MINMATES Trip Report: Pre-trip Drama
I think Im Gonna Be sick
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=8284795#post8284795
MINMATES Trip Report: (Day 1) I Need A Vacation! http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=8284821#post8284821
MINMATES Trip Report: Day 2 (Pt.1) Lions & Tarzan & Mickey, Oh My! http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=8288435#post8288435
MINMATES Trip Report: Day 2 (Pt.2) Visiting WDW-One Potty At A Time! http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=792642
MINMATES Trip Report: Day 2 (Pt.3) Magic Kingdom Nirvana
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=8301761#post8301761
MINMATES Trip Report: Day 3 (PT 1) POOL Is One Letter Short of POO!
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=792687
MINMATES Trip Report: Day 3 (PT 2) Dont Rain On My Parade!
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=792750
MINMATES Trip Report: Day 4 Out of the Ashes Rises the Phoenix: A Perfect Day
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=8304118#post8304118
MINMATES Trip Report: Day 5 Just Ducky & Discovering DVC http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=792859
ME (minmate)
DH -- Joe
DD6 Cali
DD5 Meg
DS4 Buddy
DD2 Jay Jay
4/5-4/12 7 nights at Pop Century
SUNDAY, APRIL 10th
Day 6 of Visiting WDW One Potty At A Time! I dont know if its sad or funny that I can remember potty visits as distinctly as the rides/attractions and other memories!
I woke up this morning, somewhat heavy-hearted. I was pretty sure this would be our last parks day. That meant our vacations end was looming ever closer. Now, many may think that I may want this vacation to end, but I really didnt! I still found the joy and beauty in being with my family. I still would rather be with them throwing fits and having to go potty at WDW than in Wal-Mart, the Y, or on the way to Preschool and by myself without reinforcements, while Joe is at work.
I wake the girls and inform them today is Princess Day. Cali dons the most gorgeous Belle gown I have ever seen. Cali reminds me of Belle. So practical, knowledgeable, a bookworm, seeker and adventurer. My wonderful friend Kelly (a DVC member who gets to go home with her family in Oct. and take her son for his first trip yay!) lent me some of her dds dresses because I didnt have enough in the right sizes and good enough shape to go around. You would think that with three girls our home would be brimming with princess attire. Not so. Pirate hats, knight costumes, Yu-gi-oh get-ups, Power Ranger outfits, Spidey, Batman and all those, Yup we got em full, complete, in duplicate, triplicate and accounted for! Princess attire, we are scant and not so complete on. I guess we know who the REAL CHARACTER in this family is, now dont we? Wouldnt be the kid who dressed in his Spiderman costume every day for six months straight, would it? I can SOOO picture him wearing a Spiderman costume under his high school graduation gown! Likewise, I have had fleeting thoughts of him working as Spiderman someday at Universal. Can you imagine the pick-up line at a college bar for that? So, what do you do? Me? Why, Im Spiderman! lol
Anyway, back to Princess Day. We had ressies at the Storybook Lunch at Akershus in Epcot. JayJay was lovely as Sleeping Beauty and Meg who typically does not go near anything without legs happily wore a comfy Snow White get up. Other than Cinderella being JayJays diehard favorite character and Disney thing of all time forever and ever, my girls have not expressed an interest in a favorite princess or even in princesses as being their favorite in general. So, I didnt even know if this would be a big hit for them or not. I opted not to bring the Cinderella gown because it seemed itchy and Cinderella does not come to Akershus anyway. Meg has beautiful long dark blond hair and would have borne a remarkable resemblance to Sleeping Beauty but the gown was just a bit too small. I had my heart set on her wearing it but it just didnt work out. JayJay was absolutely adorable in it. My mom had sent along a little tiara for her with pink lettering spelling out Princess on it. Suited Princess Feet JayJay to a T. Meg actually embodies a lot of Snow Whites personality anyway. Kind, meek and mild, hard worker, generous heart, loving, doting, enjoying the moment. They were all beautiful. I know Im their mom, but I cant help to pontificate over this.
Buddy woke up and declared he was not at all interested in Princess Day, that it was quite simply, Yuk. While he is more than happy to play Prince and Princess ad nauseum and even dress as a knight or prince and (his favorite part) wield a sword he had absolutely no interest in meeting princesses. The girls tried in vain to convince him that maybe princes would be there too. He wasnt buying it. He got dressed anyway, in regular old boy clothes and off we went.
Id like to take this moment to interject a moment of what I thought was rude behavior by some strangers on the upper floors. While we were walking to the bus someone dumped the contents of their mug out over the railing. I hollered up, Hey, thats rude! Theres people down here you know! Dont you have a sink? Joe gave me that look and called after me like he does when he thinks I should just drop it. He is NOT a confrontationalist, especially about things that dont matter. It wasnt like I was going to run up the stairs and track down the person but I figured if they had the inconsiderate nature to do something like that, potentially spilling on my beautiful princess, potentially ruining their dresses and subsequently, their day, I sure as heck had the right to voice my opinion!
Anyway, we make it to the bus line and walk right onto the Epcot bus. It is not EMH day by the way. On the bus Buddy has to go potty. Yeah, I know, shocker. He and I hustle over to the bathrooms before the entrance to the park to take care of business. Wouldnt you know it, another kid has to go too when we get there! With that out of the way for oh, say, the next five minutes, we head into Epcot. Here, we are able to get through the turnstiles and get situated with our strollers right in front of Spaceship Earth for the rope drop. Its a thrill to see the character bus roll in. I contemplate stopping to meet the characters but Joe nixes that and steers us to the left. At least hes getting the general vicinity down! We get to M:S and Joe is pumped to go on. Whoa, hold on, Cali does NOT want to ride. She cant ride anything in a dress she informs us. Oh cripes, why not? Ok, well I guess an astronaut wouldnt really wear a dress to Mars either, would she? So, I tell Joe, Were already over here, just go! Then, I try to call him to tell him to get in the single-rider line. I dont get through and give up. The kids are starting in and I was NOT going to let it happen today. I gave them a stern lecture and told them that in NO WAY were they allowed to whine this day away. Its our last park day and its mommy and daddys day. Theyd better be good and make the most of it. Surprisingly, Joe actually DID use the single rider line! Hey, why did I ever underestimate him? Guess where we went next? None of the kids had been on an attraction, but now, theyve been to the potty twice! All right! Next up Universe of Energy. Saturday night we chose to forgo this because of the posted 45 minute length of the ride. Honestly, I dont know how theyd have done that night, but we enjoyed it this day. Joe and I like Ellen anyway.
We head over to Figment because we learn that you can do that in a dress. Soarin is only open for cast members this day. I resigned myself to not getting to do it this time around. We play around in ImageWorks for awhile, email a pic to family members and head over to World Showcase entrance to meet up with the character bus. While waiting for the bus, I snapped some pictures of various things, including some sweet candids that captured the sweeter, gentler side of my family. I also got ridiculed by Joe for snapping a picture of two squirrels fight-chasing around a tree. How could I resist, a pic of squirrels with Spaceship Earth in the background! We named them Chip and Dale! I know wrong species whatever, it worked!
Now, when at WDW, it is very common to spy a young princess and they are always cute. But, dare I say, when you see three of them together, it is always a comment-maker and attention-grabber. The girls received countless, Oh look at the darling princesses! comments all morning. When the character bus arrived, JayJay somehow positioned herself to be It Girl. Mickey grabbed her hand in one and Minnies in the other and they strolled to their designated greeting spots, with the rest of my crew right along with them. I felt like paparazzi running ahead to turn around and snap a pic of that sweet moment!
We already had Micks autograph but were hoping to get a group shot but the CMs shoo-shooed us toward the end of an already somewhat formidable line that had formed. No thanks. Im happy with my candid of the kids walking with Mick. Means more anyway. So, we go to Minnie who had a shorter line. We hadnt met her yet and I wasnt sure if shed be at Chef Mickeys when we went there. We also see Stitch before heading over to Akershus for our Storybook Lunch PS at 11:40.
This is the first seating time for lunch. Apparently they close btw breakfast and lunch to switch. We got there at 11:35, checked in, went to the store across the path to take pics in the Viking helmets (with sword in hand for Buddy!). They stood under the giant troll. Buddy was saving the princesses he told us. By 11:40 they were calling the "Royal Family _______ (Fill in your last name)" to eat. They called names one after the other until the restaurant was filled. We were about the 8th family called. The announcer guy pronounced it right! I was impressed and told him so! He also had a great announcing voice for this and set a great tone for entering the restaurant. We got a round table right by the foyer. We didn't feel squished at all. There were only two chairs that were very close to a wall. Dh and ds4 (who had no intention of getting off his hiney-kin to be in any princess pics anyway) sat there.
Our server came out and announced that this was Ariel's first day with her legs to visit us! This was a surprise to us. Then, she explained the menu and was very nice. There was a basket of different types of flatbreads and such.
The kids got an appetizer plate that had cheese, ham, scrambled eggs(?) and "troll mix" which had pretzels, white carob covered raisins and chex mix I think. It also had veggies with dip that occupied JayJay as she devoured it.
The adults got a huge appetizer platter that had salmon, scrambled eggs, delicious potato salad, a seafood type salad and cheeses. Joe is NOT a seafood eater though.
There was a choice of about 5 different entrees. Joe got Chicken Caesar Salad. I got a Seafood Fettucine (not sure it that's the name, but that's the gist of it). There was a salmon choice, I think another chicken and another seafood choice.
The kids got to choose from basic American Fare. Our kids got pasta w/meatball and marina, and I believe hot dog or mac and cheese. (Their food choices tend to blend together b/c they often order the same things all the time! Im guessing that Buddy got chicken, what do you think? lol).
My seafood pasta was good! It was topped with vegetables and creamy sauce. Yum. Joe liked his salad too. He ate all of it anyway.
The shared dessert platter had strawberry rice pudding type thing -- yum! -- and an AWESOME chocolate mousse! It was divine! Also some other thing, I can't remember, but looked kind of like a fruit layer bar thingy. A bit crumbly and not overly tasty.
The princesses had all come to the table before we got served our entree (during our appetizer). They were very friendly. Ariel was SOOOO animated and totally dramatic! Maybe b/c she was excited to be there? They took their time with the kids, signed our autograph bag, asked them a few questions then sweetly went on their way. They spent a nice amount of time but efficient enough that we weren't waiting around to see all the characters like we did at Breakfastasaurus and Chef Mickey's.
Belle (who was in her blue and white village outfit) fawned over Cali when she noticed her in the Belle gown. She posed for a pic with JUST her. In fact, she was the only character during our whole to OFFER to pose separately with the kids. I almost always do them in one group so as not to take up too much time. As assertive as I can be about some things, I am not so much with characters and trampling on other peoples time. I think the second they come to our table, I get nervous and feel like I dont want to take up too much of their time.
Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, Belle and Ariel were all nice but truly, seeing Cinderella there was a big surprise and just thrilled JayJay to pieces. Cali was also very happy as she was mopey when I told her that Cinderella doesnt come here. Im glad for both of us that I was wrong! Cali and Meg were really getting into having the characters sign our autograph bag. Wed brought multi-colored sharpies and it was getting quite cute and colorful by now.
Although Joe felt limited by the entree selections (he's a picky eater remember!) -- we enjoyed it and will probably do it again!
After eating, Cali and Meg decided they wanted to change. They were so beautiful but I knew they would be more comfy in regular clothes, which I had actually packed and brought with us this time! I even had about three sets of clothes for JayJay. Im not usually such a slow learner! As it turns out JayJay has absolutely no desire to change out of her princess attire. We spend some good quality time in the bathroom and once Joe even sent Meg in there alone. Yes, we were literally ten steps away from the door and had a clear view of it but I wasnt comfortable with the idea of my 5 year old in the bathroom by myself. I went in behind her to check and see if anyone else was in there. They werent. Meg curtly told me to let her go alone. So I left but told her if I saw anyone else come in I was coming in too. With my eyes trained on the bathroom door Joe asked me what the big deal was. You know all those times hed taken them to the bathroom? He was just standing by the door and waiting for them. What? I say Well, would you rather have me take them into the mens room where grown men are going out in the open? I guess not. They are too old for that. Yech! I didnt like any of these options at all. The whole bathroom thing is making me nauseous, how about you? So, now JayJay has to go potty and seeing Meg getting to go by herself JayJay mandates that she get the same privilege! You are 2 years old for goodness sake. Never mind whether or not I feel you are capable of it! Its just not right! Now, on top of refusing to go potty half the time we try to take her, when she does agree to go, I am not allowed in the bathroom with her not just in the same stall, but she feels the entire bathroom should be off-limits to mom! Oh, the absurdities, they come tumbling in one after the other. If its not an unrightfully ketchupy chicken nugget, its a 2 year old princess that wants to wander into a bathroom unsupervised in the middle of DisneyWorld! Dont ask me how I managed this because I truly dont know! Fortunately, this was an inconsistent phase that we managed to work our way out of eventually!
While in the bathroom, by the way, I once again ran into the girl from the airplane and this time, her mother good thing because we were in the ladies room! Its a Small World After All, now isnt it? Speaking of which, I failed to mention that during Day 5 our Perfect Friday, during MK EMH morning, we did an encore of this ride for JayJays sake. She LOVES this ride. She was even telling Granny just today, Small World After All, thats my favorite ride!!! She is soo cute! I really did fall in love with this ride because of her. The power of a 2 year old, its amazing!
After lunch we walked through World Showcase, taking more pics in hats and with various props. While I would have been equally amused by Drinking around the World, Joe is not a drinker and I figured, while hes my superman, he wasnt going to be able to carry me AND Princess Feet out of Epcot along with the three other little mucha-chas that call us mom and dad! Cali delighted in playing photographer so we could get some pics of Joe and I together. She did a good job too! We spotted Snow White and were excited only to have the handler bark at us to take leave. Snow White was done! So, not wanting to wait around for another 40 minutes, we continued our way through WS, with the intention of catching the boat at International Gateway over to MGM. On a whim, we turned into American Adventure. The singers were impressive. Cali was significantly less impressed by the fact that she had to keep tapping me on the arm to wake up and look at the show! Cali, the sponge for knowledge that she is, was so attentive and was trying to ask me questions to elaborate in detail on the goings-on in the show. I must remember to sit her next to her father when Im trying to steal a few moments of beauty sleep in shows like these!
On the way to the boats I hit the snafu of the day. Everones thirsty and two carts we pass deny us using the Dining plan for drinks because their machine was down. Personally, I think, for some reason, they just dont like the Dining Plan and said that to shoo us away. I could tell by their attitudes and by the reactions I got from all the snack carts all week. I dont know why this is but they are somewhat inhospitable about the whole thing. We had better experiences at the restaurants. Now, I hate having to preface my philosophies because I find that to be somewhat shallow, but truly, I am open-minded and do not hold prejudices toward peoples ethnic and cultural differences. But if Im talking to you and youre providing me a service and youre in and English speaking country (Wait, is International Gateway considered English speaking territory?), I would hope you could communicate to me in, well, English. The cashier here was simply not capable of this. At least not very well. What I glean from her is that, yes, I can use my snack points there for drinks, so we proceed with the transaction, only to find that shes charged it to my room. Okay, its $12, but its the principle. This is the third place that sells drinks that is not cooperating with the Dining Plan. Joe, seeing that look in my eye, knows hes not going to rein me in and herds the kids away to shield them from mommys dark side. After a few polite go rounds, I get increasingly frustrated with this woman who cant even respond to me in English words! Why is she working the register, I dont know? Another woman comes up who can speak English but is equally unhelpful. She tries to pass me off to Guest Services, promising they can fix the error. They cant. Only the hotel Guest Services can do anything with the plan. They have no clue what theyre talking about. I storm off, NOT at ALL happy. The boat has arrived and apparently Joe has not successfully shielded the kids from my own personal temper tantrum. Buddy wants to know why I made that woman almost want to cry. I said, I didnt make her cry but she gave mommy the wrong information and wasnt being very helpful. Buddy said, But mommy, her face got all red and I saw her eyes, she turned away and looked like she almost wanted to cry. Sigh heavy-hearted and feeling like a jerk, I know hes right. I cant describe what those moments feel like, but I just decided to let it go. I secretly wished I could be more laissez-faire like Joe.
Nothing like a 25-minute boat ride and a deja-vue trip from yesterday through the DVC/Dolphin/Swan area to calm a person down and change their demeanor.
Once at MGM, we did the TOT/RNR FP drill again. This time Joe got it right. I really wanted to catch the Incredibles for Buddy, JoJo for JayJay, the new Stunt Show for Joe, TOT for me and the parade for all of us. Three out of five aint bad, is it? We did the Animation of Disney after which we met Mrs. Incredible and Frozone (where was MR. I?). The kids ALL loved that. Then we made a mad dash around the park to find JoJo. We couldnt find him and crossed the park twice finally found him and Goliath. We ended having to nix the Stunt Show because of timing. Chances are that it would have been too full anyway b/c we got to the park so late. Later I learned JoJo and Goliath are in the parade and that wouldve likely been good enough! Too bad! Well, theres always next time! We go in to see sorcerer Mickey and my camera decides its going to take a nap so I miss the pic. Guess well be buying that one off the Photo Pass. About now, we realize this park is really quiet! We feel like we have it pretty much to ourselves. We head back to RNR and Joe and Cali do it. We decide on ice cream while they ride RNR. I insist JayJay MUST change out of her princess dress to eat ice cream. Reluctantly she does. After about 5 minutes of insisting on trying to do it herself, she concedes and lets me help. Cali doesnt want to go on it again right now. She isnt up for TOT either. RNR is her new fave and she likes TOT too, but she is not the biggest fan of doing things over and over in a row. Joe tries to talk me into going by myself, but I dont want to take up the time for just me. Besides by now, Im feeling a bit weary by the expanded pre-show stuff. Even walking onto rides seems to be taking too long, with all the pre-show. Talk about your spoiled line-waiting brat! I wonder where my prima donnas get their attitudes from dont you? Lol We realize the parade is in 20 minutes so I offer to stake claim to a spot while Joe takes Buddy on Star Tours one last time. Of course, while theyre gone and Im holding down the fort on a good parade spot JayJay announces she needs the potty. What to do? I decide to leave our strollers there and ask the woman next to me if shed mind watching my spot for me. She was kind enough to do so and off we went. Whew we made it in time! Wait, strike that, we made it but she misses and I am going to have to change her anyway! She has a sundress on so I just toss her undies in the trash and clean her bottom. Back at the strollers I discreetly add new undies and shorts under her dress. Man, I am telling you, just writing about all the potty issues weve had is traumatic for me. I feel Ive had my fill for a lifetime!
Just before the parade starts Joe returns with a mini-Darth Vader. Hey, where did Buddy go? Oh, thats you under the Vader mask?! Hes pleased as punch and I soon find that mask to be a great asset. The Stars and Motor Cars parade is my fave afternoon parade. Lots of characters and cool cars. What I didnt remember is all the potential for interaction. Well, when you wear a Darth Vader mask, you get lots of it! All the walking characters came over to the kids. Many of the riding characters and their drivers pointed at him, or acted scared. The first time this happened Buddy pushed his mask up off his face and then the character made an expression of relief. This prompted Buddy to come to me and exclaim, Mom, mom, she thought I was Real! This happened repeatedly and each episode brought more joy to my kids faces. They each got attention but the characters were drawn to us by that mask. Then R2D2 came toodling along, he came right up to Buddy! Scrapbook moment right there! Luke and Leia came along in their car and shook their finger at him in a no-no fashion. It was just so neat. They were getting so into it, they kept crossing The Line as the characters approached them. A CM asked us a couple times to have them step back. I really tried to be diligent about it but then Pink Power Ranger comes along. Now, I am not a big PR fan. I know Buddy likes them. But he likes all that boy stuff. We do not spend a lot of time watching PR stuff. How on earth does JayJay know pink power ranger? Its like they had an immediate connection. JayJay goes running out to her and Pink Power Ranger picks her up and gives her a big hug! JayJay falls in love! Yes, my daughter loves Cinderella and Pink Power Ranger. Hmmm Shes been talking about seeing Pink Power Ranger ever since. You just never know whats going to happen! After the Lavish Attention on My Kids Parade we head over to do the Backlot Tour. Joe wanted to do this. We are in the front of the line, heading over to the trams, but of course, we need to detour to the potties and end up at the end of the line and having to wait a HALF AND HOUR for the next tram. While I was amused for all of ten seconds at Catastrophe Canyon and appreciated the glimpse of the cars practicing at the new Stunt Show (during which we saw two cars almost crash into each other!) Joe felt this was extremely paltry in comparison to Universal. Yup, scratch that off the must-do list too.
Sped the strollers through the giant coke bottle sprayer, much to their delight then moved on over to One Mans Dream. We had a big Potty deal here too but, you know, this is getting tiring to report on. So Ill just leave it at that. I loved the walk-thru part of this attraction as well as the movie. Moved on to Sounds Dangerous as Joe wanted to check it out. He likes Whos line is it and wanted to see what the deal was with Drew Carey. Yep, scratch that off the must-do list too. By now, Fantasmic has started and this park is a ghost town. Were standing in front of the hat and feel like we can see as far as the eye can see. Joe tries one last time to convince me to do TOT alone. Again, I dont want to take up the time for myself and make him deal with the kids alone. Well, he asked anyway. Satisfied wed done all we wanted to and all that was left to do, we decide to not even get EMH bracelets. Joe even lets me go shopping a bit. (like he has any control over letting or not letting me do anything! Ha! Hell be the first to tell you thats a misnomer). He probably regrets that! So, after one last look back to say Good-bye, were off and home in time to watch Desperate Housewives on t.v. and I was completely happy about it. Strange but true!
MINMATES Trip Report: (Day 1) I Need A Vacation! http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=8284821#post8284821
MINMATES Trip Report: Day 2 (Pt.1) Lions & Tarzan & Mickey, Oh My! http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=8288435#post8288435
MINMATES Trip Report: Day 2 (Pt.2) Visiting WDW-One Potty At A Time! http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=792642
MINMATES Trip Report: Day 2 (Pt.3) Magic Kingdom Nirvana
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=8301761#post8301761
MINMATES Trip Report: Day 3 (PT 1) POOL Is One Letter Short of POO!
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=792687
MINMATES Trip Report: Day 3 (PT 2) Dont Rain On My Parade!
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=792750
MINMATES Trip Report: Day 4 Out of the Ashes Rises the Phoenix: A Perfect Day
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=8304118#post8304118
MINMATES Trip Report: Day 5 Just Ducky & Discovering DVC http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=792859
ME (minmate)
DH -- Joe
DD6 Cali
DD5 Meg
DS4 Buddy
DD2 Jay Jay
4/5-4/12 7 nights at Pop Century
SUNDAY, APRIL 10th
Day 6 of Visiting WDW One Potty At A Time! I dont know if its sad or funny that I can remember potty visits as distinctly as the rides/attractions and other memories!
I woke up this morning, somewhat heavy-hearted. I was pretty sure this would be our last parks day. That meant our vacations end was looming ever closer. Now, many may think that I may want this vacation to end, but I really didnt! I still found the joy and beauty in being with my family. I still would rather be with them throwing fits and having to go potty at WDW than in Wal-Mart, the Y, or on the way to Preschool and by myself without reinforcements, while Joe is at work.
I wake the girls and inform them today is Princess Day. Cali dons the most gorgeous Belle gown I have ever seen. Cali reminds me of Belle. So practical, knowledgeable, a bookworm, seeker and adventurer. My wonderful friend Kelly (a DVC member who gets to go home with her family in Oct. and take her son for his first trip yay!) lent me some of her dds dresses because I didnt have enough in the right sizes and good enough shape to go around. You would think that with three girls our home would be brimming with princess attire. Not so. Pirate hats, knight costumes, Yu-gi-oh get-ups, Power Ranger outfits, Spidey, Batman and all those, Yup we got em full, complete, in duplicate, triplicate and accounted for! Princess attire, we are scant and not so complete on. I guess we know who the REAL CHARACTER in this family is, now dont we? Wouldnt be the kid who dressed in his Spiderman costume every day for six months straight, would it? I can SOOO picture him wearing a Spiderman costume under his high school graduation gown! Likewise, I have had fleeting thoughts of him working as Spiderman someday at Universal. Can you imagine the pick-up line at a college bar for that? So, what do you do? Me? Why, Im Spiderman! lol
Anyway, back to Princess Day. We had ressies at the Storybook Lunch at Akershus in Epcot. JayJay was lovely as Sleeping Beauty and Meg who typically does not go near anything without legs happily wore a comfy Snow White get up. Other than Cinderella being JayJays diehard favorite character and Disney thing of all time forever and ever, my girls have not expressed an interest in a favorite princess or even in princesses as being their favorite in general. So, I didnt even know if this would be a big hit for them or not. I opted not to bring the Cinderella gown because it seemed itchy and Cinderella does not come to Akershus anyway. Meg has beautiful long dark blond hair and would have borne a remarkable resemblance to Sleeping Beauty but the gown was just a bit too small. I had my heart set on her wearing it but it just didnt work out. JayJay was absolutely adorable in it. My mom had sent along a little tiara for her with pink lettering spelling out Princess on it. Suited Princess Feet JayJay to a T. Meg actually embodies a lot of Snow Whites personality anyway. Kind, meek and mild, hard worker, generous heart, loving, doting, enjoying the moment. They were all beautiful. I know Im their mom, but I cant help to pontificate over this.
Buddy woke up and declared he was not at all interested in Princess Day, that it was quite simply, Yuk. While he is more than happy to play Prince and Princess ad nauseum and even dress as a knight or prince and (his favorite part) wield a sword he had absolutely no interest in meeting princesses. The girls tried in vain to convince him that maybe princes would be there too. He wasnt buying it. He got dressed anyway, in regular old boy clothes and off we went.
Id like to take this moment to interject a moment of what I thought was rude behavior by some strangers on the upper floors. While we were walking to the bus someone dumped the contents of their mug out over the railing. I hollered up, Hey, thats rude! Theres people down here you know! Dont you have a sink? Joe gave me that look and called after me like he does when he thinks I should just drop it. He is NOT a confrontationalist, especially about things that dont matter. It wasnt like I was going to run up the stairs and track down the person but I figured if they had the inconsiderate nature to do something like that, potentially spilling on my beautiful princess, potentially ruining their dresses and subsequently, their day, I sure as heck had the right to voice my opinion!
Anyway, we make it to the bus line and walk right onto the Epcot bus. It is not EMH day by the way. On the bus Buddy has to go potty. Yeah, I know, shocker. He and I hustle over to the bathrooms before the entrance to the park to take care of business. Wouldnt you know it, another kid has to go too when we get there! With that out of the way for oh, say, the next five minutes, we head into Epcot. Here, we are able to get through the turnstiles and get situated with our strollers right in front of Spaceship Earth for the rope drop. Its a thrill to see the character bus roll in. I contemplate stopping to meet the characters but Joe nixes that and steers us to the left. At least hes getting the general vicinity down! We get to M:S and Joe is pumped to go on. Whoa, hold on, Cali does NOT want to ride. She cant ride anything in a dress she informs us. Oh cripes, why not? Ok, well I guess an astronaut wouldnt really wear a dress to Mars either, would she? So, I tell Joe, Were already over here, just go! Then, I try to call him to tell him to get in the single-rider line. I dont get through and give up. The kids are starting in and I was NOT going to let it happen today. I gave them a stern lecture and told them that in NO WAY were they allowed to whine this day away. Its our last park day and its mommy and daddys day. Theyd better be good and make the most of it. Surprisingly, Joe actually DID use the single rider line! Hey, why did I ever underestimate him? Guess where we went next? None of the kids had been on an attraction, but now, theyve been to the potty twice! All right! Next up Universe of Energy. Saturday night we chose to forgo this because of the posted 45 minute length of the ride. Honestly, I dont know how theyd have done that night, but we enjoyed it this day. Joe and I like Ellen anyway.
We head over to Figment because we learn that you can do that in a dress. Soarin is only open for cast members this day. I resigned myself to not getting to do it this time around. We play around in ImageWorks for awhile, email a pic to family members and head over to World Showcase entrance to meet up with the character bus. While waiting for the bus, I snapped some pictures of various things, including some sweet candids that captured the sweeter, gentler side of my family. I also got ridiculed by Joe for snapping a picture of two squirrels fight-chasing around a tree. How could I resist, a pic of squirrels with Spaceship Earth in the background! We named them Chip and Dale! I know wrong species whatever, it worked!
Now, when at WDW, it is very common to spy a young princess and they are always cute. But, dare I say, when you see three of them together, it is always a comment-maker and attention-grabber. The girls received countless, Oh look at the darling princesses! comments all morning. When the character bus arrived, JayJay somehow positioned herself to be It Girl. Mickey grabbed her hand in one and Minnies in the other and they strolled to their designated greeting spots, with the rest of my crew right along with them. I felt like paparazzi running ahead to turn around and snap a pic of that sweet moment!
We already had Micks autograph but were hoping to get a group shot but the CMs shoo-shooed us toward the end of an already somewhat formidable line that had formed. No thanks. Im happy with my candid of the kids walking with Mick. Means more anyway. So, we go to Minnie who had a shorter line. We hadnt met her yet and I wasnt sure if shed be at Chef Mickeys when we went there. We also see Stitch before heading over to Akershus for our Storybook Lunch PS at 11:40.
This is the first seating time for lunch. Apparently they close btw breakfast and lunch to switch. We got there at 11:35, checked in, went to the store across the path to take pics in the Viking helmets (with sword in hand for Buddy!). They stood under the giant troll. Buddy was saving the princesses he told us. By 11:40 they were calling the "Royal Family _______ (Fill in your last name)" to eat. They called names one after the other until the restaurant was filled. We were about the 8th family called. The announcer guy pronounced it right! I was impressed and told him so! He also had a great announcing voice for this and set a great tone for entering the restaurant. We got a round table right by the foyer. We didn't feel squished at all. There were only two chairs that were very close to a wall. Dh and ds4 (who had no intention of getting off his hiney-kin to be in any princess pics anyway) sat there.
Our server came out and announced that this was Ariel's first day with her legs to visit us! This was a surprise to us. Then, she explained the menu and was very nice. There was a basket of different types of flatbreads and such.
The kids got an appetizer plate that had cheese, ham, scrambled eggs(?) and "troll mix" which had pretzels, white carob covered raisins and chex mix I think. It also had veggies with dip that occupied JayJay as she devoured it.
The adults got a huge appetizer platter that had salmon, scrambled eggs, delicious potato salad, a seafood type salad and cheeses. Joe is NOT a seafood eater though.
There was a choice of about 5 different entrees. Joe got Chicken Caesar Salad. I got a Seafood Fettucine (not sure it that's the name, but that's the gist of it). There was a salmon choice, I think another chicken and another seafood choice.
The kids got to choose from basic American Fare. Our kids got pasta w/meatball and marina, and I believe hot dog or mac and cheese. (Their food choices tend to blend together b/c they often order the same things all the time! Im guessing that Buddy got chicken, what do you think? lol).
My seafood pasta was good! It was topped with vegetables and creamy sauce. Yum. Joe liked his salad too. He ate all of it anyway.
The shared dessert platter had strawberry rice pudding type thing -- yum! -- and an AWESOME chocolate mousse! It was divine! Also some other thing, I can't remember, but looked kind of like a fruit layer bar thingy. A bit crumbly and not overly tasty.
The princesses had all come to the table before we got served our entree (during our appetizer). They were very friendly. Ariel was SOOOO animated and totally dramatic! Maybe b/c she was excited to be there? They took their time with the kids, signed our autograph bag, asked them a few questions then sweetly went on their way. They spent a nice amount of time but efficient enough that we weren't waiting around to see all the characters like we did at Breakfastasaurus and Chef Mickey's.
Belle (who was in her blue and white village outfit) fawned over Cali when she noticed her in the Belle gown. She posed for a pic with JUST her. In fact, she was the only character during our whole to OFFER to pose separately with the kids. I almost always do them in one group so as not to take up too much time. As assertive as I can be about some things, I am not so much with characters and trampling on other peoples time. I think the second they come to our table, I get nervous and feel like I dont want to take up too much of their time.
Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, Belle and Ariel were all nice but truly, seeing Cinderella there was a big surprise and just thrilled JayJay to pieces. Cali was also very happy as she was mopey when I told her that Cinderella doesnt come here. Im glad for both of us that I was wrong! Cali and Meg were really getting into having the characters sign our autograph bag. Wed brought multi-colored sharpies and it was getting quite cute and colorful by now.
Although Joe felt limited by the entree selections (he's a picky eater remember!) -- we enjoyed it and will probably do it again!
After eating, Cali and Meg decided they wanted to change. They were so beautiful but I knew they would be more comfy in regular clothes, which I had actually packed and brought with us this time! I even had about three sets of clothes for JayJay. Im not usually such a slow learner! As it turns out JayJay has absolutely no desire to change out of her princess attire. We spend some good quality time in the bathroom and once Joe even sent Meg in there alone. Yes, we were literally ten steps away from the door and had a clear view of it but I wasnt comfortable with the idea of my 5 year old in the bathroom by myself. I went in behind her to check and see if anyone else was in there. They werent. Meg curtly told me to let her go alone. So I left but told her if I saw anyone else come in I was coming in too. With my eyes trained on the bathroom door Joe asked me what the big deal was. You know all those times hed taken them to the bathroom? He was just standing by the door and waiting for them. What? I say Well, would you rather have me take them into the mens room where grown men are going out in the open? I guess not. They are too old for that. Yech! I didnt like any of these options at all. The whole bathroom thing is making me nauseous, how about you? So, now JayJay has to go potty and seeing Meg getting to go by herself JayJay mandates that she get the same privilege! You are 2 years old for goodness sake. Never mind whether or not I feel you are capable of it! Its just not right! Now, on top of refusing to go potty half the time we try to take her, when she does agree to go, I am not allowed in the bathroom with her not just in the same stall, but she feels the entire bathroom should be off-limits to mom! Oh, the absurdities, they come tumbling in one after the other. If its not an unrightfully ketchupy chicken nugget, its a 2 year old princess that wants to wander into a bathroom unsupervised in the middle of DisneyWorld! Dont ask me how I managed this because I truly dont know! Fortunately, this was an inconsistent phase that we managed to work our way out of eventually!
While in the bathroom, by the way, I once again ran into the girl from the airplane and this time, her mother good thing because we were in the ladies room! Its a Small World After All, now isnt it? Speaking of which, I failed to mention that during Day 5 our Perfect Friday, during MK EMH morning, we did an encore of this ride for JayJays sake. She LOVES this ride. She was even telling Granny just today, Small World After All, thats my favorite ride!!! She is soo cute! I really did fall in love with this ride because of her. The power of a 2 year old, its amazing!
After lunch we walked through World Showcase, taking more pics in hats and with various props. While I would have been equally amused by Drinking around the World, Joe is not a drinker and I figured, while hes my superman, he wasnt going to be able to carry me AND Princess Feet out of Epcot along with the three other little mucha-chas that call us mom and dad! Cali delighted in playing photographer so we could get some pics of Joe and I together. She did a good job too! We spotted Snow White and were excited only to have the handler bark at us to take leave. Snow White was done! So, not wanting to wait around for another 40 minutes, we continued our way through WS, with the intention of catching the boat at International Gateway over to MGM. On a whim, we turned into American Adventure. The singers were impressive. Cali was significantly less impressed by the fact that she had to keep tapping me on the arm to wake up and look at the show! Cali, the sponge for knowledge that she is, was so attentive and was trying to ask me questions to elaborate in detail on the goings-on in the show. I must remember to sit her next to her father when Im trying to steal a few moments of beauty sleep in shows like these!
On the way to the boats I hit the snafu of the day. Everones thirsty and two carts we pass deny us using the Dining plan for drinks because their machine was down. Personally, I think, for some reason, they just dont like the Dining Plan and said that to shoo us away. I could tell by their attitudes and by the reactions I got from all the snack carts all week. I dont know why this is but they are somewhat inhospitable about the whole thing. We had better experiences at the restaurants. Now, I hate having to preface my philosophies because I find that to be somewhat shallow, but truly, I am open-minded and do not hold prejudices toward peoples ethnic and cultural differences. But if Im talking to you and youre providing me a service and youre in and English speaking country (Wait, is International Gateway considered English speaking territory?), I would hope you could communicate to me in, well, English. The cashier here was simply not capable of this. At least not very well. What I glean from her is that, yes, I can use my snack points there for drinks, so we proceed with the transaction, only to find that shes charged it to my room. Okay, its $12, but its the principle. This is the third place that sells drinks that is not cooperating with the Dining Plan. Joe, seeing that look in my eye, knows hes not going to rein me in and herds the kids away to shield them from mommys dark side. After a few polite go rounds, I get increasingly frustrated with this woman who cant even respond to me in English words! Why is she working the register, I dont know? Another woman comes up who can speak English but is equally unhelpful. She tries to pass me off to Guest Services, promising they can fix the error. They cant. Only the hotel Guest Services can do anything with the plan. They have no clue what theyre talking about. I storm off, NOT at ALL happy. The boat has arrived and apparently Joe has not successfully shielded the kids from my own personal temper tantrum. Buddy wants to know why I made that woman almost want to cry. I said, I didnt make her cry but she gave mommy the wrong information and wasnt being very helpful. Buddy said, But mommy, her face got all red and I saw her eyes, she turned away and looked like she almost wanted to cry. Sigh heavy-hearted and feeling like a jerk, I know hes right. I cant describe what those moments feel like, but I just decided to let it go. I secretly wished I could be more laissez-faire like Joe.
Nothing like a 25-minute boat ride and a deja-vue trip from yesterday through the DVC/Dolphin/Swan area to calm a person down and change their demeanor.
Once at MGM, we did the TOT/RNR FP drill again. This time Joe got it right. I really wanted to catch the Incredibles for Buddy, JoJo for JayJay, the new Stunt Show for Joe, TOT for me and the parade for all of us. Three out of five aint bad, is it? We did the Animation of Disney after which we met Mrs. Incredible and Frozone (where was MR. I?). The kids ALL loved that. Then we made a mad dash around the park to find JoJo. We couldnt find him and crossed the park twice finally found him and Goliath. We ended having to nix the Stunt Show because of timing. Chances are that it would have been too full anyway b/c we got to the park so late. Later I learned JoJo and Goliath are in the parade and that wouldve likely been good enough! Too bad! Well, theres always next time! We go in to see sorcerer Mickey and my camera decides its going to take a nap so I miss the pic. Guess well be buying that one off the Photo Pass. About now, we realize this park is really quiet! We feel like we have it pretty much to ourselves. We head back to RNR and Joe and Cali do it. We decide on ice cream while they ride RNR. I insist JayJay MUST change out of her princess dress to eat ice cream. Reluctantly she does. After about 5 minutes of insisting on trying to do it herself, she concedes and lets me help. Cali doesnt want to go on it again right now. She isnt up for TOT either. RNR is her new fave and she likes TOT too, but she is not the biggest fan of doing things over and over in a row. Joe tries to talk me into going by myself, but I dont want to take up the time for just me. Besides by now, Im feeling a bit weary by the expanded pre-show stuff. Even walking onto rides seems to be taking too long, with all the pre-show. Talk about your spoiled line-waiting brat! I wonder where my prima donnas get their attitudes from dont you? Lol We realize the parade is in 20 minutes so I offer to stake claim to a spot while Joe takes Buddy on Star Tours one last time. Of course, while theyre gone and Im holding down the fort on a good parade spot JayJay announces she needs the potty. What to do? I decide to leave our strollers there and ask the woman next to me if shed mind watching my spot for me. She was kind enough to do so and off we went. Whew we made it in time! Wait, strike that, we made it but she misses and I am going to have to change her anyway! She has a sundress on so I just toss her undies in the trash and clean her bottom. Back at the strollers I discreetly add new undies and shorts under her dress. Man, I am telling you, just writing about all the potty issues weve had is traumatic for me. I feel Ive had my fill for a lifetime!
Just before the parade starts Joe returns with a mini-Darth Vader. Hey, where did Buddy go? Oh, thats you under the Vader mask?! Hes pleased as punch and I soon find that mask to be a great asset. The Stars and Motor Cars parade is my fave afternoon parade. Lots of characters and cool cars. What I didnt remember is all the potential for interaction. Well, when you wear a Darth Vader mask, you get lots of it! All the walking characters came over to the kids. Many of the riding characters and their drivers pointed at him, or acted scared. The first time this happened Buddy pushed his mask up off his face and then the character made an expression of relief. This prompted Buddy to come to me and exclaim, Mom, mom, she thought I was Real! This happened repeatedly and each episode brought more joy to my kids faces. They each got attention but the characters were drawn to us by that mask. Then R2D2 came toodling along, he came right up to Buddy! Scrapbook moment right there! Luke and Leia came along in their car and shook their finger at him in a no-no fashion. It was just so neat. They were getting so into it, they kept crossing The Line as the characters approached them. A CM asked us a couple times to have them step back. I really tried to be diligent about it but then Pink Power Ranger comes along. Now, I am not a big PR fan. I know Buddy likes them. But he likes all that boy stuff. We do not spend a lot of time watching PR stuff. How on earth does JayJay know pink power ranger? Its like they had an immediate connection. JayJay goes running out to her and Pink Power Ranger picks her up and gives her a big hug! JayJay falls in love! Yes, my daughter loves Cinderella and Pink Power Ranger. Hmmm Shes been talking about seeing Pink Power Ranger ever since. You just never know whats going to happen! After the Lavish Attention on My Kids Parade we head over to do the Backlot Tour. Joe wanted to do this. We are in the front of the line, heading over to the trams, but of course, we need to detour to the potties and end up at the end of the line and having to wait a HALF AND HOUR for the next tram. While I was amused for all of ten seconds at Catastrophe Canyon and appreciated the glimpse of the cars practicing at the new Stunt Show (during which we saw two cars almost crash into each other!) Joe felt this was extremely paltry in comparison to Universal. Yup, scratch that off the must-do list too.
Sped the strollers through the giant coke bottle sprayer, much to their delight then moved on over to One Mans Dream. We had a big Potty deal here too but, you know, this is getting tiring to report on. So Ill just leave it at that. I loved the walk-thru part of this attraction as well as the movie. Moved on to Sounds Dangerous as Joe wanted to check it out. He likes Whos line is it and wanted to see what the deal was with Drew Carey. Yep, scratch that off the must-do list too. By now, Fantasmic has started and this park is a ghost town. Were standing in front of the hat and feel like we can see as far as the eye can see. Joe tries one last time to convince me to do TOT alone. Again, I dont want to take up the time for myself and make him deal with the kids alone. Well, he asked anyway. Satisfied wed done all we wanted to and all that was left to do, we decide to not even get EMH bracelets. Joe even lets me go shopping a bit. (like he has any control over letting or not letting me do anything! Ha! Hell be the first to tell you thats a misnomer). He probably regrets that! So, after one last look back to say Good-bye, were off and home in time to watch Desperate Housewives on t.v. and I was completely happy about it. Strange but true!
