Hijinks & Shenanigans but not much Mayhem@The Dark Side+Disney:Link to DL/Hawaii TR

[teekathepony]

Welcome back! I saw the Facebook pics, they're so amazing, it looks like you guys had a great time! My favourite were the pics of the turtle! He was so cute!

 

[eandesmom]

Welcome back!!!!!!!!!!

I agree, loved the turtle pics!

And the drink ones

 

[natebenma]

Welcome Back Dee! So glad you had a great time and got to escape some of this crappy weather. Can't wait to see some pics!

Thank you! As many of my friends who were stuck back home during two major snowstorms pointed out, we chose a great time to get away!

Dee, glad you had a great trip!
I thought we weren't gonna make it out on Tuesday it was snowing hard. We were delayed about an hour bc they needed to plow runways. Our plane was hovering above waiting for a while. Then they needed to de ice plane too. What a pain!!!
We are leaving tonight at 6. The flights over the weekend were too expensive!! Hope we make it home on time. Crossing my fingers.

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I'm glad you were able to get out. They were calling for a snowstorm later in the day when we took off, but we missed it thankfully. Hope you got in ok this week-

IIRC, you don't usually fly out of Logan, but did you hear that there were NO available parking spaces at the airport on Tuesday due to the overlap of Mass and NH vacation weeks???

Welcome home! I'm glad you had a great trip. I can't wait to read all about it!

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Thanks!

Glad you're back safe and sound. Looking forward to reading all about your "vacaciones en México"!

Gracias! Hopefully I'll get a chance to start writing soon. But I kind of doubt it!

Welcome back Dee! I saw a preview of your trip photos on FB. It looks like it was a wonderful trip. (The comic pre-Mexico trip was perfect!)

I look forward to reading about the trip once you post your link.

Thanks!

Welcome back! I saw the Facebook pics, they're so amazing, it looks like you guys had a great time! My favourite were the pics of the turtle! He was so cute!

The trip was fantastic, and the turtle was a lot of fun, very friendly and a little scary because it kept sneaking up on us. NINJA TURTLE!

Welcome back!!!!!!!!!!

I agree, loved the turtle pics!

And the drink ones

Thanks!

Shame on me! I only had one margarita and it was on the rocks. And strong. I don't care for the strawberry margaritas if they use the pre-blended slushie stuff that is way too sweet. Be we sampled some very yummy adult beverages.




**************************************************

As I kind of hinted at above, I'm not sure when I will start writing a short report about Mexico trip. I have a few fun stories to share, but my OCD mind is struggling with having the new report interspersed with my current one, and there is really no other trip report forum on the DIS where this will fit.

I have two more updates for the current Disney day I am working on, so I will try to post them, then start on the Mexico trip.

In the meantime, here are the albums I have posted on Facebook for those of you who haven't seen them. I hope the links work!


Beach Fun https://www.facebook.com/media/set/...949.1073741833.1336285045&type=1&l=fb10d300fc

Pools https://www.facebook.com/media/set/...762.1073741835.1336285045&type=1&l=3697958e28

Sunrise and Sunset https://www.facebook.com/media/set/...845.1073741837.1336285045&type=1&l=396e5a4741

Boat Drinks https://www.facebook.com/media/set/...762.1073741835.1336285045&type=1&l=3697958e28

Feeding the Fish and Birds https://www.facebook.com/media/set/...748.1073741834.1336285045&type=1&l=612f18f277

Turtles https://www.facebook.com/media/set/...430.1073741838.1336285045&type=1&l=f49ec8009b

Snorkeling https://www.facebook.com/media/set/...141.1073741839.1336285045&type=1&l=678b7722f9

Xplor Adventure Park https://www.facebook.com/media/set/...967.1073741840.1336285045&type=1&l=d0664715fb

 

[natebenma]

I've never eaten at T-Rex but we've wandered through the store and seen where they have the big sand pit of bones - if I recall correctly. It's been a few years so instead of saying that I'm old and the memory is fading, I'll just say that I was in a vacation fog. It's real you know!

That is great that you were seated in the fishie part of the restaurant! It looks like very similar photos of what I saw on FB, how coincidental. And I'm sure you know the names of all those guys. I identify them in classifications of "colorful" "plain" or "gawd is that a man eater!"

T-Rex is fun, loud, expensive, delicious and apparently a must-do for us.

There was not a better seat in the restaurant for me than in front of that fish tank! And yes, I can name a lot, but not all of the fish.

 

[ddluvsdisney]

I'm glad you were able to get out. They were calling for a snowstorm later in the day when we took off, but we missed it thankfully. Hope you got in ok this week- IIRC, you don't usually fly out of Logan, but did you hear that there were NO available parking spaces at the airport on Tuesday due to the overlap of Mass and NH vacation weeks???

We were only delayed about a half hour Mon. night. And with the jet stream, we always fly home faster-2 hrs. 10 min.!!!
That somehow doesn't surprise me about Logan. I think w this awful winter we're having, everyone is trying to get away. I know it was like the best vacation ever, just bc it was 85 degrees there and I come home to 20s.
It was REALLY hard to come home this time. Lol

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[natebenma]

We were only delayed about a half hour Mon. night. And with the jet stream, we always fly home faster-2 hrs. 10 min.!!!
That somehow doesn't surprise me about Logan. I think w this awful winter we're having, everyone is trying to get away. I know it was like the best vacation ever, just bc it was 85 degrees there and I come home to 20s.
It was REALLY hard to come home this time. Lol

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Tell me about it! It has been such a miserable winter, and coming back to such cold temperatures and threats of yet another big snow storm: Me No Likey!

 

[natebenma]

As much as the boys like T-Rex, this is not the primary reason for a trip to Downtown Disney.





The most popular souvenirs for my boys at Disney, along with the wooden rifles in Adventureland, are Legos. This is hands-down Ben’s favorite thing to play with. Back in the day, the living room in our house was entirely dedicated to Legos. We still refer to this room as “The Lego Room” or “The Former Lego Room”. We have the Lego table with chairs. Hundreds of sets. We have storage bins, with drawers containing Legos organized by color.

YES- I am truly that deranged! Once you have a set that you have put together and taken apart, the only way to be able to possibly rebuild it again once the pieces have been intermingled with other sets is to have all the pieces sorted by color. My family has spent HOURS sorting Legos into the correct bins, and I must say that it is a somewhat addictive pastime.

Please don’t think less of me!




After our dinner, we made the pilgrimage to The Lego Store











Thank you, Disney, for combining two of Ben’s current obsessions in one convenient, easy-but-expensive-to-purchase location!





Between our vacation shopping spree, allowance proceeds and Ben’s Christmas list this year which was composed entirely of Lego sets- mostly Hobbit and Lord of the Rings- he has all of the sets in this series. Ben tends to be obsessive about things like this and for the very life of me, I have no idea where he gets that from!


I’ll end this update with two of my all-time favorite Disney vacation tips and a cliff-hanger:


To get the sets we purchased home, we either ship them directly from the store to home, or when we get back to the resort, we open the sets, put the bags of pieces and instructions in a separate Ziploc bag to keep them together, then we break down the box and place the flattened box in the bottom of our luggage, since Ben likes to keep the boxes. This takes up much less room in a suitcase than the full box does.


Many of you know that I am not fan of the buses from DTD to the resorts for many, many reasons. We have developed a scheme of returning back to the Beach Club by taking a pleasant boat ride to bring us to one of the DTD resorts, then taking a bus from there to EPCOT and spending a little time enjoying attractions in the park before walking back to the resort. We did that on our last two trips to DTD. This time, however, we were tired, and we decided we would spring for a cab back. We crossed into the DTD Marketplace parking lot, found a taxi, got back to the Beach Club in about 15 minutes, paid our $15 plus tip and declared it worth every penny!


We went back to our room, but the night was not quite over yet. It was around 8 pm and Mark and I had grand plans to make a visit to EPCOT to walk around and watch Illuminations while the boys stayed in the room.

That did not happen, unfortunately, as I will describe in my next update.

When plans changed, I ended up doing something stupid and slightly embarrassing, that I haven’t told anyone about yet, including Cathy who unknowingly witnessed the results of my actions.


Next up: Fireworks and Friends By The Pool

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

OK seriously Dee you cannot leave me hanging!!!!!!!!!
What did you do???????????
There will be no dinner here tonight (or else it will be burnt) as I now ,ever so slightly, obsessively check your TR to see what happened

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

Still checking
OK I will be a good friend and now comment on all the other stuff
Love the lego stories and that you sort them "comprehensively" into an orderly fashion at home and I definitely don't think any the less of you as I too am that person! No idea who Ben takes after Unfortunately my darling children are not programmed the same way
I adore the lego shop at DTD and could happily spend the day there

Taxi was absolutely the way to go getting "home" from DTD-we have so learnt that lesson

OK NOW WHAT HAPPENED NEXT???????????

 

[mickeystoontown]

I certainly don't think less of you for keeping the Legos organized by color. In a houseful of boys, I'm sure that it's tough keeping things in check.

A cliffhanger!??! Don't take too long to do an update or we might all explode.

 

[teekathepony]

Hmmmmmm that is quite the cliffhanger! Hahaha can't wait to find out what that's all about!

I think it sounds like you have a great way to keep track of a lot of Lego, those little things can be a real pain to organize!

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[DisneyKid4Life]

Ahhh, I love Fox Trot. There's almost always 2 punchlines.

Ok.. just so I understand correctly... Ya'll take your Legos VERY seriously, right?

NOOOOOOOOO. I wanna know what happened NOWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!

 

[eandesmom]

Lego's HAVE to be sorted and stored by color. And instructions and boxes are a must. Smart way to get them home though, I like that.

That is a roundabout way to get back to the BC from DTD but we've been known to do similar routes.

Ruh Roh...cliffhanger!

 

[ddluvsdisney]

My DS16 was the Lego fanatic. I do miss those days. He was into Star Wars then and had almost every spaceship.
I like your getting home strategy from DTD. I always hated the ride back. We've e done similar things to get around taking a bus. I HATE the buses!!
Can't wait to hear what you did. This should be good.

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[natebenma]

I love everyone's responses! I'll do a reveal of the cliffhanger later today, but I fear I have built it up to much more than it is.

OK seriously Dee you cannot leave me hanging!!!!!!!!!
What did you do???????????
There will be no dinner here tonight (or else it will be burnt) as I now ,ever so slightly, obsessively check your TR to see what happened

I truly hope I am not responsible for the starvation of your family!

Still checking
OK I will be a good friend and now comment on all the other stuff
Love the lego stories and that you sort them "comprehensively" into an orderly fashion at home and I definitely don't think any the less of you as I too am that person! No idea who Ben takes after Unfortunately my darling children are not programmed the same way
I adore the lego shop at DTD and could happily spend the day there

Taxi was absolutely the way to go getting "home" from DTD-we have so learnt that lesson

OK NOW WHAT HAPPENED NEXT???????????

Ben is my mini-me in looks and personality, but Nate is certainly his own drummer. He does not have the proper (or certifiable) need for order in his life.



Yes, that cab fare was the best $15 we spent on that trip!

I certainly don't think less of you for keeping the Legos organized by color. In a houseful of boys, I'm sure that it's tough keeping things in check.

A cliffhanger!??! Don't take too long to do an update or we might all explode.

OK- I'll add an update to my report soon. I don't want to be cleaning up after any nasty explosions.

Hmmmmmm that is quite the cliffhanger! Hahaha can't wait to find out what that's all about!

I think it sounds like you have a great way to keep track of a lot of Lego, those little things can be a real pain to organize!

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So the lesser of two evils- break down the sets and sort by color, or leave the sets together and have them take over every level space in the basement and the former Lego room. This is the current status at our house.

Ahhh, I love Fox Trot. There's almost always 2 punchlines.

Ok.. just so I understand correctly... Ya'll take your Legos VERY seriously, right?

NOOOOOOOOO. I wanna know what happened NOWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!

You got it.

BEN.LOVES.LEGOS!

Soon.

Lego's HAVE to be sorted and stored by color. And instructions and boxes are a must. Smart way to get them home though, I like that.

That is a roundabout way to get back to the BC from DTD but we've been known to do similar routes.

Ruh Roh...cliffhanger!

A kindred spirit!

And dang that Lego company for making 2 shades of grey, 3 different greens and 2 reds and browns.

It isn't the quickest route to BC, but it is a pleasant way back for us. I really loved the year we took the boat to OKW, which was a beautiful ride. This year we considered going to PORFQ and stop for beignets, but we were still stuffed from T-Rex.

Since this was a "quickie" trip to Disney, we decided to go with the more efficient means back.

My DS16 was the Lego fanatic. I do miss those days. He was into Star Wars then and had almost every spaceship.
I like your getting home strategy from DTD. I always hated the ride back. We've e done similar things to get around taking a bus. I HATE the buses!!
Can't wait to hear what you did. This should be good.

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We have a lot of the Star Wars series too.

The return trip on the DTD bus is the only route we really don't like.

Coming up soon!

 

[luvpoohandcompany]

I love everyone's responses! I'll do a reveal of the cliffhanger later today, but I fear I have built it up to much more than it is.






I truly hope I am not responsible for the starvation of your family!




Made spaghetti Bolognese-very hard to burn pasta!! Not impossible but not easy so we ate

Ben is my mini-me in looks and personality, but Nate is certainly his own drummer. He does not have the proper (or certifiable) need for order in his life.


I live with enough drummers for a rock band Messy people in this house only tidy when I threaten to a) serve stew for dinner (both boys hate it ) and b) tell the teenager that I'm going to kiss his cheek when I drop him to school and yell "love you son" at the top of my lung capacity Find these threats usually do the trick
Yes, that cab fare was the best $15 we spent on that trip!

Ok Dee as there is no word on an update from you I guess I'm making another "hard to burn dinner" tonight -chicken curry it is

No Pressure To Update At All -HONESTLY NO PRESSURE AT ALL!!

I'm happy to take the weight off my feet and sit here waiting patiently drinking tea Sure what else would I be doing on a Friday afternoon

 

[natebenma]

Ok Dee as there is no word on an update from you I guess I'm making another "hard to burn dinner" tonight -chicken curry it is

No Pressure To Update At All -HONESTLY NO PRESSURE AT ALL!!

I'm happy to take the weight off my feet and sit here waiting patiently drinking tea Sure what else would I be doing on a Friday afternoon

MMMMM!!! Chicken curry!

I have a very short, 10 minute break between work and a hair appointment, and I promised, so here you go!

 

[natebenma]

Mis-direction! This post has absolutely nothing to do with drinking. I actually did not touch a drop of alcohol all day and I was stone cold sober, so I can't place the blame on that. But I don’t have another comic for this post and I saw this yesterday and thought it was cute.


We were back in our room after returning from Downtown Disney. It was around 8 pm. Plans were for Mark and me to go into EPCOT together while the boys stayed in the room. But there was a problem. The daybed in the room was not made up into a bed. Last night, I think Nate just slept in it as a couch, but tonight we wanted it made up as a bed, and we couldn’t figure out how to do it.

We called mousekeeping to ask someone to come by to show us how to make up the bed. We waited. 15 minutes. 20 minutes. We called again. Finally, someone came to help us out. Mark watched her swing the mattress around, and it was a simple process.

At this point it was after 8:30, Mark was frustrated and said it was too late to go into EPCOT.

I was not ready for bed yet, so I decided I would spend some time at Stormalong Bay.

I changed into my bathing suit and put on my sleeping t-shirt and shorts over it.

When I got down to the pool, I got a towel, found a lounger, set down the towel and jumped into the water.

Does anyone know the step that is missing here???


I did not remove the t-shirt and shorts before entering the pool. I was swimming with my clothes on!

It was stupid, I was embarrassed and now I didn’t have any comfortable shorts to sleep in!

What should I do? As another ditzy fish once said, “Just Keep Swimming!”

















While I was in the water, Illuminations started. I loved seeing the fireworks from the pool, and I wondered how the view would be from the stairs to the Jib Slide.







These pictures are taken from the stairs to the Jib Slide.









I was getting ready to pack up and return to the room when I heard someone call out my name.

It was Cathy, catho72. We had a lovely chat and I met members of her family. Of course we needed a picture because if there is no picture, the meet didn’t happen!





I think we talked until about 10 and then I said I had to get back to the room because we had an early morning- like always- and that I didn’t want Mark to be worried because I was out so late.

When I let myself into the room, everyone was already asleep!


Next up: You have 4 minutes for a bathroom break!

 

[pixarmom]

LOVE this story about your pj party in the pool! Funny, because last week, I had to wear my swimsuit cover-up as a pj top! I had this efficient plan to use my new 5K t-shirt as my pj top. But we hopped on a flight a day early (Wednesday) and the runDisney expo to obtain said shirt wasn't until Thursday! The only sufficiently comfy extra top in my suitcase was my swimsuit cover-up, so I wore that as a (very long) pj top. Of course, a couple days later I put my swimsuit cover up on to go to the pool, and our oldest says, "Aren't those your pjs?"

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

I know I shouldn't laugh because stuff happens... But

Seriously though, don't feel bad. If I had a dime for every time I did something like that I could buy WDW.

And on the bright side, at least you didn't run into anyone you knew............... oops.