TR, Lots of pics and video, too-Celebrated Life, Disney Style!

[magsnden]

hi lori, i just came over from jordan's tr. i'm really only at the beginning. i can't go any faster because i can't see out of these eyes that are teeming with tears. i am amazed at your strength, and that of your family. i have 2 little ones, almost 4 and 2, and i can't imagine what it was like for you.

i'm so happy that you are doing well, and are able to celebrate life! and i can't wait to hear all about your trip. you are all truly and inspiration to me! thank you for sharing your story.

 

[lori1043]

YES!!! I ikeep thinking that it is coming up and it will feel slow but the last day of vacation will be here before we know it!!!!!!!!!! WAHHHHH!!!! Already crying about it!

I am not sure when we will be back there either at this point-we have taken a very HARD oath to each other that we will be doing smaller vacations for a couple years to pay down school loans-I am still praying for a miracle. Either my DH lands a BIG raise or HUGE bonus OR a new job OR the loan magically disappears off the face of the earth!! The latter is possibly more possible . I need the aliens(or someone/thing!!) to burn the building that the private loan company is housed in (without people there,of course)!! They are not a very nice company. Won't worek with us at all. They told me if I wanted to pay it down in less than 20 years that I should put it on credit cards!!

JJ!!!-I am willing to pay what helped us live for a few rotten years-I am not one to ask something for nothing-BUT,HEY, I can have hope for it to go away.... Right???!!!

Lori

Okay, the days did NOT slow down and they seem like a distant memory now-uggh. I am fighting the urge to RE-edit all 600 photos on this PC as the other one is constantly giving me problems. But it took me DAYS to get through them.

AND I could be eating my "going on smaller vacations" words as I priced WDW for September-they have a great offer for AP holders and the CM also hinted about free dining-we could go to WDW for 5 days for $1000-all 4 of us, food and passes and hotel!!!! I may put down the $200 and wait to see. DH hasn't a clue. Right now while I have the AP, it may be the only time ever to get there for so cheap. It is STILL $1000 that I don't have right now though. We'll see!!! I am a sap. DD10 figured it out down to how much per person and she says she is willing to MAKE the money to pay for herself. She says she'll dog sit and have lemonade sales and clean MIL's house, etc...I have a few things she could do too!

DH may say no-b/c our plan is to sell our home and move somewhere close to where we are already-justa room or 2 bigger. It may be too much. But REALLY enticing!
I have sooo many photos to share-promise to get it started before my memory fades even more.

Jordan, if it makes you feel any better-we had NOT ONE DREAM filled by Disney either- but I am trying to take the higher road in that I did not NEED thiers-as I have had mine granted already! And through Someone beter!

okay... maybe next time, if they have it... and if they don't you KNOW Disney will have some other campagn happening to entice us to show up.

Lori

Lori

 

[lori1043]

Okay, If I didn't say so, I got all my stuff, AP activation, reward points and card, DDE, and all at DD while the family waited in the car. We really did not want to get caught up anywhere yet. Anyway-the chic at the counter activating my stuff noticed that my birthday was the next day and she gave me my Birthday pin to wear. I must be one of the very few who only wore it ON my birthday and no other day. After the week was going along, I should have worn it the whole week-everyone was so nice wishing me a Happy Birthday. Hope Wendypooh got the same service!! We share a birthday, but never got to meet-more on that later too.

We rested about an hour after checking in to Pop. Did I mention we were close to the busses!! That was a suprise! Made the stay better after not getting the other things we asked for. It was good and convenient.

We left at about 6:45 to get to the Poly for our 8pm ADR for the luau. While we were waiting , after getting our pink lei's-Wishes started across the lake at MK. So we watched from the line to take our picture-which we did not purchase b/c DH eyes weren't all the way open!! It was cool to see it from there-a cool night , I must add.

Then we were escorted in and our table was LITERALLY front and center-couldn't ask for better. It was a good start to the night! Our waiter was Tomas and he was from Israel. Super nice guy. DH had bought me a glass of wine while waiting out front, but I have to admit that it was my birthday dinner and something tropical was on my mind to drink! I don't drink often, so I WAS afraid of mixing, even that little bit-BUT I did wind up getting some Island drink that was yummy!

Dinner started with some awesome salad, sweet bread and pineapple. The kids Loved the bread offered but they did not like the sweet dressing on the salad. My DD8 likes salad otherwise, but she is a ranch or bleu cheese chic.

I did not take a picture of the ribs and chicken brought out but they were good. DH liked the chicken better and i liked the ribs better. The kids wanted the "boxed" meal but Tomas talked them out of it and I was glad. They ate the chicken and loved the polynesian rice. He said it was just FF stuff and I was grateful-at first i was a little bothered by it, but DID want my children to try different dishes.

The picture above was after dessert was brought out and our neighbor took the photo. DH had a small Mickey cake brought out for my birthday and Tomas brought the certificate with it. It was good COLD but not so good the next day . The kids LOVED the luau and I am so glad I waited for them to get bigger to do this. We enjoyed every minute of it. The food wasn't to die for, but it was really good.

Here is me with my cake, tropical something and certificate...

On another note about the luau, the kids got up and did the hula dance for kids, I got up and did the birthday one, and DH asked me to dance for the couples dance. Something he doesn't do often-ask me to dance in public!! Only at a wedding. It was really nice and we had fun and it was an AWESOME start to our Disney trip!

WE saved almost $60 on the luau with the DDE, but spent $30 of it on drinks and the cake was added to it too.
Our budget was broken even this day.

My DB and SIL and DN3 went to Chef Mickeys and then played by riding the monorails. They actually came to the Poly looking for us but we stayed late talking to Tomas, our waiter. We wound up having a tie with him! He has been there for 24 years-started out at DL. We told him about DD10 and her MAW trip back in 2002. He then told us that Henri Landwirth, the founder of Give Kids the World and holocaust survivor, was his uncle. DD10 and I read his biography after our trip to GKTW. I thought this was a cool coincidence. He was funny-he said he was retiring soon and then pointed to some elderly waitress and said,"the work is hard but much better at the restaurants b/c of tips, but look at that lady, she's about to keel over-we do it b/c we love it, but some of our bodies are saying 'no'". It kind of sprung off from Disney not paying well too. I told him I'd love to work for Disney one day-then he told us all that!

Here is Tomas , DH, and DD's after the luau...

Anyway-we caught back up with my DB and SIL at the Pop, then we turned in and planned on MK on a Saturday!! I know so NOT TGM of me-BUT I simply cannot got to WDW w/out seeing that castle first-and usually, last.
Did we gt there at rope drop after a long night??? Can you guess, knowing me and my not so early days-I am a night owl!??

Lori

 

[jordanyosh]

Looking forward to hearing more........

 

[TigerKat]

Great start Lori!!!!

 

[Beana9802]

I am new to your thread....

Love it!!!

Your DDs are beautiful...and God Bless your older DD....She's a hero...and an inspiration to all!

Great TR!

 

[DisneyMom14]

OOHHH Nice Luau with the fruity drink - I'm sooo jealous! We didn't do the luau - waiting for the kids (mostly DS) to get a little older, but I've been before and really liked it. Glad to hear it was a nice night for you on your birthday.

 

[lori1043]

Yeah, we did NOT do the luau when the kids were younger on purpose-so we were excited that they were old enough to enjoy it!!

Worth waiting!

My drink was yummy! Don't remember the name of it.

Lori

 

[Blueyed Girl]

Great pictures and loved reading your update! The luau looks like so much fun. We too were waiting until DS is a little older.

 

[lori1043]

Thanks you all! I appreciate the nice words!!

Welcome!!

 

[jordanyosh]

did you enjoy Pop?

 

[lori1043]

Jordan, in answer to your question-ehhhhhh, it was okay. I/we really liked the ASMovies or sports better. I then went to read that Pop has about 1000 more rooms over any of the seperate AS resorts-which possibly explains the yucky attitude of the employees the few times that we went to the food court. I think that means they could be servicing from 2000-4000 more people. I found the ASMovies and sports a little quieter, maybe I am crazy. But I had some peace time there, not at Pop. Where was the hammock??!!! I loved that hammock at the ASmovies-went nightly for at least 10 minutes, if not longer. No, we won't go back there. All the hoopla about bus service there is a farce as far as our trip went. I saw seperate busses going to the AS resorts from the parks but not from DD. I also noticed that it is the furthest hotel out-even further than the AS''s.

Our trip was awesome despite our view of Pop. It could also be b/c I got none of the requests I asked for. BUT I was HAPPY about how close we were to the busses. THAT was nice. This is all IMHO.

Lori

 

[tmfranlk]

Sounds like a great first night! How cool about your waiter. I read Henri's book after a tour of GKTW. What an amazing story!

 

[coteau_chick]

Great update I can't wait to hear more.

 

[lori1043]

or day 3 away from home!!

This was Saturday, Feb 2-my real birthday! But as far as I was concerned we had celebrated it the previous night-although I DID wear my button!! I got LOTS of well wishes. We had no big plans today other than heading to MK, on a Saturday-not ver TGM of me, as I mentioned, BUT MK has to be first for us!!

The bus lines were horrendous for MK so we bussed it to EPCOT and monorailed it to MK-it was long but lines were at bay and the kids liked to ride in the monorail again after riding it to get to the Poly the night before...
They met a friend and rode sat next to her...

It WAS busy, but as I have my DH trained very well, we get into the park-late, of course, just also like we are not supposed to,(but we are NOT morning folk!!), but we felt it was great due to the fact we had 8 more days!!-anyway- having DH trained well, let me tell you...

We were with newbies, well at east semi newbies-SIL came with DN2 last year for a quick 3 day trip last year. DB and I went w/ our family way back in 1986, that was his last trip. They did NOT seem to understand why DH kept running off after a quick discussion b/t us(Incl SIL and DB) after entering any given park, about who to FP. DH is the FP guy. He AUTOMATICALLY will gather all the tickets and run for FP's where we decide we need them-then meet up with the rest of us wherever we may be. Cell phones are GREAT in WDW, huh?? We used to use those motorola walkie takies before all the cell phone rates went beyond your own area and it was considered roaming. He is SO excellent about this. I have him trained well. This IS our 6th trip to Disney together. Once to DL, by ourselves, have I mentioned??-cause that was great!!

Anyway, I think he ran for Space Mtn FP's that day. It worked out nicely and even though we got there at 10am instead of at rope drop, at 9am, the lines were not so bad. Then after getting the stroller with SIL, we met at the train and rode that all the way around the park. THEN we went left...the opposite of everyone else right??!!
We rode a kid favorite ride, The Magic Carpets of Alladin (TMCOA?)...

again the friend sat with them...


We did the Jungle Cruise, of which i have NOT one pic(usually I take a photo of the name of the boat we ride-it was the Z one though-Zambiasi??? something or other... The CM was funnier and not so corny-although most of those jokes are very corny-she pulled them off as funny!!

Then we got a Dole Whip, a tradition as of our kidless DL trip. The kids climbed the rocks there by the Dole whip place asnd we relaxed a bit. DD8 did NOT like the Dole Whip float!!!!! DD10 sucked it down!!.
Why, oh why, can I not find pics from this area??? Mabye there were too many with DN3 so i didn't put them in photobucket. Anyway-we did POTC and loved that of course. Now one of my kids favorites-yay!!!

We walked to Pecos Bill Cafe and we ate our sandwiches while DB and SIL went to get thier lunch there. By this time it was hot!! With Splahs Mtn being closed, we finished our lunch and headed to BTM while my brothers family finished up and went to Country bear Jamboree. been there, done it, that is enough-even though it is a classic, I can only take that and the Tiki Room about every other trip. I DO enjoy them, but they are not priority.
BTM had a 40 minute wait which wound up being about 50 minutes-I got many birthday calls from friends and family in that line for my birthday-and we caved and told the kids about our new baby-Snickers-a baby doxie, waiting for them at home. Here are DH and thier faces after finding out about a new pup...

In line at BTM.

Then we met at Tom Sawyer Island, which was pretty busy, but once you got over there it was nice to let the kids run and play...
here we are running and playing on the barrell bridge...

here is a great pic of the Haunted Mansion. it is SO different from DL HM..

something new at the entrance to HM??

it moved-the face did...

We did Fantasy land and thentried for Dumbo right before I was scheduled for a mini meet in front of the Jungle Cruise area-the line was short but it still ran me late and I missed all of you-I am sorry!!!! I really wanted to meet you all!!
This is where DB found out from DH that I was meeting people from the Dis boards. I was a little put out with DH b/c I KNEW the reaction I'd get from DB. Due to his job. Understandable. But made me feel like a loser. I am still here aren't I!! I just thought we'd seperate and meet up later. Anyway- we missed you so we went out to Main St and watxched Wishes, which i wasn't sure was going to happen. It was wonderful-and we met back up with DB and SIL to watch it. It was magical. I yurged DB to stay and wait for crowds to die down,but they left and we hung back a little. We knew we couldn't ride anythjing due to that nights P&PP, but we just hung back,here is a video, don't know how this will work on here!!
http://s15.photobucket.com/albums/a381/laph93/?action=view&current=disney2008161.flv

When we got back to the room we had a surprise of 3 towel animals-a Mickey and a duck and duckling. They were in the wondow but I brought them on the bed for a pic...

The kids LOVED this!!

Where did we go on Superbowl Sunday? Did the guys go watch the game or did they give it up??hmmm... all this and more coming soon!

Hugs Lori

 

[jordanyosh]

Yay, another update. Saturday the 2nd was hot wasn't it.....if you check out my TR in the next few days, you'll see what I did on that day....

Sorry about Pop....but it that's what's great about WDW--a little something for everyone.....I'm glad it didn't affect your vacation.

You'll be hearing about my experience with the food courts, but the first day I was there I went at an off time and it was empty....I even have pix.....

 

[DisneyMom14]

Cool video, yummy Dole Whip, and really cute pics!
Sat was soooo hot. We were at AK that day.

 

[coteau_chick]

Thanks for the update. I just wanted to let you know that I am still here. I will definitely have to try Dole Whips next time.

 

[lori1043]

I am reading all of your trip reports daily, even if I don't post. I have had a crazy week -and need to get online while the kids are asleep. I have spent SOOO much time on it in the past months!!!

I will get tot the next day tomorrow!!

Thanks for coming along for the ride!!

Lori

 

[lori1043]

hey you THREE that are following my TR!! ! I am back, here is more...

Oooh I like the new visible smilies...

Okay, Superbowl Sunday-here was the plan ...
Animal Kingdom at rope drop, picnic lunch somewhere in this beautiful park, Rainforest Cafe at 4:45ish b/f the crowds had the same idea, me and DD's back to MK for EMH, DH and DB back to room or bar somewhere for the Game!

What actually happened??

Here it is!!

Our homemade pillowcases THIS morning at Pop!!


Me, speeding the family up a bit, "come on people WAKE UP!!!! We are supposed to be there at rope drop for goodness sake TGM says it makes all the difference!!!" See what a Hitler I can be in WDW on vacation-well I realized halfway through this day-with DH's urging-that THAT is no fun! I was MEAN that morning and all I wanted was to enjoy it ALL. From the NEXT day on, I chilled out like I PLANNED on doing! We are , again, NOT morning people by any means. here is how I felt about TGM at this point b/c I was driving my family nutty-just a little nutty . Esp after the mini meet fiasco last night. I did get LOTS of great info off of TGM, but his pace is not ours and we ditched his early morning plans. Can't do it-not us-not vacation. TGM DOES warn us about this though-God bless him!! It was worth the money to have him for all the wonderful planning information. I may join up with him again just for those GREEN days to go to the parks.
Dh hubby says I wasn't driving THEM as nutty as him b/c HE knew where I was going with it. He juust said, "enjoy the days, don't plan it to death" -whatever.

Okay, back to the trip report!

We were at AK by about 9:15 ish. We beat my DB and SIL b/c they were running later than us. We just said we'd meet them there.We saw Pocahontas on the way in to the park...

We got there and DH immediately went to FP Everest. We then met up back at the front with my DB's family-got the shared stroller and headed to Dinoland USA. We went to ride Primeival Whirl as a family!!! My DB and his family did the Dumbo dino ride. Then we split up and Dh did the Dumbo Dino ride with DD8 and me and DD10 went to try out Dinosaur again. The first time she went she was scared silly BUT she is 10 now and wanted to try it again. I can tell you that no matter what age-THAT ride is SCARY. It scares the begeebees out of ME. here is THAT photo-we are in the back...I am in pink, she is in white...

uuumm, yeah, scary. The very same ride is at DL BUT with an Indiana Jones theming-I LOVE that one. Why can't I love this one? I guess you know it already. I will admit it-I am scared of extinct creatures with big teeth and claws who are very tall. I am afraid they will eat me.
here is who we met b/t Dinolans and the Dino ride...

Then the kids went to the Boneyard after deciding they were NOT doing EE. Db and SIL graciously watched the kids at the Boneyard while DH and I had 4 FP's to EE. SIL is prego and cannot ride and my DB is a weenie!! Just joking, he has a migraine problem and those free falls ignite them . Was hoping he'd ride it-just to see his face! -yeah, we are sibs-I wanna see him scream!!!

Here is DH and I on our SECOND go around on EE- a GREAT ride!!

And here is DD8 having a blast in the Boneyard-I could spend the whole day here. I love that tiny tiny pea gravel on my feet. I looked everywhere for THIS size pea gravel for my own backyard and there is nothing like it anywhere-Disney must have the patent. I had plans for my yard with this stuff! Not happening. HD and Lowes pea gravel is massive to this stuff.
I LOVE it!

We then checked out show times of Nemo, and moved on to Kilimanjaro Safaris-no FP available.
So we ate lunch on a little veranda behind the Tree of Life. We had our infamous ham sandwiches and DB and SIL made a Walmart run and copied our sandwich bringing. They reasoned that it beats standing in line waiting for the same 'ole thing every day. I hooked another one!! It DOES beat that-it IS lovely just poppin' a squat in a pretty spot in a Disney park and chillin' out -open your bag and voila'- lunch!!

Then we went to Kali River Rapids. DB and DN3 rode with us! It was FUN! My kids all time favorite!

We then headed over for the LONG wait-50 minutes-for Kilimanjaro Safari. Once we got there-DD10 and DD8 pulled out thier cameras and were on safari!

Oh my gosh, look at what we had to run from!

Part 2 later!! Did the guys get a cool place for the Superbowl, or hang out in the rooms??Or were they big saps and skip it to stay with thier wonderful wives and children???? Find out soon!

Got to plan for my class tomorrow!!

Lori