No kids, no husbands & no rain! Girls weekend at BWI! - NEW 11/12 p16 -The End!

[carissanboys]

You bought some great items! I'll take all of 'em.

Too bad you didn't get to eat at WPE. The line is usually long there, but it moves pretty quickly. Fresh, hot pretzels sound pretty good though.

 

[20thingamabobs]

Looks like a fun day of shopping! Too bad you didn't get to try WPE, I really like it and think it's one of the better CS options! Your new rind is soo cute and I really like the shirts you got for your boys.

I'm going to guess you head for MK !?!?

 

[mommytothreeboys]

I LOVE the post-it notes!! Way too cute!!

Hmmmm....did you go to MK??

 

[DisMomAmy]

Hurray for shopping at DtD! I about died laughing over your "promise" ring! It's a very cute ring -- I like it a lot! Maybe I need one, too! All of your other purchases are great! It makes me want to go shopping!

I think you headed to the Magic Kingdom!

I love my new ring! Laura was actually looking at it first, but she couldn't find one that fit. I got it at World of Disney.

Oooo, I love all the things you bought! It's so much fun and sort of dangerous to the bank account balance to shop in Disney.

A fresh pretzel sounds sooo good right now. I actually skipped lunch on my girls' trip too and just had a pretzel. They are HUGE!!

I can't wait to see how you decided to spend your evening Amy.

It was definitely dangerous to shop at DTD, but fortunately I don't get the opportunity very often. We don't usually visit DTD with the kids.

The pretzel was soooo good!

Your PP pics came out good!!

Love all the souvie pics I love those red bowls. I have the blue & white kitchen towels Your ring is very pretty.

I say you headed to MK.

Thanks Doreen! We had a lot of fun shopping.

I love your "promise ring"!!! I'm gonna look for one myself

I'm really enjoying your trip report! I followed you over here from someone elses report (can't remember which one) and I'm glad I did!

Thanks for reading!!

 

[DisMomAmy]

What a fun afternoon at DTD!! I love going over there and exploring and doing lots of shopping!!!

Hmmmm...pretzels and smoothies sound amazing!!!

I so want Mickey post-its!!!

It was a lot of fun - especially not feeling rushed.

You bought some great items! I'll take all of 'em.

Too bad you didn't get to eat at WPE. The line is usually long there, but it moves pretty quickly. Fresh, hot pretzels sound pretty good though.

We were both pretty tired at that point so that might have contributed to our lack of desire to wait in the WPE line. It always seems like when you NEED to eat, you can't find anything to eat!

Looks like a fun day of shopping! Too bad you didn't get to try WPE, I really like it and think it's one of the better CS options! Your new rind is soo cute and I really like the shirts you got for your boys.

I'm going to guess you head for MK !?!?

I had been looking forward to WPE or EoS... maybe next time.

I LOVE the post-it notes!! Way too cute!!

Hmmmm....did you go to MK??

The post-it notes make me smile whenever I use them.

Update coming up later this morning... seems as though you are all voting for MK!

 

[DisMomAmy]

After relaxing in the room for a bit & freshening up we headed back out to the bus stop & waited for a Magic Kingdom bus. The wait wasn’t too long but the bus didn’t pull right up when we got there either. The Magic Kingdom is gorgeous in the fall…

When we arrived we caught part of the flag lowering ceremony.

We stopped for just a minute but we had one thing on our minds… food! We headed up Main Street:

We stopped for a couple of quick PP pictures:

Which way did we go? Fantasyland! Where we found:

Lots of evidence of the major Fantasyland rehab!

Continued...

 

[DisMomAmy]

Continued from previous post...

We decided to grab some FPs for Peter Pan fist then headed to Columbia Harbour House for some dinner.

It was well after 5pm but luckily it wasn’t busy. We finished up around 6:00 and headed to Hall of Presidents to see when the next show was. We got there just as a show was getting ready to start!! After the show we went to visit the HoP shop & it wasn’t there! Well the shop was, but the stuff was gone! It was now set up as a Halloween shop! I was really disappointed because I thought Laura would enjoy browsing. I asked the CM behind the register & she said thre was a small section of HoP stuff in the Christmas shop. She wasn’t kidding… it was one shelf! Up next was Haunted Mansion!! It was actually kind of busy & crowded. I don’t know if they experienced some sort of technical difficulty or what but when we made it through the line & finally out of the stretching room is was packed!!! We were all squished together, everyone pushing & shoving. It was crazy! If I thought the ride was like that all the time, I might not want to ride again! Once we made it into the Doom Buggies all was well & we enjoyed the ride.

After Haunted Mansion we headed to Adventureland & rode Pirates of the Caribbean.

After pirates we grabbed a couple FPs for Jungle Cruise. We weren’t sure if we’d ride it or not, but we were due for FPs… We also grabbed some popcorn to snack on as we walked toward Tomorrowland. It was just before 8pm so it was pretty crowded with people lined up for the parade. Luckily we made it through the crowd.

We thought it would be fun to take take a spin on the Peoplemover and enjoy our popcorn but we were thirsty & needed drinks to go with it. We grabbed a couple cokes & got in the short line for the Peoplemover only to be told no food! We grabbed a bench & worked on our snack then got back in the Peoplemover line! I tried to take pictures, but this is the best I could do:

It was really fun! I had never ridden it before & will be sure to ride it every trip from now on. When I told Tim about it he thought it sounded very cool. At the end of the ride I realized my memory stick was full & I hadn’t brought my extra one with me! So I tried to go through and delete the bad pictures so I would have some space for Wishes.

Next up was the Carousel of Progress. That ride is in desperate need of a rehab! The seats were a mess! I love the show but wish it didn’t skip right from the 40s to the 90s or whatever decade it is supposed to be at the end. It has a little 80s, 90s & 2000’s all mixed together. I wish they could update it and add in a few more decades too.

After CoP it was 8:50 so we walked toward Fantasyland to watch Wishes. We stood right outside of Winnie the Pooh and had a great view of Wishes. It wasn’t crowded at all. It did seem a bit like two dueling fireworks shows happening at the same time and we had to keep looking from side to side, but it was nice since it wasn’t crowded.

When Wishes finished, we jumped right in line for Winnie the Pooh and made our way to our honey pot with no wait. After Pooh we headed toward Peter Pan. I had checked in at home earlier, but Laura took a minute before Peter Pan to check in. The FP line was crazy long! Luckily the wait wasn’t too long though. After Peter Pan we headed to Mickey’ Philharmagic. That has to be my favorite 3D show at Disney. Laura loved it too. We spent a little time browsing in some of the shops in Fantasyland. One thing I had been looking for was a girly pressed penny for Julie to put in her DDs new pressed penny book. Luckily I found tink! We also found a couple re-useable shopping bags to carry with us the next day:

We made our way through the castle, enjoying the mosaics along the way.

We stopped for a couple more PP pictures:

It was now almost 10 pm and the next parade was due to start. We ducked into the shops along Main Street and browsed for a bit. I even peeked out and watched a bit of the parade. I can’t wait to see the whole thing! Unfortunately we didn’t finish our shopping until the parade had finished. So we went against the crowds and decided to use our Jungle Cruise FPs. When we arrived it was clear that we didn’t need the FPs after all… Our boat was waiting for us! We jumped on board for a private cruise. Well OK there was one man on the boat all by himself but he didn’t say a word or change the expression on his face the whole time. It was kind of strange but the ride was a lot of fun.

After our cruise we headed to the bus stop. I managed to squeeze one more picture onto my memory stick on our way out:

We had to wait about 15 minutes for a bus to come but luckily The Boardwalk was the first stop. On the bus ride back to BWI we saw the Wine & Dine half-marathon runners! It was really cool! If we had wanted to, we were invited to the International Gateway to cheer on the runners as they made their way to Epcot. We had received a "memo" type of notice in our room - I'm sure it was open to anyone, but they notified those of us staying at BWI & probably all of the Epcot area resorts. We didn’t do that since it was going to be late, but it was fun seeing them from the bus. We saw lots of people with their medals the next day.

When we got back to the room it was another good night’s sleep!


Recap: A leisurely start to the day with breakfast at Fresh, shopping at DTD & a magical end of the day at MK.
Lows: Buses! They're not the best at BWI! Trouble finding lunch & skipping tea at the GF.
Highs: Breakfast, DTD & MK!! And another good foot day!

How did we do:
• Breakfast at Fresh at 9:15 at the Dolphin (walk there) - DONE
• 10:00 catch bus to DTD – DONE
• Shop at DTD - DONE
• Lunch at DTD around 12-1pm – nope! We had pretzels closer to 2pm
• Bus back to BWI after lunch to freshen up - DONE
• Plan A) If MK night… 2:30ish: Walk or boat to DHS/Bus to Grand Floridian or
• Plan B) If Epcot night… Walk through Epcot to monorail to Grand Floridian
• Garden View Lounge tea at the Grand Floridian at 3:50 – skipped…
• Monorail to either MK or Epcot for the evening – skipped tea…
Plan A) Magic Kingdom Night:
• Arrive around 5:15 - DONE
• Enter right tunnel - DONE
• Hit a few rides (BTMRR in the dark, Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise?) – hit them all!!
• Grab snacks & find a parade spot around 7pm – Grabbed snacks
• MSEP at 8pm – skipped parade
• Wishes at 9pm – DONE
Plan B) Epcot Night:
• Arrive around 5:15
• Hit any of the rides/shows we missed yesterday
• Watch Illuminations from BWI?

Up next: Departure Day

 

[mousescrapper]

Hi Amy all caught up...sorry you decided to cancel your tea....I have a feeling I will need to reamin very open minded to what may need to be skipped nxt month...the extra hours and entertainment times are making me nervous w/ the crowds

Your shopping sounded successful. I added the mickey sticky notes to my souvie wish list!

can't wait to see where you went next!

J~

Ok so I wasn't caught up...duh! missed 2 posts and where you went...going back to read more

I agree MK looks so great dressed up for Fall can't wait to see that nxt yr!

about the HM squeeze...that has happend to us before too, they just don't have the line area set up real well after the stretching room before you get on your doom buggies...alot of people are pushing and being rude...we just move w/ trying not to lose a kid....

glad you had a wonderful night!

 

[mommytothreeboys]

Wow...you really accomplished a lot in your short time at the MK!

I love the nighttime PP shots...so pretty!

 

[carissanboys]

Looks like a lovely evening at MK. But, you didn't mention what you ate at CHH!

I really need to do CoP in January. It's one of the only attractions I haven't done at MK.

 

[DisMomAmy]

Hi Amy all caught up...sorry you decided to cancel your tea....I have a feeling I will need to reamin very open minded to what may need to be skipped nxt month...the extra hours and entertainment times are making me nervous w/ the crowds

Your shopping sounded successful. I added the mickey sticky notes to my souvie wish list!

can't wait to see where you went next!

J~

Ok so I wasn't caught up...duh! missed 2 posts and where you went...going back to read more

I agree MK looks so great dressed up for Fall can't wait to see that nxt yr!

about the HM squeeze...that has happend to us before too, they just don't have the line area set up real well after the stretching room before you get on your doom buggies...alot of people are pushing and being rude...we just move w/ trying not to lose a kid....

glad you had a wonderful night!

I was so looking forward to the tea, but it wasn't a difficult decision to cancel it. It was nice to go with the flow.

The Mickey post-it notes were in Tren-D.

You will love all the fall decorations next year - I have to figure out a way to get us down there to see the Christmas stuff...

Wow...you really accomplished a lot in your short time at the MK!

I love the nighttime PP shots...so pretty!

It's amazing how much ground you can cover without kids in tow!

Looks like a lovely evening at MK. But, you didn't mention what you ate at CHH!

I really need to do CoP in January. It's one of the only attractions I haven't done at MK.

Because it was boring... we split the chicken strips.

CoP is a great attraction - it just needs a bit of sprucing up!

 

[Lovemy3babes]

You got a ton done in the MK!! Awesome. I just adore CoP but it could definitely use a rehab. The fall photos are gorgeous!

 

[Charleston Princess]

I am in awe of how much you were able to accomplish on your MK night!

Was there any cool Halloween stuff in the converted HoP shop or just the same stuff as in the other gift shops?

 

[MEK]

Another fabulous day and you only hit the wall once? Smart move on minimizing meal time so you could maximize park time. You got some really great pics and I can't believe it was your first time on the people mover. I love that ride. Always there when you need some rest and relaxation.

Love the T shirts and I have always thought those dish towels were the cutest!

 

[DisMomAmy]

You got a ton done in the MK!! Awesome. I just adore CoP but it could definitely use a rehab. The fall photos are gorgeous!

I the Magic Kingdom in the fall! I think it's because our first REAL family trip was in October 2007. We'd visited in 2006 but just for two days.

I am in awe of how much you were able to accomplish on your MK night!

Was there any cool Halloween stuff in the converted HoP shop or just the same stuff as in the other gift shops?

I think we were able to get so much done because we didn't ride any of the headliners. It was such a different trip this time...

We actually didn't look around the Halloween shop very long so I didn't notice... sorry!

Another fabulous day and you only hit the wall once? Smart move on minimizing meal time so you could maximize park time. You got some really great pics and I can't believe it was your first time on the people mover. I love that ride. Always there when you need some rest and relaxation.

Love the T shirts and I have always thought those dish towels were the cutest!

I don't know how I made it through the evening because I was really dragging in the afternoon.

I loved the Peoplemover - Every year I've said I wanted to ride it, but somehow we've managed to miss it...

I love my new dish towels! I got some for my mother last spring & had a hard time giving them away.

 

[DisMomAmy]

Day Four: Departure Day

We were up at 7:30 today. We woke up a little sad this morning because we had to say good-bye to the BWI before heading to our last park of the trip. Our boarding passes were under the door – Early Bird check-in paid off – we were given A23 & A24! Our original plan for the day had been to visit Magic Kingdom. Luckily we had changed our plans and we would be walking to Epcot after taking care of check-out. This was our original itinerary… We had done almost everything the night before!! We didn’t ride BTMRR or Splash, which I kind of expected. We also skipped Buzz, Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor & we never checked out Expo Hall which I’d been curious about. Overall I think we did a lot on our night at MK.

Sunday – Magic Kingdom
• Grab breakfast at Boardwalk Bakery
• Check out & store luggage
• Catch bus to MK by 8:15
• Hopefully catch the opening ceremony (enter right tunnel)
• Fantasyland
o Grab FPs for Peter Pan
o Ride Pooh
o See Mickey’s Phiharmagic
• Adventureland
o Jungle Cruise or grab FP?
o POTC
• Frontierland
o BTMRR (FP?)
o Splash (FP?)
• Liberty Square
o Haunted Mansion
o Hall of Presidents
o Lunch?
o Run ahead for FPs to Buzz?
• Back to Fantasyland
o Peter Pan
o Mickey’s Philharmagic (if didn’t see before)
• Tomorrowland
o Buzz (FP?)
o TTA
o Carousel of Progress
o Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor
• Pop into Expo Hall
• Bus back to BWI
• Collect bags & do airline check in
• ME Bus to airport around 4:30pm

So our plans for today would be to see everything we’d missed on our first Epcot day, plus revisit a few of our favorites. We had several countries to explore (Morocco, France, UK & Canada), a kimono to buy & I was still on the hunt for a few souvenirs at Mousegear.

We got up and got ourselves ready for the day. Then it was time to deal with the luggage. Laura was smart & had packed an extra bag. I had to stuff my bag so full, I wasn’t sure it was going to zip. It’s an expandable suitcase but even with it expanded it was a tight squeeze! I had purchased those Darth Vader & Yoda buttons and they were talking to me as I tried to close the suitcase. Darth kept breathing at me & Yoda kept saying “Judge me by my size do you?” and “Powerful you have become” and Darth kept breathing at me! It was really funny because I thought the suitcase might be over 50 pounds!

I decided to roll my suitcase downstairs to have them weigh it at the airline check-in desk just to make sure I wasn’t over the limit. Luckily it was 47 pounds so I was OK. I rolled it back upstairs to finish up. With my bag packed, I arranged my carry on, Laura finished up her packing, we left our final mousekeeping envelope & headed downstairs for the last time. First we left our carry-on bags with bell service, then we headed back to airline check-in to leave our big bags.

We hadn’t really explored the resort much so we took a few minutes to do that this morning.

This was the courtyard that we could see from our balcony:

Our balcony:

More of the courtyard:

The quiet pool:

I think this is a garden suite:

Then we headed to the big pool:

Continued...

 

[DisMomAmy]

Continued from previous post...

Up next: Hello (again) Epcot!

 

[KathyRN137]

Okay, as the saying goes: "Better late than never!"

Good news is: I get to start at the beginning and read straight through... no waiting for updates!


Kathy

 

[DisMomAmy]

Okay, as the saying goes: "Better late than never!"

Good news is: I get to start at the beginning and read straight through... no waiting for updates!


Kathy

Hi Kathy!! Glad you're here!!

A few more updates to go until I'm finished, but I'll be done in the next week or two. Then it's time to focus on my next two trips!! Well and I suppose I'll need to spend a little time dealing with the holidays.

 

[Mickey_Mom]

Great updates! You did get a lot done at MK and I love those ice cream carved pumpkins.

LOVE all the resort and Boardwalk pictures! Everything looks so peaceful and beautiful.