Seven days of Sunshine, Storms, Sweaters and ....Sickness??

[mommy2mb]

My guess is Ohana's or Chef Mickeys.

 

[jenseib]

I have to correct myself. I had told you that they didn't use pictures from that day on the castle, but I just found out I was wrong, they use both pictures of the day and sent in ones. I never know that before...and now makes me wish I had made a point to see the show in April when I had my DD with me, because we had a lot of pictures that day.....I did catch it in August on a solo trip and it is a fantastic show.

 

[BridgetR3]

I thought that's what I had understood but I get so much stuff wrong that I didn't say anything!!!

I did look and the only people I could really make out were from the large pictures. Do they use Photopass pics and ride pics for the "from today" pictures?

I PROMISE to post today but it will have to be later this afternoon as I am bringing my mom to some appointments today!

 

[adoerr72]

Joining in. Your Lilo and Stitch situation was like my girls the first time they met "Marie" from the Aristocats in Epcot. We had not seen the movie yet (the girls were 2 and 3). All they knew was there was a pretty white cat standing there with a pink bow. They HAD to meet her

 

[BridgetR3]

After meeting the characters in the greeting trails we got in line for Lion King. This was by far a family favorite from the entire week. The boys still talk about it to this day! AND anytime I hear a Lion King song, I get all teary-eyed and think, “ahhh.......Disney......” My husband tells me I'm crazy but I just claim that he just doesn't understand!

While waiting in long lines we let the boys play on our Iphones to give them something to do. We had also downloaded DisneyWorld line apps that showed how long lines were for each ride. I didn't find that the lines apps were really accurate but it kept the kids busy! Maybe we just weren't using the “right ones” but we did have three different line apps and sometimes the actual wait times were WAY off of the app wait times.

This was probably our longest wait all week since we waited for about 30 minutes before they opened the doors but boy was it worth it.

It was an amazing show. We really considered going back for a day at Animal Kingdom just for this show and the safari. However, we would never make it back to AK on this trip. After the show was over, it was around noon and we were really hungry. We headed off to Flame Tree Bar-B-Que. At the place where you receive your food at Flame Tree there are no tables, but I had read here on the DIS that if you follow the path ALL the way to the very end you would receive a wonderful little surprise. We walked until my hubby asked, “Do you even know where we are going??” and then we saw this.......

The pavilion was out on the water with ducks swimming around and Expedition Everest in the distance. Gorgeous view for lunch!!

After lunch we decided to head to It's Tough to be a Bug since it was close by.

DS4 is ready for the show or at least we thought he was ready. How scary can it be?? Really?? This show scared the four of us silly(o.k. so DH says it didn't scare him so maybe just three). It was so real at that one dark point and for someone like myself who is terrified of insects, well let's just say it was rough!! The boys literally screamed out loud and swore that they would never ever go back ever ever again. Yes it was bad but it was worth it for the "experience" as we kept telling them all week!

After It's Tough to be a Bug, we went and rode Kali River Rapids. While DH rode Expedition Everest alone (see a pattern here? Poor guy, I can't ride ANYTHING big and neither will the kids.), I took a pic of these cute bug pickers.

We also found a Photopass CM and took some family photos without DH while we waited for him.

Neither child wanted to cooperate for this one but it's one of the few photos from this trip where my hair isn't a hot mess so I included it here!

LOVE THIS PIC!!!! His face is priceless!

Lastly, a cute one of just the boys.....

We never made it to Dinoland this day as we had dinner reservations later in the evening and we wanted the boys to rest a little while before them. We missed a lot of AK I find because we did not do any trails or the train to the “petting zoo” part. We did not see Dinoland or ride Dinosaur. Looking back, I wish we had spent more time in AK rather than head back to the hotel but the boys needed their rest.

On the way out of AK we stopped at the little shop to trade pins and vinylmations. I found that trading pins and vinylmations really kept the kids from "needing" everything we saw. Now, don't get me wrong, they still wanted LOTS of stuff but most of the time they were more interested in trading than they were in buying.

Sorry for the blurry picture but I really wanted to share how much we enjoyed this CM. He was great about vinylmation trading. He hummed a little tune while turning the big black box around so you could see what the vinylmations looked like and then he let you pick. He was our best trader! The kids loved him!!

On our way out we did make time to stop for Photopass pics. Some days I was REALLY good about this, and some days I only have about 5 pictures. If I do purchase it this time, I REALLY need to get better about finding the photopass people!

I look pale in this one. Could I be getting sick? Would I be the one with sickness on the trip?

Brotherly love.....

DS 9 holding Simba....

Continued in next post.....

 

[BridgetR3]

So we took a bus and went "home" to our hotel. The boys and DH all quickly fell fast asleep but I was too excited to sleep. After all, I was at DisneyWorld!! I decided to walk around a little while and take pictures of our resort.

A pic of the buildings across the lake....

A pic of the island in the middle....

We stayed in building 31.

I brought window clings to decorate for Mardi Gras.

After walking around for a while and calling home to tell my mom about our trip, it was time to wake up the boys for our first TS dinner of the trip.

Poor DS4 was EXHAUSTED and definitely not ready to get up.

This is only day 2 and they are already so exhausted!

Dinner would be Captain's Grill!!!

Our dinner was at the Beach Club (or so we thought) and since we had driven our car we decided to drive there. Our car smelled awful from the spilled water sitting in the heat all day but there is no resort to resort bus system so outside of a taxi, this might be our only hope.

I head over to Beach Club and tell the little attendant at the gate that we have reservations at Captain's Grill to which he says, "That restaurant is at the Yacht Club....". We headed back out onto the road and it was the next turn so it was easy. The Yacht Club was gorgeous!!!

When we arrived at Captain's Grill, we were still a little early so we decided to take some time outside taking pictures.

This is also where we took the intro picture for this TR. A gentleman walked by noticing that I was taking pics of my kids and asked if he could take one of all of us. We were VERY appreciative and passed it on later in the week at Epcot.

And with that it was time for our reservations so we went and checked in at the desk. We were seated right away and the place looked fairly empty so I'm sure we could have gone as soon as we got to the hotel instead of going take pictures. This restaurant was not really recommended by anyone so I was worried about the quality of food. Since we had to change our plans and book this vacation last minute, I had lost ALL of my May ADR's. The only ADR I was able to get from May was my Le Cellier one; all of the others were different.

Anyways, so we sit down and order our drinks. We weren't brave on drinks at all on this trip so we always order our cokes and diet cokes. They brought out bread and took our orders.

Excuse the quality of this picture and the next one. I didn't want to use my flash and embarrass my husband that I was taking “food porn” pictures so they turned out dark.

DH and I ordered grilled ribeye with cheddar-bacon mashed potatoes, seasonal Vegetables, and Herb Butter. I have no idea what the boys ordered but I do remember that the three of us (me and the two boys) all ate my steak instead of them eating their own meals. DS9 was upset at most restaurants because he is used to getting a small steak and potato to eat as well which was often not offered on the children's menu. This did become an issue by the end of the week. DS4 was often upset because not every restaurant offered chicken nuggets. To each his own I suppose.....lol....

My meal with the best potatoes EVER!!!!! I could eat the potatoes EVERYDAY for the rest of my life. They were so good.

And for our desserts.....

Gelato Mix for me

Double Chocolate Cheesecake for DH – he said it was too rich and for him to say that it must have been REALLY REALLY rich

Make your own sundaes for the kids

We finished dinner at 7 o'clock and headed back to our hotel. Once there, we caught a bus to Downtown Disney to do some shopping and trading of course!

We were sad that they were still refurbishing the Lego store while we were down there. It will be nice when we go back to see the actual store instead of that small yellow tent!

My last picture stamp shows 8:54 p.m. With that we found our bus stop and headed home tired and happy.

Next stop – Epcot and our 2nd TS of the trip....Le Cellier.......

 

[jenseib]

dinner looks good...I have heard good thing about that place...it's on my radar for next trip. I ate at le cellier last trip and was not impressed

 

[ChildAtHeart82]

Subbing! Followed the link from your PTR. We were at Disney last March as well!

 

[BridgetR3]

dinner looks good...I have heard good thing about that place...it's on my radar for next trip. I ate at le cellier last trip and was not impressed

I LOVED Captain's Grill!! I would love to get an ADR for that on our next trip as well. However, as you will see in our next day at Disney, none of us even liked Le Cellier. It just plain was not good, especially not $100 good.

Subbing! Followed the link from your PTR. We were at Disney last March as well!

Thanks for joining us!!! I really should have completed the TR on these boards back then instead of doing it on my blog. My outer family was less than interested in hearing about all of my Disney adventures. BUT, I have finally made it over to doing a TR here for it. We enjoyed our trip but did find some days were cold for us! (I guess we Southerners aren't used to winter anywheres!)

 

[jenseib]

was your food really salty at Le Cellier? Ours was. The food would've been good, if I could've gotten past the salt taste...I like salt...but it was even too much for me

 

[BridgetR3]

No, ours wasn't salty at all, but it was really bland. Now, honestly, we are Southerners and being from Louisiana, we use a LOT of seasonings so most of the dishes at Disney just didn't cut it for us. However, Le Cellier was one of the worst as far as flavor.

 

[BridgetR3]

Just wanted to let all of you know that I have not forgotten about you. We had to take an unexpected family trip out of town Thursday through yesterday evening and today I'm washing clothes and recovering!! I'm also trying to get into the Christmas spirit by putting up our tree.

I'll try to post another update tonight if I get a chance. In the meantime, did anyone else go Black Friday shopping? What did you get? I had enough banking rewards saved up to get a Wii for the kids (nice bit of pixie dust there!!) and then my hubby purchased another XBOX for himself (ours is slowly dying after 3 years of use).

Other than that, I got boring things like slippers and pj's!

 

[BridgetR3]

We awoke to a gloomy, dreary Monday morning at Disney but hey, we were still at Disney so it doesn't matter what the weather's like right? Today we were headed to Epcot which was the place that my DS9 was most looking forward to. He could not wait to try out the KimPossible missions.

We ended up sleeping in a little on this morning and arrived at Epcot around 9:30. It was a VERY chilly morning at Epcot. (Remember how I lost my jacket on the way to Disney? Yeah I really needed it on this day!!!)

Here's a pic of the ball my DS5 wanted to “play golf with” when we would look at Disney pictures before our trip. Imagine his surprise when we rode the ride inside the ball!!

We did not ride Spaceship Earth on the way into Epcot though because the line was really long!! Instead we kept walking since I had heard on the DIS that the lines for this ride get shorter as the day goes.

I loved that it was the Flower and Garden Festival!! Soooo many pretty topiaries were all over Epcot. I overheard my husband the other day ask someone who had gone in October if they had seen all of the cool “flower characters” in Epcot. They had no clue what he was talking about so I had to explain that it was only a spring thing and he was shocked.

First thing on our agenda was to grab our KimPossible passes for later in the day. Since we grabbed them so early, our start time was 11 a.m. I thought my DS9 was going to lose his little mind waiting that long but we all survived...somehow....lol

Since we were already in Innoventions (West? East?) we decided to hang out and try some of the activities. This would come back to bite us in the backside later on in the day. How? Wait and see.....

We learned how to escape from our house in case of a fire.

We also learned how to save for our next Disney vacation.

While the boys finished playing in Innoventions, I ran to grab Test Track fastpasses. Next we left and went to the Land pavilion. Epcot was a VERY VERY tough day for me because on Saturday at MK, DS9 had stepped on the backside of my flip flop. My foot got caught in it and my leg ended up twisting really weird. By Monday, my knee REALLY hurt (mostly going up and down inclines) and Epcot is ALL inclines it seems. I was fine in Animal Kingdom but in Epcot I paid a painful price trying to get around. I actually considered getting a scooter/wheelchair but I figured I would rather deal with the pain rather than the ugly looks. I really thought I may have torn something but since we have been home it has gotten better - not completely gone but better, except an episode last week when the latest round of cold weather came in.

DH went to get FP's for Soarin while I waited with the boys by Living with the Land. When he returned, we all got in line together. This would be our first "ride" in Epcot. Maybe it's the teacher in me but I really enjoyed Living with the Land and seeing all of the plants that they are growing. The kids enjoyed the boat ride and we were all happy.

I was amazed at the 9 pound lemons, at the sweet potatoes growing above ground and at the tomatoes shaped like Mickey ears. This was a neat little relaxing ride but it is now past 11 a.m. Are we all happy?? Of course not!!! DS9 is worried about missing our time for KimPossible.

So as soon as our ride was over, we began to head to World Showcase.

Notice how gloomy the sky looks in this pic. It was in the low 50s all day which was COLD to me, especially with no jacket!!! I have a VERY expensive fix to the that problem in a couple of hours but for now I'm toughing it out.

Our Kimmunicator pick up site was Italy which is on the other side of the world from where we are and I'm hurting BAD so we take a boat across the lake to ummm....I think it's Germany which is right next to Italy and I get about 10 minutes to rest! The boats saved us on this day in Epcot because if I would have had to actually walk all the way there, I would have given up!

Next time – Our KimPossible mission and which countries would we save?!?!? Lunch at LeCellier's and would we ride anything else?

 

[BelleTinkMom]

Joining in.

All caught up.

Space Mountain is rough. Cosmic Rays is one of our favorite CS in MK.

We also enjoy Living with the Land in Epcot, it's one of Madi (6) must do rides.

Can't wait to hear more about your trip.

 

[BridgetR3]

Joining in.

All caught up.

Space Mountain is rough. Cosmic Rays is one of our favorite CS in MK.

We also enjoy Living with the Land in Epcot, it's one of Madi (6) must do rides.

Can't wait to hear more about your trip.

Thanks for joining in!!! Yeah I won't even try Space Mountain!!!

Sunday was nowhere NEAR that crowded.

Do you mean Magic Kingdom wasn't that crowded Sunday? Yeah nothing else was that crowded all week except for Magic Kingdom again on the day we left. It looked worse but thankfully we were only viewing it from the monorail as we passed by. That is a whole nother story as they say.....

 

[BridgetR3]

When I last left you we were at Italy getting our Kimmunicator. I did enjoy doing these missions but my kids had a REALLY hard time sharing that thing. My DH was okay with Disney but did not enjoy it like I did. He felt the Kimmunicator missions were a waste of our time since they were not a ride/show. He also got REALLY aggravated when he realized that our kids would not share the phone.

There were a few things on this trip that he did enjoy and some things that I can assure you we will never wait for (or go to) again.....I'll tell those later but for now, here's a pic of the kids listening to their very first message on the Kimmunicator.

Love DH's face....that shows it all.....

We get our Kimmunicator and head out on our mission to save....Japan....wait we were in Italy why do we have to go to Japan.....oh my poor knee endured so much walking that day. These missions are really cute in that a "movie" plays on your phone and tells you about some type of bad guy trying to destroy the world. It's up to you to find certain landmarks in the country and save everyone. Japan was probably our favorite although it was still new so the boys fought the WHOLE time with whose turn it was and did it make that sound to switch people. I'll just share a couple of these pics as I don't want to spoil the missions for anyone who hasn't done them yet.

Japanese pagoda

Look it's the bad Baby Beebees!!! We have captured them and saved the world.

The boys wanted to do another one but it was close to our lunch reservation so I chose one near Canada where we would be eating. We went over to the United Kingdom to save their people now. One thing that I didn't care for about the missions was that we missed a lot of World Showcase because we would only go to the places we had to in order to save the world. On this next trip, I'm going around the world with NO Kimmunicator!!! (or so I say right now....)

Random people shot.....

What is this building? (I didn't write it down and now I don't remember.)

In this mission, we had to go into a shop and actually tell a Cast Member a memorized line. This was during one of DS5's turns and I was certain that he would be too shy to tell the man so I was prepared to say it for him. However, DS5 walked right up and said the line perfectly. The cast member was great in acting like he was looking around for spies and then giving DS5 a special surprise with our next code on it. He was very proud!

Finally it was time for lunch at Le Cellier. We had heard many many wonderful things about Le Cellier and their steaks so I was excited to be able to try it out. We were a little early for our reservations so we walked slowly along the path back to the restaurant and took pictures.

The flowers everywhere were so beautiful!! I don't know if it was just for Flower and Garden but I would have to think that some of these are there year around.

I didn't take many pictures of Le Cellier because it was rather dark and well I would have felt out of place even though we were surrounded by other LOUD Louisiana people. GO TIGERS!!! (SOOOO much purple and gold on this trip!) It didn't live up to the hype in our opinion. Maybe other people had made such a big deal about it that we would have been let down by anything but it wasn't something that I would HAVE to try again. I tried the pretzel bread which was good but I rathered the other bread over the pretzel one. I tried the Cheddar Cheese Soup and didn't care for that. DH and I both had New York Strip...mine was with garlic mashed potatoes and his with fries since he doesn't do garlic. I would say that we in Louisiana are so spoiled by the flavor and seasoning we use that any of these steaks were not flavorful or seasoned enough for us. This is just our opinion but we definitely would NOT spend two dining credits on it for a dinner unless you wanted something that is only offered at dinner there.

I did get a picture of my favorite part of the meal....my chocolate “moose”....

Oh yeah while eating our mission's Kimmunicator died because there is no reception in the restaurant and I got tired of running outside for the two hours that we were in the restaurant to keep telling it that I wanted to continue my missions. There were quite a few tears and some not happy kids but I think it was for the best. FINALLY, some time to enjoy the sights and not run around looking for buildings and plants.

After leaving Le Cellier, we decided to go back to Future World and ride all the things we missed while rushing over to do Kimpossible.

Here are pics of the sand sculpture on the way to FutureWorld.

Up next....rides, rides, rides....Where would we go first? (Hint – we had a BLAST!!!) Any guesses??

 

[jenseib]

I have never even told my DD about the Kim Possible missions. I know she would love it, but it would drive me nuts....well if we stayed longer and had more days and time, I might show it to her.

 

[ChildAtHeart82]

I enjoyed your update! We felt the same way about Le Cellier. I'm glad that we ate there once so that we know it's not all the hype says it is. The Kimpossible missions are definitely a different way to see World Showcase. We enjoyed them because it exposed to parts of some countries that we'd never known about before. I can see how it would be tough with kids fighting over the phone, though.

 

[BridgetR3]

I enjoyed your update! We felt the same way about Le Cellier. I'm glad that we ate there once so that we know it's not all the hype says it is. The Kimpossible missions are definitely a different way to see World Showcase. We enjoyed them because it exposed to parts of some countries that we'd never known about before. I can see how it would be tough with kids fighting over the phone, though.

I seem to remember that you were there around the same time I was from the March 2011 thread. Any chance of a TR from you?

I could always use more reading material!!

 

[khertz]

Followed you over here from my TR, and I'm all caught up & enjoying it so far! Your boys are adorable & look like they are having so much fun! We did a number of Mardi Gras trips when I was younger, and it always felt like New Orleans really must be a ghost town because EVERYONE was wearing Saints or LSU t-shirts and wearing beads! I remember one year we went to see the old Who Wants to be a Millionaire show, and the whole audience was chanting LSU before the show started. I would love to take another MG trip someday because the crowds usually aren't bad and it's fun to see other NOLA families there, but MG is my husband's absolute FAVORITE holiday, and I don't see him willingly giving it up, even to go to WDW!