Tales from the "Mouse" Side -- Our Not So Scary Adventure

[AZMickeyfans]

Shawna, I was afraid of Beirgarten too but I asked Joe to pick just one place and that was where he wanted to go. Everything else was pretty much all about me.

Yeah, my sister will have a fit when she sees some of the stuff that I am going to post. She knows that I love her and heck, just look at good old Pooh sized me. I ain't no prize!

While I am writing this TR all that I can think about is our next trip with Jenn (inkedupmomma) and her family. They are awesome and we hope to plan a few ADR's together as well as MNSSHP.

And I can't wait to read your TR when you get back!!!!!!!

WHATEVER you are NOT poohsized! Sounds like you and Jenn had an awesome meet!!!! I'm glad you hit it off. I cant wait to read more.

 

[AZMickeyfans]

Great pictures Sophia!

Funny about the Harley shop. I do stuff like that all the time. I believe the cool outlet shopping is why dh is not getting us a car this trip. He knows I could blow some serious cash there.

Those slurpies look really good!!! I'll have to put that on my list to try.

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Day 5

This was our 8th wedding anniversary.

Before we left Ohio, Joe had given me my anniversary gifts so that I could have them for our trip.

Seeing these hand pictures reminds me of this. I had both thumbs done before we left for Disney:

I originally wanted to have his stein’s presented to him at CRT but that was a royal pain (no pun intended) to deal with so I decided against it. (I will take pictures of the stein's and post them later on.)

We got up in the morning and headed to CBR to pick up my family. Before we left CBR I gave Joe his steins. My sister had sent them to their resort and was going to hold on to them for me. He seemed happy with them. Yay! My mom also told him that when we got home she was going to give him the two steins that my dad had given her from Germany. He got them in 1960. He didn’t know that I had also sent him an edible arrangement with pineapple shaped Mickey heads. More on that later.

We had breakfast ADR’s at Kona. I have been looking forward to Tonga toast forever so I was super excited to go there. Remembering what the CM at the gate at CBR told me, we used our KTTW card to open the gate at the Poly. Because of the way mom was feeling and the fact that I was very worried about Joe since the accident, I thought that maybe we could park at the Poly and take the monorail to MK later that day. I know, I know, you’re not supposed to do that but I really was worried about how long it would take to get to the car if we park at the ticket/transportation center. So bingo, the card worked and we were in.

These aren't so great pictures, but I like them. I was using a small point and shoot camera at the time.

I had already warned the family that they had to be careful to not get stuff on their clothes because we had our photo session with a photopass photographer after breakfast.

Our eyes were larger than our stomachs today. Mom, Shelly and I got the Tonga toast. We could have split it actually. We also got breakfast potatoes which we most certainly should have split as well. Matt got pancakes and Joe had something different. OMG, Tonga Toast is AWESOME! If I ever stay at the Poly I will have it at least every other day. It was fabulous! I am drooling just thinking about it now.

They also surprised us with this at Kona. Seems that they knew it was our anniversary...unlike CRT which I will talk about later.

After breakfast we had to find our way to the gift shop because someone had spilled on their shirt.

No, it wasn't this guy:

It was THIS guy!

I too had a very small incident which was taken care of by a Tide stick. Joe, not so much. Tide stick didn’t work at all. We set off to find a shirt since we had our session in 30 minutes. There was a group in front of us that looked as though they were having a wedding session done, but it was 9 a.m. so that was a bit odd. No bridal party, just what could have been a bride and groom. Her dress wasn’t a dead giveaway though.

After Joe changed his shirt we checked in for our session. Our photographer was Christopher and he was really super nice. He was very sociable and he spent a lot of time talking with Matt. We had a separate photopass card that we had already started and he was nice enough to combine them all for me into one pass.

Here are some of the shots that he took. He ended up taking over 100 of them.

continued on next post

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Some of these pictures are hilariously terrible, but they are giving us something to laugh about. Others are great though.

What was really hilarious is that Christopher thought that I was my sister's mother and that Matt was my grandson. Thanks dude! That made my mom the great-grandmother. And he thought that Joe was with my sister!

My family had a swell time busting on me for a good portion of the day.

I love these coming up next!!!!!

And by the way, there was NO WAY in H-E-double toothpicks that I was getting on that thing! Matt kept calling it a ham-rack which made us laugh ourselves silly. We have a standing thing in our family where Joe calls it a ham-ick and I call it a ham-ock. So we asked Christopher what he thinks and his wife also calls it a ham-ock. He says that it must be a northern thing. My entire family says that. Maybe we're just dopey or something.

more pictures on the next post......

 

[Dr_Finkelstein]

Howdy

Loving the report, especially the pics of all the food, lordy I am SO ready to go. The lost with satnav story is hilarious and oh so familiar, on our last day in 2006 the satnav was adamant we should drive up what was clearly someone's driveway!

I gotta see the stein pics, I am so hyped about Germany at Epcot and the stein's I want to get. Looking froward to seeing what you got your hubby. It'll be our anniversay too when we go over, although in a shocking turn of events it was actually me that had to point this out to my wife, even after Disney had said to her "So are you celebrating anything when you are over?"...................."Nope!" came the confident reply from Di.

The love has died

Grumpy

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Are these next ones hideous or what? OMG

Are you done laughing yet? If so, we shall move along..........

I like this next batch.

Christopher had us all over the grounds of the Poly. It was worth the 25 bucks to me. I pre-paid for a photopass CD before the price increase so our sitting fee was just 25 dollars. I'd do it again but it was so freaking hot that we all didn't really look the way we would have liked to. Next time I would like to try a resort where they take more indoor pictures so that we can be better prepared.

Next up: Part II of our day

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

WHATEVER you are NOT poohsized! Sounds like you and Jenn had an awesome meet!!!! I'm glad you hit it off. I cant wait to read more.

Thanks Shawna. I have gained 50, yep 5-0 pounds since I met Joe 11 years ago. I am really trying to diet now for next year. Jenn is awesome. I feel like I have known her forever and honestly, I can picture us being friends forever. Her kids are too freaking cute for words and John is super sweet as well.

Great pictures Sophia!

Funny about the Harley shop. I do stuff like that all the time. I believe the cool outlet shopping is why dh is not getting us a car this trip. He knows I could blow some serious cash there.

Those slurpies look really good!!! I'll have to put that on my list to try.

You HAVE to talk him into a car, even if it is for a day or so. I read about the slurpies on someone's TR and had to go and check them out. We actually went again and got two more later on in the trip so now I have these 4 HUGE funky mugs sitting here in my office. No clue where they will end up, we have such a small house!

Howdy

Loving the report, especially the pics of all the food, lordy I am SO ready to go. The lost with satnav story is hilarious and oh so familiar, on our last day in 2006 the satnav was adamant we should drive up what was clearly someone's driveway!

I gotta see the stein pics, I am so hyped about Germany at Epcot and the stein's I want to get. Looking froward to seeing what you got your hubby. It'll be our anniversay too when we go over, although in a shocking turn of events it was actually me that had to point this out to my wife, even after Disney had said to her "So are you celebrating anything when you are over?"...................."Nope!" came the confident reply from Di.

The love has died

Grumpy

Nice to meet you, Grumpy! I will take pictures of the stein's today, I promise. I know that Di wants to see them too. That is so funny that Di responded "nope" when asked about a special celebration. Maybe, just maybe, she did that on purpose.

The nav system surely had issues when we were in Florida however I think that maybe it was the person doing the programming.......me!

 

[Dr_Finkelstein]

Howdy

Loving the report, especially the pics of all the food, lordy I am SO ready to go. The lost with satnav story is hilarious and oh so familiar, on our last day in 2006 the satnav was adamant we should drive up what was clearly someone's driveway!

I gotta see the stein pics, I am so hyped about Germany at Epcot and the stein's I want to get. Looking froward to seeing what you got your hubby. It'll be our anniversay too when we go over, although in a shocking turn of events it was actually me that had to point this out to my wife, even after Disney had said to her "So are you celebrating anything when you are over?"...................."Nope!" came the confident reply from Di.

The love has died

Grumpy

Di here,
I would like to point out in my defence that I was incredibly stressed at the time, having just found out the travel company had gone belly up, and had to rebook the entire holiday, and the ADRs..........My brain was not in its usual function mode.
I phoned right back and said we were celebrating our 11th anniversary.
He'll never let me forget this......
BTW Sophia, love all the photos! I'm still trying to get a breakfast ADR at the Poly, with no luck yet, will keep trying though!
How did you book the photog session, do you have to book it before you go? For only $25 it sounds a great deal - we have pre booked our photopass CD as well.
Di x

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Di here,
I would like to point out in my defence that I was incredibly stressed at the time, having just found out the travel company had gone belly up, and had to rebook the entire holiday, and the ADRs..........My brain was not in its usual function mode.
I phoned right back and said we were celebrating our 11th anniversary.
He'll never let me forget this......
BTW Sophia, love all the photos! I'm still trying to get a breakfast ADR at the Poly, with no luck yet, will keep trying though!
How did you book the photog session, do you have to book it before you go? For only $25 it sounds a great deal - we have pre booked our photopass CD as well.
Di x

Hi Di,

You know that I was just teasing you about the anniversary thing, right?

Keep trying to get an ADR at Kona. It was definitely worth it and is now a must do on our list!

If you pre-paid for the photopass CD before September 1st, the sitting fee is just $25 at one of a few different resorts. If you paid for it after September 1st, I believe the price is $75. The person that we had at the Poly was great. I have heard both positive and negative things about the photopass sessions but we had a great experience and would do it again. Maybe it depends on the photographer? Anyway, I will find a link describing where you can call to make an appointment and post it for you.

Sophia

 

[inkedupmomma]

omg.. i really think you and joe are just the cutest things ever.. and that matt is gonna be a lady killer.. seriously him and are gonna be making it out on those hammocks one day..mark my words ;>

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Matt is a party, let me tell you. Here is a funny that he did. I know, I know, off topic, but I gotta share.

Matt played baseball over the summer. It was a mixed league. He was up to bat and there was a girl pitching. He told his coach that he didn't know if he could do it because the pitcher "was his ex." OMG, it was hysterical. At the end of the year the coach sent out an email to all of the parents and in it he told Matt to fight the urge to get married because I guy needs to at least finish the 7th grade.

Hope to get back to my TR tomorrow morning. I am making dinner for the entire family tonight.

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Day 5, Part II

Mom and I always say that we don't feel like we are really at Disney until we get to MK...............

After briefly viewing our photo session with Christopher, we left the Poly via monorail for MK. I was a bit freaked about leaving the car at the Poly but we did it anyway.

Matt wanted to ride at the front of the monorail so he asked if it was possible. The CM said yes if the front was empty when it reached us. I was so mad when someone just cut right in front of him and went into the first car! At first I thought that it was full, but it turned out that the family in there got off of the monorail at the Poly. These other people just cut in front of him so we just said forget it. We came across so many rude people this trip and none of them were a part of any type of tour group.

Ok, off my soap box now. We got to MK and went through the bag check line and through the gates and I suggested renting a locker for our camera bag. It was quite heavy and I know that Joe did not want to carry it over MK and we had not quite realized that Matt didn't mind carrying it. We forked over the 10 bucks, shoved the stuff into the locker and off we went. I was so freaking excited to catch that first glimpse of the castle when I remembered that you can now build your own ears at The Chapeau. We wanted to get ears for someone back home so we decided to make a stop there right away since we were right there. They told us that embroidery would take about 20 minutes. Well, here is what we did to pass the time. Crappy pictures coming up however Photobucket is being a pain in the bucket right now.

I always forget to listen in on the party line, but this time we remembered.

Mom wanted to get a necklace fort my sister’s friend’s daughter and Joe and I saw a perfect one when we were at MK three weeks prior so mom and I raced over to the Emporium to get it. But I did stop to admire what I wish to be out next home.

I have learned over and over that when you see something you want, buy it then, don’t think about it or it will be gone. Happened to me this trip with a sweatshirt. So you guessed it, no necklace. I asked a CM about it and she was clueless so we asked another that told us we could find it in Tomorrowland. It was one that is solar powered. Apparently it belongs in Tomorrowland. We knew that we’d get over there eventually and since we always go to Adventutreland first, we headed that way.

Check out the wait for pirates…….yo ho, yo ho………

We wants the redhead..............

After PotC we went over to get FP’s for BTMRR. So, who remembers that someone was supposed to go to Guest Services and get a new AP? Yeah, Joe gave me more crap for not doing that. The CM at MK then gave me the FP thingy so that I could get FP’s at MK for the rest of the day. By the way, those thingies are good for scrapbooking. After we got the FP’s we rode Splash, as it to was a walk on. Three weeks prior to this trip was my first time on Splash. This was my first time ever on Splash with my sister and Matt. Joe went off to get us drinks and stuff bas we were getting mom situated. It took him forver and when he came back he said that he had an encounter with the slowest CM possible. I think he said that he was line the second or third in line. He was gone around 15-20 minutes and he just went to the little cart by Splash for drinks. I guess the heat got to everyone that day. We got mom situated in the gift shop before we rode because the heat was getting to her again. Here is us on Splash. I try so hard to keep my head up but I just can’t seem to do it. Today is not my day with electronics. I scanned this and it looks like crap.

Mom gave up her seat in the rocker at the gift shop before we had the chance to tell her that it was time for our FP for BTMRR. I felt bad but she hung around again until we were off of BTMRR. I think she could have done Splash with us but she didn't want to. BTMRR was a walk on, literally. In fact, I had a hard time keeping up with the family as they were hauling a** through the queue. This is another ride that I rode only for the first time three weeks prior to this trip. I cannot believe that I wasted all those years and didn’t ride. I LOVE this ride! It is quickly becoming one of my favorites. Not sure why, but it is.

We decided to walk over to HM after BTMRR. I wanted to go into the Hall of Presidents. Joe doesn’t think he’s been in there before but I know that he has. I just didn’t want to argue over it. We decided to wait for next trip for HoP and kept on going. The line for HM was INSANE. It said 10 minutes but the people were rounding the freaking corner. There was no way that baby was just 10 minutes. We passed on it because we knew that we’d be back. It’s Joe’s favorite ride so I felt a bit bad. Mom calls it the smelly ride. She insists that it stinks in there.

We moved along to iaswaa. On the way over we saw a lady in line for Peter Pain faint from the heat. Her family was trying to get the attention of a CM which took what seemed like forever, or at least way too long. The CM finally got on his radio and called someone over. I think that the heat must have gotten to her or something. I felt really bad.

The wait for iaswaa was posted as 5 minutes and it took about that to get on. That ride is so darn cute.

The song can be annoying after a while but still insist on riding each and every trip. We saw a dude in line with the most interesting hair I’ve seen in a while. Sort of “Flock of Seagulls” like but not really. Very hard to describe but I bet it took him a while to get that baby just right before leaving the park. Part of me wanted to ask him if I could take his picture but I thought that it may not be a good idea.

We were all a bit hungry but first we got a FP for Peter Pan...why is it that this ride always requires a FP?

We wanted just a snack and somehow we ended up at Pinocchio’s and all of us ate too much food. Darn, that free dining….lol.

After lunch we went over to Pan since it was our FP return time. I've always wanted to do this:

Next up was Philharmagic. I really, really like this attraction...........a LOT. Matt doesn't care for 3D but he went in anyways. What a good sport!

They were loading the theater when we got there so we had to grab our glasses and get in before the show started. It seems that more attractions than not were either walk ons or no more than a posted 30 minutes, which really meant 20.

We left there and walked on to Snow White.

Next up, the rest of Anniversary celebration.........

Hopefully I am not curing insomnia here.

 

[Hollywoodhaha]

Great pictures!



I know, on BTMRR, With FP's, you walk through the line so fast, you gotta run to keep up!

When we were on Splash, it was backed up SO badly ..then again, it was spring break

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Great pictures!



I know, on BTMRR, With FP's, you walk through the line so fast, you gotta run to keep up!

When we were on Splash, it was backed up SO badly ..then again, it was spring break

Thanks for reading!


I swear, we were sprinting through BTMRR's queue!

I was surprised that Splash didn't have a huge wait. I thought it would with free dining and all.

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Before I go any further I thought I'd post pictures of the steins that I got DH for our anniversary. Here they are. I tried to get front and side shots.

Here are the two that mom gave to him the other day. One is from Germany and the other is stamped West Germany. Seems that they were made at different times.

My dad gave him these last year or so as well.

DH says that if his beloved Steeler's go to the Super Bowl he is going to actually use them.

 

[Dr_Finkelstein]

Mmmmmm Stein porn!

They look fantastic, especially the first one. Do they put them in a box when you buy them or are they specially wrapped in any way, mine will need to go in the luggage and I have concerns that they may get broken in transit if just wrapped up in tissue paper.

If its any consolation Di also suffers from the curse of delayed purchase, she has suffered many, many, many times

Grumpy

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

They do only use tissue paper to wrap the stein but they have boxes for them as well that are quite sturdy. There is a UPS store nearby that you can probably get packing peanuts (styrofoam) which will help. We went to the nearest UPS store and shipped ours home which I know isn't something that would be practical for you to do but they can help you pack them so that they travel safely. Another option that I have done in the past is to wrap the item in a shirt and then put it inside the box. I did that with glasses that we received from CRT and they made it home fine.

Joe tells me over and over again not to think too much if there is a purchase that I want to make while we are there. I ALWAYS do that and end up not being able to find it when I am finally ready to make the purchase.

 

[Dr_Finkelstein]

Thats good to know. Is the UPS on Disney property? I may well get it packaged up and use either Ben or Heather's carry-on allowance. As you can tell the stein will be a purchase of humungous importance to me, it has taken on almost Holy Grail significance!!

 

[Dr_Finkelstein]

Hi Sophia,
Loving the TR so far! Checked with Disney today re the photopass session, and because our confirmation email with our pre purchase mentions the $25 cost for the session, they will honour it. Now its just a case of deciding which resort to get them done at. Decisions, decisions....
Yours all looked fantastic - if we even get a couple of ones as good as you I'll be delighted!
DH is really pleased with the stein photos! He can't wait till he gets his now!
Am seriously thinking about upgrading to POFQ - will phone our travel agent tomorrow and get a price.....after all it's only money, and you can't take it with you when you're gone!
Sez me in the middle of a world wide credit crunch!
Glad you like BTMRR and SM, BTMRR is DDs favourite ride! She screams with delight from beginning to end!
And I can completely sympathise with your bad shopping karma - I too am a lifelong sufferer!
Can't wait to see more!
Di x

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Hi Di,

Please let Grumpy know that the UPS store is not on Disney property but it is very close. I believe it is on Vineland Road. I think that it will be worth the drive to get the proper packing materials for the stein. I also think that wrapping it in a t-shirt before putting it in the box will work as well. If you have a duffle bag or something that you are carrying on, it should fit. I hope he has fun making his selection. There are just so darn many of them! I know that Joe will want to add to his collection when we go again next year.

Glad to hear that they will honor the 25 dollar fee. I really liked the Poly. Our photographer took us all over the resort. We didn't want to get as formal as the Grand Floridian although we will probably do it again next year and be better prepared....meaning my hair won't be all crazy like it was this year and we'll dress better than we did. We were going for very casual this year but I think next year we will try and dress a bit better.

I say go for the upgrade. If there is one thing that have learned, it is that life is just way too short! I think that you will enjoy POFQ. We are going to try CS next year for the first time. I'm excited about that but I would also not hesitate to go back to POFQ. I was not a fan of Riverside though. We did not have a magical experience there however others seem to like it.

My shopping karma stinks and next time I will listen to Joe! I am so darn mad that I didn't get my pink sweatshirt. Just thinking about it gives me a headache.

Sophia