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

[OhioDisneyLover]

So, I left off with Snow White.........

After we rode Snow White we moved along to Pooh which was a 5 minute wait, aka, a walk on.

It was parade time and I think most people were watching the parade which was probably the reason that most things were walk ons. This is the first year that I never did get to see the 3 o'clock parade at MK. I am bummed out. Joe could care less but me, I LOVE them. I am mad at myself for not insisting.

Mom really wanted to see if we could find the solar powered necklaces so we went over to Star Traders and they had them. Yay! She was so happy.

Next we hit Buzz, which was also a walk on. In fact, I was trying to text Jenn and I got separated from the rest of my group. The line was flying. Joe is the video game king. In fact, he is playing xbox 360 right now. Sometimes I think I married a very large 12 year old. He likes to win when it comes to Buzz and in fact, most of the time he does. He beat me big time this run. We always buy the first set of pictures when we do Buzz. Matt decided that he wanted to go alone so Shelly and mom rode together. It's funny because most of the time mom just sits there holding her purse during Buzz. We laugh at her big time although you can see here that she actually played the game this time! Yay! I had to scan these pictures on our scanner and needless to say, it kicked my a** so they are not the best.

We exited Buzz and went over towards the TTA for a spin. We stopped by to see Stitch because NO ONE was there. I couldn't believe that absolutely NO ONE at all. We ended up getting to spend quite a bit of time with Stitch so that was cool.

Once others came to see Stitch we rode the TTA. It's a nice way to relax and the view from there is nice as well.

We have talked about the Astro Orbiter for years now. We have never gone up there to ride and this year we decided what the the heck. Mom wanted to sit this one out so the rest of us headed up there. Get this, Joe and I didn't fit in a rocket ship...now, why the he** I thought we would is beyond me so at the last minute, I chickened out and didn't ride. He was so mad at me for doing that. I have been yapping about that stupid thing forever and then I backed out. My goal next year is to be able to fit into a rocket ship with Joe so I MUST go from Pooh sized to rabbit sized by next year.

We decided that Monsters, Inc. would be next and you guessed it, no wait. We walked in just in time for the pre-show. I really enjoy Monsters, Inc. partly because it seems different to me each time. Not totally different but enough where it's worth doing at least once each trip.

After Monsters we headed over to CRT for our ADR's. Yay!! Here is the menu:

We checked in and went inside to meet Cindy. She is just so beautiful.

continued on next post..........

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

After our picture with Cindy we waited for what seemed to be forever. Frankly, it was the longest wait of the entire trip.

We were seated and I was surprised to find that our table was decorated with Mickey confetti. I didn't takre a picture though.

We checked out the menu and no one could decided what they wanted.

This is for you Jenn.

Matt wasn't very impressed with the menu but he got the chicken and surprisingly, he did eat some of it.

I LOVED my salad. It was YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had the pasta with the sauce on the side which I did not care for.

Joe's selection.

Our CM wasn't very friendly. In fact, I had made CM thank you cards before I left and I have to say, she did NOT get one. Yeah, like it's a big deal to get a thank you card from little ol' me or something, right? It was hard to get her attention and I felt like she just slung our food at us or something.

So the fairy godmother came out to celebrate birthday's, anniversaries, etc. and the family that won the night at the castle was dining there so we all congratulated them. Our CM server comes over and slings a cupcake with a candle in front of Matt and says "happy birthday." He says, "it's not my birthday, it is their anniversary." She say's "oh" and pitches this thing in front of Joe and then walks away.

She never even said "happy anniversary." I was bummed and frankly, thankful that I wasn't able to coordinate Joe's steins to be delivered there. After that she comes back with our checks, which she had to do over again and plops down this box in front of me. I asked her what this was and she says, "oh, your anniversary glasses." Did I even get to see them...um, no. To tell you the truth, I was really disappointed. It will not stop me from going back there but it was really quite un-magical.

We left there and I wanted to show mom the wishing well since I don't think she's ever seen it...even though she's been there like 5 times or so.

Check out Matt in this picture!!!

Took these too.

After dinner we did a bit more shopping and then headed to the train station to claim our spot for Wishes. There was no Spectro that night which bummed me out but there is always next time.

Joe went to the locker to get the better camera and we went upstairs to claim our seats. We got a gorilla pod to see if that would help us take more stable pictures. Joe attached it to the railing and I sat there crossing my freaking fingers that the thing would not take a dive off the railing and klunk someone on the head.

We still need to read about the camera and to take a class or two, but here are some of the pictures that he was able to take.

continued on next post.............

 

[Hsminnie]

Day 5, Part II

Hopefully I am not curing insomnia here.

I just found you 20 mins ago and haven't stopped reading. What a fabulous time and a great family. Seems like you are all taking diversity in stride! Glad you had so much fun!!!

Happy Anniversary!!

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

I just found you 20 mins ago and haven't stopped reading. What a fabulous time and a great family. Seems like you are all taking diversity in stride! Glad you had so much fun!!!

Happy Anniversary!!

Thanks for joining!!!

And thanks for the anniversary wishes!!

 

[Hollywoodhaha]

Ack! LOVED IT!

 

[Dr_Finkelstein]

I too have bought a gorillapod, determined to take better firework shots this time. So far I have been wrapping around chair legs, its endlessly entertaining. You got some great shots of the display

Grumpy

 

[Hsminnie]

We have talked about the Astro Orbiter for years now. We have never gone up there to ride and this year we decided what the the heck. Mom wanted to sit this one out so the rest of us headed up there. Get this, Joe and I didn't fit in a rocket ship...now, why the he** I thought we would is beyond me so at the last minute, I chickened out and didn't ride. He was so mad at me for doing that. I have been yapping about that stupid thing forever and then I backed out. My goal next year is to be able to fit into a rocket ship with Joe so I MUST go from Pooh sized to rabbit sized by next year.

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will never be rabbit sized, but I had gastric bypass surgery and lost a bunch of weight. So now, I'm 5'11" and about 195. My 16yo daughter is 5'8" and 155. We wedged, in a fit of insanity, ourselves into a spaceship or deathtrap or whatever you want to call it. We thought we would die. We really did. And she will ride ANYTHING!! Our bodies were smooshed and pushed and pulled in ways no body should ever be!! I have never been so happy to see the ground! It took 10 mins to get out of the thing. So, your size, which you are confused about anyway according to the pics, has nothing to do with the nightmare Astro Orbiter is!!! Our pet name for it is "DeathRide" Seriously.

 

[inkedupmomma]

ready for the next installment!

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

As luck would have it, we did not lose the gorilla pod or the camera during Wishes. The only issue that we had were the people that kept slamming into the railing. The goal was to try and keep the camera steady but we did the best that we could.

Here are a couple of other pictures that I took with the point and shoot from the train station before Wishes.

By this time we were all ready to go. Everyone was moody and tired. We jumped on the montrail and as luck would have it, our car was still there.

My sister was taking Matt to Tampa to see his Nana. They planned to be back by Friday mid-morning. Mom was worried about them driving down there that late at night but they made it just fine.

I had sent Joe an edible arrangement to our resort for our anniversary. When we got back to the resort there was a message on our machine. Before I could get to it, I saw this on the bed:

There is a very tiny little Mickey crystal attached to the stem. It is so pretty.

And then there was this:

I was so surprised especially since Joe already gave me gifts before we left home.

I listened to the message that said to call down to the desk because they had a delivery for us in the fridge down at the desk. I called back and no one could find it. I got a bit nervous and told them that they were the ones that left me the message so I'd appreciate it if they would look a little harder. A few minutes went by and the manager called to say that they could not locate it. I asked her to listen to the voice mail that was left for me and to ask the person that left the message where the delivery was. She kept asking me to describe it and Joe was standing right next to me. I told her that it was a gift for my husband and that it was labeled with his name on it. OMG, 20 minutes later they call back and say that they found it and it is on its way to the room. By the time it got to us, it was nearly 11:30 at night or even later. I was happy though because he liked it!

That ends our 8th wedding anniversary celebration.

Next up: It's just us and Mom for the day!

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will never be rabbit sized, but I had gastric bypass surgery and lost a bunch of weight. So now, I'm 5'11" and about 195. My 16yo daughter is 5'8" and 155. We wedged, in a fit of insanity, ourselves into a spaceship or deathtrap or whatever you want to call it. We thought we would die. We really did. And she will ride ANYTHING!! Our bodies were smooshed and pushed and pulled in ways no body should ever be!! I have never been so happy to see the ground! It took 10 mins to get out of the thing. So, your size, which you are confused about anyway according to the pics, has nothing to do with the nightmare Astro Orbiter is!!! Our pet name for it is "DeathRide" Seriously.

OMG, I am laughing right now! Joe was so freaking mad at me for not riding that ride. He wasn't thrilled about it when he got off of the dang thing. Hmm, maybe I need to rethink my position about wanting to ride it! "Deathride" ... I like that description.

I too have bought a gorillapod, determined to take better firework shots this time. So far I have been wrapping around chair legs, its endlessly entertaining. You got some great shots of the display

Grumpy

Let me know what you end up attaching the gorillapod too! The only thing that we could think of was going up to the train station and using the railing! Silly us, we didn't even try it out before we left and we didn't take the tripod just in case either!

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Ack! LOVED IT!

Thanks!

 

[inkedupmomma]

OMG. that edible arrangement looks amazing.. i'm gonna have to make john get me one of those for something lol.. but with the choc covered strawberries!! those are yumtastic!!u and how sweet is Joe!!!! All those gifts.. hopefully some of that will rub off on john.. they should start being email pals like us ok.. more please...

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Lately we have not done birthday gifts for each other. We like to celebrate our anniversary. Girlie, I was 38 flippin years old when I got married! I waited THAT long so I am thankful for every day. I could have done it earlier and I am so glad that I didn't because I would have missed out on the one that I got!

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

...and the edible arrangement was awesome. It took us 3 days to eat most of it. Mom helped. We only left a few pieces. The Disney themed arrangement didn't include chocolate strawberries and I didn't want to do a special order. We can't get the Disney theme up here. I like to send those instead of flowers when I can.

Hmmm, maybe I will get Joe to drop some hints to John!

 

[inkedupmomma]

...and the edible arrangement was awesome. It took us 3 days to eat most of it. Mom helped. We only left a few pieces. The Disney themed arrangement didn't include chocolate strawberries and I didn't want to do a special order. We can't get the Disney theme up here. I like to send those instead of flowers when I can.

Hmmm, maybe I will get Joe to drop some hints to John!

yes please!

 

[Dr_Finkelstein]

Hi Sophia,
Your anniversary looks great! Shame about the CM at CRT though!

I have to agree with the PP about the 'death ride'. I love rollercoasters normally - The Hulk, Duelling Dragons, Kraken, BTMRR is a bit tame for me......
I was petrified on Astro Orbitor!!!!!! It's only a Dumbo ride, but you're up so high - I kept thinking I was going to fall out. Never again.....
Keep posting!
Di x

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Hi Sophia,
Your anniversary looks great! Shame about the CM at CRT though!

I have to agree with the PP about the 'death ride'. I love rollercoasters normally - The Hulk, Duelling Dragons, Kraken, BTMRR is a bit tame for me......
I was petrified on Astro Orbitor!!!!!! It's only a Dumbo ride, but you're up so high - I kept thinking I was going to fall out. Never again.....
Keep posting!
Di x

I am so glad now that I didn't get on Astro! Is it just because of the height or does babies go faster than it looks?


I plan to get back to my TR in the next day or two. Been super busy at work and I practically pass out when I get home at night!

 

[OhioDisneyLover]

Day 6

My sister and nephew were in Tampa this day so it was Joe, mom and me. Joe and I went over to Old Port Royale with mom for breakfast. It was quite busy over there and I was afraid that we’d never make rope drop at DHS.

We drove over to DHS and it seemed like the back check line took forever. We then found the worst possible line to get into at the entry gate. OMG, it was insane! Once through there, we handed Joe our tickets so that he could dash over to TSMM to get FP’s for all of us. If the line was reasonable, we were going to get in it and ride, then ride again with FP’s. Mom was actually looking forward to this one.

So little did we know, we’d only get to the first intersection and then we’d stop for the opening show! That took forever and a day. Mom and I were separated from Joe but we figured we’d catch up with him. Once they let everyone in, there was a mad dash, and I mean a mad dash, to TSMM. It was crazy people all over the freaking place. It was like a mad house and frankly, a bit frightening as well. We saw Joe in the FP line and he told us to go ahead and get in line for the ride and that he'd catch up with us. Well, remember the who FP dilemma with my freaking ticket???? Yeah, it took him over 20 minutes to get us FP’s because of me. Mom and I got in line with a posted wait of 30 minutes. Well, it was moving really fast and we totally lost Joe. My cell phone didn’t work in there and I had no clue what to do. We got all the way up to where you get glasses when I saw him twisting his way though the line to catch up. There were a LOT of others doing the same thing, which I normally don’t like because I feel that it's cutting in line, but we were all in the same boat because of the incredible mad house and lack of organization. Everyone was apologizing to everyone else because parties were separated, etc. and all they wanted to do was catch up to their families. No one was complaining so that made me feel better....even though I really don't like doing this at all! Joe got up to where we were and had a fit over me still not getting my AP changed out the last time this happened. He had 2 FPs for 10:15 and the other was for 10:50. That’s how long it took the CM to deal with the issue.

I did get to take these while we were in line.

I rode with mom because she had never ridden before. She kept asking me what to do, all the while kicking my a**! I finally beat her during the bonus round. Yay! Mom ended with 76,300 which wasn’t bad for her first time and I ended with 85,500. We didn’t do great, but hey, we had fun. Joe rode with a lady that had never ridden before and his final score was 139,000.

We headed over to GMR while we waited for our FP time for TSMM. It was the most interesting ride ever on GMR this time. First off, it too was a walk on. An immediate walk on. Our CM had an oriental accent and it was really tough to understand what he was saying. We were on the western side and our “bad guy” was a girl. It was so darn odd to say the least. Fun, but hard to understand most of the time. If it was our first time on GMR, I would have been clueless as to what was going on. We had fun though. Didn’t take pictures this time.

We went back over to TSMM after GMR. I rode with mom again and as the last time, she beat me up until the bonus round. We really wanted Matt to experience this so we decided that we would definitely be back on Sunday before we headed to the airport.

We did the Backlot tour next. I have not done that in years and years and was surprised by the changes. I have to say I miss the old Golden Girls house.

After Backlot we headed over to the Stage Deli (I think that’s the name) for a quick bit to eat. I have never been there before and I found the food to be good. I had the pulled pork sandwich. I did not have high expectations but I was surprised that it was as good as it was.

I wanted to see if we could catch 4 for a Dollar since it was close to the end of their contract and I really, really enjoy seeing them.

Also, Beauty and the Beast is my favorite show. We headed over and didn’t wait long to get in. As usual, it was awesome. I know that some people are tired of BatB, but not me. I LOVE that show!

Not so good pictures but that's okay I guess.

We did a bit of shopping and decided to head back to the AKL for a rest. It was so freaking hot that day!

On the way out, we had this taken. So, where is Stitch?

The photographer took this too:

We went to AKL and snacked on fruit. Mom watched the animals a bit and then we decided to head to the junk stores in Kissimmee.

What a bust that shopping trip was! This is the first time that we have not found anything worth while at the junk stores, but I guess that’s why we call them junk stores!

We had no dinner plans so we discussed what we’d do for dinner. Shelly and Matt were not going to return until the next day so we canceled our ADRs at Hollywood and Vine and had no plans for the evening.

We decided on BOMA but once again, with no ADR I was worried that we would not get in. Joe went to the podium in the lobby of the AKL and asked how long the wait would be. 45 minutes? SCORE! Yay!

We wondered into the gift shop to look around a bit while we waited for the buzzer to go off. I think it was around 30 minutes and we were in! Yay! I of course headed right for the coconut rice however….there WASN’T ANY this day!! Aahhhhhhhhhhh, I was so upset. We enjoyed our meal and of course, guess who had more zebra domes????? Yeah, me!

I was a bit worried about mom being at CBR alone. She said that she’d be fine so we dropped her off after dinner. We went inside with her so that she could get settled and then we made plans to pick her up the next morning.

Next up....... we're going to MNSSHP tonight! Yay!

 

[Dr_Finkelstein]

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.

 

[AZMickeyfans]

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.