The 3 Girls Do Disney President's Week! A TR with Tons of Pics! *UPDATE* DONE!!!

[ShannonMB]

just found your trip report and I am loving it!
Your DD is so cute! thanks for sharing your trip

Oh, Lily will love seeing your comment about her! Thank you so much for joining us! It's more fun to write a TR when people are reading!

 

[ShannonMB]

What a great trip report. I can't believe how much you and Lily get done in a day. Looking forward to reading more about your trip.

I haven't figured out how to reply to multiple quotes in the same reply while still having the poster's name above it, so I'll just reply individually I guess!

We did get a lot done, I thought we did great considering it was Pres week and supposed to be so busy. I guess we are commandos without meaning to be -- there's just so much to see!! If we go back in Nov (I'm HOPING!), I'm planning to be a little more laid back. I don't know if we can, but we'll try! It's so tiring the way we have done it so far!

 

[ShannonMB]

Wonderful pictures.... Crystal Palace sounds like it was fun. I will have to try that next time..... Can't wait to read more....

I actually had to talk Lily in to CP, she said Pooh is too babyish. As you can see from the pics, she LOVED the characters and has decided Pooh and friends aren't that babyish after all! We will definitely return there, hopefully next time for breakfast. YUM!

Thank you very much for reading my report!

 

[ShannonMB]

too funny cause I have the same camera and my pics aren't nearly as good..what am I doing wrong??

metpro
Marthas Vineyard

Now what are the chances of that? Maybe I really AM a great photographer! JK!!! I just point and shoot, really. The nighttime pics really throw me for a loop and sometimes I do turn off the flash when it comes on automatically. But honestly I don't know how to use most of the special settings, so . I'm glad you like my pics, though. I'm usually jealous of other peoples', they always seem better than mine to me.

 

[ShannonMB]

What a great report! I have really enjoyed everything! I love those Pirate mickey ears!!! Maybe one of my boys will get them when we go!

Hi!! Thanks for joining me!!! I LOVE those pirate ears, they're the cutest ones, to me. I'm sure your boys will be all for it!

Thanks again for reading!

 

[MEK]

thanks for your lovely trip report. You may not have mastered night time photos, but your day time photos are beautiful and so is your daughter. You really managed to do a lot so far. Nice food pics, too!

 

[MadiMouse]

Well, I am here to stay honey and yes I am a new friend!!!

Your DD is sooo cute!!!!
Okay, now back to

 

[GeminiAngel]

I loved Crystal Palace!!! That chocolate whiskey cake!! OMG is that good!
Lilly is so sweet, So glad you got her backpack.

 

[amandaluvsgoofy]

Hi! I'm fairly new to DIS but am loving it! And I love your posts! My hubby and I are going to WDW this August, his first time!!
Looking forward to reading more for great ideas!! Thanks so much!!

 

[ShannonMB]

thanks for your lovely trip report. You may not have mastered night time photos, but your day time photos are beautiful and so is your daughter. You really managed to do a lot so far. Nice food pics, too!

Hi MEK! WOW, how nice of you! Thanks a lot for reading! I really appreciate the kind words and I'm so glad you're enjoying my report.

Well, I am here to stay honey and yes I am a new friend!!!
Your DD is sooo cute!!!!

MadiMouse... Yay, a DIS friend, the best kind! Too bad there's not much trip left (one more day ), but hopefully I'll have a trip in November and another report! Oh, I hope, I hope!

I loved Crystal Palace!!! That chocolate whiskey cake!! OMG is that good!
Lilly is so sweet, So glad you got her backpack.

Hi GeminiAngel! Thanks for checking out the latest. Great to "see" you. I gotta go see what's new on your report next. I'm so glad we found that backpack, too. Those autographs are worth more than gold to that kid of mine! Whew, close call!!

Hi! I'm fairly new to DIS but am loving it! And I love your posts! My hubby and I are going to WDW this August, his first time!!
Looking forward to reading more for great ideas!! Thanks so much!!

Amandakatehunter, aren't you so glad you found the DISboards!! Don't know how much you've gotten into it yet, but it is really addictive. My DH is starting to feel a little neglected at times, I think. I think it's GOOD for our relationship, though, because after Lily goes to bed, I can be on the boards and he can watch whatever crapola he wants on TV or listen to his XM radio with no complaints from me! We're still hanging out together, after all!

Anyway, I hope your DH has a BLAST on his first trip!! Make sure he knows it's not like a regular amusement park, because even though I KEPT telling DH that for his first trip, he kept asking, "WHERE ARE MORE BIG RIDES!" I hope he LOVES it!!! Thanks a lot for reading my TR. It's great to have you!

 

[chumsmum0916]

Day 4, cont...

So now our pearls were done. Here are the settings. Lily's of course is the L with the pinkish pearl dangling. We will do this at every trip, it really was fun!

We found the kaki gori stand, and I had been wanting to try this after hearing about it on the DISboards. We got a rainbow one, which had melon, tangerine, and cherry. YUMMY! Looks like a snowcone, but WAY better!

Next stop, Germany. I am really going to have to try the Biergarten on our next trip!!

I love this miniature village. I have always loved miniatures.

Then who do we see, but Snow White and Dopey. Lily was really digging how many characters she was getting autrographs from, so I was happy to stand in the lines for them. None of them were too bad, maybe 10-15 min.

Then we went over to China. WS is so pretty!

And we saw Mulan. Mushu had the day off, I guess...

We walked through Norway, but unfortunately didn't really have enough time to ride Maelstrom (which had been on my list - haven't tried it yet. It was a 50 min wait), or get schoolbread (also on my list). We were getting tired and were slowly making our way back over to Canada by way of the front of WS.

We did stop and ride the 3 Caballeros (sp) in Mexico. It's a cute ride, and there was no wait. The whole inside of the Mexico pavillion is really cool. My pics were a little blurry, so I'll skip them here.

I did get a beautiful shot after we left Mexico. Epcot is REALLY spectacular at night.

And one with these great flowers...

FINALLY it was time for LeCellier. We were just exhausted after this day! And when we got to the restaurant, there was a really long wait. We had gotten there 15 min early for our 7:05pm ADR, and we waited till almost 7:30 to be seated. It's so small in the entry, and it was getting really chilly outside, so it was cramped and uncomfortable. Super sadly, I was having a camera SNAFU, so I wasn't able to take pics of our meal. I'm sure you've all seen the food there, anyway.

We all absolutely LOVED the pretzel bread. I also really liked the cheese soup. Lily had onion soup, which was okay. No huge gob of melted cheese on top, which is the best part. Mom had the filet with mushroom risotto, I had the strip steak with cream cheese mashed potatoes and spinach augratin, and Lily had the kids grilled steak. For dessert we had the chocolate moose, ice cream, and I think Mom had cheesecake or something. We all agreed the food was awesome here. My steak was perfect!!! I know we will try to go back at some point, but it isn't necessarily a must-do for every trip, I can't really explain why. Maybe I was just so tired, and the wait annoyed me? I don't know. Anyway, it was very good!!!!!!

We had semi-planned to stay for Illuminations, but we were all so tired and cranky by this point, we just decided to head out and beat the crowd to the busses. Which we did. I was sorry to have missed Illuminations, but there's always next trip!

Whew, after an EXTREMELY long day, we went back to the room and crashed immediately. What a day 4!!

We haven't unfortunately been through all of WS, but hoping to do it and enjoy it the next time we go (Sept'09) as went with a friend from work and her daughter and friends DD wasn't too much into trying much! I am planning on going with my DD and taking it all in (or as much as we can handle lol). I got a recipe from my friend for the cheese soup and made it 2 weeks ago, if it's as good at the restaurant I am def thinking of doing this as a TS when we go! Send me a PM if you would like the recipe and I will send it to you!
I am really enjoying reading your trip report, it must have taken you quite some time to do all of this! Can't wait to see how the rest of your trip went!

 

[ShannonMB]

We haven't unfortunately been through all of WS, but hoping to do it and enjoy it the next time we go (Sept'09) as went with a friend from work and her daughter and friends DD wasn't too much into trying much! I am planning on going with my DD and taking it all in (or as much as we can handle lol). I got a recipe from my friend for the cheese soup and made it 2 weeks ago, if it's as good at the restaurant I am def thinking of doing this as a TS when we go! Send me a PM if you would like the recipe and I will send it to you!
I am really enjoying reading your trip report, it must have taken you quite some time to do all of this! Can't wait to see how the rest of your trip went!

I'm so glad you're here and enjoying my report!!! WS is a strange, beautiful thing. I STILL don't feel as though I know how to do it right. Am I missing stuff? Did we do a good job seeing lots? I don't know!! It's so overwhelming, I guess is the thing! We're just going to keep checking it out on each trip and try to discover new, awesome things to do (like the pearls, finding characters, trying the snacks, looking for photo ops). I hope you have a great time when you go, and make sure you send a shout-out if you discover something wonderful!!!!

I would LOVE that cheese soup recipe. I'm off now to see if I can figure out how to send you a PM!

 

[chumsmum0916]

It worked and I got them! lol... I will def try to send you that recipe that is for sure a must try (did you know it has beer in it?)
Friends of mine who are avid yearly Disney go'ers love Epcot and her hubby loves to try all the different beers of the world.
I am wondering where you found the "pop/soda" fountains to try the different ones of the world? We didn't even see that...and def looking at doing the pick a pearl thing in Japan. My friend (also on here) did it as well, and her's is gorgeous!
ttys...

 

[ShannonMB]

It worked and I got them! lol... I will def try to send you that recipe that is for sure a must try (did you know it has beer in it?)
Friends of mine who are avid yearly Disney go'ers love Epcot and her hubby loves to try all the different beers of the world.
I am wondering where you found the "pop/soda" fountains to try the different ones of the world? We didn't even see that...and def looking at doing the pick a pearl thing in Japan. My friend (also on here) did it as well, and her's is gorgeous!
ttys...

Got that cheese soup recipe. THANK YOU! I'm thinking of going to the store today to get the stuff to make it!

The different pops of the world are found at a place called "Club Cool", a little place you can go in and buy candy and such, and try all the pops. I didn't know a thing about it till I heard about it on the boards. We found it when we were coming out of the "Land" pavilion, I saw one of those arrow signs pointing to Club Cool right around there. It was fun to try something different!

 

[30ishmom]

Just found your TR and I love it!! Looks like you had a great time!! And your DD is so cute!

We'll be in WDW in a few weeks with our DD5 and our DS1. I hope we get to see as many characters as you did! I didn't know there were so many characters that hung out in Epcot.

Quick question, if you don't mind....did you find it was rushed with the characters (at the parks and at the character dining) to take pics and get autographs? My DD5 mentioned she wanted to get characters autographs this time, but I didn't know if it would be too crazy, especially at the restaurants...although it looks like your DD had a lot of fun with it!!

 

[ShannonMB]

Just found your TR and I love it!! Looks like you had a great time!! And your DD is so cute!

We'll be in WDW in a few weeks with our DD5 and our DS1. I hope we get to see as many characters as you did! I didn't know there were so many characters that hung out in Epcot.

Quick question, if you don't mind....did you find it was rushed with the characters (at the parks and at the character dining) to take pics and get autographs? My DD5 mentioned she wanted to get characters autographs this time, but I didn't know if it would be too crazy, especially at the restaurants...although it looks like your DD had a lot of fun with it!!

Hi 30ishmom!

I'm so glad you found our report! Thanks so much for joining us!

We didn't get near as many character autographs on our first trip as this time, because we were really busy seeing everything. This time, I was really surprised how into it Lily was, so we spent a little more time doing it.

It can definitely be time consuming to do it at the parks! In pics it always looks like you just bumped into them, but in reality you have to wait in a line. They're not too bad, though, maybe 10 minutes usually. We just totally lucked out at Epcot seeing so many of them, we didn't have their schedules or anything, we just were in the right place at the right time! I do think that the parks have schedules of when and where they will be throughout the day, at least that's what I've read. At Animal Kingdom, the Camp Minnie-Mickey area usually has them out most of the day (those lines can be LONG), and I think they have them most of the time at Rafiki's Planet Watch also (Jiminy Cricket, Pocahantas, Rafiki). Of course MK has the tents in Toontown to see the princesses and Pixie Hollow with Tink and friends. I'm sure you've read how crazy the lines are for THAT one! HS also has several meet and greet areas, but we didn't happen upon any of them. You really just get a quick minute with them to get your hugs, autograph, and pictures, but Lily really did enjoy it!

I do love the character meals for autographs! In our experience you still don't get tons of time with them, but it's really convenient to have them come to YOU instead of waiting in line. I would book at least a couple of them if your DD really wants to see them (especially the princesses)! This was our first time seeing them at a buffet, and I was worried it would be hard to coordinate getting your food with when the characters are coming around, but it wasn't bad at all. Plenty of time to get food, eat, and see all the characters. I recommend it, totally!

Whew, sorry for such a long reply! Ask any other questions you have, and I'll try to answer. We are by no means experts on character meets, but we did pretty well this last trip!

 

[ShannonMB]

DAY 6 -- ANOTHER MK DAY!!!
Thur, 2/19

Well, sadly, this is Lily and my last day at WDW. Our plane was set to take off on Friday morning, so this was it! Boohoo, waaaaaaa.

Honestly, though, we had done so well seeing so much stuff, and I was pretty warn out after our week. I was also not feeling very well, feeling something coming on, for sure.

This morning, we decided that since we had done so well at MK the day before, we didn't need to hit rope-drop again. I was totally looking forward to sleeping in a little!

We woke up at maybe 8:30-9am, but I really wasn't feeling too well, so I decided to go back to bed for a little bit. Lily and Mom went down to the food court and had breakfast and tootled around in the gift shop for a while, then I finally got up and ready at about 10:30am. Okay, time to get ready to go! We had a 1:35 ADR for Cinderella's Royal Table, and wanted to do at least a little bit before our lunch ressie.

We ended up getting to MK just before noon. The sky looked pretty threatening, and it was drizzling a little. We hadn't done anything at Tomorrowland the day before, so that was our plan for this day. We popped over and grabbed fast passes for Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, then happened upon Buzz!

Cool! Buzz actually has a stamp for his autograph. Guess he can't sign very well with his big hands.

By this point, it was starting to rain, so we got our ponchos out and decided to head over to the castle and see if we could check in a little early for our lunch. By the time we got there, it was POURING. Eeew!! I think a little rain would be okay and keep the crowds down, but a downpour is NOT FUN at MK!! Luckily we had those $1 ponchos from Target!!! I had bought several of them before our trip so we could just throw them away when we were done with them instead of trying to pack up wet ponchos. Good idea, Shan!!!

 

[ShannonMB]

Day 6, cont...


We got to the castle, and waited for our turn to see Cindy!!

These little guys up in the rafters are SUCH a cute touch!

.

The castle sure is pretty inside!

A wet Lily meets Cinderella before heading up for lunch...

Then we headed up the royal staircase and were seated. We had a pretty nice table and could see Fantasyland through the window.

When we went to breakfast on our last trip, all the princesses were "announced" and came out. It was an exciting moment. This time, at lunch, they were already milling about the restaurant, a little anti-climactic compared to last time! The wishing ceremony happened before they came to our table.

I thought Lily might be getting a little old for this, but she did enjoy it. Wonder what her wish was?

We met Belle in her blue dress..

Then they brought us out the "chef's tasting platter", the appetizer that comes with the lunch.

We ate the bruschetta before I remembered to take the picture. There was also some salami, cheese cubes, grapes, and an artichoke salad.

Jasmine..

Our meals...

Mom had the ciabatta sandwich, which looked pretty good. Lily had her usual nuggets, and I had Major Domo's Favorite Pie. It looked good, and tasted pretty good, too, but that yellow sauce was so garlicky, I was over it by about 1/2 way through. I do like garlic, but it was a little overwhelming. I did not enjoy the Pie, or the appetizer. Just...blech. Granted, I was NOT feeling good, so that could have been a lot of it. My tummy was fine, but I had some sort of BAD cold brewing.

Aurora was very sweet...

Then we met Snow White...

For dessert, Mom and I had the chocolate-cream cheese buckle, and Lily had the sorbet with fruit.

The desserts were pretty yummy. Overall, I did not enjoy this lunch. I'm sure it was me not feeling good AND being sort of wet, but the food was yuck and it just didn't feel as magical as the breakfast. Maybe it was because we had already "been there, done that"? I would return to CRT for breakfast, and maybe we'll try the dinner in the future. But I think we are ready to take a break from it for the next couple trips. Lily did really enjoy it, I think, so that made me happy!

 

[tinawv]

It sounds like a wonderful prelude to your last day; outside of your not feeling well. I love the picture of Lily waiting to go into the castle.

 

[ShannonMB]

It sounds like a wonderful prelude to your last day; outside of your not feeling well. I love the picture of Lily waiting to go into the castle.

Hi Tina! So far the day looks promising, but I'm afraid it got worse as it went on for me. Stay tuned!