jenseib Posted May 17, 2012 Author Posted May 17, 2012 The ice-cream bowl looks amazing! But the pizza: Meh. That ice-cream is to die for.....Something about it...I can't duplicate at home...and I tried. The pizza was actually not too bad for Disney Pizza, not great...but not too bad!
jenseib Posted May 17, 2012 Author Posted May 17, 2012 Day 3 ~ Wednesday, March 28th I woke up pretty early, I believe around 6:15 or so and got dressed and left the sleeping beauties alone. I grabbed my nook, phone and notebook and went outside and caught up on the happenings in the world via facebook and email. I had a message from a client, actually a couple, she sent me a couple via facebook and an email too. She was a transfer and when I left home, her reservation still hadn’t transferred over to me and I let her know that it should be done when I got home. Disney likes to take their sweet old time. Well…it went through, but her pay off date was on Thursday, so Disney wouldn’t let her make a final payment. I could tell she felt a little frazzled, so I emailed her back and told her I would call her and take care of it. She lives in a different time zone, so I went to writing notes in my notebook till the time came to call her. I ate a little bit of breakfast and then checked on my crew in the room. It was so funny, because Claire would sleep with Skip, but hog the bed. She would squirm right up against him and I swear most times his rear was hanging off the edge of the bed. I took this quick shot, but it doesn’t even show how bad it was at times. I still had time to waste, so I went back outside and took some morning pictures. Not all the views were beautiful….like this abandoned parking lot next door. Sort of a self-portrait. After a little walk, I headed back upstairs around 7:30. Skip got up and was moving, and he headed out to get a bite to eat. I made my call to my client and got everything worked out just fine…I called Disney next and had it all taken care of in 15 minutes. Next job was to get Claire up and moving. She was a little slower today, but she eventually did get up and get ready for another full fun day. We headed over to Universal and I think we were in our parking spot around 8:15. Not too bad. We didn’t make the rope drop, but we still were there for early hours. We walked a little slower today. I was still excited, but my family didn’t feel the need to rush, which was fine. Once we hit City Walk, the camera was out again and I took a few shots. And LOOK! They have a pick a pearl here too. It’s not as nice as the one at Epcot, but they do have that option. The turn styles looked like a ghost town compared to the day before. We were in the park by 8:30. We started to go the way we went the day before and then stopped. We decided to try the other way around today, and also check on the time wait for Spiderman. Now honestly, I was not…..and still am not sure what all is open for early entry. But we thought we would check it out and see since we weren’t in a huge hurry. I never even noticed this times board the day before. Hulk was running, but I didn’t actually see people on the ride, so it might’ve been just doing testing. Spiderman had a 5 minute wait…Now’s the time to do it! I took a couple shots in the queue, but it was completely walk on, so they are not good as I was walking fast. I don’t know how to describe this ride….but it was AWESOME!!!! I think one of the best rides I have ever been on. It had been newly refurbished, but I couldn’t tell you what was done. It’s in 3D and the graphics are just amazing. The best 3D I have ever seen. You move around in a car, not like a roller coaster, but not like a dark ride…...it was just amazing. I am not a fan of the Spiderman story, but I would ride this ride over and over. Claire and Skip both enjoyed it too. This is another ride that Disney needs to take some notes on. After our amazing adventure we worked our way towards the WWOHP. Of course, more pictures were taken on the way. We stopped here and watched empty logs fall for a few minutes.
jenseib Posted May 21, 2012 Author Posted May 21, 2012 Now we enter Jurassic Park!!! I love how the music from the movies plays in the area. It totally gives you the feeling you are in the park. We found another jeep with dinosaur and I made my crew stop. We strolled through…looking for the water ride…..and I couldn’t find it, ….well the entrance. We wanted to see if it was running and how long the wait was, but somehow we missed it. We went to see if the Pteranadon Flyers were running. I swore I saw some dangling legs go by, but the line was closed. One thing to note about this ride…it has some weird rules. If you are over a certain height, you have to be accompanied by a child. So really only 1 of us would’ve been able to ride with Claire, and the other would’ve had to wait…and basically do an adult swap. LOL! Claire asked to check out the play area, but I told her not now…which really meant…never. LOL! I am not a fan of play areas at theme parks, so I avoid them like the plague. If we need some down time, we might do them, but for the most part…in years past with my older 2, it was more hassle trying to get the kids out and then of course crying followed. On we went. I spy, with my little eye…. A castle!!! The family refused to stand here…..Claire said she did it yesterday, and there was no need for another. We worked our way into the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. HMMMMMM? Why do they have these ropes up on the bridge? ( I do find out later….) We made a stop in the bathrooms and once again the conversation between Claire and I was all about moaning Myrtle. She was so fascinated by her. Back outside we found Skip. And we headed to our breakfast reservation at the Three Broomsticks. I believe we had to check in with a gal out front and then were let in. We had a few choices to choose from. They had each meal displayed in the window, but this was the only picture that came out remotely decent. In case you didn’t see those plates…you could also read the description. We all ordered the pancakes and sausage breakfast. I got the cold butter beer this time. I wanted to give it a try and see if I liked it better. Skip was surprised I would try it again. Skip and Claire got juice. I was surprised that Skip ordered the same meal as us, because there were quite a few options he could choose from, and most likely he would finish off one of our plates too…..and I was right, because as soon as we ordered and directed to the pickup line (which I swear we got the longest one with the slowest girl), he said he wished he would’ve ordered something else. When I say our line was slow and long, I am not kidding. People who came in after us and directed to other lines had their food faster. Once you get your food, they have a condiments section you can pick up anything else you may need. BUT, they are supposed to give you syrup on your tray. I don’t eat syrup, so I didn’t notice it, but Skip does, so we had to have someone go get us some…and he came back with 2 packs…for 3 plates…..like I said, I don’t eat it, but Claire dips in it and Skip would need 2 or 3 for himself. After you pick up your condiments you wait for a TM to seat you. There seemed to be confusion with this, even though we were told this a couple of times throughout the process, and several people would just walk in and try to seat themselves. There also seemed to be a little confusion with the TM’s about doing this as well, but finally they saw us and took us to a table. For some reason we had a 4th member tagging along. There was a kid who was hanging around us when the TM came to get us, I think his family might’ve been getting condiments …and he sat down at our table. LOL! I told him that he was with the wrong family and he was embarrassed I’m sure and left to find his family. Here is the food porn. We placed our plates on the table and started eating…early on, I realized my plate has less food than Skip and Claire…..and then it hit me, I had the kids meal. LOL.. No big deal, Claire would’ve stole my extra sausage anyways, and I could eat any extras off her plate if I was still hungry. I must say that cold butter beer is MUCH better than the frozen. I would get this again. It is still very sweet, but I could handle it much better. I took a couple of pictures while eating. Skip ran out of syrup and I noticed the boy at the next table wasn’t eating any, so I asked if we could have it and he quickly gave it to me. I think I scared him. LOL I finished off my food, Skip finished his, and Claire didn’t eat a whole lot of hers…though she ate all the sausage. Skip and I dove into hers and he did a good job at polishing most of it off. I nibbled a bit at some of it, but when we left, most of her crescent was left…just no more room in our bellies to eat it all. I was seated next to a door and about halfway through the meal they opened it and there was a patio out there with seating. Before we left, I went out and took a couple of pictures. These next pictures were taken about 10 minutes later, and I can’t remember where. My guess is that we went to a smoking area in Jurassic park and I took them.
jenseib Posted May 24, 2012 Author Posted May 24, 2012 Back to the Wizarding World we go. The line for Forbidden Journey was now at 90 minutes. Remember those ropes I saw on the Jurassic Park Bridge a while Back…that was a queue for the ride and it was filling up quickly. I was amazed at how insanely busy it was today. And Universal seemed to be prepared for this. They seemed to know that today was going to be much busier and had set that queue up early on. It was never up the day before while we were there. I wanted to ride it and so did Skip, but Claire did not. So the plan was for us to take turns and do the single rider line. It was crazy around the line area, and I’m not sure where the single rider line starts. I didn’t look, I had another plan, and it would cut out a little time for me as well. I went in through Filch’s Emporium and to the lockers. I put my bag in the locker and then went back to the line area that way. I cut across the line to the staircase and went up. That’s where the single riders go. I didn’t have to mess with all the other people waiting. Now the locker area is insane and not big enough for so many people, but I got through fairly quickly. Once you go up the stairs you have a very short line(you also miss most of the queue, so you won’t see all the great details). I walked straight through till a TM stopped me. I had to wait a few minutes and then she let the single riders go on through to the ride area. I was put in a vehicle immediately and the guy behind me in the single rider line was also put in the same one. The ride was great again and before I knew it, I was done. It literally took about 8 minutes for me to do all this and ride it. Skip and Claire had gone off to the Flight of the Hippogriff. They had just gotten off when I walked out as well. The line for that ride now read 30 minutes, so they hit it at a perfect time. It was Skip’s turn now. I took his bag so he wouldn’t have to mess with the locker. I showed him where to go and Claire and I headed off. We were going to look in the shops. We spotted the Durmstrang and Beauxbatons students out performing. It was pretty busy in the area and hard to see, but I tried to get a couple of shots. Claire was not impressed with this at all, and even though I tried to convince her to stay a bit longer, she wanted to move…..shopping is her kind of thing…..even if you don’t like it or need it…you should always buy something…right? LOL I took a try at a few more window shots…they just do not come out well with all the reflections. The area is really themed well. Into the shops we went…WOW! These places are so small! Really, incredibly small!!!! It’s really hard to move around with all the shelves and people in there. Universal did not think this out very well. We entered Zonkos and took a quick look around and Claire spotted her love immediately! She chose a pink Pigmy Puff and we worked our way to the register. It’s not far, but you have to do a little zig-zagging around people. I did manage a few shots in there. Honeydukes connects to this store, so I got some shots if it as well. We made it to the register and the girl asked Claire if she wanted to name her Pigmy Puff. She said they would announce it to the store. Claire got real shy and said no, she would name it later…and I forget what she ended up naming it…but it was something really stupid. LOL!....Oh wait… I think it’s “Snuggles”. Very original. I was told later that they ring this bell when they do the naming ceremony. I wish I would’ve pushed Claire to do it. Skip called and told us he was off and we told him where we were. I told him to work his way over and we would find him outside. We took a look around the store a bit, but again, it’s hard to enjoy it with it being so small and crowded. I would’ve loved to buy one of these, or a chocolate frog…but the price tag was awful…something like $15. The door to leave is just a regular single sized person door…And it was really hard to get out. People were pouring in and I just stood there waiting. Finally we kind of pushed our way out. You would think others would be happy to let someone leave and make a little more room in there. We found Skip near the Three Broomsticks. I think we might’ve made another visit to the Moaning Myrtle bathroom too. A few more pictures and we said good bye to WWoHP. Claire was ready for Seuss Landing again. I took a few shots on the way. I must admit, I didn’t do a good job with pictures here for a little while. I barely took any at all once we hit Seuss Landing. I think we stopped and watched the fountain for a few minutes here. I love this ATM!
jenseib Posted May 26, 2012 Author Posted May 26, 2012 I am guessing I must’ve just put my camera away for most of Seuss Landing. We got in line for the High in the Sky Trolley again. Today they had both trains going, so the plan was to ask to ride the other one because I was given the tip that both trains are different. Skip decided to sit this one out. The line was MUCH longer today. So we waited….and waited…and waited some more. We came to a point where we just didn’t move at all. Finally an announcement came on that there were technical difficulties and it would be running soon. We decided to wait it out. But it really was taking a long time. The announcement came on 2 more times. Skip called wondering where we were. I told him we were about to leave the line as it was broke down. Soon the decision was made. The lady behind us mentioned that there were teenage looking kids trying to fix it….that doesn’t really sound all that safe to me. And watching them, it became clear, that none of them knew what they were doing. So several of us left the line…and as we walked out, we saw a train leave….go figure…. BUT as we were looking for Skip, we heard another announcement that again it was broke down and would be fixed soon. I think they ended up closing it completely for a while so someone who knew what they were doing could come and work on it. I don’t remember where Skip was, but I think he was fairly close to the entrance. Claire voted for Cat in the Hat again and again, todays line was much longer. We waited it out and when we boarded, the TM’s made a big fuss over Claire’s dress again today. She loves that. They did tell her to hold on to her pigmy puff so he didn’t fly out during the spins. We had another great ride, but I can only do that once…it’s a bit to “spinney” for me. We decided it was time to head over to the Studios. IoA was just a tad too busy today. We left with intentions of coming back later…hopefully when it was less crowded. As we headed to the front we saw this. I think one of them made the comment that he looked so real…..well that’s because he is. I had seen pictures of good Ole Spidey on my friend Jeanne’s facebook page. He was sitting on a counter and she said he had moved and scared the beegeesus out of her. As I was talking the 1st picture…Spidey moved and gave me another pose. Skip and Claire also just about jumped out of their skin. LOL I continued to take a few pictures on our way out. Today we walked over to US on the side of the lake opposite of City Walk. We went slowly. It was hot, and we were tired already, and just taking in the scenes. I think we actually sat down for a bit….most likely for a smoking pit stop. We also watched this ride from outside…..scary stuff…. We headed into Universal Studios and the crowd level was once again much less than IoA. We had also decided that we wouldn’t spend much time here today. Everyone was feeling a bit tired. Skip said he was going to go back for a nap today, and we both knew Claire needed one too. I agreed it actually sounded good….Are you shocked? I almost shocked myself with that decision. And even more shocking, Skip said he would get a taxi for Claire and him so I could stay, but I said, no, I was fine going back as well. So…..we had a couple of things we wanted to do before leaving. ET was on my list. I knew that Claire would find it fun, and it had been many years since I rode it as well, but I remembered liking it. With that on our agenda, that was where we headed. We didn’t get too far into the park and look who we see! Skip kept telling me to get a picture of Shaggy, He just loved his look. I tried to convince Claire to get her picture, but she refused. Finally Skip said he would, and then they told us they weren’t taking anyone else now as they had to leave for a little bit. Darn! So onward we went. We stopped and looked at the show time for the Terminator. I had seen it before….it was OK, and I wouldn’t be against seeing it again, but the timing was off right now, so we thought we would try to come back later. Claire didn’t like that idea at all for some reason. She has no clue what it is, but she was convinced it was something she wouldn’t like. We never did make it back, so I guess she won. Skips feet were also hurting a lot this day, so we were moving fairly slowly. We spotted ET. A potty break was needed before we rode though. I want to mention that I was not impressed with most of the Universal bathrooms on property. They were not super clean…….not filthy, but needed some major work. You could also tell the older bathrooms from the newer ones. It was almost like they just let the older ones completely go and only maintained the newer ones. This is one area where Universal could take some lessons from Disney. After the potty break a show was starting. We sat and watched a few minutes of it….we now found out why Shaggy and Scooby had to leave. Claire kept making comments that she didn’t know the man in the yellow hat was a real character. It doesn’t take much to impress her sometimes. LOL
jenseib Posted May 29, 2012 Author Posted May 29, 2012 On to ET. Claire was a bit nervous about this because I mentioned that ET was an alien. I kept telling her he was a nice alien, but she didn’t want to believe me once again. The queue is set up cute and the line was pretty much walk through and get on. Not much of a wait at all. If I remember right there is a room for a preshow. (My memory is fading fast…I must be getting old) We are each given a card and we have to tell a CM our name. At the end, ET will say good bye to you, but we couldn’t understand him. LOL. Of course the people in front of us had names that were “strange” and the girl didn’t know what to type. I think she usually types them for sound, or just basic, spelling obviously doesn’t matter…..for instance you can spell Claire several different ways. But these names were probably NOT in the system. Finally we got through and on our bikes…..The ride vehicle looks like a big bike and at times we have ET in our basket in the front. We saved ET’s planet and all was good in the world again. I did try to listen for our good bye from ET. I think I heard Claire, but the rest we couldn’t tell. Claire declared that she loved it….Again Mom is right! Our next destination was to be the Simpsons. We just loved that ride! We took off and I knew we were going the wrong way, but Skip “swore” we could get through. I knew he was wrong, but I just let him lead and took pictures. I asked Claire if she wanted to go on the woody woodpecker roller coaster, but she frowned on that one. You can see good ole Woody on the front of the train….cute! We came to a dead end in front of the Barney area. I didn’t even get to get close enough to peek because Claire said Barney was for babies and she wasn’t going near it. Not too many years ago, she was a huge Barney fan….my how we change. When we turned around Skip wanted to get a drink and I decided it was Churro time. Claire and I snacked on it…we even let Skip have a few bites, but I think I ate most of it. I think this one tasted better today. The line for the Simpsons was longer today. I think it was about 40 minutes. Skip was actually kind of happy. Now we could watch all the little cartoons while waiting. Honestly, it doesn’t seem that long when you are watching the little segments. And some are pretty funny. I also caught up on facebook through my phone while in line. Soon we were in the preshow room. A couple asked me to take their picture and I did, then she took ours…and we got photo-bombed! She said “oh, it’s a bad picture, let me take another”. I think she must’ve noticed the extra family member. I think the 2nd picture was much worse. But photo-bomb guy is in the background laughing. Again, we just loved watching the screens sit with the character waiting for his/her turn to talk. Soon we were boarding our vehicle. We got the backseat this time. I noticed the motion much more in the back. So….if motion bothers you, try to get the front seat. I also hadn’t taken bonine either. We enjoyed it again. Still a top ranking ride for us after round 2. Skip did say he noticed the motion this time too more, and it usually never bothers him. When we got off the Simpsons I took some pictures of the area. It is just so cute. We then decided we were ready to head back to the hotel for a nap and swim and then would return to the parks later. We ran across this guy break dancing and stopped to watch for a minute or 2. I spotted Lucy walking up ahead and tried to get a shot, but she was too fast for us. And there is Scooby and Shaggy again…you can see Lucy too. We all took a look in the Mystery Machine. It was basically all wood inside with a wooden bench. Skip asked me if it was wood in the cartoon, and I am pretty sure it was just a stripped out van and they sat on the ground…Does that sound right? I don’t remember it being luxurious, but not wood either. We saw Marilynn walk by and she did a swirl for me…but I had the wrong settings on the camera and she was over exposed. I did get a better one then. And then we headed out. I stopped to get the Thing 2 Tank top and told Skip and Claire to keep going and I would catch up to them. I like the tank, but it’s not as stretchy as I like them to be. It also runs very small. I got an XL, and it fits more like a tight large. I took this picture of one of the resorts in the distance…and off the top of my head, I can’t remember which one. I caught up to Skip and Claire and we worked our way to the car. My Mom called and I talked to her a bit. She was surprised we were heading for a nap. I told her that Skip was tired and sore……and I guess that was the wrong thing to say because he was mad. He said “now your Mom is going to call everyone and tell them that I can’t hang…my hip is NOT bothering me, it’s these shoes!” Seriously, who cares? Why get mad over this. So he pouted and we left. He needed to buy cigarettes and I wanted some food. We stopped at a liquor store to get cigarettes. Why there I have no clue, but that is where he pulled in at. Claire and I waited in the car. He came back with a different kind as they didn’t have a selection…..go figure. I told him that I wanted something to eat, so we could take him back to the hotel and I would go get something, but he said no, he would just run through a drive thru since he might want a snack….which turned out to be a full meal. LOL We spotted a burger king right around the corner and got in line. We went to pay and the girl yelled at us for coming to the window. She told us to back up and pull forward. So we did. And then she said,” NO! stay back till I tell you to, Oh just pull around and we’ll bring out your food.” STRANGE. So we did and we waited…and waited…and waited. I finally said I was going in to complain, and then we saw a guy come out with a bag of food, and sure enough it was ours. We asked what the heck was going on and he said that our car didn’t trigger something right and they have to serve people in a certain amount of time and then they get a bonus pizza party. We were messing up her record with the way we triggered it. Of course as we pulled away, I grumbled about messing up her record some more, what poor service they had, and how slow they were…along with some choice words…..and they gave me the wrong Pop, which is a HUGE pet peeve. I drink diet with no ice. I am VERY picky about this.. I got regular….GAG…and it was FULL of ice. We headed back to the room, stuffed our faces, I complained about my pop and then got Claire ready for a nap. Skip had talked about going to the pirate show down the road, so I said I would walk to the lobby and get a flyer. He and Claire laid down, with Claire swearing she wasn’t tired, and would rather be swimming, to which I told her she couldn’t swim till she had really been truly asleep. I crept out into the hall and found Housekeeping. I told them they were napping, but grabbed some more towels and took them back to the room. I went down and got the flyer and called my Mom again and told her about Mr. Grumpy. She laughed. I felt better venting and went back to the room to catch a nap myself. Claire was snoring by the way…so I guess she was tired.
jenseib Posted June 2, 2012 Author Posted June 2, 2012 I believe that Claire and I woke up about the same time, around 4:45. She was ready for a swim. We got her dressed, I grabbed my notebook and down to the pool we went. I just sat at a table next to the pool and wrote notes while she swam. There was a lot of “Mom, look at this!” And “Watch me do this”. Also, she kept asking me where we were going to eat and when. I told her we had to talk to dad about that one. She said she wasn’t hungry, but as many times as she asked me about food, you would’ve thought she was starving. After a while, Skip came down and joined her. Actually he went in the hot tub and she joined him for a few minutes and then back to the pool she went. I had a little lizard friend next to me. I tried to get a good picture, but this was the best I could do. But his front side was really neat. He had this little red beard thing flickering; I swore he looked like a baby dinosaur. Skip took a quick Swim and then headed back to the room. Soon he returned because he had no key. He took mine and went back once again. Claire finished up her swim and we decided we should get showered and ready for the evening. I think she swam for more than an hour, which was heaven for her. I didn’t let her use the excuse that she is clean from swimming today. She had a shower and a hair wash. I handed her the hair dryer and I took one. The whole time she kept coming in to ask about food again. I told her to tell Dad to call the pirate place. He hem hawed around on that for some reason. He felt we should be able to just walk in and get seated. I had to tell him that it doesn’t work like that. It’s a show and which means reservations, AND we had no clue what time it started anyways. Finally he called and found out that the show was already going on and it was the only one for the night. He asked the price and couldn’t believe they would charge so much. I think it was like $60 is for adults. I told him that it was a pretty average price for a dinner show, and he didn’t believe me. By this time I am working on getting dolled up. I knew the option of going back to the parks was out. It was getting later, and we just didn’t have the urge to go back tonight now. Claire was having a fit about dinner at this point. I kept relaying messages to her to take to Skip who was lying on the bed watching TV. I suggested Hoop Dee Doo, no that wasn’t good, Spirit of Aloha? .......no that wasn’t good. Cheesecake factory…never heard of it, no good. I just kept giving Claire options to tell him and all were a no. There was NO WAY I was sitting in this room the rest of the night with a child “starving to death”, while he watch TV all night. So I came out, put my shoes on and said “We are going to the cheesecake factory and then to Downtown Disney, You are welcomed to come, and we can drop you off after we eat if you don’t want to walk around DTD.” He had a look of shock on his face. He asked why he didn’t get to help make the decision….yes, I smiled ….but inside I was about to jump across the room and kill him. I told him we gave him choices and he didn’t like ANY of them, so we made a decision. He then says, check and see if we can go to Hoop Dee Doo. Ok, now we are making progress. It was about 7:15 when I called. I asked if the 9:30 show had an opening and was told yes. Then the girl realized the time and said, “Wow, you are cutting it close, you better leave soon.” I told her we were on our way and we gathered our stuff and left. We weren’t sure how long it would take us to get there and then ride the internal bus to the back so we wanted to be sure to allow plenty of time. We got as far as MK and through the gates and told the guy we were heading to Fort Wilderness, and then go lost. I was looking for signs, but I just didn’t see one and soon we approached the Contemporary. I told Skip we should pull in and ask, because there was nowhere to go from here. We realized we should’ve turned immediately after going through the gate and turned around and got back on track. I took this quickly with my phone. I decided to play the “where are we” game again on facebook, and posted this picture next, which was horrid, but worked with the game, because it made it harder to tell where we were. We got parked and headed to the bus stop. This system confuses the heck out of me. There are a ton of buses and I have no clue where to go. I got to talking to a nice lady and she gave some directions of how to get there and how to get back later….thank you nice lady…. A bus came (I believe we had to take a bus that said settlement), and the lady told us that this was a good one as it didn’t make as many stops on the way. YAY! We finally got back there and we had over an hour to kill. Who would’ve guessed we would make such good time. I took Claire to the bathroom. And then went to the counter to get our tickets…which caused a bit of confusion. They couldn’t find us, and then I told her we had just called about an hour ago, and it was all settled then. After getting checked in we still had quite a bit of time to waste. Skip and Claire started walking, so I went on my own and tried to get a few pictures. Being that it was so dark, it really was hard to get anything good….that didn’t stop me from trying though. I spotted the Trading Post, something I really hadn’t paid much attention to in the past. I decided to mosey on over there and take a look. I also was hoping to spot what the 2012 zip up sweatshirt looks like. If you have followed me in the past, you know I have an obsession with sweatshirts, and I try to get one with the year on it each year. I didn’t find a sweatshirt, but there was quite a few other cute items. I had only been in the store for about a minute and guess who found me? …. Claire. She said she saw me walk in and Skip said she could join me, and she ran! LOL! She was worried I would be buying something without her probably. I was just browsing though. We looked at the Mickey Gnomes. Claire likes gnomes right now because she recently learned about the Travelocity gnome. How he came about….. because originally someone had stolen someone’s gnome out of their yard and took him on travels all over. I think they had him for a year or 2, but anyways, they returned the gnome after his travels with all the photos of where he had been. I can remember when this story was on the today show and I thought it was hilarious. I’m sure Travelocity paid someone good money to have the rights to using the Gnome…..Anyways, Claire didn’t know much about gnomes till one day she asked about the commercial and I told her the story. And being that I had taken Phineas and Ferb along for my August trip and taken photos of them, she really liked that story quite a bit. Back out to the porch we went. I then sent this picture to facebook for the where am I game. I was getting some guesses, some were right, but then people would second guess themselves. I believe my fellow TA Mindy was really working hard to figure it out and eventually she did. We headed over by the boat dock. And took a seat. Another picture for the where are we game. Which threw people for a loop a bit. Skip talked on the phone and Claire took her shoes off and played in the sand. It was a nice evening. One of those nights where you would need a sweatshirt, but at times it was warm enough to take it off, so we did a lot of putting it on and taking it off. While sitting there, I tried to get a picture of the life jacket bins. We pulled out Perry for a couple of shots. He needed to check his facebook messages too.
simon8899 Posted June 2, 2012 Posted June 2, 2012 If it wouldn't be for maybe 1000 copyright violations with Disney I'd love to see Itchy and Scratchy Land built.... World would be complete with the infamous "Dilbert's Flying Cubicle" ride....
jenseib Posted June 3, 2012 Author Posted June 3, 2012 If it wouldn't be for maybe 1000 copyright violations with Disney I'd love to see Itchy and Scratchy Land built.... World would be complete with the infamous "Dilbert's Flying Cubicle" ride.... That would be fun! LOL
jenseib Posted June 3, 2012 Author Posted June 3, 2012 "Cheesecake Factory... never heard of it"...LOL! I guess if he hasn't heard of it, it's not any good or doesn't exist.
jenseib Posted June 5, 2012 Author Posted June 5, 2012 Claire was very worried we would miss the show sitting at the beach area. We kept telling her we had plenty of time, but she still thought we should be next to the building…waiting. We finally decided it was time to head over that way. We went ahead of Skip and were going to use the bathroom before getting in line to check in. I took this on the way over….the lawnmower tree. I really don’t “get it”. But I have seen it in other TR’s before. I tried to get a shot of the carriage…not so great…but I tried. The line for check in was pretty long and Claire thought we should skip using the bathroom and get in it. I told her no, why wait in a long line when we could just go to the bathroom and come back out…and hopefully it would be shorter. When we did get back out to the line, Skip was in it and it was much shorter. We trades spots with him and he went off to the bathroom too. We got checked in and then waited some more. This was my last “where are we” picture I posted. We just kind of sat around and waited. Many people were lining up by the stairs, and Claire thought we would miss it. Again, we told her that we could see the doors and when they opened we would head that way. When the doors opened we walked slowly that way and easily got in. There were a few others like us who didn’t need to rush in and be first. We have seen this show 2 other times, so we knew we didn’t have to be the first in. Your table has already been assigned. We had a decent table on the first floor. In fact the 2nd floor wasn’t even used. We had food waiting on the table for us and we dug right in. Drink orders were taken. Beer is included with the price and I went for that this night. Soon the show started. The Pioneer Players come in from the rear. They are always so much fun and they do mingle in the crowd too. The guy in the plaid pants has been in every show we have seen. There is a lot of singing and dancing and corny jokes. One thing to note…the Hoop Dee Doo song is no longer sung. I believe it was the song they came in to, and it might’ve been sung when they left too. I don’t remember the exact details, but Brook told me about it last summer at AEP. It had to do with something about…the guy who wrote it died and his family wouldn’t negotiate the rights with Disney, so they had to stop singing it. I spotted a cast member by our table and I was ready. I knew she was scoping us out! Claire was very embarrassed. When they sang the song about where you are from, we were one of the people they sang about. The will ask what state you are from and then make up a little song about it. It’s kind of funny. We live in Ohio, and the funny thing is, the other states they sang about were Michigan, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, all our bordering states. I guess it was spring break in our area of the country. The players then take a break and the main course comes out. Claire always wonders what they are doing when they disappear, so we often tell her that they are eating back stage. LOL The meal consist of ribs, chicken, mashed potatoes, cowboy beans, (which I find to be absolutely disgusting), and corn. I think it years past it was corn on the cob, but now it’s corn in a bowl. The food is decent…not nothing to write home about, but still good. And in the 3 times we have now gone, the first time the food was fabulous, the 2nd time it was just OK, and this time it was in between those 2 rankings. I would say it’s very similar to the skillet at Whispering Canyon Café. It couldn’t have been too bad, because I ate soooo much, especially the mashed potatoes. I swear I over indulged to the point of feeling sick…and Skip even ate more… After we eat for a while, the players come back out again. Again we were a lucky family, but I can’t remember what for this time. This guy is just hilarious. Claire’s favorite character…”Claire”. They sing “Oh My Darling” and act it out. Until I saw this show for the first time, I had no clue really what the song is about. Of course I hear Huckleberry dog sing it, but who knew it was a tragic story about a girl dying…and then the guy ends up with her sister. LOL Towards the end of the show is dessert time and they do a song about strawberry short cake…because that is what we are about to eat! And here is the only picture I got of the strawberry shortcake. It is DARN good stuff, but I was so full that I could only eat a few bites. Claire and I ran to the bathroom then really quickly. We knew it was close to over, and she had to go, and in a few minutes time the bathroom would have a line. At the end they bring out washboards and we get to make noise. Always a highlight for the kids…and kids at heart. (notice the big kid behind the washboard playing too.) It was time for the players to leave. We had a great time as usual. We headed out (and sure enough there was a huge line at the bathroom), and got in line for a bus to take us back to the front. This time we weren’t so lucky. It was jammed packed and it was one that went around the campgrounds making several stops along the way. We had to stand till it emptied out a bit more. We heard some people talking who were coming back from the Magic Kingdom and they made the comment that it was taking just about an hour to get back to their campsite. As much as I like Ft. Wilderness, this is a reason I wouldn’t want to stay there. It’s huge and spread out and involves a lot of travel time. If I stayed there, I would definitely want a golf cart to get around. Speaking of golf carts. We saw the redneck version of one as we made our way to the front. Grandpa had a scooter and about 4 kids piled in it with him. Even the bus drive was laughing about it. Once we got to the front we got back to the car and headed back to the Quality Inn. Claire completely conked out. She was a tired girl. When we got back to the hotel I tried to get a picture of her, but she woke up as I was getting the camera out. We headed off to bed, with a little bit of TV (Skip has to watch some before bed every night, no matter what the time) and we drifted off to dream land once again. The next day was going to be busy as well, but we made a slight change in the original plans and part of that was to let Claire sleep in just a tad bit. And Day 3 came to an end.
Mechanic Posted June 5, 2012 Posted June 5, 2012 I took this on the way over….the lawnmower tree. I really don’t “get it”. But I have seen it in other TR’s before. The lawnmower tree grew up around, and basically consumed, an old push-type reel lawnmower that was leaned up against it. What remains of the mower can be seen near the base of the tree. Thanks for the latest installment of the TR.
RoCo Posted June 5, 2012 Posted June 5, 2012 Just finished reading this entire thread; what a pleasure. Every page is loaded with so much charm, and I laughed heartily more times than I can count. Thanks so much for the incredible time and effort you've put into this delightful trip report!
jenseib Posted June 11, 2012 Author Posted June 11, 2012 I took this on the way over….the lawnmower tree. I really don’t “get it”. But I have seen it in other TR’s before. The lawnmower tree grew up around, and basically consumed, an old push-type reel lawnmower that was leaned up against it. What remains of the mower can be seen near the base of the tree. Thanks for the latest installment of the TR. So it is a real lawnmwoer then. I wasn't sure if it was "Disneyfied" or not. LOL
jenseib Posted June 11, 2012 Author Posted June 11, 2012 Just finished reading this entire thread; what a pleasure. Every page is loaded with so much charm, and I laughed heartily more times than I can count. Thanks so much for the incredible time and effort you've put into this delightful trip report! Thanks so much for reading along. I wish I could post more and faster, but real life gets in the way sometimes. We just got done with a crazy busy weekend, so I hope to get back at this and get our last 2 days finished up.
jenseib Posted June 11, 2012 Author Posted June 11, 2012 Day 4 ~ Thursday March 29 I no longer have notes to go by, so I am going to wing this by memory and pictures. (I wish I would’ve taken the time to finish up those notes!!!) I woke up fairly early again. Probably around 6:30 and got myself ready and out for a morning stroll. I came back to the room to find this. It’s hilarious how much of a bed hog that Claire is. I think Skip got up around 7:30 or so and he said his mission this morning was to get some inserts in his shoes to hopefully make them more comfortable. He went off for breakfast and I stayed in the room. I think I woke Claire up around 8:40ish. We had a slight change in our original plans. Skip had wanted to add a Magic Kingdom day after we booked the Universal trip. We decided this would be the day we would go, but we would head to Universal first and then after half of a day there, head over to MK…that was scratched. We were now making a full day at MK. Claire got up and I got her dressed while Skip ran off to a drug store to fix his shoe problem. When he got back, we were ready. He just needed to cut his inserts to fit his shoes. Being the prepared person I am…I had a scissors packed in our bags. You will be amazed at how many times this bugger has come in handy, and it’s a must on my packing list now. Claire was impressed with the pieces he cut off and carried them around. LOL! She held them in the car like they were gold. Off to Mk we went. I took a few pictures on my phone as we drove. As soon as we got there I knew it was going to be crazy busy. We were in one of the further out parking lots from the looks of it. We parked and headed to the tram. There was some confusion about where to line up (yes there were a ton of people waiting for the tram already and some missed the previous one). A CM directed people to go further down as where we were standing was not right and you “may miss the next tram”. Skip about flung me over to the right spot. LOL> He got a dirty look from me……. He was trying to prove he knew more than I did…..good for him. I must admit, when it comes to parking at MK, I am not super knowledgeable. It’s been years since I did it…and I really don’t like driving to the parks and the trams, etc. I prefer Disney buses/transportation much better. Well good thing Skip did direct me to the right spot because we made it on the next tram and MANY did not. There were people LOUDLY complaining about not making it on for the last 2 trams…when the CM once again announced that they were in the wrong spot. We arrived at TTC and it was a mad house. Ok, most were running to the Monorail, but we had to get tickets yet. Since this was an add on, we decided not to pre-buy tickets beforehand …just in case we changed our minds. Believe it or not, we weren’t the only ones who needed to buy tickets, which kind of surprised me. There were quite a few people in line. Skip and Claire got in line and I kind of walked around and found a kiosk. I didn’t even know these existed. Skip saw me looking at it and hollered back to me and asked what it was. I told him it was a kiosk to buy tickets (mind you, not one single person was using them either) and you had to use a credit card to be able to purchase here. He jumped right out of line and pulled out his card. It was pretty easy to use (though I’m not sure he would’ve been able to, LOL, he doesn’t even have an ATM card), and soon we had tickets in hand! We headed to the monorail and the line was extremely long. I don’t know if we even looked at the ferry line or not, but I told Skip we would take the resort monorail. He was so worried we would get in trouble for doing so. I told him anyone can take it. I did also tell him that it might not be a lot faster because it makes stops, but at least we weren’t waiting in a long line. We basically walked on the resort train. Soon we were off to the Poly. Skip was just amazed this was “legal” to do. He kept asking people if they knew this train went to the MK. It was actually kind of embarrassing. LOL! Our next stop was the Grand Floridian. Both stops were short and sweet. And we made it to the Magic Kingdom! YAY!!!!! As we walked off the monorail I heard a couple with a baby stroller talking about how crowded it was. They were amazed that so many people would take their kids out of school. I kept my mouth shut, but I know TONS of people, myself included, do this regularly. This year was not one of them however. Claire had spring break that week, along with several other schools in the nation. I guess because they only had a baby they weren’t familiar with spring break happening for a month or so prior to Easter. They must’ve not done much research. I guess I was going for artsy here…or I was lopsided. And the clock is wrong…..we arrived at 10 AM! It was PACKED! We could tell right away that this would be a busy day. Claire had to go to the bathroom immediately, so Skip said he would head off to the smoking section over by the Emporium. I told him it no longer existed…How would I know that he said. Well I have been here twice now in the last year and it was gone and fast pass machines are now there. He still didn’t believe me. I rushed Claire off to the bathroom and went looking for Skip again. I thought he might be over there since he didn’t believe me and he wasn’t. I did pick up princess FP’s though for later. I don’t remember where we found him, but we did. The plan was to head towards Pirates of the Caribbean, which is my favorite ride…but our plans never happen the way we plan them. Look at the ugly skrim thing going on….takes away from a beautiful view. Trying for the balloon shot that I never get quite the way I want.
jenseib Posted June 19, 2012 Author Posted June 19, 2012 We are now on our way down Main street, but I have to take a few pictures first…..like you are surprised by that? LOL Skip said he wanted to stop at a smoking area before we headed to pirates, so behind the castle we went. Claire decided to map out our route while waiting. And I took a few pictures. As we left the area we saw that Philharmagic was letting people in and Skip said we should go in there….OK. Funny thing is, he had no idea what it was. I know Claire and I have done it in the past, but I am not sure if Skip ever had. I kept telling him he had, but the more I think about it I do remember the one year Claire and I did it he had gone back to the room because he was in so much pain, which after months of testing we found out he needed a new hop…which still isn’t right after 2 surgeries. Anyways, I “might” have been wrong……but we’ll keep that secret from Skip. This picture cracks me up. One picture inside and then I put the camera away. After we enjoyed Philharmagic, I went to get a Fast pass for Peter Pan. I had “thought” that when you got a Princess FP, you could still get a regular FP as well. Well I was wrong, or this rule has changed because it would not allow me to get one. Oh well, I would come back and get one when the time was right. We headed off to Small World next. I know many people really aren’t fans of this, but I will always love it. The line was long, but it moved fairly fast. Soon we were on our boat and off to the land of singing.
jenseib Posted June 25, 2012 Author Posted June 25, 2012 We decided now would be a good time for lunch. It was a little after 11 and we hoped to beat the major lunch rush. We decided that we would try Pinocchio’s Haus. It’s been MANY years since I have eaten here……. Probably 1997. We got in line and checked out the menu. I decided that Claire and I should share since I wasn’t at the point of starving and I knew she wouldn’t eat a whole meal. I asked her what she wanted….big mistake…..she wanted chicken nuggets. UGH. I tried to convince her that pizza was the way to go, for something different, but she wouldn’t budge, so chicken nuggets is what we got. Skip got a meatball sandwich if I remember right. As we were ordering I noticed they had chocolate cake. I am not a huge fan of chocolate cake, but in years past I always loved the Disney version as it was so fudgy and I loved the frosting, so I added that to our order too. I waited for the order while Skip and Claire went in search of a table and then Claire came back to wait with me so she could show me where the table was. It was very busy now. I’m glad we hadn’t waited any longer or we wouldn’t have found an empty table to easily. As I have mentioned before, I tend to attract pushy people. There was a girl waiting in the out line and she kept trying to get in front of me. I’m not sure if she had ordered or what, but she kept trying to push her way through me and some other families. It was taking them awhile to fill orders and hers never did come before ours, so I am not sure what her deal was, but it was kind of annoying. We sat down and filled ourselves up. I had to get the picture fast because they were going to devour it before I had a chance. I must say the chocolate cake was a bit of a letdown. It’s not as good as it used to be. They changed the fudgy frosting. It was OK, but I won’t go out of my way to order it now. After we were well fed and full, Claire and I headed back up front for the Princess meet. Skip said he was going to find a bench and rest. He did say his feet were doing much better with the new inserts, but his legs were still tired. I think I was able to grab the Peter Pan FP before we headed that way as well. I took pictures on our journey back towards the front. We met a few “characters” on the way too. We got in line and it looked long…but hey, this is the Fast pass line and it will move quickly…right…and not nearly as long as the stand-by looked. We were given one of these too. . And soon after we got in line we realized that Skip had the backsack with the pillowcase for signatures. There was no way we were about to go back and get that, and Claire said she was Ok without autographs since she has seen the princesses before And then we waited …and waited…and waited. We didn’t move much at all. But at least we did move, while the stand by line…was pretty much at a complete halt. I’m not sure what the problem was, but this seemed to take forever. And part of the feeling was from the people behind us…yes again, the pushy people that like to get behind me. This family didn’t speak much English from what I could tell. The kids were antsy, I can understand that, but they kept bumping into people all around. Every time we did move, the mom would shout something in her language and the kids would take off up ahead of several people….every time. I don’t know if she was trying to get them to cut or what, but then they would come back after people would kind of send them back or no one would let the parents by to catch up with them. It was just kind of strange. I think we waited over 20 minutes in the line before we got to make it to the next room to wait. It seemed longer than that. Even Skip had called and asked what was taking so long. We were the last family to go in the room. The pushy people behind us didn’t make the cut. So we had a breather from them for at least a few minutes. Claire kept commenting to me how bratty the kids were. LOL….like she is a perfect angel all the time. I took some practice shots while we waited. I don’t know what Aurora was doing, but she looks like a posed mannequin here.
jenseib Posted June 28, 2012 Author Posted June 28, 2012 I'm definitely feeling some Castle envy right now. I just love the castles...in both parks. It would be nice to see one out my back door daily!
jenseib Posted June 28, 2012 Author Posted June 28, 2012 It was kind of fun waiting in here and watching some of the kids. Some were just so excited to see the Princesses for the first time. Here is one thing I want to tell parents of preteens…..tell your kids to brush there hair. LOL..Now I know the days are long and your hair won’t stay pretty all day, but I was amazed at some of the preteen aged girls with nicely groomed parents, with major bed head. Yes a family ahead of us a ways had 2 pretty DD’s, and both looked like they hadn’t brushed their hair all week. I noticed this throughout our whole vacation too. I know girls can be picky about how they look, while others at that age don’t care one bit…but brush your hair at least. LOL! So back to waiting…and we noticed after the next group came in after us that our pushy family wasn’t in that group……nor the next one. Claire and I had theories on that. Our guess is that they didn’t even have a fast pass and somehow had jumped over to that line and then when they got to the front they were told they couldn’t go in. Who knows what really happened, but it was weird that they never showed up. Finally it was our turn. I did not buy the photopass CD for this trip. I had no clue how many pictures I would get and I just didn’t think it would be worth it. I did however snip the redneck versions off the website for trip report purposes. Aurora was impressed with her dress and Claire told her that Mrs. Claus had made it and also one for her doll at home too. Thanks Mrs. Claus…AKA mom2rtk on Dis….(Janet). Next was Belle. I’m not sure what they were talking about, but Claire looked very serious about the whole conversation.
jenseib Posted June 29, 2012 Author Posted June 29, 2012 A few more with Belle. Claire did tell me that Belle, too, was impressed with her dress and asked all about it. On to Cinderella! Claire told me that Cinderella also commented on her dress. She was on a Princess high when we left. She felt so special that all the Princesses wanted a dress just like hers. We left through the gift shop. And I spotted this! If have followed me over the years, you know we have a slight obsession over this dress. I had to get a photo…and it’s not a good one…sadly.
jenseib Posted June 30, 2012 Author Posted June 30, 2012 After the Princess meet, we needed to find Skip once again. I took a few shots on our way up Main Street. Look who we ran into. Yes, we had been talking on the phone to each other and he was “pretending” her couldn’t see us. He thinks he is so funny when he does this. I’m gonna admit right here, that my memory for parts of this day are foggy, so I am going by the order of pictures….which tells me the Move it Shake Parade was coming through. So we stopped and watched it go by. We were next to these little statues, so I took a couple of pictures while Skip and Claire watched the parade. I think Chip might be calling me a loser? Time to head out and make our way towards pirates….um yeah…that ride I wanted to do first thing…remember?
jenseib Posted July 3, 2012 Author Posted July 3, 2012 We headed back towards Fantasyland along the side of the castle. . My guess is that Skip wanted to stop for another smoke. Claire wanted to try her luck at pulling out the sword. We had to wait for a few families. A couple tried to jump right in, but we all put a stop to that. Finally the family in front of us went and people kept walking in front of her. It was so obvious she was taking pictures…but people just don’t look sometimes. I understand it happens, but people were pushing through that area to get through, and it was almost like they were knocking into her to get through, couldn’t they see her holding a camera…and couldn’t they go around her backside? We laughed about it and she made some comments, like “I guess me and this camera are invisible”. That is stuff I would do…or my famous line is “Excuse YOU!” Claire gave it a try too. Dad came in to help. Seriously Dad….that’s all the harder you are going to try? I can do better than that! This is how you do it! Sadly we weren’t lucky and it did not pull out. We headed off and I think Skip stopped to get a drink and I took a picture of the treats and made a mental note to be sure to get a Mickey bar later. I think this is when we rode Peter Pan. I didn’t take a picture of our FP’s and can’t remember our return time, but I can’t imagine where we fit it in later…If I remember, I’ll correct it. OK…we are NOW going to ride pirates if it is the last thing we do! But of course I have to take pictures on the way. Hey…I’m over here! LOL…… Look how crowded it is. Onward towards pirates….I was on a mission. Wait time says 35 minutes…..YUCK! It’s never that long…the queue was wrapped around outside…you know that outside area you usually walk right through…we had to wait and zigzag through all of that. It became clear that the wait was going to be longer very soon, but we did keep moving. When we got close to the inside entrance we were standing against the building and there were doors there. The 2 boys behind me wondered where they went. We guessed that maybe it was a CM entrance, or went into some back room…..they thought they would be funny and knocked on the doors…and to our surprise we got a knock back. We all laughed about it. It totally shocked us. Once we got in and queued around inside the building we came across those same doors. They just entered into the queue area….so of course I encouraged them to knock again and scare some people on the outside. I took a few pictures while in line….but I didn’t have the good lens for dark pictures with me, so they are just blah pictures. I think it took about 45 minutes before we actually got to board our boat At one point in the ride there is a drunk pirate leaning off to the side with a bottle of rum and says “here kitty kitty kitty.” We just love that. Skips brother is a big rum drinker (way to much actually) and he has this fascination with cats. I kid you not when I say we have 70- 100 barn cats running around the place. Dave has a couple of favorites…usually the most disgusting ones…and he just loves them up and I swear he would sleep with them if his wife let him. So we wanted to get a picture of that guy, but I couldn’t. It was too dark and I couldn’t get a focus on it. But we laughed so hard…and Skip said it probably needed the audio anyways to make it better. I just love this ride. It’s my all-time favorite. I feel like a little kid with big eyes going through it. I get that special Disney feeling when I ride it. I think it just always brings back my first trip to WDW when I was about 4 and it’s one of the few rides I remember riding. We headed out through the gift shop looking at a few things as we went and saw Pirate Goofy signing, but Claire had no interest to wait in his line.
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