My Baby Girl Is Turning 13-Time For Another Mom/Daughter WDW Trip!!

[Camster0307]

I forgot to add that Nick is my favorite jo-bro too (only i dont like the other 2 at all)

Oh my! How could you not like the other two at all? They're a package deal!

All caught up.. read all your other trip reports. You know how to do Disney. I have read some trip reports and think boy they didnt see anything, but you get everything in

I see you live in MA and are a Giants fan!!!! (Those two dont mix)
GO PATS!!!! (Sorry couldnt helpmyself)

Thanks for reading! I'm glad you're enjoying my reports!

And.......easy now on that Patriots stuff! If I recall correctly, your team did lose to my team in a pretty big game last year!

Tell Lauren Happy Birthday, from the moderator, that tries to keep up to her mom's TR.

Congradulations on the pictures with DVC.
I had an e-mail just this week from a sales person from DVC and it said, my phone number is on the Do Not Call List and she provided me a link, so they can call. LOL. I didn't do, because I know we wouldn't be purchasing DVC till my youngest is out of college. Plus I am pounding away at a loan that I am paying off for my oldest son. My dh got laid off in 2001 when he started college, so we couldn't help him with tuition. (Don't even get me started how "college loans are a total rip off".) They make these kids sign up to an agreement to how they want to pay these off. You have to choose a certain time frame. My son choose 10 years. If he wanted to pay it off early, he still has to pay the full interest for 10 years. See, I just rambled.

Anyway, I have to ask this, why is there never strawberries in WDW Fruit bowls, your in the strawberry capital of the world and never no strawberries.

Rant over, time to loose your TR for another 2 weeks.
OhMari

Rant away Marisa! That's what we're here for and it's good to get it out of your system.

And it's funny you mention the lack of strawberries........when Lauren was younger that was really the only fruit she would eat. I remember being at the princess breakfast in Norway and their was NO strawberries out! I asked our CM if they had any and she bought out a HUGE bowl for Lauren! I had no idea why they were hiding them in the kitchen and not part of the fruit buffet!

Congratulations on the brochure, do post so we can see. I hope someday to take each of my kids on their own mommy and me trip to WDW.. but certainly when they are big enough to do everything. Your dinner at Fultons looks terrific too!

Thank you! I hope you can do one-on-one trips too! It really is a different experience when you can focus on just each individual child!

That's super cool!!!!!!

You have a super cool friend!

Whoa, sounds like you got a crazy weekend in front of you!! Lauren's birthday also sounds like it was the perfect thing for a 13 year old girl! That is funny about her shrieking and all that over Nick...I can totally understand why it freaks you out a bit too!

I'm super excited about getting my planner! We got our Disney Files today and Henry immediatly "stole" it from me and carried it around the house, giving Mickey random kisses and hugging the magazine. Hopefully the planners are just around the corner!!

Your Henry is just one of the cutest little boys ever! I could just see him doing that! Glad to see his Disney obsession has started at a young age!

Yeah, if you think that freaks you out just wait until you have the conversations I have been having with Cassidy all week.

Cassidy has two friends that are taking her to the movie today....she spent yesterday afternoon making a t-shirt professing her love of Kevin.

Ok, Lauren and I have had some "uncomfortable" conversations already! How much worse can they get?

And that's so cute that Cassidy made a special shirt for the movie; Lauren and Amanda both wore their JB shirts too! Lauren has already told me she really wants to see the movie again! I hope Cassidy and her friends enjoy it! Why aren't you going too?

Happy Birthday Lauren!
My mom likes Nick. I'm not a gigantic fan, but Nick is the best of all 3.
Oh my goodness! A celebrity! I must see this!

Your mom likes Nick? So who's the bigger fan - you or your mom?

Happy 13th, Lauren!

Ahh, I remember my 13th

P.S. I happen to like Joe

FINALLY - Joe is getting some love around here! I'm not ashamed to admit that he is my favorite also!

Cammie - I wanted to let you know that Lauren(FormrCastMbr) had a beautiful big baby boy, Thomas Andrew, 8 lbs 9 oz today at 2:00. Mom & baby are doing great!

That's so wonderful! I'll be sure to send her a message on FaceBook! BTW - 8lbs.9oz. is exactly what Amanda weighed at birth too!

 

[Camster0307]

I forgot to say

Lauren!! Hope it was magical!​

Happy Birthday to Lauren!

Happy 13th Birthday Lauren !!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAUREN


hop being a teen treats her well

Thanks for all the birthday wishes for my little girl everybody! Once Lauren recovered from the embarassment over me talking about her squealing over Nick Jonas, she read through them all herself and was thrilled to get the attention! A BIG THANK YOU from her also.

 

[AmandaSparks730]

You're most welcome, Lauren

And haha, Cammie, Joe needed a little lovin'!

 

[Mysteria]

Great report! Might see you guys in May!!

 

[babytrees]

Oh, Honey you don't want to know what we've been conversing about

I didn't go to the movie because I wasn't invited and they paid for her (but seriously $15 for a ticket )

 

[lauren_elizabeth]

I'm a little late, but....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAUREN!

 

[lizet313]

I'm late but HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAUREN!!

 

[Camster0307]

You're most welcome, Lauren

And haha, Cammie, Joe needed a little lovin'!

Spread the Joe love!

Great report! Might see you guys in May!!

Thanks for reading! DIS meet - Sunday, May 17th - 3pm in Epcot. Are you there then?

Oh, Honey you don't want to know what we've been conversing about

Yeah, now that you mention it, I don't think I do!

I didn't go to the movie because I wasn't invited and they paid for her (but seriously $15 for a ticket )

I know. I think they're probably more expensive because it's 3D. Those fancy special effects cost extra you know! Lauren got some money for her birthday and she wants to see it again this week.

I'm a little late, but....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAUREN!

I'm late but HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAUREN!!

Thanks guys! I'll make sure Lauren sees your birthday wishes!

 

[Camster0307]

Lauren and I awoke on our second morning in Disney to a bright, beautiful day. A little chilly, but just gorgeous.

Our game plan for this day: DHS all day; arrive early, grab FPs for TSM or RnRC; lunch at 50s PTC; stay until 7pm closing then head to the Yacht & Beach Club for dinner at The Yachtsman at 7:30.

We didn't stick to that plan.

We were up early enough and out to the bus stop by 8:45am.....

It wasn't too long until the first bus pulled up - it was the Epcot bus. It was here that my child threw my plans out the window when she said:

"Mom, I NEED to be in Epcot this morning."

Now, I will admit - I was missing me some Epcot action. Since we usually always stay at the BW and therefore, are usually in Epcot w/in hours of first arriving at WDW, it was weird to have been on the property for our third day and not yet have stepped foot into our favorite park. I didn't have Epcot scheduled until the next day!

I was fine with this suggested detour. But I needed Lauren to understand that heading to Epcot first was going to seriously decrease our chances of getting on the "big" rides at DHS. She didn't care. She had just been there in November; rode TSM about 3 times and also RnRC. As long as we got to DHS in time for lunch, we figured we would just spend the rest of the afternoon at the Studios doing whatever we could; and what we couldn't - no big deal.

So -- off to Epcot!

So cute - the mickey balloons on the monorail:

As soon as we entered Epcot, I was starting to doubt this change in our plans. Epcot was crowded. Very crowded. I looked at the time guide - Epcot was having AM EMH today. Oh great! It was already 9:15 am and the park has already been open for over an hour. I was not liking our chances of getting on anything before we would have to leave for lunch.

We took a chance and walked over to the Land to see what was going on at Soarin'. Yeah - as expected - the usual chaos over there. I didn't even bother to check the wait times; judging by the size of the mob, I knew it was going to be too long for my liking.

Since we hadn't had breakfast, I made a quick stop at Sunshine Seasons and picked up a choc.chip muffin for Lauren and I to split. We went over the ride Figment just to have something to do. I don't mind this ride too much - it's cute. Once off that ride, we decided to try our luck at TestTrack. Want to mention - it was now almost 10:00 in the morning and as we passed the Land again, a CM was putting out a sign saying that all FPs for Soarin' were gone for the day. Before 10:00am!!! That's just crazy!

On to TestTrack:

Brief interruption in this TR to post the "Lauren Texting" picture of the day:

Back to TR: The posted standby wait time for TT was 50 minutes - from the entrance to the ride. We were no where near the entrance. I was thinking we were going to have to add at least another 10-15 minutes to that! Now, usually, it goes against my beliefs to wait more than 30, 40 minutes tops, for any ride. So I looked at Lauren - what did she want to do? Well, she loves TestTrack - of course she wanted to stay. Ok, fine - it is HER birthday trip afterall. As long as we were out of there by 11:30, I thought we would still have enough time to make out ADRs at DHS for noon.

So we waited. And waited. And waited. Lauren doesn't seem to mind at all:

It was a full 70 minutes that we waited. But honestly, it didn't feel that long. We were surrounded by two very nice families - one from London and one from NY. Chatting with them made the time pass by a little quicker.

TestTrack was awesome! But it was now almost 11:30 and we needed to hustle over to DHS. I'm proud to report we made it through the DHS turnstiles by noon; and were at 50s Primetime Cafe by 12:05. WooHoo!

We were thirsty!

Dad's Electric Blue Lemonade and Mickey's BeeBop drink:

Lauren had the kids side salad and chicken nuggets with fries:

I had the fried chicken w/mashed pototoes and greens:

For dessert, Lauren had her mind set on the choc.dipped hot fudge sundae:

Now they knew it was her birthday so I thought they would have just put a candle in her sundae. But no, instead they bought her this:

Our CM Elaine, of course, had to get the rest of the "family" sitting in our area to join in singing happy birthday. Yep - Lauren was embarassed! I loved it!

Hmmm, what should I eat first?

She started with ice cream first; attacked the cupcake second. I'll admit - I helped!

Elaine took our picture and then gave me her address to send her a copy. She keeps photo albums at her stations and likes to put the pictures of her customers in them!

After lunch, we decided to check out TSM - just for some laughs; I knew there was probably no way we were getting on it! On the way, had to stop for this pic, of course!

As expected, TSM FP - sold out; standby wait time - 120 minutes! No thank you! We wanted to ride the Backlot Studio Tour but it was closed; don't know why. As we walked around, I noticed no line to see the Monster Inc. guys.

I think Sully was trying to sing Happy Birthday to Lauren here:

Next up..........................

where we would try out our drawing, acting and singing skills...........

(continued in next post)

 

[Camster0307]

Continued from previous post..............

We headed into the Magic of Disney Animation. I have never really experienced the attractions in here; always just cut in the back way and met the characters. Since we had the time, I really wanted to check out all it had to offer. I have to say - Lauren and I spent about an hour in here and we had a hoot!

First off was a presentation on how Disney animators bring characters to life. This little film was hosted by Mushu from Mulan. It was really very funny and quite interesting. After that show, we blew off meeting Sorcerer Mickey and went over to play on the computers.

First up was the Soundstage (I think that's what it was called). This was hysterical. It's a little program hosted by Ursula from Little Mermaid. She will "take" your voice and place it into the scene of a Disney movie. You have to choose whether it's your "singing" voice or your "acting" voice. We first went with the acting voice:

You then choose from four Disney movies to recite dialogue from. The clip is then shown as it played in the movie first; then you are given the chance to do your own voice-over to the scene. We first did a scene from the Lion King:

After you're done recording, they play it back. Oh we were laughing so hard and we were loud. This is why I love my kid so much - she's so much fun to hang out with!

We did all four movies. Next we did the singing voices:

Lion King again................

Did I mention we were loud? Lauren was mortified at the singing playback! At one point, I turned around and there was an elderly couple watching us and laughing. They told us we needed to take our "act" on the road!

Next it was on to :

You answer some questions; then you are put into a story and told what Disney character you are most like. Lauren and I got the same answer:

It was cute; but not half as entertaining as the soundstage. Next we decided to take the animation lesson. I've always wanted to try this and there wasn't much of a crowd lined up. We waited about 10 minutes and were then let in to take a seat at a drawing board:

We were going to be taught how to draw Pluto! Here's my finished product:

Here's Lauren's:

We call him "sick" Pluto.

We really had a lot of fun in there. I'm glad we took the time to do it!

Next we headed over to see Beauty and The Beast - one of our favorite shows in all of Disney. Since I had taken a TON of pictures during our trip in November, I didn't take any on this day. Sorry!

RnRC was out of the question, as expected. Too long of a wait.(and fine by me - I was NOT looking forward to riding it!) We went back to see Muppets in 3D and then grabbed a quick snack - cheese-filled pretzels. As we sat enjoying our pretzels, we noticed the next American Idol show was starting in 15 minutes. We decided to check it out!

In the queue area, a "host" walks around with a camera crew and interviews the guests. It's broadcast on the tvs that are posted throughout the waiting area:

We were finally let into the theater and I have to say, when they opened the doors, Lauren and I both let out a "Wow." It looked so much like the real thing!

A video of Ryan Seacrest is played, explaining the whole process:

The host then comes out and introduces the contestants and judges:

They really treat this seriously. They want people with real singing talent and the audience is encouraged to be as enthusiastic as possible. It was very cool. The first girl that performed was only 14; she sang a song from CampRock and was pretty good. I give her ALOT of credit for getting up there in front of all those people.

This guy sang "Sweet Home Alabama" and while he didn't have the strongest voice, he certainly seemed very comfortable up on that stage. He had the crowd up dancing and clapping along with him:

I wasn't able to get pictures of the third person who sang - a kindergarten teacher who actually wound up winning. She performed a Jennifer Lopez song and then darkened the theater and had the disco lights going. They are VERY strict about flash photography in here and it was just too dark to get a picture. Anway, when all three are done performing, they listen to the judges and then the audience votes by pushing a button on the armrests:

I guess there are seven or eight shows a day; the winners from each show then come back for the last show of the day, where one ultimate winner is chosen. They then are invited back, at a later date, to compete against other previous winners. Somehow, a big winner is chosen and THAT person in given a free pass to audition before the actual American Idol judges in an upcoming season.

After American Idol, it was time to leave DHS and head over to the Boardwalk area. We had dinner ADRs at The Yachtsman in the Yacht Club.

Had to stop for the traditional DHS photo:

Next installment: a great dinner and another fabulous birthday treat!

 

[podsnel]

Love it!! I really needed an update- I was having Cammie TR withdrawals! Plus i needed to take a break from trying to figure out dance moves to Pink, Nickleback and AARejects to teach Timmy and a bunch of 4th graders tonight at Variety Show rehearsal.

It's so cute that the CM keeps pics of her customers! That's excellent!! I haven't been there since the day MGM opened, that's where we had lunch, Pods & I. I guess I need to go back with the boys in the fall.

Oh! I see you've posted again- can't wait to see the animation stuff!

 

[podsnel]

You were right! That animation stuff looks like a blast! I may have to check that out with a few friends in May...

I love that you have such a great time hanging out with Lauren- she's an awesome kid, that's for sure! WTG, Mom!

Ok...back to dance school. If anyone's looking in my windows, they're probably thinking I'm some kind of spastic freak! Oh boy.....

 

[MiaBella05]

american idol looks like a interesting attraction, i cant wait to see it in person.

 

[babytrees]

What a great update....I am definitely taking time to go to the Animation stuff next year. I think DHS gets the bum rap but we loved it.

 

[punkin413]

you can tell she's embarassed in this picture!

Elaine took our picture and then gave me her address to send her a copy. She keeps photo albums at her stations and likes to put the pictures of her customers in them!

this is so cool!

I think Sully was trying to sing Happy Birthday to Lauren here:

it looks like he's trying to attack her or something and lauren's just not too sure about him. these are some characters i've never met - will have to do that one day!

First up was the Soundstage (I think that's what it was called). This was hysterical. It's a little program hosted by Ursula from Little Mermaid.

i've only been through here once but we didn't do the computer games. another thing we'll have to do next time! sounds fun.

As we sat enjoying our pretzels, we noticed the next American Idol show was starting in 15 minutes. We decided to check it out!

that sounds really cool! thanks for all the photos and explaining how it works. i was wondering about it!

 

[karajeboo]

Yea!!!! Love the AI pics - we didn't get in this weekend as we only spent a few hrs at DHS this time. But we did see the camera crew filming a guy outside who was jumping up and down with his "ticket" and just going nuts! it looked like fun! Weird that the wait times were so long! We just had 10 minute waits for most everything this weekend. Even though at one point the posted wait for Test Track was 40 minutes, we walked on. Literally. Same with ToT and RnR - I don't know if they were trying to scare people off or what. But it seemed to be the theme of our weekend......

 

[Lady Lallie]

The picture of Lauren debating her desserts is adorable. Her facial expression is so cute!

I think the Animation Courtyard is so much fun, I want to do the drawing class in May. Sounds like a nice way to get a break from park touring too.

I have to say that I am not that interested in the American Idol attraction but after seeing those photos I might have to check out a show!

 

[KathyRN137]

Wow, Cammie! I could never, ever, just change my plans spur-of-the-moment like that! Especially when ADRs were involved! You really pulled it off, though!

And yours is the first TR I've read that included the new American Idol attraction! Cool! That set does look authentic...

Looking forward to the special birthday treat for Lauren!!

Kathy

 

[IluvXU]

The American Idol thing looks wow! We might have to do it this summer. What a great mom to change plans that morning... I am not sure I could handle that.... but you are right it was her birthday trip. Also waiting in line for Test Track--- Lauren is super lucky to have such a fantastic mom!

 

[UsNew2Disney2008]

I just love that face at PrimeTime, Cammie! It is just too stinkin cute!

Holy Smokes - you did great getting out of TT at 11:30 and making your ressie! WOW! I'm totally impressed!