Rides, Rainclouds and mishaps....Disney Style About This Page:

[CinderAbby]

I looove your pictures!!! Keep them coming.

But, I have to say, I'm getting tired just reading your TR. Can't wait for more

Thanks, I'll post more in the next installment tonight.

For a minute, I thought you meant you were getting tired because my TR was boring. Then I reread what you wrote. Surprisingly, none of us really got tired during the day. It was only once we got in the truck at night that we felt it.

You guys really get a lot done everyday!! Sounds like a wonderful time at MK and I love the photos!!

Thanks about the photos. I think the reason why we got so much done is because we went in the parks with no set plan except one - to have fun. We did whatever time allowed and if we didn't get to something, then we'd do it another time.

What a great day you all had...a nice relaxing morning and breakfast seemed to make your little one happy. You got a lot done during the day...once again some great pictures. Never knew about the double fries but that will definitely come in handy as my little one loves this place...

Glad you were able to grab a good spot for Wishes and Tinkerbell...

All the character meals made Abby happy this year. I was a little concerned about them because 2 years ago, she wouldn't even look at the "fur characters." I figured the meals would either work out for us or I'd be left wishing I didn't make the ADR's. They worked out and in an absolutely great way. At 3 of the 5 I had planned, we saw a character almost immediately and then Abby couldn't wait for the rest. What a difference 2 years has made with Abby's behavior with the characters.

I'm glad the tip about the double fries will come in handy for you too. It certainly made it easier in that Lenny and I could eat our own too without having to share since I actually found the portions to be smaller than 2 years ago for the adult meals. That's okay though because IMO the meals were "right-sized" this year for us instead of being too much.

Thanks about Wishes. I'm not sure why there weren't alot of people where we sat. Even once they started, it was still relatively uncrowded. There were a few trees around, maybe people thought they'd be in the way?

Sounds like you had a lot of fun at 1900 Park Fare and a great time at the Magic Kingdom.

We did. Pretty much the whole vacation was great, even with our few mishaps - like the scooter.

You are really getting to see at lot of characters

I was surprised by all the characters we saw this year (well not at the meals - those were planned obviously) . I don't know if we were in the right place at the right time or if it's because when I saw little crowds of people, I stopped to see what they were doing.

Great update and love all the pictures. Sounds like a pretty great day to me, you got lots done, but it wasn't commando in any way.

Hope Lenny can get his scooter fixed with little or no trouble.

Thanks. We didn't do commando this year since mom wasn't with us. Last time with mom, it was commando. Stop for a cigarette, then rush here. Stop for another one, then rush there. Yes, we didn't take many breaks this year, but we took our time. We didn't really rush to anything. If when passing a ride Abby wanted to do it instead of whatever ride we were heading to, IMO, there was no harm in stopping - mom would never have allowed that (it actually annoyed her the last time).

And I'll update on the scooter in the next installment.

Another great day. You sure are getting a lot done. This may be a wild guess, but is Peter Pan your daughter's favorite ride?

According to Abby, her favorite ride this year was the Carousel, but since she rode that only once a day but SW and Peter Pan several times a day, I'd say it's definitely up there. I kept telling Lenny my dad was with us this year because we were on Peter Pan so much. He died in 2004 but Peter Pan was one of the rides he absolutely loved (that and 20000 Leagues).

Great update. You are sure finding a lot of characters and getting so much done. We saw Wendy and Peter walking down the street in MK. It was strange that they were more intent on their own private conversation than the guests looking at them. I never did find where they went that day.

Thanks. We never saw the Characters that intent on their own conversations, but I did see a few "Character Handlers" and Photopass People like that.

Great update. And I continue to be impressed by how many character pictures you got!

Thanks. I am too. Like I said, I don't know if it was luck or just in the right place at the right time.

[CinderAbby]

Saturday, August 16th - It’s going to be a long day.

Both Lenny and I were up early, around 6:30 ish. Since I was up a few minutes before him, I headed to the laundry room and started some laundry that I wanted to get done and then I went to the food court. Lenny is typically grumpy in the morning and I’ve learned if I give him food and coffee, he wakes up easier and in a better mood. Today was definitely a day he needed to be in a good mood. Having a broken seat on his scooter in Florida was not something we anticipated or planned for - I didn’t want it to ruin the whole day. Coffee and pastries in hand (thanks to our snack credits and refillable mug) I went back to the room to find Lenny almost ready to go. He stopped long enough to eat then he headed out since he knew the store had opened at 7 and he wanted to fix the scooter as soon as possible. Since Abby was still asleep and Lenny was on his way to Lowe’s, I took advantage of the quiet time and started working on my trip report in between trips to the laundry room. Lenny finally called me about 8:45 and told me he was at Lowe’s. I was surprised it took him so long to get there since it was only a few miles down the road, but he told me he had stopped at the ice machine and gotten the coolers all set for the day and then he had cleaned off his scooter and gotten it all taken apart and measured so he knew what size pipe he needed. With Abby still asleep and Lenny still gone, I worked some more on my TR. A little while later, Abby woke up and wondered why her daddy wasn’t there. I told her where he was and that he would be back soon. He actually called a few minutes after she woke up and said the scooter was all set and that he was heading back to the hotel. I got her ready for the day (once I "found" her) while we were waiting and sooner than I expected (about 20 minutes after he called) Lenny came back in the room.

He was a little grumpy because he knew we had a 11:30 lunch ADR at Whispering Canyon Café and he thought he had to rush to get ready. I assured him he had plenty of time (it was only like 10:15) and to slow down. Once he did, his mood improved and we were still ready to go to the Wilderness Lodge by something like 10:40ish. On the drive to WL, we decided to splurge and valet park once we got there. The clouds were really dark and threatening and we didn’t want to get drenched walking from the parking lot. After we went through the MK toll plaza, it started pouring with huge raindrops. Once we got to the WL, Abby didn’t even want to get out of the truck until she realized we were under a roof and she wouldn’t get wet. When Lenny got out of the van, he asked the valet attendant about the cost for parking. The attendant noticed Lenny’s handicap placard and said it was complimentary. That was a nice surprise we didn’t expect. Once that was taken care of, we headed inside where I checked us in. It was only about 11 and since it was still breakfast, I was told we wouldn’t be seated before 11:30. That was fine with me. We used that time to take a few pictures of the lobby area and then we checked out the gift shop.

In the gift shop, Lenny ended up putting his cane down somewhere and we had to search the whole store to find it again. He had hung it on a rack that had hats and we overlooked it several times before we finally found it. Cane in hand now, we all went back to the lobby to await our ADR time. At 11:30, we were called back and seated. We ordered the Canyon Skillet for all of us and I noticed that the restaurant was relatively quiet.

It never got overly rowdy or loud. It was someone’s birthday and he led everyone in the Hokey Pokey. Someone else got an extremely large glass of water with a "fastpass" to the nearest bathroom. Our waiter didn’t do anything. I was thinking it was because he picked up on our "we’re tired don’t pick on us" demeanor. It turns out he was is some serious pain. At one point in time, Lenny asked where the men’s room was, and with no joke involved, David, our server told him. A minute later, he started picking up all the ketchup bottles. When I joked "Oh no, not the ketchup." He said no, "I’m just picking them up. I’m leaving. I’m not feeling well." He’s not sure what he did but when Lenny got back, he told us his side and ribs were seriously killing him. He said it hurt to breath, bend over, carry things, etc and that his boss was letting him leave to go to the doctor. He even told us someone else was going to clean the table for him so he could leave. Until he told us that, I not once picked up on anything wrong. I felt bad for him but despite the pain he was feeling, he was good at his job. Not once did we have to ask for a refill on our sodas, when we needed new napkins he got them right away. When Abby wanted more corn, he went and got that for us. He was always there checking on us When he gave us the check without seeing if we wanted dessert, he was probably trying to rush us along, but not knowing what was going on at the time, we asked him for our desserts that came with our meal. Even though he couldn’t wait to get out of there, he got us our desserts and was still very pleasant to us. He definitely deserved the tip we left for him and I handed right to him before he left. I wanted to make sure he got it and not someone else.

Our meal finished, we went back to Valet and got our truck. While waiting, I noticed the buffalo topiaries outside and had to get a picture. Lenny also stopped so I could get a picture of the Canadian Geese closer to the main road.

From here, we headed to the Studios and arrived there around 2. Our first stop was the Little Mermaid. Even though there were big chunks of the movie missing from the show, it was still enjoyable. Next we went to Toy Story Mania. This ride was the absolute best IMO. It’s way way better than Buzz. Instead of having far off things to shoot for, they’re right in front of you and you can actually see what you hit. I think it’s cool how they can have so many cars going at one time and if they have to stop for whatever reason, you can still keep playing with a "practice round." I highly recommend this ride to anyone. It was definitely worth it to go to the studios for this ride. After Toy Story, we went over to Playhouse Disney and we enjoyed this too. I think Abby really liked seeing the Fab 5 because everytime they were up there, she sat on her knees to see better.

From PHD, Abby wanted TSM again so we went back there. The second time through was just as much fun as the first time. Next we did One Man’s dream. For something I thought Abby would be bored doing, she enjoyed walking through with us reading all the markers and looking at the models. I also took pictures of them as I thought they were cool (I took too many to post). We also stayed to watch the movie. Lenny said it was really good. I on the other hand just could not keep my eyes open and I fell asleep. Abby wouldn’t have watched it again so we left and made our way to 50’s PT for our ADR there. After checking in, we sat in the lobby. I never heard my last name called, so the hostess yelled really loudly "DARLENE" (did I mention she was loud?) Hearing my name yelled from another room made me think I was at home, so I yelled (just as loudly I might add) YEAH?? After I did it, I was like OMG, what did I just do? Thankfully, the hostess had a really good sense of humor because she was laughing - as was Lenny. I had to laugh because it was funny. 50’s PT makes you think of home and that’s just how I acted - like I was at home. She showed us to our table and soon Cousin Jen came to wait on us.

We weren’t overly hungry so Lenny ordered the chicken soup, I ordered some onion rings, we split the fried chicken and Abby had her nuggets kids meal that she ate really well. I’ve gotten used to really thin onion rings so they were a little too thick for my liking but they tasted good. Lenny enjoyed the soup and the fried chicken was really good and crispy. We didn’t get much interaction here either, but we were fine with it. Lenny wanted to experience the atmosphere more than he wanted to be picked on. When we were finished, I said to Jen that we seemed to have lost her picture out of the family album so we needed a new one and she said okay. No one in our "kitchen" was willing to take a picture so she made fun of them and went in search of another waitress who said after taking the picture "Sorry Jen, I just cut off your head." That of course caused some chuckles, but the picture was fine.

Since we were full (and paying OOP) we skipped dessert and went on our way. Lenny wanted to look for some more pressed pennies. I’d had enough of them and didn’t want to find anymore but we went off in search of the machines I had a list of anyway. I found a couple with characters Abby has no interest in but I told Lenny I couldn’t find the machine in the location I had listed. I didn’t want Abby spending any more money on characters she didn’t know. We finally made it back to TSM and we just had to ride it again. The line was fairly short. I think because it was somthing like 8 and people were probably waiting in line or getting seated for Fantasmic. I wanted to get in line for it again after we got off but Abby said she wanted to go back to the hotel and swim. It was more important, to me, to follow her lead than make her stay. No matter how much fun we’d been having on the ride, if she wanted to leave, it just means she wouldn’t have fun that last time if I made her go on. So we headed to the front of the park. We did stop and have a couple of photopass pictures taken first but that didn’t take long.


I thought the moon looked nice that night with just a few clouds in front of it

Once back at the hotel, Abby wanted to go swimming but she didn’t swim for long. This was the first night on Disney property that we were back in the room at a reasonable hour. All the lights were off for all of us by something like 10:30 / 10:45ish. It actually worked out well because Lenny wanted to be at the MK on Sunday, his birthday, for the park opening.

[CinderAbby]

We didn't have any character meals, but we did see a bunch today. We saw:

Pinocchio and Gepetto walking somewhere. We spotted them by the big hat but didn't get a picture.

Jojo and Goliath


Leo


Pluto, Minne, Chip and Dale (you can't see him but he was there)


Mary Poppins and a Penguin


Wicked Queen from Snow White


Aladdin and Jasmine


Snow White and Dopey

Okay, so it was only topiaries . But I saw them

I **think** that Woody and Buzz where down by TSM but they were inside and with what sun there was bouncing off the windows, I wasn't entirely sure who was inside.

[lauren-roxy]

What a great update!!! Sounds like a great lunch even though the poor server was in such pain. I agree that TSM is more fun than Buzz and so much easier for me to get my targets! Glad you got back to the hotel at a decent time, you need that every once in a while!!!

[lauren-roxy]

Great photos too, I forgot to add!!

[Colexis Mom]

Another great day!! Glad Lenny got his scooter fixed And that you had some great meals (even with the sick server )!! Great pictures of DHS More please

[bitterchickey]

Just passing my evacuation time by reading TR's !!!!! Glad I'm finally caught up on yours; sounds like a wonderful time(even with the scooter repair!). I can remember all those angst-filled posts with you worrying about the Lauren/Paula situations, and so glad to see all that is over and you had a GREAT time with your family. And tell Abby if we're ever in WDW at the same time, I want her to take our pictures too!

[B.M.]

Glad he got the scooter fixed, sounds like a great day at HS!

[Rainbowy]

Oh My Word!! You must have timed it just right, because at 7pm there was over a 100 minute wait for TSM. We didn't get to ride becuase of Fantasmic. Next time I 'll do rides right before fantasmic like you!!

[Meggera]

I the topiary pictures. I have never seen those before. Great update!

[kmurburg]

Glad to hear you loved the new Toy Story ride! I'm anxious to ride it in October - a little worried about the crowds! It seems like you didn't have big wait times - did you use fast pass? or were you just real lucky to have short lines?

[bsblady01]

more please

[mcc0313]

Glad Lenny was able to fix his scooter and that you had such a great meal at WCC. Sorry that your waiter was not feeling well but glad that you had that Disney service anyway....(hope that everything was ok with him).

Sounded like a great day at DHS....we love 50's PT (the chicken is so good). Guess Abby's decision to go back to swim paid off as you all got to hit the sace earlier in preparation for Lenny's birthday tomorrow...

[chezp]

What lovely photos at the Wilderness Lodge and of Playhouse Disney - I don't think I've ever seen any photos of that show before.

[WeRDisneyFanatics]

Another great day!!