Day 2, Sun. March 22, 2009
So it has started raining in the middle of the night and is still raining when we got up. I knew we should just get to the parks but no one was in a yank to go out into the rain........so we wait. I checked Accuweather & Weather.com and they both said there would be rain off & on but a long period of rain between about 10-11 am until 2-3 pm. The rain ended up stopping around 10:30 am, so we jammed out the door and headed to the DL.
This time we drove and parked in the Mickey & Friends garage, rode the tram to DTD, and made our way through security into the DL. I think it was after 11 am when we finally got in the front gate. I wouldn't say it's any faster to drive than walk, but we had a fairly long walk from the house (20+ mins) so it was a nice break for our feet.
First plan of attack was Tomorrowland. The group headed there while DH and I went to Indy to get FP's. We did Buzz, Space Mtn was closed briefly so we had lunch. We packed lunches in and that was the best thing we did!! We all had PB&J's and let me tell you, we were starved and they tasted sooo good!!!
DH couldn't do it so off he was to find a turkey leg.
We got FP's for Autopia and the group did Star Tours. I stayed out with my nephew and we were going to walk to City Hall to get a character sighting schedule when we saw Capt. Hook and Peter Pan walk by! They went into the CM area by the bathrooms in the Plaza Inn. So, off to City Hall.......get all the way down Main St (me dragging my 4 y/o nephew and him dragging his feet!) and the line is out the door and down the stairs. (and that is something that I found to be common for City Hall throughout the whole trip!)
So it's getting time for our Autopia FP's, we decide to kill a few mins in Innoventions. It seems like a really cool place.......but I hate the feeling that you can't just walk in and look around. At first you have to stay with your group at the couple different stations.....THEN they let you loose to walk around. By then I was feeling trapped and annoyed and just really wanted to get out of there!!!! So out we go.......
On to Autopia for our FP's.......the CM tells us we don't need to use them because there is only a 15 min wait.
So I'm thinking "so we didn't need to kill time in Innoventions and I didn't need to get all annoyed???". But anyway.......we ride Autopia, the wait isn't bad, maybe 20 mins. When we got off, the wait for Nemo was 35 mins so we jumped over to do that. (I never did see it any shorter than that during the whole trip)
After Nemo, we tried to do Matterhorn. We tried during the trip to do it several times and it was either closed down or the line was horrendously long. Can't remember what the issue was at this time.....but it was one of the two!
We're getting close to our FP time for Indy, so we go through Fantasyland. I am curious to see how it is during the afternoon (we are usually there in the morning). It was busy but not really any busier than we see in the morning. But Snow White and Pinocchio are walk-ons so we ride them.
Finally on our way to Indy.......rode it, then got on Jungle Cruise, then rode Pirates. Another side note......I had everyone's park hoppers (b/c I had gotten the FP's) in my plastic thingey hanging on my lanyard. DH kept telling me it would fall off and I of course thought he was just being paranoid. After we rode Pirates and are walking off, I look down and notice that my plastic thing is GONE!!!!!!! I ran back to the unloading area and talked to a CM who told me that my boat had already left and it would be 15 mins before it was back......not what I wanted to hear.
So another CM came over and I am frantic by now. She went and asked another CM and someone had turned them in!!! I was so happy I could have cried! I did in fact hug that CM though! 
I guess it popped off somehow and the next people that got in the boat gave them to the CM thankfully. After that, I carried my plastic thing in a secure pocket of my Baggallini.
I think that's about all we did that day (I knew I should have been writing this down every night!!!). We probably left the park around 6 pm. It never did rain again and turned out to be a nice day, sunshiney but a little breezy. We drove back home and had a mexican casserole thingey for dinner. Got kids bathed and in bed. We went to bed and got ready to tackle the next day, which was my BIRTHDAY!!!!
Day 3, Mon., March 23, 2009 - My 40th Birthday!
Woo hoo! My birthday!!
We got up, got moving, I opened a few presents. I got a Mickey ears birthday hat that I wore all day, a couple DL t-shirts, sweatshirt, some spending money, a pink Minnie Happy Birthday Christmas ornament a Tink glow in the dark light-up pin, some DL scrapbooking stuff and some other stuff. Today we are going to walk there and then leave in the afternoon for some resting time at the house. We are planning to stay late at the park to see the fireworks that night. (which I forgot to mention that we can see the fireworks from the house and they also have a CD player so you can play the music to go along with the fireworks!)
I think we tried to do Matterhorn again and it was either down or the line was long. So off to Fantasyland. We Dumbo (sign said 20 min wait, it was more like 30 mins), the Casey Jr. Train (another slow moving line). While the kids were in line for the train, I decided to try City Hall to get my Birthday Fun Card. On my way there I popped into the Blue Ribbon Bakery and bought some treats. 6 Mickey shortbread cookies (which were kind of dry) and 6 Mickey rice krispies and an iced mocha for me!
Saw that City Hall had a line down the stairs to the street (again!) so I turned around and saw that one of the cars (not sure their official name?) was dropping people off. So I hopped on and rode it up to the castle for the first time ever! (was very pleased that I got to do something I'd never done before!)
By the time I got back, the kids were just starting to eat lunch. We were going to try to do Peter Pan and Mr. Toad but the lines were 40 mins long. We decided to do the Carousel instead. We sent a runner over to Splash to get FP's and it took him over 20 mins to get there & back. He said that the area over there was just packed. (it was warm so the water ride was popular) Our FP's were for 3:00 pm (which we ended up not using because we left the park and when we got back, it was evening and no one wanted to get wet!
)
The park was quite crowded and we needed to leave if we were going to come back. So I think at this point we left and went home. We put my nephew down for a nap and the other kids worked on some homework and then tried to go swimming. It was a warm day but the pool water was toooo cold so they didn't get in.
We have reservations at Rainforest Cafe for 5 pm, so we drive back and park in the DTD parking lot (for 3 free hours and 2 more hours validated by our dinner). Now, I didn't handle the reservations but it seemed to me that RFC might have changed their ressie policy? I didn't think you could make ressies there. Anyway.......we have dinner. I ordered an appetizer, the lettuce wraps, and it was really good!! Way more than I could eat, it could have easily been split. We got the Volcano dessert for my birthday and they all came sang to me and I as usual turned beet-red. Oh, I forgot, as we were waiting to order, I walked down to the front gate ticket booth to get my Birthday Fun Card. Hardly anyone was in line and it just took me a few minutes to get it. As I am going there, tons and tons of people are leaving the parks. ( Right on!!!! I'm thinking the park will be empty)
So we get into the park after dinner probably around 6:45-ish. Ummmm.....the park is not empty!!! It feels like the crowds are the same!! But oh well.....it's still my birthday! So we tried to do Matterhorn again......still no luck. We went over to Small World and rode that. We LOVED the new additions!!!! It was fun to try and find which ones were new. And the rest of the attraction looked new & fresh. That is one of my favorite rides and I am sad that we did not get to do it again.
By then, it was time to find a seat for the fireworks so we sat up on the raised area just to the right of Small World. (I guess it's a queue holding area for when the line is REALLY long at IASW). We had a pretty good view and it was cool to see the screen projections on IASW! I would sit there again and not fight the crowd in front of the castle. Coincidentally, Tink did not fly during the fireworks that night and we are not sure why.
I should mention here that all day long we were trying to connect with a shirt-tail relative that was also in the park that day. We'd been on the phone with them since about 9:30 am and still hadn't seen them by 9:30 pm! We made a plan to meet them at the Jungle Cruise right after the fireworks. We finally found each other and rode that and Pirates together. Once we were done there, it was 11 pm and closing time! I couldn't believe it! It felt like we'd hardly done anything!! But we'd closed the park so I felt accomplished in that area!
Days 4, 5 and 6 coming soon..........
So it has started raining in the middle of the night and is still raining when we got up. I knew we should just get to the parks but no one was in a yank to go out into the rain........so we wait. I checked Accuweather & Weather.com and they both said there would be rain off & on but a long period of rain between about 10-11 am until 2-3 pm. The rain ended up stopping around 10:30 am, so we jammed out the door and headed to the DL.
This time we drove and parked in the Mickey & Friends garage, rode the tram to DTD, and made our way through security into the DL. I think it was after 11 am when we finally got in the front gate. I wouldn't say it's any faster to drive than walk, but we had a fairly long walk from the house (20+ mins) so it was a nice break for our feet.
First plan of attack was Tomorrowland. The group headed there while DH and I went to Indy to get FP's. We did Buzz, Space Mtn was closed briefly so we had lunch. We packed lunches in and that was the best thing we did!! We all had PB&J's and let me tell you, we were starved and they tasted sooo good!!!
DH couldn't do it so off he was to find a turkey leg. We got FP's for Autopia and the group did Star Tours. I stayed out with my nephew and we were going to walk to City Hall to get a character sighting schedule when we saw Capt. Hook and Peter Pan walk by! They went into the CM area by the bathrooms in the Plaza Inn. So, off to City Hall.......get all the way down Main St (me dragging my 4 y/o nephew and him dragging his feet!) and the line is out the door and down the stairs. (and that is something that I found to be common for City Hall throughout the whole trip!)
So it's getting time for our Autopia FP's, we decide to kill a few mins in Innoventions. It seems like a really cool place.......but I hate the feeling that you can't just walk in and look around. At first you have to stay with your group at the couple different stations.....THEN they let you loose to walk around. By then I was feeling trapped and annoyed and just really wanted to get out of there!!!! So out we go.......
On to Autopia for our FP's.......the CM tells us we don't need to use them because there is only a 15 min wait.
So I'm thinking "so we didn't need to kill time in Innoventions and I didn't need to get all annoyed???". But anyway.......we ride Autopia, the wait isn't bad, maybe 20 mins. When we got off, the wait for Nemo was 35 mins so we jumped over to do that. (I never did see it any shorter than that during the whole trip)After Nemo, we tried to do Matterhorn. We tried during the trip to do it several times and it was either closed down or the line was horrendously long. Can't remember what the issue was at this time.....but it was one of the two!
We're getting close to our FP time for Indy, so we go through Fantasyland. I am curious to see how it is during the afternoon (we are usually there in the morning). It was busy but not really any busier than we see in the morning. But Snow White and Pinocchio are walk-ons so we ride them.
Finally on our way to Indy.......rode it, then got on Jungle Cruise, then rode Pirates. Another side note......I had everyone's park hoppers (b/c I had gotten the FP's) in my plastic thingey hanging on my lanyard. DH kept telling me it would fall off and I of course thought he was just being paranoid. After we rode Pirates and are walking off, I look down and notice that my plastic thing is GONE!!!!!!! I ran back to the unloading area and talked to a CM who told me that my boat had already left and it would be 15 mins before it was back......not what I wanted to hear.
So another CM came over and I am frantic by now. She went and asked another CM and someone had turned them in!!! I was so happy I could have cried! I did in fact hug that CM though! I guess it popped off somehow and the next people that got in the boat gave them to the CM thankfully. After that, I carried my plastic thing in a secure pocket of my Baggallini.I think that's about all we did that day (I knew I should have been writing this down every night!!!). We probably left the park around 6 pm. It never did rain again and turned out to be a nice day, sunshiney but a little breezy. We drove back home and had a mexican casserole thingey for dinner. Got kids bathed and in bed. We went to bed and got ready to tackle the next day, which was my BIRTHDAY!!!!
Day 3, Mon., March 23, 2009 - My 40th Birthday!
Woo hoo! My birthday!!
We got up, got moving, I opened a few presents. I got a Mickey ears birthday hat that I wore all day, a couple DL t-shirts, sweatshirt, some spending money, a pink Minnie Happy Birthday Christmas ornament a Tink glow in the dark light-up pin, some DL scrapbooking stuff and some other stuff. Today we are going to walk there and then leave in the afternoon for some resting time at the house. We are planning to stay late at the park to see the fireworks that night. (which I forgot to mention that we can see the fireworks from the house and they also have a CD player so you can play the music to go along with the fireworks!)I think we tried to do Matterhorn again and it was either down or the line was long. So off to Fantasyland. We Dumbo (sign said 20 min wait, it was more like 30 mins), the Casey Jr. Train (another slow moving line). While the kids were in line for the train, I decided to try City Hall to get my Birthday Fun Card. On my way there I popped into the Blue Ribbon Bakery and bought some treats. 6 Mickey shortbread cookies (which were kind of dry) and 6 Mickey rice krispies and an iced mocha for me!
Saw that City Hall had a line down the stairs to the street (again!) so I turned around and saw that one of the cars (not sure their official name?) was dropping people off. So I hopped on and rode it up to the castle for the first time ever! (was very pleased that I got to do something I'd never done before!)By the time I got back, the kids were just starting to eat lunch. We were going to try to do Peter Pan and Mr. Toad but the lines were 40 mins long. We decided to do the Carousel instead. We sent a runner over to Splash to get FP's and it took him over 20 mins to get there & back. He said that the area over there was just packed. (it was warm so the water ride was popular) Our FP's were for 3:00 pm (which we ended up not using because we left the park and when we got back, it was evening and no one wanted to get wet!
)The park was quite crowded and we needed to leave if we were going to come back. So I think at this point we left and went home. We put my nephew down for a nap and the other kids worked on some homework and then tried to go swimming. It was a warm day but the pool water was toooo cold so they didn't get in.
We have reservations at Rainforest Cafe for 5 pm, so we drive back and park in the DTD parking lot (for 3 free hours and 2 more hours validated by our dinner). Now, I didn't handle the reservations but it seemed to me that RFC might have changed their ressie policy? I didn't think you could make ressies there. Anyway.......we have dinner. I ordered an appetizer, the lettuce wraps, and it was really good!! Way more than I could eat, it could have easily been split. We got the Volcano dessert for my birthday and they all came sang to me and I as usual turned beet-red. Oh, I forgot, as we were waiting to order, I walked down to the front gate ticket booth to get my Birthday Fun Card. Hardly anyone was in line and it just took me a few minutes to get it. As I am going there, tons and tons of people are leaving the parks. ( Right on!!!! I'm thinking the park will be empty)
So we get into the park after dinner probably around 6:45-ish. Ummmm.....the park is not empty!!! It feels like the crowds are the same!!
But oh well.....it's still my birthday! So we tried to do Matterhorn again......still no luck. We went over to Small World and rode that. We LOVED the new additions!!!! It was fun to try and find which ones were new. And the rest of the attraction looked new & fresh. That is one of my favorite rides and I am sad that we did not get to do it again.By then, it was time to find a seat for the fireworks so we sat up on the raised area just to the right of Small World. (I guess it's a queue holding area for when the line is REALLY long at IASW). We had a pretty good view and it was cool to see the screen projections on IASW! I would sit there again and not fight the crowd in front of the castle. Coincidentally, Tink did not fly during the fireworks that night and we are not sure why.
I should mention here that all day long we were trying to connect with a shirt-tail relative that was also in the park that day. We'd been on the phone with them since about 9:30 am and still hadn't seen them by 9:30 pm! We made a plan to meet them at the Jungle Cruise right after the fireworks. We finally found each other and rode that and Pirates together. Once we were done there, it was 11 pm and closing time! I couldn't believe it! It felt like we'd hardly done anything!! But we'd closed the park so I felt accomplished in that area!
Days 4, 5 and 6 coming soon..........
What a great place to be to celebrate!!!
