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

[VandyFan10]

CUTE!!!!

Those photopass pics are great!

 

[dwheatl]

Still loving your report Dawn. I was just thinking the other day I'm in the mood to go see some gorillas. I'll have to do it on the West Coast though. No WDW for me for awhile.
I have to be the voice of dissent about Fantasia, though. I thought she was great, with the raw energy of Tina Turner or Patti LaBelle. The backup singers dresses were awfully skimpy, I'll give you that.

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Hi Dawn! I loved the EE video! That ride is awesome. Your LK shirt looks great, as do your new highlights.

So, I watched the Fantasia video - not a big Idol fan anymore - its just not fresh anymore. Anyway, that was really bizarre! I guess it maybe did look like a Tina Turner impression - I wouldn't choose to watch her, either

 

[timandlesley]

Love the photopass pics. I'm so excited we are doing a photopass share this trip, those look great. Also LOVE your shirt by the way, so cute!
Lesley

 

[DisneyLaura]

Dawn - Love the EE video. The photopass pictures are great too. I can see what you mean by the picture being too dark it's almost like the sun was weird that day, but it still looks really nice though.

 

[hlrababy]

today when i got home from work i noticed a package on the front porch. when i went out there to check, fully expecting that i'd find a fedex package with some continuing education stuff i ordered, what did i find but my photopass CD from disney!!! i just ordered this last week - it came FAST! so anyway, here's the only photopass pics we've missed so far. we also took one at the entrance of AK, but they were awful so i'm not posting them.

i like this one because it has the yeti shrine stuff in it, but i didn't put any graphics in it because it looks too dark to me for some reason!

so that's all. i will now be including the photopass pictures with my updates, if there are any.

that's all for now!

The pictures are so good!!

 

[my2boysrtwicethefun]

Great pictures Dawn!

 

[jess98ac]

Loving all the updates, thanks!! Now instead of reading them with my big ol belly, I'm reading them with my beautiful baby girl!!

 

[DisneyJo]

I love your shirt Dawn and those PP pics are cute!

You were brave going on EE twice, I love your redneck photos

 

[pjbeagle]

Thanks for the EE video. DS said he can't believe he chickened out last year. DD is tall enough this year so we're all going to ride this trip.

 

[punkin413]

hey, guys! i thought i'd share this with you. last night we went to see paramore in atlanta at the masquerade. don't know if you guys know who they are, but they're a rock band from nashville that i just LOVE. anyway, i hadn't been to this venue since 2004 and when we got there, they had the concert set up outside. i didn't even know they had an outside area! i guess that's something they've added since i've been there. anyway, it was COLD in atlanta last night. freakishly cold for mid-may. and i was wearing a tank top because i thought we were gonna be inside surrounded by lots of people in a very hot, small venue. so needless to say, i was freezing. i ended up walking back to my car to get my hoodie. it was fashionable, let me tell you. oh, and to add to my joy, we went to find the bathroom inside and one of the bouncers said if we were there for the concert, we had to use the bathrooms in the back. to our horror, the bathrooms in the back were porta-potties. nice.

anyway, besides those unexpected and unpleasant surprises, the show was SO GOOD! the lead singer is only like 19 and she's tiny but she can command a stage like an old pro. and her voice is AMAZING. go here and listen to some of their music/watch some videos if you're curious: http://www.myspace.com/paramore

i'm sure anna will have pictures......she always does. when she sends them to me i'll share.

oh, and i had to show this to erica. anna went and bought a shirt last night because she was freezing, as well. well, she came back with the cutest olive green paramore shirt. at first glance i liked it, but not enough to buy it. then i noticed that it had the state of tennessee in the middle and i immediately pulled out my debit card and headed to the t-shirt stand! (some of you may not know - i grew up in tennessee near nashville and my family still lives there.) it even says, franklin, tennessee, which is where they're from. i know erica's from franklin so i figured she'd appreciate this!

OK, I'm just going to ask....what is the significance of your "flat" travel friends?

it all started with flat winkers. see, winkers sent jordan (two DISers that can probably explain better than me) a flat version of herself to take with him on his trip earlier this year. so it just snowballed from there. you can read all about flat winkers and jordan's adventures in his TR. he reads my TR and i know he's got a link in his signature.

You are just too cute!! Don't you ever take a bad picture?Even if you said you did, I wouldn't believe it! I'm officialy jealous!

oh, i think you KNOW what a bad picture i can take! we shared a photopass, remember??? that one of me at DHS was just HORRIBLE!!! but thanks anyway.

I love your LK shirt.

thanks! i got that when we went to see the lion king in atlanta.

Thanks Punkin for the link. My kids and I laughed at Simons expression. Priceless! I have never liked her either. I think her voice is very nasally. Thanks again for the laugh.

you're welcome!

CUTE!!!!

Those photopass pics are great!

thanks!

Still loving your report Dawn. I was just thinking the other day I'm in the mood to go see some gorillas. I'll have to do it on the West Coast though. No WDW for me for awhile.
I have to be the voice of dissent about Fantasia, though. I thought she was great, with the raw energy of Tina Turner or Patti LaBelle. The backup singers dresses were awfully skimpy, I'll give you that.

i can see the tina turner/patti labelle in it, but to me those ladies actually SANG while they performed. i think she was just screaming. but that's just my opinion!

Hi Dawn! I loved the EE video! That ride is awesome. Your LK shirt looks great, as do your new highlights.

So, I watched the Fantasia video - not a big Idol fan anymore - its just not fresh anymore. Anyway, that was really bizarre! I guess it maybe did look like a Tina Turner impression - I wouldn't choose to watch her, either

thanks! that EE video was actually from last year. i just posted it so pjbeagle could show her kids. but i still love it!

Love the photopass pics. I'm so excited we are doing a photopass share this trip, those look great. Also LOVE your shirt by the way, so cute!
Lesley

thanks! i did a photopass share with winkers this year since we were going at the same time. saved $50!

Dawn - Love the EE video. The photopass pictures are great too. I can see what you mean by the picture being too dark it's almost like the sun was weird that day, but it still looks really nice though.

thanks! yeah, i don't know why that one turned out that way. the rest of them were fine.

The pictures are so good!!

thanks!

Great pictures Dawn!

thank you!

Loving all the updates, thanks!! Now instead of reading them with my big ol belly, I'm reading them with my beautiful baby girl!!

oh, my goodness......CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!! i'm so happy for you! details, please.

I love your shirt Dawn and those PP pics are cute!

You were brave going on EE twice, I love your redneck photos

thanks! oh, i could ride EE all day long!

Thanks for the EE video. DS said he can't believe he chickened out last year. DD is tall enough this year so we're all going to ride this trip.

glad i could be of assistance in getting your family on EE! i'm sure your kids will love it.

 

[MeMom]

Your pictures and videos are great! I'd like to just jump right into them and be walking around Animal Kingdom. Your Lion King shirt was perfect for that day.

Once on Everest was enough for me, I think, but since we baby-swapped, I didn't stand in line. I want to go through the line just to get pictures.

I'm enjoying this report and looking forward to the adventures of the Vandy girls in a few months. Hopefully, it will work for us to meet up with you guys Memorial weekend.

You'll have to talk to Jill about DVC. They've tossed it around for about a year, but life keeps happening, so they can't make a concrete decision. I guess part of it is that it's supposedly only worth it if you normally stay deluxe, and they don't. They stay value or moderate. Plus, with the thought of another baby next year, they have to be very cautious and practical. This is one of those cases where it would be nice to have a time machine to see into the future, know that it is worth it or not worth it, and then make a decision from there.

 

[disneyfav4ever]

does anyone know why they have a dragon on this pin? i don't recall seeing any dragons at AK. oh, well.

I don't know if this has been answered yet, but it's probably because there was supposed to be another "land" in AK called "Beastly Kingdom" or something like that, which was supposed to be for fantasy creatures like dragons and unicorns. I don't know why they never did it, I think it would've been cool.

 

[Eventer98]

You'll have to talk to Jill about DVC. They've tossed it around for about a year, but life keeps happening, so they can't make a concrete decision. I guess part of it is that it's supposedly only worth it if you normally stay deluxe, and they don't. They stay value or moderate. Plus, with the thought of another baby next year, they have to be very cautious and practical. This is one of those cases where it would be nice to have a time machine to see into the future, know that it is worth it or not worth it, and then make a decision from there.

I'll jump in here to say that we figured it out that DVC is worth it if you stay moderate or deluxe. It just takes longer to get your money back when staying moderate. But if they have a growing family they may want something bigger then the values someday??

 

[punkin413]

Your pictures and videos are great! I'd like to just jump right into them and be walking around Animal Kingdom. Your Lion King shirt was perfect for that day.

thanks!

Once on Everest was enough for me, I think, but since we baby-swapped, I didn't stand in line. I want to go through the line just to get pictures.

the queue is really amazing. it's so authentic-looking. there's something to look at EVERYWHERE!

I'm enjoying this report and looking forward to the adventures of the Vandy girls in a few months. Hopefully, it will work for us to meet up with you guys Memorial weekend.

i hope so, too!

You'll have to talk to Jill about DVC. They've tossed it around for about a year, but life keeps happening, so they can't make a concrete decision. I guess part of it is that it's supposedly only worth it if you normally stay deluxe, and they don't. They stay value or moderate. Plus, with the thought of another baby next year, they have to be very cautious and practical. This is one of those cases where it would be nice to have a time machine to see into the future, know that it is worth it or not worth it, and then make a decision from there.

the reason i love the idea of DVC is that it's good for 50-something years. so even if i grow to not love to travel, i can pass it on to my kids. AND it's not only for use at disney. there's places all over the world that you can use it at. not that i'd get tired of disney, but it's nice to have an option because eventually ray will want to go somewhere else! we seriously looked into buying - the monthly payments aren't that bad and you can finance it in just a few years, depending on how much you can afford per month. we just need to pay off a few credit cards and student loans before we commit to another monthly bill.

I don't know if this has been answered yet, but it's probably because there was supposed to be another "land" in AK called "Beastly Kingdom" or something like that, which was supposed to be for fantasy creatures like dragons and unicorns. I don't know why they never did it, I think it would've been cool.

thanks for clearing that up! i had no idea.

 

[Eventer98]

I just bought another 50 pts Dawn!! It's an addiction! DH said to go ahead and get an add-on since we will definitely have a little extra with me working another year. I was hoping to not have to but we realized that without my salary it's just too close. Nice treat to ourselves since ALL of the sale money from my horse went to bills which really poured salt in the wound.

 

[punkin413]

after our much-needed afternoon break, we cleaned up and headed out the door to have dinner at kona cafe. we decided to drive over instead of taking the bus. our reservation was at 6:45 and we didn't leave the resort until about 6:15, so i figured it would be faster to drive rather than to take a bus to MK, unload, walk to the monorail and take that to the poly.

we parked at the TTC (because we were going to MK after dinner and i'd been told we couldn't park at the poly for more than a couple of hours) and walked over to the poly. it was a nice walk except that we were cutting it close on time so we couldn't take our time like i want to one day because the poly resort is so beautiful! this was the first time i remember rushing during the trip (hence the "sorta" in my TR title).

we made it right on time and checked in. we were given the beeper and we decided to head over to the gift shop to look around. about 5 minutes later we were buzzed and headed to our table. i don't remember our server's name, but she had short blonde hair and she was awesome!

we decided to share the crab cakes for an appetizer. sooooooo good!

of course, i ordered a lapu lapu - my FAVORITE drink in all of disney. i could drink one of these every night! ray didn't want one - go figure!

you can also see the bread and macadamia nut butter in the background. i had forgotten how good this butter was. it's perfectly whipped and so sweet - JUST YUMMY!

our server said something about her section being the anniversary section and we realized that the couple at the table next to us were celebrating their 10-year anniversary. we struck up a conversation with them - they were really nice! they offered to take a picture of us and we did the same for them.

next came the entrees. i ordered the tuna oscar - seared tuna served over fried green tomatoes with tempura-fried lump crab, asparagus and hollandaise sauce.

OH MY GOD. this was SO GOOD. i cannot describe to you how much i loved this! the combination of flavors was just unbelievable. when i took a bit of the tuna, crab, asparagus and hollandaise sauce together, it just melted in my mouth. ray also loved this, as well!

ray ordered what he got last time, the beef teriyaki - sirlion strip grilled with pineapple teriyaki sauce, mashed yukon gold potatoes and stir-fried broccoli florets.

ray LOVED this. he said it was even better than when he got it last year. i tasted it too and it was very tasty.

our server asked if we wanted dessert and we told her no way, that we were stuffed. of course, she returned with this little surprise.

our server offered to take a picture.

we each took a bite of the creme puffs and that was it......we couldn't manage to eat anything else!

overall, we LOVED dinner at kona......again! it was better this year than last year, if that's even possible. this has become one of our favorite places at disney and we will be returning when we go back in december!

continued in next post: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=25170445&postcount=299

 

[hlrababy]

after our much-needed afternoon break, we cleaned up and headed out the door to have dinner at kona cafe. we decided to drive over instead of taking the bus. our reservation was at 6:45 and we didn't leave the resort until about 6:15, so i figured it would be faster to drive rather than to take a bus to MK, unload, walk to the monorail and take that to the poly.

we parked at the TTC (because we were going to MK after dinner and i'd been told we couldn't park at the poly for more than a couple of hours) and walked over to the poly. it was a nice walk except that we were cutting it close on time so we couldn't take our time like i want to one day because the poly resort is so beautiful! this was the first time i remember rushing during the trip (hence the "sorta" in my TR title).

we made it right on time and checked in. we were given the beeper and we decided to head over to the gift shop to look around. about 5 minutes later we were buzzed and headed to our table. i don't remember our server's name, but she had short blonde hair and she was awesome!

we decided to share the crab cakes for an appetizer. sooooooo good!

of course, i ordered a lapu lapu - my FAVORITE drink in all of disney. i could drink one of these every night! ray didn't want one - go figure!

you can also see the bread and macadamia nut butter in the background. i had forgotten how good this butter was. it's perfectly whipped and so sweet - JUST YUMMY!

our server said something about her section being the anniversary section and we realized that the couple at the table next to us were celebrating their 10-year anniversary. we struck up a conversation with them - they were really nice! they offered to take a picture of us and we did the same for them.

next came the entrees. i ordered the tuna oscar - seared tuna served over fried green tomatoes with tempura-fried lump crab, asparagus and hollandaise sauce.

OH MY GOD. this was SO GOOD. i cannot describe to you how much i loved this! the combination of flavors was just unbelievable. when i took a bit of the tuna, crab, asparagus and hollandaise sauce together, it just melted in my mouth. ray also loved this, as well!

ray ordered what he got last time, the beef teriyaki - sirlion strip grilled with pineapple teriyaki sauce, mashed yukon gold potatoes and stir-fried broccoli florets.

ray LOVED this. he said it was even better than when he got it last year. i tasted it too and it was very tasty.

our server asked if we wanted dessert and we told her no way, that we were stuffed. of course, she returned with this little surprise.

our server offered to take a picture.

we each took a bite of the creme puffs and that was it......we couldn't manage to eat anything else!

overall, we LOVED dinner at kona......again! it was better this year than last year, if that's even possible. this has become one of our favorite places at disney and we will be returning when we go back in december!

continued in next post:

That sounds wonderful!!! I am debating about taking Dh there when we go in November! It looks so good and I absolutely love the Poly resort!!!

You know, this is funny, but before I even started looking at the pictures and reading your report. I saw the word Kona and the lapu lapu came to mind. I thought, "Hmm, I bet Dawn got a lapu lapu!!"

 

[punkin413]

we headed for the monorail and to MK for the night! we were both so excited to get to MK, even though we were extremely tired from the crowded day at AK and lack of sleep the night before. still...i can go to MK on 4 hours of sleep - i've done it before and i'll do it again!

we got there just before 8:00 and we saw this as we got off the monorail.....made me excited for our plans on friday!

we were at the magic kingdom, our favorite park!

as soon as we got into the gates, we headed over to get EMH wristbands. now i had done EMH at MK back in september with tara and erin. and i remember specifically that the CM giving our bracelets only asked to see one of our room keys because he said, "are you all together?" and then just gave us all bracelets. so i had only carried one room key with us (we had separate park tickets this time). well, we get up to this CM and he asks to see the room card and i show him mine. he gives me a wrist band and then asks to see ray's room key. i told him he was my husband and he wouldn't get ray a bracelet. at first i was really peeved, but then he told me that we could go to city hall and they could look up the reservation and verify that he was staying on property, so we headed that way.

when we got into city hall, the CM told us that they didn't start handing out wristbands there until 9:00. it was just after 8:00. not a big deal except that we weren't planning on coming up to the front of the park until we were ready to leave. oh, well! so we decided to head to tomorrowland to see what the wait for space mountain was. on the way we noticed the crowds......again. no mojo for us today, huh, jordan?

regardless of crowds, it's still beautiful!

we got to tomorrowland and the wait for space mountain was something close to an hour. so we nixed that idea. ray had never done the TTA, so we decided to take a relaxing ride around tomorrowland to let our dinner settle!

i don't know what happened, but i think this picture is kinda cool!

a very happy girl in her favorite place in the world!

apparently, this was the only empty place in MK that night!

ray videoed the TTA ride and when we went into space mountain he put it on night vision. there's not a whole lot to see, but it's still pretty cool!



after we got off the TTA, it was almost 8:30, so we decided to head up to city hall to get ray's bracelet. i knew that spectro started at 9:00, but we figured we'd just walk through the emporium and go to adventureland during the parade as we were going to see the less-crowded 11:00 spectro. for some reason, we walked up towards fantasyland before heading back to the hub. i'm glad we did though because we passed belle's fairy tale garden at night. it looked really creepy and cool!

once we got to main street, we REALLY saw the crowds. i had no idea it got this crazy before spectro....geez!

when we got up to the area in front of the fire station, we realized there was a really cool spot right across the street from the gate where the floats come out. we looked at each other and we both said, "let's just watch it now!" there were a couple of teenage girls sitting there, but there was no one behind them and i asked if they were gonna continue to sit during the parade and they said yes, so we just got right behind them! we sat on the corner just across the street from the fire station.....this was our view.....

oh, and i noticed this cute little window display behind us.

up next.....ray's first time seeing spectromagic! and will we get ray's EMH bracelet? will i really get to see tink during wishes this time? we shall see!

 

[disneyfav4ever]

That tuna at Kona looks so good, that's what I want when I eat there.