The Decoy Trip that turned into a Dream - The End. 7/5, Page 22.

[wils]

Sounds like a wonderful Girl's Trip - I'd love to go to NYC

 

[cmp1111]

Sounds like a wonderful Girl's Trip - I'd love to go to NYC

It was fantastic, and I know that we barely scratched the surface!

 

[TEminnie]

I think you'd be fine in tennis shoes. You see everything there...

And, I've been through Waterbury, on the way back to IL or down to TN to see the in-laws...

That's cool! What part of TN?? I am near upper East TN now.

Surely we aren't that scary...

Uh, no of course not!!

 

[WDWHeather]

Excellent! Tell your friend Congrats from a fellow Illini! What was he studying? I worked at UIUC after graduating for several years before D. dragged me off to El Paso...

And yes, we are rural. And our hometowns are more rural than C-U, even. But, we are very nice people...

My favorite story about that is that between our freshman and sophomore years, we wound up bringing home 4 or 5 suburbanites to my parents' house overnight. One wanted a pizza delivered at 2:00 a.m. We had to explain that not only could you definitely not get that in a town with a) no pizza place, and b) a restaurant/bar that closed at 9:00 p.m., but that he wouldn't have even been able to get it in Champaign. Ah, well. It was an awesome way to grow up.


Anyway, fun to find someone with a little something in common, no?

That's so funny! I liked going to Chambana because people were nice and it got me out of the city for a while. You can go crazy if you stay too long in the city, you know! That is so funny about taking kids home to your parents house! Any little town with nice people beats the pants off El Paso. That's not my favorite city. Although I haven't been in a long time so maybe it's better now. I hope I don't offend anyone who might be from there!

 

[DisneyJo]

Sounded like a great mini trip and definately sounded like you needed to catch up on your sleep I would love to do NYC one day but not with the kids, most UK'ers go near Christmas for the shopping!

 

[cmp1111]

That's cool! What part of TN?? I am near upper East TN now.

My FIL and his wife retired to an area just southwest of Knoxville, on a TVA made lake. They really like it, and it's beautiful to visit.

That's so funny! I liked going to Chambana because people were nice and it got me out of the city for a while. You can go crazy if you stay too long in the city, you know! That is so funny about taking kids home to your parents house! Any little town with nice people beats the pants off El Paso. That's not my favorite city. Although I haven't been in a long time so maybe it's better now. I hope I don't offend anyone who might be from there!

Aw, thanks for the Chambana compliments... The people and climate in El Paso were fantastic, they just seem to have a little bit of an economic issue. It's not as hot as Phoenix, and you'd think it could be a little bit more touristy, but it's just not... And, for us, it was just SO far away and hard to travel to family.

Sounded like a great mini trip and definately sounded like you needed to catch up on your sleep I would love to do NYC one day but not with the kids, most UK'ers go near Christmas for the shopping!

I can understand going for the shopping - my goodness, the retail! We walked too much to have had kids with us, but there's plenty to see either way.... Buzz has requested a trip on the train to NYC now...

 

[luvfigment]

So I am totally behind on your Trippie but and enjoying it!! I still have a little ways to catch up but great job and can't wait to continue reading it!

 

[cmp1111]

So I am totally behind on your Trippie but and enjoying it!! I still have a little ways to catch up but great job and can't wait to continue reading it!

Welcome, and thanks! I probably could have - gulp! - finished it tonight, but didn't have the heart. Soonish...

I hope you continue to enjoy!

 

[csuzannet]

I would love to do NYC one day but not with the kids, most UK'ers go near Christmas for the shopping!

Two of my favorite finds for shopping in NYC were the huge World of Disney store and the almost as huge M&M World store.

They even had (Look, honey!) PhotoPass and character greets at the World of Disney store on the third floor. We peaked around the corner and saw Snow White.

 

[ArielSRL]

I know!

Honestly, I have never figured out what I want to be when I grow up (35 isn't grown up, right? ) and with D.'s totally random schedule, finding the right job is going to be hard. I don't know that I'll want to be at home once the boys are in all day school all the time, but... I'm a good employee, but have always worked in 9-5 offices, and the thought of having to earn vacation time, find summer and after school care for the boys, etc... Since D. is absolutely gone when he works, I would always be the "come get your sick kid" or "stay home with sick kid" person in our house.

We're lucky that for now we don't need a second income. I'm thinking of just trying to substitute teach in the local school once they go to first grade. My degree is in advertising, but I have a great resource in my mom, who taught for 30+ years. Our school district only requires a H.S. diploma for subsitutes!

Anyway, that seems about ideal - be able to say "no" if I need to, or yes if I can. I have had this in mind for about a year, but D. didn't seem to know about it!

Hi there! Just wanted to sat that I subbed to your TR a few days ago (saw the link in your siggie when you posted on another TR) and just started reading today. I have been reading for hours, now, and am almost caught up. I just love, love, love your TR and your PreTR too. I love the way you write. It is extremely easy to read and I like the narrative format.

Anyway, your kids are cute and I'm glad they, along with you and D had such a great time.

When I read your post, I was thinking of suggesting a temp agency...then you could work when you wanted to. But then you said substitute and I am not sure why I did not think of that. I am a teacher (taught Pre-K for 2 years, 3rd grade for 2 years, K for 4 years, subbed last year to get my foot in the door in a new district, and this year is 1st grade). Subbing was great, especially for what you need it for; work when you want, not needing the benefits, working the same hours as the boys, etc). I think most places you only need a HS degree to sub...well it is like that in GA too, but having a degree in Ed, as well as my teaching certificate, I didn't have to go through the sub training here.

Anyway, I am thinking of taking a couple of short trips during the school year (when I can sneak away ) - see my siggie - and then a long trip around the same time as you did this year. Most of the Metro Atlanta school districts (my new one included) get out before or by Memorial Day . I have been worried that Memorial Day week would be too busy, so I thought I may have to wait a week and figured it'd still be okay (as most schools are still in session) but it is good to know that that week will probably work .

Well, I'm rambling, so I'll stop. Can't wait to read the rest!

 

[ArielSRL]

for a mini-TR to NYC!

A lovely trip, and I can't wait to go back!

I have never been to NYC myself (just upstate NY) but have always wanted to go. I want to see Ground Zero, among other things (some of the places you mentioned). My recent ex-boyfriend lived in NYC for a few years, so we were supposed to go, but that, of course, went out the window...along with those marriage plans (yep...engaged at Disney) but thats another story for another time....

Anyway, glad you had fun and glad for the mini TR, so as to make the big TR a little longer. I don't want it to end yet!!!

 

[cmp1111]

Hi there! Just wanted to sat that I subbed to your TR a few days ago (saw the link in your siggie when you posted on another TR) and just started reading today. I have been reading for hours, now, and am almost caught up. I just love, love, love your TR and your PreTR too. I love the way you write. It is extremely easy to read and I like the narrative format.

Thanks so much! What nice compliments...

Anyway, your kids are cute and I'm glad they, along with you and D had such a great time.

Thanks again. It really was a magical trip all around!

When I read your post, I was thinking of suggesting a temp agency...then you could work when you wanted to. But then you said substitute and I am not sure why I did not think of that. I am a teacher (taught Pre-K for 2 years, 3rd grade for 2 years, K for 4 years, subbed last year to get my foot in the door in a new district, and this year is 1st grade). Subbing was great, especially for what you need it for; work when you want, not needing the benefits, working the same hours as the boys, etc). I think most places you only need a HS degree to sub...well it is like that in GA too, but having a degree in Ed, as well as my teaching certificate, I didn't have to go through the sub training here.

Excellent news! I would like a little training, but with Mom as a teacher for over 30 years, I have some terrific sources for help. I am sure that the decision is horribly hard for any mom, but with our "less than normal" scheduling issues, it's a whole different challenge...

Anyway, I am thinking of taking a couple of short trips during the school year (when I can sneak away ) - see my siggie - and then a long trip around the same time as you did this year. Most of the Metro Atlanta school districts (my new one included) get out before or by Memorial Day . I have been worried that Memorial Day week would be too busy, so I thought I may have to wait a week and figured it'd still be okay (as most schools are still in session) but it is good to know that that week will probably work .

It was really a fine week. According to our preschool friend who went in early May, we had more crowds, but it was certainly managable with a good touring plan. Go for it!

I have never been to NYC myself (just upstate NY) but have always wanted to go. I want to see Ground Zero, among other things (some of the places you mentioned). My recent ex-boyfriend lived in NYC for a few years, so we were supposed to go, but that, of course, went out the window...along with those marriage plans (yep...engaged at Disney) but thats another story for another time....

Anyway, glad you had fun and glad for the mini TR, so as to make the big TR a little longer. I don't want it to end yet!!!

Oh, I'm sorry about the ex. I've suddenly become a big NYC advocate - I was afraid I'd be intimidated - but just had a ball. You should try to go sometime!

I will do the segment on the last morning, then probably a "final thoughts" segment, so there are at least a couple more parts to go. I don't want to finish it, just because then the trip will really be over, and I'll be sad!

 

[cmp1111]

The morning of June 1st dawned a little overcast. We were all a little worn out at the end of our trip, and it was a little hard for everyone to get up with the alarm.

Buzz was particularly cute, I thought, with his animals squeezed tight:

When everyone got up, we fed the boys on the balcony, and our bongo friend returned!

D. noticed that we still had something like 10 snack credits, so he went down to the Mara and got us coffee and a couple of bananas. It only killed 4 more credits, but that was OK. We had, indeed, used up all our TS and CS meals over the last 5 days and nights, so anything else today was OOP, or snacks!

We had a mini-plan to bust out a few rides and be back at the bus stop at MK at around 1:00. We were supposed to be out front and ready to go by 2:20 for our 2:35 ME back to the airport. We figured that 1:00 would give us time, even if the bus took a half hour to arrive.

Check out was totally easy - we'd left a card for room charges, and everything looked perfect. We checked our bags with the bell desk, since you can't do the airline check-in on Southwest, and headed to the MK bus stop by about 8:20. The bus was waiting! Very quickly, we were at the Magical Kingdom, and this was a good start!

We had time before rope drop, and D. took another picture of the sea of humanity waiting to get in:

The opening show started, this time with a fireman emcee instead of the Town Square lady. The dancers came out, and our hula-hoop parade leader from Monday was in the show! I got oddly excited and took his picture:

The boys are still occasionally breaking into "Good morning, good morn-ing, we've talked the whole night through, good morning, good morning, to you!"

Once the rope dropped, we scooted straight out to Frontierland for Splash Mountain - the huge hit ride for everyone. We were able to walk right on, and again thoroughly enjoyed our ride. Woody agreed that he'd like a Splash Mtn. t-shirt as his souvenir, which was good because I knew we'd have a hard time stopping for a shopping break for him later, and he still had money in his pocket.

D. & I discussed going again, but decided that we'd try to do the rides we wanted to do once through, then see if we had time to do anything over. We were all in a great mood, and honestly, we held hands and skipped up the sidewalk and straight over to BTMRR and walked right on it as well. Yes, we're dorks.

As we were exiting after our runaway mine train regained control, hmmm, are those the Dream Team?

Yes, yes they were. The prize?

Dream FastPasses, bay-bee!!!!!

Could it get any better for our final day when we had to rush? Nope, not at all! Thank you, Dream Team! A quick look at the rules showed that we had a FP for every FP ride in the park. We could only use each FP one time (They come as little breakaway tabs on a big plastic card, and once you break one off, it's over.) But, it meant no time management. No worrying about a late FP return time and having to hang until it came to get another! WOOOHOOOO!!!

So, we kept on going with our plan, which was PotC. Buzz said that he was still a little nervous, but in a stroke of genius, I had remembered to retrieve his Pixie Dust and stick it in the pocket of his shorts that morning. He said, "I have my Pixie Dust, so I'm OK." I just have to say again how incredibly lifelike they've made the Jack character! It's a little frightening...

We then skedaddled across to Tomorrowland to do Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin. There was next to no line, so we rode first in the stand-by line. Buzz, in a total surprise move, won with over 200,000 points! Huh??? I did a little more respectably, with over 100,000, but I can't remember the exact score... Hmmm... We then jumped right back in the FP return, using our Dream FP's - the CM working the queue congratulated us - and went again. I think D. won that round, but we all did well enough!

We had wanted to do the Laugh Floor again, so we headed on over. There was a very small line. We hopped right on into the pre-show, and there is a point where they say that you can text message a joke and it may be used in the show. So, I texted one of the boys' favorite jokes, saying it was from "Buzz & Woody in NH". (Well, OK, I used their real names...)

We got into the theatre, and were seated on the left of the center aisle this time, about halfway up. The part came where they used the jokes from the pre-show, and, yup, up came one from Buzz & Woody in NH!

Ready?

"Why did the lion spit out the clown?" "Because he tasted funny!"

Buzz turned to me with huge eyes and said, "Hey, I know that joke!" I had to explain that I'd suggested it in their names.

Not long after, there is a point where they interview some audience members. And, guess what? Buzz was interviewed, and shown on the big screen! They asked him his name, and where he was from. He did well answering those. They asked what grade he was in, and that stumped him a little, not being sure if he had a grade. I whispered to suggest that he say "kindergarten" and we were all good again. They then asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, and he replied with his stock answer - "a fighter-fire". The whole audience just kind of cooed.

So, that was particularly magical for him, and a nice bonus since Woody had gotten to drive the Jungle Cruise on Monday.

The boys were not sure about Space Mountain again, so we headed out across Fantasyland. The boys really wanted to do the Tea Cups, which we'd not managed on the previous days. The line was short, only about 10 minutes, and we were doing really well on our time, so we went ahead.

Our thought was to kind of run back across to Splash Mtn., since we had the FP's, but we did go ahead and use our FPs to do Pooh again (still didn't see Mr. Toad turning the deed over to Owl) and then did Peter Pan with its FP. The boys liked Peter Pan a lot better this time, since they'd seen the movie at Simba's Cubhouse on Wed. evening.

Buzz really wanted to do It's a Small World again. I told him he had to take it up with Daddy. D. reluctantly agreed, and the kids were entranced yet again.

The boys were ready for a little smackerel of something, so we got them some popsicles in Liberty Square, and they ate them on the way back to Splash. We still had 4 snack credits at this point, though...

We were quickly back on Splash Mtn. with our FPs. It was nearing our 1:00 benchmark, but we figured that since we were there, we should do BTMRR one last time. We were on and off it really quickly, which brought up a dilemma. Space Mtn., or no Space Mtn.??? D. really wanted to go again. It was just at 1:00.

We somehow talked ourselves into trying it. We stuck the boys on our shoulders and RAN back across the park. We got to Space, and Woody got a little freaked out. Buzz, in one of the sweetest moments of the week, gave him a piece of his Pixie Dust... Woody decided he was cool, so on we went.

The FP line was LONG! We finally got on, and I had Woody in the seat in front of me. The minute the ride started, he began crying. I was leaning forward awkwardly, trying to keep a hand on his shoulder, but getting totally jerked around because of my position. He finally stopped, as the ride was ending. Poor guy... I felt so bad for him, to end on that note... Sigh.

But... It was nearing 1:20 now, and we still had to get back out of the park and to the bus stop! Yikes!!!

We again put the boys on our shoulders and strode rapidly toward the exit, stopping for nothing. We got out to the bus stop by 1:40 or so, and the bus came about 1:50.

We arrived back at the AKL at 2:07. I talked to the bell desk to get our luggage out, whilst D. ran down to the Mara to grab some chips and drinks with the last of our snack credits. He also changed into a clean shirt, lucky man.

The ME arrived right on time, and we headed out of the AKL. A stop at Pop, and then straight on for MCO. In a fitting note, it began raining right as we pulled out of Pop - the first rain we'd seen all week!

It took us a bit to find a place to drop off our luggage, since you are dropped off on the same level that you leave from at MCO. The lines at security were actually not bad at all, and we were through in no time.

We'd not had lunch, so we fed the boys some McD's, and ourselves some Bon Pain, and then headed for our gate.

We'd had A seating, but I hadn't (somehow, I should have known better!) figured on the fact that half the plane would be pre-boarding. Our kids are too old! We normally laugh a little at anyone queueing up in the A line, as you should be fine with any A - I totally understand wanting to be the first "C" on board, but A's??? Here, though, it made sense, and after about twenty minutes, we joined the line. So are the mighty fallen...

And then, delays... It was raining some in Orlando, but apparently there were some good sized storms along the mid-Atlantic coast, and we couldn't go.

Meanwhile, the slightly stuffy nose I'd noticed at MGM the afternoon before became something a little worse. I'd taken some Sudafed that morning in the hotel, but it was long gone.

We finally boarded about a half hour late. We sat at the gate for quite a while, then pushed back because another plane needed the gate, but we were told it would still be at least a half hour before take-off. Sigh. The kids were tired, but it was hot with the engines off, and that plane was full. We had taken window/centers in one row across an aisle, but the aisle seats were used, so we couldn't really talk across the way.

We finally took off, but Buzz would not fall asleep. I was completely miserable - any time I get a cold anymore, my ears plug up (I've had two ear infections this year - boys, none!), and being on the plane...

However, we got home 'round about an hour late, got our van, stopped for milk and a frozen pizza, and headed on home. The boys decided against any food and headed for bed, no doubt with visions of Mickey dancing in their heads. D. & I collapsed on the sofa, replete with happiness over a wonderful family vacation.

Next, a small wrap-up with final thoughts, best/worst things, etc. Thanks again, everyone, for reading.

 

[Disneyland_Mama]

Inspite of Woody's scare on SM, it sounds like you had a great trip wrap up! And how cool to win a Dream FP on the last day when time is of the essence?? Excellent!

I've enjoyed reading your trippie, I hate to see it end! But I am looking forward to your final thoughts installment! Gotta love those!

 

[oybolshoi]

Awesome! You got dream fastpasses!! Did you take a picture? I have a feeling that's as close as I'm ever going to get to them.

Sounds like your last day was wonderful; I'm so happy for you!

 

[cmp1111]

Inspite of Woody's scare on SM, it sounds like you had a great trip wrap up! And how cool to win a Dream FP on the last day when time is of the essence?? Excellent!

I've enjoyed reading your trippie, I hate to see it end! But I am looking forward to your final thoughts installment! Gotta love those!

Thanks, Tracy! I have to gather those "final thoughts", but they'll come soon enough. The Dream FPs were PERFECT!

Awesome! You got dream fastpasses!! Did you take a picture? I have a feeling that's as close as I'm ever going to get to them.

Sounds like your last day was wonderful; I'm so happy for you!

Thanks! You left that same day, right? Anyway, I can take a picture of the Dream FPs and stick it in my last section. Sadly, we actually have a few tabs still attached...

 

[WDWHeather]

What a great day! Dream Fast Passes and everything!!
Okay, I have something to say that is totally unrelated to Disney, but, when am I ever truly on topic...
Skedaddle and smackerel! These are GREAT words that are just not used enough these days! Definitely a double green thumbs up for finding places for them in your TR!
Glad you're adding another little somethin' at the end here for us, because I'm not ready for it to be over yet!

 

[wils]

Great timing for the Dream Fast Pass. I hope you recovered quickly from your cold

 

[Disneyolic]

How lucky you were to be able to go to a park the same day you left. We never had enough time...

 

[dreamsofdisney]

WOO HOO!!!

Dream Fast Passes on your last 1/2 day! Nice to end with a Magical Moment...And I don't mean the not-so-magical ride on Space Mountain! I've been through that with my DS when he was younger too - last minute cold feet when he's already strapped in and there's nothing you can do but offer a few fingertips in comfort!

Also, how GREAT that both boys were chosed for something special: Jungle Cruise and Laugh Factory. Buzz sharing his Pixie Dust was soooooo sweet! I love moments like that!

Thanks for sharing your TR with all of us here on the DIS. It's been great fun following along with your wonderful family. Wishing you many more magical vacations!