I beat cancer,now we're going to Disney World!!! 4/23-5/1/10

[Mombits]

Goodness gracious, I had a lot of catching up to do. Let's see if I can remember what I wanted to comment on.

I had to laugh about the GPS fussing at ya'll. Have you ever seen the movie RV with Robin Williams? He had a GPS named Lola and it was always fussing at him. I've seen the signs to Ron Jon but we've never gone there. Looks like a pretty cool place though.

The Vero Beach Resort was so pretty and impressive. Too bad your niece and her kids didn't get to stay on the beach longer than they did. At least you guys were able to spend some time together though.

I love Hannah's face when she first saw the castle. Priceless!

The dinglehopper reference made me smile. Lacey used to call forks dinglehoppers when she was a little girl.

Glad to hear that ya'll found the fort on Tom Sawyer Island. We missed it for years and years until a fellow Diser told me to keep going left.

My husband's favorite character at the Laugh Floor is Roz too! She doesn't have to say a thing in order to make John laugh.

Hummm, what else? Oh yeah, we have never been impressed with Cosmic Ray's either. It was just okay in our book.

How sweet of your support friends sending you guys a surprise. That was very very nice of them.

I think your safari pictures turned out just fine. And, it's great that you got to do it twice.

Don't you worry about wearing a hat all the time to cover up your hair. Like I told my friend, Ginny.....I think hair is way over rated. We should all be bald so we don't have to worry about fixing our hair everyday.

We have seen RV and now that I think about it, that does remind me of that movie. That stupid GPS gal was having a fit about our driving choices. It was a relief to stuff her into my suitcase!

I love Roz too. Can't ever see a pic of Roz without doing "the voice".

I thought my second set of Safari pics was better than the first ones. My kids loved that safari! I think we could have rode that thing around all day. Even after the second time, D asked if we could go again.

As for the surprise, well it just blew me away. They are as sweet as can be, those girls!! Love 'em!

As for my hair, well aside from your head being cold in the winter, it is definitely easier to have no hair. But it takes forever to remember that you don't have hair, so you are forever trying to wash it with too much shampoo or you go to comb what little you have and your hands keeps on going even though their isn't any hair to keep on combing, LOL. I sometimes wake up in the morning looking like a muppet with fur sticking up everywhere. Weird how much we are attached to our hair, isn't it?

 

[Mombits]

When the parade was over, even though it wasn't quite time for our ADR, we headed toward Rainforest Cafe. I was hot and all of us were tired and ready for a break.

DisneyVacation876.jpg[/IMG]

The kids had never been to a Rainforest Cafe before. We'd been to T-Rex, which is really similar, but they spent some time walking around looking and getting pressed pennies for their collection. Even though we hadn't had lunch, none of us was really all that hungry. Donovan got the kids pizza- of course! Brian got a burger, Hannah got the coconut shrimp and I got the nachos. D hated his pizza so he shared my nachos. Brian ate some too. Since we were paying out of pocket for our meal, I had hoped we'd be good and hungry- expecially with skipping lunch. Maybe it was the heat but we just picked at our food.
Here is Hannah's shrimp:

Brian's burger:

My nachos (huge!)

D's pizza:

After we ate, I decided that it would be a good night to head back to the resort and make use of the guitar and piano pools and do some things around All Star Music. So that's what we did. I knew that Brian was tired, so I sent him to take a nap and Hannah had been planning for about 4 or 5 months to get her hair wrapped when we were at Disney. Some of her friends had gotten it done and she was all about it!

We went up to the tiki hut and got in line. Now here's the scoop on hairwrapping. It's kinda pricey. It's $2 per inch and Hannah has LONG hair. She got a dolphin charm as well, so it came to $43 and I gave him a $7 tip. On top of that, it took a long time. Of course, we had to wait our turn but Hannah was sooo happy with it. I had to laugh about the guy doing it. First, I asked him why he wasn't using one of those hair wrapping machines. Hannah had one and I think I paid $20 for it from one of those infomercials a long time ago. He said he didn't know anything about it. Then I asked him how he got into hairwrapping and he said "to meet girls" and I said "I guess you didn't expect the girls to be 9 or 10 years old" and said "NO, I certainly did not!" LOL! Also, I had told him about going to Lobster Shanty and how good it was and he seemed to think that was a fancy restaurant because he commented that if I could afford to go to Lobster Shanty, maybe I didn't mind paying $43 for hairwrapping. I laughed and told him that first of all, I BUDGETTED for the hair wrapping and second of all, it cost me less to eat for 9 people at Lobster Shanty than it did for four of us at Disney World! I guess he's never eaten there!!!
Here's Hannah getting her hair wrapped.

One other piece of info: Hannah got her hair wrapped in April - now some of her friends had it in for months- her's actually fell out and took that chunk of hair with it about a week ago. Seemed kinda weird to me. I mean, really, it just FELL OUT!!! Hair and all.
While Donovan and I were waiting, he amused himself taking some pictures.
This is the guitar shaped pool:

After we played a bit at the arcade, we went and got our swimsuits on. The weird thing was, as hot as it had been at AK, I was actually too cold to swim. The kids were fine with it though and they had a blast. They liked the Guitar pool better than the piano pool because there was a lot more action at the guitar pool. Both of them got up and did Karioke in front of everyone! They had a great time. We left before the movie started so we could spend some time with Brian. Watched a bit of TV and then headed to bed. Another early day coming up!

 

[Mombits]

The next morning we were up at 7. No one really wanted to get up but we had a 10 ADR, so we had plenty of time. Right???? This morning our ADR was to be a surprise. Originally, I had booked O'Hana's but had received a call saying that they were going to be closed for routine maintenance and could I reschedule for someplace else. Well, the one place that both kids had wanted but that I had not booked was Chef Mickey's. So I moved my ADR over to a late breakfast at CM. Well, right from the start, my thinking was flawed this day. My plan was (slap head now!) to jump on the bus to Epcot and have Brian run in and get FP's for Soarin', then jump on the monorail to the Contemporary. So we got out there and waited for the Epcot bus. And waited. And waited. It took forever. I know we waited at least a half an hour for the bus. Here we are waiting for the bus:

Finally we got to Epcot. While we had been on the bus, Donovan had been making funny faces and being his normal self. When we got off the bus, a lady came up and told me how cute he was and how much they had enjoyed his funny faces and that she'd like to take him home with her! LOL!

Anyway, here comes the second head slap! We sent Brian in with our tickets to get the FP's while we waited outside. Well, APPARENTLY you have to actually go thru the gates before you can use your tickets for a FP. Which I didn't know. So he came back with only one FP. Try number two, we all go thru the gates and send him again for FPs. He is not a happy camper. While he is gone, we take a few photos. There was someone doing sky writing. Can you see it?

As soon as I said we were going on the Monorail to the restaurant, Hannah knew that meant Chef Mickey's. Because she has watched all the travel channel shows that I have watched and poured over the passporter at least as much as I have. That's my girl!!!

So we were in for a bit of a shock when Brian FINALLY came back with the FP's. For some reason, he couldn't find us even though we were in the EXACT SAME SPOT that he left us in. So now I knew it was gonna be tight to make it to our ADR. The shock came in when I realized that the monorail does NOT GO to the Contemporary from Epcot. You have to go to the TTC to change trains. Slap head twice!!!! Well, we were good and truly in trouble.

So we got on the monorail and headed to our ADR hoping that they would still take our sorry booty's. We really were only 15 minutes late, but I HATE to be late. Hate, hate, hate it!!! Needless to say I was bugged! My kids, however, LOVED the monorail! If you've been on the monorail you know about the "Bing Bong". It's the noise the train makes to let you know that the doors are opening. We all got a kick out of the announcement that told us to "Take young children by their BING BONG." It was an ill-timed bell, but it made us all laugh and helped diffuse the tension of being late.

The kids were excited to eat at Chef Mickey's.

Can you see who is hiding behind the counter???

The food was very good and my kids were loving it! Later they both said this was their favorite character meal!

Some of my CM pictures are blurry because we didn't realize the camera had gotten on the wrong setting.
Still sweet though- especially my girl who thought she was gonna be too old for the characters.

More coming up!

 

[Mombits]

Brian does love Donald Duck. Heck, we named our kid "Don" LOL!!
After Donald, we saw this lovely lady:

Then it was parade time:

We had a lot of fun with Goofy! After we ate and were ready to go, Donovan decided it would be fun to hide. Stinker!

Then it was back to Epcot!!!

 

[buzz for boys]

All caught up now and cant believe how much you are packing into each day !!

Oh and for the record - I like your Pink hat !!

 

[KatMark]

I can't believe I missed at least two updates...don't know where I've been lately.

Amazing how much you guys get done in a day. You not being able to get a monorail to the Contemporary from Epcot is one of the many reasons we drive everywhere...it is just so much easier than trying to figure out the Disney transportation system (and having to wait for it).

I love the Chef Mickey's pictures...they are great. We are not fans of the dinner, but we do enjoy the breakfast.

And I, of course, love the HAT photos...reminds me of my silly husband.

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Hey Chris! all caught up
sounds like a fun way to end a hot day at AK! sounds like the kids had a lot of fun!

sounds like a busy morning on the way to CM! but, that the meal was fun and yummy!
I love how happy Hannah is with the characters; she will learn you are never too old for Disney magic

Connie

 

[mickeystoontown]

All caught up again. I don't Dis much unless I am at work. Shhhh, don't tell my boss that though.

Wowee! $50 for a hair wrap! It's been years since Lacey had her's done but then she had shorter hair too.

I hate being late too and it totally stresses me out when I know I have to somewhere at a certain time and I'm running late. At least you weren't too terribly late for your ADR. It certainly looks like ya'll had a blast with the characters!

 

[goofy's_gurl]

Woah I got far, far behind. Looks like you guys had a wonderful day at AK. It usually is the heat that does you in and doesnt make you hungry.
YAY! for Chef Mickeys. We ate dinner there last year. It was pretty good.

 

[Mombits]

All caught up now and cant believe how much you are packing into each day !!

Oh and for the record - I like your Pink hat !!

Thank you! I can't say I was much of a fan of the pink hat, but it was out of necessity!

We really did pack a lot into our days. I knew that my kids had a big wish list of things to see and do and so did I so we did it up commando style!!!

 

[Mombits]

All caught up now and cant believe how much you are packing into each day !!

Oh and for the record - I like your Pink hat !!

Oh and I forgot to say- Stitch is Hannah's new favorite! She came home with a stuffed stitch, that she calls "My Stitchy".

 

[Mombits]

I can't believe I missed at least two updates...don't know where I've been lately.

Amazing how much you guys get done in a day. You not being able to get a monorail to the Contemporary from Epcot is one of the many reasons we drive everywhere...it is just so much easier than trying to figure out the Disney transportation system (and having to wait for it).

I love the Chef Mickey's pictures...they are great. We are not fans of the dinner, but we do enjoy the breakfast.

And I, of course, love the HAT photos...reminds me of my silly husband.

Hi Kathy- well, you're here now and that is what counts! LOL on the hat photos, they remind me of your husband too

We had a great time at CM for breakfast. Never have been there for dinner, though.

I think if I have paid attention as far as the transportation, we'd have been fine because I think at one time I did know that but I must have forgotten. We still enjoyed riding the monorail though.

 

[Mombits]

Hey Chris! all caught up
sounds like a fun way to end a hot day at AK! sounds like the kids had a lot of fun!

sounds like a busy morning on the way to CM! but, that the meal was fun and yummy!
I love how happy Hannah is with the characters; she will learn you are never too old for Disney magic

Connie

Hi Connie!!!
It was a fun day. We really enjoyed ourselves despite the heat. It could have been worse for sure.

CM's was a really fun time and the kids really enjoyed it. I guess if we make it back to Disney (and I sure hope we do!!!) it will be on our Must Do list!

I was thrilled with Hannah and how she let herself have fun while we were at Disney and it has carried over to home life. We saw Toy Story 3 this weekend and she shocked me by spending her allowance on a Jessie doll! So cute! I'm lovin having my little girl back, even if it's only for a short time.

 

[Mombits]

All caught up again. I don't Dis much unless I am at work. Shhhh, don't tell my boss that though.

Wowee! $50 for a hair wrap! It's been years since Lacey had her's done but then she had shorter hair too.

I hate being late too and it totally stresses me out when I know I have to somewhere at a certain time and I'm running late. At least you weren't too terribly late for your ADR. It certainly looks like ya'll had a blast with the characters!

That's when I DIS too, so I won't tell if you won't.

I had a feeling the hair wrap was going to be expensive and I was figuring probably at least $40 so I was pretty close.

We did have a blast at CM's- especially with Goofy. He was so funny and the kids just loved it.

 

[Mombits]

Woah I got far, far behind. Looks like you guys had a wonderful day at AK. It usually is the heat that does you in and doesnt make you hungry.
YAY! for Chef Mickeys. We ate dinner there last year. It was pretty good.

I think it WAS the heat that kept us from being hungry because you can probably tell, I don't miss too many meals

I loved Tusker House for breakfast (mostly because the food was so darn good!) but my kids thought Chef Mickey's was just awesome. I don't know if it was the food or the character interaction. I'm guessing it was the characters.

 

[Mombits]

After we left Chef Mickey's we were headed back to Epcot. I was excited for our Epcot day. I knew we'd be coming to Epcot twice, so my plan was to do Future World today and then World Showcase the next time we came. I was also really excited to get to see the Flower and Garden Festival. That was one pro of having to move my trip from October to April!

We hit the mister to cool off- very nice!!

We saw the trash can guys playing but my kids were distracted by this:

They had really been looking forward to Innoventions and I was really hoping it wouldn't disappoint. We went in and started to look around. Before long, we met Betty Ann, a CM. She asked Hannah if she wanted to be a junior product tester, which, of course she did. So she gave Hannah a lab coat and some goggles. Then Donovan arrived and she gave him a pair of goggles too. They set about doing all sorts of product tests. Here they are trying to smash a television screen with a hammer.

Now, the kids were really enjoying themselves. I have to admit, it was boring for me. It felt like this:

But we kept on. Next the kids were trying to slam doors by jumping on a plate on the ground:

Then they moved on to trying to smash a hard hat:

Once they completed all of those tasks, they graduated! Here they are with their certificates (Score! a Disney freebie!!!):

They continued to look around and came to this:

Donovan and Brian were up for designing the roller coaster (at least I think that is what they did) but Hannah and I weren't so into it. She isn't fond of dark, scary places So, she and I decided to save the planet and went to work on recycling. The only negative thing I can really say about Innoventions (aside that it's boring for me) is that it's all sponsored by companies so I felt like I was in the middle of one giant commercial.
Hannah and I got a big kick out of this sign in the bathroom (I guess in case you weren't really clear on what those sinks were for! Thank you Brawny.)

After we left there, we decided to hit Spaceship Earth. I was sure that my kids were going to hate it and be bored, so I figured it was more for Brian and I than anything. They loved it!!!! Color me shocked! Here we are in our futures:
If only I really were a stick figure!

Throwing pennies into the fountain:

More coming up!!!

 

[Mombits]

Now my one "Must Do" for the trip was Soarin' and it was FINALLY time to use our FP!!! I was so excited. Here is my one and only pic of Soarin' :

I just loved it!!! It really felt like you were flying over the orange groves. Unfortunately, Brian couldn't smell it, which was disappointing, but the rest of us could. Donovan was leaning so far forward it was scaring me but it looked like he was trying to stick his face IN the picture! I wish we could have had time to ride it again, but I would have to be content with one awesome time.
After we left Soarin', we did Living with the Land. I guess I didn't realize that all these things were in one pavillion along with Sunshine Seasons. So that was kind of nice. Brian and I really loved LwtL. He has recently discovered his inner farmer, so he was all about it. The kids maybe not as much but they enjoyed it enough too. Here are some pics:

Look! A Nine Pound Lemon!!!

After we did that, we wandered over to the Living Seas with Nemo and friends. I was crossing my fingers and hoping against hope that we would see a dolphin because Hannah love, love, loves dolphins! We hadn't seen them at Vero Beach so I was hoping.

We got in our clam shells and had a fine time. Getting out onto the moving conveyor is challenging for those of us who are less coordinated

Then we went to see our friend, Crush. All I can say is "Dude!"

The kids had a wonderful time interacting with Crush and Brian and I enjoyed it too.

 

[goofy's_gurl]

Great update. I remember seeing that Brawny thing in a lot of the bathrooms they made me laugh each and every time. I cant wait to ride living with the land. It was closed when I went in August.

 

[Mombits]

After we got done with Turtle Talk, we looked around to see if we could see a dolphin and were really disappointed that the tank was basically empty. Apparently they had just cleaned it and no one was home.

Next, we went into club cool. Now this was one of Donovan's Must Do's. I'm not sure why, but he just thought it was going to be really cool.

Guess who tried Beverly?????

And no, I didn't warn him! Are you crazy? Then I would have missed out on that awesome reaction!
So we all spent some time trying different sodas. This was really fun and hey, if your thirsty, cheap- as in free! Score! Disney freebie #2!!! Once we had tried all the different drinks (I liked the ginger one the best!) we moved on.
We came across the Fairy Garden. You may remember that Hannah's favorite character (up til she decided she wanted to switch to Stitch) was Tink. She has loved Tink for several years and was super excited to get to see the Fairy Garden. Here are some pics:

Here is Tink's little hot air balloon:

 

[Mombits]

Great update. I remember seeing that Brawny thing in a lot of the bathrooms they made me laugh each and every time. I cant wait to ride living with the land. It was closed when I went in August.

Hi Amanda! Thanks for reading. Yep, every time I saw that I sign, I laughed. Maybe they meant it as a joke, cuz it sure was funny We really enjoyed all the rides and Living with the Land was no exception!