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

[BridgetR3]

Loving your TR. Keep it coming. I guess you can tell from my screen name what comes next from me....Who Dat!

The game last night was awesome!! Geaux Saints!!

Thanks for the encouraging words! Sometimes I feel like I am speaking to myself but I know how much I lurk other TR's so I'm hoping I have lurkers that are enjoying it!

Either way just a couple more days of TR and I'll start my new PTR!

 

[BridgetR3]

Day 5 Part 2 – Lunch and MK afternoon
WARNING: There are very few pictures from this day, but we do have a storm and a meltdown for your entertainment! I'm sorry about the lack of pictures!!! I think this day I was always either consoling or running from the rain!

Starting at Hollywood Studios the previous evening, I had begun receiving weather alerts about a strong cold front passing through back home. Now here in south Louisiana, we never really see snow but we do see high wind and tornadoes. These alerts continued all through the night and throughout our morning at MK but why worry about that, after all we are at Disney! So on our train ride back to the front of MK, I checked my FB quickly to find out that our area had indeed experienced tornadoes with a life being lost about an hour from our house. What a sad thing to happen.

I called home to make sure that our families were o.k. only to be warned that it was headed to Orlando tonight or tomorrow morning. Well shucks, I guess Disney can’t control the weather after all. Blah…..ah well not much we can do now. Let’s go to lunch.

I was so excited to ride on the monorail for the first time!! We had seen it a few days on our trip but had never ridden on it. We hopped on the resort monorail in order to get to Grand Floridian. I knew that we would be the last stop but it would be fun to see the others and we had plenty of time before our reservation.

Although we really enjoyed our ride, we did not take any pictures, which was kind of strange for us. However, once we arrived at Grand Floridian, I did take a few scenery photos. I love the way this resort is decorated!!

While waiting to be seated, I stepped outside to snap a few more of the resort buildings. My little one followed along while my older DS stayed inside with DH holding onto the buzzer.

Once the buzzer went off, they walked outside to get us and we went with them to be checked in. AS SOON AS we walked back inside, DS5 started to lose his mind…..not just a little bit but A LOT. He was just screaming at the top of his lungs refusing to move. I kept asking him what was wrong and honestly at first thought that maybe a bee from one of the flowers had stung him on the way in. Halfway to the table, I had to turn around and take him back out for fear of getting kicked out of this restaurant. Finally once we were in the bathroom washing his face, he told me that he was angry because his brother got to hold the buzzer and he didn’t. Sheesh!!! (I think it was more Disney fatigue and “hitting the wall” at this point but yeah…)

I was able to calm him down and promise him that he could hold it next time if he would just go sit back at the table and let us have a quiet meal. He calms down to just breathing hard and we leave the restroom. As soon as we cross the metal piece on the floor to enter the restaurant again, he loses his mind AGAIN. Blood curtling screaming, kicking, absolute mayhem…..at home this would have been handled differently since we could leave the restaurant but at Disney on the dining plan with ADR’s you are kind of stuck.

My husband came out at this point to rescue me so that I could at least choose my food and drink. I chose a New York Strip with mashed potatoes. By the time the poor waitress came by and took my order, DH was back with DS5 who for a minute or two had calmed down. Poor DS lost his mind again when he realized that this restaurant did not have chicken nuggets either!!! He looked for nuggets at all of our TS restaurants with very few of our choices having them. I did not realize that this would be a problem going in but we know better now. Of course now he eats lots of other things but at the time he was on a nugget binge. The sweet waitress brought him a cheese pizza which much to his dismay was not nuggets. Luckily DH is a fast eater so he scarfed down his food and left the restaurant with DS for good. Once we all finished eating and paying for our food, we headed back to the monorail and DS5 was happy again because he was riding.

Again at home he would have been punished but I think part of his meltdown on this day was our fault. Notice we have not taken breaks yet on this trip. They had ONE nap on the second day, the Sunday, and we have been going NON-STOP since then. Also, I should have watched the menus more carefully knowing his food choices were limited but I was more worried about DH and his limited food choices so I didn’t consider poor DS.

We hopped off the monorail at MK and walked towards the bus stop only to find these guys in that area!!

How cute!!!

We got on the bus and headed back to CBR for a much needed nap!!!! We rested and then ate dinner at Old Port Royale before hopping back on the bus to head back to MK.

I love DS 9’s expression in this picture! I have NO idea what he is doing that for!

These were taken at about 6 p.m. and still no thunderstorm clouds are rolling in so we thank our PP photographer (even though I appear white as a ghost in them) and head off to Splash Mountain to use our FP’s.

This was probably the hardest I laughed on the whole trip. Remember our kids are terrified of LOTS of things, but we agreed that they had to try each thing at least once before they could decide that it wasn’t for them. (In other words, they had to be brave!!) DS9 had read about the “50 foot drop” repeatedly and he obsessed about it the whole time we were there. Remember Aladdin’s carpets from earlier this morning?!?!? We did get him on the ride but he was scared to death!!! We had a young couple in the raft with us who also got a good laugh! DS9 screamed from the time we got on things like “IS THIS THE DROP!!?!?!” “I DON’T WANT TO DROP.” “GET ME OFF THIS THING NOW!!!!” “I WANT OFF!!”

Lucky for him (sarcastically), we got stopped right before the big drop and sat there for about five minutes before it started up again. As he screamed, we went over the edge. I had the claw marks to prove it for days afterwards.

Once we hit the bottom, he says, “Well that wasn’t that bad” and I busted out laughing. Our whole little raft was in tears before we got to the unloading area from laughing at DS9. This ride is now on our must do list for our next trip.

Quick recap of the rest of the night….we exited Splash Mountain to thunder with lightning in the distance. We hurried over to Jungle Cruise to use our FP’s but were turned away right as we got there. We went to Pirates one more time before leaving the area and came out to a storm. It was pouring down rain with lots of wind. The rain at times was going sideways. We ran over to Tomorrowland to see Monsters, Inc. and to ride Buzz Lightyear with FP’s. The rain finally ended and we were able to see Memories, Magic, and You and Wishes.

Afterwards, we headed to the buses and “home”.

Next up – Would we make our morning reservations at Cape May? Would the storms continue? Will we hit any other parks on our trip?

 

[jenseib]

You got some great GF pictures. Too bad your DS wasn't letting you enjoy your dinner. I know what you mean though, what can you do when you are on vacation, but try to deal with it the best way you can. (and then beat them when you get home! Ok, I am just joking...but sometimes that thought does cross a parents mind. )

 

[BridgetR3]

You got some great GF pictures. Too bad your DS wasn't letting you enjoy your dinner. I know what you mean though, what can you do when you are on vacation, but try to deal with it the best way you can. (and then beat them when you get home! Ok, I am just joking...but sometimes that thought does cross a parents mind. )

Let's just say.....he's LUCKY we weren't home!!!! Oh yes the thought crossed my mind SEVERAL time as sweet little elderly ladies stared me down in the restaurant like "HOW DARE YOU BRING A CHILD WHO IS HAVING A MELTDOWN HERE?!?!?!?"
Yep it crossed my mind...actually it stayed there all through lunch. It must be the Disney magic because he survived the day!

 

[jenseib]

Let's just say.....he's LUCKY we weren't home!!!! Oh yes the thought crossed my mind SEVERAL time as sweet little elderly ladies stared me down in the restaurant like "HOW DARE YOU BRING A CHILD WHO IS HAVING A MELTDOWN HERE?!?!?!?"
Yep it crossed my mind...actually it stayed there all through lunch. It must be the Disney magic because he survived the day!

 

[BridgetR3]

Day 6 – Cape May Café’ and Epcot

We so wanted to cancel our breakfast in exchange for a little sleep. However, we decided to get up and head out in hopes of great memories! It was a very rainy dreary morning and our ADR was crazy early (8:05). Yes, I think I was not thinking when I scheduled that one!!!

We somehow managed to get there early for our reservation and were promptly seated. Out of all of our meals, this one ended up being my favorite. We all loved the breakfast foods and the characters were great!! The only other ADR that came close to this one was our first night at Captain’s Grill.

Here are some character photos with sleepy little boys!

MICKEY!

Goofy was sooooo well goofy!! He kept tapping DS5’s head the whole time and DS would just laugh and laugh. He was by far the most friendly character at the breakfast!

Sorry for the poor lighting on poor Minnie! The photo however was too cute to pass up. I love the way DS is just mesmerized by her!

It stopped raining while we were in the restaurant and was pretty chilly since a “cold front” came through.

I love these flowers outside the Beach Club! I wonder what kind of flower they are.

So after eating we decided to go back to our hotel and sleep. Yes I know we have not done a single thing yet but this seemed like the best idea since EVERYONE was exhausted. The boys and I woke up around noon and were ready to hit the parks but poor DH was not feeling well again. He decided to take a day off and stay in the room resting since we had a long ride ahead of us the next day.

At about 12:30 the boys and I took off for Epcot. On the way into Epcot we stopped for some PP pics….

O.k. YES I know that France is no where near the beginning but I felt like throwing it in at this point.

After that we decided to go to Innoventions ( I can’t tell west from east yet but it’s the one with Sum of All Thrills in it) and we played with the exhibits for a little while.

My favorite Innoventions exhibit is the one where you create paper.

After leaving Innoventions, we decided to have lunch and chose the Electric Umbrella. One day I’ll go to Disney and be able to eat something from World Showcase but my boys are just not that into good food!

Up next, we decided to go into the butterfly house since we had not seen it yet.

 

We really loved seeing all of the character topiaries. I definitely think that I will miss them on our upcoming trip in June.
Up next – World Showcase and Kimpossible again!!!

 

[mommy2mb]

Cape May breakfast is one of our favorites too. They have great food and always a great way to start the day!!!

 

[BridgetR3]

Cape May breakfast is one of our favorites too. They have great food and always a great way to start the day!!!

I would definitely consider character breakfasts over character lunches because of the food. I absolutely HATED Hollywood and Vine's lunch buffet but breakfast is really hard to mess up so I'm sure that it is great there too.

Or maybe we are just breakfast people...

Thanks for reading along! I'll have an update later tonight or tomorrow morning sometime about the rest of our day at Epcot.

 

[jenseib]

Cape May is my favorite breakfast at WDW so far. Good food and fun.

 

[BridgetR3]

Day 6 – Afternoon at Epcot

So when I left off last time, we were leaving FutureWorld on our way to WorldShowcase. My boys really loved the Kimpossible Missions so we had picked up a FastPass while walking into the park to pick up our Kimmunicator. My DH was not too fond of the Kim Possible missions on this trip because that was all the boys wanted to see in WorldShowcase. I can honestly say that next time we will probably only do one or two at the most and just enjoy WS the rest of the time seeing the countries.

A few more topiaries as we walk toward France for our first mission….

Peter Pan

Captain Hook

Croc

We arrived in France poised and ready for our mission. As the boys ran around following the hints on the Kimmunicator, I took pics. Here’s a few of them…

Funny story about our France mission – there was this lady who watched us closely for a while at the end of our mission. We were interacting with a few things that were showing video (which only we could see) and making noises that were loud enough for all to hear. After watching us for a while, she walked up to the camera that we had just watched our movie in, took out her cell phone and pointed it at the camera. I assume she was trying to get it to play the movie for her. My kids ran off to the next part so I followed them. Watching from afar, I noticed that after a couple of tries, she shrugged her shoulders and walked away. Poor thing!!!

After leaving France, we chose Norway as our next mission so we hopped on a Friendship boat and ventured out to save the world. We grabbed Fastpasses for the ride in Norway because the wait time was about 45 minutes and we set off to do our mission.

Saving the world is hard work!!!

Since it still wasn’t time to use our Fastpasses for Maelstrom we decided to head to Mexico for yet another mission! I absolutely LOVE Mexico’s pavilion and how it’s all inside. We stopped in the middle of our mission to ride Three Cabaleros which my DS5 LOVED. He is a huge Donald Duck fan so he was excited about a Donald ride. We shopped around for a while and I purchased a ceramic cross while DS5 spent some of his money on a Mexican Donald.

Here is a pic of the boys outside of Mexico.

Donald loved seeing that DS5 had a special Donald plush. He had so much fun posing with the little Donald.

At this point, the boys decided that they were too tired to walk a step farther.
They could not possibly walk back the short way to Norway to ride Maelstrom. They could not possibly do anything except go back to the hotel until they saw Duffy and then they were o.k. enough to go meet him.

Such a cute picture!!

After taking our picture with Duffy, we headed out, boarded our bus and headed “home”. Gosh I wish I were “home” tonight!! Anyways, my DH met me at Old Port Royale and he fed the boys and then took them back to the room for an evening of movies while I went shopping at Downtown Disney on my last evening at Disney.

I had dinner at Wolfgang Puck Express and spent time relaxing while looking in all the little shops. About 10 p.m. I decided to call it a night and headed back to our room.

Up next – our last day at Disney….Will we hit MK as we have planned or will we do something else?

 

[jenseib]

I am worried if I evr show my DD the Kim Possilbe missions, thats all we'll be doing too.

Too funny about the lady watching you.

 

[weezy26nm]

Day 6 – Cape May Café’ and Epcot

I love these flowers outside the Beach Club! I wonder what kind of flower they are.

These look like cyclamen.

 

[BridgetR3]

I am worried if I evr show my DD the Kim Possilbe missions, thats all we'll be doing too.

Too funny about the lady watching you.

Yeah, I'm afraid that this was how I presented Epcot to them because otherwise I didn't think they would like walking around and looking at the countries. So it's all my fault. Next trip though, Epcot gets only one day and Mom gets to see the world without so much Kimpossible!!!

These look like cyclamen.

You are right!!! I actually found them at a locally owned hardware store Monday. They are in season right now which makes sense considering it was a March trip and Beach Club was full of them. I bought some to remind me of Disney and now I'll try not to kill them!

Update coming up a little later - last one of my TR!

 

[BridgetR3]

Weezy,

Since you knew what the other flower was, could you try to figure this one out for me??

It is basically a few leaves with a "stalk" and this flower on the end. They are gorgeous but I can't figure out what they are.

Thank you for trying to help me!!

 

[BridgetR3]

Day 7 - Resort Touring

Our plan was to get up and hit Magic Kingdom one last time to say good-bye to the castle on our way out and then head towards home. However, with DH having been sick most of the trip and my knee hurting tremendously on this morning we decided to drive around and tour some of the other resorts.

We got up around 9 and loaded up the car. Do you ever feel that there is no way you could have possibly brought this much junk while you are packing to leave? We had to make SOOOOO many trips just to get all of our stuff into our car, which still stunk from the water cooler leak on the way down.

Once we were loaded down we said good-bye to our room and our resort and then we headed off. We really didn't care for CBR because it was really large and spread out as well as having seven (?) bus stops. My DH hated the double beds because they were so small. SO....part of our day would be finding a new hotel for our "next" trip although when we were looking we did not have a trip planned.

Our first stop was Port Orleans French Quarter to get breakfast. Why there you ask? Well beignets of course!!!!!

Here are some pics of POFQ -

This CM was awesome! His personality was great and he was so excited about his job. He gave the boys doubloons and offered to take our picture inside by the fountain.

Boy do we look tired.....

I know some people do not like these "huge" Mardi Gras decorations but I thought they were overwhelming. I guess because the ceilings are so high that you really have to look up to see them.

From POFQ, we took a bus over to Epcot because (remember I am a newb) I wanted to ride through Epcot. Well for ANY of you who have ever ridden the monorail from Epcot to TTC you know that it does NOT go through Epcot. It's the return trip that does. And what monorail did we get?

Woohoo! Score! We got the Tronorail.

Anyways, we arrive at the TTC and because it's almost noon, the lines were CRAZY long. We wanted to ride a boat but there were so many people waiting for it that we decided to just take the monorail around.

A few pictures first....

We did not get off at the Contemporary but instead chose to get down and check out the Polynesian. I'm not sure why we didn't stop at the Contemporary because I'm a lot more interested in it than the Poly.

 

[BridgetR3]

Pictures of the Poly....

I loved the water features in the Poly!

Poor lifeguards. It was chilly!!

Great view of the Grand Floridian...

Waiting on a boat...

We were the ONLY people on the boat and I quickly found out why....it was COLD!!! The wind blowing while we were on the water was freezing!

Next stop - Magic Kingdom - nope, not to go in the park, just to hop on a bus back to POFQ......

Thank goodness that we are not going into Magic Kingdom! Check out that crowd. (Time stamp says 12:32 p.m.)

We grabbed our car and headed out to All Star Movies. This is where we were originally supposed to stay but because of our date changes we had to choose a moderate since the values were all sold out.

What in the world are they doing?!?!

After touring ASSports, we headed to DTD for some shopping and our dinner reservation. I'm thinking we had lunch somewhere but I don't remember eating anywheres and I did not write it down so maybe we just starved until our 4 p.m. reservation.

Dinner was o.k. but kinda sad since it was our last thing to do at Disney. Unfortunately it was time to go home.

Thank you for reading along with me throughout my TR!! If you have noticed, we are headed back to DW June 8-15 to stay at POFQ!! I have a PTR tag in my signature that you can join in on. Won't you join me there?

 

[jenseib]

Where was your dinner at ?

 

[weezy26nm]

Weezy,

Since you knew what the other flower was, could you try to figure this one out for me??

It is basically a few leaves with a "stalk" and this flower on the end. They are gorgeous but I can't figure out what they are.

Thank you for trying to help me!!

I'll have to do some investigating and see what I can do.

 

[BridgetR3]

Where was your dinner at ?

Well that would have been a nice little detail now wouldn't it?!?!?

I swear sometimes I amaze myself. We had dinner at Planet Hollywood per DH's request. It was neat to see the memorabilia and the food was decent. I was just so sad that we were leaving and hadn't had the trip I had imagined that I really didn't enjoy dinner.

Our TS reservations were all a bit weird since we had to make them so close to our vacation. Very few places were left at decent (or any) times. We chose what we could but the choices were very limited!

I'll have to do some investigating and see what I can do.

Oh don't go through too much trouble. I just figured since you knew that the other one was a cyclamen that maybe you knew this one too.

Thank you both for being faithful commenters and helping me get through my TR!!!

 

[Luvmepluto]

Newbie to your report! I can't wait to read more!