The "Griswolds" do Disney and MNSSHP *UPDATED: One last visit to DTD*

[White as Snow]

tinawv - I'm really glad to hear you're enjoying my ramblings! This was our first time really trying to be good "photographers" at the world, so I'm happy you like the photos. I'm feeling better, thanks! I'll be muchmuchmuchmuch better (though tired) after finals are over! Stay tuned, I hope to have more up at least by next week if not sooner.

 

[mlill]

Hi! Awesome Animal Kingdom pictures! Can't wait to see/read more! Hey, didn't you mention that you were going back to WDW for Christmas? If so, when are you going to be there?

-Michelle

 

[White as Snow]

Michelle,
I'm really not sure when we will be there or if we're going to Orlando for Christmas at all. Joey moved to Knoxville, TN for a few months to fill in for a woman on maternity leave, so that changes things a little. There has been talk amongst the crew about staying and about going. Anywho, if we do end up going, we'll be getting there late Christmas night, and staying through probably the 29th or 30th.

 

[White as Snow]

WOOHOOO!! I'm a Mouseketeer!!

 

[tiggerwannabe]

Great Writing Snow

 

[UtahMama]

Yay! I love anything Griswalds, and this is no exception!

Ive read all three pages and even took notes on some stuff:

I was watching (with my other eye) Paula Dean on Food Network at you wrote about all the great cooks on FN! I like them all. I did the Alton Brown Thanksgiving last year like a pro! Food Network or HGTV is on my TV all day as background noise!

SPA day at Grand Floridian.....awwww! I think that would be the BEST!

I had never had a funnel cake till last year too! GOOD, eh? Fun to watch them make them too!

CROCs- ugly but happy feet!!!! Now I wear mine all the time and have very comfy footsies. I cant wait to get some Disney-ish ones!

Smoking! I too have issues with this! I refuse to leave if i was there first...It took me a while to "confront" inconsiderate people. Screaming, "Dont you know who I am???!" usually works! I'm the type to make the biggest deal over it till a CM has NO choice but to rid my lungs of the offending smoker. Disney NEEDS to enforce the smoking only in designated areas only rule just like the no line jumping rule etc.

Other than my little notes, this is really fun to read. You and your mama look German, are you? I am!! Love the German Pavillion!

 

[White as Snow]

UtahMama!
Oh my gosh, this is going to totally weird you out, but you're like a celebrity to my family! Mom, Robert, an I are addicted to your TR, we're only half-way through though because no one is allowed to read it alone - we all have to be together (well, at leat Mom and I do). Every time we see Johnny Depp there is a comment made about UtahMama. Okay, I'm through gushing.

I'm so glad you like my TR. FN and HGTV are pretty much all Mom used to watch, she's branched off and added diyNetwork.

The funnel cake experience was indeed fun all around - well, except for Mom and her threats

No, Mom and I aren't German, that would be cool though, because that's what Snow White is - sorry, I'm a fanatic. Nope, we're as Scotch-Irish as they come. I have a really "red" complexion (gotta love the wonders Bare Minerals can work!) because I'm an Irish brunette - aka I'm supposed to have red hair but I don't. Mom may have some German somewhere in her heritage, but I'm not sure. Now that I've given you lots of useless information about our heritage....

Tiggerwannabe - I'm also very glad that you like my TR.

Be patient with me everyone - a new installment IS on the way! My juries (piano test, basically) are in an hour and a half so then most of the stress and consumed time will be done with. I slipped in here to calm my nerves a little bit, and it was really great to see that two more DISpeeps have jumped on the Mitchell/Gable/Griswold bandwagon!

 

[UtahMama]

Nuh-uh!!!!! Me? That is "nicking fruts!!!!" Thank you for that! I'm honored!!

Can you immitate Snow White's singing warble? I LOVE her singing voice! So old old school! She IS the fairest of them all.

Now, I'm craving funnel cakes (a CARB) with butter and powdered sugar! Thanks alot.

I'm just reading other's TR's to avoid my own. I'm in a creative funk, hoping to gain inspiration from other's.

Your fan!
Wendy

 

[White as Snow]

YAY!!! Okay everyone, finals are OVER!!. Soooo, I’ve got to get this TR rolling because......WE LEAVE IN 10 DAYS for the WORLD!!!!!!!! We finally decided to go spend Christmas with the Mouse! We’re also staying at the Dolphin for part of the trip! This is the first time we’ve ever stayed at a Deluxe resort. I guess that about does it for my excited rambling. Now, on with the TR.

After we finished at Tusker House, Robert and I tried to coerce everyone to go on Kali, but no one wanted to get wet - good grief, if I don’t melt, none of them will. It was probably just as well though, because we walked over toward the Tree of Life. We went through this little thing where you are supposed to be able to view otters as well as other animals/fish/whatever. There was no otter present, so we walked back up near the DVC info place. Now, for those that payed attention to the pic of Hootier and me with Friar Tuck (because I know you all covet my fashion sense yeah) , you remember that I was wearing my Lion King The Musical shirt. This CM from the DVC booth came over and asked us if we had seen FOTLK yet, since we had obviously seen the musical (sadly, only Robert and I got to experience it - it was a wedding gift from me to him - btw, our 1 yr. anniversary is SUNDAY!!) We told him we had not seen FOTLK yet. He motioned for us to follow him! I turned around and grinned at Mom (remember, we’re the only ones who care that it’s the YOMD.) He made a phone call and asked us for a name. Holly was elected, so he told us to go to the exit of the FOTLK theater about 30 minutes before the start of the next show, give the attendant our name, and they would tell us what to do. Pixie dust! I knew it would be a smart choice to wear my Lion King shirt to AK. Smart or dorky.

We decided to amble on over toward Camp Minnie Mickey. I love the bridge as you walk over, it is so peaceful to me for some reason. Holly wanted to get an ice cream, so she and Joey went thataway and the rest of the packadermy went to stake out some benches near the character greeting site. The line for Pluto was short, so Mom and I grabbed Robert (our designated photographer) and jumped in line. Pluto was so adorable! When children had an autograph book, he would bend down and have them put it on his snout, he would stand up, sign the book and then bend back down so the child could get their book off of his nose. When it was our turn Mom told him, “You are just adorable!” He seemed to appreciate that. Here we are with Pluto.

I’m having a bit of a memory melt down - I guess I’m having a “student moment” (finals have worn my brain out I guess). I can’t remember if we went in to FOTLK or if this was when Holly and I got our pic made with Goofy. I’m going to go with the first option.

We walked over to FOTLK and gave the attendant our name, Holly, which had now become my name because we weren’t sure what we were going to have to do. The real Holly didn’t want to risk having to get up in front of everyone, so I assumed the alias of “Holly.” The CM told us to wait close by because they weren’t quite ready yet. We parked it on a bench and listened to the music being piped into the park. I have this old Disney Classics CD that Robert and I listen to all the time, and Robert’s favorite song on it is “Minnie’s Yoo-hoo” - I think this is his fave because it annoys the blazes out of me. Well, I noticed that this was what was playing on the speakers (it was some kind of acoustic guitar version, really neat). Robert and I hummed along to the rest of it, then another song came on and Joey and Holly decided to entertain us. Joey stands behind Holly and makes her pretend to play a guitar. It may sound weird, but it was extremely hilarious to us at this moment - I love the giddiness of Disney! Here’s the proof they actually did it, in case they try to deny it.

We noticed that there were a lot of people giving their names to the CM, so we figured we wouldn’t have to do anything too embarrassing. When we were finally let in to the theater, we found out that our pixie dust was second row seats to the show. This is by far one of mine and Robert’s (and I think everyone else (except Joey) now claims it as a favie) favorite things in Disney, I love it because I would love to compose for Disney someday, Robert just loves the overall experience of the show. Most of you have seen the show, so I’ll just post the awesome photos that we made with our 2nd row seats!

Robert was so psyched that we were in her section - he absolutely adores her voice and attitude.

How could you not love these guys?

I kept thinking to myself, “He must have one heck of a podiatrist.”

I absolutely adore this guy’s voice - there’s nothing like a good bass.


We tried to avoid the stampede after the show let out, we headed back toward the character area, Holly and I stepped up to get our pic made with Goofy, he was really really sweet! He gave us a big hug, and when we started to leave, he blew us a kiss. I love it when the characters act as though they enjoy greeting guests, not like they would rather be having dental surgery.

After the show and Goofy, we headed over to Dinoland. I was in serious need of some ibuprofen at this point, so we went in search of some drinks. We went in the store across from Primeval Whirl - okay, if you don’t like ciggy smoke avoid this store, there’s a smoking area right behind it, so the whole shop is basically permeated with the scent of smoke. We shopped around a minute and then Joey started asking if there were any takers on riding Primeval whirl with him. Robert and I were the only ones who wanted to ride. Mom, Dad and Holly took a breather and promised to wave to us.

This was an absolute walk on, the only downside was that Robert had to chug his Coke so he could throw it away before we boarded. The seats on this thing are WAY too small. I squished my Pooh-sized bum in beside Joey - which left poor Robert all by himself on the edge. I think the best part of the ride was Robert freaking out because he was afraid we were going to go over the edge of the track. When we walked back over to Mom, Dad, and Holly, they said they could hear Robert screaming from across the street!

Well, that’s all I can offer for now. Robert and I are off in a few hours to have Christmas with his family, then we are going to have Christmas with my mom’s family tomorrow. I hope everyone has a safe and happy weekend!

 

[White as Snow]

Now for the Griswolds riding Dinasour. Oh my goodness do I hate this ride. Except for Joey and Holly, this was everyone’s first time on this ride. We had been looking forward to it, even though Joey warned us we didn’t want to ride with Holly. Holly tends to hit when she gets scared or excited. When we watched “The Ring” together, she nearly beat the stuffing out of the couch cushions - and she had SEEN the movie before!

Okay, that being said, I’ll commence with the Dinasour saga. There was not wait, so we breezed through the queue area. I can’t remember how we were seated, I know Joey was the only one close to Holly because he was the only one that came out with bruises. I however barely came out. As I’ve mentioned before, I don’t know if I got sick because I had the beginnings of a bacterial infection, or if lupus patients just shouldn’t try thrill rides. I will know more after next week. I felt like I was going to pass out. Robert and Dad hovered around to make sure I didn’t REALLY hit the floor (it wouldn’t be the first time!) Mom, Joey, and Holly were looking at our pic. It was extremely funny. Joey is giving Holly the death look, Holly is slapping Joey’s arm and screming, I’m screaming and covering my ears with my arms (that ride is SO loud), Robert is screaming and gripping the lap bar (Joey told him he better never commit a crime b/c his prints are ingrained in that bar!) I believe Mom is screaming and Dad is just smiling. I think that will be our Christmas cards next year. What do ya’ll think?

After the photo was purchased and I felt like walking again, we headed out. We had talked before Dinasour about getting frozen bananas. We passed by a kiosk and Robert treated everyone to a frozen chocolate ‘nanner. We decided that if we were going to do any MGM today, it was time to head out. Joey and Holly had to go give Audrey her medicine - poor thing has seizures. So we said we would meet them when they got to the Studios.

When we got to the studios, for some reason, Robert’s and my tickets wouldn’t work. They admitted us and told us to go to Guest Relations so they could issue us a new ticket. After that, we decided to shop around a little. I know all the guide books say that all the shops are basically the same, but I really have to disagree. If nothing else, all the shops have their own personality. The shops in MGM are so much fun, and they have some of the best windows. Here’s a pic of one of the windows in MGM. My aunt has a party poodle (one of the small ones) so we always take pics of things with poodles or poodle skirts!

Our first stop after browsing was TGMR, we all love this ride, yes, it could stand an update but it’s a classic. We had never had the cowboy version before and we were told that if you request a version, they’ll let you have that version. This isn’t necessarily true....because it didn’t work. First of all, I didn’t know Mom was going to request it, so when they opened the doors for us to board the car, I forged ahead....Only to realize that the rest of my party was still in the holding area. Robert nearly knocked the door down to get to me - he’s so sweet. The let me get off that car and go back to the boarding area. I felt so stupid. As it turns out, we ended up getting the gangster version, again. We weren’t too happy about this, especially given all the confusion beforehand. Oh well, I did see the hidden Minnie and the poster that has Mickey’s foot on it. I pointed these out to Robert, he was really into looking for hidden characters on this trip! I read somewhere that one poster has part of Snow White on it? Anyone know about the validity of this?

After that, we had to let Dad get his muppet fix. Dad loves Muppet vision. His fave characters are the two old men, whose names I’m blanking on right now. I love the subtle things about this show, the holding area is so funny. After Muppets we headed to Star Tours, not to ride, to shop. Joey turned 30 Dec. 12th and we had a big surprise Star Wars themed birthday party for him Saturday. We didn’t buy anything in October, but it did give us some great ideas. I nearly bought the Leia hair headband and we all stood around laughing about the ideas in the cookbook. If you have never looked at the shirts in Tatooine Traders, go look at them the next time you get a chance, they are hilarious. Dad loves the Darth Tater shirt.

We wandered back toward the “Main Street USA” of MGM. There were some street performers out, but my estrogen kicked in and I had to go shop. By the time this shopping binge was over, Joey and Holly called and said they were parking. We stayed around “Main Street” until they arrived. We then headed toward the thrill ride section of MGM. My fave is ToT, but we decided to do RnR because Joey has problems riding ToT. The wait was pretty long and FPs were sold out by this time, but there wasn’t really anything else we could do before Fantasmic - which we were going to see come evil dragons or high water. We hopped in line and began making our customary jokes to pass the time. Poor Robert had never ridden this before and he thought once we were in the building, we were in - poor delusioned, Disney deprived thing. I wish I had a picture of his face when he saw the queue INSIDE!

Once the ride was over - it was fun, but yet again I got dizzy. It was about time to head toward Fantasmic to grab some seats. Holly and Joey didn’t want to see Fantasmic because they wanted to get carrot cake cookies at The Writer’s Stop (the shop on the back of Sci-Fi). After some debating about who was going to get cookies and who was going to see Fantasmic, Joey and Holly headed off for cookies and Mom, Dad, Robert, and I hiked over to Fantasmic. This show was SO good. It gave me Disney chills! Robert took several pics, but our camera is terrible when it comes to night time shots.

After Fantasmic, Mom and Dad found a bench to rest while the sea of people rolled on out of the park. Robert and I went to the Christmas shop. Okay, someone’s child in that shop was going nuts. I didn’t even see a parent near this kid who coulnd’t have been more than five. He was running around the store and nearly knocked me over, nearly because instead of knocking me over, he just stomped on my foot. So, if this was your child, please corral the little guy next time. We were going to buy a Mickey - pumpkin ornament for my aunt, but the shop was just too wild and crazy.

When we exited, or should I say escaped the shop, we saw Mom and Dad on their bench. Robert tried to take some pics of them before they noticed.

Mom was a little teary eyed because she said that they had been watching a family skip down the street. She said, “I know the parents probably thought it was silly, but those children will remember that for the rest of their lives.” When she told me, I started crying! The crowd had cleared a little by then, so we went off to find Joey and Holly, and the cookies! Unfortunately for me, Robert still had the camera out. Here’s me stuffing my face with carrot cake cookie.

Sadly, it was time to leave my favorite park and head back to the hotel.

Up next: DTD and MNSSHP!!

 

[White as Snow]

We decided to sleep in on Monday morning so that we would be more rested for MNSSHP that night. It was really nice not to hear the phone ring with the wake up call that morning. We got breakfast from the lobby and then headed to DTD with Mom and Dad. After a morning of shopping, we went off site for lunch and then back to the hotel for some still much needed rest. We did take some pictures at DTD, here they are in all their glory.

Before we knew it, it was time to leave for MNSSHP. We decided against costumes because we wanted to be able to enjoy the park and festivities without worrying about getting costumes dirty. Robert had bought a festive orange shirt and I decided to wear my “Wicked” shirt. Other than that and our custom made treat bags, we were just everyday park peeps.

This party was awesome. I would recommend that everyone try it once. We saw so many adorable families having such a great time - don’t get me wrong, we had a great time, but our adorable factor is somewhat low since none of us have any younguns. I can’t wait until Robert and I have kids so we can take them to WDW! I really really wanted to see the Wicked Witch from Snow White - not the Evil Queen, the Wicked Witch. Holly called and asked where she would be and we were informed she wasn’t appearing at this party. Oh well, I was still interested in seeing the Evil Queen since I’ve never seen her up close before.

Here are some pics of the castle and a couple that was dressed as Tootsie Rolls, they made me wish we had decided to do costumes.

We made it to the end of Main Street just in time to see Dream Along with Mickey. This is SUCH a cute show. I teared up. Robert vidoed parts of it and I cry every time I watch it. It was so geat to be at Disney with my family. Here are some pictures that Robert took of the show.

My favorite character is by far Snow White, but Minnie is SO adorable!

I was so glad to see that Snow White was in this show. I worry that since her movie is so old that kids will lose interest in her. I promise, I do have a life even though I do worry about stuff like that.

After the show, we headed toward Toon Town so that Holly and I could get our faces painted. This is really a fun thing to do. I had always thought I wouldn’t enjoy this, but it really helps put you in the spirit of the party. I just wanted some black and green scroll work to go along with my shirt. Holly and I didn’t realize that you can ask the face painters to do anything you would like. The least they can do is say “No.” Luckily, my scroll work and Holly’s butterfly were designs they agreed to do. These pictures were taken just before the parade, but I’m going to place them here.

Meanwhile back at the ranch.....Mom, Dad, Joey, and Robert did the Alice treat trail. I had wanted to see the Walrus since he is such a rare character. My wonderful hubby remembered this (he can’t remember to pick up milk, but he remembers this). Here is a surprised Alice - I guess they snuck up on her, and my Pooh Bear with the Walrus.

I wanted to go see what characters were hanging out in TT too, but we ran out of time - we tried to see the first Villains show, but it was cancelled because...dun dun dunnnnn it rained. Okay, I’m being over dramatic. It didn’t pour, but it did make just enough of a mess that the Horseman didn’t ride and they cancelled the first show. Thankfully, the first parade still happened. We scored a front row - albeit soggy - seat. Since it was raining, Mom whipped out our ponchos. Robert decided to sit on his. I had my jacket, so I declined mine. Joey said, “No,” just because he’s Joey. Dad found alternate means of rain protection.

Mom and Holly were the only ones that actually ended up wearing the ponchos. Holly even tried to sell our human saran wrap to a guy on the street that asked her where we bought our ponchos. Holly if you’re reading, $15 might have been a little steep.

We sat right in front of the castle for the parade, which was a wonderful spot in my opinion. Here are some of our photos from the parade.

Well, that'll have to be all for now, because I can't post any more pics in this installment. Happy New Year, everyone!

 

[White as Snow]

Okay, here are the rest of the parade pics and the rest of the party!

IMG]http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m24/SnowWhite_017/100_0610.jpg[/IMG]

This guy kind of snuck up on me, he scared me to death!!

Is it just me, or does Clara Cluck sound an awful lot like Ethel Merman?

The CM riding in the car with Pluto was having the best time! He was dancing around and just enjoying being in the parade - it’s CMs like that that make it fun for everyone.

After the parade, we headed toward the HM, because honestly, how could you do MNSSHP and NOT ride HM? It was so much fun what with the atmposphere of the whole park being Halloween. When we got out, these guys were performing. They were kind of in front of the Liberty Belle if you want to find them next year. We have a friend who sings with a men’s quartet, so we took tons of pics and video of them. They were singing about the Headless Horseman. One of the last lines of the song says something about “Because you can’t reason with a headless man.” One woman yelled out “Or any man!”

We went through the Trick or treat line near the riverboat (I know there is a great fan base of the riverboat on the DIS, please don’t flame me for not knowing the exact name of it. We’ve never ridden it because it just doesn’t appeal to us. There, that was my sad attempt at a disclaimer.) The candy offerings for the whole night weren’t especially fantastic, but we were just going for the overall experience, not necessarily candy, characters, or rides.

Anyway, we checked our watches and decided to head back toward Main Street to catch the fireworks. I thought Main Street might be a pretty good bet since it was a party and there wouldn’t be quite as many people. We staked out a spot on the left side of the street if you are facing the castle. Joey and Holly went to get some popcorn or something, so they ended up in the middle of the street because they didn’t make it back before they lowered the lights. The fireworks were incredible. Robert took a lot of video instead of pics so I don’t really have any to post. I would recommend just trying to go to a party, though, because pictures just can’t do this show justice. Even a villain themed Disney fireworks show makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. I guess it was just the experience of it with the whole family.

After the fireworks, it was time for the next attempt of the villains show. I suggested going ahead to the castle to get good seats even though it was a little early. While we waited for the show, Robert got a turkey leg for dinner. Wow! We had never had a turkey leg before, they are so juicy and tender! We didn’t get as many stares from passersby as I had feared either.

The villains show was really fun. It is great to see the characters that aren’t always out and about. I did miss some characters that I had seen pics of from previous parties (i.e. Stromboli, and the Wicked Witch). Oh well, we ran around like crazy after the show, trying to get as many pics as possible. Holly is the only one brave enough to come with me for some of them. I used to be EXTREMELY shy, being married to an extrovert like Robert and being a music major in college has brought me out of my shell a good bit, but let’s face it, about some things, I’m still a huge shy chicken!

Regretably, the only villain we didn’t get was Cruella. She was really popular, hence, a mile long line. Oh, also while we were running around getting pics with villains, another black-clad, horse riding villain rode right by before we noticed him. That’s right, we missed the ride of the HH in all our running aound trying to get pics. I guess we’ll just have to go back next year! Here are our pics with the bad guys.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m24/SnowWhite_017/100_0671.jpg[/IMG
[IMG]http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m24/SnowWhite_017/100_0672.jpg[/IMG
I remembered to bow to the Queen and say, “Yes, your majesty!” Holly forgot and got mime-cussed out by the Queen. It was pretty funny
[IMG]http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m24/SnowWhite_017/100_0674.jpg
The Queen was awesome!
Queen: Interesting make-up you’ve chosen tonight.
Me: Oh, do you like it?
Queen: Not really.
Me: Yours is nice, but of course, you’re the Queen.

Holly’s dialogue was a little risqué for the boards, but I’ll try to tone it down a little.
Queen: You have a bug on your face, did you know that?
Holly: Yeah, just smacked into me, little *backstabber.

*Only thing I could come up with.

The Captain was very congenial for a villain. So was Jafar.

Maleficent was almost as good as the Evil Queen. When I walked up she said, “Black is such a wonderful color, isn’t it?” Gotta love the Disney villains!

Since we had already seen the parade, we decided to head off toward Fantasyland to find who else, Snow White! Joey and Holly decided to call it a night and go check on Audrey and Skeeter.

We ran across some Hundred Acre Wood folk and decided to get a pic with them.

Piglet was so cute, at first he started to act like he was going to snub Mom, and then he came back and hugged her. They were both really cute.

We went looking for Snow White and the gang, but we got side tracked by a candy line. Thanks to Robert for catching Mom and me getting candy.

We asked around and were told that Snow White should be out soon. We debated about riding Dumbo, but decided to ride Snow White instead, well, I decided and everyone else followed me.

This ride never gets old for me. I just think it’s charming, no, it may not be the most up to date, but it’s old school Disney and I love it. After this, we checked again to see if Snow White was actually making an appearance. She wasn’t back from her Princess break yet, so, inspired by Piglet and Tigger, we went to ride Pooh’s ride for the first time. This ride is adorable!! It’s so much fun, even for adults. The heffalumps and woozles part was great.

When we came out, Snow White and the dwarves had finally come out of hiding. We got in the somewhat long line. There was a mother and her daughter in front of us. The little girl was dressed in a Snow White costume and the mother was priming her for meeting her fave Princess and her pals. This woman realized that she had left he camera with her stroller, which was parked at Dumbo. We promised to hold her spot while she went to get her camera. I figure it was spreading a little pixie dust to a future Snow White enthusiast.

There were a few young people in front of us, I wouldn’t call them teenagers. They were twenty-somethings I guess. They were somewhat obnoxious because they multiplied like rabbits. Now, I know we were holding that woman’s spot, but that was because 1. she had a child with her and 2. she was in line to begin with. These people were apparently saving spots for their friends, of which there seemed to be 300. There were probably less than 10, it just seemed like more because they were taking up a lot of space in line. After the obnoxious people and the mom and daughter had their turns with the fairest of them all, it was our turn. I’ve never seen all 8 of them together before, so this was special to me.

Dad coaxed Robert into getting into the pic with me and this is the result.

Ironically, this was the last picture available on our camera. Ahhh pixie dust. At this point we decided to head over to Frontierland since Robert had never ridden BTMRR or SM. We walked right on BTMRR (all 4 of us). Robert fell in love with it. It’s probably his favorite ride. Mom and Dad decided one ride was enough for them. The CMs told the rest of us if we wanted to ride again, we could just stay seated.

After we exited BTMRR, it was on to SM. Mom and Dad passed on this one also. Robert had never ridden this and didn’t know that there is a whole cool little ride before the drop. At every little fake out drop he would ask, “Is this it?” and at every little fake out drop I would answer “Yeah, I think this is it, hold on!” What fun is a DH if you can’t scare the pants off of him every once in a while? There was a Dad and son on the ride that we talked to a little bit. I had forgotten how great this ride is. Robert liked it after he realized the drop wasn’t life threatening.

As we exited the ride, we tried to look at our pic, but it never came up. There was a family there dressed like Pinocchio characters. The dad was Gepetto, mom was the Blue Fairy and one little boy was Pinocchio and the other was Jiminy Cricket. We had seen them several times that night. The dad make a comment to a nearby CM that they were from Alabama. Robert told him that we were also from AL and we found out that they live close to where we do, one other thing I love about Disney.

When we found Mom and Dad (which was harder than it should have been), we realized that the party was pretty much over and our only option was to head back toward Main Street. I’ve always wanted to get a hot dog from Casey’s but they were packed so I decided to wait until the December trip to try one. We went shopping in the Emporium even though it was a mad house. I found a pin for my uncle and Robert got a Pooh stuffed animal for our nephew ( not Skeeter, his brother’s son). Robert also got a Snow White bank for my desk ( so that we have something to put our loose change in for the next Disney trip). I found a HM keychain that I had to have (the freshmen tag I had been keeping my keys on was getting a bit old). I also bought the Wishes soundtrack.

We fought our way through a very crowded Main Street to the exit. Sadly, we didn’t find the troughs of Snickers that other DISers have talked about. The tired Mitchell/Gable clan hopped the monorail and reminisced about the wonderful time we had at the party and all of that weekend. We also talked about how much we would love to stay at the Polynesian, or the Grand Floridian. I think we may have found our fave hotel after our December trip - the Dolphin!

Up Next: The last installment!

 

[mlill]

There you are! I'm still a bit behind after being gone for 2 weeks! I've been trying to catch up on everyone's TR!!! Love the new installments! Your face painting at MNSSHP turned out great! We never seem to do that! WoW! You got a pic with all of the dwarfs! How cool is that?!?

-Michelle

 

[White as Snow]

The next morning wasn’t as sad as I had expected it to be. Usually, after a Disney trip, I’m devastated that I have to go home. I think I was just so tired - not of Disney - just physically exhausted. Ah, well, such is life with lupus. Hm, sounds like a sitcom. “Next time on Life with Lupus!”

This morning is kind of a blur to me now. I know Robert and I had to have packed at some point. I just can’t remember the exciting details. After everyone was packed up, we headed back to DTD for some last minute shopping and to meet Joey.

Goofy’s candy shop was on the agenda for today since we had missed it the first DTD go around. We liked this shop - c’mon, all that sugar, what’s not to love? While I wanted to purchase one of everything I saw, I refrained and settled on a piece of mint chocolate fudge for me, a piece of apple pie fudge for mom, and a dipped rice krispie treat. When we went to check out, this woman with a stroller (and a kid IN the stroller) had been bagging up candy from the front of the store. When the CM at the cast member weighed her bag and told her the price she slammed the bag down on the counter and said “That’s ridiculous!” Then she marched out of the store. Robert and I just gave the CM a surprised look. She told us, “That happens a lot, even though the price is displayed everywhere.” Robert commented on how rude that was to just leave the bag full of candy there. The CM told him that most of their time ends up being spent putting away various candy.

We payed for our goodies and went back out to meet Dad. Mom and Joey had headed into the $10 and under store. I pinched off a little of the mint fudge and then decided to go back to the Christmas shop to get an ornament for Robert. We have a tradition in my family that when we go on vacation we each pick out an ornament for the family tree. Robert and I are trying to build our collection of ornaments for our tree. Since we had gotten in an argument when we were at the Christmas store earlier, Robert had not gotten an ornament. I made a mad dash through the store since we were supposed to leave to go eat as soon as Mom and Joey finished their shopping. I found a Pooh ornament dressed in holiday garb. Perfect. I purchased the ornament and met back up with my family.

Robert didn’t know what I had bought in the shop. I was going to just hang it on the tree and let him notice it. I didn’t make it that far, but at least I kept it a secret until we were about 5 miles out of Orlando. He loved it!

Holly was working, so Mom, Dad, Joey, Robert, and I went to lunch at Olive Garden (it’s almost a traditional going away meal on Disney trips, which is kind of weird since there is an Olive Garden where Robert and I live). After lunch, we said goodbye to Joey.

The ride back up to Alabama was uneventful except for the fact that my throat got increasingly more sore. I went to the doctor the next day and they said I had a bacterial infection (ew). The doctor asked me if I had been around anyone who was sick. I told him that was hard to say because I had just come back from Disney World. Well, at least I wasn’t sick on the trip!

Well, there you have the Griswold’s October adventure! Be on the lookout for our December quest!!