The "We have one whole year to wait" Now a Trip Report

[Laura.bora]

I ran to grab a few more crowd pictures since we had time to wait and it was so crowded compared to a green day that I just couldn't believe it. Check out the few faces of the people on the crowd who were like "What is that chick taking a picture of??"

I was back within a few minutes and Ephraim was out cold.

One of the Cast Members noticed him and oohhed and ahhhed at him asleep and then moved his head because she hated to see him bent over like that. She did it without asking and my first reaction in my head was DON'T WAKE HIM UP!!!!

But he didn't budge so all was well!
It was nap time, and we were waiting to eat lunch. I was hoping that the NAthaniel and Ainsley would be ok and would be on their best behavior. They were!

We couldn't bring our stroller in so I picked him up and carried him in. Not a peep from him. One of the CM's noticed I had a sleeping babe, and set up a chair near the bathroom door for me (it was a bit of a cut out, so there was a little more room there).

The inside of the castle was so well done. Stained glass windows that told the story of cinderella, beautiful tapestries and wood work. A beautiful chandelier hanging from the ceiling. I was impressed.

The kids were given either a wand or a sword. That was a big hit. But word of advice. Don't use the wand as a sword.....they break.

Soon it was our turn with Cinderella! Ainsley thanked her for inviting her to lunch. Cinderella played along and said when she heard it was her birthday, she just had to invite her. Ainsley was in LOVE! I'll download these pictures too. They went missing as well.

 

[cjackearl]

Laura- Great updates! Ainsley looks like she is so over the moon with those princesses. How sweet she looks all squished up against Cinderella and Belle.

I had no idea that you could take pics in Expo Hall. That looks fun.

Tom Sawyer Island looks fun. I haven't been there since I was a kid, but I remember liking the exploring. I love how Disney has these little relaxing gems hidden away from all the business of the headline attractions and their crowds. about your camera! Glad you have a fast foot.

Thanks for taking pics of a yellow day. We're not park hopping, so have planned on all green days, and those photos reinforces my plans.

BTW, my ADR window began yesterday. Want to review my picks?

 

[Laura.bora]

YES!! I do want to live vicariously through your trip while I'm waiting for my next one!!

 

[Laura.bora]

Found 2 of them....

 

[Laura.bora]

Before we knew it, our name was called and we were led up a winding staircase to the dining hall. We were greeted with a table decorated with a table runner sprinkled with confetti - little cutouts of pumpkins, carriages, castles and glass slippers. Ainsley's spot had an extra special princess placemat for the princess to sign and a birthday card signed by the princesses. Ainsley was thrilled! and yet - Ainsley was tired!

Note to self -do not plan a lunch at 2pm after getting there before rope drop!

When we arrived, the princess were not out yet, but before long they announced the princesses arrival. Snow White was the first to visit our table. Ainsley was beside herself with happiness.

Next up was Mary Poppins, and Nathaniel had a mission just for his Auntie Lauren. Could Mary Poppins say Supercalifradulisticexpalidocious backwards just like Auntie Lauren??



OF COURSE!

Next to visit was Princess Aurora!

And finally, the last princess of the to visit was Jasmine.

After the princesses, they had the "wishing ceremony" which was kind of cheesy. You held the wishing star and made a wish - and then they had lights flicker all around - I thought it was supposed to be Tinker Bell flying around, but I later heard over the loud speakers that it was your dreams coming true. Very corny. But the kids seemed to like it.



After that, because it was the perfect moment, Ephraim pooped. Really pooped. Filled the diaper and up his back, down his legs - the whole work. Ken asks for the diapers and wipies and a change of clothes. I'm secretly happy about this because now he can wear the shirt I made him - a picture of Flower from bambi with the words "Little Stinker". I pull out the change of clothes and wipies and start searching for the diapers. Can't seem to find them. I dig and I dig and I dump the entire contents of my bag onto the table and I cannot find the diapers. I repacked the diaper bag and didn't pack the diapers. I'm on a roll today. I forgot to charge the batteries for the camera, I forgot to pack the diapers - What else did I forget?? Ken gives me the "What do we do now????" face, so I start searching the crowds to try and find someone with a little kids. Of course, we're in the castle, so that didn't take long, so I sent Ken over to their table to beg for an extra diaper. Thank you Thank you other family who spared the diaper!!

When Ken goes down with Ephraim, our waiter arrives with a birthday Ice Cream and candle, but I ask him to wait until Ken comes back. He makes small talk with Ainsley, you know "How do you like being a princess?" "How old are you" "You look just like Cinderella did when she was a little girl." Ainsley was ALL SMILES!

Ken was soon back and we were all singing off key to Ainsley!



Before long our magical birthday lunch in the castle was over. I ran the kids over to take a picture next to one of the windows overlooking Fantasyland. I just couldn't leave without a shot of that.

Overall, we loved our visit to the castle. The food wasn't as bad as I had heard. I had the Major Domos Pie because I had heard so many good reviews about it, but I really enjoyed Ken's dish much better. He had the pork tenderloin over barley. I'll be ordering that instead next time!

 

[Laura.bora]

When we came out of the castle it was raining. It was raining HARD! Nathaniel had been dying to go into the store "Sir Mickey's" for sometime now. He was on a mission. He wanted a sword and shield. Sir Mickey's was PACKED full of people waiting out the rain. We took our time wandering around. NAthaniel found a Narnia sword and shield and bought it. By that time, the rain had stopped, so we went on over to the one thing I was dying to do, and hadn't done yet. The Swiss Family Robinson's Treehouse. I had waited so many years for this and I was EXCITED!!! That is until I got there and read the sign "Closed for refurbishment"..... How did I miss that in all my research?? Sigh - guess I'll need to wait a few more years....

We decided that today was a long enough day, we'd head back to the hotel and take a nice long nap until dinner time, and then we'd head back for Spectromagic and Wishes later tonight. As we came across the bridge, we noticed the dream along with Mickey show was on again. We stopped on the bridge to watch at the request of Nathaniel. Ainsley and Ephraim were sound asleep in the stroller, so no big deal I guess. As we watch the show, I start to get emotional. Today is our very last day in the MK. Our very last day. And I am not ready for it to be over. I haven't had enough time here! I am not ready for the magic to end. The fireworks go off, the tears start rolling down my cheeks...or is that rain....and suddenly - DOWNPOUR!!! We are completly drenched in seconds flat. It looks like we have just jumped into the pool we are so wet! Ainsley is crying because she went from pretty princess to drowned rat in 2.2 seconds and all while she slept. I go to grab the ponchos and....guess what I forgot. So we stick both Ephraim and Ainsley into the back of the stroller and adjust the sun shields so that they don't get anymore drenched than they allready are. It doesn't really help. We are all grumbles now and as we make our way towards Main St. a guy in front of us shouts "This is the hap, Hap, HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH!!!" and proceeds to skip hand in hand through the rain with his kids. This guy single handedly turned our frowns upsidedown. We burst out into laughter and walked leisurly through the downpour, taking in our last sights of soggy Main Street. We made it to the boat back to the Wilderness lodge and all of us were a little teary-eyed. We are just not ready for this. I made the decision that if we could deviate from the plan, we would. I would get back to the hotel room, check the green days and figure out how to squeeze in one more day at the Magic Kingdom.

 

[cjackearl]

Aw, Laura your last post made me a little teary eyed. Can't wait to see how you work this out. And about the missing diaper! Ephraim looks too darling in that Stinker onsie. Glad you enjoyed your lunch in the castle. We did breakfast in '05 when there were neither lunch nor dinner and we thought it was fine. The atmosphere certainly can't be beat. You had better princesses though. We had Cindy, Belle, Snow White, Wendy(?!) from Peter Pan and Mary Poppins. Um, 2 out of 5 of those AREN'T princesses! We enjoyed them all though. Your kids are so cute Laura.

Ok, for your perusal, my June ADRs (for now, at least )
Mon, June 15- dinner Chef Mickey(made @ 180 days)
Tues, June 16-wanted Sci fi early lunch and MM F! package/ got Prime Time lunch and HBD F! dinner (Will probably cancel both of these )
Wed, June 17-Kone Cafe dinner
Thurs, June 18-Cape May Cafe dinner
Fri, June 19(16 year anniversary)-wanted Le Celier or Chef de France dinner/ got Le Celier late lunch
Sat, June 20-Raglan Road dinner
Sun, June 21-Hoop de do Review 5:00 category 2
Mon, June 22-CP 8:05 breakfast (SO happy to get this one. It will be OOP)

I'm going to continue trying for a MM F! package. If I don't get one, I'll probably cancel the other 2 DHS ressies, come back to our resort for lunch at Beaches and Cream, and take counter service to eat while we wait for Fantasmic.
I'm also unsure about Raglan Road. It looks yummy and we'll be in DTD that afternoon, but we may end up just getting counter service @ Earl of Sandwich or Wolfgang Puck. We may play it by ear. Any thoughts?

 

[Laura.bora]

Oh man - my kids would have FLIPPED if it was Wendy at their lunch. As you know - my kids LOVE Peter Pan! And thanks - I think my kids are cute too! So is the hubby for changing the diaper!

Chef Mickey's - we loved it! Good choice! (happens to be our anniversary this day!)

We didn't do Prime Time Cafe. I've heard that the food is ehhh - but that the atmosphere is fun (As long as you get a fun waitress). I've heard all the food in DHS is ehh.

Brown Derby - my friend went there and sent their food back because they didn't like it. I've also heard very mixed reviews - but you would get a good seat for Fantasmic - but if you follow Mike's advice, you'd get a good seat anyway.

Kona Cafe - well, you know how we feel about that! It's our FAVORITE! You can't go wrong! Eat some Pot Stickers for us!

Cape May - I've heard good things as long as you aren't a seafood snob (which we are), this is the clam bake, right?

Le Cellier - so sad we missed this, but next time!

Raglan Road - heard good things, but when I checked the menu, I could tell we just wouldn't like it. Earl of Sandwhich we missed and we all regretted it. That would give you the time to paruse the merchandise at your leisure and not have to worry about what time dinner was.

Hoop de doo Review looks like fun and heard the food is good.

Crystal Palace - Ohhhh - you got a 8:05! Woo hoo! You'll be there for an empty castle shot!

Need to go and eat dinner! They all sound good!! You are so close! I am so jealous! Please please PLEASE do a pre trip and trip report!! Let me dream of the Disney Magic a little while longer. I have 600+ days until my next trip!!

 

[cjackearl]

I think I'll probably just cancel the DHS restraunt ADRs. I made them under duress. We'll probably just go back to the BC and have ice cream for lunch.

I'm working on doing a PTR. I just signed up for photobucket. I just need hubby's help to upload or download or whatever some pics. I'll put a link in my siggy when I start one.

 

[Laura.bora]

mmmm - Ice Cream for luch - I'm sure you won't have any complaints there!

 

[Laura.bora]

By the time I made it back to the hotel, we were all feeling gross from being in wet clothes for so long, so we all stripped out of the drenched clothes, jumped into a nice hot shower and got into our nice clean PJ's and laid down for a much needed nap. That way we'd be well rested for the parades tonight.

I awoke to the sound of rain. I peeked outside and sure enough, it was raining just as hard as it had been before. Guess Spectromagic and Wishes fireworks are off tonight. Well, since we now have the time.....I'm going to work on our itinerary!!

The original plan was day 8 in DHS, Day 9 in World Show Case and Day 10 spent in the one park we wanted to spend more time in - the only problem with that was the one park we wanted to spend more time in happened to be RED. There was no way I was going to spend my last day at MK packed with even more people than today. Tomorrow just so happened to be a green day at the magic Kingdom AND it was the MNSSHP....when we arrived to Disney World, our first day at MK was on a MNSSHP night and it was EMPTY. This was the way we wanted to spend our last day in MK- with the park to ourselves! So after some adjusting to the itinerary the new plan was this:
Day 8 - our new last day in the MK
Day 9 - DHS
Day 10 - Epcot World Showcase and leaving

With this new plan, I knew that we'd miss out on Breakfast with Little Einstiens, on Illuminations, and most of WS and we'd be going 4 days in a row with no rest day.....Probably not the best idea, but we decided to go for it. And by this point, we'd decided that we would be back, so we weren't too upset about missing a few things - as long as we didn't miss more MK!!

 

[cjackearl]

Yea for mom, the super intinerary fixer! Did you print out TGMs crowd levels for the time you were there? I've been making plans based on his recommended park days, but didn't think about how I'd know which parks were Green, Yellow or Red if we had to switch things up.

Oh, and tell Ainsley thanks for the smilies.

 

[Laura.bora]

lol - did I bring the red, green yellow information? oh yeah, I brought it....all in my Disney Binder. I had my laminated park plans in there, the laminated Kidcot station locations, my ADR information, the list of what movies were playing what nights at the campfite, Mike secrets about the parks, fire work seating locations - you name it, I had it with me. I am the obsessive planner - and it came in handy when I wanted to switch things up!!

 

[Laura.bora]

So bright and early on Tuesday morning, we got a phone call from Stitch. "WAKE UP!" As much as I do not like that character, it was a fun way to wake up every morning! Today we were headed to the Magic Kingdom for our very last visit - and we were going to see the opening ceremony for the first time! Woo hoo! A quick breakfast in the room and we were off and running. Before long we were outside and waiting for the show to begin.

When the countdown was over, and as the show was ending we, like good little TGMer's made a mad dash to be let into the park! This was by far our favorite park opening show! When Nathaniel got so excited about Clarabell, I nearly lost it. I could tell already, I was going to be quite emotional today.

 

[Laura.bora]

So the plan today was to hit Tomorrowland first, since we hadn't been there yet.

As we hit the bridge I kept thinking to myself, "There is something MiKE wants me to do to beat the crowds....but I can't remember..." (Can you see Ken in the picture above? He's far ahead of me on the left? That boy is on a mission to Space Mountain!)

As soon as I saw the spot where I was supposed to be I remembered! THAT'S WHERE I'M SUPPOSED TO BE! Oh well! Next time! Either way, we made great timing.

 

[Laura.bora]

Ken ran off to Space mountain. Every time he's gone to Disney, that ride has been closed - so he was very excited to ride it! I took the kids to Astro Orbitor. We were the first ones on! Woo hoo!! Nathaniel was going to ride in his own rocket and Ainsley, Ephraim and I were going to be in another. Turns out that plan is a no go. You have to be so many inces tall (42 I think) to ride alone! How did I miss this vitale peice of information?? I was about to give up when the CM suggested "well, you are all skinny enough - you could fit in one rocket probably." Why Mr. CM - what a wonderful way to start off my day - first the opening ceremony, and then he called me skinny!! That guy in the rain yesterday was right! This is the hap, HAP, HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH!

So we all pile into the one rocket ship and prepare to take the little kiddy rocket ride. Ok - so MiKE failed to mention how SCARY this ride is!!! I thought we were all going to fall out of the rocket and plunge to our deaths when the rocket proceeded to tip sideways. It tips VERY FAR to the right. No wonder kids to small aren't allowed on here on their own! The kids were oblivious to the impending doom, so they were all smiles.

Moments before take off

 

[cjackearl]

Astro Orbiter? Sounds like they should be called the rocketships of impending doom.

Good to know about the binder. I have one started, being OCD planner myself, but hadn't thought about bringing the crowd level stuff. Good plan!

 

[Laura.bora]

Rocketships of impending doom! I love it!

 

[Laura.bora]

I'm reposting part of day 7 with the pictures I found!

After the princesses, we took our time checking out Toontown. I took pictures, but now I can't find them!! We went through Mickey's house which the kids liked. We found a few hidden Mickey's but we didn't really spend too much time in this house.

 

[Laura.bora]

We did spend a lot of time in Minnie's house. They loved Minnie's house.

They were checking Minnie's answering machine,

playing in her kitchen

- this place was a lot more hands on than Mickey's house was.

I took a cute picture of the kids on Minnie's patio

and by her "palm" tree. I'm hoping these pictures are on my other computer. I'll post them if they are! We looked at the garden oohed and ahhed over the Mickey shaped tomatoes and pumpkins and found hidden mickey's in Mickey's garage. We thought we might go and pay Mickey a visit, but then we looked at the line and decided no way.