Jan '12 It's Cold, Let's Go to Disney!!(NEW 3/27 EP, DHS, AK & Pouts)

[Trentmom]

Loving all photopass pics

I forgot to tell you I liked the one of Jerry earlier holding the balloons and the girls trying to hold him down

Rachel did great job jumping in air with her balloons, as she really looks like she is floating up

Cute shirt

 

[Twingle]

Sorry if I missed this - but do you have pink streaks in your hair? Love it

 

[Marshay]

Your photopass photos are really convincing me to order that cd. I think next payday I will be making that purchase! Such great photos.

Elie is so cute in that photo on the People Mover. Love her big smile.

Love your shirt too!

I like PP. We usually get it when we are at WDW for a week or more. If we stay less, then we skip it b/c I like to get my money's worth and that's hard to do for just a few days.

But you have to take the time to get the photos. So if you are the type of person who would rather wait in line for a ride than wait for a photo, it might not be worth it. There are lots of PP photographers around WDW, but you can also easily walk right by them and end up paying $100+ for just a few photos.

Thanks -- Elie's smile is very contagious!

I love the shirt too! Just wore it Saturday for Elie's 3rd birthday party with my family!

What great updates!

I love how expressive Rachel gets in the pictures. Especially her mean pirate face. Great job!!

Thanks! I'm enjoying reliving our trip, too and trying to get it done quickly!

Rachel can make a mean pirate face!

I just remembered a question I wanted to ask. You said the photopass photographer wanted closeups of the girls to put on the castle or something? What did that mean?

MK has a nightime show on the castle (Magic, Memories and More or something like that) and they will put up pictures that the PP people took during the day. Now we didn't stay that night but if we did, chances are that Rae and Elie had those photos displayed on Cinderella's castle!

Loving all photopass pics

I forgot to tell you I liked the one of Jerry earlier holding the balloons and the girls trying to hold him down

Rachel did great job jumping in air with her balloons, as she really looks like she is floating up

Cute shirt

Yeah, Jerry and the girls didn't tell me about that one at all. It was a surprise for me when I went looking through the photos.

Rachel's had a good effect, too!

The shirt isn't what I would normally pick but it is super soft and just FUN!!

Sorry if I missed this - but do you have pink streaks in your hair? Love it

Yes, in October I dyed the bottom of my hair blue for about 2 inches and the top of that I dyed pink for about 2 inches. I've had one haircut since. It's supposed to last about 6 months, and they are right!

I'd like to do a streak of hair purple next time..just trying to decide when to do it...maybe for summer!

 

[cherbear]

ooh I love the idea of pics projected on the castle!!!

 

[Marshay]

I forgot to mention that every time we passed by the Swan and Dolphin, Elizabeth would point up to them and say, "We ate there!" It was one of those things that just got more funny each time we heard it.

The first time no one had prompted her to say it -- she just remembered us eating at the Garden Grove!

OK, the last I left you we had gone to MK for the day with our friends and Jerry and I sat out on the deck eating/drinking and relaxing for the night.

So today is January 26th and we slept in until 7:45pm, had eggs and waffles for breakfast and walked around the Hospitality House of OKW.

We decided to go swimming

As we approached the swimming pool, we saw that the lifeguards were gathering the kids to "storm the castle". They gave the kids free bandanas to wear and balloon swords and were supposed to chase the lifeguards, storm the (sand)castle and go down the slide.

Here are R&E attacking the lifeguards

It was fun, esp when one lifeguard acted like he was injured and was falling to the ground...Elie comes by and sees him bent over and literally WALLOPS him on the back to put him out of his misery.

It was hysterical!! I so wish I got that on film.

The girls and I fought, too

Then we played on the sand playground

and posed for pics with the larger than life size sand toys.

View from the top of the sandcastle slide

After playing in the pool, we had some snacks and then went back to nap.

That evening was the Grand Floridian Tea Party. If you recall, Rachel, my mom and I went in May 2011 for our first time and loved it. Rachel wanted Daddy and Elie to experience it too.

I got the same thing as last time -- the Kate Middleton Tea. It starts with a shrimp toast.

Then goes to a cheese and nut plate. (last time there was a fruit and cheese plate instead but both were good)

I think there was a scone and devonshire cream plate too but I don't have a photo of that. Mine also came with champagne. For tea I chose a fruity herbal infusion tea.

Desserts

Elie had "chocolate milk" tea and 3 kinds of sandwiches

Jerry's came with a red wine (?) and for tea he had a strong, dark tea that I did not like.

and he had an assortment of pates in the gentlemen's platter

Rachel had regular tea (mint), sandwiches and dessert

Then we decided to head over to Epcot so the girls could ride the monorail. Jerry drove the SUV from GF to Epcot and we took the monorail. He actually beat us there!

We stopped for some PP pics

(Ok, I realize this picture is out of order since the kids are wearing different tops, but it's still Epcot, so I'm going with it!)

Then went to ride Mission Space with Rachel on the green side. Thought this pic was cute

and this one, too!

 

[Marshay]

Then we rode Test Track

And stopped for some crazy hat photos

A final Kiss Goodnight

and back to the room.

Today was soooo relaxing. Swimming, napping, tea party and just a few rides at Epcot. This was a great day!

 

[Marshay]

ooh I love the idea of pics projected on the castle!!!

Yeah, it's pretty cool. They also had a light show ... check it out on you tube. I loved when the tower of Cindy's castle turns into a rocket ship and blasts off!

 

[cherbear]

what a fun, fun day! All the pics you got were great! Love that they have a gentlemen's plate at the tea!

Elie's "chocolate milk tea" was really just chocolate milk, right? (just making sure )

How many times has she been on TT now?

I have to say that just LOOKING at the girls in their long sleeved PJ's & all the blankets is making me hot. LOL


the pic of Elie with the Nasa hat is great. Looks like she's giving the thumbs up!

 

[DisneyStitch626]

That pool looks like so much fun. It's nice that the lifeguards play games with the kids.

I can't believe Elie can go on TT already. She must be a tall 3 year old! It's nice that all 4 of you can enjoy some of the bigger rides together. As long as she is brave enough, that is.

Love the Epcot PP pics.

 

[Trentmom]

What a nice peaceful day

The purple tops you had on blended so nicely with Purple flowers in Epcot making for Great pics

Love all the silly hat photos

Looks like everyone had a great time at the Tea Party

 

[Marshay]

what a fun, fun day! All the pics you got were great! Love that they have a gentlemen's plate at the tea!

Jerry said it was alright ... not the sort of thing he would eat everyday but it was appropriate for the tea party and more importantly, he ate his platter clean!

Elie's "chocolate milk tea" was really just chocolate milk, right? (just making sure )

Yep! Just plain old Chocolate milk!

How many times has she been on TT now?

This was her first trip to be on Test Track since she just barely made 40". She rode it 3x (maybe 2...guess we could count the photos to see what we're wearing!

I have to say that just LOOKING at the girls in their long sleeved PJ's & all the blankets is making me hot. LOL

We kept the room at 74 degrees but they slept in a big open room with wood floors so it was a bit cooler for them.

the pic of Elie with the Nasa hat is great. Looks like she's giving the thumbs up!

Yep, she is!! All Systems Go for Launch!

 

[Marshay]

That pool looks like so much fun. It's nice that the lifeguards play games with the kids.

I can't believe Elie can go on TT already. She must be a tall 3 year old! It's nice that all 4 of you can enjoy some of the bigger rides together. As long as she is brave enough, that is.

Love the Epcot PP pics.

Pool was nice and fun. I was glad we were able to get one day in the pool in January without being too cold!

Yep, she was tall enough this year (40" at 2 years, 10 months) for Test Track, Splash Mountain, Star Tours, Kali River Rapids and Soarin. She liked all of these rides.

What a nice peaceful day

The purple tops you had on blended so nicely with Purple flowers in Epcot making for Great pics

Love all the silly hat photos

Looks like everyone had a great time at the Tea Party

Yeah, when I saw that the flowers were purple my first thought was "Disney and I are in sync!!"

Everyone's gotta do those silly hat photos!

The tea part was good. Rachel wanted to do it again a 3rd time for our July trip but I think I convinced her to skip it this time since we will only be at WDW for 3 days.

I do love the tea but it seems to be more enjoyable when you can take your time ... not rush through it.

 

[Marshay]

Today is January 27 and it's our last full day in WDW. You know this day ... sad to be leaving tomorrow ... happy for all the good memories ... starting to feel depressed about going back to the real world ... looking forward to a big, full day of adventure, etc.

We decided to go back to Epcot today to ride Soarin' for Elizabeth's first time and go on Test Track again. We also wanted to get our traditional family photo and meet Duffy.

Today was not matching clothes day either. It was, wear whatever is still clean!

So we rode Soarin

and got our traditional family photo in front of the upside down water fountain

Rode Test Track

Then headed over to WS -- Canada. If they happened to have a lunch ADR available, we said we'd do it. They didn't, so we kept on walking.

Finally got to meet Marie from the ARistocats for our first time

At Morocco

By then we were hungry and I had heard that Japan had redone their CS so we decided to try it out. Katasuri was really good for regular food and great for CS. Two thumbs up!

Sushi

The kids chicken, rice and veggies meal

And I ordered a shrimp tempura (?) soup

Oh, the kids were enjoying doing the Kidcot color Duffy and get a stamp from around the world, too.

Then it started to rain a little bit -- the first time since we arrived so we stopped in to see the culture/sculptures

When it stopped raining, we ventured out again

And got some snacks at Germany's new candy kitchen caramel shop. This was $$ but very yummy!

Then we practiced our fighting

and were done with Epcot. We had to go back to the room and pack up. Our plan was to go back to DHS for the 5pm Characterpalooza.

 

[DisneyStitch626]

It must have been a bright day, that day. You can hardly see the fountain! Haha. Great photo though.

Love the photos with Marie.

Dillon would love the sushi place....me? Not my cup of tea! Haha. The childrens plate looks good though.

Epcot looks like such a fun park. I am excited to go exploring!

 

[Marshay]

After packing up and naps/rest for everyone, we headed back to DHS and took some PP photos

Yes, the girls wanted color in their hair, too (it washes out)

So next we saw the Lights, Motor, Action show. Rachel did not like it but we did. Then we went into the Animation building to see the characters. You never know which ones will show up...even those you don't want

Ok, if I look at how happy Elie is in this picture, I am thankful for Pooh!

Rachel, too

We had a couple of firsts:

The Evil, oops, I mean The Regal Queen as she calls herself

Dale

Mary Poppins and Mr. Penguin. Elie was being a bit shy here and Mr. P was great to play with her

Jafar was another first

and so was Max

Elizabeth loves Mr. Smee from Jake and the NEverland Pirates

Then we went to the drawing class (Animation Academy) and all 4 of us drew Chip. Then since he was there, we had him sign his own likeness. This, of course, made Dale quite mad that we hadn't drawn him!

The instructor signed both of the girl's drawings and gave them praise!

Rachel's

Elizabeth's (all by herself!)

Jerry's

Mine

After the characters we left and went back to OKW to eat at Olivia's, which was very, very good. I ordered the swordfish and they had this wonderful pineapple coconut bread that we devoured (and I don't even like coconut).

Then we let the girls run around a bit before heading back to pack.

Duffy Bedtime Channel put the girls to sleep.

 

[Marshay]

It must have been a bright day, that day. You can hardly see the fountain! Haha. Great photo though.

Love the photos with Marie.

Dillon would love the sushi place....me? Not my cup of tea! Haha. The childrens plate looks good though.

Epcot looks like such a fun park. I am excited to go exploring!

Yes, we had sun, sun, sun the whole week except for a little bit (maybe an hour) on this day. I'm not sure what happened to the camera on this pic...but trust me the water fountain is there!

Marie is cute and I like the way we all pretended we were cats, too.

The childrens' plate was good.

Epcot is great to explore, even more so as an adult!

 

[Marshay]

I last left you all at Epcot and DHS, with dinner at Olivia's for our final full day at WDW. Here are some Disney Photopass pictures that I forgot to post

Ok, funny story here. Rachel has always wanted to meet Sorcerer Mickey and the line has always been really long. But this time it was not, so I let the girls meet him. I made a mistake and both girls went at once -- but Rachel had wanted to meet him first since this had been "her" character.

As you can Elizabeth is completely all excited again, jumping up and down in anticipation of seeing him.

I should have just let well enough alone. But I had told Rachel she could get a pic with Mickey and just her. So I told Elizabeth to just wait one moment to the side so Rachel can get her photo and then she could join in...

Well, that was obviously the WRONG thing to say

She walked dejectedly away from Mickey and wouldn't come back

So RAchel and I got a photo

And then we tried to do a family photo -- but Elie still hadn't recovered yet

 

[Marshay]

Today is Saturday, January 28th -- train day back home.

But before we take the train, we packed up all our things and decided to go to Animal Kingdom for a few last things.

Jerry had really wanted to see Devine

I don't have a good picture of it but she played with Elizabeth in her stroller and Rachel by raising one of her legs over the top of Rachel and into the stroller so Elie could touch it!

We took the Wilderness Express train over to Conservation Station to pet goats, sheep and hairy pigs. The girls enjoyed it.

Then before we left CS we looked for hidden Mickeys in the huge mural. Here are some of them.

These reminded us of our sugar gliders

Watch out for the wildlife at AK

Then we wandered up a path (for no reason that we knew of) and found animals from Jungle Book -- Baloo and King Louie.

Elie was staying in her stroller but Baloo wouldn't let that stop him!

And even King Louie gave her a big ol' kiss

She enjoyed that kiss. It's so nice to see the characters going that extra bit to spread pixie dust for our kids!!

Time for a snack so we got Mickey Ice cream bars and ate them at this cute little spot

enjoying the view

One final picture -- as you can see Rachel did not want a pic...the little stinker

And as we were passing the bridge to leave, we took a few more PP pics

And now it was time to go...so sad!!

 

[Marshay]

We then walked through the "garden" area over by Rainforest Cafe and officially left WDW. A quick stop for lunch at McDonalds which we ate at the Amtrak playground.

Rachel got an Amtrak hat

The girls enjoyed the playground as there were a lot more kids today (being a Saturday).

Once we boarded our train, we went up to the lounge car again and were lucky to get another booth. We enjoyed the snacks and hung out in the lounge car until dinner.

Everyone was tired so we put the girls to bed around 7:30pm and I fell asleep then, too.

Our train arrived the next day a bit early and after getting our SUV, we went home to say hello to our 1 cat, 2 sugar bears and 3 hermit crabs!

I hate "back home day" -- too much laundry, too much cleaning up, too many sad thoughts about not being at Disney and having to cook and clean and go back to reality!

However, Jerry said that Rachel and I should go to Disney for our birthdays in July!!! You know there is nothing better at curing the Disney Blues than going back!

So Rachel and I are going back to Disney for a Mommy and Me trip (our 1st) in late July. Look for those new adventures to start in a Pre-trip report, coming to your computer screen soon!

 

[Marshay]

We are always learning new things about our vacations, esp the Disney ones, so I thought I'd share mine.

1) Always ask a CM. You never know what they will say (i.e., our Disney Annual Pass situation)

2) Location, location, location. They really do have it correct. Our experience at OKW was incredible ... and most of that had to do with our wonderful, quiet water view with the golfers for entertainment and the buildings right next to the Hospitality House. For those who were overlooking a road and for those who had to deal with the noisy horns on the boats or had to walk long distances to get to HH, they would tell a different story.

3) Although I'd love to go longer, 8 nights is a good amount of time for us to see WDW and still relax and not go commando. When it is fewer nights, it's hard to fit all we want to do AND still rest, take naps, have one or two non-park days, etc.

4) It flowed much better if we only tried to do 4-5 things in the morning and then get lunch and leave early for naps. That way we were able to get back to the parks at a reasonable time (esp in winter when the parks close early like 7-9pm)

5) The blinds at OKW are a pain!! You don't just pull them up or down but have to pull, pull, pull, pull, pull. They are noisy and slow and I hated changing them each day. I swear it took a full minute to do each one and there were 6 of them!!

6) Elie likes her milk so have milk around in a small cooler for her..much cheaper than in the parks.

7) If weather is expected to be 75 degrees or warmer, then pack lots of shorts and t-shirts. We were lucky I had thrown in 2 pairs for everyone when the weather took a turn for the better (warmer). Jerry says 70 or warmer.

8) Elizabeth is getting older but still at that stage where she doesn't want to walk a lot so she wants to be held in lines...which is tiring to hold 37+ lbs.

9) Remember to bring Teddy (Elie's lovey) into the train station. On the way down to FL, she had Teddy in her carseat. Rachel and I went to check in and Jerry was supposed to bring Elie and the "train stuff". Well, he never checked her car seat and unfortunately, she left her very favorite lovey in the truck.

Once Amtrak takes your car, you can't get it or anything left inside of it, back for any reason.

Thankfully, Rachel was kind enough to give Elie her stuffed "Gundther" bear until Elie fell asleep.

10) Another thing about 8 nights is that we actually did end up going into the parks every day ... but sometimes only at night or just in the morning ... or we even slept in a bit. This works with annual passes and although we went to the parks every day, we didn't feel worn down since sometimes we just did 4-5 things and left.

11) Bring less toys on the train and for the rooms, esp if we hang out in the lounge car like we did both times and if the girls will be buying toys at Disney.

12) Bring specific toys just for the lounge car to keep the kids active and entertained, esp if Jerry and I strike up a pleasant conversation with the people around us.

13) Go to the lounge car on the autotrain immediately upon boarding (or send one of us up to reserve a booth)

14) Bring extra Autograph cards as Elizabeth is starting her book now and you never know when you'll meet a bunch of new characters.

15) Every day remember to carry quarters and pennies for the pressed penny machines.

16) Pack some light snacks for the Autotrain in case it becomes delayed

17) Don't order fish on the train -- the beef has always been a winner and don't depart from it!