Nala & pride "A Bucket Full of Magic" TR - Page 32 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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Hey Nala!! Sooo glad to see you back. I've been thinking of you a lot lately. We are now 3 months (from yesterday) away from finally getting back to the BC after a long 2 years!
Glad to know about the IASW line...that's a favorite of Jason's and we ride that several times a trip. I am right there with you on the teacups...or should I say 'not' there with you. Craig has to ride that one with the boys.
We're doing our first MVMCP this trip. I think it's the first one of the season. Hope we ge an unseasonably cool night
So, any chance is TR will be wrapped up before you hit the one year anniversary mark.....
Danielle
See what happens when I don't have another trip in the works? Total slacker, I tell ya.... My TR manager needs to give me a swift kick.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mouseketeer
Glad you're updating again - are you working on a scrapbook from your trip?
You bet! I have all the pages done of the resorts we stayed at/visited, but now have to work on the park pages. Thanks to you, I have some awesome pictures of the GF and POFQ, as I didn't do so well at taking those.
Having turned in early the night before, all members of the pride were up and ready to embrace the day at a pretty early hour. Breakfast was had in the lounge at a leisurely pace and when the time came we all made our way to DHS. We decided to take the walking path rather than the boat and both Grumpy and I were looking forward to a quiet, peaceful walk that would hopefully allow us to take in the sightings of a few indigenous species along the way.
Not having to worry about Sarafina not being able to handle the walk, thanks to her scooter, off the four of us went. We were making good progress until we got almost to the park when Kiara announced that her feet were killing her. We had made it to the outer bus stops and found a bench where she could sit down and I could inspect her feet. Sure enough, the straps of her flip flops had rubbed her feet raw in a few spots. (I’m not even going to say how many times I asked if her feet were OK and if she need to wear her tennis shoes instead of the flip flops over the last 48 hours, or how many times she said “No, I’m good in these” and pointed to the offenders now on her feet)
Grumpy and I had one of two choices. A) Carry her to the gate, or B) let her walk without shoes to the gate. Being that Kiara had somehow grown from this itty, bitty, teeny, weeny, little girl that Grumpy could put on his shoulders to watch a Disney parade just a week or so ago (OK, it has been years, but it seems like yesterday) to almost a full grown adult, albeit a short one, we decided on option B.
We watched the sidewalk every step of the way for dangerous objects that would be hazardous to those without shoes, got to the gate, forced Kiara to put her flip flops on long enough to walk through the gate and found the nearest bench we could park her on. Lucky for us, or me as I was the one running to it, the first aide station as only steps away. I walked through the door, told the very nice CM I needed a few bandages for blisters and much to my surprise, she pointed to a three ring binder with pages of different bandages in it. She told me to pick out the type I thought would work best and she would be happy to get them for me. I told the CM which type I wanted and she handed me about a dozen of them.
And I have to say, whomever it was that came up with the idea for a “bandage catalog” was brilliant. Either that or just flat out sick of asking what type of bandage was required and describing what was available 50,000+ times a day. I returned back to the pride with what I hoped was fix all in hand and quickly applied the bandages to Kiara’s angry blisters. She stood up, took a few steps and proclaimed “That’s much better” and we were back on our way.
Or so, ...................... I thought.
Ten steps latter, Kiara stopped and stated her feet were hurting again. The quick fix was not doing the trick. Grumpy and I offered for one of us to go back to the room and get her tennis shoes, but she was sure those would hurt her feet too.
Our only choice was to find an alternate pair of shoes for Kiara. Grumpy and I knew a little power shopping was in order so we parked Kiara and Sarafina on a bench and the two of us took off on our mission. Long story short, we buzzed through every store on Hollywood Blvd and Sunset Blvd, and even had a nice chat with a CM about how it was odd there were still summer shoes out for sale and no
winter ones, and still we found nothing that would work. At least not for a girl.
Just when we were about to give up, I went and got Kiara and decided to give something I saw a shot. A pair of Mickey Croc sandals that I was certain were for the opposite sex. Sure enough, the Crocs were a perfect fit and Kiara was happy with how they felt on her feet. Yippee! Problem solved. Now on with the day.
We headed back and collected Grumpy and Sarafina and were about to actually get in the heart of the park when Kiara stopped dead in her new Crocs. Something was wrong and she wasted no time telling us what it was. “These shoes are too big! I need socks!”
And so, yet another quest began. This time Grumpy recalled seeing socks on our previous mission and volunteered to go it alone. Kiara, Sarafina and I parked on a bench overlooking Echo Lake and waited for Grumpy to return. In record time, he appeared with a little bag in his hand which held a pair of Tinker Bell socks. Kiara slipped them on, slipped on the Mickey Crocs intended for the opposite gender and happily proclaimed “That’s much more better!” All was finally right in the world. Or at least our little corner of it.
We had entered the gate shortly after nine and our little shoe/sock escapade had taken us an hour to solve. Still, it was “one the least crowded times to visit”, and it was the middle of the week, and it wasn’t an EMH morning, so we thought nothing of taking our time getting to TSMM. We enjoyed the sights and sounds along the way, debated on whether we should do The Great Movie Ride, decided not to, debated on whether we should do “Voyage of the Little Mermaid, decided not to, and finally found ourselves walking down Mickey Avenue towards Pixar Place.
Grumpy was willing to get all of the FPs for us, so the three of us hung back and bit and waited for him to return. I noticed CM’s standing in front of all the machines, but I assumed they were there to help guests and didn’t give it a second thought.
Grumpy quickly came back and I was even quicker to ask what time our return time was for. By the look on his face I expected him to say they were for early evening, which would interfere with our ADRs that night, but what he said flat out shocked me.
“They are all gone.”
By 10:20 AM, on a Wednesday, during a week that is “one of the slower weeks”, on a day that was not EMH, the FPs for TSMM were all gone.
I stood there stunned for a moment, and then once over the shock came to my senses and got the brilliant idea to check and see how long the wait time was at that hour of the morning. It was a last ditch effort, and one I fully expected to be out of reach, but it was our last shot. Sure enough, the stand by was posted at ninety minutes. That was a wait I knew none of us was able to do, so unfortunately we had to cross our must do of TSMM off our list. Kiara was very disappointed she wouldn’t get to ride it and I was equally disappointed that Sarafina would not get to experience it for the first time.
Having done little in the park and having time ticking away towards our lunch ADR at 50’s Prime Time, we were now left with a little over an hour to kill. One thing that was high on my list of things we needed to do was take a drawing class at the Animation Studio. While Grumpy, Kiara and I had done this in the past a few times, it would be a first for Sarafina. And while Sarafina was not too keen on the idea because she couldn’t draw, I convinced her to give it a try. Off we went to the Animation Courtyard and headed inside to check on the class time and the wait for it.
Much to our delight as we approached the corral we found it almost empty. That was of course because the doors had just been opened for a class and we had just missed it. With nothing else we really wanted to do, we decided to wait the almost thirty minutes until the next class. We entertained ourselves by trying to be the first person to guess the character being drawn on the screen, and as always, Kiara had the best eye of the four of us, and was almost always the first to identify it. And while we were enjoying the character guessing game, we also started talking to the CM manning the corral.
The conversation started with how we had missed getting FPs for TSMM and then somehow morphed into the global love of the character Grumpy. The CM, whom we discovered was also an animation artist, and taught the classes that we were about to attend (although not ours) said he just didn’t get all the love for Grumpy.
We asked him if he ever taught a class drawing Grumpy and he said he had and Grumpy was one of about thirty characters he did. It was then that Sarafina reached up and lifted Grumpy’s shirt sleeve to reveal his ink and said “This is how much this guy loves Grumpy”. The CM looked at Grumpy’s tattoo, got a big smile on his face and said “Now that is some major love for Grumpy”.
Shortly thereafter, the doors opened and we were ushered in and found our seats. Grumpy and Kiara, having done this before, sat down and wasted no time getting in position.
Knowing that Sarafina was new to this process, I turned my camera off and focused my attention on her to help her get her paper and pencil ready for the class. Just as I got her settled I heard a voice say “Excuse me sir, what is your name?” I turned my head towards Grumpy and saw the CM we had been talking to in the corral standing next to him. I then saw that he had a piece of paper, the same size as what we were about to start drawing on, in front of Grumpy. This one, however, was not blank.
On it was a sketch of Grumpy. My jaw dropped and unfortunately I was way too caught up in the moment to turn my camera back on. Grumpy told the CM his name, which ironically turned out to be same as his, and the CM autographed the drawing.
The end product looked like this:
Seriously, does it get any better than THAT??????? Once again the Disney magic had found us, and once again, we were all blown away by it. (and yes, I cried )
Up next: Mom doesn’t have to tell us to clean our plates.
What a great surprise to come home too...I was so happy to see you have continued on. I so love getting to share in your magical trip with you. Glad that the MVMCP turned out to be what was perfect for you, and that was that Kiara got to do all her favorite rides. Love the Grumpy sketch, what a wonderful memory and gift, I am sure that it is a framed memory for you all now.
Color me green with envy! I hope you get to see my favorite CM when you are there.
We are hoping the same thing!
We LOVE Animation Academy!! Craig and I did it for the first time on our adults only trip, and now we try to make it there every trip. Love the CM Disney magic and the picture of Grumpy!! That's great!
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Aww...that Grumpy story is just fabulous...and an awesome reminder of the magic that can find you while at WDW!
So sorry about the flip flop/croc/sock escapade....I have to say I have a firm rule with Izzy that involves mandatory tennis shoes while at WDW...that was instilled after a similar flip flop incident and two pairs of shoes in the park...ouch in blisters and in cost!!!
Off to find a swift kick in the posterior emoticon...
Danielle
__________________
~Shoot for the moon, if you miss, you will land among the stars~
So glad you all were able to figure out an alternate shoe for Kiara! Sorry about TSMM though. But what a wonderful experience with the CM at Animation Academy! Priceless!
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Disney Magic - Oct 2015
Sooo glad to see you back. I've been thinking of you a lot lately. We are now 3 months (from yesterday) away from finally getting back to the BC after a long 2 years! 
Craig has to ride that one with the boys.
(I’m not even going to say how many times I asked if her feet were OK and if she need to wear her tennis shoes instead of the flip flops over the last 48 hours, or how many times she said “No, I’m good in these” and pointed to the offenders now on her feet) 
Either that or just flat out sick of asking what type of bandage was required and describing what was available 50,000+ times a day. 
) 
But what a wonderful experience with the CM at Animation Academy! Priceless! 
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