The Trip that Almost had No Memories! Nov. at WL!
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bsblady01 · 03-08-2009, 10:36 PM

more please

westie22 · 03-09-2009, 11:04 AM

[quote=vince730;2619276]Just wondering, where did you get those Lithograph Coupons from?
They sound very cool & I would love to get one !

They came in with our check from a couple of different TS restaurants and they were only good for that one week. Not sure if it's something they will do again but they are cool!

westie22 · 03-09-2009, 11:14 AM

We kept heading on round the World Showcase lagoon and made a stop in Mexico since we hadn’t done that ride yet. Lo and Behold,

there was Mexican Donald….my most sought after autograph and picture opportunity! I had tried to catch him the previous time to EPCOT but he wasn’t out at the time we were there. This made the day a whole lot better

! We got lots of pics and PhotoPass pictures and I bought a mini stuffed Mexican Donald to remember him by. We went into Mexico and enjoyed the Mexican setting. Being from very near San Antonio and the Mexican border, we are able to buy all kinds of Mexican imports in TX for relatively cheap (especially compared to the prices charged at WDW)! We were shocked at how much the little painted wooden animals were. We can get little ones here for around $10

. So we quit looking at the Mexican merchandise and headed to Gran Fiesta Tour, starring the Three Caballeros. This was a cute little boat ride that reminded me several times of It’s a Small World (hmmm

).

Before we headed to our ADR at Garden Grill we rode though Journey of our Imagination with Figment. Kylie loved Figment and only a couple of days ago (2 months after our trip) did our morphed pictures of us into animals get emailed to me. We bought this little purple squishy ball with “spines/pointy things” that you could turn inside out. Kylie loved her new Figment squishy ball!

It was past time now to get to our ADR at Garden Grill. We were still full from our lunch, pretzel and beers

but were looking forward to this character dinner a lot. It just wasn’t as good because we were so tired, somewhat cranky and sooooo full. Nothing that they did and it’s definitely on my list to return back to. The food was incredible and we loved Farmer Mickey and the other characters. Any place that features Chip and Dale gets ranked high in my list

!

We headed back to WL after we ate and hung out in our room until it came time to go down and find the Electrical Water Pageant. During this time, I had mentioned to my husband that they usually have some kind of bounce back offer and we thought we should at least book it now and have the option to change our minds later. There wasn’t anything in our room about it so I called down to front desk who then transferred me to the reservations department. They did offer us 30% off but we had to return during specific times, which did not include our coveted week of Thanksgiving

. We were still going to do it until they gave us the prices. Apparently the rates had gone up (?) for 2009 and we weren’t sure we wanted to return so soon by June. So we didn’t do it.

Now it was time to go down about 9 p.m. to get in place to watch the Electrical Water Pageant that goes around the Seven Seas Lagoon at 9:35. We found the beach and watched the Wishes Fireworks show from the MK and then discovered that there was a playground on the beach. It was so cold out but Kylie insisted on taking off her shoes to run around the playground in the sand

. She wasn’t the only kid barefooted in the sand. She got to play for a while and made new friends.

Meanwhile, DH and I staked out some chairs by the water and waited for the show to come. When we first heard the cheesy music

that goes with it, we got Kylie over to our chairs, dusted her feet off and bundled her up in the blanket and set back to watch. This really was a neat little water parade and since it was dark, you couldn’t see what was coming up next until it lit up. We saw fish, a water serpent, an octopus, a crocodile and King Neptune and then it changed to a patriotic theme with stars and then the American flag. This was very cool, well worth the trip down to the beach to see. After that we took our cold bodies back into the building, bathed and got snuggled up under the warm covers on our beds.

The weather today: Sunny, beautiful, cool
The best things: Kylie playing on the beach at WL and Garden Grill
Worst thing: Long bus ride (wait) for DTD. Kylie was fussy at World Showcase, the long lines for Kidcot stops
The funniest thing: 22oz. German beers in plastic steins
Today we tried: World Showcase
And the result was: Kidcots stops were too crowded and Kylie was fussy
The most magical moment was: Getting to meet Mexican Donald and getting autographs and pictures, Electrical Water Pageant

Our final day at the world next....

**Colexis Mom** · 03-09-2009, 05:36 PM

Glad you had a great time at GG!! Sorry you couldn't use the bounceback offer!!

More please!

**DyanKJ130** · 03-09-2009, 07:58 PM

Great update! Garden Grill has some of the best character interaction going! So

you weren't able to take advantage of the bounce back offer. We totally feel your pain on that one - they never seem to coincide with school vacations.

Looking forward to more

TNTWheels · 03-10-2009, 01:46 AM

How do like that the whole restaurant rotate around at Garden Grill? But It was a bit much for one person to eat all that but I was hungry that day. Felt like my own thanksgiving dinner lol Were the boats that goes to and from WL same size a the one that takes you to HS from the EPCOT/?

westie22 · 03-10-2009, 01:32 PM

I haven't done the boats from DHS to Epcot....hmmm...

We loved Garden Grill!!

mcc0313 · 03-10-2009, 02:08 PM

The Garden Grill is one of our favorites, glad you had a good time even though you were all pretty full. Watching the parade from the beach sounds like the perfect way to end the day.

KandJluvdisney · 03-10-2009, 05:22 PM

just found your report
so sorry about yor camera
glad you were able to get a replacement - yah for wally world
sounds like you are having a wonderful time
sorry you could not take part in the bounceback offer
we also love the wl
hurry back with more please

disneydreamer33 · 03-11-2009, 09:56 PM

Sounded like a great day.
More please.

bsblady01 · 03-12-2009, 11:56 PM

more please

lynniethepooh · 03-13-2009, 03:13 PM

Just getting caught up on your Trip Report! I am loving it :-)
The camera loss is a sad thing...I understand because I lost mine our 1st day @ DW...Had all our pics from breakfast @ CP :-( and our MVMCP......I was SOOOOOO upset....Went to lost @ found....Have called lost @ found since Dec 07....No Luck...I too had to buy a new camera the very next day!

Tell us more!!!!

westie22 · 04-29-2009, 02:19 PM

So sorry that I have neglected my trip reporting duties!! I, um, kinda forgot that I hadn't finished it!

So here's the final installment to The Trip that Almost had No Memories!

westie22 · 04-29-2009, 02:20 PM

Day 7-MK and departure

On our final day, Thanksgiving, I had made Kylie an appointment for Bippidi Boppidi Boutique (BBB) followed by breakfast at Cinderella’s Royal Table (CRT) in the Castle. Her appointment was at 8:05 in the morning so this would be our earliest morning yet. Amazingly we had little difficulty getting up and getting off. We had decided previously that since we were had to pay out of pocket for CRT, that it would be best if just Kylie and I went and DH could sleep in and get our stuff ready to go. He also took the Wonders of the Lodge tour that was available at the WL. He said that they really didn’t tour the Lodge much, mostly heard the life story of Ranger Stan, one of the oldest employees at the Lodge who had been there a long time. He did learn where the Hidden Mickey was on the fireplace though.
MK had an 8 a.m. opening that day so we weren’t able to be the only ones in the park at that time as I had hoped when I made the appointment. We headed on in to the BBB where she was handed her “menu” for Princess Kylie. We had already discussed that she wanted the Fairytale Princess “do” with the bun so there really wasn’t much discussion about her menu. At the last minute, I had changed her from the Castle Package to the Crown Package (that just does the makeover) and brought her Cinderella dress from home. I had a feeling that she wouldn’t be happy with nor did we need another dress, shoes, crown and wand. We were happy with the little crown that just came with the Crown package. So we were already dressed and ready to go. Soon it was her turn to get up in the chair. I took pictures and video of this whole event as Kylie loves anything that involves getting her hair done or makeup. She just ate up being able to select which eye shadow colors, lip color and nail color. It was interesting for me to watch how they made the bun in case I ever wanted to duplicate it at home (uh, no). I didn’t realize it was possible to put that much gel in someone’s hair! But she looked really beautiful when they were done and that little look she that she gave herself in the mirror during the reveal was priceless. You see, Kylie gets this little “I’m so cute, can’t you see it?” look when she’s all dolled up. So after BBB, we still had some time before CRT so we went down to get her pictures made with Photopass at the BBB picture booth in the Exposition hall. This time Kylie wasn’t obstinate about posing for pictures….she wanted to pose! We took several pictures of different poses and then the lady directed me to the counter to view the pictures. Kylie of course wanted to see them so we went to look. A girl there was going through them and was having us narrow down which ones we liked and so on. I wasn’t really thinking about it, just thought we were making conversation. Then she started asking me which one I wanted for our big picture. Then I asked how much the picture package was, that we only had the crown package. I think at that point she realized the mistake she made and offered them to us anyway, since it we were celebrating Kylie’s birthday that or it was just a magical moment and she knew all along? (The trip to BBB was her big birthday present this year). I was shocked but didn’t refuse (of course) and we were given the normal BBB picture package! Pinocchio even walked through about that time and the same CM who gave us the photos had him stop and hug the birthday girl. It was all so nice and unexpected and I thanked her profusely!
We started heading back to the castle for our breakfast and this time Kylie let me stop every photopass photographer (literally) to take her picture in front of the castle. Other than the sun being in her eyes, she smiled like a real princess for all the world to see. Many people walking by even remarked at what a pretty princess she was to which she would shyly reply “thank you”. She loved all the attention! We even got one of the Tinkerbell in your hands magic shots that turned out really well!

We went to the entrance of CRT and got our number for our picture. I took lots of pictures here, the hidden Mickeys in the fence, windows in the castle, Cinderella’s Christmas tree etc. Kylie’s picture with Cinderella really turned out beautiful. It’s like the princess makeover had raised her confidence level and she was now smiling (authentically, not fake) for pictures. Finally! Go figure, on our last day. But I was happy to get them! We went up the stairs into the big room. It was really beautiful and elegant. I took pictures of our table, the napkins, the fruit bowl….Then our server came to take our drink orders and asked if I wanted to low cal fruit or whatever plate or the normal one with the cheesy hashbrowns, and cream cheese filled French toast. Well, I’m paying $50 for just me, so I want the real food! It was so yummy! I even asked for the recipe for the hashbrowns and it just got emailed to me a week ago. They were hurriedly passing out wands to go with the Wishing Stars so we got ours just in time before the little Wishing Star ceremony. Since we were in some kind of alcove above the main room we seemed to miss some of this but it was still fun. All in all, this was a very expensive meal, that was good and worth it at least once. I don’t know if we’ll do it again.

After eating, I noticed that we probably had time to do one more ride before saying goodbye to Disney World. Kylie picked her favorite, Haunted Mansion. When we got there they had a 45 minute wait posted but she said she still wanted to do it, regardless of the wait time. Who am I to deny my child one last trip on her favorite ride on the last day of her first trip to Disney World? Fortunately I think we only waited about 25 minutes and got on. After that we stopped one last time in the Emporium on our way out since Kylie had seen another little girl wearing this really cute Tinkerbell shirt so we found one to take home. I also bought a MK dvd and another Castle throw blanket (for me).

We headed down to the boat dock and just caught a boat that was about to leave for WL. We were sitting right by the driver and I prompted Kylie to go ask him if she could toot the horn as we pulled away and he happily obliged. She was so proud of herself.
Once back to WL, we stopped by Roaring Forks to buy several Mickey Mouse chocolate- eared rice crispy treats, a brownie, some cookies and nuts to use up our remaining snack credits. Then went to our room where we hurried to get all our belongings together to check out and check in for our flight departure. We ended up having to use my new Mickey duffle bag I had gotten at WOD to stuff all our dirty clothes in to make space for all the things we had bought and another duffle bag that was collapsed in one of our suitcases coming over. All said, we did check 6 bags as was allowed since we bought our tickets prior to the changes. We barely made it by 1 p.m. before the resort airline check-in (RAC) closed but then we still had a couple of hours to kill before Magical Express came to pick us up. We saved a couple of beers and walked around WL. We explored the Villas and fantasized about being DVC members and calling them home and I took lots of pictures of the WL resort. We also went down to Roaring Forks to eat our final CS meal of the vacation. By now it was time for ME to take us back to the airport.
We were really sad to leave but Kylie took it amazingly well. I promised her we would be back. Even my skeptical husband who didn’t really know if he would like such a commercialized, money sucking tourist trap had fallen in love with the Disney spirit and was thinking about when we could return.
When we arrived at the Orlando airport, I immediately went to check lost and found again. Nothing in way of a hot pink camera being returned. So sad. We had an uneventful return back home and my parents loved seeing Kylie who was all dolled up but near sleep. Just as I was about to put her in her bed she insisted that she wanted her hair down and not just down, she wanted all that gel out too. So I took my almost asleep child, put her in the bathtub and commenced day one in getting all the gel out of her hair (it took a couple of days of washing it). I had hoped she’d leave it in longer but she had had enough of being a princess.

But since I was able to go buy the new blue camera, we now have 3000 memories preserved in photographs, plus the roll from the disposable camera that actually turned out okay and all our Photo Pass photos! This was a first family vacation to Walt Disney World that wasn’t going to be forgotten. I have made a Photo Pass Photo book with 50 pages and am about to endeavor a scrapbook with all our other paper souvenirs and printed photos (I developed about 300 pictures).

So I say goodbye to the trip that ended up having many, many wonderful memories and look forward to making many more at the Happiest Place on Earth!

****We have planned our return trip. Same time in 2009, week of Thanksgiving but this time we're staying at the POLY!!!!!