Two Very Merry Un-Birthdays - Feb 2010 (Updated 8/9)

[Tink9721]

When I left off we were on the way back to the Wilderness Lodge! I just found a picture that I apparently took at some point on the way out of the park, so I guess we walked through Fantasyland on the way out.

Anyway, we took the bus back to WL and went back to our room to put our bags down. A few days before we left I had seen a picture in MeMom's report of a cozy little area in the WL lobby. I knew it was a place where my mom would LOVE to sit and read, so we went to find it. My mom sat down at a little desk area where some people sit and write letters while I looked for the cozy spot. Candid picture I took from the next floor

I eventually found the spot(and apparently didn't take a picture) and my mom relaxed for a little bit while I walked around, explored, and took a couple pictures

There are a lot of nice areas around the lobby if you explore some of the other floors. I found a little balcony that I took this picture from.

I had about 6 different attempts at that picture and that was the best result The camera was not agreeing with me the first day I thought I had more pictures, but I'm thinking of a different night.

So after a looooong, fun day we went to bed. It's always more fun going to bed when you know the next day you'll wake up to more magic

Since this is the end of the first day I'll stop this post here and continue in the next one!

 

[Tink9721]

Sorry it's taking me so long to get the second part of this update up!!! My computer keeps freezing! I'm working on it

 

[Megablocks]

Sorry it's taking me so long to get the second part of this update up!!! My computer keeps freezing! I'm working on it

Well tell it to stop! I keep compulsively refreshing my subscriptions

 

[Tink9721]

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

This morning we had a reservation at 1900 Park Fare! This was a new restaurant for us so we were excited. When I made the reservation I knew we'd want to sleep in a little bit because we'd be exhausted from the first day, so I made it for 10:00.

We took the bus to Magic Kingdom and then waited for the monorail.

I was excited to finally see inside the Grand Floridian for the first time!

Another candid picture of my mom

Note the fact that she's wearing one jacket and has another one around her waist. It was COLD!

Shortly after I took that picture, we had our first monorail ride of the trip When we got to the Grand Floridian we were a little early, so I took some pictures of the beautiful lobby.

Somewhere around 9:45 we went to check in

We decided not to get our picture taken because my mom hates doing it After refusing the picture, we were taken to our seats. This restaurant is gorgeous!!! Almost immediately after we sat down, Mary Poppins came to our table. She was so in character!

Please ignore my face in this picture. I wasn't ready when my mom took it

Mary Poppins asked my mom if she wanted a picture, and she has a hard time saying no to characters who can really talk, so now we actually get to see something besides the back of my mom's head!

It looked like it would be a while before anymore characters came, so we went to get our food. My mom got back to the table before me and when I got back Tigger had just arrived. Once again, ignore my face.

Tigger can't talk, so my mom didn't take a picture

Here's my plate

And my mom's. She didn't notice that there were Mickey plates so she grabbed a boring one I think she had a second plate that I didn't get a picture of.

A few minutes later, the Mad Hatter came over. He was hilarious! One of the chefs was talking to someone at a table across the room and the Hatter screamed "I like your hat!" at him

Maybe I was just tired, but I have a weird look on my face in every 1900 Park Fare picture

I like this one.

At some point I took a picture of the ceiling.

Continued in next post!

 

[Tink9721]

Well tell it to stop! I keep compulsively refreshing my subscriptions

I finally got the update up! Part 3 is on the way!



My Pooh picture didn't come out too well, but the one later in the trip at Crystal Palace did. I made my mom take a picture with Pooh

One of the walls.

This was next to our table.

Alice had come by while we were getting our food so unfortunately we didn't get pictures with her. I loved this restaurant! The food and characters were great! My only complaint was our waitress. She barely said a word to us after we sat down. But having a grumpy waitress at a buffet isn't a big deal, so I didn't let it bother me too much.

I found this picture. My camera made it look dark, but I think it's the light outside of the bathrooms in the lobby. I blame MeMom for the fact that I was taking pictures of lights

On the way to the monorail we looked around the gift shop a little bit but we didn't buy anything. I took this picture from the window.

We left the gift shop and hopped on the monorail. I think this was the day I saw the armadillo walking around on the side of the road while we were on the monorail. I remember texting Megablocks about it. Anyway, we got off at the TTC and headed to...

EPCOT!!!

Since it was still really crowded the line for Spaceship Earth was pretty long, but we got in it anyway. I took some pictures while we were in line.

Almost there!

The night before I was telling Meg that once my mom and I had gotten stuck on the Haunted Mansion at the part where you go backwards. Well...this time it happened to us on Spaceship Earth It wasn't very comfortable and these lights...

are very dissorienting after a while. We were stuck for about 5 minutes and then we started moving.

Our pictures came out great. My mom's blinking and my head is at a weird angle...

I'm stopping here for now. Next update will be more Epcot and then Animal Kingdom EMH with Meghan

 

[MeMom]

So many nice pictures! I love the comfortable feel of Wilderness Lodge, and there are so many sitting areas for just relaxing.

We look forward to our 1900 Park Fare breakfast with just Brooklynn. It will be a special time just to focus on her.

I hope I can remember to get the marble floor pictures at GF this time that I didn't have time for when we were there during Christmas.

 

[Tink9721]

So many nice pictures! I love the comfortable feel of Wilderness Lodge, and there are so many sitting areas for just relaxing.

We look forward to our 1900 Park Fare breakfast with just Brooklynn. It will be a special time just to focus on her.

I hope I can remember to get the marble floor pictures at GF this time that I didn't have time for when we were there during Christmas.

I agree. The Wilderness Lodge just feels so cozy and it really feels like a home away from home

We really enjoyed our breakfast! The characters were fabulous! The Mad Hatter was hilarious and Mary Poppins was really sweet. I'm sure Brooklynn will love it!

I love the floor! It's fun to find the Disney characters in it

 

[Tink9721]

I'm currently sitting in one of the most comfortable chairs on the planet. It's huge and soft and cozy. It would fit in the Wilderness Lodge very nicely My mom's on a short business trip(she left yesterday, she's coming back tomorrow) so I'm at my dad's house. I brought my laptop so I can update my report

When I left off, we had just gotten off Spaceship Earth. We wanted to see if there were any Soarin' fastpasses left, but we knew it wasn't likely since it was so crowded and it was somewhere around noon at this point.

We checked the board, and they actually did have some left but they were for around 8 PM and we knew we'd be in Animal Kingdom with Megablocks at that point, so we decided to try it a different day.

We decided to go visit Figment. I know a lot of people don't like the ride, but I love it. I was very excited because I didn't get to see Figment in 2009. It was closed for a refurb, and it was supposed to open the day before we left but it got delayed and opened after we were gone

There was actually a little bit of a line. I don't think I've ever seen a line for that before! After visiting Figment, we checked the board and noticed that Living With the Land only had a 20 minute wait and since we were close, we headed there.

I thought I took more pictures than that, but I guess not. We left the Land Pavillion, and went to another ride that was being refurbished last year...

I took a couple pictures on the way.

I like this ride, but we usually just do it once per trip because it takes up so much time. I was really excited because we were some of the first people in the room, and when they opened the doors I grabbed seats in the front row of the car on the left(the one that leaves the theater first) I had never gotten in the front row before and I was ridiculously excited about it

When we left, I took a random picture of Spaceship Earth peeking up over the monorail track

This is where I did some expert planning. We wanted to go around World Showcase, but we didn't think we'd have time to do all of it and make it to Animal Kingdom on time. I suggested going around part of it, then taking the boat to the Yacht Club, since I'd always wanted to see it, and doing the rest of WS a different day. My mom liked the plan, so we headed for World Showcase.

On the way, we decided to check the wait for Test Track. This is one of the few thrill rides that my mom can do, but she doesn't like it The single rider line was only 20 minutes, so I hopped in line and my mom took the opportunity to call my grandma to check in.

I'm not a car-obsessed person at all, but there are a couple cars that I love, and this is one of them

Unfortunately, it wasn't one of the ones you could sit in, it was on the spinning display thing.

Anyway, I went outside, found my mom, and we continued on toward World Showcase.

I wanted a picture of the monorail track over the water...

and then I saw these flowers(and the water bottle that someone left there)

and decided that for whatever reason, I wanted the flowers, the water, and the track in one picture. I got a bonus. I got the actual monorail too

I was planning on making this update longer, but I'm exhausted so I'm gonna go to bed in a few minutes. I'll be back with my World Showcase pictures tomorrow or this weekend! Good night everyone!

 

[Tink9721]

Hi guys! Sorry I didn't get an update up this weekend. I probably won't get one up until Thursday or Friday. I have one more day of classes tomorrow, then two exams Wednesday, one Thursday, and one Monday. I'll be studying most of the week, but I'll be done Monday at 11 AM

I'd like to point out that as of today, I've had my DIS account for exactly a year

I'll check in later this week! Good luck to anyone else finishing up the school year!

 

[Tink9721]

Sorry I disappeared for a little while! I'm back and ready to do another update!

But first...as of June 21, I'm officially a high school senior

Time for a visit to World Showcase!

I like this tree.

First stop, Mexico!

This one didn't come out very well...

I honestly don't remember if we rode the Gran Fiesta Tour or not, but I'm pretty sure we did.

I remember really wanting to get a churro but I was still full from breakfast. I never did get one I want to try one really badly!

We walked from Mexico to Norway. Only in Disney

We didn't visit the vikings this trip. I like the ride, but I don't really think it's worth a 30 minute wait.

On the way to China, there was a family who asked my mom if she could take their picture. My mom pointed to me and said "Let her do it. She's much better with cameras." Normally I'm pretty good at figuring out cameras, but guess who couldn't figure out which button to push?

Giant gummy bears. I think they're from a store in Germany. I really wanted to buy one but I didn't let myself

The rare German duck

Continued in next post!

 

[Tink9721]

Italy!

Since I'm half Italian on my dad's side, I decided to call him so I could say "I'm calling you from Italy!" While I was sitting on a bench talking to him, the seagulls came over. They weren't attacking but they were swarming all over the place and a few of them were flying around the bench so I moved. The people on the bench nearby thought it was hilarious, but so did I My dad asked what I was laughing at and I said "I'm running away from the crazy seagulls!"

Pretty flowers!

Somewhere around here I changed the setting on my camera so the pictures would be a lower quality, but I'd have room for more. At this point I only had room for about 300 more and since I had already taken over 100 and it was only half way through the second day, I figured it was a good idea. I ended up taking 1200 pictures

The Illuminations globe! I didn't get to see Illuminations this trip

I love the Japan pavillion!

Continued in next post!

 

[Tink9721]

I almost bought this shirt. I used to LOVE Pokemon.

I ended up buying one of these later in the trip

I had never really explored Morrocco before. I loved it!

We headed down to the boats to ride over to the Yacht and Beach Club.

Next update, Yacht and Beach Club and a night time Animal Kingdom DIS meet with Megablocks!

 

[Tink9721]

Hi! I wonder if I still have readers... Sorry I go so long between updates!

Anyway, when I left off we were about to get on a boat to go to the Yacht and Beach Club.

This boat just left when we got down to the dock, of course

After about 15 minutes, we got on the next boat. I had never seen any of the hotels in this area in person, so I was excited! We got a seat in the outside part of the boat so I could take pictures That was kind of a bad idea since it was so cold, but we're from New England so we survived The first stop was the Boardwalk.

Boardwalk ducks

Next stop, the Yacht and Beach Club

I took a picture of the Dance Hall while we were passing it.

The flag on the back of the boat.

Just like Megablocks did, I fell in love with this place

Continued in next post!

 

[Tink9721]

I would love to have one of those rooms on the side of the lighthouse overlooking the water

In the lobby.

We made a quick stop in the gift shop just to look around. I thought this was cute!

I liked these music box things. I wanted to buy a Peter Pan one later on in the trip, but I was afraid it would break on the plane. Next time, if they still have it, I'll buy it and ship it home. I have no idea why I didn't think of that before

After a little browsing in the gift shop, we headed out to the bus stop. It took forever for an Animal Kingdom bus to come, but of course a bus came for everything else

This was my first time being in Animal Kingdom at night. I was so excited, especially since I knew I had another DIS meet coming up! I attempted to get a picture of the sign.

We were really hungry at this point, so we decided to eat at Yak and Yeti. I had actually tried to get an ADR there for a different day, but it was full so we just ate at the quick service counter. While we were walking, a ton of people were flooding out because the park was closing. Hooray for EMH! When we got to Yak and Yeti, I grabbed a table while my mom got the food.

We both had the honey chicken and we ordered sides of egg rolls and chicken fried rice to share. We didn't realize that there was rice with the chicken, so it was way too much food

My chicken. It was SO good!

The rice, which we didn't finish but it was good, and the egg rolls which were also good. The cookie was my mom's and the cake was mine. I loooove the little Disney chocolate cakes

A cool fountain behind the restaurant.

DIS meet in next post!

 

[Tink9721]

I was texting Meg while we were eating to see where she was. We decided to meet in front of Dinosaur I rode with her, her parents, and her sister. My mom waited for us because it's too jerky for her back. We walked right on the ride. Again, hooray for EMH

It was so fun to finally ride this with someone else. Usually I'm alone Meg's dad was hilarious I stole this picture from Meg I forgot to pose, but I'm surprised at how calm I look

After we found my mom, we went to ride Expedition Everest, another ride that I've always had to ride alone There was barely a line and we got on really fast. Meghan's dad kept touching stuff and pulling things that were attached to the wall the whole time we were in line.

As soon as we got off, we went right back on. This time Meg's mom sat out with my mom and they waited for us.

After riding Everest, we went to ride Primeval Whirl. Neither of our moms rode. Meg's mom tried to take some pictures of us riding but we were moving too fast for them to come out I hadn't been on this ride in so long. I love it. Meg's dad kept making this really funny noise the whole time

We went to ride Dinosaur one more time since it usually has such a long wait during the day. Another picture I stole from Meg. Again, I forgot to pose

After that my mom was starting to get tired, so we decided to part ways with Meg's family and go back to the Wilderness Lodge. But first, we had to take a picture My mom took a picture on my camera too, but Meg's version came out better so once again, I stole it.

We said bye to everyone and went back to the bus stop. It was an awesome night!

And that's the end of my second day. How sad is it that this trip was 5 months ago and I've only gotten through 2 days? The first part of Day 3 will be up this week! Goodnight everyone!

 

[Megablocks]

Okay, I am a bad DIS'er...I didn't know Yak and Yeti had a CS option! I want to eat there so badly.

That was SUCH an awesome night! I bet if I asked my dad to make that noise again, he would have no idea what I was talking about.

 

[Tink9721]

Okay, I am a bad DIS'er...I didn't know Yak and Yeti had a CS option! I want to eat there so badly.

That was SUCH an awesome night! I bet if I asked my dad to make that noise again, he would have no idea what I was talking about.

I wouldn't have known either if I hadn't been randomly looking at menus the week before we left

Probably not

You know what we both forgot to mention? The one little dino that couldn't fly!

 

[Tink9721]

I'm such a bad DISer I've been trying to clean my room and get as much done as I can in the last few weeks of my summer. My room is a disaster Plus, my laptop is having issues yet again so it's hard to update my TR. Not the laptop really, but the charger. This thing hates me Anyway, I'm heading up to Vermont for our annual vaction this weekend. When I get home, I have one day then I go back to school But, this is finally my last year of high school

Now, finally, I will start the third day of my trip!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

This was our DHS day. We always try to have a full day at DHS so we can see as many of the shows as possible. We went to DHS again later in the trip for a few hours too.

Today we had an ADR at 50's Prime Time Cafe, but it was for a late lunch(2:15 I think) so we decided to get breakfast at Whispering Canyon Cafe. If you've ever been to WCC, you'll know that craziness occurs if you ask for ketchup. We were very relieved to find a bottle already on our table when we sat down

We both got the skillet, which comes with bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, Mickey waffles, potatoes, biscuits, and gravy. I forgot to take a picture until most of it was gone.

Everything was great and as always, it was an entertaining meal

We went to look around the gift shop a little bit on the way out to the bus stop. I loved this cute little guy.

After a little browsing we hopped on a bus to DHS.

I noticed a few weeks ago that apparently I didn't fit the whole sign in. I love how it says "Disney's Hollywood Stud"

We immediately headed towards Tower of Terror and Rock & Rollercoaster to get fastpasses for me. I'm sure I mentioned this before, but my mom can't do thrill rides. The fastpass times were already pretty late so I got them as fast as I could. I think ToT was 2:30 to 3:30 or something like that and R&R was around 7:00.

After getting those, we did a little shopping. I can't remember if I bought anything or not, but I don't think I did.

I love Nightmare Before Christmas so I really like this store.

I also LOVE baseball so I really liked this jersey.

I just remembered that we bought a Pirates shirt for my dad while we were in there. After shopping, we went to ride one of our favorites, the Great Movie Ride.

I think the High School Musical thing was going on so we took a slightly longer route.

Continued in next post!

 

[Tink9721]

These pictures aren't very good but it's because I was being a good DISer and not using the flash

We rode this 3 or 4 times this year and we had the gangster every time. I think last year we only had the cowboy

I got "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" stuck in my head just looking at these pictures

Goofy and Pluto went by while we were looking at the handprints

We went to see one of our favorite shows, Indiana Jones.

The two strongest men in the world!

We had a little time left before our ADR, so we walked around a bit.

Continued in next post!

 

[Tink9721]

Lunch time!

We checked in about a half hour early so we had to wait.

After only a few minutes we were seated.

This was the view from the table.

This is what happens when you try to take a picture of my mom

Some cute stuff on the shelves next to our table.

For some reason, we decided to have an appetizer, entrees, and desserts. We're crazy We never do that unless we're in Disney. I think we were just REALLY hungry from all the walking.

We had onion rings for our appetizer.

They were delicious!

For her entree, my mom had...something. I think it was the grilled chicken sandwich.

I had the fried chicken.

I think I only ate two pieces of the chicken so I could save room for dessert...

I didn't get a picture of my mom's dessert, but I think she had an ice cream sundae.

I have no idea how people with the deluxe dining plan can do that for every meal. We were soooo full. Although a lot of people with the deluxe plan do 2 credit meals.

I'll stop here for now. I'll try to do another update before I leave, but I probably won't have time. To everyone starting school this week, good luck! And to everyone who's still on vacation, enjoy it!