Mommy & Me Girly Fun Bday 10/31 Last Day & AT home

[kaoden39]

I'm not sure if they have this in DL. That photo is actually from the new line queue..it's part of the tombstone of the captain.

I bet you're right. The story to the one at DL is different.


Now to go back and read.

 

[kaoden39]

Oh what a lot of fun!!


That lady on the train.......Wow!!



I look forward to more of your trip.

 

[pld5]

I'm here! So excited for your report.

I love how Rachel reminded you of your plans to get to 3 parks after the pools were going to be closed. She's one smart kid!

That picture of you and she on the ferry is beyond precious.

 

[TinksThree]

Joining in! I followed the times you posted on Liners and saw you mention you would have a TR so I have been watching for it! Great start! We are planning on staying at POP in October so interested to hear how you like it!

 

[teekathepony]

At 2:15am, Rachel tells me, "Stop it! I'm trying to listen to the train."

I say, "What?" but get no answer as Rachel was just talking in her sleep. When I tell her what she said in the morning, she thinks it is VERY funny!

Omg, I got a good laugh out of this! My DH does stuff like this all the time. Once he sat straight up, looked me right in the eyes and said, "It's because we're Irish." (which neither of us are). Cracked me up.
Ooohhh 70's at Pop! Maybe my favourite section!!
Love the pic on the ferry to MK!

 

[DisneyStitch626]

Great start! Loving it so far. So funny about that lady who took your food right in front of Rachel. And your room looks almost identical to ours, except there's two beds instead of one.

 

[djp0630]

Aaw, what a nice report so far! I would love to just take my DD for a Mommy & me trip (she's 6!) Sounds like such a special time!

 

[Peace Mickey Lovers]

Enjoying your report so far, can;t wait to read more!

 

[Marshay]

I am really enjoying your report so far.

that is a riot about the lady eating snack off your table

Glad Elizabeth was so excited to take her own trip and not sad you guys were going

Can't wait to hear more about your 3 parks in one day mission

Thanks! Yeah, I was just so completely taken by surprise...and then when she didn't even apologize or anything ....

I mean if I made a mistake and took someone's else's food, I'd be mortified. I'd be profusely apologizing and my face would be red from embarrassment.

Yeah, even now Elizabeth says she is glad she went to Nana and Papa's ... although just this weekend she told me she wants to go back to Disney to ride her two favorite rides -- Aladdin's Magic Carpets and Dumbo!!

 

[Marshay]

I bet you're right. The story to the one at DL is different.

Now to go back and read.

That HM photo was really a tough one ... I was just standing in line and saw the fish and knew I wanted to get a photo of it to use as a quiz for my TR!

Oh what a lot of fun!!

That lady on the train.......Wow!!

I look forward to more of your trip.

Yes, we had fun!

That lady was something else.

More is coming shortly!!

 

[Marshay]

I'm here! So excited for your report.

I love how Rachel reminded you of your plans to get to 3 parks after the pools were going to be closed. She's one smart kid!

That picture of you and she on the ferry is beyond precious.

Thanks for joining!!

Oh, yeah, she didn't forget! I wasn't sure how up for it I would be. I mean, it would be more productive to just stay in one park or go to just 2 parks...but she had it in her head to try 3 parks in several hours!

Thank you ! I love that ferry photo of us, too! I can't wait to show you some more -- we had a few pics that were just "right on!"

Joining in! I followed the times you posted on Liners and saw you mention you would have a TR so I have been watching for it! Great start! We are planning on staying at POP in October so interested to hear how you like it!

Welcome!! Thanks for joining over from the Liners!! It was fun to post some threads over there in real time! I recently won an Ipad and it was neat to do some live posting.

Overall we loved Pop! It was perfect for us and really you don't need anything more.

However .... since we are used to DVC 1 bedrooms (for the 4 of us), I admit we get Spoiled by the Deluxes.

but I figure it's all in what you appreciate. If a room is just a place to sleep and you don't spend a lot of time there, then why spend more?

Omg, I got a good laugh out of this! My DH does stuff like this all the time. Once he sat straight up, looked me right in the eyes and said, "It's because we're Irish." (which neither of us are). Cracked me up.
Ooohhh 70's at Pop! Maybe my favourite section!!
Love the pic on the ferry to MK!

Welcome!! Thanks for joining, my Irish friend!! Ok, I couldn't resist that. Waaaay too funny b/c you said you aren't Irish!!

We had a chance to walk around the resort and I liked the 70s the best (with 80s a closed 2nd). Obviously that's b/c those are the eras I remember the best).

I love that ferry pic too! Our smiles are b/c we are just starting out the trip!!

 

[Marshay]

Great start! Loving it so far. So funny about that lady who took your food right in front of Rachel. And your room looks almost identical to ours, except there's two beds instead of one.

Thanks!! That lady still makes me laugh!

I think having one bed at Pop would be really nice -- give you some more room to spread out a bit.

Aaw, what a nice report so far! I would love to just take my DD for a Mommy & me trip (she's 6!) Sounds like such a special time!

All I can say is if you can take the time and money to do so, go for it! I just can't explain into words how precious this trip was. I only have 2 girls but to get such a huge chunk of time alone with one daughter is truly priceless! I saw her grow up on the trip in ways I wasn't expecting.

I'm still reaping the rewards as this past Sunday, we went to Six Flags America (just DD3, DD7 and me) and had a great time. I could rely on her to stay with DD3 while I went to get food. She even rode on one of the big coasters all by herself and loved it (since I had to stay with DD3).

I hope to be able to go with DD3 when she is 7 years old, too.

Enjoying your report so far, can;t wait to read more!

Thanks for joining! It's fun to do TR and relive your trip -- esp if you had a great time!

 

[Marshay]

Ok, I last left you on the ferry boat to MK. This is part of Rachel's idea to do 3 parks in about 8 hours.

So we started in AK

And then drove over to Epcot to park the truck (it's an SUV but we call it a truck). We took the monorail to TTC and then the ferry to MK.

Once in MK, we got our SOTMK cards and got in line for the Haunted Mansion, watching the ferry boat

and enjoying the interactive queue

and looking for photos that I could use to stump people on my TR!

(FYI, Rachel Tallent is the winner and we'll be in WDW at the same time, so she may be the first person I actually get to meet and give a Mickey Ice Cream bar for winning!)

After HM, we went on PoC and walked right on. Then we shopped in the store and I was going to buy Jerry this t-shirt since he has long hair

but bought him this one instead. It also has a design on the back of a big skull. I figure he can wear it for the pirate party on the Dream in January.

The girls think it is funny that Daddy has rhinestones on his shirt, too!

I spent enough money to do the purchase with purchase and got the starter pin set and backpack.

 

[WDWCP96]

Loving the start of your TR! Crazy about the woman eating of your plate on the train.

I love Rachel's plan of hitting 3 parks in one day. That is a sign of a true Disney addict but that is no surprise since she had a great teacher.

I am loving all the pictures.

So funny that you were at Six Flags America this weekend. We were there on Saturday to use the Read to Success ticket for my son. Did you use yours?

 

[Marshay]

By then the MSEP had begun, so we watched this alittle while waiting for our FP. These are bad photos but you get the idea

We then rode BTMRR two times in a row. Rachel didn't want to go again but I wanted to so gave her the choice to sit and wait for me, play at Splash Mountain playground or ride again. She rode ... and then said it was really neat to see more things the 2nd time! (D'oh!! Sometimes mother does know best!)

I must admit I am sad that they didn't bring the moving boulders back. I always enjoyed seeing them pretend to come and crash on us.

We left MK at 10pm along with everyone else. Whew! What a crowd!! And we found out the hard way that the monorail to Epcot had stopped for the night so we had to wait 30+ minutes for a bus to Epcot for EMH.

At this point I was REALLY wishing that we had just driven to MK instead of parking in Epcot. But when we parked I figured that taking the monorail would be faster...

Once we arrived at Epcot, it was nearly 11pm and we were both tired from standing on the bus. So we rode Spaceship Earth and played some of the games afterwards. By then it was nearly midnight so we went on Mission Space Green side and called it a night at midnight.

Unfortunately, I forgot to check a map to see where Pop Century was in relationship to Epcot. Foolish me, thought that the GPS in my phone would be enough.

Nope, the directions in my phone were not correct. Maybe b/c it's private roads? But whenever I relied on my phone for directions, we would somehow get lost.

We got back to the room and in bed by 1:30am.

Reflecting back on our day, I realized that we traveled by Train, Car, Tram, Ferry Boat, Monorail and Bus -- all in the same day!!

Good thing we can sleep in tomorrow ... right?

 

[Marshay]

Loving the start of your TR! Crazy about the woman eating of your plate on the train.

I love Rachel's plan of hitting 3 parks in one day. That is a sign of a true Disney addict but that is no surprise since she had a great teacher.

I am loving all the pictures.

So funny that you were at Six Flags America this weekend. We were there on Saturday to use the Read to Success ticket for my son. Did you use yours?

Glad you could make it! YEah, that woman --

I told Rachel that next time we should try for 4 parks in one day ... but we need to start much earlier!! Only starting at 4pm really put a cramp in our activities.

Yes, she is becoming a little Disney commando version of myself -- much to the delight of me and the consternation of my DH!

Yes, we did the RTS ticket. We try to go once a year and with her getting in for free, that helps a lot. We really had a pleasant time.

I'm not sure if it's b/c DH wasn't with us or that 6Flags has stepped up their security or that it really wasn't crowded or that Rachel is big enough to do some rides all by herself or that Elizabeth is now potty trained and we don't have to schlep as much or a combination of everything. We've gone in the past but haven't had as good a time as we did on Sunday.

 

[Marshay]

So we were hoping to sleep in this morning after being out so late but my dad calls us at 8:20am and is excited to tell us that Elizabeth and them are having so much fun and she is behaving so well, that they are going to add another day in PA and Jerry doesn't need to come up until the next day.

Well, that's great news --- but not when we were hoping to sleep in. Yeah we got 7 hours of sleep, which is a lot but it was such a long day yesterday 6am - 1:30am that we needed sleep!!

Then we ate breakfast in the room and decided that we would explore our resort and AoA and go to Typhoon Lagoon in the afternoon. Here is a picture of our building

Rachel had seen this cool yo-yo staircase and wanted her picture.

I started to walk up the stairs and go with her ... and by the 4th step, my legs were tired...so I wimped out....I mean I made the logical choice to conserve my energy b/c it was going to be another long day!!

While walking around Pop, you'll see lots of signs announcing famous events that happened that year. I had to get a picture of this one!

We decided to go over to Art of Animation Resort. I wanted to check this and see if we'd want to stay here in January. It's right across from Pop.

Bridge to AoA

There are like 4 huge turtles in the pond

Wow!! The theming at AoA is so immersive. You totally feel like you are a fish in the ocean -- which is the entire point!

 

[Marshay]

You first come to a cool playground

and then along the way there are just super cute characters -- on the grass, near the buildings -- everywhere

Mine Mine Mine!!

The pool

Notice the tops of the roofs are not linear. The Imagineers really wanted you to be part of the story and said that if the roof just ended it wouldn't have the right "feel". So the roof is shaped like waves to be the top of the ocean and you are on the floor of it.

 

[Marshay]

We walked to the lobby to find out if they had a room available to see and was told yes, they do as part of the tour of the resort. So we walked around for a bit waiting for the tour.

We headed over to the Cars section. Now after coming from Nemo and the water and fish ... and going over to Cars with desert, dirt and cars ... well, it was kind of a shock.

I swear it got about 10 degrees hotter in Cars section than Nemo -- I'm sure it was all psychological but when you are in Florida, extra heat is not a good thing!

Here is the entrance -- just like you'd see in the movie

Rachel posing ... I admit I don't know all my Cars characters...will have to look them up when I do my photoalbum. But if any of you know, please tell me!

Luigi (?) and me

Flo? and me

Now Cars is divided into 3 sections...this one is the furtherest from the rest of the resort but I love it -- looks EXACTLY like the scene in the movie. They nailed this!

Lightening McQueen and Rachel

The girl, whose name I forget and Rachel

The one thing about this resort - you just got to stop along the way and take photos!

Sargeant? and me

 

[Marshay]

Each section (except Lion King) has their own pool. For Cars, there are even these FREE cabanas you can use inside the Cozy Cones!

Mater

Mater's Garage

We still had some time so we went to the food court and got a smoothie and split another kid's meal. Unbeknownst to me, this is also where Rachel lost her brand new sun hat...

So we start the tour outside the lobby and then go inside and are told that we are a design at this stage.

No one knows who is going to be a central character and who is a background character in this high-level story that we are entering. The floor starts with small squares and will get larger pixels as we enter into the story some more.

A rainbow of colors come off the walls and onto the floor. The Concept Artists (not Cast Members!) have uniforms here that are black and white as they are the first people to greet you and help you get into the story.

On the walls are drawings of characters from the four movies ... I particularly like the one of Ursula who was going to be a mermaid at first

This was an original sketch and she changes as you walk down the lobby and "develop" your own story more.