My First TR- there WILL be pictures! Updated Jan 29, 2008! FINALLY!

[tinawv]

Your DN is so cute or should I say handsome . Can't wait to see how Day 4 went.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

I'll be at Disney with a 12 year old this December. I have post-it notes to myself to schedule break times and be aware of when people are getting cranky . . .

Good idea! I learned quickly what his trigger was. Lack of sleep was the first one! I'll share some more as the TR goes on. Thanks for joining us! Maybe some things that I learned from my DN will help you with your trip.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Your DN is so cute or should I say handsome . Can't wait to see how Day 4 went.

I still say cute too, but he doesn't appreciate that! He likes handsome, so I'm sure he'll appreciate your comment!

 

[DisneyFreak06]

We got up early and had breakfast. DN loved that we could have the mugs. He had seen me use my mug from last year, and was excited to get his own. They were out of the Year of Magical Dreams mugs, so we had to get the regular (bigger looking) Pop mugs. That was fine with us though.

The first thing we did was the safari. Here are some of our pictures:

Proof the animals are real:

I'm sorry, I'm stopping early, I will finish the AK section now. My little 2 yo nephew just came in to my room and asked "Tina, do you want to go at the park with me?" And I couldn't say no! I'll be back soon to finish my AK section!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I think it is really sweet that DN missed his mom.

I can't wait to find out what surprises you have planned.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

I think it is really sweet that DN missed his mom.

I can't wait to find out what surprises you have planned.

DN has always been very considerate of other's feelings. He kept asking his mother before he left if she'd be okay and if what she was going to do while he was gone.

I personally think the surprised worked really well, he was very surprised! He liked them both, even though one of them really didn't have anything to do with me!

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Sorry about that... I just have a soft spot for my nephews and nieces I guess. The little 2yo isn't feeling all that well either and he's been cranky. When I walked in after church this morning he yelled "I hate Tina" so I had to take a good mood when I could! He was just going down for a nap at that point too though.

Now... back to the TR...

We then went straight to Expedition Everest, which we rode a few times throughout the day.

We rode some other rides, and did the walks. I believe we were on the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail or the Maharaji Jungle Trek when I noticed DN was starting to get cranky. He said he was hungry, so we stopped at Pizzafari for some pizza. I just love a good cheese pizza, so this was perfect for me! I wish I had taken pictures of the restaurant. I love the look of it. DN was in a much better mood after eating.

We got to see the Lion King.

A Bug’s Life

My favorite was Dinosaur. It was so funny, DN had ridden Mission Space and loved it, Expedition Everest and loved it. But he was TERRIFIED on Dinosaur. He hid his face in my arms most of the ride. It was hilarious! And at the time they took the picture, I jumped and ducked too, and so the picture really looks like the two of us were petrified. I, of course, HAD to buy the picture! Sorry, I don’t have a scanner to put it on here.

We also rode Primevil Whirl. We walked around quite a bit and took some fun pictures.

I have to cut this in half... they said I had too many pictures... sorry.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

We didn’t get to Kali River Rapids, or the new Nemo Show though. I guess that will be our next trip. We bought ice cream at some point too, which I think was before lunch, and that was why I was so surprised DN was so hungry!

I better stop here and do MGM in my next post.

 

[tinawv]

It looks like DN is getting less homesick. Was that a 4-wheeler in one of your pictures from your safari ride? I don't think I have ever seen anyone actually out of the grounds during any of our safari rides.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

It looks like DN is getting less homesick. Was that a 4-wheeler in one of your pictures from your safari ride? I don't think I have ever seen anyone actually out of the grounds during any of our safari rides.

Once DN got some sleep, he was much better! He is the kind of person that really needs to sleep. And sleep he did. Every night, as soon as his head hit his pillow he was asleep. It was great, because that was my worry, he has a hard time sleeping over at people's houses and tends to call someone to pick him up and take him home. But he was just so busy all the time and it was go-go-go.

Yes, that was a four wheeler. We had seen someone standing with some animals too, I tried to take her picture, but it turned out all blurry.

 

[carri5317]

Keep it comming!

 

[junebug88]

I so want to hear more about this trip!!

 

[DisneyFreak06]

I'm so sorry there has been such a delay. Things have been really busy (with a side trip to Toronto in the meantime). I'm hoping to get another section in here soon!

Please forgive me!

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Sorry again for the delay, I hope there are still some readers out there! LOL

First off I need to apologize because I know I can't remember which day some of this happened as we went to MGM a few times. (I do need to keep a better journal!)

So here is my DN with Mr. Dinsey... well, his bust at least!

and me

DN watches the Andy Griffith Show with his mom, so he wanted me to take his picture with Andy Griffith too.

ROZ!

DN really loved Muppet Vision 3D. He talks about how much he wants to see it again. Here's Fozzie Bear!

LMA

DN and one of the drivers.

We bought some ice cream and wanted to sit in the shade on a stone bench, but there was this guy eating popcorn and he wouldn't share the bench with us.

I don't know what this character's name is or anything, but we watched him for a few minutes and thought he was really funny!

In the line up waiting for Indiana Jones, DN started to get cranky again. Here is is refusing to talk to me or even look at me!

At that point I realized what was making him cranky! He gets incredibly cranky when he is hungry! I guess the ice cream didn't fill him enough! So after seeing this

and taking some pictures of Indiana Jones Jr. (Who's mood had improved!)

We went to eat at Backlot Express.

I think that's all the pictures I am allowed in one post, so I'll stop here, but it shouldn't be long until I finish at least this one day! Thanks for sticking in with us.

Up next: Late night at MGM.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

We walked around the Streets of America.

And wandered through the Honey I Shrunk the Audience play area. I thought it was really cool to look at, but I don't know how parents can deal with it. I thought I'd never find my DN, and he's 12!!! I can't imagine what happens to parents of young children, it's hard to keep an eye on kids in there!

I so wanted to slide too...

We rode more rides too. Each time we rode a new "thrill ride", it became DN's new fave. Now that he's home, and he's been on all the thrills at Disney, his favorite is RnR. He loves it!

We then bought some buckets of popcorn and watched Fantasmic! and that's my favorite night show. I saw it my first night at WDW ever, and there is just something about the music that makes me cry. I have the song from Fantasmic as my ringer on my cell! Unfortunately none of my pictures turned out. I can't wait to go try to get better pictures since I've got two new cameras since March!

We rode some Tower of Terror another time and then DN decided he wanted to go back to the room-probably for another swim! LOL

Up next: Tuesday, and the Big Surprise!

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Keep it comming!

It's finally coming! Sorry it's so slow.

And to junebug88 I hope you're still reading...

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Sorry again about the delay, I guess most of the rest of this TR will be pictures, hopefully so I can finish this quickly for anyone who's still reading!

Since my DN had known everything about the trip in advance, and helped plan it, I wanted to surprise him with at least one thing he didn't know about. It was really hard to keep from him as I had to plan it so far in advance! (And he's really curious, he tends to ask a ton of questions and keeps asking until he gets an answer.... Just ask his Mom about the time he heard me talking about the macaroni and cheese I bought for her bachelorette party! ) Thankfully he didn't find out anything about it except for what I told him during our first night at Pop, when he was REALLY upset and I told him that there were surprises to come.

We had a quick breakfast at Pop, I had brought the mini boxes of cereal from home in my carry on and we bought milk and bananas in the food court. Then the plan for the day was MK for opening and then to see the Contemporary (because of the monorail going through it and then the GF. I'd always wanted to see it since I saw it on Full House as a kid! I thought for a long time that that was the only hotel at WDW! (I'm so glad it's not, or I still would never have made it!) Then we were planning to go back to M

DN stopped for a few autographs and pictures:

We met Alice and the Mad Hatter along the way, and Alice said she loved DN's Stitch hat, but she could never wear it because it clashes with her makeup!

We hadn't realized that characters sometimes walk with us on the street, I almost didn't notice them!

This CM said that something was eating DN's hair, and that he knew how that felt! He then took off his hat to show us how his 'eaten' hair looked!

My DN really loves Stitch, as you can see from his hat AND the shirt I bought for him at MGM the night before. (I think! I'm really confused now, I will definitely do better at notes the next time I go!)

We rode Space Mountain, BTMRR, POC and HM (I think, I'm really bad!) while I kept watching my little Mickey head key chain watch that I bought at Epcot the first night. I couldn't stand not having a watch. I was really nervous that I'd miss my surprise...

So we continued with our plan to go to the Contemporary. We got out to wander around and DN said, "Great, it's really cool, want to go check out the GF now? I know how much you want to see it!"

I told him that I wanted to find him a pressed penny, as he was collecting some. Then I realized where the line for Chef Mickey's was, and joined it. This was DN's reaction:

"Tina? What are we doing here?" in a whisper. "Tina, is this the surprise?" in a littler whisper. And then he practically yelled "IS THIS THE SURPRISE????" He was incredibly excited at this realization. We barely waited three minutes before the pager went off.

Here are some Chef Mickey's shots.

DN really loved when Pluto put the autograph book on his snout to sign it!

I took some pictures of the not so hidden Mickey themes in there, like the condiment holders, and the chairs, as well as some more of the restaurant, but they are not in Photobucket, sorry. We thought the food was good and the characters were hilarious. Donald kept wiggling his behind, and every time DN or I would mention it, he'd do it more. It was so worth hiding it from him for the surprise. He still says it was his favorite part of the trip!

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Oh wait, I found them! I was resizing all my pictures I had just posted, realizing that they were too big, when I came across these.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Once we finished our meal, we decided not to go to the GF, and I've STILL never managed to get there! One day I will though. It was starting to rain, so I got out my poncho, we decided to take the monorail from the Contemporary over to Epcot, just for fun, as the ride to the Contemporary from Epcot is not very long! It was pouring rain at this point, so we took the bus back to Pop Century.

I don't think we did much at this point, just went back to the room to leave our pictures we bought at CM. We decided we would go to Disney Quest since it was raining. We thought it might be good to be inside.

We got off the bus at Downtown Disney at the wrong end. I don't know if they drop off at two areas or not, but we got off WAY at the other side.

So we tried to do the picture of Tweedle Dee and Tweddle Dum, but DN was annoyed with me because I didn't do it well. I believe a Cast Member came up and offered to take our picture together, which was really nice.

We took a lovely look in the World of Disney Store, boy do I wish one of those was closer to PEI!

And then we walked through the Lego Store, because DN and his mother love Lego. It was a good thing, because we'd had to run from the WoD store to there because it had started to downpour again! It was crazy!

At this point we decided to try to find our way to Disney Quest. Only we kept going the wrong way and getting lost! It was quite funny because I didn't think that anyone could get lost at DTD! I don't know if we were just looking at the map the wrong way or what, but it took us forever to get in the right direction! And then there was construction blocking part of the way and we had to walk a different way, along with another family that was walking in that direction too.

We played around at DQ, which was not quite what we expected, DN was a little dissapointed. Some of it we liked, but we found the layout quite confusing. We did have fun though, I guess we just thought we'd have more.

DN left his Stitch hat at the PoC ride, and we had to go back to get it, and then he left it at another ride. The CM that gave it back to us at PoC was now working at this ride and she laughed and said that if she saw the hat again, she'd hold on to it and save it for him. Then he left it at ANOTHER ride and she was switched to that ride (I was starting to wonder if she was following us!) so when she saw us coming she said, "Wait, I know just what you are looking for!" and gave us his hat! We still laugh about that.

Once DN got cranky, I decided it was food time! It was late enough when we left and it was the longest wait ever when we waited for the bus. It was the only wait that seemed long to us.

I believe when we got back to our room, our luggage was FINALLY there! Only a few days before we were to leave!

If anyone is still reading, thank you!

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Yoohooo!!! DisneyNephew!!!! Are you not even reading your own TR???