Why, My Little Guppy Has Groupies! - A Dec. 2013 TR *Completed

[amazingact21]

Yes, crazy that we were that close! Of course, we didn't get in until the evening and basically just checked in and had dinner and went to bed (well, and Dug to the MK). Not a lot of opportunity.

Maybe we will overlap again, though! I'm sure Izzy and Landon would hit it off. Though she may want to steal his glasses, since they are clearly awesome toys in her eyes.

She would not be the first kid to do that. Pretty much all of Landon's friends are constantly pulling his glasses off. Some of the ones he's known since he was an infant are used to them, but then there are a few that can't resist the urge to tug at 'em.

 

[amazingact21]

I don't know about anyone else, but I always end up with a depressingly small number of pictures the last day of a Disney trip. I guess by that point I've had enough with lugging the camera around on my neck and just want to focus on soaking up that last bit of Disney magic. Either way, I apologize now for how few photos are going to be in the upcoming updates.



Saturday, December 7th, 2013:

Before leaving on for this December trip, I'd reserved tentative Fastpasses that afternoon for Epcot. I wasn't really sure what our plans were going to be since nine times out of ten our last day is based on what goals we haven't gotten accomplished yet.

Since nobody piped up with anything different, I got us all onto the monorail and then over to the Epcot one.

I'm not saying I love how easy it is to jump between those two parks, but it is pretty nice. It's almost become a must-do attraction for me.


Normally, I'd have a beautiful shot of the Epcot globe at this point in my update, but like I said, Final Day Slacking.

You'll just have to picture that big beautiful ball in your head for now. Sorry.


Between the ride over and the long walk to the entrance of the park, Landon had been lulled into another nap and since it was essential he be awake for our first Fastpass, we decided to hit up an attraction with constantly low wait times.



Such a simple attraction yet still so fun to ride.


The only photo I even tried to get on this was at the loading station.



And it's of a very confused Grandma.

Don't judge, Ma, I love these pink little clamshells and have to memorialize them.



After visiting Nemo and his pals, we wandered over to the aquarium.
PITA got a prime viewing location:



Yep. That's right. Barely have an pics of my son or my husband, but I managed to get an incredibly dark shot of the diaper bag.

You're welcome.




Last May, my mom had a wonderful viewing experience with the dolphins that are in the tanks. They were playing and swimming around and being extremely social, so my mother was really looking forward to seeing them again.

Unfortunately, when we got there the tank they inhabited was completely empty.

"Where are they?! Disney's hiding them from me!"

A Cast Member walked up then and regretfully informed my mother that the dolphins weren't out at that time. They'd actually been "behind closed doors" that whole week. The Cast Member didn't say why, just that we were not going to get to see them.

Not the best start to my mom's final Epcot experience.



We left soon after that, and I finally got my head in the game and took a photo of Spaceship Earth.



There.
I'd have to be sick or something to completely skip a shot of that beauty. Even if it does have a palm tree in the way.



Landon has a tendency to wake up grumpy and hungry from his afternoon naps, so Alex took us inside the Innovations building to find a cool place to sit and let the baby perk up some.

It was a brilliant idea, because Landon found a fire truck and began freaking out over all the nobs and switches.

It was like Baby Heaven up in Innovations.



He was having a field day, and guests walking by got a kick out of hearing his little baby squeals of joy. Leave it to my kid to find the most ordinary thing in Disney to get excited over.

I had to be the bad guy, though, and tear him away from his cool new toy. It was time to use our Fastpasses!


A staple in every kid's first Disney trip is to meet the main man himself.

Ahem, I guess I should say the main mouse.

The iconic figure of Walt Disney World.

The leader of the Fab Five group.

The one and only Mickey Mouse!


I mean, how could I NOT take Landon to meet Mickey? It would have been criminal to skip such an integral Disney moment. I needed to start that lifelong friendship between him and Mickey as early as possible.

So to the Character Spot my family went!

When we got to the Fastpass entrance, both my band and Alex's turned green like normal, but my mother's lit up with that ominous blue color.

Uh oh.


The Cast Member scanned her band and then said that my mom didn't have a Fastpass for the meet and greet.

An even bigger Uh Oh.



Let me back paddle here for a second and explain that way, way, way back on Day 2, when my mom had such horrible issues with linking her tickets to MDE, the Cast Member at Guest Services only linked one of her two sets of park tickets. She told us that it would only allow her to do one set at a time.

So the night before, Alex signed on to my mom's account and added her second ticket. In doing that, none of us realized that when the Cast Member deleted that second ticket, it also got rid of all my mom's Fastpasses.

Nooooooo!



And standing at the entrance to the character meet and greets, that realization hit us all at the same time.

My mom simply turned to us and went, "Crap."

Luckily, the Cast Member who scanned her band was unbelievably nice and allowed my mom to go through with us.

It wasn't like we were trying to sneak her onto Space Mountain or something, where each human being accounts for a seat. This was a character meet; what was one more person in a group going to hurt?

I'm so happy that Cast Member understood that and gave my mom a free ride. We'd all have hated for her to miss Landon's first interaction with Mickey Mouse.

Especially since it was a fantastic one!



Thank you, Photopass, for capturing such an iconic moment.


Landon couldn't take his eyes off Mickey.



Mickey! Yoo-hoo! Hey, Mickey, over here!



At that point, I thought that'd be it, and we'd have to move on, but nope. Mickey kneeled down and got on eye level with Landon. To say Landon was ecstatic would be an understatement.

I'm pretty sure my kid was in love.

The start of a beautiful friendship.



Mickey tried to get me to let go of the baby so my arms would be out of the way, but Landon had barely mastered standing at that point, and I just wasn't comfortable with that, so Mickey just had to deal with it.



There are a couple photos from this trip that just scream Disney to me, and that one is one of them. I was completely overcome with how great Landon's first interaction with Mickey went, and that selfish part of me is grateful to have taken away such a memorable picture.

I already can't wait to get another one and compare how much he grew between visits.

Landon and Mickey Mouse through the years...

It should also come as no surprise to me that Mickey is now Landon.s favorite character. He FREAKS OUT when someone starts singing Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and he has this plastic mouse toy that he carries around with him all day long. His father's attempt to persuade him over the duck side has failed. He's a mouse man through and through.



Regretfully, we had to bid Mickey ado and moved on to good 'ol Goofy.



He liked Goofy, but he didn't take any special interest in him, either. And of course, Goofy doesn't hold a candle to Dad when he's being, well- goofy.



There was one funny moment right before we left when Alex held Landon up to eye level with Goofy.



The character handler began belting out with Lion King music. You know, the scene where Rafiki holds Simba up on top of Pride Rock.
A few other guests behind us chirped in, too, so we had a little chorus going.
It was highly amusing; one of those things you only get at Disney World.


I'm not sure if Landon was charactered out or if he was just disappointed to see a mouse that wasn't Mickey, but his Minnie interaction was boring.

Minnie tried her best, but my kid was spent. That was his LET ME GOOOOO squirm, and far be it for us as his parents to keep him in an uncomfortable situation any longer than necessary.



We hightailed it to the exit and then proceeded to sit down in the empty hallway for a bit to try and figure out the Fastpass situation.


Under normal circumstances, we wouldn't have cared too much about the MDE erasing my mom's reservations, but unfortunately, my mother was starting to get really bummed out.

She'd had a Fastpass for a very favorite attraction lined up, and she was afraid she wouldn't be able to ride it.

I tried to go in and make a completely new reservation, but the attraction in question was Soarin...

And anybody with any Disney experience whatsoever can guess how an attempt at procuring that at 3:30 in the afternoon went.

Not well.

Not well at all.


Between the cold medicine my mom was still taking, the crowd madness from MVMCP, Dinosaur being down, and the dolphins absent from the Seas, my mom was becoming seriously depressed. One look at her and you could tell the Disney magic was completely, 100% gone, and she was simply ready to go back home.

Well, we couldn't let her trip end on such a sour note, so Alex and I took her over to a Fastpass Kiosk by the Pin Traders store to talk to someone.

Due to the nature of our situation, the Cast Member who came up to help was unaware of how to proceed, so she took us inside Innovations, to a manager.


The manager was a little reluctant to help us at first. She thought we were trying to swindle our way onto Soarin' or something. But Alex persisted and eventually she got to a part of the site that actually showed that up until the 2nd of December, my mom did in fact have reservations for the ride.

It then took a lot more tweaking and system navigating before the lady got my mom a pass fairly close to Alex and I's time.


I would not say the manager was overtly friendly and/or helpful. Alex tried to be reasonable and give that, "Look, I know this is a new system and everyone's learning how to use it" but she wasn't even acting like she wanted to help. So, Alex did have to get snippy with her once, but c'mon. It was that crazy Cast Member at the Epcot ticket booth that messed this thing up in the first place. We'd followed the rules and did everything Disney and My Disney Experience wanted.

We played the MDE game; it wasn't our fault it messed up.


Overall, it was stressful, slightly irritating, and just not a fun way to spend forty minutes of our day. If you had asked me right then what I thought of the new system, I wouldn't have given a glowing response. But, as we walked back into the lovely FL sunshine, we all agreed we needed to shake the ordeal off.

Yes, MDE had eaten up yet another chunk of our Epcot time. And yes, we had to go through a lot of unnecessary trouble.

But it was what it was. No use crying over spilled milk. We all figured we could use a bit of chilling out, so my mom and I headed over to Starbucks for some coffee therapy.



I got to encounter one of those hilariously unfortunate name moments, where the barista (Cast Member?) didn't know how to pronounce my name and had that deer in headlights look of confusion and fear on her face.

"Ah-lish? Ah-leesh? Ah-lease-ia?"

I ran up to the counter to save her any more pain.
The look of gratitude I got was highly amusing.

Don't worry Epcot Starbucks Cast Member. You aren't the first to fumble.
Nor shall you be the last.

(And in case any of you were dying of curiosity, it's the Ah-Leesh-Ah pronunciation.)

Coffee in hands, it was time for Alex to get a bit of a break. Do I even need to say where we headed to?

If you guessed MouseGears, you'd be correct.

Except my mom and I were shopped out. We couldn't do it. Not for the hundredth time that week.

So we stood around here and listened to the Gospel Band perform. (Why is the group name escaping me right now?!) We finished up our drinks while Alex was inside, and by then it was time to use the hard earned Fastpass.




Up Next: We're Late, We're Late, For a Very Important Date

 

[khertz]

Props to y'all for attempting MK on parade taping day! I thought about it on our '09 Christmas trip, but ultimately decided to avoid it. Despite the many reassurances of the DISers on the Theme Parks board that the rest of the park would be "empty," I imagined it much as you are describing. So I'm glad we skipped it!

I can't BELIEVE none of you had ever been on PeopleMover!!! It's such a great attraction! I'm glad you all enjoyed it, though. It's definitely a little slice of heaven, especially on a crowded day!

 

[IheartDDuck]

I too always end up with less pictures the further into the trip I get. Right out the gate first few days I'm all up in everyone's face like "smile!" End of the trip, I'm floating down a river called denial.

The Spaceship Earth picture is nice with the palm tree. It's like SE has bangs.

That's great that the CM let your Mom in. I can't believe that happened though! Ugh.

That meet and greet with Mickey is just perfect! Landon's face when Mickey is kneeling down next to him is just perfection.

Landon's face with Goofy though is like "yeah okay, NEXT!"

Wow, I didn't think the pronunciation of your name was that hard. I always get Daniel. Yup. Not a dude people. Not.....a......dude.

 

[dtr_angel]

I'm all caught up, sorry I haven't replied in so long! Happy belated Birthday! Spending your birthday in Disney must be awesome, I cannot wait to do it in December. Looking forward to reading about your May & August trips. Glad you were able to get some more mileage out of your AP!

I love the pictures of Landon meeting Mickey, I can practically hear him squealing! I love that the PP was able to capture that moment. We’ve always pre-ordered the CD and this past trip we did Memory Maker. It was the first time they lost photos (and we didn’t have any of them use our camera) and I was super upset and didn’t think I’d use it again. Well, looking at our pictures from the character meets at Sesame Place and I realized how valuable having them capture those moments are.

 

[marDgreen88]

I've been such a terrible commenter lately, and I feel so bad! I've still been reading and enjoying though!

Wow, the Christmas parade taping sounds insane! My goodness. I'm sure it would be cool to see, but I have to wonder if it was worth it for the people who spent their entire day on Main Street with the hopes of seeing themselves on tv... I'm thinking nope! Hahaha

I hope y'all have had better experiences with MDE since then. That sounds like such an ordeal... Your poor mother.

On the bright side, those pictures of Landon with Mickey are absolutely ADORABLE!!

P.S. Edited to add that I'm pretty sure the gospel group is called 'Joyful!'

 

[Dugette]

Aw, too bad that your mom was having such a rough day!

Glad Landon was able to wake up to such a fun toy/fire truck!

So glad the CM let your mom into the Character Spot. I was thinking, as I read, that it wouldn't hurt anyone to do so (unless your mom was a real photo-hog, maybe), and it would be awful if she missed Landon's first Mickey meet.

Yay for how well it went! That baby joy is just the best! Coincidentally, tonight Izzy and I were watching videos from her first trip (she'd never seen them) and she was really enjoying seeing her own first character meets - so different from this last trip, though - very much baby joy vs. toddler love. Love all those pics of Landon with his hero Mickey.

Don't worry about the lack of love for Minnie - Izzy made up for that. Poor Goofy got left in the dust the second she spotted Minnie over there.

Good that your mom's FP+ situation got sorted out, but what a huge, obnoxious pain!

Wow, and I thought your name was an easy one.

 

[MEK]

I missed the gospel band, but I heard they were really good.

Oh NOOOOOO! Your poor mom. That stinks. I am glad that it all worked out, but talk about stress. And - when she is clearly part of your party and her FP is missing but yours aren't, well come on! Show a little love.

It's pretty clear that Landon only has eyes for Mickey. He is so NOT into the other characters! Despite that, every single picture is adorable!

It looks like an overall fun day despite no dolphins and FP issues. Hope your mom is happier after a ride on Soarin!

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

You know, I actually do also have very few pictures (relatively speaking) on the final day. I imagine it's pretty common.

That is something I need to do this coming trip that I've neglected for a while. Monorail into Epcot.

Oy the dreaded blue Mickey. I am way too familiar with him. So awesome of the CM to let her pass.

Awwww that is going to be a set of photos to look back on years from now. There's nothing better than the very first visit with Mickey.

Phew, I've been saying your name right all along.

 

[Marsheliz]

Aww- Nemo is my favorite at Epcot and my boys' favorite!!

Love the pics of Landon with the Mouse!! And I love the one with him smiling at Alex. Pure Disney sweetness!

I just don't understand the whole fastpass thing anyways.. Like what is one extra person going to do? Seriously!

I didnt know there was Starbucks at Epcot! Learn something new every day!

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

That had to have been stressful for all of you with your mom's FP situation. Ugh. This is why I am super paranoid that when we go in October and I go to guest services to upgrade our park passes to APs, something will go wrong and wipe out our existing FPs.

Innoventions has so many fun things for young children! We've been visiting there pretty much every trip for our kids.

 

[afwdwfan]

I’m not saying I love how easy it is to jump between those two parks, but it is pretty nice. It’s almost become a must-do attraction for me.

I absolutely love it. The teaser view of Future World as you loop through on your way into the station makes that a mandatory monorail ride for me at some point in the trip.

Normally, I’d have a beautiful shot of the Epcot globe at this point in my update, but like I said, Final Day Slacking.

You've taken the picture before. Don't need one every day. I totally get it. You've got to take some time to just enjoy things.

A Cast Member walked up then and regretfully informed my mother that the dolphins weren’t out at that time. They’d actually been “behind closed doors” that whole week. The Cast Member didn’t say why, just that we were not going to get to see them.

That's too bad. Sorry she missed out on them.

It was a brilliant idea, because Landon found a fire truck and began freaking out over all the nobs and switches.


It was like Baby Heaven up in Innovations.

Baby sensory overload.

I mean, how could I NOT take Landon to meet Mickey? It would have been criminal to skip such an integral Disney moment.

Absolutely!

In doing that, none of us realized that when the Cast Member deleted that second ticket, it also got rid of all my mom’s Fastpasses.

Seriously... it is there flawed system. Can't they do anything to help people out when it screws them over???

Luckily, the Cast Member who scanned her band was unbelievably nice and allowed my mom to go through with us.

It wasn’t like we were trying to sneak her onto Space Mountain or something, where each human being accounts for a seat. This was a character meet; what was one more person in a group going to hurt?

Common sense for the win!

There are a couple photos from this trip that just scream Disney to me, and that one is one of them. I was completely overcome with how great Landon’s first interaction with Mickey went, and that selfish part of me is grateful to have taken away such a memorable picture.

That is fantastic! I'm glad that Landon and Mickey got along so well. And thankful for that CM who let your mom join the fun.

She’d had a Fastpass for a very favorite attraction lined up, and she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to ride it.

I tried to go in and make a completely new reservation, but the attraction in question was Soarin’.


And anybody with any Disney experience whatsoever can guess how an attempt at procuring that at 3:30 in the afternoon went.

Geeze... I mean you had the FP and they deleted it! Come on! They should be able to do something about it! That is so frustrating.

I would not say the manager was overtly friendly and/or helpful. Alex tried to be reasonable and give that, “Look, I know this is a new system and everyone’s learning how to use it” but she wasn’t even acting like she wanted to help. So, Alex did have to get snippy with her once, but c’mon. It was that crazy Cast Member at the Epcot ticket booth that messed this thing up in the first place. We’d followed the rules and did everything Disney and My Disney Experience wanted.


We played the MDE game; it wasn’t our fault it messed up.

Absolutely! I hate that it was so difficult for you, but I'm glad that they finally did something to help. I mean with the way this system rolled out, I'm sure the CMs who deal with it were probably somewhat frustrated with getting this kind of story from people, but you'd also think that it was something they'd seen enough to have some sort of plan/policy in place to take care of it.

 

[amazingact21]

Props to y'all for attempting MK on parade taping day! I thought about it on our '09 Christmas trip, but ultimately decided to avoid it. Despite the many reassurances of the DISers on the Theme Parks board that the rest of the park would be "empty," I imagined it much as you are describing. So I'm glad we skipped it!

I can't BELIEVE none of you had ever been on PeopleMover!!! It's such a great attraction! I'm glad you all enjoyed it, though. It's definitely a little slice of heaven, especially on a crowded day!

Yeah, I wouldn't recommend going to MK on parade taping day to anyone. It's amazing how many people Main Street can hold at any given time. Having that huge pathway blocked really congested the other lands.


Shameful, I know. I have no idea why we'd never done it before, but I'm definitely glad we changed that in December.

I too always end up with less pictures the further into the trip I get. Right out the gate first few days I'm all up in everyone's face like "smile!" End of the trip, I'm floating down a river called denial.

The Spaceship Earth picture is nice with the palm tree. It's like SE has bangs.

That's great that the CM let your Mom in. I can't believe that happened though! Ugh.

That meet and greet with Mickey is just perfect! Landon's face when Mickey is kneeling down next to him is just perfection.

Landon's face with Goofy though is like "yeah okay, NEXT!"

Wow, I didn't think the pronunciation of your name was that hard. I always get Daniel. Yup. Not a dude people. Not.....a......dude.

I guess by the end of the trip we want to make sure we're enjoying Disney, not spending time behind a camera/phone? don't know...


Haha, I thought the same thing about the palm tree.


Landon's reaction to Mickey was like textbook style. Complete awe and joy.
Now in May...not so much.

Really? Daniel? I guess it takes all kinds.

I'm all caught up, sorry I haven't replied in so long! Happy belated Birthday! Spending your birthday in Disney must be awesome, I cannot wait to do it in December. Looking forward to reading about your May & August trips. Glad you were able to get some more mileage out of your AP!

I love the pictures of Landon meeting Mickey, I can practically hear him squealing! I love that the PP was able to capture that moment. We’ve always pre-ordered the CD and this past trip we did Memory Maker. It was the first time they lost photos (and we didn’t have any of them use our camera) and I was super upset and didn’t think I’d use it again. Well, looking at our pictures from the character meets at Sesame Place and I realized how valuable having them capture those moments are.

When Alex found out he was deploying it was 2 weeks after we got back home and we were like, "but we JUST bought Annual Passes!" So we were determined to at least break even on them before he left.


I haven't tried Memory Maker yet, and I'm worried about the losing pictures thing, as well. I've heard it happens a lot. And if I'm shelling out that kind of money, I want all of them!

 

[amazingact21]

I've been such a terrible commenter lately, and I feel so bad! I've still been reading and enjoying though!

Wow, the Christmas parade taping sounds insane! My goodness. I'm sure it would be cool to see, but I have to wonder if it was worth it for the people who spent their entire day on Main Street with the hopes of seeing themselves on tv... I'm thinking nope! Hahaha

I hope y'all have had better experiences with MDE since then. That sounds like such an ordeal... Your poor mother.

On the bright side, those pictures of Landon with Mickey are absolutely ADORABLE!!

P.S. Edited to add that I'm pretty sure the gospel group is called 'Joyful!'

Glad to see you Marissa! Just saw your meet and gree in Kristy's TR. Are you writing one for your trip in May? I'm guessing not, but can't hurt to ask. AND I see you're going back for MNSSHP. Awesome! Hope you have a lot of fun.


And yes, MDE has gotten WAY better since this trip. The entire system was still so new that a lot of the kinks hadn't been worked out yet. I mean, this was back when FP had JUST moved to MDE and people with annual passes could still pull paper tickets.
I'm so glad it's gotten better since then.

I think you're right about the gospel band name! Joyful Noise?

Aw, too bad that your mom was having such a rough day!

Glad Landon was able to wake up to such a fun toy/fire truck!

So glad the CM let your mom into the Character Spot. I was thinking, as I read, that it wouldn't hurt anyone to do so (unless your mom was a real photo-hog, maybe), and it would be awful if she missed Landon's first Mickey meet.

Yay for how well it went! That baby joy is just the best! Coincidentally, tonight Izzy and I were watching videos from her first trip (she'd never seen them) and she was really enjoying seeing her own first character meets - so different from this last trip, though - very much baby joy vs. toddler love. Love all those pics of Landon with his hero Mickey.

Don't worry about the lack of love for Minnie - Izzy made up for that. Poor Goofy got left in the dust the second she spotted Minnie over there.

Good that your mom's FP+ situation got sorted out, but what a huge, obnoxious pain!

Wow, and I thought your name was an easy one.

It is kind of amazing how different their meet and greets are between the different trips. Even visiting every few months they grow and change so much in that span of time. Nuts!


Haha, well that just reinforces how much Izzy and Landon need to meet. Neither would have to wrry about their favorite Disney plush being stolen.
"Look, you've got Mickey, I've got Minnie, all is right in the world."

I missed the gospel band, but I heard they were really good.

Oh NOOOOOO! Your poor mom. That stinks. I am glad that it all worked out, but talk about stress. And - when she is clearly part of your party and her FP is missing but yours aren't, well come on! Show a little love.

It's pretty clear that Landon only has eyes for Mickey. He is so NOT into the other characters! Despite that, every single picture is adorable!

It looks like an overall fun day despite no dolphins and FP issues. Hope your mom is happier after a ride on Soarin!

Yeah, I was a little confused as to why the manager was being so uncooperative with us. All we wanted was to keep our group together and on the same page.
However, during that entire testing phase Cast Members were stressed and as befuddled as the guests, so I guess that played a part, as well.

You know, I actually do also have very few pictures (relatively speaking) on the final day. I imagine it's pretty common.

That is something I need to do this coming trip that I've neglected for a while. Monorail into Epcot.

Oy the dreaded blue Mickey. I am way too familiar with him. So awesome of the CM to let her pass.

Awwww that is going to be a set of photos to look back on years from now. There's nothing better than the very first visit with Mickey.

Phew, I've been saying your name right all along.

You did get a lot of Blue Mickeys during your trip. That testing phase must have been a rough patch for Disney. Maybe due to there being heavier than anticipated crowd levels? Not sure.

I'm so relieved Landon's first Mickey encounter was a fantastic one!

Aww- Nemo is my favorite at Epcot and my boys' favorite!!

Love the pics of Landon with the Mouse!! And I love the one with him smiling at Alex. Pure Disney sweetness!

I just don't understand the whole fastpass thing anyways.. Like what is one extra person going to do? Seriously!

I didnt know there was Starbucks at Epcot! Learn something new every day!

I'd actually forgotten about that Character spot pictures until I was going through my photos before writing the update. It was like seeing them for the first time again since it had been 6+ months. Kind of blew my mind to see Landon that little. Made me very nostalgic.


There IS a Starbucks in Epcot! It's wonderful. If you're facing the Fountain of Nations like you just walked into the park, it's to your right. Where the old Edy's Ice Cream Parlor used to be and along the way to the Land.

 

[Disney9.9.10]

I'm sorry that there were so many issues on your last day! Your poor mum really must have been getting frustrated. I'm glad that you guys didn't let it wreck your day, and you had a great character meet with some of the fab 5. Landon really seems like he was such a good trooper during your trip!

 

[amazingact21]

That had to have been stressful for all of you with your mom's FP situation. Ugh. This is why I am super paranoid that when we go in October and I go to guest services to upgrade our park passes to APs, something will go wrong and wipe out our existing FPs.

Innoventions has so many fun things for young children! We've been visiting there pretty much every trip for our kids.

MDE and the Fastpass system has come a long way since our December trip. That was still early stages of testing, so things weren't smoothed out yet. I can safely say that our trips in May and august went a lot better, August even more so than May. So I wouldn't sweat too much about your upcoming trip. a lot of my gripes and complaints have been fixed.

I forsee a lot of visits to Innovations in the future. That building houses all the things Landon already has interests in.

I absolutely love it. The teaser view of Future World as you loop through on your way into the station makes that a mandatory monorail ride for me at some point in the trip.

It's also highly amusing to take the ride with someone who's never been on it before. "Wait, where are we going? Does this drop us off INSIDE the park?!"

Seriously... it is there flawed system. Can't they do anything to help people out when it screws them over???

I will say that when we were there, everything was still in testing, so we were catching the very beginning of a new system. Our May and August trips went a thousand times smoother than this one did.

 

[amazingact21]

I'm sorry that there were so many issues on your last day! Your poor mum really must have been getting frustrated. I'm glad that you guys didn't let it wreck your day, and you had a great character meet with some of the fab 5. Landon really seems like he was such a good trooper during your trip!

The Disney magic was definitely not around my mom that day. What didn't help was that it was the end of our trip. By that point she just wanted to do the things she'd planned and have a nice, calm, quiet night at Epcot.
I'm sure you are going to come back with some amazing pictures of your DD in Disney. I already cannot wait to see them!

 

[amazingact21]

Saturday, December 7th, 2013:


My mom, Alex, Landon, and I all made our way inside and through the Land. When we got to the entrance of Soarin' we got a hold of one of those amazing Rider Swap passes. Alex had no desire to go on this attraction (makes him motion sick) so he took the baby and went off to have some more father/son fun.

I'm not sure why, but it seemed like every time the baby was alone with his Dad, he was wide awake and chipper as can be.

Guess I'm not as entertaining.



My mom and I pocketed the Rider Swap and used the pain in the neck Fastpasses. We hit a backup right after the second Band scanning location and then came to a complete stop after we were sent to our row.

We waited and waited.

And waited.

Chatted with some fellow guests.

Listened as one of them asked which Frozen character was on a lady's shirt.

Ha Ha. If they only knew that by now they'd probably be hearing the lines from the movie quoted EVERYWHERE and wish they could back to the pre-Frozen days.

It was highly unusual to have to stand around for so long. I was getting concerned the ride had broken down or something.

Wouldn't that have been the icing on the top of my mother's cake?

But nope. A Cast Member appeared out of the entrance door and conferred with another Cast Member. They were overheard by a guest, which meant everyone soon learned why our flight hadn't boarded yet.

Clean up on Row 3, please. Clean up on row 3.

Ick.



Meanwhile, Alex had had enough time to do both:



And Journey into Imagination.

He was getting ready to go on Figment for a second time, because he hadn't heard anything from me in over 30 minutes. Luckily, I caught him right before he headed inside and told him to stay put.

Our little delay on Soarin' had put us closer to our ADR time than I first thought, and while we were running late, we were definitely not going to be able to use our Rider Swap right then.


We all met back up by the dancing fountains. It was that great time of evening in FL. The sun had just set, so the heat had abated, but the light still lingered. So it was still bright enough to see, but dark enough to feel like the holiday lights were about to turn on at any second.


I love that time of night during December.



The only thing that would have made it better would have been if we were standing on the Streets of America waiting for the Osbourne Lights to begin.

Not that I was going to object to being in Epcot. We'd already had our time with the Osbourne Lights and it had been amazing. Now, it was time to eat at my favorite Disney restaurant!


We made it all the way to the walkway between Future World and the World Showcase before Landon got hungry and demanded we stop and feed him.

Kids.

They pick the most inconvenient time for things.

Every. Single. Time.

It's a knack we must grow out of as we age.



Actually sitting down and taking care of Landon wasn't bad. Like I said before, the weather was perfect and that walkway was empty, so we felt like had a piece of Epcot to ourselves.nThe fact that it was so relaxing was the problem, as it turns out.

Any crutch we had in terms of extra time was shattered in those fifteen minutes.

We went from Awwwwww, this is wonderful.

To:
GOGOGOGOOOOOOO! WE HAVE TEN MINUTES! TEN MINUTES!


I have to give it to my family. With a baby, stroller, and backpack we moved pretty darn quick.



It was crowded, nothing new there, but us three adults flew through the Mexico Pavilion, Norway, and China without even looking at them.

We were like the Flash, I tell you.

I had my cell phone out and every time we passed a country, I gave an announcement.

NINE MINUTES LEFT.

EIGHT MINUTES!

SEVEN MINUTES, PEOPLE.


We slowed down around the African outpost just to catch our breath, then when we hit Germany we booked it. It was the final sprint and we had five minutes left to check in.


Yeah, we could have shown up late, but with the crowds as insane as they had been, I was afraid we'd end up waiting an uneccessary thirty minutes to be seated. Plus, anybody that's familiar with the military knows that being late isn't in our vocabulary.

When you make a doctor's appointment, you are required to show up 15 minutes prior or you're considered late. Same for pretty much everything, so the idea that we were going to walk up to Via Napoli LATE was unacceptable.

Almost incomprehensible for my mother.

Who, by the way, was NOT happy.

"I wasn't aware I'd signed up for another Disney 5K."


Sorry.

But for what it was worth, it put Landon to sleep almost immediately. He was conked out in his stroller.


Hot, tired, and breathing heavily, we all made it to the restaurant with a minute to spare and were checked in and seated promptly.



Had to take a picture of the coolest chandelier on property first!



The crazy jaunt over to Italy didn't leave us all in great moods.





Except for Landon. He was cool with it.






But everyone perked up some when our pizzas arrived. My mom and I ordered the Quattro Formaggi:



In my opinion, the best pizza in Disney.

Possibly the best pizza. Ever.

In 2 years, I've ordered it 4 times. In Disney terms, that's a lot. Especially when there's so many other food locations to try and other menu items to eat.

I just can't go to Disney and not get this pizza. Even now, looking at that picture, I'm like, man, I'd kill for a slice.

And I just had it less than a month ago.



This was Alex's very first time at Via Napoli, and I'd talked it up so much that he was anxious to try their version of a pepperoni.



His opinion?

The pepperoni was delicious, but it didn't have nearly enough cheese on the pizza. He was highly disappointed with that, because he said if there was more, he'd probably have loved his dish a lot more.

"It's like they ran out of cheese and just went, 'Meh, here's a handful, he'll be good.'"

I was a little bummed that Via Napoli didn't live up to the hype I'd made it up to be. It wasn't like Alex disliked his food; he just wasn't holding it on this pedestal of greatness that I was.

Oh well. Everyone has different tastes.

If there's one thing better than the pizza at Via Napoli it's the dessert. More specifically, the tiramisu:



No. I couldn't even wait a minute to take a picture before I ate a piece.

I'm not even sorry.

My absolute favorite dessert food in the whole world is ice cream; I'm a gluten for it, so the sundaes at Beach and Cream are my If I have to eat one sweet for the rest of my life it better be this food, but a very close second is this Tiramisu.

It ruined all other tiramisus for me. Nothing else compares to it.

Basically, Via Napoli has spoiled me rotten.

My mom and I have similar Italian food tastes, because she ordered the tiramisu, as well.


Alex, though. He hates coffee. Crazy boy. So it was the zeppoles for him:



Luckily, these redeemed the restaurant for Alex. He said they were absolutely delicious.


Around the time we were waiting on our desserts, Landon woke up and we shifted him to a highchair. It wasn't long before he turned around and discovered the ovens. He LOVED them!



"Yoo-Hoo, Landon. Hey, can you take a picture with Mom?"

Nope. Those ovens are too flipping cool.

The cooks preparing the pizzas were having a field day watching him watch the fire. They were keeping him entertained, smiling and waving to him.

Of course, the only thing that could break that Landon/fire fascination was the arrival of our food.

"Aren't you going to give him a bite?"

"No."

Sorry, Landon. I'll get your puffs out. You don't want this tiramisu anyways.

Maybe if you'd slept for more than three hours.

I'm exaggerating. He got some bits of pizza that was left on a plate for him and a pepperoni from Alex's pizza. I'm really not that cruel of a parent, but man, it was hard. Sharing that delicious food was a toughie.



Up Next: It Was Bad

 

[Dugette]

Well, I guess it's settled, then. If we ever happen to meet up in WDW, we'll have to share a Quattro Formaggi pizza while Landon plays with Mickey and Izzy with Minnie.

Sorry your wait for Soarin' was so long.

That time of night is really pretty.

That trek through World Showcase is pretty much what my afternoon at Epcot on this last trip felt like - a race to to get everywhere. Worth it, though.

I really want that pizza right now. It is so, so good. I'm with Alex on the dessert, though - not a coffee person here. I know, I'm crazy.

 

[marDgreen88]

Okay I'm on my phone and can't figure out how to quote your question to me earlier, sorry! So yeah, I probably missed the boat on the May TR, but if I end up doing a Sept. one, I will include some highlights from May and June! Thanks for being interested!

Ugh, I hate the feeling of thinking you're going to be late! Anything and everything that can slow you down, WILL slow you down. Yikes. Glad y'all made it!

That food looks SO GOOOOOD. I have only been to Via ONCE, in 2010, so these pics make me want to go back! And what you got is the EXACT meal I'd want too. Yum!!!

The pictures of Landon looking at the ovens are too funny! 'No time for posing now, Mom, this is fascinating!'