Disneybabe84
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2005
- Messages
- 302
Thanks for sharing ;D
Overdue and Overpacked: POR 9/23-10/1 THE EPILOGUE IS NOW UP ON PAGE 25
- Thread starter LaLa
- Start date
Disneydreaming6
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2006
- Messages
- 444
I am sitting here reading your report with tears in my eyes from laughing so hard. Great report can't wait for more.
snowflake12
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2006
- Messages
- 19
Love the installments.
LaLa
Hangs with the Mensas
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2005
- Messages
- 2,096
After our very tiring day at Typhoon Lagoon, we finally make it back to our hotel room. Once inside, I grab the medical kit that I overpacked and tend to DD’s bo-bo.
Sufficiently pampered, she soon starts feeling better. Good thing, because it’s time to transform her into a little version of Cinderella. Yep, tonight’s the night.
We shall dine with none other than Cinderella and her very own Prince Charming.
We get fixed up and take some pics on the grounds of POR before we jump in the van and truck it on over to 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian.
We are always in awe at the beauty of this hotel.
We pull up to the security gate and explain that we are here to dine with Cindy and her man. He directs us to valet.
DH hesitates for a second and then remembers to ask where Self Parking is.
You see, we are pretty much Self Parking kind of people. Since we have already plopped down a fortune for the trip, DH sees absolutely no sense in plopping down another 10 bucks to have some stranger park our ride when we are perfectly capable of whipping into a parking spot all by ourselves.
“That’s Ridiculous” , even, he might say.
So the guy shoots us a judgmental glance and says, “ Oh. I see. Well, you go right back out the way you came, cross that road waaaaaaaaaaaaay over there and you should find it somewhere right around Jersey.”
Hmmmm….. ya think they did that on purpose?
We are pretty positive minded people though.
Or at least half of us are.
So we are undeterred. We do a U-ey and head across the street to The Land That Time Forgot.
Did I mention how tired we were from our day at Typhoon Lagoon?
We both realized how far we would have to walk, looked at each other and were in telepathic agreement.
It would be 10 bucks well spent.
Now, to be totally truthful, we are actually nothing like the Clampetts (like I’d fess up even if we were ) but for some reason that escapes us, DH and I always feel a little like Country Come to Town as we bust up in the Grand Floridian valet in our minivan.
“Wheeeeewww Hewwwwww! Good Lawd Mama. Lookit’ that bigole puuuuurty wat house!” DS exclaims as we drive up.
Just kiddin’
But seriously, it’s all good. We’re here, so we must be cool, right?
I quickly hide the Porta Potty that we always bring on road trips under one of the kids’ blankets (hey, at least it was empty) and hop out like I’ve got it all together.
There are photo ops galore at this place and I oblige. One of these days we will stay here, I say to myself. That will also be the trip that I finally get my elusive Dole Whip. Maybe I’ll book it right now for the 5th of Never.
Before they let us into the dining room, we stopped and visited with the Fairy Godmother. This was our first meeting with her and she was really nice to the kids. Very engaging. She signed the books and as part of her routine, we were sure, asked where we were from.
We tell her that we are from Mississippi. She says, “Oh really? What city?”
We tell her and she says that yes, she is very familiar with our town.
Huh?
Okay, yeah we do have a lot more than one redlight but it really is a pretty small town. We give her the ‘Yeah right, sure ya are’ look and move on to another subject.
She must sense our cynicism (hellloooo, she IS the Fairy Godmother) because she proceeds to give us details that only someone actually familiar with the area could know. Apparently, before she became the Fairy Godmother, she was from our neck of the woods.
Our bad.
We continue a very nice visit with her and catch DD giving her "The Look ". It's the same one she reserves for Santa at the mall.
Dinner with Cinderella was really fun. The girls had stars in their eyes.
But poor DS was so shy. He was that way with both Princess dinners we did this trip. They just were not up his alley this year.
He is 7 and on the cusp of the girl thing. He will still say that girls are gross but let him see a pretty girl in a miniskirt and he giggles uncontrollably.
So I wasn’t the least bit surprised when he turned 15 shades of red when Cinderella flirted with him shamelessly and asked if he was DHFDD1’s Prince Charming. He put his face in his plate and clammed up after that. The boy would not utter another word until we were outta there.
Show of hands…who thinks we need to ban together and force Disney to implement a Star Wars character meal for the boys?
Isn’t it about time? Who’s with me?
Seriously, how cool would that be? They could have it at MGM and I guarOntee it would be a major hit.
Just the thought of Yoda walkin’ up to a kid and goin’ “Mmmm…yes… green beans you should eat ” is enough to get me on board.
But back to the Princesses.
Before we left, I had ordered a couple of the slipper desserts as a surprise for the kids. I ordered two thinking that our kids could share one and our friends’ kids could share the other. Of course they could share the dessert with their respective parents as well.
As DS would say, “Duhhhh”....
So I had to call ahead of time to order them and I envisioned the kids’ faces as the plates were laid out in front of them. I just knew all the kids would just go nuts over them. I saw all the girls sitting in a row in their little Cinderella gowns eating their little slipper desserts as everyone remarked in unison… ”Ooooooh, Aaaaaah”
I explained to our server when we got there that it was supposed to be a surprise and to make sure DH and I get the bill for both of them. It was just a little ‘welcome, glad you came, hope you’re having a good time kind of little thing’ I wanted to do for them.
Well, the slipper desserts were beautiful and tasted even better.
Say it with me....."Oooohhhh Ahhhhhh."
Plus our server explained that Cinderella herself had sent them to us.
They all bought it hook line and sinker.
Several months before we left for DW, the kids started doing chores around the house in order to earn some souvenir money for the trip.
Parents, I am telling you…take my advice and do this during the pretrip planning craze. I said craze and not phase for a reason. Ya feelin' me?
It will be the one and only time in your kids’ life that they will actually fight over who gets to make Mommy and Daddy’s bed.
Anyway, they got to pick out anything they wanted (within reason, of course) once we were there for their souvenirs. After dinner, they explained that they had money to spend and had to go buy something right then and there or they would just explode.
So we headed to the gift shop to let them go hog wild.
DD picked a bride Minnie and a groom Mickey and DS snagged a Disneyworld themed Viewmaster and a pressed penny holder.
Yes, our children have high standards.
Unfortunately, the kids went mad over those pressed penny machines this year. Only at Disneyworld will an otherwise sane person pay 50 cents to dress up a penny. Or a buck fifty to dress up a quarter. What a racket.
After the gift shop, we head out front to pick up our ride from valet.
Since we had not one, but three munchkin Cinderellas with us, we attracted mucho attentione from the patrons. They really were cute, I must say. They all had their hair slicked back in low buns and their Cinderella gowns were topped off with white arm gloves and sparkly blue headbands just like Cindy wears. They were just precious and lots of people told them so.
They ate it up with a spoon.
Especially our daughter.
Did I mention that she is a girly girl? Every time someone would pass us and make mention of how cute the girls were, she automatically went into Showoff Mode. She had the head tilt and the cute little swaying motion down pat.
I half expected her to bust out the Miss America wave ...
“Hellooooo, my dear minions. Yes, you are correct. I am very beautiful. Watch me sway.”
We get back to the hotel and are amazed at how much junk we can cram into that little hotel room. I swear the stuff had multiplied in our room while we were gone. Yikes.
I feign disdain by shouting "Who's responsible for bringin' all this junk?!"
It was still pretty early at this point, and the kids wanted to play together so we let them head over next door where our friends were staying and and tear their room up for a change.
They’re not gone for long.
Pretty soon they all come meandering back over to our room one at a time. First it’s the boy. Then comes DHFDD1 , then her sister and then the caboose, our daughter.
Every time we open the door, there is another giggling kid standing in the doorway.
“I thought we got rid of you earlier”, we tell them. They collapse into uncontrollable giggling fits and push past us.
They all crowd into the room, open up the refrigerator door, grab some Caprisuns, drink half a pouch each and then grab another ‘fresh’ round, flush the toilet a couple of times and scatter each and every toy they can get their hands on in the room from stem to stern. DH draws the line and uses his angry eyes (and voice) when they start a high pitched screamin’ match.
You see, this is why we didn’t want adjoining rooms. If there had been an eternally open porthole, I’d have been writing stuff like this since page one.
Thankfully, DHFW and DHF come to the door just in time. They offer to take all the kids down to the gift shop and arcade.
We take them up on it.
There’s something really weird and strange that happens in a Disney hotel room when there are no kids around.
No, not that. And shame on you. It’s called Peace and Quiet.
We enjoy the first little bit of quiet time that we have had since our Disney adventure began. It’s really, really weird. Very, very quiet.
We even say that to each other, “Ya know, this is really, really weird and very, very quiet.”
We just sit and look at each other.
DH scolds the boy out of habit then realizes he’s nowhere around.
It’s kind of like it is for us at home.
We don’t get to go out together without the kids very often, but we do make it a point to do just that every now and then. We both really look forward to that time when we won’t have to make three trips to the bathroom during the meal or tell the kids how many more bites they need to eat before they can be excused from the table or tell DS to stop mocking his sister. We look forward to having adult conversation and recounting every thought we had about each other in our dating days and envision (or at least I do) that we will be once again making googly eyes at each other from across the table.
And sometimes our dates do turn out like that.
But mostly, we just miss the kids and talk about them all night. We share memories of cute little things they have said over the years and recount their births and talk about our hopes for them as they grow and laugh a lot together about the two precious things in this world that we share that no one else can be a part of.
And so I hate to admit that in that little hotel room, for the only quiet half hour of our entire vacation, we actually missed the mayhem.
Who needs 4 nights at the Grand Floridian anyway?
Oh, snap. Did I really just say that? Okay, that's it. We really, really need to get out more.
Up Next: Will The Real Space Mountain Please Stand Up...Please Stand Up...Please Stand Up
Sufficiently pampered, she soon starts feeling better. Good thing, because it’s time to transform her into a little version of Cinderella. Yep, tonight’s the night.
We shall dine with none other than Cinderella and her very own Prince Charming.
We get fixed up and take some pics on the grounds of POR before we jump in the van and truck it on over to 1900 Park Fare at the Grand Floridian.
We are always in awe at the beauty of this hotel.
We pull up to the security gate and explain that we are here to dine with Cindy and her man. He directs us to valet.
DH hesitates for a second and then remembers to ask where Self Parking is.
You see, we are pretty much Self Parking kind of people. Since we have already plopped down a fortune for the trip, DH sees absolutely no sense in plopping down another 10 bucks to have some stranger park our ride when we are perfectly capable of whipping into a parking spot all by ourselves.
“That’s Ridiculous” , even, he might say.
So the guy shoots us a judgmental glance and says, “ Oh. I see. Well, you go right back out the way you came, cross that road waaaaaaaaaaaaay over there and you should find it somewhere right around Jersey.”
Hmmmm….. ya think they did that on purpose?
We are pretty positive minded people though.
Or at least half of us are.
So we are undeterred. We do a U-ey and head across the street to The Land That Time Forgot.
Did I mention how tired we were from our day at Typhoon Lagoon?
We both realized how far we would have to walk, looked at each other and were in telepathic agreement.
It would be 10 bucks well spent.
Now, to be totally truthful, we are actually nothing like the Clampetts (like I’d fess up even if we were ) but for some reason that escapes us, DH and I always feel a little like Country Come to Town as we bust up in the Grand Floridian valet in our minivan.
“Wheeeeewww Hewwwwww! Good Lawd Mama. Lookit’ that bigole puuuuurty wat house!” DS exclaims as we drive up.
Just kiddin’
But seriously, it’s all good. We’re here, so we must be cool, right?
I quickly hide the Porta Potty that we always bring on road trips under one of the kids’ blankets (hey, at least it was empty) and hop out like I’ve got it all together.
There are photo ops galore at this place and I oblige. One of these days we will stay here, I say to myself. That will also be the trip that I finally get my elusive Dole Whip. Maybe I’ll book it right now for the 5th of Never.
Before they let us into the dining room, we stopped and visited with the Fairy Godmother. This was our first meeting with her and she was really nice to the kids. Very engaging. She signed the books and as part of her routine, we were sure, asked where we were from.
We tell her that we are from Mississippi. She says, “Oh really? What city?”
We tell her and she says that yes, she is very familiar with our town.
Huh?
Okay, yeah we do have a lot more than one redlight but it really is a pretty small town. We give her the ‘Yeah right, sure ya are’ look and move on to another subject.
She must sense our cynicism (hellloooo, she IS the Fairy Godmother) because she proceeds to give us details that only someone actually familiar with the area could know. Apparently, before she became the Fairy Godmother, she was from our neck of the woods.
Our bad.
We continue a very nice visit with her and catch DD giving her "The Look ". It's the same one she reserves for Santa at the mall.
Dinner with Cinderella was really fun. The girls had stars in their eyes.
But poor DS was so shy. He was that way with both Princess dinners we did this trip. They just were not up his alley this year.
He is 7 and on the cusp of the girl thing. He will still say that girls are gross but let him see a pretty girl in a miniskirt and he giggles uncontrollably.
So I wasn’t the least bit surprised when he turned 15 shades of red when Cinderella flirted with him shamelessly and asked if he was DHFDD1’s Prince Charming. He put his face in his plate and clammed up after that. The boy would not utter another word until we were outta there.
Show of hands…who thinks we need to ban together and force Disney to implement a Star Wars character meal for the boys?
Isn’t it about time? Who’s with me?
Seriously, how cool would that be? They could have it at MGM and I guarOntee it would be a major hit.
Just the thought of Yoda walkin’ up to a kid and goin’ “Mmmm…yes… green beans you should eat ” is enough to get me on board.
But back to the Princesses.
Before we left, I had ordered a couple of the slipper desserts as a surprise for the kids. I ordered two thinking that our kids could share one and our friends’ kids could share the other. Of course they could share the dessert with their respective parents as well.
As DS would say, “Duhhhh”....
So I had to call ahead of time to order them and I envisioned the kids’ faces as the plates were laid out in front of them. I just knew all the kids would just go nuts over them. I saw all the girls sitting in a row in their little Cinderella gowns eating their little slipper desserts as everyone remarked in unison… ”Ooooooh, Aaaaaah”
I explained to our server when we got there that it was supposed to be a surprise and to make sure DH and I get the bill for both of them. It was just a little ‘welcome, glad you came, hope you’re having a good time kind of little thing’ I wanted to do for them.
Well, the slipper desserts were beautiful and tasted even better.
Say it with me....."Oooohhhh Ahhhhhh."
Plus our server explained that Cinderella herself had sent them to us.
They all bought it hook line and sinker.
Several months before we left for DW, the kids started doing chores around the house in order to earn some souvenir money for the trip.
Parents, I am telling you…take my advice and do this during the pretrip planning craze. I said craze and not phase for a reason. Ya feelin' me?
It will be the one and only time in your kids’ life that they will actually fight over who gets to make Mommy and Daddy’s bed.
Anyway, they got to pick out anything they wanted (within reason, of course) once we were there for their souvenirs. After dinner, they explained that they had money to spend and had to go buy something right then and there or they would just explode.
So we headed to the gift shop to let them go hog wild.
DD picked a bride Minnie and a groom Mickey and DS snagged a Disneyworld themed Viewmaster and a pressed penny holder.
Yes, our children have high standards.
Unfortunately, the kids went mad over those pressed penny machines this year. Only at Disneyworld will an otherwise sane person pay 50 cents to dress up a penny. Or a buck fifty to dress up a quarter. What a racket.
After the gift shop, we head out front to pick up our ride from valet.
Since we had not one, but three munchkin Cinderellas with us, we attracted mucho attentione from the patrons. They really were cute, I must say. They all had their hair slicked back in low buns and their Cinderella gowns were topped off with white arm gloves and sparkly blue headbands just like Cindy wears. They were just precious and lots of people told them so.
They ate it up with a spoon.
Especially our daughter.
Did I mention that she is a girly girl? Every time someone would pass us and make mention of how cute the girls were, she automatically went into Showoff Mode. She had the head tilt and the cute little swaying motion down pat.
I half expected her to bust out the Miss America wave ...
“Hellooooo, my dear minions. Yes, you are correct. I am very beautiful. Watch me sway.”
We get back to the hotel and are amazed at how much junk we can cram into that little hotel room. I swear the stuff had multiplied in our room while we were gone. Yikes.
I feign disdain by shouting "Who's responsible for bringin' all this junk?!"
It was still pretty early at this point, and the kids wanted to play together so we let them head over next door where our friends were staying and and tear their room up for a change.
They’re not gone for long.
Pretty soon they all come meandering back over to our room one at a time. First it’s the boy. Then comes DHFDD1 , then her sister and then the caboose, our daughter.
Every time we open the door, there is another giggling kid standing in the doorway.
“I thought we got rid of you earlier”, we tell them. They collapse into uncontrollable giggling fits and push past us.
They all crowd into the room, open up the refrigerator door, grab some Caprisuns, drink half a pouch each and then grab another ‘fresh’ round, flush the toilet a couple of times and scatter each and every toy they can get their hands on in the room from stem to stern. DH draws the line and uses his angry eyes (and voice) when they start a high pitched screamin’ match.
You see, this is why we didn’t want adjoining rooms. If there had been an eternally open porthole, I’d have been writing stuff like this since page one.
Thankfully, DHFW and DHF come to the door just in time. They offer to take all the kids down to the gift shop and arcade.
We take them up on it.
There’s something really weird and strange that happens in a Disney hotel room when there are no kids around.
No, not that. And shame on you. It’s called Peace and Quiet.
We enjoy the first little bit of quiet time that we have had since our Disney adventure began. It’s really, really weird. Very, very quiet.
We even say that to each other, “Ya know, this is really, really weird and very, very quiet.”
We just sit and look at each other.
DH scolds the boy out of habit then realizes he’s nowhere around.
It’s kind of like it is for us at home.
We don’t get to go out together without the kids very often, but we do make it a point to do just that every now and then. We both really look forward to that time when we won’t have to make three trips to the bathroom during the meal or tell the kids how many more bites they need to eat before they can be excused from the table or tell DS to stop mocking his sister. We look forward to having adult conversation and recounting every thought we had about each other in our dating days and envision (or at least I do) that we will be once again making googly eyes at each other from across the table.
And sometimes our dates do turn out like that.
But mostly, we just miss the kids and talk about them all night. We share memories of cute little things they have said over the years and recount their births and talk about our hopes for them as they grow and laugh a lot together about the two precious things in this world that we share that no one else can be a part of.
And so I hate to admit that in that little hotel room, for the only quiet half hour of our entire vacation, we actually missed the mayhem.
Who needs 4 nights at the Grand Floridian anyway?
Oh, snap. Did I really just say that? Okay, that's it. We really, really need to get out more.
Up Next: Will The Real Space Mountain Please Stand Up...Please Stand Up...Please Stand Up
eeyore45
<font color=darkorchid>Do-it-yourself pixie dust =
- Joined
- Jun 18, 2004
- Messages
- 7,371
WOW WOW WOW!!
TWO trip reports from Oct 2005 - and staying at POR _ me too me too
I was so expecting this to be low crowd, and if I had a quarter for every person that told me this>>
I'd be rich I tell you!!
I was so over stressed from that HOT HOT Oct trip, I blocked it out of my mind, till dh mentioned we got a tax refund, lets see if Disney is still busy, lets try and go back a week earlier and see if its really NOT so crowded!!
and for the record, you gave me dejavue with the Splash Mountain report - we went in 2004 DD actually went on it once, then wanted to go back and get a pic this time... only she turned psycho on us, flipped out screaming - boy did the CM's give us THE LOOK!!
Oct 2005 - I got her on Dinasaur like MOMM reported She didnt flip, I didnt make her - but she showed me 
she kept her eyes closed!! the folks behind us not so lucky - - wonder if they were Dis'ers!! 
Thanks, just maybe I'll pull out my notes and share some of the magic even tho it was HOT!!! and CROWDED!!!
TWO trip reports from Oct 2005 - and staying at POR _ me too me too
I was so expecting this to be low crowd, and if I had a quarter for every person that told me this>>
I'd be rich I tell you!!
I was so over stressed from that HOT HOT Oct trip, I blocked it out of my mind, till dh mentioned we got a tax refund, lets see if Disney is still busy, lets try and go back a week earlier and see if its really NOT so crowded!!
and for the record, you gave me dejavue with the Splash Mountain report - we went in 2004 DD actually went on it once, then wanted to go back and get a pic this time... only she turned psycho on us, flipped out screaming - boy did the CM's give us THE LOOK!!
Oct 2005 - I got her on Dinasaur like MOMM reported
She didnt flip, I didnt make her - but she showed me she kept her eyes closed!! the folks behind us not so lucky - - wonder if they were Dis'ers!! Thanks, just maybe I'll pull out my notes and share some of the magic even tho it was HOT!!! and CROWDED!!!
Fionasmommy
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 1, 2006
- Messages
- 1,472
LaLa said:
LaLa said:
LaLa said:
I'm in tears!!!
LaLa
Hangs with the Mensas
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2005
- Messages
- 2,096
Thanks everbody!
luvpooh- I know the feeling very well
eeyore45- what dates were you at POR?
and Fionasmommy-your daughter is just beautiful.
I have the next installment mostly written and am just putting the finishing touches on it. I am pretty sure that I will be bored at work today and trying to get fired like luvpooh, so we'll see.
Have a great day everybody!
God Bless
luvpooh- I know the feeling very well
eeyore45- what dates were you at POR?
and Fionasmommy-your daughter is just beautiful.
I have the next installment mostly written and am just putting the finishing touches on it. I am pretty sure that I will be bored at work today and trying to get fired like luvpooh,
so we'll see. Have a great day everybody!
God Bless
LaLa
Hangs with the Mensas
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2005
- Messages
- 2,096
heaven2dc said:
Hmmmmm...that's an idea...how would I go about doing something like that?
You would think that they would at least have ONE character meal themed towards the boys. Sure they enjoy Chef Mickeys, etc. but there are soooo many opportunities for little girls to dress up and meet the princesses and zero opportunites for the boys to dress up and meet their heroes. Couldn't you just see a roomful of little Anakins and Obi Wans or even a roomful of little Power Rangers? It's hard for me to believe that they haven't done it already.
Good writin', great travels, Baby!
Have just finished all 5 pages of your report and have used half a box of tissues from laughing so hard!!! There is so much that I remember from our various trips that has happened to you..esp. the tantrum on the ground at Splash Mountian!!! I wanted to leave the little bugger on the ground and pretend she wasn't ours!!!! But having been raised with alot of guilt, we didn't. lol
LaLa
Hangs with the Mensas
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2005
- Messages
- 2,096
The next morning, DD’s foot is looking a little rough. I load it down with antibiotic ointment that I overpacked and put on a Band Aid for the day. Even though she will be in a stroller most of the day, I make sure she wears socks and tennis shoes to keep it dry and we head out to Epcot.
Or, as DD called it all week, “Epicot”
We, as a family, pretty much think nearly everything at Disneyworld rocks.
I can think of a few exceptions.
The first to come to mind would be crowds and people that don’t wear deodorant. And I know there are some people that love Disneyworld just as much as us but don’t give a flyin’ flip for Epcot.
We are so not those people.
We really,really love Epcot. It is hands down DH’s favorite park. He just loves the World Showcase. And we all love Test Track. And Soarin’. And Illuminations. And funnel cakes while watching Illuminations. I mean, really, what’s not to love?
I am currently trying to entice him into going back sometime this year. My hook is Epicot.
Our conversations usually go something like this…
“Hey Honey, I know we said that we were definitely not going back for a couple more years but …
“No…. no no no….don’t even think about it," he interrupts . “You know I love it just as much as you do, but I want to do something different this year. We said we would go somewhere different, remember? No, we’re just not going to Disneyworld again this year. Sorry, no way.”
I look at my husband as if I am looking directly into his soul and utter one single word.
Epicot.
Next thing I know, I bust him on Disneyworld.com checkin’ dates.
Awwww yeah! The battle is half won.
But back to the past. No crazy breakfast food court for us this morning. We ain’t goin’ back for seconds, if you know what I mean. Since this was Epcot’s morning EMH , we hop up especially early, grab a bus and head out to our second favorite park.
We love Epicot and are just glad to be here. We are oh so pschyed as we hop off the bus-o-sardines and march march march towards the ball.
But wait. Our mugs are supposed to be permanently etched into the granite garden.
And no, I’m not talking DMVC mugs either.
“Remember last year? I remind DH, “Disney broke the bank by giving us that Leave a Legacy image and lanyard with two lousy pins free when we booked our rack rate MYW package? Well, surely it’s been plastered on there by now.”
I head over to the Leave a Legacy setup and inquire as to where we might find our mugs. The very nice CM tells me in a very, very, very thick accent of indeterminable origin where to look. Then he nods his head and smiles.
Now, the guy could have told me to go take a flying leap and I would have still stood there nodding my head, smiling and going... “Oh………….okay.”
I do that sometimes. For some reason, I think that when you cannot for the love of all that is good in the world make out what someone is saying to you, ‘Oh…....okay’ and a puzzled smile will usually cover it.
So just to be sure I am feelin’ him, I ask him to write it down for me.
Ya know, so I don’t forget an’ all.
Lucky for me, his written word was much more comprehensible than his spoken word. Armed with our combination to the granite garden, we peck around like chickens and finally find our place.
The one square half inch of space in Disneyworld that is designated to forever be ours and ours alone until the end of time.
Or at least until they tear it down and plant more flowers.
And all for the low, low price of a rack rate MYW 7 day package. We really know how to stick it to the Man.
Once we have found ourselves, we take some quick Photopass pics in front of the ball. Our friends are sufficiently impressed with the place. Nice.
We make a beeline for Test Track. This is one of our favorite rides at DW. The kids would ride it a million times if we let them. Very good stuff.
Coming for the morning EMH paid off because there is no line at all.
Hmmmmm…we devise a plan. We will try to have our cake and eat it too.
We send the guys over to grab fastpasses for Soarin’ bc we know it will probably have longer lines. They make it back just as the crowd starts picking up. We ask about the Baby Swap bc DHFDD2 is just a hair too short to ride and they are not flinching. There is some confusion as to whether DHFDD2 can even enter the building and wait at the loading area with DHFW while DHF rides. One CM says yes, the other apparently more experienced CM says no. As they are conferring and trying to get a definite answer on what we are allowed to do with this poor tiny creature while the rest of us have fun, more and more people are passing us in line.
By the throngs.
DHFW finally says “Forget it, I’ll wait outside and will ride when everybody comes out.” Because we already have gotten FPs for Soarin, we cannot get her another FP for Test Track. She takes DHFDD2 into Mouse Gear to look around while we ride.
We came out and I headed to Mouse Gear to find them and swap out with her. I watched Shorty for her so she could ride with the crew. They all loved it. DH and my kids really loved it bc they all got to ride twice in a row.
From there, we headed to Soarin’.
This was our first trip to DW since its opening and we were really pumped about riding it. I get motion sickness sometimes, especially on slow moving things, and I was a little worried about it after passing the LARGE neon blue sign warning about it.
It all but told you that you were, without question, going to throw up on this ride.
But it was all good. No queasiness, no nothin’ . For those who have not ridden this ride, go book your trip and get your tail there now.
I cannot describe the feeling. We were lucky enough to be in the first row so our view was unobstructed. It was amazing. I bought the Happiest Celebration CD just because the song from Soarin’ was on it. Love it. Really mean it. I will pop the CD in from time to time while I am going down the road and I feel like I am back there. DS and DD go crazy when they hear it and want to go back to DW right that very moment and ride it again.
I tell them, “Just close your eyes and use your imagination and you can.”
It’s much cheaper that way.
They are good children so they do as they are told. They both close their eyes and I crank up the volume and the air (gotta make it realistic) as I try to describe the ride for them as best I can remember it.
I will say, “Here we go over the mountain…..Do you see the surfers? Hurry, pick your feet up, they’re gonna get wet…Mmmm, can you smell the oranges?.. Look, it’s Tink!!!”
I glance back at them, and they have their little eyes screwed shut and the sweetest permagrins plastered on their precious faces and I know they are riding it in their minds.
Magic To Go or the redneck version of Soarin’? You decide.
So after the best ride in the park, we hop on the worst ride in the park. Nah, just kidding. That would be the Mexican ride. We shimmied on over to check out Living with the Land. I don’t know why we like this ride, but we do.
LWTL always seems to have a really long line. Like I said, we like this ride, so we hop on in anyway. What else have we got to do, right?
It’s not like the World is at our feet or anything.
Well, we meander about halfway through the line and I look down at DD. She has started doing the Tee Tee Shuffle. You guessed it.
She has to do her bidness and she ain’t playin’ around .
The line is pretty long, but seems to be moving pretty fast. We are still at about the halfway point. Well, nothin’ else to do but hop out and hope for the best. Before I disappear, I ask the CM workin’ the line where the nearest restroom is and I make sure we will be allowed to rejoin our party back in line if we get out now.
Without hesitation, he flatly says “No Maam. You cannot come back into the line once you have left. We do not allow cutting in line.”
Up until this point, I have been semi distracted with DD but now I stand up straight and meet him full on eye to eye.
He is kidding. It always takes me a minute to recognize dry humor. My bad.
He finally laughs and points us in the direction of the nearest restroom and assures us it happens all the time and that yes, we will be allowed to rejoin our party once we’re finished. So we find the restroom, do the bidness, get washed up, and run like mad back to where DH has talked a CM into holding the boat for us.
We hop in the boat and catch some really nasty glances from people that were behind us in line.
I throw them a nasty glance right back for good measure and we are off.
I don’t know why, but we always enjoy seeing the plants that grow without soil and the Mickey pumpkin molds. We’re cool like that.
So after LWTL, we head back out and try to decide what to do next.
“Space Mount’n. Space Mount’n. I wanna ride Space Mount’n.”
I know what you’re thinking. Wrong park.
Or is it?
You see, to DD, Spaceship Earth is Space Mountain. Silly, you say? Well, let’s think about it for a moment. She is in the dark, she goes up and down a hill and she sees fake stars and an illuminated Earth. You tell me that doesn’t sound like it should be called Space Mountain.
It is to her anyway and we happily take her on a spin on Space Mount’n.
We always enjoy this ride. The cavemen at the very beginning used to freak DS out. The first time he rode it, he was about DD’s age and asked his dad if they were real people. DH explained to him that no, they were not real people. He liked robots at the time so DH told him that they were kind of like robots that were dressed up to look like real people but they were most definitely not real.
To that, DS replied “Then why are they lookin’ at me? I don’t like ‘em lookin’ at me.”
Okay. Fair enough.
He did that weird head straight forward, eyeballs to the side thing for the rest of the ride. He wasn’t a very big fan of It’s a Small World that year either as I recall, and he is currently undergoing counseling for it. Of course I’m kidding.
Because, really, what four year old doesn’t have a caveman-robot-with-piercing-eyes phobia anyway, right?
But that was then and this is now and he has since conquered his freaky statue phobia.
So this time when DD gives the caveman a wary second glance, he does the helpful good big brother bit by reassuring her….“Don’t worry…they’re not staring at you. They’re not even real. Duuuhhhhhh.”
Up Next: The Battle of Little Big Horn
Or, as DD called it all week, “Epicot”
We, as a family, pretty much think nearly everything at Disneyworld rocks.
I can think of a few exceptions.
The first to come to mind would be crowds and people that don’t wear deodorant. And I know there are some people that love Disneyworld just as much as us but don’t give a flyin’ flip for Epcot.
We are so not those people.
We really,really love Epcot. It is hands down DH’s favorite park. He just loves the World Showcase. And we all love Test Track. And Soarin’. And Illuminations. And funnel cakes while watching Illuminations. I mean, really, what’s not to love?
I am currently trying to entice him into going back sometime this year. My hook is Epicot.
Our conversations usually go something like this…
“Hey Honey, I know we said that we were definitely not going back for a couple more years but …
“No…. no no no….don’t even think about it," he interrupts . “You know I love it just as much as you do, but I want to do something different this year. We said we would go somewhere different, remember? No, we’re just not going to Disneyworld again this year. Sorry, no way.”
I look at my husband as if I am looking directly into his soul and utter one single word.
Epicot.
Next thing I know, I bust him on Disneyworld.com checkin’ dates.
Awwww yeah! The battle is half won.
But back to the past. No crazy breakfast food court for us this morning. We ain’t goin’ back for seconds, if you know what I mean. Since this was Epcot’s morning EMH , we hop up especially early, grab a bus and head out to our second favorite park.
We love Epicot and are just glad to be here. We are oh so pschyed as we hop off the bus-o-sardines and march march march towards the ball.
But wait. Our mugs are supposed to be permanently etched into the granite garden.
And no, I’m not talking DMVC mugs either.
“Remember last year? I remind DH, “Disney broke the bank by giving us that Leave a Legacy image and lanyard with two lousy pins free when we booked our rack rate MYW package? Well, surely it’s been plastered on there by now.”
I head over to the Leave a Legacy setup and inquire as to where we might find our mugs. The very nice CM tells me in a very, very, very thick accent of indeterminable origin where to look. Then he nods his head and smiles.
Now, the guy could have told me to go take a flying leap and I would have still stood there nodding my head, smiling and going... “Oh………….okay.”
I do that sometimes. For some reason, I think that when you cannot for the love of all that is good in the world make out what someone is saying to you, ‘Oh…....okay’ and a puzzled smile will usually cover it.
So just to be sure I am feelin’ him, I ask him to write it down for me.
Ya know, so I don’t forget an’ all.
Lucky for me, his written word was much more comprehensible than his spoken word. Armed with our combination to the granite garden, we peck around like chickens and finally find our place.
The one square half inch of space in Disneyworld that is designated to forever be ours and ours alone until the end of time.
Or at least until they tear it down and plant more flowers.
And all for the low, low price of a rack rate MYW 7 day package. We really know how to stick it to the Man.
Once we have found ourselves, we take some quick Photopass pics in front of the ball. Our friends are sufficiently impressed with the place. Nice.
We make a beeline for Test Track. This is one of our favorite rides at DW. The kids would ride it a million times if we let them. Very good stuff.
Coming for the morning EMH paid off because there is no line at all.
Hmmmmm…we devise a plan. We will try to have our cake and eat it too.
We send the guys over to grab fastpasses for Soarin’ bc we know it will probably have longer lines. They make it back just as the crowd starts picking up. We ask about the Baby Swap bc DHFDD2 is just a hair too short to ride and they are not flinching. There is some confusion as to whether DHFDD2 can even enter the building and wait at the loading area with DHFW while DHF rides. One CM says yes, the other apparently more experienced CM says no. As they are conferring and trying to get a definite answer on what we are allowed to do with this poor tiny creature while the rest of us have fun, more and more people are passing us in line.
By the throngs.
DHFW finally says “Forget it, I’ll wait outside and will ride when everybody comes out.” Because we already have gotten FPs for Soarin, we cannot get her another FP for Test Track. She takes DHFDD2 into Mouse Gear to look around while we ride.
We came out and I headed to Mouse Gear to find them and swap out with her. I watched Shorty for her so she could ride with the crew. They all loved it. DH and my kids really loved it bc they all got to ride twice in a row.
From there, we headed to Soarin’.
This was our first trip to DW since its opening and we were really pumped about riding it. I get motion sickness sometimes, especially on slow moving things, and I was a little worried about it after passing the LARGE neon blue sign warning about it.
It all but told you that you were, without question, going to throw up on this ride.
But it was all good. No queasiness, no nothin’ . For those who have not ridden this ride, go book your trip and get your tail there now.
I cannot describe the feeling. We were lucky enough to be in the first row so our view was unobstructed. It was amazing. I bought the Happiest Celebration CD just because the song from Soarin’ was on it. Love it. Really mean it. I will pop the CD in from time to time while I am going down the road and I feel like I am back there. DS and DD go crazy when they hear it and want to go back to DW right that very moment and ride it again.
I tell them, “Just close your eyes and use your imagination and you can.”
It’s much cheaper that way.
They are good children so they do as they are told. They both close their eyes and I crank up the volume and the air (gotta make it realistic) as I try to describe the ride for them as best I can remember it.
I will say, “Here we go over the mountain…..Do you see the surfers? Hurry, pick your feet up, they’re gonna get wet…Mmmm, can you smell the oranges?.. Look, it’s Tink!!!”
I glance back at them, and they have their little eyes screwed shut and the sweetest permagrins plastered on their precious faces and I know they are riding it in their minds.
Magic To Go or the redneck version of Soarin’? You decide.
So after the best ride in the park, we hop on the worst ride in the park. Nah, just kidding. That would be the Mexican ride. We shimmied on over to check out Living with the Land. I don’t know why we like this ride, but we do.
LWTL always seems to have a really long line. Like I said, we like this ride, so we hop on in anyway. What else have we got to do, right?
It’s not like the World is at our feet or anything.
Well, we meander about halfway through the line and I look down at DD. She has started doing the Tee Tee Shuffle. You guessed it.
She has to do her bidness and she ain’t playin’ around .
The line is pretty long, but seems to be moving pretty fast. We are still at about the halfway point. Well, nothin’ else to do but hop out and hope for the best. Before I disappear, I ask the CM workin’ the line where the nearest restroom is and I make sure we will be allowed to rejoin our party back in line if we get out now.
Without hesitation, he flatly says “No Maam. You cannot come back into the line once you have left. We do not allow cutting in line.”
Up until this point, I have been semi distracted with DD but now I stand up straight and meet him full on eye to eye.
He is kidding. It always takes me a minute to recognize dry humor. My bad.
He finally laughs and points us in the direction of the nearest restroom and assures us it happens all the time and that yes, we will be allowed to rejoin our party once we’re finished. So we find the restroom, do the bidness, get washed up, and run like mad back to where DH has talked a CM into holding the boat for us.
We hop in the boat and catch some really nasty glances from people that were behind us in line.
I throw them a nasty glance right back for good measure and we are off.
I don’t know why, but we always enjoy seeing the plants that grow without soil and the Mickey pumpkin molds. We’re cool like that.
So after LWTL, we head back out and try to decide what to do next.
“Space Mount’n. Space Mount’n. I wanna ride Space Mount’n.”
I know what you’re thinking. Wrong park.
Or is it?
You see, to DD, Spaceship Earth is Space Mountain. Silly, you say? Well, let’s think about it for a moment. She is in the dark, she goes up and down a hill and she sees fake stars and an illuminated Earth. You tell me that doesn’t sound like it should be called Space Mountain.
It is to her anyway and we happily take her on a spin on Space Mount’n.
We always enjoy this ride. The cavemen at the very beginning used to freak DS out. The first time he rode it, he was about DD’s age and asked his dad if they were real people. DH explained to him that no, they were not real people. He liked robots at the time so DH told him that they were kind of like robots that were dressed up to look like real people but they were most definitely not real.
To that, DS replied “Then why are they lookin’ at me? I don’t like ‘em lookin’ at me.”
Okay. Fair enough.
He did that weird head straight forward, eyeballs to the side thing for the rest of the ride. He wasn’t a very big fan of It’s a Small World that year either as I recall, and he is currently undergoing counseling for it. Of course I’m kidding.
Because, really, what four year old doesn’t have a caveman-robot-with-piercing-eyes phobia anyway, right?
But that was then and this is now and he has since conquered his freaky statue phobia.
So this time when DD gives the caveman a wary second glance, he does the helpful good big brother bit by reassuring her….“Don’t worry…they’re not staring at you. They’re not even real. Duuuhhhhhh.”
Up Next: The Battle of Little Big Horn
OMG!! We are in the minority too because EPCOT was our fav as well!
My kids must be real "dorks" or somethin' because they love all those movies about the countries and all that educational junk... they actually said they'd rather do that next time for 2 days vs MK for two days!!! YES three GIRLS love EPCOT more than MK....WHATZ UP with that??? (Personally I am in love with MGM...just because Belle and Beast are like my fav all time LOVE story and I am a drama queen and LOVE stage shows...) anyway I find it super cool that you all love Epicot as much as us! 
I like your legacy picture!! Nice!!! I sat with the chicken last year and dh and the older girls got to go on TT and I did not want to waste all that time even in line with child swap (the ride kept breakin' down while they were in line so the 20 min wait was more like 1 hr) but our youngest loved the TT gift area where she could color and look at all the cars...
did you all ride MS?? We love that too!!
We missed LWTL due to a poor meal at Tepanyaki that evening but boy I can not wait to get back to Epicot, I have my list of what we missed from last trip...about 10 to 12 attractions total!!! We missed a lot...my kids loved the Innoventions...and I loved gettin' my grove on in the dance revolution area
I love reading these reports and enjoy the pics!! Makes me VERY excited for August to get here!!
keep ' em coming!!!
My kids must be real "dorks" or somethin' because they love all those movies about the countries and all that educational junk...
they actually said they'd rather do that next time for 2 days vs MK for two days!!! YES three GIRLS love EPCOT more than MK....WHATZ UP with that??? (Personally I am in love with MGM...just because Belle and Beast are like my fav all time LOVE story and I am a drama queen and LOVE stage shows...) anyway I find it super cool that you all love Epicot as much as us! I like your legacy picture!! Nice!!! I sat with the chicken last year and dh and the older girls got to go on TT and I did not want to waste all that time even in line with child swap (the ride kept breakin' down while they were in line so the 20 min wait was more like 1 hr) but our youngest loved the TT gift area where she could color and look at all the cars...did you all ride MS?? We love that too!!
We missed LWTL due to a poor meal at Tepanyaki that evening but boy I can not wait to get back to Epicot, I have my list of what we missed from last trip...about 10 to 12 attractions total!!! We missed a lot...my kids loved the Innoventions...and I loved gettin' my grove on in the dance revolution area
I love reading these reports and enjoy the pics!! Makes me VERY excited for August to get here!!
keep ' em coming!!!
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