"It's a Small Town" and "Slow Pass" - 3 days in Disney 1/2012

[JPFamilyMom]

Just read through your whole trip report to this point.

I love how easy going your kids are and WOW!!! you guys got a lot done in 2 1/2 days. Lots of fun magical memories and pictures. You have a great family.

I love the story of you ordering tk/chz sandwhiches without the tk. I have done that at burger places, I say can I have a cheeseburger minus the burger, they usually give me a crazy look.

Can't wait to see what else you got accomplished on your DHS day.

 

[dara00]

Just read through your whole trip report to this point.

I love how easy going your kids are and WOW!!! you guys got a lot done in 2 1/2 days. Lots of fun magical memories and pictures. You have a great family.

I love the story of you ordering tk/chz sandwhiches without the tk. I have done that at burger places, I say can I have a cheeseburger minus the burger, they usually give me a crazy look.

Can't wait to see what else you got accomplished on your DHS day.

Thank you! Your comment made me smile.

That is funny about the cheeseburger w/o the burger - are you vegetarian?

DHS day is almost over, sadly enough! I will try to get around to the next update soon!

 

[dara00]

When I left off, we were waiting for the DHS Pixar Pals Parade. And soon enough, it came! My camera battery was running out again, but here are the pictures I took:

After that, we were off to use our Toy Story Mania fast passes!

Everyone else had the same idea, and we waited longer in the fast pass line than we had that morning in the standby line. Oh well. After the ride, Zachary decided he actually DID want a picture with this guy:

And then it was over. We were headed out of the parks to go meet up with Dave's family to celebrate Dave's dad's 70th birthday. His parents and our family stayed in one house while his sister and her family were in a house across the street. My kids had a great time with their cousins, aunt, uncle, and grandparents! Just a few pictures:

This is at our house:

Outside our house, so happy to see Aunt Jodi!

Up next, a few more family pictures from our celebration, and Downtown Disney.

 

[marDgreen88]

That Pixar Parade is pretty cute, although the music is slightly repetitive. Cute photos! Ryan Seacrest in the background of one of the photos is making laugh.

 

[dara00]

That Pixar Parade is pretty cute, although the music is slightly repetitive. Cute photos! Ryan Seacrest in the background of one of the photos is making laugh.

oh! I forgot to write the part about the song Dave and I were singing after the parade, lol! I don't wanna work...

And I almost mentioned Ryan being in the background there - good job spotting him!

 

[dara00]

haha, I had to share somewhere...Zachary is watching the new Muppets dvd (which I got the day it came out!) and he told me he wants to go see Muppet Studios. I told him I don't think there is a place like that (there should be!! New DHS attraction!) and he said there is where they live - and they live in Small Town! So of course I said that Small Town is his favorite ride at Disney and he was quick to tell me that it is called Small World!

Also, I keep forgetting to mention that we FOUND Gabbie's lost Minnie Mouse! She was in a drawer.

 

[JPFamilyMom]

I'm not a vegetarian, but I don't eat meat I was full vegetarian when I was younger, but I eat fish and some poultry

It's so cool that you saw so many parades, we caught about 5-10 minutes of one on our trip. I use to love parades growing up, glad your kids seem to enjoy the same things as you, including your love of muppets, too fun

I like the little update about small town and small world kids are so funny

 

[Moodyzblu]

We just might have to stop and try to catch the parade (at least once) !

Cute pics of the kids and the characters ! I hope mine want to meet up with some this trip. They usually avoid them .. But I'd love some pics of them with at least a few.

 

[dara00]

Summary of Day 3:
Characters: 7 (counting Lightning and Mater!)
Rides: 5 (one of them 2x)
Shows: 4
Parades: 1

So in total:
30 characters
23 rides
6 shows
4 parades
1 fireworks!


---
On Day 1 we:
Met 13 characters
Rode 11 rides
Saw 3 parades
Saw the fireworks

One Day 2 we:
Met 10 characters (4 were repeats)
Rode 7 rides (2 were repeats - one of them a double repeat! and I'm counting PhilharMagic as a "ride")
Saw 2 shows

 

[dara00]

Just wanted to share some pictures from my father-in-law's birthday celebration, which took place on Jan. 21 - his b.day! We have a brand new cast of characters for this post! My in-laws and Dave's sister live in NJ, btw!

This is 2 of my nephews and one of my nieces with Gabbie and Zachary:

Now my other nephew joined the picture, and in the background are my in-laws:

This is everyone watching the video that Dave's sister made for their dad:

Here is Simon with 2 of his cousins:

Gabbie and Grandma:

And next up will be Downtown Disney.

 

[Moodyzblu]

Wow .. you guys got a LOT done in a short time !! Good job.

 

[dara00]

Sunday, January 22

When we got up, everyone was hoping to go swimming in the pool on our patio. We actually tried it Saturday too, but the heater didn't seem to be working correctly. This morning, it was too cold for me to even try!

Gabbie was ready! (she is with Aunt Jodi)

Simon was ready too!

And there's Zachary!

In the lukewarm hot tub:

And in the pool:

I imagine having a private pool like this would be very nice in the summer time!

The boys:

After everyone was dry, we packed up and headed out for some shopping. Our first stop was the outlets. I would recommend if possible to actually go to the Disney store first on a Disney trip - we found a set of 4 pins for $8 which were perfectly tradeable! The CM's in the outlet are even traders! We didn't trade anything right away, but we did later. We also bought Gabbie a new pair of sneakers at the Stride Rite outlet and both boys got a shirt at Gymboree outlet.

Then we were off to Downtown Disney!

First stop was the Lego Store.

We didn't buy anything, just looked around! Gabbie will be getting some Lego Friends for her birthday this coming Sunday though!

Next we went into the World of Disney Store. Took a few photos:

And I believe we then bought Simon his Mickey ears. We chose the Sorcerer Mickey hat ears, which is funny, since Sorcerer Mickey is really Zachary's character! But we liked it. While Dave was checking out, I did some stalking of CM's for pin trading. Today I was pin trading instead of Gabbie because she did not want to wear the pins we bought at the outlet! I guess she didn't understand that she'd be trading them away anyway...oh well! This way, I had 3 pins (2 were to trade, one is my Kermit pin that I am keeping!) and Zachary and Gabbie each had 4.

Next stop was with Dave's parents, who met up with us - Ghirardelli! (ooh, that is hard to spell!)

I think Dave's parents each had cones and the kids each had ice cream with sprinkles or something original like that.

Simon shared. I think Dave and I got a sundae of some sort!

From there, we went off looking for a place to get Simon's name on his new ears, and Gabbie's name on her old ears. We'd never added her name to the ears she got in 2007! We found the place and the CMs were very curious as to why Gabbie's ears don't have elastic to hold them on her head! I guess in 2007 they weren't made like that? I didn't tell them we'd gotten them so long ago!

Dave, his parents, and the kids decided to take a boat ride to one of the resorts (turned out to be Port Orleans) while I stayed back and explored the stores. Can you believe I didn't buy a thing? I did trade my pins and ended up with the Minnie Mouse cupcake pin and a pin with Belle and Jasmine. Zachary ended up with a Captain Hook pin that is a Hidden Mickey pin - the kind you can't buy and can only trade for, so that is pretty cool! He also has a Pluto, his keeper Buzz, and he lost a Mickey pin which I hope to replace for him! Gabbie still has 2 of her original Tink pins, her Mary Poppins keeper, and a Minnie Mouse. I plan to buy more pins before our next trip!

Next up: lots and lots of pictures of stuff I didn't buy at Downtown Disney!

oops, I forgot to mention something else we did after ice cream and before we split up - will post that in the next post too!

 

[dara00]

I am sorry to have left my 3 readers hanging! When we left Ghirardelli and before I went on my photo taking extravaganza, we wandered into the photopass center. Inside, we discovered that we could get professional family photos taken and have them added right onto our photopass card! I know normal people would probably do this in one of the parks, but this was our only day with Dave's parents, and it just seemed like a fun idea to try. Here are a few of the results!

I will share more photopass pictures that we did take in the parks at the end of the TR. Mostly the ones with characters that I've already posted came out the best, but I want to share a few other posed shots too! I feel that the photopass photographers could have done more with us. Like having the kids alone some of the time, or just the parents, or some of the cute shots you see around where the parents kiss and the kids cover their eyes...no one suggested any of that stuff to us. Oh well!

Anyway, after we split up, I started out in the Art of Disney Store. WOW! I wanted everything in there. Basically I had to just settle for photos.

Too many photos - continued in next post!

 

[dara00]

At some point I left the Art of Disney store and continued my wanderings!

Last time we were here in '07 we did the fill a box of Potato Head parts. I wish I could buy some more parts separately, but it doesn't work like that!

Sad collection of Muppets merchandise:

Don't forget to look up!

I love these!

Soon enough, it was time to meet the family back at the car. I tried to get a picture of the cool window displays at World of Disney, but the reflections were in the way. However, I kind of like the balloon in the background!

On my way out, I was right behind these Fairy Godmothers in Training:

I'm not sure what they were doing!

We all left Disney and went off to eat off property, then my family headed out to the airport.

On the airport monorail:

And that, sadly, is the end. I will be back with those extra photopass pictures to share, and a wrap up of the trip. Thanks for reading along!

 

[marDgreen88]

Cute photos! Hahaha I'm sure I would have wanted a lot of the stuff in the art store too! Too cute.

Those multi-colored Mickeys weird me out a little bit. I'm a classic Mickey fan, I guess!

Aww, it's over! That 'see ya real soon' is just like adding salt to the wound! Ugh.

 

[Moodyzblu]

So sorry to see it end !!

LOVE the photo pass pic of the family and the 3 kids !!

I also love the last pic, perfect way to end your trip.

It was fun watching your trip unfold as mine is about to begin. Thanks for sharing !!

 

[dara00]

Cute photos! Hahaha I'm sure I would have wanted a lot of the stuff in the art store too! Too cute.

Those multi-colored Mickeys weird me out a little bit. I'm a classic Mickey fan, I guess!

Aww, it's over! That 'see ya real soon' is just like adding salt to the wound! Ugh.

Thanks so much for all of your comments! I just hope the See Ya Real Soon is true. I'm still trying to convince my dh to go back in June! At least I know I'll be there (for another super quick trip!) in November!

So sorry to see it end !!

LOVE the photo pass pic of the family and the 3 kids !!

I also love the last pic, perfect way to end your trip.

It was fun watching your trip unfold as mine is about to begin. Thanks for sharing !!

Thank you also for all your comments! I'm so excited for you and your trip! I can't wait to hear all about it. I hope you'll write a TR!!

Now, I'm wondering if I should write a PTR for my trip in November. It would mainly be about training for the 1/2 marathon. I just ran my first 5K yesterday. I'm not thrilled with my results, but I just have to hope I'm going to keep getting better! I hope to do at least one official run per month until November, to keep me motivated and work on my goals. So I'd like to write about that somewhere, just not sure if the PTR section is the place!

 

[dara00]

Right now I'm in the midst of packing up for a trip to visit our families in NJ for Passover! So what do you think I feel like doing instead? Sharing those photopass photos I mentioned before! Like I said earlier, I wasn't too impressed with the photopass photos we got outside of the character shots. It seems that each photographer just centered (or tried to) the pictures and shot off a bunch in a row - you can see the moving people in the background as you flip through them! Nothing exciting, no trying to get the kids to look, etc. I'm going to post the ones we got though (the best ones of each bunch) so you can see!

Day 1:

Day 2:

I tried cutting Simon out of the pictures because he wasn't looking, and this way I could add borders without covering him up anyway!

Day 3:

 

[marDgreen88]

I think you got some really good ones! I couldn't help but laugh at Simon's face in some of the pics... he looks like he'd rather be doing anything but taking pictures! Also, did you notice that on your day 1 castle shots that there is a bird right on Walt's head?!

 

[PirateKate]

I can't believe how much you all did in such a short trip!

I loved the comment about Lightning McQueen being real. I can just imagine the look on Zachary's face when he saw the real Lightning McQueen.

We always seem to get basic Photopass photographers, too. Oh, well, the pictures still turned out cute, which is the important thing.