Princesses don't hit, kick or spit! A May/June TR Update 10/17 Snow White Theme Night

[Becc1]

Another great movie night! I enjoyed it like usual!

Thanks so much, it's hard to compete with yours though.

WHEW! Good to know. i was a little worried but did not want to assume! I love all your family night ideas. So well planned.

Thanks!

Do you have your dates for your Universal trip yet? We are thinking about May 25-June 3, 2012. With so many days, I might be able to squeeze in a couple days at Disney.

Unfortunately my mean DH thinks we should go somewhere different next year He was to do the shore for the week with the kids then he wants the 2 of us to take an "adult" vacation and he didn't agree with my suggestion for our adult vacay to be a Disney cruise So we won't be going back until 2013, probably not until mid June so the kids will be out of school and we can spend a good 10 days or so in Orlando. I totally think you could squeeze in a day or 2 at Disney, my kids would never allow us to be down there and not do it!

Great CP update! Can't wait to have breakfast here!


Love your movie night - limbo time looks like fun! Keep em coming!

Thanks the breakfast was really great, you'll love it! Limbo time was fun, the kids did it yesterday for a good amount of time, anything that kees them busy makes me happy

Great picture of all of you with the castle in the background

I hate Stitch's Great Escape and I just can't imagine someone liking it, but DBF told me he kind of likes it

The last picture of Ben in the stroller is awesome, love that smile

Your theme nights are always so great, looks like the kids were having a lot of fun!

Yikes, does that mean your DBF will be making you go on Stitch on your trip
Thanks I love that pic of Ben, I have to agree he has a great smile, and he's always willing to do so for a picture, unlike the rest of my kids, lol

Chiming in finally! I have been lurking. Love your report and the title!!! You will love Universal. But to be honest you only need about 2 days to cover it! You can get a day or so at WDW. We did both parks in one day and were able to see all the we wanted and more. I think with kids you can easily cover it two days tops.

I love your theme nights. Sooo Cool and detailed.

Can't wait to read more.

Thanks for joining in my TR! I am looking forward to Universal, we haven't been there since 2002 so of course none of the little guys have been yet. I was thinking of having 2 days there at the 2 parks and then doing a day or 2 at Seaworld, we haven't been there since 2002 either!

 

[Becc1]

Are our husbands related?! I swear men have no common sense when it comes to children and crowds...it is like I am taking care of 1 more child when he is around! I sure hope you have him the major glare and a good what for later that night!

I always call my DH my 5th child! I had totally forgotten about this until the other day when my ODS reminded me about it. Back in 2008 when we went, DH parked the stroller outside of Playhouse Disney and a CM came after him and said "did you want to take her along too?". He had left Emily in the stroller that time too! He obviously has issues

I am thinking of a new TR title for you...NO, I did not Kill DH on our trip...but if I had it would have been justified!

That would have been a great and true title. Thankfully he was pretty good for the rest of the week, until the last day. That day I wanted to kill both him and Christian!

Welcome to the dark side...we are doing a double feature summer movie afternoon...one Disney and one Universal...how is that for a tease?

Love the Lilo and Stitch night...did you make yourself a Lapu Lapu? We have this movie night ready for when we are at the cabin after the 4th...and I think we did our shopping in the same place as you did !

I didn't think about the Lapu Lapu, I'm going to have to look up that recipe though, we are have a cookout in August and I think they would be a hit! Can't wait to hear about your double feature! And yes the Dollar Tree is my friend when it comes to theme nights, in fact I was just there this afternoon for tomorrow's theme

 

[momabaarjo]

I always call my DH my 5th child! I had totally forgotten about this until the other day when my ODS reminded me about it. Back in 2008 when we went, DH parked the stroller outside of Playhouse Disney and a CM came after him and said "did you want to take her along too?". He had left Emily in the stroller that time too! He obviously has issues

 

[Becc1]

I left off with us going back to Pop for a swim/maybe nap. I had the brilliant idea to save time to take the bus back to the resort. Now I don't know if we actually saved time but at the moment it felt like we waited forever for the bus. In reality we probably only waited myabe 20-25 minutes but at the time it was ungodly hot and we all just wanted to get somewhere cool. Also while every other resort had only a few people waiting for the bus, Pop had a ton of people at the busstop. Now don't bash me for this because I do have a special needs DS and may one day be in this situation but right before the bus pulled up a large family with a scooter walked up. And we were towards the back of the line so as they boarded the bus, I started to stress out that we would not be able to make this bus. We ended up making it, we were the last ones on but it was after this ride that I remembered why I like to drive to the parks, especially when dealing with 4 kids and 2 strollers! Thankfully a woman got up to let Ben and Emily sit down but the rest of us stood.

Ok, enough with the bus. After getting to the room and resting for a bit we changed into suits and headed for the pool, Christian decided he wanted to stay in the room and nap and DN and MIL wanted to grab a snack at the food court and do some shopping in the gift shop. The rest of us went down and swam, the kids were getting hungry so DH got some fries to hold them over until dinner while we were down there. After an hour or so we decided to head back to the room, DH ran over to refill our mugs and I started back with the kids to get them ready for dinner. We had 6:30 ADRs at Chef Mickey's but I wanted to give us plenty of time to get there so the plan was to leave Pop by 5:30. We waited maybe 10-15 minutes for the bus and were on our way to MK, then took the monorail to the Contemporary.

We checked in to CM, took our pictures with the Mickey statue, which was bought as usual, and then waited, and waited and waited some more. We probably waited like 45 minutes or so, which when you have little kids is an eternity! Finally got sat, we didn't have to walk far though because they sat us at a round table right next to the dessert table, not thrilled with the area but I guess we didn't have to walk far to get our food

The first character to come over was Minnie, I was actually getting my food when she came over so DH had the camera but thankfully I came over in time to take the pictures, remember DH isn't so great with the camera

Next came the chef himself Mickey!

Then Donald came to visit

The napkin twirlling celebration was next, of course my DN never got her birthday cupcake but that was the norm for this trip. I never made a deal out of it but when I made the ADR's I let them know we would be celebrating my DN's birthday. And each time we checked into a restaurant they knew about the b-day but only 1900 Park Fare recognized it. I'm not sure if it was because she was older or what but in the past 2 trips we had taken it was the week before Christian and Ben's birthdays so we celebrated them and at each restaurant they got a least a cupcake and at the character meals they got a card. DN didn't really care at the time so it was all good.

Up next was Goofy and last was Pluto

I love the way Pluto signs autographs!

We finally got out of Chef Mickeys at a little after 8pm, I am sad to say that after several years of eating at CM on each trip, we may be taking a break from here next time. We all know that the food isn't steller but we go because it a little tradtion we've started and it's a great way to see the Fab 5 without waiting in lines. But after our meal here we've decided that it's time for something new!

Onto the monorail we head back into MK, the plan was to skip the parade and Wishes this night and do some rides.

But when we entered the park, everything was already roped off and the parade was going to start soon, we came upon a handicapped section across from guest relations. It was almost completely empty and a CM said we could all fit in so the little ones grabbed a curb and we waited maybe 10 minutes for the parade to start!

Up next a million pictures of the Main Street Electrical parade and what the heck is going on with my kids?

 

[mermaid764]

Chef Mickey's looked like it was a lot of fun, but it would be nice if they could up the food quality for how expensive the dinner has become.

I think it is really weird how some restaurants will make a big deal out of celebrations and others won't even acknowledge it.

Can't wait for more

 

[Fall1]

Love Chef Mickey's!! Cute pics!

 

[MickeyReeds]

Have to say I agree with you about Chef Mickeys--I think that will be someplace we skip next time as well. We had terrible service last time we ate there and the food was ok at best. We were a group of 11 (I think we were crammed into a round table for 10, back in a corner--those in the back couldn't get up with out others moving for them!) We did have a better experience there for breakfast with just our family of 4!

 

[Kat in GA]

I can't believe everyone forgot the celebration. And I have not heard anything stellar about Chef Mickey's in forever. We ate there way back in 2006 - it was for breakfast and it was okay. I think the Crystal Palace is the place for bfast though!

I so understand your bus issue. I use a scooter - and I have been considering driving when I go on my girls trip because I have such guilt on holding everyone up as I attempt to parallel park But, when we go in August, I really need to start reading the transportation threads because of an issue like this: We are going to Epcot one day. Then we might eat dinner at Boardwalk, and then go over to the Studios for pm xtra magic hours. How would we get back to Epcot to get my van?? I don't want to take the bus, but it might be easier - except for my guilt!!

 

[Becc1]

Chef Mickey's looked like it was a lot of fun, but it would be nice if they could up the food quality for how expensive the dinner has become.

I think it is really weird how some restaurants will make a big deal out of celebrations and others won't even acknowledge it.

Can't wait for more

I agree upping the food quality would definately help out. Also I feel like the characters are so rushed at times, we ended up having Minnie and Donald come back around which was nice though.

Love Chef Mickey's!! Cute pics!

Thanks!

Have to say I agree with you about Chef Mickeys--I think that will be someplace we skip next time as well. We had terrible service last time we ate there and the food was ok at best. We were a group of 11 (I think we were crammed into a round table for 10, back in a corner--those in the back couldn't get up with out others moving for them!) We did have a better experience there for breakfast with just our family of 4!

We had decent service this time around until it was time to pay and then we couldn't find the guy anywhere! To be honest, beyond the kids food I can't even tell you what the heck any of us ate. It's not that the food is horrible, it's just not anything that blows you away. I would like to try breakfast here sometimebut DH isn't much of a TS breakfast person and I usually can only convince him to do one per trip!

 

[Becc1]

I can't believe everyone forgot the celebration. And I have not heard anything stellar about Chef Mickey's in forever. We ate there way back in 2006 - it was for breakfast and it was okay. I think the Crystal Palace is the place for bfast though!

I so understand your bus issue. I use a scooter - and I have been considering driving when I go on my girls trip because I have such guilt on holding everyone up as I attempt to parallel park But, when we go in August, I really need to start reading the transportation threads because of an issue like this: We are going to Epcot one day. Then we might eat dinner at Boardwalk, and then go over to the Studios for pm xtra magic hours. How would we get back to Epcot to get my van?? I don't want to take the bus, but it might be easier - except for my guilt!!

Crystal Palace and Ohanas are both great breakfast places, I think next trip we are going to go for CRT/ I've been too cheap in the past but I want to take the little kids there before they get too old to enjoy it.

I don't think you should feel guilty about the scooter on the buses. The only thing I was stressing about that day was the scooter family came up right as the bus was coming and they all got on first and it was like 7 people. I was hot and cranky and just wanted to get on the bus which we almost didn't because of so many people. I actually don't llike the buses because even though so many people have strollers I feel guilty because I've got 8 people and 2 strollers, lol. Also with the handicap tag we have for Ben parking is alot easier in the parks.

 

[Becc1]

Like many Disney families, ours has been looking forward to Cars 2 for a few months now so what better way to top off the movie than with a theme day? Original plan was to see the movie then have a theme dinner but after the movie we decided instead to have an early dinner at my DH's restaurant so I decided to make the following day a Cars 2 day!

But first Friday afternoon the kids and I went to the first 3D showing of the day!

This past week I have been making meals that coincide with the countries that appear in Cars 2. I know I'm that cheesy, but you don't understand how much my DS loves Cars On Monday there was Japan, DH made his version of a Tepan Edo style meal, chicken, veggies (onions, zucchini and mushrooms) sticky rice and udon noodles. Tuesday was Italy, we had spaghetti and meatballs. Wednesday was Germany, we had bratwurts on the grill. Thursday was France I made crepes with strawberries for breakfast. And for the theme day we were doing England for dinner.

But first we started out with lunch, we had peanut butter and jelly "sushi rolls". This idea I got from Lisa aka MissMickee on these boards. They also had Cars pretzels, cheese crackers and fruit cars.

Both Dh and ODS thought these looked like turtles, lol. I think they would look much better if I had red apples!

Crafts were painting Cars posters and ceramic cars banks

In between crafts they played the 2 Cars Wii games that we have.

Decorations were a poster that the kids helped make and a few of the Cars matchbox cars that DS has, I swear he has like every Cars toy that has been made so I limited the decor to just some of the small cars.

Dinner as I said was our "England meal". We had fish and chips, spinach ravioli wheels and Cars shaped mac and cheese. For dessert we had McQueen cupcakes and donut tires.

My poor DS had no idea there was spinach in those ravioli

Not my favorite cupcakes that I've made but I tried

 

[Lidian]

I think the cupcakes are adorable! I totally love your theme nights! I'm hoping that I can get them started later this year in time for our next trip. And thievery is the best form of flattery right? Because I'm stealing your ideas.

Anyway, just got back from seeing Cars 2 (and Green Lantern). I'd love to hear what you thought about the movie! (Obviously, spoiler-free - just general thoughts.)

I didn't know they were showing it in 3D! I'd love to hear how that turned out!

Anyway, love your theme night as always! Can't wait to hear more!

 

[mrssmith06]

Another great theme night!
We seen Cars 2 last night. I thought the story line was a bit complex for little kids but we still loved it.

 

[Becc1]

I think the cupcakes are adorable! I totally love your theme nights! I'm hoping that I can get them started later this year in time for our next trip. And thievery is the best form of flattery right? Because I'm stealing your ideas.

Anyway, just got back from seeing Cars 2 (and Green Lantern). I'd love to hear what you thought about the movie! (Obviously, spoiler-free - just general thoughts.)

I didn't know they were showing it in 3D! I'd love to hear how that turned out!

Anyway, love your theme night as always! Can't wait to hear more!

Steal away because lord knows most of my ideas have been borrowed from other people, lol.

I liked the movie alot, I did have to run 2 potty breaks and a popcorn refill so I hope I didn't miss any important parts of the film Also Ben dropped his 3D glasses towards the end of the movie and we couldn't find them so I had to watch without but it really wasn't too bad. How was the Green Lantern? That's another movie DS wants to see but considering the cost of the movies for a family of 6, we have to limit what we see. And we've already done POTC 4 and Harry Potter is coming up!

 

[Becc1]

Another great theme night!
We seen Cars 2 last night. I thought the story line was a bit complex for little kids but we still loved it.

Thanks, my kids wouldn't let me get away without doing a theme night for the movie! It's funny you should say that about the movie because my ODS said the same thing. I asked him if he had figured out the end and he said he was surprised about that because aren't kids movies usually pretty straight forward?

 

[momabaarjo]

Super job on the CARS2 night (or should I say nights?). What a great idea to celebrate each night with a different country! Boo agrees that the Lightning cupcakes were not his favorite to make either...but he loved making the Mater ones!

We splurged yesterday for the movie...we did the IMAX/3D show and it was $70 just for the tickets for the 5 of us! But, I have to say I really loved the movie. I had a few tears in my eyes at the beginning when they played tribute to Doc Hudson/Paul Newman. Doc was a favorite in our house...dh is restoring a car very similiar to Doc.

I am now questioning and ADR at Chef Mickey's...I was hoping to get breakfast there just to see the Fab5 and not have to hunt them down in the park.

 

[Lidian]

Steal away because lord knows most of my ideas have been borrowed from other people, lol.

I liked the movie alot, I did have to run 2 potty breaks and a popcorn refill so I hope I didn't miss any important parts of the film Also Ben dropped his 3D glasses towards the end of the movie and we couldn't find them so I had to watch without but it really wasn't too bad. How was the Green Lantern? That's another movie DS wants to see but considering the cost of the movies for a family of 6, we have to limit what we see. And we've already done POTC 4 and Harry Potter is coming up!

DH ran potty interference for me. We went to the drive-in, and we had to arrive 2.5 hours before movie start to get parking ( and just barely!). So about 30 minutes before the movie started, I took the kids to the potty ... and had to wait in line for almost 40 minutes! The movie had started by the time we got back to the car (it literally JUST started - but missed previews). Halfway through, DS needed to go again.... so DH took him. I made DD wait until the break - where we had to wait in line again, and missed the first 20 seconds or so of Green Lantern (they had a 20 minute intermission between movies + previews). I posted on FB that I forgot to grab my potty FP's.

I loved Green Lantern. My cousin and his date didn't care for it. DH said it wasn't bad (but not great either). DD9 liked the movie. It helps that Ryan Reynolds is delicious. But ... that's beside the point. I thought it had a good plot. It was a bit slow to get started. But I'd watch it again in a heartbeat.

(DS enjoyed watching DD's teacher in the movie - he thought DD's teacher was the Green Lantern. )

We were lucky with the drive-in. It's cheaper there than seeing a movie matinae priced. It was $20 for the 4 of us to see two movies. (Well, it would have been $20 even if we left after Cars 2 - like most people.) We don't usually stay for the second movie, but I insisted - I wanted to see Mr. Delicious... I mean ... The Green Lantern.

And Cars 2 was awesome! I can't wait for it to come out on DVD so I can watch it over and over and over.

 

[Kari-B]

Chef Mickeys looks fun. Once again love the boys matching shirts and your little girl's Minnie inspired shirt!

Love the Cars night/week! I've started doing our Epcot Country theme weeks and liked seeing your food from different countries. How was the movie? We are planning seeing it, but haven't made it yet.

 

[TanzUnited99]

CMs looks like fun though have read mixed reviews of this place.

Love the Cars theme especially the cupcakes. It is not released in the UK for another month yet.

 

[momabaarjo]

We were lucky with the drive-in. It's cheaper there than seeing a movie matinae priced. It was $20 for the 4 of us to see two movies. (Well, it would have been $20 even if we left after Cars 2 - like most people.) We don't usually stay for the second movie, but I insisted - I wanted to see Mr. Delicious... I mean ... The Green Lantern.

We usually do the drive in too..for the cost factor...5 of us for $24 and a double feature (not that we usually stay for both). But our drive in decided not to show CARS2 because of the contract...they would have had to make CARS2 the first show for the next 4 weeks...and with Transformers 2 and the last HP in the next few weeks...they decided against.

We saw Green Latern last week at the Drive in...Ryan is way too yummy and I agree the movie was not that bad! The second movie was Hangover 2, and while dh wanted to stay and see it...I put my foot down...we rented the first one and there was no way with the kids still awake...