The Twelve Days of Swinter: From Castaway 'Key' to a Partridge in a Palm Tree!

[RinkyTinkyTinky]

Oh yeahh...now I remember..you will be getting off the day I get on....I forgot it was official now. Call it old age.

Don't feel bad. I'm right there with you. I can't even remember people's names anymore.

oh yes Rinky, it is the most challenging job ever. I could write a book with the things I have seen and dealt with, believe me!! Many kids come from a lot of dysfunction in the family and it comes out here in their behavior. I love kids or i couldn't do this but to say it isn't stressful would be a huge lie.
Glad your stress free now and all is right in your world and glad your back for some more dis fun!!!!

Yeah, it's sad to see the home life that some children have. And then there are kids on the other end of the spectrum who have everything and act like spoiled brats. I like those middle of the road kids who are just 'normal'.

I'm sitting in my car waiting on Jared to get out of school so I popped on the DIS to kill some time and was so excited to see you had posted! You have been missed!

I'm sorry you have has such a stressful summer, I think a career change is definitely in order!

Aww, thank you! I have sure missed being here. I was just in such a funk that I didn't have the mental capacity to get on here and chit chat in the little bit of free time I had in the evenings. I'm just so thankful all that is behind me.

I know you must be so excited about your trip! Thankfully all that rain from the hurricane is long gone and you should have some great Florida sunshine to look forward to. Although from what I have seen on the news this summer about the horrible heat and drought in Oklahoma, you might actually want to see some rain and clouds. I saw a picture from there of streetlamps that had melted! We had a super hot summer too with lots of days over 100, but I don't think we ever got that hot! I know you must be glad to see fall on the way!

Rinky soooooooo Happy you are ok I missed you. Your talking about needing a change in you career path made me think of when I went back to work part-time in the evenings and took a job as the night cash office person. There I was in a room for 5 hours all alone oh the sweet sounds of silence other than my adding machine or the occasional employee buzzing the door in need of change for the registers. I could actually think again after spending all day with my 3 year old and half the neighborhood LOL

People use to ask me how I could stand to work in that office with no one to talk to. If they only knew the sweet sounds of silence.

I always thought working in a library would be "ideal"

Hope you can find something too

Thank you Sheila! I think most people would think a job like you described would be awful, but I love to work alone in peace. I used to work part time in the school office doing accounting and that job was a lot like yours and I loved it. It was so quiet and the work was all mine (no real coworker). Yeah, it was boring, but I never left work stressed out and I never thought about my job after I clocked out and went home. I also never lost sleep lying in bed at night, dreading going to work the next day. So I totally agree that sometimes quiet and boring is a very good thing!

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

Welcome back Rinky!!

 

[RinkyTinkyTinky]

Welcome back Rinky!!

Thanks Shelly!

 

[MeMom]

Hope you find the perfect job for yourself, Rinky.

 

[Nbarker]

Glad that you are back and all is well in the world! It is amazing how one child can change the whole dynamic of your group. I had to laugh when I saw you really want to be a Disney TA, as I have been sending out inquiries to a few companies as where to start with doing this. Also, I always thought that being a librarian would be the greatest job EVER! I def have a little bit of a book nerd in me! As far as the TA goes, I don't want anything full time, as I am an elementary teacher which is def full time! I just got to thinking that it sure would be nice to be reimbursed a little for all these trips that I help family and friends plan! Maybe we should go into business together! Can't wait for more updates on your upcoming trip!
Natalie

 

[Jiminy'sGirl]

Hey Rinky... I stumbled upon this TR while doing some research on CBR and I have to tell you... I was up all night last night reading it. Your pictures are awesome and I love the way you describe things so well. I feel like I was on this vacation with you all (creepy?)!! Also, your daughter is gorgeous and seems so sweet.

Thanks for making me feel like I just did a 9 day Disney vacay in the wee hours of the night!!!

 

[Lovemy3babes]

Rinky!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Missed you my Disney friend. Are you still on for an October trip?

 

[RinkyTinkyTinky]

Friday, November 4, 2011

Wow! I can hardly believe that next month will mark one year since we took this trip! Where, oh where does the time go?

As I was combing through the pictures for this update, my heart just ached to be back at WDW. I am so looking forward to our upcoming trip in October! For now though, it’s time to move onto day 10 of our 2011 Swinter adventure!

As I have stated many times before, I am a slightly obsessive planner. I like to make my trip itinerary according to Touring Plan’s crowd predictors and stick to it. I don’t change things on the fly, I’m not spontaneous, and I don’t enjoy shaking things up a bit just for the fun of it. I confess that I am a full-fledged stick in the mud when it comes to trip planning. I just figure, why spend weeks pouring over park hours and reservation times if you’re just going to chunk it all out the window, ya know? And most importantly, I will do anything to avoid the crowds!

Well, according to my handy dandy schedule, we were to enjoy our second day at Epcot on Friday. I have never taken a WDW trip without spending at least two days at Epcot, sometimes even three. So what in the world could have lured me into even considering breaking away from my original plan? Four words… Magic Kingdom at Christmastime!

We had already seen that the other parks were starting to decorate for Christmas, so I had a hunch that Magic Kingdom would be too. Yes, I have seen the decorations up at MK many times before, but it never gets old to me and the thought of getting to see them on this ‘fall’ trip was more than I could resist. I called the front desk at CBR and asked them if they knew for certain that the Christmas decorations had been put up at MK. They assured me that they were indeed up, which left me with a dilemma. Should we go back to Epcot for a second day as planned, or visit MK for the third time on that trip just to see the decorations. We debated it back and forth and back and forth for what seemed like forever.

I sat in front of the window and pondered all my options for a few minutes while enjoying the view.

Well, you would think we were trying to find the answer to world peace, because we just couldn’t decide what to do. We all really wanted to go back to Epcot, but we hated to miss the chance to see the decorations that we had no idea would even be out during our trip. We continued to hash it out on the way to the bus stop…

Then we finally made a choice… well, sort of…

We decided that we would let fate chose for us and get on which ever bus came first (MK or Epcot). And the winner was………………………..

The first things we saw were the poinsettia trees so I knew we were in for a holiday treat!

Christmas popcorn has to be better than everyday popcorn…

There really isn’t anything quite like Main Street at Christmas. It’s purely magical!

We immediately hooked left after entering the park and checked out the area where I think they do meet and greets with Santa. (I could be wrong about that though.)

I love the garland at MK!

DD took a few minutes to look at the maps and figure out what she wanted to do that day. The girl loves to be the navigator in the parks!

Continued in next post

 

[RinkyTinkyTinky]

So what did we decide to do with our third day at the MK… something that we have never really taken the time to do before… explore the shops on Main Street!

That first look towards the castle is always awesome!

Our first stop was in the art store. I loved this painting!

I did NOT love the price!

There are so many beautiful pictures in that shop. I could spend a barrel of money there! Unfortunately, I didn’t have a barrel full or even a cup full of money, so we moved on.

Maybe we can find some more reasonably priced items at…

Let’s go in and see what goodies they were mixin’ up for us…

Everything is so colorful in there.

These ladies were making Mickey head Rice Krispie Treats.

You can’t really tell from this picture, but these were about the size of your head!

We spotted this lady making cotton candy and DD wanted to see how the machine spins the sugar into fluff.

She was so nice to DD and told her all about how it works. Then she offered her a free sample…

ONLY at Disney World would this classify as a ‘sample’ portion!

Don’t you love it when you get those little sprinklings of pixie dust! Disney CMs rock!

We moved on down the street to see what else there was to explore and we found the balloon lady out spreading a little joy to all the kids.

Continued in next post

 

[RinkyTinkyTinky]

We ended our stroll down Main Street USA at…

Again we took some time and watched the craftsmen at work.

It was actually quite fascinating.

We browsed around and I took some pictures of our favorite things…

DD loved the tiaras and Cinderella slippers…

I apparently have very expensive taste, because I was drawn to the castle which was priced at a mere $37,500!

DH liked the pirate ship…

Now that we had gotten our window shopping fix, we were ready to move on. We had done pretty much everything in the MK by that point in the trip so we figured we would just go back and enjoy all our favorites one more time.

I had noticed that there were more people out and about than there had been earlier in the week. I took a look back down Main Street and there was a steady stream of people still flowing into the park.

It wasn’t super crowded, but compared to our other park days, it did seem to be much busier. This just confirmed for me that my type A, over planner personality is not such a bad thing after all. Crowds are exactly why I make a plan and stick to it! We had been very spoiled on this trip by not having to wait in line for almost anything, and I was worried that maybe we made the wrong choice since MK was not the recommended park for Friday. So would the lines be long at the ‘park to avoid’? We were about to find out!

Up next: Space Mountain, Big Thunder, Haunted Mansion, and Magic Carpets… these are a few of our favorite things!

 

[RinkyTinkyTinky]

Hope you find the perfect job for yourself, Rinky.

Thank you! I know you can relate to how stressful it can be dealing with difficult children.

Glad that you are back and all is well in the world! It is amazing how one child can change the whole dynamic of your group. I had to laugh when I saw you really want to be a Disney TA, as I have been sending out inquiries to a few companies as where to start with doing this. Also, I always thought that being a librarian would be the greatest job EVER! I def have a little bit of a book nerd in me! As far as the TA goes, I don't want anything full time, as I am an elementary teacher which is def full time! I just got to thinking that it sure would be nice to be reimbursed a little for all these trips that I help family and friends plan! Maybe we should go into business together! Can't wait for more updates on your upcoming trip!
Natalie

I feel just like you do! People call me all the time asking for planning help for their trips and I just keep wondering why I do that for free! I also want something part time and thought that would be a great choice for me since I already have a passion for it and I could do it from home. I've looked into a bit too and found a few places that were looking for home agents. I found one company that had posted on their site that Disney pays them 10% and they pay you 6% of that commission. I'm not sure if that is standard or what, but it kind of gave me idea of what it might pay. Good luck with your search!

Hey Rinky... I stumbled upon this TR while doing some research on CBR and I have to tell you... I was up all night last night reading it. Your pictures are awesome and I love the way you describe things so well. I feel like I was on this vacation with you all (creepy?)!! Also, your daughter is gorgeous and seems so sweet.

Thanks for making me feel like I just did a 9 day Disney vacay in the wee hours of the night!!!

Hello and welcome!! I'm always amazed at how people can pull all nighters reading an entire TR! I must be too old for that now b/c I can't seem to stay up past 10:00 anymore! I'm glad you've enjoyed it though and hopefully I'll get it finished up soon. I don't have too much more to go!

Rinky!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Missed you my Disney friend. Are you still on for an October trip?

Thank you Kelli! Your trip is right around the corner now!!!! I know you girls must be getting very excited!! And yes, we are still on for October. We'll be arriving on the 25th... right after you and Sheree.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Rinky posted an update! Rinky posted an update! And it was a darn good one!

I absolutely loved looking at your pictures of the Magic Kingdom in all of it's Christmas decoration glory. We haven't seen the Disney Christmas decorations since 2000.

If you've got expensive tastes, then so do I because I am instantly drawn to those high priced paintings and glass sculptures. Aren't they just gorgeous!?!

I thought about you when I posted my latest installment on my trip report. There was a lady with a thong bikini bottom on and I instantly thought about your similar encounter.

 

[Momof2Disneyboys]

YAY a Rinky update!! I've missed them so much!!

You are cracking me up with having so much trouble straying from the plan!! Sounds like someone I know....

But sometimes you got to you what you got to do!! And the fates of the buses said -- you've got to get to MK!!!

I'm so looking forward to seeing the parks decorated for Christmas again. Especially MK and DHS!.

We like to try to take our time and browse the Main Street shops at least once on each trip. That was so nice of that CM to give your DD a sample! I don't know if we've ever been in Crystal Arts. We usually end up doing most of our shopping on the other side of Main Street! Although I have seen that $37,500 castle in Epcot.

Thanks for the update! Can't wait to see how the rest of your day went...

 

[Lovemy3babes]

I'm sorry we will just miss each other by days. I would have loved to meet you and your wonderful family. I get a little nervous meeting new people but you Rinky seem so kind and genuine.

Loved your update! I am also type A. I have been planning hardcore and don't think I could ever switch to a more crowded park either on the fly. It's a good thing you did it once so you know. But the decorations are gorgeous so probably worth it!

How fun to look in all the shops, something I also have never taken much time for usually. I love that cotton candy "sample". Ha!

 

[monica23535]

Yay! What an update!

Free cotton candy is always a winner!

 

[MeMom]

Oh no! I hate to hear that there were any problems with Jill or the baby. I've got to get over there and check in with Memom. I'm relieved to hear that all is well though. I was actually thinking about the baby this morning when I was posting replies and wondering how things were going. Life sure can be a challenge sometimes! Thank the Lord everything is ok!

I'll second that 'thanks'!

Thank you Kelli! Your trip is right around the corner now!!!! I know you girls must be getting very excited!! And yes, we are still on for October. We'll be arriving on the 25th... right after you and Sheree.

Too many of us are just missing each other in October.

 

[Mndisneygirl]

Great update - I LOVE WDW with Christmas decorations!! I'm glad you chose MK just for the pictures - even if it's more crowded!! I'm one to stick to a plan too, but I'm relaxing a bit more with each trip (unless it's a short trip!).

I just read that they will be putting lights on the castle at the end of September. I'll have to look for the lights on the building when I'm there in October.

I am bummed that you are coming after we leave, and that Memom and gang are leaving when we arrive. The simple solution is that each of you change your trips to my week, you know that, right?
I am going to be able to meet some other DISers too, so that will take the sting out of missing you guys.

All right - now that I'm caught up here, I better go work on my own TR!!!

 

[sharonW]

Wait, your october trip!!!! Did I miss something???

Got chills reading your update! I totally agree, there is no place like WDW at holiday time. The decos are absolutely AMAZING!!! How can ya beat that kind of magic!!

Looking forward to the next installment!!

 

[jenseib]

You just got me totally excited for my next trip...I can't wait to see all those decorations...and then I had a thought...I might need more memory cards. ....I will probably take more pictures of the christmas stuff!!!!

 

[kmrein]

Welcome back! Now I'm the one that's totally behind and trying to catch up on all your updates--the natural order has returned. It was so fun to see your holiday pictures. We're getting ready for our first Halloween trip (and first Disneyland trip) but I have to admit I'm just not sure anything can top WDW during the holidays.

I'm glad to hear you made it through your challenging summer and I hope you are able to find the time to keep thinking about what's next for you. Besides your upcoming trip, I mean!