The Yoopers at Disneyland Resort w/pix and now FINISHED!! About This Page:

[loobyoxlip]

Day 3 Monday May 12 - Kylor's 7th Birthday!

I got up at 6:30 got showered and ready. We were out the door at 7:05. Yes, we are a quick family. Took our time walking as our PS was for 7:45. It was great to be at DLR that early. There was NO ONE around. I got a great picture of the boys in front of the huge 'CALIFORNIA' letters in front of DCA and another of them in front of the DD sign. They stopped on our jaunt down DD to play with every fountain. I made the stupid mistake of showing them how to put their fingers on the hole the water comes out of so the water sprays all over. Not a big deal when I showed them then, but later in the day they wanted to do it when all these other kids were around. Oops!!

We make it to Disneyland Hotel early. Goofy's Kitchen is a straight walk in, there is no way to miss it. We check in and definitely did not need PS this early. We got there at 7:30. We paid first at the cash register. That was different. Then they led us into the festive, colorful dining area. I had also ordered Kylor the Goofy's Birthday Bag ($5). Our waitress was really great. Got us juice right away. She told us Aladdin, Goofy, Pluto and Rafiki would be walking around and Baloo and Donald would be posing in the waiting area. Baloo was there right now, so we went to see him.

I went with the boys and we got a great shot of the 3 of us together. Of course, the professional photographer was there and you could see your pics right away on the screen. ACK! I had to throw my slip away quickly or I would have bought it, for sure. I had promised myself the only pictures I would buy from them are the entrance ones. And I held firm to my word, even though it was hard! We head over the buffet. WOW!! I have never in my life seen a buffet like that. I am not a very adventurous eater, so all the kid food appealed to me. LOL. I did try the garlic and tomato pizza, though and it was scrumptious. Here's what I remember on the buffet: 4 types of pizza: cheese, pepperoni, peanut butter and jelly, and the garlic and tomato. Hot dogs and buns, macaroni and cheese, a huge salad bar, a huge fruit bar with RIPE strawberries (yum!), baked ham, bacon, sausage, Mickey waffles, some potato dish, and a HUMONGOUS dessert bar. There were other warm items, but I didn't get them, so I can't remember what they were. The dessert bar Goofy's chocolate cake which looked and tasted very good, Goofy's hot fuge dessert, dirt and worms, pudding, Jello, 4 different types of soft, big cookies, apple crisp, an ice cream bar and lots more!! It was so cool!! So I got Jalen some Mickey waffle and dirt and worms. Kylor went the lunch route with his hot dog and macaroni. When we get back to sit down, Goofy came over. Jalen wasn't eating and Goofy was mimicking how he was going to steal Jalen's food. I guess he could sense Jalen didn't care and wasn't gonna eat, so Goofy picked up that fork, stabbed a piece of waffle and fed Jalen. TOO CUTE!

He played around with both kids and then I asked for a picture. Since Jalen is so short, he motioned for him to stand on the chair of the booth. Of course, Jalen knows not to stand on furniture, so he was a little leery. But Goofy conned him up there to take the picture. The picture is hilarious, because Jalen is looking at Goofy out of the corner of his eyes with this silly grin on his face.

Jalen and I went back up to the buffet, and while we were gone the lady had asked Kylor how to spell his name and brought out a bunch of 3 balloons to the table. We got back to the table and Aladdin is chatting with Kylor. We got to talking about where we were from. He kept asking Kylor if he was from Agrabbah and if he rode his carpet to get there. Finally Kylor told him we took a plane and Aladdin didn't know what a plane was! We said it was like a big metal bird and Aladdin asked us 'Does it bite?' LOL. Kylor was getting weirded out by him, I think. The waitress came out with the cupcake that was part of the Goofy's Birthday Bag. They had written 'Happy Birthday Kylor' in gel around the plate. Cute! They lit the candle and the whole restaurant (including Goofy, Pluto and Aladdin who were all at our table) sang Happy Birthday. Pluto helped Kylor blow out the candle.

While Kylor was chowing on his cupcake, Pluto went over and sat next to Jalen on the other side of the booth.

He kept tickling Jalen and sticking his whiskers near his face. Jalen was saying 'Silly Pluto'. After a few minutes, though, Jalen didn't think it was so funny anymore. I could see from his face he was going to start crying any second. Of course, when he is tickled he still laughs, so I think Pluto just didn't get it. He kept bugging him. Jalen even said, "Mama, tell Pluto to leave me alone". I don't know if Pluto eventually sensed Jalen had had enough or if he just decided to move on. Either way, Jalen was very happy to see this Pluto go. LOL. Donald Duck was now over in the waiting area, so we went over to have our pic taken. The boys both gave a thumbs up in the pic, it's really cute. When we got back, Kylor received his birthday bag. It had a foam puzzle, a maraca, a birthday hat and a pen all saying 'I celebrated a birthday at Goofy's Kitchen'. The boys each got their Goofy's Kitchen 2003 button and we were on our way.

It's a few minutes til 9. I thought DL opened at 9 today. Wrong, they don't open until 10. Grr. The boys were whining about how they wanted sunglasses, so I thought we would go to World of Disney to buy some. Well, they don't open until 9:30. Grrr. We just hung around La Brea Bakery and waited. People were lined up already to get into DL. Just a few people waiting at DCA. We finally get into WOD and the young kids sunglasses don't fit Kylor. The little kids are $8, the adult ones at $16. I told him I wasn't spending $16 on a pair of sunglasses, so we scoured the kids section until we found a pair that fit him. We also got a Mickey antennae topper (Mickey with the sorceror hat with Disneyland written on the front), a postcard, and 2 new pins. I had a coupon that came with our package, so I used that.

It's after 10 now, so we head over to DL. The line for the strollers isn't so long today, so we grab one and are off. Make a quick stop at City Hall to get Kylor's birthday sticker. Go on Astro Orbitor first as no line. Then head off to Splash Mountain. The standby line is already 50 minutes, so we get a Fastpass and then turn back around. Got a Fastpass for Haunted Mansion although I couldn't talk Kylor into going on it. Last time we went it got stuck half way through and he was sure it would get stuck again! Not to mention, he was scared out of his mind in the stretching room when the lights go out.

We just walked around a little. Went through the walk through of Sleeping Beauty's castle and saw Cinderella. Waited in line and when we got up there, Jalen wouldn't get out of his stroller. Cinderella saw Kylor had on his birthday shirt (I ordered one from the Disney catalog before we left that said 'I'm celebrating my 7th Birthday at Disneyland) and said she MUST get a picture with the birthday boy. He was mortified. She came over to him and I took the picture, which ended up being one of my favorites from the whole trip. I can just see in his face he was like 'Thanks a lot, mom'. LOL. He loved it.

Head back over to Frontierland and they play the silly shooting game. I watched and had no idea what they were supposed to be shooting. I don't think they had a clue, either! Jessie was just coming out, so we had a picture with her.


Head back to Splash Mountain and wait about 15 min. in the Fastpass return line. Jalen was pretty scared. This is the first time we've been on the DL version. I loved it. The drop in the dark is the best. I should have bought the ride picture, Jalen just looked hilarious in it!

We are thinking about heading over to DCA, but we go through Frontierland and past the Dole Whip booth. Hello! We are stopping here even though I am not hungry in the slightest. I wanted to try to float, but $4.50 seemed a tad much. Jalen like his until Kylor said, 'EW! You like pineapple?'. That was it, he wouldn't touch anymore of it. Arrghh. Kylor's balloon somehow became detached from the stroller here and instead of floating away, it got caught in the thatched roof of the Dole Whip stand. It was too high to reach, though. So the girl called a guy CM who came over with a ladder and got it down for us. Only at Disney, I say!! Well, a Tiki Room show was about to begin, so we headed on in. We saw on the cushioned seats along the wall near the exit. Last year we sat near the entrance, and I thought the view was better there. Jalen loves this show and still sings the song! hehe.

I wanted to catch the 2:30 showing of Playhouse Disney, so we switch parks and get in the absolute humongous line! Another CM comes up to our part of the line telling us how we probably won't get in and there are still seats at the Aladdin showing. A few people left, but we stuck it out. And everybody in line did end up getting in. Jalen loved this how, as I knew he would. We headed over to a Bug's Land to ride the rides we hadn't done. First went on Heimlich's Chew Chew Train.

This has to be the shortest, dumbest ride in all of Disney! I'm sorry, but this is beyond pathetic. The ride seriously cannot last more than 45 seconds. It is the biggest joke. Jalen on the Chew Chew Train:
Anyway, on to the bumper cars. Kylor's car was stuck the entire time, so he was almost crying when we got off. Over to the balloon one (can't remember the name). The line seems long, so we scratch it and head back to the hotel because they want to go swimming. We stop at IHOP for dinner and then go swim. It is chilly, but they have a good time. Off to bed we go..........

[ 05-27-2003, 08:11 PM: Message edited by: loobyoxlip ]

[loobyoxlip]

A few more pics from Monday May 10
At Goofy's Kitchen:


Our early morning walk to Goofy's Kitchen. In front of Downtown Disney, the area between DL and DCA:

[tikibird]

Sounds like Kylor had a wonderful birthday! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

I am so enjoying this - you are really getting me pumped up for our trip that starts in ELEVEN days! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

More, please...

[Colexis Mom]

What a great picture of Kylor and Cinderella!! Sounds like you are having a good time. Looking forward to more!!

[loobyoxlip]

Day 4 Tues., May 13th

We got up around 7:30. Since the parks don't open until 10 again, we have plenty of time. Made a pot of coffee and the boys watched Toon Disney. Left around 8:45 to walk down to McDonald's for breakfast. Got 10% off with a coupon from the hotel lobby. OK, I forgot ours but stopped at another hotel on the walk down there and picked one up out of their lobby. LOL. The boys were sitting in the booth while I was ordering. I saw a McD's employee talking to the boys while they were sitting there. When I came over with the food Kylor told me that lady came over and started speaking Spanish to Jalen. LOL. I think it's funny a Latin person would mistake them for being Latino. Apparantly she got the clue when they both stared at her with vacant looks in their eyes. Jalen surprised the heck out of me by actually finishing his entire McMuffin. The kid barely ever eats breakfast. It's 9:30 and we walk across the street to DL. I stop at the Info booth outside the gates and while a guy comes up right before me and asks the lady where to go for the Pooh breakfast. She is a complete snot (the CM!) and says 'Well, which Pooh breakfast?' ?!?! The guy says they told him there was only one and she says in a snotty voice 'Well, it's PROBABLY the one at the Plaza Inn' and points to DL. Arrghh. i don't work there and even I know there IS only one Pooh breakfast. I had wanted to take the boys to this Birthday Party they have every day at 2:00 at the Plaza Inn. It's hosted by Pat E. Cake and everyone in attendance gets a cupcake to decorate and Mickey and Minnie stop in. First of all, this is advertised ALL over DL and DCA. All I wanted to know is if we needed to make PS. So I ask her specifically about the 2:00 Birthday Party at the Plaza Inn and she gave me that look again and says 'There are all sorts of birthday parties' I said 'No, the one at the Plaza Inn every weekday at 2:00' and she gave me the snottiest look and shook her head no. I again repeated myself and she either had no clue (in which case she should NOT be working an info booth) or was just trying to be a witch. I figured the second one after the way she treated the gentleman before me. I told her I would just wait and ask the other girl in the booth since she obviously had no idea about the going-ons in DLR. She made me so furious. The other girl was helping some people for a long time, so we just left. I can't believe the rudeness of that CM, though. I have never encountered anyone so rude at DL. If you could have just seen the look on her face, you would know what I mean. It's like she was doing her best to make the guests feel inferior. Arrghh.

Anyway, into DL and the first stop is The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (stopped first to get a FP for Splash Mountain). The line was pretty long for Pooh even though the park had just opened!! It was a cute ride. I liked it better than the WDW version, even though I had heard people think otherwise. I like that the loading area is outside. Cute! Jalen of course wanted to go again, but by now the line is HUGE, as is the line to meet the Hundred Acre Wood characters. We head back to Fantastyland and ride on Pinocchio (no line at all). I see 2 CM's with the character greeting glove pins on standing in the area in front of Casey Jr's Circus Train, so I know a character is coming. We went and took pictures on the Dumbo that is behind the actual ride (the non-moving one attached to the ground behind the ride that I'm sure is just for photo ops)
and a little while later Captain Hook comes up to that area. The boys are the first to meet him, as no crowds had formed yet. Yay! DL really needs to work on their crowd control around the characters. It is my only gripe. Time for Splash Mountain. Jalen says he'll go if he can wear my coat. LOL. He isn't quite so scared today. I con them into going on Haunted Mansion. Kylor is still scared but says he'll go. I promise him the ride won't break down again (so it was a good thing it didn't!) Jalen wasn't scared at all. Go figure. Kylor was clutching my arm the whole time in the stretching room, then realized that, heh, 2 years later this attraction doesn't seem quite as scary. This is only my 2nd time on this ride, and last time I didn't enjoy it/see much of it because I was consoling Kylor. They both liked it a lot and were glad we had gone on it.

We walked over to DCA to catch the 11:45 showing of Goofy's Beach Party Bash. The kids all sat in front on "mats". It was as cute show. The kids danced and learned songs. They had a great time and got to meet Max,
Donald and Minnie afterwards. The funniest pic of Minnie, looks like she has to use the restroom:


We leave DCA and walk down DD to go to the Rainforest Cafe.
No wait as it is a Tues. around 1:00. Our waitress was awful. I still don't like this place, but it's Kylors favorite. I had a pizza, it was nasty. The boys meals were good. We shared the Volcano for dessert. OMG, this is delectable. YUM! Had to buy the boys sweatshirts because it was much cooler today. Got them really neat embroidered matching Rainforest Cafe ones.

Headed over to the Lego store. The boys with the old tourist man made of Legos:
The boys had a great time here. Jalen had to try on every hat and try out every sword in the store.
Probably spent a good 1/2 hour here. Kylor spent his $5 here on a Bionicle. That's what he said he really wanted and tomorrow was our last day in the parks, so I said OK. He paid the lady himself and we are off, back to DCA. I wanted to go to Millionaire. On the way there, we run into STANLEY!! OMgosh, Jalen has never been this excited about meeting a character. SO CUTE!!!


I love Millionaire. If I ever went solo, I would go to every showing of the day! The kids liked it OK. Kylor enjoyed the under $1000 questions as he knew some of them and thought that was pretty cool. The entire audience is packed. Putting into perspective how deserted it was last year when we went, the audience was maybe 1/4 full then!! I was #5 when the showed the top 10 after the $1000 question. I have a fast finger. LOL. I always screw up on the tougher questions, though. The first person missed a question and they pulled up the #1 person and he came down. The host said he thinks maybe there is a problem, that he was not #1 (in fact he was #2, his wife was #1 and too nervous to go to the hot seat). But rules are rules, they send the man back and make the wife come down. Did I mention how much I love this show? So fun.

Afterwards, we head to pick up some Fast Passes. Get ones for Soarin' over California, Grizzly River Rapids and Mulholland Madness. Then head back to A Bug's Land just to say we've ridden everything there. Waited in line about 15 minutes to ride that balloon one. Kylor and Jalen in our balloon basket which was a Chinese take-out container:
As we're leaving, we stop in Farmer's Expo and play around. Take some pictures in front of the candy corn field. Too funny. Actual stalks of corn implanted with a piece of huge candy corn in the center!! Creative.

Head over to use our FP at SOC. Got the best seats in the house!! Center stage, front row, smack dab in the middle. Couldn't have asked for better!! The boys loved it and I again got that rush. I was whooping and clapping during the last scene. The ladies next to me were laughing at me when we exited. LOL. I won't tell you what the last scene is because if you haven't been on it yet, it is pretty cool when you don't know what's coming and you see this!!

Over to Mulholland Madness. Geez, this ride really whips you around. Lots of hills, but yet on this ride Jalen is NOT scared. That child! LOL. I guess it's because it looks so little from the outside! Backtracking back to GRR. All our FP's were in succession. Put my coat on Jalen again and pick what we hope are the driest seats. HA! We all lucked out this time. Jalen's coat got pretty wet, but he was dry as a bone. The lady directly across from me had to wring herself out when we got off. Kylor and I had just a few wet spots. Not bad at all!! Thank goodness, because it's still pretty cool out. They make an announcement that the park will be staying open until 7 instead of closing at 6. Cool! We go over to Paradise Pier again as Jalen has been dying to go on that "rocket" ride (took me forever to figure out he meant the Golden Zephyr!} No line at all, as a lot of people have left thinking the park was closing! Then we hopped right on over to Jumpin' Jellyfish. Pretty long, slow line here. Oh, well. It's a cute ride both boys enjoyed. Nice views, too.

The park is closed, all lines are corded off, so we head to the gates. I stop at Greeting from California and buy some HUGE cookies. I got 4. They were $2.50 each, and so not worth it. Of the 4 flavors I got (white chocolate crunch, peanut butter, cocunut macadamia and M&M), only the peanut butter was good. And it was just good, nothing special. The other 3 were pretty ickey, IMO. They sure looked good, though. Oh, well. We walk back to the hotel and order a pizza from the hotel pizza place. It was really good. Got some pop and ice and watched American Idol while we ate pizza! I called and got us listed for Southwest as a backup on Thurs. We were going to do Knott's Berry Farm, but the boys didn't seem interested, so I scratched that. Saved me money and another night at the hotel. We are in bed at 10 and fast asleep...

Tomorrow last day in the parks...

[ 05-28-2003, 12:51 PM: Message edited by: loobyoxlip ]

[loobyoxlip]

A few more pics from Tuesday...
Jalen and I in front of the "candy corn" field in Farmer's Expo:

Waiting in line for Jumpin' Jellyfish with the entrance to Mulholland Madness behind them:

Playing Gameboy before bed:

[tikibird]

Lovin the pics and the report - 9 days to go for us!

More, please! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[kimdisneynut]

Great Report. Thanks

[4disneyorbust]

wow!
i am so enjoying your report. your boys are sooo adorable!! thank you for taking the time to write this. [img]graemlins/wavin.gif[/img] Laura

[loobyoxlip]

Wed., May 14, 2003 - our last day in the parks

Had PS at Storyteller's Cafe at 8:30. Got up and out the door by 8. It was like a little maze finding the restaurant inside GCH. But there were lots of signs. People were waiting, this looks like a really popular breakfast. We got seated right away with our PS. We all ordered the buffet. I must say the coffee here was superior. She even brought the cream out in a little ceramic pitcher, none of that half and half in a little plastic cup. I like any restaurant that does that! (Yes, it doesn't take much to make me happy) We filled our plates and sat back down. I was disappointed the strawberries here weren't red and ripe like they were at Goofy's Kitchen ?!? What's with that? The waitress brought us out 2 Mickey waffles. Jalen was on his don't eat breakfast kick again, so he drank his chocolate milk and that's about it. Grrrr. Chip, Dale and Pluto hold court in the lobby area in front of the buffet. Never a long line, as tables go up to meet them at different times. We went to meet Pluto and again, the character interaction was just superb. Pluto was pretending to play with Jalen but knew Kylor was behind him and kept sticking his "paw" behind him and tickling Kylor.

Kylor thought this was absolutely hilarious and was almost crying he was laughing so hard. Then Pluto got in his face with his whiskers and was brushing them against his shirt and face. Oh my gosh Kylor was in heaven. It was so funny. Went and ate a bit more then Jalen had to go meet Dale. Dale ended up chasing Jalen around and wouldn't let me take a picture. Every time I would aim the camera, he would turn around or hide his face. Finally got a good one:
They had a little march around the restaurant with the characters and the kids. Chip held Jalen's hand through the whole thing. SO cute!! We had a great breakfast here. We preferred the atmosphere at Goofy's Kitchen, it was aimed more at the party/kid theme. Storyteller's was a more woodsy/adult theme. I really liked it and the food was delish.

Got through with breakfast around 9:30 and went over to DL...the gates were just opening. Gepetto was in gate area with barely a line.
We soon found out why. Everyone was in line to meet Stitch. Well, I guess there was a line. Of course, there was no character wrangler around, so there wasn't much semblance of a line. I didn't think there was one until another parent yelled at me after my kids went up. Sorry!!
It just looked like everyone was crowded around. They need a better system on this at DL, for sure.

Got a stroller and the boys wanted to go to Toontown. I was sure it didn't open until 11, but we went anyway. I was right. Back to Fantasyland. Not many lines here. We rode Casey Jrs Circus Train. We sat in the lions cage, the boys were growling and clawing when we first got in. Then we hopped on Mr. Toad.
Then waited in line about 15 min. for the Storybookland Canal boat ride. It's 11 now, so we head over to Toontown. Barely a line for Gadget's Go Coaster, so we do that quick. Very quick ride. Then we went to Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin. We got in right away, but half way through our walk to the queue area, the lights turned on. I didn't make much of this until we got up there and of course the ride was down. They said it would be 15 min. It's our last day and every second counts, but I decide it wouldn't make much sense to get out of line and then have to come back later. It was almost exactly 15 min. and the ride was back up and operating. I was spinning Jalen and myself around, but Kylor had his own and couldn't get it to spin quick enough, so he just sat back and enjoyed watching everything.

The boys want to go to Donald's Boat. Man, this thing is in serious need of a new paint job!! Yikes. They had fun climbing around and investigating on the ship. Kylor on the winding staircase in Donald's boat:
Jalen on the staircase:
Off to Chip n' Dale's Treehouse which they climbed through about 5 times.
Time for a water break: then on to Mickey's House. I like Mickey's House in DL because nothing's roped off. You can sit in his chair, play his piano, etc. Lots of great photo ops. We waited in the line to meet Mickey in the Judge's Tent (that's my sig pic)...

[ 06-02-2003, 11:48 AM: Message edited by: loobyoxlip ]

[loobyoxlip]

I had a coupon for buy 1 popcorn get 1 free, so we got some and went and sat back by Chip n' Dale's Treehouse. This is a great place to just hang out. Eventually Goofy and Pluto came back here and attracted quite an audience right away. But it is kinda back in the corner and pretty soon nobody was around. Jalen went over to Goofy and gave his a HUGE hug and got to play around with them for a while.
This, we found, is a great way to meet characters. Just requires some patience. Getting more water:


We walked back to Fantasyland and went on Alice in Wonderland (yawn!). Then back to Main Street and across the way to DCA....

Checked out Cruella DeVil's trailer (SO cute!, all decked out in dalmation print with signs that say 'shh, diva at rest')
then went over to Millionaire again. This time I was #3 after the $1000 ?, but again went downhill from there. Oh, well. Stanley was out again when we got done with Millionaire. We just sat on the seating behind him and again, eventually there was no one around and Jalen went over to see him. Stanley started dancing and Jalen was imitating all his dance moves.
*sob* Just the best moments! Stanley was going back in and the CM said Olie and Zoe would be out soon. I wasn't sure what "soon" meant, but less than 5 min. later sure enough, Olie comes out. Jalen was so excited. Jumping up and down. We got a pic with him right away as the CM knew we had been waiting. We were gonna leave them when Zoe came out! The CM's finally decide to form a line and we waited to meet them both. Zoe kept pulling her skirt up and as Jalen says "showing her diaper" LOL. The CM's kept yelling at her to stop doing that! When it was our turn, I went to take the picture and Zoe covered Kylor's face with her hand! LOL.
I scolded her and took another picture. She played the part really well. We took in a quick performance of the Muppets 3D show and then went back to Farmer's Expo and bought some grapes and water and had a seat waiting for the Ugly Bug's Ball to begin. Again, the kids had seating in front of the stage. This is a very small, very intimate stage, so the kids were literally right there in front! It was an OK show. The boys liked it and several kids went on stage to dance like bees and other types of bugs. Flik and Atta were in the show and Flik came out afterwards to take pictures.


We wanted to catch the 5:15 showing of Aladdin, so it's back to Hollywood Pictures Backlot we go. Weird setup here. We didn't want to go to top level, but we were in the line that went up there. We went under the bar on the 2nd level balcony and a bunch of people followed us. There were tons of seats left there. We were on the left hand side and the seats were fine. I think every seat in the house must be good. Man, the Hyperion Theatre is so cool!! The seats were comfy, the temp was just perfect, the lighting was great. And the show!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even begin to put it into words. I think it was 45 min. long but it didn't seem like it at all. Jalen fell asleep about 5 min. into it and I had to carry him out of the theatre. The show, though, was fantastic! Lots of cute inside jokes for the adult. Like when the Genie was telling Aladdin what he couldn't wish for, he told him he couldn't wish for someone to fall in love with him. Then he said if that could happen, we wouldn't need shows like the Bachelor and Joe Millionaire. LOL. Some other modern-day jokes thrown in. Just a spectacular show. Kylor and I adored it!

Back over to DL to eat dinner. I wanted to go to Rancho del Zocalo, but the only kids meals were a bean burrito and chicken nuggets and the boys didn't want either. So we head back to the Plaza Inn. Well, they don't like what they have there, either. Kylor has to use the bathroom by the Plaza Inn, so we all go and they are getting a drink of water when Belle walks by. There is a CM entrance/exit by these bathrooms where a lot of the meet and greet characters come in and out of. Well, she stops, waves to the boys and says 'So nice to see you again, boys. And just as handsome as you were the other day!' Jalen and Kylor both were so excited. I heard 'Belle remembered us!' for the rest of the night. Those are the moments that makes Disney so special. It was definitely a highlight of the vacation. And I am positive those princesses don't remember very many girls. I am sure that she remembered them because they were boys and it is pretty rare to see the boys in line waiting to meet a princess. Plus, when Jalen refused to let her kiss him after her story hour. That was definitely Disney magic right there!!

Finally over to the safe bet of Redd Rocket's Pizza Port. They eat got a HUGE piece of cheese pizza.
I didn't see anything I wanted, so I decided I would go back to Rancho del Zocalo after they ate their pizza. So we did. I got a very yummy cheese enchilada especial plate and of course (drum roll, please) the deep fried cheesecake topped with fresh strawberries and real whipped cream and decorated with a mint sprig. So pretty and SO yummy!! The whole dessert bar was to die for yummy looking and they decorate the desserts when you order them. YUM! The whole dinner was good. I was stuffed.

We went back to Matterhorn, but on our way spotted with Wicked Queen in Fantasyland.
There was an obvious line here, so we got at the end. A group of young kids came up and ignored the line and after one little girl was done went right up there. But the Queen says to them how there is a line and she may be mean, but she does follow the rules. LOL. The kids said 'Well, forget it then' and stormed off. The mom in front of me said 'Heh, we all had to wait our turn'. LOL. The line here always looks long, but don't let it daunt you. It has to be one of the fastest moving lines at DL. We were on in about 10 minutes. The boys wanted to ride Autopia, so we went over there and the line was huge. Waited in line about an hour. The park was closing when we were done. Oh, well. Kylor was so excited to drive his own car. After driving the cars at WDW, he was a little leery of driving here (those ones at WDW are SO hard to steer). These are much easier. Jalen even drove our car. At one point he was all over the place and laughing and saying 'I'm gonna lose my license'. Bahahaha. He cracks me up sometimes.

We got back to the hotel in time to catch American Idol and I packed all our stuff while it was on. We didn't get to use our ESPN free $10 for games AGAIN. That was something I really wanted to do since between the 3 of us we had $30. I also wanted to go to Innoventions, but we never made it in there, either.

Wake up at 8 the next morning and have a quick breakfast by the pool. The Supershuttle picks us up at 9 and we are the last stop so straight to the airport we go. Our flight doesn't leave until noon, so we have plenty of time to just hang around. Got the boys lunch at McD's and we waited by the Southwest gate. My airline was booked and I was sure we would have gotten bumped, so we took Southwest from LAX-Kansas City then my airline from Kansas City-Milwaukee then Milwaukee back home. As it was there was only 3 open seats on the Southwest flight, but we made it on. Of course we have to board last as we are flying standby and you know by now there are no seats together. Something like 130 people on this plane. I pushed Kylor in between 2 people and told the flight attendant I could not be seperated from Jalen. So the flight attendant makes an announcement asking if someone will please move so a mother can sit with her child. Nobody moves. Everyone else is seated and she makes another announcement. Jalen and I are just standing at the front of the plane. Again, no one moves. I couldn't believe it. Had I been traveling alone, I would have been volunteering so a mom could sit with her 4 year old. Goodness!! Finally the FA gets on the intercom and says this flight will not be leaving the gate until someone moves so this mother can sit with her child. A couple finally decided to break up and sit apart and we took their seats after much thanks to them. Arrghh.

We get to Kansas City and have to pick up our luggage as Southwest does not interline check bags. Not a big deal. Took the red bus to our terminal and check in. Our airline is the only airline in this terminal, so no food around. We head back to the UA terminal and have dinner at a little sports bar.

Got back to our terminal and started chatting with one of the security people who happened to be from the same place we are in MI. Small world. Our flight leaves Kansas City and we are on the new Boeing 717!! I was so excited. It even had that new car (or plane, I guess) smell. YUM! The lady behind us starts talking to Kylor and it turns out she has relatives that are from where we live. TOO WEIRD!! It is a very small place where we are from, so to have so many people know where it is was just really weird. We had about 45 minutes in Milwaukee. As we are boarding our plane to home, the lunar eclipse was going on. The moon was about 1/4 of the way covered when we got on. Too cool. Got home 15 minutes early, we were home and in bed by midnight.

Kylor got up at 7:30 the next morning and went to school. The teacher wasn't expecting him, but it was show and tell day, so he was excited to bring his new Disney stuff in.

So now another 6 months until we leave for WDW! (ooh, 6 months exactly tomorrow. Cool!)

*~*Tina*~*

[ 06-02-2003, 12:15 PM: Message edited by: loobyoxlip ]

[tikibird]

Continuing to enjoy your report - and can't wait to see Aladdin now!

Question - during the "Ugly Bug Ball" do they actually play that song (made famous by Burl Ives) during the show? Craig may actually want to see this if so, he is a big Burl Ives fan. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

More, please... [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[tikibird]

Tina,

I will try the cheesecake for sure, thanks for suggesting it! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

We'll check out the Ugly Bug Ball and see if they play the Burl Ives song, too! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

Thanks so much for the report - it really has me excited about our upcoming trip - and the pictures - your boys are TOO cute! [img]graemlins/love.gif[/img]

Great report - thanks again! [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[loobyoxlip]

And my final picture. Us at DCA.

[loobyoxlip]

Oh, gosh, Sandy, I have no idea about the song. I didn't even know Burl Ives sang a song like that [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img] Sorry I couldn't help ya out there. The show is only 10-15 minutes, so check it out if you are around Farmer's Expo when it's going on. If you decide to leave 1/2 way through it's not a big deal, the seating is all just benches out in the open and nobody would even notice. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Boy, you're leaving soon! I can't wait to read your TR when you guys get back! Don't forget to try the deep fried cheesecake [img]graemlins/yuma.gif[/img]