I Planned and God Laughed **NEW Pre-TR Link!!! p.13**

[Wonders10]

Hi everyone!

I'm still here and will finish this thing. Without a disney trip planned, DISing just isn't a priority and I've been very busy all around. I promise I'll finish though...just 1 day left!

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

I'm still here too! I'm watching Survivor and catching up on TR/PTR since I was gone all day yesterday and today! I feel behind in mine in that I haven't posted any PTR/TR updates and we leave in a month tomorrow!!

I can't wait to hear about your Vero trip!!!!!! Wait till you read my surprise!

 

[amitrat]

I am enjoying this TR too and as for Vancouver, it is AWESOME - we went when DD was 3 - actually, she is sick tonight and asked for her "Moosey" that we got while we were there - she is 6 now (funny that of all TR, I ended up on yours). Grousse Mountain is wonderful - great birds in flight show, there is a rope bridge/tree thing that I can not remember the name of, and Stanley Park with the Totem Poles - I will have to find my back up drive and post pics for you. Hope that you pooch is feeling much better!

 

[Wonders10]

Ugh! Of course when I wanted to do an update, my laptop isnt cooperating (on my iPad now)...my goal for the weekend is to wrap this puppy up!

Small update...we opted to cancel our Disney Vero Beach reservation. The money will be better spent on other things so I'm going to just spend my birthday weekend with family and down at my mom's, probably spending our hotel money

In summer vacation news, I know I've mentioned our Caribbean cruise on the Oasis of the Seas. Well, last week, my DSIL called and asked if my niece could tag along. My nephew will be at a baseball tournament and they do not want her hanging around with a lot of the girls going. They felt so strongly that they were willing to pay for her to join us! Of course, we are thrilled but she does not know yet. We leave 3 weeks from Saturday!

I only have 13 more days of school left, then some much needed time off before I start my new job!

Thank you for not abandoning me! Hope you are all having a great week!

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

I'm here too and sad you cancelled Vero I was looking forward to a report before we went. I guess I'll be the guinea pig now and you'll get to hear from me..thanks for all the pressure I'd love to do a cruise though!!!

 

[hollybearsmom]

yeah for 13 days of school.

 

[DisneyLaura]

I'm still here too! Yeah for almost out of school! My kids' last day is June 21st here in CT.

 

[brookelizabeth]

I'm glad I got all caught up before you were done! I'm really enjoying your report and just your laid back attitude about the trip, soaking in the fun (and rain ), and taking it easy! If I ever live in Florida, I might be able to do that in Disney.

And your next vacation is just around the corner!! I've been reading so much about cruises lately (mostly Disney, but some other ones too)...I cannot wait for my turn! I'm sure you are going to have a FANTASTIC time!

 

[Goofy442]

Wow, you get out early! Our kids go till the end of June.

 

[Moira222]

HOLA!

We are back from The World and now dealing with everyday live again ZZZZZ how sad.we got home on Sunday and I have already caught myself looking at campground reservations. I apparently should have married a Rockefeller who could afford my vacation whims.

Hope after all this time Winston is back to normal. enjoy your last few days of school My dd goes till 6/17.

 

[blessedmom4]

I am still here and wanted to make sure you are okay...I had a fun dream about Winston a few nights agao...we were dog sititng and he as giinvg ME a run for my money Rachel was calm throughout it all, it was a wacky dream, made me smile.

Hoping for an update when you have time!

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

I'm back!! I guess you haven't updated so I'll keep waiting

 

[Wonders10]

I am still here and wanted to make sure you are okay...I had a fun dream about Winston a few nights agao...we were dog sititng and he as giinvg ME a run for my money Rachel was calm throughout it all, it was a wacky dream, made me smile.

Hoping for an update when you have time!

I'm back!! I guess you haven't updated so I'll keep waiting

Hi guys! I'm a total slacker. The end of the school year was crazy busy for me, then we went on vacation (amazing), then I've just been enjoying my free time because I start my new job tomorrow! I'm so nervous and anxious and worried I'm going to say and do the wrong things.

Now that I know people are still here, I'll try to get this thing banged out plus share some pics from this past vacation and our plans for next summer!

 

[thechesters420]

Love your pics of the Beach Club!

 

[blessedmom4]

Thst is great Shannon, looking forward to it! GOOD LUCK TODAY! I hope the new job is all that you need it to be!

 

[brookelizabeth]

Hope everything with the new job is going great!!

 

[DisneyLaura]

Hope all is well!

 

[Wonders10]

Hi everybody! Thanks for all the well wishes and good lucks! They are working...it's only been 3 days, but it's going great! Procedural stuff is new and I'm still learning that but I really like it!

I'm working crazy hours and am exhausted when I get home (for now) but my goal is to bang out the rest of this TR Friday night or Saturday! Pics are uploaded and half is written already.

 

[Wonders10]

Yes, an actual Disney update is coming up shortly, but first I wanted to share some pics from this past summer vacation! Initially, it was just going to be my mom and I sailing on the Oasis of the Seas to the Western Caribbean (our stops were Labadee, Haiti; Falmouth, Jamaica; Cozumel, Mexico). Long story short, about a month before the trip, my 10 yr old niece ended up joining us. Then, about 3 days before we left, I received an email that we had been upgraded (for free) to a Crown Loft Suite from our regular cabin w/balcony. This Suite came with lots of perks, was located at the very top of the ship and had 2 stories! It was unbelievable and I still cannot believe how lucky we were to have received that bonus.

I'm much too lazy to actually copy and paste pictures, but here is a link from my facebook album:

http://https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150332885544428.422611.745979427&l=03f90dc42e

In other vacation news, I mentioned in past updates that my whole family would be traveling to Alaska next summer to celebrate my mom's retirement. Well, after some discussion, we cancelled the trip.

And booked a 12 night Mediterranean cruise roundtrip out of Barcelona, Spain! Believe it or now, its actually cheaper (by a lot) than our 10 day Alaska trip and we are all a little more excited about the places we will visit on this trip. Our stops are Barcelona, Spain; Split, Croatia; Venice, Italy; Kotor, Montenegro; Naples/Capri, Italy; Rome, Italy; Florence, Italy; Provence, France. I cannot wait!

And lastly, my new job is going really well. Hopefully they are pleased with my performance so far but every day I am feeling more and more comfortable with the patients, the paperwork, and the facility. I have to work 4th of July which stinks, but next year, I will be able to take it off if I want.

Now, I'm going to finish up an update on the disney portion of this trip report! Stay tuned!

 

[Wonders10]

Today is our last day! We had our morning routine down pat by this point and after breakfast in the Club Lounge, we were finally going to visit the MK! I know it seems odd to do this park on your last day, but all the parks are equally magical in that sense and I’d rather end my trip at a park I really enjoy, rather than one I just sort of like (no offense DHS/AK). As we were heading downstairs towards the busses, I picked up a times guide just for the fun of it and realized I made a really big mistake. I knew when all of the EMHs were, but I didn’t notice that the MK was opening at 8am many of the mornings of our trip because it was spring break! So as I thought we were making really good time getting to the bus stop at 8:30, the park had actually already been opened a half hour by this point! D’oh!

I don’t recall waiting too long for a bus and in no time we were pulling up at the MK. We entered without incident and the crowds weren’t too horrible (yet) considering we got there “late”.

I really wanted to ride Peter Pan so we made that our first stop – of course, with the luck we were having that day, it was closed due to “technical difficulties”. Luckily we could still get a FP so we grabbed one and headed towards Pooh! I think the new queue is adorable and the kids around us were loving it, however MANY had a very hard time leaving to move the line along and many mommys and daddys had to cut by people to catch up with the rest of their family ahead of them in line, so maybe not soooo smart, Disney? Definitely pros and cons with that idea. The line itself wasn’t horrible – maybe 15 minutes, then we opted to walk towards Fantasyland to ride Buzz.

Apparently we stopped at the Wishing Well to make a wish along the way because I just found this pic:

We weren’t able to get any more FP yet because of our Peter Pan FP so I was hoping the line wouldn’t be too horrible. We ended up getting there in the nick of time because as we were exiting, the line practically doubled! I love Buzz, but love TSM more. I did hit something that gave me 100,000 points though (promptly making my surprisingly competitive mom mad) but she ended up finding a similar target further into the ride so our scores were similar in the end!

We rode one of my favorite rides next – the PeopleMover, where we ended up stopping with the lights on at the entrance to Space Mountain.

Then we went on the Carousel of Progress, another classic IMO.

We were going to start heading back to Adventureland and Liberty Square but we stumbled into the start of the “Shake it! Move it! Parade”. This is also the time that I started taking pictures like my life depended on it. I was seriously out of control with the picture taking…so much so that my camera battery died! And it wasn’t even 11am yet! Luckily my iphone was able to fill in, but then the battery started dying on that as well! I took that as my cue to put the cameras and phones away for awhile. Here are just some of them:

We didn’t really have time to ride any rides at this point because we had ADRs for Liberty Tree Tavern for lunch, but I did snag a FP for Jungle Cruise before we headed to the restaurant.

We checked in at LTT and were seated at a table for 2 within 5 minutes. We love it here! The food and service is good, its cool, dark and sort of quiet. My mom had the pot roast which I stole a few bites of, but I was seriously craving a salad so I had the entrée salad (the name is escaping me…Colony Salad?) that has grilled chicken, pecans, apples, cheese with a vinaigrette dressing – YUM! Totally hit the spot.

Refreshed and with our bellies full, we headed to another of my favorite attractions – the Haunted Mansion!

The sign said 35 minute wait but it was more like 20-25. Honestly, I can’t be sure because I was so distracted by the new queue! All the interactive tombstones were really neat to watch – and watch other people play with. The Captain was my favorite!

By this point, it was finally time to use our Peter Pan FP from this morning…the line was quick and the ride fun as always, but Fantasyland was NUTS! I couldn’t get out of there fast enough, but not before snapping this picture of the wait time for It’s a Small World:

I still had not gone on POC and I never made it this trip…the wait was 45 minutes and I just can’t do that. So no POC for me this time, but we did go on the Jungle Cruise with our FP. I have to admit it was one of the longest FP waits I’ve had, but eventually we were on our boat and off to the jungle. You know that section where the elephants try to spray you with water from their trunks? And the skipper stops just in time to miss getting sprayed by them? Well our skipper made a little mistake I think and we ended up going right through the path of the spraying elephant! The poor people in the front of the boat got soaked! Most laughed it off and they were all given towels as soon as they got off the boat, but one woman just kept hovering near all the CMs looking very mad, clearly waiting for them to do (i.e. give) something for her. I hovered for as long as I could, waiting to see if she’d say anything or what would actually happen, but I didn’t see anything. Honestly, they were very apologetic to everyone, passed out towels, it was really hot out anyway, and it was just water…I don’t know, I guess everyone is different.

We needed a little pick me up to get us back to the resort, so we stopped for a Dole Whip! I had a dole whip float and my mom had an orange vanilla swirl in a cup. Either way, it was just what we needed to get out of the park. But not before browsing all the shops on Main Street. Since it was our last day, I not only went nuts taking pictures, but I wanted to buy everything I saw. Luckily, I wasn’t too crazy and didn’t actually buy anything, but I kept going back to this Jim Shore piece…I had seen it every day of our trip and always commented on how cute it was. But I just couldn’t decide. Before actually leaving the park, I needed to ride the train, which I haven’t ridden in a very long time. While on the train, I heard 2 people (that did not know each other) talking and it really made me giggle:

Person #1: “…yeah, we got rained out yesterday.”
Person #2: “Me too!”

Seriously?

Then, we grabbed a bus and headed back to the BC. I also have in my notes that we had to stand on the bus. Which I will totally admit that I hate doing especially leaving the MK because it seems so much farther than every other park. Anyway, I also noted that a woman carrying a sleeping baby was also standing near us and NO ONE would get up to let her sit down. Unbelievable!

Up next: the last installment! We finally make it to DTD and I want to shop til I drop!