Sunshine Makes Me Happy [04/30/11 - 05/08/11]: We're BLOOMING with Excitement!!!

Yes, I love my family photos and photos of the kids, and looking through my 2009 photos I see I do have some random photos, mostly in Epcot. I don't have a lot from the resort, so that'll be on my list for this trip.
You're pictures are awesome, so clear, I can't imagine an ipod touch being any better, although it is small and therefore more convenient for sure. I have my iphone and if I'm able to use it while in the park for photos, calendar, notes etc without getting charged roaming fees I will likely use it for photos as well.
 
Yes, I love my family photos and photos of the kids, and looking through my 2009 photos I see I do have some random photos, mostly in Epcot. I don't have a lot from the resort, so that'll be on my list for this trip.
You're pictures are awesome, so clear, I can't imagine an ipod touch being any better, although it is small and therefore more convenient for sure. I have my iphone and if I'm able to use it while in the park for photos, calendar, notes etc without getting charged roaming fees I will likely use it for photos as well.

Epcot is a great place to take pictures I find :cool1:. I don't know, i'e tried to take pictures with my iPod touch and they seem to be really crisp and clear. I guess we will just have to wait and see. We have to take a smaller memory card this trip because the bigger one that we have takes forever to load. I've become quite impatient for that haha!

I also like to take pictures of flowers which you will see in my update soon!!
 
Can't wait. I love looking at photos, and taking them:thumbsup2.
Maybe I'll get some of my 'random' photos up from our '09 trip soon. I'll have to first add them to photobucket, and then resize! lol
 
It's Time for the Daily Disney Countdown and Picture!!!

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This picture was taken at the Grand Floridian Cafe. We love this restaurant SO much!

There are 14 days until the trip!
 

What We Tried/Experienced for the FIRST Time in 2010!!
We’d like to refer to our 2010 trip as the trip in which we re-visited rides we hadn’t been on in a while and the rides that we had never seen or been on before. So here’s a list of these places:

Animal Kingdom
- Dinosaur!
- Pizzafari

Epcot
- Biergarten
- Les Chefs de France
- Maelstrom
- The Seas with Nemo and Friends
- Universe of Energy

Hollywood Studios
- Backlot Express
- Backlot Tour
- Walt Disney’s One Mans Dream

Magic Kingdom
- Hall of Presidents

We were so excited to try some old favorites and some new rides! Hopefully this trip we will be able to go on some of these rides again. I’m not entirely sure if we will be going on the Universe of Energy, because it was quite a long ride, and someone did fall asleep on it (not going to name names…). We liked the restaurants that we tried in Epcot as well, have reservations for those because we liked them very much, woohoo. We are going to go on the Backlot Tour as well again this time.

There are still only a couple of things that we have not tried yet, but those rides and attractions are ones that we don’t think interest us very much, like Stitch’s Great Escape. But we are always open to new ideas.
 
I sound like a broken record, but...great photo! No syrup on your waffle?! lol
We're thinking of trying Dinosaur for the first time on this trip. We have a lot of things that we haven't done yet and are hoping to get to some of them on this trip.
 
I sound like a broken record, but...great photo! No syrup on your waffle?! lol
We're thinking of trying Dinosaur for the first time on this trip. We have a lot of things that we haven't done yet and are hoping to get to some of them on this trip.

Actually, I didn't put any butter on my waffle. I tried just putting the butter on it and it tasted SOOOO good!!! It's like the butter was made especially for the waffle :lmao:.

Dinosaur is a very jerky ride, but I never keep my eyes open (I have issues with the dark). I don't know my mom likes Dinosaur but I personally do not. I'm hoping to keep my eyes open this time :lmao:.

Have you been on It's Tough to Be a Bug?
 
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Man I really cannot wait for Disney. Old man winter is making a strong appearance in Springtime. I would post a picture of it, but its too depressing.
 
Actually, I didn't put any butter on my waffle. I tried just putting the butter on it and it tasted SOOOO good!!! It's like the butter was made especially for the waffle :lmao:.

Dinosaur is a very jerky ride, but I never keep my eyes open (I have issues with the dark). I don't know my mom likes Dinosaur but I personally do not. I'm hoping to keep my eyes open this time :lmao:.

Have you been on It's Tough to Be a Bug?

Hmm, never tried just butter on the waffle, might have to give that a try this time!
Maybe Dinosaur would be a bit too much for youngest ds then? I'll have to look into it a bit more.
yes, we did It's Tough to be a Bug, it was the first thing we did at AK when we went. Youngest ds, who was 4 at the time, didn't care for it, but he got through it without any scars:laughing: He didn't scream or anything, just did what he did with most things and just put his head down a lot!
 
Hmm, never tried just butter on the waffle, might have to give that a try this time!
Maybe Dinosaur would be a bit too much for youngest ds then? I'll have to look into it a bit more.
yes, we did It's Tough to be a Bug, it was the first thing we did at AK when we went. Youngest ds, who was 4 at the time, didn't care for it, but he got through it without any scars:laughing: He didn't scream or anything, just did what he did with most things and just put his head down a lot!

It depends if he likes the dark and dinosaurs. I've never kept my eyes open so I cannot be a good judge of the ride :lmao:. I've never kept my eyes open for It's Tough to Be a Bug either. I really don't like bugs and bugs in 3D are not much better :lmao:. It's good that your son didn't scream! Better than me and I was 16 haha!!
 
The Epcot Flower and Garden Festival!!!

Less than two weeks officially until the trip - yahoo :banana:. Welcome back to this PTR - after this update we will officially be into the cool and fun part which I will explain later on after the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival update! So without further ado, let's get started!

This update will include a lot more pictures, in comparison to my other updates (which had no pictures).

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The Details for the 2011 Epcot Flower and Garden Festival
This year marks the 18th Annual Epcot Flower and Garden Festival (I wonder if they will do something special for the 20th...). There will be topiaries from Cars 2 and Toy Story 3. There will be a new Butterfly Garden that is supposed to be LARGER :wizard:. Woohoo! But I hear a lot of the topiaries are the same...reduce, reuse, recycle? Maybe...

Anyways, i'm looking forward to the Flower and Garden Festival - love to see flowers I cannot at home. :wizard:
 
THE START OF SOMETHING NEW!
All right. So that was my last “filler update” and now for the – almost – rest for this Pre Trip Report I will be discussing our day-by-day plans. We will start off with the arrival day and we will end off with the departure day. I hope to post some pictures with these updates, and the pictures will be park specific, or restaurant specific depending on where we are eating on that particular day. So we will have 9 full days to get through which will take us to approximately 3 days before the trip.

I keep saying this, and I know that I sound like a broken record, but no matter how many trips I have been on I am always amazed at how fast time goes by. By the time you get down to the 2 week mark, and then the less than 2 week mark you become more and more excited and anxious for the trip to come! So to you all who are waiting for your trips to come, just remember that time goes by rather quickly and the trip will be here before you know it.

So I thought that I might fill you all in on how the trip preparations are going this far. I’ve printed off all the information we need (i.e. the flight information, the rental car information, the park plans, and the flight insurance). We will be sticking this information into the carry-on. We also got the American money all ready to go, woohoo. My mom commented on how she loves the smell of American money – it lets her know that the trip is just right around the corner!

So why don’t we go through what we will be doing the night before the trip – what we need to do to be exact. So here is a checklist of the things we will be doing the night before we leave:
- Check-in for Airplane (flight): we can do this 24 hours in advance which means that at 10:30am on Friday, April 29th 2011 we will be checking into the plane (or maybe we’ll wait until my parents get home from work…haha)
- Pack: I know that a lot of people like to pack a few days before the trip, but I wanted to clean the house before we pull out the suitcases that way when I clean I do not have to move much around, and it will be a simple cleaning

I think I’m missing something, but I’m not sure. I wonder, I wonder…maybe it will come to me later on in the updates. If it does, I will make a side note on the update in which it appears in my head.
 
Saturday, April 30 2011:
High - 87F (Real Feel 90F); Low - 66F (Real Feel 67F)
Occasional Afternoon Rain

Sunday, May 1 2011:
High - 84F (Real Feel 83F); Low - 70F (Real Feel 71F)
Rain

Monday, May 2 2011:
High - 87F (Real Feel 89F); Low - 69F (Real Feel 70F)
Partly Sunny
 
It's Time for the Daily Disney Countdown and Picture!

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This was taken on our way to the Haunted Mansion!

There are 12 days until the trip!
 
I think to understand the departure day; I need to mention a few things that I have already previously mentioned:
1. We have already packed everything the night before departure day.
2. We have already done the check-in for the WestJet airlines online.
3. We will not be doing the online check-in for the resort (i.e., checking into the resort for the first time on April 30th).

Day 1 – Saturday, April 30th 2011
So it’s the departure day – and I’m sure anyone who has ever been to WDW completely understands how one is feeling on the departure day. I’d describe it as a feeling of mad panic as well as a feeling of excitement. I’d even say that some years it’s a mixture of panic, excitement and tiredness from not being able to sleep very well the night before. I always find that the night before the departure day I say that I am going to go to sleep early but I end up waking up every hour wondering if it is time to get up to go to the airport.

Our plan is quite complicated for this morning, but I will explain it all (and hopefully make it less complicated). Ok, so for the departure day morning it is important to explain that we will not be driving our own car to the airport. Instead we will be using a service that I mentioned in a previous update, called the Red Car Service. Basically, they drive you to the airport and drop you off. That way you do not have to go through the hassle of parking the car, paying to park the car and we are able to have a little bit more time to check-in to the airlines.

But before we get there I have some other things to explain. But let’s use a timeline to do this! Now for this timeline it is important to understand that I’m not certain if these times will be exact. I just put down sometimes that I think might be approximately close to the actual time (i.e. for the flight departure times).

4:30am – Get up, eat breakfast, and make tea for the family.
5:30am – Get dad up, eat breakfast and make sure everything is ready to go.
6:15am – Red Car Service picks us up.
7:00am – Hopefully arrive at the airport by this time.
10:30am – Plane leaves (hopefully on time).
12:58pm – Arrive at the Orlando International Airport.
4:50pm – Afternoon Tea at the Garden View Tea Lounge.

I’m hoping this time the flight leaves on time. I don’t think that we’ve ever had a flight that has actually left on time. Every one seems to leave a few minutes late or a few half hours late. The original time that the plane was supposed to leave at was approximately 10:15am, however WestJet changed the time so now the plane is leaving at 10:30am. I know it’s only a half hour difference but still…any time at Disney is valuable time.

I’m not sure about the times of the other things during the day, because it all depends on whether or not we arrive on time and what we feel like doing at that time. But let’s go into a little bit more detail for the trip.

We don’t like the food on the airplane; we’ve tried a sandwich on the plane a few years ago. However, we didn’t quite enjoy the sandwiches and felt that if we just got a little snack on the airplane and a drink. At home for breakfast we will be having cereal, yogurt and tea. We were going to get McDonald’s but that seems like a hassle to drive all that way when we are going to be eating take-out food for 9 days. We’ll see if that changes later on in this PTR.

So after we eat breakfast, we would double check to see if we actually have everything. One year, I forgot to pack my shorts, so we had to make a run for the Florida Mall to buy some. Needless to say I triple check the suitcase before we leave (just in case). Although we prefer to lock the suitcases the night before so we don’t have to worry about packing or anything the morning that we leave. We’d much rather have the suitcases ready in the front hall for the Red Car.

Once Red Car picks us up we will be on our way to the Pearson International Airport. It typically only takes 45 minutes to get to the airport, especially that early in the morning. So once we get to the airport, we get our luggage and enter the main building. There is usually a line up for the airport check-in and although they have two lines (i.e., one for those who did not do the advance check-in and one for those who did do the advance check-in) but everything ends up being the same amount of time.

Let’s just hope this time we don’t have to run through the airport terminal. So our plane is supposed to leave at 10:30am, and that is a good time because by the time that we get to the resort it will be closer to the expected check-in time.

I always like the airplane ride down to Orlando – it feels so magical knowing that you will soon be driving your way to the Happiest Place on Earth. Although, the turning of the plane frightens me just a little bit, but that is always how I know that we are never too far from MCO.

This time we will be doing the following for the rental car – while my dad waits for the luggage to arrive at the baggage claim, my mom and I will go down and do the Quick Serve Check-In for Alamo that way once we get the luggage we can just head outside to the rental car garage. I still have to find the map to get us to the resort – although I’m 99% sure that I know the way by now.

We have tea planned for 4:50pm and our hope is to get some kind of lunch between the time that we arrive at the hotel and the time for tea. I’m not sure what our evening plans are, so I will update you all on that later on!
 
Saturday, April 30 2011:
High - 84F (Real Feel 90F); Low - 68F (Real Feel 71F)
Rain

Sunday, May 1 2011:
High - 86F (Real Feel 93F); Low - 67F (Real Feel 70F)
Rain

Monday, May 2 2011:
High - 83F (Real Feel 85F); Low - 63F (Real Feel 63F)
Rain

Tuesday, May 3 2011:
High - 85F (Real Feel 85F); Low - 65F (Real Feel 65F)
Mostly Sunny
 














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