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

[inkedupmomma]

thanks for the update!! i needed it this morning!! so where is stitch??lol

 

[Dr_Finkelstein]

Ok what is a gorillapod and do I need to go buy one today???

Great update. I love the fruit bouquet. So cute! I had a hectic day yesterday so I'm catching up today. Doesnt look like crowds were that bad were they?

I love all the pictures you take.

Hi Shawna,
You are stalking me!!!!!!!
A gorillapod appears to be a tripod for the camera that has bendy legs that you can wrap around things, DH appears to be testing it on chair legs and on the stairs...
He says he needs it for the fireworks....I only recently found out I had a 'firework' setting on my camera. Sophia is obviously a lot more professional at taking photos than I am - I tend to point, shoot and pray.

Di x

 

[AZMickeyfans]

Hi Shawna,
You are stalking me!!!!!!!
A gorillapod appears to be a tripod for the camera that has bendy legs that you can wrap around things, DH appears to be testing it on chair legs and on the stairs...
He says he needs it for the fireworks....I only recently found out I had a 'firework' setting on my camera. Sophia is obviously a lot more professional at taking photos than I am - I tend to point, shoot and pray.

Di x

And here I am again.......


Thanks for the info. ; I'm going to do some research now. I might "need" one of those sounds awesome!!! I take pictures like you do! Most will be blurry in my TR!

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Hi Sophia,

Great updates! I can't wait to try out TSMM!

I'm definately trying the zebra domes when we go to Boma.

Astro Orbitor (or death ride) is terrifying, for me, because it is so high up! And the cars tip you slightly to the side, so I felt as if I was almost tipping out! It's a bit bumpy as well, which seems almost amplified when you are up there!


Not good.

Have you ever had zebra domes? OMG is all I can say!

Ok what is a gorillapod and do I need to go buy one today???

Great update. I love the fruit bouquet. So cute! I had a hectic day yesterday so I'm catching up today. Doesnt look like crowds were that bad were they?

I love all the pictures you take.

Crowds were really light actually. I was surprised being free dining and all!

thanks for the update!! i needed it this morning!! so where is stitch??lol

Who knows! Our photo dude was lame. "hey, now point there and look surprised." nice.......

Hi Shawna,
You are stalking me!!!!!!!
A gorillapod appears to be a tripod for the camera that has bendy legs that you can wrap around things, DH appears to be testing it on chair legs and on the stairs...
He says he needs it for the fireworks....I only recently found out I had a 'firework' setting on my camera. Sophia is obviously a lot more professional at taking photos than I am - I tend to point, shoot and pray.

Di x

Shawna,

Gorillapod ... what Di said! The most important thing is to get one that is the correct size for the camera. Silly me, I nearly bought the wrong freaking one which would have been a total disaster!

Di, for some stupid reason, the firework setting doesn't do me any good on either of my cameras. I really, really want a photography class for Christmas!

 

[Tat2ddisneymom]

Better late than never, right?

Okay I'm here, and I'm wondering why you didn't bring me some of those zebra domes home and send them to me . They look awesome. What's inside?

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Better late than never, right?

Okay I'm here, and I'm wondering why you didn't bring me some of those zebra domes home and send them to me . They look awesome. What's inside?

Yay, you're here! That TR of yours is amazing. Debbie and the brat need a smack upside their freaking heads!

I wish I had a zebra dome now. It's hard to describe exactly what is inside. They are smooth and creamy and have some sort of alcohol in them. I am definitely making a special trip over there JUST for zebra domes next trip!

And I think you need to go back with Jenn and me. I promise you that we are NOT like Debbie!

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Day 7, just 2 days left of our vacation

We slept in a bit this morning. For me, that’s getting up at 7. Joe and I decided that we were going to ship a bunch of stuff home via UPS today. We packed everything up that we wanted to ship and took it with us.

We picked up mom and talked about what to do for breakfast. It was unanimous that we would go off site. Joe suggested Perkins so we put Perkins into our GPS and off we went. We were hoping to find the same one that we went to a few years ago. We get to Perkins, park and go inside. Here at home we refer to Perkins as Poisonous Perkins because one day we met several people at the ER that had breakfast at the same Perkins that we were at and everyone was sick! Ok, so, we go inside and the entire place smells like….well, a combination of dirty dish rag and urine. Yeah, pee. It was so freaking gross. I wanted to turn around and leave but I thought, well, there are people here and maybe it was me imagining the smell. We sit down and all of a sudden, mom sticks to the bench. Eewwww, it appears that someone had sticky syrup hands and rubbed them all over the bench! Ok, so Portia, our server comes over to take our order. She was scary, plain and simple. We put in our order and all of a sudden we hear someone groan. I mean groan like they were in some serious pain. No one could figure out where the groan came from. Then, my darling husband’s 8 year old side comes out when he asks me why the dude with the prostheses leg has a sock on? I wanted to slap him, but he was not being funny. He really couldn’t figure out why. What the hell kind of question is that? I think he was just so overwhelmed by the smell (yeah, he smelled it too), the sticky bench, Portia, the groan…………I could NOT wait to get out of that place! A wasted 50 bucks later we were on our way. We should have eaten at the food court, no matter how sick we were of the food by this time. Hey, I could have had zebra domes for breakfast!

So, breakfast done we set out for UPS…and drove all over the place looking for it! Yeah, GPS sucks people! We finally found it in a shopping center and head in with all of our crap. I was getting really nervous watching the guy pack the stuff. He was slinging stuff around and I had no faith that my stuff would make it home in one piece. He packed two boxes and I insisted on insurance as well. They were on their way with a projected arrival date of Wednesday the following week.

Next up was Walgreens. Mom needed some stuff and Joe was feeling a bit ill and wanted to get Mucinex. He loves that stuff. I hate it. We spent some time there before heading over to DTD again to do the last of the shopping.

We went to DTD on a hunt for my sweatshirt…the one that I should have gotten days ago. No sweatshirt to be found. To drown my sorrows, I suggested getting another slurpy from Goofy’s. We headed over there and I added 2 more of the mugs to my collection. Joe got Goofy and I got Minnie. Yay!!

After shopping we went back to AKL for a rest. We munched on more of the fruit from the basket that I set to Joe and waited for my sister and Matt to get back before heading to MNSSHP!

Next up….MNSSHP and meeting up with Jenn again!

Teaser pictures.................

 

[Tat2ddisneymom]

Oh, man! I hate Perkins almost as much as I hate Wal Mart! I haven't found a good Perkins yet.


And I agree...GPS sucks. Mine has gotten me lost more times than I can count. Of course, if it weren't for the GPS on one occasion, I might still be stuck in Ashtabula driving around Lake Erie looking for a decent place to eat. Sometimes it does come in handy.

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Oh, man! I hate Perkins almost as much as I hate Wal Mart! I haven't found a good Perkins yet.


And I agree...GPS sucks. Mine has gotten me lost more times than I can count. Of course, if it weren't for the GPS on one occasion, I might still be stuck in Ashtabula driving around Lake Erie looking for a decent place to eat. Sometimes it does come in handy.

Yeah, Perkins is disgusting if you ask me. I am not a Wal Mart lover either but I do go occasionally. Sent pictures there from the trip and had to go get them...hey, the price was right! I prefer Target myself. We do however go to Walmart near Disney but it's because I have no clue where there is a target.

My freaking GPS has saved my butt many times but when it screws up, it does it royally. If you could have heard Joe when we were trying to find UPS.

And if you would have kept driving the rim of Lake Erie, you would have passed my house! Hey, come over here next time for lunch.

 

[Tat2ddisneymom]

Yeah, Perkins is disgusting if you ask me. I am not a Wal Mart lover either but I do go occasionally. Sent pictures there from the trip and had to go get them...hey, the price was right! I prefer Target myself. We do however go to Walmart near Disney but it's because I have no clue where there is a target.

My freaking GPS has saved my butt many times but when it screws up, it does it royally. If you could have heard Joe when we were trying to find UPS.

And if you would have kept driving the rim of Lake Erie, you would have passed my house! Hey, come over here next time for lunch.

Really? You never know...I could have passed it. I was lost for like an hour and a half.

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Day 7, Part II

My sister and Matt met us at AKL. She had to stop at DTD to pick up something and then they headed over so that we could go to MNSSHP. She decided to drive separately in case mom wasn't feeling well. That way she could take her back to CBR if she needed to.

Since mom wasn't feeling well to begin with, we did the old park at the Poly trick again because we thought it woud be easier than dealing with the transportation and ticket center, etc.

We had 5:20 ADR's at CP so I wanted to get there early. I think we headed over around 3 or so. I had our tickets so I distributed them out. The last time we were at DTD I had my AP fixed so that I could get FP's, etc., even though I would not need it for MK today because of the party.

We stopped and had Photopass pictures taken at the entrance of the park. Check out my dorky hat!

We wanted to do HM first since we had time to kill before our ADR's.

Walked past this one our way:

And took these on the way to HM.

Notice Matt holding the camera bag? Isn't he awesome!!!!

I love HM and so does Joe. It is one of his favorites. I think he'd ride it 100 times a day if he could.

We then made our way back to the front for our ADR. I love CP for dinner. The food is good and the character interaction is great. I was not ready with the camera this time but I managed these.

After dinner I sent a text to Jenn (inkedupmomma) to see what they were going to do. Hmmm, they still were not sure but it was looking like they were going to stay for their 2nd, yeah, 2nd MNSSHP. They were at dinner and were going to get tickets after. We were up near TOny's by then so Jenn came out to talk to us for a bit. She said she'd text me when they were set.

We still had time so we went over to Buzz. Matt hit the mother load of 393,400 points on that ride! Score! Of course, uncle Joe wanted a rematch. We rode the TTA and then we rode Buzz again and uncle Joe won this time.

After that, Matt got to meet this guy.

From here Matt wanted to ride Indy. None of us are fans so we waited while he and my sister rode. I then zipped out the glow sticks (remember from my pre-trippie?) and I started making stuff so that we were ready when Jenn and her family finally caught up with us.

....we interrupt this trip report....important message from Joe.....yeah, dinner is ready

To Be Continued..................

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Really? You never know...I could have passed it. I was lost for like an hour and a half.

Well, you would have past it if you kept going for an hour or so west past Ashtabula!

 

[inkedupmomma]

omg.. im on tye edge of my seat in suspense..what happens next..oh wait i was there and i am stiil so grateful. this night sealed the deal of our new life long friendship!

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

We left off with Matt and Shelly heading over to Indy. The rest of us found a set, started to make glow stick stuff and waited for Jenn who was stuck on the train. I'll let her tell her train story. I found it quite amusing. Anyway, Matt and Shelly were back so we made these. Picture quality stinks but you get the idea.

We actually had 50 glow sticks with us (I brought 100) and made a lot more stuff too.

Matt wanted to go on Indy again but we didn't want to miss Jenn so we all stayed togethet.....and then............yay, here they are!!!!!

Here is when the events go foggy for me. Frankly, we were all over that dang park!

I know that the first thing that the kids did were the teacups.

Sorry for the picture quality but they had that thing spinning like mad!

Mom wasn't feeling well and it was only around 7 or so. My sister said that she'd take her back to the resport and then come back and meet us. We figured she'd be back in time for the parade, with time to spare. Um, no.

I think we all went on Pooh next, which was a walk on of course. Kayla and Matt rode together. . From Pooh I believe we headed over to Dumbo. Jenn, Joe and I didn't ride. Joe took this picture of Jenn and I.

Hmmm, I think we went over to the dance party next. The kids were having fun but let me tell you, our friend Pluto was bustin' some serious moves!

Here is Jack and Pluto.

Jack dancing around Pluto

Matt and Kayla deciding if they were going to join in the fun or not. I'm thinking that one of them may have been planning their future. *just kidding*

Jenn watching everyone party!

Kayla turned just as I clicked the picture but no worries, here is the back of her hair that glowed in the dark rides. Too cool......

I LOVE this next picture. I'm thinking that SOMEONE may have been contemplating grabbing SOMEONE's tail! OMG, how freaking cute!

Here are the kids after the dance party. We were trying to make tracks and get on as many rides as possible since it was time for the first parade so Jenn had them get in the stroller so we could boogie faster.

We made our way over to Philharmagic which I love, love, love.

I thougth Jenn said that they had not seen it before. How could that be???? So in we went. OMG, I get the chills everytime. Especially when I see Lumiere. He's my boyfriend ya know.

After leaving Philharmagic we went to find our spot for the Hallow-Wishes. Matt reminded me of our fireworks tradition of always grabbing a Casey's dog before the fireworks start. Jenn was walking over for snacks...I think she said ice cream so I walked that way with her and took Matt along as well. Casey's was so freaking confusing. We just wanted hot dogs not the meals. I had no clue what I was doing at this point but I know this. I left there spending over 25 bucks for 4 hotdogs. We noticed that they were smaller too but whatever. I was so freaking confused leaving that place.

Ok, so it was my turn to use the new camera which I stink at. I asked Joe to help me take set the camera up. We could not use the gorillapod from the where we were so I had to hold my breath, rest my arms against my body and start shootin. I took a zillion pictures. Well, more like a couple hundred. Here are a few of them.

So by this time I was wondering where my sister was. Well, that would be Sea World! She got LOST! Um, she had a GPS with her too. They ended up pulling over in this not so nice place and setting up the GPS to get back to CBR. I think they said it took them like and hour and a half to get from the Poly to CBR. Nice. Needless to say my sister was not coming back.

We moved along to HM. Joe was so happy to ride this at night! He loves HM so much. I rode with Matt and showed him the hidden mickey on the table. After we left we found that we had a ghost following us home.

Check out this tree. I am bummed that I didn't drag out the camera and try for a better picture.

After HM we went to stake out our place for the parade. For years and years now Joe and I have never been able to get a shot of the headless horseman.....and this freaking year was no different. It is definitely us. We just never have been able to get one. Hence, the reason for the 5 cameras that we have. Who in the he** buys cameras to get a better picture of a headless horseman? That would be us. Well now we have come the realization that it is the user, not the flippin camera. Ok, back to my story. We were walking along and there was a stoller in our way so we moved it about an inch. This lady comes over out of nowhere pretty much all nasty that we touched her stroller. Calm down, we were just trying to get by. We found our spot and got ready for the parade. Jack missed it. He was asleep. OMG is he a cutie. I wanted to take his picture but I didn't want a flash in his face to wake him.

Continued on next post...........

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

I love the Boo to You parade.....boo to you, and you...happy Halloween!

The parade was awesome. I was bummed that we didn't try and see the first one to get a shot of the headless horseman and if we failed, we would have gotten a second chance but there is always next year.

We went over to PotC after the parade. Again, a walk on. I love that ride. I hear that there is a hidden Mickey in one of the scenes before the drop but I can't find it for the life of me. Neither can Joe.

After PotC we moved along to BTMRR. I wanted to experience the ride in the dark. Joe was really feeling crappy by this time so he sat this one out. I rode with Matt and Jenn rode with Kayla. Jenn will most certainly describe Kayla before and after every ride in her TR. Rather amusing.

John was watching Jack and he and Joe were making fast friends. Yay.

The kids wanted to ride again so John took them back on the ride.

We were so exhausted by this point and it was getting late. John had read or heard that the monorails closed at 11 so we wanted to confirm that they were open later since the park itself didn't close til 12. I found a CM and did that becuase Joe was concerned...my response...what are they gonna do, make us walk across the water or something?

My feet were killing me and as much as I wanted to do Splash in the dark, I just could not. I felt like I was going to pass out.

We all made our way out of the park. We had been trick or treating along the way, but we were not serious about it if you know what I mean. On the way out the kids got candy by the handfuls since the park was closing.

We made our way to the resort monorail and rode over to our cars and said our goodnight's.

I have to tell you guys how much fun we had with Jenn (inkedupmomma) and her family. Gotta love the DIS. Made new friends forever.

Next up, our last full day

 

[TammyTinker]

LOVE Your Trip Report... thanks for sharing!

 

[Hollywoodhaha]

I love the Philharmagic photo; it has the castle in the background!


Great photos. I have always wanted to go to disney during a holiday like halloween or christmas but we have too much family.

Maybe in 2 years when I graduate ... or maybe in less than a year when I can drive

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

LOVE Your Trip Report... thanks for sharing!

Hi, thanks for joining!

I love the Philharmagic photo; it has the castle in the background!


Great photos. I have always wanted to go to disney during a holiday like halloween or christmas but we have too much family.

Maybe in 2 years when I graduate ... or maybe in less than a year when I can drive

I have always liked MNSSHP. I really want to go to MVMCP. We were there once around Christmas and it was packed. DH said never again.

I tried to get more of the castle in the Philharmagic picture but that's all I could do.

 

[inkedupmomma]

yay!!! awesome update! I LOVEEEEE that pic of my kids and pluto..sooo funny!! Kayla and i were talking about what we will do different next year to make the trip even better then this year!! yes folks I am raising a disney fanatic and i'm so stoked about that! Next year I def have to do mnsshp 2 x again.. one night for candy and pics with characters and another just for rides and parades! you on board with that??

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Um, YEAH!!!!!!!!! 2 MNSSHP's it is! Yay! Great idea! Hmm, I see a pre-trippie in my near future so that I don't forget any of this stuff!