Pinch me, did it REALLY happen????? - All wrapped up, and yes, it DID happen!

[lisaviolet]

We found a bench and I literally fell asleep on the bench.

I'm sorry that I found this hysterical BUT I FOUND THIS HYSTERICAL.

 

[lisaviolet]

'

Love this shot. Makes me sigh. Love the area.

I call the boat - The MOLASSES. Seriously. I really do. Have you ever been on a slower boat in your life?

 

[kmedina]

I was totally picturing Fran pushing the carte from the scooter. Too bad there was not more help around. I noticed that on our last trip too. DCL forgot to put Connor on our tickets, so we had to wait at the gates to go through security (after already waiting a long time to get through the line). It took him a while to get it corrected, so we were squeezed into a very tight space. No fun. The staff at the Admiral's Club helped us move up to an earlier flight. That made the experience a little better. Our bags were not on the carousel when we got home due to the switch, but they were delivered to our house the next day.

It is crazy that the rental did not work after multiple tries. Glad you figured that our before you left and got a different one. Cannot wait to read about Universal. The dinner you had looked good. They should have let you order it the way you wanted it cooked though. That is weird. I want to stay at Loews when we go there, so I appreciate your feedback.

 

[franandaj]

What a spectacular view from the lounge! And great job with dinner

Thanks!

beautiful sunset.

Top of the World is one of the places, I would like to visit one of these days.

As long as they let DVC members go up there, you can. If you ever make it back to WDW.

What a view! WOW!! I was kind of 'meh' on the room views (much more parking lot than I'd expected) but these pictures? WOW! Seriously, there are no other words!







(And if my husband were to see that I was at a loss for words, he'd have a coronary since he's convinced I have chronic logorrhea )

I did zoom in on the castle and Space Mountain, but the views of the GF and the Contemporary were just regular shots with the camera. The higher up you go, the better the view.

What a gorgeous view! I've got to add the lounge to my to-do list. Michael would love it.

Sorry Fran wasn't feeling well. Dinner looks good.

Definitely add it to your todo list. Even if the kids won't let you stay there it's at least fun to check it out.

The view from TOTW almost makes me want to stay there sometime, beautiful pics!

You can visit and not have to stay if you don't want to.

Oh my goodness!

Awesome photos - what a view!

Thanks! and

Dang! That IS an amazing view from Top of the World. Looks like you had fun there.

I was having fun, there were some silly pictures too, that I decided not to put online.

I am glad that you made it to the Top of the World Lounge. This is one of my favourite places at WDW.

Corinna

It is a nice place to sit and relax.

I am so excited that you finally took your WDW trip. I cannot wait to read all about it!

Well, git on it girl!

Gorgeous pictures from the lounge!

Thank you!

What a gorgeous shot Alison.

I'm really bad at reading cursive and for the life of me I couldn't figure out what it said! Now that I'm seeing it again, that's hilarious

Yes, she was on a roll...she continued to sign receipts as Goofy, Mickey Mouse and all sorts of characters. Since we were using gift cards, we really didn't need to use a real signature.

I'm like well that can't be me. I would never have some important information about WDW. All I do is nap and swim and drink.

WT H would I know?

So for five minutes I thought it must be another Lisa. I'm such a catch, aren't I?

Oh she's talking about drinking. And the Lapu Lapu - it IS me.

Seriously, that waiter THAT NIGHT was such a weirdo. SUCH A WEIRD MAN. And this is coming from someone who thinks everyone is special - so he WAS THAT WEIRD. - who knows what kind of nonsense he was giving me.

Back story. I don't have tons of $ on vacation - have to really watch it. So this specific vacation I'm like "I AM GETTING THAT ___________ ten dollar drink in the pineapple". (It's $13 or $14, isn't it? Evil little sucker)

And the excitement builds.

And I head to Kona.

And I can taste it.

And my waiter NEVER COMES.

Well I'm a bit dramatic. It seemed like he never came.

So when he comes all I want is my Lapu Lapu.

So I order.

AND he says like the sociopath I believe he truly was -

"Turn your head - look over at that couple - see that Lapu Lapu...."

I'm all ears just dreaming of my Lapu Lapu......

He continues, "See it - hers - that one there is the last one".



Who does that?



Who likes to point out so that you can see your beautiful drink pass you right by while still in your eyesight.

Later in my vacation I ordered one for breakfast. OH YES I DID.

And did it again on Christmas morning on my last trip in front of small family members who wanted a sip. OH YES I DID. Breakfast is very lovely with a Lapu Lapu.

So I do give great advice. My new one is breakfast is great with a Lapu Lapu.

Oh Lisa, you are so much fun when you stop by! You crack me up! I'm not sure if I could get away with one for breakfast, but it sure was good! Thanks for the advice!

I'm sorry that I found this hysterical BUT I FOUND THIS HYSTERICAL.

Sure you did.

'

Love this shot. Makes me sigh. Love the area.

I call the boat - The MOLASSES. Seriously. I really do. Have you ever been on a slower boat in your life?

I haven't been on very many boats, but I was just enjoying the scenery

I was totally picturing Fran pushing the carte from the scooter. Too bad there was not more help around. I noticed that on our last trip too. DCL forgot to put Connor on our tickets, so we had to wait at the gates to go through security (after already waiting a long time to get through the line). It took him a while to get it corrected, so we were squeezed into a very tight space. No fun. The staff at the Admiral's Club helped us move up to an earlier flight. That made the experience a little better. Our bags were not on the carousel when we got home due to the switch, but they were delivered to our house the next day.

It is crazy that the rental did not work after multiple tries. Glad you figured that our before you left and got a different one. Cannot wait to read about Universal. The dinner you had looked good. They should have let you order it the way you wanted it cooked though. That is weird. I want to stay at Loews when we go there, so I appreciate your feedback.

It took me a while to figure out what you meant by carte, you're that far back there. Universal was fun, but not a park that either of us really need to spend a lot of time in.

I am absolutely in LOVE with that Minnie dress. I stopped reading for about an hour as I searched the internet (fruitlessly) for it. Perhaps ebay or etsy...The search continues!

I forgot to comment on this before. I got that dress on my Mexican Riviera cruise. I was so thrilled to find it because I had never seen it before at DL. Since they had it in my size, I jumped on it. When I got back from the cruise, we were out at the park and they had one almost identical to my red dress in almost every women's clothing store! That was in December/January, now they are all sold out.

 

[franandaj]

This was our last full day of the trip and we woke to no fog on the lake.

I knew early on in the trip that we were having a good trip. Back when we were staying at Kidani, Fran said to me, “I want to eat at the Strawberry soup place!.” I told her that she better make a reservation. We agreed that the second to last day was our best bet and we got a 9AM reservation.

The day finally arrived and we hopped on the Monorail to head over to the Grand Floridian.

There’s the new DVC construction off in the distance. We will definitely be staying there sometime!

A little closer look

I just love this hotel. The lobby is so gorgeous!

I always love listening to the band in the evening.

Finally we reached our destination.

Before we even had a chance to consider the buffet, Pooh showed up.

Then we went to attack the buffet. They had a selection of breads available near the toasters.

And various flavors of cream cheese spreads for the bagels.

They were carving a ham.

Sticky buns, bread pudding and fruit

Watermelon and yogurt

Bacon and Hashbrowns, and on the far end Lobster Eggs Benedict

Muffins and Croissants

More fruit

Pancakes and French Toast

[Continued in Next Post]

 

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

Bananas Foster Syrup and Maple Syrup

Lox and all the trimmings

Other flavors of yogurt

Toppings

Bacon and Sausage

Biscuits and Gravy

And the piece de resistance, the Strawberry Soup

This was my first plate

And Fran’s

Then Tiggr stopped by

We both went up for another round of plates, can you tell who’s is who’s? I’ll give you a hint

Touching

Not touching

Then Mary Poppins and Alice came ‘round

Followed by the Mad Hatter

It was sort of funny, we stayed there for quite a long time compared to other familes. I went back and got another plate.

After a little while Fran went back and got another plate.

Also the waitress noticed how much we liked the strawberry soup and got us a complimentary copy of the recipe even though we didn’t purchase the souvenir pictures. All the characters came around at least one more time. Every time Pooh and Tiggr walked by they said “hi” even though we didn’t take more pictures, but all the “face” characters completely ignored us. Odd.

[Continued in Next Post]

 

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

I took some more pictures as we wandered around the hotel.

This is where we would be dining tonight.

Fran pointed out these tiles in the flooring, I had never noticed them before.

And here we were back home sweet home, at least for one more night.

We had a couple chores to finish before we could get on with having fun in our day.

 

[Pinkocto]

I love the Grand Floridian, it's so beautiful I can't wait or the DVC villas to be open. Breakfast looks great. I've made two reservations there and canceled both, one of these days I'm going to have to get there.

Those tiles are too cute!

 

[PrincessInOz]

That breakfast does look good. Now you've got me wishing I'd booked in there instead.

 

[rentayenta]

Great update. I love the pic of you and Pooh.

So you're the non food touching? I was trying to think back when we've had food together and I remember Fran dipping her grilled cheese in her soup so you've got to be the non toucher.

The GF does look gorgeous. And I noticed that you wrote for sure you'd be staying there....do I smell an add on? Do tell.......

Breakfast looks great! Except for the bacon. Why can't Disney make decent bacon? It's paper thin.

Is that the Poly across the way in the construction photo?

 

[ACDSNY]

Love the pics of the GF and your breakfast looked good. I haven't been paying attention to how far along the construction has progressed so it was fun to see those pics.

 

[dolphingirl47]

The breakfast looked absolutely amazing. I often have experienced that characters are bypassing all adult groups. I really don't understand why. People are hardly going to character meals for the gourmet food and the fact that there is camera on the table should also be a hint.

Corinna

 

[franandaj]

I love the Grand Floridian, it's so beautiful I can't wait or the DVC villas to be open. Breakfast looks great. I've made two reservations there and canceled both, one of these days I'm going to have to get there.

Those tiles are too cute!

You really need to eat there! It's one of the better character breakfasts I've been to!

That breakfast does look good. Now you've got me wishing I'd booked in there instead.

You could always change it! We're eating breakfast there the morning you are going to the Crystal Palace.

Great update. I love the pic of you and Pooh.

So you're the non food touching? I was trying to think back when we've had food together and I remember Fran dipping her grilled cheese in her soup so you've got to be the non toucher.

The GF does look gorgeous. And I noticed that you wrote for sure you'd be staying there....do I smell an add on? Do tell.......

Breakfast looks great! Except for the bacon. Why can't Disney make decent bacon? It's paper thin.

Is that the Poly across the way in the construction photo?

I'm definitely the not touching, but I didn't realize how obvious it was until I looked at those two pictures!

Lord no! No more add ons! I'm already trying to figure out how not let my points go to waste! I'm even thinking of using them for a cruise, which I said I would have never done. The only ones that are really sacred are the California points, I keep holding out that F&W will come back and then I will need them all, but I could book a cruise right now with my SSR points and even my VWL. Not sure when we plan to go back to WDW, but the next "planned trip" (that isn't already booked) is looking like October 2014 or later.

I plan on using my points at the 7 month window to get into VGF.

Love the pics of the GF and your breakfast looked good. I haven't been paying attention to how far along the construction has progressed so it was fun to see those pics.

It seems to be coming along well. I wonder if they've started selling point yet and how much they will be.

The breakfast looked absolutely amazing. I often have experienced that characters are bypassing all adult groups. I really don't understand why. People are hardly going to character meals for the gourmet food and the fact that there is camera on the table should also be a hint.

Corinna

Well at least everyone came by once. I would be really miffed if they passed us up completely. I just thought it was weird that Pooh and Tiggr waved everytime they came by our table and the other characters just moved right along.

 

[franandaj]

Our main goal for today was to get our package filled with souvenirs shipped home. I had the box that we had shipped stuff to Disney, and it was actually all packed up and ready to go. The Contemporary has a business center in the Convention Wing, they let me use a computer to log on to FedEx and print a shipping label. They have a daily pick up and they even had the little sleeve to affix the label to the package. Once we did that (I think it cost a dollar to print the page), we were done and on our way.

Our destination:



We stopped by the Harley store and make a couple purchases.



Then we were off to our next stop.









Up we Go!







You can see Epcot and the Resorts in this one.









Saratoga Springs, someday we’ll come back here to stay.







And then we started our descent downward…











[Continued in Next Post]

 

[franandaj]

[Continued from Previous Post]

So after our little ride, it was time for shopping. We headed right to World of Disney and were thankful to find that there were no crowds whatsoever.



Fran wanted to try on a pair of tennies that she had seen the other night, and after that we headed to the jewelry and other expensive items room. Brandi did get an express preview of this particular bag as I texted her a picture, knowing her love of all things Dooney. But here is the bag that I chose, and has been my daily purse for the last couple months. All week we searched for this bag at every park, resort, everywhere. The only place we could find it was at WoD in DTD. I have never seen anyone else with this particular bag and everyone who has seen it and knows about Dooney has loved it.





Now that I have shown it to all of you, I’m going to switch over to my new Dooney Bag that I bought a couple weeks ago at Disneyland.

Not even 15 minutes after filling out the paperwork to have my new purse shipped home to me, we bought this. I was tempted to run back and get the purse since we now had more packing space to get home.



Needless to say, that baby is coming on our cruise next week!

After all that shopping, we had worked up quite and appetite, but we didn’t want to spoil our dinner which was only a few hours away. We decided to split an order of Fish & Chips, and some onion rings. Remember how I said that we enjoyed the Yorkshire Fish House, well, Cooke’s of Dublin had them beat hands down! I’m really looking forward to our dinner at Raglan Road in October during the Gamers meet now. These were GREAT!





As we pulled away from DTD on our bus we caught another glimpse at our balloon.

 

[kmedina]

Day 2 looked so awesome. For starters, I agree the path is neat. I am glad the Brazilian tour group was not staying at the hotel, so you got in first. Thanks for all of the pictures of The Harry Potter ride. Everything inside is above and beyond amazing. They really did a good job. Although you do not want to do the ride again, I am more excited than ever to try it based on your description. The shopping areas are just as neat. I love the Wizard shot Fran got and would like matching shirts too as long as Crap would get the muggle one. As long as all of those cool candies do not really taste like the horrible descriptions, I cannot wait to try them. I heard they are doing Harry Potter at the Universal in California in 2016. I will likely go there first, but I still want to see the one in Orlando.

I know you did not stop there, but your pictures of Suess land look neat. We love Bubba Gump's. good choice for food. The Emeril's looks beautiful inside. Adobo is my favorite Filipino dish, so I bet it was as good as you described.

 

[dolphingirl47]

How did you like Characters in Flight. I love this purse. Now I want another one. Graham is going to disown me.

Corinna

 

[scottny]

That is too bad she wasn’t feeling well. The dinner you made looked good.
The balloon ride is fun. Plan it around 9pm and you will see fireworks. It is great.
I like the luggage.
Great updates and pics.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Love the views from the balloon.

What time are you booked for 1900? I'm unlikely to change as the draw for me is early entry to mk before the crowd. Maybe we can catch up after.

 

[Kwaschitz]

It seems to be coming along well. I wonder if they've started selling point yet and how much they will be.

Not yet. We've got our name in with a guide to call the minute they are