My AP-ALOOZA Continues (WE RENEWED!!) ~ NEW TR link posted!

[Imagineer5]

I do totally understand wanting to document all your trips on one thread, too. Maybe, briefly give your take here as well? Whatever you choose, I can't wait to read all about it!

Your anniversary evening looks so fun! Even if you tried to take the dock with you! I love the screened in canopies across the back, I bet those will come in handy with kid(s)! As you can tell the boat in front of you at the dock at dinner doesn't have that capability!

Yeah!! It's called a camper canopy (learned that about a week ago, ha!) and i think it is fugly, but it IS really nice to keep out the sun, bugs, etc and still let in a nice breeze.

Haha we'll figure something out!

Couple of thoughts I had for yours and Dugette's combined trip

1) I know Amberg93 and Marielightening are doing a TR together and they are basically taking turns with the updates - but that is a new/separate TR

2) Since you wanted to keep the TR as a combined effort for your AP year maybe you could just do your updates in this one and then Dugette can do a separate TR and you can have links to each others - like a direct link from one persons update to the corresponding update in the other TR? This way people who want to get both perspectives can get it and you can maybe avoid any duplicative information and just reference the other TR?




Though, I kinda thing TRs are like drinking wine ... there isn't really any wrong way to do it - just some are messier than others

LOL! Sounds confusing but we could totally do that. We'd have to be good about keeping our updates close in time together though...def waiting until we are both done with current ones. Phew!

 

[Imagineer5]

I saw this and looked into it - the issue for us is that is our arrival day and weren't planning on getting to the park before 3pm (though I might push to get there a bit earlier to try to get to a few more things).

Also, we have the Fantasmic! Dinner Package for that night and the dessert party is at the same time as Fantasmic! ... so while a cool thing I just don't think it will work for us

I might check out the ice skating with Olivia though - I think she might find that fun

Thanks for the note though!

Well at least there will be a number of times for the sing along show, if you wanted to do that! I forgot about your F! dinner package, that'll be a lot of fun. I figured, since I added a whole extra day & night on to spend at DHS (of all places, I don't know the last time I spent a full day there!) I might as well book it!

Skating will be awesome. I don't know if I should bring Aria's skates or not. She loved skating last winter (and her skates would still fit) and I worry they won't have her size, but it'd be a PITA to bring those. And it's $10 regardless if you borrow theirs or not. hmmmm decisions!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Well at least there will be a number of times for the sing along show, if you wanted to do that! I forgot about your F! dinner package, that'll be a lot of fun. I figured, since I added a whole extra day & night on to spend at DHS (of all places, I don't know the last time I spent a full day there!) I might as well book it!

Skating will be awesome. I don't know if I should bring Aria's skates or not. She loved skating last winter (and her skates would still fit) and I worry they won't have her size, but it'd be a PITA to bring those. And it's $10 regardless if you borrow theirs or not. hmmmm decisions!

yeah, when I saw it was $10 inclusive of skates and sock rentals I thought that seemed reasonable and got more interested in it

Will keep an eye on how the lines for the sing-alongs are and if it is worth it. Good thing is that my kids are still at the age of "what they don't know they won't be upset about missing"

Actually, the thing I am most excited about related to the Frozen events are the Fireworks that hopefully we will be able to check out after getting out of Fantasmic! as I have never seen fireworks at DHS. But we will see how we are doing with having to drive up from Boca that day

 

[Dugette]

I think it was just hot, I don't remember having a sunburn? The first two days were mid-90s though which coming from 50/60's at home was just hot!

Must just be the lighting in that first picture.

NO I do not have a Dug dress! I joined Cutie Pie Creations dress of the month club, because you know, Aria needs MORE, and I have a short list of characters I want (I chose Minnie for the first month, because I decided I needed another Minnie...) but Dug is on there as well.

Can never have enough Minnie things! Yay for Dug!

Well since we are both still working on TR's we can let it sit for a while more. My only hesitation is I do have this thread for my whole year of AP's, so I would like to write it up here, but that is not sharing with you at all LOL so I guess we can just start a new thread. Either way I want to finish up DL (two more days to write about!) and I'm sure you want to finish up Dec before switching gears, so we can reconvene then.

Yeah, hoping I can finish December in a timely manner. And start an Aulani PTR too.

 

[Dugette]

Sounds like a nice anniversary evening. Pretty cool that you can take a boat to dinner! (and reminds me of WDW in that way ) Glad that Aria is so good on the boat and enjoyed dinner too.

Wow, look at all those cute clothes! I don't know how you keep it all straight. Love all the outfits!

 

[Imagineer5]

Sorry for the absence, and hope you all had a wonderful 4th! We spent Thursday-Tuesday at cape cod with Andrews family, we both worked today and I'm back at the cape, andrew is coming back tomorrow. I was going to work tomorrow too, but Aria had an accident Monday and I didn't want to leave her too long! She pulled down a giant mirror that wasn't attached to the wall, shattering it, and a piece sliced open her foot. She needed 9 stitches! She's handling it like a trooper though - this pic is about an hour after getting home from the ER!

We just have to keep it dry.

Aside from that, our weekend fun consisted of the Chatham parade where andrew and his father walked with other coast guard auxiliary members, lots of boating and beaching, a hurricane, a wonderful anniversary dinner sans aria, and lots of fun family time.

Also I don't want to steal a certain someone's thunder, but excited Aria and I will get to see friends AGAIN in August

 

[MarbleBob]

Yikes, 9 stitches!!! I hope she's feeling better and heals quickly

 

[TheMaxRebo]

welcome back - definitely sounds like you've had some excitement!

Hope that Aria is doing well and no complications come up!

 

[Dugette]

Hope Aria's foot is doing okay! Poor kiddo! Between her and Leshaface's son getting cuts and stitches recently, I'm a little worried for Izzy. Hope this isn't a DIS-toddler requirement.

Have fun at Cape Cod. Hope there are no further incidents.

Also I don't want to steal a certain someone's thunder, but excited Aria and I will get to see friends AGAIN in August

I can't imagine what this might be... There is certainly nobody around here that has a free plane ticket for Labor Day Weekend, an AP, a cheap room at Pop, $100 in free Disney Gift Cards, and a Frozen-obsessed toddler.

 

[disneygirl2785]

Also I don't want to steal a certain someone's thunder, but excited Aria and I will get to see friends AGAIN in August

Hope Aria's foot is doing okay! Poor kiddo! Between her and Leshaface's son getting cuts and stitches recently, I'm a little worried for Izzy. Hope this isn't a DIS-toddler requirement. Have fun at Cape Cod. Hope there are no further incidents. I can't imagine what this might be... There is certainly nobody around here that has a free plane ticket for Labor Day Weekend, an AP, a cheap room at Pop, $100 in free Disney Gift Cards, and a Frozen-obsessed toddler.

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR! #jealous #buthappyfory'all #icantdoemojisfrommyphone

By the way, I bought my first Cinderella upcycle today from Lisa!!!! #caughtthebug

 

[Imagineer5]

Yikes, 9 stitches!!! I hope she's feeling better and heals quickly

Thank you!!

welcome back - definitely sounds like you've had some excitement!

Hope that Aria is doing well and no complications come up!

Thank you!! Hope so too - stitches are scheduled to come out thursday! It was a fun week nonetheless, and Aria was AMAZING with it all.

Hope Aria's foot is doing okay! Poor kiddo! Between her and Leshaface's son getting cuts and stitches recently, I'm a little worried for Izzy. Hope this isn't a DIS-toddler requirement.

Have fun at Cape Cod. Hope there are no further incidents.


I can't imagine what this might be... There is certainly nobody around here that has a free plane ticket for Labor Day Weekend, an AP, a cheap room at Pop, $100 in free Disney Gift Cards, and a Frozen-obsessed toddler.

Hahhaa I'm glad you made a post about it, I didn't want to let the cat out of the bag...too badly anyway

I didn't hear about her son! Poor thingl Hope Izzy is doing fine haha!

SHUT THE FRONT DOOR! #jealous #buthappyfory'all #icantdoemojisfrommyphone

By the way, I bought my first Cinderella upcycle today from Lisa!!!! #caughtthebug

YAY!! I can't wait to see how it turns out. I also see you are checking out MJ! LOL! It's a slippery slope being part of the "closet world" and seeing all these cute things all the time! LOL!

You need to get an AP and then come along on random spur of the moment trips!

BTW I forgot to mention, MJ shorties run slightly small. 12m might be too small - I'd get a 2.

 

[Imagineer5]

Day 4! Monday May 5th

As I mentioned before, we had a “forced” free day because we were using Lynda’s military tickets which are 3-day and non-upgradable. Since we didn’t have a car, we decided to spend the day enjoying DTD, the pool, etc vs. going to another theme park like Universal or Knott’s Berry Farm.

We had a wonderful night’s sleep and woke up with plenty of time to shower and get ready for our day! First up was a breakfast reservation at Goofy’s Kitchen! It is much like Chef Mickey’s and was right at our resort. Here we are heading over!

When we got inside, there was a very very long check in line followed by a very long photopass line. When checking in, I actually paid right then (including tip) which was nice vs. waiting for our server to come when we are ready to leave. Since we had the memory maker, we also received the printed photos of meeting Goofy in a really neat folder (I need to get pics of that!). Pics of the line!

I stood in line while Lynda watched Aria

The line past the stairs was the next line...to meet Goofy!

Aria clammed up a bit when meeting Goofy unfortunately, and the photopass photographer was only interested in moving as quickly as possible, so alas the pics weren’t great and don’t show Aria’s LOVE for Goofy at the time. Oh well.

We were then led to a decent table near the buffet and I went immediately in to get food for Aria and me. When I got back Lynda mentioned that Baloo came by but Aria had refused to get up and meet him! LOL! Then Chip made an appearance and I grabbed a couple pics – after this Aria was totally fine meeting the characters.

One thing about Goofy’s Kitchen is the characters are TOTALLY RANDOM! I didn’t know who to expect, and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to who would come. There is a character meal hosted by Minnie at Disneyland, but unfortunately the restaurant was closed during our trip. Anyway, I caught Baloo as he was leaving our area to grab a couple pics

Then some food pics! I try to grab everything in one go if possible, so here I had a made-to-order omelette with jalepenos, cheese, and other veggies, and while that was cooking I made my rounds finding other things. On this plate there is the omelette, a PB&J pizza (I only had a bite, and Aria was NOT interested in trying), French toast with bananas foster sauce (always a favorite), and a Mickey Waffle, which was for Aria.

Then my next plate had this DELICIOUS chicken Mexican thingy with cheese, beans, and a delicious sauce. Plus some breakfast potatoes and some casserole that wasn’t very memorable.

And the third plate I got had fruit, which was for Aria and I gave her bites of all of my things as well.

After snapping some pics (and before really eating much of it) Lynda ran up for her food while I got some photos of Aria … and Jasmine! (see, random?!)

Aria was being super snuggly with her, it was so cute.

continued in next post...

 

[Imagineer5]

Then Pluto came by, who Aria loves of course, so got a couple great pics with him.

And next was Aurora! She was in a rush to leave…

At this point we noticed the table next to us had a son who was about 1.5 who was TERRIFIED of the characters. Reminded me of our time at Garden Grill back in December 2012, when Aria cried every time one came near our table. Lynda whispered loudly to me why would they put the kid through that “torture” and I just felt bad that I did the same to Aria. I hope the table next to us didn’t hear her comments. Anyway I did tell them that Aria used to be that way and look at her now!

Then I headed back up, I needed another one of the Mexican things, and I tried a cheese blintz as well (didn’t love it). Also got some meats for Aria to snack on.

Then Dale came by and Aria was fascinated by the pen in his apron pocket haha!

After that I didn’t spot any other characters we hadn’t seen, so we had a little more normal pace to sit back and relax. I also went up for dessert. Man no wonder I need to lose some weight!! Here is my dessert plate – bananas foster crepes, a lemon bar, and bread pudding. All delicious of course.

They brought out a birthday cupcake for Lynda hehe, and Aria enjoyed her mickey sprinkles.

After breakfast it was time to get our swimsuits on!! Our plan was to head to the pool through nap time!! Walking back up to the room I snapped a couple pics

There are three towers at Disneyland hotel - Fantasy & Adventure are the closest to DTD & the parks, and then Frontier (I think) is slightly further away. Fantasy is where check in is. they all "circle" the pools. I requested Adventure Tower before our trip, and that is the one I got. Unfortunately it was also the loudest as rooms on that side (ie cheaper non pool view rooms) face DTD directly and the music comes right in.

A kink in the plans (Is the pool closed?!!? Stay tuned!)

 

[TheMaxRebo]

man, Aria is excited to get to breakfast that morning!

Those lines are crazy! Guess maybe with that other restaurant closed there was even more demand for this one?

That is quite the assortment of characters ... I mean, sure Aurora and Baloo go together, but the rest of them

It's always tough with the little ones and you just don't know how they are going to be with characters. And I am sure that family (and you back in the day) didn't think the kid would be terrified and planned the meal anyway.

Our last trip Peter liked them from afar but not upclose - and would only say "bye bye" to them when they came by the table. The only character he said "hello" to the entire trip was Trader Sam on the Jungle Cruise

Speaking of Jungle Cruise, that picture at the end of your update of, what I think is, a drawing of the Jungle Cruise is awesome!

 

[JulieODC]

Oof -- sorry to hear about the potty accident at dinner. Yuck!! Sounds like you handled it well though!

Seems like the ride and character lines aren't so bad? Were you there at a slow time? Or are they not as bad as WDW can get?

Happy Anniversary --- looks like a perfect night out! We just spent the weekend in Newport for a wedding (after having been in NH, ME, and MA for the week!). That are of RI is the best!! We made a pit stop in Bristol on our way to Newport -- we got married there

So sorry to hear about the stitches!! What a bummer!

 

[Imagineer5]

man, Aria is excited to get to breakfast that morning!

Those lines are crazy! Guess maybe with that other restaurant closed there was even more demand for this one?

That is quite the assortment of characters ... I mean, sure Aurora and Baloo go together, but the rest of them

It's always tough with the little ones and you just don't know how they are going to be with characters. And I am sure that family (and you back in the day) didn't think the kid would be terrified and planned the meal anyway.

Our last trip Peter liked them from afar but not upclose - and would only say "bye bye" to them when they came by the table. The only character he said "hello" to the entire trip was Trader Sam on the Jungle Cruise

Speaking of Jungle Cruise, that picture at the end of your update of, what I think is, a drawing of the Jungle Cruise is awesome!

Because she was SO into Goofy before this trip, one of the ways i talked up DL was going to Goofy's Kitchen. So, it was very exciting that we were finally doing it!

There are not very many character meals at DL (I count 4?) and one was closed. So yeah, definitely longer lines everywhere.

Actually, I thought that the best way for Aria to get over her fear of the characters was to keep on meeting them. Granted, when we went to the Crystal Palace when she was 15 months, for instance, Andrew and I stood up with the characters to show her they were okay. But I didn't want to shy away from them - and I guess it paid off. Also I amped up the movies so she would really know who everyone was..

The artwork around the hotel was beautiful! I loved the theming of the adventure tower, though it isn't like the rooms were themed.

Oof -- sorry to hear about the potty accident at dinner. Yuck!! Sounds like you handled it well though!

Seems like the ride and character lines aren't so bad? Were you there at a slow time? Or are they not as bad as WDW can get?

Happy Anniversary --- looks like a perfect night out! We just spent the weekend in Newport for a wedding (after having been in NH, ME, and MA for the week!). That are of RI is the best!! We made a pit stop in Bristol on our way to Newport -- we got married there

So sorry to hear about the stitches!! What a bummer!

Well, Disneyland rides were horrible the entire trip. DCA lines when the park opened at 7am however were amazing.

Aww we were at Cape Cod all last week, would have been fun to meet you!! Hope the wedding was fun! I'm back in newport, but just for work. Boo!

Thanks, she is doing better gets them out thursday, yay!

 

[Dugette]

Goofy's Kitchen looks fun and a good way to start a no-park day, still meeting characters. Really random characters, though. Aw, poor little scared kiddo near you. Hopefully they are locals and he will be loving the characters with a couple more visits. Uh oh, I hope you get to swim!

 

[Imagineer5]

Goofy's Kitchen looks fun and a good way to start a no-park day, still meeting characters. Really random characters, though. Aw, poor little scared kiddo near you. Hopefully they are locals and he will be loving the characters with a couple more visits. Uh oh, I hope you get to swim!

Goofy's Kitchen was great, we will definitely return on our next visit - that mexican chicken dish was soooo darn good! I couldn't get Lynda to try it though! (or Aria, stinkers).

 

[Imagineer5]

Doing a happy dance, more info for the food and wine festival came out and *finally* info was released showing the 3D dessert party is coming back AND on the night we planned - 10/3!! Yay!! This was a huge huge hit with both of us in 2012 and we can't wait to bring Andrews parents to it.

I saw some negative reviews of it, but we absolutely loved it and thought the cost (59) was worth it 100%. I will attempt to grab "sweet seats" which allows for a slightly less hectic evening with a reserved table - tickets come out 7/31.

I wonder if they will try to charge for aria again this time?? Haha last time they were dumbfounded when we checked in that they charged us for our then 8 month old who was so sweetly sleeping in her stroller the whole time!!

 

[Dugette]

Yay for the dessert party!! I hope you can get the Sweet Seats too. Sounds like a fun event. That was actually one of the things I considered surprising Dug with for our anniversary back in 2011, but I think the Sweet Seats were sold out or something (we ended up doing the KTTK tour instead). Glad there was some good news from Disney today!