March 2012: The Year I Almost Survived Spring Break

[teetee830]

Try a short cruise first. The ships are so big, unless it is really really bad swells you don't even feel the movement. But I wouldn't waste the money on a Disney cruise before I knew if I would enjoy it. Try Norwegian or Celebrity first, then shell out the big bucks when you find out how much fun cruising is

I've not cruised before either, but I don't think I'd want to do one that isn't a Disney Cruise.

 

[oopsiDAISY]

I've not cruised before either, but I don't think I'd want to do one that isn't a Disney Cruise.

I'm with you on that one. We have looked at cruises. Some of them would be cheaper than a WDW vacation...but who wants to give up Disney to do ANYTHING non-Disney related? Crazy if you ask me...

 

[DMGeurts]

I'm with you on that one. We have looked at cruises. Some of them would be cheaper than a WDW vacation...but who wants to give up Disney to do ANYTHING non-Disney related? Crazy if you ask me...

ROFL - I am soooo with you Oopsi! I just can't imagine a vacation where Disney isn't involved...

Serisouly - what's better than praying you get a good room location, booking your dining 6 months in advance, waiting forever for busses, waiting in endless lines day after day, pushing through crowds of people, eating lots of banana bread pudding... and yet - it's all so magical and we crave to do it again and again!

D~

 

[Lidian]

Try a short cruise first. The ships are so big, unless it is really really bad swells you don't even feel the movement. But I wouldn't waste the money on a Disney cruise before I knew if I would enjoy it. Try Norwegian or Celebrity first, then shell out the big bucks when you find out how much fun cruising is

Well things happen in 3s so.....good luck!

Too funny

I think I would get sea sick from just KNOWING I was on a boat ... regardless of the swells.

I'm not sure I could do a non-Disney cruise. Actually, I'm not sure non-Disney cruises exist. Not in my book anyway.

good luck on your finals and paper and with avoiding the ER!

Thank you!

I've not cruised before either, but I don't think I'd want to do one that isn't a Disney Cruise.

Same here!

I'm with you on that one. We have looked at cruises. Some of them would be cheaper than a WDW vacation...but who wants to give up Disney to do ANYTHING non-Disney related? Crazy if you ask me...

This. All this.

ROFL - I am soooo with you Oopsi! I just can't imagine a vacation where Disney isn't involved...

Serisouly - what's better than praying you get a good room location, booking your dining 6 months in advance, waiting forever for busses, waiting in endless lines day after day, pushing through crowds of people, eating lots of banana bread pudding... and yet - it's all so magical and we crave to do it again and again!

D~

And this. All this, too!

I know DH wants to do a cruise ... but I think he'd rather do a non-Disney one. Imagine that.

However, he'd rather do a short cruise anyway .... but even still, I think once I got adjusted, it would be time to disembark.

P.S. Update coming up soon!

 

[Corrine 1973]

Just wanted to stop by a let you know that I am still around. I had about 10 pages to catch up on but I am all caught up and looking foward to whats next. I am glad you were feeling better for your day at DHS. The kids looked like they had a great time at the JTA. FYI-I think kids able to do training academy until they are 12 so your DD should be fine for it next May. Can't wait to read more.

 

[Lidian]

We last left off having just finished JTA and grabbing FPs for Star Tours. No word from Kouga yet ... so we decided to wander around aimlessly (or not-so-aimlessly).

First, we saw the Academy of TV Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame busts. I had never really stopped to see who all was there, and the kids were very interested. So we checked it out.

First, DS wanted a picture with Betty White, even though he has no clue who she is (but he picked up on DH's interest when he proclaimed that it was awesome they had her bust):

Then DD found the amazing Walt Disney!

I was always a big fan of Bill Cosby...

I took several other bust pictures, but I'll spare you those. lol

We kept walking and saw that Disney Channel Rocks was in progress. I've wanted to see this show, and I know DD wanted to see this show, but now was not the time for stopping. We were actually on a mission. So we kept walking.

Then low and behold ... I spotted a PP photographer! Well, we had to stop right? We waited patiently for our turn while a lovely couple was getting their pictures taken. In the meantime, DH snapped this picture.

Who spots the surprise in this picture? Anyone? Anyone?

I stood there and watched this couple get their picture taken. They were so adorable! I was all "ooooh'ing" and "awwww'ing" over how adorable they were. Yet, I never spotted the one thing I SHOULD have seen.

Has anyone guessed it yet? Anyone? Anyone?

It's not the little Snow White. It's now the crowd. It's not the baby-bump. It's the bag mommy-to-be is carrying. See it yet? LGMH. Yep. I totally missed out on a DISmeet. Sigh.

Parents-to-be, if you're reading, just know I thought you guys were so adorable!

Anyway, we took our turn with the PP photographer and got a few pictures taken. Then it was off to our destination.

One Man's Dream? Nope, we'll save that for later.

Just to note, at 9:52 AM, the FPs being given out for TSM were for 4:35-5:35 PM.

We finally made it. It was time to use our FP tickets! Some pictures of our queue:

Before we boarded, I sent a text to Kouga. He was still on his way.

DD rode with DH and DS rode with me. I think we did pretty good.

I was so proud of my score ... and then DH told me what he got. His score was nearly twice mine. Ugh! But DD's wasn't much lower than mine. So I felt pretty mediocre at that point. lol

It was time to use our SW FPs now, so we made our way over to ST. Another text to Kouga to see what was going on. He was in the parking lot, so I told him where we would be.

I tried to take pictures of the queue, but I got yelled at by people. I wasn't using a flash (they didn't turn out, either). I guess it was because I wasn't sprinting my way to the line, where we'd stand and wait anyway. Stupid people. I didn't stop taking pictures, screw them. And I even decided to walk slower, just because. It was obvious there was a line, so it wasn't like we would miss the next boarding or something. Ugh. People really work my nerves, ya know?

Shoot. I just realized I never told the story about the bag-check for this AM.

So we're backing up for a minute. When we came in this AM for bag-check ... since there was like NO ONE there ... the security guys were pretty bored. So they decided to have some fun with me.

I had my bag open and ready for them. He told me cameras weren't allowed in the park today. And if I took my camera in, I had to leave it in my bag. I told him that wasn't true, but I hesitated for a minute. It really just threw me for a loop. Then as he was checking DD's bag, he said her shoes were untied. I looked. She was wearing flip flops. So he poked fun of me for checking DD's feet. Then he made another comment, and I had to force myself to not look ... I don't recall exactly what he said ... but he laughed, because it was obvious I was forcing myself to not check -- but I knew it wasn't true. Ugh, I wish I could remember what he said. It's been too long .. but he did announce that I was really wanting to look (and it was true). We all had a good laugh.

Anyway ... back to my slow walking through the queue. We stood in line for a bit, before we were boarded. I absolutely love this ride. And we rode it several times last year -- each time, we had the same sequence. Remember, my goal was to ride this "many, many times". Let's see if I meet my goal.

I've been debating on stating what the ride sequence is ... but there may be people who want to keep it a surprise. So I'll just say this. We did get "some" new elements on this ride. But we also got a repeat, too!

When we got off the ride, we found Kouga waiting for us. Huzzah! I grabbed his ticket and immediately got us all FPs to use for ST.

It's now about 10:40, so we decided we needed something to do while we waited for our FP window (I don't recall what the time for our window was, but it wasn't very long).

So we decided to walk ...

Oh Muppets, how I love you!

I absolutely love this fountain!

When we arrived to Muppets 3D, I saw something new. Something I hadn't seen before. The extended queue. WHA?! We've always just walked in through the doors ... but no, we had to walk through a line that started on the side of the building. It scared me a bit. Apparently they were expecting big crowds today. At least I had gotten our "must dos" out of the way already. So walking through the extended queue, I saw this and had to snap a picture:

Finally, were entering. I happened to look to my right.

Security
Back in 5 minutes
key is under mat

I remember reading about a key being under the mat. And every year, I have searched for said mat. I look down and there is the mat! I pointed out the sign to the kids and DD read it aloud. They looked at me unsure if they were allowed to look. I told them to check. A CM was standing there and he turned to the kids, giving them the "okay" to check. He said he was curious, too. He mentioned he hadn't looked to see if the key was there today or not.

DD was still a bit unsure if it was okay, but DS got down on the floor.

Yep, the key was under the mat! FINALLY! I found something I had spent years searching for. lol And all it took was slowing down and turning to my right. Haha!

So we watched the show. I'm used to it being a pretty empty house. I'm used to being able to sit anywhere. I'm used to CM's encouraging families to move to the front and sit in the middle. I was NOT used to it being COMPLETELY FULL and people having to wait for the next show. Yeah, that was pretty different.

We come out of the show and it's around 11:15 or so. Another fountain picture.

It was time for us to use our ST FPs, so we hopped back in line. And waited. And waited. This is where we found a trend. The lines for FP were MUCH longer than they had ever been before. I'm used to a short wait in the FP line. Not a wait that was barely shorter than the posted wait time. The FP line actually made me a bit ... well ... cranky.

So anyway, we rode and got a few new elements from last year, and all elements were different from our previous ride. I thought surely that Kouga would be picked as the spy ... since he drew so much attention from the ride attendant. His shirt was pulling aggro everywhere today. It got him free parking when he came in (yay for getting pixie dusted in the parking lot!). Several CMs stopped him to comment on his shirt. I looked, there's no pictures of his shirt. But it's a picture of Han Solo and it says "Dadgum right I shot first".

Anyway, we saw the speeder-thingamajigs, so we hopped in line for pictures. There was one family who was basically letting their kids use it as a playground while they surfed the web on their phones -- knowing perfectly well that people would like to take PICTURES on the equipment. Thankfully, someone asked them if their kids would be done anytime soon, and they scurried their kids off to find something else to do. There was a family in front of us ... so we waited patiently.

Then we snapped this:

And of course...

I sent the picture of Kouga to one of our friends along with:
Can Kouga get this made by your Engineer? He has mats and will tip.

It was around 11:50 at this point ... but I had a mission. There was something else I had been looking for and wanted to find. So we set off.

First we passed the HISTK playground.

Then we wandered around aimlessly while I looked for it ...

And then ... I found it! But DS wouldn't let me capture the picture alone!

And it's hard to tell, but I was getting pretty wet from the rain. lol I actually posed a few different times, but for some reason DH only took ONE picture. Just one. I dunno what he was doing when I was posing, I thought he was taking pictures. Grrrr!

We saw the P&F greet, and I asked the CM what the wait was. I don't recall what he said (hour? hour and a half?), but I asked when the best time to come back would be for a lower wait. He said anytime was as good as any, as I should expect to wait a minimum of an hour. Ugh.

It's now around noon. We had a big breakfast, but we were starting to get hungry. Earlier that day, the kids had decided that Kouga would get to pick where we ate, since we always make the choices. I thought that was really sweet of the kids to let Kouga pick.

So what did Kouga pick for lunch?

 

[dara00]

we found the umbrella too, but I couldn't get it to rain!

 

[Lidian]

we found the umbrella too, but I couldn't get it to rain!

It was weird, it started raining as soon as I touched the handle. And then I had to wait for it to finish before I could get out from under it. I'm not sure if it's timed, motion sensitive, or if there's a trick. Perhaps someone knows.

 

[MHTeacher]

Never looked for the key under the mat. Of course, I haven't watched the Muppets in years either. Maybe this trip we'll check it out again!

For lunch.....how about some big 'ole cupcakes from Starring Rolls? Yes, cupcakes for lunch!

 

[teetee830]

ROFL - I am soooo with you Oopsi! I just can't imagine a vacation where Disney isn't involved...

Serisouly - what's better than praying you get a good room location, booking your dining 6 months in advance, waiting forever for busses, waiting in endless lines day after day, pushing through crowds of people, eating lots of banana bread pudding... and yet - it's all so magical and we crave to do it again and again!

D~

So true!

 

[teetee830]

I think I would get sea sick from just KNOWING I was on a boat ... regardless of the swells.

I'm not sure I could do a non-Disney cruise. Actually, I'm not sure non-Disney cruises exist. Not in my book anyway.



Thank you!



Same here!



This. All this.



And this. All this, too!

I know DH wants to do a cruise ... but I think he'd rather do a non-Disney one. Imagine that.

However, he'd rather do a short cruise anyway .... but even still, I think once I got adjusted, it would be time to disembark.

P.S. Update coming up soon!

Maybe the March gang should all do a newbie cruise next year. We could share Dramamine.

 

[Lidian]

Never looked for the key under the mat. Of course, I haven't watched the Muppets in years either. Maybe this trip we'll check it out again!

For lunch.....how about some big 'ole cupcakes from Starring Rolls? Yes, cupcakes for lunch!

We're huge Muppets fans and have a few seasons on DVD (plus the new Muppets movie -- saw it in theaters and own it on DVD). Seeing Muppets 3D is a must for us every year. So the year we went and it was in refurb, DH almost cried on the spot. (No, honestly, I thought he was going to cry. ) He would have known it was in refurb if he would have LISTENED to me. Sigh. He even said that he wished he had known so we could have rescheduled our trip. Yep. We're fans.

And since it took me years to find the mat with the key, it's literally RIGHT as you walk through the door. It's on the other side of the "people counter half-wall thingies". Just turn and look to your right as you walk through the door and you'll see the "Security" window with the sign, and on the other side of the "people counter thingie" is the mat.

Cupcakes for lunch. Perhaps. Bill Cosby did a little "diddy" about the nutrition value and they're suitable for breakfast, too!

Maybe the March gang should all do a newbie cruise next year. We could share Dramamine.

Oh, I'd be game! We can sit on a deck and pass the bottle around. That wouldn't get strange looks at all. (It would be EPIC!)

 

[Lidian]

Side note:
Finals start today. I'm a bit nervous, but anxious as well. It means that once Thursday hits, I'm done with Spring semester. I'm completely enrolled for Fall and waiting for them to release their books so I can search for deals. And when I say deals ... I bought my Accounting book for less than $7, and the book store was going to charge me almost $200. So yep, I get DEALS. Plus, I sold the book to the bookstore for over $100. How's that for profit? All the cash I got from selling my books will more than cover the down payment for our 2013 trip! I need to come up with some ways to make a few dollars here and there for the summer so I can afford to do some of the things I want to plan for our next trip. I know DH won't let me take it out of the budget ... but that's partly because I'll be over budget anyway. As long as I don't get too far over budget, he won't say anything (much). So the extra stuff, I need to come up with that on my own.

Also, yesterday, I went back on Weight Watchers. I'm about 10-15 pounds more than I'm comfortable at. I can release up to 25 pounds before WW says I'm below a normal BMI, but I'm literally just a pound or two at the top of the "normal" range. I don't aim to release much, but if I can drop a few pounds, I can sit on my feet again. (Yes, that's really what drove me to want to release a couple of pounds, I can't sit on my feet anymore in my chair.)

Stormy is finally starting to attempt weight on his formerly-broken leg. He doesn't put much weight, and he's not doing it continuously, but it's a start. The way he holds it, it looks like it wasn't set correctly (like it was set crooked, turned inwards too much). But it's really hard to tell right now. So fingers are crossed that it's just the way he's holding his leg and he'll get back on track.

Over the weekend, my mom took DD to a Native Nurture Center. They planted gourds and flowers, danced, played instruments, did a sweat lodge (but not closed up since it's a Kids event, and DD sat at the door since it was messing with her asthma), danced some more, had a feast, and did a share (each person brought an item(s) to share on the "sharing blanket" and they got to take an item(s) that called to them). DD came home with a puzzle and a couple of craft kids, plus a crystal-rock from Costa Rica -- where one of the "guides" is formerly from. It was kind of a Native American and Shamanism event, but focused on giving back to Mother Nature and respecting Nature and such. They sang and danced for the plants, and then had like a dance festival. It was something my mom wanted to take DD to, and they got to have some great time to themselves. They'll go back in the fall and harvest the gourds they planted!

I'm working on another update, hopefully after my final I can start typing it up. My final tomorrow isn't too bad (Excel), so it's just reviewing my notes and then practicing. Her tests are usually pretty easy, and we're welcome to use the "Help" function within Excel (it's encouraged and written on the test that we can use it). The only issue is it's timed, so you can't spend a lot of time looking for an answer, so you do need to pretty well know the material. It's over IF, AND, OR, VLOOKUP, and some other stuff. I feel pretty comfy with those things, but want to practice nested IFs again before I actually take the exam (because nested IFs will be on the exam).

Overall, my grades are looking pretty good. Even if I fail my finals, I will still average a B in each class at worst. My goal is straight As, but I don't know where I stand in Stats, and could possibly get a C if I bomb the final. However, if I do well on my exams, then I'll definitely score As. Final grades are supposed to be posted Friday. So fingers are crossed I do well!

Starting next week, expect massive updates. Odds are high that the TR will be done by mid-May.

And for those who have TRs/PTRs I'm following, yes, I'm still there, lurking. I'm usually behind, but I do read the updates (and often skip comments in between ).

Hmm... Anything else? I think that's all ... for now ...

 

[pharmjenn]

Liddy, Good luck with finals. I don't "get" accounting at all, so good for you. I loved Stats at the Community College where I took it as a pre-req, but then in pharmacy school I didn't understand a thing. They messed with our instructors, and we had 3 for the semester; different teaching styles and methods. It sucked. Thankfully, I don't do research, and when I did as a student and resident, we had statisticians to crunch the numbers and we just had to evaluate the results.
It sounds like you are well prepared for all your exams. Have a good week and we will watch for that update this weekend when you are celebrating the summer!

 

[oopsiDAISY]

Best of luck on your finals Liddy!!! You just go in there and rock them! You can do it, Water Boy!

 

[DMGeurts]

I have lots I want to reply, but I have to run back to work - had to pick A up at school and bring her home - she wasn't feeling well.

Good luck on your finals - I KNOW you can do it!!! Big party at Liddy's house this weekend!!! Whoot~! Everyone's invited!!!!

And hooray for WW... I need to chat with you about something!!! I am back on too...

D~

 

[pinkxray]

Good luck on your finals.

I have to recommit to WW today too. I did great in the fall, but fell off during the holidays. It was a nice 5 month break but time to get serious again. Thankfully I didn't gain back too much since I kept up the running but I still have about 10 lbs to go. Good luck with that too.

 

[teetee830]

Good Luck with your Finals!!!!

 

[DisneyDreamerMom]

Good luck on your finals!

 

[solana131]

Good luck! You'll do great. Just remember, you are the only one that got a 100 on that one test