Pixie Dust in Your Eye Hurts! -- Aug. 2010 -- update on 2/25: Epcot Photopass!

[wlake]

Okay somehow I completely missed that you were on page 2! I've been waiting for an update. I just never saw Page 1 of 2!

I did primeval Whirl while my mom watched, she was too scared. It was me and two little kids who I didn't know.

We had giraffe pass by us too last time I was there.

I have no idea about that towel animal, but it sure is festive!

I don't remember seeing too many giraffes last year, but this seemed to be the year of the giraffe!

Three days until you go! Lucky, lucky you!

 

[wlake]

That was so awesome of the CM to give DS a rider pass card!!

I loved the giraffe picture...they are my favorite animal!!

The POR picture made me long to be back...ahhhhhhhh, I miss it so much! We nver got a towel decoration and I have no clue what yours is! Very tropical!!

We had an 8am ADR at Tusker House also!! Can't wait to hear how yours went!!

The rider swap card was so amazingly kind, wasn't it?

There's another giraffe picture in my reply to Lexmas! I'll try to remember to upload more into the next TR update.

The 8 AM ADR time has got to be the greatest!!

 

[wlake]

Not long before I booked this trip, I found out that one of my sister’s coworkers had done an intership at AK. She’s someone I’ve met several times, so needless to say, I hit her up for AK advice! Her advice: try to ride the safari first thing; try to be near the gibbons and simiangs (can’t remember their exact names) first thing as you’ll hear them calling back and forth (she did acknowledge that you can’t do both of those things on the same day!), make sure you see DeVine, EE is always crowded, and do the Oasis trails on the way out as they’re very crowded in the morning too.

So, we had an 8:00 ADR at Tusker House and the park didn’t open until 9. We had to wait in line to get into the park, but once we did, we went almost straight to Tusker House, stopping only for a couple of pictures and checked in. We were -- ready for this? -- directed straight to Donald Duck to take our picture, waiting for only one family, and seated right away! I almost fell over from shock! The trick to this was being one of the first people to check in, because by the time we had done our photo and gathered our things, there was a line.

I love the juice here and I like breakfast buffets, so I was pleased, although after having breakfast at lunch time yesterday as well, I was beginning to feel like all I ever ate was breakfast. Daisy, Mickey, and Goofy stopped by in short order. I was so happy that this Mickey was better than the one at CM. DS5 had, with a lot of help from DS8, drawn a picture of Mickey to give to him on this trip. We had forgotten the card yesterday, which was just as well. When Mickey arrived, DS5 gave him the card and Mickey fussed and fussed over it.

If you’re curious, after the next table, Mickey gave the card to his handler, who carried around for most of the rest of the time we were there. I explained to DS5 that Mickey was afraid he might lose it, so his friend was holding it. Luckily, that went over ok! I was able to convince DS8 to join the Tusker House morning parade with noise makers, but he clearly did it only to make me happy.

We managed to make a bathroom stop and still be out of Tusker House, looking around a very closed up Africa, by 8:45. We wandered over to the rope keeping us away from the safari line and the Africa animal trails and waited there until the mini-rope drop at 9, then made a beeline to the safari. (We figured we were too far from the monkeys at that point, so we decided to go for the safari.)

This is a short update. My Tusker House pics just aren’t very good, especially compared to some others I have. I’m exhausted from being back at work and have piles of work to do for it, as well as my PP pics which begin expiring on 9/5. If you were sent one of those special cards in your information packet, DON’T register it before you go!! The pictures expire 30 from that date, not from when you start using the card! Not to mention, I didn’t get any special offers from them anyway.

Up next: The first bus from Harambe!

 

[TinksThree]

Your picture with Donald is so good!! I like the angle they took it from. What luck to get right in...we were so behind schedule but we still did okay on time in the end. Isn't that juice great?! I love it! And I know exactly how you felt about eating breakfast so much....we had three and I don't think i will do that again!

The nursing giraffe picture is cute....thanks for including it!!

 

[lexmas]

Thanks so much for the picture of the cards...they're really neat, I will have to remember to try and ask for some on our trip. And thank also for the picture of the nursing giraffe picture! It just warmed my heart!

It is SO cute that your DS5 made Mickey a card. And I was wondering what mickey did with it, so thanks for that info as well!

Glad the food was good, even if you started getting a little overloaded on Breakfast. That's the problem with breakfast, it's always the same. It seems like you made good time, and had a great start to the day!

Hope you're settling in at work, and that you get your photopass all taken care of in time!

 

[wlake]

OK, PhotoPass pictures done and the CD is ordered! I can't wait for the CD to arrive so I can add some of those to my TR.

One Christmas present for DS5 is ordered -- he fell in love with the little alien from Toy Story this trip. The Disney Store has the mini beanbag ones on sale this weekend AND free shipping! and another one:

I was really missing Disney this weekend, so I broke out the Mickey head sprinkles I bought without the boys knowing about them and we put them on cookies yesterday. Making me even sadder -- they found a Mickey head of lichens on the big rock outside! I'll have to get a picture of it later. So, here's my next installment, probably with more detail than anyone might ever want!

still Tuesday morning, August 17, 2010

We waited in line for a few minutes at the safari until the first buses were brought around and we could go to the bottom of the queue area. We were really surprised to find that we were on the first bus out that morning! Our guide didn’t get into the story of the trip much, but he had lots of say about the various animals. Since we had just heard the story the day before, I was perfectly fine with that! It must have been rhino day, because I think we saw all of them! We also saw these three giraffes stripping this tree bare.

But the best thing we saw was the baby elephant! It doesn’t really look small in this photo, but it is! It was just adorable!

I think it’s fun to watch the animals, but it’s much more fun to watch DS5 watch the animals. He gets so excited each time we see anything. He had really wanted to see the giraffes, and we saw several between the two safaris.

After the safari, we decided to try to see if we could get DS8 on Primeval Whirl again without a long wait. We grabbed FPs for Kali River Rapids on our way through Asia, too. The time posted for PW was 25 minutes, but he and DH got in line anyway, grabbing a rider swap card. DS5 and I walked over to Triceratops Spin because he loves those sorts of rides and I like riding them with him. We had to wait for the current ride to stop, but then we were able to walk on. DS5 likes this ride, but I think he was a bit bored, because we could have simply walked right around and gotten on again, but he wanted to wander around Dinoland just long enough so we had to wait for a minute or two again in order to ride a second time. Oh well. We tried to find DS5 and DH on PW, but they were riding on the left side, which you just can’t see. When they got off, we did the swap. DH and DS5 played in the Boneyard while DS8 and I rode again. I liked it just as much the second time, as long as my eyes are closed on the drops!

DS8 wanted to play in the Boneyard at this point, so we hung out there for a few minutes until they were ready for snacks. We left Dinoland looking for a snack spot, and found a nice bench in the shade just as the Village Beatniks were setting up. We listened and clapped along with them while the boys ate, but boy are they loud! Still, I just discovered I didn’t take any pictures of them.

DH and DS8 headed to Kali River Rapids, and DS5 and I decided to preview the animal trail through Asia, then try to get to the bridge with the squirting elephants in time to see the others go under (and hopefully squirt them!). We had barely started down the Asia trail when DH called to say they were loading into the raft, so we hurried through the rest of the trail to look for the bridge. I never did find it! For the life of me, I can’t figure out where it must be, because we listened to lots of screams coming from the ride. I know we were on it last time we visited, too. Oh well!

When we were together again, we headed back down the Asia trail, making sure both boys had a guide map. I really wanted them to see the fruit bats as that’s one of our nicknames for them. Seriously, if you put out an unsupervised tray of fruit, don’t expect there to be much left when you come back! (Truthfully, I love the fact that they’ll eat just as much fruit as they do chips or other junk food snacks.) I loved seeing the tigers too, even if they were only sleeping.

We had a good time trying to identify the birds in the bird area, even if we where highly unsuccessful! Coming out of the trail, we saw Flik walking along, headed off for a break, I guess. We also stumbled on Mickey’s fishing hole!

Last year, we never went down to Camp Minnie-Mickey, so I wanted to at least walk through, even if we weren’t going to wait in line to see any of the characters. When we got there, who did we see but Thumper and his friend! (Most embarrassing point of the trip so far: meeting a rabbit I couldn’t name. It gets much worse in a day or two, though, so hang on!) I just had to see a giant Thumper, so we waited in line for 10 minutes until our turn. I think DH is shocked at how many characters I’ve been willing to wait (at least a little bit) to meet this trip. I skipped them all last year (except Pluto once), but this year I’ve suggested Pluto and Thumper, and we’re only on day 3!

We did the Conservation Station stop here at C M-M. In one of my better moves, I had brought their cards from last year, where they had only done the one at Rafki’s Planet Watch. DS5 had done the Dinoland one last year too, actually, and DS8 did it at some point in the morning this year. This way, they had a chance to collect all 6 stamps without us wasting time going back to Rafki’s, which we all thought was rather boring.

By now, it’s way past lunch time according to the boys’ stomach clocks, we we headed back through Asia on our way to Dinoland to Restaurantasaurus. Why we went through Asia I’ll never know, but I swear we went through there every time we switched lands on this trip! The boys and I told DH what we wanted and cruised the building looking for an empty table. We finally ended up standing next to a family that was starting to clean up and swooping on the table as soon as they stood up. (They were very nice about the situation, and we “passed” the table on to another family the same way when we were leaving because the crowds didn’t diminish one bit.) This was one of the meals where DH and I split a meal to conserve some of our CS meals, but this strategy worked well for us this trip.

Anyone who knows the name of Thumper’s friend, please chime in! I still don’t know!

Up next: a calm afternoon at AK

 

[wlake]

TWO updates this weekend! I've been avoiding working on work things, so...

afternoon -- Tuesday, August 17

Here’s where my notes start to fail me! I have no mention of looking at the Tree of Life in my notes, but tons of pictures and I actually remember doing it! So, judging by the photos, after lunch we headed to the trails around the Tree. The boys love looking for the animals carved into it and the roots, and it’s one of the best quiet places in all of AK. We saw one other small family the entire time we wandered through here, and according to the times on my photos, that was at least 10 minutes. After the craziness that was Restaurantasaurus, DS8 needed something less stressful. The jumping and climbing in the Boneyard had gotten him through the morning. It was also really, really hot. Almost record breaking hot, even for Fla. You know it’s bad when I think it’s hot. We ended up sitting on a bench in a little cave at the end of the trail for a few minutes, which was another nice break. This photo sums up what we did most of the time we were there! The boys would say “Don’t you see ...?” and we’d be cocking our heads trying to figure out where on earth they were looking!

Then it was onward and upward to the Africa animal trek! DS5 likes the gorillas, mostly because last year, DS8, DS5, and I stopped to look at a nice waterfall and he was the only one who noticed the gorillas. We know better now!

The boys still needed two more Conservation stops (I’m really not sure when we did the other one!), so we decided to go in search of those. Since we were in Africa, we started there with little luck. I was about to give up on the Africa one. Even the map wasn’t much help, but we decided to ask a CM. It turns out you won’t find it if you don’t go to see It’s Tough to Be a Bug! Since we’re skipping all of the shows (they’re tough on DS8 due to his vision), we would have never found it. As it was, they kindly let us go in the exit so we could do the stop.

We headed BACK to Asia yet again, but I got this great photo!

We found the Asia stop without much trouble, so the boys got their last stamp, the bonus stamp, and a nice little activity book. We were hot, tired, and hungry, so we decided to do our shopping. The boys had gift cards from our dear friends as well as another one that our neighbors got for them (very long story but VERY nice neighbors!), and the day before, DS8 had seen a hippo stuffed animal on one of the outdoor carts that he just had to have. When big brother has something, little brother has to have it too, so off we went to get two rather large stuffed hippos. DH found a shirt he liked, so he got that as well. The boys were so excited about their hippos! I can’t believe I didn’t get any pictures of this either! We made a strict rule about hippos staying in their respective bags until we got back to POR. This didn’t go over very well. Each time I looked at the bags hanging on the back of the stroller, I wondered how on earth they were going to fit in the boys' backpacks to carry on the plane. Packing them in luggage wasn't going to go over well either!

It was almost parade time, so we staked out a shady place and I went off to find Mickey head ice creams for the boys, another family tradition. I had no problem finding the ice cream, but finding a food cart with napkins was another story! I had baby wipes, but there was no way they were eating those things without napkins too! Three carts later, I found some and they dug in!

Eating and cleaning up (or so we thought, more on that later!) kept us busy almost until parade time. DS5 loves this parade, so we were looking forward to it. The CMs spent a lot of time before the parade warning people to keep their bodies behind the rope so the characters would approach you. Evidently, and to no real surprise, they have a hard time seeing down so if they look ahead and see feet or hands sticking under the rope, they avoid that area so they don’t trip. Sadly, the woman next to us ignored this and had her feet and legs out into the parade route, so we didn’t get to see anyone up close. I’m not sure DS5 cared much though. I seem to take pictures of the characters just as they turn away, so I’ll spare you all of my pictures of their backs!

After the parade, we joined the throngs of people leaving the park. I felt like we had covered the park pretty completely and spent some time trying to talk the boys out of the half day we were planning on spending there on Friday. I just didn’t want to walk though Asia again this trip! As we were going over the bridge back to the Oasis, I tried to stuff the backpack into the basket under the stroller and realized there’s chocolate all over one of the straps... and the bottom... and the back... and now the stroller basket! It turns out we didn’t do such a hot job cleaning up after the ice cream, although I’m just not sure how it got on the backpack. I was a bit miffed because the chocolate made the pack unwearable unless you wanted it smeared all over your shirt (how I had already escaped that I’ll never know!) and because I had gotten the pack new for the trip. Chocolate does not decorate spring green and grey very well! Kudos to LL Bean and Huggies, though, because wipes got every bit of the chocolate off!

When that mess was cleaned up, the crowds had diminished and we headed down through the Oasis to look at a few things, but the boys were mostly interested in going through the rock tunnels. They chose one and we ended up on this little suspension bridge. Without looking to the left or right, we all started jumping and goofing off on it, because we were the only people around (or so we thought). Both boys have their feet off the ground in this picture!

When we finally got off the bridge, we noticed a CM feeding some birds to the left of it -- oops! I imagine we annoyed her and the birds no end with our commotion. We still walked over to watch what she was doing and listen to what she was telling another family about the birds. You can see the bridge to the top left in this photo.

By this point, it’s about 4:30, so we headed out for the bus stop to back to POR. I had been hoping to leave earlier so we could swim and eat at the resort and then head to MK for the fireworks and the parade, but I’m not sure anyone ends up leaving the parks when they had planned on going!

up next: what did we have time for before leaving for MK?

 

[tankgirl427]

That's Miss Bunny. I wanted to meet Thumper so badly, but it was like 2:50pm and they were going in at 3pm and I was in Dinoland.

 

[TinksThree]

This photo sums up what we did most of the time we were there! The boys would say “Don’t you see ...?” and we’d be cocking our heads trying to figure out where on earth they were looking!

This photo is so funny...I can just hear what they are thinking!


We headed BACK to Asia yet again, but I got this great photo!

You are correct: awesome picture!!!! I love EE!

Your day at AK sounds so nice...heat and all! AK is one of my favorite parks!

 

[lexmas]

Whew, I was so worried that you would have breezed through a good chunk of your trip before I got caught up, but it seems like I didn't do too badly!

Sounds like you had good luck on the safari! I could do without the story, so that sounds good to me. Facts about the animals just sounds like a lot more fun!

Yeah, I wouldn't have known about Miss Bunny if it weren't for the DIS, so I can't fault you on that one!

I LOVE the parade at AK. DH doesn't care for it, but I would definitely watch it more than once if I could!

Can you tell me more about the conservation station stops? I've never heard of it! Although, Rafiki's planet watch is pretty boring, so I don't know if I'm ready to drag myself back there!

Too funny about the bridge. I could totally see myself doing the same thing. But you are braver than I am, because I would never have gone to listen to what she was saying after!

I'm so glad to be caught up! Hope back to school is going well!

 

[wlake]

Miss Bunny -- thank you Tankgirl427! Except I still don't know who Miss Bunny is. However, I can at least name her now! It's strange to say, yes, that's me with the boys and Thumper and some rabbit.

TinksThree, I love that picture of the boys and DH too. How they find those creatures I'll never know! I can't find hidden Mickeys to save my soul either, so I supposed it must be some talent I'm lacking.

Lexmas -- the conservation stations are great! DS8 was a bit old for them but DS5 was just right! It also may depend on the intern running them, but they really pitched the conversation to a young kid level while we were there. There's one in each area and they're marked on the map (but be careful with Africa! ) At Rafki's, they had to find backyard creatures, in Asia they listened to gibbon calls, in Africa it was something with bugs, in the Oasis they tracked an animal (poop was one of the clues, so very boy friendly! ), in Dinoland it's a puzzle of dinosaur jaw bones, and in C M-M they felt hidden objects and had to guess what they were (the only one I remember was a pine cone). I may have some of those mixed up, but the little activities are fun. Each CM gives a little speech about what you can do to protect the earth and asks the kids for an answer. That gets old after the first couple stops, though. If I can dig up the card (it's already buried in the WDW box), I'll get a photo of it for you.

BTW, the PP CD arrived! I ordered it on a Thurs. night and it was in my mailbox on Wed.! I was pretty impressed with that turnaround. My next installment will have some PP pics in it too! I'm hoping to have that up tonight.

 

[wlake]

I thought I'd back up by a day and share the best PP photos from AK. I'll add all the others into the TR as I go along.

A photo I missed last year so I made sure we got it this year -- can you see the clouds that are about to create havoc with our afternoon?

I'm not a big Stitch fan (and the boys don't have any idea who he is other than a Disney alien!), but I really like this picture. It seemed like the PP people were really pushing the Stitch and Tinkerbell photos this year. Last year it was the balloon shot, but this year we had to ask for that one!

And the obligatory Tree of Life shot:

A little lesson just learned: the PP cameras might not say the right time. Those two photos are time stamped for 11:40ish, but we were still at CM's then!

 

[wlake]

Tuesday evening, August 17, 2010

We got back to the resort in good time, but decided we just didn’t have enough time to swim. We chilled out in the room for a little bit while I got pjs out and ready as well as everyone’s (ok, not DH’s!) clothes for the next day. (I guess I missed out on the chilling part, but that seems to be a mom’s lot!) We went over to the food court and got dinner. I have no idea what anyone ate anymore, though! I could dig through all of the receipts, but I’m not that motivated to get off the couch!

We filled our mugs and decided to take a little walk around POR so DS8 could take his photos. (Have I mentioned that he loves to take pictures? We got him an inexpensive digital camera for his birthday, but it takes fairly lousy pictures, which I feel bad about.) I took my fair share too! Here are my two favorites from that night:

We had a lot of fun on that walk. I’m not sure how it started, but we ended up constantly clanking our mugs together and saying “Cheers!” It was one of those silly, lighthearted times that our family had needed so badly and Disney is so able to provide.

We took the bus to MK a little bit later that evening. We were there in plenty of time for the MSEP, so we did some PP pics with the lit castle, although I wasn’t thrilled with any of them. It seems like the best place for them is as close to the castle as you can get and we never went that far. Lesson learned! Here’s the best of them:

We ended up finding a parade spot right by the train station in the town square. I’m not sure how DS8 felt about the parade, but DS5 loved it! We had to explain most of the stories and characters to them as we don’t watch movies in our house. I didn’t have a tripod or the knowledge of how to take nighttime photos on either of our cameras, so the pics are blurry beyond blurry! Here’s one for entertainment’s sake, so you can all feel like better photographers! I’m not even sure what it is anymore!

We wandered around aimlessly for awhile after that, waiting for Wishes to start. DS8 has memorized his guidebook and frequently quotes sections of it to us, both at WDW and at home. Anyway, his book had told him that the best viewing spot for Wishes is in the middle of Main Street, so we finally staked out a spot right there and waited.

DS5 HATES fireworks and loud booms, so we made sure we were closer to the train station than the castle. I remembered the ear plugs this year! (To be honest, I put them in my backpack at home and made sure to never take them out during the entire trip!) We got them in right before the show started. With being tucked into the stroller, the ear plugs and being back by the train station, it was just quiet enough for him to enjoy them! I was thrilled! We took right off after the fireworks (with the rest of the world, it seemed), but made it to POR and into bed before it was too, too late.

Up next: a full day at Epcot, with plans to snack around the world instead of eating a regular lunch. Can we convince the boys this is ok?

 

[tankgirl427]

That's Tink in her float right in the beginning of the parade.

 

[wlake]

That's Tink in her float right in the beginning of the parade.

WOW -- you're good! I can see that now that you've told me!

 

[wlake]

Wednesday morning, August 18, 2010

The plan for today was Epcot. We had no ADRs, having canceled one at the Rose and Crown today in exchange for one at the Liberty Tree Tavern on Thursday. We thought it would be more fun to skip a regular lunch and just get snacks at various places around the World Showcase.

Last year when we were here, it rained almost the entire time we were in the WS, stopping just in time for Illuminations. We hurried the boys through the Kidcot stops once the rain started, so this year we decided to skip them and spend the time looking around the countries. (Although three weeks later I’ve just realized that we missed the terra cotta warriors in China. Oh well.)

We were there for rope drop after a quick cereal and milk breakfast in the room. I love having sweetened ice tea for breakfast when I’m in WDW! We let the boys have fruit punch in their mugs and they love that too. I don’t remember the bus trip to Epcot at all, so it must have been uneventful! We got through the turnstiles and took pictures by ourselves and with PP photographers.

Once we got past Spaceship Earth, there were CMs with balls and trash cans. They would throw the balls to people, especially kids, passing by and encourage them to take a shot. Most people were focused on getting as close to the rope as they could, but my boys had a great time playing ball. I didn’t worry about the fact that they were sort of hogging the balls, because no one else really cared to play! In my eyes, these are those little moments where the Disney magic happens. In this photo you can see my DH with the red stroller in the background.

While I’m thinking of it, a question about the boys’ hats. DH needs a hat like that to avoid getting completely burned (he jokes that he has three colors: pale, burned, and blistered.) and the boys like to be like him. On our beach trip in July, we found and bought similar hats for the boys, despite the fact that they tan easily and have never burned, thanks to both good genes and constant sunscreen, both from their mother. Anyway, more people commented on how great their hats during this trip! CMs, PP people, guests -- everyone! I didn’t think they were anything special, other than being souvenirs from the beach. Are they that terrific?

At rope drop, DH and DS8 head to Mission: Space. DS8 is space obsessed, so he likes this ride, although he’d skip it in favor of Test Track. DS5 and I headed for Test Track to get a set of FPs. We walked through the Cool Wash on the way and then back to Mission: Space to take photos. We’re in the process of repainting and decorating DS8’s room to a space theme, and I wanted pics to possibly put on the walls for decorations. We also looked for hidden Mickeys while we waited, but we weren’t successful. Again.

Then we headed for the Land because I wanted to ride Livin’ with the Land. It was closed while we were here last year so it was on my must do list this year as I’d never done it before. I loved it! Somehow, though, I only got two pictures! I even found a couple of not so hidden Mickeys. I can find the obvious ones! It was also pretty neat seeing the Garden Grill from the boat as we had a ADR for dinner on Friday afternoon there.

On the way out, we saw the Jamminators. They’re too loud for DS8, but DS5 bopped along for a bit. When the show ended, they gave all of the kids stickers that proclaimed them “Junior Jamminators.” Another little Disney moment!

Then it was off to Club Cool, a must do for the boys! During our beach trip, they had both been exposed to nondiet soda and decided they sort of liked it, so for us, soda was exciting! DS8 liked the idea of trying sodas from around the world while DS5 just liked the idea of being allowed to have whatever sort he wanted. I was kind and didn’t push the Beverly on them. I’ve already let them try vanilla extract while we’ve been baking and other such fun things and I think they’re beginning to wonder if their mother truly has their best interests at heart. Anyway, DH hates carbonation, so he just watched the soda fest. The three of us proclaimed the watermelon from China to be our favorite and off we went to use our FPs on Test Track.

Here’s where I agree with the boys -- I didn’t have DS5’s best interests at heart here. He doesn’t like fast rides, but I still had him go with us. The rider swap thing was getting old and I wanted us to do more together. It seemed like we had done a lot of dividing and conquering this trip. Despite my silent misgivings and his vocal ones, we all rode together. Last time! As soon as we hit the curves, DS5 began to get upset, so I held him tighter and pulled his hat down low to quiet the noise and the wind when we got outside. I feel guilty remembering it even now. It was one of the low points of the trip (he had a few other whiny episodes that were pretty bad too, but I’ve blocked the specifics out of my memory! ). Despite the fact we rode TT again during our trip, this is our only photo as the photo system was down the other times we rode.

It’s still only 10:50 AM, so we walked slowly over to the WS. By the time we got that far, it was open and we headed though Mexico and all, straight for Germany to see the trains because DS5 likes them and I was still feeling terrible about TT. We ran around the train exhibit for a bit until we noticed the boat right there at the dock. We decided to hop on it (no luck with transporation cards as there aren’t any for that type of boat) and ride over to Morocco.

We were getting hungry at this point, so it was time for our first snack!

up next: the lack of lunch didn’t go over well, so we rename the snacks!

 

[tankgirl427]

Well I did see the parade less than a week ago.

BTW since you like Hidden Mickeys, do you see the one in your TT photo?

 

[wlake]

Well I did see the parade less than a week ago.

BTW since you like Hidden Mickeys, do you see the one in your TT photo?

OMG!!!! I have NEVER seen it, and my son has looked at that picture (and therefore I have had to) a thousand times.

How does the weekend of MLK Day sound for a Jan. trip? (I wish!)

 

[tankgirl427]

I actually looked at Oct. 28th - Oct. 31st or Jan 20th - Jan. 23rd. It would be about $900 for flight, room, tickets, and food.

The guy behind the counter asked the family in front of me if they saw it and I couldn't help but point it out after they just stood there for a minute like huh? hidden mickey?

 

[wlake]

I actually looked at Oct. 28th - Oct. 31st or Jan 20th - Jan. 23rd. It would be about $900 for flight, room, tickets, and food.

The guy behind the counter asked the family in front of me if they saw it and I couldn't help but point it out after they just stood there for a minute like huh? hidden mickey?

Great minds think alike or we're just both looking for a happy escape! I checked 1/14 to 1/17 about 10 minutes ago. I can't take more than a day from school at a time, so I have to go at peak times. For giggles, I priced the CR as well as our beloved POR (about $1800 without flights). The values' decor is too wild for my older son after a day in the parks. Even POFQ is a little much for him. Yeah, even with me working full time another Disney trip isn't happening. Plus, we've decided to take the boys to DC -- DS8 will adore the Air and Space museum and DS5 will love the zoo, not to mention that we think we'll take the train. I suppose I should expose them to traveling to places other than WDW....

Off to bed to dream about someone getting us APs as a Christmas present.... Oh Fairy Godmother?