You've Got a Friend in Me:TINKGURL & XOKTENOX's Adventures in WDW~UPDATE: 6/9 p.74

[MeMom]

Jill can remember what she was wearing when a certain event happened back when she was eight years old or what we were eating when someone else did some crazy thing when she was ten. She has a memory like yours, I do believe!

Whatever resort we stay at, I feel like I have ownership of it while I am there. And the times we have stayed at other places, (which we do love!) we always have to visit Pop. I know it's not much in most people's eyes, but it is home to us, because it was our first Disney resort - the one we stayed at when just the four of us went - and it has a special place in our hearts.

Looking forward to pictures of the meet with Chris and Kristen. I think we are going to meet several DISers on this coming trip. Seems like a bunch of people are going to be there!

 

[tinkgurl]

Jill can remember what she was wearing when a certain event happened back when she was eight years old or what we were eating when someone else did some crazy thing when she was ten. She has a memory like yours, I do believe!

Whatever resort we stay at, I feel like I have ownership of it while I am there. And the times we have stayed at other places, (which we do love!) we always have to visit Pop. I know it's not much in most people's eyes, but it is home to us, because it was our first Disney resort - the one we stayed at when just the four of us went - and it has a special place in our hearts.

Looking forward to pictures of the meet with Chris and Kristen. I think we are going to meet several DISers on this coming trip. Seems like a bunch of people are going to be there!

Glad I'm not the only one then! Thanks MeMom!

I feel the same; and with Pop too since that was the first place Fiance and I stayed just the two of us.

That will be so much fun!

 

[that's nice]

I just read the last 10 pages... geez, I didn't realize I was sooooo far behind.

There is so much to comment on but the main thing that sticks out was seeing the little guy leave. How sad... but you know he had a wONDERFUL experience at WDW and you and your DF helped in that.

 

[All7OfUs]

Hi Liesa! I apologize for getting behind on your TR!! Thanks for reading along!

It's ok, Tink!! I remember all too well how busy school kept me!! Keep up the good work!!

 

[michael's mom]

I love that you were singing in the gift shop! I do that too (and dance a little) . You're right...who cares. Nobody knows you, and if they are in love with Disney as much as we all are, they probably want to boogie and sing...but are too uncomfortable to do it.

I also get how resorts can feel like home. We used to always stay at Poly...but once they opened the mods, CBR became our home. When DH and I went to WDW for our honeymoon I couldn't bare the thought of staying somewhere else. 2 years ago, when we went, we stayed at POR, and while it was nice, something didn't feel right...until we went to CBR to visit my cousin who was staying there. Everything just felt right with the world. We were home! We're staying at CBR in April

I do the same thing as far as remembering my days...even ones from past years. Certain places in WDW will bring back those memories from my childhood!

 

[mickeysmyboy]

Aww, you sound so sad to be missing Little Guy! I'm sure it was hard to say goodbye!!

OKW looks beautiful though!!

Can't wait to hear about your dinner!!!

 

[tinkgurl]

I just read the last 10 pages... geez, I didn't realize I was sooooo far behind.

There is so much to comment on but the main thing that sticks out was seeing the little guy leave. How sad... but you know he had a wONDERFUL experience at WDW and you and your DF helped in that.

Hey Tim!

Yeah, it was hard to see him leave. You're right, he had a great time! He keeps asking me when we're going back.

It's ok, Tink!! I remember all too well how busy school kept me!! Keep up the good work!!

Thanks for understanding, Liesa!

I love that you were singing in the gift shop! I do that too (and dance a little) . You're right...who cares. Nobody knows you, and if they are in love with Disney as much as we all are, they probably want to boogie and sing...but are too uncomfortable to do it.

I also get how resorts can feel like home. We used to always stay at Poly...but once they opened the mods, CBR became our home. When DH and I went to WDW for our honeymoon I couldn't bare the thought of staying somewhere else. 2 years ago, when we went, we stayed at POR, and while it was nice, something didn't feel right...until we went to CBR to visit my cousin who was staying there. Everything just felt right with the world. We were home! We're staying at CBR in April

I do the same thing as far as remembering my days...even ones from past years. Certain places in WDW will bring back those memories from my childhood!

haha, I think the CM working in the shop probably thought we were crazy, but we had fun.

That's so exciting you're staying at "home" in just a few months!

You're right, all kinds of memories can be brought up just about anywhere in WDW!

Aww, you sound so sad to be missing Little Guy! I'm sure it was hard to say goodbye!!

OKW looks beautiful though!!

Can't wait to hear about your dinner!!!

It was the first time I had ever seen my Grandpa cry when we said goodbye! I think it was hard for them to be leaving too since they knew they weren't coming back.

OKW is beautiful! Have you ever been over there to visit or eat at Olivia's?

 

[tinkgurl]

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!

 

[Tracy161]

You too Tink!!! Thanks!

 

[Reddog1134]

Great trip report so far, ladies. I know many people would disagree, but it's always great when you can vacation with large groups of friends and family. I can't wait to do it again this year. (There will be 10 of us.) I'm looking forward to the next update.

 

[tinkgurl]

Great trip report so far, ladies. I know many people would disagree, but it's always great when you can vacation with large groups of friends and family. I can't wait to do it again this year. (There will be 10 of us.) I'm looking forward to the next update.

Thanks for reading along! We should have a new update soon!

 

[xoktenox]

July 24, 2010 *continued*

Hi everyone!! We really hope that y’all are still with us! School and life has just been crazy busy this semester! My Research class is going to do me in I think! Haha.

Thanks for sticking around people! I’m in the same boat as Tink, between school, work and now I’m also student teaching 11th and 12th grade social studies classes Thursdays and Fridays! We will finish though, have no fear! I will eventually start a PTR for my June trip as well but not for a couple more months since I obviously am having trouble dealing with one report let alone two!

So…back to the TR!

When last you heard from Chris and I, we were showered and ready to head out for the night after a relaxing morning since we both weren’t feeling well. The relaxation was definitely needed and we were charged up for the evening! We headed out to the bus stop to meet up with Tink’s family at the Poly.

We left off with my family and I riding the monorail from the Contemporary over to the Poly. As I said before, I texted Kristen to let her know where we were and find out how close they were. They were on their way as well.

We got a bus to Epcot where we switched on to a monorail to the TTC. At the TTC we got off and walked to the Poly. It actually started to sprinkle a little bit while we walked even though it was sunny as could be outside!

While we waited for Kristen and Chris to get there, we looked around the gift shops. We walked by the area that had all the shooting Buzz stuff and I got sad and missed Little Guy. He saw that area when we were there earlier in the trip and was dying to have it all.

We made our way to the downstairs shop and showed Mom, Dad, and Sis the coconut that Fiancé and I sent in the mail to his parents on our Spring Break trip. They sure got a kick out of it! But I will tell you, it was sure hard writing the address on it!

I have been wanting to check out the art gallery, so Fiancé and I went in to check that place out when I got a text from Kristen that they were walking in to the Poly!

We first walked into the Poly and in the shop downstairs we ran into Tink’s Mom, Dad and Sis! We said our hellos and then went over and met up with Tink and her DF in the art gallery.

I told her where we were and a few seconds later, they came walking in. We looked around at all the pics and talked about what ones we’d love to have. They are all so beautiful!

When we were done looking in there, we met back up with Mom, Dad, and Sis and headed upstairs to the Ohana bar for some drinks. Of course, it was around dinner time, so the place was packed! We ordered our drinks and stood and waited for someone to get up from their seats. As soon as we saw someone packing up to leave, Kristen and I practically sprinted over there! Haha.

Tink, remember we were like stalking out that one table and then someone jumped on it and saved all the seats even though they were alone? We were so mad!

We still had some time before our ADR at Kona, so it was nice to just sit and relax with everyone. It was like we had all known each other our whole lives. We got along great, no awkward silences. There weren’t enough seats, so Kristen, Sis, Mom, and I were in the chairs while Chris, Fiancé, and Dad stood talking behind us. It was one of those moments that I didn’t want to end.

We enjoyed our drinks and time together so much. I ordered a Pina Colava, Chris had a beer and Tink and her DF shared a Lapu Lapu!

As it got closer to our ADR time, I started getting excited for one of Kristen’s surprises that Chris had up his sleeve. Kristen and Dad went over to get us checked in and figured out how to get a table for all of us to sit at together. Not too long after that, it was time for us to be seated!

Our table was perfect. It was a big, round table so everyone could see everyone. While we were looking over the menu, Kristen kept asking Chris what her surprise was. I started giggling and she asked me if I knew anything and I just slyly smiled at her and said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She, of course, knew that I knew. I told her it was so hard for me to keep it a secret, but she’ll know soon enough!

I couldn’t believe she was able to keep the secret from me for all that time!!

I can’t remember what everyone ordered, but I know I had the Shrimp and Scallops, which the menu provided by the DIS describes as Panko breaded shrimp and pan-seared scallops with sticky rice and Ponzu, spicy guava, passion fruit, and wasabi cream sauces. It was SO good. Of course, being anywhere near sushi, I had to order some because I could eat that stuff every day of my life if it wasn’t bad to do that! For that, I had the California Luau Roll - Fresh Jumbo Lump Crab, Pineapple and Avocado.

I know I ordered the Coconut Crusted Chicken and I think Chris did too…we both LOVED it!

By the time dessert came out, we were already SO full. I can’t remember what exactly they were, but Sis decided to take a pic of mine and her’s..

Both were so good!

For dessert Chris and I ordered the same thing, the chocolate fondue.

I could tell Chris was getting a little figdety at this point waiting for something. Eventually he got up and went to our waiter and said something to him. Shortly after, our waiter comes out with this…

Nice, but a little underwhelming especially since my name was spelled wrong. Chris was upset and says to me “babe, that’s not what Dawn and I ordered for you.” Dawn (punkin413) had been helping Chris plan the surprise. I told him to text Dawn and tell her something was wrong because I knew he was disappointed. In any case, we cut up the cake and each had some. During all this, Dawn is writing to Chris and I and she was mad! She told us to ask to speak to the manager at Kona. So the manager comes over and Chris is talking to him explaining that he ordered a different cake and this is what they brought us out. The manager walks away and a few minutes later comes back and says, “You guys never checked in.” I told him that I had checked us in and that we just all were sitting together. Well he said they had it marked down as though we never checked in! We figured it out that although Tink’s dad and I both went over and checked us in, the CM just added us onto their reservation and never checked us in for our reservation even though I clearly checked in with him, last name spelled out and all! Chris was definitely still upset since he had been so proud of himself for setting this surprise up without me knowing about it. A few minutes later, the manager brings this out…

An amazing, gorgeous, delicious, beautiful, perfect cake that my hunnie had picked just for me. I was sosososoooo happy and definitely surprised! However, by this point we were all so stuffed that we didn’t even cut the cake. We had them box it up for us so we could eat it later. So, despite the fiasco that was the cake surprise, I was more than happy with what Chris had done for me! A few minutes later the waiter brings us over our bill and on it is a charge for the plain, name spelled wrong cake. We called him over and said that that was the wrong cake and we didn’t want to be charged for it since Chris paid a lot of money for the real cake! He was very nice about it and took the ugly cake charge off of our bill without a problem.

While we finished up dessert, we all figured out what to do for the rest of the night. Since we had been up for quite awhile, Mom, Dad, and Sis decided to head back to the room for the night. Kristen, Chris, Fiancé, and I weren’t ready to call it a night, so we decided to head to DHS together. Since they were just going back to the room, Mom and Dad took Kristen’s cake back with them so they wouldn’t have to deal with it. I think Kristen thanked them 1,000 times, but they were happy to do it!

I was so thankful to Tink’s parents (and their DVC unit with a full size fridge lol) for hanging on to our cake for us. We would have had to gone all the way back to Pop, dropped off the cake and then headed to DHS if they hadn’t been so sweet to do that for us!

So, while Mom, Dad, and Sis headed to the monorail to the MK to catch a bus to OKW, we headed downstairs to the bus stop. Once the bus came and we were on our way, I looked over at Chris and Kristen and couldn’t help but smile. I was finally in WDW, on a bus to a park, with my best friend. It was something we had been talking about with each other for months.

Some of the little times like this were the times I cherish the most about this trip!

Once we made it to DHS and into the park, what’s the first thing we did? Stop for photopass pics! Hopefully Kristen still has them on her computer, so she can show y’all!

I’m a failure and I don’t have them on my computer

We took some with the hat in the background first. I loved one of them so much that I ended up buying it later at home. Then, we decided we wanted to ride ToT first, so we headed down that way. We stopped and got some photo pass pics there as well. This time, with ToT in the background, so we had to put our hands up and make scared faces. I think Kristen and I were the only ones to really get into it! Haha.

Yeah, the boys were definitely not into it like we were!

The wait time for ToT said only 20 minutes, so of course we got in line! We decided to time it and see how accurate it was. They weren’t weaving at all, so it really only ended up being 10 minutes!

Tink, Chris and I have all read the Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World (or something like that) book and in the ToT queue there’s supposedly a lever that you can pull down and something magical will happen. Well the 4 of us pulled EVERY lever on that queue and nothing happened! We were so disappointed and vowed to continue to check to find that lever! Haha

This was Fiancé and I’s first time on ToT since they added the new stuff, so I was excited to finally see it. Of course, riding at night makes it even scarier! At the end, I made sure to point out the scary dummy to Kristen and Chris!

We got off and ran up to the screens to look at our ride pic, which turned out hilarious! I can’t remember if Kristen took a “redneck” pic of it or not…

I did!

Me, who obviously has the longest arms in the world, Chris, pretending to sleep, and Tink and her DF, the normal ones

Since we were in the area, we decided to do RnRC next. The wait time said 40 minutes, so we decided to get in line and see what it really was. It really only ended up being 15 or 20 minutes, which we hardly noticed because we were so busy just having fun and talking. When we got off, I see that I had lost my headband on the ride! Bummer.

We decided to see if they were still doing drawings at the Animation place, so we headed that way. As we got closer to the hat, we could hear loud music and saw that Mulch, Sweat, Shears was performing in front of the hat! We decided to sit and watch them for awhile. They were awesome! We definitely wanted to make it back there another night to watch them again.

As we walked back to the Animation area, the doors were open to the Playhouse Disney building and we could see they were having a cute dance party in there. Little Guy would’ve had a blast dancing with his favorite characters!

There was a CM standing outside, so we asked her if they were still doing drawings. They were, but the next one wasn’t for another 45 minutes or so. So, we decided to pass on that and do something else. We headed over towards the Streets of America area and walked around. By this time, it was so late that there was hardly anyone back there, so we pretty much had the area to ourselves!

It was funny to be in the “NYC” area with them. They would point out different things to us, which was hard for us to really understand because we’ve never been to the real NYC. We’re hoping to make a trip out to see Kristen and Chris soon and have them give us a tour!

We can’t wait until Tink and her DF can come to NY! We are dying to see them again and also to show them around Long Island and mostly NYC!

By this time, it was getting late, so we decided to call it a night.

The boys used the bathrooms over by Pizza Planet and Tink’s DF saw a roach! Eeek!

We stopped at a cart near the hat, and Kristen and Chris got some water. By the time we made it out of the park, it was already 12:10 a.m.! We said our goodbyes and promised to talk and try to meet up the next day.

Chris and I were NON-STOP with blowing our noses at this point, a sign that our Sudafed was wearing off so we definitely just knew it was time to head back! We probably made it back by midnight.

As we made it onto our OKW bus, I was so happy to hear that “OKW” music again. There’s something about the Resort that you stay at that just feels like “home”, so when you’re back there again, you can’t help but feel back at “home”.

We were so tired by the time we made it to our stop! We made our way to our room and were so excited to get to sleep!

~Up next for tinkgurl and family: Resort hopping!
~Up next for Kristen and Chris: Epcot!

 

[Goofy22]

I'm back and I'm trying to catch up once again! That first cake i wouldve been upset with also! The Tinkerbelle cake was AMAZING! Awesome Job Chris!!!

 

[Cat0727]

What a beautiful cake Dawn & Chris picked out! Although getting rid of the fraud in Kona sounded like such a headache

Fun night at DHS to end the day

 

[MeMom]

Sounds like a great evening with special DIS friends.
It made me smile thinking of you guys heading over to Hollywood to have some evening fun.

Good job on the cake, Chris.

 

[tinkgurl]

I'm back and I'm trying to catch up once again! That first cake i wouldve been upset with also! The Tinkerbelle cake was AMAZING! Awesome Job Chris!!!

Thanks for reading! The pic of the Tink cake does not do it justice. It was beautiful! It was just a crazy mess getting it! We felt so bad the whole time!

What a beautiful cake Dawn & Chris picked out! Although getting rid of the fraud in Kona sounded like such a headache

Fun night at DHS to end the day

Thanks for reading! It was a beautiful cake for sure! I wish we could've had a bite!

It was such a fun night!

Sounds like a great evening with special DIS friends.
It made me smile thinking of you guys heading over to Hollywood to have some evening fun.

Good job on the cake, Chris.

Hi MeMom! You're getting so close! I'll be in class...thinking of you..and being jealous!

Isn't the excitement of heading to a park just so much fun?!

 

[Tracy161]

Awesome update! Sorry to hear that they goofed up on the cake though! DHS is so awesome at night, happy to see you all got to enjoy a great night there with some short wait times!

 

[LilAnn]

Hi gals! Just got back and finally catching up. I love the pics of you ladies with your drinks in hand before dinner. Although, I have yet to try a Lapu Lapu since the size intimidates me a bit. I do enjoy the Pina Colava though!

Tink - I love the traditional pic in on the "Pooh bench" as I call it. Sadly, we couldn't find it for our own pic this past trip. Pooh's Corner was being renovated and I guess they moved that little bench too! I was bummed.

And I have to say that after watching the Main Street Electrical Parade, I definitely miss Spectro. DH says that the music for Spectro just puts him in the Disney mood. I feel that way about Wishes. Love it and had to end our trip with it.

 

[tinkgurl]

Awesome update! Sorry to hear that they goofed up on the cake though! DHS is so awesome at night, happy to see you all got to enjoy a great night there with some short wait times!

Thanks for reading!

We got lucky with such good wait times!

Hi gals! Just got back and finally catching up. I love the pics of you ladies with your drinks in hand before dinner. Although, I have yet to try a Lapu Lapu since the size intimidates me a bit. I do enjoy the Pina Colava though!

Tink - I love the traditional pic in on the "Pooh bench" as I call it. Sadly, we couldn't find it for our own pic this past trip. Pooh's Corner was being renovated and I guess they moved that little bench too! I was bummed.

And I have to say that after watching the Main Street Electrical Parade, I definitely miss Spectro. DH says that the music for Spectro just puts him in the Disney mood. I feel that way about Wishes. Love it and had to end our trip with it.

Hi!! Glad to see you back! Yeah, the Lapu Lapu is pretty big, so it's nice to share with someone.

Oh no! I hope the bench returns!

I agree, there's just different things that "feel" like Disney. It was different not having Spectro OR Wishes this trip!

 

[Megablocks]

Awesome update, that sounds like such a fun night! Glad you guys had decent wait times

That Tink cake is amazing!