Rob, Cass & Kira - "This trip is NOT going to suck!!!" WDW & DCL

[Timon]

Think I'd look silly with a pair of those Twinkle Toe shoes?


I suppose I'd get away with it at Disney though, right?

They don't come in our size I already checked

Hi Cass! I have now caught up with your TR and wow, it is even better than your old ones! I love seeing Kira interact with all the princesses. I love how you and Rob go above and beyond to do everything she wants to do, even when you may not be in the mood for any more characters. My parents did the same thing on my childhood Disney trips and I appreciate it so much to this day! Kira will always be happy about it!

I can't believe we were at MNSSHP on the same night. Had I seen you and Rob I totally would have recognized you two from your old reports and website. My friend and I had an amazing experience that night so I can't wait to hear about yours.

I hope you guys are all feeling better too! Happy New Year!

Hi Lia!

Thanks for your wonderfully kind words!

It's all about the princess, right?

It's one of the reasons Rob and I spent the money and went several times before we had Kira. We got to see everything ourselves on those trips, so now we go for her But I am looking forward to the day when she will be more into the rides and less into waiting in line for characters

Oh, too bad you didn't see us there that night! This was the first trip since 2003 that we didn't run into any DISers (that wasn't planned already, that is!) so it would have been lovely to see you

As usual, we loved MNSSHP! Hopefully I can get to that later today

 

[Timon]

Day 6 - Part 3 - Two fairies and a captured pirate!

On our way out to the vehicle, I noticed a nice little detail that we have passed a good dozen times and hadn't noticed before...

Do you see it? Love the magical little touches like this!

Just after 3pm, we headed out for MK! We parked quite a ways away so we had to tram it today...

Kira chose monorail...again LOL!

Obviously not very happy about her choice

Surprisingly, at around 3:45pm, they were letting MNSSHP guests through the gates!

Got our bands and treat bags (which we never even used!)...

Stopped for a quick photo op, of course!

And then we were on a mission to see some fairies! I think we had met just about everybody but the Fairies and Merida, so those were our two early goals this evening.

The wait for the Fairies was quite long but thankfully it was indoors!

I would say about 25 minutes later, it was Kira's turn!

Notice the CM's? They were talking about Kira's shoes

First up was Rosetta!

Tink was just there waiting, bored apparently, so she started drawing lines on the carpet LOL!

Rosetta was rather impressed with all of Kira's doodling in her autograph book and called Tink over to check it out...

Then Tink took her book and signed it for her...

And then a nice little pose...

And then funniest thing happened...

Tink made the observation about Kira's daddy being a Pirate and that she would have to watch out all night because this was the night all the pirates came out. I can't remember exactly how it went down, but that led to Rob talking about getting photos of Tink with pirates which led to Rob saying something like "I bet you don't have any photos of you capturing any pirates!" and before we all knew it, he was on the floor in front of them telling them to put their feet on him and take a pic

The Photopass guy AND Tink were so stunned they just looked at him for a while not sure what to do LOL!

The PP guy starting laughing REALLY loud and was saying something about Halloween Night and seeing crazy things

Tink just could not bring herself to "step" on Rob, Kira, however, had no problems stepping on her Daddy

 

[tow-mater-1]

Love the update Cass! Rob makes a great pirate I was laughing so hard at the pic of him lying down

Hey were you dressed up? I wanna see pics!

 

[Timon]

Day 6 - Part 4 - Planetary Boogie and Twinkle Toes

Next goal? Merida!

We got there about 10 minutes before the meet time was scheduled to start so we had to get in the very long line outside of the area.

I had gone up to ask the CM a question. Everyone seemed to be asking the same question, how long until the meet starts but I had a different question. Of course, right at this moment, I can't remember what my question was but instead of listening to my actual question, this very rude CM just told me "10 minutes"

I was a little confused and repeated the question and before I could even finish it, she cut me off and SHOUTED to me "I said 10 minutes!!!"

I was so shocked that I just got yelled at by a WDW CM that I just stood there with my mouth open staring at her.

She then realized that she might have stepped over the line a little and softly repeated "10 more minutes until the meet starts".

I just looked at her and loudly said, in a very sarcastic tone "That wasn't my question but thanks a lot, you were very helpful", gave her a dirty look and walked away.

I seriously have never seen an attitude like it in all my Disney trips! And she wasn't just pissy with me, she was like that with everyone!

Yes, I'm sure she gets the same question a billion times a day but honey, this is Disney World, if you can't answer dumb questions politely, you shouldn't be working for Disney and you really shouldn't be working at a character meet and greet!!!

Blue shirt, khaki pants, BAD attitude...

Finally they opened up the area and we all herded in like good cows...errr...tourists.

Rob mentioned she looked a little old for Merida but my 6 year-old didn't care

Okay, cha-ching! Our two primary pre-party goals, done!!!

I made the unilateral decision to stop and have a little break. A little tradition for Rob and I that we gladly kept up with Kira over the years is always stopping to enjoy Sonny Eclipse inside Cosmic Rays.

We've had all his songs on our computer for many years now and Kira has grown up listening to them so knows them and loves them as much as we do

I told them to grab a seat and enjoy while I got a little snack. They had eaten at the hotel but I was busy icing my ankles so I was getting a little peckish so I just got some fries and a drink.

Well, apparently they were peckish too because they "helped" me finish my fries in like 6.2 seconds

So back I went and this time I got an order of strips and fries to share

Which were devoured in just a slightly longer time period LOL!

Since Kira's first trip, at the age of 10 months, a new tradition started, with her and her daddy dancing to Sonny. I love that footage!!!

That stuff is on the camcorder, which I haven't even sifted through yet.

After our Sonny fix, we ventured into Tomorrowland again!! OMG! That makes it twice now this trip we walked over there!

We rode Wedway, a Halloween Party at dusk tradition for us...

And then we hit up Buzz too!

That ride just hurts my joints but I really enjoyed watching my family make funny faces while they tried to conquer the evil emperor Zurg

Darkness had fallen at the Magic Kingdom, which thrilled my little princess Rapunzel because now her shoes REALLY lit up!


She sure loved those shoes! As did everyone else

 

[jenseib]

Yes, Claire is still into princesses and I think she still thinks they are real too.

We have had twinkle toes or generic version in the past too. Boy those are quite the hit. To bad you couldn't find your purple shoes again....those were darn cute.
If it makes you feel better your swollen ankle looks like my every day ankle. LOL

 

[Timon]

Love the update Cass! Rob makes a great pirate I was laughing so hard at the pic of him lying down

Hey were you dressed up? I wanna see pics!

Char, I totally didn't dress up. I am so heat intolerant, there is no way I could stand wearing anything more than a nice light t-shirt. I normally wear a Halloweeny tee and I was hoping to find that cute Mickey Boo shirt I saw posted online last year but I didn't so I just went with a purple Pooh shirt

Yes, Claire is still into princesses and I think she still thinks they are real too.

We have had twinkle toes or generic version in the past too. Boy those are quite the hit. To bad you couldn't find your purple shoes again....those were darn cute.
If it makes you feel better your swollen ankle looks like my every day ankle. LOL

That is so cool that she thinks they are real!

about your ankles, Jen!

Kira wore her Twinkle boots to go see Frozen last night and got even more comments. One guy said it looks like the cops are coming, since the lights looks like red and blue from far away

 

[__disneygirl]

Sounds like a great start to your Halloween minus that rude CM. I can't believe her! I think even if you are having the worst day ever, you have to remember your responsibility to be kind and helpful. That is just crazy.

Kira makes a great princess and that pic of you two on the Peoplemover is just lovely!

 

[southbound]

I love her smile... she is soooo happy in this pic. It totally is worth the price to get that smile. Dani took the sash and bag off right away too! It gets in the way of the "look"

 

[Timon]

Day 6 - Part 5 - From sleeping to dancing in 6.3 seconds!

We had just enough time to squeeze in a ride on the Speedway before the Halloween Party started. Kira had never been on this one before so I was excited for her. Rob said she had a few issues but I don't remember exactly what they were. I got to sit in the bleachers (never even knew these existed, very cool!) and watch them

We then headed over to Adventureland as the party started so we could meet some party-only characters. First one up was Jane and Terk.

Jane was very personable and they chatted for quite some time. Both Terk and Jane made a huge deal over Kira's shoes

Jane was very sad that her shoes didn't light up like Kira's!

We then found out that Tarzan would be coming out to replace Jane and Terk so we decided to take a little break, grab a Dole Whip and then head back.

Turns out that Tarzan actually JOINED Jane and Terk, so it made for a fun visit because Jane told Tarzan all about Kira's book and shoes LOL!

We were supposed to meet up with Nancy and Chuck for the early parade but we were kind of in the middle of meets so I texted Nancy and told her we won't be able to make the early one but if they were still around, we could meet up for the late parade.


We then went to meet Jasmine but the line had just closed. They said it would reopen after the parade so we hopped on the Magic Carpets first.

Back to the line and waited a bit, which turned out great because Genie was joining Jasmine this time.

We were going to come back for the Abu meet but we never quite made it. The evening just went by so fast!

I think we might have taken a ride on Pirates at this point and then headed for Haunted Mansion. How could you not ride HM on Halloween? We've done it on every other trip but Kira had been slightly apprehensive about doing HM at all.

Of course, it looks a little more haunted this evening with the lights and the fog but we decided to try anyway. Sadly, the ghost lady was not out on the lawn but we hopped into the stand-by line and about 15 minutes later, Kira was clearly not comfortable. She didn't say she wanted to leave but as her Mommy, I made a judgement call to leave and suddenly her mood totally changed and she was much happier!

We ended up following an exit sign near some stairs, I had wrongly assumed it was a chicken exit. It actually led to a backstage area where we clearly shouldn't have been. It was very cool to see though

We had to go back down the stairs back into the line and then just follow everyone until we kind of merged into the FP+ line where we could just exit.

It was now time for Hallowishes so we made our way to the central hub to watch it. Always my favourite fireworks show EVAH!!!

Sorry, no photos. I just enjoyed watching it with my family and didn't bother with my camera.

I know, so unlike me!

Kira was kind of petering out, so we just decided to grab a spot in front of Casey's, eat some hot dogs and just claim a spot for the parade.

Nancy and Chuck met up with us and the three of us headed in for some hot dogs. By the time I came out, Kira had passed out on Main Street.

I felt bad for her but at the same time, it was such a wonderful memory. Kira RARELY sleeps anywhere but her bed. Two notable exceptions were on her first trip to WDW when she fell asleep in her Daddy's arms during her first ride on the Haunted Mansion in 2007 and the second was in her Grandma's arms during that same trip while waiting in the play area for us to ride Splash Mountain. So here was a third sleeping moment, all in MK

Rob and I ate our food, which was just okay, sadly. Casey's used to be one of our fave places to eat in all of WDW. Their hot dogs used to be soooo good. Then they changed to whole wheat buns, then back to white buns but they changed their wieners.

Chuck had hurt his back just before the trip so they couldn't join us while we sat on the curb. They ended up watching the parade further down, possibly in rocking chairs??

Once the pre-parade entertainment started, Kira was wide awake and had found her second wind!

She joined in, of course!

And loved every moment! You would never know that moments before this photo was taken, she was completely zonked!



And this was how happy and proud of herself she was about the whole dancing thing...

I learned later that week that our cruise mates, Walt & Di, had been sitting a little further down from us and watched Kira do her thing! I gave them heck for not coming to say Hi!

With her new found excitement, it was time for the parade!

 

[monica23535]

Great update Cass! That's so funny that Kira fell asleep right there on the floor, she must have been so tired. My son, who is the same age as Kira fell asleep at MNSSHP on our last trip right before the second parade too. He slept right through it and I ended up having to wake him up to make a run for the busses, after I had finished collecting all the candy I could carry (lol) My husband hadn't come with us that night so it was not fun having to carry a six year old as well as all the candy

 

[Timon]

Day 6 - Part 6 - Boo to You and Boo To You and...Holy Princesses!

Time for the parade! The only Disney parade I actually like!

This is what Kira did for almost every float LOL!

As usual, it was a great show! I love all the HM and villain stuff!!!

Now if they would only get rid of that western hoedown chicken crap!

So.....where to next, you ask?

I will give you three guesses and the first two don't count LOL!


You know, it's been quite some time since we've seen a huge influx of Princess photos on the trip report...

Let's fix that, shall we?

Princess Fairytale Hall for the very last time!!!! (YAY!)

This time without FP's so we actually got to see the gorgeous room before you enter the next room with the princesses!

Yes, I know...we have literally spent half our MK time in this building BUT tonight was very special because on MNSSHP nights, the princesses are joined by their princes

Rapunzel and Flynn were great together, feeding off each others' energy. They went on about Kira's dress and SHOES...OMG her SHOES!!!

Every single princess GUSHED over Kira's shoes and every single one of them asked their respective princes if they could buy them shoes like that! It was sooo funny!

She got a LOT of attention during this visit, they all danced with her or twirled with her, chatted about shoes, it was pretty awesome actually!

Prepare to be bombarded with princess pics! I think they speak for themselves really.

Sorry, a lot of them are blurry...I was either drunk or really tired...pick one!

 

[Timon]

Day 6 - Part 7 - One pooped princess!

Let's finish up this day people!!! I only have a few more pics but I maxed out my photo limit with all those princess pics

By the time we were done with the princes and princesses, it was after midnight and the party was over! I have to say that in all of the MNSSHP's we've been to, this one flew by the fastest by FAR!!!

It doesn't seem like we did much but I guess we did. Those character meets really suck up your time!!

A couple of pics near the Castle...

The one thing you miss when you arrive at the parties so early is the lights and atmosphere at the entrance of the park. They always do such a great job and it's one of the reasons we keep coming back to the Halloween parties!

A quick ride on the monorail (again!) and back to the TTC!


Not too many people left in the parking lot so our Flex was super easy to find!

A nice quick ride back to Coronado and we all passed out!

Once again, another great but very long day! Our week at the parks is almost over, one more day to go and then it's cruise time

Thanks for reading peeps

 

[Timon]

Day 7 - Part 1 - One last hurrah!

We slept in a little today. I made breakfast for my fam and then it was time to head back to MK for a few hours. Originally we were going to spend half the day but we were all theme parked out and we needed some time to just chill.

Even Kira said she was done and wanted to go back to the hotel

We also had plans to meet up with Nancy & Chuck and Mike & Robin, our good friends and cruise mates.

Tram time!

Can you guess what she chose THIS time????

LOL, she's chosen the monorail every single time so far!


Our top priority was HM! Since we missed it last night, I wanted to give Kira one last opportunity to ride it and she said she would!!

YAY!!! That made for a happy Mommy

She did well, only the stretching-room-darkness-comes-creepy-dude-hanging-himself-from-the-ceiling part scared her

I pretty much let Kira guide the way today. Asked her if there was anything that she wanted to do over again and the only thing she wanted to ride again was the Tea Cups! Weird kid LOL!

Before Mad Tea Party, we ventured over to Storybook Circus for some shopping!

Before we hit the cups, I wanted to stop and have a little treat. I don't eat breakfast on vacation unless it's at a 10:30am table service restaurant (LOL) so it was a little weird for this to be the first thing I ate that day but I had wanted to try it for so long and I was NOT going to miss it!

Hot Fudge Cookie Sunday

We split it between the three of us, which was just the perfect amount!

Okay, NOW we can do Tea cups!

While they rode, I texted Robin to see if they had made it into MK yet. I guess they ran into Chuck and Nanc and were off to grab a bite to eat at Casey's, so we still had some time to kill.

Yup, Rob took a photo from the cup of me texting Robin LOL!

With some time to waste, we walked over to Adventureland and did Jungle Cruise. Cheesy but cute!

Rob and Kira were getting a little hungry so we went over to Sleepy Hollow and I got this for them to share...

As I was rounding the corner to bring it to them, I saw that Mike & Robin and Chuck & Nancy had found Rob and Kira!

I can't believe I didn't even take a single photo!!! GRRR!!

It was nice to see them all again and after a short visit, Kira was done and wanted to go back to the resort so we said our good-byes until tomorrow and headed out of the park.

Kira was in a funny mood by the time we left. She finally agreed to take the Ferry Boat because this was her very last chance! I love the monorail but I love the open air freshness of the ferry!

Lots of love for her daddy!

She sucked up just enough for him to carry her

Such a daddy's girl!!!

Holy construction over at the Poly Beach for the new DVC addition...

One final ride on the tram...my expression says it all folks....

Next up, some Coronado Springs pics

 

[Timon]

Day 7 - Part 2 - Chilling at Coronado

Before heading back to Coronado, we drove over to 192 to see if I could find some more Melatonin for my sister. The Winn Dixie over there is weird. I think they had just taken over the store because there was no sign but it was listed on their website and they had WD products! No Melatonin though. But I grabbed some fruit.

We stopped for gas and Rob got me some roses.

I was pretty darn hungry by now so we decided to make a pit stop at El Centro before heading back to the room. Rob and Kira hadn't even seen El Centro yet so it was a good time for it.

Kira and I hit up Cafe Rix while Rob shopped...

They have snacks and sandwiches here. Limited selections but it was good enough. I got the Roast Beef sandwich and a hot dog to share.

We took it back to the room so we could chill and relax.

The beef was very good, the fruit was slightly stale and the hot dog was decent but would have been MUCH better on a regular bun instead of that hard-to-chew pretzel bun!

I had gotten some Coke Zero the other day from Winn Dixie...look how tiny they are!! Two gulps and I was done LOL!

Rob got started on laundry and then took Kira to the playground. He took some pics of the Dig Site for me while I got stuff organized and started packing up.

Definitely worth staying here if you are going to spend some time at the pool area. It was far from El Centro but we preferred being close to the pool.

Hot Tub

Slide is only open when a lifeguard is there, and we hadn't made it in time the whole week so our plan was to get there in time to do the slide!

Kiddie pool

Kira wanted some chicken strips to bring back to the room. They were a little nasty!

And here's my roses...

Kira chilled, watched a movie and had some food.

Then while Rob finished laundry, Kira and I headed over to the Dig Site to try the slide finally!

Spent some time in the pool and hot tub as well and ran into this guy on the way back...

Finished up laundry and packing and then went to bed early to catch up on our sleep.

Tomorrow is CRUISE TIME!!!


*Edited to add*

For the WDW part of my trippie, I used almost exactly 700 photos!!!!! WOWZA!

 

[Timon]

Day 8 - Part 1 - Fantasy, here we come!!!

It was a little weird waking up on cruise day and still being in Disney World. Every other pre-cruise evening has been spent at the port but for many reasons, we had decided to stay in Disney the entire week and just drive there this morning.

Although it wasn`t so bad, I do prefer to stay near the port the night before and will do so on all future trips.

That said, we woke up nice and refreshed and ready for a change!

Notice the new addition???

I will give you a hint...he's cute and FLUFFY!!! hee hee

We showered, dressed, Kira and Rob had some breakfast then we packed up our last minute stuff and stuffed it into the car LOL!

Left our daily Mousekeeping tip with an extra bonus of my flowers.

Then off we went!

An hour later, we saw this!!!

We pulled up to the terminal at 10:05am and dropped our bags off with the porters. Tipped him and he told us to make our way into the garage up to the third level because they hadn't opened the main terminal doors yet.

Rob was going to head over to Budget and return the Flex and grab the shuttle back. The last time he did this, he got lost and it took him forever to get back to the terminal. This time, I gave him very specific directions and looked at Google Maps with him before we left, just to make sure!

Our Port Arrival Time was 10:30am, the very first one so I was thinking we had made great time and we might even get in early enough to see if we could get an upgrade because I wasn't all that pleased with our VGT room assignment.

We had a quick pit stop here...

Then headed up to level three...

along with everyone and their freakin' dog!!!

And that was only PART of the line. I couldn't get the whole thing in one shot!

It took well over an HOUR to get into the Terminal!!!

Thank the LORD for iPhones!!!

There goes our upgrade!! The thing that made me furious was that I later found out that our cruise mates showed up exactly 5 minutes after we did and they were able to walk in the front doors of the Terminal and were among the first in the terminal

Oh well, it was a new experience and I have definitely learned from it!!!

Oh, this was a pic Rob sent to me from Budget while we were waiting

We finally made it past the desk where they check your ID's and Kira was thrilled!!!

Until she realized there was another long line to go through security

So we stopped and took some pics...

Before hitting this...

OMG, it was like an eternity!!!!

Got into the check-in line finally...

And look who I spied with my little eye....two lovely ladies and a part of a mouse!

By the time we got here, she was slightly grumps

I gotta continue in the next chapter, too many pics LOL!

 

[tow-mater-1]

Whew! I had a lot to catch up on and I was only absent a few days!

I LOVED the video of Kira dancing!

I can't believe you are finally getting on the cruise... which means I'm getting off. Actually I was already waiting at Animal Kingdom by this time

Ya your line up experience was way worse than ours. So maybe it was a good thing that Logan had to go potty before we left or we might have been one of those early early people put in the garage!

 

[Timon]

Day 8 - Part 2 - Get me onboard already!

Okay, I just finished editing some photos for this chapter and I was looking at the days' pics and HOLY COW did I take a lot of photos today!!!

Let's carry on before I get overwhelmed and just wanna end my report here LOL!

With upgrades long gone, we found our way to the front where N & C and M & R were sitting at a table.

I think Mike is imagining how much money Robin is going to be spending in the onboard shops

The terminal was decorated for Xmas already

And here is where the Magic begins!

About 10 minutes later, Mike found Rob and led him to the right place before he got lost

You can see me in the background...looks like I am camcording and picking my nose. Really, I was only doing one of those things!

Took some pics outside

and before we knew it, it was time to go through the MICKEY EARS!!!

Rob had to stop and get his photo taken because for whatever reason his photo was not on his account anymore...

OMG, I LOVE these signs!!!

A quick pose for the Welcome Aboard photo, which ended up being the only photo we bought the whole week!

And then it was up the ramp!

Can't really tell here if my kid was happy to be cruising or not????

After the welcome aboard spiel, our first stop was BBB to see if I could grab a spot for Kira for Pirate's League on Pirate Night. The Navigator said it was open but it clearly was not.

Kira got to play with the most clever piece of art on the entire ship though

Rob wanted to eat so we headed to Cabana's when we ran into this guy...

Clearly Kira is hating every moment so far!

I grabbed a table in my fave spot and waited with our carry-on's while they grabbed some lunch...

Rob's first plate...

And second plate...

I left them to finish their food while I ran back down to BBB.

 

[Timon]

Day 8 - Part 3 - Time to PLAY!!!

I totally thought I would have to fight hundreds of moms to get my kid an appointment at BBB but there was no one else there! I was totally prepared to lay down some beatings though cus that's the kind of mom I am

I had to wait a few minutes before someone showed up but then it was just me and I totally scored getting exactly what I wanted YAY!!

It's so pretty here!

Met back up with the fam at Cabanas and took Kira down to the clubs to get registered while Rob finished his third plate

You can see the long hallway in the background that connects the Club and the Lab, genius!

Oh and once again, you can see just how miserable she was...it was like that the whole week

Getting her bracelet!

Once that was done, it was time to PLAY!!!

She crashed the ship like 5 times! Let's leave the driving to the Captain, okay babe? LOL!

By now, I hadn't eaten a thing all day long and I was famished! Rob stayed with Kira while she played and I went down to Flo's for some lunch!

Rob loves the variety of a buffet but this is more my style...

 

[cntkg1]

Ok, I had this entire post, complete with pictures, all ready to post and all of a sudden I timed out??? Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

So, yes, we did snag two rocking chairs for the parade and were even able to watch a family get ejected from the park for not having mnsshp bracelets. Oooooh, those CM's mean business!






Heaven on earth!






My FAVORITE part of the Boo-to-you parade!



Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm






Looks like that other lady was also taking a pic of you.






Beautiful flowers for a beautiful lady.







Ummm, either I was very happy and excited here or I was passing a kidney stone.






Sure don't like the other side of these signs though.


Keep 'em coming, Cass. I love seeing pictures so I can relive our vacation a little.

 

[cntkg1]

Day 8 - Part 3 - Time to PLAY!!!

I totally thought I would have to fight hundreds of moms to get my kid an appointment at BBB but there was no one else there! I was totally prepared to lay down some beatings though cus that's the kind of mom I am

I had to wait a few minutes before someone showed up but then it was just me and I totally scored getting exactly what I wanted YAY!!

It's so pretty here!

Sure is! Think we can manage to sneak in ourselves next time?

OMG! I see a veggie on your plate!!!