Tues. Nov. 30
We had very few firm plans for today. Which was fine because yesterday was long. My feet and legs were still a little sore when I got up this morning.
Bryan headed out to SuperTarget to pick up a few more groceries...but that was the cover reason for going out to pick up The Sorcerer's Apprentice that came out on DVD today.
After breakfast, the kids decided to go swimming. We headed to the quiet pool since Stormalong Bay didn't open until 10am. We were the only ones in the pool. There's something cool about watching your kids race to be the first to get Dad's watch from the bottom of the pool. The simplest things entertain my kids.
It got to be 10am and we headed for SAB, though Bryan decided to stay at Dune's Cove for that hot tub. The kids and I played around for a bit, but I wanted to head back and make some cookies with my new edible pixie dust. :-) Sugar cookie dough was on Bryan's shopping list this morning so I made that.
They came back to some cookies with their lunch. We watched the opening gambit of the Sorcerer's Apprentice and then decided to head to MGM Studios.
Whew. Long drive. (FYI...it's like a 5 minute drive if you hit the lights right. I'm not kidding.)
We decided to use our last set of magic Fastpasses from our volunteering since we were arriving after midday. We headed to Will Call and got those taken care of.
And off we went to Toy Story Midway Mania. Thanks goodness for the instant Fastpasses. Regular FPs were gone for the day and the stand-by line was 70 minutes. (Insert smilie pulling its hair out.)
After that, the boys decided they'd go to the Great Movie Ride and us girls went to the Magic of Animation show. Very cool show that was about 15 minutes long. After that, you can meet two sets of characters or head to Animation Academy to learn from a real animator. Score!
Cate loves to draw and I knew she would love this class. For 25 minutes, we had an animator walk us through drawing a character. This class was doing Tigger. It was very cool, very fun and highly entertaining. We got to bring out drawings home, signed and all!
We met up with the boys at Rock N Roller Coaster so Cate could go with them. They used a magic fastpass, but really didn't need to. Wait time was posted as 20 minutes...Bryan said it was virtual walk on. When I walked by Tower of Terror, it was only 5 minutes. This was like at 2pm in the afternoon. Crazy.
I headed to the shops on Sunset Blvd. I'm on a mission to find what all is part of this "Nerds Rock" line that Disney is carrying. It has Minnie and Mickey with glasses on and lots of quotes like, "Nerds Rock", "Party with the Smarty" and Cate just loves them! So far, I'm only seeing some shirts, eyeglasses case, wallet and pajamas. I'm hoping for a notepad. But so far, no luck.
We all met up one more time and hit Toy Story again with another magic fastpass. Bryan and Cate wanted to go to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid show. I went with them and Stefan went back to RNR. Stef rode RNR four times using the single rider line while we were in the show.
Then we headed home. We were all bushed. We had reservations for Garden Grill but I just did not want to walk anymore today. We settled for burgers from Hurricane Hannah's in the room while finished the Sorcerer's Apprentice.
I might head down to the hot tub to soak my feet and legs, but that's about as far as I'm planning on going tonight.
Tomorrow is loosely structured. We're doing the Lunch with an Imagineer and then we have a Photopass Portrait session in the afternoon. I'm really hoping that the rain has moved out before our photo session as I'd like to do a few outside shots.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Mon. Nov. 29 ~ It was Magical!
Mon. Nov. 29
Today was our morning to have our traditional breakfast at Crystal Palace before the park opens. I always make a reservation at 8:05am so we can eat, see characters and be out of there before the rest of the park opens.
We've got this one down to a science:
Everyone is up at 7am
We leave the room at 7:15am.
Get in the car and drive to Magic Kingdom.
Park in the first row and walk to the monorail.
Funny thing happened this time. We were wearing matching shirts today - the painted Mickeys I had made for a past trip. As we were walking to the monorail, Cate was just plain wound up. I asked her if she was a little excited. Her response, "Of course, I'm excited. It's Crystal Palace Day." Of course, it was more funny because she was hopping along while talking. A Cast Member saw us and decided to play along. He said to Cate, "Ma'am this is the Magic Kingdom. We don't allow that kind of excitement before 8am here." It was classic.
Anywho...rode the resort monorail around to MK and it was 7:45am. They were already letting people through the turnstiles so we walked right in I have to say, there's nothing like walking down Main Street with all the Christmas decorations and like only 20 other people in your field of vision. Wicked cool.
Bryan checked us in at CP. I took some pics of the kids with the castle as a backdrop and then we were called in. We were actually the first family to be sat on the left half of the restaurant.
Food is always good here. We saw Piglet and Tigger, but didn't wait for Pooh and Eeyore so we paid for our meal and meandered off.
At this time, it was around 8:30am and still very empty in MK. Remember, official opening isn't until 9am and the only people inside the park are those with breakfast ressies.
Since we never really have time to see Walt and Mickey at the hub (because it's always so crowded), we took the time to do that. I never had noticed the smaller statues of eight other characters that surround the hub either. The benefits of it not being wall to wall people and being able to take in those details. I took a few pics of the kids by the poinsettia trees and Cate took a pic of Bryan and me. We also got to see the old time fire engine drive by. Very cool!
We always head for Frontierland, so I thought for a change of pace, we'd head to Tomorrowland instead. We took the roundabout way through the Rose Garden. I think I'd only walked through there one time before. Again, it was so nice to be able to do it when it was so quiet.
Tomorrowland was roped off so we just hung out there. I took a couple of pics of an empty Tomorrowland. We decided we'd get Fastpasses for Buzz, ride Buzz and then the other three would hit Space Mountain before we all did Buzz again.
Well those plans got pitched because as the Cast Members walked up to the rope, we were asked if we'd like to be the first family to ride Buzz Lightyear! Heck, yea!
So they motioned us under the rope and took us, and only us, through Tomorrowland and over to Buzz. We got on Buzz and rode by ourselves completely! At the end, they gave us souvenir ride photos, which we have never done on that ride. Very cool!
We went over and got Fastpasses for Buzz. The kids headed for Space and I suggested that Bryan and I shop. Well I ended up shopping by myself at the Merchant of Venus for a bit and I had five Cast Members falling all over themselves, asking if I needed help. Seriously, that needs to happen everywhere!
I found a few things that I put on my must-have list before Cate texted me wondering where I was. What was funny is that each of us, at that moment, was waiting for the male member of our party to get out of the bathroom. Talk about weird synchronization.
Anywho...we headed over to the Mad Tea Party and spun around before going to Philharmagic, which was fabulous as always!
Bryan has always wanted to head back to Tom Sawyer's Island so he and the kids headed over there and I went back to the ye Olde Christmas Shoppe and made some acquisitions. My favorite so far: Edible Pixie Dust aka Mickey Head Christmas Cookie Sprinkles!
I love my family, but it was nice to shop unencumbered or worrying about who was antsy to leave or what.
I wandered through Adventureland's shops and then came upon the Golden Goose of character meet and greets for Bryan - Ariel. And not just any Ariel...this was Ariel in her blue dress, which is not easy to find. I texted him about it and then headed down Main Street.
Did a little more browsing and identifying things for my own personal wish list while listening to a great acapella group singing Christmas carols on Main Street. Love. It.
By that time, it was approaching noon and we were bushed and ready to head home. Except for Bryan. He was still in line to meet Ariel. I took the kids home and Bryan came back on the bus.
We had some leftovers and then hit the pool. Great pool day. Temp was around 80 degrees and it was mostly sunny. Fun times.
Cate, Bryan and I made Mickey Tye-Dye T-shirts at the pool activities table. They're being washed right now. I'm a little disappointed in mine...not very distinctive ears. But we'll see what the others look like.
We came back and got cleaned up because we had another dining experience waiting for us. I made a reservation for the new La Hacienda de San Angel, the new table-service place in Mexico in Epcot that's right on the lakeside.
We walked around and got checked in. Nice open restaurant and very well themed. We were shown to a half circle booth facing the water. I had scoped out the menu earlier and we had decided to get both the mixed grill items that were for 2 people each so we could sample a lot of stuff.
I was a little leery because I don't do onions and I didn't want to be picking onions out of my food. No worries. The food was fabulous. Amazingly yummy. It had a bit of a kick, but it wasn't a four-alarm fire or anything.
It had been a long day and we were pretty bushed. Stefan headed home, but Cate and I thought we'd hit the Karamel Kuche in Germany for a dessert.
Didn't happen. We got distracted saving the world, a la Kim Possible style, got tired and headed home.
Bryan, meanwhile, made a stop and saw Mexican Donald before heading home, too.
All in all, a very fun day.
Today was our morning to have our traditional breakfast at Crystal Palace before the park opens. I always make a reservation at 8:05am so we can eat, see characters and be out of there before the rest of the park opens.
We've got this one down to a science:
Everyone is up at 7am
We leave the room at 7:15am.
Get in the car and drive to Magic Kingdom.
Park in the first row and walk to the monorail.
Funny thing happened this time. We were wearing matching shirts today - the painted Mickeys I had made for a past trip. As we were walking to the monorail, Cate was just plain wound up. I asked her if she was a little excited. Her response, "Of course, I'm excited. It's Crystal Palace Day." Of course, it was more funny because she was hopping along while talking. A Cast Member saw us and decided to play along. He said to Cate, "Ma'am this is the Magic Kingdom. We don't allow that kind of excitement before 8am here." It was classic.
Anywho...rode the resort monorail around to MK and it was 7:45am. They were already letting people through the turnstiles so we walked right in I have to say, there's nothing like walking down Main Street with all the Christmas decorations and like only 20 other people in your field of vision. Wicked cool.
Bryan checked us in at CP. I took some pics of the kids with the castle as a backdrop and then we were called in. We were actually the first family to be sat on the left half of the restaurant.
Food is always good here. We saw Piglet and Tigger, but didn't wait for Pooh and Eeyore so we paid for our meal and meandered off.
At this time, it was around 8:30am and still very empty in MK. Remember, official opening isn't until 9am and the only people inside the park are those with breakfast ressies.
Since we never really have time to see Walt and Mickey at the hub (because it's always so crowded), we took the time to do that. I never had noticed the smaller statues of eight other characters that surround the hub either. The benefits of it not being wall to wall people and being able to take in those details. I took a few pics of the kids by the poinsettia trees and Cate took a pic of Bryan and me. We also got to see the old time fire engine drive by. Very cool!
We always head for Frontierland, so I thought for a change of pace, we'd head to Tomorrowland instead. We took the roundabout way through the Rose Garden. I think I'd only walked through there one time before. Again, it was so nice to be able to do it when it was so quiet.
Tomorrowland was roped off so we just hung out there. I took a couple of pics of an empty Tomorrowland. We decided we'd get Fastpasses for Buzz, ride Buzz and then the other three would hit Space Mountain before we all did Buzz again.
Well those plans got pitched because as the Cast Members walked up to the rope, we were asked if we'd like to be the first family to ride Buzz Lightyear! Heck, yea!
So they motioned us under the rope and took us, and only us, through Tomorrowland and over to Buzz. We got on Buzz and rode by ourselves completely! At the end, they gave us souvenir ride photos, which we have never done on that ride. Very cool!
We went over and got Fastpasses for Buzz. The kids headed for Space and I suggested that Bryan and I shop. Well I ended up shopping by myself at the Merchant of Venus for a bit and I had five Cast Members falling all over themselves, asking if I needed help. Seriously, that needs to happen everywhere!
I found a few things that I put on my must-have list before Cate texted me wondering where I was. What was funny is that each of us, at that moment, was waiting for the male member of our party to get out of the bathroom. Talk about weird synchronization.
Anywho...we headed over to the Mad Tea Party and spun around before going to Philharmagic, which was fabulous as always!
Bryan has always wanted to head back to Tom Sawyer's Island so he and the kids headed over there and I went back to the ye Olde Christmas Shoppe and made some acquisitions. My favorite so far: Edible Pixie Dust aka Mickey Head Christmas Cookie Sprinkles!
I love my family, but it was nice to shop unencumbered or worrying about who was antsy to leave or what.
I wandered through Adventureland's shops and then came upon the Golden Goose of character meet and greets for Bryan - Ariel. And not just any Ariel...this was Ariel in her blue dress, which is not easy to find. I texted him about it and then headed down Main Street.
Did a little more browsing and identifying things for my own personal wish list while listening to a great acapella group singing Christmas carols on Main Street. Love. It.
By that time, it was approaching noon and we were bushed and ready to head home. Except for Bryan. He was still in line to meet Ariel. I took the kids home and Bryan came back on the bus.
We had some leftovers and then hit the pool. Great pool day. Temp was around 80 degrees and it was mostly sunny. Fun times.
Cate, Bryan and I made Mickey Tye-Dye T-shirts at the pool activities table. They're being washed right now. I'm a little disappointed in mine...not very distinctive ears. But we'll see what the others look like.
We came back and got cleaned up because we had another dining experience waiting for us. I made a reservation for the new La Hacienda de San Angel, the new table-service place in Mexico in Epcot that's right on the lakeside.
We walked around and got checked in. Nice open restaurant and very well themed. We were shown to a half circle booth facing the water. I had scoped out the menu earlier and we had decided to get both the mixed grill items that were for 2 people each so we could sample a lot of stuff.
I was a little leery because I don't do onions and I didn't want to be picking onions out of my food. No worries. The food was fabulous. Amazingly yummy. It had a bit of a kick, but it wasn't a four-alarm fire or anything.
It had been a long day and we were pretty bushed. Stefan headed home, but Cate and I thought we'd hit the Karamel Kuche in Germany for a dessert.
Didn't happen. We got distracted saving the world, a la Kim Possible style, got tired and headed home.
Bryan, meanwhile, made a stop and saw Mexican Donald before heading home, too.
All in all, a very fun day.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Sun. Nov. 28 - Animal Kingdom and More
Sun. Nov. 28
I have to say, it's a great vacation when you don't "have" to get up early every single day. It's been nice to not feel rushed.
We got up and I made pancakes for breakfast today. No one had any other preference, so we headed to Animal Kingdom.
We got there about 9:15am and headed for Dinoland. We love Primeval Whirl and figured that just about everyone else heads for Everest or Kilimanjaro Safaris. We waiting maybe 5 minutes before getting on PW. Seriously fun. We were going to do it again, but by the time we exited, the line was too long. Ok, too long that I didn't want to wait in it. It said it was only 10 minutes, but this one looked way more than 10 minutes long to me. PW is a slow loader, too. But I digress...
Stefan needed his first Mickey head ice cream of the day. He got his treat, which Cate & I did some quality control on. :-)
Cate & Bryan wanted to do Dinosaur; Stefan and I had zero interest in that so we decided to walk to Asia in preparation for Kali River Rapids.
Once Bryan and Cate caught up, the kids and I divested all out stuff on to Bryan and headed to Kali.
Thank goodness we gave him all our stuff. We've ridden Kali many, many times and we've gotten wet. We don't mind being wet at all, but this was a colossal soaking! The wettest we've ever gotten. I think our ridemates were a little appalled at how wet we were. Thank goodness is was warmer today than it was on Saturday.
Cate wanted to do the Maharajah Jungle Trek, so we meandered through there. Nice easy walk.
Stefan was hungry again when we got out of there. Seriously...I'm not kidding when I say this kid has a hollow leg. He got the side order of chicken fried rice from Yak & Yeti. He thought it was a little dry, but ate the whole thing.
He wanted to get on the safari, but it was a 60 minute wait by that time and we didn't want to wait an hour for a Fastpass return time so we headed out of the park.
Once we got back, we had leftovers for lunch. That's a bonus thing for cooking in the room - leftovers!
We're having turkey dinner tonight so we needed to get that in the oven. We got one of those dinners from SuperTarget. Basically, cook from frozen without babysitting.
We headed for the pool and spent a good, long, enjoyable time just fooling around. It was never crowded. Stefan actually volunteered to help herd a mama duck and her ducklings out of the pool area, but it wasn't working too well. At least he did his Boy Scout good deed for the day.
Bryan decided the kids needed ice cream so he went over to Beaches & Cream and got Stefan a cone and Cate a hot fudge sundae.
Once we got back to the room, I started a load of laundry and then Bryan and I headed for Downtown Disney. That place was crazy busy. But we were target shopping/browsing. We headed to Mickey's Pantry to check out the Spice & Tea Exchange. Wicked cool place. If you like to cook, you'll love what this place has to offer.
We popped in to the Christmas store, but it was just too busy for browsing so we left. I wanted to stop by the new Pollo Campero and Fresh A-Peel and see what it looked like. Pretty cool place. We didn't eat there, but I stopped into the little corner that is Babycakes.
Babycakes makes gluten free treats and uses agave sugar in its frostings. I bought two chocolate cupcake tops with chocolate frosting, a banana bread cupcake with chocolate frosting and a frosting shot. Yes, that's right - a frosting shot. What a great idea!
I'm sorry to say that I'm not a fan of Babycakes. The flavor just was not right and while agave is natural, it just tasted artificial to me. My kids didn't like it either and that's saying something. Sorry, Babycakes.
Back at home, we had the turkey dinner and right now, I'm so stuffed I can barely see straight. I'm going to pull up a piece of couch and watch some TV for a while. Stefan says he wants to head to MGM...I just don't think I can make it tonight. Though walking off some of this turkey is probably a good thing. We'll see how it goes.
One final thought for today...that I should have included in the post for yesterday...you know it's a great vacation when your teenage daughter randomly says to you while walking through Epcot, "Mom, I'm so happy. I don't know why, but I'm so happy."
Checkmark in the Awesome column for me.
I have to say, it's a great vacation when you don't "have" to get up early every single day. It's been nice to not feel rushed.
We got up and I made pancakes for breakfast today. No one had any other preference, so we headed to Animal Kingdom.
We got there about 9:15am and headed for Dinoland. We love Primeval Whirl and figured that just about everyone else heads for Everest or Kilimanjaro Safaris. We waiting maybe 5 minutes before getting on PW. Seriously fun. We were going to do it again, but by the time we exited, the line was too long. Ok, too long that I didn't want to wait in it. It said it was only 10 minutes, but this one looked way more than 10 minutes long to me. PW is a slow loader, too. But I digress...
Stefan needed his first Mickey head ice cream of the day. He got his treat, which Cate & I did some quality control on. :-)
Cate & Bryan wanted to do Dinosaur; Stefan and I had zero interest in that so we decided to walk to Asia in preparation for Kali River Rapids.
Once Bryan and Cate caught up, the kids and I divested all out stuff on to Bryan and headed to Kali.
Thank goodness we gave him all our stuff. We've ridden Kali many, many times and we've gotten wet. We don't mind being wet at all, but this was a colossal soaking! The wettest we've ever gotten. I think our ridemates were a little appalled at how wet we were. Thank goodness is was warmer today than it was on Saturday.
Cate wanted to do the Maharajah Jungle Trek, so we meandered through there. Nice easy walk.
Stefan was hungry again when we got out of there. Seriously...I'm not kidding when I say this kid has a hollow leg. He got the side order of chicken fried rice from Yak & Yeti. He thought it was a little dry, but ate the whole thing.
He wanted to get on the safari, but it was a 60 minute wait by that time and we didn't want to wait an hour for a Fastpass return time so we headed out of the park.
Once we got back, we had leftovers for lunch. That's a bonus thing for cooking in the room - leftovers!
We're having turkey dinner tonight so we needed to get that in the oven. We got one of those dinners from SuperTarget. Basically, cook from frozen without babysitting.
We headed for the pool and spent a good, long, enjoyable time just fooling around. It was never crowded. Stefan actually volunteered to help herd a mama duck and her ducklings out of the pool area, but it wasn't working too well. At least he did his Boy Scout good deed for the day.
Bryan decided the kids needed ice cream so he went over to Beaches & Cream and got Stefan a cone and Cate a hot fudge sundae.
Once we got back to the room, I started a load of laundry and then Bryan and I headed for Downtown Disney. That place was crazy busy. But we were target shopping/browsing. We headed to Mickey's Pantry to check out the Spice & Tea Exchange. Wicked cool place. If you like to cook, you'll love what this place has to offer.
We popped in to the Christmas store, but it was just too busy for browsing so we left. I wanted to stop by the new Pollo Campero and Fresh A-Peel and see what it looked like. Pretty cool place. We didn't eat there, but I stopped into the little corner that is Babycakes.
Babycakes makes gluten free treats and uses agave sugar in its frostings. I bought two chocolate cupcake tops with chocolate frosting, a banana bread cupcake with chocolate frosting and a frosting shot. Yes, that's right - a frosting shot. What a great idea!
I'm sorry to say that I'm not a fan of Babycakes. The flavor just was not right and while agave is natural, it just tasted artificial to me. My kids didn't like it either and that's saying something. Sorry, Babycakes.
Back at home, we had the turkey dinner and right now, I'm so stuffed I can barely see straight. I'm going to pull up a piece of couch and watch some TV for a while. Stefan says he wants to head to MGM...I just don't think I can make it tonight. Though walking off some of this turkey is probably a good thing. We'll see how it goes.
One final thought for today...that I should have included in the post for yesterday...you know it's a great vacation when your teenage daughter randomly says to you while walking through Epcot, "Mom, I'm so happy. I don't know why, but I'm so happy."
Checkmark in the Awesome column for me.
Nov. 27 - Welcome to Magic Kingdom
Sat. Nov. 27
I've never been a park commando. I just don't like scheduling every single second of a day. I am one to make plans, but this is probably the loosest set of vacation plans I've ever had.
We got up and the kids watched a little TV over a breakfast of cinnamon streusel muffins. Stefan asked where we were going to go today. We had no firm plans, but I'd scoped out predictions and found that Magic Kingdom was a good day.
That's right. Magic Kingdom. On a Saturday. The Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend.
We didn't leave the room to be there at rope drop and I thought that might be a problem. As we drove to MK and saw the sheer number of cars pulling into the parking lot, I started to wonder a little bit more.
After we got off the tram, we headed to Will Call because I figured that just in case it was crazy, we could use one of our Give A Day, Get a Day Fastpass Cards here. Just to review: These cards give you 6 Fastpasses on your choice of major attractions within your choice of park on one day.
After getting the FP cards, we headed to the monorail station. The Express Monorail line was really backed up, but no one was waiting for the Resort Monorail. We hopped the line and got on the Resort Monorail as it had just pulled in to the station.
After entering Magic Kingdom, we walked down a pretty busy Main Street. For the first time visitor, you might have looked at those crowds and thought, "I'm toast. There's no way I'm getting on any rides today."
I could not believe the number of things we did... without the Fastpasses.
For the first 60-90 minutes...everything was a walk-on. I'm not kidding!
Bryan and the kids wanted to do Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. Once they walked off, we had to have the traditional ride on Aladdin's Magic Carpets so that Stefan could try and get Bryan wet from the spitting camel. He was successful, by the way.
The kids and I walked right on to the Jungle Cruise. Sara, our skipper, was a freakin' hoot!
Bryan joined back up with us and we headed to Pirates of the Caribbean. Whoa! Pirate Goofy was out so we had to jump in line to meet him.
Both side of POTC were open, but everyone else was walking onto the left hand side. We walked through the right hand side and, you guessed it, walked right on to the next boat.
We headed to Frontierland to hit Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (BTMRR). The wait time said 20 minutes. I looked at how fast people were walking in and I did not want to use a FP...I totally thought it wouldn't be a wait. The kids wanted to, and since we had 6 FPs, we used one.
That was a total waste! We walked in, joined back into the line and walked right into an empty spot to await the next train to arrive. It was not anywhere close to a 20 minute wait.
Stefan had the munchies when we were done; he was in search for his favorite Mickey head ice cream bar. We mosied in the direction of Liberty Square. Bryan decided he needed a funnel cake. He and kids headed to Sleepy Hollow and I wandered over the Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe.
Lots of fun new stuff in the Christmas shop; I'll be back on Monday to make some actual purchases.
For all our luck in no lines for attractions, we waiting the lonnnnnggggest time for that darn funnel cake. I'm not kidding. I think we waiting 10 minutes and that was after I rejoined Bryan and the kids.
By that time, everyone was getting a little more hungry than snacks could cover. We decided we'd do Philharmagic, Buzz Lightyear and Space Mountain before heading home.
Philharmagic, oddly enough, had a weird waiting line and seemed rather long. We decided to ditch it and do it on another day.
Another odd factoid: The Fastpass machines for The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh are near the Philharmagic Stand By Entrance. I'm sure it has to do with the Fantasyland construction, but that was just plain weird to me to have the FP machines so far from that ride.
We headed over to Tomorrowland. Buzz had a listed wait time of 30 minutes. Fastpass! By the way, those GADGAD Fastpass cards give you instant Fastpasses. No waiting! We got right on.
Bryan and the kids headed over to Space Mountain (Mary does not do Space.) and I decided to do the TTA, Tomorrowland Transit Authority, or Wedway People Mover. I did a short video, which I'll upload to YouTube and link here in a later blog post.
Once I was done, I decided to take advantage of not having my tribe with me and I'd do a little shopping on Main Street. I texted Caitlin where I was going and headed in that direction.
I cut through Tomorrowland Terrace and it was open! It seems like this place is never open and I was glad to see it!
It's sporting a different menu - not just Asian food, but a smorgasbord of stuff, including sushi.
I shopped for a bit before the tribe caught up with me. At that point, the natives were restless for some food so we headed back to BCV and made hot ham and cheese sandwiches.
After lunch, it was time to hit the pool!
It was a bit of a cold day today so the pool was a bit empty. Bryan camped out in the hot tub and the kids and I swam about a little. But we were the star family of the day at the poolside games that afternoon. That means we were the participatory ones that weren't afraid to make fools of themselves in a t-shirt relay and pool deck dancing. Seriously, though, I think the lifeguards and recreation staff were glad to have participants. They wanted to make sure we'd be back for the campfire and the movie under the stars, which was Toy Story 3.
We headed back to the room and had a little down time before making chicken stir fry for dinner.
After dinner, we were a little antsy, so we headed to the Beach Club lobby and checked out the gingerbreak carousel. There are 11 hidden Mickeys within the structure. So far, I've only found 9. We'll take a crack at it again.
We headed outside and Cate decided to go pearl diving. She got a beautiful blue pearl and decided to get a silver ring for it. Good grief, they suck you in with the jewelry part...but she doesn't ask for much so when she sees something she really gets into, you kinda have to jump on it.
The movie didn't start until 8pm so we decided to walk over to Epcot and waste a little time. That's the nice thing about the Beach Club Villas...great location.
The kids wanted to head to Test Track so Bryan and I headed to MouseGears. It turns out TT had a pretty long wait and the kids didn't want to do single rider so we headed back to the World Showcase.
Bryan needed coffee so we stopped in one of those gift shops and got the Disney Holiday Cheer. We'll see if he likes it tomorrow. He's finishing up the coffee in the room today.
We caught up to the kids in Norway and it was around 7:30pm. We figured we better hoof it back so they could get to the movie on time. We had a brief stop in Germany - Bryan to the Christmas Brewmaster's stall and Cate and I to Karmel Kuchen. Stefan wanted to head off to Japan.
Karmel Kuchen was packed! We walked through so we could look at the diabetic-inducing goodies and wow! We're going to stop here on another day when it's not packed.
Cate & I headed out toward Japan. Good grief, was it crowded. Hello...it's opening weekend for Candlelight Processional, knucklehead. What were you thinking?
Bryan caught up with us in Japan, we picked up Stefan and headed home. The kids lasted a little bit, but got tired and came back to the room. We vegged until it was bedtime.
Tomorrow: Sun. Nov. 28 - Animal Kingdom
I've never been a park commando. I just don't like scheduling every single second of a day. I am one to make plans, but this is probably the loosest set of vacation plans I've ever had.
We got up and the kids watched a little TV over a breakfast of cinnamon streusel muffins. Stefan asked where we were going to go today. We had no firm plans, but I'd scoped out predictions and found that Magic Kingdom was a good day.
That's right. Magic Kingdom. On a Saturday. The Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend.
We didn't leave the room to be there at rope drop and I thought that might be a problem. As we drove to MK and saw the sheer number of cars pulling into the parking lot, I started to wonder a little bit more.
After we got off the tram, we headed to Will Call because I figured that just in case it was crazy, we could use one of our Give A Day, Get a Day Fastpass Cards here. Just to review: These cards give you 6 Fastpasses on your choice of major attractions within your choice of park on one day.
After getting the FP cards, we headed to the monorail station. The Express Monorail line was really backed up, but no one was waiting for the Resort Monorail. We hopped the line and got on the Resort Monorail as it had just pulled in to the station.
After entering Magic Kingdom, we walked down a pretty busy Main Street. For the first time visitor, you might have looked at those crowds and thought, "I'm toast. There's no way I'm getting on any rides today."
I could not believe the number of things we did... without the Fastpasses.
For the first 60-90 minutes...everything was a walk-on. I'm not kidding!
Bryan and the kids wanted to do Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. Once they walked off, we had to have the traditional ride on Aladdin's Magic Carpets so that Stefan could try and get Bryan wet from the spitting camel. He was successful, by the way.
The kids and I walked right on to the Jungle Cruise. Sara, our skipper, was a freakin' hoot!
Bryan joined back up with us and we headed to Pirates of the Caribbean. Whoa! Pirate Goofy was out so we had to jump in line to meet him.
Both side of POTC were open, but everyone else was walking onto the left hand side. We walked through the right hand side and, you guessed it, walked right on to the next boat.
We headed to Frontierland to hit Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (BTMRR). The wait time said 20 minutes. I looked at how fast people were walking in and I did not want to use a FP...I totally thought it wouldn't be a wait. The kids wanted to, and since we had 6 FPs, we used one.
That was a total waste! We walked in, joined back into the line and walked right into an empty spot to await the next train to arrive. It was not anywhere close to a 20 minute wait.
Stefan had the munchies when we were done; he was in search for his favorite Mickey head ice cream bar. We mosied in the direction of Liberty Square. Bryan decided he needed a funnel cake. He and kids headed to Sleepy Hollow and I wandered over the Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe.
Lots of fun new stuff in the Christmas shop; I'll be back on Monday to make some actual purchases.
For all our luck in no lines for attractions, we waiting the lonnnnnggggest time for that darn funnel cake. I'm not kidding. I think we waiting 10 minutes and that was after I rejoined Bryan and the kids.
By that time, everyone was getting a little more hungry than snacks could cover. We decided we'd do Philharmagic, Buzz Lightyear and Space Mountain before heading home.
Philharmagic, oddly enough, had a weird waiting line and seemed rather long. We decided to ditch it and do it on another day.
Another odd factoid: The Fastpass machines for The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh are near the Philharmagic Stand By Entrance. I'm sure it has to do with the Fantasyland construction, but that was just plain weird to me to have the FP machines so far from that ride.
We headed over to Tomorrowland. Buzz had a listed wait time of 30 minutes. Fastpass! By the way, those GADGAD Fastpass cards give you instant Fastpasses. No waiting! We got right on.
Bryan and the kids headed over to Space Mountain (Mary does not do Space.) and I decided to do the TTA, Tomorrowland Transit Authority, or Wedway People Mover. I did a short video, which I'll upload to YouTube and link here in a later blog post.
Once I was done, I decided to take advantage of not having my tribe with me and I'd do a little shopping on Main Street. I texted Caitlin where I was going and headed in that direction.
I cut through Tomorrowland Terrace and it was open! It seems like this place is never open and I was glad to see it!
It's sporting a different menu - not just Asian food, but a smorgasbord of stuff, including sushi.
I shopped for a bit before the tribe caught up with me. At that point, the natives were restless for some food so we headed back to BCV and made hot ham and cheese sandwiches.
After lunch, it was time to hit the pool!
It was a bit of a cold day today so the pool was a bit empty. Bryan camped out in the hot tub and the kids and I swam about a little. But we were the star family of the day at the poolside games that afternoon. That means we were the participatory ones that weren't afraid to make fools of themselves in a t-shirt relay and pool deck dancing. Seriously, though, I think the lifeguards and recreation staff were glad to have participants. They wanted to make sure we'd be back for the campfire and the movie under the stars, which was Toy Story 3.
We headed back to the room and had a little down time before making chicken stir fry for dinner.
After dinner, we were a little antsy, so we headed to the Beach Club lobby and checked out the gingerbreak carousel. There are 11 hidden Mickeys within the structure. So far, I've only found 9. We'll take a crack at it again.
We headed outside and Cate decided to go pearl diving. She got a beautiful blue pearl and decided to get a silver ring for it. Good grief, they suck you in with the jewelry part...but she doesn't ask for much so when she sees something she really gets into, you kinda have to jump on it.
The movie didn't start until 8pm so we decided to walk over to Epcot and waste a little time. That's the nice thing about the Beach Club Villas...great location.
The kids wanted to head to Test Track so Bryan and I headed to MouseGears. It turns out TT had a pretty long wait and the kids didn't want to do single rider so we headed back to the World Showcase.
Bryan needed coffee so we stopped in one of those gift shops and got the Disney Holiday Cheer. We'll see if he likes it tomorrow. He's finishing up the coffee in the room today.
We caught up to the kids in Norway and it was around 7:30pm. We figured we better hoof it back so they could get to the movie on time. We had a brief stop in Germany - Bryan to the Christmas Brewmaster's stall and Cate and I to Karmel Kuchen. Stefan wanted to head off to Japan.
Karmel Kuchen was packed! We walked through so we could look at the diabetic-inducing goodies and wow! We're going to stop here on another day when it's not packed.
Cate & I headed out toward Japan. Good grief, was it crowded. Hello...it's opening weekend for Candlelight Processional, knucklehead. What were you thinking?
Bryan caught up with us in Japan, we picked up Stefan and headed home. The kids lasted a little bit, but got tired and came back to the room. We vegged until it was bedtime.
Tomorrow: Sun. Nov. 28 - Animal Kingdom
Saturday, November 27, 2010
We're Here at Disney World!
Here we go! My attempt at blogging from The World!
Cast of Characters:
Mary ~ The planner
Bryan ~ My DH (aka the 3rd child)
Stefan, 14
Caitlin, 14
November 26 - Arrival Day
Grandma Z picked us up at 7:30am and we headed to MSP for our 10am flight. The airport was not busy, at all. I'm seriously think that Black Friday is the day to fly.
I checked a bag this time around because I was bringing a Pampered Chef pan and a good knife to leave in my Owner's Locker. Since it's free to check a bag as a Delta Amex holder, I figured I'd just do that because people would need to eat and I could wait for the bag while they ate.
I've been traveling carry-on for years now...Oh.My.Gosh...it was murder waiting for that bag to come out! Seriously...I could have been half way to WDW by the time the bag showed up. Thank goodness this was a one-time bag checking.
Once we got the bag, we headed over to National Car Rental. I'm an Executive Emerald Aisle member so we got to choose from both sides of the EA. Lots of Suburbans, Expeditions and other larger SUVs. However, we already knew that we needed a Gibbs car. For those of you who aren't NCIS fans, that means we were looking for a Dodge Charger.
We had black, steel grey, silver and white to choose from. Took the black one!
Exited with no problem, as usual, and went on our way.
Our plan was to stop at the SuperTarget on Orange Blossom Trail to get groceries for the week. This time around, I made a menu for each day, added in the 3 ADRs we're doing, and planned meals for everything else.
We even got one of the Small Turkey Dinners from their deli...except they were out of the small turkey breast. So they gave us the 12Lb turkey but only charged us for the Small Dinner. Great customer service!
Had a small hiccup at checkout...my credit card wasn't working. I used another method of payment, but was fuming because I had just used this card and it wasn't for Black Friday! It was one of those afternoons. We got out of the store and it's raining. Everyone else loaded up the car in the rain while I'm going through the calling tree at the credit card co. It turns out that they put a hold on it because I hadn't called them to tell them I was in FL and they were concerned that someone had stolen my number. Yet another good case of customer service in that they were looking out for me, the customer. So now I know I need to call them when I travel with this specific card.
We made it to BCV and checked in quickly. We're in room 452 which is way at the end of the hallway that's perpendicular to the main BCV hallway.
Nice quiet location. But a bear to have to haul all the groceries to. Should we have gotten a bell cart? Absolutely. My arms are still a little sore from hauling everything to the room. I'm not kidding.
We didn't hit a park on Friday. I made sloppy joe's for dinner and man, did that hit the spot! We lounged in the room for the night, with the exception of Cate and I hitting Dune's Cove for a swim and hot tub soaking.
Next up: Saturday morning at Magic Kingdom .
Cast of Characters:
Mary ~ The planner
Bryan ~ My DH (aka the 3rd child)
Stefan, 14
Caitlin, 14
November 26 - Arrival Day
Grandma Z picked us up at 7:30am and we headed to MSP for our 10am flight. The airport was not busy, at all. I'm seriously think that Black Friday is the day to fly.
I checked a bag this time around because I was bringing a Pampered Chef pan and a good knife to leave in my Owner's Locker. Since it's free to check a bag as a Delta Amex holder, I figured I'd just do that because people would need to eat and I could wait for the bag while they ate.
I've been traveling carry-on for years now...Oh.My.Gosh...it was murder waiting for that bag to come out! Seriously...I could have been half way to WDW by the time the bag showed up. Thank goodness this was a one-time bag checking.
Once we got the bag, we headed over to National Car Rental. I'm an Executive Emerald Aisle member so we got to choose from both sides of the EA. Lots of Suburbans, Expeditions and other larger SUVs. However, we already knew that we needed a Gibbs car. For those of you who aren't NCIS fans, that means we were looking for a Dodge Charger.
We had black, steel grey, silver and white to choose from. Took the black one!
Exited with no problem, as usual, and went on our way.
Our plan was to stop at the SuperTarget on Orange Blossom Trail to get groceries for the week. This time around, I made a menu for each day, added in the 3 ADRs we're doing, and planned meals for everything else.
We even got one of the Small Turkey Dinners from their deli...except they were out of the small turkey breast. So they gave us the 12Lb turkey but only charged us for the Small Dinner. Great customer service!
Had a small hiccup at checkout...my credit card wasn't working. I used another method of payment, but was fuming because I had just used this card and it wasn't for Black Friday! It was one of those afternoons. We got out of the store and it's raining. Everyone else loaded up the car in the rain while I'm going through the calling tree at the credit card co. It turns out that they put a hold on it because I hadn't called them to tell them I was in FL and they were concerned that someone had stolen my number. Yet another good case of customer service in that they were looking out for me, the customer. So now I know I need to call them when I travel with this specific card.
We made it to BCV and checked in quickly. We're in room 452 which is way at the end of the hallway that's perpendicular to the main BCV hallway.
Nice quiet location. But a bear to have to haul all the groceries to. Should we have gotten a bell cart? Absolutely. My arms are still a little sore from hauling everything to the room. I'm not kidding.
We didn't hit a park on Friday. I made sloppy joe's for dinner and man, did that hit the spot! We lounged in the room for the night, with the exception of Cate and I hitting Dune's Cove for a swim and hot tub soaking.
Next up: Saturday morning at Magic Kingdom .
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Using Google Calendar and Android for Park Touring
So I'm a week or so out from departing for land of Mickey and I decided to mess around with an idea for keeping track of park hours that I'm sure someone has already done before.
I have an Android phone (love it, BTW) so I'm a Google girl. (Ok, that looks soooo funny, but I'm just going to run with it.)
I use Google Calendar for my VA practice so I was thinking why not make calendars for each park for the time I'm at Disney World, color code each park and that way I can see at a glance what the hours are, when the special activities (eg parades, fireworks, etc) are, and so on.
So I sat down and I did it this afternoon. I have to say, it's pretty cool. I didn't go commando with every possible little thing on the schedule. Here's what I have:
I have an Android phone (love it, BTW) so I'm a Google girl. (Ok, that looks soooo funny, but I'm just going to run with it.)
I use Google Calendar for my VA practice so I was thinking why not make calendars for each park for the time I'm at Disney World, color code each park and that way I can see at a glance what the hours are, when the special activities (eg parades, fireworks, etc) are, and so on.
So I sat down and I did it this afternoon. I have to say, it's pretty cool. I didn't go commando with every possible little thing on the schedule. Here's what I have:
- How late each park is open
- If a park has EMH and if it's AM or PM
- Fantasmic, Wishes, MSEP, AK Xmas Parade - I already know Illuminations is every night at 9:30pm
- The pertinent ADRs
So if I decide I want to hop, I don't need to worry about carrying a times guide or whatever since I already have my phone with me.
I'll see how it goes, but here's my initial impression:
For a newbie who's never been and has the smartphone as an umbilical, it's probably a cool way to stay organized and informed.
For a veteran who's been at this time of year many, many times...it probably wasn't necessary because I could probably recite the hours and special events with pretty good accuracy.
We'll see how it goes when I'm actually down there.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Interesting Tidbits...Should they be added to the visit list?
Ok, I'm a total slacker when it comes to keeping this blog updated. I fell off the wagon, but I'm getting back on because I'm in single digits before my next trip to Disney World!
But before I dive into prepping, I have a few news bits to throw out for discussion:
Pollo Campero and Fresh A-Peel just opened this week at Downtown Disney where McDonald's used to be.
I'm ready to try this place. I'm not a huge McDs fan, and the menu sounds pretty interesting. Looks like these two eateries share the space. Pollo Campero is known for having delicious, hand-breaded, fried (not in trans-fats) chicken that's supposedly moist, and yummy. Fresh A-Peel features fresh ingredients and made to order burgers, sandwiches, salads and more.
The Spice & Tea Exchange opened at Downtown Disney as part of Mickey's Pantry.
I can already tell this will be a dangerous place for me. I love love love variety in spices, teas and stuff like this. After browsing the online store, I turned to DH in our home office and said, "I'm pretty sure you can do most of your Christmas shopping for me at this store." The sheer variety and reasonable prices are so appealing. I can't wait to shop there.
So, the conclusion is, "Well, duh...of course, you're adding those places to the must-do list."
Now I've just got to get through the rest of the time before we leave. I've got several work things on my plate, including trying to schedule a short meeting while I'm down there in FL, plus two Thanksgivings and then the usual packing stuff.
So far, no further movement on my rental car, but I've already adjusted twice so I'm not sure if I'll get anything more. However, I've got it down to $180 for 9 days and that's after taxes so I don't think I have much to complain about. $20/day, after taxes, is pretty good.
Right now, my plan is to blog from the world in all its Christmas glory.
OH! And guess what...last I checked, the Space Shuttle is launching while I'm down there! Super sweet!
But before I dive into prepping, I have a few news bits to throw out for discussion:
Pollo Campero and Fresh A-Peel just opened this week at Downtown Disney where McDonald's used to be.
I'm ready to try this place. I'm not a huge McDs fan, and the menu sounds pretty interesting. Looks like these two eateries share the space. Pollo Campero is known for having delicious, hand-breaded, fried (not in trans-fats) chicken that's supposedly moist, and yummy. Fresh A-Peel features fresh ingredients and made to order burgers, sandwiches, salads and more.
The Spice & Tea Exchange opened at Downtown Disney as part of Mickey's Pantry.
I can already tell this will be a dangerous place for me. I love love love variety in spices, teas and stuff like this. After browsing the online store, I turned to DH in our home office and said, "I'm pretty sure you can do most of your Christmas shopping for me at this store." The sheer variety and reasonable prices are so appealing. I can't wait to shop there.
So, the conclusion is, "Well, duh...of course, you're adding those places to the must-do list."
Now I've just got to get through the rest of the time before we leave. I've got several work things on my plate, including trying to schedule a short meeting while I'm down there in FL, plus two Thanksgivings and then the usual packing stuff.
So far, no further movement on my rental car, but I've already adjusted twice so I'm not sure if I'll get anything more. However, I've got it down to $180 for 9 days and that's after taxes so I don't think I have much to complain about. $20/day, after taxes, is pretty good.
Right now, my plan is to blog from the world in all its Christmas glory.
OH! And guess what...last I checked, the Space Shuttle is launching while I'm down there! Super sweet!
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