Magic in a Winter Wonder World with 1,648 pictures

[longing2Batdisney]

I can't wait to ride Soarin' we missed it last visit. for going for a few days with your mom and cousin's hope things work out! looks like the mission was a fun one!
connie

 

[disney<333]

Love these updates!!! WS is my favorite part of Epcot so I've really enjoyed your pics! What cute pics with Donald!! And YAY for riding Soarin'!!!!

Thanks Becky! WS is my favorite part too!!

I hope it works out that you can go!!!

I love all the WS pictures! That was so nice of the Soarin' CM to let you and Mitch ride with the girls!

I can't believe your grandmother told you Emily's arm would fall off!

Denise

Thanks Denise! I really hope we can go I already have a trip report title; Just A Little Pixie Dust Is All You Need!
It was nice of the CM. Some things that happened this trip I grinned and just thought only in Disney world.
Yes, my grandmother worries a lot and some time gives me nightmares.

Isn't that so like Disney to let you 2 onto Soarin as well?? Gotta love Disney!

I'm pretty excited to save the world too; can't wait to do my KP mission!

It is! Very true, I don't know how someone could NOT like Disney.

Soarin' is my favorite ride!! I had not thought about checking it out on YouTube--I will have to do that, especially since DD will most likely be tall enough to ride it on our trip!!

It's one of my favorite rides now too! Yes, everything is on youtube monorail rides, wishes, spectro etc. I watch Wishes every night! Last week I had 2 MK nights when I 'rode' most of the MK attractions. I'm moving on to Epcot tonight if I get off the DIS at a reasonable hour that is!
Any rides that you think your DD will be afraid to ride have her watch it on Youtube. You get a good idea of if she'll be able to handle it or not.

I can't wait to ride Soarin' we missed it last visit. for going for a few days with your mom and cousin's hope things work out! looks like the mission was a fun one!
connie

Soarin' is so much fun! I'm so glad I finally tried it. Thanks Connie I hope to be Soarin' a week from Sunday!
It was a fun one! I want to do them all in the futute.

 

[disney<333]

Follow the leader

Past here

and inside this ball.

Hmm. How to get in?

The wait was 10 minutes. If you don't do this within the first hour of park opening then wait till after dinner. After 8 they let you ride again and again with out getting off.

I rode with Mitch and the girls rode together.

Maybe I'll watch this tonight for Epcot night! I know, I know a have no life that doesn't involve Disney but I did everything that needs to be done for work and around the house.

It's already hard to get decent pictures in the dark with out a flash.

Our future. I mainly just took pictures of the kids'

Hello!

 

[disney<333]

Our future sounds just too easy. I have a robot to pack, get us there,and take care of Nemo and Marlin!

Excuse the blurry pictures. I know this camera better now so it won't happen hopefully next week!

Wait times

Character Connection still had a long line.

I think I must of lied.

I guess we didn't have dinner inbetween our 2 soarin' rides. Why else would we go back to the land? Just for a pretzel picture?
We rode Nemo again. Walk on

Now we have 2 line leaders

To the epcot ball

It was about 8:15 at this point and Mitch and Amy wanted leave. I was looking forward to Illuminations but we wanted to beat the after fireworks bus mob. I planned in time to see it the next day since our passes had PH.

We waited about 15 minutes before a bus came.
Amy was out before the bus even left Epcot!

Our bus driver was awesome. It felt like the JC on wheels. I had to tip him!
Why can't Cinderella play soccer? Tell me your guess and I'll post the answer in the next update!
Coming up Next: A day of hollywood fun!

 

[MeMom]

How cool that you can have an unexpected trip!

Thanks for all the World Showcase pictures.

It's not easy to keep your eyes open on a dark bus ride after a long day.

 

[praisehisname]

This trip was my first time riding Spaceship Earth and I loved it!

Why can't Cinderella play soccer? Tell me your guess and I'll post the answer in the next update!

Because her coach was a pumpkin!

Denise

 

[All7OfUs]

Ummmm... is it because she "had to leave the ball"? or something along those lines?

 

[Charlefours]

It's one of my favorite rides now too! Yes, everything is on youtube monorail rides, wishes, spectro etc. I watch Wishes every night! Last week I had 2 MK nights when I 'rode' most of the MK attractions. I'm moving on to Epcot tonight if I get off the DIS at a reasonable hour that is!
Any rides that you think your DD will be afraid to ride have her watch it on Youtube. You get a good idea of if she'll be able to handle it or not.

I have shown my DD a few rides--I figure once we get closer and start doing theme nights, I will start actively showing her more videos.

I have never been on SE before--I am looking forward to trying it out this go around.

 

[ladybugmom]

LOVE Spaceship Earth!! Ally got a kick out of building her own future when she rode!! She couldn't get enough of it!!

 

[disney<333]

How cool that you can have an unexpected trip!

Thanks for all the World Showcase pictures.

It's not easy to keep your eyes open on a dark bus ride after a long day.

I hope it happens. We're only going to know like 2 days in advance though!
I can tell. Just ask Amy!

This trip was my first time riding Spaceship Earth and I loved it!




Because her coach was a pumpkin!

Denise

I love SE! I loved it before the refurbishment too but that thing needed crowds and now it has just that!
Good guess. I'll right it down!

Ummmm... is it because she "had to leave the ball"? or something along those lines?

You're getting warm! I'll write you guess down.

I have shown my DD a few rides--I figure once we get closer and start doing theme nights, I will start actively showing her more videos.

I have never been on SE before--I am looking forward to trying it out this go around.

Ohh, What kind of Disney nights are you doing!?! I though of having a 4 park day but then just decided to do one park at a time. Our first night is going to be Epcot with Sunshine Seasons for dinner and innovations maybe we'll do KP too.
Oh yes- Add SE to the list!

LOVE Spaceship Earth!! Ally got a kick out of building her own future when she rode!! She couldn't get enough of it!!

Me too! Isn't it fun?! I sure hope my future happens life would be so much easier!

 

[disney<333]

Two mornings had come and gone and both of those mornings we had not made rope drop. I did know the secrets know and there was no way we were missing it. We had to be on the 8 AM bus we I called for a 6:55 wake up call the night before. Mitch told me about a week before the trip that he would have to work this morning. So, it would be just the girls and I. Anyway, enough chit chat lets get this show on the road.
We got to the bus stop by 5 to 8 and we waited 20 minutes for our bus to come. On the bus I was talking to a nice mom and explained to her how the whole FP thing works. I can't believe how many people don't know about it! The family was doing TSM and then spending the day at MK. I told her our normal battle plan for MK and she said she was going to use it.
Once at DHS:

It was about 8:35 at this point and the bag line looked like the line at the airport Sunday morning after thanksgiving!

We were ready to

We got through bag check and it was now 8:42 on the dot. We waited in line to scan our tickets and my SP decides it wants to play hard to get today. A CM came and said I'll go to guest relations and print you a new ticket and runs off before I can say Tink. I didn't even get a good glance to see what the CM who has my ticket looks like. So I wait and wait finally at 8:50 when I'm thinking any second I'm going to have a heart attack (we were still not through the turnstile) the CM comes back new ticket in hand.
It was pretty crowded so I decided we'll go through the gift shops.

We made out way outside and walked with all the other snails to TSM.
Crowd levels

See the guy in the navy shirt on the phone? To the right of him is the line to get FPs for TSM! We had already decided that I would wait in line for FPs and the girls would do stand-by.

The line was so long I thought I would be there until 10. It actually went quicker then the girls' wait.
I sent them with the camera and told them to take a lot of pictures.
Here is what I got.

 

[disney<333]

More pictures from TSM real quickly

I got 4 FPs for 11:15 and then went to go wait for the girls near the exit. More details tomorrow. I have to get up at 5 AM for jerry duty tomorrow.

 

[Charlefours]

Ohh, What kind of Disney nights are you doing!?! I though of having a 4 park day but then just decided to do one park at a time. Our first night is going to be Epcot with Sunshine Seasons for dinner and innovations maybe we'll do KP too.
Oh yes- Add SE to the list!

I want to plan Disney theme nights, like many other DISers have been doing. I think I will pick a movie each week and we will have a special dinner and watch the movie together as a family. I will probably even make dessert or we will have popcorn with the movie. A rare treat in our house is to have dessert so it would make it extra special. Depending on what I decide, DD can help me make them.

I might try to plan an activity or craft project too. Those might not happen every week, but we will see! I want to start them at 26 weeks out, which would be March.

 

[disney<333]

I want to plan Disney theme nights, like many other DISers have been doing. I think I will pick a movie each week and we will have a special dinner and watch the movie together as a family. I will probably even make dessert or we will have popcorn with the movie. A rare treat in our house is to have dessert so it would make it extra special. Depending on what I decide, DD can help me make them.

I might try to plan an activity or craft project too. Those might not happen every week, but we will see! I want to start them at 26 weeks out, which would be March.

We did a few movie nights for this trip. We did sci-fi night and we had burgers and milkshakes (healthy?) and watched herbie fully loaded. We just wached TS 1 and 2 and had pizza (like pizza planet) for one night and regular food the second night. One night we played TSM on the wii and another we played board games. Next will be Epcot with sunshine seasons, gran fiesta tour, KP, and innovations. We are going do all 4 parks.

 

[disney<333]

After a busy week I am so glad it's Friday. It is pouring here and Mitch's plane should be landing soon. This weekend didn't work out with Disney for a couple of reasons freezing, rain, crowds etc. So now we'll probably do Feb, 26-28. At either POP, POFQ, or CBR! Any opinions? Pictures would be nice! All the resorts are available are crowd levels are 5.
TR update tonight!

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Great photo update! we love TSM!
We are going to try the POP; we really like the POFQ because it is quaint, quiet, and a prettier and cleaner version of New Orleans. Lisa (mickeystoontown) only does the CBR and raves about it. I wanted to try it out but we need two rooms...so we are going to give the POP a try. I need to find the POP thread to see where I should request.

Connie

 

[disney<333]

I waited about 10 minutes to get our FPs and then went to the exit to wait for the girls to finish riding. Mitch was at the hotel working on this morning. The girls came out at about 9:25 and we debated on what to do. We didn't have b-fast so that was first on our list. We got 2 muffins and coffee cake at a cart across from the TSM FP area and split everything. When we got our food I remembered that the Toy Story characters opened at 10 so I figured we could eat in line and be first to see them.

At 10:05 we were let in and we were first. Only bad thing was we only had about 2 seconds with all the fun things in line to take pictures with.

I did get one however.
When Woody came out he went to the hand sanitizer machine and actually took some and used it. I thought it was funny.

Incase you didn't know Buzz is way to technically advanced to sign himself he uses a stamp.

When we came out we saw these guys getting into some trouble and so we went on over to investigate.

They were SO funny! They were so interactive and just hilarious.Buzz and Woddy started banging on the window and one army man said "Buzz Woody!! We'll get ya out of there!" Then there was a fake army men on top holding scrabble peaces about to drop them and then there were some under him on the floor. The same army man said "No, don't drop that! Andy's mom has to clean up!"

ignore the man

Next we were commanded by the green army men to move on out to the hat.
LOOK THERE'S THE DUCK!!!!

We ran will we didn't run, can't break the mouse's rules to get in line. We were in line and then the magic breaker comes up to us and tells us that we have to get out Donald is leaving soon for the 10:35 HSM show!
So we tried Tigger and Eeyore they had the same issue. There were a ton of characters out and they were all of limits to us.
Donald sees me in his perifival vision and is thinking "Barbara!! Come here, Barbara I NEED to see you!"

O.K maybe I'm stretching it a little bit, but don't you think he wants to see me?

I wanted to catch VOTLM now since Mitch isn't a big fan but the next show wasn't until 11:15.
So we shopped instead

and then went to magic of disney animation via gift shop. Please don't flame me I practically memorize the movie!
Who will we see and what will we do in here?
The answer to the Cinderella riddle was "Because she keeps running from the ball." ALL7OFUS was the closest.

 

[MeMom]

I think it is interesting to watch men watch the green Army guys. Even the ones who won't look at Mickey or Winnie the Pooh or whoever - they all seem to stop and look at the Army men. They are fascinating, no doubt, but I think the men who played with those as boys get an extra kick out of seeing them. We had only one man in our group in October, and I remember him thinking the Army guys were just the coolest things. I noticed the onlookers in your pictures, and there were several men stopped and really watching the Army guys. I just think it's cute.

 

[All7OfUs]

Yippee!! I was close!!! That's a pretty funny one. You heard that on the bus, right?

I hope we run into those army guys, too. They sound incredibly funny!

 

[praisehisname]

On the bus I was talking to a nice mom and explained to her how the whole FP thing works. I can't believe how many people don't know about it!

That was really sweet of you to help her out!

I sent them with the camera and told them to take a lot of pictures.

Wow, you've trained them well! They got tons of great pictures!

So now we'll probably do Feb, 26-28. At either POP, POFQ, or CBR!

That's great that you can still go! Are any of those resorts new to you? I vote for something new.

Buzz and Woddy started banging on the window and one army man said "Buzz Woody!! We'll get ya out of there!"

That's so funny!

How was jury duty? Did you get chosen?

Denise