My Really? Let's go, really? YAY!!!! Trip Report March 15 - 17, 2010

My first trip of the year! Yay!!!!!

Background: We have a family owned condo in the Siesta Key/ Sarasota area (my Chicago based inlaw's "snow bird" place.) Which of course = free beach trip whenever we want, so we headed down for Spring Break. We had decided due to the cost of stopping off at WDW and the fact that we have a trip planned in December, we would just skip a visit to Orlando this trip.

Well, on the way down, DH turns to me and says - "Let's just go." Really? Let's go really? Yep. He meant it. My MIL was flying in to join us at the condo on Sunday, so we decided to head to WDW on Monday and depart on Wednesday. Originally, we wanted to do 2 days in the parks, but my MIL is not big on theme parks and when we thought about it, we didn't want to put her through 2 Theme Park Commando days. 1 would just about do her in! (Plus we'd save about $200 on park tickets.) So we decided on one "go until you drop day at MK - Tuesday March 16.

We called WDW reservations - managed to get a room at All Star Music for both nights (WITH the 20% discount!) We decided against the DDP since there were no ressies available - I started a thread - thanks to everyone who answered! :wave:

We arrived around 3pm on Monday (couldn't get the hubby to move any faster! I would have been there at 8! :ROFLOL We found ASMu in pieces!

Well, not really, they were just redoing the bus stop area. This is what some of the temporary bus stops looked like:

Check in!

Sonny with a Chance I think?

I think this is my negotiator husband asking - can't you get us any closer to the food court?

The answer was no, and we ended up in Rock - on the back side (which we love - SO quiet!)

I'd like to take this opportunity to say that there were 4 billion cheerleaders there when we arrived. I think the Cheer Competition was the weekend before. We had ZERO problems with them! :sohappy: I think the lifeguards had a little trouble doing their jobs...... it was probably hard to concentrate on the water...... but other than that, they were all well behaved and well mannered.

After a little snack from the food court:

We were off to Downtown Disney!

 

[erstwo]

Yay!

Now, DS is no fool. He knows when Grandma is around, presents will be bought, so we headed straight for the Lego store:

While they were shopping, I was on the phone with WDW dining again, trying to get a last minute ADR, still no luck. But I was determined to at least TRY to get a walk up at Chef Mickeys. In 5 trips to WDW we had never eaten there before and my kiddos were always so sad when we rode the monorail past it or walked past it and we had to tell them that we couldn't eat there. So, we decided to risk it (we'd had a snack after all!) and if we couldn't get in we'd just head over to the GF Cafe or Kona, etc. (which so many of you so kindly suggested!)

After waiting fo'evah for a bus to the Contemporary we finally made it to the desk of Chef Mickey's at about 6:15. I was thinking NO WAY are we getting in, but I'd made everyone come this far, so I waited in line and I could hear the couple in front of me talking "Let's just try, you never know...... and so on" and realized I had ANOTHER walk up in front of me. Bummer. I figured no way two of us were getting in and sure enough we make it to the desk and the family in front of me talks to the lady at the counter and sure enough they walk away. So I take a deep breath and prepare my sob story and ask if there is any availability for a party of 5. Sure, she says but it might be an hour wait, BUT then she leans in close to me and says, "but it might not." and handed me a pager. (And I hadn't even broken out my sob story!)

Hold onto your ears Mickey! We are waiting it out! So I ran and told DH & MIL and they agreed to stay close by. 16 minutes later we were paged! WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO! :sohappy:

LOVED IT! Sorry, guys I'm still too chicken to walk around taking photos of the buffet, but here are a few character poses:
(please note, this will be the only photo of me with my eyes open the entire trip as it was taken with our Canon Powershot, for some reason I can not keep my eyes open with our Nikon - I swear it's the preview light. Drives me bananas! )

See? Eyes closed. Curse you Nikon!

We were stuffed! And fired up for the Magic Kingdom "marathon" the next day!

 

[One Lil Spark]

Can't wait for the continuation! What a great weekend getaway. :sohappy:

By the way, your family is adorable!

 

[erstwo]

Up early and headed to the Food Court!

Not a bad line for Mickey waffles when you're there at 7:30

Breakfast with a Pirate:

Off to the Magic Kingdom for Rope Drop!

A real pirate and a princess:

20 Minutes to rope drop - Crowds to left:

Crowds to right:

Opening time!

Ready, set, go!

Rounding that corner still gives me chills! Even DH admitted it still gives him goose bumps when he first sees the Castle. Love it!

 

[plaz10]

Love the TR so far! Can't wait for more! Makes me really excited to be there in a little over 2 months!

 

[erstwo]

We all headed straight for Tomorrowland to Fastpass Space Mountain, but the line for SM fastpasses was already 15 minutes long, easily, so while DD, MIL & I headed for the Teacups, DH & DS fastpassed Buzz, then rode it, then rode TTA, and CoP.
There was no wait at the Teacups.

Yay! Spinning at 9 am! Not my usual morning spinning, but it will do!

Then DD & I got in line for Pooh, which had a 5 minute wait, when DD decided she didn't want to ride Pooh, she wanted to ride Dumbo. Really? Are you sure? She was sure. So off to the 30 minute wait we went:
Look at me!

DH & DS called & said they had obtained fastpasses to SM for everyone in our party of 5 (since our Buzz window had just opened up. Yay!)

Now, the forecast was for 71 and sunny, so I packed a sundress, long cardigan, and flip flops to wear to the park (see - not wanting to disrespect the parks by wearing my gym clothes!) But I was FREEZING TO DEATH! Still! At 10 am! And there was no going back to the room to change - I hadn't brought anything warmer (I packed for the beach! Not WDW.) And I KNEW the worst was yet to come, because we were going to stay until 10 for Wishes and I would be frozen again once the sun went down.

So I did it. I bought an outfit worthy of People of the Parks at Sir Mickey's. It cost a fortune and DH says it is ugly as sin, but I was warm! This is the picture he took of me (at around noon! Still cold enough to wear it!) to post on Facebook, of what he declared "the ugliest outfit I've ever seen you wear." But I thought it was cute enough - it's PAJAMAS for goodness sake!

You can't tell, but I had my dress and long cardigan tucked into the sweatshirt. It added a few pounds, but I was warm!

Never fear, I changed back once it warmed up. You'll get to see what I looked like "decent" when I post the Princess Tiana photos.

But now we were off to Snow White! In 5 visits I've never ridden this ride! Amazing! We crossed our fingers that our kiddos were old enough not to be scared and hopped on!

This is the only flash photo I took - I promise! Plus it was just us in the "car."

We had lunch at Cosmic Rays - Yummo as usual! I have no photos of this as some friends met us for lunch (there on Spring Break like us) and I didn't want to scare them with my incessant photo taking!

After lunch we all rode Buzz. And then DD wanted to see the Princesses & Fairies. So DH & DS headed for Pirates, Magic Carpets, etc. while we waited in the 45 minute line for the Princesses. The Fairy line was 1 HOUR and 30 MINUTES! This was at 12 noon. No way was I waiting that long when we only had one day, so we opted for Princesses only. So weird to think this will be gone one day soon:

Met Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Belle, took lots of photos, but this is my favorite:

DD was exhausted and fell asleep in the stroller while we were headed to meet up with DH & DS, so I walked around Main Street with her while she slept:
Fun times with the Dapper Dans:

Much more to come! Including our first visit with Princess Tiana.

 

[princessmelinda]

Can't wait for more! That is so exciting how it was a spur of the moment trip, I hope that happens to me someday . And I respect your decision to buy an outfit, when you are so uncomfortable with the cold you gotta do what you gotta do! That picture with your daughter and belle is adorable! What kind of camera do you have it is awesome!

 

[erstwo]

While touring Main Street with my still sleeping DD, I noticed they were doing some filming. Wondered for what? But didn't take the time to ask.

Now having waited for the Princesses for nearly an hour and walked around with DD for a little over an hour, I found a prime spot for watching the Parade on Main Street. Sat with DD until I got a text from DH saying that if we wanted to meet Princess Tiana, we needed to get there by 3:30. Thinking he meant she would only be there until 3:30 (and it was 3:00 - the high school band had already passed me by) I got up and let some sweet folks behind me have our spot and ran toward the Christmas shop/ Liberty Square. What DH actually meant was I needed to get in line at 3:30. So now I had a cranky DD and no princess to meet. Boo.

But I am glad we got in line early, because the line got very long, very quickly. Tiana and Naveen were wonderful!
Waiting our turn:

DS went right up to them both, but for some reason DD ran behind me and held on for dear life. DH & I couldn't figure out what was going on BUT Naveen said, "Let's try this." and went over to my left away from Tiana, while Tiana came behind me and walked DD over to the photo spot.
Amazing!! True magic. That was SO NICE OF THEM!

See? I was dressed decently when it was decently warm!

Great fun. By now, it was 4:15 and we needed to think of someplace to have dinner. I suggested Tony's but my MIL said "What about here?" and gestured toward the Crystal Palace. Once again I kind of laughed and said "No way are we getting in there." Well guess what? We got in! Seated at 4:45. An early dinner, but we weren't complaining!

It was fantastic. Our first dinner at CP. We'd only ever eaten breakfast there before.

All the rides had long lines.
5:30:

(Kindly, a stranger would later give us 2 Fastpasses for Peter Pan so DD and I could ride. Thank you!!!!!!!)
We opted for the ultimate people mover:

Which said at 30 minute wait, but was more like 15 - 20.
First time ever seeing the clock come "out." Never even knew it existed!

Does anyone know what these numbers MEAN? I've figured out 1974 and think "2" means 2nd park. But what about 50 and 63?

Just a tiny bit more to come, but I am tired. I'll continue soon!

 

[erstwo]

Can't wait for the continuation! What a great weekend getaway. :sohappy:

By the way, your family is adorable!

Thank you so much! Love that sweet baby in your avatar!

 

[TxNewsies]

I love your trip report! I must say, I am loving your pictures! The quality is awesome! If you don't mind me asking, what camera did you use?

 

[erstwo]

Love the TR so far! Can't wait for more! Makes me really excited to be there in a little over 2 months!

Thanks! Can I go with you? (Kidding! ) Hope you have a great trip! :wave:

Can't wait for more! That is so exciting how it was a spur of the moment trip, I hope that happens to me someday . And I respect your decision to buy an outfit, when you are so uncomfortable with the cold you gotta do what you gotta do! That picture with your daughter and belle is adorable! What kind of camera do you have it is awesome!

Thanks! It is a basic Nikon D40 with the kit lens. I have a nicer camera at home, but currently both that D40 AND the Canon Powershot are "broken" as a result of being dropped - by yours truly- one too many times. Well, actually, the Canon is the result of letting my kiddos play with my camera.

Anyway, all that to say - I don't take my more expensive camera and lenses anywhere, as I just haven't reached the point where I can care for them properly while on vacation. I care more about keeping up with my kids than worrying about if my camera is whacked up against the railing of a ride. But if you don't DROP it on the floor of MCO three times, a D40 takes fantastic photos and is a great way to get started in SLR photography.

 

[erstwo]

After IaSW, we headed for another people mover while DH & DS went on Space Mountain again.

I thought TTA was great. I had no problems with the new voice and I thought the part inside Space Mountain was great. Everything was open. No more tarps.

DH got a Switch Pass for SM and when he returned, we noticed that it said "admit up to 3 riders" so DH, DS and I rode together one more time while my MIL stayed with DD. We still had 2 Fastpasses left as we exited the ride, but it was time to find a spot for Spectro, so DH gave them away to a mother & daughter at the very end of the 1 hour and 15 minute line (we were just passing along the love - since that nice man had given us the Peter Pan fastpasses earlier!)

The hub was packed already, so we headed over to Frontierland. We ended up in our usual area, which I thought was fitting for our last viewing of Spectro for who knows how long.

DH and DS went to ride BTMRR while we saved our place.

I didn't get many good photos as the camera was acting up - I have to hit it to get it to focus sometimes...... not good! But I thought this look between Alice and the Rabbit was sweet.

Til we meet again Spectro!

We ran down to the end of Main Street to watch Wishes thinking we could hop on the bus before the crowds at the end. Once we got there, we realized about 1000 other people had the same idea, so we watched the very beginning (about 3 minutes):

And headed for our bus. We were sad to skip it, but we were TIRED and the kids were cold & sleepy.
There was a charter bus there to greet us - DH says they hire extra busses when the parks are extra busy/ the hotels are full??? I have no idea if he knows what he is talking about.

Either way, it was nice to have a smooth, quiet ride "home." After another night at ASMu, we had a nice food court breakfast and bid Disney good bye. See you in December! :xmas:

 

[tiaragirl]

This is the greatest! I love love love yoru daughter's bow, too cute. That picture with her and Belle is adorable.

Does anyone else find that Tiana and Naveen are always an impressively gorgeous looking couple? Yes? Hope I get to see them in May!

PS: The outfit coudl use a little work.. love the sundress though!

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I looooved reading your report! Thanks so much for sharing!!! Your family is absolutely Adorable with a capital 'A'. Did I spot a little redheaded boy there??? OOOOhhhhh...giddy giggles...I'm partial to the little redheaded boys...I have no idea whyyyyyy.... ((see pic of my own little fellas circa 2001-ish))

Your hideous get-up wasn't so hideous. It wouldn't be my first choice but at least you had matching top & bottom halves and it fit you. It'd have been bad if you bought it 3 sizes too small & had plumber's crack hangin' out the back. :lookaroun The sundress with cardigan is adorable tho. I wish I had that sort of fashion sense. It's so easy yet so freakin' cute.

Your son is an adorable little pirate. Has he done the Pirate's League? My 12 year old loooooved it! Your little girl is just precious with Belle (she's my favorite princess). The Tiana & Naveen pics were great, too. I need to go buy the DVD so I can see it. I hope to meet this pair when we make it back.

Oh! Camera dropping. Yes, I've done this too but not with a pricey camera, just a little point-n-shoot. The Powershot you have, is that the type that looks sorta like the DSLR's, has all the automatic settings with some manuals? We got our 14 year old a Canon Rebel XS for Christmas. I like his camera but don't think I'd ever use the manual settings so I was thinking maybe one of the souped up automatics might be a better fit for me. And! Have you seen the camera armor you can buy? I gave some thought to buying this for Chandler's camera before we gave it to him because it's an expensive piece of equipment and he's a kid. I didn't end up buying it which is a good thing since he's totally beyond about his camera. He doesn't carry it around outside his camera gear backpack. I guess it's a good thing he's so cautious with it.

Anywhoo, totally loved every moment of your marathon day. Glad y'all got to try Chef Mickeys and scored with not 1 but 2 walk-ups. It was meant to be for you. Yaaaaayyy!!!

 

[DecWDW]

What a fun unexpected "taste" of WDW. I loved the pic of your daughter in the teacup! When are you going in December? I'll be there from the 4th - 13th!

 

[margot2791]

Loved reading your report. Sometimes the most fun days at wdw are when you have to fit it all in one day! Great pics :sohappy:

 

[erstwo]

I love your trip report! I must say, I am loving your pictures! The quality is awesome! If you don't mind me asking, what camera did you use?

Thanks! Did you see my earlier reply? It's just a basic Nikon D40 with the kit lens.

This is the greatest! I love love love yoru daughter's bow, too cute. That picture with her and Belle is adorable.

Does anyone else find that Tiana and Naveen are always an impressively gorgeous looking couple? Yes? Hope I get to see them in May!

PS: The outfit coudl use a little work.. love the sundress though!

I think Tiana and Naveen are adorable. More than one mom behind me said something along the lines of "Hello Handsome" when Naveen came out. But to me, that's just weird - maybe if he was out of costume? :shrug: I've heard they are a permanent meet & greet. They built that whole little area just for them - landscaped and everything. I too hope you see them in May!

Just don't report me to people of the parks okay!

I looooved reading your report! Thanks so much for sharing!!! Your family is absolutely Adorable with a capital 'A'. Did I spot a little redheaded boy there??? OOOOhhhhh...giddy giggles...I'm partial to the little redheaded boys...I have no idea whyyyyyy.... ((see pic of my own little fellas circa 2001-ish))

Your hideous get-up wasn't so hideous. It wouldn't be my first choice but at least you had matching top & bottom halves and it fit you. It'd have been bad if you bought it 3 sizes too small & had plumber's crack hangin' out the back. :lookaroun The sundress with cardigan is adorable tho. I wish I had that sort of fashion sense. It's so easy yet so freakin' cute.

Your son is an adorable little pirate. Has he done the Pirate's League? My 12 year old loooooved it! Your little girl is just precious with Belle (she's my favorite princess). The Tiana & Naveen pics were great, too. I need to go buy the DVD so I can see it. I hope to meet this pair when we make it back.

Oh! Camera dropping. Yes, I've done this too but not with a pricey camera, just a little point-n-shoot. The Powershot you have, is that the type that looks sorta like the DSLR's, has all the automatic settings with some manuals? We got our 14 year old a Canon Rebel XS for Christmas. I like his camera but don't think I'd ever use the manual settings so I was thinking maybe one of the souped up automatics might be a better fit for me. And! Have you seen the camera armor you can buy? I gave some thought to buying this for Chandler's camera before we gave it to him because it's an expensive piece of equipment and he's a kid. I didn't end up buying it which is a good thing since he's totally beyond about his camera. He doesn't carry it around outside his camera gear backpack. I guess it's a good thing he's so cautious with it.

Anywhoo, totally loved every moment of your marathon day. Glad y'all got to try Chef Mickeys and scored with not 1 but 2 walk-ups. It was meant to be for you. Yaaaaayyy!!!

Thanks! You HAVE to love a redhead and a blonde!! The funny thing is, my sister has the red hair, and she has two brunettes. When we go out to eat everyone thinks my children are hers and hers are mine.

We haven't done the Pirate's League, but might try in December! I know DS would love it.

My Powershot is pretty old - 4 years maybe?- it's one of the slimmer types that has a retractable lens. My Nikon D40 would pretty much be the equivalent of the Canon Rebel. I'm going to have to check into that camera armor!!! I have something similar for my iPhone (much needed to survive my small children!) You might want to ask someone in the photo area of this site more about an automatic SLR - I've heard great things about that new Nikon one - but sadly, I know just enough about cameras to be dangerous, so I'd hate to recommend the wrong thing! Just wait until your son starts using HIS manual settings! Then you'll really be in for it. Those lenses cost an arm and a leg! But he will deserve it for taking such good care of the camera.

What a fun unexpected "taste" of WDW. I loved the pic of your daughter in the teacup! When are you going in December? I'll be there from the 4th - 13th!

We'll be there the same week! We'll be the ones in the large, slow moving, noisy, THRILLED to be there Grand Gathering! My whole family will be there plus my sister's in laws. We CAN NOT wait!!! I swear every other mom at ballet (our daughters are 2 months apart and take ballet together) wants to strangle my sister & I. All we ever talk about is Disney. Every. Single. Week.

Loved reading your report. Sometimes the most fun days at wdw are when you have to fit it all in one day! Great pics :sohappy:

Thank you!

 

[unkadug]

You took some really good pictures. :wave:

 

[DizneyPryncess]

Loved your trip report! Your photographs are amazing - I especially love the one of your little girl on the tea cups & with Belle. You really have a beautiful family.

Happy to hear you had no problems with the cheerleaders! I have heard some horror stories, so it's nice to hear a positive story. Glad you had a great trip :wave:

 

[maggiegrace1]

Excellent report!..Love spur of the moments surprises..

Outfit was great..I would have done the same thing!..Gorgeous family!..