our non-rushing (sorta) disney anniversary w/ PICS & VIDEO! new TR link - p. 136

[punkin413]

Finally I'm all caught up! Great report! It makes me want this year to fly by. Yes, I'm wishing my life away.

thanks for reading! you'll be there before you know it. then i'll be envious of you. i don't plan on going to WDW in 2009. we're thinking about starting a family and therefore "life" takes priority that year. but i guarantee you i'll be back in 2010!

I'm trying to figure out how to pay for a trip to visit my bro in CT, visit friends in DC AND go to WDW.......something's gotta give....oh and I wouldn't mind getting 1/2 season tix for the Anaheim Ducks......oh and a new car....

can you add a trip to venice to that for me?

We will just be missing her were are leaving the 12th.

i think i've found someone to help her out, so no worries! i hope you guys have fun....and stay cool in that hot july sun!

 

[winkers]

I'm trying to figure out how to pay for a trip to visit my bro in CT, visit friends in DC AND go to WDW.......something's gotta give....oh and I wouldn't mind getting 1/2 season tix for the Anaheim Ducks......oh and a new car....

You don't want much, do you?

 

[punkin413]

i realize this is totally , but i wanted to get your thoughts. i've been working on our itinerary for our december trip during the past few days and they finally came out with december hours today, so i'm firming up my plans. let me know what you guys think, especially those of you who have gone in december before!

some things to keep in mind:

~we are staying off site in a condo to save money. our condo is literally 3 miles from the gates of disney and it's really nice, but i know i'm gonna miss the "disney magic" of the resorts there. no biggie - i'm still going to disney world! anyway, because we're staying off site, we won't be doing EMH and we won't be doing the DDP. i do have my DDE card though so we will still get that 20% discount!

~to save money, we're getting base tickets and not park hoppers.

~we are going with anna, chris and luke. so we will have a 4-year-old with us.

~our main purpose for this trip is to take in all the christmas stuff. whatever else we get to do is icing on the cake!

~park hours and EMH are the only things that have been released so far. parade times, fireworks times, etc. have not been posted yet. but the park hours are almost exactly the same as they were last year on the days that we're going, so i'm basing this schedule on last year's event times.

thursday, 12/4: sleep in a little bit w/ breakfast in the condo (we will have arrived VERY late the night before) / head to boardwalk/beach club area to look at christmas decorations / lunch and ice cream at beaches & cream / epcot for the rest of the afternoon & evening to see christmas stuff (mainly to see the santas and to see illuminations) w/ dinner at an epcot CS (we were gonna do the candlelight processional, but i've heard it's kind of long to expect a 4-year-old to sit through, so we nixed it.)

friday, 12/5: breakfast in the condo / DHS all day w/ lunch at sci-fi dine-in theater, holly-day parade, obsorne lights, dinner at a CS and fantasmic at 8:00

saturday, 12/6: breakfast in condo / MK all day w/ lunch at a CS, castle lighting at 5:45 (i hope) / dinner at kona cafe around 6:30, then take monorail to contemporary and a boat to WL to see the christmas decorations / back to MK for wishes and spectro

sunday, 12/7: AK all day w/ character breakfast at tusker house around 10:00 (remember we're not early risers), lunch at a CS and jingle jungle parade at 3:45 / drive to MK, park at TTC and take monorail to GF to see the awesome christmas decorations there / on to MK for MVMCP and dinner at a CS

 

[Charleston Princess]

Sounds spectacular so far!!! I'm jealous! Since you are going at the beginning of the month, I would imagine that crowds will be pretty low and not an issue.

My only thought is whether the 4-year-old will tire easily? You have a couple of really busy days and I wonder how he (?) will hold up -- especially for your Christmas party night.

 

[KatGarcia]

Sounds really good! You seem to have a lot in there but its mellow enough that you won't feels tressed.

The only advice I have is maybe to try CP before MVMCP. We did it this past trip and it made the party feel special in some way. If you think a 4 year old would like the character meal...I think CP is great.

Sounds like a great time! I wish I had more friends who wanted to come with us!

 

[MeMom]

maybe one day when i win the lottery.

You aren't going to forget that you promised I could come and spend a lot of time in the summer at the fine new house you buy down there when you when the lottery....have you???

I think your plans sound good. That's pretty much the same thing we did on our December trip. We were going to see lot of Christmas decorations, and whatever we got in as far as shows and rides, it was a good. Since you've just been and will be going again with Erica, you will be fine just enjoying the holiday atmosphere in December. It will just be fun to watch Luke having fun, and you will get to eat a bunch of good food, of course.

The AK Christmas parade was great. The lights on the castle, as you have seen in many pictures, were beautiful. Maybe you could try to get into the Candelight Processional as a walk-in, sit toward the back, and then leave if Luke gets restless. He may fall asleep, and you could see the whole thing. Brooklynn made it almost all the way through before she was ready to get down, but since there were just a few songs left, I stayed and Jill kind of watched from way back in the back.

I wish I could go back at Christmas. The weather was great, and the decorations were just awesome. Unfortunately, this coming year will not be as wonderful as this last one was, as far as Disney trips go. But, we'll hopefully be adding another little one to the crew to take back on next summer's trip! That'll be our wonderful thing for this coming year!

 

[punkin413]

Sounds spectacular so far!!! I'm jealous! Since you are going at the beginning of the month, I would imagine that crowds will be pretty low and not an issue.

My only thought is whether the 4-year-old will tire easily? You have a couple of really busy days and I wonder how he (?) will hold up -- especially for your Christmas party night.

he usually naps around 1:00, so as long as he has the stroller to nap in, anna thinks he'll be good. they took him when he was almost 3 and he just napped right there in the stroller with no problems. plus we don't get up at the crack of dawn to make every rope drop like a lot of people do, so there's not really the consideration of early wake-up calls.

Sounds really good! You seem to have a lot in there but its mellow enough that you won't feels tressed.

The only advice I have is maybe to try CP before MVMCP. We did it this past trip and it made the party feel special in some way. If you think a 4 year old would like the character meal...I think CP is great.

Sounds like a great time! I wish I had more friends who wanted to come with us!

i thought about CP because i went last year and i loved it! but luke is not really into the pooh characters, so i feel like it'll be a waste of a character meal. we're doing the tusker house breakfast for our character meal b/c i know he likes donald and mickey. and i'd take any of them!

 

[Charleston Princess]

he usually naps around 1:00, so as long as he has the stroller to nap in, anna thinks he'll be good. they took him when he was almost 3 and he just napped right there in the stroller with no problems. plus we don't get up at the crack of dawn to make every rope drop like a lot of people do, so there's not really the consideration of early wake-up calls.

That was the only thing I wondered about -- sounds like you are going to have a great time!!!

 

[punkin413]

You aren't going to forget that you promised I could come and spend a lot of time in the summer at the fine new house you buy down there when you when the lottery....have you???

I think your plans sound good. That's pretty much the same thing we did on our December trip. We were going to see lot of Christmas decorations, and whatever we got in as far as shows and rides, it was a good. Since you've just been and will be going again with Erica, you will be fine just enjoying the holiday atmosphere in December. It will just be fun to watch Luke having fun, and you will get to eat a bunch of good food, of course.

The AK Christmas parade was great. The lights on the castle, as you have seen in many pictures, were beautiful. Maybe you could try to get into the Candelight Processional as a walk-in, sit toward the back, and then leave if Luke gets restless. He may fall asleep, and you could see the whole thing. Brooklynn made it almost all the way through before she was ready to get down, but since there were just a few songs left, I stayed and Jill kind of watched from way back in the back.

I wish I could go back at Christmas. The weather was great, and the decorations were just awesome. Unfortunately, this coming year will not be as wonderful as this last one was, as far as Disney trips go. But, we'll hopefully be adding another little one to the crew to take back on next summer's trip! That'll be our wonderful thing for this coming year!

of course i haven't forgotten about you! i'm going to retire in orlando and play maleficient at disney world and you can me a regular visitor at my house!

thanks for all the info on the christmas stuff. i can't wait!

 

[punkin413]

That was the only thing I wondered about -- sounds like you are going to have a great time!!!

i hope so!

 

[Disneyfreak92]

I think your plan sounds pretty good. I have been there at Christmas time twice, and I'm sad that we're missing it at WDW this year, but we will be at DL during the holiday season, so I'm excited about that. You will LOVE Osborne Lights and MVMCP!!

 

[punkin413]

I think your plan sounds pretty good. I have been there at Christmas time twice, and I'm sad that we're missing it at WDW this year, but we will be at DL during the holiday season, so I'm excited about that. You will LOVE Osborne Lights and MVMCP!!

i'm sure DL will be awesome during the holidays! i can't wait! well, actually, i can because i'm going back in september.

 

[KristinAnne]

Your Christmas itinerary sounds so great! That is one thing I really really want to do. Just go and take in everything Christmas. I am hoping to convice DH that we could swing a long weekend in December!

 

[punkin413]

i have to start this installment by apologizing. you see, i had a case of flat people amnesia on this day. i totally forgot about our flat travel companions until later that night. i'm sorry beana and mattica! i hope you'll forgive me. you were not forgotten for the rest of the trip....i promise!

when i last left you we had just experienced beauty and the beast from the front row......so cool! when i came off my B&B high, we made our way out of the theater and decided to check out the wait for RnRC and ToT. ToT was still pretty long (i can't remember the exact time) and we had fastpasses for later, so we bypassed that. RnRC was 70 minutes. um.....no thanks. we'll come back later.

bye ToT....see ya later!

it was around 2:30, so we decided to head towards the magic of disney animation because we didn't do that last year and we had time before we wanted to be at the lights, motors, actions show at 4:30. i knew that the block party was starting at 3:00, but i REALLY wanted to do the disney animation thing, so i had to choose between the two.

while we were waiting i had to regulate. we were standing in line to get in and this family comes up and stands next to us instead of getting in the back of the line, then just kept edging their way in front of me. i finally said, "are you kidding me" really loudly and i think it embarassed the teenager because he grabbed his dad's arm and got him to go to the back of the line. pretty sad when the child corrects the parent.

i can't wait to see this.....it looks so cute and different.

the first little room you go into was the one with the dragon from mulan. i didn't really enjoy this all that much. kinda corny to me. just my opinion though.

then we came into the area where you meet the incredibles and sorceror mickey. the line for the incredibles was shorter so we went there first. i'm glad we did because the CM told us while we were in line that they were taking a break in about 5 minutes. we made it up to them though!

mr. incredible felt my bicep and gave me a thumbs up, then he felt ray's and gave him a thumbs down and shook his head.

after our incredible experience lmao: ) we went down to meet sorceror mickey. i hadn't met him yet in his sorceror threads and i wasn't gonna pass this up. i LOVE sorceror mickey!

no, i'm not trying to strangle him here.....i swear.

he was so sweet! i told him we were gonna go see his show tonight (fantasmic) and he got excited about that!

after that, we went to wait to get into the studio where you draw a disney character. on the way we passed back by the incredibles and this guy was out. i think his name is frozone, but i may be wrong about that! it's been awhile since i've seen the movie.

we finally made it into the drawing room. we were excited to show our animation talents!

i really liked this. we drew winnie the pooh. it was really neat how the animator takes you through the steps. i will definitely do this again!

here is my creation. i think pooh looks like he's wearing a hoodie.

winnie the gangsta pooh.......

now here is ray's. please contain your laughter. i think his looks like a rabbit. bless his heart, he tried.

i love this statue......wonder how much it would cost to get one put in my living room?

continued in next post: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=25486828&postcount=475

 

[punkin413]

after our animation experience, it was about 3:45, so we decided to head towards lights, motors, action which started at 4:30. on the way i took some shots of the streets of america area.

we stopped at the snack cart just outside the entrance of LMA and got a pretzel with cheese dip and a frozen banana slushie and went to get a seat for the show. both were SO yummy! especially that banana drink!

as we were sitting there waiting for the show to start, i noticed that you could see ToT, mickey's sorceror hat and the great movie ride chinese theater over the top of the set - it looked pretty cool!

finally, the show started and i really enjoyed it! i didn't think i would like it much, but it really was pretty cool!

i think he slipped!

if you look really close, you can see a guy that just fell off the motorcycle and he's headed for the fire.

the big finish....

the best part of the show i thought was when the "hero" car (the red one) went up the back of a delivery truck and over the top of it. i totally thought he was gonna crash into the back of the truck because he was going so fast. little did i know there was a ramp built into the back of it. here's the video.



here's a video of the man catching on fire.



like i said, it was a great show! as you're leaving, you walk in an area where the motorcycles were spinning out during the show and you can see little pieces of black rubber all over the asphalt.

after the show we decided to fast-walk over to catch the 5:15 indiana jones show, which ray had never seen. we made it there just as the show was starting, so we decided to stand in the back rather than disturbing everyone while trying to find a seat. here are some pics.

we interrupt these pictures to show you the COMPLETELY RUDE woman that was sitting on the wall behind me, talking VERY LOUDLY on her cell phone, so loudly that i couldn't hear what was being said on stage. so i took a picture of her. she got off her phone shortly thereafter.

back to the show.......

that's all for tonight. i went swimming today and i have a headache, i think from the nasty lake water. yuck!

up next......dinner at mama melrose (with an unexpected DIS encounter!), screaming on tower of terror, a very rude CM and i spy a white girl doing the asian power sign!

 

[AlienBrain]

So it seems like you ran into two annoying people: the person trying to cut in line (I just can't stand those) and the annoying cell phone woman. Besides that, it seems pretty neat that you were able to do so much in such as short period of time. Oh yeah, and that Pooh picture is pretty funny (Pooh-Dawg). I have never done the whole animation/drawing thing and I look forward to doing it next time I go to WDW.

 

[MA pigletfan]

Dawn..I LOVE That you regulated on that rude line cutter AND the phone talker...absolutely hilarious that you took her picture..much kudos !
Love the update..i seriously laughed out loud when you said your pooh pic looked gangstah and ray's like a rabbit...so cute...i need to do that next time!
OH and YAY for your dec. plans! I loved our dec. trip..the weather was PERFECT!!!!

 

[DisneyLaura]

Dawn love the update. I love the Indiana Jones show. I have never seen the LMA show so that's definately something I can't wait to see. I thought your Pooh pictures came out really good. I can draw a stick figure really good

 

[Disneyfreak92]

i'm sure DL will be awesome during the holidays! i can't wait! well, actually, i can because i'm going back in september.

Actually, we are going back to WDW in September too, so I am right there with you. Plus, I am not anxious to have cold weather here again.

 

[Disneyfreak92]

Oops! I didn't see that you had updated until after my previous post. Great update Dawn! I have a very similar pic from Lights, Motor, Action with the hat, theater, and ToT. I didn't notice it until the second time we saw the show, but I also thought it was cool and took a pic. Can't wait to hear more.