Pretrip for June: Spreading the Disney addiction.. The "cute" gear 4/25

[twob4him]

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[twob4him]

Hey, where did she go????
Oh medicgirl???Where are you??
me thinks she escaped... or is she undercover??

 

[medicgirl911]

Hi! I just found your trip/pre-trip report. I have seen your posts on other TR's but just found yours. Reading your report I have welled with tears several times. I am so happy for you that your DH is okay and was able to come home to you. I, like the previous posters would like to say how thankful I am for the men who like your husband sacrifice themselves everyday for our freedoms and way of life. You both have overcome so much in your lives, your daughter is very lucky to have you both as parents. She is a cutie by the way My DS will be 7 tomorrow.
Your plans so far seem great. We ate at the Crystal Palace for the 1st time last year and absolutely loved it too. Isn't it funny how reasonable with finances we can be when it comes to everyday things but not with Disney It really and truly is an addiction! Keep up the good work, I am looking forward to reading more
Diane

Thank you so much for your kind words!! MY DH is very diappointed that we are not doing Crystal Palace this year but I think I have made some other great choices, and to be honest he isn't a hard man to please food wise lol~~ he eats my cooking after all!!

The tea party sounds like it was fun, I loved the pictures. I think Kenzie is cool for not doing what the majority does, her minnie mouse dress was awesome.

The Wonderland Tea Party was absolutely adorable! Mackenzie is very much like that, (lol she wants to be a racecar driver when she grows up ) which is really good honestly, I hope she sticks with that kind of attitude as she grows older, I would rather her be an independent thinker than a "follower" any day.

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Hey, where did she go????
Oh medicgirl???Where are you??
me thinks she escaped... or is she undercover??

Who me, undercover???

LOL! nah, just been busy the past few weeks. My computer time has once again been spent obsessing over menus, TGM, park hours, free dining rumors, MNSSHP rumors, etc in preperation for my October trip. Thanks to all this obsession though I have 2 plans of "attack" for the trip, both pending release of official MNSSHP dates and ADR's to go with each plan......I was even able to book Cinderellas Royal Table on 2 seperate dates for 8:05 am each date!!! I will pick which one for sure once MNSSHP dates are released, but I am super excited about this!! It will be our first time to eat/be inside the castle!!
I am planning to update my trip report tonight after church with our MGM day--which a little sneak peek it was the worst day ever!! I even had a crying meltdown at Fantasmic !!!
Thanks for checking in!!!

 

[dddisrunner]

Although we've never seen it, I can't imagine crying at Fantasmic, unless of course you couldn't get a seat Seriously though I'm looking forward to reading more!

 

[twob4him]

...two days later..... (jk)

 

[luvfigment]

First off I want to say I am really enjoying your trip report and reveiw. I also want to tell you I am so sorry that your husband was hurt while in Iraq. I am happy though that he is able to walk around and enjoy Disney despite the problems with PTSD. I just got out of the AF and was a nurse stationed at Andrews AFB in MD so I have taken care many of the troops coming back.

Anyways can't wait to read more of your trippie!!!

 

[medicgirl911]

Ok back to the action....I need to get a move on! It will be time for my trip and I won't have even gotten to the actual pretrip report!! LOL!

MGM day.....The worst day ever!!

Well maybe not the worst day ever...see first post hehe. But how about our worst day at Disney.
Woke up that morning ready to head to MGM! Ehhhh Mackenzie has a fever. Remember the weekend before she left she was sick and now it was showing up again. She is still taking her amoxicillin, so we give her some tylenol and just go back to sleep for a while. We woke up about an hour later, around 8:00 and she still was not feeling to well so we decided to just lay low and relax in the hotel for a while. Gave her another dose of tylenol at lunch time. And she began to feel better so we decided to head to MGM around 1pm. They sure don't seem to run as many buses this time of day because we waited around 45 minutes for a bus. We finally make our way there to MGM and arrive about 1/2 hour before the parade starts. Since we hadn't seen an afternoon parade yet we decided to hang out in the area to catch this one, and I am glad we did, we loved the Stars and Motorcars Parade!! (I will say it was sooo hot, there was no shady spots we could find.) We were sitting next to a couple who had a girl Mackenzies age and chatted a bit with them, then some of the Disney "suits" came up to them and asked them if they wanted to be in the parade!!!! It was so exciting for them, even though I was a tad green with envy!! So we continued to hang out, frying in the sun drinking a not-so-frozen lemonade. I thought our parade spot was spectacular once it started, we were right up front and the character interaction was wonderful!!

Mackenzie is so scared of Jafar now! he came right up to her and placed his finger on her chest and made a motion like he was going to steal her heart or something. She was pretty freaked out over that!!
After thae parde we chose to just hang out in the area. This was a park that I really didn't have a plan for. I had such a short time to plan for the whole trip in general, this one just kind of slipped through the cracks. Plus we were arriving so late in the day.... We weren't for sure where to go and what to try and see, and the map just seemed really confusing to me. So we just checked out the area on that main street because we had ADR for Hollywood and Vine coming up in about 45 minutes. We arrived for our ADR and checked in about 5 minutes early then waited....FOR A HOUR!!! We seen some street performers in the area, so Tim took Mackenzie to see them while I continued to wait in the crowd of people, and after about 20 minutes I was becoming more ticked off as the minutes passed by. After half an hour, I rechecked to make sure they hadn't missed us and was rudely assured they would get to us as soon as they could. DH and DD came back, and then they explored the area by the water that isn't to far from H&V

and we waited some more.....finally an hour after our ADR time they called us to a table.
I was not impressed at all by this restaruant AT ALL. It was very dirty appearing, cramped, our waitress was very short and impatient as she explained our fantasmic Dinner Pakage to us and sent us to the buffet line without even taking our drink orders! After we got our plates we flagged her down and she seemed irritated, we explained we would like something to drink, I normally don't drink alcohol but I did today!! I needed something to help me chill out a bit! The food was mediocore at best, but after waiting an hour, it would have taken a lot to impress me, to be quite honest!
After we finished eating, we went to see if we could find any shows and went to Playhouse Disney

Their last show was playing and would be done in less than 5 minutes Disney Animation was close, nope they were just closing Voyage of the Little Mermiad?? Nope So we decide just to head over to Fantasmic. We are feeling pretty irritable by this point. (to put it mildly) We get some drinks to take with us, and head to the stadium, find seats in area for people who booked the Fantasmic Dinner Package, and thought they were pretty good seats. It starts getting more crowded and another family with several young boys sits by us. The boys are pretty rowdy and roughing around, playfighting etc. One of them hits me in the head with some kind of pirate sword thing.. The mom is oblivious. Then the little boy sitting next to me dumps his pop all over my leg. Mom yells at the kid for wasting his pop but doesn't apologize or have the child apologize to me. This day was going so awful, I was so frustrated! Well they have several CM's going around selling all kinds of fancy light up toys, which we had already bought Mackenzie several of these, along with multiple other souveniers and I said she couldn't have one. I really probably didn't want any souvenier to remember this night by lol! It wasn't a huge issue, I don't know why but I was in a bad mood and wouldn't allow Mackenzie to have one, which apparently ticked more than just Mackenzie off, it ticked Tim off too. So I have kids knocking into me on one side, Mackenzie crying on the other, Tim being irritable at me, and I began to cry too! Feeling sorry for myself, here I planned this awesome vacation, spent all this time, and no one appreciates any of it, we haven't seen anything at MGM, all these other families around us are happy...woe is me. Not exactly my finest moment in life. I don't think that we said barely a word to each other til we got to the bus stop. Tim wanted to know how in the world we could get a cab. After the day we had the last thing he wanted to do was be jammed into another packed bus. So we got out of line and went walking around trying to find a cab. We were both pretty snippy with each other and he basically implied that with all the time I spent planning how come I didn't know how to get a cab ride home. So I cried once again feeling like a big loser. I think he really regretted those words because he quickly became very apologetic and hugging me and saying it really was a great vacation, it was just a bad day all around, Mackenzie got in on the making up business too, and we went back to the bus and got right on to go back to POP. We decided that we needed some play time so we went to the pool. Kenzie said she didn't want to swim but she wanted a snack so we got her one and we went to the pool, she sat in a chair near the pool and Tim and I got in and was playing around, and we were having so much fun. Mackenzie was cheering me on to dunk her Daddy. I got out and pretended to be done and Tim stayed in near the side and I threw Kenzie in, fully clothed She was in shock and cracking up laughing! ** don't get the wrong idea, she could touch the bottom, Tim was right there, she wasn't in any danger*** Nothing like getting all your frustrations out by trying to dunk one another in the pool!!! After that we headed back to our room, one happy family again Mackenzie still talks about "remember the time you threw me in the pool with my clothes on, will you do that again??" LOL!

So there it is, full proof of why I will never get voted Mom of the year, breakdown at MGM day!!

next up...wet and wild at Animal Kingdom!!

 

[medicgirl911]

First off I want to say I am really enjoying your trip report and reveiw. I also want to tell you I am so sorry that your husband was hurt while in Iraq. I am happy though that he is able to walk around and enjoy Disney despite the problems with PTSD. I just got out of the AF and was a nurse stationed at Andrews AFB in MD so I have taken care many of the troops coming back.

Anyways can't wait to read more of your trippie!!!

Many hugs to you for taking care of our fine soldiers!! I am a nurse as well, and it's a difficult but rewarding career that I love, but to do so taking care of our injured soldiers deserves even more special thanks.
Thanks for reading!!

 

[medicgirl911]

Oh I also wanted to update that we may have an additional person for our trip! We are thinking of also taking my cousin Grant...13yo, never been to disney, good hearted, helpful, but the smells that come from that boys body are enough to make you

That should make the 18 hour drive more uhhhh interesting
His mom is agreeable to it, but we just have to get his Dad to approve (they are divorced) So we're hoping

 

[dddisrunner]

Now I get why you were so upset! I always feel bad when I read people had a bad experience while at Disney! Sounds like you made the best of though back at POP!

I just wanted to say thanks for the kind things you said over on my TR. My DS is feeling better now! I hope your cousin gets to go with you! Just have him sleep down wind of the air conditioning! Looking forward to more!

 

[timandlesley]

Thanks for the update! Glad you got through the illness, I know what that is all about if you read my trip report last year - CRAZY! It was an MGM day for us too, must be a trend . The pool story was funny - sounds like something we would do . FREAKY Jafar - stay away from the children please , my DS would have cried her eyes out. Thanks for the warning

Lesley

 

[twob4him]

MG, here's a great big for your MGM day. You poor dear! I think you are a terrific mom. In fact thats why you were late to begin with....you were taking good care of McKenzie! I am sorry about the restaurant fiasco but happy the day ended magically!!

Wow, what a nice offer for your cousin! You are so sweet to include him. I hope it works out and he can go!

Great installment!!!

 

[medicgirl911]

Now I get why you were so upset! I always feel bad when I read people had a bad experience while at Disney! Sounds like you made the best of though back at POP!

I just wanted to say thanks for the kind things you said over on my TR. My DS is feeling better now! I hope your cousin gets to go with you! Just have him sleep down wind of the air conditioning! Looking forward to more!

LOL @ Downwind of the A/C hehehe!!!

Thanks for the update! Glad you got through the illness, I know what that is all about if you read my trip report last year - CRAZY! It was an MGM day for us too, must be a trend . The pool story was funny - sounds like something we would do . FREAKY Jafar - stay away from the children please , my DS would have cried her eyes out. Thanks for the warning

Lesley

Yeah Jafar really freaked Kenzie out, she just stood there with her mouth hanging open and then whispered, "momma why did he do that to me???" It was so funny. I did read your TR from last year, what a conincidence! But you have the MGM "plan of attack" down really well it seems, so I may just have to be begging you for some MGM tour planning advice. I just can't seem to get a handle on that one with all the different show times and such.

MG, here's a great big for your MGM day. You poor dear! I think you are a terrific mom. In fact thats why you were late to begin with....you were taking good care of McKenzie! I am sorry about the restaurant fiasco but happy the day ended magically!!

Wow, what a nice offer for your cousin! You are so sweet to include him. I hope it works out and he can go!

Great installment!!!

Awww thanks! I really hope he can come too... we will know after this weekend! Hopefully it won't be too confusing to add him to everything!! All of our ADR's are booked for 11 people so I don't think I will have to change my ADR's since it is an odd number, we were told that more than likely we will have split tables anyway....

 

[dddisrunner]

Down wind always a good place to be... I can't wait to read more but you have to hurry because we leave in 12 days for our trip No pressure or anything!

 

[medicgirl911]

Down wind always a good place to be... I can't wait to read more but you have to hurry because we leave in 12 days for our trip No pressure or anything!

I will try to add more tonight, but it's iffy. We have a tumbling competition in the morning, it's our home meet, so we are leaving now to get all set up, decorated, etc. We are having people over for DH's b-day tonight and then to the meet tommorow by 0630 I work nights, so you know I am not a morning person lol!!!

I am positively green with envy though that you are leaving so soon, I can't wait to hear all about your trip!!

 

[medicgirl911]

The phone rang extra early today since we had an 8am ADR at Breakfastosaurus! Now I will say we are a hard family to wake up in the mornings, we set the alarm clock and had a wake up call each morning. This morning I was so asleep I actually answered the phone when it rang with a sleepy "Hello??" And to my suprise Mickey Mouse himself was on the other end telling me to wake up!! I thought I was dreaming or something!! I did not know that they did this, and here I had just been picking the phoe up and setting it immediately back down all week LOL!!! Of course, now I know better~~ hopefully I will get Kenz to answer the phone this trip!

We arrived out at the bus stop area a little after 7am. It was so peaveful and quiet, we were the only ones in the Ak line. We soon had a bus approach for us, and had our choice of seats since we were the only ones on there. Now this was the way to travel. By this point we were way tired of super crowded buses. Our bus driver was wonderful, asking Mackenzie all types of questions about our trip. She said she was really excited to see Donald because we hadn't met him yet. He told her that Daisy is one jealous duck and that she doesn't let him out of the house much since he always seems to get into trouble. I tell you this because Mackenzie just the other day must have remembered this conversation because she was telling her friend that we are travelling with just how hard it was to find Donald Duck and told her that same reason why! LOL!! I was cracking up laughing! We had an interesting conversation with him, he was wonderful!
This was our first breakfast that we had done, it was so amazing to be walking through an extremely vacant AK. We thought the park was beautiful!

We went to our breakfast spot and were promptly seated. After having quick meal breakfasts in the room all week of poptarts and cold cereal the hot breakfast was a welcome treat! We really did eat like pigs here to be quite honest. Thought the food was just wonderful, but to be honest, it is pretty hard to mess up breakfast foods. The character interaction did seem somewhat rushed though, especially after we had such great interaction at Crystal Palace and garden Grill. We did finally get to meet Donald though, and Mackenzie sure was excited about that!
We finished breakfast just a couple minutes before the park opened. We stayed in the area and Kenz immediately rode Triceratops twice and played for a few minuted in teh boneyard

,
then we headed to Kilimanjaro safari to get fast passes and then we went to Kali River Rapids. We arrived just as they were opening KRR. We thought the theming was fun for the quick walk up. We rode KRR and omg Mackenzie LOVED LOVED LOVED this ride!! I mean seriously loved this ride, if you mention WDW, Kali River rapids will immediately come out of her mouth the very first thing. There was no line, so they let us stay on again. And again, And again, And again. No I am not stuttering. We rode Kali River rapids 5 times in a row. A few new passengers on and off each time, but the CM's let us stay on. Kenz would have rode this all day long if we could have. I should also mention that I thought we were too coool for ponchos, so I hadn't brought any. Umm imagine how cool we looked now We were absolutely head to toe drippping wet. When we finally left, we passed some teenage girls in line, they seen us and were like OMG did you get that wet on the ride. No we just got out of the shower with our clothes on. LOL They seemed to be pretty worred so we explained that we had been on 5 times in a row. After that we rode Safari with our FP and LOVED it also. Mackenzie was really wrapped up in the whole dramatic resuce of it all and loved seeing all the animals. On our wat to lunch we spotted DeVine!!!

We then watched the African drummers for a bit a, checked a couple of shops and decided to then eat at Tusker House. MMMMMMM that was the best CS ever!! We sat outside to eat at a little table in the sun...ya know to aid in that drying out process. LOL! We then made our way to Festival of the Lion King. We were one of the first ones in, the CM asked if we had been there before, we told her "no it was our first trip ever to WDW" so she showed us to an upper row of seats, she said to trust her, these seats were spectacular! So I was excited.

Initially I had picked the second row, right on the aisle. Well the show started and we couldn't see anything very well, we thought the seats were terrible!! Then at the end they picked two kids to be in the "parade" right from where we almost sat down!! So I was kinda bummed about that. We left back to Pop after FOTLK for a rest and to swim a bit and get ready for dinner--we were going to see Hoop Dee Doo!!
We took the boat from MK to Fort Wilderness to get to Hoop Dee Doo..and barely made it with just a few minutes to spare, so no photos out front for us!
I have to say we absolutely loved this show, we thought it was really a ton of fun! The food was nothing fancy but the strawberry shortcake for dessert was to die for!! Our waiter was brand new so he was a bit slow, but very nice. Mackenzie was cracking up laughing through all of it. We booked this again for June and are excited to go back. it was a very relaxing evening, I am glad we took the boat ride over and back, it was very peaceful and getting to look at the Wilderness Lodge.... *someday*
After dinner we went back to our rooms to sleep and get ready for our last day at Disney

 

[Disneyolic]

On our way to lunch we spotted DeVine!!!

Okay...who is this guy on the left with the boy? Is he your hubby? I think the picture is sooooo funny. Look at the way he is looking at DeVine!!
I'm loving your TR...keep up the great work!!!!

 

[dddisrunner]

You are a woman of your word! Thanks for the update! That pic of Mackenzie is adorable! God forbid the teen girls had their makeup running down their face I was contemplating doing Breakfastosaurus, after reading your review I wish we had made an ADR? Oh well... can't wait for more

 

[twob4him]

Great update! I can't believe its almost over. Thats funny about the girls seeing you and asking about getting wet...just what I would expect from teen girls!

I would have gone back to the CM and told her they were terrible seats and that the kids in the seats you were going to sit at got picked.

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[medicgirl911]

Okay...who is this guy on the left with the boy? Is he your hubby? I think the picture is sooooo funny. Look at the way he is looking at DeVine!!
I'm loving your TR...keep up the great work!!!!

Nooooo that man bears no resembelance to the man who snores in my bed everynight! But your right, that look he has is hilarious!

You are a woman of your word! Thanks for the update! That pic of Mackenzie is adorable! God forbid the teen girls had their makeup running down their face I was contemplating doing Breakfastosaurus, after reading your review I wish we had made an ADR? Oh well... can't wait for more

We didn't make an ADR at breakfastosaurus agian this year, simply because we ran out of redits on our dining plan, I owuld not hesitate to go back there though.

Great update! I can't believe its almost over. Thats funny about the girls seeing you and asking about getting wet...just what I would expect from teen girls!

I would have gone back to the CM and told her they were terrible seats and that the kids in the seats you were going to sit at got picked.

Can't wait to hear more!

Hehe...in their defence, they weren't the only ones who looked a little worried as we walked by, they were the only ones to speak up about it!