The DDA Trouble Free Zone Part 2

[Glynis]

They remind me of when I was young and believed that I was "special". I could fly and no one else could. This was my secret. I would dream about it many nights. At one point, I used to believe that my family were from another planet and would live forever. Harry Potter "reminds" me of those idealistic days.

I guess that's why we are all Disney fanatics, here. Deep down we all believe in the Disney ending for our lives. I know I do!

 

[Glynis]

My boys love the Magic Treehouse series of books. Hunter read a whole book 106 pages in 2 days. He is 8. They are very entertaining.

Deb

I bought most of the set for Katie, but she never really got into them. I'll have to let Jacob take a peek at them. Hopefully he'll like them. He loves to be read to, but finds that reading by himself is hard. I want him to like reading, so I try to read with him. Not to him; he has his book, and I have mine.

 

[disney newbie]

New one for Spring Break or Summer

Denise -- Love this new design. Didn't think it looked like a bra until Skunka said something. Still, it is very cool.

 

[tinker1bell]

Kate,

I want to personally thank you and MidNite, Denise and Momof 2Oh for all of your hard work. To unselfishly give of yourselves in helping make our trip to Disney World the best ever. I will always remember our days spent there.
WHY????
Because of everyone's t-shirt designs.

Kate, the reunion one that you did for the four of us turned out so nice. Cinderella wanted to read it while I was having my picture taken with her. She was so very impressed with it and gave me a hug. I told her a very special person designed it just for the four of us.

MidNite, The first design that you made for the four of us was the Celebr8 one with our favorite characters on the front but then each of us had just our favorite one on the back which was designed by Momof2Oh.
We also used your Welcome Foolish Mortals,(some guy wanted to pay $100 for the shirts but we told him no deal) the Port Orleans FQ, Pop Century, Animal Kingdom, MGM Studios and Magic kingdom. I also used Tink on top of the beautiful blue bottle design to put on the hankies and kerchiefs for special Cast Members.

Momof2Oh, We wore your Grumpy missing football shirt and I will use the Penn State and Eagles shirts in the future.

Denise, on the back of the Port Orleans shirt we used your Destination Disney World on the back. Got a lot of compliments on the plane down to Orlando.

Everytime Steffy and I wear the shirts to work it is so funny that we wear the same shirt but days in reverse, kinda like our posting on the board
I look forward to making more shirts in the future for many of our trips to WDW and especially when I see my two grandsons in 5 years wearing their own shirts when we visit Mickey.

Thank You,,,Thank You

I am getting teary eyed just writing this.

Kate whatever you need to do to get back to a safe place, our hearts are with you.

Terry Hartman
slowly becoming a Disney fanatic.

 

[babytrees]

Back in the olden days, when I was a youngin'....

I was going to say it was taffy, but I am not certain that I am right now that I see it in print! Going to go pull a Kate and google it....


ETA: see if this works... it is a jelly-like candy rolled in cornstarch apparently :

I was racking my brain and this pretty close......it's like less flavorful gummy bears with less elasticity dipped in a confectioner's sugar...hows that for a description?

 

[WeLoveTheMouse]

New one for Spring Break or Summer

Love It! I really love the signature designs!!

 

[Tinkaroo]

Tammi, sounds like you had a great time with your parents! That's so cool. You are so cool to take your kids roller skating! I would be so afraid that I'd be spending more time on my behind than upright. My kids laugh at me enough now, I can't imagine what they'd do if I stuck wheels to my feet!

I'm glad you saw Narnia. We loved that movie. I think that as long as we emphasize that the violence is pretend then it's all good! I can't wait for the movie to come out on DVD. DD is re-reading all the books, and we have a tradition that when she finishes a book, we watch the movie (if there is one), and I come up with a special dinner (themed) and treats. For example, for Wizard of Oz, we ate "haystacks" for dinner, had ruby slipper punch, and Emerald City cookies. For Narnia, I just ordered a couple of boxes of Turkish Delight from one of the websites someone here posted. I still have to come up with a dinner, but I'm thinking fish like the Beaver's serve the children.

Anyway, enough of a tangent. Glad you are home safe and sound!

Such cool ideas, Glynis! You are very creative!

 

[triplefigs]

Tinkaroo, Congrats on SSR! and didn't you have Goofy in your sig with the TX shirt?

 

[Tinkaroo]

New one for Spring Break or Summer

What a "happy" design! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Tinkaroo]

Tinkaroo, Congrats on SSR! and didn't you have Goofy in your sig with the TX shirt?

Thanks!

And yes, I did have a UT Goofy in my sig, but was getting a little (gasp) bored with it. Thought I would put the SSR in my signature for now (it makes me happy to look at it ), and just grabbed another photo from Photobucket in the process!

 

[triplefigs]

Thanks!

And yes, I did have a UT Goofy in my sig, but was getting a little (gasp) bored with it. Thought I would put the SSR in my signature for now (it makes me happy to look at it ), and just grabbed another photo from Photobucket in the process!

Ok, you totally confused me. I was like, wait, where's Goofy? and who has SSR? duh!

 

[ReAnSt]

"Now that our children are older and we have more than 15 family trips to Walt Disney World under our belts, the real draw now seems to be our dining choices! After a few trips with over-the-top food bills we hit on an affordable plan that seems to keep everyone happy. After we decide at which resort we will be staying on our trip, each person puts a main meal choice on a piece of paper and gives it to me. I am the 'Queen of All Planning.' No one is allowed to tell others their choice so that when we get to Disney our lunch or dinner is a surprise to everyone but me. The fun for me is in keeping the surprise!"
- contributed by Elin Havrilla, a winner in our 2005 Dining Tip Contest

Thanks Up Disney for posting the quote. Otherwise I probably never would have seen it. I have never bought a WDW Passporter. I probably won't buy one for WDW. I've been there more times than I can count and was a cast member so I don't feel it is necessary but it was nice to see the quote Elin has in the book.

I'm not saying the Passporter is not useful just not for me for WDW. I did buy a Passporter for DCL and found it very useful for my first Disney Cruise.

Becky

 

[Tinkaroo]

Okay, a "quick" recap of our whirlwind of a weekend...

For those who have been following along with my DVC mini-saga...we made a quick last-minute trip to the World last weekend to do the tour (having never taken it before) and make up our minds on SSR. I finally got DH to sit down and talk with me about it a week ago, and we agreed to make this trip (thank goodness for SWA Rapid Rewards tix!). As the week wore on, and we finally got our video and informational packet from the DVC rep I had contacted, we were getting more excited to go. DH started talking about buying in like it was a foregone conclusion.

(And, it wasn't a bad gig that the AP/DVC preview for EE was this past weekend either!)

We left Dallas Friday evening, and arrived at MCO around 10:15 p.m. The trip and check-in at AKL (one of our faves - thank goodness for the old AP call-in rates!) was pretty painless, except they had assigned us a smoking room with bunkbeds! Now, I don't have any allergies, but just cannot tolerate smoking! (I thought of you, tinker1bell!) Unfortunately, it was already 11:30, and they said they could not move us that night, but could the next day. Maybe I should have pushed a little harder, but just didn't have the energy that night. We needed to be up early for the AK the next morning, and our DVC tour was set for 11 a.m.

Saturday morning, we were up early to try to make it to AK before the park opened at 9. Unfortunately, we had to go through the check-in process again to get our NS room - which was ironically available at 8:15 a.m. I still just cannot believe that room was used the prior night, but was magically available the next morning. Oh well, we put our stuff in the new room, and headed out.

Let me just say - the AK for the EE preview was PACKED. We happened to luck out and be at WDW the weekend of the Soarin' preview last year, and that was NOTHING compared to this. The parking lot was more full than I have ever seen it - and this was at park opening! They were already parking folks on the grass, I'm assuming in preparation for what they thought would be record crowds that day!

And boy, they weren't far off. We had to stand in line for about a half hour just to show our AP and photo ID to get past the barricades to EE - and then once there, there were lines EVERYWHERE - a line for FP distribution (yes, I'm not kidding), the standby line, a line for FP return, etc. People were also just coming in to browse the shop, watch people ride, etc. Although Disney was doing their best with signs and CM's everywhere, it was nothing better than organized chaos. I don't know if they have ever done a DVC/AP preview for an attraction at the same time, but I'm hoping they never combine the groups again. Although there's got to be a good amount of overlap, the lines were insane. If this was a taste of what is to come, I'd say you're going to have to high tail it to EE first thing to either ride or draw a FP if you hope to ride w/o crazy waits. We waited about an hour in the standby line to ride on Saturday before we had to leave.

Was it worth it? On our first (and only ride on Saturday), I was a tad bit underwhelmed. But, for whatever reason, it was way better when we rode it 4 times in a row on Sunday morning! (Although I do think maybe 4 times back-to-back is the limit - we were both a little wobbly-legged after the 4th time!) We tried it in the front and in the back of the vehicle, and I think near the front is the better spot on this ride. You get to see so much more of the detail and story. (I wish I could say that the lines were better on Sunday - they weren't - but we used all the FP's given to us by our DVC guide on EE!)

It's themed very well, and is one smooth ride. It's definitely more intense than BTMR or SpaceMtn., but not as overall "roller coaster thrilling" as RnRC. You need to check it out!

I'll start another post for the DVC tour part, as this is not as quick as I'd thought...

 

[ReAnSt]

Now, I've got to find something to get my DS excited about it! He kind of just relies on Katie to read to him. Got to nip that in the bud. Any ideas on getting boys interested in reading?

Find things he is interested in. Perhaps he is interested in Motorcross bikes or Pokemon cards. Even if it is reading a magazine on the topic it will help get him interested in reading. Or perhaps he has a hobby. Encourage him to find books on it to learn more about it.

Comic books are also another thing that might encourage him to read. Trading cards like pokemon or baseball cards require reading skill as well.

Not sure of your DS's age or if he is older than some of your other kids, but have hime read to them. Even if it is an easy book it will help him to see it is not a chore.

Magazines like Boys Life, Sports Illustrated for kids are great to encourage reading.

Even if he can read on his own continue to read to him and with him.

Try to find a book series he likes to get him hooked on reading.

Another idea is to read the book slowly and audio tape record it. This way your son can read along to the tape. Make sure to record it slowly enough that you are not reading it to him but he is reading and the tape can guide him if he doesn't know what a word is.

You could do this with the first few chapter of a chapter book to help him know names and places that are difficult to sound out on his own. Encourage him to reread the chapters it helps with comprehension. Depending on the book he could read the rest on his own or work up till you get to the point where you read the first few chapters and he reads the rest on his own.

Have him read a short book and then act it out. He can either act it out himslef or get his siblings involved and assign them parts as different characters and words to say.

Sorry if this doesn't make sense. I tried to put out a bunch of ideas but I'm not sure how well I explained them if you have any questions let me know.

Becky

 

[Tinkaroo]

And on to DVC...

We moved our DVC tour back to noon, as we were concerned about timing after seeing the lines at AK. So, the van picked us up around 11:40 at the AKL, and we headed over to the preview center. Our van driver had actually been on the Disney Wonder for 5 years previously, so we got good tips from her on where to stay on the cruise we're considering!

The DVC guide I had spoken with over the phone wasn't working Saturday, but he had arranged for us to meet with one of the other guides, Jenna Mazza. She was fantastic - we couldn't have been taken better care of by either of them. Believe it or not, for people that were almost sold on DVC, we were there for almost 4 hours - I couldn't believe it! But we had a great time. We talked and crunched #'s with Jenna for about an hour and a half, and then took the tour of the villas and the property.

All I have to say is - WOW! The main concern I had (and why we wanted to see SSR with our own eyes) was that I wouldn't like it as much as I'd been supposing I would like BCV or BWV. I was totally impressed with everything I saw - it just looked so much better in person, and I think we'll love being owners there. For those of you that have recently bought sight unseen, I can't imagine that you'll be disappointed. We also thought it felt like more of a community/respite from the sometimes craziness of the parks. DH liked that there was lots of grass/open areas where you could throw a football around, etc. We don't mind that it's a bit removed, but then we know we usually take our rental car everywhere we need to go. Actually, I think DTD is the hardest place to get to by bus/most difficult to park at if you have a car, and this would solve that problem - just take the boat or walk!

So, after mere nanoseconds of "decision-making", the paperwork process got rolling. Then, it was just more fun with Jenna, a trip to the storybook room, and some ice cream to top it all off!

So, thanks to all of your "Welcome Home"s, and those that helped with all my questions along the way! We probably won't be able to use our points until December of 2007, so we'll be renting some to friends/family between then and now. (If anyone needs some, let me know!)

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful - we went to Epcot that night (mainly because DH was craving Italian food), shared a table with perfect strangers at Alfredo's (although they became friends by the end of the meal), took a boat over to the BW in search of a magnet, and then back to Epcot for IllumiNations. Compared to the AK, Epcot was deserted!

We had an early breakfast at Boma Sunday a.m., packed up our things, and went back to the madness at the AK for one last round. Then, it was off to the airport. The weather was great (sunny, highs in the low 70's) both days, but I understand it was going to start raining later on Sunday.

So, that was my weekend! Thanks for listening!

 

[ReAnSt]

Becky on the other hand still struggles with the reading & writing comprehension. It is similar to Dyslexia but not Dyslexia I'm told. She is much more intelligent than average (according to the tests) but she doesn't always understand what she reads.

Up Disney,

What are you talking about me for??? Sorry I couldn't resist.

Becky

 

[triplefigs]

Sorry, I just had to redo Bra Mickey! Click refresh if you don't see the new design.

 

[dumby]

Sorry, I just had to redo Bra Mickey! Click refresh if you don't see the new design.

Now Skunka will have to appreciate those sunglasses. They are more manly looking.

 

[triplefigs]

Now Skunka will have to appreciate those sunglasses. They are more manly looking.

I couldn't let poor Mickey wear those after Hunka's comments... can you imagine people at WDW wearing bra mickey all over the parks?

 

[Steamboat Marti]

See now that's a better mickey!! However - please pm me the original bra mickey -- I want to keep that one on file!!!