The Kids Surprise Trip and Our Winter Weather Escape! ~With LOTS of pictures~

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Love, love, love the 1900 PF dinner. It was one of the highlights of our last trip. It's the only ADR I will definitely be making for our next trip.

We had a lot of fun there!

great trip report. can't wait to read the rest!

Thanks! And Welcome to my TR!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

YAY ~ I just got word from my Photopass Share Leader that she is mailing the CD out today!!!! I'm so excited!!!

 

[NewCrew42]

Yippee! More pics!

And I must say, your hair looks so good in all of your pics. I always look like I just ran 3 miles, and am covered in sweat. Hmm....

Maybe that's the difference in May vacation and a January vacation!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Yippee! More pics!

And I must say, your hair looks so good in all of your pics. I always look like I just ran 3 miles, and am covered in sweat. Hmm....

Maybe that's the difference in May vacation and a January vacation!

Welcome NewCrew!

Thanks, the January weather was much nicer to my hair! On previous trips the humidity and my hair have not been a good match!!

 

[jenjolt]

Loving your trip report so far Shelly!! I can't wait to read all of it!! And your pictures are amazing!!!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Loving your trip report so far Shelly!! I can't wait to read all of it!! And your pictures are amazing!!!

Thanks Jen! And welcome to my TR!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Thursday January 22nd ~


Today was our DHS day and I was very excited because DHS is my favorite park!!! This would also be the first time we have ever stayed at a park from open to close! The kids were also very excited because they are HUGE STAR Wars fans! Their goal for the day was to be chosen for the Jedi Training Academy no matter how many times we had to go try!! DH was most looking forward to dinner at Mama Melrose.

So we got up early and got ready at got to DHS before opening. While going through security I was spotted by DISer Dundeehunter. She was also on our January planning thread. We spoke briefly and then got separated by the crowd. We got inside and the opening show had just started. We spotted DISer Trixiequilts and her family there. I forgot to mention that we had met her briefly the night before at 1900 Park Fare too!

We had just missed the opening of TSM last May and were very excited to try it this time! So after the opening show we headed towards TSM, along with everybody else in the world!! Wow I have never seen that place so crowded before! At one point as we were walking very fast towards TSM DS9 said "my shoe is untied" and some lady that was near us said - just lose the shoe honey, you don't want to stop in this crowd, you will get stampeded!!! We finally made our way there and the line to get a fastpass was longer than the line for the ride. We went straight for the ride. I'm glad we did because that was the only chance we got to ride it. It was really great and a lot of fun!!

When we came out of the ride the lines to get a fastpass were even longer! So we headed for mine and DS9's absolute favorite ride - RNRC!! We had to wait about 30 minutes and then got fastpasses for later. It was great as always! By now it was getting close to time for the first Jedi Training Academy of the day - so we headed that way. When we got over there they were just getting started. Neither of the kids got picked. So we left and went to ride Star Tours. The wait time said 20 minutes, I think we waited at least 30 minutes. We have never ever had to wait for that ride before, so we knew we were in for huge crowds all day.

Since Fantasmic was only showing 2 times that week I think everybody was at DHS on those 2 days. Looking back we really should have skipped Fantasmic and gone to DHS on another day. It ended up to be so crowded that day that they added on a second showing of Fantasmic at 8:15. So anyway being that Fantasmic was at 7:00 and we had booked a Fantasmic dinner package at Mama Melrose we had to have dinner between 3:30-4:30 to get the package. The time we got was 4:10. So we wanted to have an early lunch since dinner was so early. So next up is Toy Story Pizza Planet lunch and another shot at Jedi Training!

 

[rusafee1183]

YAY ~ I just got word from my Photopass Share Leader that she is mailing the CD out today!!!! I'm so excited!!!

Shelly - I kow that there were a few issues with the photopass shares. Do you like it? Would you recommend it? How exactly does it work?

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Shelly - I kow that there were a few issues with the photopass shares. Do you like it? Would you recommend it? How exactly does it work?

This is the second one I have been in and it is great!

I am getting the CD for $22! I would never pay the full amount for one. Some of the pictures are good and I love the borders, but it's not worth $100.

The only difference now is that all the pictures are loading in by day/time, rather than by each card. So now all my pics are going to be mixed in with everybody else's, which is kind of a pain. They used to load in by card, so all my pics would be together and so would everyone else's.

You can take a look in this thread, it explains how it works. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1905931

If you have anymore questions, just ask!

 

[H20DogsNDisney]

Can't wait to read more! Great TR.

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Can't wait to read more! Great TR.

Thank you and welcome to my TR!

 

[DisMomAmy]

Great update! As you know I was anxious to hear about the crowds at DHS on a F! day. Seems like we made the right decision to skip F! We still have a FDP ADR for our last night - but we canceled the one we had earlier in the week with the other half of our travel party. I'm sure we'll be canceling the other package as well.

I'm doing a photopass share for the first time this year. I'm glad to hear it has worked out well for you. I'm a little concerned about how the photos upload by date - it's probably going to take quite a while to get the CDs mailed out to us... Did your leader just copy the whole CD for everyone or did you just receive your photos. I think the plan is for each family to just get their photos - but copying the whole CD seems so much easier. But I suppose some people don't want to have all of their pictures all over the country... Anyways - we aren't big on stopping to pose for photos so I think the share is a great option - even if we only get a few photos we come out ahead! And you've gotta love the special pictures that they do!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Great update! As you know I was anxious to hear about the crowds at DHS on a F! day. Seems like we made the right decision to skip F! We still have a FDP ADR for our last night - but we canceled the one we had earlier in the week with the other half of our travel party. I'm sure we'll be canceling the other package as well.

I'm doing a photopass share for the first time this year. I'm glad to hear it has worked out well for you. I'm a little concerned about how the photos upload by date - it's probably going to take quite a while to get the CDs mailed out to us... Did your leader just copy the whole CD for everyone or did you just receive your photos. I think the plan is for each family to just get their photos - but copying the whole CD seems so much easier. But I suppose some people don't want to have all of their pictures all over the country... Anyways - we aren't big on stopping to pose for photos so I think the share is a great option - even if we only get a few photos we come out ahead! And you've gotta love the special pictures that they do!

Yes, I was pretty disappointed with the crowds that day. Kind of took away from the whole DHS experience. We still had fun, but you know what I mean. I really think Disney made a mistake cutting Fantasmic back to 2 nights a week. Even the CM's were commenting on it. But I think they might be up to 3 nights a week now, not sure. Either way, next time we will skip it and go to DHS the day after it was shown and hopefully it will be much less crowded!!

It looks like we are going to get a CD with everybody's pictures on it. Last year we just got ours, but that was when they loaded by card and it was easy for the Leader to divide the pics. Now it would take forever to do so, so we just told her to do what was easiest so I would say that we are getting them all. Hopefully I can figured out how to get just ours onto a new CD!

 

[DisMomAmy]

F! is scheduled 3 nights while we are there but I'm not optimistic that the crowds will be any lower than what you experienced.

 

[trixiequilts]

Look! It's the back of Trixie's DD7's head! That's the only part of any of us that's been on the DIS!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Look! It's the back of Trixie's DD7's head! That's the only part of any of us that's been on the DIS!

That's funny!

Yep, the Trixie's were in front of us in line!

 

[shelbecat]

I just read all of your TR and your CBR report (on to DR next!). We are hoping to go to CBR in September - you are really helping sway me towards choosing that resort.

Great read!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

I just read all of your TR and your CBR report (on to DR next!). We are hoping to go to CBR in September - you are really helping sway me towards choosing that resort.

Great read!

Hi! Welcome to my TR! Thanks for reading!

Good luck deciding where to stay, we do love CBR!

 

[kaysmommie]

Great updates. 1900 Park fare is so fun for dinner. I like the food way better at breakfast though. Sorry your HS day was so crowded, that stinks. your pics are great and waiting tosee if the boys got picked for Jedi training. My DS4 really wants to do this in May.

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Thursday January 22nd continued. . .


We went to Toy Story Pizza Planet right around 11:00 and the line was already long! But who should show up right behind us in line??? Trixiequilts and family! So we passed the time in line chatting with them. I think the kids might have even done some pin trading! Eventually we got our food and had a pretty decent lunch.

For more info about our Toy Story Pizza Planet lunch ~ http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2079590&page=10


After lunch we headed back to the Jedi Training Academy for another shot! We had been at the 9:55 show. Now it was the 11:50 show. And the kids didn't get picked again. So we decided to go see the Muppet Vision 3-D show. Very cute. We hadn't seen it in a couple of years, so it was enjoyable. On our DHS day we always either do the Indiana Jones show or the Lights, Motors, Action show, we don't do both since they each take up so much time. This year it was the Indiana Jones show! We got a great seat up front on the right side and the kids loved every minute of it!

By now it was about 1:15, so we headed back towards the Jedi Training Academy to give it yet another shot. Third time's a charm, right???