Tim and Lesley Year of Million Compromises/TONS pics- 8/5 help me pg. 164!!!

[srandsr76]

We are eating at the Coral Reef for the first time in September and we cannot wait. What did Lauren eat?? My DD5 will not eat fish. I am starting to gather things in an extra suitcase that I know we will not use until September.

Keep the report coming!

 

[kaysmommie]

Lesley, Sounds like the perfect birthday! That necklace is so pretty too. Looking forward to our ADR for coral for our Anniversary dinner. So glad your kids were entertained by the tank. I called last week about the diver and the menu too . Love that Luke and Lauren got to wake Tink. My DD got to do that on our last trip and also got to be Ms. Potts in storytime w/Belle. My DS would be too shy just like yours though to get in front of all those people but my DD loves to be in any show. Your trip report is the best and your family is adorable. So does tim have a single brother who is as thoughtful as him ?

 

[Pixeldust Fairy]

Lesley, what a cool birthday. WOW. Tim reminds me of my hubby, he is always spoiling me. I do have one question for you. We are going to be celebrating my DD's 3rd birthday while we are at the world. I was contemplating getting a birthday cake, but after I saw your strawberries I thought those might be a great alternative to a cake simply because we might be a little stuffed after eating at 1900 Park Fare buffet. Where and how did Tim order those? Were they expensive vs buying a cake for 13 people. I would figure about 2 per person? Just throwin a thought out at ya. Thanks and Congrats on having such a sweetie of a guy.
Sharon

 

[VanniGirl]

What a great birthday!

Looking forward to more

 

[dlpcarden]

What a great birthday dinner!!

Our son enjoyed looking for the fish on the paper also.

How old are Lauren and Luke?

The strawberries looked so yummy....

Dottie

 

[lovemy3girls]

Coral Reef looks awesome! Reading about your trip is getting me so excited for ours! We leave in 3 months + 1 day! And I just called Coral Reef today and booked the diver and special menu for my DD's 10th birthday celebration. She is going to be so surprised. What a fun meal! Looking forward to reading about day 3......

 

[DisneyDadFaNaTic]

Great Trip Report!!!

And a great big sarcastic "Thanks" to Tim for making the rest of us guys look like schlubs!

I just don't understand why my wife isn't happy when I tell her each year for her birthday, "What do you need a present for? You've got me!". Can't believe that doesn't work!

Seriously, though, what an awesome birthday. How many people can say they got to experience what you did on your birthday!

I haven't had the chance to read all of it yet, but I'll be back!

Later.

 

[kahluacream]

Lesley! I'm loving your trip report... Thanks so much for sharing all of your pics. Your whole family looks so happy to be there... It really makes me excited for our next trip!

And OMG... the strawberries! They are my fave dessert, too. Your pics made me so hungry... I actually just microwaved some chocolate chips, and dipped strawberries in them for a bedtime snack. (Not the real thing, but close for a quick fix!) Extra treadmill time for me tomorrow, but worth it!

Looking forward to your next installment!

 

[Tanya90210]

What a wonderful birthday!!! I love that necklace....

We got some of the Tiki Kingdom shirts for our trip too.... They are so cool looking

 

[IWISHFORDISNEY]

What a great birthday dinner. Tim did a great job. I cant believe they still pulled it off with the seat and diver and all. Disney does it again. I also love illuminations. Epcot is my favorite park so I cant wait to hear how it went. We are taking our almost 3 year old in November. Once again another great addition to your TR.

 

[MRNsMommy]

Wow! Another great TR...so far anyway! I'm hoping that my DD (who will be 3 when we go) will make the 40" height mark...and Lauren is giving me hope! It looks like y'all had a great time from what we've seen so far...love the pictures...can't wait to read and see more! Thanks for sharing!

 

[DaGrumpy]

Awesome trip report, so glad you enjoyed your birthday at the Coral Reef. It is one of my favorite as well. Oh yea, Go Yankees

 

[Pixeldust Fairy]

 

[jblb1020]

Just checking in again

 

[kahluacream]

Let me take a second to say the new kids dining plan menu’s STINK!!!! It is practically the same thing at every restaurant and all the fun deserts are gone. I found myself ordering fun deserts for the kids to try and just eating their ice cream at some places, this one was one of the many we went to were the kids get an appetizer like soup or a salad then the main dish and then fruit or ice cream, no other desert choices. I know, maybe I am spoiled by the old cool choices like design your own cookie, etc. etc. and I don’t think the kids noticed, but I did because I gave up my desert a few times to let them enjoy the fun stuff.[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]


I'm tweaking ADRs for my family's October trip, and I have the same concern about the Dining Plan for kids. If it's not too much of a spoiler, could you let me know which places seemed to have the best choices/fun desserts for little ones? (You could also PM me if you prefer.) Thanks so much!

 

[Crazy Kanga]

Hey Lesley! I think I saw you and your family at MK on Friday the 22nd. We're you there then? I thought I recognized you from the pics I saw of you from your last years trippie, but I didn't say anything because I wasn't sure if it was you. Did you see a family carrying a Team Focker Watch lanyard with a lime green croc attached? If so that was us.

 

[timandlesley]

We are eating at the Coral Reef for the first time in September and we cannot wait. What did Lauren eat?? My DD5 will not eat fish. I am starting to gather things in an extra suitcase that I know we will not use until September.

Keep the report coming!

You will have a great meal. If I recall correctly Lauren ate the grilled chicken and pasta dish they had, she liked it.
Lesley

Lesley, Sounds like the perfect birthday! That necklace is so pretty too. Looking forward to our ADR for coral for our Anniversary dinner. So glad your kids were entertained by the tank. I called last week about the diver and the menu too . Love that Luke and Lauren got to wake Tink. My DD got to do that on our last trip and also got to be Ms. Potts in storytime w/Belle. My DS would be too shy just like yours though to get in front of all those people but my DD loves to be in any show. Your trip report is the best and your family is adorable. So does tim have a single brother who is as thoughtful as him ?

It was a perfect b-day. Tim actually has 2 single brothers he is one of SEVEN children, he's the middle one.
Lesley

Lesley, what a cool birthday. WOW. Tim reminds me of my hubby, he is always spoiling me. I do have one question for you. We are going to be celebrating my DD's 3rd birthday while we are at the world. I was contemplating getting a birthday cake, but after I saw your strawberries I thought those might be a great alternative to a cake simply because we might be a little stuffed after eating at 1900 Park Fare buffet. Where and how did Tim order those? Were they expensive vs buying a cake for 13 people. I would figure about 2 per person? Just throwin a thought out at ya. Thanks and Congrats on having such a sweetie of a guy.
Sharon

You could give Disney Dining a call, I am sure it could be arranged because the Grand Floridian bakery could make them. They were about 25 dollars this time around.
Lesley

What a great birthday!

Looking forward to more

Thanks!

What a great birthday dinner!!

Our son enjoyed looking for the fish on the paper also.

How old are Lauren and Luke?

The strawberries looked so yummy....

Dottie

Lauren is 3 1/2 and Luke is 6 1/2

Coral Reef looks awesome! Reading about your trip is getting me so excited for ours! We leave in 3 months + 1 day! And I just called Coral Reef today and booked the diver and special menu for my DD's 10th birthday celebration. She is going to be so surprised. What a fun meal! Looking forward to reading about day 3......

3 months, how exciting! Glad you were able to book the diver at Coral Reef!
Lesley

Great Trip Report!!!

And a great big sarcastic "Thanks" to Tim for making the rest of us guys look like schlubs!

I just don't understand why my wife isn't happy when I tell her each year for her birthday, "What do you need a present for? You've got me!". Can't believe that doesn't work!

Seriously, though, what an awesome birthday. How many people can say they got to experience what you did on your birthday!

I haven't had the chance to read all of it yet, but I'll be back!

Later.

So funny, I showed Tim your post, he was laughing.
Lesley

Lesley! I'm loving your trip report... Thanks so much for sharing all of your pics. Your whole family looks so happy to be there... It really makes me excited for our next trip!

And OMG... the strawberries! They are my fave dessert, too. Your pics made me so hungry... I actually just microwaved some chocolate chips, and dipped strawberries in them for a bedtime snack. (Not the real thing, but close for a quick fix!) Extra treadmill time for me tomorrow, but worth it!

Looking forward to your next installment!

You are quite welcome, glad you are enjoying it. That is so funny about the chocolate chips, I've done that many times myself!
Lesley

What a wonderful birthday!!! I love that necklace....

We got some of the Tiki Kingdom shirts for our trip too.... They are so cool looking

Glad you found the Tiki shirts, they are great!
Lesley

What a great birthday dinner. Tim did a great job. I cant believe they still pulled it off with the seat and diver and all. Disney does it again. I also love illuminations. Epcot is my favorite park so I cant wait to hear how it went. We are taking our almost 3 year old in November. Once again another great addition to your TR.

Tim did do well, yes Disney came through for us that night.
Lesley

 

[timandlesley]

Wow! Another great TR...so far anyway! I'm hoping that my DD (who will be 3 when we go) will make the 40" height mark...and Lauren is giving me hope! It looks like y'all had a great time from what we've seen so far...love the pictures...can't wait to read and see more! Thanks for sharing!

Glad you are enjoying it, I hope your 3 year old makes the 40" mark!
Lesley

Awesome trip report, so glad you enjoyed your birthday at the Coral Reef. It is one of my favorite as well. Oh yea, Go Yankees

Go Yankees indeed!
Lesley

HANG ON, don't fall!!!! I'm posting day 3 this morning!
Lesley

Just checking in again

Thanks for checking back, posting day 3 shortly.

Let me take a second to say the new kids dining plan menu’s STINK!!!! It is practically the same thing at every restaurant and all the fun deserts are gone. I found myself ordering fun deserts for the kids to try and just eating their ice cream at some places, this one was one of the many we went to were the kids get an appetizer like soup or a salad then the main dish and then fruit or ice cream, no other desert choices. I know, maybe I am spoiled by the old cool choices like design your own cookie, etc. etc. and I don’t think the kids noticed, but I did because I gave up my desert a few times to let them enjoy the fun stuff.[/color][/size][/font]


I'm tweaking ADRs for my family's October trip, and I have the same concern about the Dining Plan for kids. If it's not too much of a spoiler, could you let me know which places seemed to have the best choices/fun desserts for little ones? (You could also PM me if you prefer.) Thanks so much!

We love OHana's, Alfredo's had an AWESOME kids menu with desert options and Coral Reef was good. Of course the buffets will always have good options too. Our princess dinner at Askershus had a good kids menu, Lauren got ravioli.
Lesley

Hey Lesley! I think I saw you and your family at MK on Friday the 22nd. We're you there then? I thought I recognized you from the pics I saw of you from your last years trippie, but I didn't say anything because I wasn't sure if it was you. Did you see a family carrying a Team Focker Watch lanyard with a lime green croc attached? If so that was us.

We were there on the 22nd, I don't recall seeing a lime green Focker Watch though, wish you would have said something. Oh well, cool!!!!
Lesley

 

[timandlesley]

Day 3
So today we slept in a bit (7:45 wake up call) : ) I ran to the food court to get breakfast for everyone – Mickey waffles all around, we ate in the room and were at the bus stop for Epcot by around 8:30. Another BEAUTIFUL day of sunshine!
On the bus Lauren was so cute, she said to Tim “Daddy, lean down your ear so I can ask you secret” (yes ask you a secret” and when he bent down she whispered “Daddy, THIS IS THE BEST VACATION EVER!” SOOOOOO cute, that is what it is all about!
When we got to Epcot the plan was for Tim to go and grab Fast Passes for Soarin and I was going to meet him at Living Seas so we could do Nemo and Turtle Talk with Crush. He headed off for the Fast Passes, I went to stroller rental with the kids, Tim called my cell and told me that he had just passed the Character Connection, hardly anyone was there and I should head there with the kids and he would meet me there. There were only 2 families ahead of us and by the time we saw the first character Tim was there (with Soarin Fast Passes in Hand) , PERFECT timing. Here are the pics of us at Character Connection, I JUST love this character spot:

What a great time, kids were on cloud nine, got to start their day off with seeing their favorite characters with practically no line – I highly recommend heading there at park opening!
After that we wanted to check out the new Nemo ride, we walked right on this too. I LOVED the ride and thought it was very cute,the kids thought it was awesome - for some reason Tim wasn’t impressed. Here are a few pics from it:

After that we went to Turtle Talk with Crush, we love this show, it is hilarious! This time it wasn’t as good as last year because they kept chosing this same child who wouldn’t talk and they gave him WAY too long to try and say something and the CM then lost control of the room and a lot of the kids were going nuts – still funny but chaotic.
Kids had fun looking at some of the animal displays in the Living Seas:

After that I headed to get Test Track Fast Passes for all of us and told Tim to head over to the Land area so we could ride Soarin’ with our Fast Passes, I suggested they ride the living with the land ride – we had never done that before and I figured at that time of day the line should be really short. When I got back with the Test Track Fast Passes they were just getting off the ride:

After that we headed to Soarin’

again I was worried about if Lauren would make the height cut off, this was the one ride I was most looking forward to her riding with us, I knew she would love it. The CM at the Fast Pass entrance didn’t check her height but I marched her up there and measured her and she seemed fine to me, they NEVER checked her again, couldn’t believe that.
We had an AMAZING ride, Lauren absolutely loved it and smiled and squeeled the entire time. She kept leaning forward and it FREAKED me out because it seemed like she could fall right into the scenes, especially when we were flying over the ocean. I calmed down though and told myself it was just a ride, chill out Les. We had a GREAT ride.
After that we ate at the Seasons food court right there in the land, I just love the food there. This was one of the only places that told me to go back and get deserts for the kids, I was amazed, so we got FOUR deserts from their awesome bakery here.
I had the noodle Chinese dish:

The kids had the chicken leg/mashed potato and carrot meal, they loved it:

Here are the bounty of deserts (key lime pie- yucky, Luke’s worms in dirt, Lauren’s chocolate cake and Tim got a cookie (not pictured):

As we were sitting there a lady who worked came up and said “We are going to be doing the Land Band in a minute do the kids want to join us?” Luke was TOTALLY thrilled, and this time Lauren chickened out again. I thought for sure when they wheeled the cart full of TONS of costumes and musical instruments for the kids to pick from and even with the CM trying to hand Lauren a shaker she would get up and do it, but she just wasn’t in the mood today. Luke was in all his glory, here he is in the hat he picked out:

He was chosen to hold the banner as they marched around:

While Luke was marching and having the time of his life, Lauren was REALLY enjoying her chocolate cake : )

I mean REALLY enjoying it:

They ended up in the food court area with a huge round of hokey pokey, Luke absolutely loved this, it was very cute:

After lunch we headed to grab FP’s for Mission Space, I let the kids play in the fountain as we waited for Tim to run up and grab them:

Then with FP’s in hand for Mission Space we headed to Test Track, none of us had ever ridden this ride before and I was excited to try it. Here are Luke and I in line:

And here are Tim and Luke on the ride:

When we got off we all decided it is our new favorite Epcot ride, it was lots of fun. It was great all being able to ride together and not having to Parent Swap it, YEAH!!! So much fun.
We let the kids play in the cool off station right outside of Test Track:

And of course Luke wanted to pose by one of the test track cars:

 

[timandlesley]

Then we headed to World Showcase for the afternoon. I had decided Tim had to try a Yard, so I stopped in the bar in Great Britian to buy him one. Here is happy Tim Yard in hand:

I just LOVE the World Showcase, I got a whole new appreciation for Epcot this trip and I think it is now my favorite park. I loved how we could be riding awesome rides one minute and then just walk across the bridge and be experiencing different cultures, it was awesome. Having older kids who could stay out later this trip made me appreciate it even more. We headed to the Little Toy Soldier Toy Store in Great Britian and we stumbled upon street performers doing Knight at the Round Table:

It was a very funny show and we enjoyed sitting there and watching. OHHHHHH YEAHHHHHHH I must back up and say that when I was in getting Tim his yard I came out and noticed he was holding the front wheel to our stroller. Our front wheel entirely fell off of the stroller. There was a VERY nice CM who offered to run and get Tim a new stroller while I was inside the bar. As we were watching the show she came up with the new stroller, that provided a bit of comedy for us that day
After the show was over we headed towards the Little Toy Soldier toy store in Great Britain, I just LOVE this toy store. I was a big fan of Roger Hargreaves Little Miss and Little Mr. books (like Little Miss. Splendid, Mr. Mischief, etc.) and they sell them there, I used a LOT of souveneir money this trip buying those books and I read them to the kids every night at bedtime, they loved them too. Anyway, back to the store. It was a quaint little store, just very nice. They had a kidcot spot in it the kids loved, here they are making a mask inside:

By this point, Tim’s yard was done and so was he : )

Good thing that chair was there huh ?!? He really enjoyed the yard.
Then I was so surprised, in the BACK of this toy store they had a character greeting spot I wasn’t even aware of, look who walked into the store and we were the only children there waiting:

The kids were thrilled.
After their masks were done and my books purchased we ventured out of the store and stumbled upon this lovely lady:

She was so cute and spoke to the kids for awhile, I was excited because we had never seen her before.
Then right next to her was:

Again, the kids were thrilled. I just love Mary Poppins, she took time to talk to each child, learn their names, talk about who was oldest, most respectful, etc. VERY cute. I just LOVE how relaxed the atmosphere is in the World Showcase with the characters, we didn’t have to fight off lines, we didn’t feel rushed and it was just a nice relaxing visiting experience.
By this time it was approaching 2:00 and we were headed towards the park exit, it was VERY hot. We decided to make a pit stop at Club Cool, the kids thought this was the coolest thing ever, in fact we spent quite some time in there:
Here is Lauren two fisting the drinks : )

Luke’s turn:

I saw the (name escapes me now for some reason) horrible drink everyone on Dis is always talking about and we watched a group of teenagers taste it and be completely disgusted and I was laughing knowing what they had tried. Tim made me try it, he kept saying “how do you know HOW bad it is if you haven’t ever tried it” man what is it with me and peer pressure : ) so I tried it YUCK!!!!! Not to the point of puking Yuck but disgusting!!!
We decided to go through Mouse Gears on the way out because Luke was always on the quest to see if more CARS diecasts had arrived. There was this CM being surrounded by people asking him to bring CARS out so we figured we had hit the right place. We asked him to bring out a tongue McQueen, Tex and Bling Bling McQueen, they had them all Luke was on CLOUD NINE!!! As Lauren waited she decided to make herself comfortable:

It was now close to 3:00 as we headed to the buses, we had an incredible morning at Epcot we were headed back to the hotel hot and tired and in need of a nap.
Look at what Mousekeeping made for our princess, I thought this was so cute: