Memories of Little Green Men and Sardines (6/8-17, 2010) **FINAL UPDATE 2-25-2011**

[photographymom517]

Luke loved walking by the glass cases to see all of the bugs, spiders, snakes, etc. It was perfect for him!!! I know a lot of people skip Rafiki’s Planet Watch, but if you have kids who love animals, in my opinion it’s a must-do! Of course we can see all of that back at home at the petting zoo or regular zoo, but it was relaxing & it was a break from the humidity (the building is air conditioned & outside is mostly in the shade!)

Here are some of Luke’s favorites!

He also really loved the snakes (which I hate!) but I couldn’t get a good picture of them. After we looked at the insets & reptiles, we sat on a bench for a little while. I called my parents to catch up & let them know where we went for the day. After I talked for awhile, we noticed people lining up on the other side of the building. So we went to see who was there…it was Jiminy Cricket!!! We tried to get a picture of Luke with him, but he just cried & looked the other way. I didn’t want to take up too much time trying to get him to look for a picture because by that time, there was a long line behind us.

So we decided to take him outside to see the animals!

He was so gentle when he pet the goats!!!

He was telling me that he wanted to feed the goat, but I explained that he could only pet them and that we had to wait to go back home to feed the animals at the park!

He really, really, really LOVES animals! I thought he was going to climb into the fence & hug this goat!!!

You can kinda tell from the picture, but he’s moo-ing at the cow!!!

After we let Luke see the animals for a really long time, we went & sat at a picnic table. We got a powerade to share & while we sat in the shade for a little while, I took some pictures. I love the colors at Animal Kingdom! Look at the gift shop…

I liked how they had animal designs on all the garbage cans!

I don’t remember this being there last trip…but it was so crowded and Luke was so young that maybe I was just preoccupied & didn’t notice it ??? I thought it was really neat! There was a CM there too who was asking trivia questions & to see if you had any questions regarding anything at the Conservation Station!

I LOVE this picture! I know its not the best & its slightly out of focus, but it turned out great! It’s one of those pictures that people think you staged…but it just kinda happened! He turned around to look at me so I snapped a picture really fast! Love those dimples!

After looking around at the benches, ponds, etc. we made our way back to our train to go to Harambe!

After we boarded the train & it started to move, I took a few pictures of signs along the way. Most of them turned out blurry so I was deleting them on my camera and I noticed…that my first 8GB memory card ran out of memory! Luckily at the time, we were on the train sitting down, so I didn’t need to stop anywhere or miss anything to change my memory card. I was so afraid it would happen during a parade or fireworks, but it didn’t! Perfect timing! I changed my memory card & the batteries just to be on the safe side!

And we finally arrived back at Harambe!

 

[photographymom517]

We then decided to walk around the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail

I took about a million pictures of signs on this trail. I wanted to post them on the “sign thread” here on the boards, but I never got around to it yet. We saw mostly signs & not many animals. I guess it was a bad time to visit the trail. A couple of the CM’s told us that some of the animals were being fed and others were sleeping.

A bunch of people behind me looked at me like I was half crazy when I took this! But I really liked how they made the animal tracks in the trail!

He loved the fish!

This was really cute to see! The mom & dad duck were swimming around. All the little baby ducks were on the other side of the pond. The mom & dad made some sounds & all the little ducks swam over & followed them all in a straight line! The one baby duck kept falling over things (like the branch) and just in the water…for some reason it reminded me of the little ugly duckling book!

Luke loves these little guys! I bet he would’ve sat there & watched them for hours if we would’ve let him! He loves the Kratt Brothers on the Disney Channel! Later that evening, we were actually watching the Disney Channel & they came on…he said “mommy, I saw them!” And then of course he wanted to go see all the animals again!

The look-out

Changing guard! The CM said that you rarely see 2 of them on the rock. He said that one will run quickly down the rock while the other runs quickly up the other side of the rock to take over. So I guess we got to see something special!

Continuing on…

After we left the trail, we decided to get a frozen lemonade and then I wanted to take Luke to the baby changing station. I really love these stations! They are a great place to just relax or take a time out from the park (in air conditioning!) with your child. They have an area in the back with changing tables & high chairs…so you can change them or feed them! They have separate private rooms for breast feeding moms (about 3-4 in each station). If you forget your baby food, diapers, wipes, etc. they have everything you could imagine for sale! They even sell onesies, bibs, pacifiers, formula, etc. I had to buy Luke Pedialite on last year’s trip. Of course the things are overpriced but its not terrible. There’s a water fountain in there as well. I usually fill up Luke’s sippy cup in here. There is also an area with tables & chairs for the children to play or watch tv (of course they play Disney movies & cartoons!)

After I changed Luke & let him watch cartoons for a few minutes, we went back outside & walked around the smaller trail. We saw some birds, ducks, and reptiles. My pictures didn’t turn out from this part so I don’t have any to share. After that, we decided to leave for the day…goodbye Animal Kingdom!!!

After reading over my notes, I’m trying to figure out what I actually ate for dinner! From my receipts, it looks like I didn’t eat since Pizzafari and I barely ate any of the salad. Hmm…maybe I lost a receipt or two! I’m thinking that I probably just ate some snacks back at the resort since we had ordered from Garden Grocer. Or maybe that’s the day Luke and I pigged out on Goofy’s Taffy back at the resort & I felt really sick to my stomach!

All I have written in my notes is “Went to Rafiki’s Planet Watch, then to Asia’s trails, then got frozen lemonade, then walked through a few stores & saw some animals on the way out. Left park at 7:35pm & got back to CBR around 8pm.”

Those aren’t very helpful notes! LOL It’s funny because during the trip, I thought I was being a little obsessive with note-taking. I would write in my journal every night before going to bed, would take notes in my cell phone every morning as soon as we got on the bus, and would usually take more notes in my phone on the way back to the resort (unless I was carrying Luke or heavy shopping bags). I guess I didn’t write down a lot of things that I figured I would remember…next time I promise to do better!

 

[SoonerGirl]

Awwww, how cute is that baby elephant?! I haven't been out to Rafiki's Planet Watch in ages, the boys loved it out there when they were little though.

Bummer that the gorillas weren't out on Pangani Forest Trail, I love watching the gorillas and would have been sad to miss them.

I've found when I get later into a trip that my notes are not nearly as good as they are at the start of one. They tend to look alot like yours, just quick random facts, so I have to depend on my pictures to tell me what we did

 

[PopArtGal]

Unfortunately, it seems our Christmas trip is a no good.

 

[PopArtGal]

It's a really pretty smile you have with Pocahontas. Don't say you look bad. You're such a cutie!

 

[PopArtGal]

I love Rafiki's. I like to visit it.

I also like the shop at the end. I saw a keychain that said best teacher, or something like it. And wanted it. But thought it was lame to buy it for myself. So I didn't lol

 

[PopArtGal]

I'm in love with Meerkats.

 

[photographymom517]

Awwww, how cute is that baby elephant?! I haven't been out to Rafiki's Planet Watch in ages, the boys loved it out there when they were little though.

Bummer that the gorillas weren't out on Pangani Forest Trail, I love watching the gorillas and would have been sad to miss them.

I've found when I get later into a trip that my notes are not nearly as good as they are at the start of one. They tend to look alot like yours, just quick random facts, so I have to depend on my pictures to tell me what we did

We love Rafiki's! I was just talking to my mom about it the other day & she said that they always skip it. I think you are definitely right! We really enjoy it now because Luke is younger, but I'm sure once he gets older he won't want to go anymore. I'm not looking forward to that time although I know it will come way too fast I was just thinking the other day how I better plan lots of "little kid stuff" for the next couple of trips...because once he gets older, he will only want to ride the fast rides! No more visiting the characters or Rafiki's with mommy! LOL

The one evening I was just sitting at the resort thinking "Oh I don't have to take more notes because I'll just look through my pictures!" So we must think alike! I figured that I even have the date/time on my camera to show when I took the picture. I just wasn't accounting for all the time it would take me to look through my photos on my camera & then find that same one on Shutterfly to add it to my report!

Thank you for continuing to follow my report even though it took me months to update!

Unfortunately, it seems our Christmas trip is a no good.

It's a really pretty smile you have with Pocahontas. Don't say you look bad. You're such a cutie!

I love Rafiki's. I like to visit it.

I also like the shop at the end. I saw a keychain that said best teacher, or something like it. And wanted it. But thought it was lame to buy it for myself. So I didn't lol

I'm in love with Meerkats.

Hey!!! I hope you don't mind that I answer all of your replies at once!

Sorry your Christmas trip fell through. We won't be going for Christmas either...we decided to go during low crowds since we've gone during busy season the past 2 trips. So it looks like sometime fall (Sept/Oct) for us!

Thanks for thinking I don't...but I really do look awful in the Pocahontas picture!

I LOVE that gift shop at Rafiki's...I can't believe I didn't even go in it this past trip! We got a water there but they had a little cart right outside the shop so technically I still didn't go in. I took a bunch of pictures of it though while we sat out on the picnic table! They have some really neat things there...I think I was looking at the keychains too because I used to collect them! I don't really collect them anymore unless its Disney related

Luke really, really loves Meerkats too!!! We have a small petting zoo about 5 minutes from our house & we have season passes to go there. They have a small display of Meerkats (or a smaller animal that looks like them) and Luke will spend at least 30 minutes just watching them!

 

[stephielela]

Hey! Glad to hear you're back!!! I know you've been back for along time now but I am seriously behind & need to catch up on all my reports!

It would be really awesome if we could meet in September! When are your trip dates? I honestly have no clue...it just depends on my husband's work schedule but we're thinking about trying to go for 2 weeks this time. If we can't make that work, it will be 10 days. Most likely either August 30-September 9, Sept 7-16, or Sept 14-23. I'm planning to finish this TR and start a PTR even without definite trip dates.

It is awesome that you are getting Free Dining & Free Flights!!!!

That's awesome about Jack's potty training! Luke is trying, but he hasn't gotten it yet. Its funny you've read about potty training on alot of reports, so have I!!! lol I think Jack has Luke & my nephew beat...isn't he younger than Luke? (I think he is by a few months.) My nephew turned 3 in September & my SIL isn't working with him on it very much so he's still in pull-ups, but I've really been trying with Luke. Hopefully soon

Ok, going to catch up on your report now! [/QUOTE]


I'm all caught up. It looks like AK will be our 2nd park in September (since we only do a short trip we do 1 full day at 2 parks and then MK for the Halloween party). I was planning on doing DHS like last year, but there just isn't as much there for Jack and there is a lot at AK we didn't get to do because of the rain (the dig site!!). I have toyed with the idea of buying park hoppers but another $108 is kind of a turn off, especially since the point of this trip is to be cheap! We'll see.

There is a decent chance my dates will be changing to earlier in September, so I super hope we overlap! I want it to be at least mid September, after the MNSSHP starts.

As for the potty training, I wish all kids worked the same. With Jack it was just me saying "you are going to wear big boy underpants today" and making him go every 45 minutes for the first few days, but that just doesn't work for all kids. He was in pullups for a looooong time, and he still wears them at night and for naptime (the first night I tried to make him sleep in underpants he had an accident... which is the ONLY time in the past month he hasn't been dry all night, ironic right) but once I am out of pullups I am not planning on buying more. Of course now he's very choosy about what underpants he wants to wear. He refuses to wear the Wall-E ones, because he doesn't know who Wall-E is. And he wants Mr. Potato Head underpants, which are nowhere to be found (he's not even on the Toy Story ones!) so for his birthday I am going to make him some with iron on transfers. All I know is they will eventually do it when they are ready.

 

[brookelizabeth]

I can't remember where I saw it, but if I see it again, I will definitely let you know! I was shopping with Luke a few weeks ago & saw this super cute art desk! It was made for toddlers & had a set of drawers on the one side. The other side had 3-4 smaller bins. I'm pretty sure it came with a chair and it was very colorful & looked like it wouldn't take up much space! I remember it so clearly because I thought it would be so cute for Luke, except that I already gave him my table/chair set from when I was younger! I will try to find it & let you know! Unfortunately I can't even remember the brand name to look it up online. I'm all about organization & things that are compact so they don't take up much space!

I've been trying to organize the house more, especially Luke's room. He has this set...I actually got it at my local Aldi's grocery store for $22. I've seen them at alot of other stores but they're usually $50-60 (oh I saw them at Target & Lowe's!)

Storage Organizer

I really like these & have thought of getting one about a million times! lol I think they would be good for coloring books, a drawer for markers/crayons/colored pencils/etc, and I've seen them with 2 bigger drawers at the bottom for play-doh, craft kits, paints, etc.

10 Drawer Storage Cart (multi colored)

I have one of these for my paint brushes & thought about getting Luke one for some of his craft supplies!

4 Cup Craft Caddy

Sorry that was a really long post! I just love organizing & love sharing ideas, especially from Target! I love it there!

No ticker or PTR yet but we are planning to go sometime in September!!!

I love all those organizational things! We have a 2 big cube shelves with fabric bins that work great for Henry's room. When we get a bigger place we'll get him a desk for sure, he'd love that. Right now he has to use the kitchen table for art...but hey-it works!

GREAT AK udpate!!! I love all your pictures! Rafiki's is fun, isn't it? Henry really enjoyed the snakes too...something about yucky things and boys.

I love how Luke remembered the meerkats when he saw them on TV, that is adorable.

A bunch of people behind me looked at me like I was half crazy when I took this! But I really liked how they made the animal tracks in the trail!

This was really cute to see! The mom & dad duck were swimming around. All the little baby ducks were on the other side of the pond. The mom & dad made some sounds & all the little ducks swam over & followed them all in a straight line! The one baby duck kept falling over things (like the branch) and just in the water…for some reason it reminded me of the little ugly duckling book!

I would have totally taken a picture of the same thing - matter of a fact, I probably have! I have several "surface" pictures in AK because every single thing is themed! It's amazing there! So I say great shot!

Adorable story about the ducks! And what a unique experience!

And you look just fine with the characters, if that's you "looking bad" you don't wanna see me!

 

[PopArtGal]

Yay for meerkats being loved! hehe

 

[photographymom517]

We woke up and left the resort around 10:51am. I’m not sure why we had a late start because it seems that we arrived back to the resort the night before fairly early. We arrived at DHS at 11:07am.

So…that was basically a 16 minute bus ride…remember my photo session day “transportation dilemma” ??? Well, the entire bus ride (which felt even shorter than 16 minutes!) all I could think of was how much easier that entire day would have been if only we had gotten on that first DHS bus!!! Grr…but no looking back now!

The important thing is that I learned a lesson…yes, I learned it the hard way, but at least now I have a much better idea of how Disney transportation works!

I remember calling my mom & asking “Did I know there was a giftshop underneath the big hat at Hollywood Studios???” I swear that I don’t remember it being there before, but she claims that I knew this.

When we first arrived at DHS, we saw a PhotoPass Photographer. She was just finishing up with another family so I asked my husband if we could stop & get a picture in front of the hat. By this time, of course, he was very used to my constant stopping (for photographs!) so he said it was fine.

It was so neat because we met tons of CM’s who are originally from where we live…well within 30 minutes anyway! This lady’s name was Jan and she was super friendly & nice! After she took our pictures, I told her that I had noticed her name tag & how she was from PA. And not only are we from PA but we live about 20 minutes from where she’s from! She chatted with us for awhile about her grandkids (they go to a school about 15 minutes from our house & that our school plays in sports…football, basketball, soccer, etc.)

It was also neat because she told us to walk down towards the hat & look for a guy with whitish colored hair. She said he’s a PhotoPass Photographer as well & he is her husband!!! She told us his name but I didn’t write it down and now that its 8 months later, I can’t remember. It was a really neat way to start off our day! It put me in a good mood to run into someone from “back home” who was so super nice!!!

Our first stop was at my request!!! I wanted to stop by Starring Rolls Café! Because I normally don’t eat a huge breakfast or lunch…and because I can’t eat when its super humid, I decided to just get something small. Today the temps were around 96 degrees, with the humidity it felt like 100 or higher!

We let Luke choose his own…and trust me, it was hard for him to choose! There are 2 or 3 different cases plus the back shelves. I didn’t take any pictures in here…I think I was just overwhelmed by the choices!

I knew what I wanted…a chocolate croissant! (sorry for the blurring picture…I took it without the flash for some reason??)

Luke took awhile to pick but he ended up with a chocolate eclaire. We put Luke back into his stroller & put his “dessert/breakfast” onto his stroller table in the front. I told him it was ok to start eating it while we walked. He looked at me like I was crazy (usually I make everyone wait until we all have food & are sitting at the table…but this was vacation so I figured it wasn’t that big of a deal). He wouldn’t eat it at first, so I had to tell him three or four times that it was ok. This turned out to be horrible because humidity + chocolate + toddler = huge mess!

My husband decided he wanted to get lunch at ABC Commissary again. So, he went to get in line while Luke and I found a table & started eating our goodies!!!

I love their menu!!!

The messy child

After we were done eating, we walked by the Indiana Jones show. I really wanted to see this & thought that Luke would really love it!

We had about a half hour or so before the next show, so we decided to look at the gift shop. I’m assuming from looking at the times that we were seeing the 12:45 show.

The gift shop was really neat! I think its one of my favorites at DHS!

They had an Indiana Jones Mickey that I wanted to get Luke but I saw it on our way out of the giftshop. I didn’t want to be late for the show, so I just said I’d get it later (and of course never went back).

You can see them here on the top shelf.

They also have this neat decoration that I want for my office. I’m not sure if I took a picture of it or not but its 3 animal heads carved out of wood. I always send my mom on a wild search at Disney for things I forgot to pick up on my trip…I joked with her after I got home that I purposely didn’t buy it because I wanted her to have to search for it & figure out how to bring it home on the plane! LOL (After she left for her trip a few months later, I worried that she actually thought I was serious & she would try this!) I took a bunch of pictures in here but they were all on my cell phone. Luke was moving around the whole time (he was dancing) so the pictures were all blurry.

I actually found a picture of the animal decoration I was talking about! I love it & definitely will get it next trip!

I think this is the best trip picture that I took…only wish binky wasn’t in the picture!

 

[photographymom517]

I got A LOT of pictures of the show! (umm…about 88 pictures)

I’ll only post some of my favorites here!

Our main goal today was to do the things that we forgot to do our first DHS day and then after we were done, we’d go back & do things twice if we had time. So our next stop was…Honey I Shrunk the Kids play area!

But on our way there, we spotted these guys!!!

The PhotoPass picture is much better so I will post it as well. I actually haven’t posted any of my Photopass pictures (because they aren’t on my laptop or Shutterfly) so I will just post them all in 1 update or at the end of my trip report!

We also stopped to get Luke a drink & small meal since he only ate the croissant earlier that morning.

On to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playarea!!!! I have a ton of pictures from this as well! Luke loved it! He probably could’ve stayed for hours! To be honest, we had fun too.

When I saw this, I got a little sad…it reminded me of all the family trips I took with my parents. My mom & I used to use Kodak film & I remembered her loading it into my camera for me.

Luke went into this tunnel & kept looking out the window. At one point, my husband was looking in the window at him. So after that, Luke kept looking out the window & would say to me “Mommy, where did daddy go?”

We all climbed up the giant spider web. It was fun & Luke was actually climbing on his own. I thought that he might be afraid & want us to carry him (which I had no idea how we would do without falling ourselves! Lol) but he did really good. He really loved climbing up & then climbing back down.

We won’t talk about the giant ant. I waited F.O.R.E.V.E.R. to get a picture of Luke sitting on the giant ant. I was next in line & this guy cut me off to get his kids picture. He had 4 kids & the mother wanted them sitting in a certain order, which the dad of course didn’t have them sitting in. So when she came over to take the picture, the kids had to trade places. Then after taking a picture (keep in mind, an entire group of people are waiting for their kids to get a picture on the giant ant)…the mother decides that she liked how the dad had them sitting…so the kids had to trade places again! Grrr!

Then, it was Luke’s turn & a little boy just ran over & climbed onto the ant. The mom noticed that I was slightly irritated & she tried to get him off but he started to cry. To avoid a tantrum in their family, I just said “no its fine” and walked away. There was no way I was getting my ant picture! I know it sounds stupid, but it was probably just a combination of the humidity & not eating very much that day…or maybe I was just throwing a mommy tantrum! LOL

Speaking of the giant ant picture…Brook, I absolutely love your picture of Henry on the ant!!! It really turned out great!!!!

After our experience without the ant, we went over to the other side & Luke played in the water a little bit. I figured he’d want to stay there for along time, but he didn’t.

 

[photographymom517]

We left the play area & headed back over to the Animation area to see the Playhouse Disney show.

Here are some pictures along the way…

We then went to see the Playhouse Disney show. I swear that we saw this on our first day at Hollywood Studios…maybe we saw it a second time? I don’t know…that’s what I get for writing my trip report almost 8 months after my trip!!!

A few pictures from the actual show…its cute & I definitely recommend it to anyone with toddlers. It was nice to get out of the sun for a little while as well.

After taking Luke to see his show, my husband and I decided that we wanted to see One Man’s Dream again. We really loved the display & wanted to watch the movie at the end this time. I can’t remember the show at all…I’m going to have to look for it on YouTube to refresh my memory!!!

Here are some pictures from One Man’s Dream. I took a lot here too so here are just a few!

 

[photographymom517]

Our first day at DHS, we missed an entire section of the park. I don’t know how we did it! It was Luke & my husband’s first time at DHS and I haven’t been there since 1998 and back then, it was MGM. I honestly don’t remember most of what’s there now being there back then…I asked my mom to look for her MGM map because I want to compare.

We came across Fairfax Food and decided to sit down to eat. My husband and I each got the pork brisket and ribs basket. It was very good, the portion size was huge, and you got french fries and coleslaw with it. Neither of us like coleslaw so we didn’t eat it…next time I might ask for a substitute. We also each got a drink and chocolate cake since we used our meal credits from the dining plan. Our total bill would’ve been $42.75 but like I said, we used our meal credits. I really liked the seating area here. Luke liked the food a lot and ate off of both of our plates (mostly mine). I think I gave him most of my french fries because I’m not a big fry person.

The seating area is cute. I didn’t think it would be comfortable but it really was.

When we were done eating, we walked down to Tower of Terror.

There was NO way I was going on this. I might try it once in the future, I don’t know…but I am terrified of heights! My biggest fear is that I will throw up on everyone else on the ride & be completely embarrassed! LOL We saw the wait time…10 minutes…seriously??? I thought it would be 180 like every other ride of our trip…but it was only 10 minutes! We walked down to the gift shop & I told my husband that he had to go on it. There was no way I was letting him miss out on it just because I wasn’t riding & Luke can’t ride it. I finally convinced him & he went to get in line.

While he was in line & riding ToT, Luke and I walked down the street again. I LOVE the shops along that street! We found a PhotoPass photographer so I asked her to take some pictures for us. Luke was busy eating his lollipops in all the pictures (my husband bought them for him at the ToT giftshop before he got in line for the ride). We walked through the gift shops, I drooled over the Dooneys, and I looked at some of the jewelry & shirts they had. I figured we would go back & shop later (but again, we never went back).

We walked back to ToT’s gift shop to wait for my husband. We actually went inside the little area where they show your picture & looked at them all. Luke found his daddy on the screen (he really didn’t find the right picture but I just pretended that he did & then I took a picture with my digital camera of the real picture of his daddy…LOL). After he came out of ToT, we walked back to the main street.

It was soooo incredibly humid. We decided to walk around for a little while longer and then head back to the resort. We left DHS at 5:48pm.

It seemed too early to me to just stay in the room for the rest of the evening, so I decided to take Luke swimming. By the time I got our stuff organized for the next day & got Luke into his swim gear, it was around 7:30pm.

We decided to head down to the main pool where the pirate ship is. Luke didn't want to play in the kiddie area though, he wanted to jump into the big pool, so that's what we did. He actually really loved walking into the pool...there's a shallow area where you can actually walk in & I think its only around 3' at that end so he didn't sink!

We were having a blast at the pool! It was so much fun and relaxing! Luke loved it…he was laughing & splashing in the water! He was really having a good time. And that’s when he looked at me, got this horrible look on his face, and threw up all over me! Luckily none of it went into the water, just all over me (I think I'm a throw-up catcher too, Brook! I remembered reading that in your report!). Its just an instinct...I didn't plan to do it, but I just reached out & caught all of it. I know, its gross but all those people around me were thankful that I did it!

I got out quickly with Luke, grabbed my towel to clean up the mess, and wrapped him in a towel. He was afraid because he’s never really thrown up before (except when he was an infant with formula which I doubt he remembers…lol). He was crying & crying. I felt so bad. I just wrapped him up & said that mommy needed to go back to the room. He shook his head to agree with me so we started back to the room. (I was planning to tell the lifeguard what had happened but another guest offered to do it for me since she knew I had enough to handle already taking a toddler back to the room & cleaning him up...it was nice of her to do!)

Once we got back, I changed his diaper and there was another surprise for mommy (but we won't talk about that...point is, poor little guy was sick!) So Luke got a bath first and once he was in his pj’s and in bed, I got a shower. I bet we would’ve stayed at the pool for at least an hour and a half or more if that wouldn’t have happened! We were having so much fun!

It ended up working out fine though because we just sat in bed & watched the Disney channel for the rest of the evening. I think Luke needed his rest anyway…it was a long trip for a little guy! Oh, and no I don't have any pictures at the pool...but after what happened, its probably a good idea that I don't!

Speaking of having a camera at the pool (and also on water rides) what do you guys do??? I just upgraded to a Canon Xsi...used some of my birthday & Christmas money for it. I had a family member suggest a D70 to me...not sure what he thought my budget was! Anyway, I'm considering buying a disposable waterproof camera or some type of waterproof cover for my camera. I don't think I want to take the Xsi with me to the water parks though...so I'll probably get a waterproof case for my Nikon Coolpix. Most of the pics aren't nearly as nice, but it does take amazing pictures of movement & in the dark!

Anyway, any thoughts/suggestions are appreciated!!! I'm going to make sure to talk about that on my PTR as well...I need all the suggestions I can get! Luke loves the water so I don't want to miss out on getting pics of that!

Well, thats my update for now...thank you so much for those who have stuck with my report. I know its been dragging on forever! I promise to do better & update more often with my PTR and next TR!!!

Next update






….another day at….







EPCOT!!!

 

[PopArtGal]

Sorry you didn't get the pic of Luke and the ant. Well that's something to do on your next trip hehe

You have to try the white chocolate cupcake at Starring Rolls. I love it. Well I love white chocolate

ToT is my all-time fave. I ride it at least once when we go.

In my opinion DHS did not change MGM that much. But first time I saw MGM was in 2004.

 

[photographymom517]

We were up early and ended up leaving CBR for Epcot at 9:05am.

First stop…again at my request…was Epcot’s Character Spot!

I really wanted to get pics with the main characters. At the beginning of the trip, there was such a long line that I figured we would just skip this all together if we were able to get pics with all the main characters at other parks. With all the long lines at the rides, for characters, for shows, etc…this did not happen! So I told my husband it was the first thing we were doing…we weren’t missing it!

Needless to say, after we got in line & he overheard someone mention we had a 45 minute wait, he wasn’t thrilled. I should’ve made them both eat breakfast before we left the resort. Luke had snacked on some dry cereal on the bus stop so he wasn’t fussy at all. The line actually moved very quickly & we ended up only waiting 25 minutes. Plus, they have all the tv’s showing the Disney cartoons so that kept both of them occupied.

The first character we saw was Mickey! Luke really likes Mickey & he wasn’t that scared of him. He even smiled at Mickey at first.

See my Vera??? Love it!

Next we went to see Pluto. Luke loves dogs & he wasn’t afraid of Pluto either! We got our best pics with Pluto!!!

Here’s the one my husband took. The PhotoPass one was awesome! I’ll post it later.

We saw Minnie next. Its funny because Luke talks about Minnie all the time, but he was afraid of her! It was cute because she laughed & hid her face in her hands because he was afraid! I’m making a goofy face in most of the Minnie pics because I was laughing at Minnie and the photographer who were trying to make Luke laugh or smile!

Next up was Donald. By this time, Luke wasn’t taking anymore pictures! He was just scared of all the characters. We had to move him away from Donald, then Donald had to go behind the scenery & come out on the other side by my husband so Luke couldn’t see him! Of course he still figured out he was there & cried.

Next was our last character, Goofy, who is my favorite!!! Luke was crying a lot at this point. I have no idea how, but we managed to get 1 nice picture where we were all looking at the photographer!

I don’t have a picture on my camera of all of us with Goofy but I have tons on the PhotoPass CD so I will have to post those later!

I actually gave it some thought & next trip, since Luke will be older and we can ride more things & see more shows, I think we will go to Epcot Character Spot the first day. Hopefully it won’t take more than an hour all together (to wait in line plus get pics with all 5 characters). Then, we won’t waste park time waiting in line to see any of those 5 (especially if we do 1 or more character meals!). We will only wait to see other characters and also see characters at the Character Dining that I book. I think that will save some time & avoid waiting in so many lines. Plus I really liked all the photographers at Epcot Character Spot…they seemed to work really good with all the kids. Each photographer had an extra helper so I think that made it go more smoothly.

On our way to eat at the Land pavilion, we saw these guys.

 

[photographymom517]

We got to Sunshine Seasons around 10:17am and they don’t serve lunch until after 11am. We aren’t thrilled with Disney’s breakfast choices (except that we love the breakfast buffets!) so we really wanted lunch. We decided to stay here instead of wondering around and coming back.

I waited until 10:38am and then got up to get our desserts and drinks. By the time I got 2 trays and decided what to get everyone to drink, they had opened some stations early. I think it was around 10:50am and the parks were just packed full of people again today! I thought it was really nice because one of the workers at the chicken station (sorry I don’t know the actual name of the station!) asked me what I wanted. She said they weren’t opening for about 10 minutes but she’d start cooking my order! I thought that was very nice of her.

I ordered the ½ rotisseree chicken for Luke. He got rice, carrots, and mixed veggies with his meal. I also got him a sweet tea and brownie for dessert.

I got the noodles with sweet & sour chicken, a flavored water, and chocolate cake.

My husband got pork, rice, mashed potatoes, strawberry shortcake, and powerade to drink. My meal was very good but it was sooo much food. I couldn’t eat it and I really wanted to save it for later, but there was no way to do so with the humidity. I’m assuming that my husband and Luke both liked their meals because they both finished them!

You can see my husband’s meal here sitting in front of him.

After we ate, we decided to get in line for Living with the Land again. We moved quickly through the line. I think it said 30 minutes but it was more like 5 minutes. Here are some pictures.

I know I mentioned it before, but this is the part of the ride where Luke always said “Home” because it reminded him of being back at home. We thought it was so neat that he recognized the setting…there are farms all around where we live & he knew that. He also noticed the puppy on the porch! And the chickens in the yard!

After we ate our meals & rode “Living with the Land” again, we headed over to Nemo. Luke loves Nemo. He loved the ride on our last trip, he loves to watch the movie at home, and he even has the bedding set! We looked at the wait time & it was insane, so there was no way we were waiting! We did stop to get a few pictures.

This area was insane too! It seemed like a bunch of grumpy moms trying to make their kids take cute pictures with the Nemo characters & arguing with other moms about which character their kid could stand beside. LOL I just tried to keep Luke out of the way of mom’s taking pics! He didn’t understand, he just wanted to stand by the fish! So I ended up snapping a few pics really quick & getting out of there!

We went over to Ellen’s Energy Adventure. I really liked it. My husband wasn’t thrilled by it but he said it was ok. I think Luke slept through most of it. I didn’t even get pictures of the outside of the pavilion because it was C.R.A.Z.Y!!! I couldn’t believe the line. We stood outside for over 30 minutes & then had to go inside to the little waiting area for another 30-40 minutes. At least it was in the dark & was a little cooler inside than standing outside with the sun beating down on us!

Ok I lied, I did take one picture of the outside of the pavilion

After the energy adventure, we headed over to the baby changing station to apply more sunscreen & get a quick diaper change.

I almost cried here…my little boy was putting on his own sunscreen!!! I was glad he could help me, but it was so sad because its just another realization that he’s growing up & not a baby anymore :-(

 

[photographymom517]

We walked around the Test Track building, which Luke loved of course!!!

A picture of mommy’s future truck!!!

Luke’s Tahoe…

…or maybe Luke’s Fuel Cell car

…or maybe Luke’s car of the future! I joked with my husband that we’ll have to buy this for Luke when he turns 16!

He asked me for the key! (for real…I’m not joking! He asked “key mommy?”) And he’s looking over my shoulder while I’m typing this & just said “Look mommy, Luke’s car!”

We didn’t even go near the space pavilion. We saw 2 crazy lines coming out the sides & just walked right past. After I came home from our trip, my mom informed me that I could’ve taken Luke inside because there were lots of things that a toddler could’ve done in there. Oops!

We then decided to stop for ice cream at Fountainview.

The line was insane! Every single trip I’ve ever taken to Disney, I walk right into Fountainview and order ice cream, sit down & enjoy it, and leave. I’ve never had to wait in a giant line that was out the door! My husband and Luke got a table while I waited in line. I never really thought anything of this until people here on DIS said this isn’t acceptable. Oops! I don’t really think it was an issue in this case because even though there was a huge line, there were plenty of open tables. I think most of the people were just getting ice cream to go or eating outside. I didn’t see one single person get their ice cream & then sit inside…they just went through the line & then left.

I got a hot fudge sundae and I got Luke and my husband each a vanilla milkshake. I can’t remember why but I didn’t take a picture of mine. I think it was because it was melting already or else I was really hungry!

We then went to Club Cool to taste some drinks!

I took a picture of this so I would remember which I liked & which I didn’t…but I don’t remember…that’s what I get for not writing it down!!! I do remember that Luke liked Germany. It made sense because he loves orange pop (although I don’t allow him to drink it often…I took a health class in college & after seeing what pop does to your body, I completely stopped drinking it for about 3 years…and now I still limit how much I drink)

I think I liked Mozambique and Israel but I don’t remember for sure. Luke really loved this!!! I think he liked the cups because they were his size! He took a few drinks to go…he also liked how these cups fit into all 3 compartments on his stroller tray! He’s used to his sippy cup or cups from restaurants only fitting into the one compartment so he was amazed by this!

See the orange one (Germany) on the far left?

To answer your question, yes I was a mean, mean mom and made both my husband and Luke try “Beverly.” My husband spit it out or wouldn’t even taste it (I can’t remember now) but Luke just swallowed it & then made a weird face! After we threw away all of the cups that Luke brought with him, we started walking around World Showcase.

At this point, the skies were starting to look gray.

I don’t know why we ate so much this day, but we must’ve been very hungry…or maybe I was making up for the day I didn’t eat anything??? LOL After going through the first few countries, we stopped at the UK to get some fish & chips.

DELICIOUS!!! We have a very well known fish restaurant about an hour from our house. I don’t eat fish & chips unless it’s at a baseball game (because this restaurant serves them at the ballgames) or if its at this restaurant. Well, the UK outdid them, let me tell you! We also each got a shortbread with our meal. It was very good but Luke loved it, so my husband and I both gave ours to him. He ate one and saved the other 2 for snacks for later.

We walked through France and stopped to watch Impressions de France.

We needed to sit for a little while, had never seen the show before, and were hoping for some air conditioning! Luke fell asleep during the show but I didn’t even notice until about half-way through the show! I was very interested in the show. I know its outdated but I just think France is beautiful! After we saw it, I told my husband that I wanted to move to France and live on one of those beautiful countrysides! He laughed at me but I told him I am serious…as soon as I get up the courage to fly over the ocean!

The lobby inside France

After the show, we walked through Italy and then sat outside on the bench just to watch people & give Luke another break. Then we walked through Germany, Norway, Italy, China, and Mexico. World Showcase was very, very crowded!!! (but I don’t have crowd pics for some reason)

 

[photographymom517]

Construction walls around the future location of Via Napoli (which is of course now open!)

Every trip I get one of the little coin purses. I think they cost around $4 or $5.

I actually considered getting one of these…until I looked at the price & also didn’t know how to get it home!

I took about a million pictures of the train in Germany. I just love all the little details! A lot of people probably wondered what I was doing…but I was testing out the zoom feature on my camera. I’d take a picture of the train from the opposite side just to see if it would turn out or not.

We went inside the Mexico pavilion & rode The Three Caballeros

I wanted to bring one of these home with me as well…but again, price!

I am yet to get good pictures inside the Mexico pavilion & I feel horrible because its my husband’s favorite. So if anyone has good techniques, please let me know! Of course this trip I will be taking my new Canon Xsi so I might have a better chance of getting a few good shots!!!

Ok…got a crowd shot for you!

I tried my best to get the full view of people, but its much worse than it looks! I’m not very tall so it was hard for me to get a shot of the people way down at the other end…we were just stuffed like sardines inside Epcot!!! I was surprised too because all the touring books say that Epcot is the place to go on days when its crowded because you won’t be able to tell since its more spread out. Well, today this was not the case!

Luke and I went to the baby change station (the one after Mexico on the way back to Future World). After we were done in there, I took Luke back to his daddy while I went to the First Aid center. I had to get some bandaids for my blisters on my feet.

Sidenote: I seriously need to invest in some new sandals for my next Disney trip! Please, please, please post your pics here of what you wear to the parks & give me some ideas!!! I’ve already heard that some good choices are Reefs.

We sat on the bench outside of the baby changing station trying to decide what to do. We were exhausted after 8 days. We were hot. The park was crowded. But we really wanted to see the fireworks.

At this point it was 8:26pm and it seemed dumb to go back to the resort. We only had a little over a half hour to wait to see the fireworks. But we were too exhausted to even sit on a bench of 30 minutes to wait for fireworks! So we decided to head back to CBR.

Heading to OPR in our pjs!

After we got back to the resort, we changed our clothes and then I took Luke down to OPR to refill our mugs. I also added 1 day of tickets to our passes so we could go to Magic Kingdom in the morning! What a great way to end our trip at Disney!