Preggo, pennies, and pastries!!! **FINAL UPDATES 4/25**

[photographymom517]

After our meal, we continued walking through World Showcase – we needed to walk after eating so much! Our next stop was Morocco…another of my favorites!!!

It was fairly empty so we sat on a bench in the back of the pavilion near Marrakesh and were discussing our dinner options. We had scheduled San Angel originally but cancelled it a few nights before when we were switching around our plans. Our “new plan” was to leave Epcot this afternoon and head to Hollywood Studios. But we NOW decided if we were going to park hop, we’d head to MK, not to DHS. There weren’t any ADR’s we wanted at MK though – so we inquired about dinner at Marrakesh. We figured we might as well just stay at Epcot.

They accept walk-ins so never be afraid to ask! I asked if I needed to call or give them my name, but they said no. They just wrote my name (in English and Moroccan) and time on a card and gave it to me. They said to give it back to them whenever we arrived later that day.

My husband walked around the pavilion for awhile while I watched Luke play in the fountain….and this is where we lost Minnie….

He was so upset when he lost her, but no tears were shed, thank goodness!!! As soon as I realized what had happened, I quickly explained to him that if he wanted to keep his pressed pennies, he had to leave them at the resort or let me put them inside my tote. He said that he was ok with leaving her there in the water…although he often talked about it and sometimes still mentions it.

Luckily he was soon distracted when he found a small bunch of wildflowers nearby.

He always picks me flowers at home. I had a few pregnancy scares and he would stay with my parents. I would always go home and find a few flowers that he picked for me to make me feel better. He has such a kind heart! He found me a flower in the Moroccan pavilion. He found it laying on the ground, he didn’t pick it, so I told him it was ok to keep it. We put it in the compartment of the stroller that closes so we wouldn’t lose it like we lost poor Minnie!

I can’t remember why we were going back to Future World, but we decided to take the boat. So we went to wait…and we waited….and we waited….and we waited….and we waited….

We finally gave up on the boat. It makes five thousand stops and wasn’t coming to our dock anytime in the near future. We decided we could walk over to FW by the time the boat arrived. I at least got some good pictures while we waited for the boat – and it says it departs every 15 minutes but I seriously think it takes longer than that.

I ended up being very glad we walked because I got to see Off Kilter! I LOVE THEM!!! I almost bought their CD about ten times during our trip but never did. Guess what’s on my shopping list for December!!!

(Took this pic on my phone so the quality is awful!)

Luke loved their music and was even sort of dancing in the stroller at one point, but the sun was just too bright shining in his little eyes. So we didn’t stop long & continued walking toward FW. He kept putting the sun visor completely down & hiding because he said the sun was hurting his head or his face or his eyes. I felt bad.

I wanted a picture with Duffy but he wasn’t there so we went inside the two gift shops nearby.

I loved all four pair of these pjs but didn’t buy them for the baby. I have no idea why! I think its because I liked them all in different ways (if that makes sense!) and I couldn’t choose between them. My favorite pair are the ones with the Fab Four.

I stopped to look at the little girl things for my niece but didn’t buy anything here either. Same thing happened with the scarves…I couldn’t choose between them so I didn’t buy one for myself. I actually have a green one with the Mickey icons on it. I really wanted the black one with the paint splatters but didn’t buy it. I probably assumed I would come back which I never did.

I loved all the Christmas décor!!! They even had the calendar I bought for my mom the year before!

Luke really liked the warewolf Mickey Mouse – it took me forever to explain to him what a warewolf was! But his dad said no more stuffed animals so we put him back. I didn’t argue because I just assumed it was still being sold at The Marketplace & the next time I went downstairs to refill our mugs by myself, I would’ve just bought the Mickey and thrown him into my bag…but I went the next two mornings and he was sold out at our resort. They said they wouldn’t get another shipment until the next week. I had my mom search on their October trip, but they only had Minnie by mid-October & were completely sold out of Mickey! We DID end up buying him for Luke as a Halloween gift (instead of getting him a ton of candy) but we def overpaid for it. Lesson learned – if you see something specific to a holiday or festival while at Disney, don’t second guess, just buy it!

I looked at the Halloween stuff again. I hadn’t shopped at all at MNSSHP. The selection of Halloween items at our resort was getting picked over more and more. While we were at the Duffy store, I talked myself out of buying the Mickey tealight holder, the Goofy Christmas ears, and the Halloween Duffy…all of which I regretted later! I actually had my mom search for the tealight holder on their October trip & they were completely sold out! She saw them all over the place throughout their trip, but of course I waited until two days before they left to ask her to get me one…and by that time they were sold out!

Next, we went inside the Test Track building since I couldn’t ride. I asked Luke if he wanted to ride with his dad but he said he didn’t so we just looked around. He really liked the cars & how the doors would open & a different car/truck would appear!

He also really liked this car & asked us if we’d buy him one when he grows up!

You can see from looking at our faces how hot the sun was that morning/afternoon. We needed a drink and a break! So off we went to Sunshine Seasons! On our way there, we were discussing dinner options. My husband knew how much I loved Coral Reef…and we were already at Epcot. I had been calling to try to get an ADR but nothing was available the three days I had checked. They said they would park the stroller and head inside Sunshine Seasons while I walked over to Coral Reef to check yet again.

Nothing was available. On my way out, I noticed Nemo had a five minute wait so I walked on. It was weird riding by myself & some of the other guests looked at me like I was crazy when I was laughing hysterically – but I didn’t care! I love Nemo!!! I’m actually surprised I didn’t do a Nemo-themed nursery! (I think the main reason I didn’t was because Nemo has special meaning to me & Luke and I wanted the new baby to have something “of his
own” to hold special meaning!)

I sent them a few texts from Nemo but for some reason they didn’t get them until after I met them at Sunshine Seasons?!

 

[photographymom517]

After a small break and deciding that we would leave Epcot and figure out where to eat later, we headed back towards WS. I have NO idea why we kept going back and forth from WS to FW but I actually read through my notes, my cell notepad AND my picture order and that’s exactly what we did!

We were going to see the Tomb Warriors because we walk right past the entrance every trip & have never seen them! Luke asked us about five thousand questions while we were inside. Luckily there are little plaques with information on them, so I basically read them to him and then explained what it meant.

Next we headed to Germany to explore. We wanted to go to the countries we hadn’t spent much time in yet this trip.

Luke loved the train display!!! His favorite part was the tunnels! I was surprised he was ready to go when we were. I thought he’d want to stay here forever! I got this picture, which I love, just by chance! It wasn’t posed!

We walked through Italy briefly since we had already gone to that pavilion twice on our trip. And then decided we needed to find somewhere inside to sit down. The sky looked like it was getting darker by the minute.

We happened to be walking past the American pavilion and have never tried their QS. It was almost 6pm so time to eat again!

Luke found the coloring station and a few new friends while I ordered our food. It was so nice because a girl from PA was actually the CM who waited on me! We had a nice conversation about things back home (she actually has family about 20 minutes from me & lives about 40 minutes South of me!)

After ordering the food, my husband came over to help me with the tray and we watched Luke play checkers for a few minutes. The hot dogs there are very good, but they are huge! Even pregnant, I couldn’t finish all of mine.

Luke also had his very first Mickey rice krispie treat!!! I have NO idea how we’ve never tried these before!

After eating, we decided to leave Epcot. I wanted to run into the France gift shop to buy a photo album and a few little souvenirs for myself. I figured they could sit by the fountain like they did a few days before when they were waiting for me to have my pic taken with the characters…but the fountain was empty! So weird to have just seen it a few hours before completely full!

I think it’s going to rain at any moment now!!

I made my purchases and then we headed back to The Beach Club where we stayed for the rest of the evening. I’m pretty sure we decided to watch the Disney movie on the beach, but it ended up being cancelled because of the weather. Or maybe that was the evening we had planned to watch the movie, but Luke fell asleep in the room before it started. Not sure which, but we went back to the resort around 7:30 and stayed there for the rest of the evening.

Next update: Our last full day at Disney!

 

[photographymom517]

We woke up early the next morning & made it to the bus stop by 9am. I was actually slightly disappointed because had we gotten up a half hour sooner, we could have maybe made our first rope drop! No sense worrying about the “what ifs” – it was too late now!

I actually didn’t even think of it until halfway through the day – we were just walking through the park & I said “Wow, we got here at 9:30 – we almost made RD!!!”

Our very first stop of the day was Restaurantosaurus!!!

We LOVE that restaurant!!! We decided after ordering to let Luke choose the seat. He wanted to sit by the fireplace near the giant dinosaur head. We were a little disappointed he didn’t want to sit out in the garage where we usually sit, but we sat there a few days before so it wasn’t a big deal at all! It was cute to watch him pick out a seat & then he put a napkin by three chairs. He showed us each where to sit! It was too funny!

We discussed the plans for the day. I said that I was fine with just walking around & enjoying our last full day on property…but I had to go to Camp Minnie Mickey.

We decided I would head there after we ate while they boys went to the Boneyard. Luke enjoyed playing there & we thought if he had a chance to play, he may be more willing to see a show or ride something.

I walked through a few gift shops on my way & found more cute kids clothes that I didn’t buy!

See the blue and red hats with Mickey on them?

Luke bought the red one on his first trip at the AKL gift shop…so I’m going to buy Tyler the blue one! I can’t wait! I can’t believe I didn’t buy the pjs with the striped bottoms…I love stripes!!! (not on me, just on my kids!)

I enjoyed the peaceful walk towards CMM – and all of a sudden, five thousand people are all around me running towards CMM!!! Oh no!!! Luckily a bunch of people were talking loudly to each other from opposite sides of me – and I realized they were heading to see FOTLK which started in less than 5 minutes!

Good – you all go to the show, I’m going to see the characters!

I looked at the lines and decided to wait for Minnie first. Mickey’s line is always crazy busy and usually Minnie’s ends up almost as long. Hers was short for the moment so I jumped in line. After getting my picture with Minnie, I walked down the path and noticed a bunch of characters I had never seen out at the parks!!! I was thrilled!!! (and a little sad at the same time…I wished Luke was with me!)

First the bunnies!!! They are so soft, I just wanted to squeeze them!!!

There were other characters out too but I spotted Chip and Dale and made a beeline over towards them!!! I seriously ran! Chip went in but Dale was still getting pics so I waited in line. The girl in front of me asked when Chip would be back & they said maybe 10 minutes, maybe 30 minutes. A bunch of people behind me started asking too. Finally the one CM said she would go back and see if it was ok for Chip to come back just for a few pics. We all waited for just Dale and said we’d come back.

In the meantime, I went to see King Louie, Briar Fox, Donald Duck, and Goofy.

The character handlers, photographers, and characters were HILARIOUS that morning!!! We had such a good time laughing &getting some interesting candid shots!

It was really funny because even though Chip & Dale weren’t out yet – their line was longer than anyone elses. Donald Duck actually walked halfway down his trail to recruit guests to take pics with him!!!

This was Chip & Dale’s reaction to him!!! Haha! They were pointing for him to go back to his greeting spot!

All the characters at Camp Minnie Mickey were having a really good time that morning!!! It was a blast!!! I was just sorry I was experiencing it myself without my family. I so wished they loved character greetings as much as I do!!! But I was excited to know that next trip, I’d have the baby with me if no one else wanted to go!

 

[photographymom517]

I was actually impressed with my time. I got to see a lot more characters than I normally do & did it in under 35 minutes!!! I then headed for my next destination – to buy the Pooh sweatshirt I really had wanted! After purchasing it, I had a certain cupcake in mind!!!

I ended up with this and an iced coffee!

Heading back towards the Boneyard, I ran into Flik. His line was short, but the PhotoPass Photogs camera wasn’t scanning cards correctly. She said she’d have to restart her entire system so another CM was just taking pics on your own camera.

Right when I was almost to the Boneyard, I got a call that they had left and were at the Harambe Station. Had I known, I would’ve just stayed near the Kusifari Bakery!!! But then I wouldn’t have seen Flik, so I’m glad they didn’t call me right away! LOL! I was exhausted by the time I met them – I had walked the entire way around the Tree of Life! Usually not a bad task, but it was really humid that day & my pregnancy was starting to catch up to me!

Off to Rafiki’s Planet Watch we went!!!

Luke was very interested in the snakes and lizards and spiders – but mommy was not! I still took a lot of pictures so he could look at them once we got back home!

Most of the pics I took inside were blurry. After touching a real snake, we went outside.

Luke asked the CM what every goats name was…and she was very nice & told him!

 

[photographymom517]

He also loved brushing them!!! He followed this one goat around for awhile brushing him. And when the goat would move away from Luke, he’d say “Here goat…here goat…you aren’t done…you need brushed more…” It was hilarious!

He needed to use the restroom so I took him back inside after we washed our hands. My husband waited for us outside on a bench near the gift shop. While inside, Luke decided he wanted to explore again. And then we said goodbye to Rafiki’s and boarded the train again.


We were wondering around the Tree of Life trails after that & we ran into Terk!!! Normally the CM’s won’t allow them to stop, but this one volunteered to take a pic with my camera when she saw how thrilled I was to see Terk!!!

And yes, the sky is getting black again. And we can hear thunder in the distance.

Luke wanted popcorn again so we got it and we found a table nearby. It was a neat little location with an awesome view of the Tree of Life! Next trip if I need to relax, I know where I’m going!!!

The little seating area behind where Luke is playing in the rain – that’s where we sat to eat the popcorn.

Within a few minutes of sitting down, it started pouring. And I really mean POURING!!!

We stood under the tarps at a nearby drink concession stand. I let Luke play in the puddles and take his shoes off when he got back in his stroller. At this point it was about 2:45 and we overheard some of the CM’s mention cancelling the parade…again…we also saw some of them cleaning up the posts/rope. We decided since Luke was asking to leave and the parade was cancelled, we would go back to the BC.

It was our last night on property. We had dinner reservations at the Yacht Club’s Captain’s Grill. We originally had an ADR for our arrival night but after cancelling that, I rescheduled for our last evening. We figured it would be a nice way to end the trip.

We sat in the lobby to wait. I think this was the longest we waited for any ADR and we really didn’t even wait that long…maybe 10 minutes at the most ??

I didn’t take ANY pictures at dinner. No food pics!! Here’s the only one I have! As you can see, Luke brought his monorail to eat with us & he really liked the butter!

It was a very good meal! My only complaint is I asked the server to bring mushrooms with my steak four times & every time she went back to the kitchen to get them, she came back without them. Our waitress said that Captain’s Grill doesn’t have mushrooms in their kitchen so they’d have to go get them from Yachtsmen Steakhouse. I cannot eat a steak without mushrooms…had I known before ordering that I wouldn’t get them, I just would have ordered something else. No biggie but I wish they would have told me!

My husband wasn’t feeling well so he left the restaurant while Luke and I waited for the check. When we went to leave the YC, it was pouring! So we decided to explore their gift shop and use their restroom.

On the way back, Luke was very interested in the Pick a Pearl and I had a $20 left so I let him do it! He was soooo thrilled with this!!! He gave it to me as a gift & he still talks about it constantly! I’m glad he has so many good memories of the trip – and it reminds me what’s most important! It’s the little things that matter most!!!

It was fairly late by the time Luke & I got back to our room…I think around 9:45 or so. I can never sleep the night before a flight, but Luke fell asleep fairly quickly. I watched the Disney channels because I was sad we were leaving in the morning!

Next up: Departure Day!

 

[photographymom517]

I guess there honestly isn’t a lot to say about our last morning!

We woke up around 5:15am and packed last minute items. We took our showers and got dressed before waking Luke up. I just dressed him and put him in his stroller when it was time to leave.

We left our room at 6:17am and headed downstairs to wait for our ME bus. Our bus was scheduled for 7am – but last year, they let us go on the earlier bus. We wanted to do this again this year, but the driver told us to stay and wait.

This wasn’t our bus – it was the earlier one.

Well the 7am bus came at 7:12am and still had to board guests, go to the Boardwalk, etc. I was seriously nervous about arriving at the airport late!
This is the Airline Check-in Desk. It’s right outside the main doors to the right. When we got our boarding passes, we weren’t all sitting together.

I was freaking out about this!!! And when we did end up boarding the plane, a guy tried to make my husband move seats. I explained to him that we were all together so he agreed to switch…but he didn’t want to sit by the window. So another lady offered to switch him seats so he could have an aisle seat. I was soooo thankful for that lady! I had told her we were split up before this other guy got onto the plane & she told me that she’d switch whoever needed to change seats to make us closer together!

It was 7:19am when we finally started heading towards MCO! It seemed like such a long wait, but it wasn’t that bad! (We only picked up one guest at the Boardwalk and it was a business guest with only a carry-on.) I was also sad because we stopped by CBR to pick up guests – I missed that resort!!! We loved it there & had the perfect room! Corner king room in Jamaica!
ME Stop at Caribbean Beach

It’s always bittersweet watching that ME video!!! I said my silent good-byes to FL hoping I would get to “See Ya Real Soon!”

Final thoughts coming soon!!!

 

[Megablocks]

You were an updating machine!

I love the picture of Luke brushing the goat and trying to follow him/her around haha that's so cute! I always adored goats. That's really cute that he wanted to know all the names, too. Maybe it's a kid thing - one of the girls in the preschool is super interested in my guinea pigs (the woman who did the lunches always gave me any leftover veggies for them), and this girl routinely asks me about my "piggies." She wanted to see pictures of them, and when she saw pictures, she wanted to know their names. It's so cute.

You got such good pictures with the characters! I always forget the bunnies are out. You know who I want to meet? I am DYING to meet Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh because aside from Goofy, he's my favorite character.

Glad you had such a good meal at Chefs de France - my mom and I loved it when we went a couple years ago. I forget our waiter's name, but he introduced himself and explained that he could speak French, English, something else (German?) but today, he would speak English. It was really cute. My BFF is a huge language nerd and was so jealous when I told her about that. She also studied abroad in both France and Morocco so I love those two pavilions.

I have to give you credit for watching the video on the way to the airport...I never have. Didn't shed any tears this year, but still put on my iPod to drown out the video because I just can't bring myself to watch it!

 

[Tink9721]

I love Disney shopping. I'm addicted to Disney mugs. We have way too many mugs in our house. Our mug cabinet was overflowing so my mom cleared out a second cabinet so we could buy a couple more Disney ones this year We have 7 big Disney mugs; some from the Disney store and some from the parks. Plus we have about a million of the refillable mugs

We went to Club Cool for the first time this year. My mom almost tried Beverly on her own but I warned her so she didn't do it

Mmmm Mickey rice krispie treats

I love all of your character pictures! Thumper is sooo cute I saw him last year but didn't stop for a picture.

It rained like that when we were at AK this year - ALL day. But it was awesome because it completely cleared the park. There were no lines for anything; it was great

Awww departure day is so sad

 

[brookelizabeth]

Whewwwwwwww! Marathon reading session! I was back in JANUARY on like your 2nd day or something!

First, I'm so sorry the trip didn't turn out like you had hoped or expected! That is a bummer about Luke not wanting to ride anything! Henry was a bit like that in January in Disneyland, but he would still go on and just be scared the entire ride. It wasn't the most enjoyable experience! Hopefully both our boys are okay for their next trips.

I'm glad you guys decided to stay for the whole trip though, just think of those magical moments you would have missed!

And I'm SO HAPPY that cake came at the perfect timing! I was crying while reading that update, sooooo glad it made a bad day into a good one!

And about another trip! I will get caught up there soon!

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

I totally agree with you about Chefs de France. Soooo good, right? That onion soup is so delicious!

Funny about not being able to find your family in Innoventions. I was actually on Splash once when my cell was about to die. I texted Tom real quick to tell him that if I don't call, meet me in the Pirates store. Since then, we decided on a meeting spot in each park just in case we get separated and can't call. We'll have to review those before our next trip and make sure his niece knows them!

The last thing I want to say is that the boats around World Showcase lagoon are so useless!! They don't come often enough at all! So much quicker to walk. Remember when they used to have buses go around World Showcase? There were a few stops and you could jump on or off whenever. They haven't had those in years!

The CM at Magic Kingdom was awesome! Thinking about it almost brings me to tears! He was just too sweet! And you know what I forgot to mention? On our way back through Liberty Square later that day, I saw him again. He was sitting on a bench with a mom & her kids. Nice to see those CM's who really care about the guests & go that extra mile!!!

I wonder if that CMs sole job is to walk around and make people happy!

 

[jenseib]

Well it took me 2 days to catch up here.

I had no clue that Nikki, Stepanie and Brook had sent you that cake. I remember you posting it on facebook. How did they know the sex?

Too bad you didn't have a good time at the MNSSHP. I will need to do some reading up on that one myself. I have no clue what goies on that is the hot items to do, excpet the parade and trick or treating.
I'm glad you didn't come home early.
I laugh because it sounds like you go from one eatery to the next.

I can't beliee you got up so dang early for the ME bus. I hate that thing...I want a way to stay longer.

It's so depressing riding that bus back. I think we'll have an early ride back too unfortunately. The flights aren't out yet, but going by what proceeds in in the weeks prior, I think the flight will be around 10 AM...YUCK.