The 3rd time's the charm! Our 10th anniversary March 2013 TR! **UPDATE 5/12! Done!!*

[gtpoohbear]

Wow, you got some great pictures of the animals! I also love all the PP "Magic shots". We didn't get any of those on our last trip, so I was afraid they had stopped doing them.

 

[Moodyzblu]

Awesome animal pics ! Loved the ones of the tiger .. he's my favorite to take pics of.
Busy day at AK !

 

[Disney9.9.10]

Wow you got some great photos of AK! It is so beautiful in that park. I don't think that it is possible to have too many photos either Your poor DS was so sleepy on the safari! I love the cheeky smile pic from when he woke up, so cute. The pics of your DD playing the drums are cute too - she looks like she is having a blast

 

[sheila <3 WDW]

Wow, you got some great pictures of the animals! I also love all the PP "Magic shots". We didn't get any of those on our last trip, so I was afraid they had stopped doing them.

Thanks! Yeah, it was our first trip doing them since we had preordered the PP+. DD loved it.

Awesome animal pics ! Loved the ones of the tiger .. he's my favorite to take pics of.
Busy day at AK !

Tigers are my favorite. I get totally distracted when I see them. After our trip when DH was looking at the pictures he said I didn't even let him go up to look at the tigers. When I was finally done, I was like OK let's go...Um, he could have totally said hey, let me look for a bit, but he didn't so it's not my fault.
Yeah, it was a pretty busy day, but I don't remember feeling too rushed.

Wow you got some great photos of AK! It is so beautiful in that park. I don't think that it is possible to have too many photos either Your poor DS was so sleepy on the safari! I love the cheeky smile pic from when he woke up, so cute. The pics of your DD playing the drums are cute too - she looks like she is having a blast

Thanks! Yeah, I couldn't believe he fell asleep, I guess he was just worn out. Poor kid.

 

[sheila <3 WDW]

We had slept longer than we intended to this morning so we were running late. We wanted to take a cab to Polynesan so we went down to the lobby area to find out how. We were sent over to the right area and there were no cabs waiting. We only had to wait a few minutes. We got to Kona Café and were still able to eat breakfast. We realized at this meal or on the bus before this meal that we didn’t have DS’s sippy cup. We thought maybe we forgot it at Raglan Road the night before. We decided to try to call them when they open to see if they had found it.

Then we hopped the monorail to Magic Kingdom!

Picture of construction on Grand Floridian Villas:

Crowd photo

The castle!

Main Street

Castle again

We went straight to the castle because we had a Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique appointment! Pictures of the interior castle path, I really can’t remember if we’ve ever walked through hear before:

We stopped to change DD into her Rapunzel dress.

Then we checked in

We had to wait a while, they were very busy. DS was fussy so DH took him to go get FPs for Peter Pan (and got bonus FPs for Philharmagic) while I sat with DD to wait. I took pictures.

Everything a little girl could want!

Finally it was DD’s turn! It didn’t seem to take very long and my DD was transformed into a princess! She looked so cute.

Very crowded

Super cute gold sandals we got DD before our trip

DH and DS came back with the fast passes

DS being silly

Pixie dust!

The reveal!

 

[sheila <3 WDW]

They gave her a little backpack to carry her makeup and comb in. She loved it! She used it the rest of the trip to carry her stuffed animals, etc. We went right to Castle Couture for the photo shoot. DD did great.

Then we got in line to wait for Lady Tremaine and the step-sisters to come out. The line wasn’t started yet so we were first. I took a few pictures while we waited. DH went and got FPs for Winnie the Pooh and got more bonus Philharmagic passes.

It was super funny when the three of them came out for the meet and greet because the castle show was going on and the first thing Lady Tremaine said was “they are having a party and didn’t invite us?!?” Funny! They were great.

After the meet and greet DH and DD rode the carousel.

Then we all went to ride Peter Pan and It’s a Small World.

We were hungry and wanted to see if we could do a walk up at The Plaza. We couldn’t without an hour wait so we went to Casey’s. I made a reservation for The Plaza for dinner at 4:15.

After lunch we saw a small part of the Street Party on our way back to Fantasyland.

We then went to go ride Winnie the Pooh and we got there right at the FP expiration time. I was so worried they wouldn’t let us ride, but they did.

After the ride we hung out in the gift shop area for a while so I could call the DTD main lost and found. (DH had called Raglan Road and they said they drop off their lost and found items on Sunday mornings, and it figured today was Sunday!) I waited on hold for like 15 minutes just to find out they had no sippy cups received. I found some cups at the gift shop with a straw, lid, and strap so I bought one for each kid. I also bought DD a cute stuffed Eeyore.

Kids with their new stuff

Then we headed over to New Fantasyland

New coaster!

I really like the New Fantasyland area!

We wanted to meet Gaston, but his line was closed. So instead we tried a LeFou brew. We thought it was really good!

We walked around a little more and did Photopass pictures by the new Ariel ride.

 

[sheila <3 WDW]

Then we got in line to meet Gaston. He wasn’t currently meeting so we were first in line.
DH and DS waiting

He came out and it was a little confusing because he stopped somewhere else (we had seen him doing meet and greets earlier) so we thought maybe the line moved, then he came over to the spot where we were waiting. Anyway, we got to meet him and he was great. The facial expressions were great. I had a 4x6 index card pack to use for autographs and I wrote a big X on each page with lines because we wanted the characters to sign the blank sides. Gaston was asking what the X’s were for. I don’t know if he was seriously confused or just playing the part of not-so-smart Gaston….

Confused about the X I wrote on the page I didn’t want signed. LOL

I love this one.

After that I took DS over to watch the castle show Dream Along with Mickey. DH had to take DD to the bathroom. I had DS in the stroller and I videotaped the show. I had a great spot right in the center, but not too close. DH and DD watched from farther back because DH didn’t want to push through the crowds to get up to where I was. First time we saw that whole show and it was really cute. I was holding the video camera in one hand and the regular camera in the other to take pictures.

I love Maleficent!

After that we decided to head over and meet Rapunzel or get FPs for Rapunzel. On our way down Main Street 3 teenage girls stopped us and asked for DD’s autograph because she must be a princess. It was so cute. DD said she wasn’t a princess and they said she looked like a princess and would she please sign their autograph book. So she wrote her first name in it. It was super cute! She kept saying “those girls thought I was a princess.”

We got FPs for the princess meet and greet, then got passes for the Mickey meet and greet. Mickey FPs gave us bonus Dumbo FPs. Since we had to wait and wanted to rest, we grabbed a front row spot right in that area to watch the 3 pm parade. I took pictures of course.

I realized that the tires on the main car have Mickey’s on them! Cute.

I got photobombed by Genie when I was trying to take pictures of Jafar. That was hilarious.

Love Aladdin! Much better picture than the last parade we saw

So excited! This is why I keep wanting to come back here.

The parade started on this side this time so we got to see everything from the other side of where we had been positioned for the parade we videotaped. That was nice.

Our FP window opened so we went to meet Rapunzel! It was actually Rapunzel, Aurora, and Cinderella.

Rapunzel asks DD if she went in Rapunzel’s closet and stole one of her dresses! DD thought that was funny. Rapunzel was adorable and full of personality.

Sleeping Beauty was great. She spun DD around and DD loved that.

Cinderella was kind of blah. Just smile, take the picture, and move on kinda thing. Although she was cute with DS. When DD was meeting Sleeping Beauty there was no one with Cinderella and DS walked over and was babbling at her.

 

[sheila <3 WDW]

After meeting the princesses we got in line to meet Mickey. Suddenly I remembered our Plaza reservation! So we left the line, stopping to get new FPs for Mickey on our way out.

We went to use our Mickey FPs. There was basically no line so FPs weren’t really necessary. It was a very cute meet and greet area.

At the gift shop, as you exit the meet and greet, we bought an Ariel pin for me and got DD a pirate princess pin. DD also did pin trading. After we walked out and I was putting her pins away I realized one had fallen off! I went back in and the cashier helped me find it. Yay.

After meeting Mickey we went to Tomorrowland. We wanted to ride Space Mountain, but the standby time was 70 minutes and FP return time was after 10 pm. The park was open until 3 am with EMH, but we weren’t staying past fireworks. We got FP for Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin and they were having a dance party in the Tomorrowland area so we watched that for a while and danced a bit. Goofy, Pluto, Stitch, Chip, and Dale were all participating in it.

Then we rode the PeopleMover for the very first time. DD loved it. I thought it was pretty jerky, but the second time we rode it I thought it was nice, maybe because I knew what to expect.

We went to use our Buzz FPs and they were doing a conga line at the dance party so DD and I jumped in.

OMG that ride was so fun! I can’t believe we’ve never done it before.

We stopped at Lunching Pad for snacks, then we took our food to the hub to find a spot for the parade and fireworks. We got there around 8:15 and the parade didn’t start until 9. We ate our snack and wrote a list of things to do our next MK day, since we only had 1 Epcot and 1 MK day left! I was the only one that really liked the cream cheese pretzel so I ate that and the others shared the regular pretzel and DS ate the banana. It was awesome. I love the Main Street Electrical Parade. It’s so cute and I love the music. We didn’t have the best spot for the parade, but we had an awesome spot for fireworks.

Last bit of the parade (took a picture mostly to remember we did watch it!)

Lots of fireworks pictures!

Tink!! I had the flash off so I knew it would be blurry. She’s a hard one to photograph. LOL

After the fireworks we stopped to go to the bathroom and sat for a little bit so the insane rush out of the parks could go by. Maybe it wasn’t so bad because the parks were open so late (1 am regular, with EMH until 3 am). We got the on the first bus back to POFQ and we hardly had to wait. We have decided that it is probably due to the small size of POFQ, but we had phenomenal luck with always getting a bus and I think DH only had to stand once (while I held both sleeping kids in my lap)…that may actually have been this night, I’m not sure. I do know that I think I want POFQ to be our resort from now on!

We got back to the room and got ready for bed. I went to put DS’s milk in the fridge and found…his sippy cup! We had thought we lost it when it reality we just forgot to check the fridge! Oops.

 

[Disney9.9.10]

What a great MK day! You got a lot accomplished that day. I love all of the character meets - I love how excited they make the kids. And how sweet of those girls to ask for your DDs autograph I'm glad that you ended up finding your DS's cup!

 

[sheila <3 WDW]

What a great MK day! You got a lot accomplished that day. I love all of the character meets - I love how excited they make the kids. And how sweet of those girls to ask for your DDs autograph I'm glad that you ended up finding your DS's cup!

Yeah, it was a great day. Something about MK just makes me go, go, go and I barely feel tired. LOL

 

[sheila <3 WDW]

We woke up around 6:15. DD’s BBB hairdo was kind of messy and I was going to fix it, but she kinda had a meltdown (tired) and wanted the gel washed out of her hair. So she got an unexpected early morning bath. LOL We got ready and got to the bus stop at 7:20. We forgot the sippy cup again so DH ran back to the room to get it. We waited 12 minutes for the bus and were on our way to Epcot for breakfast at Akershus.

After breakfast I took some pictures on our way back to Future World

We went to check out the Butterfly House

This was the only butterfly we saw, I’m not sure how many butterflies are supposed to be in there.

DD loved the ducks out everywhere

We then went to the Character Spot. First up was Mickey!

Pluto!

Minnie!!

We went to the Innoventions building. I wanted to find out where the Disney Visa meet and greet area was. We first did a fire safety game called Where’s the Fire. DD liked it. You take a flash light and point to fire hazards on a screen. They split the group up into two teams and the team with the highest score wins. We lost. Oops.

Then we did the Great Piggy Bank Adventure. It was kind of cute, a game to learn about money. When we got to the end our piggy bank stopped working. DD wanted to start over, so me and her did it again while DH put DS in the stroller and sat on a bench. DS fell asleep.

Then we went and got Soarin FPs. As you can see it was 11:30 and our return time was 5:20.

Then we went over to the seas pavilion. I wanted to see the fish, DH didn’t, so I took DD and he stayed with DS.

 

[sheila <3 WDW]

We headed back over to the main Future World area, stopping to see Chip and Dale on the way. Chip kept pointing to the blue sharpie marker and my blue nails and I said “No, I didn’t use the marker to paint my nails” and he grabbed his stomach and bent over like he was laughing so hard. Funny. When we were waiting in line Chip and Dale went to go take a break and when they came back they were pulling leaves and small branches off a bush and putting the greenery on each other’s heads.

Crowd levels

We went back over to the World Showcase.

Canada Pavilion

Crowds again (looked crowded, but it didn’t really feel too crowded, that’s what I love about Epcot – not a whole lot of rides we like to do so it never feels too crowded).

Then we stopped at the Cottage cart (I think in Canada) and used a snack credit for a potato, chive, and cheddar cheese biscuit with smoked salmon tartare and sour cream. It was really good. DH didn’t much like it, but I really did.

We went to England and saw Pooh!

And of course the rest of the gang

Aurora and Philip in France

Cinderella and Prince Charming

Belle and the Beast

Others from Beauty and the Beast – love them!

Cute play area

We went to Germany and saw Snow White and the Dwarves

I wanted to go to the crystal store and get more princess figurines. We have Cinderella and Ariel from our first trip and this time I bought Belle and Jasmine. Those figurines are so cute!

Then DH saw they had a really pretty necklace that said DD’s name so we bought that and she wore it the rest of the trip. Unfortunately she broke it after we got home, but DH says he will fix it, just hasn’t done it yet.

When we came outside we realized DH was waiting in line to meet Snow White and he was 3rd in line. So we ate our snack while we waited. When she got there and DH was going to take DS out of the stroller we realized his diaper was dirty so DH just left him in the stroller and I told Snow White we would just keep him back because he needed a diaper change and she thanked me for being considerate. She gave DS a high five and said hello to him. Kind of makes me wonder how many smelly kids they have to smile and hug.

Crowds again. DH kept laughing at me because I would say “crowd check” and hold the camera over my head to get a picture of the crowds.

Lady and the Tramp!!!!!!!!! I love this movie. I had the book when I was a kid and I read it so much it fell apart.

Crowds again LOL

We wanted to meet more characters so we headed back to the other side of the lagoon to get in line for Jasmine and Aladdin, but the line was closed. So DH got in line to meet Belle in her blue dress with DS while I took DD to the little Flower and Garden festival playground right across from the meet and greet for Belle.

 

[sheila <3 WDW]

After we met her, we went to get in line for Jasmine and Aladdin 15 minutes before they came back. There were already lots of people in line. It’s kinda crazy how the lines get in Epcot, people lining up before the characters come out. Oh well.
I love this picture. Jasmine looks super cute.

Hook

We headed back up to Future World. On the way we passed through the England pavilion and I mentioned how I saw the Captain Hook topiary and the crocodile, but I didn’t see Peter Pan anywhere. Suddenly DD points up and says “Peter Pan!” We turned around and sure enough he was on top of one of the buildings!!! DH said he didn’t believe DD really saw him at first.

I’m really glad I didn’t know before our trip that he was up there. It was kind of exciting to find him. LOL

We headed back to Future World, it was close to Soarin time! We had never been!

We did the Visa meet and greet in the Innoventions pavilion. That was really cute. It was Mickey and Pluto in a room and we had them all to ourselves. There was no line so we got in right away. Pluto kneeled down to give DS a hug and DS went right past him to get to Mickey! I told Pluto that DS loves the mice, both Mickey and Minnie, and Pluto grabbed his ears and tried to make them look like Mickey’s ears. Very funny. When we left there was one family waiting to get in.

This was the one we had printed as our free 5x7

Time to ride….

I rode first and it took about 30 minutes to get through the line and off the ride. It was a cool ride, but it kind of made me motion sick, so I don’t know if I’ll do it again. It might be related to the fact that I found out after we got home that I had fluid in my ears. I need to look into some sort of seasickness/motion sickness medicine for our next trip. When I was done it was already past time for our Le Cellier ADR, but I told DH to take DD and go ride anyway because I thought they would both love it. Maybe I shouldn’t have done that, I don’t know. This was definitely the most stressful part of our entire trip. More details in my trip report. Also, I would never recommend a family with small kids try to use FPs like we did. We should have done the rider switch pass and it would have been much less stressful. I didn’t realize that it would still take 30 minutes to get in and out of the ride.

Photopass pictures…I can’t remember for sure where we did these. I’m pretty sure it was on our way to the Visa Meet and Greet, but I’m not sure which pavilion.

We have this one hanging in our living room. Love it. I added the “where dreams come true” border to the one I printed.

We wanted this to be a fairly early night by going back to the hotel after dinner since we knew we had a full, long day the next day. However, by the time we got done with dinner it was already about 8:15. We made our way to the front of the park and I wanted to check out the gift shop. I ended up buying a photo album with sorcerer Mickey on it that holds 100 photos and a little princess coloring book for DD. (The photo album ended up getting smashed in our luggage on the way home so I called the Disney merchandise number and I’m having them ship us a new one, but a bigger one that holds 200 photos.)

We still had to stop and get our Visa meet and greet picture so I did that while DH took DD to the bathroom. It didn’t take very long and then we were on our way out of the park. By then Illuminations was over, but luckily we were ahead of the crowds. We got the first bus back to our resort (only waited 4 minutes) and got ready for bed. (I did go to the front desk and get my new camera battery which had finally been delivered.) We were in bed by 10.

 

[Disney9.9.10]

What a nice day at Epcot I love all of the topiaries, they do such a good job with them. The Visa meet and greet is also awesome! I love how you didn't have to wait and you had such a wonderful interaction.

 

[SAT887]

Wow! You have a lot of pictures! I've been reading a long but haven't had time to comment... I really love you family pictures from Epcot. Also, the pictures of the topiaries (sigh) I really need to go during flower and garden!!! All in all a great day in Epcot, the peter pan sighting (I want a shot of it at night!) and Belle in her blue dress (my favorite!) I love your MK fireworks pictures, and enjoyed seeing a lot more pictures of BBB. I was debating it for our next family trip but also think the pirates league would be fun too

Look forward to seeing (and reading) more!

 

[sheila <3 WDW]

Today was our 10th anniversary! We were so happy to be spending it at MK. This was a very busy day and it was raining. I didn’t end up writing down anything we did, so I had to go back and figure it all out from our pictures.

We got to MK around 8:15 for our 8:25 ADR at CRT. We couldn’t get in to the park! Our tickets weren’t working. They told us to go to guest relations. I realized right away what was wrong and I felt so dumb. When I booked the trip we weren’t going to go to parks our first or last days. First day was going to be DTD and last day was going to be pack/relax, maybe DTD before our flight. So I got 6 day tickets. Then we realized we were getting there the first day of the Flower & Garden festival at Epcot so we decided to go to Epcot our first day. So we were out of days. Luckily the guest relations cast member was able to add another day on fairly quickly (even though they had to call our resort to do it).

We were finally on our way to CRT.

Picture of rainy MK

After breakfast DD and I put on ponchos. DH was fine with just his jacket.

DD in her pink poncho

The first thing we did after breakfast was meet Merida! There were hardly any people in the park, maybe the rain scared them away. This was supposed to be the busiest day of the trip and it wasn’t bad at all! Anyway, there was only one or two groups in front of us to meet Merida. When it was our turn DD was playing shy hiding behind the target that was set up so Merida was peeking around it playing peek-a-boo. It was cute. Merida was absolutely adorable!

DH liked the theme of the area

After that we headed over to Tomorrowland. We didn’t make it there on our 2 previous MK days so it was a must do for this day. It was still raining so we decided to kill time in the Star Traders gift shop. DH and DD did the ‘build your own lightsaber’ while I browsed.

We then went to ride Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin. That was so fun again! I had the high score…over 90,000!! We got in line to meet Buzz after that.

Then we rode the Peoplemover for the second time, DD loves this ride.

I saw a guy with a Universal Studios umbrella and I thought it was funny so I made sure to take a picture of it.

We got FPs for Space Mountain at 11. They could be used at 11:55.

Someone cleaning up the rain water

We rode Astro Orbiter. DD loved it, but DH didn’t care for it and I really didn’t like it. It spins too fast for me.

Pictures from the ride

 

[sheila <3 WDW]

DH went to go ride Space Mountain while the kids and I finished eating. After we met back up I went to ride it. I did not like that ride at all! I got so nauseous that I really thought I was going to be sick. I had to sit and take it easy for about an hour after that. When I was getting out of the ride vehicle one of my flip flops fell off and the cast member working said something about me being Cinderella. That made me laugh.

DS had fallen asleep so we put the poncho over him/the stroller.

We walked over to Storybook Circus because we hadn’t been over there at all yet.

The first thing we did was go in the gift shop! Big Top Souvenirs is such a cute gift shop. I love the carts and checkout counters. It has a big snack section in the middle.

Then we went to Pete’s Silly Sideshow. We got in line to meet Daisy and Minnie. It took about 20 minutes. The sets were so cute! When we got to Minnie the photopass photographer was gone, apparently she had a camera problem.

IMG]http://i1056.photobucket.com/albums/t374/shera98/disney%202013/7th%20day-mk/DSCF7775.jpg[/IMG]

DH took DS outside and DD and I got in line to meet Donald and Goofy. Then DD said she didn’t want to meet them right then, so we left the line and met up with DH and DS back in the gift shop. There were clowns performing inside there. I assume it was inside because of the rain, but I don’t really know. Maybe it’s inside all the time. It seems like it would be awkward in the gift shop considering crowds and all.

Crowds in New Fantasyland

 

[sheila <3 WDW]

By then it had basically stopped raining so we put the ponchos in the bottom of the stroller. We wanted to walk back to Liberty Square to try to ride Haunted Mansion and we found…Rapunzel’s tower!!! I had been wanting to see it all trip and I didn’t know where it was! I was so excited and I took a bunch of pictures. It’s just bathrooms, but it’s so cute! I am kind of mad I didn’t go inside the restroom area. I don’t know why I didn’t and I wish I would have! DH noticed (when looking at the pictures) that the lanterns appear to be wired. We assume they light up at night. I wish we would have gone back to see that, but we didn’t think about it that day.

Oh, as we were first walking up we saw some janitors and they stopped us and gave us all stickers with Mickey Mouse with a broom and dustpan and they said “Honorary Custodian.” Cute.

 

[sheila <3 WDW]

After I got done taking pictures of Rapunzel’s tower area we went to the Haunted Mansion. I was worried DD would be afraid, but she did really well. When it was over she said she loved it! That’s my girl. I thought it was a pretty cool ride and we’ll definitely have to do it again.

After the ride we noticed people lining up for the afternoon parade, but I wanted to get to Sleepy Hollow and get a nutella and fruit waffle sandwich! I noticed the buildings had facades on them and took a few pictures of that.

We wandered back over to Adventureland because I really wanted to ride the Jungle Cruise.

I took pictures on the way.

The ducks started walking toward the water, so I kept taking pictures.

This one didn’t want to swim, but stood well for pictures!

We got FPs for Jungle Cruise so we wouldn’t have to wait in line.

 

[sheila <3 WDW]

Got another snack, then rode Jungle Cruise.

It was a super fun ride. The captain was hilarious. DH and I were both laughing quite a bit. DH didn’t want to ride it any of the other days, but he was glad I said I wanted to ride it because it was so funny.

Then we walked around some more. I took more castle pictures since it was our last day and I was sad to be leaving tomorrow.

I love this one!