jenseib

Aug. 22, 2014, Friday, Day 1 I was up around 6 AM to get showered and ready for the day. Around 7 I got Claire up and ready for school….this had been her first week of school and she wasn’t too excited by the fact that I was leaving for Florida and leaving her home, but she got over it. I had her clothes laid out for school on Monday as well as her lunch packed for Monday so things would go as smoothly as possible while I was gone. I took her to school and gave her embarrassing kisses goodbye and told her I would see her Monday evening. Back at home I loaded my suitcases in the car and made sure I had everything I needed. I wanted to be on the road by 10 AM at the latest. Oh no! I never checked in for my flight yesterday, so I went and did that and I was surprised to be a B24. Not too bad for doing it so late. I took one last potty break before heading out and the button on my shorts went flying off. UGH! I hope that is not a sign of things to come. I quickly sewed it back on and it was good as new. Around 9:30 Skip came over (he is a dairy farmer and our barns are on the property) and said good bye and handed me some money with a 20 on the outside of the fold. He always does this and acts goofy about it. He said “here’s $20 for you to spend”. Of course the 20 was folded over a $100 bill. He thinks he is so funny when he does stuff like this. I said good bye to him and left a little before 10. I went into our local town and washed my car with the self-serve sprayer. Now you might think this is an odd thing to do….and it is….but I was going to be parking my car in my Aunts garage in Columbus and she has a cat…..and we have about 100 barn cats. Our cats all seem to be in competition at who can spray my car tires the most and the last time I had parked in her garage her cat went crazy because he could smell all of our cats on my car….so I thought it would be nice to try and spray off their scent if possible for that poor thing. I also made a quick stop at McDonalds and got a breakfast combo and then set off for the 2 ½ hour drive to Columbus. Now you may also ask why I was flying out of Columbus instead of Detroit, which is only just over an hour from my house. Well a couple of reasons really. My Aunt and sister both live there, so they can take me to the airport. Price is a big factor and it was MUCH cheaper to fly out of there and then direct flights. Detroit rarely has a direct flight on SW to MCO and if I can manage it, I rather fly direct. 2 ½ hours in a car can be rather boring, especially by yourself…but I come prepared. I love to listen to books on CD. I was just finishing up the latest book by John Sandford, Field of Prey. If you haven’t ever read his books before, I really suggest this series. So I drove along listening to the exciting ending to this story and made a potty stop about half way down at another McDonalds and when this book was done I was prepared…and pulled out Zoo by James Patterson to listen to. I didn’t get too far into it when I was arriving at my Aunts house. I parked in the garage and we loaded my bags into her car and made another potty break and then we headed out. We were going to grab some lunch first and she gave me a few choices, but I really didn’t care. We ended up at a place call the Bag of Nails, which she said was really good …and it was. I didn’t take any pictures, but I know I got the lobster bisque and I think I got the fish sandwich as well. It was all really good and I was stuffed when we left. Once again we piled in the car and headed to the airport. She told me about some upcoming River cruises they have planned (she travels a lot) and then a story about some friends of theirs that is going on the River Cruise with them and before we knew it we were at the airport. I unloaded at the curb and said my thank you’s and goodbyes and did the curbside check in. I really prefer curbside check in so much more than going inside. It always seems so much faster. Once that was taken care of I moseyed in towards the security. Columbus is a small airport and usually security is really fast and today was no different. I think there were only 2 other people in front of me and when I gave my boarding pass to be let in the line I was notified that I had TSA priority…which meant I got to go in a different line and not take off my shoes, or pull out my laptop and just went through the old school scanners. SCORE for me…..but I wish I would get this at a busier airport. So within seconds I was through and on my way to the gate. I stopped off and bought a diet coke and found a seat with a plug and it was near the podium that the SW agents work at. The guy there would chat with me a bit off and on and then I noticed an email from SW and it said we would be delayed about an hour, so I asked him if that was true and he checked and said yes. UGH! I hate getting those emails AFTER I have gone through the security check. I then pulled out my laptop and went online a bit but after a bit it seemed like the connection kept failing and I gave up on that and just edited pictures from my March trip. The guy did tell me that our flight was not full and that there were around 50 seats that would be open so he said there was a good chance that many people would only sit 2 to a row. Yay!!!!! We ended up being about 1hour and 20 minutes late if I remember right, but we finally did load onto the plane. The reason was that the plan was coming from Baltimore and they were only using 1 runway right now as the other one was under construction and the guy told me you can almost count on every flight coming from Baltimore right now to be delayed. As we lined up there were only a couple of people behind me to board. This flight really was empty. The last person said they never even did online check in and was so happy to get a B boarding number. I sat on an aisle seat with an older gentleman at the window. Soon we were in the air and I had my laptop out and working on pictures. This flight was pretty bumpy and sadly we really didn’t make up much time in the air. It was now right around 7 when we landed. That was 1 hour and 10 minutes later than planned…but I really didn’t have any set plans for the evening. I had thought about going to Downtown Disney, but at this point it already seemed too late to do that. The bad thing was a storm had just passed through. The gates had all been shut down due to lightening and now they were backed up, so we had about another 20-25 minute wait before we could even pull up to a gate. I knew that button flying off my shorts earlier was NOT a good omen. Finally we pulled up to our gate and you could tell by this time everyone was antsy to get off and get going. I actually was pretty patient…for me that is. I got off, made a potty stop and worked my way to the fake monorail and rode over to the main building and then went towards luggage claim. Nothing was coming out yet so I stepped outside and got blasted by a wall of hot air. UGH. This wasn’t a good sign when it’s this hot at 8PMish. But I had expected it as my friend had been in Florida over the past week and she had warned me it was extremely hot this week. I walked back in and saw that the bags were starting to come out but it still took quite a while till mine came out. Had I known it was going to take this long I would’ve gone to the car rental counter first. With the bag in hand…..oh and I used new luggage this trip. I had bought some luggage with the 4 spinner wheels on them and used the carryon and the big suitcase. I LOVE these. Now mine were kind of cheap, so at times they didn’t roll on all 4’s as well as I am sure nicer ones do on carpet, but still, these are so much better. So as I was saying….with bags in hand I rolled down to the Dollar counter, which had moved since March. Of course the line was long. They did have 7 agents working the counter, but it still seemed to take a long time. I got to talking to the lady behind me and we had similar types of occupations. She was entering some contest and she needed a picture of herself in front of the Dollar sign and when she found out my occupation she asked if she could get a picture of her handing me her business card and I said sure and we exchanged cards and soon we were both called up. Check in was quick and painless and I was soon on my way to pick up my wheels for the next few days. I went out to the garage and checked with the guys out there and they directed me to the economy aisle. At that point there were only 2 cars in the aisle and another family was getting in the other car, so I basically had no choice…and I ended up with a Toyota Yaris, which is a hatchback. I opened the trunk and laughed out loud. I don’t even think my carryon would fit in there. It was the smallest thing I had ever seen. Luckily both bags fit in the back seat. As I familiarized myself with the car I saw that the employees brought out several more cars to the economy aisle that were bigger, but since it was only me there was no need for me to switch over to one of them. Finally I am off. I have Siri programmed and she is taking me a way that doesn’t sound right….and then she gives me a turn left…then a turn right and I just know it’s wrong as I am doing it and sure enough she tells me to make a U-turn. And of course I had to pay 1 50 cent toll and then another right after the U-turn. I finally got going the right way and it’s dark and I just hate driving in the dark in unfamiliar places and people are whipping by me on both sides…..and I wasn’t going slow either. I was actually surprised how much traffic there was at this time of night. As I got closer to Disney I did recognize a few more things and felt more comfortable and finally I was pulling into Caribbean Beach resort. And Disney was welcoming me as I pulled in with Epcot’s fireworks going off…what perfect timing. I pulled up to the Custom House and the lot was basically empty with 1 or 2 cars in the lot, so I parked so that I had a couple of spaces on either side of me and then I opened the car door so I could see and get into my bag to get my Magic Band and my paperwork…..and then this car pulls in and tries to park right next to me….yeah there is basically a completely empty parking lot and this car chooses to park in the space next to me…and they just sit there and wait till I close my car door so they can get in. I look at them as they pull in they are all staring at me and I literally rolled my eyes at them. They seemed to be in a big hurry to get inside, so I just took my time and once I was ready walked up to the Custom House. I had done online check in so I went to that queue…..that other family had not. I took a few pictures as my guy got me all settled. Even though I had done the online check in, it still seemed to take a while to get everything done. I was given my room number, 4532, which I was informed was one of the refurbished rooms. I wasn’t sure if I was excited or not. I had seen pictures of the new rooms online and so far I was not impressed with them at all. The rooms I had seen looked like they took wood and painted it chocolate brown. It was definitely not a Caribbean style of décor either, more Polynesian in my opinion. My CM pulled out the resort map and showed me some highpoints on the map, where my building was, how to get to Old Port Royale from my room, etc. He then told me how to drive back there. It all sounded good and I set back off to my car. About the same time I walked out, my happy parking buddies were leaving too and they went out a totally different way than my CM told me to go. I went the way he told me but then I basically got confused…..he had given me a lot of turn left, turn rights….and it did not coincide with where I was. I ended up going the wrong way and having to circle back into the Custom House lot and giving it a second try….but finally I found the right way and was on my way to building 45. I parked up and just grabbed my carryon and went in search of my room. I actually went down the wrong side of the building first before realizing on was on the other side…and score! I was in a corner room. I took a few pictures and then went back to get my big suitcase. A corner room means 2 windows…though for the short time I was there that really wasn’t a big deal for me. My thoughts on the room? Pleasantly surprised. Pictures do not do this justice at all. It looks much better in person….and the wood did not have the painted look like I thought it did in previous pictures I had seen. It was now after 10 PM….so much for doing anything this evening…I had been traveling for basically 12 hours at this point and I just was ready to chill out, but I was now starving. I grabbed my camera and backpack and headed out to find the bridge to get to the food court. Again, I was pleasantly surprised to find how close the bridge actually was. The walk across the island was really quick too, which surprised me….though it was really dark. It was much more lively and happening over on this side of the resort. Lots of people at the bar and pool.

Day 4, March 24, 2014, Monday We had another full day ahead of us again. And me being me, I was up early and got myself ready. I also utilized our washer and dryer and got a few things washed. My foot was already developing a hot spot between my toes and the ball of my foot so I applied some mole skin. Sadly this was too late and I ended up with a huge blister that felt like I was walking on a golf ball the rest of the week. The mole skin did help though. Of course, since I was up early, I took a little walk and took some pictures around the resort. Squirrel! I never did make it over to the other side of the lake. I got Claire up and ready as well…we had a new experience this morning. Once we were ready, we headed out. I think my parents were going to head to Hollywood Studios today, but I had a different destination. First a picture before we left. Our destination…..the Grand Floridian. It took me a bit to find the self-parking area as it had moved from the last time we used it. I am not sure if this is a permanent spot or not, but it is now over by the DVC villas. This is the walkway over to the GF from the Villas.

I have started yet another Trip Report from a quickie trip I took down to Florida in August. I will be working on both of these and I actaully have half of this new one already written up and hope to kick it out fast. Please join me over here for Solo & Unleashed. http://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=68980

I have started another Trip Report from a quickie trip I took down to Florida in August. I will be working on both of these and I actaully have half of this one already written up and hope to kick it out fast. Please join me over here for Solo & Unleashed. http://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=68980

Welcome to my newest Trip Report. This was just a quickie trip down to Florida…Aug. 22-25, 2014….and by the title you can probably guess…..I went solo! So who am I? Well I am Jennifer…many people call me Jen. I am a self-proclaimed Disney-aholic! And I have been very fortunate to take many Disney related trips over the years. I am also a wife to a resister…Skip! And a mother of 3 children, Michael who is 25 (yeah I know, the math doesn’t add up, I must’ve had him long before I was even born), Paige, 22 (again the math doesn’t add up right?), who is also having a baby girl of her own in Oct. and Claire, who is 9. Many of you probably know Claire from many of my other Trip reports. I was a stay at home mom for many years after I had Claire and I loved it. A few years back I was presented with a work from home option and I jumped at the chance. It really has worked well for me and I love my job. Of course there are days I scream and rant about it, but for the most part, it is the best job I have ever had. This job is really what led me to this trip, as it was a business trip. I am working towards a particular certification in my field of employment. There are several things I have to do and meet to get all the credits required for this certification. I actually did what I thought would be the hard part with flying colors and fairly early on. BUT I still had to do a few other things to fulfill everything on my list. In May I took a trip up to Detroit Michigan for the day (about 1 ½ hours away) to attend a seminar. This seminar gave me many of the credits I needed for this certification, but I still had 3 things I needed to check off that list after it was done. I knew there was another seminar in Orlando in Aug. and I threw it around in my mind a bit, but didn’t pull the trigger. I still had to do one other thing that would require travel as well even after attending this seminar. I really tried to get both things to magically coincide with each other…so much so that it made my brain hurt, but I just couldn’t do it. I finally decided two trips were going to be needed to finish this up and approached Skip with my plans. Surprisingly he didn’t seem to mind. I hope that means he is finally becoming less of a resister….but I am not holding my breath on that just yet. So I booked this trip, to arrive on Aug. 22, a Friday and to leave on Aug. 24, a Sunday. My seminar was most of the day on the 23rd. I planned to make it a cheap trip, I had air points with Southwest and I could get a reduced rate at a Disney hotel while staying for the Seminar. I decided All Star Sports would be it. I have absolutely no desire to ever stay there really, but I am trying to stay at each resort at least once and this would be the perfect time to stay…right? Well, you know how when you quote a Disney resort it lists on the side other resorts and their prices….I fell for it! It listed Caribbean Beach and the price wasn’t too much more…I haven’t stayed there yet…so I took the plunge and booked my 2 night stay there. And surprise, surprise!!!! The Villains Unleashed party was announced and also going to take place on the 23rd. Well that works out just nicely! So a ticket was bought for that. OK, everything is set for this quickie trip. BUT WAIT!!!!! I am a Harry Potter fan and I have been watching and reading up on the info about the new Diagon Alley opening some time in 2014 at Universal Studios. It was finally announced to open in July. Now I had just been to Universal Studios in April on a spur of the moment decision my husband had made on our last day of our Spring trip and I had longed to see Diagon Alley while we were there. This is the best I could see at that time. It was such a tease! So I looked at my air and I could change my day of departure to Monday instead of Sunday and it was actually slightly cheaper. I then decided I should stay onsite that extra night and went to look for a hotel there. Cabana Bay is the newest resort there and I really wanted to stay there….but it does not offer Express pass, and being this was only going to be a 1 day whirlwind I thought it probably would be wise to stay at one of the resorts that offered it. In the end I chose the Royal Pacific. The price wasn’t too much higher and since I haven’t stayed at any onsite resorts there yet, this would be a new experience as well for me. Another perk to my job is that I can sometimes obtain discounted or free 1 day tickets to different places. Sure enough Universal was on the list and I put in the request for that ticket and it arrived a few weeks after. One last detail was how to get to Universal from Caribbean Beach. I looked at getting a car from the Swolphin Alamo, but the price was still kind of high for just 1 day…and picking it up would be later than I wanted it to be. I looked at getting one from MCO and just keeping it the whole weekend….and BINGO! That ended up being cheaper than the 1 day rental….and a few weeks before my trip I double checked it and it went down a few more dollars as well. YAY! Everything was all set and I was excited. Day 1, drive to Columbus, fly down, arrive at 5:50PM, get rental car perhaps go to Downtown Disney. Day 2, drive over to the Dolphin for the Seminar, after seminar walk over to Hollywood Studios and go to Villains party. Come back to Dolphin and get car to take back to CBR. Day 3, Get up extremely early and head over to Royal Pacific and get checked in and do early entry for Universal Studios and get in line for the new Escape from Gringotts ride. Day 4, drive back to MCO for a 11:05 AM flight. Land in Columbus at 1:15 and drive the 2 ½ hours back home. Sounds fairly easy and simple right? Well, there were a few wrenches in the plan….some were good wrenches and some not so great, but I just went with the flow and made the best of it. And the good wrench was REALLY worth it! I hope you will all join me as I relive this quick weekend getaway.

I'll take one with my phone and try to post it tonight or tomorrow

I hate that too. I think they just don't know and make something up. I rather them tell me they don't know.

Now I really like Haunted Mansion, but Claire still is very leery of this ride. I usually have to beg and plead with her to ride it. Our last trip together we did not ride it at all and I told her she had to ride it this time and basically told her she couldn’t buy her Dumbo later if she didn’t. It’s not scary and I know she can handle it, but in her mind she thinks it is and is fine every single time afterwards…so she did finally agree to ride it with me. And she was fine and even laughed in the new hitchhiking ghost area. Next stop…..Pooh! That was fun and one we always enjoy to ride. We had a mission next….we needed popcorn and not just any old popcorn….one in a Dumbo bucket. I had first seen this last summer when my friend Janet had posted her daughter having one. I thought it was the cutest thing ever. I showed it to Claire and she said she needed one too. So at first we were going to buy 2 of them, but the more I thought about it, I knew it would just be a passing fancy for Claire and once we got home, she wouldn’t even do anything with it, so it would then become mine….and it was a good plan too. We headed off to buy our popcorn….but guess what…that stand closes early. UGH! I told Claire we would get one another day, but we were kind of bummed. We had purposely waited to buy it so we wouldn’t have to carry it around all day and evening. We even doubled checked in the Big Top Store just to be sure that they didn’t sell any either and they told us no and that the Dumbo stand was the only one that sold it in the park, so we purchased Claire’s stuffed Dumbo and moved on. He was getting a lot of love from her. And we then moved on again. And we again went down the dark path to Tomorrowland…..and then Claire spotted it. That lady had lied…..Tomorrowland was selling Dumbo popcorn. Woohooooo!!!! We got in the line, which was pretty long and made our purchase. Claire is a popcorn hog and I only got a few bites, but that was OK, I knew in a few weeks’ time Mr. Dumbo would be ALL MINE! Today was an Extra Magical Hours evening, but we were no longer onsite guests. I had heard that at this point in time if you had a band on they pretty much let you stay since off site people didn’t have an option to get bands back then. I heard some rides would scan the band, but for the most part they didn’t. I had debated on trying it….BUT I was tired, Claire was tired, and it was still fairly busy and I just didn’t want to hassle with even trying it out, so we decided it was time to work our way out of the park. You can see the mass of crowds exiting in this next picture. We did stop for a photopass shot. One thing I had noticed all night was that the castle was not changing colors like it normally does at night. I am not sure if that was because the moats are drained or with the work on the actual castle being done while we were there, but as we reached the front I noticed it changed….and the kiss goodnight was being done. I didn’t realize that they did this on nights when they had EMH’s. We watched a little bit of that and then headed out for the monorail, which was crazy, but luckily the resort monorail wasn’t too bad…and our car was still at the Poly from our breakfast earlier that day. We made it back to the Poly and headed towards our POC car. We programmed Siri once again to get us back to the Marriott and took off. I don’t like driving in the dark in unfamiliar places and until we got away from the area I was a little tense. So much traffic and crazy drivers makes it hard for someone who doesn’t know the area very well. We did make it back in one piece though and I think Claire dozed off while I drove us. We had more issues finding a parking spot tonight and had to park in a lot further away from our building, but it wasn’t too bad and then we headed back to the room and got right to bed. Once again I watched the coverage of the missing plane and still nothing was found…of course each day there was new theories, but nothing ever panned out. I set the timer on the TV and dozed off to dreamland.

Our bellies were full and we headed off to do another ride. Claire had an itch to go on Barnstormer. But I think first we walked past it and perhaps watched the train take off first? We then got in line. It was busy, but the line moved fairly fast and soon we were ready to ride. I love the costumes here. I took a few pictures while riding, but they were awful, so I will spare you those…. We had a good time and I just wish it was a little longer of a ride. After we got off we headed down the dark path towards Tomorrowland. We got in line for Buzz….which was the longest I have ever seen this line before, with it winding outside on the side of the building, but luckily this is one that usually moves fairly fast. Claire looks like she will be upset if she doesn’t win. LOL!!! After we conquered Zurg we headed back out. I think we went on Carrousel of Progress then….I know we went on it a few times as this is a new favorite of Claire’s. And I think this is when we had a bit of a quirk and had to repeat a room or 2. I must not have taken any pictures in it though, which is the norm for me most times. I just sit back and relax in there usually. And then on to another of Claire’s favorite…..Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor. They had switched the preshow area to the Monsters U stuff we noticed. We found a seat and watched the screen as it displayed people and laughed. I always sit us in a spot that I know has potential to be on screen and what do you know….I was flashed up there…for about 2 seconds and then they took me off. Maybe I was too scary? The show was funny, but we will never be able to top the one we went to in 2012 where we laughed so hard it hurt. But Claire still enjoys it each and every time. I believe we needed to make a potty break and went in search of one. I think we may have gotten a drink in Cosmic Rays as well and just sat and relaxed for a few minutes. And back out we went. Claire always has to try and get that sword pulled out, but we have never had success yet. She always swears it’s just about to come out though. And then I attempted some artsy shots I had seen someone else post. His were much better and taken in the daytime, but I was here now, so I tried it in the dark…and I need to go back and do them in the daytime someday too. I made this next one into a canvas print. After that we moved on and saw Rapunzel’s tower all lit up. Chances are we made another potty stop here too.

LOL! No, I think she has only used it once, but mainly because I put it on display on a shelf. I should have her use it more though. I do have a picture where she is holding it.

Our beeper went off and soon we were being led to our table. We got this reservation just about a month or so before our trip. They had opened up more reservations and I snatched one up. We already had one for the next day, but I was up for eating here twice! Once we placed our orders, I went for a walk to take pictures. A shot of one of the dessert trollies. We had some yummy rolls. I got the potato leek soup, which I enjoyed. When we had walked in, we saw these light up goblets, so I let Claire get one. It had a choice of a few drinks…well really you could get anything in it, but we got the All Natural Fruit Punch, which was really yummy. I knew it was probably expensive, but heck…this is my princess….and it was….to the tune of $18.99. The table next to us was a family with several kids. We watched in awe as each kid ordered BIG appetizers. The things they ordered were clearly meant to be shared, but the parents let them each order one of their own. I know at least 3 of them got the Assorted Cured Meats and Sausages board and it says it serves 2, but could serve 3 or 4 as an appetizer. Needless to say they only nibbled at it and then the rest was wasted. But the parents were all about them trying new things…as we heard them say this over and over….and I am not opposed to that…but maybe have them try new things …and SHARE? LOL! We heard the announcement that Beast was coming back out, so we went to the ballroom to see him. He went to each room and did a wave and then headed back to his meeting spot. Our food then came out. Mom (and I think Dad did too) got the Grilled Strip Steak and I think she substituted the Pommes Frites with au gratin macaroni. Claire got the Grilled Steak. She loves steak and this was very good. Much better than the time before we came when it was in preview season. I went with the Sauteed Shrimp and Scallops - Seasonal vegetables served in puff pastry with a creamy lobster sauce. I thought it was pretty good, but maybe needed a little more sauce for the pastry to soak up. Now Be Our Guest food is good, but there is one REAL reason to come here……Dessert! Claire got the Strawberry Cream Cheese Cupcake. MMMM! This is so good! I decided I wanted to try The "Grey Stuff". I thought it was really good. It has a cookies and cream flavor. I did think the tart thing it was on was just OK. I have seen this in a form of a cupcake in others reports and I think that looks even better. Soon we were stuffed to the gills and we paid our bill and Claire and I went and got in line to see the Beast. My parents were going to be heading out and back the Marriott. The CM at the doorway to the Beast room kept asking us over and over if we were sure we were done as we couldn’t come back in once we met the Beast. Yes we are done….are you sure you don’t need to use the restroom….you can’t come back to use it. I think we’ll live. The line moved fairly fast and it soon was our turn to see the Beast. And then we were directed out to the hallway and guess what….we walked right over to the bathroom and no one stopped us. We are all wild like that at times. Of course I had to get a picture of the Prince with no pants on. Claire found that hilarious. It was dark now when we got outside.

After Enchanted Tales, we headed back outside. Another shot of the empty moat. I convinced Claire to pose….and smile! Sort of….. DUCK! There is some wall coverage…it was kind of weird to see so many things blocked off. I am always trying to get that special balloon picture. We were working our way up front now as we needed to stop at our locker so Claire could make a wardrobe change. We did our business and then back up the street we went. You can never have too many pictures of the castle. We still had time before out dinner reservation so we moseyed around a bit. Mine Train! A walk by Dumbo. Claire had the urge to purchase something, so we went inside. She found a stuffed Dumbo…which was just the cutest thing, but I told her we would come back later so we didn’t have to carry it around the rest of the evening….and of course she would never let me forget that! On we went. Some more Mine Train pictures. I love the CM costumes in this area. We then met up with my parents and checked into Be Our Guest. We got a beeper and waited on the bridge for it to go off. I had Claire pose for a few pictures. This is her Gargoyle face.

Each country has different things and vary in time. I think this one was maybe 15-20 minutes long....part of our problem was we weren't very knowledgible about where everything was in Japan and we had to really hunt down a few areas. We LOVE Via Napoli!!!!! I really love this parade. They did an awesome job with it! Yes looking back, many things my Dad does are quite funny, but at the time we want to just crown him....and not as king!

Once the mirror opens our portal, we headed into the next room. Now Claire is in a shy stage…and also the “I am too cool to do that” stage. She refused to participate no matter how much prodding and urging I did. I told her she wouldn’t get her picture taken with Belle if she didn’t at least be an extra and she still refused. UGH! That was the whole purpose of getting the FP for this. Oh well, nothing I can do. But I probably will be skipping this attraction in the future if she won’t participate as its cute, but not something I need to repeat over and over. We then made our way into the library. Here she is! The little girl who played Beast was so cute. Her parents told me on the way out that they didn’t even know what Enchanted Tales was when they got in line and were so excited that their daughter got the starring role. Because Claire did not volunteer, she wasn’t able to get her picture with Belle. That really was the only reason I had made this FP too. The show is cute, but not something we need to see every time, so I don’t think we’ll be doing it again any time soon. By Belle.

We thought about a Dole Whip Float, but the line was just way to long so we moved on. We were a little bit hungry and we knew were weren’t going to make it till our ADR, which I think was around 7PM, so we went in search of something to help take care of that need. We ended up just going in Pecos Bills for some food. The lines were long everywhere and we just sucked it up and got in one here. I swear this is one of the slowest serving places though….good thing I like the food here. My small snack turned into a meal. We shared the fries, but Claire got some chili. The burgers here are so good….and I am craving one right now. We had a few friends in the area while we ate. With our bellies now full we moved on again. It was time for our next Fastpass of the day…Peter Pan. I tried to get a picture of the screen the CM’s look at when they scan your band. It’s just too dark on Peter Pan, so I pretty much have given up on taking pictures, but we enjoyed the ride, even though it is way too short. They had been repainting the peaks on the castle and it was neat to see the changes throughout the week. I had seen pictures before we had arrived and all the turrets were stripped and then grey for a few days and slowly, one by one, they were turning back to blue. Hello Mr. Bird. It was just so crowded and everything had a long wait, so I mentioned to Claire that maybe we should’ve just taken a longer cruise and maybe in the future, if we come at this time of year, we’ll just skip the parks. She had a look of horror on her face. She said we could NEVER skip the parks. LOL. Well it was good the crowds weren’t getting her down. We decided to get in line for Dumbo now. When we got to the waiting room area, I told the CM we did not want to go in there, he said I didn’t have a choice. Ugh. Last time we were given a choice and we chose not to. As we walked in, Claire told me I better not force her to play on anything in there. LOL……I won’t. It’s extremely on the babyish side. We walked to the far left corner and sat on a bench away from everyone else and I handed Claire the beeper. After about 10-15 minutes we beeped and got back in line and made our way to our Dumbo. Here we go! Claire gave me instructions that she was going to control our flying…and I gave her instructions to get us up high so I could try to take pictures. And the lovely view of the trees that surround the ride now. That was fun, but it bums me I can’t get a better view of the new Fantasyand with all the trees they planted. We headed off back into New Fantasyland next. We had a date with Belle. We arrived at Belle’s cottage and got in the FP line and were let in practically right away. Of course when using the FP’s for Belle you skip the first room, but we were ok with that. This enchanted mirror still amazes me and I am not sure how it works. You can’t see the seams of where it would open beforehand and it really intrigues me.

I know I have said it over and over…but I just loved all the wild costumes. Donald and Daisy. Pluto! These girls costumes are supposed to represent the “Big Top” circus theme, but for some reason, I keep thinking they look like Mad Hatters…and I call the Hatter girls. LOL. Look over here Mickey! And with that, it was over. I think I covered it for you all fairly nicely…only missing a few things….. So what did we think of the parade? AWESOME!!!!!!! It’s my new favorite at the parks….of course there are not many parades left at the parks anymore. Spectro is still my all-time favorite, but that is NOT coming back. And the Animal Kingdom parade is still 2nd, but again, that has now ended, but this one ranked up there with them. We were chattering away about it as we walked away….quickly…because little Miss Claire needed a bathroom break…and fast! After the bathroom break we took a few minute to decide what to do next and of course I was trying to conquer the app that only worked some of the time. There was this dog across from us and I asked how they were allowed to bring a dog in…..she’s a service dog! How cute is she? She had her official patch on and everything. I am not sure what kind of service she does as she’s not very big at all, but I am sure no one has told her that. I did ask if I could take her picture.

Tinker Bell brought up the rear of the float. She was fabulous! Tick Tock! Merida’s clan was next to arrive. She was a ton of fun! I see a dragon!!!!! Loved the fairies. Hello Prince Phillip. I really watched the dragon….waiting for that fire breathing moment….. Come on Phillip….Go fight her! She’s lifting her head! Surely she’s about to blow! Nope! Nothing at all. I was so disappointed that she didn’t blow fire. I texted Janet to let her know and we both hoped that it wasn’t something that was only done for the debut parade or special occasions. Another odd thing is that Aurora is not in this parade at all. I have heard a few people think they have seen her, but no, she is not in this parade anywhere. I have watched it online, watched it at the parks twice (I will be watching it the next day as well), and gone over all my pictures…she is not in this parade. Now there is a theory and though it’s not confirmed in any way, I am betting it might be right or on the right path. We, meaning all my cohorts who like to talk Disney…..think that she was supposed to be on the first float with the Princesses, but then Frozen took off and Disney wasn’t prepared for it and they replaced her with Anna and Elsa. I can’t say this is true, but this parade was in the works long before Frozen came out and I am guessing they never intended to originally have Anna and Elsa on the float. That’s my theory and I am sticking to it! Next! Thanks Jiminey for this pose!

Rapunzel’s float is great! She had great expressions! Her braid wraps all around the float. Cone on Flynn!!! Look at me! Now we venture to the sea! I just think these costumes are so amazing. Here comes Ariel! Again, the characters had fabulous expressions in this parade too. And the Lost Boys! I was a little obsessed with Hook as you can tell.

We kept walking and went down the right side of the castle on that little path and then I found it…and was shocked. The smoking section has been moved to the two little sitting areas along this narrow path. Now I don’t mind this at all, but I know many people have allergies and irritations with smoke and this is a very busy path, especially with all the construction going on and now all these people have to walk right through the cloud of smoke. Oh and the view from the smoking section…. A drained moat. Really weird to see that. We then realized the time and decided we should go find a spot for the brand new Festival of Fantasy Parade. This had just debuted about 2 weeks before we had arrived and I was super excited to see it. We went to our favorite parade viewing area in Liberty Square and it was already pretty packed. Luckily we found enough space for our 2 rears to sit down along the rope. I think it was the last 2 spots in the whole area. The reason it was open???? Bird poop was right on the ground there. Yep, I didn’t care either. I got out a tissue and covered the bird poop and we sat right down. Bird poop washes off anyways, right? We still had quite a wait till the parade actually started, so we sat and talked and I played on my phone a bit and Claire played on my phone a bit. Finally a little bit of action. Well that was nice, but now more waiting. Let’s take a selfie…. This looks promising! Ok, that was nice too…..but more waiting. I was also texting back and forth with my friend Janet, who I think was almost as excited as I was about the new parade. She told me to be sure to try and get a picture of the dragon breathing fire….OMG!!! I had totally forgotten that it did this. I will definitely try! And now for the Grand Marshall!!! We are getting closer! We were now getting excited….the Music had started!!!! Our first glimpse of the parade…we were so excited!!! I noticed the lady next to me was taping the parade and her battery light was flashing, so I let her know. She was very upset as she didn’t have a spare battery…..note…Always bring at LEAST one spare battery for you camera each day….so she had to switch to taking pictures on her phone. Being that this was brand new….I took a zillion pictures. Of course a highlight for us and many around us was a chance to see Anna and Elsa. At this point in time they were meeting in Epcot and the waits were averaging 6 hours each day, so there was no chance in heck we would be ever meeting them this trip. This float has turning platforms so I had to act fast to get as many photos as I could of them before they were out of site to the other side. Tiana and Naveen were on the other side of the turning platform….oh and also on this float was Cinderella and her Prince and I totally bypassed taking pictures of them to get Anna and Elsa. The costumes are just FABULOUS!!!!

We were now on our way to our first FP+ of the day. Warning…I took a lot of pictures of the Mermaid area over the week. I was just so excited to see this in daylight. So different looking in daylight compared to the night shots I got 1 1/2 years ago. We got in the queue and it moved fairly fast, though if I remember right, we did pause for a bit. The FP+ line does miss all the neat things in the queue though….and for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out where the standbye line merged with the FP+ line. Soon we were in our clam-mobile and I took a few pictures on the ride, but since I had just rode the Disneyland version about a month ago and they are pretty much the same ride, I didn’t take a ton. Ok…maybe I took more than I thought I did. LOL. And a few more Little Mermaid shots. Claire was a happy camper…she just loves Ariel and loves this new ride. We headed out and I once again made her get her picture taken. And then went on to take several more pictures of Eric’s castle. I was now needing a little snack…after all at Disney World it is important to try and snack as much as possible and keep your energy flow up, so we headed towards Gaston’s. For some reason I can never pick the right line in here. Last time we came, which was the preview time during the Halloween party we came in for a quick bite to eat and I picked the longest line ever with a CM that didn’t know what she was doing. I picked the same type of line today and it took forever to get up to order. Claire wasn’t too hungry and said she didn’t need anything. I decided to order the hummus and chips. We also got something to drink, probably diet coke, and we found a table to sit at. Claire ate a few of the pretzels but she is not a fan of hummus. Actually she would’ve eaten ALL the pretzels if I had let her, but I reminded her she wasn’t hungry (once again she was a little liar) and that I needed the chips for the hummus as I wasn’t about to eat it by the spoonful. It was good, but a little pricey for what you got. I could have used about double the amount of pretzel chips. It didn’t fill us up, but it was enough to keep me from turning into a crazy monster…and that is always a good thing. We headed back out then. I think we may have checked out the shop right there since we had not seen it when we did the preview in 2012. And off we went again. I know some of you are smokers, though these days you don’t want to admit it for fear of attack…LOL….but yes there are a lot of smokers that go to Disney World and the smoking area used to be to the left of the castle, but guess what? It’s gone due to construction. Of course they moved it, but where? And I was really shocked when I saw where it ended up at.

yeah it does me too. LOL. And writing seems to be a chore these days as well. Thanks for reading

We had some time before our first FP+ of the day so we wandered through Old Fantasyland. And Claire does love It’s a Small World, so we had to make a stop there. The line was long…and was not very fast moving either. Finally we made it onto our boat. I love when I get shots like this next one. And continuing with more Small World pics. My favorite room has always been the white and blue room…even as a kid. And now Claire was happy and we went back out to the crowded park. I was sure excited to see this…..The only time I had seen the new Fantasyland was back in 2012 for previews during the Halloween and Christmas parties…so this was my first time seeing it in the daylight. And there she is! The Mine Train….which at this time was still not up and running. I had really hoped they would be doing soft openings for our trip and many rumor boards had predicted they might….but as it came closer to the trip, I lost hope. My Dad did see them run an empty car a time or two, but I never did.

Time to board. As we pass these guys coming down the hill I pray we miss the splash from them and I just BARELY did….thank goodness. I am not a fan of getting wet….Claire on the other hand loves it and I know she was hoping I would get splashed. Is this a camera? Or a spotlight? Continuing on with more Splash pictures. Oh no!!!!!! One of our favorite parts of the ride. We survived!!! And I didn’t get too wet, which is always a bonus for me. And our picture…I actually stayed upright…I usually tend to bend way over to avoid getting wet. This picture cracks me up, because Claire looks scared out of her wits….but she loves this ride and would ride it over and over if I let her, so not sure why she has the scared face. After our splashdown we moved on and look what I found. This was the first time we were able to see the Rapunzel tower….and I just loved it. And you will see several more pictures of it throughout the trip. Here’s another one….I think this is so pretty…..such a fancy bathroom area. I am pretty sure we used the bathrooms there to check them out and then moved on.

March 23, 2014, Sunday As I always do, I woke up way too early. I headed outside and took a little walk. I met a lady today and we got to talking. She was there with her husband and son who was close to Claire’s age. They were doing Disney and Universal I believe. We had a nice chat and soon it was time to head back to the room to get showered and ready for our day. I woke Claire and she got moving, but slowly. But at least she was moving. We all had a breakfast ADR this morning and we were meeting up with my cousin Katie, who was also at the world. I believe this was her last full day here and would be heading home tomorrow, so we thought it would be nice to have breakfast with her and her family since our trips overlapped. You may remember Katie from my 2012 Nov. trip report. Her family cruised with us…..Thad, and her 2 boys, Jude and Luke. Even though we don’t live too far from each other, we don’t see each other very often. I programmed Siri and Mom and Dad were going to follow us over to the Poly. Of course when we came to the MK gates, I couldn’t remember which way to enter and entered on the wrong side. I told the gate CM that the car behind me was also going to the Poly and then we made the crazy dash across all the lanes and luckily we were not killed, nor did we kill others…though I am sure someone probably cussed us out at some point……SORRY!!!! Now the Poly is under construction and it was quite the mess there, but we had our bands checked as we entered…I told them once again the car behind us was part of our ADR and we found our parking, which was kind of far out, but not too bad. We did have a little bit of a walk up to the resort, but it wasn’t awful. Once we were about to enter, Dad realized he left his hat in the car. So he headed back to get that and we went inside. He is a hat fanatic and has to wear one while outside. I believe this is now gone. I probably was there right before they started work in here. We actually were early, but looked around for Katie and family. We headed upstairs and still no sign of Katie yet. Dad made it back and found us and Katie finally arrived as well. However, Thad didn’t make it….he was sick. I think both of her boys had been sick over the week as well. I know Luke was sick the day before they left, but I think he popped back to health pretty fast, but then Jude got sick one day while they were there and I think they even skipped a park day because of it. Thad took ill today and she was hoping he would feel a bit better later in the day to join them. I went and checked us all in and Claire and I were the only takers on the photo op…..ok, it was mostly me and I made Claire join me. We had a little wait before we were called back. The boys were getting antsy, and I could tell Katie was getting tired. They had a full week so they were wired…..oh and Katie was expecting as well….and she just had a little girl about 2 weeks ago. Then a funny thing happened. Katie pulled out a bag of candy…I think it was skittles or something like that….and tells Jude he can only have like 3 as the rest are for Luke. She goes on to explain that Luke refuses to eat pretty much all real food and this is practically the only thing she can get him to eat….and she’s a pediatrician!!! I thought that was funny. And Luke must be surviving as he looks healthy. She says she tries to shove food in his mouth when she can, but she isn’t very successful. She also told us since Thad wasn’t joining us, that we could use one of their dining credits….they did deluxe dining …..and she didn’t want to lose the credit. We decided that we would put Dad on her bill. After a bit of waiting, we were called back….thank goodness as we were all starving now. We had bread on the table, but I am one of the few that is not fond of it…because their famous bread has coconut in it and I can’t stand coconut….I tried it again and it was still icky! I did nibble at the other kind, but that has raisins in it, which I also don’t like, so I had to pick those out. Last time we ate here in 2012 it was just OK. Nothing special and we had a poor waitress, which probably made us not care for it so much. This time we had a great waitress and plenty of food and refills on drinks. The food tasted better too. We did tell the waitress how to split the bills and of course Dad starts up with…”I’m not with them, I’m with her”….UGH…we tell him to just be quiet and go with the flow. Soon the characters started making their way around. See Luke in this next picture? He was fascinated with Claire’s autograph book and kept grabbing it and at one point he “autographed” it for her as well. LOL Stitch was pretty entertaining! Our next visitor was Pluto. I love this next picture. Luke was really curious about Pluto. With breakfast done, we all agreed it was a very good meal and we were now stuffed. The bills came out and once again, Dad makes some comment about not being with Katie and he is not on the dining plan. Now he has lived with women his whole life…and you would think if we told him this was how it was, he would just shut up and do it…nope he has to ask questions. Luckily the waitress wasn’t paying attention to him. We all said our goodbyes and Claire and I grabbed the monorail to Magic Kingdom. I think Mom and Dad were using the bathroom and then heading over too. Katie was going back to check on Thad. And we scan our bands to get in and the CM asks if I had tickets left because it shows them all used. Um yes, just picked up my ticket yesterday…I have 4 days left. So he says he will reset it and I am good to go. Yep…. It was crowded here today too. Lovely cranes all during our trip. So we are walking down the sidewalk and this bozo in a scooter starts honking and he is driving like a mad man and runs into us and several other people. I say in my not so nice voice “EXCUSE YOU”. I mean if I could go faster, don’t you think I would? And just turns and glares at me…sorry buddy…I can win awards for glaring and you don’t intimidate me at all. So we watch him honk all the way down the side walk and still not making much more headway than us. Lovely walls up all over the place here. We had to weave in and out of people to get down Main Street and these walls seem to make people walk slower. There goes Scooter guy! Yeah look how far ahead he got by ramming into people….JERK! We kept moving and of course there wasn’t much of a line for the dole whips, right when we are too full to get one. Shuffle, shuffle. I believe we were heading towards Pirates, but the line was just too long…but take a look at the upper left of this next picture. Not sure what is up there, but people were coming out. Even this new adventure had long lines for sign up and we never did try it. Claire has a one track mind and Splash Mountain was all she was thinking about. We got in line, and I don’t remember the exact wait time, but I think it was 30-45 minutes. We got in line just in time as it grew quite longer after us. We talked with the people in front of us…who were from Ohio as well, who were staying offsite and didn’t understand the whole FP+. I tried to explain a bit of it. They weren’t impressed with it and I can see why since they couldn’t get any till they got to the parks….and let’s just say those kiosks lines were MEGA long. The line moved fairly fast, but I think we still waited at least whatever the posted wait time was.