She's going to college so we went to Disney

[1BLINDMICE]

As my daughter pointed out, that's a lie we go every year. However, SHE is going to college. Who are she and we. Me-Mom Michelle 43, Dad John -49, Emily-18, Chloe-4. (Emily said "Put the names, I can't keep up with DD, DW, DD2, DD1, DGD1, and so forth....", beside we aint' wanted). Time we went 2/25-3/2. Pop Century.



This is my 1st trip report, because I usually just enjoy lurking and looking at all the fun photo's. I have been many times before children, but it does become magical with children. We have been 19 times in the last year 18, generally during Feb. In 2010 went in the summer and we did hit an unexceptionally unexpected heat wave (it was mentioned on the news) so that will be our last summer trip unless Walt Disney World moves to a colder climate, say Alaska.

Anyhow I will make it short and sweet. Big Disney fans. Family/friends get tired of hearing of us say yeah time for Disney again, and now that we live in Florida again, we love the Florida Resident discounts. We are original Floridian, but for few years we lived in another state so we didn't have that advantage, but still went every Feb.

Before children and many moons ago we had a friend whose brother and sister in law worked at the Grand Floridian. This guy would sell the employee tickets to us dirt cheap. They were one day tickets, no park hoppers. Then a few years later either he or his wife would have to meet us at the gate to show the employee id with the tickets. Don't know how it works anymore, but that is how we were able to go when we were younger and just starting out and didn't have a pot to piss in as they say. I still don't have that pot.............

We did Epcot, Magic Kingdom, day off, Epcot, Magic Kingdom. Why no Hollywood Studios or Animal Kingdom? First Animal Kingdom seems like too much walking to me, second no one in the party showed any interest and the same for Hollywood Studios. One day maybe, but not this trip. Beside I have to take it slower, I have MS and too much heat and too much walking are TOO much for me. I have left side weakness and also I am legally blind with very limited, fuzzy graying vision in my right eye and noda in my left. For those not aware MS attacks your nerves and one of the bigger ones that you can watch deteriorate easily is the OPTIC NERVE of the ole' eyeball and that's were most of my MS damage is done. SIDE NOTE HERE. Don't believe anything you read on line, MS is difficult to live with, ask anyone who lives with it.

Well I said I would make this short and sweet. I lied, I gotta go make dinner.
And I was going to stick a photo or two but photobucket is running very slow.

 

[1BLINDMICE]

Okay so Em is helping me cause I'm helpless. Anywho, here we are visiting some of our favorite friends.



Last year when we meet Tigger and Piglet, Chloe said I'm sorry Tigger I still scared of you.

So we did Epcot the first day and it was wonderful weather. A little crowded. We got there around 10:30 and Spaceship Earth had 20 minute wait and it was exactly 20 minutes. But again great weather. Didn't mind. Em had already set the FP's the night before so we had Soaring, as our Tier 1 and Nemo & Living with the lands as our 2 Tier 2. FP"s for living with the land tickles me. We didn't use it, since it was always a walk on and I think we did it 3 time because Em wants to one day work there. Soaring was always 1 hour wait the entire day, and Test Track both single rider and stand by lines were 1 hour to 90 minutes all through out the day. Around 3:00 we went back to the room. It was in the 80's section and it was ready when we had initially checks in around 8:00 am that morning.

Around 5:30 we headed back to Epcot and Chloe wanted to do Spaceship Earth again but it was crowded. We did do Neno, Turtle Talk, Living w/the Land, and Elle. We thought Chloe would be scared of the Dinosaurs, but she wan'ts. Who knows what scared a 4 year old?? We did Figment which tickled me because it too had a 20 minute wait and it was around 20 minutes.

Earlier in the day we had done Mexico, so this time we went to Canada and then headed to England because we wanted fish and chips. It was very good. When went to the little seating area behind there to eat. It was pitch black, we used camera lite and the lite on my cane to help. We had a good sized table so a gentleman came up and asked "how many in your party? I said 4, how many you got, he said 4, so I said sit down. We can share. We talked a little but 2 in their party didn't speak English and I wan't familiar with their language, though we all did agree that the more you drank in a foreign land the better you understood and spoke that language and the better they under stood and spoke English.

Then Emily and I remember that we had met Tigger and Piglet in England last year so we went looking and around the corner to Christopher Robins bedroom we found Tigger and Pooh. It was really at the back, back, back of the building, past where the tribute bands play. Since it was a small line we got lots of time. We then decided we were tired and ready for a bath and bed so headed back to the room. We had been up since 5am so well crashed after showers.


Pooh got yellow Ted


Emily and T I double GER


High 5


Em and Pooh

Now my bedtime.

 

[momabaarjo]

Following along...my DD is going to be a senior next year so she and I are going to WDW next spring for some mom and daughter time!

 

[luckylady]

Good first day.

 

[1BLINDMICE]

Thank you LUCKYLADY and MOMABAARJO. To momabaarjo have a good time and enjoy. Their senior year seems to fly quickly, between cap & gown, senior pics and college. I wasn't afforded the chance to go to college, my husband went to a local community college, so we are new to that experience. Early acceptance, binding and non binding, campus visits, (we have one March 22) and student aid and scholarships and the FASFA (which was really easier to fill out than we were lead to believe) In state student and out of state student. THE BIG SHOCKER FOR US, you have to pay the College Board $11.25 per college to send your SAT scores to them and the school charges 3.00 a transcript to private colleges, but not public colleges. You can get some kind of waiver, but it never worked for us.

Anyhow I found some Feb 2011 pics and from the pics I can tell it was another nice trip with good weather and we don't look that much different.



Chloe's first Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, prior to that year she didn't want a thing to do with the Characters.



Haven't been able to catch this trio since 2011.



Mickey and Minnie in the back corner area of Tomorrow Land



Test Track. I don't know if it has changed much. Never been on.

I know I went off topic, but like I said I love photo's and looking at others.

 

[wiigirl]

Great pics!

 

[momabaarjo]

I can't believe how fast college is coming. YAY for your dd being the first at "college" and you making it happen for her! Luckily for me my DD attends a private college prep school and they take care of all that stuff. I am taking notes for my boys who attend public schools and wont have that same kind of treatment from their school! We have to have all of our college visits done by next September (which we are working on right now) as well as all applications filed by next September...then the school goes to work on the scholarships and finicial aid...which really scares me to death. My dd has big dreams of where she wants to go to school at...I pray the money comes through. No way am I allowing her to leave college with a mountain of debt and there is only so much we can afford on our own.

My best friend has MS and I know what a daily struggle it is for her. I applaud you for even attempting WDW and walking that much!

I love the pictures with Pooh! How fun! I love looking at everyone's pictures too! And TT has changed BIG TIME since that picture.

 

[1BLINDMICE]

Okay Em reminded me that I needed to post more information about our trip or I wan't being polite. We did ride the Mono rail the first night at Epcot and John was holding Chloe in his lap looking out at the night lights, which are pretty and the window slide open. He said "baby the window slid open.?!?!" "What, why does it need to slid open? Close it!" I didn't think that they were suppose to do that. Anyone else have that experience. Seems like a hazard.

The next morning, Magic Kingdom. No rope drops for us, we got there around 10:30. The FP's we had selected the night before were Ariel, Peter Pan, and Jungle Cruise. Trying to remember first things. Went to the circus area and John and Em did Dumbo first, it was a 20 minute wait. We had time to wait for our Ariel FPs. I like Dumbo but Chloe was not interested in it. She said it scared here. So Chloe and I waited outside the Souvenir shop and watched a cute clown show.

After a while we went into the shop and I must say if you have a sweet tooth, GO HERE. They have caramel apples of every shape and color and Mike Wazowski cake pops that are green and Minnie and Mickey cake pops in vanilla, chocolate and red velvet cake and covered in different chocolates then bright sprinkles and just plain. The ears are marshmallow. I bought one for Chloe and one for me and we both only did about 3 bites, Very rich. One could be split between 4 people who love sweets. We brought one home.

We headed for the Ariel ride and it was lovely as always. They seemed to slow it down a bit. Made me happy. For yeas it has seemed to me some of the rides sped up and you miss the details. I've always tried to appreciate the details put into the rides. I watched a video about how much time was spent making Ursela, which seems odd to most, I found fascinating.

Then the line to meet Ariel of course was 30 minutes and it was a true 30 minutes.


Ariel the lovely mermaid with Em and Chloe


Chloe is hanging onto every word she says, because to here, this is the real Ariel the mermaid.

I think we did a little back tracking we had time for Peter Pan so we did Tea Cups which just don't go fast enough for Chloe, Small World then Peter Pan which was always an hour wait, had late lunch at Columbia Harbor House which we all love. We did Haunted Mansion and Hall of Presidents. (Chloe wanted to do that one). She was impressed, thought those animitronics were the real thing and asked how did OkaBama get here. Then we stopped in the little corner that has the funnel cakes, shared one of those and headed back to the room.

I'm thinking we left around 4:00 to come back at 6:00, and we changed Jungle Cruise FP to a meet with some princesses. Now it's driving me mad that I don't remember the order and my photo's are out of order. But don't worry, when we came back in the evening, it had started to rain. I had been watching the weather for days; I was prepared with poncho's and umbrella's. We didn't mind.

So when we came back we meet had FP's with Cinderella and Snow White.








There's more to the evening, but it's my bed time. Thanks for reading or just taking a peek. I think I am doing this more for myself. It's kinda' fun. Now I know why people write pre-trip and trip reports.

 

[DVC Ashley]

Congrats on catching the step sisters from Cinderella! Great photos

 

[momabaarjo]

Love the picture of Chloe and Ariel...the magic is certainly there at the moment for her. Those are the moments we treasure from WDW!