Bunnies and Princesses, Magic, a Rebel Spy and Poop! 10/18-10/24 Trip Report. UPDATED 12/28 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Bunnies and Princesses, Magic, a Rebel Spy and Poop! 10/18-10/24 Trip Report. UPDATED 12/28
No, I have not finished my other trip report and I think for now, it is best that I do not try to relive it. Well that is what my therapist said anyway. Seriously, that trip had my husband saying "This trip is gonna determine whether I ever go back with you". ME??? Oh please...
Anyhoo, The usual suspects are:
Me
Mr Red. (AKA Poppop)
DD Anna 14( AKA the rebel spy)
DD 23 Haley ( AKA Penelope. You are gonna have to read to find out why)
DSIL Robert 25
MADDIE! My granddaughter. Who spent most of the trip saying " WE ARE GONNA DO WHAT I SAY." Yeah how did that work out for you kid?
Before I go any further, let me tell you. This trip report is gonna be picture light. My husband bought me a backup battery for my lumix and I put it with the charger annnnnnnd our ghost hid it. REALLY. Well that is my story anyway.
Anywhooo , we actually left as planned on the 18th. I was shocked too! We got our pretrip fight out of the way when my parents decided to extend THEIR stay and take us to lunch on the 19th. Long story there.
I about had a stroke on 95 because we actually got out of town smoothly and traffic was not too bad. DEAR PEOPLE,THIS NEVER HAPPENS. We are usually at least 2 hours late leaving (not my fault) and encounter traffic that has me convinced I am going to die in a fiery crash. We spend waaaaaaay too much time on 95 between Savannah or points in Florida.
ANYWAYBACKTOTHETRIP, We stopped at the Florida welcome center for the obligatory free juice. Maddie, our cynical world traveler, told us we were not stopping after this that she was ready to GET THERE. (she turned 5 on this trip.Has already traveled waaaaaaay too much with us.We were apparently the BORING car and she did not like Popop's music).
As we neared Orlando, Jill- our trusty GPS- rerouted us through a questionable area because of the I-4 construction. We survived and made it Celebration Suites where we were crashing for one night. My DD Haley had booked this through travelocity. A family suite for $60 bucks. I was assured it was clean so I went with it. IT WAS. For what we paid it was more than adequate. yes the place has some signs of age but the pool and bathrooms were immaculate. The room was clean and it was in walking distance of an awesome pizza place. We even decided to forgo DTD and just chill at the hotel as we were getting up EARLY.( Like I don't every freaking day)
The DD's and DSIL and I walked around Oldtown( I think that is the place that was next door. I am tired and do not feel like tripping over the dog to go look.)Awesome shop with discounted Park Merchandise ( Like Fun Finds at DTD). We walked around the stores while Poppop and Maddie played in the pool. I would link you to it but there is a loud creepy video that plays when you first go to the sight. Just tell google to find celebration suites at oldtown.
We got Pizza from Flipper's delivered to the pool. Probably one of the best pizza's I have ever had. We ate it by the pool and listened to the people screaming on the Slingshot at Oldtown. BONUS!
After winding down and calling my DS who was on DogDuty we decided to call it a night. Now if I was staying more than one night I would need a room with 2 bathrooms. I cannot go if someone has recently bathed or showered.Or smelled it up. Febreeze is okay but if you train them to use Natural Air Fresheners Bathroom Spray Toilet Deodorizer | Eliminate Bathroom Odors with Poo~Pourri you will thank me. Found this little spray bottle of angel essence in a gift shop in Amelia Island. The room had 2 full beds, a murphy bed and a sofabed. Also had a full kitchen. I doubt it would be that awesome rate when it is busy but hey..it was clean and nicely decorated.
I did creep in the bed with Maddie because well, Mr Red and I are not small people.Leave it at that.
When we started talking about this trip it came about like this:
I was stealing a sleepin day. I really needed to be working but dern...Mr Red comes in the boudoir all nice and sweet, cuddles up to me and whispers ever so soflty in my ear...get up Red, I have been looking at Disney dates over fall break. Gee I thought it was gonna be some other kind of non mouse related fun. But being the loyal wife and Disney Freak I am ,I hopped up, and got my laptop. Mr Red had Mickey Waffles all ready for me. That sly dog....
Well we looked at dates , figured staying ON property was the best deal with the free Dining thrown in, So we went from there. Started researching dining options and EMH and blah blah blah. The room itself was cheaper per night than my usual go to hotels.So put Free Dining on it. BAM! We have ourselves a DEAL!
Before I go beyond this point. ( Yes I am getting to check in)We have never used a ddp before. Mr Red could not make the numbers work the way we eat at the parks, But this was free and the snack credits could play into our Food and Wine experience, It has now become the way we eat at the parks. There will be much crunching of numbers to see how to best use it for us but that will benifit you too because eventually all that mess will be on my blog.
We had agreed to have Maddie duty most of the trip, However they were meeting friends from school at AK and we were headed to MK. To ride HM and then wander aimlessly until lunch.
So at 7 am we check into ALL Star Moovies and THEY HAVE OUR ROOMS! We unpack the big stuff and take Maddie for a Waffle.
And then leave her with her parents and aunt for a morning of Old Folks Fun.
Please stick with me. I know I babble but this trip truly showed me once again how Magical Disney is. From the little things to Experiencing Fantasmic with M y Granddaughter,
__________________
Kat
Last edited by redkatrampant; 10-30-2012 at 10:45 PM..
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Sounds good so far! We stayed at the same hotel once and they must have new owners. When we stayed I swear they painted the over the dirt instead of cleaning. I swore it off. I just looked it up and yes, everything is much better now!
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Sounds good so far! We stayed at the same hotel once and they must have new owners. When we stayed I swear they painted the over the dirt instead of cleaning. I swore it off. I just looked it up and yes, everything is much better now!
Honestly, for a cheap room to crash in for one night it was not bad at all. You can see the wear and tear but it was clean.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MayraLR
Great start!
Thanks!
Quote:
Originally Posted by shazza
Wonderful start. You don't need lots of pics when you tell an entertaining story like you do (although the title has me a little worried )
Oh it gets entertaining. And for some reason poop is always involved in my stories...
So we decided to hit MK today,just the two of us because my parental units ( who I TOTALLY blame for my Disney obessesion) were already there. hanging out at FW because well, they can. They are semi retired,have AP's and if my mom wants to stay another week just so she can handdeliver some Food and Wine giftcards, she will! I found out later that it was really all my dad's idea.
Now Mr Red did not like the idea of changing our plans to go eat but once my mom got him on the phone,he was fine with it. I will leave the conversation out because this is a FUN,WHOLESOME,HAPPY story. And that conversation was not.
We decided to hop back up to the room and throw up our room decorations. I think the picture is self explanatory.We had adjoining rooms with my DD 23. I will give you her reaction later.You can wait. P1140356.jpg
P1140357.jpg
I did get a few pics of the Hotel before the camera gave up. I'll upload those but it was not anything awesome. Well, the hotel was but I just got a few pics.
So anywayillstopramblingnow,we head to the busstop to grab a bus. And we wait.and Wait.Annnnnnnnnd wait. Mr Red says "Let's hop the bus to EPCOT and take the monorail over." I think he planned this all along because he had griped about not riding the monorail,blah blah blah. Which we did and of course the MK bus pulled in as soon as we did. We get to EPCOT and that F and W signed called out to me...but no. I had to be all adult and keep my commitments.( WHY?? IT"S DISNEY!!) So we watched the monorail come in before the loop around Future World and ..stop. It musta stopped a few more times because it took FOREVER. And I am thinking about how I really do not want to ride a broken monorail. Well it eventually creeps up to the loading platform. What is worse than a broken monorail?? A MONORAIL DRIVER IN TRAINING. I guess he forgot that he did not have to push on the gas because that was one stop and start ride.
continued in next post...because I broke the picture attachment
__________________
Kat
Last edited by redkatrampant; 11-01-2012 at 01:54 PM..
Reason: because I grabbed a but instead of a bus.
Now here is where it gets interesting. See all these people in line at the turnstiles? P1140365.jpg
THEY WERE NOT MOVING. AT ALL. By the time we got through bag check we heard clapping. Apparently the system was down so they started marking tickets with a sharpie. My KTTW card has 10/19 on the back of it. Kinda neat. Well it was neat since I did not have to stand there very long. I hug the column that I always hug and off we go. Straight to the Haunted Mansion. DUH. We rode that and walked to Tomorrowlan to ride the peoplemover and them met my parents for lunch at Tony's. Which was awesome.Mom bought some pins and a cling for my car that says "My other car is a doombuggy". Because she is awesome too!
We rode a few more things and then met the kids back at the hotel.On our way out the gate we gave a Disneymoonin couple our Jungle Cruise FP. that is just how we roll...(standby time was only 15 minutes but hey!) Ate dinner there. Let me tell you, I have eaten in a lot of restaurants,but the sliced turkey dinner at the food court was AMAZING. Truly. Went back to MK and hung around til close. Because we could.
And discovered that DD23 had taken all of my decorations and put them in her window. She is smarter than she looks.
The next day was EPCOT. WINE Festival. I mean FOOD and WINE. We had Maddie with us. In her Aurora dress again. Which she tried to wear EVERY.FRICKIN.DAY. She was already tired of being told Happy Birthday. Weird little kid.
We went to the Festival Center where I tried to buy myself a divorce. Actually there was a piece of art I wanted and was told that basically if I wanted to purchase it I could only do so with alimony. So I passed.
We met the others for Soarin and then on to the WINE! I mean food.
I am gonna make this easy ( on me)
Desserts and Champage. Desserts were awesome. Had no champagne.
Canada. OMG the Filet Mignon. And the Cheese soup. And the having to eat it on a trashcan.Yeah....
France. I was so not standing in that line. We'll come back monday.
Morroco.The Sausage was the cat's pajamas. Oh and so was the Mimosa.
Japan. Chicken hand roll was too fishy for me.
Just a note about F and W. I am sure many of you already know this but I want to be all helpful so just read it anyway. Most of the stuff at F and W is snack credit eligible. Not the booze but the food is. So what we did is find a price list, decided what we REALLY had to try and then used the snack credits for the most expensive things and paid cash for the cheaper items.
We went back to Soarin. Cuz we had a FP. Met up with my parents and LEFT ALL THE KIDS WITH THEM. Because THAT is how we roll too. We needed a nap.
Here comes the FUN part. My DD14 texted me to ask me something and tell me they were on the way back. I texted back that I was NAKED AND IN PAIN. Because my kids are not twisted enough. I honestly did not think about this being taken as anything other than my knee was hurting and I was soaking in the tub. DD23 called me and said they would wait. A hilarious conversation followed. I will spare you.
We decided to eat at the Food Court again and hang out at the pool. Maddie wanted to watch the movie and I was beat. The other 3 went back to MK. to ride Splash Mountain. Remember this.
Soooooo ever wonder what happens at Disney when someone poops in the pool? We were hanging out with Maddie and waiting for the movie when I caught lifeguards making handsignals out of the corner of my eye. Next thing I know we are being told the pool is closed for maintenance for 30 mins. We watched them fish it out and take away the whole skimmer in a biohazard bag. For some reason we decided to go take showers and go to MK.
We dash back to Splash Mountain. It does not look very busy. It looks kinda dry.. BECAUSE IT WAS BROKEN.
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Whew. Best laid plans and all. Hubby is sick with a cold. Big baby...and it's thursday! You know what means??? No you probably don't. Maddie AKA Princess Aurora spends the night. Every thursday. Except the week we went to Disney. She convinced me that her Thursday did not count because we were ALL spending the night together so she got Tuesday night. She thinks she lives here. Maybe because she has her own bed and toys??Who knows.... this is the kid that asked her teacher if she was going to be able to handle her class while she was gone....
Ok BACK to the Story...where were we?? Oh Splash Mountain. This was particularly upsetting because my husband as a thing for Brer Rabbit. My kids grew up on Uncle Remus. The old kind, not the new politically correct kind. And my husband has the voices down pat. so naturally it is part of our family. And Maddie was finally wanting to ride. Mr Red ( I might sometimes call him Bill because...well..it's his name?) talked to the engineer who said it would be Sunday night or Monday. joy.
And I felt really bad for DD23 because for some reason she did not ride it in March. So guess what we did? Be jelly... We rode the new Ariel Ride. I'll wait for you to stop your tears of envy...... ok suck it up. The New Fantasyland theming is awesome. The pictures do not do it justice. It is so good to see the Disney Magic back in play.
Speaking of magic, I left off the Lava cakes in Ireland at EPCOT. My DD23 and her hubby were also celebrating a wedding anniversary this trip. They had the buttons on,natch. They gave them 2 lava cakes on one plate and everyone in the booth yelled Happy Anniversary. There were a lot of little moments like this. If I heard "Happy Birthday Princess" less than 50 times I will hang up my Mickey Ears.It was truly a memory maker. A good memory maker,not the stuff of nightmares like the last trip was. I think,to be fair,that I was so sick and so medicated and so miserable that I did not notice. Or maybe people were scared of me. I am going with the scared.Oh well it just taught me that there are times when you really should NOT go to Disney. The only time I cried on this trip was watching Fantasmic with Maddie and I'll get to that. Oh HUSH! You know YOU tear up too.
So ANWWAYIWISHYOUWOULDSTOPRAMBLING...After the Ariel Ride we wandered back up to the entrance.Headed back to the room. Guess who fell asleep in the stroller and had to be carried back?? It certainly wasn't me. The crowds were heavy.Really. APPARENTLY fall break and free dining fills up those rooms! But Disney handles them well and charter buses were called in to help. I ALMOST got to ride the Disney Cruise line bus as those had been called in to service but *someone* can't run fast with a 40 lb child in his arms. Wimp. Read all of this and understand why we decided to drive our car from then on. Cuz we were gonna have Maddie. We got back to the hotel in time for her to wake up and get a second wind.YAY! I left her upstairs with Mr Red and the others and went down for a smoke.( yes I know. I am trying to quit.etc) And then I saw the BUNNY! He lived in a bush right by the smoking area (Fantasia if you wanna look for him) I guess he was a smoker because he was around the rest of the time. I thought it was neat because we have wild bunnies here in the swamp but they do not like people. This one could have cared less. I named him George.We had great conversations.WHAT?
I had a nice conversation with some people too. After that I hauled myself up to the room and went night,night. Because tomorrow was EMH at DHS. Tower of Terror....AT NIGHT! ( get the Spongebob reference? I know different company. The lemurs at AK don't move it,move it either...)
Thanks! I am tempted to try and finish it tonight as Maddie is doing some crafty stuff with her aunt ( dd 14). I tried to journal while I was there so I could remember everything but I think we know how THAT went. Besides the way I babble on it would be a book. And I would have to deal with copyright and well...you know.
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We get to EPCOT and that F and W signed called out to me...but no. I had to be all adult and keep my commitments.( WHY?? IT"S DISNEY!!) So we watched the monorail come in before the loop around Future World and ..stop. It musta stopped a few more times because it took FOREVER. And I am thinking about how I really do not want to ride a broken monorail. Well it eventually creeps up to the loading platform. What is worse than a broken monorail?? A MONORAIL DRIVER IN TRAINING. I guess he forgot that he did not have to push on the gas because that was one stop and start ride.
It was truly a memory maker. A good memory maker,not the stuff of nightmares like the last trip was. I think,to be fair,that I was so sick and so medicated and so miserable that I did not notice. Or maybe people were scared of me. I am going with the scared.Oh well it just taught me that there are times when you really should NOT go to Disney. The only time I cried on this trip was watching Fantasmic with Maddie and I'll get to that. Oh HUSH! You know YOU tear up too.
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