Stop Making Me Laugh Or I'll Pee My Pants! Go Back! I Lost My Shoe! Trip Report!

[mickeystoontown]

Here are a few pictures of my dancing grandson on the treadmill. These were taken Christmas Eve. For some reason Sheri and I were laying on the bed talking and in comes trouble.

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

[/IMG]

Sorry they aren't better. I was using my cell phone and laughing. He was hard to center. We show part of my lamp shade and lovely angles.

This looks just like something one of us would do! Too funny!

 

[mickeystoontown]

love your AK pictures. You know, if my family could handle the heat a little better, AK would be fun to explore (either that, or I need to go in January!). But my little ones (and DD is not AS little anymore at 8) become whiney, wimpy blobs who don't want to move in AK. We basically rode the dinosoar version of Dumbo (yes, the name is escaping me now) and saw Nemo last fall, then left. I would like to ride Everest, and I REALLY want to see Lion King again. I haven't seen it since 2000, which was pre-kids, and I think they'd love it. We're thinking of a half day on the next trip right now...we'll have to see. What I remember most from that 2000 trip when I last really explored AK) was doing It's Tough to be a Bug with my 25 year old brother. He was in one of the seats that has the rumble strip (or whatever it is) on the bottom of it when it says something about larvae leaving the theatre first (or something like that). I'll never forget him jumping to his feet like someone had goosed him, yelling a few four-letter words that I'm sure the parents that were near us did not appreciate. I laughed so hard I couldn't walk out of the theatre, though!!


Oh, I hope they extend the discount dates...for both of us, since it looks like we're headed down the week after you get back! Here's to hoping for a little pixie dust! My TA from AAA seems to think it's still possible that we'll get something...we'll take whatever we can get!

I love the story of your brother jumping up from his seat! That's funny!

I think you guys should work in an Animal Kingdom day for sure. Maybe you could take advantage of the early morning hours so that you can see and do everything early. We usually have everything done prior to park closing.

 

[mickeystoontown]

The Tree of Life pics are great! And I like the bug-eye photos....always fun!

We love ITTBAB! Too bad you had to miss all the fun stuff, though.

I think I could spend all day exploring that tree and still find things I had never seen before!!

I wish my camera hadn't been giving me troubles so maybe the pictures would have turned out better.

I didn't like sitting in the back at all. We missed all the good stuff!

Good morning Lisa. Hope you have a great day. At least we made it thru Monday. Another gorgeous day in the Ozarks.

Ginny

Good morning! We did indeed make it through a Monday. Wasn't too bad. Hopefully, today will be uneventful for all of us.

The sun is shining here too and the temperature is only supposed to get to low 80s today which is great for us.

 

[aaaateamsgrandma]

My 2nd brother (Tom) was such a clown in our family. Everyone should have one. I'm proud Austin carries on a long proud tradition. Many years ago when you used to spank with a belt, Tom got in trouble and Dad took him upstairs to whoop him. It wasn't but minutes they both came down laughing. The belt broke on the first whack. So as Tom likes to say he was 'saved by the belt'. I only remember one time my dad was going to spank me. I naughty child that I was lied to my parents about going to ballet lessons and instead went to my girlfriends. When my ride came to get me at ballet I of course wasn't there. When I finally dragged myself home at 7, I told my mom that the person never came to get me. 2 lessons learned at that point. Don't lie to your parents. You always get caught and do what you're told.

I certainly have passed that on to the girls and they in turn have to their children. My dad never did spank me.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Oh, I noticed those beautiful blue eyes, trust me! I meant to remark on them, but I guess I forgot. She looks so much like you, too. Beautiful!

I like that she is as free spirited as she is. So much fun to be around, I'm sure!

I've never sheltered Mitchell from anything, really. If he's tall enough to do it, I put him on it. I don't want him to be scared of everything. Of course, when we went to Six Flags in August, DH's family kept saying they hoped he wouldn't be scared of the roller coasters, and of course he was. This is the child who braved Splash Mountain at barely four years old. But if you mention there's cause to be frightened, then they're gonna be scared! I could have choked them for saying anything.

Of course, my parents and Dsis really baby DNiece. But, since you read my report, you already know that!

My kids got John's gorgeous blues eyes. My eyes are blue but all of their eyes are BLUE! You're so sweet!

Lacey has always been one of those people who gets along with everybody. When I say everybody, I mean everybody. Our church is fairly large and she can walk all around and just about everybody knows her.....from the bed babies all the way up to the seniors (old folks as my mama calls them). That's why I know she will excel in her goal to become a Reverend.

I'm glad to hear that you don't shelter Mitchell from anything. If he doesn't at least try something, he'll never know if he will like it or not. The only thing Hunter hasn't tried so far at Disney is Tower of Terror and I can't say that I blame him. Although, later on in the trip.........you'll just have to wait and see what happens.

My mother absolutely hates that we make Hunter ride Splash Mountain. Before we leave for the trip, she'll actually tell him he doesn't have to ride. I know she doesn't mean to interfere but it just makes the ride seem much worse than it is. Every year, we make him ride it at least once. I have promised him that he doesn't have to ride next year if he doesn't want to.

Ginny: those pictures of Austin on the treadmill are too funny!

I bet it would be funny to get Lacey and Austin together and Hunter and see what kind of antics they came up with!

A while back, (before I knew how old Austin was) I told Ginny that he and Lacey should meet. Alas, Lacey's several years older than him. But, I do agree with you, Ginny's grandkids and my kids would get along great.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Missy, I totally forgot to tell you that I had John and Hunter look at the Napoleon Dynamite pictures last night. Now, Hunter wants to dress up like Napoleon for Halloween.

 

[aaaateamsgrandma]

A while back, (before I knew how old Austin was) I told Ginny that he and Lacey should meet. Alas, Lacey's several years older than him. But, I do agree with you, Ginny's grandkids and my kids would get along great.

You know age doesn't matter. Mike is 22 years older than Sheri. So who knows about Aust and Lacey. Maybe we should toy with that idea. He would so love your family for sure. I've told you that many times. I want to be in your family.

 

[Angies1274]

Love the Tree of Life pictures!!! You got some really great ones!! We really enjoyed exploring the tree in April!! I wish we had gotten a chance in August but it was just sooooo hot the day we were in AK.

Cute pics of It's Tough to be a Bug!!!

 

[longing2Batdisney]

So, "what will you celebrate" will end on Dec 31, 2009 and in its place
starting Jan 1, 2010 will be
"Give a day, Get a Disney Day"
here is the thread I found this on
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2296539

Lisa your family was the first to pop in my head when I read it! I think this is something Gwendolyn & Joe would enjoy; both love to volunteer! Joe volunteers with a few local churchs and Gwendolyn has volunteered for the hospital since she was 14!

 

[mickeystoontown]

So, "what will you celebrate" will end on Dec 31, 2009 and in its place
starting Jan 1, 2010 will be
"Give a day, Get a Disney Day"
here is the thread I found this on
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2296539

Lisa your family was the first to pop in my head when I read it! I think this is something Gwendolyn & Joe would enjoy; both love to volunteer! Joe volunteers with a few local churchs and Gwendolyn has volunteered for the hospital since she was 14!

I saw this too and I immediately thought about Lacey's missionary friends.

 

[jenseib]

Ok, I'm a humbug, but don't like it at all. If you earn a free ticket, and have already gotten a multiday pass, you then can trade it in for FP's or a hat. Come on, why not another gift card.. And not everyone can volunteer. This to me is really down hill from the other promotions of the past. Now I'm not against the volunteering etc, but as the Disney promotion of the year...not my idea of good.

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Jen, I agree...I didn't say I liked it! I think it is a good promotion; but, maybe should not be their only promotion!

I do like how they are promoting awareness in your community...I wonder why they did not offer the GC like they did for the birthday promotion

so, I guess I'm on the fence with this one...it's not something for everyone; but, neither was the bday promotion.

 

[jenseib]

At least with the b-day promotion you still got some recognition even if you celebrated a mont before or after or when ever basically.
You would think Disney would be doing more to fill the place up. LOL! I guess they are doing better than we think..or at lest I think.
I was disappointed about the 5/2 or 4/3 deal not including the gift card. That was the big plus of it for us last year.

 

[longing2Batdisney]

OK! I forgot about the GC they offered last year to go with the 4/3 deal...I know I don't like the 5/2 deal! It cost the same exact amount of money if you need two rooms vs one room at a mod and not very much more for a deluxe. I posted some numbers on my thread yesterday...I didn't post the deluxe numbers maybe I should just so everyone can compare!

To me it does not sound like Disney is empty! so I don't see where the numbers are down...but, than I wasn't looking the last few years...

 

[mickeystoontown]

I gotta say that I kind of like the Give a day get a Disney day free program. For people like Lacey's missionary group, it would be perfect. They go to a conference every year in Orlando. Because they don't have a lot of money, they just go to Downtown Disney and look around because it's free. Now, if they were able to earn a ticket to Disney World, they could actually go into the park and it not cost them anything except the cost of food and possibly souvenirs (which is what they do while at Downtown Disney anyway).

From what I could tell, there should be some places in Atlanta that Lacey and her friends could volunteer at. Since volunteering is something they are already used to doing, this is something that could actually be worked into their curriculum and they reap Disney benefits. That's not even mentioning the benefit that the place they will be volunteering at would reap.

So, I can see how this could be a good thing.

Now, on to the buy 4/get 3 free and the buy 5/get 2 free promos, I would love to see Disney extend it to include our 2010 travel dates. Last year, I was able to save quite a few dollars by taking advantage of the extended deal. That being said, the extended promo did not include the gift card which I would have loved to have had. I still saved money so I was happy. However, even if a promo had not come out, we would have still gone to Disney. For those who are relying on a great promo in order to book their vacation, I can see how this may not be a fantastic deal. But, it's still a discount.

I figure Disney is going to "test the waters" so to speak and see whether or not the resorts fill up with the promo(s) and whether they need to extend the offer even further into the future. You can bet your booties that I'll be keeping my fingers, toes, arms, legs and maybe even my eyes crossed that they extend it!

 

[MICKEY4EVER!]

I gotta say that I kind of like the Give a day get a Disney day free program. For people like Lacey's missionary group, it would be perfect. They go to a conference every year in Orlando. Because they don't have a lot of money, they just go to Downtown Disney and look around because it's free. Now, if they were able to earn a ticket to Disney World, they could actually go into the park and it not cost them anything except the cost of food and possibly souvenirs (which is what they do while at Downtown Disney anyway).

From what I could tell, there should be some places in Atlanta that Lacey and her friends could volunteer at. Since volunteering is something they are already used to doing, this is something that could actually be worked into their curriculum and they reap Disney benefits. That's not even mentioning the benefit that the place they will be volunteering at would reap.

So, I can see how this could be a good thing.

Now, on to the buy 4/get 3 free and the buy 5/get 2 free promos, I would love to see Disney extend it to include our 2010 travel dates. Last year, I was able to save quite a few dollars by taking advantage of the extended deal. That being said, the extended promo did not include the gift card which I would have loved to have had. I still saved money so I was happy. However, even if a promo had not come out, we would have still gone to Disney. For those who are relying on a great promo in order to book their vacation, I can see how this may not be a fantastic deal. But, it's still a discount.

I figure Disney is going to "test the waters" so to speak and see whether or not the resorts fill up with the promo(s) and whether they need to extend the offer even further into the future. You can bet your booties that I'll be keeping my fingers, toes, arms, legs and maybe even my eyes crossed that they extend it!

Yeah, I can see how that would be wonderful for Lacey and her group. And Disney is promoting volunteering, which is good. I haven't checked out the website yet, so I won't comment any further since I haven't read it.
But, if it's good for Lacey, then I'm all for it!

I hope they extend the discount for your travel dates, too, Lisa! Have I mentioned that I'm jealous you get to back so soon???? In a good way, but I AM jealous!

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Lisa, I really think they will extend it! They seem to be setting trends...like the free dining that started what three years ago! now we are in our second year of the 4/3 with the new 5/2 for values! I think like you they are testing the promo waters...I think we will always see promos (now) at all the non holiday and non peak times! So, I'm sure they will have something for May we had the 4/3 we switched over to the 40% over room only discount! that was a great savings for us

 

[mickeystoontown]

So, we've let a bunch of the folks leaving It's Tough To Be A Bug walk on past us while I snap more pictures of the Tree of Life.

I think I may have already posted this one but oh well, I'll post it again:

A couple more:

Our plan now was to walk over to Dinoland USA and see what was going on.

As we walked past the entrance to the Nemo show, we saw that a show was to start in about 15 minutes. Since Lacey hadn't seen it, we decided to give it another go. For those of you who really enjoy it, I'm going to apologize right now. We have now seen it twice and I didn't care for it either time. I hate to even say that about anything Disney but it's true. I just can't seem to figure out whether I am supposed to look at the puppets or the puppeteers. And it seems to last foreeeever!

Anyway, when we get close to the doors, they told the line to hold on. They had to see if there was any more room in the theater. When they finally shooed us in, we had to wait for two ladies in scooters to get settled. They kept going forward, then backing up, then turning a little and moving forward again. Let me tell you, John was backing up himself. He knew better than get in the way of a scooter!

Once the scooter ladies were settled, we were able to walk on down the theater and were told to be seated in the tip top of the bleachers at the very end. When I say at the very end, I mean the very end. Right by the curtains end. THE END! Not the greatest of seats by all means.

Even after we sat down, they kept letting more and more people in and they were telling us to move down. We just looked at each other and shook our head. How the heck were we to move down? We were on the very end of the bleachers as it was. By the time the show started, it was standing room only. Now that I think about it, they must have started the show late because way more than 15 minutes passed from the time we got in line and the time the show actually started.

We're sitting there watching the show and I keep seeing John's head bobbing. He's falling asleep. After about 10 minutes of John's head bobbing around and him nearly falling off the bleacher, I woke him up and suggested he walk over to one of the benches beside Dinosaur and wait for us. He could probably find one in the shade and get a few winks there. He thought that was a good idea and left.

I took a few really bad pictures from our nosebleed seats.

Finally, the show was over and we set off to find John. We got to the huge orange/yellow dinosaur and called John to see where he was. Just as he started describing where he was, I saw him. Sitting on a bench in the broad open sun along the main walkway. He's such a silly goose. He could have found a nice shaded one around the Dinosaur ride. Hum.....was he just pretending he was asleep so he could get out of watching the Nemo show? Nah, 'cause I think I heard a little snore or two before he left.

***Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

We all walked over to see how long the wait for Dinosaur was and it was pretty long. I went over to the Fastpass machines and got Fastpasses which had a return time of just 50 mintues. Just enough time to ride Primeval Whirl, do a little browsing in the shop and maybe get a ice cream.

I tucked away our Fastpasses and off we went to ride Primeval Whirl. The wait time was 20 minutes but that's not too bad so we got in line with all the other sweaty people. Have ya'll ever noticed just how hot it can get waiting in the Primeval Whirl line? It's hot!

Since I had some time to waste, I......don't be shocked.......took pictures!

The wait time on the ride was just about right and in about 20 minutes, we were in our time machine, ready to take a spin or two! Guess what I did? Yep, took pictures. I even took some pictures while we were riding and spinning.

We squealed and laughed and giggled and screamed the whole time. It was so much fun even though I am terrified of heights. Hunter attempted to record it on Lacey's camera but I don't remember if he was able to do it or not. I'll have to ask Lacey. We all came off the ride laughing and wishing we had enough time to do it again. But, we did want to look around in the nearby store and ice cream was needed to cool us off.

****Need to stop here so I can get my desk cleaned off. At least I got a little bit of a true report posted.

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Fun update! I'm so sorry you just can't seem to get the Nemo show...not everything is for everyone !
I have not ridden the PW...I do not like rollercoasters or things that drop esp. things that drop!

But, I love your pictures! I wonder why John sat in the sun
maybe he needed the light after being in the dark cramped theater! I can't believe how they pack people in
I made the comment when we were in line for Fantasmic that I would bet that they have cameras laughing at us being herded
it was funny about 4 people around us started looking in the trees for the cameras

Thank you for continuing to share your family fun!