Lots of Characters, Lots of Firsts but Lots of Drama: Why We Say NEVER AGAIN!! 3/21

[Charlefours]

Great update and I LOVE the pictures.

Thank you!

Love the character pictures!! Looks like Lily really enjoyed meeting them, especially Daisy! That PP picture of your father, you, and Lily really warms my heart-- I love seeing different generations enjoying WDW!

Thank you! Lily loved meeting the characters which I think is great. I think when we go next, she won't really be into Mickey and the Gang, so this was perfect that we were able to meet them all this trip. Thank you! I love that picture too. My Dad normally dodges being in photos so I am so happy he was willing to pop into pictures along the trip so I have them for our scrapbook, Lilian's scrapbook and for me to give to him.

I'm loving this trip report! Lillian is sooo adorable. I love seeing a little girl not afraid to run right up and hug the characters! It's so sweet! And seeing her face with the princesses was so cute! I love everything about this report, and the cast of characters you've got here is such a fun one. Even the complainers and with the drama, I'm loving this and can't wait for more!

Hello and to my TR!! I apologize for the delay in my response. Things have been hectic!

I am glad you are enjoying my TR. I am having fun writing it, even the not so glamorous moments. Of course I like reliving the better moments then the craziness or cranky times.

 

[Charlefours]

I call it the giant golf ball too. Lilian and I have that in common.

Epcot is not for children? Okey doke...

Great pictures! I met Stitch when I cruised last year, he was on Castaway Cay with Lilo. He kept stealing our towels and throwing them into the bushes.

Hey Jen! I thought it was so cute because she loved pointing out the giant golf ball. I have to admit that it does look like one.

I don't understand it either why there are some who feel Epcot is not appropriate--I am obviously one who feels otherwise as does DH. Lilian had a ball there both days we were there.

I remember Stitch's antics from your TR. He is a lot of fun!

Yay for Epcot!! Very cute character pics!!!

Thanks Mary!! I hope you have a wonderful time on your next trip. I cannot wait until we can become DVC members to go as often as you have gotten to go this year.

 

[Charlefours]

Wow, it has been a long time since I have written any part of my trip report. I am finally finished with my classes this semester but I am still applying to doctoral programs so I am not completely done yet. I hope to be much more consistent updating my TR now.

I left off at the point we were making our way to our first ride at Epcot. Where do you think we headed?
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I really enjoy the Land Pavilion—have you noticed this sign before?

Which ride were we heading to in the Land Pavilion? If you guessed Soarin’ you are correct! By this time it was already well after opening, so I was slightly worried about how the Soarin’ line would be but we lucked out—5 minutes! Big test of the moment—would Lilian be tall enough to ride Soarin’? We knew she would be close but she was wearing her Keens—her thickest sole shoes. They measured her and said she was close and to be prepared for them to measure her again at the front of the line. We said okay and off into the line we went.

Lilian was excited to ride this ride—despite my picture! You can see though how warm we were by this point though. The air condition was a nice treat! While the posted time said 5 minutes, the line moved very quickly though, so I doubt the wait was actually 5 minutes. Now would Lilian be able to get on Soarin’ or would we be disappointed?

We got up to the front of the line but the CM was so concerned with making sure no one slipped in the water that had been split she just asked us how many then directed us to which door we need to queue up to—Lilian was in line to ride Soarin’!

Can I just say how much I LOVE Soarin’! It is probably my favorite ride of Epcot, tied with BTMRR for my favorite of all the parks. What did Lilian think—she LOVED it too!! I made sure I took time to experience the ride through her facial reactions—her eyes would get big and had the biggest grin on her face during the ride. Totally made my day!! Three thumbs way up from my family and even my Dad enjoyed it too. DMIL, not so much—she had to keep her eyes closed the whole time or she would have gotten sick. DFIL and DBIL enjoyed it as well.

After Soarin’, we decided a snack was in order so we popped over to Sunshine Seasons. The breakdown of what we got:

DH: Powerade and fruit cup
Me: Powerade and banana
Lily: Crustables Sandwich meal (sandwich, Capri sun, apple sauce)
And we split a bag of Lays between the three of us.

Grand total for this snack break: $15.25
Snack credits used: 5 and 1 child’s QS credit
​

I love these for some reason:

This balloon is my favorite:

I know it seems crazy to have wanted a break already but it was very warm on this day. It was nice to be able to sit and relax in the cool air. Lilian got to be goofy, making faces at me:

I cannot help but crack up over all the pictures have with her from these first few days with peanut butter and jelly around her mouth. You would think we never clean her but I swear we did. While Lilian had time to be goofy, the adults were chatting.

Continue in the next post...(too many images )

 

[Charlefours]

After finishing up with our snack we decided to hop over to Living with the Land ride. DH and I are big gardeners and Lilian seems to have inherited our love of plants and gardening too. Needless to say I was really looking forward to going on this ride again since I enjoyed it the on our first trip.

There was virtually no line, we just had to wait until a boat unloaded before we were on our way into the greenhouses. Here are some of the photos I took while riding it:

I do not remember the water fall from our first go through but granted, it was over five years ago:

DH and I thought it would be cool to grow the lettuce in our gardens like this:

Every time I see Cacao plants (which is not often ), I cannot help but think of DH and I’s honeymoon when we toured a Cacao plantation—just a random fun quirk of mine.

I took a whole bunch other shots but I don’t want to bore you with all the photographs I took. I have to say I was slightly disappointed this go through. It seemed almost barren from what I remembered on our first trip. I know they have redone it since we have last been there so perhaps it was that. Lilian loved the ride which I think would surprise some as it is not an overly exciting ride. She just loves her some plants like her mommy and daddy. Her favorite item from the boat ride:

After finishing up with Living with the Land, it was time to leave the Land Pavilion to make our way over to our next destination: Living with the Seas with Nemo and Friends. DH and I were looking forward to seeing it redone as the last time we went it did not include Nemo (though Bruce was there).

Up Next: 12/19: Nemo, Bruce, a early birthday present and more characters

 

[Disney Spaz]

I love your TR. I have a DD 4 and we went with 1 set of Grandparents so I cant imagine all of them going.

 

[jenny105]

Only 5 minutes for Soarin! That's almost unheard of! So glad Lilian was able to ride and enjoyed it.

I haven't been on Living With the Land since I was around 8 years old. That was my first trip and my parents took me on the ride, not knowing what it was. I remember being bored lol. Maybe I'll try it again one of these days.

 

[irish dancer]

Wow, what a short wait for Soarin'!!! We love the ride too but when the in-laws came with us MIL spent the entire ride clutching the seat with her eyes closed.

DS10 loves the boat ride in the Land pavillion too, not sure what exactly is the draw but he could ride it multiple times. My DDs on the other hand, not so much.

 

[Charlefours]

After a relaxing time in the Land Pavilion, we were off to the visit the oceans, that is the Seas with Nemo and Friends. Along the way I snapped just a few pictures:

Of course we had to get pictures of Lilian posing by Nemo and Friends before actually heading into The Seas:

Poor Lilian had no clue where to look because there were four of us taking photos:

After taking photos and parking our stroller, we were finally ready to venture into the Seas. I (of course—can’t you see a theme developing), took more photos. Hey, it has been FIVE long years since I have been here and there were so many things to take pictures of because of changes—both Disney and technology.

We all got a kick out of the birds, but especially my DBIL:

You can see in a couple of the last pictures, the clouds were starting to build. I hope we would not get soaked today! Though, we were so hot—it would have felt great!

The first thing we did is obviously go to get onto Nemo and Friends. It was a walk on—we were definitely getting lucky with our wait times. ixiedust: This ride was high up on my list of wanting to try out since we heard about it after our last trip. I took some photos on the ride—hard ride to get great shot on (at least for me):

http://i556.photobucket.com/albums/ss1/scharle4
/Disney%20Trip%202010/IMG_6786b.jpg

Continued in next post...(too many photos again )

 

[Charlefours]

After reliving Finding Nemo, we ventured over to see about catching Turtle Talk with Crush.

We were told a show had just begun so we would have to wait about 15 minute. We had debated on walking around but Lilian was intrigued by the divers cleaning the tank. Evidently it is a rare sighting –they are not out often.

Lilian just loved looking at the tanks—she loves aquariums. I just love the look on her face:

We also found out that Lilian is quite proficient in Portuguese—the computers were you can take a quiz—she scored an excellent score (cannot remember the exact number) on the Portuguese version. We could not help but crack up when she selected the right option on the questions.

We had mentioned to the CM that we had one person in a EV and asked about her being able to stay in it. They said no problem, they would call us over. After 10 or so minutes, they had us go into the holding room. We had to wait for a good five minutes in this room, but we were going to be the first to be let in so we did not complain. Have you ever looked up at the ceiling?

They led us into the room, explained where Lilian should sit if she wanted to have crush see her. She sat with us on the little benches for the first bit. She was not so sure what was going on but she got really into it once Crush got going.

Lilian decided after seeing Crush, she would get down on the floor too:

I just love how she can feel comfortable enough to lay on the floor (and yes, part of me was cringing but she is a kid after all). After finishing up we decided to go wait in line to get our picture with Bruce. My DBIL did the best he could with our pictures:

I took some picture from around the room while Lilian played:

Lilian decided she needed to pose with Bruce’s friend:

Continued in next post...

 

[Charlefours]

Only my Dad and DBIL stuck around to pose with Bruce (and to help take our picture). The others wondered away, which was fine. DGM comes back with an early birthday present for Lilian—the Ariel/Sleeping Beauty reversible stuffed doll. Lilian was really excited.

We were finally finished in The Seas and by this point it was already 12:30ish. We said goodbye to Marlin and Dory.

We were tired and hungry. DGM, DGP, DBF and DBFH all decided they wanted to venture into World Showcase in hopes of eating lunch. The rest of us (DMIL, DFIL, Dad, DBIL, DH, Lilian and I) decided we would head back to the resort. We made plans to meet up with the others at our dinner reservation that evening.

On our way back to the main core we saw Chip and Dale were out greeting park guests, so we hoped into line. The total wait time—maybe 10 minutes and that was because Chip and Dale really took time with the groups.

In this next picture, take a look at Lilian’s face—you can see she is tired!

Dale had noticed Lilian's birthday button, so he kindly personalized her autograph page for her:

I love how some of the characters were just so sweet and went out their way to make their interactions spectacular.

Like I said earlier, our plans were to head back to the resort after meeting Chip and Dale. I was fine with heading back to the resort. It was getting close to 1:00 and we had a dinner reservation at 5:10 so DH and I were perfectly willing to take time out for an afternoon break. Did we make it back to the resort for our break? Find out in my next update!

Up Next: 12/20: Did we take a break or get lured in by something else?

 

[Charlefours]

I love your TR. I have a DD 4 and we went with 1 set of Grandparents so I cant imagine all of them going.

to my TR! I am glad you are enjoying it. It was fun at times and troublesome at others. I think it honestly depends on the personalities.

Only 5 minutes for Soarin! That's almost unheard of! So glad Lilian was able to ride and enjoyed it.

I haven't been on Living With the Land since I was around 8 years old. That was my first trip and my parents took me on the ride, not knowing what it was. I remember being bored lol. Maybe I'll try it again one of these days.

Hey Jen! I was so excited the wait for Soarin' was so low. I was prepared to get FP if needed. I'm not sure if I will be going back on Living with the Land next time--there are other things on our list to do but you will have to wait until the end of the TR to find out what it might be.

Wow, what a short wait for Soarin'!!! We love the ride too but when the in-laws came with us MIL spent the entire ride clutching the seat with her eyes closed.

DS10 loves the boat ride in the Land pavillion too, not sure what exactly is the draw but he could ride it multiple times. My DDs on the other hand, not so much.

Hi Ann Marie! I definitely think we had pixie dust in our favor! I could not believe it. We saw one the ride boards on our way said 8 minutes but by the time we got there it had dropped to 5 minutes!! My MIL and your MIL had similar reactions!

Who knows why some like it or not. I know that my Dad was pretty bored on it but then again--we like to garden and he does not.

 

[klacey1]

You can tell how much fun Lillian was having!! Glad she loved the Seas and seemed enthralled with Crush! That's so sweet than Chip and Dale wrote happy birthday in her autograph book-- so personalized!

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Great update! sounds like lots of fun for Lillian and you guys...love all the shots of her facial expressions of wonderment. If we are able to go October I have to be sure Turtle Talk is tops on the list...we still have yet to do that one--I know Ashton will love it!
Looking forward to hearing more about the day,
hope you are able to enjoy your pre holiday time now that your semester is over!
Connie

 

[Charlefours]

You can tell how much fun Lillian was having!! Glad she loved the Seas and seemed enthralled with Crush! That's so sweet than Chip and Dale wrote happy birthday in her autograph book-- so personalized!

Thanks! I really tried to zero on her experiences a lot of time when taking pictures. Part of the magic of this trip was seeing Disney through her eyes. I loved it too when they wrote a message to her.

Great update! sounds like lots of fun for Lillian and you guys...love all the shots of her facial expressions of wonderment. If we are able to go October I have to be sure Turtle Talk is tops on the list...we still have yet to do that one--I know Ashton will love it!
Looking forward to hearing more about the day,
hope you are able to enjoy your pre holiday time now that your semester is over!
Connie

Thanks Connie!! I love the facial expressions too. Definitely add Turtle Talk to your list--I bet Ashton would love it.

I've been busy--of course! I am working on a few applications so those have been eating some time up. Today I desperately needed to clean up the office so I could begin the mountain of sewing projects I have on my agenda. I need to finish getting a few things for the holidays, wrapping and baking too. There is never enough time in the day.

 

[Charlefours]

By the time we got done with Chip and Dale, my Dad and DMIL had done a scouting report saying Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald and Goofy only had a 35 minute time posted for seeing them. Does that seem even possible? We just had to take Lilian to go meet them. Remember our plans—to go back to the resort to rest before this evening? Yeah, well that got shot out of the water because the Fab Five were ready for us to visit.

We pop over to the Character Connection and the line is well into the queue area so we jumped into the line. We really enjoyed the old characters—Lilian just laughs whenever she sees them. The wait time was said to be 35 minutes but in actuality, it was only about a 20 minute wait! I am so glad we popped into the line when we did because it quickly filled up behind us. First up, Mickey of course:

Next up was Pluto. We just loved Pluto. He wrote a special message to Lilian in her autograph book and made a big deal over seeing her birthday button. I just love the smile on Lilian’s face:

We all were cracking up on how Pluto signed his autograph:

Photopass CD picture:

And Pluto wished Lilian a Happy Birthday too

Next up was Mickey’s leading lady—Minnie. She was very sweet to Lilian, but you can tell by this point Lilian was showing how tired she was getting (and not because her eyes were closed in my photo).

After getting her picture taken with Minnie, she wanted me to pop in and take a picture with her and Minnie:

Continued in the next post...

 

[Charlefours]

Up next was DH’s favorite—Donald Duck!

How cute is this photo?! Maybe I am just biased

Of course Daddy was not going to pass getting a picture with his daughter and Donald:

Last but not least: Goofy!

I love how she leaned back against Goofy—she looked rather comfy if I do say so:

After Lilian got her autograph from Goofy, my Dad wanted to pop into the picture—he loves Goofy

We were finally finished. It took awhile to get through the characters—longer than I anticipated. What did we do next? Did we finally go back to the resort after this? Stay tuned to find out.

Up Next: 12/24: Day 2 Continued--do we stay or do we go?

 

[jenny105]

Just seeing your Nemo pictures made me start singing 'In a bigggg blue world...' lol

Love all the character pictures! I wish we had gotten more of them on our trip. Your DH and I have something in common; Donald is my favorite too!

 

[klacey1]

Aww, such a fun visit with the fab 5 is so worth pushing off rest for! You can definitely tell how sleepy Lillian was getting though-- I hope you guys do get back to your resort soon!

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Great Fab 5 visit!! although, tired she still appeared to be enjoying her time with the characters...we loved visiting with the Fab 5 at Epcot it was great!!
hope you are able to get all of you list done and you find time to enjoy and relax!

 

[mommyof2Pirates]

sounds like a fun day so far....I love all the pics and lillian looks like she is having a blast even if she is a bit tired. Cant wait to read more. l love all your pictures