Magic in a Winter Wonder World with 1,648 pictures

[disney<333]

Oh my goodness, that is so scary that the boy passed out! I am glad everything turned out ok. It is so hard not to panic in those situations.

I'm with you about water parks...I don't think I would go when it was that rainy. But I bet all the lines were really short!!

It was all I thought about for the rest of the day.
I can't do water parks when it's too hot either. I know you're getting wet but over 90 and I'm out. We've never done the Disney water parks. I'd like to try them in the next year. I found a 3 day NE with water park ticket for 180$.

Those things were everywhere, and most of them were half-price, back in December/January. I looked at them so many times, but ended up getting none.





I always love it when Pop rolls two buses in at a time, too.





These days, it seems that every school system in the country is not far away from being ruined.

We have not had time to explore Kidani yet, but we will be doing that this summer.

We've sure had some wet days much like what your pictures show. It's always nice to get back to the room, get a hot shower and dry clothes, and just chill out on the bed!

Last May, they only had the pixar movies.
I always have good bus luck getting to the parks but wherever we stay we have no luck getting back.
It's terrible, isn't it? Thankfully, the bill was vetoed. There was a lot of strikes and just about everything you could imagine to stop the bill from becoming a low.
Kidani is nice but next time it's Jumbo for us.

Beach ball. Creative!!

Lots of good fun- and what's with the sheep and their busses??

Lots of rain too. I saw a sea of ponchos!

Beach ball was invented at the beach a few weeks ago. We were driving around for 40 minutes to find a parking space (it's all about being in the right place at the right time.) finally we are about to pull in since the car just pulled out and this lady just jumps in our space and sticks her finger in my face waving "no." I think it was Mitch that muttered "Move, Beach ball!"
I'm not sure. I know I don't have a problem with waiting an extra minute for an empty bus instead of being jam packed with smelly and wet ponchos.

 

[disney<333]

I last left of with us at DHS having lunch at Pizza Planet. I got a salad, Mitch and Emily got the adult cheese pizza and Amy got a hot chocolate (she discovered a love for Disney's hot chocolate on our last full day.) and a kids' pizza. That kids' pizza is tiny. Comparing the kids' and adults', the kids' is the size of a hockey puck and the adults' is the size of a basketball. We ate our food very fast (in 10 minutes) and rushed to catch the 1:00 American Idol. It was about 12:45 when we left Pizza Planet. When we got there they were filling in the empty spots. There was a camera man CM and he asked the girls to say "We love you, Chris" since Chris was in the show and was in the park alone. They did and then they were on the screen when it was Chris' time to perform. It was very cool! Then we were escorted to our second row seats. Score!
The girls took a picture of themselves.

It was pretty cold in there and it didn't help that our sleeves were wet.
The host (same one from last May)

The judges were o.k. I thought they were funnier last time.

This girl ended up winning.

After the show Amy and Mitch went back to the room to change and to rest for a few minutes. Emily really wanted to go to Epcot so we went just the two of us and Mitch said he would bring us warmer, dryer clothes.
First stop for us was the bathroom. I dried our jackets with the blowdryer-- boy did that work magic. Having hot sleeves felt great.
Next was getting to Epcot. I asked a CM if there was a bus. He said yes, but it was a charter bus. No thanks. So, we took the boat.

This will be my home in May.

We got off at the YC/BC stop and walked the rest of the way.

My daughter just so happens to be the reason this particular swing is no longer here.

My private (well almost) entrance to Epcot.

We're racing the boat and.....

we're winning
and we're loosing.

We beat the boat crowd to the ticket line so that's all that counts, right?

Shop windows from the International Gateway

Continued in next post

 

[disney<333]

It's all about my duck.

First stop was Canada where we got a bucket of popcorn. For 4.50 I thought this was a great buy. Everyone can snack on it all day and then you get a cute souvenir.

Next stop was

Emily posed.

The leg stressed, hand on the hip pose happens more and more these days.

 

[All7OfUs]

I so so, so! love EPCOT's WS!!! I could spend weeks in there finding little details like the pinata you found!

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Barbara looks like you guys were having a great day even in the weather! I am so happy to know about the friendship boat between parks...now they just need to connect AK to the other parks and hopping can really be an easy thing to do!

 

[praisehisname]

My daughter just so happens to be the reason this particular swing is no longer here.

Do tell! Or did you already tell and I missed it?

 

[disney<333]

I so so, so! love EPCOT's WS!!! I could spend weeks in there finding little details like the pinata you found!

I love Epcot, too. I'm usually not to good at finding hidden Mickey's and all the little details but I think the more trips I take as a DISer the more things I'll find to share.

Barbara looks like you guys were having a great day even in the weather! I am so happy to know about the friendship boat between parks...now they just need to connect AK to the other parks and hopping can really be an easy thing to do!

Thanks Connie! We were having a great time. It would be nice of AK was connected to the other parks by monorail but I think pigs are going to learn how to fly before that happens. (Realize I didn't say elephants!)

Do tell! Or did you already tell and I missed it?

Oh, that's right, I never did tell my BC stories. Well, tonight's dinner needs to be attended to in a minute so I'll have to do it later. We decided to do dinner after softball tonight instead of before. Big mistake.
******
Any Gleeks out there?
2 hours until Glee! (I guess you could say I love Glee almost as much as I love Disney!)

 

[Charlefours]

I think we will be passing on ITTBAB--no thank you! Glad you made it through the whole show! Everyone just wanted out of that rain! Silly people. Rude beach ball lady! I love how much you are accomplishing even with the rain!

wow--welcome to your job! I am glad the boy is ok! I hope the softball game goes well--whenever it goes/went through! Looking forward to hearing the swing story!!

 

[praisehisname]

We love Glee, too!

 

[disney<333]

I think we will be passing on ITTBAB--no thank you! Glad you made it through the whole show! Everyone just wanted out of that rain! Silly people. Rude beach ball lady! I love how much you are accomplishing even with the rain!

wow--welcome to your job! I am glad the boy is ok! I hope the softball game goes well--whenever it goes/went through! Looking forward to hearing the swing story!!

Skipping ITTBAB might be a wise decision for you guys. I know Emily will want to do it again. Amy said she will but I doubt it. Just like Emily is excited to try Everest but I thinks she'll chicken out at the last minute. We shall see. Rain or shine we are always raiding the parks.
It feels good to be working again after being laid off for almost a year.
The big game is now this Saturday. Hopefully, it won't be rained out for the third time! We have not had a day without at least a 5 minute down poor this whole month, I think.

We love Glee, too!

I'm a big Glee.

 

[disney<333]

After a long and crazy night and having me become the space between two words to a head on collision, searching photobucket for pictures, realizing a dear daughter deleted them, uploading them again to the laptop, and on to photobucket, I'm finally ready for this update.
We were in Epcot just Emily and I. We took in the pretty mexican sights and then rode the ride. I think it had a 5 minute wait.

Next, we moved on out to Norway to battle the Vikings. This is where I learned Emily can speak with many different accents. She spoke with a Norweign (SP) accent to every CM in Norway. It was right on and dead funny!
I can't find most of the Norway picture on PB so here are just a few.
Our destination just so happened to be Maelstorm. We got FPS for this on our first Epcot day but we didn't end up making it back their. The sign reported a 20 minute stand-by line but we waited 10 minutes.
Before we knew it we were being told to "leave" and our viking ship was cursed with a spell!

Next stop was Mouse Gears. We only spent about 2 minutes in here.

Isn't Epcot gorgeous?!?!

The rain had stopped but it was still very overcast. At this point I got a text from Mitch saying he and Amy would be at Epcot in about 15 minutes. That was a quick rest!
Emily and I wanted to go to Character Connection so we went to go check out the stand-by line. It was 35 minutes! Neither of us felt like waiting that long.

Next, we went to the front of the park to wait for the other two. While waiting we munched on popcorn and I bought a water bottle for 3$ when I pay that much for 24 at Walmart.
A few minutes later A and M showed up and we talked about our battle plan. The girls wanted to go ride TT one more time so we went over to see it if was open. It was! 40 minute stand-by. 10 minutes single rider. Mitch said he would stay with me so we sent just the girls. This was my first time doing this! Emily had a phone, so I was able to relax. I think we waited in the car area because I didn't want to go too far. 15 minutes later they came out.
The next place on our hit list was Innovations.
I read on a few TRs that they had an attraction in Innovations where you stared in your own video game. I thought the girls would enjoy this so we went to go look for it. We searched and searched and no luck. We asked a few CMs and they all had no idea what we were talking about. O.K, scratch that off the list. We went to search for something else to do.
Everything had pretty long lines.

On the way up to Orlando, I made the mistake of telling Amy about the new Sum of All Thrills. She had wanted to do this VERY badly. On our first Epcot day it had a 50 minute wait. Today, it was only 15 minutes so now would be Amy's moment.
First you wait in line and they give each party a card. The you go into a room and there is a pre-show. Same man and lady from the Dinosaur and Test Track pre-show. Your card had a number on it so you go wait in line until that number's work station is available. Once there you swipe the card and you start choosing your coaster pieces. There is a little guy called Crash, who tests out the coaster for you to make sure it works.

I don't remember what the ruler is for.

You also name your coaster from a list with about 30 different combinations. The kids decided on Blazing Mountain

Once you see this

you go upstairs and do some more waiting.

You put your stuff in a locker and CM takes your card and swipes it. Mitch, Emily, and Amy rode the coaster. You go in a tiny boxed area with a hole. Mitch said the hole was about the size for a 3 yr old's hands. There is a red button on the other side of the hole to press to stop it. EMily said she didn't have room for her ears! Overall, we all really enjoyed it. Amy loved it. It is right up her ally-- Rollercoasters, and designing/ being creative; her favorites.

 

[All7OfUs]

Gawrsh!! I can't wait to try the Sum of All Thrills!!! Seriously!! This is so on my list!!!

I would think your older girls would be just fine on an attraction by themselves. Glad they had a phone if needed!

 

[praisehisname]

Great update! I had really wanted to do Sum of All Thrills, but we never made it over there. Next time for sure!

 

[disney<333]

Anybody notice something in my siggie!?!?!?!?!?!

I'll be back later with the whole story.
Let's just say Mr. Date Changer came for a visit this time.
We're leaving for the kids' band car wash in a few minutes and then the big softball championship.

 

[All7OfUs]

Will be fun to hear all about it!!

 

[disney<333]

Who: Not quite sure yet. Mitch and I are going for sure but we haven't decided on the kids. We didn't go away just the two of for a long time and my mother volunteered to watch the kids over night before she goes home in mid May. I don't think I can really enjoy Disney with out the kids. We'll decide today.
When: Tuesday to Sunday. 5 nights of magic.
Where: The Dolphin
Tickets: 4 day no PH
Raid Plan: Tuesday: Get there at 6 DTD and dinner at Earl
Wednesday: MK
Thurs: AK, dinner at Mara at AKL, and DTD
Friday: Epcot
Saturday: not sure what park yet
So yup, I'm going to Disney in 2 days!!!!!

 

[All7OfUs]

:

 

[disney<333]

:

I'm so excited! In just 2 days I'll be on Disney soil.

 

[MeMom]

Who: Not quite sure yet. Mitch and I are going for sure but we haven't decided on the kids. We didn't go away just the two of for a long time and my mother volunteered to watch the kids over night before she goes home in mid May. I don't think I can really enjoy Disney with out the kids. We'll decide today.
When: Tuesday to Sunday. 5 nights of magic.
Where: The Dolphin
Tickets: 4 day no PH
Raid Plan: Tuesday: Get there at 6 DTD and dinner at Earl
Wednesday: MK
Thurs: AK, dinner at Mara at AKL, and DTD
Friday: Epcot
Saturday: not sure what park yet
So yup, I'm going to Disney in 2 days!!!!!

First of all, lucky you!

Second, you might be surprised at how much you would enjoy a grown-up trip. My cousin and her husband went back on January for their 25th anniversary and just loved it! They ate, they strolled, they went back in time 25 years and just had fun with no one else to be accountable to.

Maybe you could have a couple of nights to yourselves and then the girls could join you? Can your mom bring them to you after a few days? Just a thought.

Congratulations on a new (and almost here) trip!

 

[BippityBoo]

GOODNESS!! I am so happy you get to go to WDW in 2 days Can't wait to hear all about it!!!