Timandlesley’s how to win a dream in 10 days 11/15 NEW PTR UP!! pg. 94 has link!!!

[CRSNDSNY]

WAHHH! I want more more more!!!!

 

[billnang]

I love your report...it is full of details...
You children are adorable... Congrats on getting the hats...

Angela

 

[liznboys]

You had a great MK day! Congrats on the Dream Ears!!

 

[lmillercrew]

Just caught back up on your TR. My parents were here for a week, so not much reading time. Congrats on the Dream Team! I want that sooo bad! But, alas, I won't be going until June 2009, so who knows if they'll even be having the Dream Team.
Laurens hair is just beautiful let me just say. And I've never noticed the gum thing on SM. GROSS! Who does that?
Can't wait to read more! We'll be in Mexico next week so I can't imagine all of the catching up I'm going to be doing when I get back.

 

[Spartangirl]

What a fun TR! I'm subbing! Can't wait for more!

 

[SwansLoveDisney]

Just found your TR and now I have to rip myself away from it so I won't be late to work.

I'm excited to read more when I get home!

 

[heath-and-javens-mom]

Hi Lesley!! You know I have to Sub to your TRs! I am going back to start from the beginning!

 

[flipflopof2]

I read your last year's trip report and loved it!!! Can't wait for more.

 

[TrueLove's1stKiss]

OMG... I'm a new DIS-er & this is the first TR I have read. Amazing. You are filling the void since we have to wait a little over 2 months for our trip!!! This will by Dh's 1st time & both of our girls ages 10 & 5! I went several times as a kid & as a teenager but it was always a day trip from my Grandparents house. I am so excited to be staying on property & haveing the free dining. You are making me think about upgrading to the deluxe package! I can't wait to see more!

 

[cherbear]

So where did I leave off…. Oh yes, Tim nodding off on the bus and insisting to perfect strangers he wasn’t sleeping. RIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHTTTT!!!
We got off of the bus and into the glorious lobby. Here is a pic of the bridge I took as Tim went to the desk to see if our room was ready:

Tim came back and told us we had a room on the 3rd floor. He headed to the elevators right there by the lobby and I said “Tim, shouldn’t we just go down by Roaring Forks and head up?” He looked at me funny (elevator button already pressed) and I said “oh never mind, I’m sure we can get to our room this way too” . Well, this was a 3 hour tour and it didn’t end up connecting to our room. Oh well, we ended up going back down, walking by the pool to get to our room.
I snapped these shots along the way:

Man I just love the lodge, seeing those pics now makes me want to be back there right now, o.k. back to the report.
So, we finally get up to our hall and we are so excited to see the room:

Some Mickey’s on the carpet:

Luke wanted to do the honors:

Poor guy, little did he know he was using some Wilderness Lodge business card instead of the key, so Tim helped him out with the real key and WE WERE IN BABY!!!
Ahhhhhhhhhhh,what a beautiful room:

We were greeted by luggage which was an awesome thing:

And one of these babies:

Here are the kids checking out the balcony:
After snapping that photo I turned around and saw a happy Tim enjoying his new bed:

After the excitement of being in the room and having luggage wore off we all got into bed and fell asleep, we slept HARD. Luke and Tim were snoring away in no time. I got a wake up call for myself and got up and took a shower and got ready for dinner and let the kids sleep. I woke Tim up so he could grab a shower and then we were headed for our dinner at Chef Mickey’s.
We took the boat to the Contemporary resort (one of the awesome perks of staying at the lodge) Here are Tim and Luke on the boat:

Here is our view from the boat, they are really making progress on that Contemporary DVC, I wanna own there!!!

The kids wanted to pose in front of this guy at the Contemporary:

As we walked in and were headed up the escalator this new restaurant was there and I had to snap a photo of it for you guys, doesn’t it look cool:

We had made ressie’s for there but cancelled them after looking over the menu, not too appealing to me which is a shame because it really looks like a nice place.

And the fun continues....with the elevator! haha Don't you just LOVE being the one that is right?

beautiful shots! I cannot wait to eat there!! (Whispering Canyon of course) I'm sure it will reallly make me want to stay there even more!

Aww, poor Luke with the key. Glad Tim straightened him out! Did he get to actually be the one to OPEN the door?

wow....luggage already? What time did you land? I hope we'll have the same luck in September! (It helps that we're getting there a couple hours earlier but Saturday just seems to be a very busy day for the Magical Express crew)

I'll bet that nap was so wonderful, sleeping on those Disney beds after a long morning of Disney excitement!!! It's making me feel so good inside just thinking about it!!!!!!!!

The Wave DOES look cool!

 

[cherbear]

We headed up to Chef Mickey’s and got our photo taken:

Then we were handed a pager and told it would be a little while until we got called. Tim and Luke headed to the arcade to get a game in while Lauren and I waited for the table.
As I was sitting there a lovely mom and her two girls approached me who had read our Pre TR here on the Dis. Her name was Alice and her daughters were Abby and Sophie. They were so cute. Alice said that her daughter was more excited to see me than the characters, of course I gave her a big hug and told her I was flattered, then took this photo of us (good thing my arms are long):

Hi guys, it was nice to see you, hope you had a great trip, !!!!
As we were wrapping up our conversation Tim and Luke walked up and got to say hello and then our pager went off, we said good bye and headed to our table.
I remembered the lady making my reservation (180 days ago) asked if there were any special occasions during our trip and I mentioned my b-day but didn’t ask to put it on the reservation or anything, but this was a surprise for me on the table:

The character interaction was great as usual, here are some pics:
Lauren was so excited to be getting autographs this year, a first for her, can’t you just see it in her face:

Donald was a favorite:

Tim was getting REALLY fresh with Minnie:

It was funny. She came around and gave me a huge hug as if to say “sorry you have to put up with him”:

We had fun at this meal, the kids loved it. We are not a big fan of the food here, but do it for the kids for the characters.
After dinner the “plan” was to head to MK since we had napped and see WISHES. Well………… a friend of mine from work (hi Penny) and her family had arrived the day before. Tim said “give them a call and see what they are up to”. Well, turns out they were in Epcot. It was a beautiful night and we deviated from the plan and headed to Epcot to hang out with them. I talked her through finding a spot for Illuminations (they had never seen it) over the phone. So we met up with them in Italy.
When we got there she said her two girls, Lauren and Emily were over in Italy coloring masks at Kidcot. When Lauren and Luke heard that of course they wanted to get in on that action:

It was a BEAUTIFUL Epcot night:

After that I got an Italian Margarita, man are those YUMMY!!! They are cheaper than the ones they sell in Mexico and twice as good. I also got a hot pretzel and frozen lemonade (two snack credits) for the kids to enjoy for the show. Then headed back to our location in Epcot to hang out with Penny and her husband Wayne (it was his birthday this night) before the show began.
Here is me and my buddy Penny:

The kids watching the show:

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, can’t you just hear the fireworks and hear that beautiful music:

After the awesome show we all headed to the exit, they headed to their POFQ bus stop and we headed to our very crowded WL and Fort Wilderness bus stop. It took a few loads for us to get on (about 30 min. total wait time). Then we were headed back to the lodge. We hit roaring forks for some late night snacks and to claim our 4 refillable mugs on the deluxe dining plan.
I called Bell Services for them to deliver the two cases of water I had ordered from Costco (if you didn’t hear about this in the pre tr it is a MUST do if you are flying. I am not even a Costco member and it only cost me about 15.00 to ship two cases of bottled water, they are getting from 2-3.00 on property per bottle. I ordered it a week ahead of time and it was there waiting for us, DEFINITELY DO THIS if flying and staying on property, it saved us a ton of money).
Then the kids climbed in bed with their snacks and watched some t.v. as I unpacked the suitcases. I called and scheduled a 7 a.m. wake up call for us tomorrow. As I was doing that Tim realized his cell phone charger was missing. I’ll fill you in on what happens with that later. A 10 day trip in Disney without a cell would be a terrible thing, can we solve that problem???

Next installment Click here:http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1861757&page=10

first a free pin on the first day, now a DIS meet already! Wow!

Dinner looked like a lot of fun! How great for your first night! on the cupcake! Lauren's face is lit up indeed! And glad you didn't get a bum Donald this time!

Tim & Minnie, then you & Minnie...those were funny!

Italian Margarita? Interesting! Is that what they really call them?
Cool that you also saw friends on the first night! You sure packed a lot into one day!

I would definitely do the water thing except that we don't get a free fridge since I'm staying in the "poor people" hotel (Pop Century)
Although I suppose we COULD put them on ice each day! We always bring a soft ice chest with us. Do you think that would work?

uh oh...a guest relations visit! Maybe they will have a cell phone charger!

I'm enjoying this trip report SO much. You always impress me! Can't wait to read more. I'm sorry I'm still so behind! (though I'm probably just a couple updates behind with most of it being comments from your many fans! )

 

[SmallWorld71]

That was Dream spelled backwards? Good...I thought my vision was getting worse! I kept trying to read that over and over again and just thought it was me!

Me too! In fact, I'm just getting over a very serious eye infection and I thought maybe it was getting worse again.

Loving the report though!

 

[VanniGirl]

Kewl about the ears!

Can't wait for more

 

[sharonW]

I'm on the edge of my seat waiting to hear more
of this magical trip...hurry, hurry Love all
your great pics, as I've said many times your kids
are just adorable(parents never get tired of hearing
it!!!!! )They've got disney in their blood for
life!

 

[mom2jcc]

Okay, you know it is bad when I find myself trying to figure out what ya'll (I'm in the south ) did for fun that afternoon that is different from the regular Disney fun WHEN I am sitting at a red light running errands

 

[Aristomommy]

Great installment! I love to hear about the different kinds of dreams people get, they are so creative about where, when and how they do them. On our last trip in Nov. DD9 got a lot of dreams because it was her birthday trip. The ones that come to mind are:
1. A lady quizzed her in front of Winnie the Pooh ride and then gave her a Tinkerbell pin (set of two where you share one with another person that does something nice), a certificate signed by Pooh and we got to go to the front of the line for the Pooh ride.
2. Another quiz at Haunted Mansion with a certificate and she got to pick out a pin from the CMs lanyard for free.
3. At DHS we waited for the parade on a bench and 3 CMs stopped to sing for her and one of them was a Dream Team member who gave her some kind a fast pass.

We didn't expect any of these things, but they sure made DDs trip magical. Can't wait to hear more about your trip!!!

 

[Tanya90210]

Great Installment Per the usual hehe... Love the Dream Ears....

Glad you go to do Splash... it's soo fun!

Free Corndogs....

 

[momto2inKC]

Loving your trip report, as usual! Can't wait to read more!!!

 

[MissMichelle]

lesley, i love u're reports so much that I gave the link to my best friend, my mom and 2 other managers at my work--all Disney fanatics that I knew would love your report.

Can't wait to read more!!!!

 

[cjhinch]

Loving your report! Your kids are absolutely adorable, and I love how much your dh gets into it! Keep 'em coming!!