Suzy & Perla and their secret to skipping lines, 2 trips down 2 to go, March is soon

[houseful of boys]

Due to Suzy's great planning, Boo and Jack-Jack had suckers while we waited for our meals which made them quite happy. Jack had been a GROUCH up until that point since he starving so I can't complain too much.

Yes, Jack Jack was being really horrible at dinner. He hadn't eaten anything really all day. We had eaten at Backlot Express but between the chairs falling down on the cement and Darth Vader out the window I don't think he had much of anything. So, if I'm honest, I desperately gave him mickey lollipops and toy story fruit chews and ice cream. I might have well opened a bag of sugar and poured it down his throat. So, after dinner, I took the kids out to the boardwalk and they were WILD banchees. I mean they ran in circles literally. Fortunately it was still fairly early so not many people were around.

They look calm here, but trust me, this was a fleeting moment.

Thank goodness we had started our ritual in the evening of getting chicken strips and fries at the resort food court.

 

[estherhead]

Yup, we are very healthy eaters. Healthy, healthy. That's us.

Watch us eat "healthy" in the next updates in Animal Kingdom!

 

[Riviera510]

I can empathize with Suzy! I am the packer and gatherer in our family. If I dont bring it, it doesn't come.

I'm stressing out about now because we are leaving on Wednesday(Driving from Michigan!) and it just seems like my list of stuff to get done is never ending.

Suzy did on-line check in today!!!

Yup, she's packing and doing all the little details. With a family of six it takes awhile. And they are not flying Southwest which means they have to pay for bags which means you have to really have a good plan. Also, they are renting a car for only 2 days (Thanksgiving & black Friday) and then are returning it & checking in to the Poly for the last 5 days of their trip.

AND they are upgrading to AP's this trip. So it's confusing and Suzy is right at that point where excitement morphs into the realization that planning isn't enough. You must actually pack. And pack in such a way that you have what you need and no small kids have to drag around big bags and you know which stroller you are taking and you have Band-Aids in your purse without having an entire pharmacy in there you have to lug around. You get the idea. It's complicated.

And though Milo is one of the best dads around (after Donald, of course) he has finals to give and other things to wrap up and also, ahem, how should I say this? He's not really great at packing. So it mostly all falls on Suzy. Fortunately, he's great at CARRYING packed bags. Just not the actual filling of them in a useful, practical way. Just telling it like it is. And did I mention they have four boys? COMPLICATED!

Good luck Suzy! I'll be over here sitting on my booty writing my trip report. Work hard!

 

[houseful of boys]

I can empathize with Suzy! I am the packer and gatherer in our family. If I dont bring it, it doesn't come.

I'm stressing out about now because we are leaving on Wednesday(Driving from Michigan!) and it just seems like my list of stuff to get done is never ending.

We leave Thursday and I totally hear ya! I keep a notepad that I put down random things that I don't want to forget as I think of them.

How exciting for you to be taking your girl's to WDW for the first time!! Have a wonderful trip!

 

[estherhead]

I can empathize with Suzy! I am the packer and gatherer in our family. If I dont bring it, it doesn't come.

I'm stressing out about now because we are leaving on Wednesday(Driving from Michigan!) and it just seems like my list of stuff to get done is never ending.

Oh, have a great time! And don't stress too much. Disney is full service so if you forget something, they usually can find a way to get you one. Even cell phone chargers. And you'll have your own car which is nice. Wal-Marts and Targets are plentiful. Do try to avoid Black Friday, though. Those Kissimmee shoppers are no joke on Black Friday!

Have fun!

 

[estherhead]

Suzy wants me to get her portion of the trip done before she leaves on Thursday so I'm gonna try! Stay tune for those updates and photos of our new roof that Donald has been installing the last 4 days. It's been exhausting and even though my part has been limited my back hurts from the little bit I helped yesterday so I can only imagine how sore he is! We're excited though. A dry basement, a non-leaky roof, and a mostly empty organized junk room! Things are going well.

And Suzy, of course, is in full "going to Disney" mode so I'll post a few of her tips also in the next post.

 

[estherhead]

Hi all! Wanna know the secret to skipping all the lines?

Touch the rope!

The street ahead of them:

That was this morning.

Suzy and crew flew out on Thanksgiving and spent a few days off site before transfering to the Poly. It's their first time there and Milo texted me on day two: "This place far exceeds my expectations." As you know he's an English professor. So in normal Dis-speak this means:

"Woohoo woohoo woohoo, BEST DISNEY VACATION EVER!"

On their first night Charming and Suzy left Milo with the sleeping little ones and went to the Poly beach for Wishes. Here's Charming's photo which he sent me along with the text: "This is among the top five coolest thing I've done at Disney." Considering he's 13 and has been there 12 times, that's high praise.

And here is Suzy the next day watching the kids swim in the main pool enjoying herself:

And last night they went to Les Chefs for dinner. They had a lovely time and Milo was very responsible and sent me lots of food pics. Tho, he got a little over anxious and started eating his salmon pre-photo. So I'm posting Suzy's meal which she remembered to photograph BEFORE eating half:

She said that it was really nice but way too long for four boys. They won't eat here again with the whole family.

It was also stressful post-dinner as our kids have never lived without Disney expert mom's and McQueen was VERY upset that they couldn't ride any rides. He didn't realize that there are lines at Disney World. And nearly had a total meltdown when he realized they lines were over an hour for everything. Suzy tried to explain they were just there for dinner and lines get long, that's why you get there early and get fp's. But he just didn't realize and his brain couldn't adjust.

They also had a magical moment! Buzz is a trivia, video game, genius. And he WON one of the games they were playing and won a SeaRaycer ride. So they did that this afternoon. First time they've ever done it (I never have so my first is still ahead of me.)

Here's a pic from Charming from the Sea Raycer:

And Suzy's picture of them from the shore where she is watching Jack-Jack play in the sand:

Tonight they are doing MK EMH.

They are currently, right this moment on Jungle Cruise! How's that for up to the minute trip reporting?

They are having a BLAST. More soon! They've fly home Thursday (I think.)

 

[Dugette]

Love the live update! Looks like they are having a great time!

 

[estherhead]

Hope this "tons of TR's in one" isn't confusing people too much. But that's what you get when two women and their families have a whole year of Disney!

Last night Suzy didn't get back to her room tille after 11:00. The little ones were exhausted. Well, okay, the adults were too. But worse is McQueen ended up puking all night. So not a lot of sleeping was done. Milo decided to stay at the Poly with McQueen while Suzy took the rest to Epcot. She ate in Mexico YUM! I ate at Taco Bell. Not exactly the same. Close but no cigar.

Hopefully, she is napping now before dinner. Otherwise her immune system will be shot & SHE'LL get sick. Ugh.

Even though Suzy is currently at Disney I'm going to take you all back to where I left you in September in this entry. Because I am NOT at Disney but here in my living room waiting patiently till March.

I am getting a little Disney fix, though, because we bought EPIC MICKEY today!!! I haven't been allowed to touch the controller yet. Donald & I are letting Mulan control Mickey until it's too hard for her. She's doing really well. I'll have to start my own game later. We normally have the family game we all play together and then Donald and I each have our own.

Right now Mickey is in the Steamboat Willie world. Very cool game for Disney freak/know-it-alls.

Just got a text from Suzy: she's at Kona ordering dinner. No nap. No naps allowed. So goes the Disney mom with four kids.

So now, back to our September BEST TRIP EVER (till the next one.)

This was the last day with Mom, Suzy, & Jack. The rest of my family would be arriving this evening. For us it was AK all the way.

As we walked from the bus to the front of AK we noticed this:

All three of us took a photo of it and sent it to our dh's. They loved it. Then we stood there awhile as a J was written. Suzy & I decided it was going to say Jen and that somewhere in WDW a girl was being proposed to. But sadly when all done it said, "Love U Jesus." I know it makes me sound un-Christian when just the opposite is true and I DO love Jesus. However, this annoyed me. And all day I was annoyed. I know these airplane guys are around often. But really, is this a good witness to Jesus? What would Jesus do? I have my doubts he'd write his name in the sky with poor spelling. Sigh. I liked it being to Jen way better. Just saying.

After this we headed up to where the characters are outside. Last year Boo would have nothing to do with Timon even though the Lion King is her favorite. This year was a totally different story:

She even let him hug her.

Mom loves AK. She just loves the atmosphere and the animals and birds. So we just soaked up the atmosphere. I was on the look out for a shirt with Simba on it. I had looked everywhere and with today being AK and DTD I figured this was it. If I couldn't find it in one of those places it didn't exist. I headed into two stores & they had nothing and one of the guys told me such a thing didn't exist. A 4T Lion king shirt.

But Mom suggested just one more store. So we headed in to the last store of the morning and there was a shirt in Boo's size with ALL the animal characters on it (on the front) and their signatures on the back. I loved it! Into the bag it went. And even still I love it so much I won't let her wear it when we are just around the house because I want as many people to see it as possible. I have an illness, I know.

Then Mom pointed out these:

All week (and even still) Boo had talked about the ladybug dance at WDW. I have no idea where she got such an idea. But we had been on the look out for the ladybugs she was sure existed. There they were! She was very excited.

We meandered and wandered down all the little paths from the entrance to KS. And then hopped on our jeep for a safari.

It wasn't the best driver. But the animals were great.

Look at this baby barely has his legs under him:

Mmmm, yummy:

After our trip to Africa we did the Pangani Forest Trail. We were really just trying to do the Animal part of Animal Kingdom. Boo LOVES animals as does my mom so we wanted them to really enjoy the last day they had together. Boo also LOVES frogs and has been known to kiss them to see if they turn into princes. Here she is earlier this summer:

After kissing the above frog she said in all seriousness, "I'm not gonna kiss no more frogs. They DON'T turn into princes." She'd tried and tried all spring and the above was her last try. It was a lie.

Anyway, with this history in mind she stood and looked at this guy a LONG time:

I think she was pondering if she kissed him, maybe a bigger frog, THEN she'd have a prince.

To be cont. I have to play Wii Resort archery. Family wants a little break from Mickey. Also, more pics from Suzy coming up!

 

[estherhead]

I'm back. And totally whipped some booty in archery. I was always good at it in school too. I have a very steady hand and a good aim. Good at shooting targets with a bb gun too. Dh called me a sharp shooter. Guess I missed my calling.

So, where were we? Looking at animals. The nice thing about this day is we normally do Primeval Whirl, Dinosaur, EE first thing. Then KS. Then the animal trails. Then the shows. So by the time we get to the animal trails they are crammed full of people. But by doing them directly after KS without the other stuff first there were very few people and it was VERY relaxing.

Taking it all in. Except for Jack who looks like he's on a serious mission:

You see Timon out there? I've been at this display before but not seen such activity. Lots of meerkat activity this day:

As we left the trail we heard drums and found a guy inviting people to play on the drum display with him. He was putting on quite a show and I got Boo to come with me. Suzy video taped it and Boo watches it all the time on my phone.

"Aaaaaaafricaaaaa" he says, to the rhythm of the drums.

We were hot and we were sticky. And hungry. So we decided to hit up the air conditioning on our way to the Camp Minnie Mickey area and eat at Pizzafari. I know this a lot of disers favorite eatery at AK but I had never eaten here. I know, it's shocking. We got, also shocking, pizza. But it is here that I had my biggest heart attack of the entire trip. Maybe my only one.

So we are settling the kiddos into a table and deciding what we all want to eat and who is going to potty first. Somehow I got confused and thought Mom and Suzy were going potty while I stayed with the kids and then I would potty and then go get food. When really I think what was discussed was Mom and Suzy would potty and SUZY would get the food, then when Mom came back I would just potty and come back (no food.)

So Mom came back and then I went potty and ordered food. But when I went to use my DDP the lady says, "You don't have enough CS." Now this was impossible. Suzy & I KNOW how many credits we have and never make mistakes. SO I tell this woman she is nuts. So she calls a manager over. And I tell the manager how crazy she is. And they tell me I can call my home resort and see where I used my DDP last because until I do that, no pizza for me.

I step out of line and call POR (because of course I have it on speed dial cause I'm a Diser) and the POR lady says, "The last place you used it was Pizzafari." So I say, "No, I'm TRYING to use it at Pizzafari, they won't let me." Ok, ok so I'm TOTALLY DENSE!!!! But in the long pause (it was probably short, but felt long) while the lady is tap, tapping away to try and figure out what was ordered at Pizzafari and what time it was ordered it suddenly occured to me that perhaps SUZY was supposed to get the food.

Uh-oh. That is not good. I hung up. I may have said, "Nevermind." Or I may just have hung up. Not sure. But I did pop into the line where the manager & person were still together and say, "I'm sorry, you were right, I think my sister just ordered food." I swear it was as if I were speaking German. They were so confused. And truth be told, they had every right to be confused. But I was holding up the line and wasting their time so I slid away in humiliation.

To my table.

Where there was already pizza.

And where Suzy said, "What were you doing in the potty, for goodness sake?"

Sigh. So I told them the whole story and Suzy said, "Thank goodness it wasn't day one when we had lots of credits or we would have a LOT of pizza."

Here is my lone picture to commemorate my humilition of being overly ambitious in my aggressiveness. I didn't take any of the pizza because, really, you all know what Disney pizza looks like.

I liked Pizzafari. It's bright and friendly and happy and has the same pizza as Pizza Planet which is very kid friendly. I'll be back. And try not to make a fuss.

So a big TO-DO thing on my list this time was to find Gui-tar Dan. I had never seen him before and was determined. So with Suzy & Mom trailing behind I set out towards Festival of the Lion King. And just like that: there he was!

Here's how it goes. He approached this family you see in the above photo and asked them their names and a few details about each other. Then on the spot to a common Disney tune he makes up a song. It was so cute! My dad always made up songs when I was little and I loved it so Gui-tar Dan was right up my alley. I'll be back to hear more on future trips, you can bet your bottom dollar.

And guess who was right there near Guitar Dan? And WAY more interesting to our entire party other than me? Mickey!

And Boo's absolute favorite of all time (yet again) Donald! Stay tuned for Donald in every conceivable outfit. I didn't even know he had so many outfits but we met him over & over. Here he is in safari gear:

It was pretty dead so the CM told us Donald was leaving after our hug & if we hung tight we could meet Daisy. SO we & the family right ahead of us did and a few minutes later we were meeting Daisy:

Photopass lady is funny in the background trying to snap a shot of the hug.

Jack Jack and Suzy ran off before Daisy. Not sure but I think Jack had spied Goofy or maybe Pluto and headed that direction instead of waiting at Daisy.

Anyway, once the appropriate Fab Five had been met we went over to meet a bunch of bunnies.

Boo didn't know these bunnies and wanted to know their names. I said, "Thumper." And she said, "And the girl bunny?" Well I didn't know and she wouldn't meet them until she knew their names. So I said "Bunny, the girl's name is Bunny." So she went ahead and met Thumper and Bunny while I looked on my iphone. Turns out Thumper's lady friend doesn't have a name and is indeed called Miss Bunny, but only by those of us that must call her something because in reality she is nameless. So now you know.

So after learning this little tid bit we met Brer Rabbit:

I found meeting Brer Rabbit in AK weird. Why is he there? He clearly lives in the the south of America. Not in Asia or Africa. And in the WDW world he clearly lives in MK. So why in the world is he in safari land? I know, I know he IS an animal. But still.

And a quick wave at Chip and Dale. Maybe Jack had met them earlier? Sorry, no clue.

The more important thing is it was time for Festival of the Lion KING!!! Super important part of WDW for Boo. It's such a huge theater that I never get good seats because I know seats will be available so I wait till the last second. Especially on this morning since it was empty. So we didn't leave a lot of time and as usual it looked like we would be stuck in the giraffe section that makes no noise. Boo.

But as we were walking in the lovely black singer pulled us aside and said that Boo was soooo cute she had to put us in special seats. RIGHT next to Simba! Boo and I were in absolute heaven making our mighty roar.

"Look!!!!"

"This is the scary part!"

They hate when you slow the crowd down to take photos of the festival floats. But who do you think does it anyway? That's right, me.

After this we headed out. Boo still REALLY wanted to do the ladybug show, which I could only assume was ITTBAB. But there was no way I was risking freaking her totally out. Not only that, we wanted to have a break and still have a good time at DTD. So we just headed home instead.

Isn't this cute?

Loved it. Can't remember what we did for all our resort. But you all know what people do at resorts. Nap, watch tv and eat snacks, swim. We did one of those.

And you can be absolutely positive we filled our mugs on the way through the building.

And the most exciting thing we did is check my family in! And I packed up and moved my stuff to our new room! It wasn't nearly as great as the first room. But it wasn't terrible either. But more on that later. Suzy helped me as I rolled the first batch of stuff there so she could check out some of the resort. Our room had been so ideal we hadn't explored AT ALL. So it was nice to see a bit of POR.

Next up: DTD and my big girls arrive!

 

[houseful of boys]

Jack Jack and Suzy ran off before Daisy. Not sure but I think Jack had spied Goofy or maybe Pluto and headed that direction instead of waiting at Daisy.

It was Chip and Dale, and he insisted that we meet them

So I'm back from my trip to the Poly. We had a wonderful time! 2 bad things were McQueen getting sick for 24 hours and my lack of a camera. (I dropped my camera a couple of months ago so I asked my mom if I could borrow hers. Only to find out when I get down there that hers has also been acting up. So I was without a camera for the majority of this trip.

The positives were we LOVED the Poly. Especially Charming and Milo. The grounds are so peaceful and we loved the convenience of being on the monorail. We could get inside the gates of MK or Epcot within 20 minutes of our hotel room easily. So that was amazing. Jack Jack kept getting confused because we never really left "disney world." So he couldn't understand what was our hotel and what was disney world. Everytime we stepped off the monorail (which was several times a day) he would say, "now THIS is Disney World"

And even though it was Thanksgiving weekend we still managed to get around the lines. The longest line we stood in was maybe 10 minutes. And we rode mostly everything. (we skipped Dumbo)

Now Perla and I are planning pretty intensely our next two trips. Because our year of Disney is in full swing.

 

[estherhead]

One of the things I knew I wanted to do after booking POR was take the boat to DTD. DTD isn't my favorite place at Disney. I'm not at huge shopper and DTD is for huge shoppers. And it has no rides and I like rides. But I have friends who LOVE the boat from POR to DTD and do this little ride almost every night of every Disney vacation.

So we saved it till last & hopped a boat. Because our room was so ideal we hadn't seen a lot of the resort. But with Suzy & I moving me to my new digs in building 16 or 17 or 18 (can't remember but one of those for sure!) we had explored at least one quiet pool and two additional buildings.

When we grabbed the family and went to catch a boat there was a boat right there. So lickety split, we were off. I do recall Boo not wanting to sit on the bench but wanting to sit in her stroller which was NOT allowed. But once I did have her settled we were off.

What a lovely little ride! We saw the mansions:

And a bit of New Orleans, the Jazzy side:

We also saw a lot of DVC. I wasn't a big fan of Saratoga Springs. Seems so pricey to not be on a monorail. Why no just stay in Windsor Hills?

I also video taped a lot and sent it to my dad. I thought it was the one thing we did he would really have enjoyed. And, of course, made Boo & Jack wave and tell him hi.

The boat drops you off on the Rainforest Cafe side. And we were starting our evening at Wolfgang Puck on the OTHER side. So we had to transfer boats. It was still rather nice.

And it let us off AT Wolfang. No walking. That's service.

I really like this place. It's festive but still upscale.

Boo, on the other hand, was a turkey and wild from the moment we arrived. And shoeless:

I do not why but this is my only picture of the meal! No food! How shocking is that? Puck is the inventor, basically, of bbq sauce on pizza. So I had to try that. It's his thing. It was good. We wanted to try a variety of things, I know, and I recall sharing. But I really don't know what we all ate!

I do remember, however, the da-vine key lime pie. YUM!

After dinner we escaped before Boo made an even bigger scene and slowly meandered back to the boat dock. And I mean slowly since we were shopping!

As we crossed into Pleasure Island we saw this:

And we paused at the little playground:

Maybe we should have done this BEFORE dinner!

Jack-Jack and Boo were not really interested in this guy, but I still watched for a bit. I love street performers:

And then Mom and I were on a mission to find Boo a set of figures with Donald in it. And, of course, still looking for Buzz wings. But I was up for a bit of being distracted. That's what makes DTD fun!

I spent way too much time chasing Jack-Jack around the pirate area with guns and swords.

We finally had our purchases and when we got outside it was POURING! And lightening big time. So we dashed into Goofy's. I think Suzy used some snack credits for her boys, if I recall.

It was at this point things went awry. We left Goofy's having done all of DTD we wanted to do and having purchased what we set out to buy. But when we got to the boat it was closed! No boat in lightening. So we decided to get a cab as buses are notoriously awful from resorts to DTD and it was pouring and late.

But I got us confusingly going to wrong way (read: a WAY longer way.) And through a fountain which was hilarious because the last thing we wanted was to be squirted and so we dashed across it and, well, I don't know why it was funny, to be honest. Mom & I were the same somehow. And that was funny. It was late and raining and we were well fed and happy, it was really funny. Trust me.

So we get to where we are going and there are no cabs and no buses and we were way closer where we had been. Sigh.

We got to the bus stop and our bus came fairly quickly.

This was BY FAR the worst bus ride I've had at Disney. Possibly, anywhere. It was VERY crowded but I got a seat, well a half seat. With a pole right next to me. And Boo had the other half. Kind of.

Because what actually happened was this giant 12 year old sat down on Boo, except I rescued her. An adult his size would have known that this was a terrible idea. But he was a kid. And it was late and everyone was tired. So he sat. On Boo and I.

And we were wet and sticky and had lots of plastic bags. I've never been drenched in sweat as I'm not much of a sweater but I was drenched this night: but not in my own sweat! EWWW!!!! Normally I'm assertive enough to tell a 12 year old to get up or whatever but in this case it was impossible because the bus filled totally up so by the time I realized just how horrific it was going to get it was impossible to do anything about it, we were wedged in.

Anyway, I spent most of the trip trying to go to my happy place. Boo escaped to Mom, I believe. I didn't raise no fool.

And, of course, it was pouring as we got off the bus too. By this time Boo had had it! As I RAN to the room the thunder boomed and the lightening flashed and there were puddles everywhere splashing her left and right. She was screaming.

And maybe Suzy can clarify here, but I packed up right quick and left Boo to calm down while I packed everything up and ran to my room. The rest of the my family (the big girls & Donald) had arrived and were at Epcot. So I just dumped everything and unpacked.

And then went back to get Boo.

A little diversion: The big girls and Donald had left our home and gone to the airport and eaten Chili's for dinner. They had a short 2 hour nonstop flight, got their lugguge, and then went to the ME bus. They sat on it for 20 minutes as they were the first ones on it.

POR was 2nd. They picked up the keys I had left at the front desk and dropped their stuff at the room (which I unpacked for them) and dashed to Epcot. It was maybe 9 by the time they got there but it was EMH so they stayed till it closed.

They did rides in Future World mainly and a bit of Norway and also got Chinese food. When I asked the girls what they did they said, "We had FUN!" So there's all the details you're gonna get!

So while that was going on I went and grabbed Boo and then showered and had a lovely, leisurely time in my new room.

I'm sure I'm forgetting things or the order of things. But I know I was happy to watch t.v. all by myself and eat more caramel corn and be warm and clean and dry.

The family came in LATE. I woke up briefly but then went right back to sleep.

 

[estherhead]

At the beginning of this trip I had completely forgotten about the second part. I was content and happy to be lost in the world with my mom & sister and toddlers. But then they were coming. And Mom & Suzy were gone. It was so exciting to already be immersed and relaxed in Disney and THEN start over.

The plan was to just awake whenever because they had all been out late the night before. I knew this wouldn't be a problem as we aren't late sleepers to begin with and we were at DISNEY! So, of course, we wouldn't be too late. I got up first, since I had gotten to sleep at a reasonable hour.

I got ready and then went to get everyone breakfast and bring it back to the room. Boo watched her favorite old cartoons featuring Donald over & over as she ate and everyone else got ready. My Donald was last to get ready. He was excited by their night at Epcot, but even still he dragged to get up. He ran to get some coffee while the girls and I took a "shortcut" to the bus stop which ended up being a "long cut." Oops! After that we just went through the main building. It was really just a short and we couldn't get lost. And the other bus stops were lame. One was under construction so you just sat on the curb. So we just used the main bus stop through the main building. So much for exploring the resort!

We were at the bus stop by 8:30. Not too shabby, in my opinion! But MK opened at 8:00 this day, not 9:00 so we didn't make rope drop.

The plan was for the big girls to go to Big Thunder & Splash while Boo and I got FP's for Space and then met them over there in Frontierland.

This should have been completely uneventful. But it wasn't. Because first thing at the FP machine was Chip & Dale insisted on getting my FP's for me. I didn't snap a photo as it all happened too fast and Boo was interacting with them and they were literally putting my tickets in the machines and getting me my FP's. It was odd but a fun way to start the morning.

It was only after the fact that I realized I'd want a photo of it so this is what you get: a pic of other kids that I don't know running up to hug them. It wasn't my intention to take such a terrible shot but it took a minute to get my camera out & on. And I'm pretty sure this is Chip. Dale had run off somewhere.

Then we were ready to go to Frontierland. But Boo had other opinions. She had loved the TTA before and HAD to ride it. So she and I had out first ride of the day. We were the only people on it that I saw. It kind of cracked me up to ride such a ride during "peak" ride hours since it's always a walk on. But we'd been there for days and I had no agenda. So on we went and chattered on & on the whole time we were on it and that made my morning.

On our way off Boo spotted Stitch and she took off running!

Stitch noticed Boo has a pin with him on it. He loved that!

We hung out with Stitch a long time and it made me cry just a bit as if you recall from my last TR, Boo had been freaked out by the characters and suspicious of everything at Disney. It had been exhausting, crazy, emotional, etc. So to have her willingly run, talk to, and enjoy a character as "scary" as Stitch blew my mind. She was loving it, I was relaxed, and all 5 of my adorable family members were together. It may only have been 9 am, but I was super happy!

So we meandered over to Frontierland, which is generally quiet early and it didn't disappoint. The family was just getting on Splash so Boo & I went potty and then they came out. And it was my turn to ride my first ride of the trip with my big girls. They had gotten a bit wet on Splash. Donald calls these rides "The washer & dryer" and likes to do them in that order. So we went to the dryer.

Here is what their hair looked like. Thanks to Suzy & my experience with the heat and humidity, I started right out putting the girl's hair up. Mulan's is long and easy but Ariel's had a bit of trouble staying up.

And, of course, the silly bandz. They were kind of obsessed with them at the time. It's calmed down a bit since.

We were ready for air conditioning at this point! So onto PoC. I was nervous about Boo but Donald wanted to push her a little bit. He thought she could handle it as she had watched a bit of the movie. I felt like we were making such good progress I didn't want to push it but it would be our first whole family ride so I let him take charge and we all got on.

Boo was really scared, especially in the dark part with the cannons going off. But her daddy kept her calm and we made it off. We played swords in the store a bit and then headed out to Aladdin. It was sooo empty this day. I'm not sure why the park opened at 8:00 this day because no one was here! Just check out the area around the Magic Carpets:

Earlier while we were waiting for the family on Splash I had checked out the Woody line up area. The CM said the times they would be out so I insisted we headed over there as Boo likes Woody and hadn't had a good Woody experience because of her intense hatred of Buzz.

They were supposed to come out on 10:15 so we went and got in line. Except we weren't really in line but were in the wrong spot where they come out. So the CM had to guide us to the right spot. Regardless, we were first and that was the important part!

Bonus! Jesse was there too.

And because Donald is a video taping fool, he had them dance and they all did a bit of a hoedown:

 

[estherhead]

Next we had the only real thing on the agenda that HAD to be done: meet Tiana & Naveen. Boo had been talking about this for months and was wearing her Tiana shirt.

But even with this intense thing on her agenda, she insisted that we stop for Frontier Donald. So we continued on our Donald tour. We were the only people even slightly interested in Donald for some unknown reason so we had time for lots of talking & photos:

We were still just a touch early for Tiana and Mulan was on a search for certain pins and she found one! So we stopped for some trading.

And then we got in a line. We were third in line just as Tiana and Naveen came out. Perfect!

Naveen asked where we were from and when we told him he said, "I know an Ohio joke!" The girls, of course, knew the answer. So then some joke sharing happened. They were both very personable. I won't say they were hilarious as some have said, but they were lovely, lovely. And I LOVE this gazebo with the frogs added. Love it. Just a nice, quiet spot to have a lovely conversation with a prince and princess.

We then did some of Fanstasyland. Just what the big girls wanted to do. Truth? I have no idea what we did! I just told them we'd do whatever parts of Fantasyland they wanted. I THINK we did Philharmagic and Small World. But I could be wrong...

Regardless, we spent an hour in Fantasyland. Doing fun stuff.

And then I was HUNGRY! So I talked the family into a bit of Pinnochio Haus. We've never eaten here before as we are always doing MK in the opposite order. It was delish! I got a meatball sub and YUM! We also, of course, all went potty there in the a.c. It was a lovely, relaxing lunch. No one was around us and we just had a grand ole time talking about our great morning and their evening before.

After this we decided to head to Tomorrowland. And we ran into a delightful surprise! I hadn't considered doing Belle's storytime as I thought it was over. But it was the last day! It was already started but I ushered the family in telling them "This is it! Last chance!" We love this little, quiet spot.

And then, BONUS!, Ariel gets chosen!

She was Mrs. Potts:

How awesome is that? It was just great!

Star power! Meeting the famous actresses after the show:

And then it was into the future...

 

[estherhead]

Our year of Disney is only a few months in and Suzy & I have learned something: it's confusing to have more than one trip on tap.

While she was still planning her November trip, it was time to make ADR's for our March trip. And now, though our March trip is far from being finalized, we must figure out what we are doing in June as that ADR window opens this week!

Our March trip is still camping at Ft. Wilderness in tents for four days. But we have booked a Presidential Suite at the Dolphin!!! for the remaining 3 nights.

We also added the DDP to the camping portion of our trip so that Suzy & I don't have to cook. We feel this will make our camping portion a lot more enjoyable for us as part of the perk of a WDW trip for a Mom is not having to clean (too much) and cook. So we want to keep the tenting as close to a "normal" WDW trip as possible only with an outside element of (hopefully) extra relaxation.

For our June trip we have some close friends with some disabilities who have three kids and have never been to Disney World. We invited them to come with us & we would help them pay for their trip. But after much deliberation, they declined as they felt even with our help it would just be too overwhelming.

But through that whole process we had to try and do the thing cheaply and decided to go ahead and keep that aspect. So we rented a house in Windsor Hills. There was a mistake and it ended up being only 6 days with no penalty to us. So we still haven't decided what we will do with our extra time.

I, still, would like to do NASA and two days, one night, at Universal. But we'll see how that all shakes out as Milo has to give a speech in England just one month after our WDW trip and might not have as much time as the rest of us. So we're all undecided as to whether we'll split up & do different things, rent a few nights at a beach house together, or just do everything together but Milo misses the first part & just flies down for the 6 Disney days.

My family has kind of decided (demanded) that we have matching t-shirts in March. So I'm in the very beginning stages of that as Donald has requested no more red t-shirts as we've been there done that & I don't really like black as they don't stand out & I lose my family easily. But I do have a few designs I'm working on. Epic Mickey is on the table, a cool OSU one I've seen (but not sure on tshirt color), maybe a Ft. Wilderness/Cowboy theme for our first day while we're setting up & eating at the Wilderness Lodge. I'm not sure. Like I said, it's a lot of work for me but my family LOVES it & I like to make them happy.

Also, Suzy & I don't like our pictures from this trip. I especially hate the one of us at AK with Safari Mickey. I look much larger than I imagine myself in my brain in that photo. Because of the pounds just slowly creeping up these past few years (since our last two babies!) we have been trying to lose weight since this trip. We've had some success but to boost our motivation, we have joined a program in our town where you compete for 10 weeks to see how great a percentage you can lose. I've committed to losing 13 lbs. In 10 weeks!!! This is a BIG committment for me because I lose weight like a snail!

Suzy, Mom, and I are avid Weight Watchers members and are loving their new Points Plus program so maybe with that and my Wii Zumba it's possible. My first weigh in at WW since starting the town program is tomorrow and that will be my true start date. Here's hoping I didn't do too much damage in the last 2 weeks of eating mostly whatever I wanted!

So stay tuned for our March pics with the new & improved us!

 

[Dugette]

Wow, I got way behind. Great updates and good luck with the weight loss! Looking forward to hearing how your Year of Disney unfolds! (since ours is over )

 

[estherhead]

Wow, I got way behind. Great updates and good luck with the weight loss! Looking forward to hearing how your Year of Disney unfolds! (since ours is over )

Sorry your year of Disney is over. But glad you are enjoying ours!

The weight loss is going OK. Suzy lost 2.5 lbs this week! So that was encouraging. I still have to weigh in so I'm not sure where I am. I've lost 3 lbs so far. I had a bit of a hormonal, I want to eat everything crisis today. But Suzy helped talk me down, an old friend stopped by to visit during my afternoon snack-happy time so that helped a lot. And having those Disney pictures as my goal is a good motivation. Suzy was quick to mention that in her "stay motivated" lecture. I canNOT be the chunky one. That title needs to belong to someone else.

I know I'll be sad in June when our year of Disney is over. Donald & my plan is to take the girls to California and Disneyland in 2012. And Suzy & Milo I think would like to do a cruise.

Then maybe if there is a great deal we'll head down in 2013 to see the new changes. But we'll see.

We all just watched the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy and Donald decided that he, Milo, and Charming all have to do the pirates package too. So all the men, adults too, weill be pirates. But I have no interest in having a pink BBB sash on all day. So Suzy & I have to come up with something so we don't look ridiculously boring. McQueen told us we could be Moms. Because that is SOOOO different from our regular life. Girls are princesses, all the boys are pirates and Suzy and I will be disguised as Moms. Think anyone would recognize us?

 

[estherhead]

We headed into the future. We had Space FP's but started at Buzz Lightyear which was a walk on. Our plan had been to do Buzz then Laugh Floor but someone had to go potty so we ended up soaking in the a.c. of the giftshop while we waited for everyone to go.

Ariel found the souvenir she wanted but could not decide between the the Queen Amadala or the Princess Leia dress up doll set. I was kinda pushing her toward the Leia one because it had a C3PO and R2D2 which seemed more fun to me. After me confusing her she took a REALLY long time because that made sense but finally confessed that all the hairdo's in the Amadala kit were more important to her than extra characters. So the hair won. We bought it and had it shipped to the hotel. that perk of on-site lodging!

Here she is playing while I filled out paperwork:

So after our little shop fun, we headed over to Laugh. I love the walking area. I snapped a few photos but we had pretty good timing so there wasn't a lot of time to peruse.

Will Boo be scared?

While I was doing this, Donald was texting jokes. We've gotten it to a fine science and almost always can get one on the show. This year's was: "Why didn't the chicken cross the street?" Because Roz was on the other side.

And Mulan was in the show "Always wants to be the center of attention." And I had a speaking part! Buddy Boil, or whatever his name is, tried to guess my number. That was fun. I wasn't witty. I just followed the script and let the comedians be the funny ones. But what a HUGE difference from last year when I wasn't allowed to see the show because of Boo's nightmare.

After this it was time to do Space! I had already ridden with Suzy so I let Donald take the girls. Chip and Dale met them at the door and walked with them down the FP line. Then Chip helped them into their seats and Dale climbed into the seat behind them and rode the ride with them!

I had no idea this was happening because I decided that Boo and I would wait inside since it was so hot. I've never done this before, choosing to not just sit around. So I went up to the CM & he pointed me in the right direction to the baby swap waiting area. It was very cool, both literally and figuratively, and there was a green line to follow to the benches. Boo enjoyed this very much because we were the only ones there. She played with her toys in the quiet while I played on my iphone.

And then our family was off:

Had I known Dale was behind them I would have snapped a photo of him too but I had no idea he was in the next car.

Donald took Boo and the girls and I followed more green line back to the loading area so we could ride again. When we came around there was no one in line. Literally, we walked up to the area and there was no one around. They were pretty excited about the breeziness of this:

After our wonderful flight through Space we saw ourselves on t.v.

And then on our way out I saw something odd. Stitch playing video games:

I'll be honest, I didn't know there was an arcade in the Space Mt. building. I'm always in and out trying to swap babies and get the next people riding so I haven't explored. But I noticed Stitch and wanted to know what he was doing. And then I realized he was actually playing this game. He was winning too.

And to show you just how slow it was this day, this crowd? That's it. There was no one else watching him and no one came behind us to watch. It was odd. I actually took a picture of the Dumbo line at 11:00 a.m. because it was a 5 min wait and was almost a walk on. We could have been in the 2nd group had we felt like riding it.

I've never been to MK on a day this slow, where the characters were bored.

But, after watching him for a little while and realizing he was REALLY good at driving cars, we headed over to play Buzz again. It's hard to not just want to keep riding things where there are no lines.

Ariel and I stopped to take a picture of the hidden Mickey she had earlier pointed out:

Oh, and the girl at the entrance of Buzz was handing out stickers of Mike Wazowski and trying to get people to see Laugh Floor because no one was in there (thus both Mulan and I being in one show.) So we kinda scored on the stickers. Boo enjoyed them later.

After this I wanted to meander down Main Street and see if the girls were interested in buying the charm bracelets. At first, for some reason, they weren't really excited. But once they really understood and started looking, they agreed it would be a great Year of Disney rememberance because they could get more charms on all three trips. So they took a really long time choosing while the other three of us enjoyed exploring the rest of the shops.

I looked at scrapbooking stuff and purchased what I had found earlier and had it, again, sent to our resort.

And then... it was time to switch parks.

 

[estherhead]

I forgot something. Before we went to the stores on Main Street we stopped and got waffle cones. This is something I hadn't seen before & I heard about it on here and wanted to do it. It's next to the Main St. Bakery and is heavenly. It smelled soooo good and we just got two to share because as previously mentioned, ice cream melts very fast in September in Florida. But we will definitely remember this little corner of heaven!

OK so getting back up to time, we had ice cream, hit the shops, and headed on out to Epcot via the monorail.

I got up to take a nice photo of my family on the monorail and a nice guy volunteered to take our whole family's picture. Yeah! Non-Photopass group shot.

We switched at TTC, took a monorail tour of Future World, and headed through bag check. As we went through the turnstyles, though, we ran into some issues as it wouldn't take the girl's tickets. What? After some general confusion Donald says, "Wait, ours are just base tickets." Duh! They hadn't been upgraded to AP's yet. Whoops.

So after holding up the line forever we hopped out of line and went to buy AP's. This took FOREVER! And it was midafternoon and HOT! The CM next to my CM had no idea what he was doing the girl requesting a pass wanted something really complicated which she knew how to do because she was a CM. So my CM was trying to do my 3 upgrades all the while helping this girl. It was utter confusion. My family just kept hopping into the air conditioned photo center and back out.

Finally, we had them. And into Epcot we went in search of AIR CONDITIONING!!! The family got dropped off at Innovations while I ran and got Soarin' FP's for later that night. But to my surprise it was just for an hour away! That's how slow it was this day.

The first thing on on my list was to see if there was a wait for the Visa free photo since we hadn't gotten photopass for this trip. There was a short line and I gave my card for them to verify I qualifyed. The kids played games but I didn't let them go far because it was a really short line and the family in front of us had no kids so I knew they wouldn't take long.

Sure enough, it was less than 10 minutes.

Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy had some quality time with the kids, but then the photopass guy said they aren't allowed to take pictures without everyone's shoes on and Boo had taken hers off. So I had to get her shoes back on her before any pictures could actually be taken.

We took a picture with all of us:

But the one I actually picked out was just of the girls:

If it isn't too crowded, this is a wonderful little moment. Just you, no one breathing down your back. And the characters take their time to enjoy your kids.

After that we played the money game. I wasn't sure if Boo would enjoy it but she just LOVED her piggy. Loved it. I enjoyed myself immensely too. I just wish I could have had my own pig and won as I'm quite competative and letting a preschooler make money decisions meant we lost.

Wish I'd been on Mulan's team!

But they had so much fun, they were all winners:

After killing just a bit more time we headed in. Boo & I rode Livin' with the Land while Donald and the big girls rode Soarin' which they hadn't done at the EMH the night before. Boo loved this ride because it has ladybugs and she is obsessed with ladybugs. I love this ride because I've done the behind the seeds tour and feel quite cocky about my hydroponics knowledge.

Boo & I then got in line to get her a snack at Sunshine Seasons. I don't remember exactly what happened here but there was a bit of chaos in the check out line with a family that didn't speak English and I ended up stealing a bottle of water that I forgot about when I was checking out with the cake and the drinks and holding onto Boo and no stroller and getting my card out and helping the family in front of me. I had to go back and explain and they ended up just giving it to me. I only mention it now because things like that bother me. Even these months later I wished I'd just paid even though they said forget it so I didn't have to think about walking out of there with something I hadn't paid for! The hazards of being a mom.

Things were running so smoothly that Boo had barely had a single bite of her snack when everyone came out. So the girls and I ran right back to ride again (we had done baby swap so both big girls could ride again) and just zipped right through the FP line. I was thrilled because normally even with a FP the Soarin' line takes a long time.

Secretly, I was chanting in my head, "Front row, front row." We had been scoring on our shows & seating this day so I just figured we might. And sure enough:

And not just any front row, the middle! Best Soarin' ride I've ever had. Amazing!

We had a bit of time to kill before dinner, I really didn't think it would go this well! So we did the Canada movie:

And we saw British Invasion:

Well, we only saw a bit of it. The yellow submarine part, which sadly, my girls don't really know that song. Obviously, I need to listen to the Beatles more often.

And then it was time for dinner! In France! I was excited as we hadn't eaten here before and I had heard good things. But as we were walking toward the restaurant, Boo saw the pole where she and Jack-Jack had met Marie before and remembered it and went to stand next to it. I was focused on dinner and trying to rush her past but she was having none of it. "This is where Marie lives!"

And just as I'm dragging her out, guess who comes out?

Isn't that cute? I wonder what she's whispering to Mulan?

So by this time, we're 10 minutes late. We were 5 minutes early. But whatcha gonna do? Did you see the above pictures? So worth the wait. I put our name in and sat down and we waited just a few minutes. Long enough for Donald to park the stroller.

And we were seated at one of the long benches kind of in the middle of the chaos. The girls quickly got to coloring and I was just savoring the food and atmosphere, the air conditioning, the people watching.

It's loud. And chaotic. But we LOVED it. And promptly confessed it to be one of our favorite restaurants in "the world."

Mulan and Ariel both got this cheese puff as an appetizer. Mulan hated it. Ariel enjoyed it.

This was my meal. It was YUM as Boo says. Roasted potatoes are one of my favorite things (had them for dinner tonight) and to add in sweet potatoes just added to the yum factor.

Can you go wrong with vanilla ice cream and chocolate? I originally hadn't intended on eating much of this because I was full, but in the long run I did end up eating a fair bit of the ice cream. Mulan ate most of the cream puff part.

She loved this cookie on top so much.

In retrospect, it hasn't actually stayed in our top places to eat. Because the reality is your TOP places to eat are the ones you must go to again. And this is close to the top, but never quite beats out our actual favorites. But on this day, this perfect Disney day with the low crowds and AP's in our pockets, this was our favorite restaurant.

When dinner was over, so were we. It had been a long day and they had all been up late the night before AND we had an early breakfast at AK the next day. So we promised to do plenty of KimPossible missions later and we headed for the exit doors before there were any booms that might scare Boo. She fell fast asleep on Donald's lap on our way home and I was soooo happy to have him there to help me with a sleeping baby and a stroller. I can handle things on my own, but two parents are really quite convenient.

 

[Dugette]

I know I'll be sad in June when our year of Disney is over. Donald & my plan is to take the girls to California and Disneyland in 2012. And Suzy & Milo I think would like to do a cruise.

Then maybe if there is a great deal we'll head down in 2013 to see the new changes. But we'll see.

Our future plans may be similar. We're talking about going to Disneyland maybe later this year and a cruise maybe the next year. And back to WDW in 2013 to see the new stuff!

I can't believe how low the crowds were for you that day! Soarin' FPs good in an hour?! And Disney Visa wait of less than 10 minutes?! With Mickey there too!? Way better than we ever did there!