The Mostly Very Merry Holiday/Bday Grand Gathering Update 4/6 Calf Grill

[janloz]

This is my first TR so please be patient with me and my writing. Also, this is an account of my family's trip and our experiences, as in life, everyone's experiences are different so if you don't agree with something said or done please don't flame me. Thanks.

Ok, on with the details. I started to plan this trip in August 2007 and all the details are in my PTR. http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1782394

Included on this trip were the following for left to right:

Poppy (DFIL), Granny (DMIL), Mark (DS turned 11 during trip), Dave (DH), Sarah (DD7), Janet (me), Joyce (my mom), Sue (DSIL).

We had this picture taken on 12/5 during Photopass photo shoot at Poly. we had 92 photos taken and would do it again in a second. Dave also got a new Canon Rebel Xsi camera just before the trip and took almost 2500 pictures so there will be alot of pictures in this TR.

Chapter 1: Arrival (below)
Chapter 2: Epcot post #14
Chapter 3: Canada, UK and meet some Dis friends Post #17 &18
Chapter 4: The surprise, Le Cellier and Epcot Decorations Post #25
Chapter 5: Early Entry Breakfast at Crystal Palace and Holiday Decorations on Main Street Post #37
Chapter 6: MK morning and Tony's Town Square Posts 48, 49, 50
Chapter 7: Shopping and Parade Post 55, 56, 57
Chapter 8: Osborne LightPost 63
Chapter 9: 50's PTPost 64
Chapter 10: Early ADR in Epcot Post 65, 66, 67
Chapter 11: WS Afternoon Post 76,77, 78
Chapter 12: Evening at WS and sickness strikes Post 83
Chapter 13: Do we need to file a missing person's report? Post 88,89
Chapter 14: Boma Breakfast and AK Post 90
Chapter 15: AK Safari and Pangani Trail Post 92, 93
Chapter 16: Animal Kingdom Afternoon: Posts 99-100
Chapter 17: AK Photopass pics & POP lunch Post 107
Chapter 18: Evening of Dining: Post 109, 111
Chapter 19: Birthday SurprisePost 116, 118 & 119
Chapter 20: Birthday Afternoon in HS Post 122, 123, 125
Chapter 21: Birthday Dinner and Celebration Cruise
Chapter 22: Morning walk around POP Post 141, 142
Chapter 23: DTD, BBB Post 143


A little background, Mark & Sarah knew that Joyce was joining us on this trip but did not know that Granny, Poppy or Sue would be joining us. So on Thanksgving, Sue was talking about getting her new car and in front of the kids says "I told the saleman that I wouldn't take delivery of the car since I didn't want it to sit at the airport for 5 days." We let it pass and it became obvious that they weren't listening as usual so no problem.

On Friday, I finished packing and cleaning the house, brought the pet turtles to one of Mark's friends house, printed the boarding passes, put most of the suitcases in the car and finally got to bed around 11pm.

CHAPTER 1: Getting There Our flight was at 8:15am on 11/29 so I was up at 5:30am and in the shower and quickly dressed and got everyone else moving. We were out the door by 6:15am and got to the airport without any problems and checked our 5 bags and were off to security.
Mark, Sarah, Joyce and myself get through and notice that Dave got pulled aside when our new Tamrac camera back pack set off some alarm. So the TSA agent has to take out each piece of camera equipment, lens, battery pack, video and swab it and analyze it. He says go to the gate and grab some breakfast from Dunkin and he'll meet us there, so that is what we did. He meets us there 10 minutes later, nothing unusual found. Our flight left on time and with no problems connecting in Charlotte, we arrived in Orlando around 12:30pm and made our way to ME.

Mark was really more excited then that but was also tired. This was our first time using the ME and we really liked the service since we knew that we didn't have to deal with rental car and finding the right road to the resort. We arrived at POP around 1:30pm and Joyce & I went to check in while Dave and the kids explored.

Everything went smoothly and we received connecting rooms 4th floor in 50's section to the right of the Jukebox overlooking the bowling pin pool as requested plus it was ready. This was our view:

Of course, since it was 75 the kids were begging to go in the pool but since MIL/FIL were expected to arrive at the resort in about an hour so we quickly changed into our shorts and t-shirts and were in line for the bus to Epcot.

Up next, are the kids surprised?...........

 

[mybabesuz]

I'm here...
Can't wait to hear all about it...

 

[janloz]

YEAH, a least one person to read along....

 

[Mocharilla]

I'm here, too!

 

[TinkAsh2001]

Im here and cant wait to hear more!!

 

[scottny]

just found your report and it is off to a great start. looking forward to hearing more.

 

[skhermsmeyer]

YAY! I can't wait to read your TR, Janet! I hope you guys had a great time. I can't believe we leave on Saturday for the World

 

[WDisneyWforMe]

I'm in! Eager to read your report but will have to take a break unless you are very fast report writer , as we leave for the WORLD in 4 days!! Count me in though!

 

[janloz]

I'm here, too!

Im here and cant wait to hear more!!

just found your report and it is off to a great start. looking forward to hearing more.

Thanks for reading, there will be alot more and TONS of photos. We deleted some blurry ones last night and still have almost 2500 pictures.

YAY! I can't wait to read your TR, Janet! I hope you guys had a great time. I can't believe we leave on Saturday for the World

We did have a great time with a few bumps in the road. Hope you are packed and ready to go.

I'm in! Eager to read your report but will have to take a break unless you are very fast report writer , as we leave for the WORLD in 4 days!! Count me in though!

I certainly won't finish before you leave but then there will be a lot to read when you get back. Have a great trip!

 

[Hollywoodhaha]

I'M HERE

 

[Cibahwewah]

I'm waiting to hear all about it!

 

[janloz]

I'M HERE

I'm waiting to hear all about it!

Yeah, more readers.

I am working on the next chapter right now and should have it up in an hour or so.

 

[mybabesuz]

Good Morning...

 

[janloz]

CHAPTER 2: EPCOT When we left off, we were giving the kids the bums rush over to Epcot so we didn't run into the inlaws who were on the ME to POP as we were walking to get the bus to Epcot. Here is the picture Dave took on the way to the bus.

I forgot to mention that before we went to Epcot that I was able to get Luggage Services to deliver Nemo our fridge from the fridge swap I run with mybabesuz plus the groceries I had ordered from Garden Grocer. The CM was wonderful and actually helped me take it out of the box and set it up in the room and I gave him a very nice tip for his troubles. In hindsight, I order WAY too much groceries since we really didn't spend a lot of time in the room but it was was so nice to have the cold water and Gatorade which would come in very handy later. I noticed that the cold items had not been delivered with the other stuff and stopped at LS on the way to the bus and they had them and said they would deliver them to the room and put in fridge.

Then it was off to Epcot and our first Disney Transportation bus ride. As soon as we walked through the turnstiles, we noticed something odd:

We found out later that this is a Tow truck for the monorail, apparently the monorail broke down 3 times in a week which is very unusual. It was really neat to see it. We were then amazed by the beautiful Christmas topiaries and took some photos and our first Photopass photos. I will add the photopass photos when we get the CD.

You will notice that Mark is not in many of the photos, he hates to have his picture taken and was not being very cooperative with the Photopass photographer or Dave. This became a theme for the vacation.

We finally made our way into Epcot at about 3:30pm and it was not as crowded as I expected it to be considering it was the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Here is a photo from the wait time board in the middle which shows the lack of crowds.

The wait time for Soarin was 90 minutes and the Fastpasses were gone so we made our way over to the Living Seas:

But first we had to use our first snack credits for

Since there was only a 5 minute wait for Nemo & Friends ride, we went on it for the first time which we all loved. Since our fridge swap features Nemo and Friends, I had a special connection to him. Next we went to Turtle Talk with Crush which also had a 5 min wait. Sarah sat in the front with the other kids and Mark decided he wanted to sit with the adults. I told Sarah prior to the show that she needed to think of a question for Crush. So we agreed on one if she was called on. The show was really cute and then it was time for questions and guess who got to ask one, Yup Sarah. Crush asks her name and then says "So Sarah Bear, what is your question?" Well that is what we call her and the look on her face was priceless. So she asked "How fast do turtles swim?" and this really rude little boy in front of her starts talking non stop to her and say "well that was asked last time we were here, I know the answer, etc...." She tries to ignore him but can't and finally says "would you stop, you are ruining the show for me!!" You go girl!! After Crush we make our way to the gift shop since I want one of the "MINE! MINE! MINE" shirt and Dave get a call & goes outside to answer it and the kids start to lose their minds. No shopping for me. Granny & Poppy have made it to the hotel and will meet us around 6:15pm in Canada. Out we go and start to head for the World Showcase.

On the way, a cute picture in front of the fountain.

I have to stop here and get some work done this morning.....hopefully another installment later today.

Up next Canada, UK and a meeting with a few Disers......

 

[scottny]

great update and pics.

thanks for the photo of the towed away monorail.

 

[Sarilas]

A monorail tow truck- go figure!

 

[janloz]

Chapter 3: Canada, UK and a meet with a few Disers: We started to make our way to the World Showcase and took the path to the right so we entered near Canada. We had to make a pit stop and then made our way over to Canada. I have to say that all of the decorations throughout Disney World parks and Resorts were amazing. Each of the countries had so many small details in their decorations that many people did not take the time to notice. But after reading many of the TRs here especially MeMom's, I made a point of taking the time to look.

Sorry, this won't resize.

We made our way to the back of the pavillion near the entrance to the movie (which we didn't watch, nothing educational please! )

On the way out to do some shopping at the mercantile.

I cringe to think how many people take this same picture and have worn these hats. Sarah bought one of the polor bears in the background.

You might have noticed the messenger bags that both Mark & Sarah are using, I got them from Disneyshopping.com and they worked out nicely for the kids since they were smaller and enabled them to carry their own stuff. My only complaint is that the bags did not hold up well especially Sarah's, a lot of the fabric on the inside shredded. I plan to ask for a replacement since she really did like it.

The obligitory Canada shot:

We had to stop at the pin cart (another theme of the trip):

then onto the UK and some of the stores:

And we found those crowds at this point.

Sorry over photo limit, continued in next post.

 

[janloz]

I am not sure why Dave took pictures of these.

And in the back, we found some old friends.

When we came out, the Story Teller had just started his presentation so we stayed. These were so nice and informative. I think we actually saw 6 or 7 of the different ones.

We decided it was time to make our way back to Canada for dinner.

We make it back to Le Cellier around 6pm and I check in for our 6:20pm ADR and we are told they are running 20 minutes behind and we probably won't get in until around 6:45pm. So we head over to Kidcot station since I had arranged to meet with MeMom, Jill, Brooklyn and Julie (SwansloveDisney). They weren't there yet so Sarah decided to get a mask.

Finished project, funny thing, she never took it back to WS so we didn't get any of the other charms. We did get them during the last trip so no problem.

Mark and Granny waiting for dinner. He was "STARVING". yet another theme for the week.

I decided to go check to see if my Dis friends had arrived and meet with them for a quick picture which since I didn't take the camera, I don't have a copy. Julie had to go meet up with her husband and said good-bye. So nice to meet you. Brooklyn had just awoken from a nap and only wanted to find her dad so Jill took her for a quick walk while MeMom and I chatted. They knew about the surprise and were excited to see the kids reaction too. About this time, the rest of the family showed up and shortly after the introductions it was finally surprise time.

On the wall is the famous MeMom, Jill & Brooklyn in front of her.

Sorry, you will have to wait for the next chapter for the surprise....... so get a snack and I will be back soon...

 

[janloz]

great update and pics.

thanks for the photo of the towed away monorail.

A monorail tow truck- go figure!

The CM said it was really rare to see one since usually breakdowns don't occur in areas that the visitors see it. Just glad we weren't on it.

 

[Hollywoodhaha]

POOH!!!

Haha, its MeMom!