IT WAS LEGEND..(wait for it)..DARY!!!

[java]

I LOVE the flashback photos. I too was a fan of Rivercountry and 20,000 leagues was my favorite ride ever.

And I think sending you guys off in a car with a guy in a NASA suit is hilarious. I can just imagine what your mother was thinking as you all get out of the back of this guys car.

 

[Momof2princess]

Love the flashback of your families trip. Those photos were great

Keep up the good work, I can't wait to read more

 

[MeLaNie9]

Love the Flashback trip. Reminds me of when we went August 1986. It was soooooooooooooooo hot.

I really have to hand it to the folks that brave the heat and crowds of WDW in the summer! I know that so many families go then because they don't take their kids out of school for vacation - I don't know what we'll do when our kids our that age! It must have been pretty bad for us to just sit down in a park and refuse to do anything but go back and swim because, contrary to what my brothers might say, I wasn't a total jerk at that age (to do that to my parents) and Tommy was so excited to be in WDW. We must have been pretty exhausted and overheated!

LOL! I love that story! Your poor mom, bawling on the back of that motorcycle. Ha!!

I know...we laugh about it all the time! She is a pretty straight-laced lady so seeing her on a motorcycle was priceless!

I LOVE the flashback photos. I too was a fan of Rivercountry and 20,000 leagues was my favorite ride ever.

And I think sending you guys off in a car with a guy in a NASA suit is hilarious. I can just imagine what your mother was thinking as you all get out of the back of this guys car.

Hi java!
I miss 20,000 Leagues so much! I will never forget the time that I went back to WDW in 2000 and was searching for it and it was gone!

Yeah - my dad will NEVER live that down. Whenever we tell the story to someone who hasn't heard it, they always look at him incredulously "Oh my God...you didn't!!!!" And he just sheepishly tries those excuses!

Love the flashback of your families trip. Those photos were great
Keep up the good work, I can't wait to read more

Thanks for reading! Clearly we weren't the best of photographers and our camera equipment was pretty poor, but it was fun to look through the pictures from that trip - see how WDW and my family has changed! I'm glad that I found at least a few usable ones to scan in!


Next update we will get back to 2007 and a real deterioration in the in-law relations: "Did she really just say that to me?"

 

[alabamagirl]

Just got caught up with your TR and it's great!! I love the 1985 story and the retro pics. My first (and only) WDW trip was my parents was pretty hilarious as well.

"How I Met Your Mother" is such a great show! One of DH and my faves.

You have a beautiful family!! Can't wait to hear more.

 

[MeLaNie9]

Hi alabamagirl! Thanks for reading
We have other crazy family vacation memories as well...
This WDW trip was the culmination of such craziness and thus the last such trip ever!!!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

LOVE the retro photos. I too was a Sun-In addict. Looking forward to the next update.

 

[MeLaNie9]

LOVE the retro photos. I too was a Sun-In addict. Looking forward to the next update.

Thanks for reading!
Ha ha! The "good old days" of dry, brittle but blonde (or maybe sort of orange-ish) hair!
Christian was over this past weekend and I showed him those photos, particularly the Goofy and Goofier shot. He is getting married in the fall and I told him I was all set to blow that one up huge and post it at the reception! Those skinny legs and arms, the "muscle shirt", and those high tube socks - not to mention the Goofy hat! Priceless!

 

[Mousermom]

Ok... I'm caught up! I remember the sun-in days as well! We're around the same age. In the summer of '85, I was getting ready to go into 8th grade. To be young again! In-laws! I've got issues there as well. I know for a fact I'll never travel with them! Come to think of it...I never have in the past. And I've been married 14 years!

Love the TR! The kids are adorable!

 

[Dizneyholic]

Thanks for the retro report! I never got to experience River Country so it's nice to hear about it! However, I am guilty of a little Sun-In abuse back in the day.

 

[MeLaNie9]

In-laws! I've got issues there as well. I know for a fact I'll never travel with them! Come to think of it...I never have in the past. And I've been married 14 years!

Smart, smart woman!

Love the TR! The kids are adorable!

Aww - thanks so much!

Thanks for the retro report! I never got to experience River Country so it's nice to hear about it! However, I am guilty of a little Sun-In abuse back in the day.

Sun-In "abuse"...I love it. Hi, I'm Melanie and I am addicted to Sun-In (as if you can't tell from the orange hue of my hair and its dry-as-a-bone texture!)

Well - enough retro...its back to the future, errrr - now the past!

 

[MeLaNie9]

OK...back to the 2007 trip!
I had made it 2 whole days and 1 half day with the in-laws without MAJOR issues (but plenty of minor ones). Our pin scavenger hunt had totally fallen apart, mostly due to Dee only wanting to trade for holiday pins and Kay not wanting to trade at all due to general grumpiness. Nemo, Ralph, and I ended up just trading for whatever we liked, which led to hilarious Ralph-Nemo interactions. You see, my eldest son's favorite color is pink and he is partial to some princesses. He would have an awesome boy-typical pin (like Buzz) and insist on trading it for a pink Tinker Bell pin. He did this over and over - each time I would be watching the trade from a distance and Ralph would look like his head was about to explode! To his credit, he did let all transactions go forward as Nemo wanted!

We woke up super early on Thursday November 29th as we were planning to head back to MK for EMH. We were all actually up and out on time and made it to MK just as it opened.

Loved these lightpost decorations on Main Street

Mickey Balloons

We headed to Fantasyland and started with Dumbo (twice). Next was Pooh and Dee decided to buy Bear a Pooh bear in the shop at the end of the ride. I guess because he had a Pooh themed 1st birthday party. Because it was the start of the day, I didn't think this was a great idea and poor Pooh had to ride in a backpack for the rest of the day.

Nemo was really caught up in riding Cinderella's Carousel and so we were on this about 5 times straight. But, one of those times, he found and rode on Cinderella's horse (he was so excited as Cinderella is one of those princesses that he likes!)

Cinderella's horse has the gold ribbon on its tail

Nemo, proud of his horse

Bear rides the carousel

We enjoyed all the Fantasyland rides with virtually no waits. My favorite in this land has always been Peter Pan's Flight, but no one wanted to ride it more than once Dee and Kay were really impressed with Philharmagic which is another Nemo favorite. No one was very impressed with Snow White.

After getting our fill of Fantasyland, we headed to Tomorrowland to experience the attractions we had missed the day before. No one wanted to try Stitch. Ralphie hasn't been on it either - I did it in May 2006 with baby swap and was disappointed with it. Ralphie never cashed in his swap FP then. We had really liked Alien Encounter in 2000. It was a bit scary for kids, but we really thought it was awesome!

We started with Buzz's Space Ranger Spin which is on Nemo's list of faves. I am no slouch on this ride (at least I don't think so), but Ralph always gets like a zillion points. I KNOW that he knows of some "secret" super high scoring target that he always makes a point to hit and that is how he gets such huge scores. However, he will not 'fess up to this and tell me where it is.

After that it was on to the Carousel of Progress. I remember my mom liking this ride and I think Dee liked it as well. Kay, on the other hand, no so much!

Then we tried out the Laugh Floor. This wasn't open the last time we visited WDW. We all sat in one row about 4 rows from the front. I was in the middle of the row with Bear in my lap. The show started off with a monster pair calling on audience members to assist with their joke. They were asking people where they were from and when the person answered, they would say something like "Ahhhh, isn't (city name) the home of the Eiffel Tower and something something" (sorry I can't remember exactly). Well, we thought it was hilarious when the light and camera hit this woman who responded that she couldn't speak English. Actually, it didn't really seem like she understood English very well either. I was just thinking "why would she come into an attraction like this" when a bright light hit Bear and I and there we were up on the big screen! The monsters said "Look at this two-headed human and look how cute the little head is!" When I told them I was from Cleveland, Ohio and that of course they were correct when they said Cleveland was the home of the Eiffel Tower, etc. they were all excited and dancing around. It was really a cute show and we all liked it!

We rode the People Mover a few more times and I studied the inside of Space Mountain diligently. Since it is dark in there, I know that my perspective was off, but I kept thinking that it looked really high! I was really unsure of riding a coaster completely in the dark and not knowing where the drops were, so I chickened out for that day!

Continued...

 

[MeLaNie9]

The last thing we had planned for this MK day was to watch the parade. We were planning on heading out early to avoid the MVMCP crowds that would start streaming into the park.

Parade pics:

We headed out to the monorail afterwards as we planned to leisurely tour the monorail resorts and we had dinner ADRs at Kona Cafe.
We stopped at the Contemporary and got hung up shopping there. We never even made it to find their Christmas tree and decorations, which was our main goal of resort touring! This is where Dee decided she had found Nemo's Christmas present....the electric monorail. Now, it is true that the monorail is Nemo's most favorite ride, but this thing is expensive and all it does is go around a small circular track, and it has teeny tiny character figures to put into the monorail cars...perfect for Bear to put right into his mouth. I tried to sway her away from buying this, but you will see shortly that she really just doesn't listen. Especially when it comes to her grandkids. By the time she had made the purchase and set up the shipment back to CSR, we were running late for the rest of our plan.

We hopped back on the monorail and made it to the Poly just in time to find a spot on the beach and watch Wishes. This was really nice and relaxing. After the fireworks, we headed to Kona for our dinner. Kona was probably our favorite restaurant of our May 2006 trip.
Again, the chef was very helpful and Bear had 2 hot dogs (yes we had to ask for a second), pasta, and vegetable.
Nemo had the kid's salad (the kid does love salad), mac-n-cheese (surprise, surprise!), and the ice cream sundae - he was happy with all!
Kay had the crab cakes, filet, and kilauea torte - she loved the filet and felt that it was on par with the LeCellier filet
Dee had the Kona Salad, Beef Teriyaki, and white chocolate cheesecake - she really did not like the beef teriyaki, she said that it was quite tough. She did like the cheesecake though.
I had the crab cakes, the shrimp and scallops, and the chocolate macadamia nut tarte - the crab cakes were delicious, however the shrimp and scallops entree was not as good as during our first visit to Kona. The tarte was incredible (again, I am not a chocolate lover) - This was the best dessert I had all trip, even better than the mousses!
Overall, we enjoyed Kona again and it will stay on our list of good places to eat in WDW!

It was during this dinner that IT happened. You see, I don't really dislike my MIL, but I do complain about the fact that she just doesn't listen to anyone about anything - it drives me crazy! Ralphie never seems to see it. And, its not just that she doesn't listen to ME. She doesn't listen to Ralph either and many times, she's just downright rude. For instance, she will bring Nemo a present every time she comes over. Ralph has asked her not to do this because 1.Nemo is starting to expect it 2.None of his other grandparents do this. And...she basically ignores us and continues to do it.
So we are sitting in Kona Cafe, enjoying a good meal and she asks me a question about a ride. I launch into my answer and her eyes just glaze over. Then she says, "Melanie, you can just stop talking because I am not listening to you." My jaw dropped, Kay's jaw dropped. SHE asked ME the question! I turned to Ralph and say "Did she really just say that to me???" "Did that really just happen?"

Later, Ralphie shares this epiphany "You know Mel, my mom just doesn't listen does she?" Uh - hello - this is what I've been saying for years!!!



Upon leaving Kona, we toured around the Poly - I just love the inside of the Grand Ceremonial House. I would love to stay here again, but we have agreed to try a different resort each trip.

We boarded the monorail and headed to the GF. Dee and Kay LOVED this resort. Kay really wants to stay there in the future.
Sorry, these pictures turned out pretty dark and don't do the gorgeous tree and lobby justice!

The famous GF gingerbread house

We finished up the monorail loop and landed back at MK, boarded the CSR bus and made our way back our rooms. We hit the hay planning for a big day at AK!

Up next: Neil Patrick Harris finally makes his appearance and we become the Paparazzi!

 

[disneyfanforlife]

Very cool pics. Sounds like you had fun

 

[Mousermom]

I cannot believe that your MIL said that to you? Who DOES that? I have to share a little story with you.

One time, the whole family went to upstate PA where my sister-in-law's boyfriend owns a cabin. One evening, we had a fire going and we had a telescope out looking at the stars. We were making smores and having what I thought was a good time. My son was eating a smore (he was about 5 at the time), and he started to choke on the graham cracker.

Now, my MIL is a nurse. Well, she is a LPN. She went to school for nursing when she was around 50 years old. All of the sudden she says to me:

"Why don't you know how to perform CPR?"

I just had one thing to say to her:

" Did you know CPR when YOUR kids were little?"

I never spoke up to my MIL before this. She's never given me lip since!

 

[Lovemy3babes]

Great update! Sorry to hear about your MIL being a pill. Ugh.

 

[kmab00]

Great update!! Kona sounds like a great place to eat..I'm gonna have to try it one of these days! Sorry about your MIL. She asked you a question and then said, "Stop talking cause I'm not listening?" That just doesn't make sense!

I love the monorail resorts!! They are all so beautiful! Can't wait for more!

 

[Momof2princess]

Sounds like you had a great day until your MIL with her snarky comment Hmmm some people.....

At least you were at the Happiest place on earth.

The pics of the kiddies on the carosel are sooo cute!!

Can't wait to read more.

 

[MeLaNie9]

Very cool pics. Sounds like you had fun

Thanks for reading Amie! I have to say that I had that Chip and Dale pin with the Dole Whip that you have in your siggie pic...Nemo insisted that he have it then he traded it away!

I cannot believe that your MIL said that to you? Who DOES that?

I never spoke up to my MIL before this. She's never given me lip since!

Like I said, you are a smart, smart woman! Great response and so glad to hear that it worked long term for you!

Great update! Sorry to hear about your MIL being a pill. Ugh.

Thanks!
I was really trying to ignore the things that drive me crazy about her on this trip. I really did want her to have a good time for her retirement trip and I really needed this vacation - I had had a rough summer at work (switched employers and some friends/colleagues left during the process) and I had worked every single day in the month of October and over the whole Thanksgiving holiday and weekend! So, I was trying to make the best of it and let these things roll off me, however, this really got to me!!!

 

[MeLaNie9]

Great update!! Kona sounds like a great place to eat..I'm gonna have to try it one of these days! Sorry about your MIL. She asked you a question and then said, "Stop talking cause I'm not listening?" That just doesn't make sense!

I love the monorail resorts!! They are all so beautiful! Can't wait for more!

Kona is indeed on our list of favorites! You should try it!
The plan to watch Wishes on the Poly beach before dinner was Ralph's idea and really a great one - we made it in just enough time to relax, watch the show (the music is piped in onto the beach), then leisurely walk through the Poly paths to the GCH.

Sounds like you had a great day until your MIL with her snarky comment Hmmm some people.....

At least you were at the Happiest place on earth.

The pics of the kiddies on the carosel are sooo cute!!

Can't wait to read more.

Thanks so much!!! Nemo was really loving that carousel!
Thank goodness we were in the Happiest Place on Earth and we had just had a good day there or I might not have been able to just sit quietly after that comment!
That's when I had the mantra going in my head "Serenity now, serenity now, serenity now"

 

[creativeamanda]

That's when I had the mantra going in my head "Serenity now, serenity now, serenity now"

Remember what Kramer did when he finally had enough of the whole "Serenity now"? Didn't he bust up all of those computers in Jerry's apartment? My MIL is very much like yours. I remember one time I said, "Now, Mary, there's one jar of babyfood you don't need to give her. Do not give her banana--I think she may be having problems with it. We get home and the baby is just crying. And her reply: "I don't know what the problem is. I gave her the bananas and water (another no-no--I was breastfeeding) and she won't stop crying." Courtney is allergic to bananas. She spent all her time asking my opinion and then later doing the exact opposite. That was 8 years ago--she never babysat again.