"Thunderbolts and lightning! Very very frightening!"... a trip report (FINISHED!!!)

[wingedjojo]

Thanksgiving: part 3

This may be the end of our trip in San Diego but can you honestly expect me to go ALL the way down to SoCal and not see anything Disney? Would I be a very good Disney enthusiast?

The answer is no.

I somehow convinced mom to make a pit stop at Downtown Disney (so I can just soak in the atmosphere) on our way back to San Francisco. I wasn’t going to pay to get into the parks but at least it’s something Disney, right? It’ll give me the opportunity to poke around the Disneyland Hotel and go do some shopping. Here are the highlights of that pit stop:

There weren’t very many Christmas-y decorations up (granted it has only been 2 days since Thanksgiving).

This is looking up from under the sorcerer’s hat:

It sucked so much to be SO CLOSE to the parks and not be able to go in. I was torturing myself by being so close yet so far away.

My final stop before getting back on the road again was the World of Disney store.

There were so many cute stuffed animals. This was the first time I ever saw the seagulls from Finding Nemo available for sale.

Christmas Jack for Jan:

And some Perrys for my boyfriend Kevin (because he just LOOVESSS Phineas and Ferb):

I really liked this alarm clock radio thing. Too bad it was like super expensive.

 

[wingedjojo]

Thanksgiving: part 4

While I was wandering around the tech-related stuff, I noticed this laptop sleeve and I got SUPER mad:

Here’s the story why.

So I recently got a new laptop because my old one finally died and I wanted a new case for it. Of course I tried my hardest to find a Disney case online. I couldn’t really find any that I liked and fit my ginormous laptop. Eventually I found the above laptop sleeve on Amazon through a third party seller that promised it’ll fit a laptop up to 15 inches. I bought it and waited the week or so for it to come. When it finally did, I was DEVASTATED to find it fits up to 13 inches only. Talk about false advertisement. So I had to return it and eventually I settled for a non-Disney laptop sleeve.

So of course what do I find here? The elusive 15 inch laptop sleeve. Ugh. Oh well. From what I noticed, the padding didn’t seem sufficient enough and probably wouldn’t have protected my laptop as well as my current one does. You live and learn.

On a happier note, I did end up buying something I’ve had my eyes on since forever. Well, maybe not forever. I noticed it first when we went to Disney World but I didn’t buy it then because I thought it was too expensive for something so trivial. I regretted that decision because turns out I really wanted it. Then when I went to Disneyland a month after our World trip, I had the opportunity to buy it again. It was a back and forth debate with myself on whether or not it was worth it. I guess I decided it wasn’t worth it (again) because I didn’t purchase it (again). Well, third time’s the charm and this time, I didn’t even think about it and just grabbed it.

Here it is:

I don’t take it off so I can get as much use from it as possible and perhaps it’ll justify the purchase. I’m pretty sure its prettiness is all the justification I need but nonetheless, I’m wearing it as much as I can.

I also picked up a Toy Story Vinylmation for Kevin since he loves Toy Story too.

I kept saying to myself: give me anything but that one. I am completely okay with getting ANYTHING except one of them.

Of course, my wishful thinking is just that and I (I mean, Kevin) got stuck with this:

The freakish baby.

Just my luck. I shouldn’t pick these things.

So that was our thanksgiving break. Sadly, there was no turkey. That was my only regret. Otherwise, I had an excellent time and loved spending time with my family (minus Jess).

 

[wingedjojo]

Becoming an Animator: part 1

After our epic battle against the evil Emperor Zurg, we kind of wandered around. We were subconsciously walking closer to the Tower of Terror so we thought that might be a good place to go next.

Of the two, I think the wait time for Tower of Terror was shorter so we decided it would be a smart idea to get Fastpasses for Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster and go to the standby line for the tower.

Mom and Jan had gone to the bathroom and so it was just Jess, Edward and I approaching the Fastpass machines. Before we started to get our passes, this super nice guy randomly walks up to us and asks if there was just the 3 of us in our party. Not being a chump, I said “yeah” and he gave us 3 Fastpasses to Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster!!! What luck! We couldn’t thank him enough because now we can get Fastpasses for Tower of Terror and then come back later to do both.

But wait, Jo. He only gave you 3 passes and there are 5 of you guys.

There was a simple solution. Mom wasn’t going to ride either the coaster or tower so we used one of our park tickets to get an extra Fastpass for Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster and used the remaining four park tickets on the Tower of Terror Fastpass machines. Genius!

Now that we’re guaranteed a ride on both attractions later on in the day, it was once again time to decide on what to do next.

There was something that I have never done before and knew that I must do before the day was over. Animation Academy!

I didn’t even know such a thing existed until I started reading about it in trip reports. It sounded like something super fun to do for all and I was determined to seek it out and do it this time around.

When we first got to the Animation Courtyard, I didn’t really have any idea where it was supposed to be so we just sort of hopped into a line that seemed to be going to the right place. We stood there for about 2 minutes before I thought to myself: if this isn’t the right line, I’m going to be upset. A Cast Member just so happened to walk on by so I asked him if we were in the correct line to join the drawing class.

Apparently we weren’t.

Turns out we were waiting to go watch a show with Mushu in it? I wasn’t quite sure what that was all about but it certainly wasn’t what we were looking for. He redirected us and we were waiting in this teeny tiny area for the next drawing class.

It wasn’t too long until we were let in and once we were in, it turned out to be much smaller than I had imagined. Having gone to the Animation Academy in California Adventure since then, it’s hard to not compare the two. I love the fact that in Disney World you get these awesome looking desks but it just sucks that capacity is so limited. In California Adventure, the drawing room is HUGE and could fit Disney World’s version maybe 4 times over. But we have to draw on clipboards in California so you win in some aspects and lose in others.

We drew Minnie Mouse!

You will notice that there’s no picture of Ma with her Minnie Mouse because she once again opted out. She’s too cool for school apparently.

Our finished products:

If you look behind us in this next picture, you can see the TINY waiting area for the drawing class and the doors that led to the TINY drawing room. Don’t get confused by the amount of space around us because we’re not standing in the waiting area. If you look closely, next to the little girl in pink, there’s a metal pole and that forms a barrier where a Cast Member stands and counts people. Basically, if you’re not part of the 15 or so people waiting behind that pole, you have little chance of getting into the next drawing class.

 

[wingedjojo]

Becoming an Animator: part 2

So remember how the first thing we did this morning was grab Fastpasses to Toy Story Mania and then we waited in standby? Well, we had about 30 more minutes until our Fastpasses were good to go so what to do in that time?

The Great Movie Ride!

I actually don’t really care for this ride much but I guess it’s good if you need to do something to waste time. Or to nap.

Once we were done with that, it was pretty much time to go ride Toy Story Mania again. It was another fun ride for all (and a lonely one for Edward) and I’m pretty sure I won. Even if I’m not sure, I’m going to say I won because it makes me feel better about myself.

All that competition had really worked up an appetite and it was getting close to lunchtime. For our mother’s special day, I was going to treat everyone to lunch. Since it was my treat, it was only fair that I got to pick the restaurant, right? Right. There was a place I have wanted to try; not because it had amazing food but because it seemed like a neat idea.

I would’ve picked 50’s Prime Time but I’m scared of getting scolded and I didn’t know if everyone could handle that level of character interaction.

Even though we were on time for our reservation, it was pretty busy so we had to wait a while. We wandered into the store adjacent and just browsed to pass time. At one point, Jess noticed these cards. I guess they’re supposed to be like those work cards that people clocked in and out with?

Upon closer inspection, we noticed something peculiar on one of the cards.

Somebody had written the comment “Hear for my 2nd time, gotta luv those cast members!” No offense but…“hear”? Come on now, people. If you’re going to leave your mark, at least proofread.

Anyway. Eventually we got called to our car (we had a whole one to ourselves). The setup is so cute and the clips were quite enjoyable. Sadly, I think Ma didn’t really care much about the setting and now I feel kind of bad because this meal was supposed to be for her. Not to mention she sat by herself in the back (she insisted!).

Edward is driving. I'm pretty sure he had JUST gotten his license at this point so it was okay to have him in the driver's seat.

It was pretty dark in there so I couldn’t really manage a lot of good shots. We tried taking pictures of the food but that wasn't happening. I’m just going to say that it was nothing spectacular. I would only go there again for the atmosphere.

I did like my cherry Coke though.

Our server took a group picture for us at the end of our meal. Poor mommy all alone in the back.

The bill was a speeding ticket; pretty funny.

 

[wingedjojo]

Cashing in the Fastpasses

After our lunch at the drive-in, we decided to catch the next showing of “Voyage of the Little Mermaid.” Along the way, we decided to stop by this sign to take a picture. A super nice CM helped take the picture for us. I couldn’t remember his name but I do remember him being from Jamaica; super nice.

We didn’t have to wait very long for the show and we got pretty decent seats.

I’m always self-conscious when I take pictures in darker shows like these. My camera makes a rather audible click sound whenever I take a picture and sometimes the pictures momentarily pop up on my screen. I’m always afraid I’m disturbing the show for others around me but I figured the noise from the show was loud enough to mask the ones I made and I tried to cover the screen. Hopefully I didn’t ruin anybody’s time; at least I don’t use flash.

It was really difficult to take pictures in there. Without flash and with the constant movements of the actors/actresses, a non-blurry picture was hard to come by.

Following the show, it was time to cash in those Fastpasses from earlier. First up was the Hollywood Tower of Terror.

Even with our Fastpasses, it was still a rather long wait. Nevertheless, it was a good time had by all.

If you can notice, Jess has something in front of her face. She was recording our ride and here's the video:



If you have one of those roll-y chairs that can adjust its height, you can pretend you're on the ride!

After our ride in the elevator, it was time to use our other set of Fastpasses for Aerosmith’s Rock’n’Roller Coaster. Can’t stress enough how much I LOVE this ride and if I could, I would ride this a million times. Too bad the wait times will never let me do that.

So what was Ma doing while we were off having our fun? She found a space to sit and rest and happened to catch a bit of the afternoon parade.

AHH!!! IT’S DUG!!! SO CUTTTEEEE!!!

I think she took extra shots of Dug because she knows I love him to death.

Soon, it was time to meet back up again and plan out our next course of action.

 

[wingedjojo]

Itzakadoozie: part 1

The next showing of the Beauty and the Beast stage show wasn’t for a while so we decided to hit up a ride first. It was high time we rode the newly re-mastered Star Tours so off we went. Along the way, we wandered through this one store (for their A/C because it was HOT) and happened upon a piece of our childhood!

I cannot express how BADLY I wanted to be the pink ranger when I was younger. The Power Rangers were so freaking awesome. I never even knew they were owned by Disney.

Okay, so I just Wikipedia-ed it and apparently they were only owned by Disney for 7 years and have now gone back to their original owners. Makes sense as to why the Power Rangers no longer roam the parks.

We also encountered Ducky Momo! Granted, it was only a statue in a random corner but it still counts.

I guess that’s where Phineas and Ferb does their Meet and Greets? I only wish Perry the Platypus also did Meet and Greets. Second only to Dug, he is my favorite character. Why is he not available to hug and kidnap???

Eventually we wound up in Star Tours and it wasn’t too long a wait (especially considering the fact that it’s “new”).

Those new 3D glasses sure are spiffy.

Overall impression? It was great! I love how the sequence of beginning, middle, and end are always different so the ride is never completely the same. Helps keep things fresh!

I also saw a great photo op that I couldn’t pass up. Nobody else would do it with me. Sadness.

By the time we were done riding Star Tours, it was almost time to go watch Beauty and the Beast. It was getting to that point in the day where it’s insanely hot and stuffy. So the only logical thing to do was get ice cream! Lucky for us, there was an ice cream cart right outside so while Ma, Jan, and Edward went to grab some seats, Jess and I went on a frozen treats run.

It was another pineapple juice bar for Ma, the Mickey head bar for Jess and Jan, and an Itzakadoozi for Edward and I.

I love this popsicle so much.

It’s so delicious and fun to eat. Plus all the COLORS!!!

~~WE INTERRUPT THIS TRIP REPORT FOR A SPAZZY GIRL MOMENT~~

The CM we got the treats from was this French guy from Nice, France. Is it weird that I remembered where he was from but not his name? Anyway, his accent was SO CUTE and the way he said "Itzakadoozi" was absolutely adorable and he had the prettiest blue eyes ever. Both Jess and I were super crushing on him; he was so cute and he was SO NICE and friendly. That guy is a serious charmer without even needing to try; that’s dangerous.

So eventually we made it back to the show area and passed out the treats. We regaled the others with the tale of the cute, French guy and the way he said “Itzakadoozie”. We made it a point to try and find him after the show but alas, that was not to happen. Right before the show began, Florida’s famous flash storms decided to make an appearance. It was raining like crazy for a good 10 minutes and I’m guessing he had to pack up and leave because he was gone by the time the show let out. So sad.

Okay, enough talk about the French cutie. The show was well done and it was so much fun taking pictures with my super zoom lens. Even though we sat near the middle of the theater, I still got some pretty awesome close-up pictures.

I am so in love with this next picture. I’m pretty sure that it’s the sorceress dancing around, undoing the spell she cast on the prince. It was just such perfect timing and I love how it looks like she’s staring at me. I find that I really luck into a lot of good shots; dumb luck for the win!

Then I got this shot and I couldn’t stop laughing. I understand it’s supposed to be a dramatic moment because he’s back to his old self but I can’t help imagining him going: “I’m going to save SO MUCH MONEY not having to wash all that fur!”

Once we were let out of the theater and saddened by the fact that the French guy was no longer there, we decided that we had pretty much done everything except the Studio Backlot Tour. I also wanted to visit the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playground so it was off to do those things.

Along the way, we took a family photo:

Due to the heavy rain that just passed on by, a lot of people had left the park. It was pretty empty while we walked to the Studio Backlot Tour. We were enjoying the effects the rain had had on crowds but failed to realize that because of the rain, the Backlot Tour AND the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playground were closed for “safety reasons”. Oh poo. I guess those things were not meant to happen this trip.

So close yet so far away.

Instead, we just spent our time walking around the Streets of America.

Look! We’re home!

Jess found a leaky fire hydrant and decided to soothe her bug bites. Poor Jess.

 

[wingedjojo]

Itzakadoozie: part 2

At one point we came across the umbrella that’s attached to the light post. Is this supposed to be like a scene from “Singing in the Rain”? We’ve seen this umbrella on previous trips before but it was only after I’ve been on the Disboards that I learned that if you stepped on the little square that water was supposed to rain down!

So I tried.

Nothing happened.

I kept stepping on the square but we didn’t notice any water coming down so I assumed it was broken.

Then Jan stepped up and took a good step on it and it rained!

I shooed her away and tried again.









Nothing.

Jan tried again and it once again worked for her so maybe I wasn’t trying hard enough.

So I jumped as hard as I could on that little square.

SUCCESS!

Since we couldn’t do the last two things we wanted to do, we decided it’ll make most sense to take advantage of the crowd level and ride Star Tours again since the line was now super short.

Good thing we rode it again because apparently I was a rebel spy and never even knew it. When my picture came up on the ride I was like: “that person looks oddly familiar…OMG that’s me! When did they take that picture and why do I look so stupid.”

It was now time to leave the park but before we did that, a few last pictures:

I think Ma was trying to make it seem like Jess was wearing the hat.

It was a good idea we were leaving because it looked like it was about to storm again.

And for no particular reason, here’s a tram picture:

Since it was still rather early and we were lacking in provisions, we took a trip to Walmart.

Here we are deciding what we wanted to eat for dinner that night.

Jess convincing Mom that Hot Pockets was a balanced meal:

And here are pictures of our dinner that night. Lunchables for me, a loaf of bread for Ma and anyone else who didn’t feel like eating Hot Pockets.

We also got some fruits.

At least that was healthy, right?

 

[wingedjojo]

“Lightning Eagle”

Saturday, June 18

We woke up again at 7am this morning but to a depressing mood. It was our last day in the parks; our last full day of vacation.

Boohoo.

So, in order to go out with a bang, we saved the best for last. This morning, we were going to…

EPCOT!!!

Like we had been doing every single morning prior, we drove and, of course, got lost on the way there. Even with all the signs around us, we had managed to get lost every single time. The only times we didn’t get lost was when we went to Islands of Adventure. In all fairness, we didn’t really use the signs to get to any of the parks. We were relying on the GPS of my iPhone and only turned to the signs as a guiding light after we had gotten lost. I feel like the lesson learned here is that the GPS on iPhones give terrible directions to Disney parks; just use the signs.

Anyway, back to our driving adventures. This was not a good morning to be driving because people were not being nice at all. Some guy driving a truck was especially mean; he hella cut us off and that didn’t really add to our already gloomy mood.

Course, our mood couldn’t be that sour for too long. We’re in Disney, remember???

Don't forget where we parked.

We actually made it before rope drop so we kinda just took our time walking from the entrance to the physical rope.

FAMILY PICTURE!!!

We were stopped at the fountains in between Innoventions. We had a good 15 minutes before the park would open and didn’t really have much to do. So I guess that means random pictures time. I won’t bore you with all of them; so here’s one:

There was a little show that went on right before rope drop but there wasn’t much to see. All I remember of it was that Goofy was there. Oh! And trash cans blowing bubbles. Magic!

While the masses went to Soarin’, we headed to something we aren’t able to get over in California.

Test Track!!!

We basically walked onto the ride. We didn’t even have to watch the entire pre-show movie. Hopefully the Cars ride they’re building over in California Adventure will be similar to Test Track in the sense that it has that fast moving car.

Sadly, I couldn’t take a picture of our ride photo because I wasn’t prepared for it and the picture was gone before I could get to it. Oh well. I’m sure everybody has seen the Test Track picture. Just imagine us sitting in it looking like

So after testing out a couple of new cars, we decided to roam Innoventions. Once again, thanks to the DISboards, I’ve learned of something I never even knew existed. I was super excited to try this out and couldn’t wait for it.

The Sum of All Thrills.

Good thing I had decided to make everyone do this earlier in the day because there was nobody around and we didn’t have to wait at all to design our ride and experience it.

Jess and I paired up and Jan was with Edward. Sadly, even for a ride where you can design to make it absolutely not scary, Mom decided not to do it.

I forgot what we ended up naming our coaster but I think it was along the lines of “Lightning Eagle” with as much awesome packed into it as possible. Jess and I tried to put as much thrill into it as possible and the actual process of making that coaster was pretty fun.

“Lightning Eagle” wasn’t as thrilling as I had hoped it to be but I’m going to say it’s because we weren’t on an actual coaster and there really wasn’t that fear of death looming over us. Regardless, it was still really fun to go around on that giant mechanical arm.

The picture is a bit blurry but that’s Jess and I on our coaster. During the entire process I was so scared I was going to flash somebody. I was wearing a rather short dress and our coaster did a lot of inversions and I could feel my dress flapping around. Hopefully nobody saw anything.

Since we were in the area, our next family activity was to test our money-saving skills.

I love the little piggy they give you to play the game. It’s so terribly cute and is just too bad that we can’t keep it. Of course, had we kept it, we wouldn’t know what to do with it except to just display it somewhere or use it as a large paper weight.

We split into two groups. Since Jan and Edward were just about to start their college career, they were going to try and save up for college. Ma, Jess, and I were going to save up for another Disney trip! Woohoo!

There were all these little games that you got to play and depending on how well you do with these games, it gives you a certain amount of money. All the money you earned in each of these games goes towards your savings and in the end they tally up how much you saved from each game to see if you made your goal.

Apparently both groups did an excellent job because both our goals were met.

A stuffed piggy is a happy piggy.

After returning our piggy (so sad), we took a loop around Innoventions and picked up a Fastpass to play the Kim Possible game later on in the day. Then we exited and headed straight for the closest building we saw.

We were heading straight for our favorite fish in the world.

Who doesn’t love these seagulls? Mine! Mine! Mine!

I guess they’re trying to be seagulls but that hand motion makes me think of alligators more.

Once again, there was absolutely no wait for this ride at all. We breezed through the line and stepped straight into our clamshells. Is it just me or does the line area always seem super dark? I get it that it’s supposed to be underwater but it was almost TOO dark. Maybe they just haven’t turned on all the lights yet.

After our delightful trip in the big blue world, we wandered around the area that the ride dumps you out in. Of course we had to take this iconic picture with Bruce.

You can barely see Edward in this next one but you can make out half his face.

We played around on some of the games they had there.

They had this one trivia game to test how much you know about sharks. Apparently, none of us know much about sharks.

Onwards to the next attraction!

 

[wingedjojo]

Fat Princesses Named Beverly: part 1

Since we hadn’t headed that way along with the crowds, it was now time to head back towards Soarin’. The line was long so we just picked up some Fastpasses for later and hopped into standby for Living with the Land. It’s a nice, serene ride and we enjoy it even though it’s educational.

I didn’t take very many pictures but the ones I did take I’m sure I have a reason for doing so. Let’s see if I can remember why for all of them.

This first one I’m pretty sure is NOT a durian. I want to say jack fruit? It doesn’t matter; I’m sure the only reason I took this one was because I hate durian and it made me think of durian (so the logical thing is to take a picture of it, right?).

The next picture is of a pineapple. Anybody who watches “Psych” will understand the fascination with pineapples.

I LOVE WATERMELON!!!

This last picture is for Ma. When she saw it she started telling us this story about how “back in the old country” this type of veggie was fed to pigs or something. I actually don’t really remember what she said. All I can recall really is her saying “when I was young,” “China,” and “pigs.”

There were also some hidden Mickeys.

Next up we rode Figment. There was practically nobody in line and we walked straight on. This has always been a rather perplexing ride for me. I just never really got who Figment was or where he came from or why he was still there. I think we enjoyed ourselves more in the interactive play area that followed the ride than the actual ride itself.

We even created our own digital Figment. I think I named mine Dinah. As in DINAH-SAUR. DINOSAUR??? Actually, he may be a dragon.

Then we went and watched the much hyped about Captain EO. I remember when they first reopened the attraction people were lining up super early and coming all decked out in costume just to watch it.

No offense to anyone and certainly not to the late Michael Jackson (because while people did blow up his personal life, his genius as a musical artist is undeniable) but…

…what did I just watch?

I wouldn’t say it was terrible per se but it wasn’t great. I would’ve much rather watched Thriller than that. The music wasn’t even catchy.

So we decided to go do something we knew we would like.

On our way, the Jammitors were just finishing up a set. Literally the moment we noticed what was going on they were finishing their last jam. Drats.

So we eventually got to Mission Space.

The wait wasn’t too bad. There was a line but it moved at a decent pace. It helped that there were neat things to look at while we waited.

Since there were 5 of us and each compartment only had 4 spaces, Jan and Edward got separated from the rest of us. While standing in line, a CM walks by and asks us if we were Chinese. Random question but yes…we are…

And then he starts speaking in fluent Mandarin!!! For a white guy his pronunciation was spot on! I mean, I can only understand and speak Cantonese but I’ve heard enough Chinese in my life to be able to differentiate whether or not someone has an accent. He started chit-chatting with Mom in Mandarin and it was totally cool.

Just to make something clear, I’m not amazed that he was Caucasian and spoke Mandarin. I’m amazed at his complete lack of an accent. People who grow up speaking English and pick up Chinese later on in life (like he did) tend to not be able to develop the right tones and produce the right sounds to make Mandarin sound correct. Even I can’t speak Cantonese without an accent now and then!

Anyway. In our compartment, we were all assigned roles and we all thought it was absolutely hilarious that Jess got placed as the engineer. We were all joking that we were never going to survive our mission because Jess can’t do math. Even Ma joked about it.

We had all ridden the more intense side. One would wonder why Mom would willingly ride this since she has been avoiding all thrill rides like they were the plague. Well, I’m pretty sure she rode it the last time we were in WDW and since she’s still alive, she was okay with going again.

UNFORTUNATELY.

Ashe got terribly motion sick this time around. Now we’ll NEVER get her on any more thrill rides.

We kind of slowed down then and rested for a bit. Once Ma got somewhat better, we continued on our way.

 

[wingedjojo]

Fat Princesses Named Beverly: part 2

When we had ridden Test Track earlier, we had also picked up a set of Fastpasses and it was time to go use them. So one more round we go! And once again, I failed to take a picture of our picture.

We did find a hidden Mickey though.

Here’s Jess trying to fix her hair after the outside loop.

Riding Test Track right after Ma got somewhat better was probably a bad idea. Why? Because now her motion sickness was back in full force.

So what do most women like to do to make themselves feel better?

Three guesses.










No.
















No.

















YES!!! GO SHOPPING!!!

Into Mouse Gears we went and we spent quite some time browsing around. Ma was looking at some frames and was trying to decide whether or not they were worth it to purchase. They weren’t apparently because we didn’t buy any. Eventually we wandered into the princess section and saw a whole bunch of princess costumes. One was randomly picked up and looked at. Hmm…I wonder if I can fit it…




CHALLENGE. ACCEPTED.






We were already looking at the Belle dresses so we found the largest one they had (which, I believe, WAS a large) and attempted to put it on.

Here’s Cinderella:

Can you believe there was still room left over???

I LOVED the bow on Cinderella’s dress. As Jan would like to put it, I have an irrational love of bows. I don’t deny it.

I think I like Tiana’s dress most of all though. It fits the best.

If you would like to watch a video of my princess fashion adventure, here you go:



Once we got that out of our system, Ma still wasn’t feeling 100%. I made the suggestion of going over to Club Cool. Maybe a little bit of carbonation (especially the free kind) will help her burp the sickness out of her. I sometimes find that soda helps me whenever I’m feeling throw uppy.

Ma found a seat to rest while we went to get some beverages. First we all tried a bit of everything.

We all tried the infamous Beverly. Edward actually liked it and while I don’t prefer it, it wasn’t too terrible. I think both Jess and Jan thought we were nuts.

Once we had our quick fill, we brought some samples of drinks out to Ma.

We gave her Beverly first.

Yes, we are terrible children.

Yes, it was insanely funny.

She did NOT like it at all and kept saying (jokingly) that we were trying to kill her. We’re not, we swear! We just have a terribly sick sense of humor. We promptly offered her other flavors of soda and she got the bad taste out of her mouth.

The soda did its job and Ma was starting to feel a lot better. It was also about time to use our Soarin’ Fastpasses so off we went!

Along the way, as luck would have it, we saw the Tronorail!!! Such great timing!

For some reason, I have come to associate being able to catch sight of the Tronorail akin to catching sight of a leprechaun or a unicorn. People talk about it but I rarely see pictures. Now I know it’s real.

In no time at all, we were all soaring on Soarin’. Such a lovely ride; always so relaxing.

And with that, our tour of Future World was done for the morning. It was now time to go around and broaden our cultural horizons.

 

[wingedjojo]

Around the World in < 80 Days: part 1

Every time we tour the countries we always tend to go in a clockwise direction. We even do that when we go to Disneyland. Don’t know why but it just FEELS right.

Anyhoo. So we begin our journey around the world in Mexico!

But we didn’t really stop to look around. In fact, we didn’t stop at all. I was walking right by when I took that shot. We were all getting kind of hungry so we were off to find some food. Our final decision was to try a place we’ve never been to before; not by choice but because it was super new.

Via Napoli!!!

We hadn’t made a reservation but when we asked for a table they said it would be no problem at all. So we just sat in the waiting area for a bit. It was really pretty; not to mention it was air conditioned. Always a big plus when it’s hot out.

Waiting didn’t take very long and maybe 5 minutes had passed before they were ready to seat us. I guess we were still early for lunch because there weren’t too many people and there were plenty of open tables.

The table we ended up siting at was right across from those amazing, giant ovens.

They were so super cool looking. It would have been more awesome if the faces moved and started talking though.

So here’s a picture of our simple place setting:

Our waitress first brought us some bread and oil.

I’m not a big fan of dipping bread into oil but Ma loved it.

We first ordered a house salad to share. Probably because Ma thought it would be healthier to balance the fatty pizzas we’ll be eating with leafy greens. We’re on vacation, right? Healthy shouldn’t be part of our vocabulary.

It was decent as far as salads go; nothing remarkable. I just really disliked the banana peppers; I think they taste gross although Ma really likes them. She also likes eggplant and bitter melon so her taste buds are questionable to say the least.

Not knowing how large the pizzas came, we ordered two of the second largest size to be safe.

We got the Quattro Formaggi which had 4 types of cheese on it: mozzarella, parmesan, fontina, and provolone.

I’m looking at the menu online and nothing seems to quite describe the second pizza we ordered. The closest description I could find makes me think we got the Pepperoni one which had spicy pepperoni, tomato, and mozzarella. I could be wrong because it looks like our pizza had sausage on it. Oh well.

These things were HUGE but they were so delicious. It was probably the best tasting pizza I’ve ever had in my entire life. If there was such thing as fine dining pizza, this would be it. It was just such good quality pizza.

Even with the ginormous size of those pizzas, we made a pretty good dent before we were all starting to fall into a food coma. Even then we forced Edward and Jess to finish the rest (waste not, want not). Here’s where we were at when people started to slow down on the eating:

We were down to one last piece and Jess felt up to the challenge; she even went all fancy and used her fork and knife.

Alas, challenge was not won and we ended up leaving behind that last half slice. Even so, I was quite surprised we made it through that much food.

After a quick stop at the bathrooms, we paid the check and proceeded back out into the hot weather to explore the rest of Italy.

Remember how earlier in the day we had picked up a Fastpass to play the Kim Possible game? Since the Fastpass had us pick up our equipment in Italy, we decided now was as good a time as any to get our Kimmunicator to begin our mission.

We’ve never done this before so we listened to some instructions first before we began.

Kimmunicator in hand, we started pushing buttons to find out which country our mission will take us. As the oldest and bossiest, I took charge and held the phone. Jess and Jan stood on either side of me so poor Edward was shut out and had to lean over to see what was going on. Ma just stood away and let us go about having our fun.

We got our mission and we were off!

First we had to quickly pass by the American Adventure pavilion.

Our destination: Japan.

I didn’t take many (or really, any) pictures because this was a life or death situation! We had to help save the world!

I did end up passing the phone off to Jess and Jan at some point so they could take charge too. The game is actually quite fun and really helps in exploring all the little details that one would normally pass over. I would totally recommend these missions to anyone who isn’t fearful of walking around frantically pointing a phone at miscellaneous objects.

We felt that one mission was enough (Mom was getting bored waiting for us to finish) so we continued going clockwise which brought us to Morocco!

We went into this one building which seemed to be a small museum of sorts that talked about the culture and they had this BEAUTIFUL set of stained glass doors.

It was really hot out so we sat in there for a while and just drank water and enjoyed the relative quietness of the room. Since the doors are always closed and there aren’t really a lot of signs pointing to what this building was, not a lot of people ventured in.

 

[wingedjojo]

Around the World in < 80 Days: part 2

Next on the world map was France!

Upon our arrival, I immediately went to get a cold beverage: a Grand Marnier Orange Slush.

Hey, I’m on vacation! Jess was taking pictures of the process and judging me. She doesn’t like it when people drink but I can handle my alcohol. Plus it was HOT! You sweat it all off in no time and you don’t even feel the effects of alcohol at all.

It was DEEEEElicious.

Following France was the United Kingdom.

Members of our party needed a potty break so a break we took! We just so happened to be standing near this red telephone booth, waiting for people to come back, when it started to ring! Of course, curiosity kills the cat but since I am not a cat, I had nothing to worry about! It’s not like this was going to become a scene out of Phone Booth (which is a silly concept of a movie, in my opinion).

I only remember it being an older (middle-aged?) woman who talked to me. She asked where I was and wasn’t very talkative after that. It actually got kind of awkward since I didn’t know what else to say and it was just quiet so I hung up.

I actually had the phone number saved in my phone for this particular phone booth so I decided to play a prank. I enlisted the help of Jess and Jan. One would be my lookout while I had my back turned to the phone booth so it wouldn’t be obvious I was making the call and the other was going to convince Edward to answer it.

Here I go:

And there Edward goes:

It didn’t take him very long to figure out who it was because we started bursting out laughing after we tried to be creepy and said we were watching him and describing what he was wearing.

Then it was off to our neighbor up north, Canada!

We had to take this picture but since we had more heads than peepholes, Jess and I shared one. Think of us as Siamese twins?

After Canada, we had reached the end of the world showcase. Since we really only began exploring the countries after Italy, we thought it was only right if we go back to Italy and finish the other half of the showcase. We weren’t silly; we weren’t going to walk ALL that way back.

So we decided to take a boat!

While waiting for the boat to get to dock, we saw this really pretty-shaped cloud. It kind of looked like a swan.

I’ve never noticed this before but there’s this giant water wheel at Morocco.

We got off the boat and was back at the American Adventure pavilion. What’s that over there? Frozen, blue nectar of the gods?!!? YES! We were long overdue for a blue raspberry Icee.

So good.

Drinks in hand, we skipped over Italy and went to explore Germany.

We went into the caramel shop and boy does that place smell good.

The smells were super tempting but we resisted; Ma almost purchased a bunch of overpriced (but delicious) Werther’s Original hard candies. We barely managed to talk her out of it.

Passing by the Outpost, we saw a bunch of interesting-looking crates.

So much product placement!

Eventually we made it back to the motherland. Well, technically not OUR motherland but, you know, our roots.

We found some puppets and spent a bit of time playing around with those.

Here’s a video of Jess, once again, playing with a puppet:



Next to the puppets was this rack of umbrellas and I fell in love with the panda one. I was SO TEMPTED to get it but was afraid it might get smooshed and broken in the going-home process so I opted for a photo instead.

 

[wingedjojo]

Around the World in < 80 Days: part 3

Norway was next.

I love Norway for the most random of reasons. Back in I forgot when, I found this video that sung about lions and tigers and they mentioned Norway. That's it. That’s the only reason.

Here’s the video if anyone is curious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvAAASZlCmM

Of course we rode Maelstrom. Coming out of the ride, I thought the giant ogre statue was gone because I remember it being RIGHT THERE after getting off the ride. Turns out that it was just moved to another corner.

We found this shipwreck and was trying to mimic the dragon(?).

Last but not least we were back in Mexico. I’m kind of sad that I never got a margarita. It will be on my to-drink list for next time.

We rode the Donald version of the Small World ride and took this lovely picture. It’s one of my all-time favorite shots from this trip.

With that, our journey around the world came to an end.

We were tired and weren’t up to sticking around for Illuminations (to this day we still have not seen it) so we made our way slowly to the exit.

One last shot of the giant golf ball:

Eventually we made it back to our car parked ALL THE WAY at the end of the row. Ma made sure to document this fact. For every day we were at a Disney park, we managed to secure the last (or close to the last) spot in a row and it was both incredible and frustrating for Mom.

With that, our time at the parks were at an end and tomorrow would be the last day of our vacation.

 

[wingedjojo]

It’s a Jolly Holiday

Sunday, June 19

We all took a little longer getting up today even with our alarms set an hour later for 8am. The thoughts of leaving and going back home to real life made us all drag our feet and want to prolong the inevitable as much as possible. We couldn’t move too slowly though because we had a reservation to get to!

Of course we ended up getting lost. Seriously, those iPhone directions are no good at all or I’m really doing something wrong and haven’t yet figured out the issue. Ma gets angry at me for getting us lost (not my fault!) and I’m mad at her for getting mad at me. Then parking became an issue when we actually got to our destination and it was only after a couple of times turning around in circles do we finally get an idea of what to do.

Which meant we were late to our reservation.

Where?

Well, we were at the Grand Floridian.

And we were itching to see characters one last time.

So it could only be:

Even though we were a little late, I guess it wasn’t an issue. We were given a buzzer and went out to the lobby to wait.

Everything was just so fancy and elegant. It was pretty and all but I don’t think the Grand Floridian is quite my taste in resorts. I would LOVE to stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge for obvious reasons but I also wouldn’t mind the Polynesian or the Contemporary Resort. One day.

Soon we were called. We handed our buzzer back, got our picture taken, and was led to our table. Ma and Jess went up to get food first and Jan, Edward, and I just sat around and ordered drinks for everyone. Our server suggested this juice they had so we all had that and in addition we got Mom a hot tea and I also got some coffee. While that was happening, Tigger came along and Jan and Edward had their picture taken.

Once Ma and Jess came back, the rest of us went to get our plates.

Here’s my plate. You can see my clear love of Mickey waffles. And that juice? OH MY GOD. It was delicious. I can’t remember what was in it but whatever it was, it was wonderful. It was so good.

I’m pretty sure these are pictures of Mom’s plates. She had an omelet made.

And then all of a sudden, characters.

At one point I had gotten myself a nice helping of strawberry soup. The only reason I even tried it was because people said such good things about it on these boards.

Here I go taking my first taste:

I just want to say...not really my thing. It was kind of peculiar tasting. It tasted to me like it was strawberry ice cream that I forgot to eat and when I remembered, it had melted and got up to room temperature.

I couldn't eat more than 3 spoonfuls. You can kind of see me going "ehhh..." in the background.

Other than that, I think we all enjoyed our meal. Mom even complimented me on my choice. She said the food was fresh and the selection was really decent; plus the price for a character meal wasn’t that bad. Having Mom’s approval is always a good thing.

During the planning process I was really torn between 1900 Park Fare and ‘Ohana’s. The only reason why 1900 Park Fare won out was because I really wanted to see the Mad Hatter.

And I did.

One day I would like to go visit Stitch. I wonder if they have Mickey waffles?

Once we were all done and pleasantly full, it was back to the hotel to get all our stuff and sadly, check out.

We finished organizing everything pretty quickly and completed all the last minute packing.

Funny story time.

The last time we were in Disney World in 2007, we bought one of those fan mister things because our original one from 2000 had broken. Well, thinking we’ll be using it ALL the time like we did in 2007, we brought it with us. The mister literally stayed in the hotel the entire trip. I don’t think we used it even once. We were even tempted to just leave it in the hotel since we didn’t want to carry it around anymore.

Of course we didn’t; we’re too cheap. Edward ended up taking it home and giving it to one of his cousins, I think. It was a perfectly functional fan/mister. We just outgrew it, I guess. Hopefully someone somewhere is using it.

Anyway. We made doubly sure that everything was securely packed and nothing important was getting left behind.

We really didn’t want to go.

But we eventually picked ourselves up, put all our stuff into the rental car, checked out, and were on our way…

 

[zianha]

I hate when a WDW trip ends! It's always such a bummer! But it looks like you all had a great time! It's been a few years since I ate breakfast at Ohana, but they definitely had Mickey waffles then. I can't wait for you to go to WDW again just so I can be entertained by your TR!

 

[EPRV We love Disney]

Loved it!!

I read your entire TR just now. It was GREAT! Loved all your photos and the great time that you had!

Thanks so much for sharing it!

And I learned something new.... I had never even HEARD of the cat that you had on your shirt.... and that song.... scarily catching.....

E

 

[wingedjojo]

I hate when a WDW trip ends! It's always such a bummer! But it looks like you all had a great time! It's been a few years since I ate breakfast at Ohana, but they definitely had Mickey waffles then. I can't wait for you to go to WDW again just so I can be entertained by your TR!

Yeah, endings are always a bummer but at least we get to dream about the next trip, right?

Mmm...Mickey waffles.

I can't wait for my next trip either! Hahaha.

Loved it!!

I read your entire TR just now. It was GREAT! Loved all your photos and the great time that you had!

Thanks so much for sharing it!

And I learned something new.... I had never even HEARD of the cat that you had on your shirt.... and that song.... scarily catching.....

E

Hehehehe. Nyan nyan nyan nyan nyan~

 

[wingedjojo]

Shop ‘til You Drop! (or until your credit card freezes): part 1

Yes, we were finally on our way…













On our way to DOWNTOWN DISNEY, that is!!!

We wanted to get just ONE MORE shopping trip in before we officially left. Now was the time to pick up some stuff we’ve been eyeing, gifts for people, and probably spur-of-the-moment-hopefully-not-regret-later purchases.

Since it was still early-ish and most people were in the parks, parking was super easy to find. Getting out of the car, we saw a pretty neat sight coming over the horizon.

The Characters in Flight balloon was actually going up and it was actually available to ride! I usually hear that any sort of weather would prevent it from functioning properly so it’s normally not up but we were in luck to see it floating there. Of course, we’re all too chicken to go on it and it was also a bit pricey for a hot air balloon ride. But look at it go!

While making our way to the World of Disney store, we passed by some Lego puppies. Aww…so cute.

Time to get some serious shopping done.

We found this shirt extremely funny. Nobody would wear it though so we only opted for a picture. Even though we love those giant turkey legs, we didn’t end up eating any this trip. Oh well.

Since I have the Disney Visa card and get 10% off if we spend over $50 (as if that’s even a remote challenge at all), I was going to pay for all the things we buy and then everyone would give me money later. I ended up going in two separate transactions because it just made more sense to put all my stuff on one receipt and everybody else’s on another. Each separate purchase was probably at least $100 each. Why am I telling you all this? There’s a story here, I swear, I’m not trying to show off so bear with me.

With the first transaction, everything went fine. Come the second transaction, my card gets declined.

You’re kidding me, right?

It can’t be because I ran out of credit because I’m really a*al about my money transactions and I kept good track over the week of all my purchases. So why was it declined? I would later come to find out that the bank had frozen my account because of suspicious activities. Uh…okay? It didn’t really make sense to me because I’ve been making multiple $100+ purchases all week (because meals in Disney are not cheap) and I haven’t had a problem until now. It was so weird but at least they decided to freeze it at the END of my vacation, right? So I just ended up using my other card (sans the 10% discount; boo!).

When I eventually got home and called the credit card company, I just had to confirm via a robot that it was indeed ME that was making that purchase and then they cleared the hold on my card right away. If I had known that a 2 minute phone call would have cleared all that up, I would’ve just done it at the cash register so I could have gotten my discount. Lesson learned.

Anyway, back to Downtown Disney.

With purchases in hand, we decided to wander around and through the rest of the stores. Right outside of the World of Disney, what seemed to be a middle school or a high school orchestra was performing.

I don’t know how they got that gig but they were not very good. I know I may come off sounding kind of snobbish but Jess, Jan, and I all played in a rather well taught orchestra back in middle school (by public school standards) and we all know/understand orchestral music quite well. These guys were off pitch, lacked energy, and their bowing weren’t even going in the right directions at times. It was kind of sad.

Okay, maybe I should give them a bit more credit. They weren't THAT bad. I'm probably just bitter in my old age.

I wish I got the chance to perform at Disney.

One of the first shops we stopped at after World of Disney was Tren-D.

That store is cool and all but it is crazy expensive. And what did they do to Minnie Mouse? Why did they turn her into an anorexic-looking monster? It was so scary. I’ve never been terrified of Minnie Mouse until now.

 

[wingedjojo]

Shop ‘til You Drop! (or until your credit card freezes): part 2

Once Upon a Toy was next and I couldn’t resist having some fun with the giant Mr. Potato Head out front.

They had this giant section of Mr.Potato Head parts and we spent some time there just playing around.

We also looked around at all the different toys they had. There was this Stitch toy that I would’ve totally gotten had it not been so expensive. When I was little, I used to take piano lessons and my piano teacher had this toy only instead of being Stitch, it was a crocodile. It was so much fun to play with because you never know when you’ll push down on the wrong tooth and if you do, then it’ll bite you.

Jan found this Nightmare Before Christmas themed game that she wanted.

Alas, the price! I think it says it’s around $25.

Then we came into the stuffed animal aisle.

We all picked out a character that we thought represented ourselves and then proceeded to balance them on our heads. Don't ask me why we decided to balance them, it just kind of happened organically. It took forever for Jess to get hers to balance and when it did we were all very proud.

Ma was taking a picture of Jan and captured it at the perfect moment when Jess hurled her Dory doll at the Jack doll.

Ma even participated and got in on the action too! I don’t know when or why Jan decided to change up her character though and LOOK AT JESS!!! It’s magic~

We continued wandering around and found some Marvel comics which was pretty cool. I've always wished I had the dedication to collect all the X-Men comics because I really wanted to read them all. Too bad there are too many different story arcs and series that criss-cross with one another so that it makes it super confusing; they’ll never be able to just put everything into one giant thing to purchase.

At one point Jan found the funny Carnotaurus from Animal Kingdom again. While she was pointing it out and posing for a picture, that little boy right there supposedly took one and just whacked Jan in the back with it. Totally random. Not to mention rude. But hilarious.

We even encountered a small video game section where Jess and Jan started playing Lego Pirates of the Caribbean. They even had all the Kingdom Hearts games! I keep forgetting that the Kingdom Hearts series belongs to Disney (which is kind of a "DUH" thing since it's full of Disney characters). Being a Kingdom Hearts fan, Jan wanted to get the Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep game; too bad nobody has a PSP.

Eventually we moved on towards the rest of the store.

Somehow, somewhere, Jan found a pair of Stitch hands and tradition demanded she put them on and pose for a picture.

Here’s the almost exact same picture but back in 2007:

Going down a random toy aisle, I encountered this castle toy set. If I was still under 10, this would have been my dream toy and I do believe that it was on sale.

I found this display with Peter Pan flying above it absolutely hilarious. Just by how it was positioned and from where I was standing, it looked like he was about to body slam that display.

The store also had this stand selling personalized CDs of princess songs. It’s almost a habit that I have to look for my name. Growing up, these types of products always had Jess and Jan's name but rarely mine (because I guess it's not super common?) so I always get super excited when I see my name.

Here’s us looking:

AND WE FOUND IT!!!

Clearly "Jo" is short for something so you're just going to have to wonder what it's short for.

Ma thought it was hilarious that I cared so much and made it a point to look for my name even though I knew I wasn’t going to buy it.

It was a lot of fun to just play around with all the stuff that we could and look at all the things we can’t/shouldn’t have. Makes me wish I was a child again with a buttload of money so I could just get EVERYTHING. I would've shared, I swear!

 

[wingedjojo]

Shop ‘til You Drop! (or until your credit card freezes): part 3

Once we were back outside, we came upon the pin trading place and had a look around. There were so many cute pins that caught my eyes; I was almost tempted to buy one. Instead, here are some pictures of the pins I would have bought had I robbed a bank.

LOVE DUG!!!

I don’t know what Jan is holding in this picture but it’s probably a pin.

After taking our pictures with the statues…

…we continued on our way to the Christmas store…








…where I immediately found a cute puppy:

We all agreed that Mickey wearing Pluto slippers and Minnie wearing Marie slippers was kind of weird and wrong.

Outside the store, we had to take another picture for tradition sake.

2011:

2007:

Except we accidently switched places. Oops.

Finally (and sadly) our time was running out and there wasn’t much more we could fit into our vacation. So we must end it on a sweet note…literally!

To Goofy’s Candy Company!!!

Just one more icy blue goodness for the road.

I’m surprised we only drank this blue treat 3 times this trip; I would’ve expected more.

With one more family picture…

…it was finally…FINALLY…time to head to the airport.