I'm right behind your tushie!! A January 2011 TR!! Updated April 27th

[stayhomemom77]

When I last left off, we were just getting called in for our breakfast at Crystal Palace.

I loved this place!! It's a really beautiful restaurant and we had a great time here.

Our waitress seated us herself and she was quick to point out that we had one of the loveliest views of the restaurant. What do you think?

We had time before the characters came out so we got right in line for food. DS was very specific about what he wanted on his plate. It was sort of humorous.

I had a biscuit with gravy (an indulgence of mine on vacation that DH finds mildly revolting), some fresh fruit, eggs, potatoes and a couple sausages. The sausages and eggs were good…although I could taste the butter in the eggs…the fruit was really nice as was my biscuit/gravy indulgence but the potatoes were cold and tasteless and soggier than I like.

I got a bit of food porn here! My camera wasn't really working any better than it had the day before but I managed to get a few quick shots.

This was my fruit and DS's syrup.

My plate:

DS's: (Sorry, I'd already cut up his chocolate Mickey waffle)

DH got the puffed French toast and RAVED about it. He went up for more at some point and offered to get me some yogurt, which I had somehow missed on my trip. I didn’t want for anything more than that so I agreed. He asked me whether I wanted honey or strawberry and I recklessly chose honey. Ick! That was so nasty!! He offered to go and get me the strawberry instead but I declined.

We had great service from Sue and the room filled during our meal but never got any fuller than 75% which was a nice comfortable amount of people. DD pronounced her cinnamon bun…delicious and I was really jazzed that we were looking good to make it over to Fantasyland for rope drop. The characters came by though all of this…DS sat near the window and was cordial but distant…DD jumped up to hug them and get their autographs every time. She also participated in the parade with great gusto…she was having a blast!!! Tigger was so fun! He came over and was so...Tiggeriffic that we all smiled and laughed. He removed DD's hat and messed up her hair (which she HATES!!) and she laughed with the rest of us. Quel suprise!!

In the end, the check was at the table ready to go for about 10 minutes before Sue had a chance to come back for it. So, we didn’t quite make rope drop but we weren’t very far past it.

As we came out into the sunshine, DH decided to be the fastpass runner for Buzz Lightyear while the rest of us did the Dumbo dash. DS volunteered to push his own stroller (DD can be fairly lazy I’m afraid) and it was now quite crowded on Main Street and in particular in front of the castle. I took the lead but kept checking to ensure that DS was keeping up.

At one point, I called out “are your still with me, buddy?” without looking around and he cheerfully shouted back…”I’m right behind your tushie!!” At that point me and a whole ton of other people cracked up. This auspicious moment happened right before we entered the castle so his little voice echoed quite a bit in there.

Therein lies the TR title, but also…DH seemed to get and inordinate amount of pictures of my hiney as you will soon see so, for better or for worse, apparently he’s also right behind my tushie…at least as far as Disney vacations are concerned. There’s one more story that plays into the TR title too but it comes a little later in our MK day.

We got to Dumbo in record time, parking the strollers next to the carousel and hopping in line. It was only a five minute wait, so the line was moving pretty well when DS suddenly freaked out because it occurred to him that Daddy might not make it in time to ride. I barely had time to reassure him that he could go again with Daddy when Daddy himself arrived to save the day!! DS lit up like a Christmas tree while DH excuse me’d past the few folks in line behind us but when DH was standing next to me, DS decided he was riding this one with Mommy!

I am quite pleased to announce that I spent the entire 90 second ride (or however long it lasts) attempting to coax my dying camera into taking pics of the Fantasyland expansion construction. I think I did quite well too….considering it shut itself off every time I took a pic and I had to keep turning it back on, over and over again.

Here's what I managed to capture on film:

We had entered the Dumbo line at 9:05 am and within 45 minutes, we had ridden it as well as Peter Pan, IASM, Snow White and fastpassed Pooh. The kids played in the tree for a bit while DH ran over to Philharmagic to get the fastpasses and I had to DRAG them away when it was time to move on.

At that point we had a quick pow wow to decide what to do.

DD had no interest in riding Buzz Lightyear but was desperate to meet the Fairies so we decided to split up. The boys would go to Tomorrowland and defeat Zurg twice while we ladies would go to Toon Town for a very important meet.

As it was 3 of 10 am, I ran off with one stroller but luckily remember in time to head back and get the autograph book which had been in the park bag in the other stroller. Luckily it had occurred to DH as well that we would need it and he had already begun chasing me down. Knowing that the wait time for the fairies can get long we made a pit stop first but we were in line by five minutes after 10. The posted wait time was 30 minutes but it was oh so much longer than that!! The whole experience took just over an hour and we waited about 58 minutes!!

Still DD was determined to meet them and we were warmly greeted by Fawn. She was very nice and talkative. Tinkerbell followed (DD had absolutely no complaints but I thought Tink was quite cold and distant, that meet was a little sour for me) and we finished up with Vidia. DD seemed a little apprehensive to meet her. I know she couldn’t understand why Vidia was at the MK with the other fairies when she had been so mean in the first movie but after seeing the Great Fairy Rescue she seemed to get that they were all friends now.

Vidia was great! Really, really in character and talking about how Tink is a rule breaker and how important it is to follow the rules. DD was really impressed with Vidia’s signature and showed her book quite proudly to DH and DS once we rejoined them. They were waiting for us on one of the benches at the exit and after admiring Vidia’s handwriting DH suggested we get in line for the Princesses since their wait was only 15 minutes. DD was quite enthusiastic about this suggestion. Mommy was not!

I suggested DH be the one to go in with her this time but DD insisted that it was for girls only so the boys went off to check and see if the Speedway had fastpasses. Since it doesn’t, they came back without them. They checked out Stitch claws in the dump shop and killed time until we emerged for the second time.

Also, during their first sojourn in Tomorrowland, they were privileged to meet PUSH up close. DH hastily grabbed a bit of video and it’s hilarious to see several grown men chasing down PUSH with their camera. There were at least three or four on that DH captured on screen. Funny, but he didn’t appreciate my finding that particularly humorous.

In the meantime, we went through a MUCH faster line to meet the princesses. DD and I speculated on who would be in the meet and greet. Although she already had their autographs, she assured me it was going to be Cinderella (her fave) Sleeping Beauty (my fave) and Belle (her second fave—actually she’s tied with Tiana for second place but she didn’t think Tiana would be in there).

Incidentally, these are the three princesses on her hat—this will become important later on. I thought it would be fun to meet some of the princesses we didn’t already have in our autograph book but since those names came from a previous trip she was highly indignant. She gave me a withering stare when I tried to explain to her that there was no guarantee that she would be right about which ladies were in there and that it would be fun to meet any of them.

I was amazed when our turn came and she had guessed correctly for ALL THREE princesses. I had honestly thought she would be wrong about at least one of them and had tried to prepare her for that. She looked at me triumphant when we entered the room and we realized that she was a budding prophetess!

It was Aurora first, then Cinderella and Belle (in her ball gown this time) last. Belle noticed that the three princesses in the room were the ones on DD’s hat and pointed it out. DD replied, “Yeah, I knew it was going to be you guys.” Belle then asked her if her Princess senses had been tingling but I think I was the only one who got the joke.

Isn't this Belle simply gorgeous??

My baby girl fairly skipped out of the room… THIS is why I keep going back to Disney. This kind of magic is rare and precious. I don’t think I’ll ever tire of it.

I've got to leave it here I'm afraid but I'll try and do more later today!

 

[Purpleblanket]

Great Photos! Thanks for sharing!

You arrived just as we were leaving. Actually, DH and I left Jan. 1st form Dis to to on a cruise and our 2 adult children stayed behind until Jan. 2nd.
We stayed a t Pop as well. We loved it!

I enjoyed your photos of the honey I shrunk the playground as it was closed when we were there on Dec. 29th in the evening.
Where were the photos of the Star Wars things taken? I don't even recall seeing those? 18 yr old DS would have loved them.

Osborne lights were fantastic! We loved them. And we also enjoyed eating at Sci Fi diner as well! Did you eat at the Prime Time Cafe? That was so much fun as well.
I look forward to seeing more of your photos!

Debbie

 

[stayhomemom77]

Welcome Purpleblanket!

We did not eat at 50's PT Cafe...DH thought the shenanigans would freak out the kiddies so we passed on that one.

The speeders are at the corner there (on the left), across from the ride entrance as you go around the bend to get into the Sci Fi area. It's a fun little touch that my kids are just crazy about.

Did you enjoy your cruise? Our first cruise (non Disney) in April 2009 was a huge failure. We did a 3 day Bahamian cruise right after a week at Disney and somehow my son's puffer got put in the wrong bag and was left in the car. He had an asthma attack and, well...we spent more time in the ship's medical area than I ever care to again in my life. He was okay...it wasn't TOO serious but it just sucked all the fun out of it for all of us.

That was our one and only experience cruising but I think I might like it after all if we give it another chance (and I have his puffer in my purse!!) DH and I are celebrating our 10th anniversary this fall and are hoping to get to the Mediterranean but eventually we'd like to take the kids again and next time, I'm going to insist we do a Disney cruise.

Glad you're enjoying the pics!

 

[Mndisneygirl]

I love the pictures! Especially of your transformation!
I kind of speculated that the TR title would come from something like that!

Your DD is so cute - triumphant with the princesses!!!
You got a lot done that morning! Now, when do you get your Dole Whip??

 

[stayhomemom77]

Here's a pic most of you will be able to place...my photobucket pics are all out of order and I missed this one.

When I left off we had just finished meeting the princesses and I was more than ready to move on to some more rides.

We shopped a bit in the dump shop first though. I got suckers for the cousins back home here and the kids took their time looking. DS bought a Christmas ornament type ball of Disney silly bands and DD bought a Tink stuffy. At this point we decided to head back to Fantasyland to ride Pooh. Because we had fastpassed the ride, we missed all of the additions to the new standby queue. We were a bit sad about that. The ride itself seemed brighter (fresh paint perhaps??) and it’s always a hit with my kids. We debated going to Philharmagic right away but decided we’d come back to it later (which we never did).

The Haunted Mansion was a priority for DH and me so we headed straight there. DD was extremely apprehensive about this ride. She rode with me (and had her head buried and her ears covered the entire time). She told me as we were boarding our Doom buggy, “this is NOT my favourite ride.” No amount of cajoling or begging would get her to look up so she missed the entire thing!

After that DH took DS off to the washroom and we ladies decided to shop a little bit. I purchased a cute Minnie apron and some Minnie’s Bake Shop sprinkles in that store across from the queue entrance and got 4 $1 coins in my change. The clerk made a point of assuring me that they were legal tender but we Canadians are used to gold dollar coins so I wouldn’t have thought anything of it until she kept stressing that it was real money and accepted everywhere.

I'm just going to go ahead and put up all the souvenir pics right now since I took most of them earlier today. I'm sure I'm forgetting some but here's what I could remember. Oh, and of course a respectable pile of pressed pennies.

All of these items were solely for me. I don't have pics of the crap the kids bought. But back to the TR...

We met up again at the strollers and stopped briefly to take pics of ourselves in the stockyards. I'm leaving out the pics of the kids and for some reason, I didn't pose.

It was 12:40 pm at this point and all four of us were beginning to feel peckish. The decision was made to get two meals from the Golden Outpost to share. Originally, we thought we take our food over to Tom Sawyer’s Island and sort of picnic there but it wasn’t packaged in a very travel friendly way so we scrapped that plan in favor of sitting in the Pirata/Perico seating area.

We got nuggets and fries for the kids to share (water and cookies) and a BLT flatbread for the adults to share (water and choc cake). Because the cookies were portable and because we were fairly close to the Dole Whip Float, we decided that the kids could share our chocolate cake and we’d have the float for dessert. The cookies were stashed and we dug in.

I tried one of the nuggets, they were tasty but there seemed to me an overwhelming amount of breading and a small amount of chicken. It could have just been the bite I had but man, was it tasty!! The fries were very good…I’m a fry queen and quite fussy too so it’s hit or miss (often miss) for me. But these didn’t disappoint. The flatbread was extremely hard to eat and its presentation was more like a wrap. In the end I grabbed a fork and ate the filling part and just left the bread.

While the others finished their meal, I ran off to the washroom and then got in line for my Dole Whip Float. I have to say, I was in line for much longer than I should have been. And a large party got in line right behind me and aggravated me to no end. First of all, the loudmouth of the group was yelling to everyone to get their order and then telling them no whenever they asked for something. In the end HE decided what everyone was having, and when they complained he told them since he was buying, he was deciding.

During this time, he was standing so close behind (my tushie) me that I could count the change in his pocket. NO WORD OF A LIE. I couldn’t go anywhere because there were people in front of me and every time I moved to put some space between us, he moved too. In the end the another cashier opened up and although she said, “can I help the next in line?” and I was the next in line he jumped in over there. HOW RUDE!!

Finally, it was my turn and I got my tasty concoction and I handed him my card so he could deduct my snack credit and…




















It didn’t work. So, he tried again, and…





















It didn’t work.

He swiped my card five or six times and still it didn’t work (and my float was now melting) so he gave me back my card, told me that the computer wasn’t accepting it for some reason and told me I could have it
































FOR FREE!!!




I had cash and I did think about offering to pay for it but since I’d just been violated by a stranger, I figured I’d call this pixie dust and gratefully accepted the gift!

I rushed back to rejoin my family and had to take one tiny taste of the ice cream (or risk losing it cause it was melting fast at this point). I will admit, I DID think that this was going to one of those instances when you try something that everyone raves about and then you think…meh! What’s all the fuss about?

But I had that small “save it from melting” spoonful and fell head over heels in love. This is one treat that TOTALLY lives up to the hype! DH also thought it was quite good. I was pretty full from lunch though so in the end I had a quick sip of the pineapple juice and only five more bites of the ice cream before calling it quits.

DH was incredulous. “That’s all you want? I thought you said you loved it!”

Still, he and DS managed to make short work of it and all was well. Next time I’ll just get a straight up Dole Whip. I know the float is a better snack credit value but I sloshed it all over myself when I shoved the straw in and I had sticky hands until I was able to rummage around for the wipes.

The float came with us to Frontierland where DH got us our BTMRR fastpasses and we figured out where to go to get onto the raft to go to Tom Sawyer’s Island. This was another first for us and the kids had a BLAST!! We explored and played (they LOVED the barrel bridge) for quite a while. DH and DD took shots at the people riding BTMRR and they were only SLIGHTLY afraid of the tunnels and caves. We took a ton of pics...

Tushie alert!

I even coaxed my dead camera into taking this construction pic...this is the area behind the Haunted Mansion which I assume is connected with the Fantasyland expansion!

That's it for now friends...stay tuned...

 

[Duchie]

Yay! You got your Dole Whip!

 

[Dizneydawn]

Love the update! I AM GAGA over your before and after pics!!!!! It is truly helping me ease into wedding photo phobia! I will not be at goal but another 55 pound lighter will make a HUGE difference!!!!

Great TR!!!!

 

[Purpleblanket]

Welcome Purpleblanket!

We did not eat at 50's PT Cafe...DH thought the shenanigans would freak out the kiddies so we passed on that one.

The speeders are at the corner there (on the left), across from the ride entrance as you go around the bend to get into the Sci Fi area. It's a fun little touch that my kids are just crazy about.

Did you enjoy your cruise? Our first cruise (non Disney) in April 2009 was a huge failure. We did a 3 day Bahamian cruise right after a week at Disney and somehow my son's puffer got put in the wrong bag and was left in the car. He had an asthma attack and, well...we spent more time in the ship's medical area than I ever care to again in my life. He was okay...it wasn't TOO serious but it just sucked all the fun out of it for all of us.



Congratulations on your weight loss! I know it's so hard. I go to Weight watchers as well and I have my life time membership. I've had it for 21 years now and I always go every month just to weigh in and get the new program stuff etc...
I hate when people say I don't need to go (because I'm at goal now) but the thing is if I didn't go and didn't follow everyday that I know the weight would to easily creep back up.
Have you started with the new "points plus" system yet? It's hard for me to get used to everything having more points although it's nice to have more points on a daily basis!!!

About the cruise.... we did carnival and we had a great time but I don't think we'd cruise again unless someone gave it to us for free. I got '"tired" of moving and I "rocked" for 5 days after coming home. I also felt the ports were rushed and I was a constant clock watcher because you don't want to be late for the ship to leave.

Now.... DISNEY.... That's another story!
I'd love to go back!!!
And I'm reliving our trip through everyone else's TR's. I started a TR but I'm just not that entertaining!! lol
I need to get working on my next installment!

I look forward to more of your pics!

Debbie

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Oh yea! I'm so glad you got the dole whip!! I could go for one right about now. Except I'm cold. Although for that yumminess, I would not mind getting a bit colder.
I like your purchases - especially the Tink watch!
Too funny - no pictures of the kids' crap!! LOL!

Great pictures - I love your DD's hat! We have had to work on DD7 a lot to get her to go on HM. She's getting better, but if given the choice, she'll opt out.

 

[Duchie]

Great pictures - I love your DD's hat! We have had to work on DD7 a lot to get her to go on HM. She's getting better, but if given the choice, she'll opt out.

We still have to work on our oldest DS (14) to go on Tower of Terror. He loves the droppy-down part of the ride, but he HATES all the pre-ride stuff. He'll watch some scary stuff on TV and plays all kinds of zombie games with DH, but ToT is a no-go for him.

 

[stayhomemom77]

Eventually we dragged the kids away from Tom Sawyer Island to hit Toontown once again so we could go through Mickey and Minnie’s country houses one last time.

But FIRST we had to ride Big Thunder…DD's fav ride!!

DS wasn’t quite thrilled about going on the ride but gamely agreed to do it as long as he was able to go on with Daddy. My kids thought I was a daredevil because I kept putting my hands up in the air. This was my fav ride when I was a kid so there’s a huge nostalgic factor for me here! I had so much fun!

Once finished we headed back across the park to Toontown to say goodbye to the Country houses. I don’t know if it was the time of day or because everyone’s getting their visits in before Feb 11th or what, but it was JAMMED there. It took us 45 minutes to go through both houses and we weren’t exactly savoring the moment like we had originally intended.

I am claustrophobic so DS and I kinda whipped through each of the houses. DD and DH took a little more time (DD really loves Minnie’s house and DH was taking pictures) but even they were forced to march faster than they would have liked due to the crowds.

We decided at that point that we’d take the train to the front of the park since it was parade time. I thought we would have time to nip into the bakery for some goodies for breakfast the next morning but we didn’t get on the first train and had to wait for the next one.

By the time we got to the front we didn’t really have time to hit up the bakery (that’s two I missed on this trip, in case anyone is counting) because we had no intention of cutting it close for our Ohana ADR.

I had so much fun in the Magic Kingdom! Although it didn’t seem like we did a whole lot (compared to our usual Commando-style touring) we were all in such good moods and had such a good time the whole day that none of that seemed to matter. It was a nice change from HS the day before where I felt like we wasted most of our time.

 

[stayhomemom77]

We got to the resort at 4:30 pm (a bit quicker that we had expected) so we shopped in the upstairs store for a few minutes. I got the 4 parks CD (who hoo!!) and some earrings and DD got a Tiana play set. I headed over to check in at 4:45 pm and the line to the desk was all the way back to the Kona check in desk!! I think I checked in at 5:02 pm and we were buzzed after about 10 minutes.

We had a great view and a great server and DD got up and participated in all of the fun. She did the coconut races and the limbo and was a bit disappointed that there was no hula this time...she had elected a promise from Mommy that we two ladies would go up and show the folks how it's done! LOL I guess she considers herself a pro from last time.

We were there about an hour and enjoyed everything!! I particularly love the pot stickers and the noodles. The steak was also amazing and I ate two pieces and then felt guilty about it!! LOL Not a ton of food porn (sorry) as DH was busy snapping pics and taking video of DD and stuffing his face in between times.

The kids weren’t the least bit interested in anything that was offered so they ordered PB&J’s. Such refined palettes!! I ordered them with our drink orders and it though the waitress was surprised she was pretty cool about it. The kids were quite relaxed and happy knowing that they had tasty food coming.

Because we had great service, great seating and great food, this Ohana experience was at the other end of the spectrum compared to our first attempt in April. I'm really glad DH insisted we try this one again. The check in process is still a mess but the meal and experience does live up to the hype in our opinion!

Once finished dinner, the boys headed downstairs to look for a wallet for DH and DD and I went to the ladies room. Then we nipped into Captain Cooks for a little look around. I thought maybe we could find a pastry or something there (for the next day's breakfast) but it’s a really tiny place and there selection at that time of night was practically nonexistent.

We headed back to Pop and found ourselves with a free evening. DD wanted to go swimming (55 degrees isn’t too cold for swimming, is it?? ) but the boys wanted to hit the arcade and use up our package voucher.

So, I took my baby girl swimming. It was FREEZING in the air but in the water we were nice and warm. We went to the hippy dippy pool and spent about an hour there before I insisted we go back to the room. We got out and shivering, threw our clothes on over top of our suits. DD fell trying to keep up with my brisk trot back to the room and scraped her knee so she begged me for a piggy back ride.

I bent down as far as I could (being overweight and having bum knees are a bad combination for deep squats) and she took a running start to get up there. I nearly toppled over but I manage to heave her up to the right place and staggered around until I had regained my equilibrium. We had several people staring at us as they walked by since we were right in front of Everything Pop at the time so DD and I got a case of the giggles and laughed our way back to the room. Although it was freezing, it was a really fun girl bonding experience and she was quite disparaging of the boys and their video games!! LOL

We beat the boys back by a few minutes and DD was snug and warm in the tub by the time they entered the room. I assumed that they were going to use the entire card but they had saved half of the points for DD to use (which she never did…anyone know if those cards expire??). DH had to hurry DD out of her bath because he had an upset tummy. Whoops! Methinks he overindulged a bit at Ohana!!

DS then had his bath, and I tucked them in and then hopped in the shower myself. In the meantime, DH had crawled into bed. Apparently his washroom visit hadn't sorted out his tummy troubles and he was sleeping (as were the kiddies) by the time I was dried and dressed.
I accidentally roused him as I tried to creep around tidying up and I asked him if he wanted me to get him any pharmocological items while I ran to the food court for breakfast pastries. His answer was pretty incoherent so I figured I'd just see what they had there and decide at that point what to do. I headed back to Everything Pop for a nice little prowl around 9:45 p.m.

I brought back a cherry turnover for the kids to share and some Imodium for DH. I also got gift cards for the kids with their remaining cash (less for me to carry around and keep straight) and found a cute new bathing suit for DD.

DH woke up when I got back, gratefully took the medicine and crashed again. I crawled into bed as quietly as I could and fell asleep reading. The light was on until I woke up again at 3 a.m. Oops!!

Up next: Animal Kingdom, baby!! It's wild!!

 

[stayhomemom77]

Okay, so we left off as we were beginning our Animal Kingdom day. Since our breakfast ADR with Donald wasn’t until 10:10 am and since DH hadn’t been feeling well the night before we didn’t hurry ourselves too much getting ready for the day. Part of me wanted to rush everyone because we were leaving the park at 4 pm for an early dinner at WCC but I reminded myself that this was supposed to be a relaxing vacation so we let the kids wake up on their own.

Thankfully, DH’s tummy troubles were over so he was fine for a full day in the park and the kids were excited that we were going to go back to Rafiki’s Planet Watch for the first time ever!!

The kids didn’t like the pastry too much, (remember the cherry turnover I brought back the night before) I could only manage to get them to eat two bites each (and it was really tasty…I had a couple of bites myself and had to restrain myself to keep from eating the entire thing…but my weirdo kids didn’t really like it.) I let them fill up on leftover juice and told them there was nothing to eat until breakfast a couple of hours from now but I never got a single complaint, so I guess it was okay.

We made our way to the AK sometime around 9:30 am and I was really excited to see that the tree was still up! I hadn’t expected this and I was so excited!! We took a few pics and moved our way through the masses to get inside the park and get ourselves a times guide and a couple of park maps.

We took our time heading back to Africa, checking things out a bit on the way. DH loves this park so he always takes numerous photos which I can't begin to identify but, here they are:

Hello strangers...thanks for posing for us!! LOL

In front of Tusker House there’s a pin cart and I got a box with two pins in it of the AK collection for the kids. Thankfully they didn’t fight over them and they were excited with their unexpected gift. It had been my intention to get them something that they’d be able to trade, since they both had traded all their pins away already but it backfired on me since they were thrilled with the pins the box contained.

While I was doing this DH got us some Safari fastpasses and then came back and checked us in at Tusker House at 10 am (for our 10:10 am ressie). We were called after about 5 minutes. We got our photo taken with Donald (he gave us kisses…DD and I) and I was so proud of DS because he consented to pose for the photo. I was so excited about it (and fairly pleased with how I looked in the pic) that I even bought the package.

Donald's always been my favourite of the fab five!! I do like Pluto and Goofy but they annoy me sometimes. Donald is so funny and as a kid I could always relate to him because he lost him temper so easily. For some reason, the fact that Mickey never really got annoyed ticked me off!!

Anyway, I don't do a lot of character meets but I jumped in with DD on this one. Here's the shot of our family pose taken with our camera:

We were seated a moment or two later in the schoolroom (I think!!) which was sort of empty at the beginning. Our server was Gail and she was great. Really, really great service at this meal.

Unfortunately, DH's iphone took blurry pics in poor lighting and this area wasn't the greatest, so we didn't get many of DD with the characters that are worth posting.

Here's what we did manage to get:

The Goofy parade began just seconds after we sat down and posed for pics.

DD joining in the fun!

With the characters:

DS, DH and myself decided to try the Frunch but DD stuck with oj. DS downed his juice in a heartbeat so I gave him mine. He promptly sucked back that one and a few moments later Gail came with a refill for each of us. DH frowned at me as DS was now working on his third glass of juice and it too was empty before he’d had even one bite of food!! Then Gail saw that he was empty yet again and gave him another refill.

I wasn’t concerned about it but we asked him not to have any more…a request which he honored without forgetting and without complaint. He’s only five but he’s really a very responsible fellow.

The Frunch was really good. I didn’t drink too much (remember not a juice person) but it was really, really tasty. DS and I went up to get something to eat first. Goofy came in and led the parade which DD cheerfully participated in and DS avoided. The food was good, again I had sausages, eggs and fruit but I also tried the tator tots (can you believe I’ve never had them before) and discovered that I had a serious addiction. I went up for seconds on these tasty items and later I went up for thirds!!

The characters came around fairly quickly and DD posed for pics and got her book signed. (DH and DD had run out to get the autograph book from the stroller right after we sat down.) We all ate our fill and then DH took care of the bill. (Yikes…checking us in is one thing...but what if he doesn't think to make sure they took the right amount of credits?? I made it through my traumatic experience and of course he did just fine being an ADULT and all that!!) We departed and after a potty stop headed over to use our Safari fastpasses.

That's it for this update...I'll try to get back to it before the weekend is over!!

 

[Purpleblanket]

Nice to see you back!
Looking forward to more!!

Debbie

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Hey Julie - great updates!! No, 55 is not too cold to swim in a heated pool!! Borderline maybe...
I love the Tusker House breakfast - and the frunch too! I thought it was called jungle juice the last time we were there.
We're going back for breakfast there in March. It was DH's request!!

 

[onescgirl]

I've just read through your TR & you have a beautiful family!
Your before & after pictures are awesome! I know you are so proud of yourself!
I love the DHS light pictures, I would love to go at Christmas one year to see all of the lights.
You DD & fairy pics are so cute!
That is the cutest & funniest pic of Tink in the stockyard!
Great family pictures with Donald at MK!
Can't wait to read more!

 

[ocean134]

I am in serious WDW withdrawal - it's not even been a full month since I've been back to the real world - and I am living through your TR. Love the pictures! Congrats on your weight loss! You definitely have bragging rights!!!

 

[stayhomemom77]

Hey Julie - great updates!! No, 55 is not too cold to swim in a heated pool!! Borderline maybe...
I love the Tusker House breakfast - and the frunch too! I thought it was called jungle juice the last time we were there.
We're going back for breakfast there in March. It was DH's request!!

Ha! Maybe it IS called jungle juice...I think I DIS too much! LOL

I'd like to try it for lunch or dinner sometime to see how it compares to Boma.

Have a great breakfast there next month...is there a daily countdown yet? Are you getting excited??

 

[stayhomemom77]

I've just read through your TR & you have a beautiful family!

Thank you!

Your before & after pictures are awesome! I know you are so proud of yourself!
I love the DHS light pictures, I would love to go at Christmas one year to see all of the lights.
You DD & fairy pics are so cute!

She seriously had THE BEST time! And she's not overly girly so I was really surprised. It was a great bonding moment for us.

That is the cutest & funniest pic of Tink in the stockyard!

I told DD about this comment and she was so thrilled that someone else liked her little moment of fun! She bids me say that Tink knew it was all jokes the whole time so she wasn't able to "frown" because she thought it was too funny. (Because of course, Tink's stitching leaves her with a perma-smile!)

Great family pictures with Donald at MK!
Can't wait to read more!

Glad to have you aboard! I'm enjoying your TR too! Stay tuned for more soon!

 

[stayhomemom77]

I am in serious WDW withdrawal - it's not even been a full month since I've been back to the real world - and I am living through your TR. Love the pictures! Congrats on your weight loss! You definitely have bragging rights!!!

Thanks! I really appreciate that! Welcome to my TR!

This was my third trip (as an adult) and I had some serious withdrawal when we got home for the first time. I'm usually ready to head home when we depart but this time it was only six nights and since we took it easy the whole time it seemed too short! Plus there were so many things that I wanted to do and didn't get a chance (likely BECAUSE of taking it easy) and I HATE having an unfinished TO DO list so that was bugging me too.

Thank goodness for the DIS, right?

I'm going to get working on an update right away!!