioner. And she would pack me sneakers instead of flip flops which I hate.

3) I could only shake my head when you said that Grumpy didn't print/write down the address of your cheap hotel. I always print everything and carry it with me...and it's not like there is more than one All Star Movies... but still, I have to have that stuff with me or I panic. And imaging poor you working all day, stinking like oysters, dreading the thought of what your mom packed or did not pack for you, and then having to schlep all of your stuff to ANOTHER hotel in the middle of winter made me want to cry for you. But I laughed for about 15 minutes when Grumpy fell off the bed.

4) I can't believe no shampoo in your bathroom! Apparently, midgets don't need shampoo or hairdryers. And it's funny because I've been in some LOUSY hotels here in the US (never been overseas) and even THEY had shampoo and a hairdryer. That's just sad. And especially since, like you said, you can find nice hotels here for cheaper than $120 a night.

5) How long is the flight from Paris to Miami anyway?? I can imagine it's long and boring. The 2.5 hours it takes us to get to Orlando is enough for me.

6) I LOVE Coronado Springs! I want to go back there soooo bad. It's definitely my favorite of the Disney Resorts we have stayed at. But we're poor this year since we just moved into our own apartment too so it's back to the values for us. We are staying at Pop though and we've never been there so I'm looking forward to a new place.

Can't wait for more!
 
Great Update...thanks for sharing!

I agree...what a wonderful way to start 2009 at the Happiest Place on Earth. :thumbsup2 I have always wanted to visit Disney during the holidays...maybe oneday:rolleyes1.

Looking forward to more..

Oh yeah, hope everything works out with the water damage at your apt.:wizard:
 
What a GREAT start to the new year! Starting at WDW is bound to bring you lots of luck!
 
Marina, you (and Grumpy) crack me up!

I am happy that you two made it safe and sound, despite ice storms, oysters, wrong hotels, and falls from bed! Can't wait to hear more. And if Grumpy ever decides to skip a trip, you know where you can find some willing travel companions, right?!?! I just know that you would be a hoot to spend time with!!

Oh, and on the mac & cheese. It looks soooo good. But I was afraid to order it when we were at WPE last week, because I don't like blue cheese (or gorgonzola), and I think it's in there. Can you taste it? (In other words, does the mac & cheese taste moldy???)
 
Oh, and on the mac & cheese. It looks soooo good. But I was afraid to order it when we were at WPE last week, because I don't like blue cheese (or gorgonzola), and I think it's in there. Can you taste it? (In other words, does the mac & cheese taste moldy???)

Nope ! I don't do moldy cheeses either. I mean, they send people in masks to scrape that stuff off our walls, isn't that a clue that maybe we shouldn't be eating it ?!

I'm happy to report and give a big thumbs up on the nonmoldiness of the WPE macncheese. :banana:
 
Here's the deal. I don't do confined spaces that other people breathe in. No I don't go ballistic and I don't check my will before entering a plane, but when I get on a plane there's a 99.9% chance I will get some kind of throat/nose/ear/alloftheabove nasty ailment within the next few days. I was sick as heck when we went to Disney in July 2007 and have very little recollection of the last 2-3 days of that trip. Wouldn't have been so bad if the trip had lasted more than 6 days. :rolleyes1

Anywhoo... After that last trip I went to see my doctor and he told me the one thing that could work was to take a big dose of steroids before getting on the plane. I took Prednisone for years (didn't help the whole Turkey thing one bit), then my asthma got more or less under control and I only take it occasionally now. One of the main side effects is still the same : I get incredibly hungry. If I wasn't somewhat vegetarian I could totally eat a horse. If someone made a horse out of candy, Mr Ed would be in serious trouble. And Grumpy would be there to help.

So, as advised by Dr Wacko, I had been taking a triple dose of Prednisone for the past four or five days. I felt fine, and was just waiting for the whole starving thing to happen.

It hit on January 1st. Some people drink around the World - I actually ate the World that day.

Oh yeah cause today we went to Epcot !! It had evening EMH that day and we wanted to enjoy walking around at night with the Christmas decorations everywhere. We were up bright & early, and took a little walk outside to check out the Ranchos. Back when I was still looking at pictures of CSR and wondering if I could like the resort, the Ranchos were the area that I liked most but the location worried me. We got over that idea pretty quickly.

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Oh look, a Grumpy !!

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We found the bus stop with no problem and soon were on our way to Epcot. Now, we have NEVER managed to make it to rope drop at Epcot. I don't know why. We can make it at DHS which is the park we do a whoopin two darn rides in, but when it's our favorite park, Epcot, we're always late.

Soarin' already had a 35mns wait when we got to the times board, about 10mns after opening. We decided we wouldn't mind waiting 35mns and headed to The Land. Only, once we got there, the wait time had gone up to 50mns. Nuh-huh. We grabbed Fastpasses and crossed the park again to ride Mission:Space, which was a walk on.

Hello, Lieutenant Dan!

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We had a blast and went right back in for a second ride. I *love* this ride ! It used to scare the living daylights out of me. We've only done the green version so far but one of these days I'm gonna grow cojones and ride the spinning side.

After our second ride we spent some time in the gift shop. All the T-Shirts were at 50% off that week and we took full advantage of it. Grumpy chose a black shirt with "I need some space" in pink, I got a crazy tie/dye with planets and stuff on it (hey, I'm not allowed to wear T-Shirts at work anyway, so I'll wear whatever I want under my own roof, missy!). We even got some for Alex and Jessica. For Jessica a glow-in-the-dark Mission Space and for Alex we got an awesome Yoda T-Shirt that says "Judge me by my size do you?" (Alex is barely 5 feet tall). Okay so not very Mission-Spaceish, and Grumpy has no idea who Yoda is so she refers to this as "the troll shirt".

And it's in that shop that I found some glow in the dark stars to put on walls. My new place is full of them now and they are SO cool. It really feels like you're sleeping under the stars. :cloud9: I've gotten quite a few compliments on those :rolleyes1

We had all that stuff sent to our room, and after we got out of the shop, I realized I was hungry. Yep, already. It had started.

There was an ice cream cart getting ready to open and I got in line. Those 6 snack credits were already burning my pockets! Right next to the ice cream stand the guy set up a bunch of boxes of fresh fruit and veggies.
Grumpy was impressed.

"Look how nice that is ! So you can have a healthy, fresh snack instead of fatty chips or sugary ice cream. That's a really great option!"
"So, you want the fruits or the veggies?" I asked
"Huh, me ?? What am I, a rabbit? I want Cheetos."

I'd seen oodles of photos of the infamous chocolate covered frozen banana on the DIS and that's what I wanted. We used two snack credits and went to find a spot in the shade with our treats.

Grumpy polished off her Cheetos like a Tasmanian devil. I took a bite of my frozen banana and was shocked that it tasted so... frozen. Don't ask me why, but I somehow had not processed the frozen part of "frozen banana". I thought it'd be cold but still bananaish mushy which was not the case. Wasn't bad but wasn't good either and so my mom finished it.

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For Christmas I'd gotten my mom a camera. She took pictures, I know she did. She took a pic of me with the banana that I knew I would NOT be using in my trip report :rolleyes: The pics are still in her camera somewhere. Wherever the camera is.

Test Track looked so appealing but as usual my mom would have none of it, and I didn't feel like going in as a single rider. So, bybye Test Track. See you next trip.

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It was almost time to use our Soarin' FPs anyway so we went back towards The Land. I begged my mom to go see the Circle of Life movie. It makes me bawl. I love it. So we went and then back downstairs to ride Soarin'.

Grumpy & I were good girls and waited patiently in line without doing silly faces or taking silly pictures.

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We had a nice flight with Patrick, grabbed another set of FPs and discussed lunch. Sunshine Seasons would be convenient since we were there,but I also wanted to try Tangerine Café in the World Showcase.

How about we share a meal at Sunshine Seasons, go for a walk around WS and share another meal at TC ? Sold.

We knew what we wanted : salmon, and it was very yummy. With the DDP we also got dessert. Grumpy knew she wanted a baklava in Morocco and didn't care which one I picked here, so I went for the strawberry shortcake.
Grumpy also got herself a side of tomato & mozzarella with a snack credit.
We found a table and started the Attack.

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Everything tasted soooo good. The shortcake especially was pure heaven.

"Wasn't that shortcake soooo good ???"
"How the heck should I know ?? You inhaled the thing in two seconds."

And it wasn't over yet. Not even close.

We left The Land and headed towards World Showcase. Stopped at the shop near The Plaza for some browsing and we met a cute buddy we had a conversation with.

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Grumpy trying out her camera....

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Our next stop was England.

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We'd never visited the shops there. Wow, talk about a blast from the past !! PETER RABBIT!! I spent my whole childhood with him. :hug: I tried to find some Lamb Chop stuff but didn't find any. I did, however, find some Little Miss & Mister books and bought six of them. They didn't have my favorite though, Mister Messy. Maybe next time.

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I wanted to take a pic of Grumpy in the little British salon area.

"This is a fancy place, try to look respectable!!"

.....
...


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:sad2:
 
can't wait until I get home and can see the pictures. (work firewall deletes them)
Thanks for the update. :thumbsup2


edit: okay got to see the pics. Wow! that strawberry short cake looks great.
 
OMG...that strawberry shortcake looks sooooooooo good! And I think Grumpy did a fairly good job of looking respectable. She wasn't sticking her tongue out! LOL
 
Great update as always Marina! :goodvibesI was laughing out loud at the fact that you didn't realize the frozen banana was actually frozen!

Lunch looks good - I would have inhaled that strawberry shortcake as well! :love:

Were there a lot of chalk drawings - that's pretty neat!

Sara
 
I feel for you-- I took prednisone only once for my asthma and all I remember is being hungry for 3 days! My mom takes it regularly for her arthritis and it has no effect at all on her. :confused3

You've got to let the banana thaw a little before eating it, then it's much better. :thumbsup2 Yes, that means carrying around a banana for a few minutes, I know, I know.
 
Your Ranchos pics of CSR are really pretty. We're staying there in August, as I think I've mentioned before (I'm a little excited about it) I've requested Casitas, I hope I get it. But you didn't mind Ranchos? Was it really far from everything?
 
I don't take predisinoe but i'm pretty sure i could eat my way thru the world too! Everything looks so good there, and plus....all the walking burns off everything you eat! Nothing has time to settle on your thighs, so it's just perfect!! :lmao:
 
Great update as always! I am going to have to try that Strawberry Shortcake looks sooo yummy!
 
It really feels like you're sleeping under the stars. :cloud9: I've gotten quite a few compliments on those :rolleyes1

Really!?!



I took Prednisone for years (didn't help the whole Turkey thing one bit),

Whats 'turkey thing'? Is it another allergy?

PS love the report. Write a novel...I would read it. You already have fans!:coffee:
 
I just stumbled on your report and LOVE IT! I read your last two in one sitting (at work) :surfweb: and thought they were so good!

You had me laughing out loud twice: once with Grumpy falling out of bed :lmao::lmao:...and I don't really remember the other one.

Can't wait to try the mac n' cheese on our next trip! :love:
 
Thanks for the great update and pics. Your lunch at Sunshine Seasons looks delicious.

I'm curious - why doesn't grumpy like Test Track?
 











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