Magic in the Kingdom 2012! BIG 2/16/2014 FINAL UPDATE!

[kwitcherkicken99]

Late to the party as usual, but I'm here.

 

[mom2rtk]

Subbing!! Can't wait to follow along and see all your photos.

I lurked in previous trip reports and loved each one. This is going to sound creepy (because it probably is) but I *think* saw you and Katie at the MK lockers on Friday 12/14. We were rushing to get our stuff and head to the castle lighting and an ADR. I thought for a moment about saying hi, but then I thought it was too creepy of me, being a lurker and such You'll have to confirm if the timing was right. I suspect it was around 5:30 p.m. or so.

LOL, not creepy at all. I love when other DISers stop and say hi! It could very well have been us. Friday night we would have been stopping at our locker to pick up our bags to head for the Grand Floridian and dinner at 1900 PF. And it would have been around that time.

So glad you've come out of lurkdom!

So excited to learn about your BOG experience(s)!! it looks like such a fun place to dine for lunch as compared to Cosmic Rays! Since CS Lunch is crazy everywhere - I would rather see the BOG rooms than the other places in the craziness! Then of course there is the coveted dinner ADR... I am all

I am also looking forward to reading about your latest encounters with the elusive Belle! It is so odd (unbelievable!) indeed that they did not plan more Belle staffing/MGs when they added so much Belle real estate to MK!!

Love what I see so far... keep it coming!

Sydnerella's Mama

I really wanted above all else this trip, to FULLY experience Be Our Guest. And I really feel like we did. And we all loved it. I actually just finished an 8x8 scrapbook just on Be Our Guest. I took TONS of photos in there, so it was fun to put them into a book we can sit down and look at.

I'm still beyond perplexed to think they thought having Belle harder to meet just as they opened her village would not meet with some disappointment from their guests. They got an awful lot right in New Fantasyland, but I'm sorry, that is still labeled a "colossal miss" in my book!

I hope to get going on this in just a bit....... really.....

Late to the party as usual, but I'm here.

Well, THAT's the reason I didn't really get started yet. I was waiting on Jenn. Yeah..... that's it. It's HER fault!

OK, I guess you guys know by now that I eventually get it all done, but that sometimes there are delays along the way.

Jenn, I channelled you one night in the MK. That's all I'm saying.

 

[shan23877]

Joining in! Can't wait to see all of the gorgeous photos.

Curious--I knew that Rapunzel had replaced Aurora at TsTheater, but I hadn't heard that Belle was no longer there. Who's in there now?
Sounds like the only places to meet Belle now are at meals and Epcot (besides storytime, but that's just not the same)

We just officially booked our summer trip-luckily my DD prefers Disney's princess dresses (more sparkle) to the 'authentic' ones that mom insists upon making. However, she's put in her order for a full wardrobe of princess dresses for her American Girl doll.

Can't wait to hear more about the trip. I love your TRs because you guys do so many of the same things that we do!

 

[mom2rtk]

Joining in! Can't wait to see all of the gorgeous photos.

Curious--I knew that Rapunzel had replaced Aurora at TsTheater, but I hadn't heard that Belle was no longer there. Who's in there now?
Sounds like the only places to meet Belle now are at meals and Epcot (besides storytime, but that's just not the same)

We just officially booked our summer trip-luckily my DD prefers Disney's princess dresses (more sparkle) to the 'authentic' ones that mom insists upon making. However, she's put in her order for a full wardrobe of princess dresses for her American Girl doll.

Can't wait to hear more about the trip. I love your TRs because you guys do so many of the same things that we do!

Hi! So glad you found us!

TST is almost always Cindy, Aurora and Rapunzel now. Snow White is still out in the hub area.

And you are correct, Belle is now only at Epcot in France (without the Beast now) and Akershus. She is not at CRT any longer. And while you can get a quick photo with her after storytime (participants) it's not a traditional meet & greet. It is very rushed there are no autographs. The only place Belle signs now is at Epcot.

YEAH for getting your trip booked! So is the AG doll coming along with her wardrobe?

 

[Glennie5]

We'd love to hear more from you! And thank you so much for the kind words. And yes, it has been a year of much change for Katie. It's fun to see the young lady she is becoming.



Aw shucks. Thanks Glennie!

How much fun would it be to go visit Katie working as a real live princess at Disney!

Julia would be on cloud 9 although if she recognized her from our 2011 trip it might blow her believing that the face charcters at Disney are the real thing.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Well, THAT's the reason I didn't really get started yet. I was waiting on Jenn. Yeah..... that's it. It's HER fault!

Darn tootin'!!!

Jenn, I channelled you one night in the MK. That's all I'm saying.

Oh yeah???

If you were in MK and channeling me, it couldn't end well...

 

[mom2rtk]

Julia would be on cloud 9 although if she recognized her from our 2011 trip it might blow her believing that the face charcters at Disney are the real thing.

Man, wouldn't that be awesome????

If you were in MK and channeling me, it couldn't end well...

It was the night of the 12th. That's all I'm sayin..........

 

[shan23877]

Hi! So glad you found us!

TST is almost always Cindy, Aurora and Rapunzel now. Snow White is still out in the hub area.

And you are correct, Belle is now only at Epcot in France (without the Beast now) and Akershus. She is not at CRT any longer. And while you can get a quick photo with her after storytime (participants) it's not a traditional meet & greet. It is very rushed there are no autographs. The only place Belle signs now is at Epcot.

YEAH for getting your trip booked! So is the AG doll coming along with her wardrobe?

Thanks for the warm welcome and for the princess information. We had the BEST interactions with Belle on our last tirp. I'm disappointed that it's going to be so much harder to find her now.

AG doll only has a Cinderella dress for now. I made it from scraps that I had from Maddie's last Cindy dress. DD loves it, but I plan to make another. So far she's giving me time-as long as I'm making other clothes for the doll.

 

[jenseib]

Hey! Where's the updates?

 

[mommy2E]

Kenny the Pirate is reporting a new dress for Belle: "Disney is continuing its plans to recreate all the dresses that the Princesses wear in the theme parks. The trend began with Cinderella receiving a new look for her meet and greets. On or about February 3, 2013 Belle will receive a new gold ball gown, hairstyle and accouterments."

Sew you know you will have to go back to WDW instead of DL.

 

[mom2rtk]

Thanks for the warm welcome and for the princess information. We had the BEST interactions with Belle on our last tirp. I'm disappointed that it's going to be so much harder to find her now.

AG doll only has a Cinderella dress for now. I made it from scraps that I had from Maddie's last Cindy dress. DD loves it, but I plan to make another. So far she's giving me time-as long as I'm making other clothes for the doll.

I do regret that I didn't make more clothes for Katie's AG dolls. I learned to sew making clothes for my own dolls. But life just gets in the way too much. I did make a few though, and will keep those for her girls. Mostly knockoffs of the dresses I had made her.

Hey! Where's the updates?

LOL, says the person who just posted updates to BOTH of her TRs!

I actually had most of my first post done and lost it when I lost my 18 point reply to one of your TRs! Since then, no time. Hopefully this morning I'll get moving.

Kenny the Pirate is reporting a new dress for Belle: "Disney is continuing its plans to recreate all the dresses that the Princesses wear in the theme parks. The trend began with Cinderella receiving a new look for her meet and greets. On or about February 3, 2013 Belle will receive a new gold ball gown, hairstyle and accouterments."

Sew you know you will have to go back to WDW instead of DL.

I saw that! I love Kennythepirate's site and check it from time to time and just saw it in the last couple days.

I'm a little sad though. Belle's dress has always been my favorite. I never thought Cindy's gown was that great to start with, so was ready for something new. And I don't think Aurora, Snow White and Jasmine are changing as much as the others. But Belle..... will be hard. I'm just glad we got to see her in in one last time. You know..... in spite of how hard they made it.

 

[Caretames1]

Hey! Where's the updates?

Jen popcorned you!

I shouldn't talk, she threatened me a while back with popcorn.


But then again, I want to see more too!!

 

[mom2rtk]

Jen popcorned you!

I shouldn't talk, she threatened me a while back with popcorn.


But then again, I want to see more too!!

Hey now! Watch it. Maybe I'll YOU!

No, just kidding. That's a game I don't want ANY part of!

 

[mom2rtk]

Thursday DECEMBER 6, 2012

Departure day! We were following a schedule very similar to last year's trip. We were leaving Thursday afternoon and arriving just in time to crash and hit the ground running Friday morning. I had to be really careful with how much time Katie was going to be missing at school. We were OK with a week. Then as Drew decided to come along we added a couple days to the start of the trip. So we added on Friday and were up to 6 days. Then we decided we needed a full day on Friday, so we'd leave after school Thursday. I didn't want one more absence, so I opted to pick her up near the end of the day. But it couldn't be so close to the end of the day that we hit the bus traffic. Her school has close to 1000 students. And the district's 2 other similar sized middle schools are within a block of there. So at dismissal time, here's what it looks like:


IMG0001 by mom2rtk, on Flickr

I actually took that shot years 8 ago when Robbie was starting Middle School. I happened to have my camera in the car when I was caught up in it one day. It's just not a good place to be near dismissal. So I picked her up around 2:15, 45 minutes before the end of the day. I had been in touch with all of her teachers by email a couple weeks prior. Some gave her things to work ahead on. Most just said to touch base when we got back. They Gym teacher said she needed to document 30 minutes of physical activity each day she was gone. Uh, we were headed for Disney. I think we had that covered!

Once back home, we quickly hit the road for the airport.


IMG_6848 by mom2rtk, on Flickr


Our flight took off on time, and we landed on time around 9:30. I had a terrible night of sleep the night before and hoped to nap on the flight, but I think I was just too excited.

Of course, in spite of the late hour, I had to take our traditional shots along the way at the airport:


IMG_6854 by mom2rtk, on Flickr


IMG_6858 by mom2rtk, on Flickr


IMG_6859 by mom2rtk, on Flickr


IMG_6864 by mom2rtk, on Flickr

When we got to the Magical Express area, I stopped at the counter to ask whether there was anything they could do for us with Fastpass Plus. It was really going to complicate one of our days in the Magic Kingdom with Kim if they were participating and we weren't. But not surprisingly, there was nothing they could do.

Thankfully there was a bus for the Art of Animation sitting there waiting for us. We arrived at the resort around 10:30. There was almost no line to check in, and there was a bus to AoA waiting for us right outside the door.

Pretty soon we arrived and were greeted with this colorful and gorgeous sight:


IMG_6866 by mom2rtk, on Flickr


I know I was really tired after a very long day. But that first walk back to the Little Mermaid area was every bit as long as I had feared all along. When we got down to that section and I saw how close the parking lot was, I immediately called Kim, as I expected she would prefer to rent a car to have close.

I wanted to crash immediately, so called luggage service to have them hold our Magical Express bags when they arrived. As luck would have it, they were on the way already, and it was nice to have everything we needed before I passed out.

 

[lvcourtneyy]

LOL about the gym teacher with 30 minutes of physical activity

Katie looks sooo mature! She looks tall too actually!

Can't wait to see your AoA pictures. We stayed at Pop when we were just there and I so badly wanted to walk over and check it out but we ran ourselves so ragged that any time we were at the resort I didn't want to walk an extra step

 

[KCmike]

Departure day always seems hectic no matter how much we plan and take care of things before hand and to complicate school with the trip would be hard for sure. When we went to Disneyland back in 2007 for a small weekend trip and it was hard for the kids to come back late and make up all that school work even though they just missed two days. Glad you made it safely and wow such a wonderful lobby view of AoA. Can't wait to see more of the resort through your lens!

We have our own dilemmas right now. The High School is taking an Orlando trip this May to march at Universal and SeaWorld and we had planned not to go but the Band Teacher has asked if we could change our minds as my son is one of the top performers. We had originally planned not to take a big vacation as we hoped to divert all monies to my oldest going to college this fall. So hard to know what to do. I wanted to go back to Disneyland this Christmas for a long weekend and just not do Christmas at home meaning that most of their presents would be the trip which they are more than happy with but now this has complicated matters. I was kind of hoping to take a small vacation around the midwest to see other parts of the country or maybe head to Washington DC.

Anyways always enjoy reading your trip reports, watching Katie have a blast, and seeing the world through your lens. Your such a wonderful photographer Janet. Have a good finish to your weekend!

 

[jenseib]

Woo.. You have arrived!
That walk is long and i don't care what anyone says, it's just a tad too far.

 

[Caretames1]

Woo.. You have arrived!
That walk is long and i don't care what anyone says, it's just a tad too far.

Yay!

I agree with you both. There's a lot of green space between buildings. It could have been closer.

 

[mom2rtk]

LOL about the gym teacher with 30 minutes of physical activity

Katie looks sooo mature! She looks tall too actually!

Can't wait to see your AoA pictures. We stayed at Pop when we were just there and I so badly wanted to walk over and check it out but we ran ourselves so ragged that any time we were at the resort I didn't want to walk an extra step

Yeah, I'm happy to report she ended up with an A in Gym class! I keep saying I'm going to get a pedometer, but next time I really am. 10 days in a row on our feet really was a lot. I tried hard to plan some down time this trip, but everyone kept messing with the schedule.

I do hae a lot of AoA pics. I just have to find a good way to organize and post them.

I actually had us scheduled at Pop at first on this trip. Then our friends decided to stay there. And the more I thought about it, the more I decided if I didn't do it now, I'd regret it later. I also knew myself well enough to know that if I wasn't staying there, I would never make the walk over there.

One suggestion I have if you're staying at Pop is to take the bus back to AoA sometime from the park. Then stop to eat, and walk the rest of the way back. We took the Pop bus back from DTD one day and it really didn't seem that bad walking back to AoA since we had been off our feet for the duration of the bus ride at least.

Departure day always seems hectic no matter how much we plan and take care of things before hand and to complicate school with the trip would be hard for sure. When we went to Disneyland back in 2007 for a small weekend trip and it was hard for the kids to come back late and make up all that school work even though they just missed two days. Glad you made it safely and wow such a wonderful lobby view of AoA. Can't wait to see more of the resort through your lens!

We have our own dilemmas right now. The High School is taking an Orlando trip this May to march at Universal and SeaWorld and we had planned not to go but the Band Teacher has asked if we could change our minds as my son is one of the top performers. We had originally planned not to take a big vacation as we hoped to divert all monies to my oldest going to college this fall. So hard to know what to do. I wanted to go back to Disneyland this Christmas for a long weekend and just not do Christmas at home meaning that most of their presents would be the trip which they are more than happy with but now this has complicated matters. I was kind of hoping to take a small vacation around the midwest to see other parts of the country or maybe head to Washington DC.

Anyways always enjoy reading your trip reports, watching Katie have a blast, and seeing the world through your lens. Your such a wonderful photographer Janet. Have a good finish to your weekend!

Thanks so much for the kind words Mike!

I do feel for you with all these tough decisions ahead of you. It's all about to change, so just do the best you can to make the most of the time you have. Any word yet on a college choice? We still don't know where Timmy is going but I'd say the frontrunners are William Jewell and Rolla. He has the equivilant of free tuition at either of those, so it's hard to justify stepping away from that to pay a lot more somewhere else. Rolla is out of town so of course room and board is still an issue. William Jewell is in town but requires they live there, so room and board is an issue there as well. We're hoping some other scholarship money still comes through to help.

It feels at this point like your'e supposed to just give up on family plans, but keep fighting for them. You won't regret it. Even if you have to juggle around..... fight for it. I have the feeling it's just ALL complicated from here on out!

We're considering a family trip to Sanibel this summer. Well, sort of. I think Robbie's more interested in a vacation FROM family than a vacation WITH family so he's staying home. But Timmy loves the beach so we'll probably find a way to go. He doesn't care about Disney though, and I don't do Disney in the summer, so we'll have to wave at Mickey as we drive by.

I'm holding out hope at least Katie and I can sneak away to DLR in December. I have a rather big birthday this year, which will get overshadowed by graduation and college plans. But I'd like to do something, even if it is delayed.

Woo.. You have arrived!
That walk is long and i don't care what anyone says, it's just a tad too far.

Isn't that the truth! I think I would have enjoyed staying there more if we were on a shorter trip or if we had taken more time off our feet back at the resort.

I read somewhere recently that they had a cart back there selling breakfast pastries and such. I think that's a recognition on their part that it really is too far. It's a shame they didn't sprinkle some standard rooms throughout the entire complex. I would have gladly paid more to stay there, but in a closer spot. Just not so much more that it rivaled the price of a suite.

 

[mom2rtk]

Yay!

I agree with you both. There's a lot of green space between buildings. It could have been closer.

I can only appreciate pretty when my feet don't hurt so much.