Monday, September 13
Morning came WAY too early today. We had to be up early (yes Nancy, early again!). We had reservations for Storytellers breakfast at the Grand Californian hotel. So we finished packing up and said good bye to our lovely little hotel and left a whole uneaten chocolate mystery birthday cake in the fridge. After all the junk we had eaten, none of us ever had the appetite left to eat the darn thing. So we loaded up the van with all the suitcases and said good bye. Off we went to breakfast.
We decided to just valet park at the hotel instead of parking at the parking garage. We didnt have a solid plan after breakfast, other than to catch anything we might have missed. So we valet parked and headed in. The hotel was gorgeous, but after staying at the Wilderness Lodge in December, this hotel seemed like a smaller version. While still amazing, it just probably didnt have the wow factor it would have, if we had not just stayed in the bigger version. Still gorgeous and we took a few minutes to explore. Oh wait, theres a gift shop, we simply cant pass that up.
I swear we visited every single gift shop on property, in the hotels, the parks, you name it, we shopped there. By now, we had a pretty good knowledge of what the shops offered. I had been looking for a hoodie sweatshirt all weekend, but none really did it for me. I didnt want something over the top with a huge mickey mouse all over it, something a little more subtle. So far, I had struck out. But finally, I walk in and we see a black hoodie with some cute patch work on it. Its perfect!! Finally, found my hoodie! I also struck gold with DVC merchandise. My hubby and I just purchased 200 points at Bay Lake Tower in February. So we are DVC newbies. Our first trip home is this December. Anyways, I had been looking for DVC merchandise online, but as you might know, they dont really sell it there. You can find miscellaneous stuff on ebay. But yeah, I found the real thing. I got a pink cute fitted t-shirt and hat.
So we all bought something- I think Wendy bought the lime green dooney- the small shoulder one. Okay, shopping side trip done. By the way, I totally forgot to mention our shopping excursion to World of Disney- I cant even remember what day it was at this point, but I think we somehow fit it on Sunday (which is why Mandy and I had a lot of bags to take back to the hotel). As noted, we had scoured every shop available so by the time we hit World of Disney, we had seen most of it, but now we could buy. We had decided we would ship some stuff home from the store. We all bought a cute little votive candle Halloween set- three ceramic mickeys! Nancy also got a Halloween tree that is cute. We all got some other miscellaneous toys and stocking stuffers to save for Christmas. I also got a pink cute hat, a mickey scarf, cute princess pen and more. Mother bought the Disneyland dooney (she already has like 3 other Disney dooneys!) and I think Nancy got it as well. They also bought Nancys nephew a cute fireman with mickey statue. We shopped to our hearts content. We enjoyed the world of Disney but all agreed, we preferred the WDW version, it seems slightly bigger.
So back to the story
.We found our way to the restaurant and checked in. We were seated almost immediately for our 8:30am reservation. Breakfast was good-t he buffet was hot and the choices were nice. The place was very busy though. We had a table near several other large parties and of course tons of little kids. We were kind of out of place with just four adults. But we didnt mind, remember, we are strange like that- chicka, chicka, wha, wha!
So we all get our breakfast and sit down to eat. We notice Wendy has somehow discovered more cheese sauce!!! Who knew. After our toxic cheese spill on day one, we didnt think she would even dare go near it, but somehow she found more cheese sauce, which I think went on her eggs. We all had a good laugh over that one.
We are soon visited by a hungry raccoon. Wendy loves this, as for some odd reason, raccoons were her favorite animal growing up. I liked penguins, Mandy likes teddy bears and Wendy had to choose a dirty scavenger for her favorite.
J So she was thrilled to see Meeko. We got a few pics and continued chowing down. We enjoyed watching all the kids interact with the characters too- the one next to screamed his little head off, scared to death, yet another table with a huge party (obviously some adult siblings, their families and the grandparents) all went running when a character was anywhere in view. Too funny. We had a great breakfast and got some great pics, but didnt see all the characters, which was fine with us.
We actually managed to pay for this meal. My mom kept stealing the check or whispering to the server each time to bring her the check before we noticed. This time we managed to sneak it away and pay for hers for a change. So we exited the restaurant and tried to find our way into the park area. We werent having any luck- finally we found the DCA entrance, but realized you had to be a guest, just eating at the restaurant wasnt enough. Oh well, so we turned around and headed back in the hotel. We finally found where we needed to go- but Nancy decided she just wanted to hang at the hotel and rest. So we left her near the fireplace to just hang out (and leave her with all our shopping bags!!). So the four of us headed out to explore a little of the rest of downtown Disney, only to realize it wasnt open until 10am. It was like 9:30am. So we decided to head to Disneyland, which was opening at 10am. Mother wasnt feeling well and decided to head back and just sit with Nancy in the hotel lobby and hang out.
So us three sisters headed to see Mickey, one last time. We got in right as the park was opening. They had started to hang halloween/fall decor overnight apparently- these orange/yellow banners were not up the day before.
pretty crowded this am!
We immediately headed to Pixie Hollow- I had wanted to do this but we never had time and the line is always long. Tink is my favorite. Peter Pan is one of my favorite stories of all time. My sons room is done in Peter Pan even with a mural we drew on the wall ourselves! So anyhow- I was excited to see Tink- I have never done pixie hollow at WDW. Again, lines always too long, and well, I have a son, not a daughter. Lol. So we rushed over and made it- first in line. But it wasnt open just yet. We waited about 10 minutes and now I am wondering if we made the right choice, we could be spending these precious early morning park minutes on another ride. But soon enough we were greeted and led back to see Tink. We took a few pics and I asked her if she would point to Mandys baby bump, but Tink just stood there, arms crossed and smiled. She was NOT cooperative at all. LOL- oh well, what can you do. She just wasnt a happy tink that day or something. So we got out of there and headed towards the castle.
wendy decided to eat some mushrooms on the way out!
Another mission- see the castle walk through. We had heard about it, but never saw where the entrance was. We finally asked a CM and found the way in. This was so cute. I wish WDW did something similar. We walked through each scene, ooohing and ahhhing. So cute and well done. We enjoyed it and are glad we saw it. Wendy was really excited when she realized we had actually walked over the archway to the other side.
So after visiting Sleeping Beauty, we decided to hit Pinnochio again, praying it wouldnt break this time. Score- a full ride, no line and no breakdown. Then we tried the storybook land boats- we waited like 10 minutes, but then had a cute little ride. we enjoyed that!
Wendy got eaten by the whale too!
After that, we decided to submit ourselves to one last ride on small world. I really love their version, so we didnt mind it. So that was to be our last Disneyland ride, very fitting.
On the way out, we hit up the bakery to get some treats to take home. A mickey cookie for my son and hubby and some treats for the plane ride maybe? AS we exited, we noticed the front gates were decorated too- we had missed it earlier. so cute!
By now it is getting close to noon. But we stop to peek in Vault 28, now that it is open. It is really small, I expected something bigger for some reason.
We also checked out the really cute car store where you build your own car. I am so taking my son to this in DTD in WDW in December, my husband and son will love it- finally something for boys.
So we headed back in the hotel and found Nancy and mother by the fireplace, relaxing. We had been gone about 2 hours. It was now noon. We had decided we better leave now for our 4pm flight. We needed gas, were not sure how traffic would be on the 45minute-hour ride back, plus needed to return the car. We figured it was better to just be early, plus we had really done everything, and shopped every store. So we headed out and got the car- no charge for valet since we ate there- Score!
So we load up and head out. We were fortunate in that there was no traffic and we made great time. We found a gas station near the airport to fill up. Soon we had located the rental car return (thanks navigator Mandy!) and were unloading. The guy came to print out a receipt and I quickly let him know about the terrible smell all weekend. He went over and smelled it too and said, oh, it is a new car and is still getting broken in, so it is just a new car smell
..sure dude, whatever you say. I didnt believe that. It really smelled awful. Isnt new car smell all nice leathery type smell? Not hot glue gun gone awry smell? Whatever, I was just trying to be helpful in case it needed checked out or had bad brakes or something. Or maybe he was just saying that to keep us calm when in reality the brakes could have failed at any moment. We will never know. So we head in, get our boarding passes and check our bags. While waiting to check our bags, we see a really irate young woman arguing at the counter with the agent. I guess she didnt get there in time to check her bag. Most airlines (as I found out the hard way too) now require you to be there an hour early (some are 45 or 50 minutes) IF you are checking a bag. If you are not checking luggage, no biggie, show up 20 minutes before. But if you want to check a bag, you need to be there 45minute-hour a head, depending on the airline. So she had apparently missed that cutoff and was arguing with them saying this was a business trip and she had to be there tonight yaddda yaddaa, she was really rude to the agent and I felt bad for the agent.
So we left the crazy young business woman and got through security okay. As our bags are going through, I could see the x-ray machine image. Mothers bag is coming through and you can see a huge obvious hidden mickey on the x-ray machine. Too funny- I dont even know what it was in her bag, but it was something mickey. Really made me laugh. Nice wrap up to the trip, a mickey on the x-ray.
We found our gate and decided we had better eat something, since we wouldnt really have dinner. We had had a late breakfast, but it was now about 2:30pm. So we found an On the Border restaurant and put our name on the list. We finally got seated about 20 minutes later. Our server was AWFUL. So bad. We sat there for 20 minutes with no drinks. Mandy finally went up the bar to ask for some water. Those preggos gotta stay hydrated, right?
We finally order and the guy is so slow. I wouldnt mind if he was super busy or something, but the place was nearly empty and he had NO sense of urgency. He was moving very slow and just not bringing our drinks, chips or anything, It was really annoying. Seriously the worst service I have had in a really long time and I am normally pretty forgiving since I worked as a waitress myself for many years. This was ridiculous.
So after our annoying late lunch, it was finally time to board the plane. We all got on and read and konked out. It had been a long 3.5 days of shopping, food, fun and more shopping. Our flight left at 4:10pm and we touched down about 9pm I think. Needless to say, we were pretty beat. WE had luckily parked at the gate, but unfortunately our bags took FOREVER! Longest they have ever taken for me. I swear we waited about 30 minutes. FINALLY we get our bags and head out- grateful we landed in the same terminal as we took off, or otherwise we would have had to catch a shuttle. That is the one thing I hate about DFW and the spread out terminals.
We find the car, load up and drive off. We head to drop Mandy off, who lives a few blocks from me. Then to my house. I unload and Wendy gets out as she left her car at my house. Then Nancy drives mother home- they live near each other about 20 minutes from me. So needless to say it was a late night for us all. I had taken off the morning though- worked a half day, so I could recover a little that morning. I know Wendy took off Tuesday and I think Nancy did too. My mom is retired, so she was off too!
J Poor Mandy, the preggo one, had to work a full day.
But we all agreed we had a fantastic time and need to do more girls trips, whether it is Disney or something else like New York. While we love our children and husbands dearly, there is something to be said for a little me time, or a little me and mickey time with just the girls. All in all a successful trip. My final thoughts next.