Just Hold On, We're Going Home...All 11 of Us Are Going to Mickeystoontown's Home! Update 10/27

[JanaJohn]

It's official! I'm a total loser If I have any readers still out there, I'm sorry. I can say nothing more. Other than.....I'm about to update! If anybody even cares anymore.

Why oh why do you think your loyal readers would abandon you after all these years and trips? Life happens and we all realize that. We'll be here whenever you get some free time to do more updates!

 

[natebenma]

It's official! I'm a total loser If I have any readers still out there, I'm sorry. I can say nothing more. Other than.....I'm about to update! If anybody even cares anymore.

No worries, my friend! Your updates are worth waiting for!

Jeremiah was a newbie. And he was wound tighter than tight. He was so excited to finally be at WDW. He was talking a mile a minute and was ready to spend all the money that he had saved up.

When I turned around and saw this hat on Jesse, I 'bout died. It was hilarious and he was playing the roll of Jesse the Cowgirl fabulously!

John and I sat at the umbrella table watching them swim. I received a message from one of my fellow Magical DIStractions writers. There were reports that the refillable mug prices had changed. She wanted to know if I had seen them. I had but, since they came with our package, I didn't look at the price. I volunteered to hot foot it over to OPR before it closed and took a couple of pictures of the mug display.

And as of last week, the mugs are up to $17.99!!!



And they don't have handles (at least the ones at Yacht & Beach still do not)




Love your pictures and descriptions of AKL after your fabulous dinner at Boma.

Looks like there was nighttime fun at the pool at CBR after dinner.

 

[addictedtothemouse]

I'm still here! Now to catch up

 

[addictedtothemouse]

I really, really like eating at Boma. And wandering around taking in the sights is a must.
I can't wait to read about the rest of your trip, there's just something about sharing Disney with newbies!

 

[mickeystoontown]

TONIGHT I WRITE! I'LL WRITE AS MUCH AS I CAN AND LET YOU KNOW WHEN I AM DONE FOR THE TIME BEING. you would know that the dis is giving me fits and laggin' when I actually have time to stop and write.

Mama fell a couple weeks ago and they've been running tests to see what is making her be dizzy all the time. So, much of my time has been spent going back and forth with her.

But, I'm here now and I'll get as much done as I can.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Wranglin' the herd!

Today was the first day that we'd be going to the park as a party of 11. 11! Now I'm pretty good at wranglin' and plannin' and all that jazz but this was a first for me/us. We chose Epcot as our first park to visit with everybody in tow. We met outside that morning and everybody was raring to go. Okay, so some of us were raring to go. Others were dragging just a tad that morning.

But the dragging didn't last too long as it was time to get to the bus stop and go to Epcot!

We were very lucky with the bus mojo and we were on our way to Epcot in a near empty bus! First visit for these three and they were excited.





We were at Epcot in maybe 10 minutes. This is one of many reasons that we like Caribbean Beach so much. It's so centrally located that it doesn't take long to get to any of the theme parks. Epcot and Hollywood Studios are soclose to the resort. Once we made it through bag check, my first stop was the bathroom. Surprise surprise, I know.



Yes, I take pictures of bathrooms. I mean, I kinda have to...you know for Magical DIStractions article writing and trip report writing purposes.



While I was taking a potty break, the newbies were in line to see Chip and Dale. That's Jesse, Jeremiah and Jesse's mom, Donna, in line. Donna and Jeremiah were so excited.



Not only did they have an autograph book, but Donna also had a big bow made for Paisley and was getting it signed by the characters. My memory is a bit foggy right about now because I don't know why in the world Michael, Beth and Paisley weren't waiting to see the chipmunks. I'm thinking that they stopped somewhere on the way in the park but I could be wrong.

I took this picture looking at the guests coming into this side of Future World.



I do remember that the family of three met us where we were waiting and John and I took them over to their first Fastpass of the day. They were going to see Turtle Talk with Crush. We, on the other hand, had something more intense in mind but we had a while before we could use our Fastpasses. As you can see the stand-by line for Nemo & Friends was just 10 minutes.



**Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

Wranglin' the herd!


I know that it is has been called The Seas with Nemo & Friends for quite some time now but we still call it The Living Seas. We just can't help it.



I really wanted to see if I could take decent pictures while in the clamshells and this is what came out of my attempts. Yeah, not that great.






Dude!



As I said, we had a bit of time before we could use our Fastpasses so we walked around a little while. I could stand and look at the marine life for hours. John? Not so much. He likes it but isn't as interested as I am.





**Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

Wranglin' the herd!





So I have a picture of the frogfish sign but no frogfish? Maybe I'll come to a picture that's out of order and can actually show you a frogfish.





Until then, we'll move on to the eels. These things are so creepy looking. Some have this straw looking thing for nostrils or maybe it's in their nostrils. Cool and creepy at the same time. You'd see one of them peeking from this hole and then another peeking through a hole over there and at the same time, a tail would be coming from another.







At least my eye signage pictures are placed correctly in the picture line-up.







**Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

Wranglin' the herd!

Once we had looked around a while, John, Hunter, Jeremiah and I headed over to the other side of Future World. We had a mission. A mission to explore the planet Mars! We weren't woosies and went with the orange more intense ride! Jeremiah was sooooo ready for Mission Space and it was a blast (oh I kill myself) to experience it with a new to the world guest.



Smile Jeremiah and Hunter!



Let me tell ya, taking a selfie while having a shoulder harness around you isn't easy. It really wasn't easy when I was trying to take one of not only my self but of John as well. Hello me and John's shoulder. LOL



So what did Jeremiah think of Mission Space? He loved it and wanted to go back on it again but we had other stuff to do.





I called Lacey when we were leaving Mission Space and they were walking into The Land. Jesse's daddy has to have his breakfast. We told them that we'd meet them in Sunshine Seasons since our next Fastpass was for Soarin' anyway. While the lines for Soarin' and Living with the Land were long, the lines for food in Sunshine Seasons were virtually non-existent.



We didn't want anything to eat but we did get a Sprite to share for Hunter and I to share and a cup of coffee for John. While they were getting the drinks, I was taking pictures of the selections.









Okay, so I took more pictures of the drink selections that anything else.

**Up next: Everybody goes Soarin'! Soarin' over California!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Everybody goes Soarin'! Soarin' over California!

Now I usually take pictures of everything. I'm talking pictures of the signs, pictures on the attractions (when I am permitted), pictures of the tiles on the floor or the pattern in the carpet. What did I take pictures of while Jesse's dad was eating? Nothing. A big old zilch. That's because Jesse's family wasn't yet used to me taking so many pictures.

Paisley wasn't tall enough to ride Soarin'. Instead of doing baby swap, we broke into groups. At the time, Paisley wouldn't hardly eat anything. Today, though, she was all about eating watermelon that Jesse's parents bought and even some of the breakfast that they had ordered. It was decided that Hunter, John, Michael, Beth and I would use our Soarin' fastpasses first while Paisley ate off her grandparents' plates. We were lucky enough to be in row one (I say lucky but y'all know I am afraid of heights.) and Michael and Beth got a great view of the screen and the scenery. They loved it and could hardly wait to go back to the others to tell them.

The next set of folks was Jesse, Jeremiah, Lacey, Donna and Kroker (that's Jesse's dad's nickname). Lacey took a Go Pro video of Jesse's Mama's reactions and it was THE best thing in the world. Why am I not posting it? Well, somehow, the video got erased when Lacey was transferring the videos onto the laptop. When they got back to the table, they couldn't stop talking about how much they liked it.

I love it when the plans that I help make leads to such a great outcome. After Soarin' we all split up again.

Jesse's parents wanted to explore. Jeremiah wanted to ride Fast Track (yes, I know that it is Test Track) and swore that he'd wait in line for two hours if he had to. (and they almost did). Jesse said that he'd go with Jeremiah and then they'd find something for lunch.

Beth, Michael and Paisley had a lunch date with the Princesses at Akershus.

That left Lacey with time to visit with us. It had been since Christmas since we had seen them and we needed some one on one time with our baby girl. We weren't certain what we wanted to do so we decided to head to the other side of Future World again.

First, though, I snapped a picture of the Soarin' sign. Two actually. Guess I felt the need to take two since I hadn't taken any pictures since leaving Mission Space.





**Up next: It's electrifying! Should I or shouldn't I?

 

[mickeystoontown]

It's electrifying! Should I or shouldn't I?

In a previous post, I said that Jesse's dad had breakfast but now that I'm looking at my next set of pictures, I realized that it wasn't really breakfast that he had. I remember that he had a pork chop, a veggie and then the fruit that Paisley had taken over.

After looking around in Mouse Gears for quite some time, we crossed the pathway to The Electric Umbrella. It wasn't super busy as they hadn't been serving lunch for long. I know that this picture looks like it was crowded but I've seen it so crowded that there were no tables open so this wasn't bad at all.




Lacey ordered the vegetarian flatbread.



Hunter chose a burger.



John ordered the french dip burger.



I wasn't feeling a burger and went with chicken breast nuggets.



Lacey and I had fresh fruit cubes for desserts while John and Hunter ordered to satisfy their sweet tooths.




It was nice to sit with Lacey and catch up. It's one thing to talk by phone or even FaceTime but quite another when you can actually sit at a table with your family members.......while they have food in their mouths. HA!



You've probably figured out where the "electrifying" part of the title came from but what about the Should I or Shouldn't I? That's come from two pictures that my crazy kids took of themselves while I had gone to get the condiments. They are known for taking goofy pictures. I'm struggling on whether or not I should post them because the one of Lacey is soooooo unflattering. They were talking about the scene in a movie where Martin Short gets stung by a bee and his whole face and neck swells up (I can't remember the movie but it was hilarious) and Lacey was recreating what he looked like. I want to post the picture so badly and if it were of me, I'd post it in a heart beat. Y'all know that I would....remember the Hannibal Lector picture from a past trip report? But with it being Lacey, I'm not going to do it. I will post the one that Hunter took though because it's not that bad.



**Up next: I didn't know that they had those!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I didn't know that they had those!

Did you know that there are braille maps in all of the parks? No? You do now! There's one at the end of the walkway from Future World into World Showcase. It on your left as you take the pathway directly behind the featured fountain.



Lacey was taking his picture at the same time that I was.



**Up next: Where are we going and how do we get there?

 

[mickeystoontown]

I know that the last post was super short but, after I started writing, it seemed like a good place to stop since the next update contains more pictures and the Dis is driving me nuts tonight. I'll type and then it freezes and i have to reload the page. But, I did get 7...count 'em 7 posts made! Hope that y'all will let me know if you are still around and reading. I intend to post more updates tomorrow!

 

[amazingact21]

I know that the last post was super short but, after I started writing, it seemed like a good place to stop since the next update contains more pictures and the Dis is driving me nuts tonight. I'll type and then it freezes and i have to reload the page. But, I did get 7...count 'em 7 posts made! Hope that y'all will let me know if you are still around and reading. I intend to post more updates tomorrow!

I was having that same issue for awhile. I used to use Firefox but switched over to Chrome and that resolved the issue. I also know someone else here on the boards set up an adblocker and that helped her. Hope you can find something that works for you, because it's extremely frustrating having the page freeze every five seconds.

Loved all your updates! Planning park visits for 11 people sounds extremely intimidating, especially with the age range you had. However, it sounds like you did a fantastic job and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.
I never thought of trying to take a selfie on Mission: Space. Yours ended up pretty well, considering you were strapped in with little range of motion in the shoulders.

Lunch at the Electric Umbrella with just the four of you sounded wonderful. How sweet that you were able to swing that. My parents love my husband to death, but I know they appreciate the times when they have just me to hang with. I'm sure it was a special time for you.

 

[natebenma]

Welcome Back, Lisa!

It sounds like a perfect amount of togetherness and breaking off allowing your groups to do the things that interested them. That is one of the great things about Disney- so many things to do for all ages. And thank goodness for cell phones!

I totally still call it "The Living Seas" too. Also have trouble taking good pictures on the Nemo ride. But I love your photos from the aquariums. The fish are beautiful and eels are so cool!

Yay for M:S and especially Soarin'

Love that you had a nice family lunch at Electric Umbrella. Like I have mentioned, we ate there for the 8th grade class trip and it was pretty good for our group (although my preference is Sunshine Seasons or one of the international go-tos). I don't remember noticing those great umbrella lamps.

I think I noticed the Braille maps in EPCOT for the first time on our recent trip.

Enjoyed reading your updates.

 

[debedo]

Nice updates! Thank you for taking the time and hope all Goes well for your Mama!

 

[rndmr2]

I'm still here! So glad to see you started updating again. So sorry about your mom falling a couple weeks ago, I hope she is doing better now.

I still call it The Living Seas, too. I love looking at all the displays there.

So glad that everyone liked Soarin'

Nice that you got to spend some extra time with Lacey.

 

[BarbieGal457]

Finally just got all caught up on your recent updates and as usual, loving them! I noticed the braille maps a few trips back and thought they were so cool. I also still call it The Living Seas too! I spend so much time with Lil Joe and Lou every trip, the two manatees there (or it may be Lil Lou and Joe, I kept messing them up).

 

[mickeystoontown]

I've eaten at 79 out of 288 restaurants at Walt Disney World (27%)
I've eaten at 44 out of 106 quick service/counter service restaurants at Walt Disney World (42%)
I've eaten at 28 out of 79 table-service restaurants at Walt Disney World (35%)
I've eaten at 1 out of 22 signature restaurants at Walt Disney World (5%)
I've eaten at 2 out of 3 dinner show restaurants at Walt Disney World (67%)
I've eaten at 1 out of 4 dessert parties at Walt Disney World (25%)

 

[crystalk]

I'm here too! I love your stories!