~Only Disney could make sorting trash fun~ UPDATED 12/23

[Peter Pan Fan 22]

You guys got a great spot to watch the parade! Glad you got to visit Toontown before it's a thing of the past.

Yeah, I made sure to soak in every moment in Toontown! I also did my own mini-video tour of Mickey and Minnie's houses so I'd have that to look back on in case they don't just move them like they're saying they will.

 

[Peter Pan Fan 22]

We were ready to eat at this point, so we headed for Cosmic Ray’s Café for a late lunch.

My mom and I split the ½ Rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans. The chicken was good, but the mashed potatoes were just okay and the green beans were nasty! I dont know what they put on them, but it wasn't good.

Dad got a Philly’s Cheesesteak that he said was pretty good.

My niece and sister got hot dogs and my nephew got chicken fingers and fries.

Not an extra great meal by any means, but I’m not a big burger or chicken finger eating person, so it was something different.

My dad and Jace went to ride the Speedway and the rest of us headed into Tomorrowland to do some people watching until the boys met up with us.

I got a much anticipated pretzel and my mom got a lemon chill.

My dad ran and got 4 FP’s for Space Mountain and then we all hopped on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. One of my moms favs! It started out a little rougher than usual, maybe because of the weight with all of us in one car, but my dad and I started teasing my mom that they changed it into a roller coaster so she’d better hold on. My mom’s eyes got real big! Haha! But alas, it was pleasant and relaxing as always. Great views!

Next on our agenda was the Monster's Inc. Laugh Factory. Loved this! I had never seen it before and I thought it was just so cute and actual laugh out loud funny! They used my joke too!! It was “Why was Cinderella kicked off the soccer team?

Because she always ran away from the ball.” The only thing is I forgot to put my name, so they just said “from Louisiana.” Rats! It was still exciting though!!!

It was time where we could get more FPs, so we grabbed some for Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin and my dad and I went to ride Space Mountain while the others did the Carousel of Progress. We had gotten the 4 FPs, but only rode once. It was rough and not as exciting as I remember it being as a child. We gave our remaining two FPs to two kids and they were really happy.

We met the others and then walked on Buzz. It wasn’t worth waiting for the FP time.

We had a leisurely evening. We walked towards the castle and caught a glimpse of the show going on.

We then walked around to the back of the castle.

My mom, dad, Jace and Rylan headed for It’s a Small World so my dad could show Rylan what she missed when she was sleeping earlier in the day. She loved it!

My sister and I had our sights set on shopping!

When the kiddos got back they tried their hand at releasing King Arthur’s sword. Trust me... they tried with ALL their might! I wish they would still do the ceremony. I never got a chance to see it.

We walked back to catch the train at Toontown and rode around to Frontierland.

 

[Peter Pan Fan 22]

We jumped on BTMRR…my moms first time riding it after 6 trips! She loved it by the way! It was Jace’s first time too, and it quickly became one of his favorites!

We decided to skip Splash Mountain this year, nobody wanted to get wet, but I love the store outside it! It’s got that great homey country feel and we stayed in there a long time because we had the whole store to ourselves! (You can see Jace got comfortable and pulled out his crossword puzzle! haha) I would call it a not-so-hidden gem for sure!

We then made our way around Frontierland.

We passed this puppet dude I’ve never see before. Does anyone know if he or the puppet has a name?

We decided to go see The County Bear Jamboree.

"There was...bloooood on the saddle..." Sorry, I love Big Al. =) I knew Rylan would enjoy this, and she did! I had never sat in the front before, so that was a different experience. There were also only a few other families in there which made it feel like a private show, so that was cool.

Next we went to the Frontierland Shootin’ Arcade for my nephew.

It was getting late and the sun was going down. I love Disney at dusk!!

A few of us were ready to eat something. (I'm always ready...but that's neither here nor there. )We were torn between Columbia Harbor House and Pinocchio’s Village Haus, but went with CHH since it was closer and I’d been wanting to try it.

I got the Anchors Aweigh Sandwich – (white tuna with lettuce and tomato on toasted multigrain bun) It was really good tuna, I liked it a lot!

My mom got the Fried Shrimp Basket – (Served with Coleslaw and French Fries) It was pretty good shrimp.

And my dad got the Fried Fish Basket – (Served with choice of either French Fries or Apple Slices) This was terrible! Just bad! When you’ve had great fried seafood your whole life it’s hard to compare, but this tasted like frozen tv dinner fish.

My dad and nephew decided they were gonna head back to CBR for the night, so us girls went to do some shopping down Main Street.

People were already lining the streets and staking out their spots for Spectro, but I didn’t think too much of it. I wanted to shop and I figured as long as we got a halfway decent spot to watch it I’d be happy.

We ended up going to the Railroad Station and watching it there. I actually stood on the stairs to get a better view. So beautiful! Sorry, I didn't get the greatest pictures.

I went back up to the top where we waited for Wishes.

The next hour kinda felt like an eternity, but that’s probably because we’d been up since 6 and were all pretty pooped out at this point. Rylan fell asleep immediately after Spectro.

We thought we’d be able to see up there, but behind the people that had been up there since probably 7 o’clock claiming their spots, the fireworks went directly high enough to where we couldn’t see them with the awning overhead.

We made our way down and tried to squeeze a standing spot on Main Street. NOT gonna happen. All the way from the castle to the station was packed! So we decided to just leave.

One last pic for the road.

Waiting for the bus wasn’t a pleasant experience. We were all exhausted and even leaving after only a quarter of the way through Wishes, it took forever! Even when we got on a bus is was a loooong ride back to CBR. I think I got to bed sometime after midnight. But the entire day was soooo much fun, I wasn't gonna let missing Wishes put a damper on things. I knew we had another special spot to watch it in a couple days.

Up Next… We take on Epcot!

 

[Peter Pan Fan 22]

Epcot

The day began a bit rocky. We were out the door for 8:12, but then my mom took a look at my sandals and asked if I was sure I wanted to wear them to the park. I knew having blisters would be terrible, so I opted to go back and change into my socks and tennis. (I need to be reminded sometimes that moms just know these things. )

The others had gone ahead, and when I got to the bus stop an Epcot Bus had just left. Rats! We waited a long time for another one, and when it did come it was super crowded. We didn’t arrive until after park opening.

Our first Epcot character we ran into was Daisy!

Rylan laid out our plan for the day.

The girls went straight for FP’s for Soarin’, while the boys and I went to ride Test Track.

We did have quite an exciting experience when a squirrel snuck into our “training room” as we were watching the video. It was pretty dark in there, but we heard a few kids scream and then everyone saw what they were pointing at. My dad and another gentleman assisted some CM’s in getting it out that room and then out of the attraction. It was kinda funny, but after waiting 2 hours last trip just to have the ride break down right before we got on, I was anticipating them having to shut down the ride again and I didn’t want to have any incidents (even ones involving squirrels.)

My dad’s dream car.

Jace took a quick tour around Princess Tiana’s Wedding Bayou and the Pixie Hollow Fairy Garden.

Epcot looked so beautiful. It was my first time experiencing Flower and Garden.

My mom and sister took Rylan to see Turtle Talk with Crush while we were on Test Track.

It looks like they got to see some of the marine life there as well.

Next up…we go under the seas!

 

[DisMomAmy]

All caught up again...

I can't believe there was a squirrel in Test Track!! Alex would have FLIPPED OUT if he saw that thing in the same room with him!!

My mother got attacked by a squirrel when we took a weekend trip in 2008! We were at Pop Century walking around the resort and it jumped up on her... TWICE!

Crazy Orlando Squirrels!!

 

[BelleTinkMom]

I am soooo excited that I found your TR. We were there the same dates as you guys. We are also from southeast Louisiana.

A few comments:

We were in MK on the Sunday evening and got caught in the rain.

It seems that we were also at HS and MK on the same days, Monday and Tuesday.

Cosmic Rays is one of my favorite CS places. I like that it has a different vareity. Crystal Palace is also one of my favorites for a character breakfast.

Can't wait to read the rest of your trip.

 

[Peter Pan Fan 22]

All caught up again...

I can't believe there was a squirrel in Test Track!! Alex would have FLIPPED OUT if he saw that thing in the same room with him!!

My mother got attacked by a squirrel when we took a weekend trip in 2008! We were at Pop Century walking around the resort and it jumped up on her... TWICE!

Crazy Orlando Squirrels!!

OMG! Crazy Orlando Squirrels is right! I can't believe that happened to your mom! All the squirrels I've ever encountered have run the opposite way of where I am. I'd be scared to death if one ran towards me, let alone jumped on me!

I am soooo excited that I found your TR. We were there the same dates as you guys. We are also from southeast Louisiana.

A few comments:

We were in MK on the Sunday evening and got caught in the rain.

It seems that we were also at HS and MK on the same days, Monday and Tuesday.

Cosmic Rays is one of my favorite CS places. I like that it has a different vareity. Crystal Palace is also one of my favorites for a character breakfast.

Can't wait to read the rest of your trip.

Hi there! I hope you guys had a wonderful trip! That Spring Break week being after Easter turned out great!! The weather was wonderful and the crowds were low!

That's cool that we were in those parks the same days! We must have had similar planning strategies. I wonder if any of my family is in your pictures. I hope if we are we aren't doing anything embarrassing.

 

[Peter Pan Fan 22]

After our ride on Test Track and the girls seeing Crush, we met up in front The Seas with Nemo and Friends.

My mom told me the Soarin’ FP machines were covered up so they couldn’t get them. I didn’t know why that would be but I brushed it off and we hopped in our clam mobiles for a trip with Nemo.

My sister apparently didn’t hear when they said 427,000 times that you WERE NOT to take flash photography! I see flashes and I’m like "who is doing that?!" I look one clam mobile down and see it’s my sister! I quickly told her that was a big Disney no-no, but here are the pics she had already gotten.

Afterwards we decided to head to the Land Pavilion and see what the wait time was for Soarin’. It was 40 mins, but the FP machines were up and running now, so we grabbed some which had a return time of 1:15-2:15. We then decided to ride Living with the Land. I don’t have any memory of riding it before, but I may have when I was little. I was a little apprehensive because I’m not real interested in biology and plant-life, but I didn’t regret going one bit! I thoroughly enjoyed it and so did my nephew.

We then ate at Sunshine Seasons.

I got the Asian combo which was decent. It was probably on par with a good frozen tv dinner, nothing more. I wouldn’t get it again.

I tasted my mom's turkey sandwich and we both agreed it was yummy! (She had coleslaw on the side)

My dad got the baked fish with mashed potatoes and carrots. He didn’t say anything about it, but I do remember him eating it all.

Miss Rylan put on her Sleeping Beauty costume and had Cheetos.

We still had time to kill before Soarin’, so we went to see Journey into Imagination.

I do enjoy the older incarnation of this ride that I remember from when I was little, but I still like Figment so much that it wouldn’t matter what the attraction was he was in! I finally got to buy my Figment plush I had been wanting! I got that shipped to our room and then we went next door to see Honey I Shrunk the Audience.

I LOVED this movie and its sequels when I was little. I’ve seen them countless times. So it doesn’t bother me that it’s kinda outdated. I do however think the pre-show is dreadful! I hope they change that while Captain EO is there and when it comes back it’s different.

When we got out of the show we took a rest on some benches. Jace played in the fountains and Rylan took a cat nap while the rest of us shared a pretzel.

 

[DisMomAmy]

Love the title of this update! You guys were there the same week as me, right? Maybe it was your sister I was riding with! Just kidding!!

 

[Peter Pan Fan 22]

Love the title of this update! You guys were there the same week as me, right? Maybe it was your sister I was riding with! Just kidding!!

I sure hope not! I'm such a stickler for the rules. When they say "No flash photography" I just pick my camera up so I'm not tempted.

 

[Peter Pan Fan 22]

After we enjoyed our rest by the fountains, my mom, dad, Jace and I headed to use our Soarin’ FPs, while my sister and Rylan went to the Epcot Character Spot.

When we were just about to walk into Soarin', I was lucky enough to run into Jen (littlelovebug) from the DIS, her husband Jed, and adorable daughter Jilly, who were just arriving at Disney!! It was so cool to meet another DISer on the trip! We chatted for a bit, but I knew we both had agendas, so we went our separate ways and confirmed our plans to try to meet up that night for Illuminations.

I loved Soarin’ as much as the last time I saw it, but I shouldn’t have looked to the side of me this time. I have NEVER been afraid of heights, but there was just something about seeing how high we were and how loose the safety belt felt. I remember leaning forward last time without a problem (we were in the front row), but this time I was definitely scared! Next time, no looking around for me, my head will be straight forward!

We met back up with my sister and Rylan, who were just about to meet the characters! We got to watch through the see-through windows from a bench in the breezeway.

When they got out we took a quick few pics with Chip and Dale! Nature girl did a little walking around while we waited in line.

Next up was Spaceship Earth. I love the new improvements they made! So cute!

Spaceship Earth is so relaxing. Everytime I ride it I always think what a creative way to teach people about history. It’s fun and interesting and you don’t even realize you’re learning!

We then headed toward Innoventions East.

My nephew and niece first helped this guy sort some emergency items. It was to teach you about Hurricane safety and preparedness. (Something my 10-year-old nephew already knows WAY too much about. They got stickers for completing the task.

Then we came upon the Trash Waste Management Educational Exercise. This would be the reason for my TR name. It was an unexpected surprise for sure.

At first I said "I’m not doing that, we’re in Disney, why would I want to learn about trash pick-up and recycling?!" But let me tell you, my nephew loved it!! And it was so great seeing him enjoy it! We also did more laughing than I think we did on any other attraction. It was mainly at my mother’s expense. Her pushing that truck was hysterical!! We were divided into two teams and each had to sort the trash virtually, then you play this video game where you burn it I believe, then you build different things at another station (we did a baseball field) then you answer a few questions and get your certificate of completion emailed to you back at home. I’m sorry I don’t have any pics. I was too busy videotaping and laughing at my mom. The truck was really hard to turn. You had to push it just right. The CM had to keep coming over to help her. It was so funny!

Up Next... A Birthday Surprise!

 

[DisMomAmy]

There something new for us to try out next time... we've never sorted trash at WDW before! Sounds like it was a ton of fun... we've actually never spent any time in Innovations - East or West.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Yeah, got to hear how the title of your trip report came about! Too bad you don't have pictures but it does sound like it was fun.

 

[Peter Pan Fan 22]

There something new for us to try out next time... we've never sorted trash at WDW before! Sounds like it was a ton of fun... we've actually never spent any time in Innovations - East or West.

I think your boys would love it! The CM might try to put you all together because there could be four people to a team, but I think you and your husband might wanna separate and be in two different teams so each of the boys get their own truck to push!

Yeah, got to hear how the title of your trip report came about! Too bad you don't have pictures but it does sound like it was fun.

It was a lot of fun! I've found that's usually the case with me, the more fun I'm having - the less pics I have! Go figure that's when I want the most photos!

 

[Peter Pan Fan 22]

It was now time for my mom’s surprise! For my mom’s birthday I had given her a card that said “A surprise is waiting for you in Disney World!” I had really been planning to do this for about 9 months before that, but the last week before we left it was really hard to keep it a secret! I had to tell her to pack something a little nicer than what she might normally wear to the parks for that day.

So it was around 4:00 when we left Epcot and split up. My dad and Jace were heading back to CBR to go swimming, and the girls and I were hopping on a monorail. But first I had to change. I used the bathroom right outside the park and put on my comfy dress, and then we were off!

We made our way to the Ticket and Transportation Center and then got on another monorail to the Grand Floridian!!! We were having a surprise birthday tea!

The Grand Floridian is AMAZINGLY beautiful! The lobby is just gorgeous with all the pale cream colors. A jazz quartet was playing and it was just the perfect ambiance for an afternoon tea. Some people were walking around the hotel dressed to the nines, with hats and all, but plenty of people were dressed casual like us so I wasn’t uncomfortable. We even saw a guy who looked just like Willie Nelson, dressed like him too, so that lightened the mood.

After snapping a few pics, we made our way to the lady at the welcome desk of the Garden view Tea Room. She was super sweet and kept calling Rylan, "princess." It was like a fairy tale.

Angela was our waitress and she was super knowledgeable and explained to us how everything worked since it was our first time there.

Here was our view

We each got the Buckingham Palace offering. Rylan got the Mrs. Potts Tea.

My mom had the Princess Breakfast Tea (A sweet custom blend of South African organic rooibos flavored with vanilla bean and a hint of strawberries. My sister had the Vanilla Rooibos (Rich and full bodied with creamy vanilla finish) and I had the Mad Hatter (A blend of passion fruit, pomegranate, and vanilla for a clean and sweet finish). I love iced tea, but have never been a fan of hot tea. This changed my mind completely!! I almost finished off my whole pot! I loved it! We all tasted each others and I thought mine was the best and my sister thought hers was the best. My mom thought hers was okay, but she liked mine and my sisters better. (Putting in the sugar cubes was my favorite part!)

Miss Rylan at her first tea. (It was apple juice )

Our first course was traditional tea sandwiches and an onion tart. The onion tart was really really good! I ate my sisters too because she doesn't like onions. I really liked the chicken salad, egg salad and shrimp salad. The Arugala and watercrest was okay, but I thought the gorgonzola and cucumber was gross. Apparently I don’t like gorgonzola. Now I know for the future. The funny thing is that our server Angela had just told us that was her favorite one of the bunch. My sister and I put our half-eaten gorgonzola sandwiches on my mom’s plate. I don’t know why, but I felt like Angela would be offended if we didn't like her favorite. haha I’m not sure my mom ate them, but my conscious was cleared.

I didn't get a picture, but Rylan had a tuna salad, a ham and cheese, and a peanut butter and jelly one, all on white bread. She didn't eat the pb&j for some reason, but Angela noticed and brought her another tuna sandwich. My sister tasted it and said it was delicious.

The second course was a scone with butter and jam and a strawberry tart. The scone was delicious, like a straight-from-the-oven biscuit, and the tart was divine!

For our third course we had a choice between strawberries and cream (which everyone but me got) or a pick of two baked pastries from a pastry stand that is brought to your table.

First let me say the strawberries were so sweet you didn’t even need the cream. My mom, sister and Rylan (who was given a full adult serving) were in heaven!

I chose a white chocolate covered strawberry and a blondie with icing on it. Both good! They also had mini-eclairs, cannolis and swans filled with tequila cream cheese. Angela told my mom that she would also get to pick something from the tray since it was her birthday celebration! My mom, a big fan of margueritas, heard tequila and knew she wanted to try the swan. I think she thought it was really good, but at this time we were stuffed. (You wouldn’t think after a tea with tiny finger foods you’d be stuffed, but trust me you are!)

One of my favorite photos of the trip.

When we had arrived there were only 4 other tables with people, and towards the middle only one couple on the other side the room, then just us at the end. Early on Angela told us it was okay if Rylan knocked around her tea set because it was made of a thick durable porcelain that they used for kids, and even if she did break it, it was okay. That put our nerves at ease for sure! We made sure to keep our expensive cups and plates away from her and she was perfectly content to have her own. She only knocked it around a little bit, but that was to be expected from a 2-year-old. She was very well behaved and I don’t think we disturbed anyone else, but like I said it was practically empty anyway. And while they were tidying up a bit because we were the last reservation of the day, we never felt rushed at all. We even were waiting on Angela to bring our bill because we wanted to tour the resort while there was still good sunlight outside. It was perfectly paced and reasonably priced and I would do it again in a heartbeat!

 

[Peter Pan Fan 22]

We walked outside and it was just GORGEOUS! I had to take the opportunity to do a mini-photo shoot with our princess since she matched the flowers.

We did some more touring outside and I had to take some more pictures.

Great view of the Polynesian

Who wouldn't want to get married here?

We caught the monorail to MK and then hopped on a bus to CBR to change clothes and freshen up.

The plan was to go back to Epcot that night to watch Illuminations, but everyone else was too tired to go back except for me and my mom. We like to squeeze every minute we can out of a Disney vacation. Plus I had wanted to meet up with some DISers.

We left our room at 7:45 and got at Epcot for 8:30.

We walked towards Norway and China. I tried to spot Jen (littlelovebug), but it was waaayyy to dark to recognize anyone. My mom and I ended up sitting on some rocks in front of Norway. I texted Connie (longing2Batdisney) to see if they were in Epcot because she said there was a possibility they would be there. She told me they had decided to stay in MK instead to watch Wishes. She said she hoped we enjoyed the show! I was still on the look-out for Jen, but even with those flaming torches it was totally dark.

Me on my rock.

Illuminations started after a few minutes and we soon realized why no one was sitting on those rocks. We had a tree in our way. We caught a lot of the high fireworks, but the tree was obscuring our view of the globe.

Behind the tree

After moving away from the tree

We decided to head out a little bit before the end to beat the massive herds of people. I did catch a glimpse of Jen and Jilly heading into the bathrooms but we were in a sea of people heading out of the park so there was no time even to yell a “bye” there way.

We got on a bus pretty quickly back to CBR. On one of the last stops around the resort, when the lights came on, a girl got up to exit. Right before she stepped off the bus she pointed to my lime green Mickey head on my bag and said “Are you on the DIS?” “YES!!” I said! I was so excited someone had noticed my Mickey head! She said “me too!” and I think we both said “nice to meet you,” but it was so quick and we were getting dirty looks from tired tourists who just wanted to get back to there rooms, that I didn’t even think to get her screen name. But if you’re out there… that was a really cool moment because I was starting to think no one saw it. A perfect way to end the night!

We were back at our resort for 10 p.m. and in bed by 11:30. Even though the day started out rocky, I think it was my favorite day of the whole trip!

(BTW, Rylan has been constantly asking for a tea since then, so we had one for my birthday on July 1st. She loved it and is still asking to have another tea! I would recommend the tea at the GF for any family with little girls.

 

[ChildAtHeart82]

What a great surprise for your mom! I'll have to remember the tea once DD is a little older.

 

[DisMomAmy]

The tea looks really nice! I'd love to do that with Laura this fall, but I'm not a big fan of tea or little sandwiches... I'm really picky...

Those strawberries look amazing though! Can you go just for dessert?

 

[Peter Pan Fan 22]

What a great surprise for your mom! I'll have to remember the tea once DD is a little older.

Thanks! She had a great time!

The tea looks really nice! I'd love to do that with Laura this fall, but I'm not a big fan of tea or little sandwiches... I'm really picky...

Those strawberries look amazing though! Can you go just for dessert?

Sure you can! There's an a la carte menu and you could get any drink you want.

 

[Peter Pan Fan 22]

The alarm rang at 6:30 for our second Magic Kingdom day.

We arrived at the park for 8:15 and headed straight for Main Street Bakery. After seeing other DISers photos, I knew exactly what I wanted to try.

We passed this lovely trolley car

And then these guys welcomed us and put on a show before we made our way inside.

My mom, dad and I ended up splitting 2 egg, cheese & ham croissants and 1 giant cinnamon roll. Soooooooo good and such a treat!!

You can see in this pic my nephew got cereal and my sister and Rylan got donuts.

Our plan was to hit Frontierland first, so we walked towards the railroad to take us there. But of coarse we had to stop and see Snow White on the way. Rylan had packed her Snow White dress just in case.

Afterwards we rode the railroad to Frontierland,

and got in line for another railroad, this one a bit more exciting, Big Thunder Mountain! Jace loved it again!

We walked by Splash Mountain (no one wanted to get wet so early) and entered Liberty Square next.

We saw these guys hanging out.

But our mission was to find Princess Tiana. We asked a CM where she was, but she really didn’t know, so she called on her walkie-talkie to find out. It said Liberty Square Bridge on the showtimes and character greets schedule, but we had no idea where that was. ??? Someone on the walkie-talkie said behind the Christmas Shoppe, so that’s were we went.

Yes! We found Tiana’s Garden!

It was about 10 minutes before they’d be coming out and the line was already pretty long. But we knew Rylan was excited to meet her, and to be honest so were me and my sister!

I love this picture. It’s like she’s gazing longingly into space waiting for hr prince to come. Haha

We had some fun waiting in line too.

My mom and dad decided to check out The Hall of Presidents while we waited in line. (They really liked it and thought animatronic Obama looked a lot like the real thing). Tiana and Naveen couldn’t have been sweeter. I caught the whole interaction on video. Tiana said “Naveen, you know how I know they’re from Louisiana?” He said “Because of his hat.” (Jace had on his Saints hat) She said “Oh shoot, you saw Naveen.” It was so cute the way they interacted with each other. <3 And they look so much like the animated characters!