Up, down and all around...a trip we will NEVER forget - COMPLETE 1/19

[brookelizabeth]

I have so many comments that I cannot remember everything I wanted to say. First of all, that picture of Henry on the bus is DARLING! Frame that one for sure! He looks so adorable I cannot help but want to pinch his little cheeks. What a cutie!

I am chuckling over your memorable bus ride. It sort of reminds me of dh and the boys telling me about their monorail ride with the lady who brought a live frog on with her (maybe not still live by the time the ride was over, she dropped it).

It's DVC isn't it! And I am ENVIOUS! WAY TO GO BROOKE! And even if you didn't buy in, way to get back to WDW! You must have had a shorter wait then we did for your DVC rep!

I am so sorry for the tummy troubles. NO FUN AT ALL EVER...but especially while on vacation! What a bummer.

That Gonzo shirt is too adorable! I love the muppets. My boys all adore them. I think we will need to look into some Zazzle muppets shirts of our own for our next trip. Thanks for the great idea!!

I am so happy you found the tin toy museum! Did Joe love it as much as you had hoped?

I laughed so hard when I saw that tacky flamingo and your question about if anyone actually ever thought those looked good. It is now my mission to take a picture of said "ugly flamingo" on my next trip. I have no idea why, but it cracked me up.

Okay, how were those comments for jump all over the place? I just got back from a week out of town and caught up all at once. Sorry again about your stomach ills and I cannot wait to hear more!

I remember the live frog on the monorail story! How crazy!!!

Zazzle.com is really fun, and very addictive. They have just about every design you can think of! I want to either make myself a Muppets shirt there, or buy one when we are back in January so I can match the rest of the family.

DVC?

I laughed out loud at your comment about how we are going back in less time than it took your rep to show up! Really though, that is just AWFUL. I shake my head at how un-Disney like the entire experiece was for you.

Joe did like the Tin Toy Museum! We both thought it was really cool. There were quite a few people in there, and for some reason it was REALLY warm in there, so we didn't spend much time, but we had a good time looking at all the toys and Joe remincied about his old tin toys.

I look forward to seeing your tacky flamingo pic! You could probably even scoot into 50s and snag a picture without an ADR there, it's the "living room" directly to the left of the entrace on top of the TV. Maybe in January, if I remember, I'll get a pic of me posing with it.

I SHOULD be posting more today. Work has been REALLLLLLLLLLY crazy and stressing me out, and it very rarely does. Plus, we are still recovering from being out of town for Thanksgiving, I was sick AGAIN (but just a nasty cold this time) and I have to finish up editing my Photopass pics, so my TR has been neglected for a week!

 

[brookelizabeth]

Hey all! Sorry for the delay in updates. We went to Chicago for Thanksgiving/my cousins wedding and I got sick just before we left. We returned on Sunday, but had mountains of laundry and grocery shopping to do. And I was still sick. And work has been NUTS. Very stressful, and it usually does not stress me very much. By the time I get home at night, I'm mentally exhausted. Plus, I have had to wrap up with my Photopass Pics so we can get them ordered! So, there are all my excuses on why I left ya'll hang for a week. Sorry! I hope it doesn't happen again and we can pick the pace back up!

We left off when my SIL had just had her baby girl, and we had spent some time in the HISTK playground, where I saw my baby being a big boy.

After the playground we were off to Muppet Vision 3D.

I love all the crazy stuff written on these boxes.

This kind of humor cracks me up!

Joe and I love the Muppets, as you may have noted, our shirts that day were Muppets – except mine…if you read my PTR, you may remember that I didn’t really like my Muppets shirt when it arrived, so I was Muppet-less. Looking back, I should have gone to the gift shop, bought a cool one and changed in the bathroom! All well. (Now a "To Do" in January!)

Henry got a bit antsy during the 3D show, but Joe and I loved it as we did in 2006!

I do believe after this we wandered some more and then figured out that we could either hit LMA or Indiana Jones. Much to my surprise, DH opted for Indiana Jones! I was cool with either one, I enjoyed both on our 2006 trip, but IJ was shaded, a big bonus.

One thing I have to say…(admit)…is with the Guest Assistance Card that Joe had there was NO waiting. People line up/sit early for these shows to get a decent seat, and we walk in 2 minutes before show time and are ushered directly to the first or second row, often areas that are roped off. I feel like it's kinda cheating, but even if we did line up early, we would end up sitting in the same seats. Makes us feel slightly guilty, and a bit like VIPs at the same time. And it's INCREDIBLY handy with a baby.

So we are at IJ and have about 2 minutes before show time. I am feeling a bit better (much due to the large amounts of water I had been guzzling all day and possibly the Sprite from 50s) and am in the mood for something cool and refreshing. DIS snack credit pictures from DHS dance through my head and I zero in on one…Itzakadoozie!

I tell Joe, “I want an Itzakadoozie!” “A what?!” I explain the popsicle to him and he agrees, it does sound good. So I run out of the auditorium and to the nearest cart – score! It’s an ice cream cart! Back into IJ with our Itzakadoozies, which we very, very much enjoyed. They really hit the spot.

Sorry, I took a bite before I remembered to snap a pic!

We enjoyed the show, even though we knew what was going to happen, but, our camera died during it! Doh! We had forgotten to charge the battery the night before. Joe took a TON of pictures during this show before it died, here are a few:

Sound equipment geek picture for Joe. He was grinning that I took this for him. I love my geek!

Nice shirt, huh? His "wife" got it for him.

I learned recently from Camster's TR that if you hang around until after most everyone is gone from the theater you can meet the characters! I am storing this tidbit for when Henry is a bit older, I think it would be a big thrill to him.

After IJ, it was almost time for our ADR at Mama Melrose. There was no possible way we were hungry. We were felling better, but still not 100%, so we decided to skip it and continue to wander the park. We were hoping to make it through to the 8:00 showing of Fantasmic, but I was exhausted, and was opting to leave the park. Henry was sleeping.

As we walked back toward the front of the park, we saw a skit going on. I sat down on the curb and leaned against a tree and we watched the entire thing. It was about a woman who fired her driver and a cop was basically teaching her how to drive. It was really funny. Joe and I really appreciate these little skits and things that make DHS what it is.

After the skit I felt a lot better, the rest really re-energized me, much to Joe’s delight, who was not ready to leave. We walked down to get RnR FPs for after Fantasmic and then looked at the clock and it was getting very close to Fantasmic time. We figured we had the GAC, so we hit up The Great Movie Ride first (hee hee, a bit of guilt...). I remember not being too impressed in 2006 with this ride, but I really enjoyed it this time! Thankfully Henry is too little to be scared at any of it. I just put on my "happy voice" and softly spoke to him during the gun shot scenes since those startled him slightly.

After GMR, we high tailed to toward Fantasmic. I wasn’t exactly sure where the location was, so we had to deal with pulling out a map and looking like idiots while 900,000 people bypassed us heading straight for it. Follow the crowds! DUH!

Up next: The great long awaited Fantasmic!

 

[MRYPPNS]

I would have loved to have watched some street shows but DS was never napping in the stroller when we could have seen one...bummer for us but cool for you that you got your second wind.

 

[thewesterberg]

Hope your feeling better and that the work stress decreases soon!

Sounds like a good day at DHS - and good for you for taking in the little Disney details and watching the street performers. Oh, and the Muppets - I love 'em like crazy too! The Muppet Movie was my first movie theater experience as a child, so they'll always have a special place in my heart!

 

[disneydusted]

Hi Brookelizabeth! I have been following your report for a while and thought I would say hi and tell you how much I am enjoying it! You are an entertaining writer and your family is too cute! Our kids are in their teenage years so it is fun to hear about your adventures with Henry... glad your stomach bug has left you by this time in your trip (I hope!!)

 

[Flossbolna]

Great update! I love those little skits at DHS! I totally agree that this is what makes the park to unique. And I am glad that it energized you enough to go and see Fantasmic.

I think you don't need to feel guilty to make use of the GAC in the way you did, I guess there are many occasions in everyday life when things are more difficult for your family because of Joe's vision problems. Why then should it not once in a while bring something positive as well?

Hope you are feeling better soon!

 

[Mom2apirate&princess]

Great report, subscribing!

 

[ILuvCrush]

What a great update... can't wait to see what you thought of Fantasmic

Paula

 

[brookelizabeth]

I would have loved to have watched some street shows but DS was never napping in the stroller when we could have seen one...bummer for us but cool for you that you got your second wind.

I wished we could have seen more of them - they really are neat and often they have someone from the crowd assist. I was really glad I got my second wind too, esp since we had planned on Fantasmic and Joe was really set on spending the rest of the evening in the park.

Hope your feeling better and that the work stress decreases soon!

Sounds like a good day at DHS - and good for you for taking in the little Disney details and watching the street performers. Oh, and the Muppets - I love 'em like crazy too! The Muppet Movie was my first movie theater experience as a child, so they'll always have a special place in my heart!

Thanks! I am feeling MUCH better now. Work is not better, but, at this point there isn't much I can do. Just gotta keep trucking and take it an hour at a time!

We did have a good day at DHS. I didn't feel like we got anything accomplished, but looking back we did a ton! On the surface it seems to be there isn't much at that park, but really looking at it, we barely scratched the surface!

My first movie experience (that I can remember anyway) was Spaceballs.

Hi Brookelizabeth! I have been following your report for a while and thought I would say hi and tell you how much I am enjoying it! You are an entertaining writer and your family is too cute! Our kids are in their teenage years so it is fun to hear about your adventures with Henry... glad your stomach bug has left you by this time in your trip (I hope!!)

Hello! I'm glad to hear you have been enjoying the TR. And thank you for the compliments on my family.

The stomach bug hasn't quite left yet....

Great update! I love those little skits at DHS! I totally agree that this is what makes the park to unique. And I am glad that it energized you enough to go and see Fantasmic.

I think you don't need to feel guilty to make use of the GAC in the way you did, I guess there are many occasions in everyday life when things are more difficult for your family because of Joe's vision problems. Why then should it not once in a while bring something positive as well?

Hope you are feeling better soon!

That is kinda what I thought as we used the GAC too. We would trade the GAC and take the line waiting if Joe could have good eyesight! Or even adequate eyesight! It does make our daily life a bit more interesting being that I am the sole driver. The teenage years should be interesting with all the "taxi cab" type responsiblites landing on me!

I am feeling much better now, the cold is pretty well gone.

Great report, subscribing!

Hello and welcome! Glad you are enjoying it!

What a great update... can't wait to see what you thought of Fantasmic

Paula

That should be coming up either tonight or tomorrow!

 

[MeMom]

I just saw that cop and nutty woman skit the other day. The older I get, the more I enjoy the street players, and it is a fun way to ease the crowds here and there throughout the park. There were a lot of them out during Thanksgiving week. In one small area, there were three different skits going on at the same time.

I think the whole country was having traffic problems over the holiday. Coming from Orlando up to Atlanta it was so slow. After we passed Atlanta, it got better, but we still took way longer to get home than we ever have.

Hang in there with the work troubles. They're everywhere. Yesterday they told us they were changing our insurance after forever being with BC/BS, and today they're saying they want us to take a pay cut! I think anyone that has a job probably just has to tough it out and be happy to have one, 'cause times are uncertain.

 

[Camster0307]

I tell Joe, “I want an Itzakadoozie!” “A what?!” I explain the popsicle to him and he agrees, it does sound good. So I run out of the auditorium and to the nearest cart – score! It’s an ice cream cart! Back into IJ with our Itzakadoozies, which we very, very much enjoyed. They really hit the spot.

This is the best shot of an Itzakadoozie EVA!!!!!

Happy to oblige with the "after-Indy show" tip! Seriously, there was hardly anyone left - the characters were not rushed at all. Well worth the wait!(That Indy guy is easy on the eyes! )

 

[tiggrbaby]

Great update! And don't feel guilty about using the card! My room mate from college and my oldest son's friend are both legally blind. There are enough challenges in life; feel blessed when you have an opportunity to enhance an experience.

Now feel better!

 

[brookelizabeth]

I just saw that cop and nutty woman skit the other day. The older I get, the more I enjoy the street players, and it is a fun way to ease the crowds here and there throughout the park. There were a lot of them out during Thanksgiving week. In one small area, there were three different skits going on at the same time.

I think the whole country was having traffic problems over the holiday. Coming from Orlando up to Atlanta it was so slow. After we passed Atlanta, it got better, but we still took way longer to get home than we ever have.

Hang in there with the work troubles. They're everywhere. Yesterday they told us they were changing our insurance after forever being with BC/BS, and today they're saying they want us to take a pay cut! I think anyone that has a job probably just has to tough it out and be happy to have one, 'cause times are uncertain.

Hey MeMom! I haven't been on your TR yet since my disappearance for the last week-WELCOME BACK! I look forward to reading about your trip. I hope it was incredible!

Ya, I agree with you! I am VERY happy to be employed-my company did layoffs a few months ago, it was a very difficult time for everyone. I normally love my job, but I work at a Service Desk of a software company (your software breaks, I fix it) and a problem patch build went out that is affecting many Clients. It's difficult to call them and tell them what is happening - I feel just bad for them. And the deeper we dig into the problem, the worse it gets it seems. BUT, with all that said, I am so so grateful for my job. I know it will get better-and even if it doesn't, I have a paycheck every 2 weeks even still. That is awful to hear about your benefits changing and them asking the employees to take a pay cut. I sure hope everything swings back up soon.

This is the best shot of an Itzakadoozie EVA!!!!!

Happy to oblige with the "after-Indy show" tip! Seriously, there was hardly anyone left - the characters were not rushed at all. Well worth the wait!(That Indy guy is easy on the eyes! )

Thanks for the pic compliments. I love them Itzakadoozies!

Good friends of ours have a little guy who is VERY into Indy right now, they are planning a trip in 2009, I have to make sure to pass this tip onto them too.

I don't remember the Indy you had...gotta go take a look again...but, really, there is just something about Indy in general I think... Joe wanted one of his hats - the Indy hat on my hubby, with a bit of a 5 o'clock shadow, diving through a raging fire to rescue his girl...hmmm, I like it!

Great update! And don't feel guilty about using the card! My room mate from college and my oldest son's friend are both legally blind. There are enough challenges in life; feel blessed when you have an opportunity to enhance an experience.

Now feel better!

You guys are helping me not feel gulity about the card. Thank you! And you are right, there are a TON of extra challenges in life, its nice for once to have something easier!

 

[brookelizabeth]

When I left you, we were following the crowds to Fantasmic. And if you recall, our camera battery was dead, so that means no pictures this update. I'll fill it with emoticons instead.

We walked the looooong path to the stadium and parked the stroller in the masses. Remember this. We parked the stroller. There are approximately 58,000 other strollers. It’s worse than Fantastyland Stroller Parking! But, we didn’t think anything about it, we were off to Fantasmic.

We walked into the auditorium and went up to the first CM we saw and pulled out the GAC. Joe would definitely have to sit up front to see this type of show. The CM explained there was no seating up front, it was too late, but, we could go up front and look around to see if we could find a seat, otherwise he could find us a seat in the back.

Uh, thanks, but that doesn’t help us. I started to explain that and show the CM the GAC, but Joe just tugged on my arm. He realized quickly we weren’t going to get anywhere with that CM. Yes, we were walking in about 10 minutes before show time…which is absurd with Fantasmic…and makes me feel a tad guilty (but less so now after your kind comments about it all on my TR!)…but at the same time if we could trade good eyes for Joe, we’d gladly wait for Fantasmic.

Down to the front we went, I spoke for 5 seconds to a CM who ushered us directly over to the reserved section for those with the meal package and he let us pick a row. Second row. Perfect. Thank you CM!

Joe still needed his binoculars to see most things, but up top he wouldn’t have been able to enjoy it at all.

Overall we were impressed with Fantasmic. Some of the affects are really amazing! I loved the fire on the water. The overall greatness of the show is awe inspiring. Really incredible and emotional. I found myself tearing up at the end! And I loved the ending with all the characters coming by on the boat, I wished I had my camera to take pictures to capture the memory!

BUT, I have to say, I don’t care if I ever see it again. (please don't hate me!)

Sorry to all you Fantasmic lovers! I am really glad I saw it once, but I thought the spraying water with the visuals on it got a bit old. It was neat at first, and is a pretty cool affect, but I think a few less water spraying scenes would be better. And, the bigger reason that I didn’t like it was the "darkness" of it all-I sort of expected this part, and wondered if I wouldn’t like it, but wanted to give Fantasmic a try. Every villian comes out and it gets a bit scary and dark for my taste. I obviously wasn’t scared (really, I wasn't! ), but I don’t want to put my child(ren) in a situation like that. When they get older, if they really want to see it, I would allow them, but otherwise, I think we’ll just avoid it until then. I was an easy scare as a child and those sort of things haunted me for years. With that said, MANY children totally aren't affected by this sort of thing, so we'll see how Henry is when he gets older, maybe I'll be seeing Fantasmic sooner than I expect!

After Fantasmic we grabbed our stroller.

That was foreshadowing.

Note the word “our” in the above sentence.

I’ll repeat it.

“After Fantasmic we grabbed our stroller.”

I immediately noticed my LGMH tag had fallen off the stroller, but what I can I expect with that many strollers being jammed into one location? Good thing I had extras!

Up next: Spreading the Disney magic

 

[Lady Lallie]

Uh oh. The stroller foreshadowing is a tad unsettling.

I loved Fantasmic, it's on my must do list for our next trip but something that is not on my must do is Wishes and I think that is because we didn't have the greatest spot to watch so we were a bit distracted. That said, I want to see Wishes again but I am not going to kill myself trying to get a great spot on time and all that jazz. We did see Hallowishes and I was simply blown away! Loved it.

That's the great thing about Disney because there is something for everyone.

 

[BellaSoleil]

Okay, let me start off by saying that I am nuts about you, so I hope this doesn't come off snarky. I worked at Fantasmic for a very long time, so it was a bit frustrating when people would come in right before the show and need special seating. However, being a good CM, you should always try to accomodate people in a nice way. I'm sorry the first CM wasn't very nice to you guys.

I'm a little over Fantasmic, myself. It's not in my plans for this trip. If I feel the urge to take a trip down memory lane, I'll pull it up on youtube. Is that terrible?

 

[BellaSoleil]

Oh, and I agree with everyone else. Don't feel bad for using the card. This sounds a bit tacky - but you paid alot of money to visit Disney World. Your DH should be accomodated to get the most out of his trip.

 

[brookelizabeth]

Uh oh. The stroller foreshadowing is a tad unsettling.

I loved Fantasmic, it's on my must do list for our next trip but something that is not on my must do is Wishes and I think that is because we didn't have the greatest spot to watch so we were a bit distracted. That said, I want to see Wishes again but I am not going to kill myself trying to get a great spot on time and all that jazz. We did see Hallowishes and I was simply blown away! Loved it.

That's the great thing about Disney because there is something for everyone.

I know, that's what I love about Disney too-it's for EVERYONE. Every age, every person. I think that's just another reason it's so special.

We LOVED Wishes. That is coming up and I can't wait to get to it! But, oh my word, the crowds are soooo annoying. There was a kid STANDING on our stroller during it and a very pushy woman. We sat on our curb for an hour before anything started - yet she tries to come in 10 minutes before showtime and get a curbside seat. Reminds me of someone (ME!) with Fantasmic. But, I wasn't rude about it, or let my child stand on someone elses stroller and yell the entire time...

Okay, let me start off by saying that I am nuts about you, so I hope this doesn't come off snarky. I worked at Fantasmic for a very long time, so it was a bit frustrating when people would come in right before the show and need special seating. However, being a good CM, you should always try to accomodate people in a nice way. I'm sorry the first CM wasn't very nice to you guys.

I'm a little over Fantasmic, myself. It's not in my plans for this trip. If I feel the urge to take a trip down memory lane, I'll pull it up on youtube. Is that terrible?

Oh, and I agree with everyone else. Don't feel bad for using the card. This sounds a bit tacky - but you paid alot of money to visit Disney World. Your DH should be accomodated to get the most out of his trip.

I TOTALLY understand. You aren't snarky at all. And the first CM wasn't really rude, just not helpful. But, considering the sheer amount of people in the stadium by that point, I would soooo be annoyed with people like me walking in 10 minutes before showtime! That's why I felt a bit guilty about it all! I am not that type of person normally, I wait my turn fairly. But, like you, and others have said, my DH does have a speical circumstance and it was VERY nice using this card, not only for him, but that we didn't have to wait with an antsy 1 year old.

I would be in the same boat as you with being over Fantasmic. I bet you know every move by heart, I'm sure it's just gotten old and not so special for you. And that's the beauty of YouTube!

Speaking of CMs...when we were leaving Fantasmic a ton of people were climbing over the bleachers and a small female CM was shouting at people to use the stairs and everyone was ignoring her. As I looked at her and smiled, confirming that I heard her and was going to follow her directions, a very loud announcement came over the speakers saying to use the stairs only. She said "They just don't listen to me!" and we laughed. I can't imagine how annoying it would be night after night to say this to the guests and have them completely ignore you. And I'm sure more often than than not people completely wipe it hard while climbing up the bleachers... I bet you have a million stories like this! All the while you have to keep on smiling and being nice. Not an easy job!

 

[brookelizabeth]

I left off and we had just grabbed “our” stroller from Fantasmic.

We headed toward RnR to use our FPs. H was asleep again and the CM said the wait time, even in the FP lane was about 30 minutes. It seemed everyone at Fantasmic had the same idea as we did. Knowing it would be another hour just for both of us to ride it, and still feeling a tad quesy, we opted to give our FPs away.

I stood there, looking for a couple of two that was turned away by the 75 minute stand-by time, and finding out FPs were all out. Another couple found me, in the same situation-so I took their FPs, I now had four. I finally found a family of four talking with the CM, and they kept looking at the 75 minute posted time and shaking their heads.

I walked up and found out only the Dad wanted to ride, he was THRILLED at my FP! Almost jumping up and down thrilled! Yea!

I quickly found another three people who were in awe that I had FPs for them. They were soooooo happy.

I skipped back over to Joe with a grin on my face. It’s so much fun to do that and spread that Disney magic!

On our way out, we were tired, but not 100% ready to leave, we were on a bit of a happiness high from spreading the FP love. So, we stopped by a DVC booth. I had thought we’d squeeze in a DVC tour (which we knew very little about, I’ve resisted doing the research), on Friday-our second Epcot day. Joe surprised me and said he wanted to do it on Wednesday, our no-parks day. So, we set up the tour. They would pick us up at AKL after our breakfast at Boma. We were both very excited to learn about DVC!

We slowly made our way to the exit and did a bit of shopping – we didn’t buy anything, but I sadly have no pictures of what we didn’t buy, due to the dead camera battery. We also got some night Photopass pictures (coming soon).

We made our way to the bus stop and saw one coming within a few minutes. I pulled Henry out the stroller and started to fold it up.

That’s when I noticed something was amiss.

Up next: It’s a small world after all

 

[BellaSoleil]

Working at Fantasmic was quite an experience- dealing with that many people (many of them being very rude) and then having to clean up after them. You wouldn't believe the things people left behind for us to pick up. (Poopy diapers!) Then you would have the foreign people who acted like they couldn't understand you so they wouldn't have to follow directions. They made me mad!

In my book, the good outweighed the bad by a million! It was one of the best times of my life and I miss it very much! Yes, I do have it memorized. I do the princess dances for G every now and then for entertainment.