DisneyMom5
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2003
- Messages
- 4,567
Cast: (for those of you just joining us...)
Me - 37 yo homeschooling mom/obsessive Disney planner.
Ninja Guy - 35 yo dh, and yes, he has studied to be a ninja. Just made him a lot sneakier. LOL
(You'd recognize him from this smilie. Same glasses.)
Princess - 11 yo dd, also obsessive Disney-phile
(I am so proud, sniff...)
Chef C. - Ds, turned 9 on this trip, wants to cook for a living
Dash - 6 yo ds. Looks just like Dash Incredible. Quite a lady-killer w/ dimples. Oh, and he LOVES "singing in the rain", and can run around in a circle while lying on the floor like Donald O'Connor.
Mon-Ink - 4 yo ds. Named for how he says his fav. movie. When he was in the hospital (see part one) we watched Monster's Inc. EVERY day.
Danger Girl - 2 yo dd, Dash's female mini-me. If there is trouble, one of the two is likely involved.
Bitsy - 1 yo dd. First trip to the world.
So today is Chef C.'s birthday. Tues., Aug. 23rd.
The day he was born, 6 other babies were born at our small town hospital that only holds 8 maternity patients. It was exactly 9 months after a blizzard. He weighed in at 9 lb, 9 oz, and had a dbl chin and a very deep masculine cry. Doctor said he would be a linebacker. He was born c-section, and screamed non-stop while the nurse cleaned him up. She handed him over to Ninja Guy, and C. immediately stopped screaming with a sigh of relief. He KNEW his daddy.
He is now 60 lbs. dripping wet, and by far the tallest skinniest 9 yo I have ever seen. Just goes to show you...
Let me just say that we do not play favorites in our family. We usually combine birthday parties for more than one kid.
(We have 2 March birthdays, 1 July birthday, and 3 August birthdays, so therefore, only 3 parties per year.)
Sounds cold, but it works for us. Chef C. already had his family party the beginning of the month. We did not plan this trip around his birthday, but around daddy's work and school schedule. [we homeschool the kids, so that's not an issue.]
(Ninja Boy, in addition to being a Ninja, wants to be Indiana Jones, so is going to school for Anthropology/Archeology while helping to run an auto parts plant. Crazy? Yes, but he is a hard working dreamer who is utilizing work's pay for school policy, so I am behind him 100%!)
That being said, although his b-day at MK was merely happenstance, we decided to maximize it to its full potential!
But I digress...
We didn't leave quite as early for MK as we had for MGM, but we were getting a better feel for how the Pop buses worked. We had a 10:20 am ADR for Crystal Palace, and a 5:20 pm ADR for Chef Mickey's, and a whole day between at MK to do whatever we wanted.
We got to the gate before opening (and I don't for the life of me remember a rope drop inside the park, so I think it was only at the gate?
)
Got to see the family open the park.
Ok, let me just say that if opening MGM was cool, opening MK would have put us into a faint. RIDING THE TRAIN w/ MICKEY!?!
How cool is that!
We meant to get a birthday button at arrival, but forgot in all the "look, its the castle!" hysteria. Headed over to Tomorrowland.
[Hint: Take the walkway that leads to the Tomorrowland Terrace Noodle Station or whatever it is called. It is airconditioned an gets to Tomorrowland ahead of the bridge!]
Rode Buzz Lightyear- no wait! (my first time, as last year I spent that quality time with Princess in the First Aid station while she suffered from a violent case of stomach flu. Her last memory of MK was laying on the sidewalk near the tea cups. sigh...BUT this trip will be better!)
Headed for Space mtn., again no wait (getting to the park at opening is no joke!) Princess and I rode, and then she dragged Ninja Guy on for another go.
She is braver than I was at 11!
Waited in the shade and admired the metal palm trees. Couldn't decide what to do next...things were going sooo smoothly up to that point. Decided on "Ferris Wheel of Progress" as Dash called it.
I do like this ride, but as it slowly went around I suddenly thought "What time is it? Are we late for our ADR?" Got out at 10:20 and RAN across to Crystal Palace. It can be done!
They were fine with it, and we were seated pretty quickly. Apparently a late ADR is a good thing here. Place was fairly empty. We even got to watch part of Cinderellabration from the windows. Chef C. got a lot of birthday attention, including the forgotten pin.
But the highlight of his day was Chef Joseph giving Chef C. his business card and telling him to call when he was 18! Chef C. is still talking about it. LOL
(See my food reports: Clampetts do Disney/snobby food Report part 1 )
We then headed over to, I think, Fantasyland (can't remember what we did though), and then Toon Town. Got a lot of princess autographs to make up for our Princess having to miss out on them last time.
She was happy!
Rode the train over to Frontierland. Let me say that this was one of the highlights of Mon-Inks trip. He would have been a happy boy (and we would have saved a lot of $) if we had just rode the buses and trains/monorails all day long.
Princess, Chef C. and I rode BTMRR. What a good time. This was a brave move for C. He is a bit chicken.
At some point we did the whole pirates jungle cruise thing, again, I am not sure when. I am getting old, and havin kids just saps the brain cells.
We ended up riding the train from Toon Town again (again, not sure how we ended up there, but I KNOW we didn't get on in Frontierland) to the front of the park to catch the monorail to Chef Mickey's.
Monorail was great, as always, and our only beef is that it is VERY annoying to try to get down from the monorail platform with a dbl stroller. Involved a very small elevator. Yikes.
Had a pretty good time there, plenty of good birthday attention, bad waitress, but good food, and headed back to the park. Loved seeing monorail hotels on the way back. Not sure when, or if, I will be able to justify spending the money, but I can always dream, right?
Did some fantasyland stuff, most with no wait, b/c the majority of the crowd, unbeknownst to us, was conspiring against us to make our trek back to the front of the park darn near impossible.
Again I digress...
Princess, Bitsy and I passed on riding Dumbo to go meet Ariel. It was almost 8 and that's her cut off point but they let a bunch of us in. Bitsy thought she was cool, and I accidently stepped on her tail on the way out. How embarrasing!
Decided to walk to the front. Oh my! Where did all these people come from? Like threading a very small needle with, well, a very big dbl stroller!
Made it up next to the exit, and paused to eat some frz lemonade we got back in fantasyland and watch the fireworks. Not an ideal spot (the circle in front of the trainstation was all blocked of for renovation) but we still saw the show. Headed out before the official end, and the crowd at the Pop bus stop was still huge!
But, in true Disney efficiency, the started bringing 2 buses at a time, and we were out of there. Got back to Pop and collapsed! No more late nights for us. Time for that when they are not so young.
So, that's another installment of Hicks on Holiday. If you think you saw us there, we were the ones with the 6 kids, and all of them but one (Bitsy) were wearing matching Homeschool is Cool t-shirts, as were Ninja Guy and I. Geeks on parade, no?
More later...
Hicks on Holiday part 1
Hicks on Holiday part 2
Me - 37 yo homeschooling mom/obsessive Disney planner. Ninja Guy - 35 yo dh, and yes, he has studied to be a ninja. Just made him a lot sneakier. LOL (You'd recognize him from this smilie. Same glasses.)
Princess - 11 yo dd, also obsessive Disney-phile (I am so proud, sniff...)
Chef C. - Ds, turned 9 on this trip, wants to cook for a living Dash - 6 yo ds. Looks just like Dash Incredible. Quite a lady-killer w/ dimples. Oh, and he LOVES "singing in the rain", and can run around in a circle while lying on the floor like Donald O'Connor. Mon-Ink - 4 yo ds. Named for how he says his fav. movie. When he was in the hospital (see part one) we watched Monster's Inc. EVERY day. Danger Girl - 2 yo dd, Dash's female mini-me. If there is trouble, one of the two is likely involved. Bitsy - 1 yo dd. First trip to the world.So today is Chef C.'s birthday. Tues., Aug. 23rd.
The day he was born, 6 other babies were born at our small town hospital that only holds 8 maternity patients. It was exactly 9 months after a blizzard. He weighed in at 9 lb, 9 oz, and had a dbl chin and a very deep masculine cry. Doctor said he would be a linebacker. He was born c-section, and screamed non-stop while the nurse cleaned him up. She handed him over to Ninja Guy, and C. immediately stopped screaming with a sigh of relief. He KNEW his daddy.
He is now 60 lbs. dripping wet, and by far the tallest skinniest 9 yo I have ever seen. Just goes to show you...
Let me just say that we do not play favorites in our family. We usually combine birthday parties for more than one kid.
(We have 2 March birthdays, 1 July birthday, and 3 August birthdays, so therefore, only 3 parties per year.)
Sounds cold, but it works for us. Chef C. already had his family party the beginning of the month. We did not plan this trip around his birthday, but around daddy's work and school schedule. [we homeschool the kids, so that's not an issue.]
(Ninja Boy, in addition to being a Ninja, wants to be Indiana Jones, so is going to school for Anthropology/Archeology while helping to run an auto parts plant. Crazy? Yes, but he is a hard working dreamer who is utilizing work's pay for school policy, so I am behind him 100%!)
That being said, although his b-day at MK was merely happenstance, we decided to maximize it to its full potential!
But I digress...
We didn't leave quite as early for MK as we had for MGM, but we were getting a better feel for how the Pop buses worked. We had a 10:20 am ADR for Crystal Palace, and a 5:20 pm ADR for Chef Mickey's, and a whole day between at MK to do whatever we wanted.
We got to the gate before opening (and I don't for the life of me remember a rope drop inside the park, so I think it was only at the gate?
)Got to see the family open the park.
Ok, let me just say that if opening MGM was cool, opening MK would have put us into a faint. RIDING THE TRAIN w/ MICKEY!?!
How cool is that!We meant to get a birthday button at arrival, but forgot in all the "look, its the castle!" hysteria. Headed over to Tomorrowland.
[Hint: Take the walkway that leads to the Tomorrowland Terrace Noodle Station or whatever it is called. It is airconditioned an gets to Tomorrowland ahead of the bridge!]
Rode Buzz Lightyear- no wait! (my first time, as last year I spent that quality time with Princess in the First Aid station while she suffered from a violent case of stomach flu. Her last memory of MK was laying on the sidewalk near the tea cups. sigh...BUT this trip will be better!)
Headed for Space mtn., again no wait (getting to the park at opening is no joke!) Princess and I rode, and then she dragged Ninja Guy on for another go.
She is braver than I was at 11!
Waited in the shade and admired the metal palm trees. Couldn't decide what to do next...things were going sooo smoothly up to that point. Decided on "Ferris Wheel of Progress" as Dash called it.
I do like this ride, but as it slowly went around I suddenly thought "What time is it? Are we late for our ADR?" Got out at 10:20 and RAN across to Crystal Palace. It can be done!
They were fine with it, and we were seated pretty quickly. Apparently a late ADR is a good thing here. Place was fairly empty. We even got to watch part of Cinderellabration from the windows. Chef C. got a lot of birthday attention, including the forgotten pin.
But the highlight of his day was Chef Joseph giving Chef C. his business card and telling him to call when he was 18! Chef C. is still talking about it. LOL
(See my food reports: Clampetts do Disney/snobby food Report part 1 )
We then headed over to, I think, Fantasyland (can't remember what we did though), and then Toon Town. Got a lot of princess autographs to make up for our Princess having to miss out on them last time.
She was happy!
Rode the train over to Frontierland. Let me say that this was one of the highlights of Mon-Inks trip. He would have been a happy boy (and we would have saved a lot of $) if we had just rode the buses and trains/monorails all day long.
Princess, Chef C. and I rode BTMRR. What a good time. This was a brave move for C. He is a bit chicken.
At some point we did the whole pirates jungle cruise thing, again, I am not sure when. I am getting old, and havin kids just saps the brain cells.
We ended up riding the train from Toon Town again (again, not sure how we ended up there, but I KNOW we didn't get on in Frontierland) to the front of the park to catch the monorail to Chef Mickey's.
Monorail was great, as always, and our only beef is that it is VERY annoying to try to get down from the monorail platform with a dbl stroller. Involved a very small elevator. Yikes.
Had a pretty good time there, plenty of good birthday attention, bad waitress, but good food, and headed back to the park. Loved seeing monorail hotels on the way back. Not sure when, or if, I will be able to justify spending the money, but I can always dream, right?
Did some fantasyland stuff, most with no wait, b/c the majority of the crowd, unbeknownst to us, was conspiring against us to make our trek back to the front of the park darn near impossible.
Again I digress...
Princess, Bitsy and I passed on riding Dumbo to go meet Ariel. It was almost 8 and that's her cut off point but they let a bunch of us in. Bitsy thought she was cool, and I accidently stepped on her tail on the way out. How embarrasing!
Decided to walk to the front. Oh my! Where did all these people come from? Like threading a very small needle with, well, a very big dbl stroller!
Made it up next to the exit, and paused to eat some frz lemonade we got back in fantasyland and watch the fireworks. Not an ideal spot (the circle in front of the trainstation was all blocked of for renovation) but we still saw the show. Headed out before the official end, and the crowd at the Pop bus stop was still huge!
But, in true Disney efficiency, the started bringing 2 buses at a time, and we were out of there. Got back to Pop and collapsed! No more late nights for us. Time for that when they are not so young.
So, that's another installment of Hicks on Holiday. If you think you saw us there, we were the ones with the 6 kids, and all of them but one (Bitsy) were wearing matching Homeschool is Cool t-shirts, as were Ninja Guy and I. Geeks on parade, no?
More later...
Hicks on Holiday part 1
Hicks on Holiday part 2
