jenseib

Glad you had a good time!!

I sailed the Dream last March and will be again in Nov. Photos were expensive, I would say averaging about $20 is for 8 x 10's. You can look into getting a CD with all the photos too. No borders on them, but if you get a lot taken, it might be worth the cost. I want to say for our 3 night cruise the CD was either $150 or $200, but we did have a lot of photos taken over the course of those 3 days. For the credit card system. You link your credit card to your ship account. Everything you pay for on ship is by swiping your room key (Key to the world card...KTTW). Then it will be charged to that credit card that is linked. You amy also stop off at guest services and apply cash or Disney gift cards to your account as well. The charges will be take off those amounts first and any balance will then be charged to your credit card. Be sure to keep your gift cards though, because if you have any remaining balance to go back on the card, they will put it right back on the card. Basically cash will be used first, then your gift cards, then credit card will be charged. I also wrote a pretty lengthy TR about the Dream last year, it might explain a few things too. Have fun!

Thanks. A few more months yet! I am hoping to do a Princess cruise before then too...but I have to wait on some things before I can know for sure.

Thanks....well it took me quite awhile to write up too!

Thanks so much for reading along. We had a great time!

Let me know if you do. I would really love to read it!!!

I have a big trip coming up in Nov. Claire and I will be joinging several members of my family for a cruise on the Disney Dream and some more time at WDW. We fly down on Nov. 2 and come home late Nov 14th! I'll be sure to post the link here when I start that TR. There is also a possible trip for this Sept, I am just waiting for things to line up. That one won't be Disney, but it will be fun!....if it comes through for me.

Thanks so much for reading along!

Day 5 ~ March 30, 2012 Again, I have no notes for this day, so I have to go by memory. I’m sure I woke early as I never can sleep very long on vacation. I probably went down for breakfast and also caught up on facebook via my Kindle. I did love the free wifi at Quality Inn. I also had the task of packing up. I brought along a luggage scale this time to be sure none of the bags were overweight and we did just fine. I believe it was around 10 AM when we packed up the car and got on the road shortly after that. We didn’t have a discussed plan, we just left. So…as we pulled out, I asked Skip where we were going. Our flight didn’t leave till later that afternoon, and if I remember right we could basically play in the area till around 1 PM or so. Skip gave me a deer in the headlights look. I reminded him that it was too early to go to the airport, so where did he want to go. We thought about options, and one was DTD, but that was shopping….evidently the devil word this trip. So we asked Claire which park she wanted to go back at Universal. She said she wanted to ride Disaster again. Skip vetoed that right away. Simpsons was the next choice, so off we were to the Studios! We arrive just around 10:30 and took a leisurely walk to the park. We found the majority of the people still head over to IoA first. We made our way through the gate and headed over towards the Simpsons. I believe this was Ricky Ricardos band out playing. And there is Marilynn. We came across a “hot set” and saw Sponge Bob. I’m not sure what was going on, but it appeared to be some sort of show with several kids involved. More shots as we headed back towards our destination. I’m guessing we stopped for a potty break. I hadn’t taken a picture of this near the Men in Black ride, so I got a shot as we approached the area. The theming around the Simpsons is just great. Boy! Isn’t this true for a lot of those games? I think the line was about 15 or 20 minutes…not bad at all. Once again we were in the back seat and once again I could feel more motion back there. I also didn’t take any bonine, which was a big mistake. I need to remember to do this because as the day went on, the motion sickness got a little worse for me. We still had time so we ran over to MIB. I put our bags in the locker and we got in line. It was a tad longer than the other day, but still moved fairly fast. I swear we got the same exact car as we did the other day. My shooter seemed defective once again. I could hardly get points no matter what I did, yet Skip and Claire were having no problem at all. When it came time to push the red button I pushed Claire’s and held it. She got the mega bonus points and was very happy to have beaten both of us. We exited and I went and got the bags out of the locker. It was time to head out now. We still had some time to kill, but not really enough to do another ride. I thought this was so cute. Hey! There’s Betty Boop! We found a friend who thought he might like a ride back to Ohio. Bye Bye Universal! And my try at getting artsy again…. When it comes to the day we are leaving, Skip always seems to find some extra energy. I had been eyeing this shirt a bit and decided I wanted it.. I had said I should get all my kids “things” t-shirts to wear with me when I wear this shirt, but Skip said that Michael and Paige would never wear it. I agreed, but when I told them about my idea when I got home they both said they would’ve actually wore one. One last friendly TM. And back to the parking lot to find our car. We needed to get a bite to eat before heading out as well. I was not feeling the best from the motion sickness and I was very hungry. Skip knows that I turn into a monster when I get a hunger headache…yet he seems to forget it and becomes very annoying at those moments. He hem hawed around about where to go. I just kept saying pull in anywhere. I had told him which direction to go and he went the opposite way. So we passed several options and I was getting antsy. Now time was starting to slip away and I still had no food. We pulled around to circle back and we drove by the famous Burger King that had screwed our order up last time. I told him to go there, and he said I surely wouldn’t want to go back there again….and I think my eyes might’ve turned red and I just might’ve spoken with the devils voice and said “PULL IN THERE NOW!” Sure enough, we pull in, make our order and get to the window and they tell us to back up again because we triggered something wrong. Then they told us to just go park. Skip said, “Yeah, we know the drill”. Luckily it didn’t take as long for our food to come out this time and I did double check the order before we pulled out. Skip told the guy he hoped they won the pizza party even though it inconvenienced quests and the guy gave him a funny look, like how did he know? LOL I pulled out ibuprofen and bonine and popped those and started to eat…Ahhhhh…feeling much better now. But before I actually was feeling better, Skip asked how to get to the airport. I told him and once again he ignored me. He said he knew there was a faster way. Ok, then take it. So he gets on the beeline, heading towards Port Canaveral. Um, the airport isn’t this way. I looked on the map and saw where we could make a turn off and be just fine. But he panicked and then had to turn around. More time being wasted. Finally the food was kicking in for me and he listened to me and we were on the right road in the right direction. As we drove on, I got much nicer. Skip made a comment to Claire to remind him to get me food when I need it fast because I am much nicer once I have eaten! I took a picture of this while we drove. It was a neat building, but kind of not near anything else. Before long we were getting close to Sanford and we stopped and filled the car up with gas. And before we knew it, it was time to turn in. Skip dropped us off and then went to return the car. Looks like someone isn’t too happy about going home. I wasn’t either. The line to check in was super long. It always is at Sanford. They usually are checking in 3 flights and only 2- 3 people working the desk, so it takes a while. We kept our eyes open for my friend Jenny who had flown down the same day as us. She was supposed to be returning today too. She never showed up while we were in line. We did listen to a couple behind us with what I assume was the guys Mom. I am not sure if all 3 were flying or if the Mom was seeing them off, but the guy was super impatient, but the ladies didn’t seem to care and talked away. I listened…..how could I not?…and it sounded like the guy had a super nasty ex-wife and she was doing things to threaten the new girlfriend. Oh the things you hear while waiting in line. We finally got checked in and up through security, which was another long line. I usually take care of Claire for the most part, and hand Skip an extra item to take through. Next thing we know, he is being pulled off to the side. He set something off. LOL! He had forgotten to tell them about his hip replacement, so they took him off to a small cubicle and did a pat down and wand. Claire had big eyes….after all I told her if you did the wrong thing, you might get strip searched. Luckily he left with all his clothes still on and got the OK. In the mean time I am trying to be sure the line behind us isn’t held up so I am trying to grab all our stuff plus what he was in charge of. The whole shoes and belt off thing is a pain in the rear. We headed to our gate, found a spot to sit and Claire and I went to the bathroom and I got some mini Cinnabons. MMM! Can’t go past those. Skip went and got us some drinks and soon we saw Jenny and crew come in. They were actually smart and arrived later and had no line at all for check in. But I am too much of a worry wart and would fear we would miss the plane. Here is the last shot of the trip…not too exciting! We sat and talked with Jenny and Ray about our week. She had gone to Universal the day we went to MK. She had thought she was going to be there the same day, but when she read her printed ticket, she found it was for Thurs. instead of Wed. After talking of all the fun we did, and they did some really neat things too, it was time to board. We had assigned seats so we boarded early on. They didn’t and had to wait till all the assigned seat people boarded. We did see Jenny and her son board, but no Ray. She said he was being a slow poke and she wasn’t waiting, so she left him. LOL. We did see him board later though. Time to go! Or so we thought. We waited and waited and waited, and the plane was getting stuffy. It looked like they were talking to people near the front rows. We thought maybe someone was sick. Lots of whispers between other passengers about what was going on, but no one knew for sure. I stood up a few times to look. I was starting to get an anxiety attack. I don’t get them often anymore, but I used to get them a lot. Then I was having anxiety about the anxiety attack. I was thinking about how I could sit trapped on this plane for a couple more hours yet. I breathed through it and I did eventually push it away. The pilot finally came on and said he had to finish paperwork before they could take off. It would just be a few more minutes. I don’t think that was true. It did look like the people in front were now OK and the flight attendants were making rounds to be sure everything was in place. The lady in front of us had a dog and it barked a couple of times. The flight attendant got nasty with her and told her to shut the dog up. People jumped all over her then as we were waiting with no explanation of when we would leave and the dog was just voicing what we all thought. She said we would be leaving soon and turned away…and we did eventually back out, which was met with cheers. The flight home was uneventful. I had planned to write up notes, but with my new Kindle, it wasn’t meant to be. I played games on it the whole time. I am addicted to it. I mostly played Mahjong. I am slightly obsessed with that game. Claire played with her iPod and Nintendo DSXLi. I think Skip browsed some magazines and we also snacked on some goodies I had brought along. I think I must’ve called Mom on the plane before we took off to let her know we were going to be late, because she had just pulled into the airport as we got off the plane. We met her in baggage claim and waited for what felt like forever for the bags to start coming through. And it was cold. Oh how I hate Ohio winters. We all wore shorts home and it definitely was not shorts weather in Ohio. No snow, but not warm either. We got the car loaded up and made a fast food stop on the way home. I wasn’t even going to think about cooking, and Claire would have to eat something for sure before she went to bed that night. When we got home I started to unpack a bit, mostly to find Claire’s goodies and started the laundry. Oh the joys of coming home. Skip disappeared as soon as the bags were in the house. He can’t be away from his cows for too long, and I am sure his brother was a basket case without him there. And that’s the end of our Universal trip. I really enjoyed the trip a lot. I learned and experienced so many new things and now have a more open mind about going back. I really think Skip liked it better than Disney, which I was surprised. We found some new favorite rides, and it was fun to compare things to Disney. In some ways, Universal can blow Disney away, but in other areas, Disney is much better. The main thing for me is the feeling of Disney. I didn’t get that same feeling at Universal. No magic for me. But yes, I would jump at the chance to go back in a heartbeat! Thanks for following along!

Before long we could see the parade coming. Claire and I had seen this last year in April. I also saw it a couple of times last summer, but this was Skips first time, though he didn’t realize it till the end. We got a little interaction! I must say that this parade has grown on me. I am still not a big fan of the music…but I like it better now. I am still a huge Spectro fan though. Skip made a comment about it being so short. That’s when he realized this was a different parade than what he has seen in the past…and he agreed, Spectro is much better to him as well. We headed up towards the front. We were in no hurry, but we were ready to leave. So were a lot of other people. I tried for another balloon shot…note to self……they don’t work well in the dark. Claire and I needed to do a little shopping though. I was still on the hunt for a 2012 sweatshirt. Claire was on the hunt for anything. I found one and it was love at first site…..just what I wanted. This WILL be coming with me in November. Claire found 2 more Princess Sets….the ones that look like Polly pockets with the rubber dresses. I think she got Alice and Tiana…..and sadly Alice has lost her head. Literally! So we most likely will be buying another one when we go down in Nov. again. This was a very tragic moment when that had happened. LOTS of tears!! I do not have pictures of those. We carried our big bag out and found Skip, who had no desire to even set foot in a shop. We stopped at our locker and picked up our jackets (never needed them this day) and we made our way out. And I turned and got one last picture of the castle. We headed to the monorail and Skip thought we would have to take the resort one back since we arrived on it, but I assured him we could take either one and be fine. Then we hopped a trolley and headed back to our car. It was amazing how empty the parking lot was. It wasn’t too hard to find the car because it was one of the only ones out there. Soon we were zipping back to the Quality Inn…and someone fell asleep in the backseat. …..though she would never admit it. When we got back to the hotel we woke her up and headed back to the room. It was late, but Skip still had to watch a bit of TV before going to sleep. I think I caught up on facebook with my kindle. Claire soon griped that some of us in the room were trying to sleep and it would be easier if the TV was off. So off it went and we all quickly went to sleep, totally exhausted from the day. It was such a wonderful day though. It reconfirmed my love of Disney. This whole trip had been fun, but I am still a Disney girl at heart. And that ends day 4. We still have another half day left! What will we do?

I reached Claire and Skip on the other side of the castle and got to see their view of the Castle show. Not quite as nice…but it was close up. Claire had to tell me all about how some lady asked Dad for a cigarette because she didn’t have any of her own…then the lady kept talking to Dad. Yep neither of us could ever do anything behind each other’s back with Claire around…she announces it to the world. LOL At this point Skip just wanted to find a spot to sit and wait for the parade. That actually sounded fine to all of us. As we left I passed this…the new Sorcerer Mickey interactive game. I had seen people lined up all over the park in certain areas today and it took me a while to figure out what they were doing. I did figure it out though…and it looks very popular, but there was no way we would be waiting in those lines to do it. This was the first time I could get a somewhat clear shot of it. We then headed to Liberty Square to our favorite spot to watch the parade. ….usually right near the Christmas shop. It usually is not very busy there……in fact for the 2nd parade it’s often very empty. We arrived and no one was around. We found a spot and I did double check with a CM that the 2nd parade would be coming through and she said yes. There weren’t even ropes up yet and it was 10:45. Skip sat down and Claire and I decided to wander into the Christmas shop to browse. The CM in there followed us around. I can’t stand that. It feels like she doesn’t trust us and we are going to steal, or high pressure to buy something. And I don’t think she was too thrilled I was taking pictures…oh well. We left empty handed and this was the sight I saw as we walked out so I had to quick snap a picture. Claire wanted to get in the sleigh for a few pictures, so we did several of those as well. Notice she jumped to the back seat in this one. And now we wait.

I arrived at Splash Mountain, but I still had about 15 minutes or so before I could pick up my next fast pass (I believe we had gotten one for Space Mountain earlier, so our window hadn’t opened yet), so I continued to just go around taking pictures while I waited. I kept putting my ticket in and it said I had to wait. It was becoming annoying, till I realized I was about 5 minutes off on the time I could get the next one, so I waited and then got them. The time to return was really close to the same time our Space Mountain return was. I figured we would do one for sure, possibly giving the others away or try for both. Claire still was saying she didn’t want to try Space out, and leery on Splash, but I knew this would be the one she would ride if given a choice. I headed back and the family still wasn’t out of the Country Bears, so I waited around and soon found them. We decided it was probably time to get a bite to eat. I wanted Columbia Harbor House and at first we started that way, but I got complaints from Claire about it. She wasn’t hungry and they only had gross food there, etc. We had seen a corn dog stand back towards Pecos Bill and she said that sounded good, so Skip took her there and I went into Pecos Bill to order something for Skip and I. I don’t know if I have ever eaten here, but if I had, it was 12 -15 years ago, when the older 2 were little. I got in line and saw they offered taco salad. Skip is a freak over taco salad, so I called him and he said, yes, get that for him. I really wasn’t in the mood for much on the menu, so I just went with a burger. They made it in there before I even had a chance to order. We placed our order then and waited for the food to arrive. After our food arrived, we made our way over to the toppings bar. I was really impressed with this. Skip was in heaven. I think he had started conversations with people while filling his salad bowl. We went to find a table and this place was packed. I actually thought we might not find a table at all. It had filled up completely since I had walked in to order. Finally we found a table way in the back in a corner. There was some sort of little door up against the one seat, and Claire refused to sit by it for fear something would come out at her, so I got that lucky seat. Our food. This was by far the best burger I have had on Disney property thus far. I loved all the extra toppings and the burger itself wasn’t dry. Claire finished off her corn dog fast and shared my fries too. We left very full and happy. I will have to make it back here again in the future. Now we had time to kill before fastpasses were due. I wanted to try the new/old Tikki Room. We arrived and they told us the wait, it wasn’t long, but Claire had to go to the bathroom, so she and I ran off to do that and missed that show by the time we got back. So we waited for the next one. We had missed the pre-show the one and only other time we did it and I am not sure if that was changed or not. Soon we were let in and found a seat. There were not many people in here at all. I was NOT a fan of the old show, but Claire had liked it…..I can say I am not a fan of this version either, but again, Claire loved it. We left the show with Skip wondering why in the world I had ever wanted to see this show. I told him I wanted to see the update, now I have…..never need to again. Basically we talked about the part of our life we had just lost while in there, and Claire at the same time was talking about how wonderful it was. After the Tiki show, Skip had to use the restroom, so Claire and I said we would go have a seat in the smoking area nearby and wait for him. We passed Aloha Isle and there was basically NO wait at all! So I got right in line and made our order. I had my first dole whip last summer at the Poly. It was just OK. I thought it was too much pineapple flavoring for me. This time I was getting the orange. I decided for the orange float. We sat down and Claire was asking questions about why I got this, etc. I told her it was something I wanted to try and since it was so big, we could share. She held it out for a picture. We started eating and it was pure heaven. Claire asked why I have never gotten one of these before, but I had to remind her that I had tried to a couple of times last year and she looked at the line and said no way. Soon it became clear that I wasn’t going to get much. I actually had to fight to get my spoon in there…that little bugger. Skip found us and asked what we had. We told him and he took a bite…”Where did you get that?”….”right over there”. He left us and soon returned with a regular pineapple dolewhip float. I tasted it and it was darn good too. Much better than the plain dolewhip. I might have to have one of these in Nov…as well as the orange one too. Claire has already said there will be NO sharing. Claire gave Skip’s a try after she finished off ours and soon he was fighting her for the rest of his as well. Skip did mention that his feet were so much better today with the inserts. He wishes he would’ve done that the first day. It was really nice just sitting there. I just had the magical feeling going on, and I mentioned how just sitting in MK was such a happy thing for me….my happy spot. Skip didn’t even make fun of me either. While sitting there we heard others say that the MK was now going to be open an hour later that night…meaning it was closing at midnight instead of 11. I don’t know when they extended the hours, but I hadn’t heard anything about it earlier that day. Our plan was to watch the 2nd parade, which started at 11, so it really didn’t change our plans much. We decided to head back over to Splash to use our FP’s. BUT MSEP was going on. The sidewalks were busy, but we pushed through. Once we got to where we would cross it was blocked off. I had never thought about that, but of course they wouldn’t let you through while the parade was going on….or so I thought. We stood and waited. We heard a CM telling everyone who wanted to cross to come to a certain area and at a break in the parade we could quickly cross. Soon there was a break and we all went through. It was kind of cool. We made our way to Splash and got in line. There was virtually no line….even in standby. Wow, the crowds must all be watching the parade now. I didn’t get a lot of good shots this trip. It was too dark and I didn’t have a good lens. We laughed at our picture after the ride. You can’t see me at all….because I am totally ducked down to avoid getting too wet. Claire did enjoy the ride and was happy she did it. When we got off I decided to make the dash over to Space to use our Fast passes, but Skip and Claire weren’t going to, so I said I would call them when I got off. I was NOT thinking…The fireworks were going off and I had to make my way through the hub to get there. UGH! It was soooo crowded, but I pushed on. It’s so funny how so many people totally ignore the CM’s when they say please keep the walk ways clear. I just keep pushing my way through though. I found a family who appeared to be going the same way as I and I stuck to them like glue. I also found a few things to take pictures of believe it or not. Once we got to the other side of the hub we all really picked up speed and soon I lost them as they went somewhere else. As I approached SM I saw a couple walking towards the entrance. I asked them if they were going to ride and they said yes. I told them I had 2 extra fast passes that were good right now if they went right in, and they said thanks, and took them….and then walked in the standby entrance. I kept moving, but hollered back…”those are good for right now”. I never saw them again. Well at least I tried. I think I took this inside. The ride was great. And once again it made me think that this is probably too wild for Claire’s liking. As I walked back towards the castle I saw the Magic and Memories show going on. I love this show, so I stopped off to the side to get a few pictures. I swear it was slightly different than last Aug. I just loved it. I contacted Skip and Claire and they were on the other side of the castle in the smoking section. I was hoping Claire was able to at least see part of the show. Skip said yes they could see it.. I started making my way there…snapping along the way.

Finally we got to hop in our elephants. I took a few more pictures before liftoff. And we now are in the sky! I was really trying to get pictures of the new Fantsayland. If I had been thinking though, I should’ve looked down and got some of the other Dumbo ride being built. Sadly I thought of that while we were ending and this was the only picture I got of it. We had a fun time. I’m glad we rode it. We debated on Goofy’s Barnstermer, but Claire said no. The line had gotten long, but she was adamant about not riding it as well. So we headed off to the new bathrooms. I took this picture because this is a brand new bathroom and already the hook had fallen off and it looks like they tried to put it back up with some sort of adhesive, but that obviously didn’t work either. We passed by Goofy’s Barnstomer and headed towards Tomorrowland. I never had used this backside path before. We came out not too far from a smoking section, so guess where Skip headed? We also ran into a few characters. They were going back behind a stage, so we just sat for a few minutes at the smoking area. And then we realized why they were heading that way…there was a show starting. We sat a few minutes and relaxed. Skip and Claire decided to go and ride the Tomorrowland Speedway. I didn’t feel like waiting in the line, so I went and got myself a drink. They called me and told me the wait was 40 minutes. I decided to give the Carrousel of Progress a try. They wouldn’t let me on with a drink, so I roamed a bit while I finished it. Some more roaming while I drink up this very large drink. BURP!!!!!!! Ok it’s all gone now. I headed back to COP and rode it for my very first time ever. They said no pictures, so I actually followed the rules and didn’t take any. It was just OK to me. I am glad I saw it, but won’t make an effort to see it again….BUT I do think Claire would like it (Skip wouldn’t), so we may try to fit it in again in Nov. so she can see it for her first time. While in there I did silence my phone, but evidently that doesn’t silence the direct connect beep, and it kept beeping over and over. While we were going between scenes I quickly picked it up and said quietly that I am in a ride and I’ll be out soon. I guess their car ride went much faster than the posted time, so they headed to the TTA while they waited. So when I got out, I had to wait on them once again. As you can see it was crazy crowded. You can see Skips head here. One thing I realized this day…Each day I would look for the color of shirt that Skip was wearing to locate him. Today was turquois. Well it must’ve been turquois day today, because sooooo many people wore that color. There were groups of people wearing that color. Another gross moment….As I was waiting for them to come down I saw a couple coming down …and they were very much in love…..so much so that they were making out on the conveyer belt down. Really, did they need to kiss that much right then and there? I can’t remember exactly what we did next,….well next was another smoke break for skip…. but it involved heading towards Fantasyland again. I am now thinking this might’ve been when we used our Peter Pan Fast passes. I think it has to be when we used them. Because the next stop was a smoking section and there is a time lapse in the pictures. While we sat there, we tried talking Claire into Splash Mountain, she wasn’t really for it, but no longer fighting it. So I sent Skip and Claire to the Country Bear Jamboree and I headed over to Splash to get FP’s for later. I had a little time to kill before my window opened for the next FP, so I explored a bit while waiting.

Claire really enjoyed the interactive play while waiting. Claire really concentrated hard at making her bee follow along. When we got to the end she wondered what to do. (She wasn’t getting good examples from the people in front of us). I told her to hand it off to whoever was waiting on the other side, and she did it so nicely. This wall made me cringe. She loved it…but I just kept thinking about how many other people have touched it…she was doused with hand sanitizer afterwards. Another look over to Fantasyland. While waiting in line, we had some people ask where Claire got her dress. I would love to promote my dear Dis friend Janet…but Claire thinks that Mrs. Claus made it….so that is the answer I had to give when she was around. Time to ride! And a few shots in the gift shop….soooo cute! I decided we should head over and check out the new Dumbo location. I believe it had only opened maybe 2 weeks before we arrived. I was excited to see the new location. I took pictures along the way. The ground is even themed……so cute. I think the line was about 30 minutes…maybe less…but for Dumbo…that isn’t too bad, so we hopped in line. And of course I took pictures while we waited. You are not going to believe this….but we had another Non-english speaking family behind us…the ones that make you feel like they want to jump in front of you in line. I swear they were constantly breathing down the back of my neck. They had 2 little ones that kept running up in the line too. I know it’s hard to wait…I hate waiting too…but I guess I have been fairly lucky that all my kids learned early on that if you want to ride…you wait patiently……well you wait. LOL Again it was hot…and I just hate people right up against my backside. I will move as soon as the people in front of me do. More ground theming. If you flick through these next 3 fast…you will see the car in motion. LOL

The only things open was 1 Dumbo and the barnstormer. It still looked like a construction zone in that area. I can't wait to see how it looks in Nov.

We weren’t sure if they were training someone or just moving a raft around…but this empty one was off to the side of the main crossway. And where did we go next……the smoking section. I became real familiar with several of these areas on this day. Claire and I then headed off to find a bathroom while Skip stopped to get a drink. We then decided to ride Haunted mansion since it was right there. Again the line was fairly long, but it moved pretty fast. We did skip the interactive queue. I am not sure how that works really. It seems like you lose your place in line when you go that way, while in the regular line you keep moving. Maybe I am missing something? The ride was fun…we didn’t have switching heads in the hitchhiking ghost area like I did last summer. I forget actually what did happen, but we laughed and loved it….Maybe our heads got bigger? Believe it or not…it was time for another smoke break. LOL. So off through Fantasyland we went. I saw the crane in action so I took a quick shot. And I kept moving. Skip then said “Jen, Quick take a picture of that”. So I looked up and this is what I saw….the newest, greatest Fantasyland ride. I sure wish I had my telephoto lens for that. WE all were laughing and lots of jokes were made. The smoking section is right near the castle, so I took several more shots. And then we headed towards Pooh. This is another shot I wish I had my telephoto lens as well. I actually cropped it down for the look I wanted, but it’s not sharp. The people in front of us were kind of annoying. They kind of acted like the line was “theirs” and a little loud and annoying. It consisted mostly of adults and they were playing a little too rough with the interactive queue things. Claire enjoyed running around and playing, but she would keep looking back at me to be sure she could see me still…..Skip did walk out there with her and kept a closer eye on her as well.

Sorry for the lack of updates lately. Life has a funny way of getting in the way with fun stuff.

We decided to see how long the line for Splash Mountain was. It was 110 minutes…we’ll pass for now. I took a shot of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad as it was getting refurbed. And then we got a treat. And I made the decision to go over to Tom Sawyers Island. Something I hadn’t done since Michael and Paige were little and I thought it would be nice to take Claire over to check it out. We boarded our raft and it was hot..and we were jammed packed on that little thing…and then we had to wait for the boat to go around before we could cross. It was just so hot and sweaty and Claire’s ice-cream was melting fast. I think Skip finished it up. And we had a young couple who were all over each other. The girl was hanging on the guy like her life depended on it. It just really bugged me. She was just stroking his back with her fingernails and it was like a suggestive way…hard to describe…but it was more than I wanted to see and I couldn’t understand how they weren’t about to pass out from the heat. Probably because I was so hot and standing right up next to them is why it bothered me…any other time I might not have even noticed it. We made it to the island…and I think it got 20 degrees hotter over there. We just kind of wandered a bit. Claire found a cave with some jewels. And was very excited to run along the paths. Skip and I found it boring pretty quickly on, but Claire did enjoy it, so we let her run around a bit….and I took some pictures. You could get some different views of things from the island….that was nice. We made our way to the fort and Claire took off exploring. Skip found a spot to sit…with many other adults. I was surprised how little they had available for sitting. Most parents were leaning on a wall or converting something to sit on….they need many more benches here. I explored too and took a few pictures. I decided to try some artsy shots and have different focus points. And a couple of more artsy shots. I had some dirty looks from kids when I was waiting my turn to get to the gun and cannon. LOL I actually lost Claire for a bit…and was scared. I asked Skip if he saw her and he said no…and I kept walking through the fort and couldn’t find her. She had been in there the whole time….we were just not in the same area at the same time and it kind of freaked me out a bit that it would be easy for kids to leave and no one would ever noticed. We had had enough of the island…it was just too dang hot and though Claire liked it, I don’t like spending time at Disney doing this kind of run around play for too long. She got some energy out and that was good. We had to wait for the raft again. Another boat was coming around. We loaded and we had a captain change too. The lovey dovey couple were with us again on the return ride…this time I think the heat got to them as well and they weren’t so touchy feely. They are sitting right on the other side of this sign. And I’m sure they are a very nice couple…but it was hot and I hate being crammed up next to people.

We headed back towards Fantasyland along the side of the castle. . My guess is that Skip wanted to stop for another smoke. Claire wanted to try her luck at pulling out the sword. We had to wait for a few families. A couple tried to jump right in, but we all put a stop to that. Finally the family in front of us went and people kept walking in front of her. It was so obvious she was taking pictures…but people just don’t look sometimes. I understand it happens, but people were pushing through that area to get through, and it was almost like they were knocking into her to get through, couldn’t they see her holding a camera…and couldn’t they go around her backside? We laughed about it and she made some comments, like “I guess me and this camera are invisible”. That is stuff I would do…or my famous line is “Excuse YOU!” Claire gave it a try too. Dad came in to help. Seriously Dad….that’s all the harder you are going to try? I can do better than that! This is how you do it! Sadly we weren’t lucky and it did not pull out. We headed off and I think Skip stopped to get a drink and I took a picture of the treats and made a mental note to be sure to get a Mickey bar later. I think this is when we rode Peter Pan. I didn’t take a picture of our FP’s and can’t remember our return time, but I can’t imagine where we fit it in later…If I remember, I’ll correct it. OK…we are NOW going to ride pirates if it is the last thing we do! But of course I have to take pictures on the way. Hey…I’m over here! LOL…… Look how crowded it is. Onward towards pirates….I was on a mission. Wait time says 35 minutes…..YUCK! It’s never that long…the queue was wrapped around outside…you know that outside area you usually walk right through…we had to wait and zigzag through all of that. It became clear that the wait was going to be longer very soon, but we did keep moving. When we got close to the inside entrance we were standing against the building and there were doors there. The 2 boys behind me wondered where they went. We guessed that maybe it was a CM entrance, or went into some back room…..they thought they would be funny and knocked on the doors…and to our surprise we got a knock back. We all laughed about it. It totally shocked us. Once we got in and queued around inside the building we came across those same doors. They just entered into the queue area….so of course I encouraged them to knock again and scare some people on the outside. I took a few pictures while in line….but I didn’t have the good lens for dark pictures with me, so they are just blah pictures. I think it took about 45 minutes before we actually got to board our boat At one point in the ride there is a drunk pirate leaning off to the side with a bottle of rum and says “here kitty kitty kitty.” We just love that. Skips brother is a big rum drinker (way to much actually) and he has this fascination with cats. I kid you not when I say we have 70- 100 barn cats running around the place. Dave has a couple of favorites…usually the most disgusting ones…and he just loves them up and I swear he would sleep with them if his wife let him. So we wanted to get a picture of that guy, but I couldn’t. It was too dark and I couldn’t get a focus on it. But we laughed so hard…and Skip said it probably needed the audio anyways to make it better. I just love this ride. It’s my all-time favorite. I feel like a little kid with big eyes going through it. I get that special Disney feeling when I ride it. I think it just always brings back my first trip to WDW when I was about 4 and it’s one of the few rides I remember riding. We headed out through the gift shop looking at a few things as we went and saw Pirate Goofy signing, but Claire had no interest to wait in his line.

After the Princess meet, we needed to find Skip once again. I took a few shots on our way up Main Street. Look who we ran into. Yes, we had been talking on the phone to each other and he was “pretending” her couldn’t see us. He thinks he is so funny when he does this. I’m gonna admit right here, that my memory for parts of this day are foggy, so I am going by the order of pictures….which tells me the Move it Shake Parade was coming through. So we stopped and watched it go by. We were next to these little statues, so I took a couple of pictures while Skip and Claire watched the parade. I think Chip might be calling me a loser? Time to head out and make our way towards pirates….um yeah…that ride I wanted to do first thing…remember?

A few more with Belle. Claire did tell me that Belle, too, was impressed with her dress and asked all about it. On to Cinderella! Claire told me that Cinderella also commented on her dress. She was on a Princess high when we left. She felt so special that all the Princesses wanted a dress just like hers. We left through the gift shop. And I spotted this! If have followed me over the years, you know we have a slight obsession over this dress. I had to get a photo…and it’s not a good one…sadly.

It was kind of fun waiting in here and watching some of the kids. Some were just so excited to see the Princesses for the first time. Here is one thing I want to tell parents of preteens…..tell your kids to brush there hair. LOL..Now I know the days are long and your hair won’t stay pretty all day, but I was amazed at some of the preteen aged girls with nicely groomed parents, with major bed head. Yes a family ahead of us a ways had 2 pretty DD’s, and both looked like they hadn’t brushed their hair all week. I noticed this throughout our whole vacation too. I know girls can be picky about how they look, while others at that age don’t care one bit…but brush your hair at least. LOL! So back to waiting…and we noticed after the next group came in after us that our pushy family wasn’t in that group……nor the next one. Claire and I had theories on that. Our guess is that they didn’t even have a fast pass and somehow had jumped over to that line and then when they got to the front they were told they couldn’t go in. Who knows what really happened, but it was weird that they never showed up. Finally it was our turn. I did not buy the photopass CD for this trip. I had no clue how many pictures I would get and I just didn’t think it would be worth it. I did however snip the redneck versions off the website for trip report purposes. Aurora was impressed with her dress and Claire told her that Mrs. Claus had made it and also one for her doll at home too. Thanks Mrs. Claus…AKA mom2rtk on Dis….(Janet). Next was Belle. I’m not sure what they were talking about, but Claire looked very serious about the whole conversation.

I just love the castles...in both parks. It would be nice to see one out my back door daily!

We decided now would be a good time for lunch. It was a little after 11 and we hoped to beat the major lunch rush. We decided that we would try Pinocchio’s Haus. It’s been MANY years since I have eaten here……. Probably 1997. We got in line and checked out the menu. I decided that Claire and I should share since I wasn’t at the point of starving and I knew she wouldn’t eat a whole meal. I asked her what she wanted….big mistake…..she wanted chicken nuggets. UGH. I tried to convince her that pizza was the way to go, for something different, but she wouldn’t budge, so chicken nuggets is what we got. Skip got a meatball sandwich if I remember right. As we were ordering I noticed they had chocolate cake. I am not a huge fan of chocolate cake, but in years past I always loved the Disney version as it was so fudgy and I loved the frosting, so I added that to our order too. I waited for the order while Skip and Claire went in search of a table and then Claire came back to wait with me so she could show me where the table was. It was very busy now. I’m glad we hadn’t waited any longer or we wouldn’t have found an empty table to easily. As I have mentioned before, I tend to attract pushy people. There was a girl waiting in the out line and she kept trying to get in front of me. I’m not sure if she had ordered or what, but she kept trying to push her way through me and some other families. It was taking them awhile to fill orders and hers never did come before ours, so I am not sure what her deal was, but it was kind of annoying. We sat down and filled ourselves up. I had to get the picture fast because they were going to devour it before I had a chance. I must say the chocolate cake was a bit of a letdown. It’s not as good as it used to be. They changed the fudgy frosting. It was OK, but I won’t go out of my way to order it now. After we were well fed and full, Claire and I headed back up front for the Princess meet. Skip said he was going to find a bench and rest. He did say his feet were doing much better with the new inserts, but his legs were still tired. I think I was able to grab the Peter Pan FP before we headed that way as well. I took pictures on our journey back towards the front. We met a few “characters” on the way too. We got in line and it looked long…but hey, this is the Fast pass line and it will move quickly…right…and not nearly as long as the stand-by looked. We were given one of these too. . And soon after we got in line we realized that Skip had the backsack with the pillowcase for signatures. There was no way we were about to go back and get that, and Claire said she was Ok without autographs since she has seen the princesses before And then we waited …and waited…and waited. We didn’t move much at all. But at least we did move, while the stand by line…was pretty much at a complete halt. I’m not sure what the problem was, but this seemed to take forever. And part of the feeling was from the people behind us…yes again, the pushy people that like to get behind me. This family didn’t speak much English from what I could tell. The kids were antsy, I can understand that, but they kept bumping into people all around. Every time we did move, the mom would shout something in her language and the kids would take off up ahead of several people….every time. I don’t know if she was trying to get them to cut or what, but then they would come back after people would kind of send them back or no one would let the parents by to catch up with them. It was just kind of strange. I think we waited over 20 minutes in the line before we got to make it to the next room to wait. It seemed longer than that. Even Skip had called and asked what was taking so long. We were the last family to go in the room. The pushy people behind us didn’t make the cut. So we had a breather from them for at least a few minutes. Claire kept commenting to me how bratty the kids were. LOL….like she is a perfect angel all the time. I took some practice shots while we waited. I don’t know what Aurora was doing, but she looks like a posed mannequin here.