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[pamcarey]

How great that you snuck off for a little alone time and retail therapy at DTD!

[disneydreamer33]

What a great afternoon of character meets. Too bad the Beast stood you up! I can't believe how many different characters were out and about. I will definitely pay attention to the times next time we go.
I love the CM and kaki gori comment. I guess that just means you are a permanent fixture at WDW!
Love the goofy pics of the boys, too cute!
The spaghetti and meatballs sounded good, but sorry you had to miss Fantasmic!
I loved when we stayed at OKW and had a washer and dryer, it was so convenient and I didn't have to pack as many clothes for me and the girls! I really need to buy into DVC because I love the deluxe resorts!

[bethf]

All caught up! Love the pictures!!!

[goofysdtr]

OK, I feel your SiL's pain on getting some good shots of her boys! We go through similar things, & I only have two to goof up the shots! I agree with you, though. Those are all precious shots, because you see so much of who they are.

[cajunlace]

Sorry you got stood up by Belle and the Beast. How despressing

[goofyboysmama]

"What does it say about me that I know how individual CMs prepare kaki goris. "

A lot. It says a lot.

I love that you got some "me" time. I'm squirrling away the things I'd do if I were by myself at DW...

[mommapants]

Great updates - nice having a little alone time and who doesn't like retail theraphy?

[PrincessSharon]

Originally Posted by OneLittleSpark

Wendell! That is that bears name? We got pics with him in 2009 and that was the first year I had seen Country Bear Jamboree (that is where he is from right?) and we had no clue who he was. I always call him Scary Bear.

I agree about the photos. The ones I always love the most are the unposed ones. Though this year on our trip almost all the photos were like that. My 7 yr old DD couldn't stop watching things, so in almost all the pics her face is straight on but her eyes are looking left or right. Makes for some weird pics. Luckily there are a few where she is looking straight ahead.

I have to admit, the CM helped with the name. I wouldn't have known his name otherwise. He's one of the "stars" of the show - he sings everyone's favorite song - Mama Don't Whoop Little Buford.

Originally Posted by DisneyDana

I've been really enjoying your TR. The only complaint I have is that it's way too short! I'm going to be sad when it's over.

I think you're the only person on Earth who'd say my TR is too short! Don't worry, plenty more to come!

Originally Posted by buzzspal2

I hope you get to see fantasmic. It's my favorite.

I love Fantasmic, but it's so hard to get to see it. Between the infrequent performances and the fact that I rarely stay the entire day at DHS, I don't get the chance.

Originally Posted by lauriep

That's a strange assortment of characters you met up with! I've only seen Wendell once and that was near Splash, sort of close to where he belongs. I never noticed before how strange Smee's feet are! Baloo is my favorite bear! The last series of photos is hilarious! They know just how to annoy their mom while pretending to play along. Glad you got a little alone time. You must have lost weight on this trip-- you're hardly eating at all!

I've noticed that the area around America is kind of a dumping ground for characters. If they're from a film set in America, that's where they stick them in Epcot. And I did lose a few pounds. I don't think I'll be losing any weight on my next trip, though!

Originally Posted by lexiemom

I am cracking up again at Isaiah! "What in tarnation..."

Good job sneaking out for a bit. I have not eaten at WPE, but it is on my list of new places to try.

WPE is terrific. DM requested we eat there next year.

Originally Posted by lauriep

Yeah, "tarnation"-- where'd he hear that one?

DSIL and I were wondering the same thing! Probably at his preschool.

Originally Posted by mom2twingirlies

"What in tarnation" LOL! I love hearing kids repeat things they've heard and they get it in the right context!

Quite a collection of characters you found at America - We've seen Mr. Smee in Fantasyland and Baloo at Animal Kingdom, but I've never seen Wendell! All seems like an odd assortment together though.

I love the photos of the boys on the couch. I love to scrapbook the "real personality" shots rather then the posed pictures.

Nice to get a night out by yourself! Sorry you missed Fantasmic! though.

There is a good feeling about coming home with clean laundry! I don't love doing it on vacation, but I do enjoy not having it to do when we get home.

Those "real" shots tell quite a story, so if I scrapbooked more I'd use them too!

Originally Posted by dsteiny23

Okay, all caught up!!
So glad Isaiah got to ride RnRC. Tyler wasn't tall enough till he was 7 and Jason won't be tall enought this fall.
Boys and farts...welcome to my world!
Love the pics with Sulley. Something about that big blue fuzzy guy makes a great background for a picture. The cuteness of Isaiah doesn't hurt either.
We ge the Bruce pic each trip too.
Love CMC for character interaction. We'll be breakfasting there again this trip.
The series of pics of the boys on the couch is my life ANY time I try to get a nice one of my three. I can completely understand.

Yeah, hanging with three boys is always an adventure. We had so much fun at CMC that it may be on the list for next year (though I'm leaning to Chef Mickey's). And I remember some of the pics from your last TR.

Originally Posted by Cam22

We forgot about the indoor seating at the Cantina this past June. We were already eating when we saw some folks going inside and realized we could have been in the A/C while eating. We will definitely remember next time though. Great interaction with characters while exploring WS. Glad you got some retail therapy and alone time, too!

So many people forget about that indoor seating. I think because there's a lot of seating outside, people just find a table and sit down. When it's sweltering outside, it's nice to be able to escape the heat for a bit.

Originally Posted by cubfancolleen

OK, what was Isaiah saying to Mulan in that one picture?! She's giving him such a face!
How funny is it that you know the amount of syrup a CM puts on a Kaki Gori!?!? Surprising, no; funny, yes!

I tried to remember what he was saying to her. WAIT! Now I remember! He'd been looking for lizards to keep himself occupied in line and told Mulan he saw a lizard. Mulan asked him if it was Mushu!

Originally Posted by Cheriemek

I have never been inside Cantina. I thought it was another sit down place, smaller and less elegant than San Angel Inn. They should put a sign on it. I love to sit outside and people watch, so I probably would only go in if it were snowing.

The Cantina is a sit down place at dinner, counter service at lunch. There is a sign that says additional seating inside, but I guess it blends in too well and people don't notice it. The people watching is limited to the other diners, but it does offer fantastic views of WS lagoon.

Originally Posted by brandy_mel

Sharon,

I love how the boys are still into the characters. And I've been super surprised they even want to meet the princesses. It's so sweet. I'm thinking they'll grow up to be good husbands and fathers.

Yeah, I thought Noah especially wouldn't want to meet as many characters this year, but they enjoy it. I think watching Isaiah helps, because he loves it so much.

Originally Posted by tcmary

As always, I'm loving your TR! After seeing your BC pictures, I had to side track for a bit and book breakfast reservations for our upcoming trip!

Your nephews are adorable!! From your photos, it seems that they get along extremely well, which is a great testament to your DB and DSIL.

I look forward to reading more.

The boys get along like typical siblings. Daniel and Isaiah love each other to death, but they also know how to push each other's buttons. We have to separate them at meals for everyone's peace of mind.

Originally Posted by mcc0313

Isaiah's comment about the blue chip I could just picture all your faces when he came out with that comment. Too adorable. A great wandering the WS afternoon....love the chracter shots but the lobby shots of the three of them, so great, love them all acting silly but you can really see the bond between them. Great shots (even though I am sure DSIL was waiting for that one perfect shot).

Love your sneaking away to dinner, sorry you missed Fatasmic but meatballs and spaghetti from WPE sounds well worth missing it. Sounds delicious.

I actually was there thinking... do I want the pasta or to see Fantasmic! I don't regret my choice.

Originally Posted by Principessa_di_Fata

Uh HELLO... you are supposed to post a pic of the CM that skimps, so we all know who to avoid! Love the update - especially the photos at the end. They made me laugh, because like most parents, I have many just like them... where you're just like "DANG IT STOP IT AND SIT STILL AND SMILE!" *sigh* kids...

Well, I don't want to post her photo. I will tell you that the really petite lady (she's well under 5' tall, maybe 4'9 or so) makes great kaki goris! If you see her (and you have to go to the kiosk, because you can't see her from far away), she makes the best ones! I can show you the one to avoid when I see you (in less than 2 weeks ).

Originally Posted by ilovedisney247

Wow lots of unusual characters at Epcot! I love that you snuck away and went to DTD. Sorry you missed Fantasmic! but meatballs might be worth it!

SO believe it or not we might be considering a move to the DL area. Brandon really wants to move to California!

Heather, we have lots to talk about! I'll send you a PM.

Originally Posted by DisneyLuv

Ha! Love that! I hope to get as familiar one day! And as another PPer posted, would have been nice to also get a pic to know who to avoid!

Look for the petite lady - she's a kaki gori rock star!

Originally Posted by disneydreamer33

What a great afternoon of character meets. Too bad the Beast stood you up! I can't believe how many different characters were out and about. I will definitely pay attention to the times next time we go.
I love the CM and kaki gori comment. I guess that just means you are a permanent fixture at WDW!
Love the goofy pics of the boys, too cute!
The spaghetti and meatballs sounded good, but sorry you had to miss Fantasmic!
I loved when we stayed at OKW and had a washer and dryer, it was so convenient and I didn't have to pack as many clothes for me and the girls! I really need to buy into DVC because I love the deluxe resorts!

You won't be sorry if you buy into DVC. The only issue will be resisting the urge to add on points!

Originally Posted by goofysdtr

OK, I feel your SiL's pain on getting some good shots of her boys! We go through similar things, & I only have two to goof up the shots! I agree with you, though. Those are all precious shots, because you see so much of who they are.

Noah is usually cooperative. The other two, it might take some bribery. DSIL sometimes had to bribe Isaiah with coins to throw in the fountain.

Originally Posted by goofyboysmama

"What does it say about me that I know how individual CMs prepare kaki goris. "

A lot. It says a lot.

I love that you got some "me" time. I'm squirrling away the things I'd do if I were by myself at DW...

And are you cooking up a solo trip? If you are, I can give you some advice and answer any questions.

[PrincessSharon]

Day Six – Thursday, September 1
There’s a reason I call it “the dark side”

We were heading to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure this day. I do enjoy the Universal parks, but generally only in small doses. There are a lot of things I don’t enjoy. Like how you have to pay for Express Pass (their FP system). So rather than pay for the express pass, I booked a room at one of the Universal resorts, which I can get for a steal – thanks to a great employee rate. When I booked, I had my choice of Portofino Bay Hotel (my favorite) or Royal Pacific. I hadn’t stayed at RPR before and I figured this was as good a time as any to give it a try.

I packed up a little overnight bag and went over to see what was up next door. We’d planned for me, the boys, and DSIL to go. I was staying the night at RPR and I asked Noah and Daniel if they wanted to stay with me or return home. They wanted to stay with me naturally. If either of them had wanted to return home, I would’ve invited Isaiah, but I didn’t want to have to share my bed with that little guy (who sleeps like a crazy person).

We were practically in the car when DB decides he wants to go as well. So we wait a few more minutes for him to get ready. Then we made the drive over to the RPR so that I could check in. It’s a lovely hotel. I wish I’d taken more photos. I figured I’d do it later, and then later never came. I did get a few photos, just not as many as I’d like.

Anyway, check in was quick and painless and I got our 4 room keys, which may be used for front of the line access to all rides except Rip Ride Rock It and Forbidden Journey. Of course you can’t use it on Forbidden Journey. Well, it wasn’t too awful, because I was planning on heading to IOA bright and early for early entry the next morning.

Our room was ready, so we went upstairs to drop our stuff. The room was very nice, with a water view!

We headed downstairs and some people had to go to the bathroom. On the way back, Isaiah spotted a gift shop. We kept trying to tell him that there would be more and better stuff once we got into the park. He’d picked out some Spider-Man toy which he already has, but in a different size. I say that a lot because this kid has a lot of toys! He cons DM into buying him a toy – not just a little toy, a $20-$30 toy, every time he sleeps over. And that’s two or three times a month!

Anyway, he had a meltdown. We promised him that if he didn’t see something else he wanted more, we would come back and get this toy. His reply “But this is the last one!” In the saddest, most pitiful voice evah! I did feel bad, but he was only being denied momentarily, so it wasn’t too hard to say no. He cried nearly the whole way to the boat dock, but I think it was more of an issue of being on the go for so many days in a row. Next year, I think I’m going to build a non-park day into our schedule. He eventually calmed down, but if you looked at him, he’d start crying again.

We must’ve just missed a water taxi, because there was nobody waiting when we got there. I distracted Isaiah and got him to stop crying for good by pointing out lizards for him to chase.




Isaiah’s still sad – he needs a thought bubble over his head, “Someone’s in the gift shop right now buying that last Spider-Man toy”







I need to warn you that this day might seem a bit complain-y coming from me. I read back through it and noticed lots of It was just a bit of an annoying day. So in writing it up, I did a bit of griping about the little annoying things that happened, and there were a number of annoying things. But we did manage to have enough fun that I’m not swearing off Universal for good. And I tried to make a joke out of it when I could, just to make it more interesting to read, so hopefully it won’t be as unpleasant to read about as it was to experience. Anyway, I won’t be returning to US/IOA next year, even if the rest of my family decides they all want to go. End disclaimer.

We got to the park and I needed to go to the will call kiosks to pick up my tickets (I’d bought mine online). Ed had to wait in line for his. A very long, slow-moving line. In the blistering heat. Okay, strike one for Universal and we aren’t even in the door yet. Why don’t people buy their tickets ahead of time? I never see lines like that at Disney. Anyway, we’re not at Disney, so I won’t make any more comparisons.

Isaiah was ready for some thrills (after nearly half an hour of standing around in the heat). The Mummy had a 48” height restriction and I knew he’d love it. We passed Rip Ride Rock It, and that had like a 20 minute wait I think, but Isaiah was way too short for that. I think the height requirement on that is like 52” or 54”. Anyway, we walked over and measured Isaiah for the Mummy. He had on flip flops this day, so he was too short by about ¼ inch. Poor thing nearly had another meltdown. Luckily, there was a huge gift shop with lots of toys right there, so he was placated a bit by the promise of another toy.



I took very few photos this day. DSIL didn’t take many either – I guess she didn’t love US that much either.

The rest of us went on, but first, we needed to put our stuff in a locker. Apparently, Universal theme parks have a thing against putting net bags in the rides for you to store your stuff, so they make you put your stuff in a locker before riding on nearly every ride. The lockers are free for 30 minutes or an hour (depending on how busy the ride is). They work using touch screens and fingerprints. They don’t work well. You have to press really hard, and then you end up accidentally answering the next question by mistake because you pressed too hard. It just made an annoying process that much more annoying. We ended up leaving our stuff with DSIL when we could.

After fighting with the stupid locker kiosk, we put our stuff in and used the Express Pass entrance. The parks weren’t really crowded this day, so we would’ve been able to see everything without them, but it was nice not having to wait anyway.

After the ride, we checked out our ride photo. You could barely see it because they put up a giant frickin’ watermark over your photo to prevent you from taking a photo of the screen with your camera. If you want to see it, you need to go to the counter. I wasn’t happy with what I felt was an attempt to hard-sell you into a photo (or video) purchase, so we didn’t get any ride photos.

When we were done with the ride, it was time to get our stuff out of the locker again. This made it difficult to ride stuff twice in a row, because if you went over your allotted 30 minutes, you’d have to pay to get your stuff out. After getting my stuff out (and accidentally choosing Japanese or some other language and having to start over), we decided to backtrack and do RRRI.



Time to repeat the locker dance! We would’ve left our stuff with DSIL, but she and Isaiah were still shopping in the Mummy store. We were able to get on RRRI fairly quickly, and it was a lot of fun.

Repeat locker dance! Ugh! You think it’s annoying to read about? Try living it! And mind you, we’ve only done 2 rides so far! While we’d been riding, DSIL bought two of the refillable cups and got one free. I wanted to do something I knew Isaiah would enjoy, so we walked down to the Amity area.

But on the way, we had to run the gauntlet. The main corridor where most people walk was filled with 20 or 30 people that, while not Team Members, were wearing what would clearly be called uniforms, so you knew right away they were at work. They were salespeople. High pressure salespeople. They would start out sneakily by asking where you’re from. I am on to these scams, so I would answer, but not slow down. But it was annoying.

We ended up waiting for someone in our group (I think DB stopped to get something to eat), and they “chatted” with us while we waited. The guy told me that I could earn money just for giving my opinions. And he wouldn’t give up. After a while, I just got rude and walked away. Well, I am from New York! And he knew that, since he asked me!

This was probably the most annoying part of the day. I would write a letter to Universal, but clearly, these people are sanctioned by Universal, and Universal cares about the money they get from these groups, much more than they care about their guests’ experience. My letter would do nothing, I’m sure. I’ll speak with my money – and take it to Disney!

It was hot (though, thankfully, it had cooled down from the triple-digit heat index numbers of our first few days) and I was thirsty. I stopped and got a huge cup of fresh squeezed lemonade.

While I drank it, I sent the rest of the group on the MIB ride. It’s somewhat like Buzz in the MK, but better, with moving animatronic aliens. It’s very cool, and I normally enjoy it, but at the moment, I was enjoying my lemonade a little more. Also, I didn’t feel like doing the locker dance again.

While I waited, it looked like it might rain, so I walked over to wait for the group by the exit, outside the gift shop. They arrived a few minutes after I’d finished my lemonade. We decided to do the Simpsons ride next.

Ed sat this one out, but I have no idea why. I used to be a huge fan of The Simpsons (when it was still funny and smart), so I really love this ride. Everyone else was riding for the first time, and they all loved it too.

Our next ride was Jaws, which had hardly a wait at all. This is a bit outdated, and the shark looks totally fake but I still have fun riding it! And I think this was Isaiah’s favorite at Universal. Of course, if he’d been able to ride the Mummy, I suspect he would’ve liked that one more. I think they ended up doing Jaws three times that day!


The last photo either DSIL or I took at the park

Up Next: How do you have lunch with rodents at a Universal park?

[KMB733]

I've been waiting for you to get to this day. Oh the locker dance. I know it well. It's so annoying!!! One time my friend and I ended in line longer than the free time and of course we had no money to get our stuff out, so we had to ask for help, and the CM was so rude. Hey it's not my fault the ride went down! I could write a novel about the problems with those stupid lockers.

Too bad Isaiah wasn't tall enough to ride The Mummy. It's one of my favorite rides at US!

[Principessa_di_Fata]

I guess you're right - it would be pretty rude to post a pic of the CM that skimps on the syrup... *sigh* I forgot my manners. LOL!

I haven't been to Universal in a long time, and don't remember the lockers - I must have blocked them out because MAN that's annoying just to read about. I'm sure it's even worse to experience! Glad you guys had a LITTLE fun though!

[Coop]

Sad to hear about all your troubles at Universal. But I must say - I had a bad time there myself and will not be returning there at all. I found the employees were very rude and I much prefer the theming of Disney! I know - you should never compare. But DH now calls me a Disney snob.

[pamcarey]

Ugh!!! I am soooooooooo with you on those stupid lockers at Universal. They are so annoying and they do NOT work well at all. Why, oh why, can't they just have the net bags??

I haven't been on Forbidden Journey yet, but I've heard it's a bit of a free-for-all in the locker area there. Ugh...

[ilovedisney0_0]

Poor Isaiah! I would have had a MAJOR meltdown if I couldn't have ridden the Mummy, which happens to be my very favorite ride at US! Yeah, I agree about the "locker dance". It is definitely a different vibe at US, but I am going to have to suck it up and do it, because I am dying to check out WWOHP!

[MayraLR]

I am not a big fan of US/IOA either. I much prefer the magic of the WDW parks.