The one with the NON-Photos and the ever changing title, 7/11, updates galore!Pgs 6&7

[Twingle]

Hi everyone! Thanks for continuing to read, and enjoying in our little crazy adventure. Obviously, I'm the one that's the main crazy one, but my family still likes me.

It is I after all, that knows how to plan the trips.

Anywho, let me try to finish up day two, and hand to God I cannot believe it's taken me so long to write this TR. The pre-trippie was fast, and the trip flew by, why is the TR taking so long? I'll try to update more frequently, 'kay? Okay.

June 9th - continued: After Dumbo landed again, we headed over to Tomorrow Land. We all like Buzz Lightyears Space Ranger Spin, (we glow in there, remember? tons of fun, that is.) so we rode that, than went on the TTA, than back to Buzz, then back to TTA. You've all been on these rides, I have nothing to share other than we had fun, what more can you ask for?

I also have no non-photos of Tomorrow Land. Hang with me and you'll soon see one of a dancing french fry.

Then, we took the super secret red path by Space Mountain (I had no knowledge of this path until I met Tour Guide Mike. I am ashamed to say that I had been to Disney World SIX TIMES and had not figured out what the big red line on the map was for. See: going too blonde before trip) to get to Toon Town. There we went to Minnie and Mickey's House, and rode the Barn Stormer twice. We also did some shopping at the Judge's Tent, DD#2 decided her shoes were too pink (who knew there was such a thing?) and wanted some yellow Mickey crocs. Go for it girlfriend, one can never have too many shoes, especially shoes with Mickey Mouse on them.

I also have no non-photos of Toon Town. I am getting to the dancing french fry though.

After finishing up in Toon Town we decided to get a bite to eat at Starlight Cafe. We've found that this is usually a great place for us. We can always find something for everyone to eat, there are almost always tables and then there is the entertainment.

My kids love dancing to the music, and therefore, like making things dance to the music. Think straws, spoons, fingers, toes, FRENCH FRIES.

DD#2 was doing the amazing fry dance. He totally could've gone on Solid Gold.

After having our nibbles, we headed over to Liberty Square, where there is nothing to do right now since Haunted Mansion is being renovated.

Carrying on . . .

We went to Frontierland, where my DS was DYING to go to Tom Sawyer Island. Holy Sweet Mother of God it was hot there. Mainly because there were no store to "cool off in" as I tell my DH and then act surprised when Bell Services calls us to get our shopping bags already.

Oops. Where was I? Ah yes, Tom Sawyer Island. Neat concept, I think we would've liked it more if we hadn't been there at high noon in the middle of June with no wind. Love that barrell bridge though. My girls were less than impressed by the caves, but big brother had a blast.

After Tom Sawyer Island we got fast passes to Splash Mountain (which we had NEVER been on), and stood in line for Big Thunder Mountain (also never been on). The wait time said 20 minutes, which was fine, we actually only stood in line about 10 minutes, I think. Who knows, we have fun in lines. My kids like to say "Whee!" whenever the ride goes by, just like the people ACTUALLY ON the ride do. Try it sometime, it is fun. Oops. Just outed myself on how my kids learned to do that.

Big Thunder was great, especially since I sat behind Nana, Papa and DD#2. Boy, they sure looked like they were bouncing around alot. But, they had a blast, and no one's head went rolling. Always good, that is.

After Big Thunder we didn't have too long to wait until we could use our fast passes, so we got a few frozen lemondades and ate them in the store over by Splash Mountain. Yes, we ate them in the store, they had the AC cranking! It was GREAT!

Only DH, DD#2 and I rode on Splash Mountain. The others in our party decided to watch for us going down the Mountain. We LOVED this ride. The themeing is wonderful. Tons of fun. We managed to ride it four more times this trip, and even got Papa on it our last day, ha ha!

After Splash Mountain we decided to ride the train over to Main Street so we could do a little "looking around" aka as "GETTING MY SHOPPING ON". After we did our ahem, ahem, looking around, we went to ride It's a Small World again. After Small World we went to the resturant right by there . . . Village House, maybe?

Dinner took a long, long, LOONGGG time, as we sat by the windows that looked down on It's a Small World, and had to wave at everyone. Lots of fun, the food wasn't bad, we hadn't eaten here before, and definately would again.

After dinner we went to Adventure land to ride Jungle Cruise, and then DS wanted to ride Pirates. Took DS on Pirates, I have no clue what everyone else did, but I'm pretty sure potties and shopping were involved. After Pirates it was almost time for SpectroMagic, so we got some seats over by Pecos Bill's, where the parade ends. Really great seats, I highly recommend them. We made friends with a lovely couple from Great Britian, they thought my kids were cute, they had just arrived that arvie for a three week visit.

This is the only non-photo I have of the parade:

We knew we'd be seeing the fireworks on my birthday, so we started to head for the busses, turning around every once in awhile to ooohh and ahhh at the display. I think we waited for a bus about 15 minutes, it definately wasn't very long. There was only two other families on board, everyone else had stayed to watch the fireworks.

Got back to SSR, cleaned everyone off and threw them into bed. We didn't have any definate plans for Sunday DAY, but were thinking of MGM, and then off to the Whoop Dee Doo.

 

[Twingle]

OH YES! I am updating AGAIN! Yay me, I ROCK!

Okay then.

June 10th - Totally uneventful night, we didn't have Stitch waking us up because we didn't have a wake up call. DD#1 and DS woke up about the same time, DD#2 and her daddy decided to have a bit of a lie in, which was great. Always try to let sleeping babies lay, otherwise you may have a case of the grumps on your hand.

DD#1 and DS ate their breakkie on the patio, where DD#1 decided to turn into a princess at a ball and danced around for a bit before giving me a big bow.

This was to happen numerous times on our trip. She would suddenly be overcome by the urge to dance, and then do a big bow at the end.

Once everyone was up, fed, and dressed, we decided to head to MGM for Star Wars weekends, and pass some time before Whoop Dee Doo.

Guess who I met on the bus! Can you guess!?! I met nuts4wdw! Oh YES I did! I recognized her from her pictures, and she and her family are super sweet. Very friendly, we only chatted for a few minutes, but oh my gosh, so nice. BIG SHOUT OUT FOR LYNN and her PEEPS! I sooo wouldn't say that in real life. "Me and my peeps are heading to Chuck E. Cheese tomorrow." Nope, doesn't work.

And, did you know that under my DH's bald head, he is blonde too? Oh yes. Wanna know what he said after I chatted with Lynn? He said, and I quote:

Did you plan to meet her on this bus?



Yes honey, we did. I asked Lynn if she was going to be on the 10:32 a.m. bus heading for MGM on Sunday, June 10th, and SHE SAID SHE WAS! So we decided we'd have a little party in the back of the bus!

She was going to bring the Salsa, but I don't know what happened . . . (read her TR to find out! )

After arriving at MGM and visiting a bit more with Lynn, we headed to the wicked long lines at the gate.

And, did you know that when I was at Magic Kingdom yesterday, apparently my brain fell out of my head? I think it happened on Big Thunder Mountain.

There was something I was supposed to do, and totally slipped my mind. Can you guess what it was? Nana, DS and I couldn't get into MGM because I forgot about it.

And, I have to leave you with that, because apparently my kids want me to feed them.

 

[DisneyJo]

You so did plan that bus meet didn't you OMG OMG what did you forget? Not your tickets in a FP machine I hope!!!!

 

[nts4wdw]

Don't these men know all these meetings are planned? Sorry about the salsa! Loving your report! We all thought you were pretty sweet, too. (Actually, DH was very surprised that you were nice. I'm not sure what kind of opinion he has of my internet friends, but he is always shocked when they are normal. )

 

[Twingle]

Praisehisname, near as I could tell there are three different wake up calls, and I'd heard on a different thread (I have no idea which one - maybe the DVC thread?) that you have a better chance of getting just Mickey calling if the wake up call is for an off time. We had just Mickey call, Mickey and Stitch, and just Stitch. Try it the next time you go, see if you get anyone else calling!

Winkers, the correct way to use that saying is the "p" word that means tinkle and is so not allowed on the DIS because it is not family friendly! I think my kids are still so little and I act pretty crazy at home, so they don't know yet to be ashamed of me. And, "SexyBack" is my ringtone, LOL! I will give you mad props though if you still remember all the moves to the Electric Slide. Us mommies raised in the 80's have to unite!

Nope Disney Jo (love the new avatar by the way, that dolly was creepy), didn't leave the tickets in a FP machine! Good guess though!

nts4wdw, you're so sweet. Such a nice family, I can only hope my kids are as friendly as yours when they get to be that age. And your DH was about the nicest off-duty cop I've ever met, and I know quite a few. Might be because most of the cops I know are Washington, D.C. Police and Virginia State Troopers, but they usually are not quite that nice to strangers.

Anyway, getting back to the story:

I forgot to share a non-photo of my mad dancing daughter, so here she is. Yes, she is wearing camo crocs and her nightie.

So where was I before I interrupted myself? Ah yes, the inability to enter into MGM Studios.

Soooooo. Did I mention previously that we're Annual Pass holders? The thing with being AP holders, is that there are seven of us that have them, however, three expire in June, and four expire in October. That's because when just Nana and I took the kids in June of 2006, my girls were still "free", because they were just two. So, I purchased AP's for me, DS, and Nana. Then, when we went to Disney in October of 2006, I purchased AP's for DD#1, DD#2, DH and Papa.

Did you know that AP's are good for one year? And we purchased them on June 9th, 2006? I knew I needed to renew them, and actually DH and I had discussed how I needed to renew them when we went to Downtown Disney on Friday, our big arrival day.

Well, guess what? I was so happy and excited to be in Disney, I totally forgot. Even when we went to the Magic Kingdom on Saturday, and the entrance CM said, Oohhh, your AP expires today, make sure you renew it! I just smiled and nodded, and watched that statement go in one ear and out the other.

Guess when I remembered? After we went through Security at MGM, and then waited in line to go through the entrance. It was only after my DS's ticket wouldn't go through, and the CM said "IT'S EXPIRED!" in the same tone of voice as he might have said "YOU'RE ON FIRE!". And there were 300 people in the line behind me wondering why I was holding them up.

Whoopsie.

So, back out of line we went, all seven of us, to the Ticket Counter so I could purchase three AP's. My daughters were less than impressed. Hello, we were going the wrong way, we are not supposed to be going back to the buses YET. But, there was a very helpful CM named James that helped me out, and since it took him a little extra time because of some computer problems, he gave us magic certificates for FP's for Star Tours, Tower of Terror and a snack.

Wasn't that some nice pixie dust? I thought so. He was really sweet, even though he did put Nana's name on a child ticket and DS's name on the adult one. We fixed it later, no problem.

So, VALID AP's in hand, we went back to the entrance where the CM saw us at the end of the line and let us cut in front of all the people waiting to go through. Sorry to cut people in line, but the CM told us to!

Since we had the Certificates for Star Tours, we went ahead and headed that way. DS really likes this ride, he is a Star Wars fan, but only the original three, which would be chapters 4, 5, and 6 to you non-nerds out there. The new Star Wars films are chapters 1, 2, and 3, even though they are newer movies. I don't understand it either, talk to Lucas about it.

Anyway, we all went on Star Tours, and because of that Certificate we used the handicapped entrance. That was interesting, they have different things for you to see in that entrance. All seven of us rode it, my girls said no thank you to another ride.

Let's see, after Star Tours DS looked in Jabba's Hut while the girls played with the snakes at the store by Indy Jones. Then we went to the Backlot Express for some food, and talked about what else we wanted to do here.

I LOVE Tower of Terror, it's probably one of my fav rides in all of Disney. DH had run ahead while we were walking to Star Tours to get fast passes for ToT, in addition to our certificates. So, DH and I rode ToT (three times!) while Nana and Papa took the kids to the computers you can play with at One Man's Dream.

DH and I rode ToT, and then met Nana, Papa and the crew at the little food court by Beauty and the Beast. We had some frozen lemondae and pretzels (thank you magical certificate snack voucher!), and the girls had a blast spraying my feet with those Disney fans you can purchase.

After lemonade, Nana and I rode ToT while DH and Papa took the kids back to the computers.

After this, it was time to head back to the room to freshen up before heading to Whoop Dee Doo.

I thought the girls might take a little rest before we had to leave, but no going. They settled for Papa reading them a story.

I had some anxiety about what the easiest way to get to Ft. Wilderness was from SSR, and had DH check it out with the front desk. They said we should take a bus to Magic Kingdom, and then take "the" boat from MK to Ft. Wilderness.

Hello, there are TWO boats to Ft. Wilderness.

 

[mom of princess]

Just so you know, I'm LOVING your TR. Am trying VERY, VERY hard to not bust out the belly laughs. It's almost like you are having the trip before I do, very deja vu-like.
BTW, happy to see that Papa is still looking a little yellow...get that man some juice!!
I too am a 30-something mom of a 3-yr-old DD. Were they tall enough to ride just about everything? We are hoping that ours grows that last 1 1/2 inches in the 12 days until we leave.
P.S. cute shoes for the kids, did you buy them there?

 

[Twingle]

Hi mom of princess! I know - Papa is totally yellow! I think I need to convince him to go see the doctor.

My girls are pretty tall - they are both 42 inches. They were able to ride everything they wanted to with no problem, but they were checked at every ride. They really wanted to ride ToT, but there was no way I would let them on it. They would've been fine with the ride itself, going up and down, but they don't like the dark, and ToT is pretty darn . . . dark.

I had purchased new crocs for the kids before we left, the pink camo crocs DD#1 has on up there came from Nordstroms. I had gotten each of the kids Disney crocs through Shoebuy.com (they have some great coupons!), but then when we were there DD#2 decided she needed yellow crocs instead, and DD#1 found a totally inpractical pair of tinkerbell flip flops that she would curl up and die if she didn't have. So, yes, Disney has some cute shoes, and really, they are all over the place. There were a few shoe kiosks, just selling Crocs and Croc accessories.

You're so close to your trip - aren't you excited?!?

 

[DisneyJo]

That's so great you got magical certificates and snacks for the time taken renewing your AP and it's great when you can use the kids FP's

 

[mom of princess]

I was hoping you were going to say that you had some "mom secret" to STRETCH that last inch out of the DD. My DH I think is trying his darndest to get at least another 1/2 inch out of her - and find the TALLEST sandals the kid owns!! He promised her Splash Mountain, since she has NO FEAR, but I'm thinking that the closest she will get is looking at Daddy and Uncle Budge (yes, it's a nickname) while she plays at the playground.
As for the shoes, it's me that keeps buying her them, she prefers to spend Daddy's money on yet another pair of sunglasses. At what point is too many?? I think she is currently at 3 pair in the car, 1 on her face, 3 spares on her Wiggle table in the living room (I decorate my house in early childhood toy style -- seriously!!) and at least 3 more in Daddy's gameroom in the basement. Every time we go anywhere that is what she asks for so I expect to come home with at least 2 or 3 more pair.
As for my countdown....OF COURSE I'M EXCITED -- ARE YOU SERIOUSLY ASKING???? We are taking the in-laws (Bubs and Pap) so we have someone to watch her while we (DH, BIL, and I) run around the park like freaks who have never seen a ride in our life!! As a bonus we also are including the 10-yr-old cousin to occupy Bubs and send on those rides that just make you want to vomit while watching...like the teacups, the jury is still out on that one!!
IN 11 DAYS WE WILL HAVE JUST WATCHED WISHES FIREWORKS!!!!!! YIPPEE!!

 

[Twingle]

DisneyJo - what?what?(blink, blink, innocent look, innocent look)Does it matter whoes ticket got which fastpass?

momofprincess - the best mom secret I know is to put her in the tallest shoes she owns and pile her hair on top of her head. I will say though, that the CM for the FP line at Splash Mountain on June 17th was one of the strickest. He made each of my girls go flat backed against the ruler and then squashed their hair down to make sure they were tall enough. This was exceptionally interesting, since he had just waved through a very pregnant woman, as in, going on Splash Mountain and then heading to Celebration for delivery, to get on the ride. I so wanted to take a picture of her under the warning sign (DO NOT RIDE IF PREGNANT). Totally know what you mean about early childhood decorating. Our house looks like an I-Spy book.

Carrying on:

June 10th(STILL!) - so, we arrive at the boat launch for Ft. Wilderness, and I honestly can't remember what the signs say. It was something very unclear, I remember that. You would think that they would have a sign that says "RESORT" and one that says "Whoop Dee Doo" (and I know the actual title is Hoop Dee Doo, but I quite often say Whoop Dee Diddly Doo when I'm trying to make a point with my kids.), but in actually they say "TREES" and "MORE TREES". Or something. Whatever they signage said, it was clear as mud as to which boat line we were to be in. And there was no helpful CM to be found.

Boy, I was irked with my DH. All he had to do was find out EXACTLY how to get to the Whoop Dee, and here we were, closing in on ressie time, all looking at each other like a bunch of blinking looking people, without any idea of what the heck to do now.

Finally A boat came, and DH asked the CM if we should take that boat. Which we should, and we did. We wandered our way over to the Whoop Dee, and then the heavens opened up and it poured rain. All of the patrons did a mad scramble to get out of the rain, so we went under the little roof by the potties. We weren't able to get the picture taken by the Whoop Dee sign because, well, it was raining.

And, just to insert a funny here, my DS pointed out that I was holding DD#1, and Nana was holding DD#2 while we stood in a rain puddle and leaned on a METAL TRASH CAN. He thought we might want to move, since thunder and lightning were going on with the cat and dog rain.

Thank you for helping, super brain.

Since it was raining so hard (sideways, I may add), and many of us were soaked, they decided to open the doors early so everyone could come in and dry off. This was great, because guess what they gave us to dry off and warm up with?

Those are the red tablecloths. We each got one, and they were indeed quite toasty. That is DS pretending to be Cousin It.

Now, this was the first time in all our trips we had gone to the Whoop Dee, and I have to highly recommend it. Our server was da bomb (again, totally not IRL language for Twingle), here he is:

His name was Robert and he was awesome. He's been working at Whoop Dee for 32 years! Mad props for Robert!

The show was very cute, and the food was just amazing. We had great seats, and while the actors tried to pick on Papa, he picked on them right back. It was very fun, but my girls were just a little too young for the jokes. They did pretty well though, and my DS just thought it was hysterical. So, if you have the time and opportunity to see Whoop Dee, go for it, I don't think you'll be disappointed!

So, after stuffing ourselves to the gills and enjoying a very enjoyable show, we took the boat back to MK, and then took the bus back to SSR. Then, it was time for bobo land, because we were heading to Epcot on Monday! But, first, a nice surprise from Nana and Papa!

 

[DisneyJo]

DisneyJo - what?what?(blink, blink, innocent look, innocent look)Does it matter whoes ticket got which fastpass?

We're so using the kids tickets to get FP's for us in August, well actually oldest DD and I will be using wimpy DH's and other DD's tickets


I'm so pleased you loved HDDR as we're going there

 

[Twingle]

DisneyJo - yes, HDDR was tons of fun! And the food was yummy scrumbos and also scrummy yumbos, plus unlimited. AND, if you are so inclined, they serve beer(s) and margaritas!


June 10th- the only thing I have to add on to this day is that I had a very nice surprise waiting for me when we got back to the room.

That is a tiara with red roses! On a little satin pillow with seed pearls made into Mickey Heads! Isn't that oh-so-super nice? My parents gave it to me from Disney Florist for my birthday. They also sent each of the girls a princess wand and my son a pirate hat and sword. It was super pretty, and a really big surprise. I wore it on my birthday, and now I wear it at home when I scrub the potties.

June 11th- today was our Epcot day! Everyone woke up, ate a bite, got dressed, and off we went. We had lunch ressies at the Garden Grill, my DH and I hadn't eaten there since our honeymoon (1997!) and everyone else had never eaten there. No one else had ever eaten there? How do I say that? I have Backyardigans on, and heck if I can think over it.

Anyway, we got to Epcot, made it through Security and through the entrance no problem, since we now all had valid AP's, and made our way over to Leave a Legacy. We've seen the tiles for awhile, but it was one of those things that DH (haha, I just put SH, and that's a totally different appreviation that is not applicable here. Maybe last night, while we were trying to figure out what boat, but anyway,) said would be too expensive.

Would you like to know how expensive too expensive is? $25 for the first tile and $20 for the second.

Unfortunately, the kiosk was closed Monday morning, so we'd have to try again later.

We had a little time to kill before our ressies, so DH and Papa took the kids to Innoventions East while Nana and I rode Spaceship:Earth. I love this ride, other than the fact that everytime I've been on it, without fail, it will stop when I am in the pitch black going backwards. Always. I hope when the are done with the upgrade this won't happen anymore.

After our ride, we went and dragged the kids away from the computers so we could go eat.

My girls loved the little computers, they were just the right size for them. My son liked all the games they had, much better selection than at home.

Off we went to Garden Grill, and I have to say, this was one of our absolute best character meals EVER. The characters were beyond attentive, and they all came around numerous times. No lie, I think that Chip & Dale came by about seven times. I don't know if it was because there weren't very many people eating at that time, or what, but it was AWESOME, and my kids really, really liked it.

Here's Chip coloring with my girls:

They were able to color with all of the characters, and Mickey fed my son some catfish, so really, it was just tons of fun. The food wasn't bad, but for the characters alone this meal was worth it. Also fun that it rotates, but really, we were having too much fun with everyone to pay much attention to the scenery.

The kids also really liked the dessert, it was a make your own cupcake thingy. Yes, that was it's technical name.

DD#2 LOVED the Mickey sprinkles, and thanks to some Pixie Dust once we got home, I was able to find some on Amazon.com. She is one happy camper, let me tell you.

After lunch it was time for the boys surprise. I had booked them to go on the Behind the Seeds tour, since all three of them enjoy gardening, and DH is a Soil Scientist.

They had fun, other than the fact that it was in a greenhouse, in June, right in the middle of the day. Apparently, it was a wee bit warm in there.

While the boys were on the tour, us girls went to see Nemo. We love that ride, although the line can be deceiving. Has anyone else noticed that? You really go through a LOT of twisty turnies. Once we rode the shells, and saved Nemo or found him, or whatever, we went to watch Turtle Talk. DD's and I had never seen it, but Nana and Papa took DS on our trip in 2003. When we were waiting, we were picked to call Crush! The CM was super nice and gave each of my girls their own certificate, which I appreciated. So, after we (really, it was just me, but that's okay) called Crush, we went to see all the animals in their tanks.

We had planned on meeting the boys back in The Land for some cookie baking after their tour. My girls were much more interested in seeing what their cookie personality was, but DS had a grand time baking cookies, and all of the other children were pretty nice. The CM's were OUTSTANDING, really taking the time to make sure every child had turns and answering lots of questions.

After the cookies were done, the CM was nice enough to give my girls each a little bag with cookies in it, even though they hadn't participated. This was just great, , because I had told DS that he would have to share with his sisters. This way, everyone had two cookies just for themselves. Other than the bit that mommy snagged, because OMG, is there anything as tasty as a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie? Other than maybe the dough?

Anyway.

After cookie baking, it was time for Nana and I to head to the Grand Floridian for tea!

 

[Twingle]

June 11th (continued)- I love the Grand Floridian. I think it is just a beautiful resort, and it is my dream of dreams to stay here sometime. Part of the reason would be because it's just beautiful, but also because when DH and I were on our honeymoon, every single time we were on the monorail and would go by the GF, they loudspeaker would play the message about the slammin honeymoon suites and how fantabulos the resort was.

Do you remember where we stayed on our honeymoon? That's right, Bob's Hotel. And do you also remember that I asked my dear fiance' to please let us stay in the World just one night. Yup. We didn't.

Continuing on.

Thanks to the DIS I heard about the afternoon tea at the GF, and thought it might be a nice thing for just Nana and I to do, just the big girls. If you like to tea, I highly recommend it. It was a very nice thing to do on a hot day, the food was quite tasty, and the room was lovely. The service was not very prompt, but I don't know if it was because we were one of the last seatings or what, but Nana and I still had a lovely time. I will definately go back, and I'm looking forward to taking the kids when they are just a bit bigger, although DS would probably enjoy it now.

The china was beautiful, this is the sugar bowl.

Dessert was delish, this is a little puff pastry swan with a raspberry mousse:

After we were finished we each received a pink rose, which was a nice surprise.

Nana and I had a grand time looking around the lobby and visiting while we ate.

After tea we were going to take the monorail back to TTC and than a monorail to Epcot, but there was a broken down monorail on the tracks. Rather than wait for a bus, we decided to take a taxi.

Oh. My. Gosh. Has anyone else ever taken a taxi while on property? Apparently, all the race car drivers from Daytona come to Disney on their off days. It was one of the fastest rides I've ever been on at Disney. I think it took us three minutes to get from the Grand Floridian to Epcot. Whoosh.

After we met back up with the rest of our crew (in the Land AGAIN! we really like it there, apparently) we decided to head to some of the countries. My kids just love Mexico, they like the volcano inside the building. And, we always have to try on the funny hats.

That would be DD#1.

I had heard some mixed reviews on the changes that were made to the ride in Mexico, but we really liked this ride! The kids found it super funny, I liked that there was so much about Mexico mentioned, the other adults thought it was fun to see the kids having fun. Really, not very educational, but it gives you enough information that you can build on the educational aspect. We wound up riding it three more times. Loved it, looking forward to riding it again.

It was almost time for Illuminations to start, so we were heading out of Mexico when we noticed quite a few people coming in wet. Like, soaking wet. That's right, it had started to rain.

Knowing we were coming back to Epcot on Friday, we decided to poncho up and head to the busses, saving Illuminations for another day.

This was the longest we had waited for a bus, probably close to 20 minutes. Still not bad, and we had a nice time visiting with others around us.

Coming up, Animal Kingdom!

 

[Twingle]

June 12th- Animal Kingdom Day!

We needed a wake-up call this morning, as we had early ressies for Animal Kingdom. Today Stitch and Mickey called to greet us, which was better than just Stitch, but I prefer my Mickey alone.

DD#2 woke up with a serious case of the grumps, but that was quickly taken care of with the promise of eating with more characters!

Luck was on our side, since AK was the first bus to come by, and why we stopped at the water park I'll never know, since it didn't even open until much later.

We didn't have any problems looking for the big honkin' breakfast sign today, mainly because there was no one there, and the CM's were looking for bleary-eyed patrons to motion towards the entrance.

Now, we've eaten at Donald's before, and while what I mainly remember about that visit was that it was a billion degrees (it was May. i was pregnant. with twins.), but the food was pretty good and we saw the characters in their safari garb.

The food was still fine, but management REALLY rushed the characters through. As in, have your autograph book out, have your camera on and ready, if you miss the characters they can not and WILL NOT come back. Okay, a bit of some rudey-dudey-ness first thing in the morning, but we rolled with it. I think they rush you because they have to get ready to change it into McDonald's, so maybe it won't be as rushed once they move the characters to the other AK resturant, the name of which escapes me right now.

In any event, we ate, quickly, we saw the characters, quickly, and then we left, quickly, mainly because the wait staff started clearing our plates as soon as we said good-bye to the last character to greet us. For a family of seven that saw six characters, it didn't even take us 40 minutes to eat. For our crew, that's pretty darn fast.

I love Goofy.

Pluto was trying to get DD#2 to come over, but she was trying to throw her food down her throat as fast as possible, so nothing doin' Pluto.

The meal in and of itself was fine, but waayyy too rushed. Dear Disney: If you don't want people to chew their food, make it a smoothie only resturant.

When we got kicked out of Donald's the park was not open yet, so we hung around the rope for DinoLand waiting for opening time. The CM behind the rope was very chatty, he had tons of info about all the decorations and themeing in that area, which was interesting.

After rope drop, DH ran like the wind to EE for fast passes (that would be seven fast passes, although only two of us would be riding that paticular ride), while the rest of us went on the Dino-Dumbos.

There was nobody in this area of AK, so the CM let us ride it three more times. Thank you, super nice CM in charge of the Dino-Dumbos that morning!

After our ride(s), I made the great mistake of letting the kids look at the games in DinoLand. The set up to these games makes no sense to me, given that this is DISNEY WORLD, and not my local Fireman's Carnival. You MUST have more than one person playing any given game, and there is only ONE winner per game. Each game costs either $2 or $3, depending on the game. Personally, I think it would make much more sense if Disney was charging that much per game to make sure that everyone was a winner, since they are given carnival toys, and not DVC memberships, and we've already paid to get into the park. In any case, the cheap yiddish grandmother in me (it's okay, I can say this. I have a cheap yiddish grandmother, she's taught me alot.) has decided to never play games here again, as I would much rather just spend the $20 to get each of my kids a stuffed animal of their choosing without the pressure of the game.

After getting hosed by Disney carnival games, we threw the kids and Nana and Papa into the sand pit to dig for bones, while DH and I went to ride EE! I even got to bring some sand to the Moutains, thanks to the mesh in my sneaks'.

After riding EE three times, we met back up with the gang to cool off somewhere and get some cool drinks. I don't know why, but AK is always 10x hotter than anywhere else. Is it the flora and fauna? I was sweating from pores I didn't know I had. Did you know your eyelids can sweat? I didn't know that.

We hunkered down in Pizzasafari which was blissfully cold. We knew we wanted to go around some of the trails, and ride on the Safari. So, we sent DH back into the heat to get fast passes, and soaked up some more AC.

After DH got back, we had enough time to go on some of the trails. We were able to get some great pictures of my kids by different animals, and really were amazed by some of the things we saw.

Random photo:

It was getting close to our fastpass time, so we started heading to the Safari. Imagine our surprise when the fastpass line was longer than stand-by. Thanks to the helpful CM, we found out that there was an animal sleeping on the jeep route, and they don't move the animals. There were a few jeeps waiting for her to wake up (you know it was a girl. and probably a new mommy. poor thing, she was just trying to catch up on her beauty sleep.), and he didn't know how long it would be before the ride started up again.

Given the fact that we were all super hot, and we'd done everything we wanted to do at AK, we took the sleeping animal as a sign that we should wander on over to SSR and relax for a bit.

Coming up next, shopping at DTD and some Pixie Dust!

 

[DisneyJo]

Wow how many days?

I love your tiara so sweet of your Mum and Dad. Good to hear about GG and you're such a good Mummy getting the mickey head sprinkles for DD So many more things to say like the cookie baking looked cool, great idea about the tour, lovely GF tea and good AK day well except for the indigestion you must have gotten after brekkie

 

[winkers]

, "SexyBack" is my ringtone, LOL! I will give you mad props though if you still remember all the moves to the Electric Slide. Us mommies raised in the 80's have to unite!

.

As a matter of fact I still do remember the elctric slide! My children were so excited when I demonstrated it at a church party!

 

[nts4wdw]

Good Gracious! You are in an updating frenzy! Absolutely love the tiara!! (Did you hear that, Chuck?) Looking forward to more.

 

[Twingle]

Well, I was trying to finish my TR before this weekend, but that's not going to happen.

I'm in a self imposed internet lockdown, since the last Harry Potter book is coming out next week. When #6 came out, I found out how it ended the week before release date, because some not-so-very-nice person posted it on the internet.

Creep.

So, I won't be updating until after I've read the whole book, which should take me about seven hours, haha.

Hopefully you'll still be willing to read the rest of my TR when I come back to finish it up!

Have a great week + a few days, everyone!