Help Me Smithers! A trip with Barista, Swimming Babies, Unseasonably Cool Weather, But Still Lots of Magic. (updated 8/29/20)

[Clarf]

As we strolled through Adventureland, I kept taking pictures. When we get to pictures of dark places, you'll see a vast difference in the quality of the pictures I take vs. what Jason takes. His phone has an amazing camera on it an he can get really awesome pictures on the dark rides with no flash. Stay tuned! But I took these as we walked.








We kept on walking, but Jason, not to be outdone by the girls dramatics, found this sign and had to get in on the shenanigans.


I guess he wanted to enlist with the pirates.

I kept urging my family to keep moving. We had a FP+ for Splash Mountain. We kept moving over into Frontierland. This is a favorite ride of the whole family.

The girls wanted to get a picture with their friends first, so we stopped for that before we got in line.




After saying hello to the Br'ers, we got in line. And boy were we glad we had a FP+. The wait for standby was at about 2 hours. Just a short wait for us and we were in! Once we were on our log, Jason and I both started taking pictures. This first one is mine. We weren't in the dark yet, so it was okay. The thing is, I have this really nice Nikon camera that I love. But I've never taken the time to learn about the settings. I'm sure I COULD get decent pictures in darker settings, but I just haven't done it yet. I've had the camera for 11 years.




Maura was my ride partner. If she thinks something might be even a little scary, she wants to ride with me. She'd been on this ride before, but it had been a couple years. I don't get that though. When I was a kid going on a scary ride, I ALWAYS picked my dad. I felt safer with him. But whatever. So Maura and I were ride partners and Lucy and Jason were behind us. I actually got a few decent "usies" (instead of selfies).





Okay, we're inside now. This first one turned out okay, but I was using my phone which I think does a bit better in dark settings.


Now Jason took these of the ride itself. I couldn't believe it when I saw them! Mine are always a hot mess in here. I stopped trying. I'm glad he didn't!









And then our ride down Chickapin Falls was over. We'd be back later in the week though. We did commemorate the occasion with our ride photo though.

Jason decided he'd not look normal in any of our ride photos this year, or any of the magic shot PP pictures, except that first one on Main Street USA. So, here he is on Splash.



He's channeling this lady.


Funny story about this. I'm sure by now everyone has seen this picture. It's been all over the internet for a few years. I saw a post about this lady's picture. Maybe on here, maybe somewhere else, but her husband was talking about how she just did that because he wouldn't go on the ride with her and now it went viral. I posted the picture of Jason immitating her, and they loved it! The said that was so cool that he copied that. I'm sure he's not the only one. Anyway, we love that picture.

Because our huge breakfast at O'hana hadn't been enough, we were now all apparently starving. Where else would a hungry family stop for a snack that's near Frontierland? Aloha Isle of course! We were in need of Dole Whips.

Before we headed back to Adventureland though, we made a potty stop, and the girls saw this guy out being his silly old self. They had never met him before and wanted a picture.



That taken care of, we headed over to get our treats. We shared 2. Maura would never eat a whole one herself, and we were still a little full from breakfast, so we thought sharing would be better. Well, Jason probably didn't think that, but we shared anyway. We got one pineapple float and one just pineapple ice cream.





I have a quick story about Dole Whips. We now have them at our local zoo. Just the ice cream, not the floats. They have strawberry and pineapple flavor. We of course love them. Ready for the horrors? MY MOM AND NIECE DIDN'T LIKE THEM! THEY TOOK 2 BITES AND THREW THEM AWAY!!!!! I have no words. We are happy they have them, though.

Anyway, Lucy saw the scenery and said "You should take a picture of that for your trip report." So I did.



It is pretty cool. Dole Whips enjoyed, we did another mission with Sorcerers. We were again clambering all over each other trying to be the first one to get their card read by the camera. I don't remember who won this round, but I'm sure we were a sight.

Next, since we were still in Adventureland, we decided to head over to The Tiki Room. One of our favorites! But I'll save that for another day.

 

[Clarf]

Alright, into the Tiki Room we went. This is a family favorite. We love the theme song and listen to it in the car often. It gets me through some of the cold days of the Wisconsin winter. I'll say, I much prefer this original version to the one with Iago and Zazoo. The kids don't know any different, and I don't know if Jason has an opinion. I can't ask him. He's at work and so am I, so we'll just guess and say he likes the original better too. I let him do the picture taking for the show, since his phone takes photos far superior to any that I could manage with the good camera.









I love these guys.











Such a fun little show and it gets you out of the heat for a bit. Though it was NOT hot on this day. It was a might chilly for Florida. Not cold, but chilly. If I'm leaving frigid Wisconsin, I want warm weather in Florida, darn it.

But I digress. We came out of the Tiki Room singing of course, and wanted to visit the spitting Tikis across from Aladdin's Magic Carpets, but .....OH THE HORRORS!... they were gone. At first, I got really mad wondering why in the heck they'd remove them, but then I though about it and realized they were probably refurbishing them. And refurbish them they have! A friend was at Disney after us and took a picture, and they look really nice! We're looking forward to seeing them again in September. It makes sense that they'd be refurbished in March, when it isn't scorching hot out (or not even warm). Better to have them there in July and August when it's sweltering.

After the disappointment of no leaky Tikis, we set off for a very important appointment. The girls were going to get pirate makeovers at The Pirate's League. If you've read either of my previous reports (one finished, one not, I suck), you'll recall that Lucy had gotten the Black Jack pirate look, and after removing all of her pirate accoutrements due to the heat, she was left with the make up and looked like a man child. Maura had opted for the mermaid makeover in past years. This year, they decided to switch it up.

Our appointment was for 11:45. In our past experiences, we'd checked in and got called back right away. On this day, we were a few minutes early, as usual. We checked in. Lucy signed the mermaid book, and Maura spun the wheel for her pirate name. I can't remember what it was. I'm terrible and didn't write it down.







And then we waited. And waited. And waited. And waited.

They were PACKED. I don't know if they had a lot of walk ups, or had overbooked themselves or what, but we waited a looooooooooooong time. We had a lunch reservation at BOG at 1pm. I had made it knowing (thinking) we'd be out of Pirate's League in plenty of time. We'd never had an issue before. I was starting to get worried. The cast members were very apologetic. All the chairs were full and being used. It was just taking forever. Other guests were getting mean and ornery. We don't do that. Jason and I have both worked in customer service and this wasn't anybody's fault. It was just busy. FINALLY, our name was called.

We waited about 45 minutes for our turn. It was no 12:30 and our lunch reservation was fast approaching. But I'll get to that later. Finally in their chairs, the girls let their pirates know what they wanted.













Manchild in the making.




Some ambiance from the room. They really have it decked out in here. Like you'd expect anything else from Disney.



(continued in next post)

 

[Clarf]

Sheesh. Sorry some of my pictures are so crappy and blurry. Like I said, nice camera, refuse to read instructions. It's all on me.





Taking the pirate oath.



Black Jack!



I don't have a picture of Lucy's mermaid reveal, but we were in a heck of a hurry to get out of there and on to our lunch reservation. There will be pictures of her full regalia coming up soon! We took care of our bill, tipped our pirates well (again, it wasn't their fault things were running slow) and got the heck out of there. They did tell us at the check out counter that we should tell them at BOG that we got held up at Pirate's League, and we'd still have our reservation and wouldn't be charged any extra. They were correct! They also gave us an extra FP for any ride at the MK except the Mine Train (which was okay, we had one for that already). We thanked them and started speed walking to Fantasyland.

Our reservation for BOG was for 1pm. When all was said and done, we were there about 1:20, so not too incredibly late. We got in no problem, and had pre-ordered our food, so with just a few taps on the computer we were sent in to find a seat. The whole place was packed. We wanted to sit in the West Wing again, but honestly would have taken a spot anywhere, but everything was full. We perused all the rooms and when we got into the West Wing, a family was getting up so we grabbed that spot as fast as we could!

Jason took pictures in here, and as usual, his phone camera outshined mine. He got some really clear pics in here, even though it's pretty dark.







Here you can see the makeovers a little bit.



HEre's a picture of the whole room. You can kind of see me in the picture up near the portrait.



Okay, see? This is my miserable attempt of getting a picture in the WW.



Terrible! I think the flash even went off! Wait until you see the one of the cupcakes.

Speaking of food, before too long, ours arrived. I know we didn't wait more than 15 minutes, even though they were super busy.

I had the carved turkey sandwich with the veggies instead of fries.



Jason had the braised pork. It was the same thing he had the last time we were there and he really liked it. My family was getting used to my taking (terrible) food pictures. He's modeling his dish.



Lucy had the carved turkey sandwich as well, but plain and with fries. She's also modeling.



Maura had the kid's grilled cheese and chicken noodle soup. No hand modeling for her. She's had enough of my shenanigans.



For desert, we had 3 different cupcakes. Well, we had 4. We each got our own, but the kids both got the Master's cupcake. Jason and I had the lemon merengue and the strawberry. We share them all and all were delish. You sure can't tell by the picture though. Man I suck.



We all enjoyed our meals again and love the atmosphere of the West Wing. Jason took some pictures of the other rooms on our way out.









We got this goodie on the way out. You can really see their makeovers now.



We had FP+ for the Mine Train coming up, but we had time to stop for some photopass pictures. Jason also acquired a coffee I see.







It must have warmed up a bit because we aren't wearing sweaters.

After this, we headed over to the Mine Train. I'll save that for next week because I think I'm missing some pictures I need to upload. Happy Valentine's Day and have a nice weekend!

 

[Clarf]

Well it's been quite a few months. A pandemic happened as I'm sure you all know, and life went to s$%&. I'm sure you've all been dealing with the insanity in your own ways. I do have Lucy sitting right here next to me though )to keep me on track. We leave for our next trip (yes, we're going) and Lucy wants me to finish this before we go. So, back to Disney in 2018. Before masks, before quarantine, before closing. We had no idea what was to come!

After our lunch at Be Our Guest, we headed over to the Mine Train. We had a FP+ We were looking forward to riding again! Mine Train always gets mixed reviews, but we enjoy it. It's a fun family ride. We got some good PP pics on the ride.



You can't see Jason too well in this one, but Lucy is clearly having a good day.



After our ride to visit the dwarfs, we headed over to Tomorrowland to use our Space Mountain FP+. Lucy would be getting 2 rides on it. Maura didn't want to ride because it's "in the dark." She was tall enough, but a no go. We have told her she is riding it in September. No excuses. Since this trip, she has ridden Millennium Force at Cedar Point in Ohio. It' drops over 300 feet and goes 80 miles an hour. Space is a walk in the park. She's riding next trip or she's staying in the room.

On the way over to Tomorrowland, we found another PP and stopped for a picture. Please note Jason's face. They only get sillier.



That nonsense over, we kept moving to Tomorrowland. Jason and Lucy got in line for the first ride on Space, which was the longest FP+ line we had ever seen. No idea what the issue was, but Maura and I left them to ride the People Mover. First are pictures Jason took inline for Space.

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And here is their ride photo.



Meanwhile, Maura and I were doing this.











After that, we switched kids and Lucy and I rode Space while Jason and Maura went on the People Mover. I only have our ride photo from Space. Although I do admit, a couple of the People Mover pics may have been taken by Jason.



Lucy's face is pretty great in that picture.

Having used all our FP+ already, and it was only around 2pm, we decided that MK was way too crowded. We checked the app and Epcot looked way less busy, so we decided to take the monorail over there. This was a time we were glad to have park hoppers!

 

[Clarf]

On our way out of MK, the Festival of Fantasy parade was going on, so we watched as we walked. On the way out, we stopped for some PP at the entrance to MK because we hadn't gotten any on the way in because dang it was crowded that day!

It's great that our backpack is sitting there on the ground like a left out child. I guess I didn't move it far enough away.







Those done we headed to the monorail to take the first monorail to the TTC and then catch the one to Epcot. The kids had never taken the monorail to Epcot before and it's a nice ride over.

Maura decided she needed some selfies on the monorail. I guess this one wasn't too stinky.







That girl loves to look at herself.

Once inside the gates, we had to stop for the obligatory "I'm holding up the ball" photos.



Jason looks thrilled in this one.



Once in the park, we got a FP+ for Figment. Not that we needed it, but there weren't many other choices this late in the day.

We stopped by the ball for some PP.













We noticed that Daisy Duck was out for a meet and greet and she had no line so of course we went to say hello. Daisy has been a favorite of both girls since their Mickey Mouse Clubhouse days, and I think Daisy gets overlooked sometimes. But we were excited to see her again! We just let PP do the pictures since theirs turn out better.



Maura looks like perhaps Daisy farted here? Something offended her.


















And all of us! Lucy's getting tall. She's almost as tall as Daisy. I'm sure she'd be taller than her now!





We started heading over to Figmemt, since our FP was available now. It was Flower and Garden festival and we were enjoying all the topiaries. We ran into another PP and had to stop again of course.

(continued in next post)

 

[Clarf]

Lucy is lovingly looking at her sister here.







See? We were close to Figment!









The PPs were really on this trip. We got a ton of great pictures.

Finally we made it to JII with Figment and rode the ride. We enjoy this one, especially the song. We listen to it in the car a lot. I didn't get any pictures on the ride, but we did get some after. Each of the kids made their own Figment, and we emailed them to ourselves, but we never got them. I don't think we ever do. Does anyone ever really get them? That's why I took a picture.







We played all the silly games in there too. Well, the kids did. We took pictures.





Oops. I lied. I did take pictures on the ride! They didn't turn out great.



After the fun inside, we went out to play in the fountains. The girls like to see if they can get wet.




I guess I only got 2 fountain pictures this time. I usually get more.

We decided to go over to Club Cool and sample the drinks they had this time. We found some topiaries. I took a picture and clearly Maura took a few.







Into Club Cool we went! I know we all tried Beverly again, even though we all know it's terrible.

I don't think this is a post-Beverly photo.


But this could be! Or it's pre-Beverly aprehension.









For a second I thought Maura was the only one sampling!



Once we were refreshed, we grabbed another FP+ this time for The Seas with Nemo and Friends. We had a little time, so we stopped in the butterfly garden. I have to look and see if we took any pictures in there, so I'll get to those later.

 

[cassidy57]

love your trip report. I did go back and start from the beginning again. Your family looks like you all have lots of fun!!

 

[Clarf]

love your trip report. I did go back and start from the beginning again. Your family looks like you all have lots of fun!!

Aw thanks! I hope to add more today! And we do have fun. Disney is our favorite!

 

[Clarf]

Okay! So Club Cool done, we started heading over to The Seas to use our FP+. We did stop in the butterfly garden on the way, but I guess we took not a 1 picture because I have none. I only know we stopped because my notes say we did. I also just found a PP from the front I missed. I'm only including it because Figment is in it and we can't forget about him. Also, Lord are some of my pictures huge! I didn't mean to do that. I'll make them smaller so you can't see every blemish and pore on our faces.

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I'm sorry I have no butterfly garden pictures. I know. Lame. I remember it being cool, but our public museum has a butterfly exhibit where you can go in and they'll land on you, so it wasn't as exciting to us as it might be to other people, but we were still glad we stopped. We finally headed over and rode The Seas with Nemo and Friends. We DID get some pictures in there. These are courtesy of Jason's phone again as they are much better quality.

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We took some outside after too. Lucy had gotten one of those huge jawbreakers that she was working on. She gets one every trip and just informed me they're "the best." I think we may still have this one laying around our house somewhere.

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She's so lady like with that rolling around in her mouth.

And suddenly they have Mickey ice cream bars, so there must have been a stand nearby.

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Ice cream enjoyed, we headed inside the pavilion to look around. We always enjoy this pavilion. Maura is a huge sea creature fan, sharks specifically so we had to take a look.

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Love the manatees! We have seen them in the wild in Florida and it's so cool. One day I plan to swim with them.

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Clearly Jason should have taken pictures here as these are blurry but you get the idea.

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The shark lover had to take the shark quiz. I think she passed.

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You can see the tiny magnetic Figment in her hand here. He currently hangs from our bed frame holding magnetic Stitch's hand.

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Bruce!

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After all that fishy fun, we started to head back to the front of the park. It was getting close to closing. But on the way out, we found 2 of the coolest meet and greets and there was barely a line for either! Maybe everyone was at Illuminations? I don't know, but their loss was our gain!

(continued in next post)

 

[Clarf]

Okay, phew. Those pictures are better sized.

So heading back to the front, we walked through that walkway where you can meet Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy on one side and on the other side we peeked in and we saw Baymax! We clearly hadn't done our research and didn't know that's where he'd be but we went right in and got in line! There were just a couple of families in front of us. Right before it was our turn, Baymax had to go change his batteries, so we had to wait a few minutes. As soon as he came back out though, it was totally worth it! He came right up to the girls and grabbed their hands and walked over to his area with them.

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It was a long and fun meet and greet. Baymax spent a lot of time with the girls and was so friendly and funny.

When we were done with Baymax, we headed across the aisle and lo and behold, who was there? Joy and Sadness! Another meet and greet we had never done! They were just as fun and kind as Baymax and no one was waiting behind us at the moment, so we walked right in and the girls got a lot of attention from them. Joy took them over to see the memory balls and they "talked" about those for a bit.

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Sadness joined in after a minute too. She hung back at first because, well, she was sad!

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These were 2 A+ 4 star meet and greets! A lot of time and attention was spent and we all enjoyed them a lot.

By this time, it was time to head back to MK so we could get our car and get back to CBR. We did take a few pictures on the way to the monorail though. Epcot is so pretty at night with the pavement that lights up and all the other lights.

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Jason took this gorgeous picture of the ball.

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We got one last picture of Lucy at the Epcot monorail station while we were waiting.

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We had a great first park day! When we got back to CBR, the kids took a night swim in the quiet pool. No pictures. I think we just enjoyed it! The Mousekeepers had been in our room and hadn't done a particularly great job. I remember there was some garbage and other things that just made it look like they hadn't really taken any time to clean our room. It did improve as the days went on though.

I had my new fitbit, and that day had taken 19, 568 steps. A lot, but I'd get more in later days!

We went to bed and got a good nights sleep. We wanted to be back at Epcot when they opened so we could get on Test Track. We didn't have a FP+ for that, and we wanted to get on.

I'll leave that story for the next update though.

 

[tundra1]

Hey, fellow Wisconsinite here! I am so glad I found your TR! I love seeing all your pictures!

We are going in November of this year, so I am interested to see how things work out during your September trip! I hope the park hopping is back by then! Thanks for posting!

 

[erinch]

Following and riveted! Pictures from the Before Times! Love your writing style and so glad you are finishing it. Which now you have to.

 

[DLo]

Just found your report and enjoying following along. Love your sense of humor ! Hoping all goes well for your Sept trip. I rescheduled for next September and have a December trip planned for this year. With the crowds like they are now , I am tempted to go like right now . But I would have to cancel December for budget reasons and not sure I want to do that. I haven’t been there in December yet so want to check out the Festival of the Holidays if they have it. Who knows !?!?
Looking forward to reading more about your adventures.

 

[erinch]

And where is the next installment? Inquiring mi ss want to know.

 

[Clarf]

Hey, fellow Wisconsinite here! I am so glad I found your TR! I love seeing all your pictures!

We are going in November of this year, so I am interested to see how things work out during your September trip! I hope the park hopping is back by then! Thanks for posting!

Thanks for reading and hello fellow 'Sconnie! What part of the state are you from? We will be in WDW in 23 days! We are so excited we can barely stand it! Can't wait to see how things are doing there.

Following and riveted! Pictures from the Before Times! Love your writing style and so glad you are finishing it. Which now you have to.

Welcome and thanks for reading! I"m definitely finishing it. A ton of updates coming right now! I'm glad you like my writing style. I pretty much write how I think.

Just found your report and enjoying following along. Love your sense of humor ! Hoping all goes well for your Sept trip. I rescheduled for next September and have a December trip planned for this year. With the crowds like they are now , I am tempted to go like right now . But I would have to cancel December for budget reasons and not sure I want to do that. I haven’t been there in December yet so want to check out the Festival of the Holidays if they have it. Who knows !?!?
Looking forward to reading more about your adventures.

Hello and welcome! I'm glad you like my sense of humor. Not everyone appreciates it. We can't wait to be there. The crowds have been nothing. My girls check the MDE app daily and are always telling me how short the waits are. We've never been in December either. We hope to go for the holidays for our next trip.

And where is the next installment? Inquiring mi ss want to know.

Right now! So sorry for the delay. I blame Lucy. She was supposed to remind me.

 

[Clarf]

Okay okay, so back to the story. Like I said in my replies above. I totally blame Lucy for not getting an update sooner. She was supposed to remind me! I guess I shouldn't trust the 13 year old. But I have to get this done. We leave for Florida in 19 days! We'll be at Disney in 23 days after spending 3 days with Jason's brother and his family. Jason wants to read this report on the way down so I need to get moving!

So, here we are, day 4 of the trip, day 2 at the parks. We're headed to Epcot today. We weren't able to get FP+ for Test Track, because we had gotten one for Frozen Ever After. We all love Test Track though, and wanted to be sure we got on it this trip, so we were up early and headed to Epcot a little before 9. Thankfully, CBR is close to Epcot, so we arrived in no time. We were there just before rope drop and headed immediately over to Test Track. Of course we got in line and the ride was down, but not for long. I think they were still just doing the morning test runs because we could hear the cars speeding around the track. I got a picture of the girls before we headed in. We ended up only waiting about 10 minutes and were close to the front of the line so we were designing our cars in no time.



Here we are in line. I have no idea who these people are.



This is the car Jason and Lucy made. I swear, they are so weird. I don't know what concept they were going for.





This was mine and Maura's. She did most of the designing. At least it's a little more streamlined and looks like a car.



This is my weak attempt at getting a picture ON the ride. this demonstrates why I don't take pictures on the rides. They suck.



This was after the ride. You can still see the remnants of their makeover makeup on their faces.



We were headed over to The Seas with Nemo and friends. We had FP+ for that and for Turtle Talk. We did stop for a topiary picture on the way.



We only got 1 picture on The Seas, because you saw what happens when I try to take pictures, but Jason took this one. It's actually nice we got to ride something together. Usually we're each with a kid. They're getting bigger though, so I see more rides together in our future.



After seeing the Big Blue World, we headed over to Turtle Talk. We had seen a lot of the stuff in The Seas the night before, so we didn't have to do too much looking around. We got in line for the show and the creatures in the tanks outside of TT were being really friendly. This guy wouldn' t leave us alone and he even seems to be smiling at the girls.







We have a rubber sting ray toy that looks exactly like this. Exactly.



This puffer fish was so cute. Just swimming around and around and kept coming up to the glass.



He also looks like he's smiling.



Finally it was time to go into the show. I don't remember if the girls sat up front this time or if they felt like they were getting too old. I don't think they asked any questions. We still enjoyed the show, though!

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After TT, we headed over the the World Showcase. Our last FP+ for the day was for the much anticipated Frozen Ever After, so we started walking over.

(continued in next post)

 

[Clarf]

So over to the WS we headed. There was lots of beautiful F&G flora and fauna so we took a lot of pictures. A LOT OF PICTURES. I hope you didn't come to this post looking for lots of words because you may not find them.



Okay, this one is just palm trees, but, when you're from Wisconsin and don't see them often, you tend to take pictures of them when you do see them.







Okay this one isn't scenery. It's an extreme close up most likely taken by Maura. I think the previous pictures were taken by her also.



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We always have to visit these fountains.





Even though this one is blurry, I'm including it. It's a Lucy special. I know this because you can see the other 3 of us walking up ahead.



Alright, we finally made it over to WS. We briefly skipped Mexico because we had a FP+ for FEA. We'd get back to Mexico in a bit. Before we got in line, we stopped for a picture. Maura practicing her best Elsa.



Then we headed in.

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(continued in next post)

 

[Clarf]

Wait wait. Hold the phone. I just found a couple of photo pass pictures I missed. I know you could all tell and are swearing at me under your breath, so without further ado, here is our ride photo from Test Track. Lucy looks crazy. I'll try to do better from now on.



Okay, so back to Norway. Jason got a couple really great pictures on the ride. I swear his phone on his camera is magic. But here's a couple more of Norway first and waiting in line.





I think she's admiring her manicure in this one.



The queue is so pretty! We were in the FP+ line, so didn't get to see the whole thing, but the part we did see was gorgeous.



Alright, we were finally on the ride. It was definitely updated since Maelstrom was kind of outdated. We enjoyed it, but we all like the movie. I know this ride has gotten mixed reviews, but we thought it was fun and the animatronics were really great.







After that fun, we stopped in the dump shop. The kids decided they wanted to try to get their Duffy signed by all the countries, so we started with Norway since we were there. But first, troll pictures.





They started with this nice cast member in Norway who signed their Duffy on a stick for them.





Okay, I'll regale you with more of our trek around WS shortly. I have to go try (and fail) to annihilate my family in Mario Kart 8. I really should be better than I am. I used to rule Mario Kart. See you all soon!

 

[Clarf]

Alright so after our ride on FEA and getting started on our trip around the WS, we backtracked to Mexico. We headed inside the pavillion.



These guys were outside.

[url=https://flic.kr/p/2jnwq13]

We got a couple of pics of the girls too before we went in. It looks like Maura's flipping the bird in the close up, but I think she's flashing peace signs. I think.



You can see Jason taking a photo in this photo too. This was probably the warmest day or our trip too. As you can see both girls are wearing tank tops. And Lucy's shorts are a wee bit small I think, but that's neither here no there. As long as she was comfortable!



We were going to head over to Gran Fiesta with the 3 Caballeros but took a quick stop to take pictures of the cool Dia De los Muertos exhibit. It was really cool.





After looking at that, we headed over to the ride. For the first time we'd been there, there was a LINE for this ride. A LINE!!!! Can you believe it? Usually we walk right on. This just shows the crowds were much bigger than we're used to seeing. It wasn't a long wait, about 10 minutes, but still a wait. Soon we were cruising on our boat. My kids love this ride because when Lucy was 5 and rode it for the first time, she laughed so hard at the part where Donald loses his bathing suit. They still look forward to that.

Once again, Jason's phone camera to the rescue!











I love the fireworks at the end. They're such a cool effect!





After that fun little trek we looked around the pavilion for a bit and took some pics. Maura perused the merchandise. The giraffe she's holding now resides on an end table in our living room.



We're eating here on our upcoming trip. Lucy's pick. She loves Mexican food. I can't wait to sit in the shadow of the pyramid. It's so pretty in there!



The kids got their Duffy's signed (no picture, I suck. I swore I took one in every country) and there was a PP inside the pyramid. We'd never seen that before so we got some pics.



This is a goodie.



We headed outside and decided to get a snack.

(continued in next post)

 

[Clarf]

We headed back out into the sunshine and decided to get some snacks at La Cantina de San Angel. We wanted to try more snacks in the WS this year without filling up before our meals. We had never tried this QS before, but had heard great things about the empanadas. We got some of those and some chips and guac. I waited in line while Jason and the girls went to find a place to sit.


Wait, hold the phone! I DID take a picture of the CM in Mexico signing the girls Duffys. Here it is! Blurry of course, but better than nothing.



Okay, back to the grub. Here's our goods from La Cantina.



Looks like the girls got Jarritos too. They love those.



The snacks were yum and we all got just enough. We had other stuff we wanted to try so this was the perfect amount. After our snack, we headed outside to meet Donald Duck in his fiesta wear. I did get a few photos on the way out.

I take it back. One of the kids took the scenery pics because I'm in one of them.





Alright, enough nonsense. We headed out to meet the #1 Duck himself. Donald has always been my favorite character, so I was excited as usual to meet him. The girls LOVE to tell him he's #2 just to get a rise out of him, but he's always #1 to me. There was just a short line and in no time at all we were meeting our favorite quacker.







Here he's chatting us up. Wow my hair was short! I loved that haircut, but I've been growing it out a bit. It's past my ears now!



This was after I told him he would always be #1 to me.



And one more of all of us.



We had a great meet with Donald. He's always fun to see.

We kept on a trekking around the world. Though we had already visited Norway, we did stop for a brief picture outside because we had missed this earlier.

Lucy made this dumb face on purpose. I blame Jason. You'll see in upcoming PP magic shot pics how ridiculous his faces get. Either that or she's imitating the troll. It could be that too. I still blame Jason.



After the brief stop in Norway, we headed over to China. We had a lot of looking around we wanted to do here. This is a very photogenic country.





I think these are kind of out of order because some are outside and some are in, but you get the idea.







We decided another snack was in order so we stopped into Lotus Blossom and got a couple of things to share. It looks like we all tried the sweet and sour chicken, but we shared again. Maura got a smoothie too it looks like. If there is a smoothie, slushy, ICEE, shaved ice, etc., someone in our family is bound to get one.




Lucy is doing her best hand modeling in this one.





One of my strange children took this one because we "have to get a picture of everything."



A few shots of the ambience. I wish I knew what this meant. Perhaps it means Lotus Blossom.







Dorks I tell you.



Maura takes her picture with this guy every trip. She discovered him when she was 3.



(continued in next post)