May 2011 Yo Ho Ho! Let Down Your Hair! (New 10/9 Lessons Learned #550)

[Marshay]

My rachel is doing the same

I loved your review of CRT...we enjoyed our lunch there as well Matt had the chocolate mouse dessert too, he said it was delish. I love all the pix you took and nice you were closer to the windows. BTW the reason belle doesn't wear her yellow gown is she can't fit through the tables

the trip is over...you guys had so much fun and met some memorable characters too. i am glad overall the whole relaxed feel made for a better trip am looking forward to your wrap up and start of your Jan PTR...still bummed we'll miss each other by a day but eager to read along!

J~

That makes sense about Belle's dress! Yes, I could eat some of the choc mousse right now!

Yes, we thoroughly enjoyed CRT -- I think we'll go one more time in January (have ADR already) and then probably won't go back for a while, just b/c it IS expensive, but I want to take advantage of Elie being free one more time!

I know...If I had a better feeling about how the school does its excused vs unexcused days, I would have taken more days off. but supposedly after 5 unexcused days (which vacation counts for), we get a letter from Child Services.

I also need to sit down and see what points we have and when we'll be going in 2013/2014. I want to make sure to take advantage of the new Fantasyland ... but we may also try to do a cruise...hmmm

 

[Marshay]

FYI -- On Friday we got two sugar gliders (sugar bears) as pets. With my one cat no longer with us and no immediate vacations on the horizon (not until January), we thought the timing would be right.

One of them Toodles, the boy, is a bit more shy and doesn't want us holding him yet. No problem...it can take days, weeks or months to have that bond.

However, our little girl, Quoodles, came out of the carrying pouch last night and loves to explore. Here is a pic of Elizabeth with Quoodles...Quoodles surprised Elie by going on her head!

 

[kaoden39]

So very cute! I wish that we could own them in California.

 

[lbuzz52]

We were at MK on teh 18th too- well, at least for the morning. It was our departure day. I'll ahve to watch my pictures for you.
What a sweet idea to do the tea. I have it on our next trip plans now. Isn't CRT just an awesome experience! I love all the photopass pictures, and the ones you snagged showing all the sweet or excited expressions. i can't pick a favorite- too many great ones!

 

[Trentmom]

So very cute! I wish that we could own them in California.

Are they illegal or something in CA? Curious

 

[Trentmom]

sugar glider is too cute

 

[kaoden39]

Are they illegal or something in CA? Curious

I googled it earlier because I realized I had never seen them in pet stores. They are illegal here because they are marsupials and it is illegal to own one as a pet here.

sugar glider is too cute

They are adorable!!

 

[cherbear]

I'd never even heard of a sugar glider before. How cute!!

 

[Marshay]

So very cute! I wish that we could own them in California.

They are adorable! And now they both come out to play/climb on us -- it's really cute. but when they fall asleep on you -- that is the best!

We were at MK on teh 18th too- well, at least for the morning. It was our departure day. I'll ahve to watch my pictures for you.
What a sweet idea to do the tea. I have it on our next trip plans now. Isn't CRT just an awesome experience! I love all the photopass pictures, and the ones you snagged showing all the sweet or excited expressions. i can't pick a favorite- too many great ones!

The tea was really great! In fact, Rachel said that's the #1 thing she wants to do again for our Jan trip. So I need to fit that in.

Are they illegal or something in CA? Curious

The are considered an "exotic" pet and some places do not allow them. We had to register with "some place" (state? federal? I can't remember which) to let them know we now own two of them.

sugar glider is too cute

thanks!

I googled it earlier because I realized I had never seen them in pet stores. They are illegal here because they are marsupials and it is illegal to own one as a pet here.

They are adorable!!

Very!

I'd never even heard of a sugar glider before. How cute!!

I only heard about 8 years ago at the local Convention Center Pet Expo. Then I hadn't seen or heard of them until we bought them in September.

 

[Marshay]

Ok, time to wrap up this TR.

We had a wonderful trip and Disney continues to offer our family so many great opportunities.

As always, I find we could have done things differently and plan for our next trip. With DVC, we know a future trip is not that far away.

Lessons Learned

1) I had pre-bought Disney gifts, particularly at Black Friday's great sale and from our prior trips. This makes it really easy to bring even more special magic to the trip...and also helps eliminate the "I want this" at all the gift shops, b/c I can just say, "But Rachel, you just got something new this morning."

It worked so far!

I also like having the girls look around in the morning for their pixie magic. Some days it was something big like a brand new outfit or PJs. Some days it was just a coloring book or rain poncho.

2) Always bring along milk for Elizabeth. Or at least until she doesn't drink it for every meal. She loves her milk and it's waaaaaay too expensive in the parks.

I had bought a "Pack-It" from TV earlier this year and they work great!! They keep everything cold for a long time.



3) Going slower makes the vacation longer and seems like we are doing more.

YES! I said it!!

I'm not sure how it works but when I really try to slow down, even though we actually don't DO as many rides/shows, we actually feel like we are doing more.

Maybe b/c it's more worthwhile things -- like stopping to let the girls play in the water fountain and laughing at them smiling and running around or playing in the playgrounds.

And you never know what great photos you can get -- like my favorite one of Elie as she was running under the "tree tunnel"

 

[Marshay]

4) Rachel really grew up this trip. This was the first vacation that we did not bring a stroller for her. And it worked out wonderfully. Of course, she was really tired at night and we did get a few complaints and "carry me's" but overall it was good.

She like the freedom to wander away a bit and look at the water or a plant or something in the store and I liked that we didn't have to deal with another stroller.

She would also find things that I would typically just walk right past ... like the "singing in the rain umbrella".

She also went on a few new rides -- Expedition Everest and Kali River Rapids that she loved. Previously she was too scared to go on them.

5) We like to do the pressed pennies. This is a really cute and relatively inexpensive (as compared to vinylmation or pins) collection to do. We bought pressed penny books for each of them. And since have also collected pennies from Ocean City, New Jersey; Cox Farms in Virginia and The National Zoo in Washington, DC.

(Ok that picture has nothing to do with pressed pennies but I just love it!)

6) Cooking a few meals in the room (1 bedroom DVC) offers a good variety. It saves us money and also is very relaxing. We can explore the hotel or just enjoy our room a little more.

And when I say cook, I really mean just heat up some ravioli or dinty moore stew or make eggs/waffles. I really wouldn't want to make a full meal, but it's nice to have some quick go-to meals if we want them.

OK nothing to do with us getting fed but someone is...

 

[Marshay]

7) Since we are taking the Autotrain down to Disney and can bring more stuff with us, go ahead and bring all non-perishables along. This way we have the food with us if we need it; and it doesn't take as long at Wal-mart to get the rest of the groceries.

8) Remember that homemade Autograph book I made for Rachel? Well, it's now about 12-14" big. It's too big to take into the parks each day, so now I just take out the pages of characters we think we'll see, plus blank cards in case we meet someone else.

9) We absolutely love, love, love Kidani and will happily go back there again. The parking underneath is very convenient since we bring our own car;, the Bathroom is just unbelievable; seeing all the animals is so relaxing and exciting at the same time; the Bathroom is just unbelievably relaxing and vigorating; the color scheme of browns is really nice and soothing and oh, how in the world could I forget?? The bathrooms!!!

 

[Marshay]

10) The shower at Kidani -- perfect place to chill out!

11) We found some new restaurants that we really loved

Garden Grill

Garden View Tea Room

Cinderella's Royal Table

We will definitely be eating at these places again!

12) We really got to love Animal Kingdom park this trip. We liked it last trip too, but this trip, since we stopped to let the kids play in the boneyard, and of course with Rachel loving Kali & EE (and Primeval Whirl the last trip since it was closed this time), we really felt like this park is becoming our new favorite!

Plus with a stop at Camp Minnie-Mickey (our first), we are loving the variety of characters.

I hope to go over to Rafriki's Planet Watch and see the Lion King and Nemo shows next time. I really love the Nemo show!

 

[kaoden39]

I love pressed pennies. We have been collecting them since our honeymoon. To me they are some of the coolest souvenirs you can get.

 

[Marshay]

13) I am the runner for meeting Rapunzel!! 'nuff said.

14) We really do love taking the train. Yes, it can be delayed. Yes, you may not sleep entirely the whole time..yes, it can be expensive. But for our family, it just works!!

I can't believe we waited so long to try it. But maybe we just weren't ready for it sooner.

We love the fact that we can get up and move around and stretch out. We love a bathroom never more than 20 feet away. We love the food, meeting new people and having our privacy when we want it in the Family Bedroom car. When our girls out-grow the smaller beds, I will be sad. We've had some great and also some whiny experiences in the train. but it's generally 17 hours of us to be together as a family with nothing else to do but be together!

And you can tell the girls love it too

15) DHS is becoming less of a park for us. Unless they revamp/revise the whole Studio section, this park is now a 1/2 day for us. I still love ToT and RnR and love TSMM but if I don't get on them, it's ok.

What we really love now at DHS is the Animation Studio and I really hope they never take this away. It is a fun thing to do each trip.

16) I really enjoy having the Annual Pass. With the DVC discount, the break-even point is around 6-7 days and as long as we plan two vacations in 365 days, it works out TREMENDOUSLY in our favor.

I love going into a park for just a few hours and not feeling like we are wasting a whole day's ticket.

17) Going with family (nana and papa) is really nice and we cherish the times we get to spend together. Although there was no babysitting this trip, which would have been even nicer!, it was good to make those memories with my parents.

18) Having traditions -- like photos in front of the castle

or in front of the fountain at Epcot

really enhance the trip.

Memories truly are made. Each trip I'll remember something special from another trip.

And then of course we like to try something new each trip, too! It keeps the magic alive and offers something great to look forward to, esp if planned at the end of the vacation, which we all DREAD.

But having something new and fun to do sort of makes it ok for the trip to be ending. Esp as we can say, "next time, we want to do that again!"

19) Lastly, I am just extremely blessed for so many reasons. If I "counted my blessings naming them one-by-one", I would never be done.

Just the fact that I get to go to the place I love, share it with my family and know I'll be back again, is wonderful to the soul.

God is good and has greatly blessed me and my family!

 

[Marshay]

And I leave you with some of my favorite photos of the trip as a final recap (and just because I love looking at them again).

Baby Giraffe

Jerry and his girls

Elie

Rachel and I

Garden Grill

Jerry and I

Nana and her girls

Rachel just laughing it up with Flynn Rider

Joy

Laughter

Surprises

Thank you my readers for joining me in this journey! I look forward to reading about your trips (I need to catch-up!) and hope to take you along again in the future (Jan 2012).

 

[Marshay]

I love pressed pennies. We have been collecting them since our honeymoon. To me they are some of the coolest souvenirs you can get.

I agree!! They girls love the ones where they get to crank the handle.

And I like that we are finding them outside of Disney too!

And Disney was actually CHEAPER than OCNJ or the National Zoo!

 

[kaoden39]

What a great way to end your trip report!! I really enjoyed it a lot and I think the picture of Rachel laughing at Flynn Rider is one my favorites. She is laughing all the way into her eyes.

 

[Marshay]

What a great way to end your trip report!! I really enjoyed it a lot and I think the picture of Rachel laughing at Flynn Rider is one my favorites. She is laughing all the way into her eyes.

Thanks! It was a great trip and looking at the photos just helps me relive it again, too!

and I'm just glad I'm not totally talking to myself, too! I love getting comments and seeing what catches your eyes.

 

[kaoden39]

A relaxed trip is so much better.