Suzy and Perla Skip the Lines Again: From roughing it to the lap of luxury

[Kat in GA]

We are buying annual passes in June (we meaning me and my girls - we are planning to leave my husband home...working ) and are really looking forward to our own year of Disney!

I have just LOVED reading your trip report - so much that I had to read your first part of the year of Disney. I hadn't realized that you and Suzy were sisters!

Am really looking forward to your next update.

 

[YodaGirl]

What! No way I'm telling anyone this. But you don't have to lock up your food in bear boxes. So I just assumed. If bears are in Florida, why don't they have bear boxes? We just left our food in our kitchen area in plastic containers.

I don't think that it's a common occurrence. I tried to find an article about the one found in FtW, but all I could find was info about bears in Flordia (For the record, it's the state's largest native land mammal - I didn't know that!). Another site also said that there were 2000 sightings in Central Florida last year, but that number seems pretty high...

Ah, here it is. Well, at least one of the threads about it. It shows a picture of the warning sign at the Fort from January 2010.
Black Bear Sighting?

I don't know about bear boxes. We have bears around here, but they aren't very prevalent, so no bear boxes. The only place that I've camped with lots of bears is the Smokey's, but I was little and don't remember.

Speaking of plastic containers, you'd have thought that we would have done something after the squirrels got into our bread the first time.

Of course, I've watched sneaky raccoons open up the fancy plastic containers to get to food. He must've been really hungry.

 

[estherhead]

We are buying annual passes in June (we meaning me and my girls - we are planning to leave my husband home...working ) and are really looking forward to our own year of Disney!

I have just LOVED reading your trip report - so much that I had to read your first part of the year of Disney. I hadn't realized that you and Suzy were sisters!

Am really looking forward to your next update.

Whoops! Guess I should have put that in my introductions in this one. This got kind of pitiful introductions because starting it was an afterthought simply because our other TR got so cluttered. But really it is a continuation of the Sept 2010.

You will your year of Disney.

I don't think that it's a common occurrence. I tried to find an article about the one found in FtW, but all I could find was info about bears in Flordia (For the record, it's the state's largest native land mammal - I didn't know that!). Another site also said that there were 2000 sightings in Central Florida last year, but that number seems pretty high...

Ah, here it is. Well, at least one of the threads about it. It shows a picture of the warning sign at the Fort from January 2010.
Black Bear Sighting?

I don't know about bear boxes. We have bears around here, but they aren't very prevalent, so no bear boxes. The only place that I've camped with lots of bears is the Smokey's, but I was little and don't remember.

Speaking of plastic containers, you'd have thought that we would have done something after the squirrels got into our bread the first time.

Of course, I've watched sneaky raccoons open up the fancy plastic containers to get to food. He must've been really hungry.

My experience with bears is Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons and Yosemite. They take bears VERY seriously. Even your lipstick has to be put in the bear boxes. So I guess that's why I assumed no bear boxes mean no bears.

But we did see bears in Yellowstone. So maybe they are so serious because there are so many. We were extremely casual about all wild life at Fort Wilderness. We locked nothing up. Whoops.

 

[houseful of boys]

Side story! When at Dollar Tree I found these battery operated lime green paper lanterns (they were with Easter stuff) and I decided, basically because they were Dis green, that I had to have some. So I bought three. I have no idea where the other 2 ended up, but we hung one in our tent.

Donald had hung the other two from the ceiling in the screen house. They matched the lime green perfectly, but I don't think we ever turned them on, even once. (which is why you don't remember, you probably never even noticed them there)

Suzy went to get Space Mt. FP's. She really needs to tell you this whole story, but basically this started a WHOLE thing. It gets crazier and crazier but we'll just start with her Space Mt. experience after this post.

I power walked to Tomorrowland while the rest of the crew headed toward Dumbo. It was early enough that I had to wait at the "other rope drop" at the entrance of Tomorrowland. Once the cast members walked us in, I headed straight to Space Mountain with tickets in hand. Put the first one in, no fast pass......put the second one in, no fast pass.......put the third one in, no fast pass. So I called over the CM that was standing there and said, "these are annual passes that we havent used since November, it's our first day back, and they won't work" So she tries them again, upside down, backward, and the machine just spins and spins and spits them out without fast passes. So she uses her "super, duper, secret key" and gets me 11 fast passes. Immediately, I know that my tickets are probably demagnatized and will have to go get them reprinted, AND that no fast passes are actually recorded on them in the main computer. SOOOOOOOO I head straight to Peter Pan. I wave at my family who is soaring above Fantasyland on a flying elephant while I walk by and make it to the Peter Pan FP machines no later than 8:10. This time I stick Perla's families tickets in first and they WORK!!! But when I get to mine, they just spin and spin again. So, I call the CM over again, and explain the situation, "it's our first time back since November with these annual passes, think they're demagnatized, these 5 worked, these 6 didn't" And, the "super, duper, secret key" comes out again and gets us the other 6. So by 8:15, I was holding 22 fps for 2 rides. Peter Pan's return time was for 8:40, so I could get more FPs then. We did eventually go get the APs reprinted, but there was no way I was going to take up my precious first 2 hours at MK (on a 10 crowd day) to run to guest relations, so I just continued this way (having the cms help me) until a little later. Eventually, one of the CMs gave me a Fast Pass Key that is like a ticket that you can insert into the FP machine and it works like your ticket. It is only good for one day at one park, so that was better than pestering a cm to print them out for me.

 

[estherhead]

Eventually, one of the CMs gave me a Fast Pass Key that is like a ticket that you can insert into the FP machine and it works like your ticket. It is only good for one day at one park, so that was better than pestering a cm to print them out for me.

Even though Suzy did get her tickets fixed, we had problems all week so I got very familiar with asking CM's to help me. One CM (at Maelstrom) told me that the machines click when it isn't going to work and that it's really a waste of time to try and try to get them to work.

Somewhere I either have or have a picture of these FP cards. Once I find where ever they are, I'll post a pic.

Hopefully, we'll get our BBB cd tomorrow.

 

[YensidCamper]

Okay, I am addicted. I keep checking back waiting for the next installment.
This reminds me of finally catching up to book four in Harry Potter and then having to wait two years for book five to come out. The agony.

 

[estherhead]

Okay, I am addicted. I keep checking back waiting for the next installment.
This reminds me of finally catching up to book four in Harry Potter and then having to wait two years for book five to come out. The agony.

Wow thanks for the compliment! Suzy got the Photopass disc last night so we are good to go!!! Just have to work to make money for our June trip and then I'm all about the TR!

 

[estherhead]

I must give some warnings to all you faithful followers before I torture you with the following chapters. Of the more than 3,000 pictures (give or take a 1,000) we took on this trip, we have at least 1,000 of just this one day. Mulan has been wishing to do the BBB since 2007 when she first saw a BBB princess. Because of this I wanted to do it first on this trip and get the Photopass so we would have a permanent record of this long awaited life event. And, of course, we also have all those PL pictures. The Pirate's League was a fun thing and a cool building so many, many pictures must be taken, of course.

As for the money: I have 3 girls. So with my half of the Photopass and their 3 bills at BBB this experience cost me just over $200.00. The Photopass pictures that follow may overwhelm you in sheer quantity. But be assured, we have four times the amount that I have uploaded for your viewing pleasure (or torture.)

But I am uploading this many as I very much appreciated such pictures when deciding if I was really going to pay $200.00 for my girls to be princesses for a day so I figured I'd repay you all.

OK. So back to the story. You've been warned.

So. We were on our way to the castle from Fantasyland. I was quite concerned with our time and REALLY hoping there was no line. As we walked into the castle the Cinderella breakfast was to our left and the BBB is to the right. I started to panic as there were a LOT of people in this area at 8:30 in the a.m. Lots. But at the BBB front desk there was just one man and he seemed confused so the woman asked me if I needed anything. And I told her the girl's names and asked her where to park our stroller.

She called us into the little waiting room and handed each girl a pink fancy-schmancy BBB menu with their name on the back. All three of them loved this personalization. Boo's clear sticker with her name on it was slightly crooked and it amused me that the girls were all so tickled that their name was on them, since clearly it was a high-end, professionally done, Staples clear sticker. But whatever floats your boat.

About 2 seconds later they called Boo, then the others. Score! It's a relatively small room with a giant, square padded (royal) seat in the middle for the parents. Each girl was welcomed to their chair & mirror, all three girls were right beside each other, and our photographer was introduced to us. We told her we had pre-bought the Photopass cd and she went to work. I, also, took a bunch of pictures. None of which I will include here since the BBB ones are thorough and better.

The lovely photographer took before pictures of each girl:

Donald dashed to the potty while the girls settled in and told their fairy god mother in training which hair style they had chosen and the FGMIT began pulling together the stuff they would need. Donald was back right quick and I dashed to the potty.

This move at such a critical juncture is what made miss the bangs up or bangs down decision. A decision I was sure to have an opinion on, and indeed, I still do have an opinion. But oh well. I didn't realize and my opinions were not nearly as important as the girl's opinions. And I was happy to be at the potty, let me tell ya. Cause I had waited WAY too long.

Mulan chose the Disney Diva. She chose to have her bangs put back.

I learned a lot about putting her hair in an updo from this experience and have been better at doing it since the BBB. For just this one thing, she is grateful as she LOVES updos and I am NO hairstylist.

Mulan was BEAMING this entire day. I mean, BEAMING. She glowed.

Ariel chose the Fairytale Princess with her bangs back and some hair down. This I would have chosen against. Had I been there. I felt, when all was said and done, that she looked more like Alice and a bit cuter BEFORE this hair do. But I didn't SAY that to her. Of course. Decision was made and it was fine. But not as fine as Mulan and Boo. And really, it was my decision to go potty when critical decisions were made. So I got my just desserts.

As I've already said, I called the BBB every day for weeks. And at the end of EVERY call they told me to bring a comb for each girl. I actually ran back to the tent to grab those combs as we were leaving this morning. And I had packed them special in with their costumes. Well guess what? They don't use them. They give each girl their own comb. So be it. A pretty blue one.

Donald chose for Boo. He chose bangs down, Fairytale Princess do. Donald is the MAN!!! Loved this hairdo. Loved the bangs being down.

I dashed back to discover that we now had TWO photographers. The little girl next to Boo, who was also about four, was NOT enjoying her BBB experience. She was screaming bloody murder is what she was doing and her parents were speaking rapid Spanish trying to calm her so she would enjoy this $50.00 experience. Her mom tried everything, sitting in the chair herself. Sitting in the chair and the girl sat on her lap. Bribing. Everything.

But, in the end, the girl was NOT going to be a princess. And her photographer dedicated the next 20 minutes of his life to Boo.

So we have a LOT, pretty much as many pictures as you can take in 20 minutes, of Boo at the BBB. I had begun to take photos but I quickly realized this was a stupid idea. It is a tiny room and we were in a tiny corner. There was 3 girls in 3 big chairs with 3 FGMIT and 2 photographers and 2 parents with cameras. Donald was videotaping. So I quickly sat my booty on the big cushy square thing and watched the magic taking place.

I did venture out of my seat, however, to ask where I could buy one of these masks:

LOVE this. All three girls hate the hairspray time when I do their hair but this just took away the hatred. You can't buy them from them, though. You can buy them online. But I haven't yet. Though I fully intend on doing so.

Once the hair is perfectly coiffed they put on the make-up.

I loved Mulan in her make-up so much that I reapplied it twice this day and have since let her put on pink eyeshadow fairly often. She had gotten some as a gift in December and not really worn it. And they also give you the little makeup pallette at the end of the appointment in a darling pink bag with your name on it, your comb, extra jewels, etc.

I love this pink border that is available on the Photopass website. I put it on all the above photos so I could decide which ones to print out. And Boo was having a grand time, which surprised me. I wasn't positive she'd love to be fussed over.

Here is her almost done look:

I had read all the horror stories on here about the washing after washing to get all this gel out. So I watched in horror as Stephanie, here, plastered Ariel's hair down. But it actually washed out very easily. No problems at all.

I also watched in horror as Mulan's FGMIT teased her hair into an inch of it's life. But then realized it was just the hair piece. We've used this hair piece since. It's VERY nice. And I combed out all this silly teasing they did. I think it is kind of goofy with the teased out poof. But very fun and lovely without it.

OK. Now I warned you. We have a lot of photos. And with the 25 limit photo count, I think the next 2 hours at WDW (from 8:30-10:30) are going to take me no less than FIVE chapters to get all the info and pictures squeezed in. That is just how cool it all was.

So for now, I leave you with half done girls. And you don't know where the Suzy clan was at all. For all you know they are back on pause at the Teacups.

And it's gonna be a minute cause I have to go do stuff, non-Disney related stuff. I know, I know. Non-Disney related stuff is lame. But it must be done, none-the-less.

 

[taymaesmom]

We LOVE BBB! Its always been worth the money, however my girls have decided they are too old.

Your girls are looking so good already. Boo looks darling, that hairstyle fits her perfectly. I too learned alot about hair from watching the FGMIT, and have often reused all the hair pieces and crowns. Which has been valuable since my younger dd does musicals and often has to have elaborate hairstyles that must last thru a 2 hour show and multiple costume changes.

Post away on pictures, I'm dying to see them all! Your trip reports are awesome, I have read them all more than once

 

[Riviera510]

Your girls look like they are having THE time of their lives! You can just see from the pics how much they loved this experience.


So I am going to assume you think it was worth it?

We didn't do the BBB but we are going back when the kids will be 7 and 9 and I am contemplating doing it then.

However it is so expensive...and I have 3 girls as you do, so it is a tough decision..

 

[Riviera510]

Your trip reports are awesome, I have read them all more than once

Me too!

 

[estherhead]

We LOVE BBB! Its always been worth the money, however my girls have decided they are too old.

Your girls are looking so good already. Boo looks darling, that hairstyle fits her perfectly. I too learned alot about hair from watching the FGMIT, and have often reused all the hair pieces and crowns. Which has been valuable since my younger dd does musicals and often has to have elaborate hairstyles that must last thru a 2 hour show and multiple costume changes.

Post away on pictures, I'm dying to see them all! Your trip reports are awesome, I have read them all more than once

Your girls look like they are having THE time of their lives! You can just see from the pics how much they loved this experience.


So I am going to assume you think it was worth it?

We didn't do the BBB but we are going back when the kids will be 7 and 9 and I am contemplating doing it then.

However it is so expensive...and I have 3 girls as you do, so it is a tough decision..

Me too!

You guys are making me blush!!!!!

Stay tuned for my BBB conclusions. As always, I have lots of opinions!

 

[YensidCamper]

Thanks for the quick posts. I don't guess I knew this was girly stuff--I have two boys, but my wife will love it when she reads it. I assumed BBB was the Princess breakfast now at the castle. BBB, is it in the lobby where you used to go to eat in Cinderella's castle? or is it where the old store with the swords and stuff reside(d)?

 

[estherhead]

So Boo's hair completely finished, it was time for her make-up. Boo is not nearing teenage-hood and is not fascinated by make-up as you can see from the following photo:

It also shows you the little make-up palette they get. The lip gloss was quite lovely when I reapplied it. Very creamy and the perfect glitteriness.

The blush:

When I first reapplied I used the sad little brush that comes in the kit. When we were back at our campsite (before dinner) I went ahead and used my own soft blush brush on them.

Ariel chose blue eyeshadow to match her dress. As Mulan chose the pink to match hers. I guess at 9 & 10 it's still ok to match your eyeshadow to your dress.

Picking out the lip gloss:

And application:

Here is Boo getting sprinkled with pixie dust. Which I could not stop smiling while this was going on. Here's the back story behind my smiling. When Jake and the Neverland Pirates first came out Boo was watching it every day. I was taking this opportunity of her being absorbed in a tv show to run around like a mad woman accomplishing things. So it was out at least a week before I sat down and watched a whole episode.

So I didn't understand who Izzy was. And I didn't understand pixie dust in the story line. We have glitter at our house which we use as pixie dust at our house. This is all the stuff you need to know to have this make sense.

One evening we had friends over for dinner and Boo comes out with just a t-shirt on and her hand in her panties. Donald says, "Boo! What are you doing?" With this she pulls her hand out of her panties and with a flourish distributes glitter over us all, saying, "I'm going to fly and you can too." This was surprising, to say the least, for oh, so many reasons. Our questions just kept coming:

"Boo, why is there glitter in your panties?"
"Because I don't have a necklace for it."

"Boo, why does glitter make us fly?"
"It's pixie dust!"

You can imagine the following questions of confusion. We did, with the help of Mulan who had seen the show, figure it out. But not before laughing so hard it hurt. For the next week, because Donald and I are evil like this, and also, because it made us laugh hysterically. every. time. whenever we were around one of our friends who didn't know the pixie dust situation we would ask:

"Hey, Boo, where do you keep your pixie dust?"
To which she happily would turn to them and say, "I keep pixie dust in my panties. Would you like me to sprinkle you?"

It was a really party favorite. NO ONE ever wanted sprinkled, which would upset Boo. Because who doesn't want to fly?

Mulan eventually ruined our trick by making Boo an adorable little plastic container on a string with glitter in it that Boo wore every single day, only taking it off for bed. But for awhile there, pixie dust was a HUGE part of adding joy to my every day life. So this moment at the BBB delighted me:

In this picture you can see the couch-like thing in the middle of the room and me being entranced by Boo and her glitter.

From behind, Boo was even cuter than from the front. I swear, it was true.

And Ariel's moment:

And Mulan's baptism by dust:

"Mirror, mirror, on the wall, whose the fairest of them all?"

And Mulan admiring herself:

And this is my final BBB picture, I took this one, of Boo's adorable hair as we walked out. And you also can see the ever important bobby pin to keep this swag in place. If you are going to do BBB, forget bringing a comb. Bring extra bobby pins to keep this pink thing in place!

There are LOTS more pictures of my girls looking Faboo still to come, including the official BBB photos. We waited to get those taken after Donald got his Pirate League face on. The studio is located in Tink's Treasure store opposite the castle. You don't have to go immediately. And you don't have to buy up your package if you already prepaid for the Photopass cd because they put them all on there. The Pirate's League they don't.

OK, this seems like it's getting long (I hate long paragraphs and long chapters. I like things broken up) so I'm going to write my BBB conclusions and what the Suzy clan did as well as what we/I did between the Teacups and Pirate League in the next chapter.

 

[estherhead]

Thanks for the quick posts. I don't guess I knew this was girly stuff--I have two boys, but my wife will love it when she reads it. I assumed BBB was the Princess breakfast now at the castle. BBB, is it in the lobby where you used to go to eat in Cinderella's castle? or is it where the old store with the swords and stuff reside(d)?

I don't know about the store with swords? Maybe cause I'm a girl? Not sure. But it's in the castle but on the main floor, whereas the princess meal is on the second floor overlooking Fantasyland. Both are still there and a lot of families do both together. But for my family this would have cost practically $500.00!!! So not gonna happen. Unless I win some big amount of money.

Stay tuned. Plenty of boy stuff is coming. Everyone gets their turn.

 

[estherhead]

OK, so first my conclusions to the BBB and then we move on with the story before coming a screeching halt again with 100 pictures of the Pirate's League.

I am a regular girl. Not girlie, but not a tomboy. Not skinny, but not chunky. Not beautiful, but ok looking. I'm just a regular girl. And I grew up with only a sister, married a man with 4 sisters. And mostly hung out with girls as I was growing up. And I've taught Weight Watchers for 8 years. So I have a lot of experience with women and body image. LOTS.

And let me tell you, women, as a whole, feel ugly. They feel ugly about their hair. They feel too fat, even when they are too skinny. They hate how they look in bathing suits. They hate how the look in dresses. They don't like their: face, eyes, nose, stomach, legs, butt, feet, toes, hands, fingers. They may feel ok about their spleen. But if they knew what it looked like, they would think it was ugly too. Well, really, spleens are ugly. But that is beside the point.

My point is women, as a whole, have terrible body image. And as a woman looking at other women (not me), women are rather lovely. Lovely to look at. Lovely, soft curves. Lovely personalities. Women are NOT ugly. But you cannot convince them of that.

Because as girls the images, movies, television, other girls, clothing that doesn't fit, every thing around them tells them over and over again that they are ugly. Too short, too tall, too fat, too skinny, too blonde, too dark. And those powerful voices over ride the truth: that they are lovely.

Mulan wanted to do BBB because she wanted people to call her princess and tell her she was beautiful. She openly stated to us on the ride down that the thing she most was looking forward to, more than the Rockin Roller Coaster and Everest combined, was strangers telling her she was pretty.

And as Mulan left the castle, she was beautiful. She actually took my breath away. And MANY people stopped her and told her she was beautiful. Time after time. And she BEAMED.

And on the ride home when we asked everyone what their favorite thing of the trip was, Mulan stated without hesitation, "Being a princess for a day."

To give a gawky, already hates herself, about to enter even MORE awkward years, 10 year old girl a day to FEEL beautiful all the way to the core, to be told she was beautiful over and over by strangers, to have her mother and father tell her again and again that she takes their breath away was a gift that I'm not sure another experience could ever duplicate.

There is now a tiny voice, which I can only hope grows, in Mulan's head that it is possible, just possible, that she isn't ugly. But beautiful.

So was the BBB worth $200.00? Absolutely. I'm not sure Ariel got that much out of it, though she enjoyed it. And I LOVED Boo being a princess. That money was spent for me. But the experience that Mulan had that day was fairly deep. Mulan's experience alone and the pictures that we have were worth $200.00 to me. Because it was, dare I say, magical?

Yes. It was worth it.



And now, back to the story in progress.

When last you left Suzy, she was headed in the opposite direction of me. She had 11 FP's for Space Mt, Peter Pan, and Winnie the Pooh. It was 8:30 and she had PL appointments at 10:00.

Because they have boys and were right there, they decided to hop on the Tomorrowland Speedway. There is little line this early in the morning there and any other time the line is long and hot. Fairly quickly they were riding along. And, as you can imagine, with young drivers, being beaten into the rails again and again.

But the best part for Milo was that the car ahead of Buzz was going painfully slowly and the adult in the car was being made uncomfortable by this as the traffic behind him was building up. So he waved Buzz on by. Except, see, the cars are on rails. Making passing impossible. And despite Buzz looking in confusion at the guy and turning to Milo to see what to do, the guy just kept waving Buzz to pass him.

Milo thought it was hilarious.

After their fun, though slow, drive, they headed off to do Snow White's Scary Adventures before it closes forever.

It was as they were leaving this, that we were leaving the BBB. We headed over to do Snow White but by this point it had too long of a line and they were headed to the Haunted Mansion. So we decided to do the Haunted Mansion too.

Boo loved the Haunted Mansion. From the outside. She happily walked up to it, pointing at the pretty house. I was scoping to see if the new interactive line was open. It wasn't.

I have pictures of this somewhere but all the pictures are on Donald's computer which he is currently using. So I delete this sentence and insert the pictures tomorrow. They are lame pictures, anyway, because the interactive line wasn't open.

Anyway. Our whole family happily walked down the entrance to HM and there was no line. The doors were open and you could walk right in. I'm fumbling in my purse to get out Boo's headphones because I know her and she isn't scared unless there is scary music so I thought I'd just play happy music for her.

We get to the door just as I get them out and at this exact moment is when the scary guy's voice booms out something and laughs in the scary way.

Donald had originally asked us if we wanted to "Hop on Haunted Mansion since there is no line."

So as this voice booms, Boo's voices say, very loudly, "I DON'T want to HOP on this ride. I will NOT be HOPPING on this ride!"

I was laughing, as was anyone in ear shot. But I asked her if she would ride if I put headphones on her and she agreed. I bent down to put the headphones on and as I did the big doors literally shut on us. We had to take a step back to not fall over.

And we were not on the right side of the doors.

Donald, Mulan, and Ariel were. Whoops.

It's ok, as it's not my fave anyway.

So we went to sit by the Columbia Harbour House on the little wall there. It's where I always wait when my family is on HM. Suzy and her clan were also riding HM so within a few minutes of sitting there, Charming came and very soon, everyone else did too.

Suzy had gotten Splash FP's at some point too.

And we started to walk towards the PL. I decided to take Boo to the Main Street Bakery and get a second breakfast while they all enjoyed the PL. We went and got in line and I used 2 CS meals on ham & egg croissants and cinnamon rolls and some snacks on fruit. I also bought a few waters/chocolate milk.

In addition to this I got caught up in a little morning parade. And checked on the princesses to see their wait times. Which were way too long.

And then I headed back in to gather my girls and Charming for a little breakfast which we set up just opposite the PL at the little tables there.

And up next: How Jack-Jack became Captain Jack.

 

[YensidCamper]

So excited for Mulan. I work with a lot kids her age and you are so right about the body image issue. Keep the posts coming, our family is learning a lot and can't wait for our trip in the fall.

 

[YodaGirl]

I'm loving your TR! Looking forward to the next installment.

 

[estherhead]

So excited for Mulan. I work with a lot kids her age and you are so right about the body image issue. Keep the posts coming, our family is learning a lot and can't wait for our trip in the fall.

I'm excited for you. It'll be so fun to be at the fort!

I'm loving your TR! Looking forward to the next installment.

Thanks! It'll be up some time in the next 24 hours. Give or take an hour.

 

[estherhead]

So, truthfully, I’m not the right person to write about the Pirate’s League. I wasn’t there for the whole thing and I was not overly involved. But, it’s my story. So you’ll all have to suffer through my story. That was never really my story.

Donald’s appointment was at 9:40 and we got there pretty close to that time. I took the following photo as I thought it would look lovely at the top of Suzy’s scrapbooking page, which she never actually makes any scrapbooks but I like to pretend and take pretty pictures for her. Sometimes, she prints out the pictures. So this could sit in the pile of pictures that no one looks at with the other Pirate’s League pictures. And that would make me proud that I took that picture.

You go up to the very nice CM’s at the front desk/lectern thingie and tell them your name. To be honest, it was exactly the same as the BBB but a lot less frantic. And more pirate speak. Then you go to a barrel and spin it to get your official pirate name. This is the name that goes on the certificate you get at the end certifying you as an official pirate.

I’m not sure what Donald’s name was. Nor where his certificate is. How do I know he is a real pirate if I’ve never seen his certificate? But the boy’s were: Henry Rigspinner, Lawrence Darkgrin, and Tobias Pillagefish.
I’m not sure which of these belonged to which boy but I know one thing for sure. Jack-Jack was not any of the above names, no matter what his certificate says. From the moment he changed into his costume and was informed that he would be becoming a real pirate, a certified pirate, he wanted to be called Captain Jack Sparrow. Period. No Captain. No Jack. No Sparrow. Captain Jack was ok. But barely.

Here are the boys already in costume, but not checked in yet:

And here is the big room that you go in:

Here is Buzz’s girl. Not sure what Pirate makers are called. I do know that NONE of the pirates who were being made pirates nor worked here liked my BBB princesses being in this room. Everyone at least once asked where they kept their treasure. And growled about there being riff raff princesses allowed in the secret pirate’s lair.

You can see McQueen in the background there and Donald being made up in the foreground. It was such a cool room:

The bandana on Donald’s head we bought at Wal-mart for a dollar. We hadn’t properly read up on the PL so we didn’t realize that they give you one. Donald switched out right after this experience, but then switched back because the Wal-Mart adult one was way more comfortable for, well, and adult.

Here is McQueen’s before picture:

I wanted to include this picture as it seems important. But I literally have no idea what is going on here. A tattoo? I didn’t notice? A part of the pirate oath I missed? They nail them to the chairs to teach them toughness? No idea?

Here is Mulan and Charming enjoying watching pirates be created from mere mortals. Side note: Milo took most of these pictures. Since I was absent. Thank goodness for him. I noticed this day that he had quite a few pictures of Mulan. We had a party a few months ago where all the kids got presents. Suzy and I bought Mulan her first make-up, fake hair piece, designer outfit, and purse. We made her up and she came out to model for us all. As adult and tall and mature as Charming is, you would think Milo would know our kids are all getting older. But of all of us, he was the most bothered by the fact that Mulan was looking grown-up. So I thought it was funny that he had quite a few pictures of her this day and almost none on the other days. He REALLY isn’t sure how to handle her in hair and make-up looking like an adult. He may be the person I send boys to before they can date her. Not sure any would get by him.

Donald making progress. Plus, you can see Milo taking the photo in the background that I comment on above. Maybe he is the one I should ask what is going on?

More theming:

More theming, plus you can see Buzz, Donald, and McQueen all being done simultaneously and Jack-Jack looking on awaiting his turn. Isn’t he a good, patient boy? Just interested. Not complaining.

And now for just a little warning. The Pirate’s League and Asperger’s are not a great fit. Asperger’s kids need total freedom of movement as impulse control is not a strength of theirs. This makes having face paint on problematic as it smears when you rub it. Plus, you can feel it. And it’s placement on your face requires someone to be in your personal space. Buzz is more than happy to mindlessly drape himself on perfect strangers, as long as he is instigating the physical contact. And again, he’s a great and affectionate hugger, if he is the one hugging. But if you, or a doctor/dentist/pirate maker is the instigator, human contact is not as welcome. So I cannot really say he enjoyed this experience. Really, I would say he endured it with the intellectual knowledge that it OUGHT to be fun. He didn't hate it, but.... I think this picture really says what I am trying to say:

McQueen, on the other hand, did enjoy it. He did not BECOME a pirate, as did Jack-Jack. McQueen NEVER loses his grasp of reality. Well, except when he is confused about his own importance in the universe. On that one subject he never comes close to reality. But OTHER than that, McQueen pretty much understands and grasps everything in a very real sense. So he understood everything about this, the playacting part, the make-up, the fuss being made, the pomp and circumstance, all of it. And he loved it. McQueen wants to be a movie director when he grows up. And though he never said this, acting and make-up are just a much part of that as anything else. He loves the behind the scenes stuff at WDW and really, this was just more of a peek behind the scenes of becoming a “pirate”.

Finally, Jack-Jack got his chance in the big chair:

Charming overseeing the choices and the Pirate Maker setting her station up:

Buzz is close to finished and looking happy:

I planned on getting more done tonight but I had to work late secularly and I guess at midnight Photobucket kicks the bucket and does maintenance.

And this particular story is MUCH more interesting with pictures. So stay tuned to see and hear how our pirates turned out and if any pillaging and looting took place.