Trip Report Lessons in Geography

We've been back for about a month now, and I got my pictures all sorted, and I don't have daily rehearsals or performances now, so I guess this is the time to start my trip report.
I never finished the one from 2016, but I took notes this time, which should make it a bit easier, but it's still a 3 and a half week trip, so there's a LOT to cover.

The basic details:
July 20th-August 3rd at Disney with my four: Myself, my husband M, my Daughter E (13) and my son A (11)
My brother's family joined us for the first week: My brother J, his husband also J, and their daughter N (6).
My cousins met up with us the first day, and we all had dinner together....I believe there were 20 of us in total.
August 4th-6th was just whatever we wanted to do.
August 7th-11th at Universal Orlando
August 12th- Flying home

We stayed at Caribbean Beach resort for the Disney portion of the trip, and at Royal Pacific (Universal's version of the Poly) for the Universal part. In between we were at the Doubletree at Seaworld, and for the last night before we flew out, we were at Allure resort.

Here's my 4, my brother's 3, and 3 of the cousins' group.
Adults left to right:
My brother-in-law J,my brother J, me, my cousin's boyfriend K, my cousin C, my husband M.
Kids:
My niece N (6), My cousin's daughter L (8...yes, she's tiny), my son A (11) and my daughter E (13)

Got all that? Good! Let's go!

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

Thats how I felt about the oatmeal pie! It should not have had raisins!

I agree. I think raisins should only be in cinnamon raisin bread. I did try the carrot cake cookie a few years ago and didn't like it. It was a one and done for me. Funny because it gets hyped so much on DFB.

 

[Songbird76]

I agree. I think raisins should only be in cinnamon raisin bread. I did try the carrot cake cookie a few years ago and didn't like it. It was a one and done for me. Funny because it gets hyped so much on DFB.

DFB and on one of the vlogs I follow. Apparently there's like this cult following and people were really angry when they changed it. Maybe it was better before, but I was definitely not impressed, and I have a great recipe I use for carrot cake, and I can put as much cream cheese frosting on it as I want to. I also don't like it when people put walnuts in carrot cake. Blech.
But yes, I prefer my raisins to be stand alone, or in cinnamon raisin bread, or in Krentenbollen. (A dutch fritter type thing)

 

[Shouldigo12]

You and your daughter look so much alike, it's uncanny. And you should definitely think about a mother daughter only trip- they're a lot of fun, and you can do some of the girlier stuff your husband and son might not be as interested in.

 

[Songbird76]

You and your daughter look so much alike, it's uncanny. And you should definitely think about a mother daughter only trip- they're a lot of fun, and you can do some of the girlier stuff your husband and son might not be as interested in.

I would LOVE to do a Mother daughter trip, but being from overseas, it's a huge expense with plane tickets and everything, and my son wouldn't understand why he couldn't go. It wouldn't be fair to take my daughter and not take him. And I can't afford 2 trips, and my husband could do a father son trip, but he wouldn't want to go to Disney and there's nothing they have in common like my daughter and I have. We won't be able to afford a trip for several years, though, and by that time my son will be able to do things on his own, so we'd be able to split up and all do our own thing.

 

[Songbird76]

Friday, August 2nd

I had been looking forward to this day for months!! Finally, the 'Ohana breakfast! I love the dinner and the prospect of meeting Stitch while we were wearing our ponchos was exciting! I don't remember what time our ADR was for, but we arrived early and they wouldn't let us check in. Good thing the seating area up there is comfortable! Once we checked in, they told us we could get in line to have a picture with Pluto, but the kids really didn't want to, so we skipped it. We did get a lot of compliments on the ponchos.
We were seated and given pineapple bread, but M is the only one who likes pineapple, and he tasted it and said it was really dry, so it went uneaten. A wouldn't eat the waffles or really anything. The food was really disappointing. The potatoes were way overly cooked, burnt really. I saw the ones at the table next to us and they were fine, but ours were dark brown and wrinkly. I'm surprised they served them. I wouldn't have, had I been the server...they were that bad. The fruit was pretty much pineapple and melon. M picked out the pineapple....the only fruit he will eat besides peaches. E picked out the watermelon, the only thing she would eat of the fruit, and the only thing I would have eaten, but since there were only about 3 bites of watermelon, I let E have them. They gave us biscuits, but when I asked if there was gravy, the server said "No, but we get that question a LOT." Then why not offer it?? I know the price is because of the characters, but it really was not worth it for us. I can't recommend this experience. Go to Boma instead...no characters, but the food is infinitely better, and there's much more variety.

Stitch loved the pink fluffy pompoms on the ties of E's poncho.

Somewhere along the line, when M was on his own, he had gotten a dole whip float and fallen in love. Since breakfast was...lacking?, we were not nearly as full as we could have been, and he was craving a treat. So we went and got a dolewhip while E and I shared a lemon and lime dole whip swirl.

It was very refreshing and way better than anything we ate at breakfast.
Once again, M decided he was due for some alone time, and he went to Disney Springs while I took the kids to Epcot. First order of business was to get A some food, since he hadn't eaten yet. Joffrey's giant donut to the rescue!! (I should have kept a tally of how many of these he ate during our trip!) We went and got a return time for TT. (I know, you're shocked, aren't you?)
This was our last Epcot day, and A had seen a BB8 light up keychain at the Imagination gift shop and he had been waiting patiently to buy it until he was sure he wouldn't find something else he wanted more. Since he hadn't, we headed there so he could finally get his souvenier. E wanted to go on the ride, so she went ahead and got in line since the wait time was only 5 minutes. We found the keychain, paid for it, looked around...still no E. So we went to play in the pavilion. A loves the "Simon" wall panel. He was trying to play and other kids kept coming up and just pounding on the wall and messing it up for him and he was getting frustrated. We worked together and finally "beat" the game before anyone else could ruin it. And still no E. I started to wonder if we had just missed her coming out. So we ventured back to the giftshop, but she wasn't there looking for us either. I don't know how long it was before she finally made it out of there, but they had gotten stuck in the skunk room. We ended up being late for our TT return time.

In case you are wondering, I don't do TT, so that's why I'm not in the picture. I know at some point E wanted to get to design a car, too, so she had tried the single rider line, but she said single riders didn't get to design their own, so she was disappointed. A let her design the car once because he had done this several times anyway.

When they got out of TT, I had been planning on going to Voices of Liberty, but we had an ADR for Beaches and Cream and I knew the boats would take a while, so we had to skip it.
And as we were walking to the IG, the skies opened and the lightning was RIGHT over us and it was LOUD. Poor A was freaking out. E is a little mother and tried to soothe him and tell him it was ok, there were a lot of buildings and trees, and lightning looks for tall things, etc...bless her heart for trying, but A was in tears and terrified, and of course the boats don't run when there's lightning. I didn't know how to get there on foot...I needn't have worried...it's SO easy, and way faster than boats. Had I known, we would have stopped to watch VOL before walking there. It was pouring down in buckets. Because we walked instead of taking a boat, we were way too early for our ADR. The good thing about the storm was that they had had to clear the pool, and to make up for that lack of pool access, they put the arcade games on freeplay, so A went to the arcade and played to his heart's content. This also kept him from hearing the thunder and freaking out.
M had said he wouldn't be joining us at Beaches and Cream, but with the weather, he sent me a message that said he was on his way to us since he couldn't really play Ingress in this. So we waited to check in until he got there. He ordered the chili, but the rest of us opted not to get food, just ice cream. E and I had been waiting for the No Way Jose for months.

 

[Songbird76]

Friday August 2nd, continued...

The weather was just not cooperating. M couldn't play Ingress, A HATES getting wet...they just wanted to go back to the resort. I really wanted to see Voices of Liberty and this was our last day at Epcot, and there was only one more show. E decided to stick with mama and get more autographs.

I think it was this performance in which Kyle sang Oh Susanna and we happened to be sitting in the front row and he took my hand and sang to me. (Kind of funny since my name is Susan) He pretended I wouldn't let go when the song ended. It was really fun and everyone laughed. I couldn't tell you anymore which song Tiffany soloed, but it was beautiful. And after the performance, we got a photo with Elodie, whom we had met in 2016 and were happy to see again. We ended up getting autographs from Elodie, Krista, Tiffany, and Josh this day....and maybe Kyle? I know we already had Aaron's and I was glad we had gotten Kate's earlier since she wasn't here this day. She's always the first to leave the circle...I think maybe she's a bit introverted, but as she was walking off I sent E to ask her for her autograph before she got away, and E said she was very sweet. So we got quite a few signatures between the different performances we saw. But this was the day that I actually recognized most of the singers, so I was glad we made it.

As we left, I managed to get a FP for Soarin'. (I actually got quite good at this by the end of the trip) We were put on the far right, so we had a very distorted view, but it's still amazing.
I had been wanting to try the pulled pork nachos at the Poly for over a year, and this was my chance. We had also seen on DFB that you could get the bread pudding at the Tambu lounge after 4:00 pm, so we were going to get some nachos and bread pudding. But when we got to the Tambu lounge and asked, they told us the menu had recently been changed, handed us a copy and there was no bread pudding on there, and also no nachos, but I wasn't sure whether the nachos were supposed to be there or Trader Sams. Moot point since we couldn't get the bread pudding and I had seen the nachos on the Capt. Cooks menu when I went looking for Rootbeer after our 'Ohana dinner. So we decided to go there instead.
Now DFB keeps saying you can still get the bread pudding at Tambu lounge, but we couldn't when we were there, so be forewarned...it must depend on who's working.

I got the nachos, minus the tomatos and the pineapple salsa. E got the kids mac "n" cheese. (it came with purse apples and a purse cookie!)

I want more of those nachos!!! SOOOO good.

When we got back to the resort, A hadn't eaten yet and was hungry, and we wanted to rearrange the Tragical Express for the next day. Really, we just needed to get back to the airport to rent a car, which we had booked. But there was no sense in us all going when only M could drive, and why miss out on a park day for that? So we went to OPR to take care of that and to get A some food. I wasn't completely full for a change and I was really craving some vegetables....I don't get nearly enough veggies on vacation. So I ordered a salad that was basically a ceasar salad, but I asked for them to just give me the Romaine lettuce and the croutons and give me a side of ranch dressing. It came with cucumber and parmesan cheese, but I was too tired to have them redo it. Weird combination....parmesan cheese and ranch dressing. I picked the cucumber off, because it's one of the few veggies I don't like. Give me broccoli, spinach, brussels sprouts, green beans, asparagus, carrots, corn....whatever, but no cucumber or tomato please. I don't remember what we got for A. The place was packed, so we ate quickly and got out of there! My toe was hurting from my wet sandals rubbing on it all day. Kind of crazy....we made it to the end of the trip before my sandals started bugging me. I guess because they hadn't gotten this wet before.

And then it was bed time. We had only one more day in the parks and had to switch hotels the next day. And so ended our last night at CBR.

 

[MinnieM123]

I love Voices of Liberty -- such a classy performance. Costumes are beautiful, too.

The photos of your kids at Ohana were adorable!! (Not good about the food quality though -- that was a big disappointment.)

 

[Songbird76]

Total fail on my part....I forgot one of the stories for which this TR was named! I'm not sure whether it was our dinner or our breakfast at Ohana, but I went to the bathroom and as I was washing my hands, someone approached me and asked me where I got my Stitch Poncho. I said I was sorry to disappoint them, but I had bought it in the Netherlands.
"Oh! Over in Epcot?" Um no....there is no Netherlands in Epcot. "No, in Europe." "Like...the real Netherlands?"

 

[Tuvalu]

The pulled pork nachos at the Poly are only served at Capt. Cooks.....glad you found them!

 

[Songbird76]

The pulled pork nachos at the Poly are only served at Capt. Cooks.....glad you found them!

They used to be at one of the lounges, though, right? Because didn't @blreinsel always get them at Tambu? Or at Trader Sam's? I'm glad I found them, too!! It would have been sad if I'd had to miss out on those!

 

[Songbird76]

I love Voices of Liberty -- such a classy performance. Costumes are beautiful, too.

The photos of your kids at Ohana were adorable!! (Not good about the food quality though -- that was a big disappointment.)

Yes, I'm a huge fan of Voices of Liberty. I follow several of the members who are also in Voctave on facebook and I made sure I saw several of their shows at Epcot while we were there. I could take a full day just watching all their shows. I think if I was going to do anything in music, that would be my dream job. That or be the singing voice for a Disney character. But Voices of Liberty is an ongoing thing, where a movie is just temporary. Kate's soprano is kind of what I used to be able to do, but I've lost a lot of my high range just from lack of use. But back in the day, I could have done it. I miss those days! I've never had a huge amount of vibrato in my voice. My voice has always been more suited to jazz or musicals than to Opera. I wish I had had more confidence back when I had the range. I never thought I was good enough to be a performer, but gosh it would have been amazing to sing for Disney!!

 

[Tuvalu]

They used to be at one of the lounges, though, right? Because didn't @blreinsel always get them at Tambu? Or at Trader Sam's? I'm glad I found them, too!! It would have been sad if I'd had to miss out on those!

Nope, not at the lounges.....but she may have taken them with her.

 

[Songbird76]

Nope, not at the lounges.....but she may have taken them with her.

Nope, I'm not crazy. I looked it up. From the Disney Food Blog archives:

 

[Tuvalu]

Nope, I'm not crazy. I looked it up. From the Disney Food Blog archives:
View attachment 420554

My mistake. I have never seen that menu before.

 

[Songbird76]

Saturday, August 3rd

Checkout day. I had spent the evening before packing up. For any of you moms out there, is it always your job, too? Everyone lies around playing on computers or reading books, or taking naps while I pack, and then if we can't find something, or something gets forgotten, it's my fault. No one helps, but I'm supposed to remember exactly where everything is. Is this just me or is this a mom thing?
So now I got up early to get everything to Bell Services for the day. Then we went and checked out and headed to MK for the day. I had made an ADR for BOG...it was the only day I could get an ADR for that we didn't already have plans, and since we were on the dining plan, I thought this would be a good use of credits. Having not been very hungry, we had something like 31 counter service credits left. Thanks to A's donut obsession, and E's need for slushies, and now M's new found love of Dolewhip, we had used all the snack credits. But we needed to use a LOT of Counter Service ones and for those who don't know, 1 CS credit translates to 3 snack credits, but you have to use all three at the same time at the same venue. Not all CMs know how to do this.
So, first order of business upon entering MK was to get bandaids for my toe...my sandal was still rubbing on it even though it was now dry. Then we watched the Welcome show, since we were already there.

It was cute, but I don't need to see it every time. Then we headed to BOG.

There was a table in the West Wing, where E wanted to sit, but A took one look at how dark it was and almost started crying...so there goes that idea.

I wish I had realized I could get both milk AND another drink. I like milk with my breakfast, but that little carton wouldn't have been enough, so I ordered a Rootbeer, not knowing I could have still ordered the milk, too. Oh well.
E got the cronut, and she liked it. I think A got French Toast.
The food was...ok. The portion size was small, and without all those pastries, it wouldn't have been enough. Certainly not $28 worth, which is why I wouldn't do this breakfast if we had not been on the dining plan. But as far as counter service breakfasts go, it was better than most. But charging a TS price for a CS meal does not make it seem a good value if you are paying out of pocket. M was not at all impressed and was making it known.
While we ate, I was trying to get a FP for Buzz. M had to get back to the resort to catch the Tragical Express back to the airport to pick up the rental car. I got a FP for Buzz and then kept moving it up more and more. In the end, we did the People Mover and then CoP before going to Buzz, then we did Tomorrowland Speedway. We stopped to get a cronut and a churro, and I think a drink, using a counter service credit.
I got a FP for HM for E and I, but A opted not to do that one. We had some time before that, and M sent a message that he was back, and asked where we were. He wanted a dole whip, so we decided to meet at Aloha Isle. E and I wanted to try Raspberry Dole whip, but when I tried to use mobile order, it only listed the regular pineapple dole whip, and maybe citrus swirl. So the kids and I went to Sunshine Tree Terrace, since that wasn't coming up on mobile order, and I used a Counter Service credit to get a FoMosa, a Red's revenge, and a Citrus Swirl Float, all of which E and I shared, and A didn't want to try. Meanwhile M was getting 3 dolewhips.

Half of our drinks went into the garbage because even sharing, we couldn't finish it all, and we didn't care as much for the red's revenge.

It was time for the HM FP, and I don't know where M had gone. Maybe Space Mountain?

 

[Songbird76]

Saturday, August 3rd, continued...

I parked A outside of Columbia Harbor House while we went to HM, and I saw a PP photo there for the hitchhiking ghosts, and I really wanted that photo. I figured we'd do that on our way out as we'd have to step out of line to do it now.

I'm not sure what I was reacting to there, but the picture obviously caught me off guard.

We got out and E really really had to go to the bathroom. So badly that she said she was sorry, she couldn't wait for the PP picture, so I told her to go, and I'd catch up with her after the picture, back where we had left A. Only, the PP guy was gone. I tried to follow E, but she was nowhere to be seen, so I went back to where we had left A and he wasn't there.
I looked around....maybe I was turned around. Nope...I couldn't find him. I was starting to panic when I got a message from M that he had A inside CHH. I found E in the Rapunzel bathrooms and then I had gotten a FP for Carrots.

I have in my notes that we went back to Laugh floor and People Mover...I don't remember doing this, but we must have. We went to Pecos Bill for dinner because they have Rootbeer there. And here it got a bit dicey...we had a lot of credits left, and we couldn't decide what we wanted. In the end, I ordered both the chicken nachos and the 3 tacos...if I couldn't eat it all, oh well...I wanted to try it all. M got the Beef fajitas. E just wanted to share with me, A doesn't like anything, so we wanted to use 3 snack credits to get extra drinks. The gal didn't know how to ring that up and there was no manager there as there was supposed to be. The CM kept apologizing, saying there's supposed to be someone on the floor for this kind of thing, but that person had disappeared....we waited several minutes before someone finally appeared, hit a button, and all was fixed. We were now down to 22 CS credits....to be used by midnight.
I didn't like the pork taco, so I gave it to M, and he loved it. E ate the chicken taco, and I loved the nachos, but I would leave the chicken off next time.
I also have in my notes that we went to Laugh floor and people mover here, so I think I mixed that up somewhere. We had tried to get drinks in Tomorrowland, but the CM didn't know how to ring it up using a CS credit instead of snack credits, and she had already poured them, so she ended up just giving them to us for free. Good thing, because something was wrong with them and they tasted really off and we ended up dumping them. I think this was actually before dinner, because I remember trying to find M in Pecos Bill and having a really hard time.
After all this, we were done and we still needed to pick up our luggage and check into the Double Tree Hotel at SeaWorld. We figured we'd use our remaining snack credits at the store at CBR...all 22 of them, times 3 items.
SO MANY CREDITS! The guy was SO nice about it. We got a bunch of rootbeer, coke (M won't drink rootbeer), chocolate and regular milk, cookies, marshmallows, mac 'n' cheese packets, doritos, cotton candy....we had to make several trips between the car and the store. M was getting really grouchy and was starting to go into jerk mode again.
We finally got everything in the car...well, -I- got everything in the car while M griped about how it wasn't all going to fit, and why did I buy so much water, and did I realize we weren't going to be able to take it all back with us. I shoved things in corners and at my feet, and once again reminded him that I had bought the water thinking we had 4 people and 3 and a half weeks in Florida, and I hadn't realized I was the only one who would be drinking the water, and we still had a week and a half left in which to drink the water. (I think he mostly refused to drink the water simply because he wanted to be right that it was too much and didn't want to admit it was good to have it and he was grouchy about having to carry it. Just being stubborn)
We checked in at the Double Tree and got our free cookies....which had walnuts in them, so none of us would eat them.

Nice rooms, plenty of space, but far from the laundry facilities which were at the other end of the resort.

I had to laugh because while we were at Pecos Bill, M was exclaiming how much he loved this food and wished we could go back in time so he could eat here every night because it was the ONLY food in Disney that he had actually enjoyed. And the reason I had to laugh was so I wouldn't clobber him. I worked SO hard planning this vacation, without his help, and there were so many things he loved that he just suddenly didn't remember. The bon voyage breakfast....he had enthused about how perfectly his steak was cooked and how good the potatoes were, etc....he loved that. The Boma breakfast....he kept wishing he had an extra stomach so he could eat more, especially the sticky buns. Our meal at Whispering Canyon, where he had eaten so much that he couldn't even order dessert, and we had SUCH a blast there. But for some reason, he couldn't remember a single meal he had enjoyed at Disney, and why did we save this for the last meal? I love him, but I don't love his selective memory. He'll swear up and down that he didn't enjoy Disney even though he raved about Flight of Passage, and Space Mountain, and Dole whips, etc. And you can remind him of all of those things and he'll still say he'd rather not go back.

 

[Songbird76]

Sunday, August 4th

We slept in. We had no plans, no park tickets, nowhere to be. So we slept in, then went to breakfast at the Village Inn across the street. Here's where the title comes in.
We were seated at a table and our server was Cannon. Cannon asked us where we were from and all of us chorused "The Netherlands" at the same time. He says "Really?? Canadians, huh?" We laughed, thinking he was making a joke. Then he starts telling us this story about how a former coworker from Canada had said how powerful the American flag is, that the founding fathers knew what they were doing when they made the flag with stars and stripes, and imagine how different an impression it would give if they had put a flower on it instead. And he reminded her of the leaf on the Canadian flag, and she had walked right into that. Then he says "I love your flag though, because I love trees." And then he goes on to another story about how a Canadian shared a fact about how Stalin wasn't from Russia, but from Georgia and he had asked the Canadian "Atlanta area?" as a joke and the Canadian didn't get it. But he knew how much Cannon loved history and geography. Yeah, we can tell, Cannon. We ordered French Canadian silk pie and he says "No, chocolate MOOSE pie!" and we laughed and laughed because he really hadn't clued in that we were not Canadian. We even started speaking Dutch to see if it would throw him off... We speak Canadian! He still didn't get it. When we paid, we commented about how Cannon had kept us entertained, and she says "Oh yeah, we get so tired of that Donald Duck impression!" We told her hadn't done any Donald Duck impressions. And that's the story of how we found out that the Netherlands is in Canada. We are Canadian!

After breakfast, we went to Target to get good shampoo and conditioner and soap...hotel stuff doesn't work on my hair or E's. It's fine for the boys with their short hair, but it doesn't do the job with our long strands. We went to the outlets on Vineland to check out the character warehouse. We had to park in the garage, which was $10 for the day, because we couldn't find a space anywhere at the mall itself. We went to A&W for drinks. The bathroom line was all down the hall and a woman with a child skipped the line and went right into the first available stall, just like at HS that day. Then as we were leaving the food court, I held the door open for A and a woman with her children cut in front of him, leaving me to stand there holding the door open for her before A could get through. Just stepped right in front of him as he tried to step through. What IS it with people???
We went to the character warehouse and got Grumpy PJ pants a me, an R2D2 shirt for A, and we made a donation to the Wildlife fund and got button with a turtle on it...A loves turtles.
We went back to the hotel and I schlepped all the laundry across the grounds to the laundry facilities and I sat by the pool and read while I waited for the laundry. It was really nice....there was just a bit of a breeze, and I was under an umbrella and it was so nice to have some down time by myself. There was, however, a family at the pool that I was a bit shocked by. There was a little girl about 4, and a teenager probably around 17. There were some games set up there like ping pong, giant checkers, etc. There was something with weights on ropes...I wasn't paying attention, but the teenager was doing that and then the little girl ran up and was grabbing for it shouting about it being her turn, and then she screams to her mom "Watch me!" and the mother looks over and yells at the teenager to let her sister do it, and the girl flips her mom off. OKKKKKK then.

Then it was dinner time. M took A to McDonalds while I was doing the laundry, and when they got back we went to Chuy's. A opted to stay at the hotel. (he doesn't like Mexican food) M got the Elvis Combo, I got a chalupa, and enchilada combo, and I think E got a chalupa and taco, which the chalupa must be a regional thing because my friends from Mexico taught me to make Tostadas, and when I got my chalupa, it was what my friends called tostada. So good though!!!

Or maybe I got the Chalupa, taco, enchilada combo and gave my Taco to E and shared my chalupa? I don't remember, but it was a lot of food. While we were eating, there was a balloon artist walking around. He made an Owl for E and a Picachu for A, which we took back for him.

I remember having a "nerd" conversation with the balloon guy...we are a family of nerds...we love learning, we are into Harry Potter, etc...so it was kind of fun talking with the guy about all the different fandoms. He was telling us jokes, and there was a Pokemon one that we can't remember completely, but it was something like "Why did Voltorb go to the party" or "Why is Voltorb always invited to the party?" Because he's a blast, or to have a blast....because aparently Voltorb explodes. I know nothing about Pokemon, but A is really into it, so the guy was telling us jokes to tell him when we got back.

The server had been talking about sopapillas, and M ordered some, and she came back with a half order that she gave us for free because there wasn't enough for a full order.

And then it was time for bed. We were still worn out from 2 weeks at Disney, so we just relaxed a lot.

 

[Songbird76]

My mistake. I have never seen that menu before.

That's the old one. You can't get the nachos there anymore. At least I still got them.

 

[Songbird76]

Monday, August 5th

We went to breakfast at Village Inn again, but Cannon wasn't there. Food was good though. Then we went to my friend's house. She and her husband live in Kissimmee. When we went to Disney in 2010, we stayed with them, and we had a great time, but her husband tends to get on people's nerves. He really wants to appear intelligent and he will insist on telling you how you should handle situations, or...for example, they haven't been to Disney in several years now, so they've never done FoP, or seen Pandora, nor Toy Story Land, but he will tell you you should do this thing or that thing that doesn't exist anymore, and he will insist you just weren't looking in the right place for it. And he IS an intelligent man, he just doesn't know when to admit he doesn't know something. So last time we came to Disney, we only stayed with them for a couple of days and it was kind of a disaster,(not because of the husband, but it's a long story, and not important) so this time we just went there for the day, and my husband just dropped us off and went to go play Ingress somewhere. So A loves chess. He belongs to a club and has lessons there every week, and he's getting pretty good. My friend's husband is a chess master. He works for an online chess website and there happened to be some sort of national or international chess tournament in Orlando that week, and he was going to be there to help out with it, but not the day we were at their house. So he played chess with A and was quite impressed with his ability level for an 11 year old and wished he could somehow give him lessons. They really enjoyed it, but this really cracked me up: So I was upstairs with my friend, just chatting away, and her husband comes upstairs and asks her where his certificate for being a chess master is. She's been going through papers and reorganizing and so he figures she knows where she put it. She asks him why he needs it. He told A he was a chess master, and A says "Fake news." So he wanted to prove that he really was a real certified chess master! They found it and A was really excited to get to play against him.

I met my friend on a Harry Potter forum and we are both huge fans...I don't know many people who are as into it as we are, and no one will play Harry Potter trivia with me because they are sure I will win. (other than my other fan friends) So we decided to play. We ate pizza while we played, and I got one last question...it was a challenge type question. Rather than just asking the question that corresponds to the category on that card, because I was about to win, they got to choose the question I had to answer. So they were trying to make it really hard. The question was in what position was Vernon Dursley's desk in relation to the window in his office at work. Now, this seemed like an incredibly easy one to me, because it tells you in the very first book that he had a very good day at work because he yelled at 5 people and because his back was to the window, he didn't notice any of the strange things going on on the streets below. But apparently my friend didn't remember that particular part of the first book because she thought it was too obscure for me to know. If you want to trip me up on HP, you have to use movie questions, not book questions. I am a book canon snob, but I have only watched each of the movies one or 2 times, except for the first two, which I can stand to watch more often because they follow the books pretty closely. But I've read the books probably 15 times, it's harder to find something I don't remember in the books.

After that, M picked us up and we went to perkins for dinner after taking A to McDonalds. Then we went back to Target and I got a Grumpy shirt that matches the pj pants I got at the character warehouse. Now I have a nice set of Grumpy pjs!! And then we went to bed.

I'm sorry, I took no pictures at ALL this day. I dropped the ball. And here end my notes, so everything from here on out is based on the pictures I have. At least I did have the sense to put these pictures into files by day.

Tuesday, August 6th

Today we planned to go to the other outlet. I had read that the outlet on International Drive was often less picked over because it was further from Disney. We got up and of course we went to Village Inn again...it was so convenient right there across the street, and my husband and son are huge fans of their French Silk Pie. I actually have some pictures from our breakfast! This must be E's because it has apples, and A doesn't eat fruit and I know I got eggs and bacon and biscuits with gravy. E also got a strawberry blintz.

That's it for pictures of breakfast because I figured no one cares about eggs and bacon, or the pancakes A ordered, and I don't care to lose a limb trying to get a picture of M's burrito before he starts chowing down.

Then we went to the outlets, again paying to park in premium paid parking because of a lack of parking in the regular free lots.
And here is where I should achieve Ultimate Auntie status!!
When we were in AK with my brother's family, N and E were having a blast in the Pandora store, playing with the banshees. N wanted one, soooo badly, and for that matter, so did my brother. But he thought the "discounted" price of $80 was still ridiculous. I can't disagree with him.
So we went to the character outlet just to see what they had.
We walked in, and right next to the door was a display.

I did a double take. Was that price correct? Wait...is this the real thing?? I asked...is this the banshee or is this an accessorie for them? Nope, it's the real banshee...limited colors, but the real thing....for 10 bucks. Merry Christmas, N!!! I could have it shipped directly to them for $5. So for $15, N gets a banshee for Christmas!!! I shall be Legen.....wait for it.....dary!!
When I sent my brother the message that this would be in the mail for N for Christmas, his jaw hit the floor. He showed his husband, who said "She DIDN'T!!! But it's WAY too much!" and then he showed him the price and he was shocked. My brother says "I'll try to remember it's for her."

Then we went to the Millenium Mall I think it's called? We were headed to the cheesecake factory, because I love their mashed potatoes. I order solely by what comes with the mashed potatoes. But there was a pretty long wait there, so we looked around the mall while we waited.
There was a swarovski store...I took some pictures at A's request.

His two favorite animals....sheep and turtles. He doesn't really care about what kind of sheep or turtles they are...bighorn sheep, merino sheep....if it's soft and wooly, he's a happy boy, and same with turtles....doesn't matter the coloring or size...if it has a shell on its back, he loves them. But since we can't buy these because we'd never get them home in one piece and they are too expensive, he asked me to take pictures for him to remember.

They had some beautiful pieces!! My brother-in-law would have loved this:

He keeps bees, and has a thing with dragonflies. When he and my brother got married, they had a dragonfly theme....it was on their invitations, their cake, etc....and my BIL has numerous tattoos of bees, dragonflies, flies, etc. This necklace made me think of him, as well as of @bee .

Then we went to dinner.

I don't remember what I ordered, but it came with mashed potatoes, which was the important thing.

This was hubby's I think...I know it involved spicy something and cashews...he was happy.

Dessert: I believe I got the Tuxedo cheesecake, E got Oreo cheesecake, which looked a lot like this, but had an oreo on top, and A ordered that chocolate cake in the background there, but didn't like it because it was too rich, so E and I ate that, too.

 

[MegRuss626]

Monday, August 5th

We went to breakfast at Village Inn again, but Cannon wasn't there. Food was good though. Then we went to my friend's house. She and her husband live in Kissimmee. When we went to Disney in 2010, we stayed with them, and we had a great time, but her husband tends to get on people's nerves. He really wants to appear intelligent and he will insist on telling you how you should handle situations, or...for example, they haven't been to Disney in several years now, so they've never done FoP, or seen Pandora, nor Toy Story Land, but he will tell you you should do this thing or that thing that doesn't exist anymore, and he will insist you just weren't looking in the right place for it. And he IS an intelligent man, he just doesn't know when to admit he doesn't know something. So last time we came to Disney, we only stayed with them for a couple of days and it was kind of a disaster,(not because of the husband, but it's a long story, and not important) so this time we just went there for the day, and my husband just dropped us off and went to go play Ingress somewhere. So A loves chess. He belongs to a club and has lessons there every week, and he's getting pretty good. My friend's husband is a chess master. He works for an online chess website and there happened to be some sort of national or international chess tournament in Orlando that week, and he was going to be there to help out with it, but not the day we were at their house. So he played chess with A and was quite impressed with his ability level for an 11 year old and wished he could somehow give him lessons. They really enjoyed it, but this really cracked me up: So I was upstairs with my friend, just chatting away, and her husband comes upstairs and asks her where his certificate for being a chess master is. She's been going through papers and reorganizing and so he figures she knows where she put it. She asks him why he needs it. He told A he was a chess master, and A says "Fake news." So he wanted to prove that he really was a real certified chess master! They found it and A was really excited to get to play against him.

I met my friend on a Harry Potter forum and we are both huge fans...I don't know many people who are as into it as we are, and no one will play Harry Potter trivia with me because they are sure I will win. (other than my other fan friends) So we decided to play. We ate pizza while we played, and I got one last question...it was a challenge type question. Rather than just asking the question that corresponds to the category on that card, because I was about to win, they got to choose the question I had to answer. So they were trying to make it really hard. The question was in what position was Vernon Dursley's desk in relation to the window in his office at work. Now, this seemed like an incredibly easy one to me, because it tells you in the very first book that he had a very good day at work because he yelled at 5 people and because his back was to the window, he didn't notice any of the strange things going on on the streets below. But apparently my friend didn't remember that particular part of the first book because she thought it was too obscure for me to know. If you want to trip me up on HP, you have to use movie questions, not book questions. I am a book canon snob, but I have only watched each of the movies one or 2 times, except for the first two, which I can stand to watch more often because they follow the books pretty closely. But I've read the books probably 15 times, it's harder to find something I don't remember in the books.

After that, M picked us up and we went to perkins for dinner after taking A to McDonalds. Then we went back to Target and I got a Grumpy shirt that matches the pj pants I got at the character warehouse. Now I have a nice set of Grumpy pjs!! And then we went to bed.

I'm sorry, I took no pictures at ALL this day. I dropped the ball. And here end my notes, so everything from here on out is based on the pictures I have. At least I did have the sense to put these pictures into files by day.

Tuesday, August 6th

Today we planned to go to the other outlet. I had read that the outlet on International Drive was often less picked over because it was further from Disney. We got up and of course we went to Village Inn again...it was so convenient right there across the street, and my husband and son are huge fans of their French Silk Pie. I actually have some pictures from our breakfast! This must be E's because it has apples, and A doesn't eat fruit and I know I got eggs and bacon and biscuits with gravy. E also got a strawberry blintz.
View attachment 420590
View attachment 420591

That's it for pictures of breakfast because I figured no one cares about eggs and bacon, or the pancakes A ordered, and I don't care to lose a limb trying to get a picture of M's burrito before he starts chowing down.

Then we went to the outlets, again paying to park in premium paid parking because of a lack of parking in the regular free lots.
And here is where I should achieve Ultimate Auntie status!!
When we were in AK with my brother's family, N and E were having a blast in the Pandora store, playing with the banshees. N wanted one, soooo badly, and for that matter, so did my brother. But he thought the "discounted" price of $80 was still ridiculous. I can't disagree with him.
So we went to the character outlet just to see what they had.
We walked in, and right next to the door was a display.
View attachment 420592

I did a double take. Was that price correct? Wait...is this the real thing?? I asked...is this the banshee or is this an accessorie for them? Nope, it's the real banshee...limited colors, but the real thing....for 10 bucks. Merry Christmas, N!!! I could have it shipped directly to them for $5. So for $15, N gets a banshee for Christmas!!! I shall be Legen.....wait for it.....dary!!
When I sent my brother the message that this would be in the mail for N for Christmas, his jaw hit the floor. He showed his husband, who said "She DIDN'T!!! But it's WAY too much!" and then he showed him the price and he was shocked. My brother says "I'll try to remember it's for her."

Then we went to the Millenium Mall I think it's called? We were headed to the cheesecake factory, because I love their mashed potatoes. I order solely by what comes with the mashed potatoes. But there was a pretty long wait there, so we looked around the mall while we waited.
There was a swarovski store...I took some pictures at A's request.
View attachment 420593View attachment 420594

His two favorite animals....sheep and turtles. He doesn't really care about what kind of sheep or turtles they are...bighorn sheep, merino sheep....if it's soft and wooly, he's a happy boy, and same with turtles....doesn't matter the coloring or size...if it has a shell on its back, he loves them. But since we can't buy these because we'd never get them home in one piece and they are too expensive, he asked me to take pictures for him to remember.

They had some beautiful pieces!! My brother-in-law would have loved this:
View attachment 420595

He keeps bees, and has a thing with dragonflies. When he and my brother got married, they had a dragonfly theme....it was on their invitations, their cake, etc....and my BIL has numerous tattoos of bees, dragonflies, flies, etc. This necklace made me think of him, as well as of @bee .

Then we went to dinner.
View attachment 420596

I don't remember what I ordered, but it came with mashed potatoes, which was the important thing.

View attachment 420597

This was hubby's I think...I know it involved spicy something and cashews...he was happy.
View attachment 420598

Dessert: I believe I got the Tuxedo cheesecake, E got Oreo cheesecake, which looked a lot like this, but had an oreo on top, and A ordered that chocolate cake in the background there, but didn't like it because it was too rich, so E and I ate that, too.
View attachment 420599

The tuxedo is my absolute FAVORITE cheesecake when we eat there!!