Disneyfreak616
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2010
- Messages
- 3,933
Chapter 12- "I'M A PIN TRADER NOW!"
August 18th, 2011
Well, I'm pretty sure the title gave it away, but my monumental decision was that I decided to become a pin trader! I had seen so many people having so much fun with it, and I wanted to be a part of it! So I picked out a nice set of Disney Character Firefighter pins to trade and the Pixar lamp pin to keep. NOTE: I did not learn this until AFTER the August trip, but it is a LOT less expensive to pin trade if you buy pins from Ebay or something before your trip. I learned this the hard way. Also, you won't run out of pins (or money) as quickly! It just makes sense.
While I was picking out my pins, Sarah decided to do the same. We were both becoming pin traders! She became a little bit more of a collector on this trip though. She also spotted these Mickey ears, which she loved:
When I went to check out, a GORGEOUS French CM struck up a conversation with me. We talked about the college program, where I was from, what Paris was like, what my trip entailed, (little did I know what it would REALLY entail) what I liked to do, what we liked best about Disney, and so on. We literally talked for almost half an hour. It was awesome! We were the only people in the store, and another CM was chatting with Mom and Sarah, so he and I just talked forever! His name was Valentino. YEAH. Like, really? Swoon. Haha he was really nice and even saw us all out! When I was back at the GF later on in the trip, I saw him from outside the store and he recognized me and waved. We talked for a few minutes then too. It was so great. He even set up Sarah's and my lanyards for us! How sweet.
After we left my doll house of Frenchmen and swooning, we began to make our way downstairs, but not without a picutre first!
Don't we look super snazzy with our new lanyards? I thought so.
We went downstairs and outside to explore. We found this topiary of Mary Poppins over by 1900 Park Fare. I basically died from the cute of it all. I HAD to take a pic with her!
And of course Sarah did too:
Group shot!
I wanted to steal her and stick her in my backyard, but then I thought about how sad I would be if someone forcibly removed me from Disney. Actually, it's happend. And it SUCKS. So therefore, out of courtesy and my regard for the Golden Rule, I left Mary where she was and moved on.
Fortunately, I was soon distracted by this carriage which I wish I could ride in daily.
Can't you see me doing my princess wave from in there, accopanied by the most beautiful of deer faces? I think it would be rather brilliant.
Look at me all at home with this form of transportation unbeknownst to most:
I'm actually not even sure if unbeknowst works where I put it because it's one o' clock in the morning and I just watched reality TV for three hours, so my brain is basically fried. HOWEVER I thought it sounded smart. And I wanted to type it. FART SHOES.
Anyway...moving on...
After that excursion we headed to the bus stop. Did you know that there is a TV at this bus stop??? YEAH. THERE IS. Would I lie to y'all about this?
And did I mention that this TV PLAYS STACEY!?!?
YEAH. IT DOES.
I need to stay at this resort. It's kind of killing me inside.
Anywho, we waited about 10 minutes for a bus and then hopped aboard to Downtown Disney!
We got there and waited for Scott to meet us. What did we do while we waited, you say? Well, we went shopping of course! In here to be exact:
We bought a Mouskears hat ornament and got it customized with the year 2011 on it. That baby hung proudly from our tree last Christmas! I actually received my own Mousekears ornament recently from a friend of my mom's who I had made a CD of some classic Disney music for. She was so grateful and excited that she had found another Disney lover that she sent me one! It was so sweet! I can't wait to hang it on the tree I'll put in my room this year!
We left that store and went to trade and purchase trading pins in the pin store. After that, we met Scott at the entrance to Rainforest Cafe, which was where we would be dining that evening!
We checked in at Rainforest with our ADR and were seated almost right away! We had a great spot by all the fish tanks!
Our waitress' name was Tara, and she brought as all the fun smoothies that we ordered. Unfortunately, because the lighting is REALLY weird in there, I only have a pic of my smoothie, which was the Orangesicle. This name totally fits, because it really tasted like a creamsicle! YUM.
Scott had the Rainforest Ricky, which is a blend of pineapple, orange, apple, strawberry and grapefruit juices. He had it served straight up and said it was awesome!
Mom had the Brazilian Freeze, which is a mixture of coconut, pineapple, raspberry purée and banana. Delish!
Sarah had the Raspberry Lemonade Freeze, which is pretty straightforward but still so yummy!
We ordered our entrees, and even thought Tara was pretty quick with bringing them, mom still had time to snap a shot of all of us! This will be a pretty reoccuring theme.
Our entrees came nice and hot! Sarah had the kids ribs meal with chips. She said the ribs were tender and yummy. She ate it all up!
Scott had the Mahi Mahi, shrimp AND scallops! Everything was cooked perfectly, and he was raving about the flavors and seasonings! Definitely a great choice!
Mom and I both had the coconut shrimp, which is our FAVORITE thing to order here. It's just so good! We're huge seafood and coconut fans, so combining the two just blows our minds. Ours came with tons of shrimp, blacks beans and rice as well as veggies. It was all so great! We loved this meal and we will most definitely be ordering it again!
We ate up all our food and Tara was very impressed. We had other dessert plans, so we paid using our 10% off with Safari Club and went to look around the gift shop.
As it turns out, a monsoon had decided to strike Disney while we were eating.
How rude.
So, in addition to the two tropical dresses that my mom purchased, she also bought 3 ponchos, as I had one already. The ones at Rainforest were super cute though! Like a Safari outfit! Look at Sarah rockin' hers:
We all ponchoed (yeah it's gonna be a verb now) up and booked it to our dessert destination, also known as Goofy's Candy Company!
Mom and Scott got a giant peanut butter cookie to share, while I got some choco-walnut fudge. Sarah went for the chocolate covered marshmallows on a Mickey straw:
We all enjoyed our desserts while we waited out the rain. Unfortunately, this rain wasn't going away anytime soon. We ended up racing to the bus stop and waiting about 10 minutes for a bus to CSR. Once we got back, I took a picture of Sarah's lanyard and the pins that she bought.
We all took showers and I filled out Jess' postcard:
We went to bed fairly early, because we had a big day planned the following day. And of course I had no idea just HOW big that day would end up being...
Stay tuned!
Continued in Next Post
While I was picking out my pins, Sarah decided to do the same. We were both becoming pin traders! She became a little bit more of a collector on this trip though. She also spotted these Mickey ears, which she loved:
When I went to check out, a GORGEOUS French CM struck up a conversation with me. We talked about the college program, where I was from, what Paris was like, what my trip entailed, (little did I know what it would REALLY entail) what I liked to do, what we liked best about Disney, and so on. We literally talked for almost half an hour. It was awesome! We were the only people in the store, and another CM was chatting with Mom and Sarah, so he and I just talked forever! His name was Valentino. YEAH. Like, really? Swoon. Haha he was really nice and even saw us all out! When I was back at the GF later on in the trip, I saw him from outside the store and he recognized me and waved. We talked for a few minutes then too. It was so great. He even set up Sarah's and my lanyards for us! How sweet.
After we left my doll house of Frenchmen and swooning, we began to make our way downstairs, but not without a picutre first!
Don't we look super snazzy with our new lanyards? I thought so.
We went downstairs and outside to explore. We found this topiary of Mary Poppins over by 1900 Park Fare. I basically died from the cute of it all. I HAD to take a pic with her!
And of course Sarah did too:
Group shot!
I wanted to steal her and stick her in my backyard, but then I thought about how sad I would be if someone forcibly removed me from Disney. Actually, it's happend. And it SUCKS. So therefore, out of courtesy and my regard for the Golden Rule, I left Mary where she was and moved on.
Fortunately, I was soon distracted by this carriage which I wish I could ride in daily.
Can't you see me doing my princess wave from in there, accopanied by the most beautiful of deer faces? I think it would be rather brilliant.
Look at me all at home with this form of transportation unbeknownst to most:
I'm actually not even sure if unbeknowst works where I put it because it's one o' clock in the morning and I just watched reality TV for three hours, so my brain is basically fried. HOWEVER I thought it sounded smart. And I wanted to type it. FART SHOES.
Anyway...moving on...
After that excursion we headed to the bus stop. Did you know that there is a TV at this bus stop??? YEAH. THERE IS. Would I lie to y'all about this?
And did I mention that this TV PLAYS STACEY!?!?
YEAH. IT DOES.
I need to stay at this resort. It's kind of killing me inside.
Anywho, we waited about 10 minutes for a bus and then hopped aboard to Downtown Disney!
We got there and waited for Scott to meet us. What did we do while we waited, you say? Well, we went shopping of course! In here to be exact:
We bought a Mouskears hat ornament and got it customized with the year 2011 on it. That baby hung proudly from our tree last Christmas! I actually received my own Mousekears ornament recently from a friend of my mom's who I had made a CD of some classic Disney music for. She was so grateful and excited that she had found another Disney lover that she sent me one! It was so sweet! I can't wait to hang it on the tree I'll put in my room this year!
We left that store and went to trade and purchase trading pins in the pin store. After that, we met Scott at the entrance to Rainforest Cafe, which was where we would be dining that evening!
We checked in at Rainforest with our ADR and were seated almost right away! We had a great spot by all the fish tanks!
Our waitress' name was Tara, and she brought as all the fun smoothies that we ordered. Unfortunately, because the lighting is REALLY weird in there, I only have a pic of my smoothie, which was the Orangesicle. This name totally fits, because it really tasted like a creamsicle! YUM.
Scott had the Rainforest Ricky, which is a blend of pineapple, orange, apple, strawberry and grapefruit juices. He had it served straight up and said it was awesome!
Mom had the Brazilian Freeze, which is a mixture of coconut, pineapple, raspberry purée and banana. Delish!
Sarah had the Raspberry Lemonade Freeze, which is pretty straightforward but still so yummy!
We ordered our entrees, and even thought Tara was pretty quick with bringing them, mom still had time to snap a shot of all of us! This will be a pretty reoccuring theme.
Our entrees came nice and hot! Sarah had the kids ribs meal with chips. She said the ribs were tender and yummy. She ate it all up!
Scott had the Mahi Mahi, shrimp AND scallops! Everything was cooked perfectly, and he was raving about the flavors and seasonings! Definitely a great choice!
Mom and I both had the coconut shrimp, which is our FAVORITE thing to order here. It's just so good! We're huge seafood and coconut fans, so combining the two just blows our minds. Ours came with tons of shrimp, blacks beans and rice as well as veggies. It was all so great! We loved this meal and we will most definitely be ordering it again!
We ate up all our food and Tara was very impressed. We had other dessert plans, so we paid using our 10% off with Safari Club and went to look around the gift shop.
As it turns out, a monsoon had decided to strike Disney while we were eating.
How rude.
So, in addition to the two tropical dresses that my mom purchased, she also bought 3 ponchos, as I had one already. The ones at Rainforest were super cute though! Like a Safari outfit! Look at Sarah rockin' hers:
We all ponchoed (yeah it's gonna be a verb now) up and booked it to our dessert destination, also known as Goofy's Candy Company!
Mom and Scott got a giant peanut butter cookie to share, while I got some choco-walnut fudge. Sarah went for the chocolate covered marshmallows on a Mickey straw:
We all enjoyed our desserts while we waited out the rain. Unfortunately, this rain wasn't going away anytime soon. We ended up racing to the bus stop and waiting about 10 minutes for a bus to CSR. Once we got back, I took a picture of Sarah's lanyard and the pins that she bought.
We all took showers and I filled out Jess' postcard:
We went to bed fairly early, because we had a big day planned the following day. And of course I had no idea just HOW big that day would end up being...
Stay tuned!
Continued in Next Post
Maybe we can! I would love to!
We always get an ornament every trip for our tree! Yumm!! Your lunch looked delicious! 
I love Sarah's poncho!!! Too cute!
Happy 4th to you too!
Thanks so much for being here! I hope you enjoy it!
