The Best week of our lives, Pixie dust galore!

[meanmom121]

Comments: We too got up many mornings at 6:30 to make rope drop and miss the crowds. Sleeping would have been nice but I guess we were battleing the lesser of two evils. No sleep and not as hot or crowded, or sleep and deal with heat and crowds.
This is another reason I am not crazy about doing this again in July.

TOT ~ I rode it for the first time also on this trip. It is not my cup of tea. I think I one point I was praying for death!

I think I may have mentioned it before, but my ds name is Brad like your dh. I love what he did at Fantasmic!! That is my kind of man!! Those tour groups were brutal!!!

Can't wait for more!!

I second your assessment of TOT Holy smikes that was awful - everyine else in my family loved it. I can guarantee I won't be doing it again. I think I would also have to pass on another July trip to WDW. The biggest reason we went in July this past year was the special.

 

[flipflopmom]

Yep, hopefully the Bazilian Brazilians will stay home next year in June when we are going, I think they are primarily July folks!

Brad really, really is emphatic that he gets to rest more next year, so we'll probably have fewer early mornings, but we'll still do rope drop, b/c June isn't that much cooler! We are pretty much stuck with the summer months, b/c I can't take more than 2 pd. personal days in a year, and it's just not worth it to take unpaid ones.

I do want to do a Christmas trip in the future, though. Probably once the girls are past the Santa stage!

The pixie dust was sooooo coooool this year! I know we'll never have another like it, but oh well. Unfortunately, it set the bar pretty high for future trips!

We do want to do a lot more Kim Possible missions, the one we did was lots of fun!

2 more days to go in my TR, maybe I'll get Friday done sometime this weekend!

 

[dahall]

I need more. I just found your trip review and kept trying to find page 4. I have to tell you how much I am enjoying your trip. So much so that I found myself reading large parts out loud to my husband.

I totally teared up when you told your CM and Cindy wand story. I have 2 boys and although I love not having to make the Cindy reservation as I hope and pray, I do want to take a girl there. My sons still think girls are yucky (which I like most of the time) so taking them would be such a waste. I tease my friends with girls I am going to take them one year with me. I did go once with my hubby before kids and it was so fun. When my youngest was 2 he knocked over Goofy in a hug and it is still a memory he has. Your girls will never forget that.

We are going to BLT for our very first visit home in September. It took 12 years to get in to DVC and we can't wait to view the fireworks from our balcony and take the monorail to the parks. I saw that you might be going home to BLT, I am sending you pixie dust your way in hopes that you can hear WELCOME HOME when you arrive at Disney. I have to say it does not get old, and I have only heard it on the phone.
I can't wait to read more, and I am so glad you had such a magical, although HOT and group filled trip.

 

[flipflopmom]

I need more. I just found your trip review and kept trying to find page 4. I have to tell you how much I am enjoying your trip. So much so that I found myself reading large parts out loud to my husband.

Thank so soooo much. I had kind of given up on finishing, your very sweet comments spurred me on!

We are hoping to close on our DVC contract on Sept. 5, which is my birthday! So far, so good!

 

[flipflopmom]

DH had said at least 20 times during the trip, "this has been soooo great" "Girls, all that time your mom spent planning and researching and on the Disboards really paid off. It's been so great because of her." I was so totally validated!

He had told me before we left that if we enjoyed it as much as I thought we would, we could make our WDW trip an every other year event. Well, by the end of the week, I could imagine waiting 700+ days to come back, but tried not to think about it. When we got back to the room Thursday night, he pulled me into a big hug and said "This has been the best week of our lives. It's truly been the best family trip I've ever been on." I was sooo happy! You'll understand me when I say "He got it". Our oldest DD said at one point on Friday, "Now that I know what Disney World is like, I don't ever want to go back to the beach!"

I had been sooo worried, my childhood best friend had gone in June, and while they "had a blast" and "were glad we did it" I hear the "but we won't be going back" in her unspoken sentence, too. In fact, they had talked about how my DH Brad was going to be soooo hot, tired, and ill the whole time. I, too, was kind of worried about that! She hadn't done any planning, but left it all up to Sis in law, and then when they got there, decided to split up, so they were kind of lost. She told me I really needed to have a plan to make it work. I didn't show her my planning journal, 2 inches thick by this point! But I was asking her questions like "Did you do the Kim Possible Missions? How was rope drop?" and she didnt know about either of them, so I stopped asking and came back to the Dis!

Next post, Friday!

 

[flipflopmom]

So I woke up Friday in serious need of an anti depressant! I couldn't believe this pixie dusted trip was coming to an end. We had originally scheduled a Boma breakfast at 10am. After all the bus waiting, we decided to cancel it, as getting there would take up precious rope drop time. We called the dining line, and CP had a 10:20 available which worked perfectly in our plans.

Our original game plan for Friday was to hit our favorites or missed rides again. DD really wanted to ride Everest again, but we had to veto that, as going to AK just for that would have taken a ton of time out of the day. She was fine with that, and just asked to see Mickey's Philharmagic again and ride the carousel, which we hadn't done, and maybe swim. Little one wanted, of course, to ride Dumbo again. I wanted to go see my beloved WS in Epcot, but I knew that just wasn't in the cards for me on this trip, so I let it go. DH just wanted to rest! So, off to MK for the 4th time in 7 days.

I have to say, MK is definitely my favorite park. It is Disney to me. Epcot will pull in a close second for me, but it is very overwhelming size wise. AK and DHS both have their drawing points.... OK, so I love them all, but MK is first!

So, we get up early again, and head to MK for RD. Tink tried her best to throw us a little pixie dust again, and we got on a bus fairly quickly. Once at MK, I went over to the shop outside the gates and bought the Wishes CD. When they finally change it, as I am sure they will, I will be devastated. I've listened to the CD sooo much since we got home, my two year old has it memorized, and knows each of the characters! In fact, we were dancing and singing it last night before bed. Brad teased me and asked if we were going to listen to it at 10pm every night when I bought it!

Watched the welcome show, and I was crying like a baby. I know everyone thought I was NUTS! Headed for the gate, and made it to the first Dumbo ride of the day!

Sophie just loved it. We got off Dumbo, and went over to the carousel. I had told Anna Kathryn that Cindy's horse was on there, with a gold bow on her tail. (Thanks, Dis). Well, another child was on that one, so we rode it, and then asked the CM if we could stay on since there were only a few people waiting, and she rode on Cindy's horse. I, too rode, and cried some more just staring out. DH took this picture, I look like I've just lost my best friend, or a total space cadet!

After the carousel, we noticed there was no line for Ariel, so off we went. It was so cute to meet her!

It was rather funny, Sophie slipped as she was climbing up on the rocks to get to Ariel, but she was fine. The funny part is just last week she said "we went to see Ariel, and I fell on the rocks, and Ariel gave me a starfish hug, and it's all better." She also spurted off "You guys went to Splash Mountain,
and Daddy had me, and we watched the parade, and it rained, and I cried" randomly the other day when it was raining. I'm so glad she still remembers stuff, we were afraid at 2 1/2 she wouldn't.

We hit up Pooh, which we hadn't done yet, and went over to Philharmagic, but it was down for a while. Poor DD.

After all this, we headed over to CP for our ADR. Review here. http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32965693&postcount=33

It was a lot of fun to see Pooh and the gang goofing off!

What to do after breakfast???

 

[flipflopmom]

Of course. What better way to cure the blues?

We had been picking up some souvies along the way, but I really wanted to get charm bracelets, and we didn't have t shirts yet, so off to the emporium we go! Went straight for the charm bracelets. I wanted to get special charms as reminders of all the great memories, with the intention of adding on each year. We all got Mickey Ears, a castle, and a Tink, Little one got a Dumbo (she tells everyone it was her first ride at Disney. It really wasn't, but I guess she doesn't count the safari or the flying dinosaur at Ak as rides. ) and Big Girl wanted a Piglet (I think b/c he was pink!) and it came with a rhinestone Mickey head. These were pretty inexpensive, like $8 for the bracelet and $4 for each charm? We also got Pop Century ones back at the resort, since I really doubted we'd ever stay there again!

Sophie had fallen in love with Ariel thanks to VOTLM and meeting her, so she got a little Ariel that was on sale. We picked up T shirts. I also got some specials with purchase, a watch and a backpack. I had already gotten a beach towel when we got our adults lanyards, id holders, picture frames, and kitchen towels that I am turning into hand towels to go in the girls bathroom that I decided to do in Mickey! Side note, it's really cute. We had the Mickey Hands from the Mickey's Welcome, and the little Tink, as well as the footprints. I am going to frame them, we put up the mickey hands, I put the coffee mug from the Welcome that was Mickey feet on the counter and put the Mickey soap from the resort that we didn't use in it. We also put Sophie's first haircut ears in there.

While we were paying, DH went on over to the photo place to get our free 5x7, and uploaded all 1400 pics we had taken ourselves to our photopass account! There were some cute little scenes in the back, and I took the girls pics in them.



After we finished in there, I knew I had stalled leaving MK as long as I could. Everyone else was ready to hit the pool, and I HAD to pack, even though I really, really,really didn't want to! The Move it Shake it Party was coming through, so we grabbed a photopass photog on the sidewalk, and he took some pics of us as the parade went by. After the street cleared, we took our final photopass picture of the week. Stay tuned. It's a good one.

 

[SunnieRN]

Awww, your girls are soooooo cute!!!!

Congratulations and welcome home to BLT neighbor!!

 

[flipflopmom]

Awww, your girls are soooooo cute!!!!

Congratulations and welcome home to BLT neighbor!!

Thanks! I refuse to put the pic in my siggie until we close, I am sooo superstitious. That didn't stop me from making two ressies, though!

 

[dahall]

JOY JOY I can't wait until Friday! I was so excited this morning, making breakfast waited until I finished. I have you bookmarked so I can find you quickly because my feed is setup is only weekly and I don't want to miss anything!

Welcome Home would be some of the best words to hear on a birthday, not as good as being there but really good. GOOD LUCK! We had people that thought we were crazy to do DVC because why would you want to keep going back to Disney but we can't image not going over and over and over (I could keep going).

Can't wait to hear about Kim Possible, my son wants to do that so will pay close attention so in Sept. we know what to do. I LOVE Disboards.

 

[flipflopmom]

JOY JOY I can't wait until Friday! I was so excited this morning, making breakfast waited until I finished. I have you bookmarked so I can find you quickly because my feed is setup is only weekly and I don't want to miss anything!

Welcome Home would be some of the best words to hear on a birthday, not as good as being there but really good. GOOD LUCK! We had people that thought we were crazy to do DVC because why would you want to keep going back to Disney but we can't image not going over and over and over (I could keep going).

Can't wait to hear about Kim Possible, my son wants to do that so will pay close attention so in Sept. we know what to do. I LOVE Disboards.

You are too funny! As for the KP, we picked up our Kimmunicator at 9, right after breakfast. Our return time was 11am in Italy. We didn't make it over to WS until much later (5 or so?) We went to a little kiosk on the other side of Japan and asked if we could still do it. The guy was a VA res. also, Bridgewater grad, and said sure. He told us to just pick a country, we asked his opinion, and did Japan. It was a lot of fun. A few clues were pretty hard to find, but it was soooo neat to see how the imagineers had incorporated the clues into the country. We definitely want to do more of them! When you are done, it tells you where in the country to drop the device off. Definitely do one, if not more!!!!

 

[flipflopmom]

 

[flipflopmom]

Told you it was good! In fact, the day we got home, DH was looking at the photopass pics. He added this border and I looked, and there were tears in his eyes! Oh yeah, he definitely got it!


Here's the photopass with the parade in the background:

 

[flipflopmom]

After we left MK, we went back to Pop. DH and the girls went to the pool for a few hours, and I took on the sad and hard task of packing! It was sooo sad, and a big pain! I did finally get the boxes all the Mickey's Welcome stuff came in folded so I could bring them home. I promise, dirty clothes are a lot easier to pack! We thought we were going to have to ship some things home, but we finally got it. We were CRAMMMED like sardines in the car going home, but it worked.

When everybody got back, we got dressed and started our for Ohana for dinner, or as Brad had been referring to it since Easter "That place with the skewers". On our way out, the CM's in the Pop lobby were getting ready to do the hustle, and had the music going. The girls stopped for a little dance time of their own.





Review follows:
http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=32965898&postcount=34



I don't think that review truly stated how emotional that dinner was. My all time favorite song "Somewhere over the rainbow", my big ole' DH doing the hula dance, totally in the spirit, our last night, GREAT TABLE, ask for one in the main room, it's worth the wait! Little one fell asleep right on the table at the end.

After dinner, we walked out to the dock at the Poly just in before Wishes, and a boat pulled up to take us to MK just as it was starting. Almost like a fireworks cruise, a very calm way to end the evening!

Off to bed. Very melancholy. All good things must come to an end. Tomorrow we had a late CM breakfast, and had to drop off the stroller from the stroller sway and meet someone with the fridge from the fridge swap, plus a quick trip to DTD on the way out. Stay tuned!

 

[flipflopmom]

I did the photobook and cd pre-order, just finished loading my photopass pics into photobucket. I am going to post some of my favorites:

 

[flipflopmom]

 

[flipflopmom]

 

[flipflopmom]

 

[flipflopmom]

 

[flipflopmom]