Suzy & Perla and their secret to skipping lines, 2 trips down 2 to go, March is soon
- Thread starter estherhead
- Start date
estherhead
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2004
Welcome back!! So happy your trip was so great!! I am sorry about the destruction in your town
I will be back to read when I get back next week!!
Thanks! Hope you have a great time too.
Ends up the damage isn't too, too horrible. Lots of trees down & roofs with damage & a trailer park destroyed. Still lots of power lines down & broken gas lines. But I think in general everything can be patched up by Monday with the exception, perhaps, of the high school and few buildings which were totally demolished. But I think we were all lucky. It could have been a LOT worse! And it's the first tornado to hit our town in 50 years.
estherhead
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2004
This is great. I'm in!
KIM
Welcome! Just in time for another mini-update! Off to write.
estherhead
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2004
So first I have to back up. I forgot to tell you all that Boo had to use the potty on the airplane. This was seriously an experience. As an adult I always think the potty on the airplane is slightly scary. It's small & the toilet seems like it will suck you down it. Now imagine it with a distrustful, suspicious three year old. 
On & off she went. It was just so scary! I mean there is wind hitting your booty. But she was finally able to settle and go. And then the hand washing was tricky as you have to hold the water down but she didn't want help. After seemingly forever in the tiniest bathroom ever she managed to have gone potty AND wash her hands. Whew.
Also, I bought a Bacardi party pack of tiny rum bottles that I took on the plane so Mom & I had ourselves a little plane party!
Now, back to POR. We were all checked in and ready to vacation. We walked out the main doors toward the back of POR, which was the only time we did this. The placement of our room made us normally go out & in the side door of the food court. But at this moment we went toward the Ole Man Island and turned left towards the giant water wheel. I've seen photo after photo of it. I get it. It's photogenic. But I didn't think it was that big of a deal when I saw it online. In person, however, it is VERY impressive. We stood there a bit on the bridge and watched it. No pics as it was night. But we really wanted to see our room so our awe was short lived.
We find building 14 (pretty easy since it's the first one.) Then we go up the ramp and follow the sign. We were maybe 5 doors from that. So all in all it was less than a two minute walk to the food court. Sweet!
We were on the lookout for frogs as Boo LOVES frogs and sure enough I saw one immediately.
And to greet us:
And the Mickey head lasted barely long enough for me to photograph it:
And check it out!
Double windows looking over the river. Best room ever! Well, best room for a non-Magic Kingdom resort.
Bathing suit time!
I still wasn't feeling 100% so I didn't get in a bathing suit and Boo didn't have her swimmer suit so we mainly hung out in the baby pool. They have lifejackets you can use but you have to sign them out & I just didn't feel like it for just a short swim.
I was surprised at how beautiful the tiles in this pool are. You normally just see photos of the slide view. But since we were mainly baby-pooling it I spent quite a bit of time eyeballing the alligator & frog tiles. Gorgeous!
See how pretty they are all around this?
The big pool:
I headed back to the room with my refillable mug full of diet caffeine free Coke and added a bit of pomegranate rum. Mmmm... Then I did my nightly ritual of neti potting (youtube it if you wanna be grossed out) and Zicamming and taking my handful of pills. I was still sick and since my history of Disney World is that the cold I have BEFORE my trips always turns into a RAGING infection ON my trips I was being methodical. I had even used my neti pot in the airport which was quite the experience. Would it pay off? Only time would tell.
By this point it'd been 3 hours since we landed. So I called the luggage area to ask when our luggage would be delivered. They said it's 3 hours from check-in so probably around 10 p.m. So we watched a bit of t.v. (no clue what, I wasn't really paying attention) and then my pills started to kick in and I fell asleep. Which was unfortunate as the luggage was delivered about a half hour after I fell asleep at 11 p.m. which means I woke up & had trouble sleeping again. I had refrigerated stuff in a cooler in my bag so I got up to put it in the fridge and then I was AWAKE! Curses! I'm trying to be healthy here and as everyone knows sleep is pretty critical to getting healthy. Grrrr...
The good news was that Boo & I had a bed to ourselves. Suzy, Mom, and Jack-Jack were in the other bed/trundle. Jack didn't want to stay in the trundle so Suzy ended up on it. Sigh. We ended up all taking turns by the end of the trip but more on that later. This night I had a bed to myself and I slept from about midnight to 5:20 a.m.
I had no intention of getting up at 5:20 but I bizarrely woke up with hiccups. It was weird but I decided to get up & get water hoping they would go away and also thought I would Neti pot as I was quite stuffy so I turned the sink on & it broke. No joke. The handle on the cold water just fell right off. It was 5:21 and I wasn't having a great day.
I climbed back into bed (though the entire room was awake thanks to my loud hiccups & loud crash when the metal handle smashed into the porcelain sink. We i-phone scrabbled for a bit. Then Mom got up to have some quiet time somewhere while Suzy & I got ready and got the kids ready. I flat ironed my hair and put makeup on. Which of course turned out to be a giant mistake! I didn't make such a mistake again.
I called the front desk and told them about the broken sink and I packed up. And we were ready to go!
Off to fill our refillable mugs! True confession. I put a bit of drink in Boo's non sanctioned Disney princess water bottle. Suzy reprimanded me for stealing $.03 worth of drink but I was not guilty. I could have put it in my refillable mug & then dumped it in her bottle and then filled my mug with what I wanted. Then it wouldn't have been stealing. But I just skipped a step.
Seriously, no one seemed to care. I know I shouldn't be posting such shocking talk on Disboards but I just had to include it. I mean, this is a detailed TR and that is one of the details.
I also paused at the front desk and asked about my family getting a super cool room too when they came in 4 days and the front desk lady had the gaul to say, "We do have a room in building 14 for those dates. If you're willing to pay full price, no discount, and give up your package." Hello? Is she nuts? I have a kids stay, play, eat free deal. $1300.00 for 4 nights 5 days for 5 people. You think I'm gonna give that up to pay $854.00 for just room? Crazy. I almost laughed but she was a very serious older woman who did not seem like she was joking?
Early morning at Chef Mickey's! We got to the bus stop at 7:00 which was WAY too late. But we didn't know that. We should have, but we didn't. Our ADR was 7:20. The bus took FOREVER to get there. A full 20 minutes.
So it was well past 7:20 when we pulled up to MK. And the bus was full of lots of other people going to Chef Mickey's.
This made it slightly awkward as we are all super-walkers. And so it was as if we were all on a race to Chef Mickey's. Who would get there first? Well, of course, us! Duh. Suzy broke away from the pack while Mom & I got the strollers ready to go. And she booked it. Overtook a few people at the cross walk. Passed the rest at the entrance. And by the time Mom & I huffed and puffed our way there our table was already ready.
SCORE!
So the big question was: Would Boo freak out with the characters???
On & off she went. It was just so scary! I mean there is wind hitting your booty. But she was finally able to settle and go. And then the hand washing was tricky as you have to hold the water down but she didn't want help. After seemingly forever in the tiniest bathroom ever she managed to have gone potty AND wash her hands. Whew.Also, I bought a Bacardi party pack of tiny rum bottles that I took on the plane so Mom & I had ourselves a little plane party!
Now, back to POR. We were all checked in and ready to vacation. We walked out the main doors toward the back of POR, which was the only time we did this. The placement of our room made us normally go out & in the side door of the food court. But at this moment we went toward the Ole Man Island and turned left towards the giant water wheel. I've seen photo after photo of it. I get it. It's photogenic. But I didn't think it was that big of a deal when I saw it online. In person, however, it is VERY impressive. We stood there a bit on the bridge and watched it. No pics as it was night. But we really wanted to see our room so our awe was short lived.
We find building 14 (pretty easy since it's the first one.) Then we go up the ramp and follow the sign. We were maybe 5 doors from that. So all in all it was less than a two minute walk to the food court. Sweet!
We were on the lookout for frogs as Boo LOVES frogs and sure enough I saw one immediately.
And to greet us:
And the Mickey head lasted barely long enough for me to photograph it:
And check it out!
Double windows looking over the river. Best room ever! Well, best room for a non-Magic Kingdom resort.
Bathing suit time!
I still wasn't feeling 100% so I didn't get in a bathing suit and Boo didn't have her swimmer suit so we mainly hung out in the baby pool. They have lifejackets you can use but you have to sign them out & I just didn't feel like it for just a short swim.
I was surprised at how beautiful the tiles in this pool are. You normally just see photos of the slide view. But since we were mainly baby-pooling it I spent quite a bit of time eyeballing the alligator & frog tiles. Gorgeous!
See how pretty they are all around this?
The big pool:
I headed back to the room with my refillable mug full of diet caffeine free Coke and added a bit of pomegranate rum. Mmmm... Then I did my nightly ritual of neti potting (youtube it if you wanna be grossed out) and Zicamming and taking my handful of pills. I was still sick and since my history of Disney World is that the cold I have BEFORE my trips always turns into a RAGING infection ON my trips I was being methodical. I had even used my neti pot in the airport which was quite the experience. Would it pay off? Only time would tell.
By this point it'd been 3 hours since we landed. So I called the luggage area to ask when our luggage would be delivered. They said it's 3 hours from check-in so probably around 10 p.m. So we watched a bit of t.v. (no clue what, I wasn't really paying attention) and then my pills started to kick in and I fell asleep. Which was unfortunate as the luggage was delivered about a half hour after I fell asleep at 11 p.m. which means I woke up & had trouble sleeping again. I had refrigerated stuff in a cooler in my bag so I got up to put it in the fridge and then I was AWAKE! Curses! I'm trying to be healthy here and as everyone knows sleep is pretty critical to getting healthy. Grrrr...
The good news was that Boo & I had a bed to ourselves. Suzy, Mom, and Jack-Jack were in the other bed/trundle. Jack didn't want to stay in the trundle so Suzy ended up on it. Sigh. We ended up all taking turns by the end of the trip but more on that later. This night I had a bed to myself and I slept from about midnight to 5:20 a.m.
I had no intention of getting up at 5:20 but I bizarrely woke up with hiccups. It was weird but I decided to get up & get water hoping they would go away and also thought I would Neti pot as I was quite stuffy so I turned the sink on & it broke. No joke. The handle on the cold water just fell right off. It was 5:21 and I wasn't having a great day.
I climbed back into bed (though the entire room was awake thanks to my loud hiccups & loud crash when the metal handle smashed into the porcelain sink. We i-phone scrabbled for a bit. Then Mom got up to have some quiet time somewhere while Suzy & I got ready and got the kids ready. I flat ironed my hair and put makeup on. Which of course turned out to be a giant mistake! I didn't make such a mistake again.
I called the front desk and told them about the broken sink and I packed up. And we were ready to go!
Off to fill our refillable mugs! True confession. I put a bit of drink in Boo's non sanctioned Disney princess water bottle. Suzy reprimanded me for stealing $.03 worth of drink but I was not guilty. I could have put it in my refillable mug & then dumped it in her bottle and then filled my mug with what I wanted. Then it wouldn't have been stealing. But I just skipped a step.
Seriously, no one seemed to care. I know I shouldn't be posting such shocking talk on Disboards but I just had to include it. I mean, this is a detailed TR and that is one of the details.I also paused at the front desk and asked about my family getting a super cool room too when they came in 4 days and the front desk lady had the gaul to say, "We do have a room in building 14 for those dates. If you're willing to pay full price, no discount, and give up your package." Hello? Is she nuts? I have a kids stay, play, eat free deal. $1300.00 for 4 nights 5 days for 5 people. You think I'm gonna give that up to pay $854.00 for just room? Crazy. I almost laughed but she was a very serious older woman who did not seem like she was joking?
Early morning at Chef Mickey's! We got to the bus stop at 7:00 which was WAY too late. But we didn't know that. We should have, but we didn't. Our ADR was 7:20. The bus took FOREVER to get there. A full 20 minutes.
So it was well past 7:20 when we pulled up to MK. And the bus was full of lots of other people going to Chef Mickey's.
This made it slightly awkward as we are all super-walkers. And so it was as if we were all on a race to Chef Mickey's. Who would get there first? Well, of course, us! Duh. Suzy broke away from the pack while Mom & I got the strollers ready to go. And she booked it. Overtook a few people at the cross walk. Passed the rest at the entrance. And by the time Mom & I huffed and puffed our way there our table was already ready.
SCORE!
So the big question was: Would Boo freak out with the characters???
houseful of boys
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2008
Our trip could not have been smoother. It only took us 6 1/2 hrs total from our Mom's front door to check in at POR. Not bad from a small rural town in Ohio.
When we landed in Orlando it was pouring!!! I panicked for a minute because I had at the last second taken all of my ponchos and stroller cover and threw them into my checked bags. Fortunately everything was undercover until we needed walk to our room and by then it was only sprinkling.
We LOVED our room and resort. Our room was so easy to get to that even Jack jack and Boo could find their way by the second day.
So we took the kids to the pool that first night (we had brought swim suits and pajamas in our carry ons). My Mom and I headed over to the pool bar first thing.
The bartender was shutting down because it was soo slow that evening but stayed open long enough for me to get a Long Island Ice Tea and my mom a beer. While we watched the kids Perla headed to the room to take her medicine and I'm pretty sure this was her first trip to the concierge to see if she could get her tickets separated from her KTTW card.
Now, here's a side note, I'm not much a big drinker in my normal life, and that evening all I had eaten was a handful of the kids chicken nuggets and french fries on the plane. My drink hit me pretty hard. I didn't let Perla nor my mom know just how much I was concentrating on my steps back to the room.
I didn't sleep well that first night. My mom and I shared a bed with jack jack on the trundle. Jack Jack fell off the trundle at about 1:00am at which moment he joined us in our bed. So starting from that moment I couldn't relax in a deep sleep because I kept trying to keep his arms and legs off of my mother.
so by 4:00am I decided just to climb down onto the trundle myself. By 5:30 everyone was awake and excited to be at Disney World even the two little ones!!!
Here's some pictures on our way to Chef Mickey's Boo had been talking about this moment for months. Eating eggs with Mickey Mouse!
When we landed in Orlando it was pouring!!! I panicked for a minute because I had at the last second taken all of my ponchos and stroller cover and threw them into my checked bags. Fortunately everything was undercover until we needed walk to our room and by then it was only sprinkling.
We LOVED our room and resort. Our room was so easy to get to that even Jack jack and Boo could find their way by the second day.
So we took the kids to the pool that first night (we had brought swim suits and pajamas in our carry ons). My Mom and I headed over to the pool bar first thing.
The bartender was shutting down because it was soo slow that evening but stayed open long enough for me to get a Long Island Ice Tea and my mom a beer. While we watched the kids Perla headed to the room to take her medicine and I'm pretty sure this was her first trip to the concierge to see if she could get her tickets separated from her KTTW card. Now, here's a side note, I'm not much a big drinker in my normal life, and that evening all I had eaten was a handful of the kids chicken nuggets and french fries on the plane. My drink hit me pretty hard. I didn't let Perla nor my mom know just how much I was concentrating on my steps back to the room.
I didn't sleep well that first night. My mom and I shared a bed with jack jack on the trundle. Jack Jack fell off the trundle at about 1:00am at which moment he joined us in our bed. So starting from that moment I couldn't relax in a deep sleep because I kept trying to keep his arms and legs off of my mother.
so by 4:00am I decided just to climb down onto the trundle myself. By 5:30 everyone was awake and excited to be at Disney World even the two little ones!!!Here's some pictures on our way to Chef Mickey's
Boo had been talking about this moment for months. Eating eggs with Mickey Mouse!
estherhead
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2004
So, for all of you who came over from my last trip report you know that it wasn't that great. Boo was SUPER OVERLY DRAMATICALLY TERRIFIED of the characters. And I was sick. As this trip began, less than a year since the trauma of that, I was quite concerned to start off the trip this year with a character breakfast.
We have a team mascot that last September sent Boo into absolute fits. She was paralyzed with fear. So this year at the first game she was interested in him and instead of racing the other way was willing to follow him for a bit (though not touch him) and thought he was cool. And Mom bought her a stuffed version of him (that's who is in her backpack with Mickey Mouse.) So this gave me some confidence that this year would be different.
But just the same. It was concerning to me.
So Suzy rushes us over to the Mickey Mouse to get our pics taken. This ended up being a GREAT photo which we didn't buy. We never buy such things as we aren't suckers. And it wasn't the real Mickey Mouse, just a plastic Mickey. Unfortunately, in this case, not buying that photo was the biggest mistake we made. It was only $30.00 which we would have split 3 ways and it was the best pic taken of us all week. Fools! So we are not suckers, that is true. But we are SO not suckers that we are fools.
Here is us getting ready for the best picture all week which we do not actually own:
Last year even the plastic figures were freaky to Boo. You can see that wasn't the case this year:
I sat Boo in the corner so she could be protected from the characters if need be. I mentioned this to our server and she said the characters never touch kids without asking. This proved, for your info, completely untrue. Here is Boo's breakfast. She ended up not liking waffles. Of this she mostly ate the oranges and eggs.
We were in a corner next to a window. Directly next to the window was a lady and her 10 year old (ish) son who seemed to not get very good character interaction. Here's our view:
Boo spent a LOT of time under tables this week. I semi-controlled her but I guess I feel a kid under a table isn't bothering anyone but those at the table. And that's better than bother people at OTHER tables. So I mostly let her, in a controlled kind of way (sort of).
We had pretty thoroughly eaten breakfast when Goofy, our first character, came to visit. Boo was frozen to her seat so Jack-Jack got his pic with Goofy alone.
It's at this point that I realized I might be in a bit of trouble. Donald is not with me and Donald always runs the video camera while I snap a quick pic with my camera and then hold Boo. That's how it works. Well I have the only video camera. And (I hate to be controlling, but am) I don't trust Mom to get a good shot since she has Dad's camera and I don't think she knows how to use it. Suzy had some issues with her new camera in California with focusing issues. So I feel like I need to video tape & take pics & take pics with my iphone (to send to Donald and include him) and comfort Boo. The character interaction is so fast that this is impossible.
So as Goofy comes up all of this rushes through my mind! I decide protecting Boo is number 1 and video taping is number 2. So with my right hand I'm video taping and with my left hand I'm clicking pics with two different devices and holding Boo. Yikes! She ends up going back to her spot so that Goofy can't get her. In the past when a kid is kind of hiding in a corner the characters wave from afar so I figure she is safe over there & keep videotaping Goofy as he goes to the lady & her son who are frantically waving at him so they don't get skipped.
Well he DOESN'T skip over Boo. He just sits right down next to and kind of envelopes her in a hug. I about have a heart attack and prepare for the total meltdown.
WHICH DOESN'T COME!!!! She lets him hug her. I can't say she enjoyed it, but she didn't freak out. And for me, it changed everything. Goofy was a game changer. Thank you Goofy! Love that you broke the rules!
I don't have a picture (for reasons previously explained) so if Suzy has one she can post it later but it all happened so fast I'm not sure it got logged at all in photos.
After this the characters came fast & furious. Boo was willing to meet them all but I can't say she seemed thrilled. Happy & OK, but not woohoo! You be the judge:
Minnie even got a hug:
After Minnie there was a little break and Boo & I went to the potty while Suzy got the bill settled. We had decided not to wait for Pluto because the kids seemed to not care and we wanted to see the MK show. The kids have the song memorized and we wanted them to see it.
So we come back from the potty and she spied Pluto and said "I wanna meet Pluto." So we stayed for that. She might not seem thrilled, but I swear this was her idea!
After this we try to get the strollers settled and rush to MK. But we aren't very good rushers because it is now HOT. It's not even 9 am and it's blastedly hot. So we are mosey/rushing. And these birds were just hanging out:
As we get close to MK the train is coming too. We so aren't gonna make it. This was maybe the last time we rushed of the trip. It was a bummer to rush so much at the beginning of the trip. But at least we learned we really don't want to rush. It's way to hot to rush.
As for Chef Mickey's, it was the beginning of me knowing that this trip was gonna be ok. I wasn't feeling sick and Boo wasn't being a pickle!
We have a team mascot that last September sent Boo into absolute fits. She was paralyzed with fear. So this year at the first game she was interested in him and instead of racing the other way was willing to follow him for a bit (though not touch him) and thought he was cool. And Mom bought her a stuffed version of him (that's who is in her backpack with Mickey Mouse.) So this gave me some confidence that this year would be different.
But just the same. It was concerning to me.
So Suzy rushes us over to the Mickey Mouse to get our pics taken. This ended up being a GREAT photo which we didn't buy. We never buy such things as we aren't suckers. And it wasn't the real Mickey Mouse, just a plastic Mickey. Unfortunately, in this case, not buying that photo was the biggest mistake we made. It was only $30.00 which we would have split 3 ways and it was the best pic taken of us all week. Fools! So we are not suckers, that is true. But we are SO not suckers that we are fools.
Here is us getting ready for the best picture all week which we do not actually own:
Last year even the plastic figures were freaky to Boo. You can see that wasn't the case this year:
I sat Boo in the corner so she could be protected from the characters if need be. I mentioned this to our server and she said the characters never touch kids without asking. This proved, for your info, completely untrue. Here is Boo's breakfast. She ended up not liking waffles. Of this she mostly ate the oranges and eggs.
We were in a corner next to a window. Directly next to the window was a lady and her 10 year old (ish) son who seemed to not get very good character interaction. Here's our view:
Boo spent a LOT of time under tables this week. I semi-controlled her but I guess I feel a kid under a table isn't bothering anyone but those at the table. And that's better than bother people at OTHER tables. So I mostly let her, in a controlled kind of way (sort of).
We had pretty thoroughly eaten breakfast when Goofy, our first character, came to visit. Boo was frozen to her seat so Jack-Jack got his pic with Goofy alone.
It's at this point that I realized I might be in a bit of trouble. Donald is not with me and Donald always runs the video camera while I snap a quick pic with my camera and then hold Boo. That's how it works. Well I have the only video camera. And (I hate to be controlling, but am) I don't trust Mom to get a good shot since she has Dad's camera and I don't think she knows how to use it. Suzy had some issues with her new camera in California with focusing issues. So I feel like I need to video tape & take pics & take pics with my iphone (to send to Donald and include him) and comfort Boo. The character interaction is so fast that this is impossible.
So as Goofy comes up all of this rushes through my mind! I decide protecting Boo is number 1 and video taping is number 2. So with my right hand I'm video taping and with my left hand I'm clicking pics with two different devices and holding Boo. Yikes! She ends up going back to her spot so that Goofy can't get her. In the past when a kid is kind of hiding in a corner the characters wave from afar so I figure she is safe over there & keep videotaping Goofy as he goes to the lady & her son who are frantically waving at him so they don't get skipped.
Well he DOESN'T skip over Boo. He just sits right down next to and kind of envelopes her in a hug. I about have a heart attack and prepare for the total meltdown.
WHICH DOESN'T COME!!!! She lets him hug her. I can't say she enjoyed it, but she didn't freak out. And for me, it changed everything. Goofy was a game changer. Thank you Goofy! Love that you broke the rules!
I don't have a picture (for reasons previously explained) so if Suzy has one she can post it later but it all happened so fast I'm not sure it got logged at all in photos.
After this the characters came fast & furious. Boo was willing to meet them all but I can't say she seemed thrilled. Happy & OK, but not woohoo! You be the judge:
Minnie even got a hug:
After Minnie there was a little break and Boo & I went to the potty while Suzy got the bill settled. We had decided not to wait for Pluto because the kids seemed to not care and we wanted to see the MK show. The kids have the song memorized and we wanted them to see it.
So we come back from the potty and she spied Pluto and said "I wanna meet Pluto." So we stayed for that. She might not seem thrilled, but I swear this was her idea!
After this we try to get the strollers settled and rush to MK. But we aren't very good rushers because it is now HOT. It's not even 9 am and it's blastedly hot. So we are mosey/rushing. And these birds were just hanging out:
As we get close to MK the train is coming too. We so aren't gonna make it. This was maybe the last time we rushed of the trip. It was a bummer to rush so much at the beginning of the trip. But at least we learned we really don't want to rush. It's way to hot to rush.
As for Chef Mickey's, it was the beginning of me knowing that this trip was gonna be ok. I wasn't feeling sick and Boo wasn't being a pickle!
estherhead
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2004
to your to your building at POR -- and a corner room to boot! We stayed in 15 when we were there in Aug. It's a great spot.
We have a zillion pictures of the waterwheel, from just about every possible angle. DS8 just loves it!
We felt so happy with this! It was so stinkin' hot and it was delightful to not be soaked with sweat before ever starting the day! We just got ready & cruised over to the a.c. Filled out mugs with icy water, walked through Fulton's and to the bus stop, still happy & dry. And even though we barely had a walk at all we saw tons of wildlife. Being in 14 just made it soooo relaxing which is exactly what we needed.
I'm not sure I ever got a great shot of the waterwheel. At the beginning of the trip I took very few shots of the resort. I tried to take more as the week went on, though. It was such a great resort & such a wonderful part of our trip that I wanted to have it on record.
Tomorrow we are going to an OSU game! And Suzy & Milo & Charming are going to a Bengals/Raven game Sunday. So I'm not sure how much more I'll get done this weekend.
But it was a super great way to kick off our "year of Disney." And I have another true confession to make. I already booked our March trip! But you'll have to wait to find out....
estherhead
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2004
Congrats on your upcoming trip!!! I've never stayed at CBR but I think Suzy has on an anniversary trip.
about writing a book. In my regular life I don't feel like I'm so detailed but it seems like I have to include every pic and every story when I write a TR. The public HAS to be informed on our every move. 
Off to go root, root for the home team!
Dugette
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 26, 2009
Great start! Looks like you had a great room at POR. It's interesting to hear about that section, as we were in the mansion area when we stayed there. How cool that you had a double-window river view!
Yea for Boo not being freaked out by the characters! And I hope you can keep your illness at bay.
Looking forward to more!
Yea for Boo not being freaked out by the characters! And I hope you can keep your illness at bay.
Looking forward to more!
houseful of boys
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2008
Jack Jack would only eat waffles this morning. He had 3.
Sorry Perla, I also did not get this picture. It is burned on my mind, looking up and seeing big giant Goofy with his arm around Boo. It was amazing!
I discovered this trip that Jack Jack not only was not afraid of characters but only wanted to hug them FOREVER. I was afraid he would be suffocated because the hugs lasted so long.
Here are a couple of pictures while walking to Magic Kingdom.
estherhead
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2004
Awww... such a good pic of Jack-Jack and Minnie! Love it. Yes, the Goofy moment is in my mind forever also. The panic followed by the acceptance that characters are friends.
Today ended up being great! The football game was just awful: 43-7 and we had terrible seats. But I had a great time. Perfect temperature. No kids.
Then we did some tornado clean up with my & Suzy's kids. Just to teach them a bit about helping others and the damage that storms can do. All of them helped really well and were moved by it. McQueen even found a lost & hurt puppy and we called Animal Rescue so they could save him.
And now we are watching a really dumb movie (which they are all enjoying) and having snacks.
Perfect Saturday. Well, as perfect as a Saturday not at Disney can be. Off to upload some more pics!l
Today ended up being great! The football game was just awful: 43-7 and we had terrible seats. But I had a great time. Perfect temperature. No kids.
Then we did some tornado clean up with my & Suzy's kids. Just to teach them a bit about helping others and the damage that storms can do. All of them helped really well and were moved by it. McQueen even found a lost & hurt puppy and we called Animal Rescue so they could save him.
And now we are watching a really dumb movie (which they are all enjoying) and having snacks.
Perfect Saturday. Well, as perfect as a Saturday not at Disney can be. Off to upload some more pics!l
Riviera510
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jan 29, 2010
I'm outing myself as a reader of your TR to ask... where are you??
estherhead
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2004
I'm outing myself as a reader of your TR to ask... where are you??
Welcome to the world of non-lurkdom! Sorry, I'll be back soon. I'm actually at the beach!
I brought my notes & pics but have just been enjoying myself too much to need my Disney-fix via writing my TR. I'll be back soon, though. If not before, by Monday for sure!
estherhead
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2004
I had a great time at the beach! Sorry I've been missing from here. Well, I'm not REALLY sorry because I'm at the beach. But you know what I mean.
So, where were we? Oh, that's right, sweating like crazy as we ran from the Contemporary to MK. So we get close & Suzy really wanted Jack-Jack to see what was going on so we told her to just run ahead. But we all got stuck together at bag check & ticketing anyway. The show had already started but fortunately from their strollers Jack & Boo were short enough to watch from under all the overhangs. It seems this trip I was constantly being stuck at ticketing behind people who were totally clueless. I have excellent skills at picking short bag checking lines & they didn't let me down on this trip. So I hopped in a bag line & zoomed right through.
But my choosing a fast ticketing line skills really let me down. I like to pick lines that have one solid family, with hopefully no ECV's. Nothing against them, but parents with strollers move much faster than groups with ECV's. In addition to this I like to choose lines where the CM handling the machine is actually paying attention. It seems like all of them should be, that is just not a reality. Not all people have equally ticket machine powers.
In the past, I've always been the first person through ticketing but it failed me this time. It seemed I was always the last person through. No matter which line I chose something negative would happen. It was so frustrating. Why can't people figure out how to use these machines? Ticket in, finger in, pause, green light, grab ticket, walk through. If you have a stroller: kid's ticket in, pause, green light, your ticket in, finger in, pause, green light, grab both tickets, push child through gate.
Why is this so difficult???
And why can't CM's help? And why do they have one CM running 3 machines?
OK, so I digress.
Boo was watching the show while I was dealing with the chaos of the clueless people & CM's. She kept pointing and exclaiming. Once I was through the ticketing area the show was ending and the doors were open so I never really stopped moving after that. Suzy rushed ahead to get FP's. She had a great plan from her DL trip that you get your first FP's immediately and then just continuing collecting them the first few hours of the day as soon as the window is open. If done properly you should have collected 4-5 by lunchtime while enjoying all the line-free lines early in the morning. It worked really well and we had Winnie, SM, PP, etc. easily in our pocket by late morning.
Mom and I were kind of moseying as we were terribly hot. I pushed her onto the sidewalk so we could catch some of the a.c. pouring out the doors of the stores. This worked quite well and continued to be a strategy I used all week.
I decided to head through the castle as I was to head directly to Dumbo.
It's been quite some time since I've been inside the castle:
It looks like we were savoring the moment, but in reality I took all these photos as we rushed by, without even stopping. That's the weird thing about Disney World. If you saw any of the details anywhere else you would stop & look in awe. But because there is something amazing every foot at Disney we all just rush by barely giving it another thought.
Suzy did make it back in time to ride Dumbo with us but opted not to. I think perhaps she's ridden Dumbo a bit much. I probably have more photos of my family on Dumbo than I do of us in our homes. It's always our first ride of our first day, when we are most likely to pull out a camera.
Mom & Jack-Jack:
For some reason I spent this entire ride trying to get a decent pic of Boo (which I did, see above) and TOTALLY forgot that I was going to look & photo over the wall at all the construction. We were practically on our way down before I even remembered anything was going on at all. So this first look was limited but very exciting.
Here are my thoughts to the heated discussions happening here on the Disboards. There are circus tents. Get over it.
When you are riding Dumbo with circus music blaring & you have seen the movie multiple times, which is all about the circus, it doesn't seem even a tiny bit odd that it would be in a circus tent.
Clowns or no clowns? Since Dumbo was a clown & with clowns, again, it makes sense.
Elaborate meet & greets. Even if I never go & participate after my initial curiousity, I still think it's a good idea. You'll have to stay tuned to hear more on my Belle moment but I think actors & actresses interacting with the public at large is a huge part of what makes Disney magical. Really, the streetmosphere of DHS is just elaborate meet and greets. The much missed Adventurer's Club was also just an elaborate, interactive place to enjoy skilled actors & actresses. I just enjoyed a trip to Williamsburg, Va which also is over run with actors & actresses interacting with guests. Would Williamsburg be so popular if it was just a historical place with tour guides & no interaction? Nope. Because lots of people don't have good imaginations. They cannot put themselves in the magic unless it is total immersion.
The new part of Fantasyland will be immersion. And just for girls? Well, WAAAA to all the crybabies on this one. LMA, Indiana Jones, Cars Garage meet & greet, just for boys. HSM in front of the hat, just for preteen girls. ESPN Club just for sports fans. R&RC just for rollercoaster fans. Who cares? Boys & girls are different and have different wants & needs. Old people & young people have different needs. Whatever. Why can't we all just be happy there is something for everyone? Why does it all have to be about ME!?
I thought the view over the fence was exciting. But I generally take whatever I'm given. And I'm generally pretty appreciative. Plus, I know for a fact that if Disney does a lot of lame stuff, people will take their vacation dollars elsewhere and I'm pretty sure Disney doesn't want money to go elsewhere and therefore will make sure lame stuff stays out of Fantasyland.
So. We were done with Dumbo and all of the above thoughts happened in the 3 seconds I had to look over the fence.
While we were flying Jack-Jack noticed an empty Dumbo car on the ground so he wanted his pic taken in it. Or should I say, he wanted to get in it & I wanted his pic. He had NO INTEREST whatsoever in getting a picture. And so getting the following photo took forever & really isn't all that good for the trouble I took in getting it:
Boo pointed out the elephant bush:
Again, and this was kind of a theme for me this trip, what if this elephant topiary existed in your hometown? Everyone would speak of it & it would be a big deal. "Have you seen that garden on fifth street with the topiary shaped like an elephant? It's amazing! How do they do it? You'd be driving the kids over to see it. "See? Look at that. Amazing."
But I bethca've never even noticed this elephant topiary guarding Dumbo.
So after that we rushed over to AstroOrbiter as it is another slow load line that is best to get out of the way right quick, promising Boo we could ride the carousel later. On our walk Mom pointed out the Tomorrowland gardens. I always find Tomorrowland a bit ugly but Mom said, "Who comes up with this stuff? How can you say 'Let's make the gardens and trees look like they come from the future' and then actually make it look like that?"
Look at the trees in the background too, see how they are cut to look like Jetson trees?
Very cool.
We then went to wait for the elevators for AO. This is a cool ride with a super dumb loading system. There was no one over here & yet we still had to wait awhile just because you have to go in an elevator. I was expecting it to be AC but that was just too much to hope for. It was stifling hot and I was happy to be out of it.
I took a pic of Suzy & Jack:
And the wonderful CM asked if I wanted a pic of me & Boo. Uh, YEAH!
You see Suzy back there? What is she doing? Texting Milo every 3 seconds, that's what. They text ridiculous amounts to begin with but he felt quite left out of this trip and they texted even more than normal.
This time I remembered to enjoy the view. Remember breakfast?
The roof of Stupid Stitch (why can't this ride be re-done and made ride-able?) and the gorgeous castle.
We were killing a bit of time waiting to get SM FP's for Suzy & I as we wanted to hear the new soundtrack. So Buzz had all we were looking for: AC, video game, Jack loves Buzz, and it would kill a bit of time:
I didn't play the first go round as I was with Mom & Boo and Boo has to have her own gun. But she doesn't really shoot so I think we maybe have had 100 points. I just focused on getting shots of Suzy. Look at Jack's score. 0
Mom wanted to hang out in the gift shop & play but Jack-Jack was kind of a gift store nut so this was the last time we did this after a ride. From this point on Suzy would hold him and run through the gift shop with Mom & I hustling behind her. Here are the kids pre-"I wanna buy this" sadness:
On our way out of Buzz Boo spied the TTA/Peoplemover and thought it was a great idea. Perfect.
As we were leaving the TTA Boo's new attitude towards characters was put to the test. Stitch was out wandering around looking for trouble. How would Boo react when he approached?
Ta-Da!
It was also time to get our FP's for SM and Chip & Dale were out with no one around. Dale was quite fascinated with Boo's bobcat and they had quite the little "chat" about him. You can see Dale has him in this pic:
All in all, it had been a very successful hour in the MK. Off to Boo's favorite ride from the last trip: Barnstormer.
So, where were we? Oh, that's right, sweating like crazy as we ran from the Contemporary to MK. So we get close & Suzy really wanted Jack-Jack to see what was going on so we told her to just run ahead. But we all got stuck together at bag check & ticketing anyway. The show had already started but fortunately from their strollers Jack & Boo were short enough to watch from under all the overhangs. It seems this trip I was constantly being stuck at ticketing behind people who were totally clueless. I have excellent skills at picking short bag checking lines & they didn't let me down on this trip. So I hopped in a bag line & zoomed right through.
But my choosing a fast ticketing line skills really let me down. I like to pick lines that have one solid family, with hopefully no ECV's. Nothing against them, but parents with strollers move much faster than groups with ECV's. In addition to this I like to choose lines where the CM handling the machine is actually paying attention. It seems like all of them should be, that is just not a reality. Not all people have equally ticket machine powers.
In the past, I've always been the first person through ticketing but it failed me this time. It seemed I was always the last person through. No matter which line I chose something negative would happen. It was so frustrating. Why can't people figure out how to use these machines? Ticket in, finger in, pause, green light, grab ticket, walk through. If you have a stroller: kid's ticket in, pause, green light, your ticket in, finger in, pause, green light, grab both tickets, push child through gate.
Why is this so difficult???
And why can't CM's help? And why do they have one CM running 3 machines?
OK, so I digress.
Boo was watching the show while I was dealing with the chaos of the clueless people & CM's. She kept pointing and exclaiming. Once I was through the ticketing area the show was ending and the doors were open so I never really stopped moving after that. Suzy rushed ahead to get FP's. She had a great plan from her DL trip that you get your first FP's immediately and then just continuing collecting them the first few hours of the day as soon as the window is open. If done properly you should have collected 4-5 by lunchtime while enjoying all the line-free lines early in the morning. It worked really well and we had Winnie, SM, PP, etc. easily in our pocket by late morning.
Mom and I were kind of moseying as we were terribly hot. I pushed her onto the sidewalk so we could catch some of the a.c. pouring out the doors of the stores. This worked quite well and continued to be a strategy I used all week.
I decided to head through the castle as I was to head directly to Dumbo.
It's been quite some time since I've been inside the castle:
It looks like we were savoring the moment, but in reality I took all these photos as we rushed by, without even stopping. That's the weird thing about Disney World. If you saw any of the details anywhere else you would stop & look in awe. But because there is something amazing every foot at Disney we all just rush by barely giving it another thought.
Suzy did make it back in time to ride Dumbo with us but opted not to. I think perhaps she's ridden Dumbo a bit much. I probably have more photos of my family on Dumbo than I do of us in our homes. It's always our first ride of our first day, when we are most likely to pull out a camera.
Mom & Jack-Jack:
For some reason I spent this entire ride trying to get a decent pic of Boo (which I did, see above) and TOTALLY forgot that I was going to look & photo over the wall at all the construction. We were practically on our way down before I even remembered anything was going on at all. So this first look was limited but very exciting.
Here are my thoughts to the heated discussions happening here on the Disboards. There are circus tents. Get over it.
When you are riding Dumbo with circus music blaring & you have seen the movie multiple times, which is all about the circus, it doesn't seem even a tiny bit odd that it would be in a circus tent.
Clowns or no clowns? Since Dumbo was a clown & with clowns, again, it makes sense.
Elaborate meet & greets. Even if I never go & participate after my initial curiousity, I still think it's a good idea. You'll have to stay tuned to hear more on my Belle moment but I think actors & actresses interacting with the public at large is a huge part of what makes Disney magical. Really, the streetmosphere of DHS is just elaborate meet and greets. The much missed Adventurer's Club was also just an elaborate, interactive place to enjoy skilled actors & actresses. I just enjoyed a trip to Williamsburg, Va which also is over run with actors & actresses interacting with guests. Would Williamsburg be so popular if it was just a historical place with tour guides & no interaction? Nope. Because lots of people don't have good imaginations. They cannot put themselves in the magic unless it is total immersion.
The new part of Fantasyland will be immersion. And just for girls? Well, WAAAA to all the crybabies on this one. LMA, Indiana Jones, Cars Garage meet & greet, just for boys. HSM in front of the hat, just for preteen girls. ESPN Club just for sports fans. R&RC just for rollercoaster fans. Who cares? Boys & girls are different and have different wants & needs. Old people & young people have different needs. Whatever. Why can't we all just be happy there is something for everyone? Why does it all have to be about ME!?
I thought the view over the fence was exciting. But I generally take whatever I'm given. And I'm generally pretty appreciative. Plus, I know for a fact that if Disney does a lot of lame stuff, people will take their vacation dollars elsewhere and I'm pretty sure Disney doesn't want money to go elsewhere and therefore will make sure lame stuff stays out of Fantasyland.
So. We were done with Dumbo and all of the above thoughts happened in the 3 seconds I had to look over the fence.
While we were flying Jack-Jack noticed an empty Dumbo car on the ground so he wanted his pic taken in it. Or should I say, he wanted to get in it & I wanted his pic. He had NO INTEREST whatsoever in getting a picture. And so getting the following photo took forever & really isn't all that good for the trouble I took in getting it:
Boo pointed out the elephant bush:
Again, and this was kind of a theme for me this trip, what if this elephant topiary existed in your hometown? Everyone would speak of it & it would be a big deal. "Have you seen that garden on fifth street with the topiary shaped like an elephant? It's amazing! How do they do it? You'd be driving the kids over to see it. "See? Look at that. Amazing."
But I bethca've never even noticed this elephant topiary guarding Dumbo.
So after that we rushed over to AstroOrbiter as it is another slow load line that is best to get out of the way right quick, promising Boo we could ride the carousel later. On our walk Mom pointed out the Tomorrowland gardens. I always find Tomorrowland a bit ugly but Mom said, "Who comes up with this stuff? How can you say 'Let's make the gardens and trees look like they come from the future' and then actually make it look like that?"
Look at the trees in the background too, see how they are cut to look like Jetson trees?
Very cool.
We then went to wait for the elevators for AO. This is a cool ride with a super dumb loading system. There was no one over here & yet we still had to wait awhile just because you have to go in an elevator. I was expecting it to be AC but that was just too much to hope for. It was stifling hot and I was happy to be out of it.
I took a pic of Suzy & Jack:
And the wonderful CM asked if I wanted a pic of me & Boo. Uh, YEAH!
You see Suzy back there? What is she doing? Texting Milo every 3 seconds, that's what. They text ridiculous amounts to begin with but he felt quite left out of this trip and they texted even more than normal.
This time I remembered to enjoy the view. Remember breakfast?
The roof of Stupid Stitch (why can't this ride be re-done and made ride-able?) and the gorgeous castle.
We were killing a bit of time waiting to get SM FP's for Suzy & I as we wanted to hear the new soundtrack. So Buzz had all we were looking for: AC, video game, Jack loves Buzz, and it would kill a bit of time:
I didn't play the first go round as I was with Mom & Boo and Boo has to have her own gun. But she doesn't really shoot so I think we maybe have had 100 points. I just focused on getting shots of Suzy. Look at Jack's score. 0
Mom wanted to hang out in the gift shop & play but Jack-Jack was kind of a gift store nut so this was the last time we did this after a ride. From this point on Suzy would hold him and run through the gift shop with Mom & I hustling behind her. Here are the kids pre-"I wanna buy this" sadness:
On our way out of Buzz Boo spied the TTA/Peoplemover and thought it was a great idea. Perfect.
As we were leaving the TTA Boo's new attitude towards characters was put to the test. Stitch was out wandering around looking for trouble. How would Boo react when he approached?
Ta-Da!
It was also time to get our FP's for SM and Chip & Dale were out with no one around. Dale was quite fascinated with Boo's bobcat and they had quite the little "chat" about him. You can see Dale has him in this pic:
All in all, it had been a very successful hour in the MK. Off to Boo's favorite ride from the last trip: Barnstormer.
houseful of boys
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2008
I tried to get a great shot of you guys riding dumbo but no one even looked down my way. This was the best I got.
So instead I took pictures of the construction.
The CM asked us if we wanted our picture taken too. (Now you know why it takes so long for this ride to load and unload) Which was awesome!
In this particular case I was sending a picture (that I can't find at the moment) of Jack Jack and I on the "space ship." Milo was very jealous!
To say that Jack Jack loves Buzz Lightyear would be an understatement. He IS Buzz Lightyear.
And this was the coolest Stitch. He was soooo alien-like. I thought he would freak the kids out (I thought he was a little creepy) but....
And by this time we had fast passes for Peter Pan and Space Mountain. And then we took the back, secret passageway to Toontown.
So instead I took pictures of the construction.
The CM asked us if we wanted our picture taken too. (Now you know why it takes so long for this ride to load and unload) Which was awesome!
In this particular case I was sending a picture (that I can't find at the moment) of Jack Jack and I on the "space ship." Milo was very jealous!
To say that Jack Jack loves Buzz Lightyear would be an understatement. He IS Buzz Lightyear.
And this was the coolest Stitch. He was soooo alien-like. I thought he would freak the kids out (I thought he was a little creepy) but....
And by this time we had fast passes for Peter Pan and Space Mountain. And then we took the back, secret passageway to Toontown.
estherhead
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2004
Suzy, I your best photo of Dumbo. Good work on that one. You ought to submit it to Disney for memories. They'd use it for sure. 
I just showed it to Mom and she vowed to give me all her photos. She says she has an excellent photo of Dumbo. But we'll see when she gets it to me.
You missed the secret? Well... really I had put so many secrets in my other TR that I hated to bore people with doing it all over. Though in the above post I show a bit. Not to spoil all my future tips but here are the true secrets:
1) Go in off season.
2) Be at the ticketing counter before rope drop, having already eaten breakfast, put on suntan lotion, gone to the bathroom, etc. At rope drop your entire group should be ready to ride for 2 hours without stopping.
3) Have a designated FP collector. As soon as you are all through the gates hand the designated FP collector all the group tickets and they should immediately leave the group & sprint to a major ride and get FP's.
4)Then meet the rest of the group at the first ride preferably a ride which is slow loading (Dumbo, Magic Carpets, AstroOrbiter). After this ride another ride that will have long lines later.
5) Proceed along these lines riding rides first thing which will later have very long lines and skipping rides which have FP's available or will continue to have short lines all day.
6) Every time your window for using an FP opens get another FP. Though it prints an range (10:10am- 11:10am) only the 10:10 is important. The 11:10 is irrelevant and not in any way enforced.
When done correctly, you should be able (and we have indeed done this) to ride everything you want to ride at MK by 3:00 pm while also having enjoyed a leisurely lunch.
That's it. That's the secret. But please stay tuned to see how it all really plays out!
your best photo of Dumbo. Good work on that one. You ought to submit it to Disney for memories. They'd use it for sure. I just showed it to Mom and she vowed to give me all her photos. She says she has an excellent photo of Dumbo. But we'll see when she gets it to me.
2 things:
1. I love your trip report. In fact I just read your 2008 report!
2. Did I miss your secret to skipping the lines?
You missed the secret? Well... really I had put so many secrets in my other TR that I hated to bore people with doing it all over. Though in the above post I show a bit. Not to spoil all my future tips but here are the true secrets:
1) Go in off season.
2) Be at the ticketing counter before rope drop, having already eaten breakfast, put on suntan lotion, gone to the bathroom, etc. At rope drop your entire group should be ready to ride for 2 hours without stopping.
3) Have a designated FP collector. As soon as you are all through the gates hand the designated FP collector all the group tickets and they should immediately leave the group & sprint to a major ride and get FP's.
4)Then meet the rest of the group at the first ride preferably a ride which is slow loading (Dumbo, Magic Carpets, AstroOrbiter). After this ride another ride that will have long lines later.
5) Proceed along these lines riding rides first thing which will later have very long lines and skipping rides which have FP's available or will continue to have short lines all day.
6) Every time your window for using an FP opens get another FP. Though it prints an range (10:10am- 11:10am) only the 10:10 is important. The 11:10 is irrelevant and not in any way enforced.
When done correctly, you should be able (and we have indeed done this) to ride everything you want to ride at MK by 3:00 pm while also having enjoyed a leisurely lunch.
That's it. That's the secret. But please stay tuned to see how it all really plays out!
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Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!
