My 1st PTR/TR: An unexpected trip, Disney in December 4 *Day 3 6/5 Illuminations!*

[Roxychica7]

More great updates. I can't believe how cold it was on your AK day. That makes me stress out about what to pack next December.

Don't stress out! Thankfully we SAW it coming on the forecast so we purposefully made sure we had gloves and hoodies. Just watch that weather closely! You'll be fine! Plus, it's still over a year away girl!!

 

[Roxychica7]

So, Dbf and a co-worker of mine (also fellow grad student) are watching football all day, so I decided to do another update!
The last of our Animal Kingdom day..here go we!

It was going on about 3 now and we had gotten fastpasses earlier for the Safari. Here we are waiting in line

We were in the back! It totally feels like riding in the back of the bus, especially when you go over the bumps, we caught some serious air sometimes!

The open savannah, great views!

Surprisingly since we had such a late safari ride, the majority of the animals were out and about! Here some we saw:

A bumpy part of the bus!

Then we headed off to Camp Minnie Mickey to see the Lion King show. Love this one! First we stopped off to see some of Dbf's fishing buddies!

A lizard posin with the characters too!

Camp Minnie Mickey is FILLED with colorfully decorated trees. Me and Ann got a picture with some before heading into the show

The performers, love all these guys

And the finale..so great!

We knew it was time to head out as AK always closes early. So we got some pics with the AK Christmas tree before saying goodbye to Ann

One with Dbf!

And our last final hug! We always joke around since Ann is only 5' I always have to bend down far to hug her

The last caption on this picture was, "Bye Ann! I'll see you again soon, hopefully next year!" Thankfully this came true and we get to hang out in about 3 weeks from now!

Next up..Day 5! Back to Epcot with ADR's at San Angel Ann and The Garden Grill!

 

[Lady Lallie]

I'll try to call down about the weather but I make no guarantees.

Those AK christmas trees are beautiful! I can't wait to see all of them in person. I love FOTLK too, it's such a great show!

 

[disneydusted]

Great update!! It's is so nice that you can meet your friend down at Disney and now again in 3 weeks! Can you believe you are going so soon??! How fun is that to think about?!

 

[Roxychica7]

I'll try to call down about the weather but I make no guarantees.

Those AK christmas trees are beautiful! I can't wait to see all of them in person. I love FOTLK too, it's such a great show!

Oh yes, the TREES, all of the trees over all the parks...they're ALL beautiful. You have plenty of time to worry about the weather in December, I'm sure you have plenty of things you're worrying about already during your May trip

Great update!! It's is so nice that you can meet your friend down at Disney and now again in 3 weeks! Can you believe you are going so soon??! How fun is that to think about?!

3 weeks! Wow, I've been so busy with school, I haven't had time to think about it! I'm so excited to see my friend. We thought once she moved away, we would see each other maybe..once every 5-10 years and within the past 6 years, I'll have already seen her 4 times!

 

[Roxychica7]

Update time!! Disneydusted just pointed out to me that I have 3 weeks left! Have I not been looking at my countdown!? Geeze! Ok, so, I figure we've got 2 days to get through with TR 2007 and then I can start posting some plans for our current trip.
Oh, I got involved in a photopass share! I wanted to do it, but didn't want to spend ALL that money (who doesn't right?) on it for just Dbf and myself. So, I started a post around 3pm yesterday and by this morning at noon, I had already had 9 people confirmed and over half of them already payed! I'm so excited to do this, I really love trying to save money for more than just myself

On we go
Day 5...Back to Epcot

We did a quick breakfast this morning since we had 2 ADR's today, lunch at San Angel Inn around 12 and dinner at Garden Grill around 6.
Walking to the bus, I took a few more pics of the grounds at ASMu.
Here's the Rock and Roll section!

The Epcot sign from the bus

Here we are, still MAD mind you that spaceship earth is closed

Epcot Archway Lights during the day (these are SO pretty at night!)

And the Epcot tree

I honestly can't tell you what we did before our lunch stop in Mexico. Dbf and I were excited for this one. I know it seems to usually get a bad wrap as not being authentically mexican, but we LOVED it. Dbf and I sware that sometimes we had some Spanish/Mexican heritage in another life, as we eat Mexican food once a week.

I had originally planned not to get an appetizer here, because all week we had been trying to get something different so we could share. Dbf wanted the pulled chicken arepa and me not liking cerviche, didn't have another option. I should have just ordered another darn one since they were free, but I didn't.
Instead, I just ate Dbf's

Here was Dbf's Mexican extravaganza, something called the Plato Combination I think

And mine, sorry for the extra cheesy smile (I just wanted to EAT them)
Chicken tacos with onions/peppers and sour cream

The beautiful wreaths they had displayed

This was a beautiful atmosphere, the Tiempo ride runs right through the restaurant and there's a painting of a volcano with the illusion that it is erupting. Very cool.
Our deserts. I got the Flan, Dbf got...(let me go look): Capirotada de Chocolate Blanco - white chocolate golden raisin bread pudding served with Mexican milk caramel
Interesting texture, but not too shabby and then Dbf got a Mexican coffee (with Patron!) he struggled with it even with all the cream in it and wish he would have stuck to something he knew (especially since we had to pay OOP for the drink)

Next, we headed over to Ellen's Universe of Energy and Innoventions

Anybody home?

Trying to play Finding Nemo

My dad's a firefighter (I've grown up in a Firehouse) so I had to pose with the firetruck

We went outside before heading back over to World Showcase (thankfully Mexico is right at the edge of WS, so we weren't tired yet from all the walking-I swear I always think I can conquer that loop, but it ends up being SO long)
Who DOESN'T love this fountain?

Dbf playing with the camera

Continued on next post..

 

[Roxychica7]

We hit the world..

China

Making Ornaments in Germany

More Germany, very cool coo-coo clock store inside

The lake around Italy

I LOVE these ladies in Japan

Next, we headed back over to the Land for our ADR at Garden Grill. I wanted to do 2 character meals, so this was our 1st one, our 2nd is at Ohana's for breakfast on Day 6.
I didn't think the food was excellent, but it was quite good and the salad was really good since it came right from the ride. The characters interactions were short and thankfully our whole meal was over top of the scenes in the ride and we weren't on the outside, not getting a great view.
I liked it, it was good to experience, but we wouldn't do this one again. Just doesn't seem as dare I say cool as some of the other character meals. I'm not even sure Garden Grill has characters anymore do they? I know the one in MK doesn't.
Before our meal came out

Yummy organic salad

Our food: catfish, turkey, london broil, green beans, cranberries, mac and cheese

And the character greetings!
Chip and Dale

I like this one

Taking our turns with Pluto (we didn't have anyone to take our picture together)

I'll finish with Epcot later and then...Day 6 (our LAST official day) at MK

 

[disneydusted]

I have never heard of sharing a Photopass. How do you do it? We have ended up getting the disk at the end of our trip both times. I think I drove my family crazy dragging them over to every photopass photographer I saw! BUT... we have lots of good family pictures!
I'm glad you like Mexico, I loved the interior atmosphere! We haven't eaten there so that will be on the list for next time.
Did you gets lots of comments on your college sweatshirts? My DH and DD had on UMD shirts (not alumni just fans) and so many people asked if they had gone there.

 

[Roxychica7]

I have never heard of sharing a Photopass. How do you do it? We have ended up getting the disk at the end of our trip both times. I think I drove my family crazy dragging them over to every photopass photographer I saw! BUT... we have lots of good family pictures!
I'm glad you like Mexico, I loved the interior atmosphere! We haven't eaten there so that will be on the list for next time.
Did you gets lots of comments on your college sweatshirts? My DH and DD had on UMD shirts (not alumni just fans) and so many people asked if they had gone there.

I'm still learning about the photoshare, but it seems to be working well! So you get people together that are going about the same time as you are and you assign a leader and they pre-order the CD (which I didn't know either, it's $99.95 saves $25 right off the bat) and make up a group account on photopass for everyone to share. However many people you have, you divide the cost of the CD by that. So there's 10 of us, meaning roughly $10 a piece, plus I added a few dollars for buying envelopes/shipping costs, so it came to $12.50 per family(and there's no picture limit). Before everyone starts to leave, you assign a date for when they come back from their trip for them to upload their pics onto the group account that you created and they have about 2 days to get them edited (with the boarders and all) before the next person's date comes up to do the same thing. You have 30 days from the time the first person uploads their pictures until you order the CD, so thankfully all the members we have the date of them coming back from their trip falls within 9 days of each other. Once everyone is done, you order the CD and theoretically if it's done correctly if everyone uses their own specific dates to edit, the pics will fall into their own "chunk" if you will and you just pull each families pictures off of the master copy and burn it onto their own CD and send it off in the mail! I'm pretty excited about it!
And oh yes, lots of comments on Dbf's shirt. Of course not too many people, unless you're from MD have heard of my master's school before, but EVERYONE kept asking Dbf "So, how are the Hokies doing with football this season?" It was quite amusing seeing some father's just DYING to ask Dbf but they had to hold back

 

[Roxychica7]

Before Thanksgiving gets here, I figured I'd try and do 1 more update...

So, the rest of Epcot..
After GG, we decided to go over to Test Track. We rode the single rider line a few times, because we were able to get on 3x a piece in less than 25 minutes! It totally beats it sometimes

And one of the very spiffy cars of the future!

Next, we went over to try out the sodas. I didn't specifically know about Beverely yet before signing onto the boards, so I will definitely keep her in mind this time
I LOVE China's Watermelon soda though, so good!

Next, we went back to WS to walk the loop again and get some last minute pics. The choir is AMAZING once the candlelight processional comes through.
The arches lit up

It was starting to get cold again, so Dbf used a snack credit and got us each a hot chocolate and we plopped down next to one of the train gardens

Caught Dbf in mid sip

Well then we realized that we had never seen the show at the American Adventure before, BUT we had JUST got our hot chocolate and weren't allowed to take it in, SO, we had this bright idea to hide our drinks in the poinsettas where we were sitting and hope a CM didn't pick them up and throw them away.

So, when the show finished...

Ta Da! Can you spot them?

And one quick photo from Illuminations amongst the Palm Trees.
Look LL! Another unintentional light fixture!!

 

[Roxychica7]

So...our LAST day in the parks..
We had an early ADR at Ohana's at...7:45 I think
WOW, did that morning come early, but it was good because by the time we were finished 1) MK was RIGHT there and 2) We still had the whole day ahead of us in the park

I have NEVER seen rope-drop for MK. So, unintentionally I was able to get a picture of it. This year, we WILL be there...or ELSE!

From the Tram of the Pre-show

Now, we didn't intentionally decide this to be Virginia Tech Hokie day, but it is and I can't change it now
Inside the Poly, we got a nice father to take our picture of us

Here's Dbf, he must love the pineapple danish

And the infamous, "Man, I love Disney breakfast!" pic

Mmm, and Kona coffee too. What a feast!

First Lilo came around, I thought this little girl was cute

Next came Stitch, or rather, a series of 3 pictures with Stitch.
First, he tiptoed and tried to sneak up on me

Then proceeded to eat my hair..

And, our final picture together

Stitch was hysterical!! But, then the big guy came around for some visits.

This is probably one of my favorites...can you feel the magic?

And before we left, Dbf had been eyeing this guy the WHOLE time we were eating. We have a pic of the inspiration one from the Natural History museum in NY City, so Dbf had to get one with this one too
"Me Want Gum Gum"

The Poly Tree heading out to the Tram and back to MK

All the beautiful poinsettas!

And look who we ran into! "Oh it's a Jolly Holiday with Mary..." (Oh gosh LL!!)

Now, right about this time, my stomach started hurting. I've always had a problem with pineapple juice, I think it's too acidic or something and I usually end up getting sick from it. The juice that we had at Ohana's was called POG juice (Pineapple, Orange and Guava). Now don't get me wrong, it was really good and normally I'm ok when I drink a combination of juices, like Pina Coladas don't bother me, so I figured I'd be ok. But no...took a little while for the stomach ache to go away.
You can tell, I'm not as happy on Buzz this go round

I thought this one was cool of the inside..

And Dbf getting his game face on

On Space Mountain before it took off. DEFINITELY should not have done this one in my delicate stomach state

Ok...that's it for now, I'll finish up the rest of MK after Thanksgiving!
Have a great break everyone!

 

[morgtroy]

I'm loving all your holiday pics, I've only got a couple more days, Can't wait.
Thanks for sharing, it looks beautiful.

 

[Roxychica7]

I'm loving all your holiday pics, I've only got a couple more days, Can't wait.
Thanks for sharing, it looks beautiful.

No problem! I'm sure you'll LOVE it down there. Take lots of pics for us!

 

[Lady Lallie]

I love all of your unintentional light fixture pictures. I have a feeling now that you know about the light fixture obsession you will be taking TONS.

I am debating O'hanas for breakfast. I still can't decide. I can't believe you come upon Mary Poppins like that! How fun!

 

[disneydusted]

Nice update! I love all of that breakfast food!! I wish I was there right now! You were very brave to do SM with a stomach ache! Glad you made it!
Have a great Thanksgiving... my family is out getting the turkey at a turkey farm! Not the place I want to be right now knowing it's going to be cooked tomorrow!
Looking forward to the rest of your MK day!

 

[julezdisney]

I LOVE the pic of you w/Mickey! Great!

Happy Thanksgiving! Your pictures are getting me so excited for Dec. '09!

 

[disneydusted]

Hey, we were up your way today chopping down our Christmas tree. It seems amazing to think we are into all of the Christmas stuff now. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving!

 

[Roxychica7]

I LOVE the pic of you w/Mickey! Great!


Happy Thanksgiving! Your pictures are getting me so excited for Dec. '09!

Thanks! I like it too Happy Thanksgiving to you too! And if time flys like it did this year, your Dec '09 trip will be here before you know it!

Hey, we were up your way today chopping down our Christmas tree. It seems amazing to think we are into all of the Christmas stuff now. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving!

I know! How the heck did Christmas get here already?! Can't complain though because our trip is almost here! Hope you had a great thanksgiving too and that you picked out a good tree!

 

[Roxychica7]

Oy I'm so stressed out! My final (LAST CLASS OF MY LIFE!) is on 12/11. I have to have my stats proposal done on 12/6, work on my thesis enough to be able to defend my proposal (so that I can finish my thesis spring semester) before 1/2 and work my part time job some more since I won't be able to work it over break. I have a Smithsonian grant working with macroalgae preservation and that little baby pays $16.50/hr compared to my Grad Assistantship at only $5.15/hr (plus tuition reimbursement). Granted to say, before our trip on 12/15, I have a TON of work to do. Thankfully it'll all be done soon and it'll be that much more of a relief when our trip does get here!

15 more days though!!

Ok, so the last of MK, where did we leave off. After spacemountain, I high tailed it to the potty (TMI), and needless to say, the juice from Ohana's finally got out of system and I felt much better. We walked over to Fantasyland to hit Peter Pan.

A random shot of Dumbo

Flying high on PP

Next we hit Frontierland for SM & BTMR

I like the scenery on SM

And the finale shot. Yes, S-O-A-K-E-D. Front row. Next time we'll be asking to sit a little farther back

After I fixed my hair-do, we waited for BTMR

Dbf looks intense on this one

I was getting hungry and must have turkey leg before we depart MK, so before we left, we saw the infamous birds. This one egret shot was pretty though

While enjoying my turkey leg, we ran into Woody's roundup parade. The country bears are so goofy looking!

I'm ready to devour

A few random shots before getting ready to head back to Main Street

Dusk on MS

And the most beautiful shot of the night? The castle!!! This is probably my favorite castle decoration EVER

And the many sad faces are we departed..

The next morning came WAYYYY to early. We headed out sometime around 7:15am (got up about 5:45) and got some breakfast to use our last CS credits a piece. I totally planned our snacks, CS and TS perfectly.
Posing with the gingerbread houses

These are our "Yey for Breakfast, Boo for leaving" photos.
Dbf's turn
Yey for breakfast

Boo for leaving

And my turn
Yey for breakfast

And Boo again for leaving

And the worst part about leaving? Watching yourself pass that Disney sign, but going in the opposite direction!
Ack! The back of the sign

Ok guys, that was it for our 2007 trip! With 15 days left, I'll have to start listing our plans. I definitely need some more advice for a few of our counter service meals, especially AK. Hope you enjoyed it!

 

[disneydusted]

Very fun update! I can relate to the sad faces! It is sooo sad to be leaving the park on your last day! You almost get the feeling that you're leaving behind a dear friend! Disney is great for creating special memories...
Yes! I totally agree with you about the castle and those lights! Absolutely amazing! I can't believe you will see them again.... if you have extra time in MK maybe you could take pictures of the castle from different angles when it is all lit up. They really outdid themselves!!
So now we get to hear your plans for this trip. And it's coming really quickly! I hope you don't get too overwhelmed with school, not much longer....