What's the Sitch? The Great Disney D-Tour! (12/19 Lego Tribute)

[mickeystoontown]

My son absolutely loves the Lego store too. We tried to figure out what the blue Lego guy was too. We finally decided he was a cool guy with dreadlocks listening to music. Probably a wrong guess, but that's what we said.

 

[thecapells]

My son absolutely loves the Lego store too. We tried to figure out what the blue Lego guy was too. We finally decided he was a cool guy with dreadlocks listening to music. Probably a wrong guess, but that's what we said.

Hey - it's as good a guess an any I suppose!

 

[thecapells]

We got back to the resort and parked once again in the little mini-lot next to our building (very convenient).
We got inside and started getting their Disney PJ’s on and then I noticed something.
“Where are your glasses?” I asked DS.
“I don’t know.”
Great.

And the backtracking began. We knew he had them at check-in but didn’t think he had them at DTD.
So I headed down to the All Star Lobby for treats and the Lost & Found.
I asked for a pair of glasses that were chewed on and sure enough they surfaced!
He had lost them hanging out watching TV in the All Star lobby while we checked in.
So I swung past the food court and grabbed some milk and Mickey Rice Krispie Treats using snack credits and headed back to the room.
After the “be more responsible” lecture (the glasses are still relatively new), the kids enjoyed their treats.

Mom said she would tuck them in as I was dying to explore.
Thanks Mom!

So I was on my own with my trusty camera and headed straight to Andy’s Room.
First up – the almighty Space Ranger shining brightly in the night.

Then I turned around and snapped away at his “pardner”

Then it was time to have some fun.
I headed to the Woody building and climbed the stairs for some “artistic shots”
I decided to get some “showdown” pics of the two icons.
First, from Woody’s view:

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And while I was up on the top floor, it was a nice time for some close-ups of the the snipers on the roof

Then it was back down the stairs and over to the Buzz Building.
But first, I had an empty Andy’s Room so I couldn’t resist the Mickey Checkers close-up:

Then, the “showdown” from Buzz’ point of view:
I really loved how these “showdown” pics turned out.

Followed by a shot of the courtyard

Lastly, a nice detail shot. If you notice the “books” on the shelf behind Woody, they are tributes.
This one is to Pixar’s first short, “Tin Toy”:

Then I headed back to the room drinking my chocolate milk (hey, Dad deserves a treat before bed too!).
And at night, you can really noticed the star theme…

So it’s off to bed as we try to sleep before our One Day Adventure in EPCOT!
Are you as excited as we were?
We have lots of surprises and new adventures in store so grab that popcorn and settle in!

 

[WrightFamily06]

Glad that you found DS glasses , that could have put an unwanted detour in your trip ! Love the night time pictures of All Star Movies , night time pictures are my fav ! The Showdown pictures are so creative , great job ! Can't wait to read all about your Epcot day , sounds like you and your family had a blast !

 

[thecapells]

Glad that you found DS glasses , that could have put an unwanted detour in your trip ! Love the night time pictures of All Star Movies , night time pictures are my fav ! The Showdown pictures are so creative , great job ! Can't wait to read all about your Epcot day , sounds like you and your family had a blast !

Yeah, I was a bit worried there about the glasses but I figured it just had t be in the lobby somewhere!

As for the "showdown" pics, I was having fun.
I'm glad you liked them - I thought they turned out pretty cool as well!

 

[eecteacher82]

Those pictures are awesome! You may have convinced me to book our February "mini-trip" at the All Stars instead of POP! I have to say, that I get excited when I see that you have posted a new part of your report! I finished up writing my newest post in our TR and hopped right over here to read yours! Keep up the great TR!

 

[3girls4me05]

I am telling my husband it is all your fault. Reading this report has given me the idea to plan one myself. I am heading down with my three children to Ft. Lauderdale in Febuary. Leave Friday AM (driving from MA :0 ) and will hit Orlando Saturday evening. Stay somehere (on or off?) and then suprise the kids with a trip to WDW on Sunday. Bonus reason? It will be my oldest daughter's 13th birthday! Where is there a better place on earth to spend your 13th birthday?

So keep up these great reports..you are giving me ideas!!!!

 

[thecapells]

Those pictures are awesome! You may have convinced me to book our February "mini-trip" at the All Stars instead of POP! I have to say, that I get excited when I see that you have posted a new part of your report! I finished up writing my newest post in our TR and hopped right over here to read yours! Keep up the great TR!

I'm glad you're enjoying it!
I'll have to head over and check yours out!

I am telling my husband it is all your fault. Reading this report has given me the idea to plan one myself. I am heading down with my three children to Ft. Lauderdale in Febuary. Leave Friday AM (driving from MA :0 ) and will hit Orlando Saturday evening. Stay somehere (on or off?) and then suprise the kids with a trip to WDW on Sunday. Bonus reason? It will be my oldest daughter's 13th birthday! Where is there a better place on earth to spend your 13th birthday?

So keep up these great reports..you are giving me ideas!!!!

Glad to assist and I'll take full responsibility for your upcoming trip!
I should see if Disney will give me royalties!
Let me know if you need any help planning - as you can tell, I love this stuff!

 

[thecapells]

The phone rings.
It’s early.
I reach my hand out and pick it up.
“Good Morning! Noooo Sleeping!! HA HA HA HA!!”
I realize it’s Stitch and the smile creeps across my face.
I can hear the kids giggling as they heard it too.
**WE’RE IN DISNEY WORLD!!**

We scramble out of bed and get showered and dressed.
This trip is merely a detour so we only get one day and we want it to count.
By 7:00, the kids are sitting at a booth at the World Premiere Food Court.
Mom was finishing up prepping for the day with X while I headed out early with the two older ones.
We ordered counter service breakfast on the Dining Plan (only regular this time, not Deluxe).
After piles of eggs, pancakes, bacon, and biscuits, we all filled up and couldn’t even finish.
Then it was out to the buses by 7:30.
A bus appeared right away (as opposed to the night before) and we were off to EPCOT!

Upon arrival, we were so excited.
We explained to the kids that it was the Flower & Garden Festival this time (our last trip was the Food & Wine Festival).
DD was excited because that meant pretty flowers and topiaries.
DS asked “Why do we keep going during Festivals?”
I explained that one was a spring festival and one was a fall festival.
Furthermore, their school vacations corresponded to these seasons so voila! Festivals.
However I did mention that when we come back for X’s 4th Birthday in February 2011, there will be no festival.
DS was very excited about that answer.

And so we arrived at the gates to EPCOT about 8:15 or so.
The park opens at 9:00.
With the bus fiasco the night before, we wanted to make sure we had enough time.
And I had planned to spend any extra time changing my Magic Your Way Ticket into an Annual Pass!! YEAH ME!
I had a conference scheduled in Orlando the following month and figured I could swing by in the evenings to wander the world solo!
I was very excited as I’ve never gone solo before and it would be an entirely new experience.
But that’s for the next trip report.

Before I was able to wander over to the ticket counter, a CM announced that they would let us in early.
They said we would be able take pictures of the Cinderellabration topiaries at the entrance to the park while we waited until 9:00.
I could live with that!
The turnstiles started moving and we wandered in.
Welcome to the 2009 Flower and Garden Festival!

DD, in her adorable little Minnie dress (props to Mom once again) was ecstatic as the first thing she saw was the topiary princesses!!

The Cinderellabration topiaries were actually really nicely done.
I tried having fun with this one framing the shot with the monorail:

After Cinderella, DD ran over to Snow White

I had to get DS into some pictures so I convinced him that the dwarves weren’t too “girly”

Aurora and Prince Phillip were next

And then I had to get the iconic Spaceship Earth.
I really like these pictures:

And, of course, we couldn’t forget little X making his "Bashful" face.
Yeah right.

There were more topiaries as part of the Cinderellabration display but the CM’s only allowed us on this side.
We soon found out why.
To our surprise, the CM announced that we were now experiencing a Magical Moment.
And the 1st 60 guests at EPCOT today were going to get a chance to ride Soarin’ before the park opens!
HOW COOL IS THAT!?!?!?!

This worked especially nice into my schedule as now we’d finish Soarin’ and be on to other attractions before anyone else entered the park.
The funniest thing about this was that it was no longer Year of a Million Dreams and we didn’t win anything last year.
But this was the perfect prize for us as Soarin’ is the family’s favorite ride in all of Walt Disney World!!
So, the CM led us to rope drop and said we had to wait a bit there.
We were excited! So excited that DS announced he had to use the restroom.
UGH!

So DS and I ran back to the nearest restroom (alongside Spaceship Earth).
And then we ran all the way back.
Luckily, we made it back in time.
So much so, that I noticed we had time for an Empty Park picture of a great topiary:

I never can resist.
Several more groups caught up with us at rope drop and once we hit the magic number, the CM’s led the happy crowd toward The Land pavilion.
Come back soon and Soar with us!

 

[WrightFamily06]

Love all the pictures w/ SE and the Topiary's and your family ! How cool that you got to ride Soarin before the park opened , what a magical moment . Can't wait to see your Soarin pictures , since that's as close as I'll ever get to riding it , I have severe motion sickness , so no Soarin for this girl ! LOL

 

[dawnbu40]

YAY for a Magical Moment! That must have been cool to be allowed to ride before opening! I love the topiary pics! Epcot is so beautiful during the Flower Fest!

 

[3girls4me05]

I am so jealous! Soarin' is our favorite ride too! I can not leave that ride without having just a completely happy feeling come over me. I love it (as do my children).
What a great surprise.

I will totally take you up on your offer to help plan our surprise mini trip for my DD's birthday. Shall I PM you?

 

[thecapells]

YAY for a Magical Moment! That must have been cool to be allowed to ride before opening! I love the topiary pics! Epcot is so beautiful during the Flower Fest!

It was a blast!
And the topiaries were really cool - it was our first Flower & Garden Festival!

I am so jealous! Soarin' is our favorite ride too! I can not leave that ride without having just a completely happy feeling come over me. I love it (as do my children).
What a great surprise.

I will totally take you up on your offer to help plan our surprise mini trip for my DD's birthday. Shall I PM you?

Soarin' is great! And there's even more Soarin' surprises on the way!
As for planning, definitely PM me!

 

[thecapells]

Have I mentioned that this is just the greatest ride in all of Walt Disney World?

So we parked the stroller and then merged with the crowds – unfortunately the stroller parking put us towards the back but no worries!
We checked in at the entrance and asked for the Rider Swap Pass.
I took the kids ahead while Mom played with X.
We headed down the queue and were essentially bouncing down the hallway we were so excited!
Now I have a question for all of you.
I’ve heard lots about Soarin’s interactive queue but I’ve never actually seen it.
Does it not exist in the Fastpass lane?
We either get there first thing or use Fastpass and both times they send you down the Fastpass lane.
The only thing we see are the weird landscapes that DD made me take pics of this time around:

And then, at the end of the hallway, we see the sign and know the ride is just around the corner.

The family in front of us had a little boy but were first timers.
DD and DS told them it was the best ride and I assured the parents they would love it.
Finally, we arrived at the little loading areas and waited for ours to fill.
I realized this was a perfect time for a picture of course so I asked our new friends to snap a shot:

Once we were seated and buckled in, I took some more.
You can tell by these just how excited we were for the ride to start!

A CM was even nice enough to take a shot of all of us! You gotta love Disney:

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Anyone notice the discoloring on the seats where people's heads go? I never noticed that before.

Then I put the camera away and got ready to enjoy.
The room went dark, we lifted up, and the music kicked in.
AAAAHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Can I stay here?
Can’t you just hear it?
I’ve since found the ride audio (with sound effects) and I’ve set my iPod Alarm Clock to wake me up with it everyday.
It definitely puts a smile on your face.

When we landed, we were all bouncing once again.
I took my time unstrapping the kids and we mentioned to our new friends how we think this is the best ride in all of Walt Disney World.
I must’ve been loud or a CM must’ve been close because she asked me if we’d like to ride again.
I stopped for a second and didn’t quite understand.
OF COURSE I WOULD - WHAT A SILLY QUESTION!
I asked the kids if they want to go 3 times (since they owed Mom a ride) and they said “yes”.
The new riders were just strapping in and the CM led us to a row with 3 empty seats astayed on!!!
The Magic Moment just keeps going!!

When it was over, we rushed down the exit hall to find Mom very confused as to what took us so long.
I tried to explain but Mom was mad and frustrated because the park just opened and people were swarming into Soarin’.
So she quickly headed down the runway with the kids for their 3rd trip before the line grew too long.
I was walking on air but had stuff to do.
So I grabbed X and headed for the strollers.
I popped him in and went straight into Innoventions.
Stopping by the Kim Possible kiosk, I asked the CM if they can make sure we get sent to Norway for instructions as we will be right there at 11:00.
They helped me out and soon we had a Kim Possible assignment for 11:00 at Norway.

Next stop – Guest Relations.
With X still in the stroller, I upgraded my ticket to an Annual Pass.
They credited my account with the price of the one-day ticket and they sold me an Annual Pass after applying the credit.
I was surprised that the ticket is not plastic but a simple paper ticket.
Seems too easy to lose or destroy but, hey, it works and I was psyched.
I made my way back to The Land pavilion and I wheeled X around the outside checking out the sights and letting him watch the monorail.
He looooooves the monorail. He calls it the “monorail choo choo.”

Soon after Mom appeared and everyone was still excited.
I finally got the chance to explain what happened earlier and how I couldn’t turn that offer down.
She agreed and all was well (although now she was jealous).
It was still only about 9:30 and the kids had already done Soarin’ THREE TIMES!!

What a way to start the morning!
But before we left, I needed our lovely model to pose for us:

Any guesses as to what’s next on our list?

 

[All7OfUs]

What a fantastic way to open the day at EPCOT!! What a cool surprise!

Glad Mom wasnt' too mad!

So, you went with the AP; that means more TRs for us!! I like win-win situations!

Look at your last pic. with your supermodel. Is that a Hidden Mickey they made with the rocks and lights?? I can't tell as the angle is a little tweaked.

So, you're off to a great morning!

 

[thecapells]

What a fantastic way to open the day at EPCOT!! What a cool surprise!

Glad Mom wasnt' too mad!

So, you went with the AP; that means more TRs for us!! I like win-win situations!

Look at your last pic. with your supermodel. Is that a Hidden Mickey they made with the rocks and lights?? I can't tell as the angle is a little tweaked.

So, you're off to a great morning!

Yeah, it was awesome!
And, yes the AP means several more trips!
As I mentioned I did the conference trip a month later in May (TR forthcoming).
And we are now prepping for our Pirate Adventure 10/30-11/4 including our 1st No-So-Scary Halloween Party!

As for the Hidden Mickey, I don't think it is although that would've been pretty cool!

 

[WrightFamily06]

Great pictures of you and the kiddies in and on Soarin ! How magical that they got to ride 3 times ! Congrats on the AP Can't wait to hear about the rest of your day at Epcot. I'm guessing you did Nemo next ???

 

[meeko_33785]

Great pictrues of All Star at night. It looks really nice with all the lights on it.

Soarin' 3 times in a row? Can't top that, can you?

The CMs at the Kim Possible kiosks were really accomidating for us too. Out ticket had us having to be at Italy at 11am (which is pretty much impossible since it's in the middle of the walk and World Showcase doesn't open until 11) and we had lucn ADRs in France. The CMs were so greatat being able to change the reservation to something that would be better. Really makes things easier.

 

[TheCapellsMom]

After dropping the 3 BIG KIDS off at the entrance to Soarin, I pocketed my Rider Swap pass.
The CM said the ride would be at least 15 minutes so I figured I would let X burn some energy running around the pavilion.
We went up the ramps and back down at least 10 times, then counted the fastpass machines over and over again…
Eventually the first batch of riders came out of the Soarin exit.
My guys were not in that group. Oh Great!
So, with at least 15 MORE minutes to kill, I decided to check and sure enough, The Land boat ride was open- and it was deserted.
So, we got a seat in the front row of an empty boat and off we went!

Now, don’t laugh but I am a total bio-geek and this has always been one of my favorite rides!
But - riding it with a wiggly 2 year old makes it difficult to enjoy!
He thought the farm animals and prairie dogs were cool (we went through all the animals sounds he knows).

After that, he was ready to disembark.
I guess agricultural experiments are just not so exciting for a toddler (or 99% of the adults I know for that matter)!
But I thought the neat mutant-sized fruits and veggies were Fab!
I took a picture of the pineapples growing because I knew the kids would be surprised to see the size/shape/type of plant they come from.

Also snapped the sunflowers because they are always so happy looking.

See- I told ya I am a bio-geek!
Once we hit the aquaculture rooms, X was a little more interested.
We took a pic of DH’s favorite fish (He likes them for dinner I mean- not for house-pets).

I could have taken the boat loop around a couple more times to get a better look at a few of the more exotic plants,
but I knew that X had reached his limit so we disembarked and went back to wait for our Soarin’ family to come back.
Of course, I had no idea that we would have to wait yet another 20 minutes- and BOY WAS I PISSED!
The Epcot gates had opened and the place was flooding with people jostling for spaces on the Soarin line or the fastpass lines!
X was getting very antsy and was desperately trying to run away and get lost in the crowd.
I kept watching groups of people file out of the Soarin exit but not MY people!
I was just about to call DH’s cell phone when they finally appeared.
Apparently, they were given the chance to ride the ride a second time right after the first.
I don’t blame them for jumping at that chance, but it did take me a few minutes and a few deep breaths to put me back in a good mood...

Riding Soarin' with the kids definitely helped:

 

[WrightFamily06]

Nice pictures of the Land ! I also enjoy that ride very much I would have been heated if it took my family that long to come off Soarin also but would have done just like you and took a couple of min. and cooled off !