We want to remember it all!!! Dec.11-19 2006- UPDATED Feb.21,Day 9

[ckmommy]

Hi Katy,

Having never been to Disney Quest, it sounds like it would be right up my son's alley. I do not think I could have rode the Cyper Space Mt. though.
No pork in Qatar (Sp)?? Wow, my DH would be lost without bacon for Sat. morning breakfast!!

Looking forward to reading more.

 

[MARY-IN-OH]

Hi Katy! I am still wearing my $10 tink watch too! When the kids and Jeff went to the gift shop on our last night, so that Jesse could buy his girlfriend a t-shirt, and Emily got some stuff too, my husband thought of me and got that watch for me! (not a big spender - but it was the thought that counts!) I sure wish we would have made it to Disney Quest! We've never been, but maybe someday. I think Jeff and Jesse would have really liked it. Can't wait for your next installment and to hear about your view of the party!

 

[Katy Belle]

Here we go....

Ok, we hopped on a bus leaving Downtown Disney around 4:15. We had ADRs at Chef Mickey at 5:10. On the bus Matthew asks if we can go back to the hotel to see if his Toy Story toy has arrived. I explain that it probably isn't there yet. Yeah, well, he would like to go see. No way, sorry dude. I did tell him that we could check when we got back tonight, forgetting that it would be way late after MVMCP. More on that to come.....

We got to the Contemporary early. We checked out the chocolate Pinnochio display. We discussed eating Jiminy Cricket...yum...just kidding, he's too cute too eat! We got to meet him live and in person later in the trip. We still have extra time, so we hop on the Monorail to take a little joy ride. Well, something happened and it stopped. We sat and waited, in the middle of the track somewhere for 10 minutes or so. NOW WE ARE GOING TO BE LATE FOR OUR ADR. See....I'm not in a park and I'm getting impatient again! Well, instead of riding it around we thought we could hop off, get on another and head back to the Contemporary. We hopped off....I don't remember how it works, but we basically had to get back on the one we got off, but later. NOW WE ARE GOING TO BE LATE FOR OUR ADR. I was not screaming on the outside. We finally get to Chef Mickey's.

We did this dinner in 2004. Loved it both times. Food is good. Pork. Kids are all big enough to help themselves at the buffet. Easy. Characters were great, mostly. Goofy was the least fun. We were really looking forward to seeing him because Matthew was wearing a Santa hat with Goofy ears. We really thought Goofy would like that. He didn't. He signed the books took a quick photo and was off. We mentioned the hat and he patted Matthew on the head. Kind of disappointing, but maybe he was in a hurry. The others were great. Matthew and I hugged each one. I told Minnie that she was so cute I HAD to hug her. I bet the poor girl inside is thinking Pluto was very much fun. The boys asked Mickey if he was getting Minnie and engagement ring for Christmas. He was pretty funny, but I think his answer was NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. Jacob has never liked costumed characters. Never. His photos with Santa over the years are hilarious! But at Disney he is a trooper and tries very hard. He had fun with them. This will probably be our "tradition" place that we visit every time.

OK, time for MVMCP. It bothered me some that we didn't maxamize our time by arriving at 4, but I really wanted to do Chef Mickey. So we got there around 6:30. We, like Mary in Ohio, didn't take very many photos this night. I have one of our whole family with Hook and Smee, and some from the fireworks and some from the parade. Nothing else. I took no notes...sorry. I will try to fill in some gaps! We rode Splash Mountain, Scott stayed off, not wanting to get wet. We LOVE Splash Mountain. We rode BTMR, twice. Great fun. Matthew is brave enough for it now and loves it. We rode Pirates, my first time at WDW, rode it in Paris. Loved it! Loved Jack!

Then it was parade time. We wanted to skip this and catch it later. We had to fight our way across to get over to Tomorrowland! We made it. We split at this point and Nathan and I rode Stitch's Great Escape and the rest rode Buzz Lightyears Space Ranger Spin. Stitch was fun, but ewww Once was enough for me. Nathan loved it and talked his brothers into doing it later in the week. Then we had cookies and hot cocoa and headed over for Holiday Wishes. WOW! My biggest regret from our first trip was missing Wishes. I am so happy we saw it this year! Spectacular. The boys loved it.

Jet lag. Wishes ended close to 10. The plan was to stay for the late parade. I REALLY wanted to do this. It was a top priority. Matthew is crying, he's ready to go. Scott looks really tired. Jacob looks really tired. Nathan seems ok. Scott is sweet and offers to take the two tired ones back with him and let Nathan and I stay. I have a great DH. So, they are ready to go and Matthew says he wants to go get his Toy Story Toy he made at Disney Quest. Oops. We tell him it is probably not going to happen. That was the only reason he was ready to go. Then he decides he wants to stay with me! I love him, I do. But I knew he could not make it until midnight. I knew I could not carry him, not even a few steps. He's a big boy. He is really hysterical when I tell him to go with Dad. Really hysterical. So Scott promises to go check at POP Century when they return That does the trick and away they go.

So now Nathan and I are alone. We head to Stitch's Great Escape, yes again. He liked it. We stood in line. The ride broke down. We left. We went to Space Mountain. The line was long-ish. Probably a 15 minute wait. It was great fun to ride with my little buddy! There weren't many kids in there at the time. That seemed a little strange. Then it was time to go wait for the parade. It was crowded. There were LOTS of kids here! We sat behind some people. This is Nathan waiting for the parade. <If I could post a photo here I would-I will try to learn,> The CMs played games with the waiting kids, but Nathan didn't participate

I enjoyed the parade. I'm glad we stayed! At the time I was wishing we had done Disney Quest and MVMCP on the 14 instead of the 12, I thought jet-lag would be better by then. But, hind-sight is 20/20...it rained the night of the 14th, so this was better! We are not huge parade people. We do not wait an hour for them, so we rarely see them. I was really happy I stayed to see it. It was really cute and Christmassy! Then Nathan and I hiked to the bus stop and rode to POP Century. There were some tired families on that bus. The family directly across from us had a toddler boy and a 3yr old girl, an umbrella stroller, a HUGE stroller and a big backpack. That is a lot of stuff to squish onto a bus. They were in 3 seats, holding the toddler. Whew...that looked rough. They could not handle everything. At one point the umbrella stoller broke loose and slammed into Nathan's seat, right between his legs. Didn't hit him at all, amazingly. I was thankful for all of us that it turned out that way! I am so happy that we are past the stroller days. I do think it is fine and even good to take small kids to WDW, its FOR kids! But I, personally, am thrilled about the ease of older kiddos!

For the record...the toy had not arrived at POP yet. Sweet DH built Matthew's new lego toy with him when they got back to the room to make him happy.

End of DAY 2...
Blessings....
1. PORK
2.Lego Store
3.Watching my boys in Disney Quest
4.Chef Mickey's
5.Wishes with my guys!
6.DH being willing to let me stay and enjoy the parade.
7.No strollers for the KatyBelle family!

 

[MARY-IN-OH]

Hi Katy! Great installment! You had some things break down too, huh? That is so strange, we had so many attractions that broke down or had technical difficulty. Glad you got to stay for the parade! It can be cool to sometimes split up and spend time with the kids one on one. Glad you like Chef Mickey's, this one is on my list for sure!
mary

 

[Katy Belle]

The cast....
Me..Katy 38 MOM
DH..Scott 41 DAD
DS11...Jacob-Loves all things Disney
DS9...Nathan-Daredevil-huge imagination
DS6...Matthew-getting braver every minute

MGM Day, followed by Animal Kingdom for EMH.

We got up and out fairly early considering our late night. No notes, I don't remember what time! We had been to MGM on our first evening, so we went in the opposite direction this time. We started at Sounds Dangerous. A funny. When we got there the doors were closed, but the CM on the outside opened them and told us and another family to go in. We went in. It was DARK. COMPLETELY DARK. The CM on the inside is yelling at us, Wait for the next show! It was so dark we could barely see to get back out and I couldn't see if the boys were with me or not, but alas they were. The CM outside was embarassed!!! Funny. So, we wait and read triva questions. The show was ok. We had never seen it before and are glad we did, but may not return.

Then we played in Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. The boys love this. Last trip we only played here once and they begged to return. When we walked in the CM told Matthew and Nathan that they were the kids of the hour! He gave them certificates and asked if they wanted to talk on the microphone. They declined the talking, too shy, but took the Magical Memories certificates. We played about 20 min and headed for the Indiana Jones show. We LOVED it. It is a perfect boy thing! They had watched the dvd of this, borrowed from our neighbors, a few times right before the trip. I think that really added to their enjoyment of it.

It was nearing our ADR time. It was starting to rain. We shopped a little, another squishy skull for Matthew, this one has roaches and blood inside...cool. A hat for me, pluto, mickey ears, antlers , a regular Mickey Ears hat for Jacob. Lunch time. We arrived at 50s Prime Time Diner a bit early, but decided to just wait. Only waited about 15 min. and were seated. Another couple was seated next to us, the tables are CLOSE together, about 5 min. after we were seated. Our waitress arrives and sits between our tables, on the bench seat, with my two big boys. She is funny. They are loving it. She teases Nathan about his long hair, she knew instantly he is boy. She said, "Didn't you get that $ Auntie ......... sent for your birthday? You were supposed to use it for a haircut." Then she teased him about the chicks liking long hair, etc. It was cute. She leaves menus and away she goes. I remember her name. I'm not including it because the meal didn't go well, but everyone has a bad day. I know she is a popular waitress. Maybe she was having a lousy day.

She came back after a while and took our drink orders and the table next to us. Finally brought the drinks and sat down and took the other tables order, but not ours. The other table got their food before we even ordered. We tried to catch her serveral times, but she would just shout some cutsie thing at us and disappear. Finally took our order and we wait, and wait, and wait. She brings our appetizers. We wait and wait and wait. She flies by and dumps Nathan's hot dog meal on the table and takes off. We tried to talk to her, we asked for drink refills, she is GONE. We asked for drink refills 3 more times, she always just shouted something cutsie and was GONE. Still no meals but Nathan's. I finally caught a manager and asked for drink refills and could she please check on our order. Then our waitress appears with our drinks. And says something about going to the kitchen for the rest. She comes back with our DESSERTS. STill no meals. I was getting impatient...who me??? I firmly explained we had never received our meals. She looked shocked of course and appologized. She ran off and after probably 15 more minutes our meals arrived. We were on DDP so we had already ordered dessert. I surely wouldn't have stayed any longer had the boys not been counting on those desserts. We eat and she brings our desserts. She was apologetic and laughing with all the other tables about how she'd brought our dessert before lunch and how she had forgotten another table for over an hour. Honestly, it probably sounded funny to everyone else, but it wasn't to us. I felt she was so caught up in the role and maybe just too busy, that she was not a waitress. All of this took up almost THREE hours of our MGM day. I do not buy a park ticket to sit in a restaurant all day.

The food was good. The boys loved their desserts. We will not return and we will probably not do the DDP again due to this experience. I am not huge on TS anyway because of the time they take, but this was ridiculous. Had we not been on the DDP maybe they would have comped some of our food or something, but they offererd to do nothing. As I said before...I realize everyone has bad days. I'm hoping that's all this was for her.

OK....deep breathe and away we go. Scott had some work he needed to do, so he was going to stay with us a short time and then head to POP to work for a few hours. We went to TOT and rode while he waited with Matthew. We rode twice! LOVE IT! Then we hug and kiss DH and send him to work. Hey, working at WDW is better than working at WORK. The rest of us rode RRC twice! On the second time we bought the ride photo. We were in the first car. It is a good photo! When we walked to the counter to order it the CM asked Nathan and Matthew if they'd like to come help him. They did. He took them behind the counter, put little CM vests on them and let they use the computer and cash register to do my photo! So cute. Then he gave them a Magical Memories certificate. I felt a little sorry for Jacob. He's only 11, but taller than Mom. He didn't get treated like a little kid and offererd any of these things. I don't think he would have wanted to do it anyway, but I still felt he was a little left out.

We then went to the Great Movie Ride. First time on this one. We really liked it! I really had no idea what to expect, but it was fun. Then MOM, that's me, declared we were going to see some characters. They didn't really want to see any, but they HAD to. I declared it. They chose Monsters Inc. Mike Wasowski was there. He is cute. Round and plastic. Cute. He does not do autographs. Matthew and I had been hugging all the characters, so I asked Mike if I could hug him. He nodded his whole body yes , so Matthew and I hugged him. Jacob hates hugs, and dislikes characters. Jacob declares he is not a "touchy-feely" guy. Mike is smart. Mike figures this out. Mike chases Jacob and tries to hug him. You can tell Mike can barely lift his platic-y arm, but he does. He finally corners Jacob and won't back off until he hugs him. It was funny! Jacob was a great sport about it.

We decide its time to hop over to Animal Kingdom for EMH. As we are leaving we see the Guys from the Public Works. We had walked past them earlier and I knew it was something the boys would like. They are basically street performers who put on a little impromptu show. They were GREAT The boys laughed so hard! We sat through the whole thing. There was a pre-teen girl on her cell phone...those Public Works guys went after her! They made so much noise that there is no way the person on the other end could hear! She turned red and finally hung up...then the guys gave each other high fives! The whole show was really funny.

Now we hop on a bus to Animal Kingdom. I think it was about 5:30 when we arrived. We headed straight for Expedition Everest. Matthew had watched the marketing video on the internet many times and was ready! Short wait, amazingly, and in we go. Nathan really liked all the stuff in the museum in the line. We loved it! It is really a fun, fun, ride. We were mentally prepared for everything, so we didn't get scared, but some people did. Riding it at night was fun too. We rode it twice, maybe 3 times. Fun! Then I called Scott and he was almost there. We told him we'd meet him at Flame Tree Barbque. By this time I was tired and just a bit crabby. But we survived. Scott took the boys to hug Lilo and Stitch, ok no hugs for Jacob, and I went to order dinner. They finished up hugs in time to help me carry. Scott didn't want anything to eat. That late lunch stayed with him, and maybe he snuck a snack while working . I got a bunch of food and we all shared it. I had a PORK sandwhich! Scott ate part of it. I'd say this is one of the best CS meals. Chocolate cake. Matthew loved the chocolate cake. The Key lime pie was yummy too.

Now, onto Dinosaur! In 2004 Nathan and Scott went on this one. The rest of us weren't feeling that brave. This time I sat out and let the dudes go. I needed a break. They came off very happy! Then onto Primeval Whirl. Scott watched. He doesn't do roundy-round! Its great. We love it! I think we went twice. The boys then rode Triceratop Spin and then we headed out. They were closing! Loved having an evening at AK. Glad they do that, it was really great, low crowds.

End of day 3...
Blessings...
1.Two Magical Moments today!
2.Indiana Jones Show
3.Rock-N-Rollercoaster!
4.Jacob and Mike Wazowski
5.Taking time to watch The Public Works guys
6.Brave boys and Expedition Everest!

Katy

 

[MARY-IN-OH]

Hi Katy! I would love to have done AK at night! Especially Everest! Glad to hear you liked Flame Tree BBQ. Haven't eaten there yet, but it's on my list for next time!

What time were you in 50's PTC? Our res was 3pm. I saw a server carrying just a hot dog meal. If we were there around the same time, I'll bet she is the one I talked about in my TR that jumped through the interior window! (younger woman, super short hair and glasses?)

mary

 

[Katy Belle]

Hi Mary,
Nope, but I know which waitress you are talking about. She was making people nervous, but she looked like fun. We got out of there around 3. The hot dog meal probably came shortly after 2.

EE WAS awesome at night. We did it during the day later during the trip. We really liked that ride. It will definitely make it into the top 10.

Thanks for reading!
Katy

 

[mlill]

Glad you guys had fun at your AK EMH. Our night at AK didn't turn out that great - the crowds were terrible, and we only got to ride a few things. The Everest line was crazy. I guess it was because we went during Christmas week. I'd love to try it again during a slower time of year. Walking around AK at night was really cool.

Still loving your TR!

-Michelle

 

[ckmommy]

Hi Katy,

I am so glad that you got to ride EE. When we were at WDW this summer, the fastpass return was at 5 pm (we got to AK at 10 am). The stand by wait was over 2 hours. We did not wait or get a fastpass. There is always something to do for the next trip.

I am so sorry about the Prime Time Cafe experience. I have to admit, we rarely go to sit down places when we are at Disney. In fact the only sit down we have gone to is Cindy's at the Castle. I had always thought that Prime Time would be fun, but I have read some pretty bad experiences from this place recently.

Sounds like you had a good day after your very long lunch though.

Keep writing!!

 

[Lovemy3babes]

Still reading and enjoying! We too, had a bit of a disappointing experience at 50's PTC. Sorry it wasn't a great experience.

 

[kissy]

Great trip report so far! Can't wait to read the rest!

 

[Katy Belle]

Thanks for the kind words everybody! I guess the great thing about WDW and vacations in general, is that there is so much great that a little bad doesn't matter that much!

I hope to do another installment today. No promises, really busy day here.

Katy

 

[Katy Belle]

Time to start Day 4! We were at WDW for 6, now I'm dreading the end all over again! Don't you hate that, you are having a perfectly wonderful vacation and then you near the end and you get depressed that it is going to END. I don't think DH feels that way I heard him talking to a friend about the trip and he said, "It was the long enough for me, but I think Katy and the boys could have stayed longer."

Magic Kingdom. Favorite Park. Love it.

I had to make a declaration to my little family. I had to declare that we WOULD ride the rides in FantasyLand. Can you believe that I HAD to do that? My kiddos are getting old! DH didn't even really feel the need to do FantasyLand! He said that doing it the first trip was different! Luckily, I have no problem forcing people to do things, so away we go!

We got there early-ish, but not early. Maybe 10. First we rode The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, I loved it, again. Then Peter Pan's Flight. Super! Then we saw Mickey's PhillharMagic. Matthew was barely 4 the last time, he didn't really remember it. He loved it, we all did. No one complained about this one. Last trip we did it twice, no one was begging to do it twice this trip. We rode the Snow White ride, it is not on this map I've been using! I wonder what else they have left off!!! No one was scared on Snow White. My kiddos are getting OLD. Just them, not me Then we rode Small World. Sorry guys, I love it. I really don't think they hate it, I really don't. I really do think they would miss it if I let them skip it. It is so DISNEY! Then a spin on the teacups with Scott as photographer. No roundy-round for him. I rode with Jacob who also has some issues with roundy-round, so the plan was to take it easy. But we sort of got into a spinning war. He was trying to make ME sick I've never been sick on a ride, although that CyberSpace Mountain ride did get me. Anyway...the phrase "you are only hurting yourself" did enter this mother's mind, but I just let him spin away! Luckily, he was fine. No dumbo. I wish I would have forced this one, but the line was really long.

Onto TomorrowLand. We all rode the Speedway. All of the boys drove. Boys like to drive, this was a hit! This gets fuzzy, but I guess you don't care if I tell it out of order! But I want my family to remember it all, as it was! I'm typing this crazy thing at 4:30 a.m., or I could ask someone. ANYWAY....Get ON with it woman!

I let Scott take them on Stitch's Great Escape. Nathan and I had done this twice at MVMCP, I had no desire to return. I waited in the gift shop for them. Turns out there are TWO exits to this ride! I was in the wrong gift shop. We finally found each other and headed to our ADR at Crystal Palace.

The area outside of CP was CRAZY. So many people waiting. ugh. I was having flashbacks to the 3 hour lunch the day before. We waited about 15 min. and our coaster lit up! We got some up eyebrows from people who were waiting when we arrived! I'm guessing they just showed up at the podium with no ADRs and had a longer wait. I wanted to tell them to be very happy that they had a place for them!

First time here. It was great fun! The food was so yummy. Pork again I believe, and many other yummy things. The kids ate well and were happy. This was an ADR I made just because I felt we'd like the food. None of my family was excited about seeing the Pooh characters, except me! Luckily they were all good sports and got autographs and hugs with no trouble. No hugs for Jacob, he' not touchy feely! I asked Tigger for a hug. He about crushed me! I said, "Woah Tigger you are strong!" and he showed me his muscles! Then a few weeks later I saw the whole big story about Tigger in the news!!! Hmmmm. Interesting! I told Pooh to be gentle as I was nearly crushed by his friend! They were all sweet. Eeyore is the cutest. I love, love the photo of the boys with Eeyore. This went way better than the meal the day before. I was relaxing again. During the meal it started POURING outside! Lots of people came in soaking wet. Lots of people crowded onto the porch of the restaurant. We felt lucky to be inside.

Now back to TomorrowLand to finish up that land. We did the Buzz Lightyear ride, twice maybe. It was great fun! And Space Mountain! Matthew's first ride. He loved it. I should have taken him back later to ride again. Another regret. We will just have to come back. Then onto Mickey's ToonTown Fair. We love Mickey and Minnie's houses. We really do, even though they are getting old, the boys like these houses! Then we sent the boys onto the Barnstormer. We didn't go with them! It felt a little weird to just watch. Maybe a glimpse into our future...nope...I LIKE to ride. While they rode I got a frozen lemonade. Not in a pre-packaged hard little cup, but like a slushie, or maybe like a margarita. It was great. I wish I could have one now, at 5a.m. on a regular Thursday morning! Anyway....this cute couple approached me, they looked exhausted, but they had hope in their eyes. They said, "Where did you get that drink?" I pointed to the little shop. They said, "Is it a margarita???" My answer, "Nope, its a frozen lemonaide. No alcohol in the Magic Kingdom." Their poor faces fell. I was wishing I had a little flask of Tequila to pour in and hand it to them. I did tell them the lemonade was really good, but they just shuffled on....

We hopped on the train and rode to Frontierland, or AdventureLand, or where-ever you can get off on that side of the park! We had to practically sit on someone's backpack to get on this train. It was packed and people were letting their backpacks have a whole seat. Irritating. Anyway...things become fuzzy again... Over the course of the afternoon we rode, Haunted Mansion (Nathan and I), Splash Mountain(Scott, Jacob, Matthew), Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Pirates, and Jungle Cruise. First time on Jungle Cruise and it was raining. They loaded the boats with only people sitting in the middle, so we were under the canopy. It was cute, but probably not really high on our list! Our CM was really funny. Lots of dorky jokes. When we exited it was really raining. We had no ponchos. I know, I know....I left them at home, in the desert!! So we went to the Tiki Room. Scott, Jacob and Nathan watched this in 2004, Matthew and I had never seen it. I liked it! It was pretty funny and creative. There were lots of people in there seeking a dry seat! So...we exit and it is still really raining. I had really wanted to watch the fireworks at 6. It was a high priority. We thought they were cancelled due to rain. They weren't. We purchased Mickey Ponchos. We started our exit.

My sweet family stood in the rain with me to watch Wishes. It got to the point where you couldn't see anything! The smoke just stayed right there and hung in the air. The clouds and rain and smoke made it nearly impossible to see the fireworks. We started to leave with 100s of our Disney Friends. There was a boy, about 12, that walked up to a CM and said, "I lost my mom." The CM said, "OK, lets look for her. What was she wearing?" The boy answered..."a Mickey poncho." I felt bad for both the CM and the boy! I'm sure they found her, but it may have taken some time! The tip you read on the DISBOARDS about buying cheap ponchos ahead of time is great, you are a different color than the masses! Oh, we saw a family in PINK ponchos, the DAD too! Jacob felt bad for that Dad!

Onto the bus and back to PopCentury. We went to the FoodCourt and had dinner. DH and I had the Ham and Havarti flatbreads. Yum. I could go for that with my frozen lemonade now! The boys had various things. I had the tie dye cheesecake just because I had to. I loved the look of it. It was fine, I'm not a huge cheesecake fan, I gave most of it to the boys. I don't remember what we ate, but we liked it!

Now to the room with the plan of me doing laundry while the rest swim. Jacob decided not to swim. He watched tv and went to sleep early. I was able to get two washing machines instantly. Awesome. I left and hung with Jacob while it washed. I returned at spin cycle. No dryers. Several of my Disney friends had all the dryers. Finally at 9:30 I hauled all my wet clothes back upstairs with intentions to dry them in the morning. Scott and Nathan and Matthew had a great time in the bowling pin pool playing with the beach balls. There were a few other kids there, not many.

And that ends another great Disney Day!

Blessings....
1.FantasyLand. And my boys being troopers so I can enjoy it.
2.The Pooh Characters. It was very sweet.
3.Laughing in the Tiki Room while it poured rain outside.
4.Watching my boys play in the pool with their Daddy.

Thanks for hanging in there with me everybody! Two more Disney Days and Three Universal!
Katy

 

[MARY-IN-OH]

Hi Katy, funny stuff leaving the rain ponchos in the desert!

It's pretty cool when our families "enjoy" stuff for our sake, but then they really do enjoy it too, though sometimes they might not admit it! Hope yours keep goin on Small World with you!

Keep em comin'!!
- mary

 

[Katy Belle]

Hey Mary!

My guys are great sports, but I KNOW they will not go on Small World too many more times. They will humor me in other ways.

I took off my Tink watch yesterday! Now I'm wearing my regular Mickey Mouse watch all the time.

Thanks for reading!
Katy

 

[Bee]

I am still around.. Loving the report still..

 

[Katy Belle]

Day 5- Dec. 15 Animal Kingdom and Epcot

OK, we had two top priorities here... Expedition Everest(again) and a talking Trashcan! When we were at WDW in 2004 one of the boys' favorite things the whole trip was a talking trashcan in AK. They LOVED it. Thought it was hilarious. So they really, really, really, wanted to see it this trip, especially Jacob. So when we enter AK Jacob is brave and asks a CM where we could find it. They didn't seem to really know, but said maybe by the tree of life. We decided to go to Expedition Everest first and then see about the trash can. I may have been just a bit grumpy about planning my day around a trash can....but I did TRY to chill.

We went to EE and rode stand by. Maybe a 15 min. wait, not bad. DHs first ride on this. We all loved it..again! It really is a fun ride. Next we did the Jungle Trek because no one wanted to get wet on Khali River Rapids, except me . So we looked at the amazingly large bats and tigers, and everything else. I was being my impatient self....but we emerged. Next we went to Flights of Wonder. First time at this show. LOVED it. They boys really loved it, laughed the whole time. They are the perfect ages for all the corny jokes.
Glad we did it. Next up was Kali River Rapids. Matthew loves these kind of water rides. We had great fun. No ponchos for us We now own 10 ponchos...5 are at home in the desert and 5 are in the room at POP. Got pretty wet, not soaked but close. It was fun. No one wanted to go again, so off we go. We went back to EE and rode it again, twice i think, once with FP. Nathan didn't like the fastPass line, too fast, you couldnt' see all the stuff in the museum! Loved EE again, of course.

It is now lunch time. We go in search of food with the promise of heading to Rafiki's Planet Watch after lunch. In 2004 the talking Trash Can was in the Rafiki's Planet watch area. We decided to go to Tusker House. On the way we got an order of chicken strips at a little cart. We thought Nathan and Matthew could share that and a childrens meal at Tusker house. The cart took CS credits, but had no dessert...bummer. At Tusker house we had 2 fried chicken sandwiches, 1 turkey wrap, 1 kids mac-n-cheese. 2 chocolate cakes, 1 carrot cake. We didn't love this meal. The turkey wrap tasted strange, Jacob ate my chicken sandwich instead. The carrot cake was fab. and the boys like the choc. cake. Full, we head out to watch the African Drummers. It was very fun to watch, none of my boys wanted to participate. It brought back memories...we went to South Africa last March. At an African village we had to dance for the dancers! It was a bit embarrassing for us!

Time for Rafiki's planet watch. We head straight to Conservation Station. Jacob asks a CM about the trash can. She was so sweet and said she would check the schedule and let us know. We went into one of those little rooms to watch the little movie(I don't even remember what it was about ). When we came out she said the trash can was due to come out any minute! And indeed he did come out! He rolls around and talks to people. He was so GREAT! His name is Peepa. He talked and talked and talked to our boys. Probably 20 minutes! He also talked to other kids and was so funny! The CM in control of him was so discreet. Jacob and Nathan figured out which person the CM was, but no other kids did. They are just so trusting that the trashcan must really be alive! I wanted so much to thank the CM for being so great with our boys, but I didn't want to give him away. So I just caught his eye and gave him a big smile. I hope he knows how much he is enjoyed!

Now we could relax! Mission accomplished! We petted and brushed everyone in the Affection Section, well all the animals anyway. Then we headed into the Conservation Station again and found characters! Jiminy Cricket! How cute is he???!! Pocahontas, Rafiki. They were all great. Then the boys sat down and watched one of the vets talk about surgery they had done on different animals. They really liked it. We let them stay about 40 minutes and then forced them to go!

I sent all the males to Its Tough to Be a Bug. I snuck out and did some shopping. Matthew had wanted this dinosaur hat 3 years ago and we saw it at the Dinosaur Gift shop two nights ago. I had to buy it for Christmas. They liked the show and I was able to get a great surprise for our little guy!Then they talked me into going on Dinosaur for the first time. It was great! Glad I did it. We finished up with a few minutes in the Bone Yard and then headed out to go to Epcot.

We missed LOTS at AK. I whould have like to have seen the new Nemo show, the Pocohantas show, and Lion King. Maybe next time! I don't understand the people who say AK is a half day park!

Now we hop on a bus to Epcot. We have ADRs for the Garden Grill for dinner. This is our first time to Epcot on this trip. We LOVE Epcot! I think we rode Spaceship earth, because we can never resist it! The we went to the Land. I had no idea how popular Soarin' was! The wait was like 120 min. or something crazy. We checked into Garden Grill and the guys went to check our Living with the Land. They didn't ride, didn't have enough time. We waited about 20 min and got seated at Garden Grill.

We loved this meal! The food was excellent and plentiful. They had no problem with our 11 yr old having a "decorate your own cupcake" instead of the bread pudding. The characters were fun, funny, and fabulous! They came around several times. Matthew finally could hardly be bothered to look at them, he wanted to work on his kids menu coloring book! Great meal. More relaxing than Chef Mickey or Crystal Palace.

Now to Mission Space. We approached...in our tie-dye mickey head shirts. A CM approaches us. Asks if we'd ridden before. Yup, but not Matthew. I ask how long the stand by for the aggressive side is. He says, "It doesn't matter where you are going. You are our family of the day." So he takes us backstage and we get to go into the "control room" where the CMs are making sure the ride is functioning properly...or something. The boys were allowed to mess with all the buttons and switches, it was great fun. Then he took us to the front of the line, let Scott out the chicken exit(no roundy-round or spinny rides) and we rode! MS is a fun ride. All my boys love it. Then we exit and all play in the challenge. Great fun. Afterwards Scott and I joked that they must look for the goofiest looking family to present this to every day. They probably have contests..."I WIN THIS WEEK...REMEMBER THAT FAMILY ALL WEARING THOSE TIE-DYE SHIRTS! I WIN." Oh well, we had a great time anyway! And I swear I will try to post pictures. We each got a Magical Moments certificate. Mine said "Mom" and Scott's said "Dad" I liked that .

Its getting late. We went to the Sea and rode Nemo. Cute. Probably won't do it again. The line for Turtle Talk looked long, we skipped it and just looked at the fish. Nathan and Matthew did a KidCot activity. Then we made our way out and back to POP Century to sleep.

Blessings...
1. watching my boys watch Flights of Wonder!
2. Expedition Everest...again and again
3. The talking Trash Can..Peepa..and his CM. Watching my boys, once again!
4.Garden Grill.
5. Being Family of the Day on Mission Space!

Thanks for reading!
Katy

 

[MARY-IN-OH]

Hi Katy, another great installment! Feel like I'm right there with ya! I know what ya mean, AK cannot be all done in a half day! There are some great shows, I didn't get it all done either!

How exciting to be chosen as family of the day! - - you and that cool tie- dyed family !!

My husband wants to go to Africa (to hunt) someday! how wonderful of an opportunity that you were able to go there!

mary

 

[Katy Belle]

Day 6-Dec. 16 Epcot- Last Disney Day

OK, I'm back! I'm dreading the trip ending again and I'm afraid I don't remember many details from Day 6, but I will try. Mostly I'm writing this because my good buddy S and her daughters K & K in LA are e-mailing me and begging for me to finish!

We didn't take many pictures today, so I will try to figure out what we did. We want to remember it all!

We arrived at our usual time of somewhere between 9:30 & 10:30. We do understand the earlier the better, but it never seems to happen. The boys went to ride Test Track while I went to the Land and got Fast Passes for Soarin. First time on Test Track. Last trip it was broken down. I was surprised, none of my guys were very impressed. Matthew, 7, called it LAME! I didn't even know he knew that word! The line was long for it, so maybe that was the problem. When they came out we all rode Mission Space. Matthew, Nathan and I rode the spinning side and Jacob rode the non-spinning side with Scott. We saw the CM from the night before and waved. He recognized us even though we were tie-dye-free today. Great ride once again.

Time to ride Soarin. We lucked out and were in the front. Now, I must say, I am afraid of heights, I was truly scared on this. I am not scared on TOT, RRC, EE, really nothing, but this scared me. I was scared my boys were going to fall to their deaths, or worse yet, I was scared I was going to fall to MY death! I know, its a ride....but it felt real. It did scare me. I would probably do it again and I know my family would. I hope the lines eventually shorten, its ridiculous now.

Lunch time! We ate at Sunshine Seasons. First time here. We liked it. Good food, many choices. I had the chinese food. Very tasty. And Key Lime pie, not as good, very grainy. I think Scott and Jacob both had chicken Caesar Salads. They liked them. Nathan and Matthew both had mac-n-cheese. We paid OOP for one kids meal because we were to the end of our credits. It all went smoothly.

Full tummies and we are off to The Sea. Turtle Time was our top priority. We stood in line for about 15-20 min. The two youngest boys had a huge fight in line so we had to make a rule that they couldn't sit together in the show. They all sat on the carpet with all the other kiddos. WOW! That is an amazing show! We loved it. None of my kiddos got chosen to talk, but they still loved it. We will return on our next trip.

We went to Innoventions next. East, West, I have no clue! We did them both. I do remember that everyone had a good time and that I was VERY thirsty. I escaped by myself in search of diet coke. I found a cart with Diet Coke and cinnamon almonds. I ordered the coke OOP and the almonds as a snack credit. Their system was down or something and they had no way to charge the almonds to my card, so they gave them to me for free! That was nice! We like Innoventions. The boys played video games. They did the Fire House. They played a game that taught them about supply and demand. We did many things and it was all fun and mostly educational. My kids tend to enjoy anything that resembels a video game!

OK, Time for World Showcase. Guess what. I'm the only one excited about this. Maybe Scott, but they boys were not excited at ALL. I had to pull a guilt trip about making the vacation fun for all members of the family and thats what families do for each other...BLAH-BLAH-BLAH. They came along willingly, with the promise of spending snack credits. Ice Cream, beer, margarita, etc. and we are happy. We watched the 3 Kings in Mexico, tell the Christmas story. I really wanted to see a lot of story tellers, it was a big priority. We only saw the ones in Mexico. Oh well. I lived. They were great. Then we rode the Mexican Small World Ride. Its cute. And voted not as annoying as IASW by the troops. We also started the kid-cot masks. Scott sent me a postcard from Mexico where his head was on a marionette puppet. It is HILARIOUS. Do this! Most of the rest of World Showcase is a blur. I know the boys did the KidCot masks at many countries. OH, I know we ate at LeCellier.

YUM. Best Meal. The shrimp cocktail appetizer is THE BEST. Have it. Matthew ate part of mine, he loved it too. Jacob had the cheese soup. It was ok, tasted kind of like gravy to me He liked it. I think he dipped the breadsticks in it. Brian and I had steaks for dinner. YUM. They were great. Jacob had Grilled Pork Tenderloin and subbed cream cheese mashed potatoes for the sweet potatoes. Nathan and Matthew both had pasta, plain! Nathan LOVES steak. I was so surprised he chose pasta, but I think he was fooded out. He inhaled the pasta. Literally. Ate the huge helping in 2 minutes. Almost alarming. Everyone ate well. Scott and I had Canadian beer. We each had something different and tasted the others. We liked both of them. Then our wonderful waiter suggested we try more adventursome beers. We did. We shouldn't have. Couldn't even finish it. YUCK. We saved $ thanks to his suggestion and had room for another margarita from Mexico! Dessert. No cute desserts for kiddos without paying extra. So...we paid extra for one mousse, I gave Nathan my mousse and ate his ice cream and Jacob (the 11 yr old adult) ordered a mousse. Scott had the Maple Creme Brulee. Liked it, but would get something else next time. Great meal. Stuffed. Went to finish the World Showcase.

We didn't do much. Rode Malestrom. We love it! Jacob wanted to see the movie in the American Adventure, so DH took him and Nathan there while Matthew and I waited for SANTA CLAUS! Santa is hard to find in our Muslim Country. Seeing Santa at WDW was a great bonus for us. So we waited in line for him to arrive. When he showed up he brought Mrs. Claus. It was so cute. Matthew told them what he wanted, I snapped some good photos and away we went! Tired by this time we headed to POP.

End of Day 6. Almost End of Disney. I think the boys swam in the bowling pin pool again. I packed what I could and got set up for finishing laundry in the morning. DH had been working on-line with no problems at POP all week, but it wouldn't work today. He called someone from Disney Computer Land and they helped him, but it took a long time.

Blessings....
1. Soarin' and having boys braver than MOM!
2. Crush! Turtle Talk! Watching the boys.
3. Innoventions. Fun.
4. Margaritas.
5. Le Cellier.
6. Santa and Mrs. So sweet.

 

[Katy Belle]

Day 7, Dec. 17.

I woke up bright and early and did laundry. I felt the need to have most of it out of the way so we could enjoy our last 3 days and not worry about it. I must say, I ALMOST enjoyed doing laundry at POP. I made laundry room friends One guy had arrived the same day we did and was moving to HRH the same day we were and then flying home 3 days later, just like us. ALMOST creepy and ALMOST cool. I actually saw him at one of the Universal parks and at the airport. Small world!

I checked our print out of spending while in the laundry room. Yikes. I checked everything and found they'd charged us every day for a fridge. We had no fridge we requested no fridge, we were not paying for a fridge. Amazingly, all the other charges were actually ours . While waiting for the drier I ran to the lobby and explained to a CM my problem. He believed me and credited the bill. It took FOREVER. They were having all kinds of problems there. Someone finally showed him how to void them himself and he did it in front of me, but he had to do each day seperately. It took FOREVER. Then the printer wouldn't work. It took FOREVER to print it, but I felt I really needed it, just in case something else was messed up. Well, I was impatient. You know why right???...because I'm not IN A PARK!

I finally emerge from the lobby and finish the laundry, sprint to the room and madly pack everything. This was another time it was awesome to have two rooms. Ban the 3 boys to their (empty) room while I cram all the stuff into the suitcases. I had the CM at the desk call a taxi van for us, to arrive at 9:30. We got out there at 9:40. No van. None of the CMs out front knew anything about it. Finally a van showed up, not ours, but we took it anyway! We left POP about 9:50. I took less than 30 min to get to the Hard Rock Hotel. We happily paid our taxi dude and crawled out of the van.

Arriving at the Hard Rock Hotel is awesome. It just is. The luggage dudes are more like bouncers. Everyone seems very cool. Makes us cool too We were told our room would probably not be ready, which is what we were counting on, but we could check in and get our key so we could use Front of the Line privilages. That was my plan, I'm an informed Disser! Guess what...our room WAS ready! Yup, at 10:30 in the morning. So a nice bouncer dude took us on a short tour of the hotel and then to our room. This place is huge. You could easily get lost going to your room. I never did get lost, amazingly, but it seems very possible.

We liked the room We did not have the same feeling as when we stepped into POP. This place is nice. We have gotten a bit spoiled living overseas, you often times have to stay in 4 and 5 star places because everything else is too risky. Hard Rock felt familiar and happy! The only problem is 5 people in one room. They brought a roll-away and we were happy.

Now we've been in the room about 5 minutes and mom is impatient!! Lets get to a Park!!!! Load up the esentials for the day and depart. We took the water taxi because it was just too cool not too It took just a few minutes. Very nice. Then we walk the few steps to the entrance of Islands of Adventure. We were very excited about coming here. This was our first visit to Universal.

First impression, it felt more like Six Flags than Disney. Fair enough. We LIKE Six Flags Suess Landing First. Rode Cat in the Hat. Loved it. Very, very cute. Rode the Merry-Go-Round, me too. Even Jacob liked it, he could move the tounge or eyes or something (I forget) on his creature. cool. Then we visited the Grinch. He was Grinchy and funny. We took our own photo and it is dark . Oh well. Then we found some other Dr. Suess guys to pose with, I'm not sure who they are, but they were funny and cute too. Then we rode the Trolley Train Ride. Very fun. I could see my kiddos protesting Seuss Landing just like Fantasy Land if we ever return, they are getting OLD for some of this. I, on the other hand, am NOT.

Next we did Poseidon's Fury. This was great fun! We all liked it. I think we ate next. We ate at the Enchanted Oak Tavern. It was fine. I remember that we all liked it, but I don't remember what we had! Then straight onto Dueling Dragons. Yup, really, right after lunch. Matthew is still too small, so he and Scott hung out and waited for us. He was not too happy about that. Jacob, Nathan and I loved it! Rode it twice. Once of each color!! I did have a headache following, but that is all. I wish we would have returned and rode it again, it was really that great. While they waited Scott and Matthew rode The Flying Unicorn. Then we all rode it. I think 3 times. Matthew liked it, so did I.

Next on the map was Jurassic Park Discovery Center. I was almost afraid to go here. My boys go to things like this and want to spend the whole day there. Maybe because we've always gone to Childrens Museums, etc and spent whole days there. Anyway, I was afraid. I should have been. They loved it. We let them try it all for a good long while, then we forced them to move on. Mother is impatient!

Jurassic Park River Adventure is next. Wet, but not too wet, was what I was counting on. I was right. It was great! We did it twice. Purchased the photo on round 2. Maybe I will miraculously learn how to scan and post and you can see it too....maybe... Anyway, we liked it. Then Camp Jurrassic. The line for Pteranodon Flyers was long, so we just let the kids play in the camp for a while. They emerged...SOAKED. Really, really, dripping way wet, SOAKED. To give them credit...I had announced that now we were going to do all the wet rides and get wet, then go back to HRH and swim. But I had missed somehow in all my research that Camp Jurrasic had soaking capabilities. Apparently it does. Oh well. I did not fuss, we just dripped our way to the water rides.

Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls was first. Jacob had a slushie or something, so he waited for us while we rode. We were SOAKED but happy. It was great fun. We like any flume rides, but this was great, probably 2nd after Splash Mountain IMHO.Then I watched while the 4 guys went. They got even more soaked! Made for a drippy photo! Then we went and paid money to soak other people floating by on the ride. Yup, we are THOSE people who find it funny. Yup. Onto Popeye and Bluto's Blige-Rat Barges. Very fun, very wet. Onto Me Ship, The Olive. Here you can soak people floating by...for FREE. Yup, did it again. The boys enjoyed playing here. Even soaking wet.

Time to go. We dripped our way out. Scott purchased me a margarita from Margaritaville . Yum And onward to our water taxi to ride home to the Hard Rock Hotel. We changed out of our soaking wet clothes and into dry swimsuits! We went to the pool bar/restaurant and settled in to order before we hopped in the water. The boys and I enjoyed the pool but were disappointed at first because there was no underwater music! Luckily that changed as the evening went on and we were able to float on our backs and listen to rock-n-roll. We had a lot of fun on the slide. The food was ok, not great. We didn't go to bed hungry, so who can complain! We really liked just being there and hanging out.

Tucked everyone in and fell fast asleep.

Blessings
1. Hard Rock Hotel- it was just way cool and way cool for the boys to be there.
2. Riding Dueling Dragons with my two, big, brave boys.
3. Seeing my grinning kiddos emerge soaked from the playground.
4. DH buying me a Margaritaville Margarita.
5. The pool with the kids.
6. Another great day.

Katy