princessjv
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2005
- Messages
- 3,080
Wow you were so lucky on your trip! I can't wait to hear what other luck you come across! Glad to hear that your dd had a speedy recovery!
Planning 201 vs Reality 101 Our Jan/Feb 07 trip - lots of photos, FINAL 3/31
- Thread starter pantherlj
- Start date
It has been a busy week .... I will finish up soon, I promise! That darn PhotoPass CD still isn't here either Alright, I have some time to get another day in. The problem with waiting this long ..... I forgot the exact order of things this day. Not sure why this day is such a blur but the highlights are below. THey just are probably out of order. 
Day 7 Friday February 2nd (cloudy day, strong chance of showers, the day after the awful tornadoes in Florida)
Planning 201: None! Nada! Zip! Fly by the seat of our pants day .... it was set aside for doing things we might miss due to weather, things that we didn't get to do because of crowds or things that we loved and wanted to do again. No ADR though - no set parks.
Reality 101: Bad start to the day with the awful news of all the tornadoes just 50 miles north of Orlando. We felt really bad for those families. We had strong thunderstorms during the night as well. On the positive side, Amy's fever never came back and nobody else ended up with a fever or sore throat.
So, what to do with our day? Although we had been to MK twice already, there were still a few rides we didn't get to and everyone had a few favorites there so we easily all agreed on MK.
The crowds were very low this morning so we didn't have to wait long for anything.
We finally got on Peter Pan! Every time we went by the other days, the wait was 40 minutes, we couldn't believe how long the wait was for that ride. Today, it was 5 minutes. I had a nice memory of it from my honeymoon but sure gald we didn't wait 40 minutes for it this trip. Side note. Why is Peter Pan always in Adventureland, not near the Peter Pan ride? Just a thought. Probably traffic flow.
This is a bit out of order but since I mentioned Peter Pan ...... we saw Peter Pan in Adventureland again today. We saw him other times during the week in Adventureland but *both* times we went to get in line, the CM said we couldn't get in line, Peter Pan had to leave. I don't think the girls really cared one way or the other to see him but at this point, they really wanted to just because they couldn't the other times
As a side note .... Amanda just saw this photo and said "OH! I stepped on his shoe when you were taking this picture but there wasn't a foot in it" LOL
The girls were bummed that Indy Speedway was closed for rehab (Planning 201 made sure we got to in Monday because I knew it would be closed later in the week!!).
We went on the Magic Carpet ride and Amy hated it because the camel spit on her. She said she didn't like getting wet on the ride. I should have filed this information away better.
Here is a photo before the mean old camel did his damage. Well, I guess he wouldn't have gotten Amy if Amanda hadn't figured out how to make sure we all got wet!
We grabbed fast passes for Big Thunder and explored Tom Sawyers Island. This was one of DH's favorites as a child (he went to Disney a couple of times as a child 6 - 8 range) and he really enjoyed exploring it with the girls. The caves are really dark, the bridge was neat, it is a big area, much bigger than I remembered! lots of fun!
Here is Amy looking for Pirates. Anyone watch Backyardigins? Evidently, there is an episode about pirates. The whole time on Tom Sawyer Island Amy kept chanting “what do you do to scurvy pirates? Make them walk the plank!”. It was funny.
Another shot on the island (I think we have more photos from this area than the entire day combine!)
We headed back and rode Spalsh Mountain. I knew Amy would be fine with the big drop at the end because she had enjoyed all the other thrill rides this week.
We get on and before we get very far into the ride, she gets soaked by another log going down the drop and started crying, loud and hard. 
I bribed her with an offer of ice cream as soon as we got off the ride (generally, bribery isn't good but hey, there was another family on the log trying to enjoy the ride!). She calmed down but was non too happy with that ride!
After our ice cream (Yes, I followed through on my bribe because she stopped crying!), we headed over toward AdventureLand again. It started to drizzle so we ducked into Pirates of the Caribbean for yet another ride with the Pirates. There was never a wait for this ride all week. Maybe 10 minutes once. We went to the left queue and imagine our surprise when we walked around the corner and there was Captain Jack Sparrow!!
His makeup, costume and personality were amazing! DH and I got our picture take with him. He was just great to talk to. We headed off to the ride (I should have asked him to ride it with us - HA). While we were riding, Amy said she wanted to go back and ask Captain Jack a question. We went back through the queue and he was gone
We asked a CM where we could find him and she told us he does not do Meet and Greets, just the pirate tutorial. We shared our experience with her and she said we just got lucky, he must have ducked in out of the rain.
BTW, Amy's question: How do you get around so fast in the ride?! (she thinks it is really him in each section).
We headed over to Tomorrowland and had walk ons for everything we wanted. After playing in Tomorrowland and heading out, a trash can rolled up to the girls and started talking to them. He introduced himself as Push (Push, get it?) He asked them their names, and addressed them by their names for the rest of the conversation. He asked them where they were from and then did some trivia on that. Fun! Darn, no photo!
Oh..... we finally went on the tea cups this day. I did NOT want anything to do with them. Out of all the rides in all the parks, this is the ONE DH and I didn't want to do. We avoided them on purpose all week. Somehow, Amanda kept asking to go on it and Friday, she just knew she had to go on it. But, I knew Amy would want to go on with Amanda and I couldn't risk Amanda being in charge of the tea cup with Amy on board, so ..... I did the right thing and suffered through the ride
while DH laughed .... I mean watched. He owes me!
We went back to the hotel for a break. We decided to head to MGM for Fantasmic. We got there with enough time for one ride. We all decided on Tower of Terror.
I wasn't sure how Amy would do - remember our 2 previous attempts at the Haunted Mansion? It turns out it was the howling outside HM that was freaking her out. She really enjoyed ToT and said she wanted to do it again. Cool! But, it was time to get to Fantasmic. We got our seats for Fantasmic and I went to get some drinks and popcorn
while DH and the girls sat. It was bit stressful because the line was slow moving line and the announcement kept saying that you could miss the show if you aren't back to your seats in time. But I got back in time to enjoy the show. It was a great way to spend our last night in Disney. The show is spectacular!
Conclusion: It was nice to have a free day with no plans. I have a hard time changing plans once they are set in my mind so this worked out perfect. Everyone got to enjoy their favorites at MK (Amanda - Space Mountain, DH - Pirates, Amy - Goofy's Barnstormer, Me - I love it all)
Day 7 Friday February 2nd (cloudy day, strong chance of showers, the day after the awful tornadoes in Florida)
Planning 201: None! Nada! Zip! Fly by the seat of our pants day .... it was set aside for doing things we might miss due to weather, things that we didn't get to do because of crowds or things that we loved and wanted to do again. No ADR though - no set parks.
Reality 101: Bad start to the day with the awful news of all the tornadoes just 50 miles north of Orlando. We felt really bad for those families. We had strong thunderstorms during the night as well. On the positive side, Amy's fever never came back and nobody else ended up with a fever or sore throat.
So, what to do with our day? Although we had been to MK twice already, there were still a few rides we didn't get to and everyone had a few favorites there so we easily all agreed on MK.
The crowds were very low this morning so we didn't have to wait long for anything.
We finally got on Peter Pan! Every time we went by the other days, the wait was 40 minutes, we couldn't believe how long the wait was for that ride. Today, it was 5 minutes. I had a nice memory of it from my honeymoon but sure gald we didn't wait 40 minutes for it this trip. Side note. Why is Peter Pan always in Adventureland, not near the Peter Pan ride? Just a thought. Probably traffic flow.This is a bit out of order but since I mentioned Peter Pan ...... we saw Peter Pan in Adventureland again today. We saw him other times during the week in Adventureland but *both* times we went to get in line, the CM said we couldn't get in line, Peter Pan had to leave. I don't think the girls really cared one way or the other to see him but at this point, they really wanted to just because they couldn't the other times
As a side note .... Amanda just saw this photo and said "OH! I stepped on his shoe when you were taking this picture but there wasn't a foot in it" LOL
The girls were bummed that Indy Speedway was closed for rehab (Planning 201 made sure we got to in Monday because I knew it would be closed later in the week!!).
We went on the Magic Carpet ride and Amy hated it because the camel spit on her. She said she didn't like getting wet on the ride. I should have filed this information away better.
Here is a photo before the mean old camel did his damage. Well, I guess he wouldn't have gotten Amy if Amanda hadn't figured out how to make sure we all got wet!
We grabbed fast passes for Big Thunder and explored Tom Sawyers Island. This was one of DH's favorites as a child (he went to Disney a couple of times as a child 6 - 8 range) and he really enjoyed exploring it with the girls. The caves are really dark, the bridge was neat, it is a big area, much bigger than I remembered! lots of fun!
Here is Amy looking for Pirates. Anyone watch Backyardigins? Evidently, there is an episode about pirates. The whole time on Tom Sawyer Island Amy kept chanting “what do you do to scurvy pirates? Make them walk the plank!”. It was funny.
Another shot on the island (I think we have more photos from this area than the entire day combine!)
We headed back and rode Spalsh Mountain. I knew Amy would be fine with the big drop at the end because she had enjoyed all the other thrill rides this week.
We get on and before we get very far into the ride, she gets soaked by another log going down the drop and started crying, loud and hard. I bribed her with an offer of ice cream as soon as we got off the ride (generally, bribery isn't good but hey, there was another family on the log trying to enjoy the ride!). She calmed down but was non too happy with that ride!After our ice cream (Yes, I followed through on my bribe because she stopped crying!), we headed over toward AdventureLand again. It started to drizzle so we ducked into Pirates of the Caribbean for yet another ride with the Pirates. There was never a wait for this ride all week. Maybe 10 minutes once. We went to the left queue and imagine our surprise when we walked around the corner and there was Captain Jack Sparrow!!
His makeup, costume and personality were amazing! DH and I got our picture take with him. He was just great to talk to. We headed off to the ride (I should have asked him to ride it with us - HA). While we were riding, Amy said she wanted to go back and ask Captain Jack a question. We went back through the queue and he was gone
We asked a CM where we could find him and she told us he does not do Meet and Greets, just the pirate tutorial. We shared our experience with her and she said we just got lucky, he must have ducked in out of the rain. BTW, Amy's question: How do you get around so fast in the ride?! (she thinks it is really him in each section).
We headed over to Tomorrowland and had walk ons for everything we wanted. After playing in Tomorrowland and heading out, a trash can rolled up to the girls and started talking to them. He introduced himself as Push
(Push, get it?) He asked them their names, and addressed them by their names for the rest of the conversation. He asked them where they were from and then did some trivia on that. Fun! Darn, no photo!Oh..... we finally went on the tea cups this day. I did NOT want anything to do with them. Out of all the rides in all the parks, this is the ONE DH and I didn't want to do. We avoided them on purpose all week. Somehow, Amanda kept asking to go on it and Friday, she just knew she had to go on it. But, I knew Amy would want to go on with Amanda and I couldn't risk Amanda being in charge of the tea cup with Amy on board, so ..... I did the right thing and suffered through the ride
while DH laughed .... I mean watched. He owes me!We went back to the hotel for a break. We decided to head to MGM for Fantasmic. We got there with enough time for one ride. We all decided on Tower of Terror.
I wasn't sure how Amy would do - remember our 2 previous attempts at the Haunted Mansion? It turns out it was the howling outside HM that was freaking her out. She really enjoyed ToT and said she wanted to do it again. Cool! But, it was time to get to Fantasmic. We got our seats for Fantasmic and I went to get some drinks and popcorn
while DH and the girls sat. It was bit stressful because the line was slow moving line and the announcement kept saying that you could miss the show if you aren't back to your seats in time. But I got back in time to enjoy the show. It was a great way to spend our last night in Disney. The show is spectacular! Conclusion: It was nice to have a free day with no plans. I have a hard time changing plans once they are set in my mind so this worked out perfect. Everyone got to enjoy their favorites at MK (Amanda - Space Mountain, DH - Pirates, Amy - Goofy's Barnstormer, Me - I love it all)
princessjv
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2005
- Messages
- 3,080
That is a fantastic picture of TOT! Great job on the reporting. I am glad you enjoyed your 'laid back' day.
Man, am I slack or what?? I could come up with excuses but won't waste your time, so, here we go. The end of the most awesome, magical vacation possible for our family. Really, I can't think of anything that would have made it more perfect (well, a few days longer with warmer weather for water parks 
)
Day 8 Saturday, February 3rd (chance of showers, 70's)
Planning 201: Again, no major plans. This is depature day so maybe catch a couple of much loved rides, buy a few souvenirs, leave Disney around 1 and get half way back to NC. Stay the night in a Holiday Inn Express type hotel.
Reality 101: Well, things change. You can see this coming right? Who wants to leave Disney? Why leave Disney at 1 when you don't have a flight to catch? We decided we wanted to hit Test Track again so picked Epcot for our last park. It was one of the only thrill rides Amy was tall enough for. We didn't want her to spend her last day sitting on a bench while we rode the bigger rides. We went to Innoventions West first thing based on the recommendation of the bus driver. She said her grandkids love it there. We were walking in and a Cast Member in a WHITE VEST (you see where I am going with this) insisted that we do the ”Where's the Fire" attraction ..... I wasn't sure I wanted to waste time with it. We only had a couple of hours before we were going to start driving home. He said "really, you didn't want to miss it this AM". So, we went in and Surprise! Everyone won Dream Fastpasses for the day (I feel guilty but when I saw the guys in the white vest, I was really hoping for lanyards with pins since we weren't planning on being at Epcot long that day). The fire game was fun, the girls loved the video game stations at Innoventions and would have stayed as long as we let them but, hey, we have Playstation at home. We don't need to play it at Disney. We rode lots of rides that we didn't do on Thursday plus our favorites again. I hadn't planned on Figment but rain started at it was close so we ran in. The girls loved it, we tasted Coke flavors from other countries and had lots of time with the characters in Character Connection after lunch at Electric Umbrella ($53, 4 CS). I was surprised how empty it was in Character Connection. We saw Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Chip and Dale, Alice in Wonderland and Snow White. Amy went right to Pluto and didn't bother with any other characters after that. When he signs his name, he makes the the O into a paw print. Amy was fascinated with this and plopped down on the floor to draw paw prints next to his while Amanda went to the other characters. Goofy was just standing around and he started to dance with me and Amanda.
That was fun. We finally headed back to get our car from the hotel around 3:15 and we got to Downtown Disney for shopping about 4:30. So much for getting half way to NC!
We all were getting hungry and tired so we really didn't spend much time shopping. I usually don't splurge on myself but I had bought a watch on our honeymoon. DH told me to pick out something nice for myself and I surprised myself by doing just that! I got a new watch (the one from the honeymoon 15 years ago had long worn out). The girls got a couple of small things and we headed down the road with some McDonald's to eat on the drive for dinner. I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get to do more shopping. I kept putting it off during the week because of my anticipated trip to World of Disney. The girls didn't even end up with Disney World T-shirts. Oh well, we have lot of memories and a picture or two We made it to the GA border around 8:30 and stayed at a La Quinta for the night (great price, free Internet and free breakfast – my $$ mind was pleased).
Sunday was the final 7 hours of the drive home. We made it to a Cracker Barrel and ended up with gas at $2.12 (it was $2.02 all the exits before and after the one we got off, I notice these things!) Of course, I would love to see 2.12 now!! We got home in time to unload the car, do a bit of lanudry, get some groceries for the week and settle in to watch the Non-Panthers SuperBowl. Is there nothing worse than going grocery shopping the day you come home from vacation or is it just me?
Conclusion to the trip. Anything I would have done different? NOPE! Everything went just as I had hoped and worked toward. The Christmas Surprise
was awesome. The rides, meals, attractions were what I had expected. The girls did everything they wanted to and DH and I even had a nice quiet meal alone.
I look forward to planning our next trip.
I will finish uploading some Photopass pictures and post them next. As you can tell by this post, we got slack with the photo taking the last day!
)Day 8 Saturday, February 3rd (chance of showers, 70's)
Planning 201: Again, no major plans. This is depature day so maybe catch a couple of much loved rides, buy a few souvenirs, leave Disney around 1 and get half way back to NC. Stay the night in a Holiday Inn Express type hotel.
Reality 101: Well, things change. You can see this coming right? Who wants to leave Disney? Why leave Disney at 1 when you don't have a flight to catch?
We decided we wanted to hit Test Track again so picked Epcot for our last park. It was one of the only thrill rides Amy was tall enough for. We didn't want her to spend her last day sitting on a bench while we rode the bigger rides. We went to Innoventions West first thing based on the recommendation of the bus driver. She said her grandkids love it there. We were walking in and a Cast Member in a WHITE VEST (you see where I am going with this) insisted that we do the ”Where's the Fire" attraction ..... I wasn't sure I wanted to waste time with it. We only had a couple of hours before we were going to start driving home. He said "really, you didn't want to miss it this AM". So, we went in and Surprise! Everyone won Dream Fastpasses for the day (I feel guilty but when I saw the guys in the white vest, I was really hoping for lanyards with pins since we weren't planning on being at Epcot long that day). The fire game was fun, the girls loved the video game stations at Innoventions and would have stayed as long as we let them but, hey, we have Playstation at home. We don't need to play it at Disney. We rode lots of rides that we didn't do on Thursday plus our favorites again. I hadn't planned on Figment but rain started at it was close so we ran in. The girls loved it, we tasted Coke flavors from other countries and had lots of time with the characters in Character Connection after lunch at Electric Umbrella ($53, 4 CS). I was surprised how empty it was in Character Connection. We saw Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, Chip and Dale, Alice in Wonderland and Snow White. Amy went right to Pluto and didn't bother with any other characters after that. When he signs his name, he makes the the O into a paw print. Amy was fascinated with this and plopped down on the floor to draw paw prints next to his while Amanda went to the other characters. Goofy was just standing around and he started to dance with me and Amanda.
That was fun. We finally headed back to get our car from the hotel around 3:15 and we got to Downtown Disney for shopping about 4:30. So much for getting half way to NC!
We all were getting hungry and tired so we really didn't spend much time shopping. I usually don't splurge on myself but I had bought a watch on our honeymoon. DH told me to pick out something nice for myself and I surprised myself by doing just that! I got a new watch (the one from the honeymoon 15 years ago had long worn out). The girls got a couple of small things and we headed down the road with some McDonald's to eat on the drive for dinner. I was a bit disappointed that I didn't get to do more shopping. I kept putting it off during the week because of my anticipated trip to World of Disney. The girls didn't even end up with Disney World T-shirts. Oh well, we have lot of memories and a picture or two
We made it to the GA border around 8:30 and stayed at a La Quinta for the night (great price, free Internet and free breakfast – my $$ mind was pleased). Sunday was the final 7 hours of the drive home. We made it to a Cracker Barrel and ended up with gas at $2.12 (it was $2.02 all the exits before and after the one we got off, I notice these things!) Of course, I would love to see 2.12 now!! We got home in time to unload the car, do a bit of lanudry, get some groceries for the week and settle in to watch the Non-Panthers SuperBowl. Is there nothing worse than going grocery shopping the day you come home from vacation or is it just me?
Conclusion to the trip. Anything I would have done different? NOPE! Everything went just as I had hoped and worked toward. The Christmas Surprise
was awesome. The rides, meals, attractions were what I had expected. The girls did everything they wanted to and DH and I even had a nice quiet meal alone.I look forward to planning our next trip.
I will finish uploading some Photopass pictures and post them next. As you can tell by this post, we got slack with the photo taking the last day!
DebIreland
ಠvಠ
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2005
- Messages
- 3,601
Hey again panther! 
So glad you're back. I haven't read your latest chapter yet (looking forward to it!!) but I wanted to reply to say I'm sorry I missed your message to me a few weeks back - I wasn't online a whole lot that week so it slipped right by me! That is so adorable about Amy looking at Alice's pics!
Hi Amy!
This is Deb, Alice's mom! Thank you VERY much for the message to Alice. She's in bed right now but I will show it her tomorrow and she'll be so pleased!!!
I'm so glad you enjoyed the photos! I'm looking forward to showing her the beautiful photos of you and your sister meeting all those characters!!
You and Amanda are very pretty - just like two princesses! 
I really love the photo of you and Pluto. He is *so* much fun - cuddley and funny!! I also love the photo of you and Amanda holding hands with Mickey! I hope you really enjoyed your trip to Disney World
Deb (and Alice)
So glad you're back. I haven't read your latest chapter yet (looking forward to it!!) but I wanted to reply to say I'm sorry I missed your message to me a few weeks back - I wasn't online a whole lot that week so it slipped right by me! That is so adorable about Amy looking at Alice's pics!
AMY said:
Hi Amy!
This is Deb, Alice's mom! Thank you VERY much for the message to Alice. She's in bed right now but I will show it her tomorrow and she'll be so pleased!!!
I'm so glad you enjoyed the photos! I'm looking forward to showing her the beautiful photos of you and your sister meeting all those characters!!
You and Amanda are very pretty - just like two princesses! I really love the photo of you and Pluto. He is *so* much fun - cuddley and funny!! I also love the photo of you and Amanda holding hands with Mickey! I hope you really enjoyed your trip to Disney World Deb (and Alice)
Here are some of my 200 photo pass photos. I think we ended up with about 125 pictures. The most came from Epcot Character Connection. Then, I added borders/resized a lot of them to get it up to 200.
Was it worth $125? $125 is a LOT of money for pictures (in my opinion) but the pictures we ended up with were worth it.
I have 2 more days to decide if I want to get the movie for $50. Any thoughts on that?? (I ended up buying the movie and am VERY glad I did!)
When we opened the park, we had a photopass CM taking our picture from the ground. He also took some pictures of us with Mickey. Probably 12 pictures total. Of course, these are pictures we could never have taken on our own so we didn't have any choice but to buy photopass!
I like the tinkerbell imposed photos.
Here they are with Tinkerbell
The girls died laughing when they saw Amy's photo. They think Amy smooshed Tinkerbell in this photo
DH, Amy and Amanda all took this photo in Adventureland. Amy's got lost - never showed up on photopass even after I emailed them to look for it. DH's showed up but the angle wasn't right. I think Amanda's was good.
There was a photographer at EPCOT that spent a lot of time with the girls. It was opening and we were anxious to get to Test Track but he wanted to do some poses They turned out to be some fun/unique photos.
Final one .... Princess meal in Norway. We bought the package pictures for $35. I asked if they were photo pass and they said no. I only bought it because the picture at Cinderella's breakfast was so awful. Turns out, norway IS photopass and I could have saved $35. Oh well.... I will get past it at some point in my life
Amanda had the idea to give the Princess a flower but it broke. Amy was able to give her one and the CM captured it. How sweet is this?!
Was it worth $125? $125 is a LOT of money for pictures (in my opinion) but the pictures we ended up with were worth it.
I have 2 more days to decide if I want to get the movie for $50. Any thoughts on that?? (I ended up buying the movie and am VERY glad I did!)
When we opened the park, we had a photopass CM taking our picture from the ground. He also took some pictures of us with Mickey. Probably 12 pictures total. Of course, these are pictures we could never have taken on our own so we didn't have any choice but to buy photopass!
I like the tinkerbell imposed photos.
Here they are with Tinkerbell
The girls died laughing when they saw Amy's photo. They think Amy smooshed Tinkerbell in this photo
DH, Amy and Amanda all took this photo in Adventureland. Amy's got lost - never showed up on photopass even after I emailed them to look for it. DH's showed up but the angle wasn't right. I think Amanda's was good.
There was a photographer at EPCOT that spent a lot of time with the girls. It was opening and we were anxious to get to Test Track but he wanted to do some poses
They turned out to be some fun/unique photos.
Final one .... Princess meal in Norway. We bought the package pictures for $35. I asked if they were photo pass and they said no. I only bought it because the picture at Cinderella's breakfast was so awful. Turns out, norway IS photopass and I could have saved $35. Oh well.... I will get past it at some point in my life
Amanda had the idea to give the Princess a flower but it broke. Amy was able to give her one and the CM captured it. How sweet is this?!
I loved every bit of your trip report, your pictures are gorgeous (btw... how do you get the ones with the characters in them?) but I HATE the last day reports
There are certain photopass places that automatically put the characters in for you - tinkerbell is in front of the castle, the sword is near the shop by PoTC, they add a ghost on the horseless carriage in front of the haunted mansion. There is a Stitch one somewhere?
KatGarcia
Just Keep Swimming.
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2006
- Messages
- 5,479
FYI if you are planning on buying the photopass cd you what they dont ell you is that if you go to any of the photopass store locations with the date and time of the picture (ie your ADR time at say Norway like u did) and they can search the system for it (all pics are in the system if taken by a pp camera) and add it to your cd with no charge! Thats how we got out Ohana and our Chef Mickey's pics without buying the whole package at the tables! Personally i think its the awesomest tip!
tinkgurl
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2006
- Messages
- 10,662
Do you like photos? Lots of them today!!
Day 3, Monday January 29th (chilly morning, 32, but warmed up as the day went on)
Planning 201: 8:20 Cinderella Royal Table Breakfast (changed from 8:50at the last minute to get a jump start on rides), counter service lunch somewhere in MK and ride rides until we got tired. Must do rides for this day Indy Speedway since I knew it would be in rehab the rest of our trip, Goofy Barnstormer early in the day to test out Amy's thrill riding levels, Pirates for DH and anything with short lines since I knew we would be back.
Reality 101: Wow, where to begin with Day 3....... While it is Day 3, it is our first full day of vacation. I had reservations for 8:50 at Cinderella's Castle. A friend (the one from the picnic) really pushed me to make our reservations as early as possible. She told me it is so magical to be at the Magic Kingdom when nobody is there. Calling to change our reservation was the best decision of our vacation! Amazingly, just about 2-3 weeks before vacation, I was able to get an 8:20 reservation. Another friend laughed at me when I shared my stress about the timing. 8:20 is early ... will DH and the girls handle it? 8:50 isn't too late, the lines will still be short. She teased me for stressing about it since it was only 30 minutes and really wouldn't make a big difference in the day one way or the other. Boy, was she wrong! The girls were having a hard time getting up but we got out the door and caught a bus quickly (bus service was great ALL week).
I told you it was a cold morning! Amy (pink hat) wouldn't let me put her hat any higher than that all morning. Drove me crazy to see her like that
We got to MK around 8. After going through the backpack check, a man and lady approached us and asked us if we were there for breakfast. I said yes and got a bit worried because I forgot to bring my reservation number. I had almost gone back to the room to get it, but it turns out it was a good thing I didn't waste the time. I could just imagine the kids disappointment if we didn't get to go have breakfast in the castle because I forgot the reservation number though!! He asked if we were really hungry or if we could wait just a little bit longer to eat. I had a feeling something really good was coming because of all the reading I had done on the boards. I told him we could wait and he said we were picked to help open Magic Kingdom today! We were the Magic Kingdom Family of the Day.
We went over to guest relations. He offered the girls autograph books but we already had some. Then, we got whisked away to Toon Town in one of the old fashion cars.
wish the color was brighter but the only shot we have
We were then handed over to a different Cast Member (Dennis, very friendly and helpful CM!). Dennis told us to get our camera ready, something fun was going to happen ... his boss was on the way. Just then, Amy has to go to the bathroom -We had to run from the train station up past Minnie's house.
We got back just as 12 characters were coming around the corner! It was so amazing to see that many characters together at one time and no people. It was just the 4 of us and Dennis. The girls got to play around with the characters, get autographs and pictures for about 15 minutes.
It was fun to see the characters interact with each other. Stitch, Chip and Dale and Alice in Wonderland were really entertaining ... even when they thought nobody was looking. They just enjoyed goofing off with each other. After we got an amazing group picture we boarded the train.
Amanda was pleased that Dennis agreed to let us enter through the exit
The characters all spread out into different cars of the train. We were in the middle with Mickey and Dennis. By this time, Amy had fallen in love with Pluto
It was a chilly morning so they were warming each other's hands and noses up at one point.
We played with Pluto and Mickey while waiting on the train for about 10 more minutes and then we were off.
Amanda hanging out with Mickey
We rounded the corner to the main entrance and there were hundreds of people waiting below to get into the park! We hopped off the train and got some confetti. We waved to the crowds while the song and dance went on. We then did a countdown from 10 and "bang" went the streamers and confetti.
After we were done, the girls walked away from the train hand in hand with Mickey.
The main song/dance cast member went up to Amy and told her since she was the little sister, he wanted her to have something to help her remember this day. He gave her a set of two special Tinker Bell pins that can not be purchased anywhere. He said one was for her to keep and the other was for her to share with her big sister. We got lots of neat pictures on our photopass card from this experience (need to buy it within the next 10 days!!). We walked down the ramp and got some pictures with Mickey and they sent us on our way to Cinderella's Castle for breakfast. We got a picture of the girls before we went in
OMG! It is only 9:15 AM and this is our first full day?! No way the rest of the vacation can live up to this. Will the girls expect the royal treatment every where they go? Will they tolerate waiting in line to see a character?
More soon, thanks for sharing my trip with me! It sure is fun to relive it
This day gave me goosebumps!
tinkgurl
DIS Legend
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2006
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