Pengin and Princess storm the castle! The Final Chapter!-O'Hana, Lost & Found, & DTD

[penguin77]

Check it out check it out, I am doing the all powerfull single digit dance baby!!
COUNTING DOWN..............9 MORE DAYS!!!!

 

[monymony3471]

I am with you guys! I am soooooo with you!

SINGLE DIGITS BABY!!!!! CAN I GET A WITNESS?

 

[monymony3471]

It's almost time! Are you just as excited as we are? Sure you are! We start Thanksgiving day too with our travels to get there, but ours is only staying at a hotel waiting for our flight, but that counts as only 4 more days!!!!!


Are you happy dancing?

 

[mrsdelahr]

Love it, love it... especially the pictures of the 'ers. ...and I have to say I am very excited for you and only a little jealous . I guess that now all I have to wait patiently (ha..because you know how patient I am )until you return to see pictures and live through those til July (then I am so there.... )

 

[tubachick]

Another Illinoisian here to wish you a good trip!!

Love your pre-trip report!!!

Happy Driving next week and I can't wait to read and See your trip here on the DIS!!!!

 

[Disneyfreak92]

Thanks to everyone for reading!!! I really appreciate all the kind words! As this could be the last time I get to post before the trip is under way , I wanted to be sure to say thanks to my readers and also to say a thanks to those great TR writers out there who inspired me to write one of my own. So, thanks so much to Utahmama, Twinkiemama, DISUNC, ZZUB, minnierocks, and others who I am sure I am neglecting to mention and will later slap myself on the forehead over. Also, to monymony and SusanMomOf2, I look forward to embarking on our TR's together and to seeing you at the Happiest Place on Earth.

MonyMony - Heck Yeah, I'm excited!!! I have been very busy with trip-prep this weekend. I can't believe it's almost time, and I know the next 3 days at work are going to be sooooooooooo looooooooooong! Sooooooo, happy single-digit dancin' here!

Mrsdelahr - You know you will be able to live vicariously through me as much as you want when it comes to Disney. Gotta love the 'ers. And let me just say that your level of patience is about the same as mine.

Tubachick - Hi fellow Illinoisan! Thanks so much for the comments. Hope you like the TR when I get it started. I LOVE encouragement!

 

[tubachick]

one day

 

[Disneyfreak92]

Woot woot! One day is right!!!!! We leave in the morning after breakfast with Mom. I am mostly packed. I just need to add a couple of things to the bags, brush the cat, vacuum, and paint my toenails . DH will be packing the van and taking out trash.

Tomorrow will be a long day of driving, but we do have plenty of reading material as well as the PlayStation Portable, and lots of CDs, so we should be good to go! Of course, we have plenty of snacks and beverages too. I wonder what we'll be eating for Thanksgiving dinner while we're driving down the interstate. I don't care too much because we'll be on our way to the World!

Hope to "see" you all back here when I return. I can't wait to give you all the details of our trip, and I hope it's fun for everyone when I do!

MonyMony, SusanMomOf2, and AvivasMom: Have safe trips and hope I see you all there!

 

[monymony3471]

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOO

Game on!

Disney here we come!

 

[luciloo]

Great report can't wait to read more

 

[Disneyfreak92]

Hi all! I am back. I have much unpacking and laundry, picture-downloading and uploading, and note-gathering to do, but I will start work on the actual trip report ASAP, and have the first installment posted as soon as I can! I hope to get it started tonight. I have LOTS of material to cover. It was an eventful trip.

 

[Disneyfreak92]

Well, on with the show folks. Here weeeee gooooo…

On Thanksgiving morning, my mom tried out a new recipe for breakfast pizza that was quite tasty. After many good-byes to the cat, the puppy, and DM, we hit the road, stopped at DH’s mom’s house to say Happy Turkey Day, and we were on our way...and on time! A few hours down the road, we decided that lunch would be good, so we pulled off in Marion, IL, where I used to live, to get gas and food. We are thinking that, if nothing else, Mickey D’s would be open on Thanksgiving. We were WRONG! Every fast food place close by was closed. We got back on the road after a pit stop, and planned to try again in Paducah, KY, about 45 minutes down the road. In the meantime, some of the trail mix and popcorn clusters we had packed in “the food box” came in handy.

Side note: We actually have an old laptop box, from a laptop we no longer own, that has proved perfect for packing our snacks. It has now made 5 trips with us and has been dubbed “the food box”. For those interested, it contained 2 kinds of trail mix, toffee/yogurt popcorn clusters, and Quaker oat cereal neatly packed in Gladware containers courtesy of DH, as well as 2 kinds of cereal bars, granola bars, trail mix bars, and what we call “minute cake” (Betty Crocker Warm Delights, which are microwavable cakes that take about a minute to make and are actually quite tasty ). Most of the food usually returns home with us because we overpack, but at least we’re prepared! End side note.

We pulled off the interstate again at Paducah to discover that, of all places, Hardee’s is open. Hardee’s it is! We hardly ever eat Hardee’s, but hey, they were open! And the fries were good. We drove on…and on and on and on. This was a long day of driving because we were going all the way to Macon, GA so that Friday’s drive would be shorter, and we could enjoy the World when we got there. For dinner on Thanksgiving, we had good ole reliable Cracker Barrel – open on Thanksgiving and a great substitute for a real home-cooked Thanksgiving dinner. Although I had the chicken ‘n’ dumplings, and DH had chicken fried chicken. We made it to Macon at about 10:15, watched a little TV and went to bed. After a good night’s sleep (Courtyards have those wonderful new beds in them!), we were off again at 7:30 with a Mickey D’s breakfast. Now comes the best part of the road trip. We watch the temperature increase on the thermometer in the van, and palm trees start to appear! We are in Florida in no time, and just shy of I-4, I NEED a little girls' room! This is the one downfall of having a well-stocked cooler in the van with us. We decide to stop at the service plaza to have a pit stop and get lunch at Sbarro. Then we’re back on the road and at about 1:30, we are checking into the Courtyard at The Crossings for our one-night stay prior to checking in at SSR. We change into lighter clothes at the hotel because we are hot. (I love it already!) And we head over to Epcot to pick up our Disney Dining Experience cards at guest relations…


Next time: Seagulls, Mason Jars, and Kungaloosh!

 

[monymony3471]

Yay! You are here and reporting and I can't wait to read every word?

Did you look up?

Did you see me waving?

I was!

I thought of you and was really hoping for a safe drive down. Ok! type more!

 

[OhMari]

Whew, finally got over here after the "move". Your pre-trip cracked me up. And, you made me cry on your first post back, (seriously!).

So, on with the posting.

 

[Disneyfreak92]

Monica: You know, I meant to mention in that last installment that I was, in fact, looking up. I thought I saw you waving way up there in the sky, and I was thinking you must not have listened when they told you to keep your arms and legs inside the plane until it comes to a complete stop.

OhMari: Thanks so much for the kind words! I am really excited about writing about the actual trip, and it is always great to know that people are reading and enjoying it.

 

[Disneyfreak92]

We have arrived! And I am wearing capris in November! I am a happy girl! So, our plan for the day was to pick up the Disney Dining Experience (DDE) cards at Epcot and head to DTD to scope out what was there. That way we would know what we wanted to buy there at the end of the trip. After that, we had ADRs for Whispering Canyon at 7:20 and planned to hit Adventurers’ Club following dinner. Weeks ago, my DH had called to renew our DDE cards over the phone. He had been informed that if we did not receive them in the mail before we left for our trip, we could go to guest relations at Epcot to pick up temporary cards to use while we were there. He informed them that we would not be there for 4 weeks, and they said it wouldn’t be a problem. (You may see where this is going at this point. ) We drove over to Epcot and went to guest relations (inside the park). We were informed that the cards are held at the guest relations outside the park, but the CM said he could call and see if they were out there. They were not. He asked DH if it could be under any other name. DH informed him that, no, it couldn’t. DH explained that he used his credit card to pay for them 4 weeks ago. So, the CM said he would find out what was going on, and we waited. Finally, after disappearing into the back office for what seemed like an hour (but in reality, was probably more like 15 minutes) the CM emerges and tells us that they throw away the cards if they are not claimed within a couple of weeks. DH tells the CM that he made it quite clear that it would be more than a couple of weeks before we arrived. Regardless, the CM tells us that they will have to have new temp cards made and sent to guest relations outside the park. They will be delivered at 5:30. 5:30?!? And this is the only place they can be delivered to? We weren’t planning to stay in the park for 3 hours! We were supposed to be going to DTD! Not anymore. It just seems silly to leave and come back. And I sure do want 20% off my meals, and we won’t be back at Epcot until Sunday, so we stay. We head over to pin central to start our pin shopping. We selected some limited edition pins that we wanted and guess what! The registers at pin central were not working (I am guessing this had something to do with the fact that it was Black Friday.), so DH was sent to a nearby cart to pay for the pins. Only I wasn’t done shopping so I continued to look, thinking we will just make another purchase if I find anything else. I found a few pins I wanted to ask him about, but he was still gone, and I didn’t want to walk away from pin central carrying the pins if we weren’t going to buy them. He had been gone for a while now, so there must be some sort of problem. I spotted him and finally made eye contact at which point he does this. I kept looking for a few more minutes and finally gave up. I put the pins down and walked over to him. Apparently, they were having issues with that register as well, and they had to call in the credit card, but there is no phone at the cart, so they had to go elsewhere to call it in. It was taking a loooooooong time. I told him I had a few more pins I wanted to show him, but didn’t want to go through this whole mess again. Once he was done, we went back to pin central, and I showed him the pins. We decided to go ahead and get one of them that was a leftover from Halloween and looked like an Epcot exclusive (We later saw it at MK. ). He had enough cash for that one. We went back to the cart to pay and even that took much longer than normal. At this point, I was feeling a bit of the magic of our Disney arrival dissipating, but I figured things will surely get better. We breezed through Art of Disney. (We are trying to be good this time.) We headed over to see what the wait was on the new Finding Nemo ride at The Living Seas. When we got there, we had to ask a CM how long it was because they didn’t have a sign, but it wasn’t bad – something like 20 minutes, and we had time to kill. Before we got in line, we noticed the seagulls. A little background info: My DH loves the seagulls from Finding Nemo. Every time we see real seagulls, he starts saying “Mine! Mine! Mine!” Well, here’s that Disney magic again. The seagulls aren’t just sitting there. They are saying it! We love it! I took a ridiculous number of pictures of them. I just wish we had the camcorder!

While waiting in line, I got hit in the rear by the kids behind me so many times I lost count. (There must have been at least 4 kids around the age of 10, give or take a couple years, and what appeared to be older siblings in their late teens.) I gave the look – you know, the you-hit-me-in-the-butt-and-I-did-notice-so-please-don’t-do-it-again look. By the time we were through the queue, it had escalated to the point where DH was walking behind me and stopping just quickly enough that whichever kid was walking right behind him would run into DH’s backpack with his or her face. Had there been a parent there, or were I a parent myself, I think I might have said something, but we needed a little entertainment at that point, so it worked out. (And no children were harmed in the making of this story.) The ride was cute, albeit rather short. And, the effects were very cool. From there, we went over to Journey into Imagination and visited Figment. After that, we did some shopping at MouseGear and then tasted sodas at Club Cool. We checked at guest relations to see if the cards were ready, and they were! We exited the park, picked up our cards, and we were on our way.

We actually felt pretty good about having a head start on Epcot too. And it will come in handy later. There's a bit of foreshadowing for ya.


We went over to DTD and shopped West Side (or West Si-eede, as we affectionately call it). Then we drove over to Wilderness Lodge, valet parked the van (free with DDE cards), checked out the gift shop, and checked in at Whispering Canyon. Once we had our tazers (We think the buzzers look like tazers.), we sat out in the beautiful lobby, and I took a few pictures of the tree.

We were tazed very shortly and went to be seated. The Bandana Bandit was our server! She was fun and told us that we were family, along with two of her other tables. One of our family members at the next table asked us if we needed ketchup. I said no! He had a HUGE mason jar of water. (We did ask if it was filled with something else. ) Apparently, he was needing too many refills, so The Bandana Bandit had supplied him with a larger container for his beverage needs. I loved that the drinks came in mason jars, by the way. I just thought it was a cute touch.

Dinner was good. We did a bit of coloring while we waited for our skillet meal to arrive, which was pretty tasty.

And we were entertained by the antics of the staff. My favorite part was when several servers, including our own, delivered birthday cake to one of the tables. After singing to the woman of honor, they proceeded to sample her cake and eventually just picked it back up and ate the whole thing! Funny! I’m sure they brought her more, but we were gone by then. Off to Pleasure Island!


When we arrived, we checked the times at Comedy Warehouse before heading into one of our favorite places – The Adventurers’ Club (AC)! I can try to describe this place, but it is difficult to do it justice if you haven’t experienced it for yourself. It is like being in the middle of a play (a comedy, that is). The club is modeled after an adventurers’ club of the 1930’s. They are having an open house to recruit new members. There are scheduled events throughout the evening, taking place in various different rooms of the club. Some of this is scripted, but there is audience involvement and therefore, improvisation. It is a riot! DH and I both had a Kungaloosh, the official club drink and salute. We left a bit early because we wanted to see if we could get into one of the Comedy Warehouse shows, and we were planning to return to AC the next Friday. We also didn’t bring the camera. The line was looooong at Comedy Warehourse, so we headed back to the hotel instead. We needed a good night’s sleep. The next day would be an early one! We had to check in at SSR and get to MGM for EMH!

 

[monymony3471]

Yay! It has begun! We had a similar experience where we got a head start too. At the same park. Very funny coinkidink.

Tim and I experience PI once and it was fun. We did the Comedy warehouse and I loved it. I'll have to look into the Adventurers club next trip. Sounds cool.

Ok, get back to writing.

Both of us! I mean you, I mean me, I mean we.

 

[Disneyfreak92]

Oops! I forgot the pics!!! I updated Chapter 8 with pics now.

And Monica, you really should check out AC! It is a lot of fun, and if you think it is weird at first, stick around. It gets weirder!

 

[DisneyObsession]

I can't believe it! I wandered over to your TR from monymony's and I am totally hooked on it! This happens to me alot...start one, get hooked on a bunch more in the process!

Oh well!

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[Disneyfreak92]

I can't believe it! I wandered over to your TR from monymony's and I am totally hooked on it! This happens to me alot...start one, get hooked on a bunch more in the process!

Oh well!

Can't wait to hear more!

Thanks so much for coming over. I really appreciate the compliment!

Ask and you shall receive...