You can take the girl out of Disney, BUT

[JKSWonder]

Soon we were in the preshow room. A couple asked me to take their picture and I did, then she took ours…and we got photo-bombed!

Hmmm...maybe you could photo shop Bart Simpson's head over that photo bomber?

 

[wilma-bride]

Great updates - I love how you include your family's little 'narks' too - I always think DH and I must be the only ones to get narky with each other on holiday since everyone else's trip reports always make them (and their kids) sound perfect.

 

[dizneeat]

Great updates - I love how you include your family's little 'narks' too - I always think DH and I must be the only ones to get narky with each other on holiday since everyone else's trip reports always make them (and their kids) sound perfect.

Joh, are you going to tell me that your family is NOT perfect? Looking at the photos of your little angel it MUST be as perfect as Jen's!

 

[jenseib]

Oh Jen, did I mention before that I LOVE your photos!

You ran into a lot of characters that day.
How fun that Claire claimed she wasn't tired and then fast asleep while you were out.

Only thing ... NO Burger King for us. I have never tried it in the states, but it is horrible here. I'll have McDonald's instead any time!

Thanks so much...I do like taking photos...as you know.

Claire is never tired...but if you make her take a nap, most times she will eventually give in. I am thinking this Nov. we may have to try for a few nap days...where i can fit it in, I have no clue. LOL, but I think she will need them. I am hoping that it won't be too crowded and we get get things done quickly and then head for a nap between parks....we'll see how that goes. Easier said than done.

Burger king is decent. I like the Whopper. Some things I'm not a fan of, but the burgers are usually good. We actually visit this BK later in the trip and have the same probelm.

I love the ET pics

I think you're story from Burger King is kind of funny. I don't remember alot from our first trip in 1995 when I was ten but one of the things I do remember is we went to McDonalds alot to collect the Disney toys they had at the time.. I'll root them out and take a pic as they quite cool and we only missed one in the 3 weeks we were there at the time. But that's besides the point I remember in one McDonalds we went to we went up and my Daddy at the time listed off everything we wanted and when he was done the girl behnid the counter when HUUUUUHHHH??? And my Daddy went yes I would like it hot please

The other fast food places I would comment on on International drive would be Pizza Hut across from the two fingers that stick up in the sky you had a pic of those before.. We were there in 2010 and the grumpiest waitress ever there she was scary grumpy like and her treatment of one family who sat before she gave them permission was actually shocking. Last year different story she wasn't there and guy we got really helpful and nice.

Also there's a CiCi's pizza place near the Titanic Exhibition and while the food was nice the bathrooms were hidious to the point I would question what their kitchen's were like

We have a CiCi's near here and the bathroom is not so great there either. We only went for eat in once....nowe if we go it's take out.

 

[wilma-bride]

Joh, are you going to tell me that your family is NOT perfect? Looking at the photos of your little angel it MUST be as perfect as Jen's!

Sorry, Karin, I am afraid not. You will, no doubt, see for yourself in August just how un-perfect our family are - it's not too late to change your mind about having dinner with us in Key West ya know

 

[jenseib]

Hmmm...maybe you could photo shop Bart Simpson's head over that photo bomber?

Good idea!

Great updates - I love how you include your family's little 'narks' too - I always think DH and I must be the only ones to get narky with each other on holiday since everyone else's trip reports always make them (and their kids) sound perfect.

I try to tell it like it is..We are not perfect, but we have fun...and we might gripe a little at each other too...sometimes a lot!
I never beleivethat people have a perfect family or a perfect trip. ...even our very best trips have some down points. And lets face it, kids get tired and just are not perfect anyways...same for men!

Joh, are you going to tell me that your family is NOT perfect? Looking at the photos of your little angel it MUST be as perfect as Jen's!

Sorry, Karin, I am afraid not. You will, no doubt, see for yourself in August just how un-perfect our family are - it's not too late to change your mind about having dinner with us in Key West ya know

 

[macraven]

i'm looking at post
#481.
you always have the prettiest smile!




cranky husbands are common.
i have one also and that is why i leave him at home when i do orlando.

 

[jenseib]

i'm looking at post
#481.
you always have the prettiest smile!




cranky husbands are common.
i have one also and that is why i leave him at home when i do orlando.

Thanks so much. I call that my million dollar smile. about 8-9 years ago I got braces. I had a HUGE gap between my 2 front teeth and I still had some baby teeth near the front. They were starting to fall apart, it was awful.
I got the 2 teeth pulled, wore braces, got them off just a few months before Claire was born, had bridges put in and I love to smile now. Lots of money was spent on my mouth (along with a couple of root canals..ick), but I feel like I look normal now. Well as close to normal as I can get.

 

[Wicket's Mom]

Love seeing all of the stuff at Universal. Bob & I usually snark at each other at least once when on vacation. After spending almost 46 years together we know which buttons to push.

 

[francis6306]

I love when they try and tell us that they aren't tired and are snoring before you can turn your back!

 

[jenseib]

Love seeing all of the stuff at Universal. Bob & I usually snark at each other at least once when on vacation. After spending almost 46 years together we know which buttons to push.

I highly doubt any couple can go and be perfectly in love the whole time...even newlyweds.

I love when they try and tell us that they aren't tired and are snoring before you can turn your back!

Yep. claire is rarely "tired". Good thing I am around to remind her that she is.

 

[Caretames1]

LOL, Kadence always tells me she's not tired after we've been away from home and within 2 minutes of riding in the car, she's asleep. The I wake her up when we get home and she tells me I wasn't sleeping!

 

[MEK]

Caught up again. I am amazed that the single rider line for Forbidden Journey was so short. Thanks for the tip. I will definitely remember that!

Amazing how small those shops are over in the HP section of the park. Cute pictures, but I guess you really had to work to get them. Nothing like being a sardine.

OMG - I laughed at your soda rant because I am the same way. I can only drink diet. Everything else is way too sweet. That would have irritated me to no end.

Goof for Claire for going right to sleep and snoring.

I really enjoyed all your pics again!

 

[jenseib]

LOL, Kadence always tells me she's not tired after we've been away from home and within 2 minutes of riding in the car, she's asleep. The I wake her up when we get home and she tells me I wasn't sleeping!

I was queen of never being tired..but you know what? I never was. Of course I was being medicated for hyperactivity too.

Caught up again. I am amazed that the single rider line for Forbidden Journey was so short. Thanks for the tip. I will definitely remember that!

Amazing how small those shops are over in the HP section of the park. Cute pictures, but I guess you really had to work to get them. Nothing like being a sardine.

OMG - I laughed at your soda rant because I am the same way. I can only drink diet. Everything else is way too sweet. That would have irritated me to no end.

Goof for Claire for going right to sleep and snoring.

I really enjoyed all your pics again!

Single rider is the way to go if you can do it. So much faster.
The shops were unbelievably small. Not smart thinking on Universals part. i would've probably bought more if I could move and look.
I am so picky with my pop. I really don't like ice because it waters it down..and it was just gross being regular. When you are not used to i, it taste weird.

Claire has a sleeping denial. LOL! Tomorrow is her last day of school. it is 10:40 here and I put her to bed at 9:15 Pm and she still is coming out telling me she can't sleep because she is excited...but her eyes are bloodshot.
She's really fighting it...and I am tired and going to bed now, so she needs to get to sleep!

 

[Poolrat]

Caught up and lovin' the updates.

BK rant- I hear ya.. It should not be that hard to get an order right. The soda thing - oh yeah I hear ya.

The photobomb guy is hilarious

Need to make to over to US someday....

 

[jenseib]

Caught up and lovin' the updates.

BK rant- I hear ya.. It should not be that hard to get an order right. The soda thing - oh yeah I hear ya.

The photobomb guy is hilarious

Need to make to over to US someday....

Usually Wendy's is the one that messes my orders up...they can't seem to get anything right.
I love the photobomb guy.

Give it a try..go to the dark side!!!!

 

[jenseib]

I believe that Claire and I woke up about the same time, around 4:45. She was ready for a swim. We got her dressed I grabbed my notebook and down to the pool we went.

I just sat at a table next to the pool and wrote notes while she swam.

There was a lot of “Mom, look at this!” And “Watch me do this”.

Also, she kept asking me where we were going to eat and when. I told her we had to talk to dad about that one. She said she wasn’t hungry, but as many times as she asked me about food, you would’ve thought she was starving.

After a while, Skip came down and joined her. Actually he went in the hot tub and she joined him for a few minutes and then back to the pool she went.

I had a little lizard friend next to me. I tried to get a good picture, but this was the best I could do. But his front side was really neat. He had this little red beard thing flickering; I swore he looked like a baby dinosaur.

Skip took a quick Swim and then headed back to the room.

Soon he returned because he had no key. He took mine and went back once again.
Claire finished up her swim and we decided we should get showered and ready for the evening. I think she swam for more than an hour, which was heaven for her.

I didn’t let her use the excuse that she is clean from swimming today. She had a shower and a hair wash. I handed her the hair dryer and I took one. The whole time she kept coming in to ask about food again. I told her to tell Dad to call the pirate place. He hem hawed around on that for some reason. He felt we should be able to just walk in and get seated. I had to tell him that it doesn’t work like that. It’s a show and which means reservations, AND we had no clue what time it started anyways.
Finally he called and found out that the show was already going on and it was the only one for the night. He asked the price and couldn’t believe they would charge so much. I think it was like $60 is for adults. I told him that it was a pretty average price for a dinner show, and he didn’t believe me.

By this time I am working on getting dolled up. I knew the option of going back to the parks was out. It was getting later, and we just didn’t have the urge to go back tonight now.
Claire was having a fit about dinner at this point. I kept relaying messages to her to take to Skip who was lying on the bed watching TV.
I suggested Hoop Dee Doo, no that wasn’t good, Spirit of Aloha? .......no that wasn’t good. Cheesecake factory…never heard of it, no good. I just kept giving Claire options to tell him and all were a no.
There was NO WAY I was sitting in this room the rest of the night with a child “starving to death”, while he watch TV all night.
So I came out, put my shoes on and said “We are going to the cheesecake factory and then to Downtown Disney, You are welcomed to come, and we can drop you off after we eat if you don’t want to walk around DTD.” He had a look of shock on his face. He asked why he didn’t get to help make the decision….yes, I smiled ….but inside I was about to jump across the room and kill him. I told him we gave him choices and he didn’t like ANY of them, so we made a decision. He then says, check and see if we can go to Hoop Dee Doo.
Ok, now we are making progress. It was about 7:15 when I called. I asked if the 9:30 show had an opening and was told yes. Then the girl realized the time and said, “Wow, you are cutting it close, you better leave soon.” I told her we were on our way and we gathered our stuff and left.
We weren’t sure how long it would take us to get there and then ride the internal bus to the back so we wanted to be sure to allow plenty of time.
We got as far as MK and through the gates and told the guy we were heading to Fort Wilderness, and then go lost. I was looking for signs, but I just didn’t see one and soon we approached the Contemporary. I told Skip we should pull in and ask, because there was nowhere to go from here. We realized we should’ve turned immediately after going through the gate and turned around and got back on track.
I took this quickly with my phone.

I decided to play the “where are we” game again on facebook, and posted this picture next, which was horrid, but worked with the game, because it made it harder to tell where we were.

We got parked and headed to the bus stop. This system confuses the heck out of me. There are a ton of buses and I have no clue where to go. I got to talking to a nice lady and she gave some directions of how to get there and how to get back later….thank you nice lady….

A bus came (I believe we had to take a bus that said settlement), and the lady told us that this was a good one as it didn’t make as many stops on the way. YAY!

We finally got back there and we had over an hour to kill. Who would’ve guessed we would make such good time.

I took Claire to the bathroom.

And then went to the counter to get our tickets…which caused a bit of confusion. They couldn’t find us, and then I told her we had just called about an hour ago, and it was all settled then.

 

[natebenma]

Were the people saying that the wand "show" didn't have much of a line or just to buy a wand? I know the actual show has long lines all day from my research...and we waited quite a while ourselves and that was our first stop.

I forgot about no pop sold in WWoHP too. Skip even asked me about that when we were there, and I told him, it's buttebeer or nothing. LOL! Of course there are other options, but I knew he wouldn't be too keen on any of them. They did have some sort of apple juice with their breakfast. I wonder if that was the cider.

I think that comment referred to a line just to get into the Wand Shop (via Dervish and Banges). I don't know if there were lines for this while we were there. But if so, and you are really jonesing for a wand, I would suggest waiting until you get to the gift shop at the Port of Entry- much less crowded. That's where we got our obscenely-priced Bertie Botts and Chocolate Frog.

 

[jenseib]

I think that comment referred to a line just to get into the Wand Shop (via Dervish and Banges). I don't know if there were lines for this while we were there. But if so, and you are really jonesing for a wand, I would suggest waiting until you get to the gift shop at the Port of Entry- much less crowded. That's where we got our obscenely-priced Bertie Botts and Chocolate Frog.

Yes, the prices are just not cheap...You have to be rich to be a wizard.

 

[natebenma]

YAY on a nice nap followed by some pool time. What a great picture of Claire in her towel. It just screams "contentment" to me.

Oh, I know that "Where are we going to eat?" fight! We had that one night at City Walk. We were all starving, Mark said "Anyplace is fine" so Ben wanted takeout Chinese, ordered a meal and Mark said "I didn't come to Florida to eat here". Fortunately, Bubba Gumps saved that evening.

I guess that is the beauty of Disney. You have to solve the "Where are we going to eat?" question 6 months in advance!