It took him 6 days to get home from Afghanistan, but it was WELL worth it! (July '11)

[4forWDW]

I can't believe all the rides you rode by getting there at the start of AM EMH
I don't think we have ever done the AM EMH at the MK. We usually do the PM EMH there.
I think we'll try the AM when we go next time.
Great pictures and once again you had great interaction at 1900 Park Fare.
Can't wait to read more.
Amy

 

[gray2402]

I can't believe all the rides you rode by getting there at the start of AM EMH
I don't think we have ever done the AM EMH at the MK. We usually do the PM EMH there.
I think we'll try the AM when we go next time.
Great pictures and once again you had great interaction at 1900 Park Fare.
Can't wait to read more.
Amy

Thanks for reading! Yes, EMH in the AM were awesome! My kids cannot hang out that late so EMH PM don't work for us (yet!!).

 

[gray2402]

So I last left off with a sleeping Alex and a monsoon outside! I'd like to say the rain ended quickly, but it did not. It kept raining and raining and raining! It finally got to the point where we had to go so we could make it to our ADR at CRT.

We took the monorail to MK and went in straight to the castle. The kids did not know we were headed there to eat, so once they realized, they were SO excited! It was still raining at this point, so we put ponchos on the kids.

We checked into CRT and then got Cinderella's autograph and had the kids photo taken with her. We then sat down to wait for our royal invitation! There were SO many beautiful little girls in there! It was so neat! We had several families ask to take photos with Sammie, so we took photos with them too! Oh and I also saw a couple walk in... all dressed up, fairly young and she did not have a ring on her finger.... I told Dennis that he was going to propose to her that night!

I also asked to go back and take a photo of just Sammie with Cinderella when she had a little break with no line.

We finally got our royal invitation and went upstairs! Wow, is that staircase narrow! But it is so beautiful upstairs! Definitely felt magical!

We had a window seat and it was wonderful! We ordered our food ... Sammie had grapes and cheese, pizza and veggies and apples. Alex had grapes and cheese, chicken nuggets, corn and mashed potatoes. Dennis had mixed salad, beef tenderloin and sides. I had trio of cheeses, beef tenderloin and sides.

Then the princesses came out! It was SO MUCH FUN! I am so glad we did this dinner!

I think the best interaction was Snow White and Princess Aurora ... Ariel was the simplest interaction ... she signed the books and took a photo. The other ones chatted with us for a bit.

Here are two more little girls who asked for a photo with Sammie.

Oh, and remember that couple I mentioned? Well applause broke out and yep, I was right! Newly engaged! I congratulated them as they walked by us to leave!

More in the next post ...

 

[gray2402]

Then it was time for the wishing ceremony! Oh and I should add that I had asked the server to bring Dennis and I a sword and a wand! I knew Dennis would like to play swords with Alex.... unfortunately Alex broke them both.... boys haha!

Sammie really got into the wishing ... it was sweet!

Alex not so much haha! Though he likes to carry his star around at home and 'wish'.

They had confetti on the table for Sammie's birthday!

Sammie had some fun!

Our view...

So then dessert comes out ... Dennis and Alex had plain vanilla ice cream ... Sammie had a make your own sundae and I had the trio of desserts. But what Sammie did not know was that I had ordered her a Cinderella chocolate slipper too! She was VERY surprised!

It was a lovely surprise! And pretty yummy, though we were all pretty full and I don't think we finished any of it but we took several bites!

So we left CRT and it was STILL raining! Lighter but still raining ... we put the kids back in their ponchos. Sammie's poor shoes (little canvas slip ons) were soaked!

We headed to Space Mountain but it was closed so we headed to Monsters INC. Dennis was chosen to be 'the guy who wants to get up and dance'. It was HILARIOUS! The kids (especially Sammie) thought it was so funny! The next best thing to her being chosen for something. Dennis was a good sport about it.

We tried SM again but still closed so we headed to Snow White's ride ... after all, we had our own little Snow White with us!

We then went to watch Mickey's Philharmagic and all loved it, of course.

We then headed to the Haunted Mansion, and I have to say that it was a little spookier at night, in the rain haha! Sammie was a bit freaked out, but we went on it and all enjoyed it. I finally saw the person hanging in the stretching room, but I did not notice the swapping of the heads at the end of the ride (Sammie told me about it actually!).

We headed out and Wishes was still going on ... so we watched the tail end of that.

We then went to the Jungle Cruise, which again was SO cool at night! Had a totally different vibe! Our skipper was funny!

Then we headed to get some snacks to eat while MSEP was going on ... got a Dole Whip Float for me, some cheetos, a lemonade and a sprite. Headed to Main Street to find a spot for the parade, but alas it was cancelled due to the drizzling rain.

So we finished our snacks and took a couple photopass photos (I am not thrilled with them. The photographer never took any full length ones!!! grr!)

Then we did some shopping ... Sammie got a stuffed Daisy Duck and Alex got a monorail Disney Racer.

Headed back to the CR via monorail! Wet and tired, but full of wonderful memories! I headed down to the lobby for the free wifi and finally went back upstairs to help get the kiddos to bed.... around 12:30am! Luckily the next day was a sleep in day!!!

 

[disneywatcher]

Sounds like you guy's had a GREAT day! Sammie looks so awesome in her Snow White dress! Have to ask if CRT is worth the 2 credits though...considering MAYBE having dinner here on our next trip.

 

[gray2402]

Sounds like you guy's had a GREAT day! Sammie looks so awesome in her Snow White dress! Have to ask if CRT is worth the 2 credits though...considering MAYBE having dinner here on our next trip.

Thanks! I really liked how she looked as Snow White She has the hair for it LOL

I thought CRT was worth it! The food was pretty good IMO! The beef was awesome! The ambiance was AMAZING and seeing all the princesses was amazing! We had never been able to corner Snow White before!

Would we do it again? Hmmm.... maybe if Sammie really wanted to. Otherwise, I'm not sure we would. Feels like a 'once in a lifetime' thing....

 

[mamaboogie]

Amazing photos! You can just tell what a magical time you guys had!

The Push video is great - we were lucky enough to have a couple of meetings with him!

As for the Tigger bouncing - that is fabulous! I loved it!

The Cinderella meal looks wonderful. Sammie is adorable as Snow White and I love Alex's T-shirt with the Mickey tie on it!

Great reviews!

 

[gray2402]

Amazing photos! You can just tell what a magical time you guys had!

The Push video is great - we were lucky enough to have a couple of meetings with him!

As for the Tigger bouncing - that is fabulous! I loved it!

The Cinderella meal looks wonderful. Sammie is adorable as Snow White and I love Alex's T-shirt with the Mickey tie on it!

Great reviews!

Thank you Shari!

Where in the UK are you? We lived there for three years, from end of 2006-end of 2009. We lived near Cambridge! I loved my time there and miss it!!!

 

[gray2402]

So today was our day off from the parks, but we still had PLENTY planned! I woke up around 8am and instantly thought 'ugh' because I had a stuffy nose... I guess from walking around in the rain and then going in and out of air conditioning. This would haunt me the rest of our trip pretty much...

I headed downstairs to get coffee, got cocoa and lemonade in the mugs. Everyone else eventually woke up/got woken up and we got ready... we were headed for a fun filled breakfast at the Polynesian Resort.

We got there a bit early and so we did some shopping ... Sammie got a stuffed Lucky dog, Alex got a Buzz Lightyear Disney Racer car and they got a Toy Story figurine play set to share.

I got a flag mickey mouse foam keychain.... which I was actually replacing from last year... it had broken. Well guess what! As of today, my new one broke too! Guess I won't be getting them anymore!

So we head to check in and we got leis ... they were giving out yellow and Sammie had to ask for pink LOL Had our photo taken (did not buy it) and waited for our buzzer to go off. It went off and we went to check in... they had a birthday card for Sammie!

We waited for the parade to end before heading to our seats. The CM seating us was form the UK so we enjoyed chatting with her since had lived there for three years!

Got to the table and had juice, bread, coffee and fruit. This breakfast is where I learned my son likes honeydew! He ate two servings of it and wanted more! We never buy it because no one else likes it.

Next came the Mickey waffles. Fresh! YUM! Dennis ate *4* of them LOL Then the platter of the other food came out... potatoes (my fav), sausage (my other fav), bacon, eggs, biscuits. It was all DELICIOUS! But that is not why we were here!!!

First to come over was the main mouse!

Then Stitch came over with his handler and brought Sammie a cupcake and wished her a happy birthday! That was sweet!

I have to say that Sammie was so sweet to share all her cupcakes with her brother!

Then Lilo came.

Then Pluto came over! I was so happy to see Pluto as I did not know he would be there! He is a favorite of the kiddos!

Then Stitch came back again to visit with us more (earlier he just dropped off the cupcake).

I really like this one hehe!

Then they had a little parade with shakers! Of course Sammie went off! It was right up her alley. Alex did not want to go, so he stayed with Dennis and they ate more haha!

So we finished eating and headed out. Well I noticed that on our receipt, our dining plan credits were off (I was super organized and tracking EVERYTHING, so I knew something was up!) So we took the monorail back to CR and Dennis and the kids went to the room but I went down to guest services to check on it. Long story short, we were headed somewhere later that night and they had already debited our dining credits for it and printed our tickets .... so we were just fine!

More to come .... where are we heading later? And what surprises will come after that?

 

[Backstage_Gal]

Sounds like you had a great trip so far. Sammie looked lovely in her dress.

 

[LaDonna]

[/SIZE][/FONT]

That's odd, they deducted dining credits for a future meal purchase?

 

[gray2402]

Sounds like you had a great trip so far. Sammie looked lovely in her dress.

Thank you!

That's odd, they deducted dining credits for a future meal purchase?

Yeah, it was weird! But made sense once they explained it I will explain it more when I get to that part, which is next!

 

[mamaboogie]

Thank you Shari!

Where in the UK are you? We lived there for three years, from end of 2006-end of 2009. We lived near Cambridge! I loved my time there and miss it!!!

Hi Kellie!

We live in Scarborough which is on the coast in the North of England - a typical english seaside town! My daughter is hoping to go to Cambridge University - she's been for a visit and loves the place.

I adore the O'hana photos - we love Stitch and always enjoy this breakfast!

 

[gray2402]

Hi Kellie!

We live in Scarborough which is on the coast in the North of England - a typical english seaside town! My daughter is hoping to go to Cambridge University - she's been for a visit and loves the place.

I adore the O'hana photos - we love Stitch and always enjoy this breakfast!

I am so sad we never made it for a seaside visit We actually did not do much other than London ... we traveled around Europe a lot though. Just means I have to go back to England again to do it all!

I did do the punting along the backside of all the Cambridge universities! It was AMAZING! You can see the photos I took here.

I also had a pet project of taking photographs of all the little village churches I came across! You can see those (and other photos from Cambridgeshire) here.

 

[disney.nut]

Just found your trip report and can't wait to hear more.

 

[gray2402]

Just found your trip report and can't wait to hear more.

Thanks for reading

 

[gray2402]

So I left us off in the room after eating a yummy breakfast at Ohana. We rested until 1:30pm and then got ready for the pool... well of course as soon as we did, it started to rain. So we went and got snacks instead!

Pizza meal for Dennis (I had a strawberry cupcake as his dessert).

Kiddos had a chocolate chip cookie (Alex) and doritoes (Sammie).

We then got ready to head out to the Hoop Dee Doo Review! Took the monorail to MK (Yes we could have walked but at this point, I had blisters and the monorail was way too convenient LOL) and then we hopped on a boat to Ft Wilderness Campsite.... along with TONS of other people! Standing room only....

We checked in to Hoop Dee Doo, were given a table number and told to wait in a certain area, that we would be let in after the dinner bell rang and we would be seated upstairs. Great! No one else really came over to join us until it was very close to time to go in.... never thought anything of it. Well they do the little opening dinner bell ceremony and then open up......... the other side! Our side was left closed up. I finally asked a CM and was rudely told they were not going to be seating upstairs and we needed to go wait in the verrrrrrrrrrry long line on the other side and they would give us a new table number. Uhm HECK NO! If we had originally been told this information, we would have gone to stand in that line from the get go. No way was I waiting at this point! I complained... politely, but loudly... and we were let in, given a new table number and seated .... no waiting in that huge line for us!

Salad and cornbread was waiting for us on the table ... our waitress took our drink orders.

Other food was brought out and I asked for mac n cheese for Alex. Food was ok to me, nothing spectacular. Ribs were too spicy for me. Best part was the dessert later on! Oh and the salad and cornbread were AWESOME!

Show was cute/funny! Alex fell asleep during it, amazingly (it was loud!)

Sammie played the washboard at the end! She enjoyed it a lot! It was just too much for Alex I think. And obviously he was sleepy.

Playing the washboard video!


So Alex stayed asleep to the very end .... Dennis carried him back to the boat (there were plenty of seats this time!), then to the monorail and back to the room, where he stayed asleep until we had to wake him up .... for our evening surprise!!!! Which will come in another installment soon! Thanks for reading!!!

 

[mamaboogie]

I am so sad we never made it for a seaside visit We actually did not do much other than London ... we traveled around Europe a lot though. Just means I have to go back to England again to do it all!

I did do the punting along the backside of all the Cambridge universities! It was AMAZING! You can see the photos I took here.

I also had a pet project of taking photographs of all the little village churches I came across! You can see those (and other photos from Cambridgeshire) here.

Beautiful Cambridge photos! I will show them to my daughter

Yes, you should definitely come back to England!

Lovely Hoop de Doo photos - looks like a lot of fun!

 

[teacherlady8]

You have a beautiful family. I used to live in Augusta! Loving your TR!

 

[LaDonna]

We LOVED HoopDeeDoo, the kids were around 7 at the time, I have the absolute best pics of us laughing and playing w/ the washboards! Great fun!