March, 2009 TR - I'm a White Rabbit Protégé

[goofieslonglostsis]

Oh, not even thinking about the deserving part. Was mainly trying to make sense if the difference between allowed and not allowed, for myself.

 

[Crystal_27]

Was mainly trying to make sense if the difference between allowed and not allowed, for myself.

That's my girl!!

 

[NutzaboutDisney]

Hey Crystal,

I'm proud of you for still "shooting away" at that bird as it's beak is flying right for your eye balls.

And the scolding, it just goes to show how far some will go for the love of scrapbooking!!! She did look rather cute on the rhino!

Keep it coming!

 

[Crystal_27]

And the scolding, it just goes to show how far some will go for the love of scrapbooking!!! She did look rather cute on the rhino!

Keep it coming!

Yes, I already have a wonderful page in mind for the rhino picture. Gotta love this crazy hobby - LOL.

 

[avahoneybee]

I was doing a search for the land/sea cruise and came across your trip report(s). Sooo very helpful!

If you don't mind my asking, what kind of camera do have? Your photos are so crisp and clear "so pretty too." Thanks so much.

 

[Crystal_27]

I was doing a search for the land/sea cruise and came across your trip report(s). Sooo very helpful!

If you don't mind my asking, what kind of camera do have? Your photos are so crisp and clear "so pretty too." Thanks so much.

Awww, thank you!! To answer your question, the pictures in this and my September, 2008 dining report were shot with my Olympus E-520. The ones in the December, 2007 trip report were shot with an Olympus E-500. I'm just love my Oly cameras!!

My next installment should be up tonight. Stay tuned!

 

[avahoneybee]

Thank you so much. We're going to invest in a new camera and have read every consumer report known to man. It's nice to have something to go by with actual photos.

Unrelated to this trip report (but which I am now interested in ), did you find that your land/sea cruise was rushed? DH thinks it's just enough time but I really want to add on some more park time prior to the cruise. We'll also have a car so transportation back and forth won't be an issue. I think I'd be overwhelmed if I had to take a plane, bus, monorail, bus, boat, bus, plane.

 

[Crystal_27]

Thank you so much. We're going to invest in a new camera and have read every consumer report known to man. It's nice to have something to go by with actual photos.

Unrelated to this trip report (but which I am now interested in ), did you find that your land/sea cruise was rushed? DH thinks it's just enough time but I really want to add on some more park time prior to the cruise. We'll also have a car so transportation back and forth won't be an issue. I think I'd be overwhelmed if I had to take a plane, bus, monorail, bus, boat, bus, plane.

Well, once you get me going on cameras, I'll not shut up, but, I've been an Olympus girl since I had my point & shoot and Olympus really has unique color rendentions on their digital cameras (more saturated, more vibrant) and also, given that Olympus cameras use a 4/3s sensor, they are lighter and smaller than the competition. However, with that, because Olympus has smaller sensors, they do not perform as well in low light, and the higher ISO shots are more noisy than those of the competition. That said, Canon, Nikon, Sony, Pentex all make great cameras, and each brand comes with its own positives. I think that Olympus has actually released a newer generation than even my camera, and they also have released a mid-pro camera, which is weather-sealed to boot.

Okay, now that I have that out of my system, as to the land/sea, yes, we did feel like we were incredibly rushed. That said, instead of trying to fit one park in per day, we tried to fit all four parks into 3 days and really created our own sort of hecticness. In our defense, though, when we went in December, 2007, we had no idea that we would love Disney so much that we would want to come back every year. We drive to Orlando so we always have a car as well; however, given that we live in Metro Atlanta and that both of our commutes are at least an hour each way, we try and avoid the car at all costs while on vacation. That's why we *love* the monorail. Anyway, knowing what we know now about Disney (and knowing that we're locked into vacationing there for the next 50 years with DVC ), we could probably very easily do another land/sea and not be rushed at all... I think that the experience is all on how you approach your "land" days.

Anyway, I hope that helps you. Please, don't hesitate to ask any other questions you may have.

 

[Crystal_27]

We woke up this morning all set for a fun-filled day at DHS. Now, maybe I’ll never be “Hollywood” enough to really appreciate its charms, but, of Disney’s 4 Florida parks, DHS is my least favorite. Still, in past trips, we’ve always had enough fun to continue to add a full DHS day into our trip itineraries, especially because it houses DH’s favorite ride in the universe: Rockin’ Rollarcoaster.

Our plan for this trip was to follow the same game plan that we followed in September, 2008 – split at rope drop so DH could ride Rockin’ Rollarcoaster a time or two (thankfully, The Big has a couple more inches to grow before she’s ready for this one, and I’m hanging onto those couple inches for dear life) while The Big and I secured FastPasses for TSMM and then rode it once standby. When we were there in September (when TSMM was still a relatively new attraction) that plan worked perfectly so I thought we were all set to go.

At rope drop, everything went off without a hitch and The Big and I were only a couple families back at the FastPass machines. We got our FastPasses without any problems and turned around to walk into the standby line only to find that it was already at 40 minutes. Say whhhhaaaaat? And, what’s worse is that I stopped to really listen to what the CM at the FastPass machines was instructing people about how to receive FastPasses for TSMM. He had to tell people that they could not receive a FastPass using a park pass that hadn’t been used for entry to the park that morning. Does that mean that TSMM has gotten so out of hand that people are trying to defraud the FastPass system? I mean, WOW. TSMM is very cute but I cannot believe that it’s obtained the type of reputation that could cause otherwise sane people to spend the time and energy thinking about ways to get extra FastPasses for it. Again: WOW!!

Here's the only photo evidence I have of the ride that makes sane people lose their heads (actually, this is across the street from the mania):

Needless to say, The Big and I did not opt to get into the TSMM standby line and instead chose to meander over to the ABC Commissary where we were to meet DH after he got his brains scrambled on Rockin’ Rollarcoaster.

We actually went ahead and placed our order and, to our surprise, The Big was given a “Magical Moment” Certificate signed by all of the ABC Commissary staff. In case I haven’t mentioned it, my child feels perfectly comfortable chatting up adults about anything on her mind, so much so that we usually have to drag her away, with many apologies to the adult whose ear she has just proceeded to talk off. At Disney, though, unlike in the real life, the CMs seem to actually enjoy hearing my daughter’s life story and her various anecdotes. Anyway, I always appreciate the fact that the CMs are interested (or at least appear to be interested) in my child's habit of chatting about anything and everything, and the gift of the "Magical Moment" certificate truly touched my heart...

Anyway, DH finally made his way back to us and we decided to go ahead and use our FastPasses for TSMM, and actually were able to snap these empty street pictures (given that everybody in the park was standing in line at TSMM by this point):

After we were done riding TSMM, we really couldn’t decide on what to do, so we started walking around the park aimlessly until finally DH said that we needed to just peace out and maybe plan on coming back later in the day for Fantasmic! We actually had ADRs at Yachtsman Steakhouse for dinner (our first time dining there) so a Fantasmic! showing after dinner was completely doable.

So, we departed DHS…after spending a mere hour and a half there. That’s got to be a record, right?

And, as I’m sure you can guess, we didn’t end up going back to DHS for the Fantasmic! show either. BUT, our meal at Yachtsman was absolutely to.die.for so the day wasn’t all wasted.

Anyway, I guess the other positive that we took away from our “touring” of DHS was that we realized we really needed to stop trying to force DHS into our itineraries. So, for future trips, we’re going to try and just do DHS on an EMH morning (just the EMH part) and then hop to Epcot or another park of our choice.

That's it for this installment. As always, thank you for reading!

And, since I obviously couldn’t do a lot of pictorial damage in an hour and a half, if you want some shots from our September trip, I'll be happy to post them!!

 

[Crystal_27]

Last days are so bittersweet. As we now have a couple of family trips under our belts, we've realized that (i) driving down the night before and staying off site really works for us; (ii) starting our first "real" day with MK is an absolute must; and (iii) ending our last night at MK is another must. With that in mind, we planned our last day for MK, with a Spectro/Wishes combo. And, if you'll remember from my first couple of posts, we also had some unfinished business at Pixie Hollow; namly, we still had to score Fawn and Iridessa's autographs for our scrapbook.

By the end of this trip, as much as I hate to say it, we were exhausted. I was *done* with the busses and I was *done* with the luke-warm breakfasts at the Pop every morning, so I suggested to DH that we drive to the TTC that morning and walk over to Captain Cook's for breakfast so he could get his Tonga Toast fix for the trip. He, of course, agreed that that sounded very good. So, we woke up early and were able to score a great parking spot at the TTC and our plan worked perfectly. When we were done with breakfast, we hopped on the monorail to MK to start our day there. And upon boarding the monorail and taking the couple minute trip to the MK, I realized just how much I missed the convenience the monorail afforded our trips. And, DH and I were again very glad that we had taken the plunge and bought into DVC.

We arrived at MK about 30 minutes before rope drop, and The Big had a great time showcasing her hoola-hooping talents for DH (I wish I had a video camera - she was probably rotating herself about 1000 times per minute, all for that darn hoola-hoop to keep falling down).

We actually were one of the first families in the park after rope drop and headed to (any guesses?) Space Mountain. Got our FPs and did the standby thing, still herky-jerky, The Big still loving every minute. Then, we rode the Astro Orbiter, which was a first for all of us. MAN, are you high in the air or what?

Next, we headed to the Teacups to get our brains scrambled a bit more and then decided it was time to head over to Toon Town for rope drop (Pixie Hollow was calling). Well, as we exited the Teacups, we saw the White Rabbit and Alice were signing autographs, so DH told me to get in line for the White Rabbit and he would get in line for the Fairies. Well, upon being in line for this duo for about 10 minutes and not getting any closer to the front, I started panicing because I had the autograph book for the Fairies and I thought for sure that DH would be getting close to the front of the Fairies line, so I buckled and left the line and ran to Toon Town...all to discover that DH was still 45 minutes deep in the standby line for the Fairies. Oops. Guess we'll have to try for the White Rabbit next trip - LOL.

The line for the Fairies moved just as slow as it did previously, and one of the things that drove me insane was that the CMs refused to tell you who was "flying in" for visits. Recall that we had prevoiusly gotten Tink, Silvermist, and Rosetta, so we didn't want to stand in line if they were the only ones in there. Finally, I was able to ask one of the people exiting what Fairies were in there and he told me Tink, Iridessa, and Silvermist. Well, that meant that we still needed Fawn, and would have to stand in line...again. Still, since getting the Fairies' autographs was one of the major things I wanted to do this trip, we just resigned ourselves to the fact that we would be at Pixie Hollow all day. YAY for The Big, right?

As we got closer to the front, we started getting our matching Sharpies out and getting our pages ready, and one of the families standing in the Princess line asked to see our scrapbook. We, of course, gave it to her, and our scrapbook started being passed around the line...it's great to entertain people, right? Well, everyone who saw was just complimenting me (until they found it DH made the pages, and then were gushing - LOL) and we finally made it to the front of the line where the CM manning the Fairies rope asked to see our book. She also was impressed, but was telling us that unfortunately only Iridessa, not Fawn, was in Pixie Hollow signing right now. I kinda laughed and said "oh, that's okay...we'll be back later on for Fawn..." Well, the CM asked if she could take our Fawn page with the rest of the scrapbook while we were visiting the Fairies, and we said, "of course." When we were finished with our Fairies visit, the CM came back, and gave us our scrapbook, as well as a signed Fawn's page. The CM actually took the time to track down Fawn and ask her to sign her page...can you guys believe that? I literally started crying, hugging the CM, and thanking her so much. I couldn't believe that this CM would take the time to do that for us, and still, to this day, am so grateful to her. It's moments like these that show us how special Disney is, and it's why we continue to vacation there.

Now, without further ado, I'll show you my completed Fairies pages, together with some Photopass pictures from both visits with the Fairies:

After our wonderful, magical time at Pixie Hollow, it was such a relief to realize that we had the entire day to play, play, play. So, we headed off to ride a couple of our favorites: Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and did some exploring in the Tree House (another first) before we decided to call it a day. We wanted to have enough time for naps and relaxation because tonight was our big finale - Spectro/Wishes.

Thanks for reading!!

 

[goofieslonglostsis]

And again did DH live up to the expectations of his scrapwork. The Fairy pages are cutesy cute.

And that CM, gotta love that magic! Do you happen to know her name and/or approx. time you were there? If so, sent a kudos to GS. It's easy to do and is very appreciated I found out.

Now, before you leave. Stick out your hand and repeat after me; "I swear to post the next installment a lot quicker than I did the last one!".

 

[Crystal_27]

Stick out your hand and repeat after me; "I swear to post the next installment a lot quicker than I did the last one!".

I know, I know - - but the last installment is *so* hard to write because it's soooooo sad to have to go back home to reality. However, my next installment is going to be more pictures than anything, so as soon as I get them loaded, it will be up, and then I'll be done with this Trip Report.

 

[NutzaboutDisney]

Hey Crystal,

Great to get caught up on the latest! The scrapbook pages are wonderful, and TB is as adorable as ever!!!!

Gotta love a little magic added to your trip! What a great treat not to have to live at Pixie Hollow on your last day!

Looking for the last installment!

 

[Crystal_27]

All right, guys, here is my last installment. We try to always end our trip with a Spectro/Wishes combo. Here (for your viewing enjoyment (I hope)) are some pictures...

All in all, we had a really really good trip. Yes, the transportation issues sucked, but riding the bus did give us the opportunity to chat with some really nice people and share in their memories (and allow them to share in ours). I hope that you guys have enjoyed my Trip Report, and I hope that I've been able to share a little bit of the magic. Until next time...

 

[NutzaboutDisney]

Nice Job, Crystal!

You've got me in the WDW spirit now! I loved loved loved the pics!!! Can't wait to meet you in a few months!

 

[Crystal_27]

Nice Job, Crystal!

You've got me in the WDW spirit now! I loved loved loved the pics!!! Can't wait to meet you in a few months!

Thank you, my Dear! I can't wait to meet you either. And thank you so much for reading my TR - - I'll be glad to have another one to write in just a few short months!