Photo TR: 3rd Times a Charm

[Teacups Make Me Sick]

I missed this TR....and have been spending the last hr reading it. I don't have any kids....so seeing Disney from a parents perspective is super interesting.

 

Sounds like Skip was being a real stick in the mud. Next time you go...take me instead....I'm super good w kids and I can do a mean princess impression.

[paiging_jen]

Agree with everyone else....I'm loving this TR. I feel like I was on vacation with you guys! I also don't have kids but this makes me want to go to Disney. I'm seen pictures of my cousin's little girls doing the BBB thing and it looks like such fun. I would have loved this as a kid!

[jenseib]

I missed this TR....and have been spending the last hr reading it. I don't have any kids....so seeing Disney from a parents perspective is super interesting.

 

Sounds like Skip was being a real stick in the mud. Next time you go...take me instead....I'm super good w kids and I can do a mean princess impression.

 

Skip was, but he got much better. A lot of the problem was from home. His brother just can't handle things on his own at home...though he should since he grew up on that very farm. So he called all the time.

 

And of course, Skip was stiff and tired and in pain, which I really didn't realize at the time, or how much.

 

You sound like you would be fun to take along.

[jenseib]

Agree with everyone else....I'm loving this TR. I feel like I was on vacation with you guys! I also don't have kids but this makes me want to go to Disney. I'm seen pictures of my cousin's little girls doing the BBB thing and it looks like such fun. I would have loved this as a kid!

 

 

First I have to say I love your user name. My name is Jen...and my oldest DD is named Paige!

 

I have learned so much about Disney since I have had access to the internet. I knew basics back when I took the older 2, but now I can learn new stuff all the time. BBB was really nice. She still talks about it.

[Teacups Make Me Sick]

I missed this TR....and have been spending the last hr reading it. I don't have any kids....so seeing Disney from a parents perspective is super interesting.

 

Sounds like Skip was being a real stick in the mud. Next time you go...take me instead....I'm super good w kids and I can do a mean princess impression.

 

Skip was, but he got much better. A lot of the problem was from home. His brother just can't handle things on his own at home...though he should since he grew up on that very farm. So he called all the time.

 

And of course, Skip was stiff and tired and in pain, which I really didn't realize at the time, or how much.

 

You sound like you would be fun to take along.

 

Sorry to hear that. I hope next time your family goes, he can enjoy himself as well. I couldn't imagine having a bad time at any Disney park.

 

Look foward to the rest of your TR.

[jenseib]

I missed this TR....and have been spending the last hr reading it. I don't have any kids....so seeing Disney from a parents perspective is super interesting.

 

Sounds like Skip was being a real stick in the mud. Next time you go...take me instead....I'm super good w kids and I can do a mean princess impression.

 

Skip was, but he got much better. A lot of the problem was from home. His brother just can't handle things on his own at home...though he should since he grew up on that very farm. So he called all the time.

 

And of course, Skip was stiff and tired and in pain, which I really didn't realize at the time, or how much.

 

You sound like you would be fun to take along.

 

Sorry to hear that. I hope next time your family goes, he can enjoy himself as well. I couldn't imagine having a bad time at any Disney park.

 

Look foward to the rest of your TR.

 

Don't get me wrong, he did have a good time, but he was aching and not knowing what was the cause at the time. We leave in 45 days to go on the Dream and then some park time. He seems pretty excited, and keeps asking what we are planning to do.

[jenseib]

After the Tea Party we headed out to the bus stop to catch the bus to AK. I asked Claire about the tea party. She was just so excited about it. She said the Mad Hatter had such bad manners. He would burp and not say excuse me. He took a drink and gargled it, and threw grapes around the room at them. He even hit her with one, which was a highlight, I guess.

 

Alice kept scolding him.

I asked her if she ate anything and she said she tried everything. I couldn’t believe that. We had just had breakfast for one, and I was sure she would be too excited to eat, which is one reason I made sure she ate before we went. I told her I bet she was lying. The grandmothers GDD said “No, she did, she ate a bit of everything, but I didn’t eat a thing”.

They played together while we waited for the bus. Soon their bus to HS came, so we sat waiting still. Another girl from the party was still waiting and she and Claire became “best friends” real fast. They were so cute. They both had pressed pennies and they made up some game with them. They were just giggling away.

 

 

Notice the Tinkerbelle figurine bag? She was very happy with mommy for getting it replaced!

 

 

The little girl’s parents got a really great shot of them hugging too. It was so cute.

 

We waited and waited and waited for a bus. THREE HS busses had come, but still no AK one. I think we waited at least 30 minutes for one.

FINALLY it came. Claire and her new BF sat together. They giggled so much. They played I spy together most of the way too.

When we arrived at AK they were both so disappointed that they had to part and hugged many times. The little girl said “we will never see each other again”, and Claire said “We WILL see each other again. We are best friends.” How sweet.

 

We headed into AK and beeped Skip on the Nextel.

 

 

We asked him where he was and this is the answer he gives me…… “I am near the big concrete tree with the fake leaves” I said “OK, so you are in front of it?” answer….”Um no, I can see it really good from where I am at”.

 

LOL! OK, you can see that dang tree from just about any part of the park!

 

Claire and I, well mostly I, decided to stop for Photopass shots while we tried to figure out where he was.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After our photopass pictures we beeped Skip again. Here is the conversation.

 

Me…“So now where are you?”

him….. “just go over a bridge, I think a Dinosaur is near me”

Me … “ So you are in Dinoland ?”

Him…. “No, I don’t think so, just go over the bridge”

Me…. “I just walked over a bridge, do you know how many bridges are in this park?”

Him… “Just come over the big bridge”

Me… “ There are a bunch of bridges here, which one, what are you by”

Him… “ I am by a concrete restaurant”

Me… “What’s it called?”

Him… “I don’t see a sign, but I think we ate here once”

AHA!

Me.. “Tusker house?”

Him,…” I don’t see a sign, but the animal safari is not too far…hurry up the parade will be starting soon”

Me… “You’re in Africa, don’t you see the huge sign saying that? ...We’re on our way.”

 

We go over the bridge into Africa and I beep him again and tell him we just came over the bridge and where is he? Of course he says he’s at the bridge. And I ask him if he sees me and he says no. So I tell him I am stopping and getting a spot for the parade because they have just closed off the road and no one can get through. I then turn to the side to get an open area while he continues you talk back at me on the phone, and who do I walk right into…HIM! He must be blind as a bat ! How could he have not seen me come over the bridge?

 

He is holding a beer and it is REALLY hot there this day. I think the highest day in temps and AK always seems hotter anyways. So I park Claire and tell him I am going to get a drink..and I also hand Claire a Capri Sun.

 

I go and get a strawberry daiquiri, which was pretty good, but pricey, and then stopped off and took this picture.

 

I take one here every year.

 

 

I got back in time to see the parade was coming down the road.. Now here is where Skip always becomes a nice guy. There were some smaller kids that came in behind us, and he moved back and let them and their mom up next to Claire so they could see better. This lady was so grateful and told me a zillion times to thank him. (O might not have been so nice )

 

I always enjoy this parade. I like the music too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ironically, I think we have watched this parade from about the same location every year. The first time might’ve been on the other side of the bridge, I can’t remember for sure. But pretty dang close to the same spot!

 

After the parade went by, we took a small break back in the smoking section, and then Claire was thirsty again, so we stopped and got her a lemonade. She had actually tried to take a drin kof my daquiri.She thought it was a strawberry smoothie. Good thing I caught her.

 

We then decided to go over to Asia. Skip had rode the Kali Rivers while waiting for us and swore that he didn’t get wet…..and he didn’t…and convinced Claire that she should go on with him again. I said no way for me. I knew it would be the luck of the draw on that ride and I wasn’t going to be sloshing around the rest of the day.

As we started to make our way over there, the parade had circled around and was coming back through. So we stopped briefly and Claire shook Baloo’s hand.

 

 

Skip did NOT want to stop and watch againm so we kept moving and made our way over . I took Claire for a quick potty break again and then sent her with her daddy. The line looked long, but I don’t think it was actually too bad.

 

 

After starting to walk away from my crew, I noticed everyone looking up. So I did too. There was this cute monkey carrying her baby across the line. It was sooo cute. I tried to take a picture, but none really came out very good.

 

 

I headed off for Expedition Everest.

 

I took these on the way.

 

 

 

I got into the Single riders line. It kind of looked long, and I asked the CM how long and he said maybe 20 minutes, but it wasn’t nearly that long. It’s a great ride and I am glad I got to do it.

 

When I got off I beeped Skip and he said they had just got off and were a bit wet. He then went on to say his phone got wet, but it is working. He was worried though about how wet it got. ..... Just how wet did they get? I asked if Claire was wet too and he said yes.

I told him where I was, and we met up. Walking up, Claire didn’t look too wet. That Alice dress will fool you. I felt her and she was soaked. I lifted the Apron on it and the only dry spot was a small circle under her apron. I asked her if she wanted to change and she adamantly said NO! It was very hot out, so it probably felt pretty good.

Skip said they got the bad spot this time around and totally got drenched.

 

We decided to head over to Dinoland and see what was happening. We had just missed the Nemo show starting, so I knew there was no chance of seeing that this trip. That had been the last show of the day. Oh well, we’ll try to get to it another year.

 

On to Dinoland!

 

 

After this picture, I must’ve put my camera away for awhile because there isn’t any other pics in Dinoland.

 

We went on Chester & Hester’s Dino-rama. It’s cute and fun. (just like Dumbo). Skip then went to see if Claire was tall enough for Primeval Whirl. She’s not yet. I won’t ride it though anyways. I did last trip and it about made me sick. I don’t like the spinning parts.

We talked about it a bit and decided we would take Claire on Dinosaur. We told her it was a bit scary and she insisted she wanted to give it a try.

 

We walked over and parked the stroller, got Claire out and suddenly she had to go potty .....now! I think those wet clothes were getting to her. I took a change of clothes in too, (didn’t have a dry pair of undies with us though) and got her changed and all fresh.

 

Then on to Dinosaur….AGAIN.

 

We got right in and did the pre-show and then right on to the car. I like it but it can be a bit scary even for adults. I held Claire’s hand the whole time and told her to shut her eyes when I thought needed. She obeyed too.

When we got out we asked her what she thought and she said it’s scary and she knows it's pretends, but lets not do it again. OK! At least she gave it a try and did really well on it. Never once did she scream or anything.

[jenseib]

I knew there was a 6:00 showing for the Festival of the Lion King and this was one of the 2 shows I had wanted to try and see, so we headed that way. Being that we never have seen the show, I wasn’t 100% sure the way, but we just kept going on instinct.

 

We stopped for a family photopass.

 

 

 

 

The lady told Claire to hold her arms out and a baby brother would appear. LOL! Claire had no clue what she meant and was very puzzled. So was Skip!

 

 

We then saw a CM directing people over to the Lion King, so we knew we were heading the right way.

 

We passed one of those vending carts that sells different souvenirs, and Claire started spazzing out over a stuffed Simba. Totally crying over it. I told her I wasn’t stopping now, we had to get in and get a seat. But after the show we would look at it. I told her she still had spending money. She did the laugh/cry thing where she is so happy, but can’t stop crying. She kept saying to Skip, “I still have spending money dad!” He rolled hs eyes.

 

I tried to sit near the front because I have heard sometimes kids get picked for things. For what I had no clue, but I figured lets try.

We sat in the Lion section.

I had no idea what to expect and all I can say is WOW!

This show was AWESOME! I couldn’t believe the talent and all the action and just the fun I had during it. My eyes were wide as saucers taking it all in.

 

Skip was really impressed by the “monkeys” on the trampoline. I am so glad this was the show we made it to.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Claire was picked as one of the kids to go out and dance and shake one of the musical instruments, but she said no thank you. ????????? I asked her why and she said she already danced at the parade yesterday. Oh well.

 

As soon as it was over she said, “now we go get Simba” What a one tracked mind!

 

So we headed out and went to the vendors stand. We picked one out and I went to pay. I asked if it was on sale because plushes had been on sale for 25% all over the park and it was, but even on sale it was the most expensive thing we bought her (excluding the castle) . But this was one thing that was worht it's price. She still sleeps with it off and on.

She was excited it was on sale and kept telling Skip, “Dad it was on sale” and Skip said it was sad that she knew about “on sale” and “clearance”. (She gets that from her mom)

 

Claire stated that she was hungry then, so we headed off to Pizzafari.

Skip said he was going to search for a bathroom. As soon as we walked in, there was one, but he was gone by then. But Claire and I used it and then ordered.

I got a sandwich and she got spaghetti and meatballs. I also ordered chocolate cake, which I normally don’t like, but love it at Disney. (Something about it there tastes soooo good)

I never realized till later that night that they forgot to give it to me. My plan had been to save it and eat it for a snack, and I guess I never paid attention at the time. NOW’s the time to call me IDIOT!

Here is Claire posing with her new best friend.

 

 

Skip came back and ended up finishing off Claire’s food, though she did eat a good amount, but it was a very large portion for a kid.

 

Claire wanted to go back to the hotel and swim. Skip wanted to go back too, but I wanted to browse the shops as we went. They decided they would go ahead and get back and I could then browse freely and meet them back there. Hurray! AND they took the stroller too! I was totally free.

I browsed around looking for that sweatshirt I wanted. I just had a hard time making up my mind. I found 2 I really liked. I finally decided I should get one with the year on it since that is what I always do and should keep up the tradition now.

 

Here’s what I got.

 

 

 

I then decided since I was alone it would be a good time to go and pick out the free 5x7 photopass picture.

I found the place easily enough and had a short wait. He scanned my card and he goes “wow, you have a lot of pictures!” ! I had over 200 at that point on there. YAY me!

He asked if I had any idea what picture I would like to get so we didn’t have to go through all of them. I told him yes, I would like to look at the ones from today because I wanted the family one with Claire holding Simba. We found it, but Simba hadn’t been added to her arms yet. But the earlier ones had????? He said no problem and put a Simba in her arms for me.

This is the one I got.

 

 

He did tell me that the Simba would be added later on my photopass, so not to worry. But when I got home it wasn’t, along with several of the Tinker bells. I emailed photopass and in less than 12 hours they were on the pictures.

 

I headed out the front of the park then and made a stop to look around. I never really paid much attention to the entrance area before. And I never paid attention that Rain Forest was there. I had read it was, but never looked at it.

 

SoI turned around and got this last shot.

 

 

 

I went out to the bus stop then and a bus was loading, so I ran and caught it.

It’s kind of nice riding without my family sometimes. I just sat back and relaxed.

I got back to find them in the pool. Skip said they had just gotten in and I must’ve took the next bus. I told him I really didn’t hurry back. But I guess they had waited quite awhile for a bus, and I was lucky to have one there when I got to the bus depot.

 

 

 

 

While they were in the pool I decided to check on doing another load of laundry. No go on that. The laundry room was packed. Much better to do it in the AM.

I called home and talked to my dad a bit.

 

Claire and Skip went and got some food and ate it.

I then took Claire to the arcade to use the 30 minute card we got with our package. This thing is a dud. Only works on certain games, which I knew ahead of time. But not on anything Claire wanted to do. And it has so much time before you can use it again. Some games we would “die” immediately and it wouldn’t let us use it again for several minutes. I also think it completely stopped working about 5 or more minutes before it should have. But it was free, so I guess I shouldn’t complain.

While we were playing, Skip went up to the bar and had a rum and coke. He said it wasn’t very good. I think it was watered down.

The shuttle was supposed to launch on this day, so Claire and I walked out front to see if we could catch a glimpse. NOTHING! So we went back in and Skip met up with us and told us that the launch had been canceled.

We decided to go settle down. It was getting late and it had been a very busy day.

 

When we got back to the room, I remembered I had Claire’s Alice dress in a plastic bag still. I pulled it out. Lets just say this dress isn’t made for water.

It had bled blue all over the apron and collar. I rinsed it out in the tub and more and more blue just ran out. I just gave up. I got the stain stick I had brought along and put it all over the white parts, and hung it up. I figured at home I would try it in the washer. (and it did come out pretty good then)

Claire was bouncing all over with her new Simba. I told her to settle down over and over and she said that it was Simba’s fault. He wasn’t behaving and she was trying to get him to settle down.

 

About 11 she finally drifted off. But not me! Nope, I was being serenaded by two snoring people! Claire is just as loud as Skip. (and a few months later she ended up having her tonsils out, which has made a huge difference) When he would snore, she would take a breath, and when he took a breath, she would snore. UGH! I was going crazy. I put TWO pillows over my head to drown them out and finally I went to sleep.

 

And that is the end of day 4!

[jenseib]

Day 5

 

Thursday March 12

 

3rd Times a Charm!

 

This is what has been known as puke day for the last 2 trips. If you remember I had mention that every year we come down on a Sunday and every year, so far, Claire has gotten sick on Thursday.

Well here is where the title comes in! She was FINE the whole day! Letting her sleep and not running completely ragged did work for us! YAY!

I know it looks like we did a lot, and we did, but I wasn’t pushing us at the parks to do stuff, and going at a more leisurely pace made a difference.

 

On to the day!

 

The plans for the day.

 

Epcot

Arkershus at 4:20

Skip and Claire wanted to do the Behind the seeds tour

I was hoping to last until the Illuminations show since we have yet to see it. I did see it about 10 years ago, but I think some has changed since then.

 

I woke up around 6:30. It’s hard to sleep with a pillow on your head. I gathered the laundry and took it up to the empty laundry room.

 

While the laundry was going I showered and went up and got some breakfast. I settled at a table outside our door and began to write in the journal to try and catch up with everything.

Skip woke up around 9 and came out the door. He went up for coffee. I gave him my mug and told him to get me a lemonade refill.

 

I went in and checked on Claire. She woke up at around 9:45

I can’t remember what the gift for the day was, and I didn’t take a picture.

 

Here is the note I “think” she got that day.

 

 

We knew she was going to wear her Jasmine outfit today, because of the Akershus dinner, but Claire decided to bring it along and wear a sundress to the park..

 

Skip came back in the room shortly after we got her dressed and said “the freaky guys are out at the pool.” I ran out and didn’t get any good pics, but from other morning’s I knew what it was.

I think at 10 everyday they officially open the pool. The lifeguards come out with multicolored wigs on and pick a child to help use magic to turn on the daisy sprinklers. The Sprinklers were on already by the time I got out there.

 

 

 

We finished packing our bag then and headed to the bus stop. About 2 minutes before the bus got there, Claire started panicking because she left Simba in the room. I told her the bus was about to come and I was not walking back, but we would get her something special at Epcot. Well I should’ve just went back and got it because she whined the whole bus ride and while walking in too. UGH! Not loudly or crying, but just constantly talked about how she missed him and he was scared by himself, etc.

Finally I told her if I had a chance later on I would go get him…never intending to. LOL! But it made her happy.

 

When we got to the entrance we had to wait a little bit to get in. There were some long lines and it seems I get behind the people who can’t figure out how to use their ticket.

 

 

 

We finally got into Epcot, and with Claire still somewhat complaining, I totally bypassed the photopass photographer without thinking.

 

We headed towards the land to see when they could take the tour, and we snapped a few pictures on the way.

 

 

We got to the land and saw the Soarin still had fast passes. We got one for 12:40. I was excited. We have never rode it yet, and now Claire was big enough too.

We then got in line for the behind the seeds tour.

 

 

There was one for 11:15 (it was just around 11), but only room for one person. Claire wanted to do this with Skip, so Skip asked if they could still do the 11:15 since the second person was so small. And they let him. Then Skip griped when they told him the price. I told him at home the price and he was fine with it then. It wasn’t very much either. I think $16 for him and a little less for Claire and they then gave them the AAA discount on top of that too. In Disney dollars, that is cheap!

 

 

 

Ithen took Claire potty and decided on a meeting time and spot…right back there since it would be fast past time then, and we could do that next…..

 

I said goodbye and went off on my own.

 

I walked around and shot a lot of pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

I then went up front and got some solo photopass pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I must admit this time totally alone was a guilty pleasure. I was loving it, but not sure what to do with myself.

I started to head back towards World Showcase after the photopass pictures. I took several pictures along the way.

 

 

 

 

I wanted to get the monorail going through on this picture, but I waited and waited and it never came, so I just took one and went on.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I got here, a CM came up to me and asked if I would do a survey about our trip, which I did.

 

 

For those who didn't know. One of those buidling in the horizon is Tower of Terror. It blends right in with Epcot.

 

 

I decided to head over to Mexico and see how long the boat ride line was. It was practically walk on last year, and though it’s not my favorite in any way shape or form, I thought it would be something nice to do while waiting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The ride was walk on, so I got on!

 

 

 

 

 

I got so lucky on this ride too. NOT! I sat behind a family of several people, who all must’ve decided not to bath while on vacation! I held my breath for most of the ride.

 

Next I went to Norway. Again I figured I would see how long the wait for Maelstrom was.

 

 

 

It was walk on as well, so I rode it.

 

 

After this, I figured I’d better not go too far back into World showcase, since it was getting closer to our meeting time. I worked my way up to Test track to check out the wait time. It was pretty long. Being that it was close to our FP time for Soarin, I tried to see if the machine would let me get a FP for Test track. Nope. Too early.

I then worked my way back over to the land. We had agreed to meet between 12:15 and 12:30. The Behind the Seeds tour was supposed to be 1-1 1/4 hours long.

I got over there and saw no sign of them. So I went back up and out and got a drink out of the stroller. I headed back down and took a potty break, and still waited.

They finally came out at 12:45. Claire was so excited. She kept telling me she was a good girl, which Skip then told me how many people commented on how good she was. They told me a little bit about it, but I don’t remember too much. But they LOVED it. Skip said he would like to do it again on a future trip.

 

We then got in line for Soarin.

 

 

Soarin’s wait wasn’t too long. It was super cool. In the pre show they said to take off your hats and Skip wasn’t going to, but Claire insisted he did.

The flying was really neat. Claire just squealed with glee. She loved flying. She said when we went over the ocean she got wet.

Now I have heard they have some effects like this…..like you can smell orange blossoms while going over the orange orchards….but I never smelled anything or felt anything, so not sure if Claire really got wet or not.

We got off really excited and so happy we finally had a chance to try this ride out.

 

We then headed over to Test Track and got fast passes. The line was still long and our FP’s were for 3:25.

 

We decided to split up then. I told Skip he should go ride Mission Space if he wanted to give it a try. We’ve never rode it and I was afraid I would get motion sickness. (I later found out my mom rode the easy side in Feb and loved it and she gets much sicker than I do, so I should’ve ridden it.)

Skip headed that way and Claire and I were going to World Showcase to find some characters. I decided to start in the UK.

We asked a CM where the characters were and she said go around to the back of the Toy store, so I did.... literally go to the “outside” back of the store. And I almost walked in the exit door for the greeting. OOPS!

 

So... we then went around to the inside and got in a short line for Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger. I shot this while waiting.

 

 

Claire was still on the kick about getting a special toy to replace Simba for the day. I told her once we were done would could look around the store.

 

I also asked if any other characters would be in the UK, and they told me that Alice and Mary Poppins would be outside around 2.

 

Our turn!

 

These are the ones I took.

 

 

Look at Eeyore signing. Isn’t he so cute!

 

 

This is how he signed Paige and Michael’s books back in 1997. They loved it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And these are the photopass pictures.[/color][/size][/b]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[tycoonrebel7188]

I love reading your PTR Jenseib! All your great pictures are getting me extremely excited for my first trip to WDW in March!!

[Chrisrad]

What a thorough report - I truly enjoyed it!

 

I've been considering a WDW trip for some time as I have only been to the Disneyland 'Resort'

 

Thanks for the great photos and descriptions!

[jenseib]

What a thorough report - I truly enjoyed it!

 

I've been considering a WDW trip for some time as I have only been to the Disneyland 'Resort'

 

Thanks for the great photos and descriptions!

 

Thanks for reading. It is very fun. I can't wait to get back

[jenseib]

I love reading your Photo TR Jenseib! All your great pictures are getting me extremely excited for my first trip to WDW in March!!

 

Thanks for reading. You will have so much fun. Just remember you can't do it all, so pick a few must dos in each park and then go from there.

[jenseib]

After visiting Pooh and friends we went back around to the front of the store to pick out something for Claire. She immediately chose the Cheshire cat. He was cute, and for several nights she slept with him too, but a few days after we got home he has dropped down to just sitting on the bed, and not loved so much. She has recnetly been playing with him again though.

Since we had a bit of time before Alice and Mary came out, we decided to go see if Belle was out. This was one person Claire really wanted to see. We stumbled upon Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) in France, with no one in line for her.

 

Here are my pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

And these are the photopass.

 

 

 

 

 

After saying goodbye to Aurora, we headed over to see Belle and Beast. And we got in line just in time. They cut the line off with only one family behind us. The wait wasn’t too bad, but not super fast either. We had been spoiled with the first couple of greets that day.

 

I shot this while waiting.

 

 

Skip called while we were in line and said he was in Mexico getting a margarita. I told him we would be heading to the UK next, which was at the total opposite end of where he was,... and he could meet us over there.

 

Finally Claire got to meet her other favorite princess. She was a little intimidated by beast at first, but warmed up to him fast and she was so happy to see Belle.

 

 

 

 

And the photopass ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Beast and Belle we headed back to the UK to see Alice and Mary Poppins. On the way over Claire suddenly decided she did not want to see Mary. I guess mostly because she really had no clue who she was. I told her that dad would go with her and that seemed a bit better to her.

Skip beeped me and said he was in Ireland and wanted to know where we were, and how much further. I told him there wasn’t an Ireland there. And he insisted that was where he was because there were pubs all over. I told him nope, that’s the UK. He found us in line and Claire immediately told him that he had to go see Mary with her.

 

 

I wish I had a flower bed this cute.

 

 

Skip didn’t dare put the drink down.

 

 

UGH! And I just noticed the socks! How did he get that pair past me? I packed only short socks because he has the habit of pulling up his socks just like that!

 

 

 

 

Next was Alice.

 

 

Alice also noticed Skip carrying the Cheshire cat and talked to Claire about that.

 

 

 

 

 

Claire announced she was hungry then. We decided on fish and chips. I wasn’t too sure if Claire would like fish or not. She has had fish before, but is kind of on the fence about it.

 

We got one order and sat down and then Claire had to potty, so I took her. On the way back I decided I was kind of hungry too, so I got another order so there was more to share. Claire only ate a couple of bites of fish and wasn’t to impressed, but did gobble up the fries. A very healthy lunch for her!

We then kind of wandered around World Showcase. I would’ve liked to have gone into some of the places and see what they are all about, but I knew Skip and Claire really didn’t want to do that.

I did take a lot of pictures while walking.

 

Morocco

 

 

Japan

 

I wanted this shot so bad, and this lady to the side would NOT move. She stood there forever, so finally I gave up and took a crappy shot. Skip and Claire wanted to keep moving.

 

 

Italy

 

 

 

We saw Genie out in Morroco, but Claire didn’t want to see him. We saw Snow White and Dopey out too, but the line was long and we were hoping that Snow White would be at dinner.

 

It was close to our fast pass time for Test Track so we headed up that way.

[monkeyoverlord71]

Thanks for posting this! I'm really enjoying it. It's nice to have such an interesting and in depth report. Also nice to see pictures of the POP resort, haven't seen much of it.

[jenseib]

Thanks for posting this! I'm really enjoying it. It's nice to have such an interesting and in depth report. Also nice to see pictures of the POP resort, haven't seen much of it.

 

Thanks you. I really do love Pop. It's a lot of fun there.

[Teacups Make Me Sick]

This really is one of my favorite TR's...very heartwarming. The photos with Claire meeting all the princesses are really charming. I'm sure she will, one day, appreciate reading about her wdw trip.

 

I hope when you go on your cruise we can look foward to reading about it as well. Just please write about it shortly after.

[jenseib]

This really is one of my favorite TR's...very heartwarming. The photos with Claire meeting all the princesses are really charming. I'm sure she will, one day, appreciate reading about her wdw trip.

 

I hope when you go on your cruise we can look foward to reading about it as well. Just please write about it shortly after.

 

I do plan to write about the cruise too. I will get it started as fast as I can, but with all the photo editing, and "life", I don't know how fast it will go. But I love writing about my trips, because I get to relive them again.

[jenseib]

On to Test Track!

I think it took a good 15 minutes to get on the ride. I was worried if it took any longer that we wouldn’t be on time for our ADR, and we still had to change Claire’s clothes. But we did just fine.

 

The last time I rode this was 10 years ago, and it had just opened. That line was EXTREMELY long! Skip has rode it the last 2 years though.

 

 

There are those fingers in the mouth again!

 

 

I was talking to Claire the whole ride, telling her what was going on and saying weee, and this picture has my mouth wide open looking really dumb!

 

 

When we got off, Claire said she had to go potty. And she was holding herself, which meant we’d better hurry. We ran through the stupid show room and gift shop you have to go through to get out of there. I swear this kid has eagle eyes. As we are running she starts crying that she wants this test track toy that we went by. I told her we would come back, but right now the potty was more important. I have no clue how she saw it that fast, but she was describing everything in it on the way to the bathroom.

We made it to the bathroom and got her changed into her Jasmine outfit too. We came out and immediately she was ready to head back to get that toy. And she was right, it had all the stuff she described in it. It was really a good price though, so I didn’t feel to bad getting it, and again, she had a lot of spending money.

After the purchase of the Test Track toy, which did look really cool, we headed over to Norway for dinner.

 

 

 

We then got checked in and took some more shots.

 

 

 

Here she is proudly showing off her Test Track toy.

 

 

 

We then got called. Or so I thought. In Norway they pronounce W’s like V’s and we have a W in our name. So it sounded similar to our name, but I wasn’t sure. I went and check and sure enough it was us!

We went in and then got in line for Belle.

 

 

 

Here is Claire anxiously waiting to see Belle in her “marrying” dress, as Claire calls it.

 

 

We got up to the photographer and she was kind of rude. She told me only 2 pictures and did we want a family shot. I said no, but I wish I would’ve said yes, and made her take more. Her pictures weren’t very good either. They came out fuzzy. Oh well, next time I will open my big mouth and have more taken and ask for the fuzzy ones to be retaken.

 

Here’s what I took.

 

 

 

 

Here’s what the photographer took.

 

 

 

We were then taken to our table and seated right next to the cold bar.

 

We brought the test track toy in with us. I didn't want to leave it out in the open in our stroller and Claire couldn't part with it yet.

 

Since we had the early seating, the Princesses weren’t out yet. Our waiter, who was wonderful, told us they probably wouldn’t be to our table till dessert.

 

Claire ordered the Hotdog (imagine that.) with corn and also got a lot of the cold cuts from the cold bar. She was very impressed with the cold bar.

I tried several things off the cold bar. It was pretty good. Skip said you could just make a meal off of that.

He ordered the Salmon, which I asked “Do you like Salmon?” and he said "I don’t know," so our waiter told him if he didn’t like it he could order something else. He did say it was good.

I got the Kjottkake. It was 2 meatballs that tasted a lot like Kielbasa.

Very good.

 

Claire nibbled at her food, but she really wanted to see the princesses. I kept walking around the corner as they came out to see who was there.

 

 

They brought out our picture pretty early on. Here it is.

 

 

Alice was the first one out. So this would be our 3rd meeting with Alice this trip. I don’t think we ever even saw her except for parades the last 2 trips.

 

She arrived shortly after dessert was served.

 

It was the same one from the afternoon too.

 

 

 

Claire has a really skinny belly, but for some reason she kept puffing out in this outfit. Not super attractive.

 

 

Next was Jasmine. This was one we had hoped for, since Claire was wearing the “matching” outfit. All the other princess referred to her as Jasmine’s sister when they visited.

 

 

The puffed belly again!

 

 

 

Next to the table was Ariel! Our second meeting with her this trip, but this time with legs! We had hoped she would be here.

 

 

We told Ariel how Claire wants to change her name to ArielBelle, and she thought that was a lovely name.

 

 

 

The bill came and we paid, and Skip decided to walk outside and wait for us since we still had one more princess to wait for.

 

Claire was having a hard time waiting.

 

 

Here she comes!

 

 

It was Cinderella, ....again! This was our 3rd meeting with Cinderella this trip too.

Claire was happy to see her again though.

 

 

 

 

[jenseib]

After we visited with Cinderella, Claire and I grabbed our stuff and headed out to get the stroller and find Skip. I got to the stroller and picked up my drink I had sitting in it from earlier and went to take drink. I realized the straw was gone, so I threw it away. Who the heck would take someone’s straw? I didn’t want to take any chances that someone messed with it, so I pitched it.

 

We found Skip and decided to go back to Germany and see if Snow White was out since we didn’t get to see her at dinner.

We got there and only Dopey was out, but the CM said a new line was forming for Snow White and she should be out in 15 minutes. So Skip and I took turns standing in line with Claire.

Finally she came out and the CM said the Dopey and Snow White would be out together for a short while then Dopey was going in. No Problem for us. I didn’t really care if we saw him or not.

As we got closer the CM again announced that Dopey was going in soon.

Then it came to the people in front of us to have a turn and the little girl was scared to death of Dopey , so they let us go ahead, and just waited till Dopey left, which I think was 2 families after us.

 

Here is what I took…and I took a lot!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These are the photopass ones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Snow White and Dopey we strolled up towards the front, taking pictures on the way. We weren’t sure what we wanted to do next, but then decided to make our way up to Spaceship Earth.

 

 

 

 

As we made our way up front I spotted a photopass photographer and made my family stop for a picture.

 

 

 

 

[jenseib]

We next headed up to Spaceship Earth and I parked the stroller and hid all valuables as best I could. Once I pulled the bag out of the bottom of the stroller, the test track toy fit neatly under it and was totally covered by the bag on top.

 

We rode Spaceship Earth and it had no line what so ever.

Here are some pictures from the end. It’s so funny because it cut half of Claire’s head off.

 

 

 

I’m not sure how I got emailed two different pics, but I did.

 

 

After we got off, I played with the computers to email the stuff home, while Skip and Claire played some of the other games.

 

 

 

 

On to Nemo next! Claire usually likes this one, so we headed over there and got in line for that, which was walk on as well.

The queue for this is so long though, so it takes a long while to walk through. I can remember back in the years when it was just "the living seas", with no Nemo theme. I had been there with Michael and Paige and we would start waiting out the door and walk all through the whole queue. Luckily it moved pretty fast, but I don’t think I would ever do that again.

 

Before we walked in, I wanted to get a picture of Claire in front of the “fish”. There were some young couples there and they just kept snapping pictures, and I must admit I was kind of getting a bit annoyed as I wanted to just snap one of Claire and get on our way. But then one guy asked if we would like him to take our picture, and we said yes. They actually were really nice and kept commenting on how cute they thought Claire was. So my bad, I shouldn’t be so impatient.

 

 

I took these while walking through the queue.

 

 

 

After the ride we went to see how long the wait for Turtle talk was. It was 15 minutes, so we took a potty break and the stuck around and played some of the games in Mr. Rays area.

 

 

 

I did so well I could send home a certificate to myself.

 

 

 

 

The wait was longer than 15 minutes, but we stuck it out. I think it was more like 20-25 minutes.

 

Finally it was time to go in!

 

We go in and I sit Claire on the floor in front, and Skip and I takes seat a little ways back, but I sit where I can keep her in my sight at all times. I decide that I will get my camera out and ready in video mode….just in case Crush talks to Claire.

 

The girls she is sitting next to were also at Akershus when we were there and they played together while we waited for our name to be called. They were so cute.

 

 

Not long into the “talk” Crush asks to talk to the little girl with the pink Sea Anemone on top of her head. I quickly turn on my camera. Remember ....I am the worlds worse video taper. And it was dark too, but not long into it the tables turn! Crush asked Claire who brought her and she says “What?”, so he asks again and I say “mom and dad.”

And dang it all that Crush came and talked to me!

I had the camera in my hands and I just set it on my lap and it was still taping. So you can hear my conversation. I felt so dumb. I’m sure my face was beat red.

 

 

I was just dyeing. And yes that dorky laugh is mine! I totally hate it.

 

After Crush we walked out the exit queue , which ran along the side of the Nemo rides entrance queue. Claire wanted to ride Nemo again and I told them I would sit this one out. So they hopped over/under the fence and walked on the ride again.

 

I waited for them, which surprisingly wasn’t long at all and then I made Claire take her yearly Shark picture. Well not every year, as I think the line was too long in 2007 so we ended up not taking one.

 

 

This is last year’s picture

 

 

After that we went outside to decide what to do. We still had a half hour before Illuminations started, but Claire wanted to go back to the hotel. I really wanted to see Illuminations, but I could see Skip wanted to go back too. His hip was really hurting him and I swear if I had a wheel chair he would’ve rode in it.

 

We sat and rested for a few minutes.

 

 

 

 

After our rest, we decided to call it a day. Claire wanted to swim yet.

 

We made our way back up to the front.

 

 

We stopped off for a final photopass of the day.

 

 

 

 

 

And then we left Epcot and headed to the buses.

 

 

As we were walking to the bus stop a family was walking in front of us with 2 cute little girls dressed in princess dresses.

They looked tired and just drudging along. The one little girl was looking down and I could just see it in my head what was about to happen. ...... This has happened to my Paige when she was little and at Epcot too.

I said “watch where you are going sweety, look up”…… over and over ….and next thing you know…Bang, she walked right into the pole. Of course she cried and Skip was controlling his laughter. Shame on him!

The same thing Paige did, only we were arriving to Epcot and she was looking up in awe. I told her watch where she was going and Bang! right into a pole. I was with my mom that trip and my mom wrapped her arms around her while she cried, but my mom and I…and of course brother Michael, all laughed hysterically while we comforted her.

We are such bad people.

 

So finally we get on the bus and head back to Pop.

I didn’t take anymore pictures of the night.

We could see parts of the Illumination Fireworks going off as we rode on the bus.

 

When we got back to Pop, Skip asked me for his refillable mug so he could fill it before heading back to the room. I went to get it and it wasn’t on top of the stroller, so I looked in my bag. It was gone!

 

Remember how my straw came up missing when we were at Akershus? Well I think that’s when his cup came up missing too. I don’t remember seeing it after that point. I did take my bag out later to look for something and remember seeing my cup, but don’t recall seeing his, when I thought about it. So someone stole my straw and his cup! YUCK! I did bring last years cups along too so that I could dump juice in it for Claire, so I went against the rules and gave him one of them and told him just to use it for now. We only had 1 full day left.

 

When we got back to the room I got Claire dressed in her Swim suit and out to the pool. I sat at a chair and tried to catch up on the journaling.

Claire quickly made friends with a little girl and they laughed and giggled. Soon the little girl had to get out and Claire got out with her. I told Claire to leave her alone now, since she had to leave. The girl’s dad says “that’s OK, She’s showing us her swimming suit”. LOL! What a dork my kid is.

 

Claire then gets back in and is playing with a ball. Some older kids, (2 couples) well I would say in the young 20’s, were kind of talking to her and teasing her about the ball. I think they wanted her to throw it at them and she wouldn’t. They would all laugh.

Next thing you know they are all playing together with the ball and including Claire. They were all laughing so hard. And then Claire would do silly things and they would laugh harder. It was so funny to watch. Yes my kid can make friends with ANYONE. I even called Skip out to watch it for awhile too. I don’t know who was having more fun, Claire or the 2 couples.

Finally I told Claire it was time to go get dressed and the kids were all sad to see Claire leave. They all kept saying “bye Claire.” And she was beeming.

 

I got Claire dried off and dressed and we went to look for a snack. I was thinking Mickey Bar, but they were out of them at the food court. It seemed that the food court was out of a lot of good snacks.

I decided then to get the hot fudge sundae. It was good. Claire and I shared it. She dove into it immediately. It was melting fast too, like the ice-cream from the other day, so I think they didn’t keep the refrigeration cold enough in the bin.

Didn’t matter we still loved it.

 

Skip saw it and asked why we didn’t get him one. Well he never asked for a snack when we went up, so that’s why.

I told him once we were done we would go get him one. But I found out that they must close it at 11, because it was 11:05 when we got back up there and it was closed. OOPS. Skip was a little disappointed. But he said he would get one tomorrow.

We got ready for bed then.

I think we all went out pretty fast.

 

And that’s the end of day 5!

[jenseib]

Day 6!

Friday March 13

 

The plans for the day.

Magic Kingdom was the plan!

We had ADR’s for Crystal Palace at 4:05.

We kind of just figured we would ride what we could and take it easy.

 

I woke up at 6AM. I just couldn’t sleep any more. This was our last full day, and I didn’t want to miss any of it.

I walked up to the smoking section.

 

I’m gonna add this little comment her.

I had quit smoking for 6 years when I had Claire, but about 3 years and a half ago, I stupidly started back up. Now I really don’t smoke a lot anymore, Just one here and there, and I smoke them in halves. Never a full one.... So I daily would go to the smoking section, but I would sometimes sit there and not smoke. You just get to talking to the same people each day, and it’s like you start to know them as your vacation friends. Some are hilarious. And some you go and ask how was such and such the day before.

 

So..... this day I got up so early and sat in the smoking section for quite awhile and just gabbed.

One guy, who I talked to each day , was telling me how he had lost his refillable mug the first night by leaving it at the pool on a table. The next AM, of course it was gone. He asked a CM and they gave him a new one. I told him how Skip’s mug was stolen the night before, and he told me, I should ask and see if they would replace it.

He then told me he left his second mug somewhere too, but was too embarrassed to ask for another one.

 

After all the gossip, I went and got a shower, and then headed up to the food court and got some breakfast.

This was going on when I walked in.

 

 

 

I asked a random CM about the mug and explained what happened. She went and got someone and sure enough they replaced it for me. And ironically he gave me the exact same color we had before.

 

I got some breakfast, and then took it out by the pool, near our door. I journaled for awhile, since I was getting way behind.

While I was eating my breakfast wrap, a stray piece of egg fall off to the side of my plate. Next thing I know, I feel a whoosh, and a bird is gliding by me and swiping that piece of egg right off my plate. Tricky little bugger!

 

After I finished eating I went into the room and Skip and Claire woke up.

Claire got some more princess mail. Her letter was from Ariel.

 

 

 

 

 

She received a tinker bell comb and mirror set and a set of princess pens.

 

We got dressed for the day. I made her wear the Aurora costume. This is my favorite one, but for some reason she likes the Ariel Wedding dress better and she wanted to wear it again. I won, because I told her it was dirty.

I got her some breakfast, and Skip got some as well.

She only ate about half, and Skip helped her finish and then we gave my buddy some of the leftovers.

 

 

Then I took a few pictures around Pop with Claire. Well ...not many, and most near our room.

 

 

 

 

More pictures from pop.

 

Our window.

 

 

 

 

It was another nice day. Our whole trip had been in the 80’s, and it was so nice.

 

One thing I had learned this morning while gossiping, was that a bus load of cheerleaders had arrived this AM at Pop. YUCK! Today was their only free day, which probably meant a lot of them would be at the parks.

 

After taking pictures I went back to the room and packed our bag for the day. I threw in a sundress and then thought, heck I should be carrying an extra pair of underwear too. Especially after the Kali Rivers incident where she got totally soaked. So threw in a pair and some snacks, and all the other essential.

We also collected Simba . No need to repeat the day before and have lots of wining.

We then were ready for our last day at MK.

 

I think we arrived around 11. Just walking in we could tell that his day was much busier than it had been all week.

I took another try at the balloon bundle. Again, I’m not impressed with my result.

 

 

AND I again made the family stop for Photopass.

 

 

 

 

 

The Move it Shake it parade was going on, and we stopped and watched. It was pretty crowded around the hub, so Skip threw Claire up on his shoulders and went in for a closer look. I took a few pictures of my pink fluff girl going into the crowd.

 

 

 

 

 

And then I lost them.

 

It was really crowded and it was hard to see. I took some video too. Not the greatest, but gives you an idea.

Again, I really suck at taking video.

 

 

 

 

 

After the parade, we two-wayed each other till we found each other. Again I wasn’t getting the best directions, so I had to use my imagination and skills to find them.

Claire had beads around her neck when I found them. I guess they give them out during this block party.

 

We walked by the Pirate Tutorial and Skip took Claire up to watch it. I got in line for Captain Hook, and was going to call them when I got close. With in minutes they were back. Claire didn’t care for the tutorial and said Captain Hook was too scary, so we got out of line. Peter Pan was across the way and I gave the option to see him, but she looked at the line and said no.

 

It was very hot and crowded. Just what I hate. All these people seemed to be in MY way.

We stopped and got some lemonade out of my bag for Claire and decided to just wander around and find something that didn’t look too busy. Good luck there. LOL!

 

As we were wandering Claire screams “There’s Donald” and she wanted to see him. So we got in line for him.

Skip went off to get a snack. He got a banana and a water, using some of the snack credits up. I thought the banana was a waste of the snack credit, but we did have a lot left yet.

 

Waiting in line for Donald.

 

 

 

 

 

 

While waiting in line they told us that the photopass photographer was having problems with her camera, so we would have to use our own for pictures.

The kids in front of us had Mickey heads on there pens and Donald had a fit. It was so funny. He made a big deal about them NOT being Donald pens.

 

Our turn to visit Donald finally came. Claire was very excited to see him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Donald kissed Claire on the cheek here. I said, “Oh my, Daisy is going to be jealous, don’t tell here” and Donald quickly started waving his hands in a no motion and then put his finger to his mouth in a SHHH motion.

 

 

 

Then it was time to leave, but Claire didn’t want to.

 

 

So Donald walks her over to me.

 

Edited February 21, 2011 by jenseib

[jenseib]

After Donald, we decide to walk over to Fantasyland and ride Its a Small World.

 

 

Fantasyland was jammed packed.

 

We parked the stroller and got in line. I think it was 20 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Small World we got Fast Passes for Pooh. It also came with an extra fast pass for Mickey’s Philharmagic. We are not big fans of this. I know most love it, but I find it just OK. We only saw it once, which was last year, and I just didn’t think it was anything special. So for now we decided to not use them. Maybe later. ....

 

Skip was in a lot of pain from his hip. He decided he would go back to the room and get some ibuprofen. I told him I had some with us, but he said he wanted to see if he had something else back at the room. What I have no clue, because I am the one who does the packing and I only packed Ibuprofin.

 

We parted and Claire and I headed over to ToonTown.

 

We stopped and got a photopass on the way.

 

 

 

We got in line for Goofy’s Barnstormer.

 

 

 

Claire was so funny. She told me, “I rode this before” and I said “yes, you rode it several times before” and she said “I rode it with dad”.

I told her “yes with dad and you’ve rode it with me before too.” And her reply was. “I never had to wait in a line with dad”. I guess it was my fault we had to wait in a line.

 

I took some pictures while waiting.

 

 

 

 

It’s a fun ride, but way too short.

 

Next on the agenda was Minnie’s house.

It was pretty busy in there, and of course we had to wait our turn for everything. We had one of those rude families behind us,You know, the ones who feel they don’t have to wait. They kept pushing the kids ahead of us, and then I would tell them it’s not your turn or just block there way and they would go back. The mom would keep telling them to go ahead, and then each time they “didn’t” succeed, she would say “oh wait for that girls turn first.” I don’t know why she did it every time, because I wasn’t letting them ahead of us. We had to wait too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This picture came out really bad and dark so I decided to play with it and gave it a funky look.

 

 

 

 

After Minnie’s house we went into the big store there in Toontown and looked around. I looked at the wait time for the Fairies…60 minutes, ahhhh....no thank you…...and we strolled around the store. Claire found a toy. It was a Minnie Mouse spin toy. When you press the button the skirt spins and lights up. We decided to get it. I noticed a CM gathering kids to dance, and asked Claire if she wanted to join them. But she declined and said she already danced at the parade.

They did some dances and I noticed the kids who danced got a certificate…a “year of a million dreams” certificate. Evidently they have a lot left over and are trying to use them up.

As we left I checked the Fairy wait again. It was now up to 75 minutes!

 

We next took a potty break at Pete’s Garage.

Claire was impressed that his garage was the bathroom.

After using Pete’s garage, we headed over to Mickey’s house. This house was far less crowded. In fact hardly anyone was in there.

 

You will notice that Claire keeps posing her new Minnie in a lot of the shots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 21, 2011 by jenseib

[WFChris]

I am LOVING these trip reports! Sad that were getting toward the end

[jenseib]

I am LOVING these trip reports! Sad that were getting toward the end

 

Thanks. I do have more pictures to post after I am done writing though