Now a Trip Report!!! Will We Stay or Will We Go? A Thanksgiving Pre-Trip/Trip Report

[Poolrat]

Merry Christmas to the jillyb family

 

[jillyb]

Ok I am all caught up...

this is so fun reading your report and seeing stuff we saw and stuff we missed plus even getting some questions answered...

but first I so enjoyed meeting you, Clay and the girls...it was a fun DISmeet on our Safari ride...

here are the pixs from that meet (sorry your group shot was blury)

you guys got a lot done in that first day and a half...I can't believe how empty WS was either...you certaintly picked a great day to go exploring...how did I miss you were on the deluxe dining either. Now did you ever eat at Rose & Crown ...I have heard mixed reviews about the new pizza place too.

So we were mostly in EP during the evening hours and in particular by the large tree entering into WS. we took some pix there too. but both Matt and I thought how odd and un Disney like that the bottom of the tree is out...meaning the lights out, cause that is sure how it looked

see what I mean?

but now that I see your pix of the girls in front of it...the bottom wasn't even lit...I feel all better

Love all your pix of the Christmas tree at AK too...we never looked at it close up and I am bummed, the details are so nice and now I know what the deal w/ the red box was (Stitch coming out)...I saw people holding that.

Also we saw the Jammin Jingle Parade too on Friday...but we didn't get to see it all like you. It was raining, so the parade was cut short in route and they didn't use the large puppets plus we missed the snow had no idea about that. This is Matt's fav parade so he enjoyed your pix a ton.

Looking forward to reading more about what you guys did!

J~

Julie thanks for the pictures! I'd totally forgotten about the pic of just the two of us on the safari so that was a nice surprise!

WS was very nice that first day and I'm so glad we were able to explore. We never did get to eat at Rose & Crown. That will just have to go on the list for next time.

I didn't notice there were no lights on the bottom of the tree. Boy...I'm the observant one aren't I??!! LOL

The AK tree is gorgeous. After seeing pictures of it in other's TRs it was cool to see it in real life. I knew when he asked the girls to hold the box that Stitch would be making an appearance in the photo!

Sorry ya'll didn't get to see all of the parade. The rain on that Friday was crazy! I'm glad Matt got to enjoy it through the pics.

What a fun day at AK! Great pictures! How fun-- meeting up with Julie and her entourage for the safari. This is the 3rd year Disney has started the parade before Thanksgiving. Hopefully they'll do it again next year. The parade looks like so much fun.

It really was a fun day even with the grumpiness! LOL Meeting Julie and her family was definitely a highlight!

Merry Christmas to the jillyb family

Thanks Pat! Hope ya'll had a very Merry Christmas as well!


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I hope that everyone had or is having a wonderful time with their family and friends over the holidays. It was a stressful, but nice, Christmas this year and, for once, I'm glad it's over. Christmas is usually my favorite time of year but there's been so much going on it was hard to get in the Christmas spirit. I'm back at work today and happy to be here! LOL Clay is off this week and is home with Alison, Hannah and Madison. I'm thinking this isn't going to be much of a vacation for him! We still have to do Christmas with Clay's family and they will all be descending upon our house on New Year's Day. Ya'll pray for me...I'm gonna need it!

I'll try to get the next installment typed up and posted sometime this week.

 

[Poolrat]

I hope that everyone had or is having a wonderful time with their family and friends over the holidays. It was a stressful, but nice, Christmas this year and, for once, I'm glad it's over. Christmas is usually my favorite time of year but there's been so much going on it was hard to get in the Christmas spirit. I'm back at work today and happy to be here! LOL Clay is off this week and is home with Alison, Hannah and Madison. I'm thinking this isn't going to be much of a vacation for him! We still have to do Christmas with Clay's family and they will all be descending upon our house on New Year's Day. Ya'll pray for me...I'm gonna need it!

I'll try to get the next installment typed up and posted sometime this week.

I am so glad I am not the only one who is glad to be back at work.
I have/will have 2 long weekends so all is good.
Maybe I need to be in Disney next year?

 

[Charleston Princess]

I am so glad I am not the only one who is glad to be back at work.
I have/will have 2 long weekends so all is good.
Maybe I need to be in Disney next year?

Let me tell you -- work is looking better and better. Someone will need to remind me of that this time next week. I was thinking the same thing about being at Disney next year.

 

[jillyb]

I am so glad I am not the only one who is glad to be back at work.
I have/will have 2 long weekends so all is good.
Maybe I need to be in Disney next year?

Our office is closed on Friday but my boss is going to be out tomorrow for shoulder surgery so, even though I'll be in the office, my long weekend begins tomorrow. Think I'll bring in my notes from the trip and work on the next installment. LOL

I would sooooooooooo love to be in Disney next year but it ain't gonna happen.

Let me tell you -- work is looking better and better. Someone will need to remind me of that this time next week. I was thinking the same thing about being at Disney next year.

I know! Next week when Hannah is back in school and I actually have to work a full week I'm going to be wishing I was at home! LOL

Lucky you will be in Disney next year!

 

[MeMom]

I am so glad I am not the only one who is glad to be back at work.

Maybe I need to be in Disney next year?

Let me tell you -- work is looking better and better. Someone will need to remind me of that this time next week. I was thinking the same thing about being at Disney next year.

Isn't 2011 the year everyone except us was going to go to WDW before Christmas? If you all want to change to the Christmas to New Year stretch, I'm sure that will be just fine with us. I think our plan is to take that Christmas afternoon flight out again, and we'd come home on January 2nd.

As for the working, I can't hang out with you two right now. I am very much enjoying being at home, and not hearing my teacher name or refereeing disputes has been a pleasure.

Our office is closed on Friday but my boss is going to be out tomorrow for shoulder surgery so, even though I'll be in the office, my long weekend begins tomorrow. Think I'll bring in my notes from the trip and work on the next installment. LOL



I know! Next week when Hannah is back in school and I actually have to work a full week I'm going to be wishing I was at home! LOL

Enjoy your long weekend. Next week will be a killer!

 

[jillyb]

While you're waiting for my next installment I thought I'd share Hannah's Journal entries. I think she only did an entry for our travel day and our first Epcot day. I'll leave the spelling and punctuation (or lack thereof! LOL) like it is. Hope you enjoy a peek into her thoughts on the trip!

"This is my second time at Disney World I am so excited tomorrow I'm going to epcot and I am taking my flat stanly with me so I can get pictures with flat stanly and Disney charters and bring them to my class for flat stanly show and tell."

"I'm going to epcot I'm in epcot it is so ecxiteing I can't wait to go in the pool when I get back from epcot."

"I'm in Italy me and my family are going to eat here in Italy we are eating pizza the waitwess he is speak Italian it was cool I can't wait to get back to pop cenchery becase they have a pool."

(I think our hunky Italian waiter may take offense at being called a "waitwess"! )

"Italy is beutaful there are lots of buildings and lots of plants and pretty lights and plus the buildings are cool and they have lots of lights and tomorrow we are going to the animal kingdom we are going swimming first thing this next morning."

Notice a theme in all of those entries?!

 

[Charleston Princess]

I'd say Hannah really liked that pool at Pop Century!

MeMom, the original plan was the week before Christmas next year, but since we are going this summer, we will have to see whether our finances will support a Christmas trip. If not, there is always 2012.

 

[jillyb]

I'd say Hannah really liked that pool at Pop Century!

Ya think??!!!

 

[Poolrat]

Ya think??!!!

I think !!

 

[jillyb]

Well I thought I'd be able to post the next installment but that's not happening. *sigh* I did get some of it typed up yesterday at least. I'm so ready for life to get back to normal! LOL

 

[MeMom]

"This is my second time at Disney World I am so excited tomorrow I'm going to epcot and I am taking my flat stanly with me so I can get pictures with flat stanly and Disney charters and bring them to my class for flat stanly show and tell."

"I'm going to epcot I'm in epcot it is so ecxiteing I can't wait to go in the pool when I get back from epcot."

"I'm in Italy me and my family are going to eat here in Italy we are eating pizza the waitwess he is speak Italian it was cool I can't wait to get back to pop cenchery becase they have a pool."

(I think our hunky Italian waiter may take offense at being called a "waitwess"! )

"Italy is beutaful there are lots of buildings and lots of plants and pretty lights and plus the buildings are cool and they have lots of lights and tomorrow we are going to the animal kingdom we are going swimming first thing this next morning."

Notice a theme in all of those entries?!

I do see a theme.
She makes Poolrat proud, I imagine.
I think pool time is a universal love for kids.

I think it is cute that she noticed the plants, lights, and buildings in Italy. She is developing a love for World Showcase already.

I'd say Hannah really liked that pool at Pop Century!

MeMom, the original plan was the week before Christmas next year, but since we are going this summer, we will have to see whether our finances will support a Christmas trip. If not, there is always 2012.

If not a long Christmas trip, maybe a short New Year's trip?
Make it a long weekend and see some incredible fireworks from the Poly beach?
Incredible. I promise.
Even make it a cheapy one park one day trip and do other things around Disney World the other days. The resorts and DTD dressed up for Christmas would be a huge treat - and free. I'd want you to at least do Magic Kingdom to see the Christmas parade.
It could be done Miss Cheap style and still be very fun.

Did I mention the incredible fireworks?
You know you want to...

 

[Charleston Princess]

If not a long Christmas trip, maybe a short New Year's trip?
Make it a long weekend and see some incredible fireworks from the Poly beach?
Incredible. I promise.
Even make it a cheapy one park one day trip and do other things around Disney World the other days. The resorts and DTD dressed up for Christmas would be a huge treat - and free. I'd want you to at least do Magic Kingdom to see the Christmas parade.
It could be done Miss Cheap style and still be very fun.

Did I mention the incredible fireworks?
You know you want to...

You have been over here enabling away!

I really like this idea if a full-blown Christmas trip is out of the question...stay at Pop (or will the Art of Animation be open by then?), eat cheap, go to all the resorts, shop at DTD, play mini-golf, see the fireworks from the Poly with some really fun people, and go to the Magic Kingdom to see the castle lights, Christmas parade, and eat festive Christmas goodies from the Main Street Bakery...

I think this would be completely do-able for us!!!

 

[Poolrat]

You have been over here enabling away!

I really like this idea if a full-blown Christmas trip is out of the question...stay at Pop (or will the Art of Animation be open by then?), eat cheap, go to all the resorts, shop at DTD, play mini-golf, see the fireworks from the Poly with some really fun people, and go to the Magic Kingdom to see the castle lights, Christmas parade, and eat festive Christmas goodies from the Main Street Bakery...

I think this would be completely do-able for us!!!

Talk about enabling!!!! Now my wheels are turning
why am I smelling another annual pass?

 

[jillyb]

OK...where were we....

Epcot - Monday, November 22

Today we were returning to Epcot. This was our first rope drop so it was an early morning for us. Everybody got up with no complaining and we grabbed breakfast at the food court. The time on the receipt is 7:34 so we were a little later than I would have liked but we ate quickly and were on our way.

This was also the day we would use another GAD voucher to get the GAD Fastpass exchange cards. We were using Clay’s voucher today. There was a bit of a line at the Will Call window so the girls and I went to the ladies room while Clay stood in line. By the time we got out, Clay was at the window and looking a bit agitated. Oops! He had his ticket but I forgot to give him mine and the girls’ park tickets. I unzip the pocket in my bag where I keep the ticket, pull the tickets out and, as I always do, make sure I’ve got them all. Alison….Hannah….check the pocket…Alison…Hannah…make sure none of the tickets are sticking together…Alison….Hanna…CRAP! I left my ticket in the room! My nightly routine is to check my bag and get it ready for the next morning. I didn’t do that the night before so didn’t realize my ticket wasn’t where it was supposed to be. Off we go to Guest Relations.

There was a couple at the window and a family in front of us and both took a while before it was our turn. As I’m waiting, I’m watching all the people streaming in and seeing the lines getting longer and longer at the turnstiles.

GRRRRRR OK…deep breath…it will be OK.

Alison’s picture while waiting on me to get my ticket:

As we’re waiting, the turnstiles open and I’m kicking myself for forgetting my ticket and missing rope drop. Deep breath….it will be OK. I finally get my temporary ticket and we were able to get our GAD Fastpass exchange cards as well. Well at least that’s something that worked in our favor! Although we’d missed rope drop we hadn’t missed it by much so that was OK. Best part was everybody else was gone so we just walked leisurely towards The Land.

As we’re walking, all of a sudden I hear Hannah say “OW!!!” I turn around and a lady with a stroller had run right up on her heel. I don’t know if Hannah wasn’t paying attention and stopped in front of her, if the lady with the stroller wasn’t paying attention and ran in to her or if it was a combination of the two. The lady apologized profusely and I made sure Hannah was beside me to avoid another incident like that. Clay stops and asks what the plan is and I told him I thought we’d go ride Soarin’ or we could do something else. (See…I’m not trying to be fanatical about the “plan”! LOL) We decided to ride Test Track so off we went. The standby time wasn’t bad so I went ahead and grabbed Fastpasses for later and then we rode standby. Love this ride!

My car once I can ditch the minivan! LOL

After Test Track we headed to Innoventions to do Sum of All Thrills. It wasn’t very crowded yet so we didn’t have to wait too long. Hannah and I designed a rollercoaster and Clay and Alison designed a rollercoaster. This was really cool! If I remember correctly, the girls wanted to go again but we said we needed to move on. When you first get there, each person in your party gets a card. Once you’re finished with your design, you swipe your card and your design is loaded onto the card. The CM then swipes your card when you get in the simulator so you can “ride” your rollercoaster or whatever it is you’ve designed. When you’re done you get your card back and you can go onto the Raytheon website, enter the code on your card and you get to see your design. Nice free souvenir! I don’t know if after a certain number of days it’s gone or if you can go back months later to see your design. After Sum of All Thrills we headed to Figment.

Then we played around for a bit:

On the way out, we decided to stop for a green screen picture:

While we were having our picture taken, we were informed by the CM that we had been chosen as their family of the day and our picture would be shown up front all day. Also, we would get a free holiday picture with the new holiday options. Here’s what we chose:

I wish now I’d sent out Christmas cards because I think this is what I would have used! LOL

This took a lot longer than I thought and I was really watching the time here because we had a lunch ADR at Le Cellier! *drool*

This meal was fantabulous! Our server was very attentive and we enjoyed talking to her. I wish I’d taken a picture of her or written down her name because for the life of me I can’t remember it. Clay, Alison and I had a bowl of the cheddar cheese soup for our appetizers. Hannah didn’t get an appetizer. The pretzel bread was a big hit and the pretzel bread dipped in the cheddar cheese soup was an even bigger hit. The other breads were good too but the pretzel bread was the favorite. Clay and I had the mushroom filet mignon with the mushroom risotto.

Let me just say….OH MY GOODNESS!!!! We both thought it was excellent. Alison got a hamburger and Hannah got the cheese pizza. For dessert, I got the Maple Crème Brule, which was very good, I think Clay got the Chocolate on Chocolate Whiskey cake, Alison got the Chocolate “Moose” and Hannah got the sundae. Before we left, our server brought us some warm pretzel bread wrapped in foil and the recipe for the soup. One of these days I’ll be brave enough to try to make it! LOL Le Cellier has gone on the list of favorites. I know that it’s going to 2 TS credits for dinner and, since this was our first time eating here, I think I’d give dinner a shot to see if it is worth the 2 TS credits or not. I know some people don’t feel like it is so we’ll see.

I didn’t take any pictures here so these are all Alison’s pictures:

Alison’s dessert

After lunch, we headed back to Pop so the girls could swim. We got a Photopass picture on the way out.

I did laundry while the girls were swimming. Clay sat at a table at the pool bar reading a book and enjoying an adult beverage. I got a Hula Hoop (drink) and sat with Clay at the pool bar while the clothes were washing. After an hour or so, Clay took the girls back to the room to get cleaned up. I was finishing up the laundry so they met me at the laundry room and we put the clean clothes in the back of the van. It was about 4:30 when we left to go back to Epcot for our 5:30 dinner at Akershus.

Teaser: someone has a meltdown!

TO BE CONTINUED

 

[mousescrapper]

Hi Jill...

glad I haven't missed much!

love Hannah's entry and your EP day is looking real fun, sorry about the forgetful ticket not jumping into your bag good thing they can work it out at GS. very cool about the family of the day and your cool green screen pix's...I especially love your PP pix at the end and how much you all look like you are having on TT

 

[Charleston Princess]

Ugh I can't believe you forgot to pack your ticket -- that is so something I would do!

Ouch to poor Hannah being hit with the stroller -- that has happened to me before at Disney.

Test Track is a favorite in our family as well! So glad you all enjoyed The Sum of All Thrills -- Charles still talks about how much fun he had with it! LOL!

Okay, it is super cool that you were chosen as the family of the day at Imagination! Love all the family pictures!

Your description of Le Cellier and my own memories have really made my stomach growl this afternoon! What I wouldn't do for some of that soup right now!

What was in the Hula Hoop? Sounds like a fun drink!

 

[MeMom]

Alison’s picture while waiting on me to get my ticket:

The pretzel bread was a big hit and the pretzel bread dipped in the cheddar cheese soup was an even bigger hit. The other breads were good too but the pretzel bread was the favorite.

Tell her I like this one!

Pretzel bread dipped in cheddar cheese soup is oh, so yummy!

Thanks for the Epcot time this evening.

 

[Poolrat]

Not " The forgot your ticket in the room snafu". That stinks but I am glad GS could help.


So cool that you were family of the day and got a free picture out of it.

Oh no not a meltdown.

 

[jillyb]

Hi Jill...

glad I haven't missed much!

love Hannah's entry and your EP day is looking real fun, sorry about the forgetful ticket not jumping into your bag good thing they can work it out at GS. very cool about the family of the day and your cool green screen pix's...I especially love your PP pix at the end and how much you all look like you are having on TT

Thanks Julie! You definitely haven't missed much!
In spite of the ticket issue, it was a really good day. If don't even remember any grouchiness! LOL

Ugh I can't believe you forgot to pack your ticket -- that is so something I would do!

Ouch to poor Hannah being hit with the stroller -- that has happened to me before at Disney.

Test Track is a favorite in our family as well! So glad you all enjoyed The Sum of All Thrills -- Charles still talks about how much fun he had with it! LOL!

Okay, it is super cool that you were chosen as the family of the day at Imagination! Love all the family pictures!

Your description of Le Cellier and my own memories have really made my stomach growl this afternoon! What I wouldn't do for some of that soup right now!

What was in the Hula Hoop? Sounds like a fun drink!

I couldn't believe I'd forgotten my ticket either! Me...Miss Organized!

If it had been really crowded I could see how someone could have gotten hit with a stroller but there was practically no one else around! Fortunately, Hannah recovered quickly and it didn't interfere with the rest of our day.

I'd never heard of anyone being chosen family of the day at Imagination before so that was a nice surprise.

With all the cold weather we've had this week, a bowl of cheddar cheese soup and some pretzel bread would have been just the thing to warm me up!

I don't remember what was in the Hula Hoop. I tried to find information on it but couldn't find anything. It was sort of a punch-type drink and it was very good!

Tell her I like this one!

Pretzel bread dipped in cheddar cheese soup is oh, so yummy!

Thanks for the Epcot time this evening.

I told Alison this evening that one of my axe-murderer friends liked her picture. She just said "OKKKKKK".

Pretzel bread dipped in cheddar cheese soup is very yummy! I would love to have some right now! *sigh*

Glad you enjoyed the time in Epcot. More coming up soon!

Not " The forgot your tciket in the room snafu". That stinks but I am glad GS could help.

So cool that you were family of the day and got a free picture out of it.

Oh no not a meltdown.

I still can't believe I forgot my ticket but very happy that Guest Services could help.

I felt bad after I heard about the extent of the meltdown. I forget the differences in personality sometimes and what I thought was really cool was something that was pretty scary for someone else.