It'll Be All Right -A May 2012 TR Closing Thought and PTR Link 8/12*

[marDgreen88]

Congratulations on your BOY! Very exciting. I love the Vinyl story!

I got one of the DMR New Fantasyland pins, too! It took FOREVER and literally as soon as I got mine, they ran out. PHEW!

Have a wonderful trip to visit family/Disney! I hope your day there is fantastic!

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

Congratulations on your little prince!!!!! How exciting!!!

 

[PracPerfPatricia]

Pirates League... vPirates League... It's so much fun...

CONGRATS on your little guy...

That whole Vinylmation store was really kismet... you were pregnant... what's the likely hood of that particular trade... and blue at that...?


See... Disney really is a magical place...you just didn't know it was mystical as well...

 

[MEK]

Congratulations on your little boy. That vinylmation was definitely an good omen!

Have fun on Sunday. Enjoy the wonderful decorations.

 

[Aussiesalad]

AWHHHH A BOY!!!!!!! That is so exciting!!!!
I'm so happy for you guys

That vinaylmation story is too adorable!!

 

[Nermel9]

Congratulations on your boy!!! I love the Vinylmation story, I know if I ever got one of those, I'd be convinced it was a sign too! Hope you have a fun day at Disney, even if you're going with non Disney fans!

 

[amazingact21]

Congratulations on your BOY! Very exciting. I love the Vinyl story!

I got one of the DMR New Fantasyland pins, too! It took FOREVER and literally as soon as I got mine, they ran out. PHEW!

Have a wonderful trip to visit family/Disney! I hope your day there is fantastic!

Thanks! Yeah, I know a few people who were having trouble with the DMR page freezing while they were trying to get their pins. We got ours in the mail and it looks so cool!

Congratulations on your little prince!!!!! How exciting!!!

Thank you!

Pirates League... vPirates League... It's so much fun...

CONGRATS on your little guy...

That whole Vinylmation store was really kismet... you were pregnant... what's the likely hood of that particular trade... and blue at that...?


See... Disney really is a magical place...you just didn't know it was mystical as well...

I now love that Vinylmation story, just because the odds of that happening were next to zero. Disney is definitely magical.

Congratulations on your little boy. That vinylmation was definitely an good omen!

Have fun on Sunday. Enjoy the wonderful decorations.

Thanks!
The decorations were gorgeous; I can't wait to post about that day!

AWHHHH A BOY!!!!!!! That is so exciting!!!!
I'm so happy for you guys

That vinaylmation story is too adorable!!

Thank you. We're really excited to be having a boy; they're so much fun!

Congratulations on your boy!!! I love the Vinylmation story, I know if I ever got one of those, I'd be convinced it was a sign too! Hope you have a fun day at Disney, even if you're going with non Disney fans!

Thanks. The whole Vinylmation story is really cool, and Alex and I use it as proof that Disney is truly a magical place.
The Disney day with non-fans turned out to be pretty good, actually. I was pleasantly surprised by the whole day.

 

[reelmom]

I am just joining but I want to say Congratulations on your baby boy. I love the vinylmations story.

 

[MeMom]

Congratulations on your baby boy news!

That mug is sort of the official DIStown mug, you know....
Glad you got it. I use some of my mugs to hold pencils, pens, paper clips, etc. They still bring happiness, even when they are not used for drinking from.

I like Pizzafari's colors and all of the fun animal artwork on the walls throughout the restaurant. The pizza is just normal 'nothing special' pizza, but the atmosphere makes is fun.

Cool Fantasyland pin. Glad you got it.

 

[wakica]

I'm BAAAACCKKKK!
I'm embarrased at how long it's been since i was here last!

Oh well. Hopefully i can keep up with things a bit better now that our busy season and Christmas are over with.

LOVE the mug!!! I remember you talking about it in you ptr. It's adorable! and it's so HUGE!!! I'm very happy with my 2 mug purchases from our last trip too. Hopefully soon I'll be introducing the one that caused me so much trouble.

I LOVE your vinylmation to announce it's gonna be a boy too! HOW CUTE IS THAT?!?!?! Your going to have SOO much fun sharing your love of Disney with a little one. I'm so excited for you

 

[amazingact21]

I am just joining but I want to say Congratulations on your baby boy. I love the vinylmations story.

Thank you! And welcome! I'm normally not this bad about abandoning TRs, but with the holidays and real life, I just have not had any time to get on the DISboards.

Congratulations on your baby boy news!

That mug is sort of the official DIStown mug, you know....
Glad you got it. I use some of my mugs to hold pencils, pens, paper clips, etc. They still bring happiness, even when they are not used for drinking from.

I like Pizzafari's colors and all of the fun animal artwork on the walls throughout the restaurant. The pizza is just normal 'nothing special' pizza, but the atmosphere makes is fun.

Cool Fantasyland pin. Glad you got it.

Thanks! We are all very excited to be adding a little boy to the family.
That mug really is everywhere on the DISboards. It should be our logo or something.

I'm BAAAACCKKKK!
I'm embarrased at how long it's been since i was here last!

Oh well. Hopefully i can keep up with things a bit better now that our busy season and Christmas are over with.

LOVE the mug!!! I remember you talking about it in you ptr. It's adorable! and it's so HUGE!!! I'm very happy with my 2 mug purchases from our last trip too. Hopefully soon I'll be introducing the one that caused me so much trouble.

I LOVE your vinylmation to announce it's gonna be a boy too! HOW CUTE IS THAT?!?!?! Your going to have SOO much fun sharing your love of Disney with a little one. I'm so excited for you

I know what you mean about being away for so long. Between the holidays and real life happenings, I haven't had any time at all to sign onto the DISboards.

The mug is way too big for me to drink coffee out of, but I use it to store various items around the house.


I am really excited to be having a little boy. When we were at Disney a few weeks ago, Alex and I pointed out at all the different things we'll be able to see and experience with him. Plus, I'm a little relieved we're not having a girl. I never noticed, but the majority of merchandise in the world is catered to little girls. I could hear my credit card sighing with relief when I discovered the tiny little clothes rack in the corner for boy clothes.

 

[teekathepony]

Congratulations on your little boy, and I love the vinylmation and the story behind it!

 

[amazingact21]

Congratulations on your little boy, and I love the vinylmation and the story behind it!

Thank you! It is a pretty cool story.

 

[amazingact21]

Hi guys! Hope everyone's holidays were festive and fun. I know Christmas Day for Alex and I was really nice; we spent the morning relaxing at our house, just the two of us, then went over to my parent's house for dinner with them and my aunt and uncle. We all had a nice time, and we received a lot of gifts for the baby, which was cool. It also took our mind off the predicament we were in, which I'll talk about at the end of this long conflagration of posts.


As I mentioned in my last post, Alex and I went to the central FL area to attend his sister's college graduation and have a Christmas celebration with his side of the family. Prior to the trip, two weeks before we were due to leave, Alex took his car in to a shop to have the routine oil change and tire rotation done. The mechanic told him that his tires were finished and that he'd need new ones.

No big deal, we knew this was a long time coming and actually expected this to happen before our trip in May. We paid for them to be replaced (and anyone who's ever bought 4 new tires knows this costs a pretty penny) and also got all the typical tune ups. This was all in addition to some work we had done on the vehicle right before our October weekend trip. We kept hearing this annoying noise and decided to take it in and get the issue fixed for a reasonable amount.

Between that, the new tires, the fresh oil, and another recent check with a mechanic that everything was all right, Alex and I hit the road on the 14th for his parent's place.

Now!

I wrote that whole long spewl so you'd know that Alex and I are good car-owners. We take care of our vehicles and make them last as long as humanely possible. My car has 109,000 miles and still purrs while his car (the one we took down there) had 113,000 miles on it.

Just keep all this mind, okay?

I'm going to move on, but the whole car topic will return in full force at the end.

I promise.



Another thing we did before leaving home was throw the offer to all his family members that we were going to take a day trip to Disney and that everyone who wanted was more than welcome to join. We even offered to get them the current Military 4 Day Park Hopper tickets, because Alex and I knew we wouldn't be using them before the end of September.

At first nobody was sure if they wanted to go, then everybody but one person said yes. The only one who gave us a "probably not" was Alex's older brother, Eddie. And that was because he was 99.9% positive he'd have to work on the day everyone had agreed upon.

So, they sent us a check, Alex went to the ITT office and purchased 4 sets of tickets. It was going to be us, his older sister, Leslie, his younger sister, Jessica, Jessica's best friend (who we kind of consider part of the family, anyways) Liz, and Jessica's boyfriend, Steve.


Following along?

Once again, I promise this part has importance, too.


So, we get to his family's house, visit, have a good time, etc etc, and then his brother arrives Friday evening saying that he, for some miraculous reason, didn't have to work that Sunday, the 16th, the day we were all going to Disney.

Great.


Except...not great. We didn't have a ticket for him.


Well, that's all right, we were somewhat close to another military base. We could just hop over there after the graduation the following day and buy him a ticket there.


Perfect.


Except....


When we did that, the ITT office had sold out of those particular tickets.

Grrr.

Ahhh, but there was one more option that Alex really didn't want to do, but agreed it was worth trying.

Shades of Green sold those military tickets in their hotel, and we could stop by there first the following morning and buy one through them.


The ticket situation was turning into a little bit of a nightmare, and Alex was freaking out that we'd miss a lot of Disney time trying to get this problem solved. I wasn't stressed, though. I had resolved to go with the flow and let the chips fall where they may.


The night before our Disney day, Alex DRILLED the other party members on when we were to arrive at the world. And when I say drilled, I mean, he pestered his siblings every five seconds on when to leave, where to go, why it was important, etc. I won't lie, I felt kind of bad for them. They had no idea that their brother was so serious about his Disney time.


The tentative plan was for all of us to take 2 cars (there were 7 of us in total) and meet up somewhere near Disney property, so that I could jump in the second car (Alex was driving the first one) and use my annual pass to get free parking for that car.


That was the goal.

The proposed plan.






The morning of the 16th rolled around, and Alex and I got up at 6a.m. He went off to shower while I ate some breakfast, organized our bags, and played with our dog some.

His brother was staying in the same house as us, so he was also part of the get up and get ready party. I was prepared to walk out the door at 6:25, because there was no way in Hades I was going to be running late with Commander Alex in charge.

He'd have taken my head off!

His brother, however, was a different story. I, personally, didn't think he was moving that slow, but Alex was developing a bit of an eye twitch when his proposed departure time of 6:35 came and went.

In the end, we were pulling out of the driveway at 6:45, which wasn't bad at all.

We swung by his older sister's place, picked her up, and were on the interstate by a little after 7:00 am.

I could tell Alex was a tad bit peeved at how the day was beginning, but I calmed him down and reminded him that we were going to be in Disney shortly.


It was going to be a good day.


Right before we headed onto property, someone called the other group and asked where they were at.

Nowhere close, it turned out.

No big deal, we'll go get Eddie's ticket and see where they are after that. (I said that while watching Alex's eye let loose a massive twitch.)


After an hour on the road, we came to this beautiful sight:


The MK entrance sign with brand new paint! It was really exciting to see the new blue color, looking bright and fresh and welcoming.


We made a small driving error and ended up having to go through the gate twice, but that was okay. Another opportunity to be welcomed into the Magic Kingdom!

Let me just say right here, I only had Alex's phone and my handheld video camera to take pictures with, so none of them are fabulous.

We passed by this beautiful place:


Oh, Poly, how I love thee! One day, my friend!


And then we turned into here:


Shades of Green!

I won't lie, I became nostalgic going down that drive and parking in the garage. It reminded me of when Alex and I had stayed there during the holidays.

Alex and I went inside while Eddie and Leslie chose to wait in the car. Alex, naturally, had to buy the tickets, and I, naturally, had to use the restroom. An hour for a pregnant lady is a long time! As everyone was soon to discover.


Walking into the lobby, seeing the big Christmas tree, hearing the waterfall made my pregnancy hormones flare and I teared up. Alex looked at me a little strangely, but I couldn't help it. All I could think about was how happy I was on our first trip, and how many wonderful memories we made while staying at Shades of Green.

It made me want to take another long vacation during the holidays.


When we got to the ticket office, there was a bit of a line, which sent Alex's eye off in another tangent, but I managed to calm him down...again He was irritated that we had to go through this process in the first place, that the other people were still half an hour out, that it was past 8 o'clock and Magic Kingdom was open and we weren't in there listening to the Main Street music.

He was still ranting about the whole "getting free parking for the other car when they couldn't be bothered to leave on time" deal when I threw out the offer to just pay for their parking and be done with it. I suggested we go ahead to the TTC, park, activate Eddie and Leslie's tickets and then give the other folks the 14 bucks when we met up with them.

I was more than willing to fork over parking money if it stopped a potential fight from breaking out.

Alex liked that idea, and so that was what we did after obtaining Eddie’s ticket.


We drove over to the parking lot, got sent into the Heroes section, and I remembered to take our traditional photo:




The four of us got on a tram, buzzed to the TTC entrance, and Leslie asked if I knew where a restroom was.

Duh.

I might not be able to make my way around Animal Kingdom, but I can sure as heck direct you to the nearest facility.


We took off in that direction while the guys got in line to activate all the tickets. The last time we used them, all the CM needed was for the military person to activate them, so the plan was for Alex to get all 5 ready to go, head into the park (maybe), and run back out to the gate entrance when the other three finally arrived.

Well, when Leslie and I met back up with Alex and Eddie, they told us they needed to recipient to be present so that they could sign the card.

Okie dokie.

Leslie went with Alex to her ticket squared away while I sat with Eddie.

Then both came back, and we all realized we'd have to sit around until the other arrived.

Poor Alex.

I wasn't dwelling on the situation. It really wasn't bothering me that much. I just kept looking around, soaking up the sight of the monorails in front of me, the ferry off to my left, the sheer fact that I was in Disney World. I had just been there 11 weeks earlier, and yet I was fortunate enough to be back again.

That alone put me in an awesome mood.


We'd been sitting around for ten minutes when someone in the other car called and said they were in the parking lot.

Great.

What row?

Wait, what?!


Which PARK?


APPARENTLY, they'd managed to park in Animal Kingdom, not Magic Kingdom.


Huh?




I found this highly amusing (I think you can guess how Alex felt). It was kind of funny to witness non-experts in Disney. To Alex and I, a mistake like that is inconceivable. I mean, how do you mix up the two parks? They're on opposite ends of the world's property. But to unfamiliar guests, they just saw Kingdom and assumed that was the place.



Alex gave them directions on how to get to the right place, and after another twenty minutes or so, they were walking up to us.


Five more minutes of sitting while their tickets were set up, and the seven of us were finally ready to head into a park.

It was 9:00 o'clock at that point, and I asked everybody which they'd rather do, monorail it over to Epcot or go to Magic Kingdom.

A couple people wanted to see the new Fantasyland and others knew there'd be a big selection of rides that I could go on, so Magic Kingdom won out.


That rush of pure, magical joy swept over Alex and I while we sat on the monorail, listing off the resort names and what was unique about each of them. While Alex had been worried about the schedule coming together, I had been stressing about how everyone was going to handle our fanaticism. None of them had ever seen us, lanyards loaded down, goofy smiles plastered on, Disney mode switched full on before.

But so far, everyone was being pretty cool about it. No snide comments, no eye rolls at silly rides, no scoffs at our pins.

Perfect start.



Once inside the Magic Kingdom, the first order of business was:

The restroom.

Sorry, guys!




The seven of us convened by Harmony Barber Shop and tried to figure out what everyone wanted to do. I said that if anyone wanted to do a coaster, then we should grab FPs for them now and then hit up a less popular ride nearby.

Three of the members wanted to ride Buzz Lightyear, so we all agreed to head to Tomorrowland and grab FPs for them.



While walking down Main Street, Alex and I stopped everyone for a Photopass picture. I wanted some group shots, especially of us in front of the castle.

When we were all set up and the photographer was taking our picture, these two random Asian women walked right up, stood next to the Photopass guy, and took our photos!

What?!

It was so random and strange.

Even the photopass guy looked over at them and gave them a crazy look.

It was such an odd moment, but the seven of us got a good laugh, and it's one of those things we remember from the day.

Unfortunately, our castle pictures never showed up on our Photopass card. I was really bummed when I saw that.



Making our way into Tomorrowland, Steve and I discussed how sad we were that Stitch's Great Escape is where Alien Encounter used to be. I know the attraction is in DisneyQuest, but I think it needs to move back to Magic Kingdom. It's where it belongs.


Before going to Buzz, we took a look at Space Mountain and discovered the wait was only 10 minutes. Nobody wanted to pass that up, so Jessica, Leslie, Liz, and Steve went off to ride that, while Alex, Eddie, and myself told them we'd meet back up with them afterwards.

I think Leslie was disappointed that Alex didn't go ride Space with them, but Alex doesn't care too much for Space. He says it jerks his neck around too much, plus him getting out of the vehicle at the end never works.


With those four off on a coaster, the three of us had to decide what to do.

For a second, I thought about the PeopleMover, because I have YET to ride it, but then Eddie threw out the offer of seeing Fantasyland.

And who could pass that up?


Alex sent a text to the rest of the party members, telling them to ride Space, then Buzz, then meet us over in the new Fantasyland.

And with that, we headed towards a brand new part of the park!




Up Next: Our Day Trip Part 2

 

[MEK]

Oh My! this certainly is starting out to be an interesting day.

More pocorn:: Please

Do you have a picture of Alex with his twitchy eye?

 

[PracPerfPatricia]

Awww... I'm really torn between thinking this is a bit funny and actually feeling really bad for Alex and his eye...

The thing is that for a lot of us who Dis and those we love and have pulled into our world... we know that going to Disney is partly a competitive sport... and the better we've trained (ie. prepared/organized) they better our game is going to be... so if you have your times preplanned and your tickets and know where you're going... Everything is going to be smoother...

but most people don't realized this...

and so it is bound to cause misunderstandings when these two come together...

The suspense is awesome...

 

[marDgreen88]

Oh man... what an ordeal! I hope Alex's eye didn't twitch right out of its socket!

I won't lie, you have me a little nervous about your car situation! Did something happen while at Disney?

I can't wait to hear about your first time in New Fantasyland! I'll have to skip the pictures though hahah.

 

[amazingact21]

Oh My! this certainly is starting out to be an interesting day.

More pocorn:: Please

Do you have a picture of Alex with his twitchy eye?

It was definitely a rough beginning for Alex. But things started to smooth themselves out after a few hours.

I should've captured Alex's face. It was tense!

Awww... I'm really torn between thinking this is a bit funny and actually feeling really bad for Alex and his eye...

The thing is that for a lot of us who Dis and those we love and have pulled into our world... we know that going to Disney is partly a competitive sport... and the better we've trained (ie. prepared/organized) they better our game is going to be... so if you have your times preplanned and your tickets and know where you're going... Everything is going to be smoother...

but most people don't realized this...

and so it is bound to cause misunderstandings when these two come together...

The suspense is awesome...

I agree completely. It's hard for us Disney planners to go with the flow and not have any sort of concrete plans. Only because we know how to utilize our time, and we can't help but think that if we'd been more prepared we would've been able to ride 6 rides rather than 3, etc.

Oh man... what an ordeal! I hope Alex's eye didn't twitch right out of its socket!

I won't lie, you have me a little nervous about your car situation! Did something happen while at Disney?

I can't wait to hear about your first time in New Fantasyland! I'll have to skip the pictures though hahah.

I tried not to take too many photos of the new Fantaslyand, but it was hard to resist. I definitely didn't take any of the rides, though, so you shouldn't have to worry about accidentally seeing those!

 

[amazingact21]

Eddie, Alex, and myself were off to take a look around the new Fantasyland, and the excitement was beginning to hit me.

A new part of the park!

Something I've never seen before!

Attractions that have only been open to public for 10 days!

We passed by the Mad Tea Party and the Tomorrowland Speedway, veering to the right and making it to:




I think Alex might have liked to walk through the area, seen the additional Dumbo and taken a look at the Barnstormer, but the place was packed. I mean, hello, it was an hour after opening. Where else were parents with their toddler-aged children going to be?


So, I gave the order to keep going and we walked into the new, new Fantasyland- as in, the part that wasn't open last May when we were there.

I was immediately blown away by the architecture and the look Disney perfected in that area of the park.



Instantly, I felt the wait was worth the results. Ariel's grotto and her ride entrance are absolutely stunning.


I could have stopped and stared at this forever:


This was my favorite Disney princess growing up, and I can only imagine how blown away I would have been if I'd seen this at seven years old. I would have believed beyond a doubt that that's where Ariel and Prince Eric lived and played.


Honestly, I didn't think I'd be as impressed as I was when I saw everything. Don't get me wrong, I knew it'd be good, and I knew this was a milestone for the Magic Kingdom, but I wasn't expecting me-an adult- to feel so swept away by it all.

Between Cinderella's Castle, Prince Eric's castle, and Beast's Castle, you really feel like Magic Kingdom is the home of the princesses and possesses something magical.




I didn't even know the park was missing anything until I witnessed the New Fantasyland firsthand.


As the three of us were wandering by in awe, Alex noted that Under the Sea was a 20 minute wait. I didn't know how Eddie would feel about waiting so long for a dark ride, (remember, these were non-Disney fanatics) but Alex whispered to me that Eddie was so go with the flow, he wouldn't care.

So, we asked, and Eddie's reply was, "Sure."



This was a good start.

The start I needed to take the edge off my nerves.


I'm sorry to say that I didn't take any pictures of the queue or the ride itself. I wanted to be able to concentrate on all the details and not lose focus snapping pictures. I will say, though, I loved the queue setup. It reminded me of a combination of The Seas and Pirates.


However, I would not want to be stuck in the outside portion of the line during the summer. The sun was really bright in those spots, and the waterfalls that were flowing around made the area kind of humid and muggy.



Yuck.

The ride itself was fun, and I felt like there was enough content to warrant a 20 minute wait in line. Even DS chimed in his approval by kicking me ferociously.


The Ursula scene was, by far, the best part, in my opinion. I don't know if it was because the ride was still new that she was just moving really quickly, or if newer technology was able to make her animatronic a little more advanced; either way, she was a sight to be seen.


Nobody had texted us when we got off the attraction, so Alex, Eddie, and myself decided to keep moving through Fantasyland and see what else we could see.

"Hey, look, it's Belle's Castle." Alex pointed to the very ominous looking castle on top of the rocks.

"It's Beast's Castle, technically."

"Whatever, it's from Beauty and the Beast, and it looks pretty cool."

I had to agree with him there. The forced perspective did wonders on adding that creepy element to the castle. You could look and it just tell Beast inhabited it.



We came to Gaston's Tavern, where I thought this statue was awesome:


Statue, fountain, whatever you want to call it, it was cool looking. The three of us took a quick peek around the store just to escape the sun for a bit, walked back out, and saw the meet and greet going on for Gaston.

Is it just me, or is everyone kind of critical about the character's appearances?

I know I shouldn't judge too hard, the kids don't identify key differences, but I can't help but furrow my eyebrows when I see someone who’s not even close to their character.

This Gaston didn't have any muscles at all. Not even the padding.

Hmmph.

That's my two cents on the matter, I'll stop the ranting now.


By this point, the others had finished their rides and walked up to us near the line for Be Our Guest.

I didn't even realize what the line was for, at first. I thought it was another character meet and greet for Belle.

Then I saw the case displaying the lunch menu and realized all those folks were waiting to get inside the restaurant.


Whoa.

Don't get me wrong, I'm dying to eat at Be Our Guest, and I think the concept of a QS restaurant by day, TS by night is pure genius, but no way would I stand in line for 30 minutes just to get inside the castle to order.

Nope.



With all 7 of us reunited again, Leslie asked what the New Fantasyland had to offer.

Uhm, pure magic?

I kept my snarky remark to myself and let Eddie explain the area.


"Hey, what's that in front of us?"



"Belle's Castle."

"Beast's Castle. It's Beast's Castle."

"Whatever."



Not whatever. I mean, yes, Belle lives with Beast and we all know who rules the roost at home and all, but if you want to be accurate...then Belle came from Maurice's cottage; Beast roamed that castle long before Belle dropped into it.

Nobody wanted to hear my argument and just kept saying Belle's Castle.

Grr.

The other 4 said they could skip seeing Fantasyland (what?!) and wanted to start making their way around the rest of the park.


Alex said he wanted to do Haunted Mansion before we left, so that was the direction we headed. We passed right on by Philarmagic; nobody even gave it a glance! I was a little sad to be missing my favorite show, but I wasn't going to push my luck and ask everyone to sit through something so long. I figured shows were a no-go on that day.

A few people checked out Peter Pan's Flight, and Alex and I laughed a little to ourselves.

45 minute wait.

Oh yeah.

We started to pass It's A Small World when Leslie and Jessica began saying that we HAD to go on it; it was a classic Disney ride that they felt wrong skipping. Plus, they used the whole, "It's something we can all go on together, even Alicia."

Ahh, yes, use the pregnant lady for leverage.

Very clever.





I actually had no issues with going on IaSW. And I took a sick thrill out of the fact that I had yet to get Alex to go on it, but with 6 other people begging him, he couldn't resist.

His "goal" if you will, was to avoid Small World until he had his kid to ride with. I think he actually was trying to reach it, too, but he saw no way out that morning so he boarded a boat with the rest of us.


While exiting the ride, I somehow banged my knee pretty good on the handrails next to the boat. A few days after the trip, I happened to look down at my knee and go "Holy Crap!" because there was this ugly blue bruise covering my knee, and I"d temporarily forgotten where I'd gotten it from. I suppose IaSW is more dangerous than I originally thought.


Before Haunted Mansion, we stopped at the restroom. That was now 4 times in about 2 hours. My partners in crime were starting to catch on that this was going to be a popular trend for the day.


Alex was hoping to skip the interactive cemetery, but everyone else wanted to check it out. I had to remind him that just because we have seen it several times, doesn't mean they have.

Riding Haunted Mansion was accomplished and on the way out I asked the others if they wanted to do any of the other mountains. A teensy, tiny part of me was hoping they'd say no, and I wouldn't have to endure seeing my beloved Thunder.

But alas, luck was not on my side. Everyone was pretty adamant about not wanting to ride Splash, because they didn't want to get wet, but they all were looking forward to Thunder.

Even my non-coaster cohert, Liz (we'd talked earlier about how she'd sit out on the big rides and keep my company while everyone else went crazy on the rides) wanted to ride it.

Alex threw me a sad look.

He knew how much I wanted to ride Thunder. It had been under refurb in May, I was pregnant back in October, and now I was still in that same boat. Three trips and three times of missing my favorite ride in the whole wide world.




Alex had even promised to skip Thunder until I could go on it, out of love and kindness and bragging rights to hold over me in times of need. But the others were giving him a pretty hard time about not going on it, and he knew he didn't really have a leg to stand on.

Saying, "I don't want to ride because my pregnant wife can't" was not going to hold up against, "You're our brother and we're spending the day at Disney with you and we want to make memories together."

So, we headed towards Thunder, Alex shooting me guilty looks and me beginning to think, "The standby will be at least 25 minutes, then tack on another 10 for the ride, and I've got a solid half hour of shopping I can do!"



Terrible, I know, but I was looking forward to some time to myself to look for Christmas decorations and baby items.

Unbelievably, though, when we got to Thunder there were CMs standing out front telling guests that the ride was closed temporarily.

What luck?!

Alex and I couldn't help but turn away and giggle. I mean, it was cruel of us to be amused that nobody could now ride Thunder, but what were the odds?

It was like the Disney Gods were looking out for me that morning.

With Thunder down and nobody interested in Splash, Alex suggested Pirates.


The 16th was a Christmas party night, on top of a weekend, so I was expecting Magic Kingdom to be a little busier than it actually was. Surprisingly, we didn't encounter any long lines or have to weave around crowded streets. Everyone seemed to have gotten the memo to visit another park since MK would be closing at 7pm.

It worked out well for us, because not only did we walk onto my favorite dark ride (Pirates) we also had no wait for Jungle Cruise, Alex's favorite.

While our boat for Jungle Cruise was approaching, Eddie and Alex were joking around, discussing a Weird Al song that was about being a Jungle Cruise skipper. Well, apparently our skipper heard them and at the end of our ride sang some of the song for us.

It had Eddie and Alex rolling, and I was so happy to have the others witness a little of the magic that CM can sprinkle over guests. It was something I could see myself using in future arguments over why we keep returning to WDW.

"Because each trip is unique and special in its own way. Take ours for instance, remember how the Jungle Cruise skipper sang to us?! Where else do you get that?"


By the time my group had finished Jungle Cruise, it was about 11 o'clock, and I was starving! As it turns out, so were two other people in my group, so I declared food the next order of business.
I wasn't really feeling any of the counter service places in Magic Kingdom, and Leslie wanted to eat at Epcot, because she knew there would be a bigger variety than just burgers and fries.

Epcot food sounded great to me. I even knew where in Epcot we could go and everybody could find something they'd like.

So, all 7 of us kind of decided simultaneously to leave Magic Kingdom and take a monorail to Epcot.


As we were heading out, I happened to look to my right and saw a peculiar look on Alex. He was staring into the windows of the Emporium with a mixture of disappointment and frustration on his face.

And that's when it hit me.




We'd been in Disney two hours, were about to go into a second park, and Alex had yet to go shopping!




I needed to get that boy by some Vinylmations!

Easier said than done, though...



Up Next: December Day Trip 03

 

[Elleshoodat]

I'm a bit behind, but congratulations on your little BOY!!! Boys are amazingly fun (as are girls, I'm sure ), and I LOVE that y'all just happened to have the It's a Boy Vinylmation. What a great story!