Should I or Shouldn't I....post a trip report? Updated 11/2

Boo hoo! Our last evening at Disney was here. Oh, wait a minute....I should not be crying, rather I should be happy :lmao: because my DH just got an AP! Not falling down, crazy happy :rotfl2: , just very contented and feeling the magic :cool1:

When I last left off, we were leaving AK with matching AP's. We returned to the villa to have some lunch. Hard to believe that we went straight through lunch. We did about 6 attractions in a little over 4 hours....Dinosaur, Nemo, EE, Kali RR, Bug's Life, & Safari. Not too shabby!

It was probably smart that we were eating at the villa. We still had a good amount of food/beverage that needed to be consumed before our departure. Can you believe the boys hadn't even left the villa? :sad2: They were still watching.........well, you should know by now what they were watching! :laughing:

After lunch, K&T packed up to head back to Daytona. I'm sure I probably started doing some prepacking :laundy: I actually did :laundy: three times during this trip. It's true what everyone says about having the washer and dryer in the villa......too convenient! And it's true that coming home with most clean clothes is GREAT!

DH and I decided to hit the High Rocks Pool (I'm still not sure if that's the right name). This was my 12th night (between two trips) at SSR and it was the first time I had ventured to the main pool to actually swim. It was fairly crowded and most of the chairs were taken. We managed to find a few. Not surprisingly, the skies continued to get more overcast by the time we arrived at the pool.

A little side note here - I really prefer crystal clear blue pools to the natural pools. I know it is for effect, but they always seem a little dirty to me. I don't have a pool at home, nor do I belong to one, so swimming in a nice clear blue pool is a treat to me. It's always been my vision of what a pool should look like. I do, however, like the zero entry of the main pool at SSR. Very nice. I'm getting to old to be hauling my butt over the side of a pool, which is what I often do if I'm not near the ladder.

Well, darn, it was getting a little chilly, so DH and I hopped into one of the hot tubes. Ahhhhhhhhhh! We started talking to this really nice young couple with 2 preschool kids. They had just arrived at SSR after 4 nights at Vero. The couple had surprised their kids with the Disney part of their stay. I kept wondering if I was talking to a fellow Diser during our conversation, because she seemed pretty knowledgeable about all things Dis. Maybe she's out there on the boards. :confused3 Definately had a real southern accent and I think they had driven from Louisiana or Mississippi or one of those southern states that I have never been to. I know they had a prior stay at SoG. If you're out there sub on in!

Anyway, such a nice couple who didn't seem to be bothered by talking to us old farts!

When the wind really started to pick up, I actually felt like I could use a sweatshirt. So we packed up and went over to see if we could take a tour of the AK villas. My DH has never seen them and I thought it might get him interested in a stay there. Unfortunately, the villas did not open until 5pm for general viewing, so we decided to go back and get changed for our evening.

So with our teppan edo ADR cancelled, and no dinner reservations, we decided to head into my favorite night time park.

Disney2007271.jpg


It's no surprise where we went. The boys went with us, but, of course the older boys went on a different bus! Heaven forbid that they ride with us.

When we arrived we did our typical first arrival ritual......


Disney2007099.jpg


We got FP's for Space with a return time of 10:15pm. That was cool. We could do space and then watch the 11pm parade - perfect.....or so I thought.:rolleyes1

So what do you think DH asked to do next?????? OMG....he said, "Let's go on CoP"? I said.....Hey wait .....I think you already know what I said, "NO FREAK'N WAY!" Twice was enough and I will surely go on it in December, but not tonight. It was my last night in MK, I had rides to ride and things to see! So I think we rode Buzz and the Blue Line. Sheeesh ......we were getting soooooo predicatable!

We actually ate dinner in the Noodle Terrace. I have never eaten there before and was curious about the food, so it seemed like a good choice. The lady in the line in front of me ordered a bunch of food. She had like 6 or 8 sodas. When her order came, something was definately amiss. All I remember is she kept saying, "That is the only reason I came here" . I kept wondering, what was the only reason she came there?????? Tell me, please!!. What could have gone so horribly wrong with her food that she demanded a full refund on her entire order????? I had to know! I never did find out, but I do think all the CM's involved took the whole thing in stride. They were very gracious and did exactly what she asked. It just was hard to see all the food and those beverages go to waste. :sad2: I hope it wasn't a food allergy thing. I guess I'll never no.

So who do you think shows up to eat at the same time ????? Oh yeah, DS15 and DSF. Do you think they sat down and ate with us? Of course not! They only tolerated us when we went for the good TS meals! Where was the love? :hug:

OK - I am going to post a few random MK pics and I will be back to post later. I still have some pics to upload and I can't do that on this computer. I am using the really nice HP laptop that we got DS for his birthday. It just didn't work out well for him because of the Vista and because of some mechanical problems. DH obviously got HP to fix it, because it is working like a charm now. Wow, I wish I could keep this computer, but the vista won't interface with all my music recording and notation software. But I digress....Back later tonight or tomorrow!

Disney2007098.jpg


Disney2007097.jpg


Disney2007095.jpg


Disney2007096.jpg


Disney2007267.jpg


Disney2007270.jpg


Disney2007272.jpg


Disney2007277.jpg
 
Hi MEK

I found your trip report this morning and just finished reading through the whole thing. What a great time you are all having. I've enjoyed all your pictures as well. :hippie:

Looking forward to the rest of your report. :thumbsup2


thanks for reading nutz2notz. We did have a great trip. I was sorry to see it come to an end!
 
Thanks. Get ready, cause you have to write one with your next trip! :thumbsup2


I'm contemplating starting a PTR but everyone on here is so good I don't know if I can match up. Keep up the good work! :banana:
 

Yay! I'm back and all caught up! What a great report. You are getting me so excited for my trip, now that I don't have to worry about Ike! I love all the pics. Looks like y'all had great weather. Thanks so much for sharing.

So how was the noodle station? I have it as a maybe for us to eat there!
 
Just caught up with your great TR MEK and it is wonderful! You have such a great sense of humour. Love your photos!

Suz
 
Yay! I'm back and all caught up! What a great report. You are getting me so excited for my trip, now that I don't have to worry about Ike! I love all the pics. Looks like y'all had great weather. Thanks so much for sharing.

So how was the noodle station? I have it as a maybe for us to eat there!

Thanks for checking in. this is the longest I've gone without posting because my life has suddenly taken a turn towards crazy! I haven't even had a hot second to update at work.

The Noodle station was fair. I don't think it's as good as Peco Bill's or columbia Harbor house as far as counter service goes. But I'm glad I tried it and I would eat there again.
 
great TR i sit at my computer and read it in a daze lol:lmao:

I promise an update is coming. I am in a marching band (yeah I'm an adult band geek) and we have a competition this Saturday, so I've been practicing. Plus I am singing in a wedding next weekend and I am trying desperately to learn some songs without the sheet music. I think have too much on my plate right now. I do have some cool surprise pics that I really need to post. I know I can do it soon!
 
Just caught up with your great TR MEK and it is wonderful! You have such a great sense of humour. Love your photos!

Suz

Thanks pl'smama. I am glad you are enjoying it. I started it so long ago that I really should go back and look at some of my pics because I can't remember which ones I've posted. :rotfl:


The exciting conclusion will be here soon!
 
Phew....it has been a rough week! :surfweb: This is one of the few moments I have had to sit at the computer this entire week. September is always a tough month for me - school starts, soccer starts, marching band competition, choir starts, ect.

I can't wait until I have carefree Septembers again. As soon as I do I plan to spend one quiet week at the Delaware beaches and one fun week at the world! I can't wait to go to the world in September, because it is my favorite weather month of the whole year!

So, when I left off last we had just finished eating dinner at the Noodle Terrace. We left there and walked through the castle. In there I took a picture of one of the tile pictures on the wall.

DisneyJune2008543-1.jpg


When I took the KTTK tour we learned something interesting about this tile picture. I just can't remember what it was. :confused3 I was hoping that taking the picture might jog my memory. In three months it has not, so I guess I will never be able to share that little trivia factoid that is stored somewhere in my pre-geriatric brain.

I know it has something to do with one of the Imagineers that worked at WDW. In fact, most of the details at MK have something to do with former Imagineers. All those names that you see in the windows were former Imagineers. Pretty cool, I think, to have your name live on eternally in the MK.

I hate to admit this, but most of my last evening at MK is blurry. I'm not sure why - I think it has something to do with it being my last evening, so events are running together. I do think we visited HH again, because HH is always a do-over in my book. I force myself to look for Hidden Mickeys in HH because I know there are several. Of course, the only one I ever seem to find is the last place setting on the left in the Dining Room. I wish I could find more, but my brain just isn't programmed at looking for details. Some people see every detail - I see none. "Did you see that butterfly over there?" :hippie: "Huh, what butterfly?" "Oh, that one". :sad2:

DisneyJune2008334.jpg


After HH I know we HAD to go on one the mountains again. I just can't remember if we did both or one mountain. I want to say that we did BOTH mountains again, because that makes me sound more hard core than if I had only done ONE mountain.

I do know that we never did POC or the Jungle Cruise. I wanted to do the JC at night. I don't particularly care for the ride during the daytime, because it's just a bit campy. But I really wanted to ride it at night time. I thought it would take on a whole new feel. But the wait time was posted at 45 minutes. :confused3 The wait time for JC is always long. Why is the posted time always so long??????? And is the wait really that long?????? Anyway, I am riding JC at night when I go in December. No matter what the wait time, I am doin' it!

I'm pretty sure we did the Hall of Presidents. DS13 likes this and so does DH. I think the animatronics are great in this attraction, so I do enjoy it for its educational value. I like to the educational attractions. I like this attraction because it always makes me feel a bit more Patriotic!

When I return later to night, I promise to post some pics. I've been promising for several days, but I'm really gonna do it tonight.

I also want to tell you what happened when we finally made our way back to our final ride on Space! But you're gonna have to wait to find out! popcorn::
 
I just found this report again and love it! I hate to see it end :sad1: I hope to take my DS15 on my December trip (I'm saying hope because it originally was going to be just me and my DBFF but we're not "best" of friends anymore and not sure if she is still planning to go or not. I really want to take my DS15 since he hasn't had a chance to go yet. I think he'd rather take a friend too but maybe I can convince his brother (21) to go. I'd really like some mom/son time with DS15 since he is growing up so fast and still is in the liking-his-mom mode).

I'm going to do it again and ask a silly question but what is CoP and the Blue Line? I'm terrible with abbreviations!
 
I just found this report again and love it! I hate to see it end :sad1: I hope to take my DS15 on my December trip (I'm saying hope because it originally was going to be just me and my DBFF but we're not "best" of friends anymore and not sure if she is still planning to go or not. I really want to take my DS15 since he hasn't had a chance to go yet. I think he'd rather take a friend too but maybe I can convince his brother (21) to go. I'd really like some mom/son time with DS15 since he is growing up so fast and still is in the liking-his-mom mode).

I'm going to do it again and ask a silly question but what is CoP and the Blue Line? I'm terrible with abbreviations!

Heaven2dc - Oh you should definately take your DS15. He will love it if he has never gone before. He shouldn't need a friend for a mom/son trip. My DS15 has been to the world many times, so now he thinks he is just too cool to go with just his parents. The last time we went as a family, before this trip, he was really a PITA. We got so sick of him one day, we left him home alone in the room. By the time we got back from the park he was happy to see us!

CoP - Carousel of Progress

Blue Line - That's what I call that little monorail type thing in tomorrow land. I think it is also called TTA - Tomorrowland Transit Authority?????? and sometimes I've heard it referred to as the peoplemover.

Thanks for stopping by my trippie!
 
Gosh - I missed my trippie!

My week has been ridiculous crazy. My band competition is over. Yeah! I did not go to the after party, so I don't know whether we won or not! Isn't that terrible. I hope we did, cause if we didn't I don't want it to be my fault! :lmao:

So, I uploaded some more pics and I realized that we did do BOTH mountains that night! How do I know.....check out this pic. It could have only been taken on our last night! I am certified hard core. :laughing:

DisneyJune2008546-1.jpg


DH is big for taking pics inside of Splash. No pics of the inside of BTM, but I know we did that one.

So after our trip through advertureland we decided to head back to Space. Our FP's were for 10:15 and it was 10:30 when we got there. Here are some cool night time pics courtesy of DH.

DisneyJune2008538-1.jpg


OK - not exactly night time, but you get the idea!

DisneyJune2008537-1.jpg


DisneyJune2008540-1.jpg


DisneyJune2008542-1.jpg


And, of course, ta da.........a few more fireworks!

DisneyJune2008550-1.jpg


DisneyJune2008551-1.jpg


Wait.....here are the real night time pics.....

DisneyJune2008572-1.jpg


DisneyJune2008569-1.jpg


DisneyJune2008568-1.jpg


So we finally made it over to tomorrowland and we got a text from DS15 that said they were on the blue line and Space was down. Not only was space down, but ............

DisneyJune2008565.jpg


DisneyJune2008566.jpg


DisneyJune2008554.jpg


DisneyJune2008563-1.jpg


DisneyJune2008564-1.jpg


I think you know what these pics mean.....THE LIGHTS WERE UP! I have never seen that before. I know it happens, but its never happened to me. I figured lights up meant that the ride would be down for a while. So we jumped on the blue line and rode it a few times to get pics of space mountain in the light!

By the time we got off the blue line, it was time for the 11pm parade to start. DH, DS13, and I were beat. We did not want to wait to see if space came up again, so we went out to main street to watch the parade. We found a nice family of 4 and offered them our FP's, just in case Space readied itself for riders. Yeah - I know we only had 3 FP's, but I figured one of the parents would give up their ride for their kids. That family looked like they were there for the duration b/c they had their EMH bracelets (which no one seemed to be checking yet!)

We watched a bit of the parade and called it a night. Word of note - the 11pm parade is much better to watch than the 9pm parade. I didn't think 2 hours would make a difference, but it did. From now on, I will only watch the late parade.

DisneyJune2008562-1.jpg


This is a picture of Buzz, taken from the blue line.

DisneyJune2008570-1.jpg


Here is DS13 in one of his final poses!



Here is a link to a 5 second video!
 
When we got home from MK I really wanted to go right to sleep, but DS15 and friend were still at MK. Ugggghhhhhh! I was so tired that I could not wait up for them. As soon as they texted me (12:35pm) that they were on the bus, I went right to dream land. :worship: :cloud9: :worship:

Our last day came early, at least for me. I wanted to get packed and to the parks. I also needed to add a final day to each of the kid's park tickets. That took all of 5 minutes and about $12. What a bargain.

I finished the laundry and packed and packed and packed and threw out trash and food. It is really difficult to pack up a villa, especially when the kids won't get the heck up and out of bed. DSF was up and packed early, but my kids would not get up.

Breakfast was an ordeal because we tried to eat everything in sight, pack some food for the park, and throw out the left overs. I hate to waste food, so this was hard for me. We had some soda and water left over that I gave to some lady in the parking lot who was just checking in. We had what we needed for the parks and we couldn't take it to the airport.

The car was packed! I mean packed! I had made arrangements for DS15, DSF, and I to take ME back to the airport, while DH and DS13 returned the car. We did not have to be back for ME until 5pm b/c we had a very late flight (8:30pm).

So what time do you think we actually made it to the parks...... And which park do you think we went to? :confused: Any guesses?
 
We decided to go to Epcot for our last day, since we had only be to Epcot in the evening. I still held out hope that I would be able to get a Soarin FP, but I soon realized that would be impossible since we did not get to the park until almost 11am. :scared: Freak'n kids! :sad2: This is when I decided that I definately needed a trip with DH sans kids.

When we arrived in the future world everything had long wait times and the FP return for Soarin was 5:30. We would be well on our way to MCO by then. Wait times for TT were 60 mins and probably 40 mins for MS. Even Living with the Land had a 40 min wait time (except the wait time on this attraction is never correct).

We decided just to head straight to the World Showcase. DS15 and his friend went another direction. I was a little bummed because it occured to me that I missed several of my fav rides this trip - Soarin, Test Track, Star Wars - and of course, Toy Story Mania - because my timing was bad for FP's and I don't do Stand by lines. I tried to just suck it up - this trip wasn't all about me. I've done commando trips. I've done a solo trip. This time I did a - lets please a larger group trip. I consoled myself by recognizing that this was not my first trip to Disney, nor would it be my last. I'LL BE BAAAACCCCKKK! I told myself.

We hit the Maelstrom in Norway. There's some cool scenery in this ride and I think I would like it much better if it was just a little longer. The movie at the end of the ride was broken and they apologized for that????? I think they should apologize for putting the movie at the end of the ride! I actually felt like this :woohoo: when I realized I got to skip the movie!

DH had never been to the movie in China, so we headed there next. I like this movie - the scenery is great. I actually like all the movies in the World Showcase. Even when I have to stand. I just can't get enough of the magical scenery.

We went into the gift shop at the conclusion of the movie. I work with some health nuts, so I decided to puchase some green and white teas to take back to work. I also found this beautiful glass hummingbird that I bought for the neighbor who feeds my cats. I usually get her something in Germany, but everything was way too expensive this trip. I used to be able to find some reasonably priced china or Christmas ornament, but not anymore. Anything nice was well outside of my price range. My neighbor usually gives me a hard time when I bring her back a gift, but that doesn't stop me. Three cats X 9 days of boarding - well....you do the math. Not to mention that I onced boarded Max, my favorite cat, b/c he was on medicine, and he was super stressed out when I picked him up. He has long black fur and it was just falling out in huge tufts. So, I bought my neighbor this really pretty hummingbird (b/c she has h-bird feeders all over her backyard) and I got her a lovely hanging plant. I think she liked the hanging plant better than the hummingbird, but that's OK. It really was a nice planter and I almost kept it for myself. Ha ha!

After China we went over to eat burgers at USA. I actually brought a sandwich with me from our left over food, but DH and DS13 bought food. The line was ridiculously slow - I think DH waited over 1/2 hour. I think it started to rain while we were in there and the place filled up with people trying to escape the rain.

After our very slow, long lunch we set out to see the rest of the world showcase. Back soon with pics!
 
Well, heck my trippie almost over and I've had some nice readers. I appreciate that. I really do! Now I am going to post a couple of Epcot pics and bump my report to, hopefully, get another reader or two before the exciting conclusion.

Disney2007203.jpg


Disney2007207.jpg


Disney2007350.jpg


Disney2007349.jpg


More to follow
 
Can't wait to hear the rest of your report. I've really enjoyed reading it. So sad when it all has to come to an end....
 
So, when I left off last we had just finished eating dinner at the Noodle Terrace. We left there and walked through the castle. In there I took a picture of one of the tile pictures on the wall.

DisneyJune2008543-1.jpg


When I took the KTTK tour we learned something interesting about this tile picture. I just can't remember what it was. :confused3 I was hoping that taking the picture might jog my memory. In three months it has not, so I guess I will never be able to share that little trivia factoid that is stored somewhere in my pre-geriatric brain.

Ok so I pulled out my handy little Imagineering Field Guide to the Magic Kingdom to see if your mosaic was any where in it. Guess what? It was! I can only hope that this is what you are trying to remember. In it is says, "The tile mosaic in the Castle breezeway was designed by Dorothy Redmond. It features hundreds of thousands of tiles, including over 500 different colors plus 14K gold and real silver. There were even colors developed for the red rouge of the jealous stepsister and green for the envious one." In the bottom left hand corner there are the stepsisters.

I hope this is what you wanted remember. I always hate when that happens.
 
Can't wait for the exciting conclusion and I am happy to know the secret of the tile mosaic!!

Suz
 












Receive up to $1,000 in Onboard Credit and a Gift Basket!
That’s right — when you book your Disney Cruise with Dreams Unlimited Travel, you’ll receive incredible shipboard credits to spend during your vacation!
CLICK HERE






DIS Facebook DIS youtube DIS Instagram DIS Pinterest DIS Tiktok DIS Twitter DIS Bluesky

Back
Top Bottom