NebraskaMinnie's October 2012 Adventure

maryszhi · Sep 23, 2012

NebraskaMinnie said:
Pre-trip report.

Very excited about upcoming trip and hoping to get some tips and tricks as its been a while since I've been and I feel like I know just enough to be dangerous.

So.. who's going on this one?
Me, Tobi. - the planner and reservation maker, I'm a teacher (8th grade) who LOVES WDW. I've been 4 times now and my favorite trip was my honeymoon in 98 with my hubby where we stayed at Wilderness Lodge. Looking forward to this trip to celebrate my 40th birthday on October 8th- where I'll be in one of my grad classes to finish my masters degree- not the ideal bday I was hoping for but heading to Florida the next week makes up for it!

The Hubby, Stever (its Steve but I've always called him stever), 41, a railroader, all around one of the nicest guys you could ever meet- he puts up with me at my worst and makes me shine even brighter when I'm at my best. He even helps me grade papers sometimes... shhhh don't tell my students! We've been married for 14 years (a fair amount of them have been good ), he likes WDW because its a vacation where we aren't just sitting around on a beach (another favorite destination of mine) and together we've been 3 times.

Our DD- Gracie. Gracie Mae is 10 and amazing. I know everyone's 10 year old is pretty amazing but mine is one of those kids that is so good you get nervous/suspicious and yet I can't seem to catch her being bad. (This probably means her teen years will give me a run for my money, right?) She has NEVER been to WDW and frankly to be honest is mostly excited about Universal and Harry Potter World as she calls it and really I don't think she cares to much for the first part of our trip at my favorite resort! Yes yes in this way I've failed her.

For this trip our littlest- Tatum, 2 (my profile pic kiddo) will be staying back at home- she's just so young and doesn't travel very well and my sisters really want some quality time with her which she was happy to oblige them with.

The dates: We'll be at WDW staying at POFQ from Saturday, October 13th until Wednesday, October 17th at which point we transfer early early Thursday morning to Universal's Royal Pacific until Sunday, October 21st when we fly home. We have 4.5 days at WDW and 3 full days at US. Should be enough time to get in a lot of good stuff for two veterans and one 10 yr old newbie.

The Plans:
This time we're trying the DDP - alas our week is not free dining, but still the thought that we paid for meals for part of our trip is helpful as we've been putting money aside these past few months. Stever and I are usually happy with counter service for most meals and have never really been people who go to WDW for food. However, in the past 10 years since we've been we've both become much more interested (darn food network) in different foods and wine even. So this trip may prove to be just right for us during Food and Wine festival at Epcot. I knew we were bound to grow up in some ways eventually. We also thought with Gracie we could take in some extra table service meals to remind us to slow down sometimes and give her a rest. We tend to go go go until we drop back at the hotel at night.

We get in Saturday around noon.

Saturday night (arrival night): Garden Grill at Epcot's LAND- our main goal this night is to catch Illuminations (my favorite night show) and get Gracie introduced to some of the attractions here at Epcot but we're not counting on getting many in arriving so late. Originally we were going to do counter service but Gracie's friend had gone here and it was open so we opted to add it.

Sunday- Hopefully we'll get to MK by rope drop and after a few attractions we are to have a late breakfast at Crystal Palace in MK. Stever is a bkfst guy and likes to fill up on this meal rather than the end of the day. This is the one reservation I'm tempted to cancel as I wasn't planning on being at MK this day and would rather go straight to HS- but it was the only reservation we could get to eat here and we'd heard good things?!? Again, not ideal but halfway through the day we'll either rest at hotel or just go straight to DHS for a dinner ressie at 50s Prime Time Cafe. Although it will be one of the most crowded night for it we'll try to catch Fantasmic here and stay the extended hours for hotel guests.

Monday- this is our day devoted to MK (again) with a break in the afternoon if needed and dinner at Chef Mickey's - Steve and I's favorite character meal- I hope they still have parmesan mashed potatoes. Back to MK after dinner for Wishes and extra hours to be sure we get a few extra rides on the Haunted Mansion. If Gracie ends up liking some of the mountain rides we'll do those again too -but we're open to what she's okay with- she's agreed to try everything that doesn't go upside down and we're just so happy she's going to try that- we'll see how it goes. I know there's plenty of other rides/shows she'll like.

Tuesday- this is our animal kingdom day- this is not a favorite park for Steve and I - in fact the last time we came we skipped it entirely- however we both think Gracie will enjoy it as she is a huge animal lover- this girl swears she can communicate with animals and in regards to our Golden Retriever and our Jack Russel - she does- our cat however doesn't understand or like her much at all. No special meals for us there- we snack and get counter service food- we will make sure to try out our hotel's breakfast probably on this day. This will easily be a half day at the park for us which is good as we need to get back to the hotel to change into something for MNSSHP. While I'm really excited for this a lot of our friends have told us they've heard this is a waste of money- luckily folks here on the site have confirmed my excitement and I'm looking forward to it. We have a very early dinner reservation at Liberty Inn, a restaurant I've always wanted to try but haven't made it to yet. So I'm excited for the dinner too.

Wednesday- I have some friends traveling down who will be headed to epcot on this day for the princess breakfast (something Gracie asked to skip) so we plan on meeting up with them in the afternoon and spending a lot of time with them either here or at MK. We made a last minute ADR for an early dinner at Teppan Edo in case we stay at EPCOT- but I'm thinking we may be missing it and doing counter service with our friends instead if we stay so we can get a great spot for Illuminations. (Perfect way for me to say goodbye to WDW as we'll leave for Universal the following day.)

Thursday/Friday/Saturday- we have a mears town car coming for us at 6:30am thurs morning to transfer us from POFQ to Royal Pacific at US- we have not stayed at POFQ yet and are both excited and nervous. He and I have stayed at PORiverside and Coronado Springs and Wilderness Lodge and have wanted to stay at the FQ but hadn't gotten in- this plays fills up fast reservation-wise- which must be a good sign, right? We know the theming is more adult but Gracie's a bit of a shrunk down adult so it should still be fine- she's excited for the pool and we hope we get there once or twice- just don't know what the weather will be like in October- last time we were there in OCT we didn't swim but in Sept another year we did- so I guess we'll see?

Our goals for Universal- try to get to WWHP early thursday morning during extra hour for hotel guests and maybe even get her the wand she's been dreaming of since she found out we were going. I want to go to Mythos but they both want to try Three Broomsticks so that debate goes on to this day. Either way we'll most certainly all try butterbeer (he's going to get regular and I'll get frozen so we too can weigh in on the preference between the two versions) and more than likely Gracie will end up spending most of the allowance she's saved here. Its Islands of Adventure on Thursday with Universal Studios being our Friday stop with Saturday being about hitting our favorites at both parks one more time.

I wanted to try Cafe Monster but saw a thread about dining at US and no one really recommended it so if there are any fans or haters of that place I'd love to hear it. I also noticed no one got excited about Mel's diner. So my two go to places for Universal are up in the air I think. My husband and I are big fans of Hard Rock and I liked NBA City so we're not hurting for options just curious about doing something different.

As HHN will be going on we'll be going miniature golfing or seeing some movies at night. This will actually be nice as we don't get to do that much at home. Steve's job has him working strange hours and we don't get to do things like this very often- she and I will see movies or he and I will but we don't get to go much as a family these days so its going to be fun to do some of these things that aren't necessarily part of the parks but a great opportunity for us to hang out together that we don't get at home. I'm bummed we'll miss the Cinematic show as we're only there Thurs/Fri/Sat all of which are HHNights.

Our flight leaves early enough on Sunday there isn't much time to do anything at the parks- so we'll be lucky to get a something to eat at the airport. Wow- getting to writing about the last day has me feeling nostalgic as though it will all go very quickly. May have to go back to the first day to remind myself I'm not there yet.

Open to any input anyone has on our dining choices or advice or tips for navigating the parks. Stever and I were last there in 2002 (for my 30th birthday and a celebration of being two years cancer free- in truth it was a reward to myself for getting through the first few years of tests and treatments- and now.. to think now I'm a 12 year survivor! woo hoo) I'll be having a Raspberry Rita at margaritaville to celebrate that one too!

thanks for reading and I look forward to sending you more either during or after the trip. I'll have to go in and do some research about uploading photos I tried but alas don't think I had much luck. Clearly a learning curve for me- I'll get it eventually.

For those who will be there in the second week in October- see you in the parks!

So there you have it - our pre-trip report.

i might bump into you guys my friend and i are going from the 15-19ish

have a magical time. also i love your trip idea

maryszhi · Sep 23, 2012

also instead of the garden grill, can i recommend via napoli . its amazing and a great spot to go right outside a few steps for a great view of illuminations

NebraskaMinnie · Oct 30, 2012

I think its time to sit down and try to relive some of the magic typing up a trip report. I will need some advice at some point on adding photos. We did take some great ones but alas, I'm not so good at uploading them on the forums. Still have a lot to learn.

Also- I want to thank those of you who weighed in or supported our going ahead on the trip or advised us against it- either way the support was so appreciated. My mother did fine - in fact the past week (since we've returned) she's had a really consistent week of nothing but good health days. She's even left her house a few times and joined friends at lunch etc. She's getting a lot more used to going out with the oxygen tank etc. There were moments on the trip where I enjoyed some great memories of my one trip to the parks with her and also thinking over some of my favorite attractions I'd know she'd enjoy if only I could get her there. I take joy now in sharing my experience with my daughter with her on those shows/rides I know she would have enjoyed that they've added since she last went.

Okay- back to the trip...

We live in Lincoln Nebraska but knew our flight was leaving at 5:45 on Saturday morning - we made arrangements to spend the night in Omaha (where our flight left from) and had dinner with friends before returning to our hotel room to try to get some sleep before an early flight. It was a great way to start out a trip that had been such a long time in the making.

Day 1- (Saturday October 13) we got up about 4 am to pull everything together and get ourselves to the long term parking garage and get checked in for our flights on United Airlines. Our flights had had a bit of crazy strike as we had to change our flights the day before to guarantee we could make the connecting flight - the airline had never informed us of changes made after our booking BUT I will say the person my husband worked with from UA was cooperative and did her best to guarantee we would all sit together on a connecting flight from Houston into Orlando - arriving about the same time our original flight did. Thanks UA!

This was our first time using Disney's Magic Express. Wow- what a set up. There were many others on board the plane (some even from Omaha) heading to the resorts just like us. We seemed to move in one large mass and in truth it made it very easy to find where we were going. I like MCO and while I know it can be more expensive to fly into this airport I still find the convenience is so worth it. We found our line for Disney's Port Orleans French Quarter and lined up with the others. The line moved quickly and within 20 minutes we were on our way to the hotel (or our hotel after stopping at a few others, which we didn't mind.) My daughter at 10 was a bit perplexed about the magic pixie dust and wasn't that amused like the other kids- but in all fairness she had been up since before the sun and was already getting pretty tired.

We got checked in at our hotel and our room was ready. WE opted not to do online check in as my husband and I hadn't visited since 2002! We were afraid we might have more questions than we thought. We went to Sassagoula Food Factory and picked out our souvenir cups, grabbed something to drink then headed to our rooms. (In retrospect we should have grabbed food here- taken a nap and then headed out for the evening.) But being that I was dying to try Earl of Sandwich and thought my husband would love it, we left our carry ons in our room - knew our luggage would be delivered later and headed off to catch a boat to Downtown Disney. It was a Saturday afternoon- and I shouldn't have expected anything less but it was PACKED!!! Both DTD and Earls. But, is was well worth it. I had a great sandwich (downside of doing my trip report so late- I forgot its name I only hope I'll remember one day so I can order it again!) My husband got a reuben and my daughter got a yogurt and a fruit cup along with a lemon slush that was very good! We ate quickly and headed to World of Disney to look for my daughters big "Must Have Item" from WDW. She had saved up $180 for souvenirs- she knew she wanted to save at least 80 for Universal our last three days but she had seen an old fashioned Disney alarm clock- you know the ones with the big brass bells on top that could wake up an entire household when it goes off? She was dying to find one at the parks and I figured World of Disney would be our best bet. With delivery back to our room we figured we were in great shape to have it delivered and still head on to our night plans from here. Sadly we didn't have any luck finding her this clock. I did however find a sweatshirt for one of my sisters and a tiny Minnie shirt for my own little mini me at home. (My Tatum (see profile pic) who was staying home with family and friends as she is only 3 and autistic. This was not the time to take her but this was also a rare opportunity that our older daughter, Gracie needed to be the focus again as we have spent the past 3 years focusing on my Tater tot. It was a truly good thing for Gracie but very hard for me to go through some homesickness missing Tatum. She doesn't like to hear things from the phone or really anything near her ears so I couldn't even call to hear her or talk "at" her.) We had our small purchases delivered to our room and went to go phone a bus station. We had about two hours to get to our ADR at Garden Grill (a last minute add on) for a character meal with Chip and Dale. We headed to the bus stops at DTD and opted to grab the first monorail hotel bus that came along- fortunately for us it turned out to be for the Grand Floridian! Arriving at this hotel my daughter had a burst of a second wind. She LOVED this hotel and daydreamed about one day staying there- I thought, I daydream about it too kid! We did a quick run through the lobby and looked over the instruments on the second floor- my Gracie loves playing music- she plays both violin and clarinet and hopes to soon add the sax. Again this just added to her initial love of this hotel.
The monorail ride was very crowded and I got sad when I saw once again there were couples who refused to stand so that smaller children or older folks could have the security of sitting. We'd taught Gracie that whenever we could we would always give up our seats on buses or other forms of transportation to people who couldn't reach the bars above or who seemed older. Even at 10 our daughter is quite tall so she could hold onto top bars with some ease and enjoyed the rides on the monorails even standing.
We had enough time to sneak on to Spaceship Earth- which turned out to be one of her favorite rides of the whole trip! We caught a bit of excitement at Innoventions- did the fire challenge and did quite well! Then watched the folks train on the segways. We did a quick survey- on what I can't recall- we did quite a few of these and then headed over to the "land' for our dinner reservations. The place was absolutely packed- I'd never seen it this crowded and worried about what the week would hold in terms of crowds. We went to a quick showing of Circle of Life and then checked in for our dinner.
Garden Grill: I was not overly impressed with this meal. I do not think we will return. The food was not really to our liking although both my daughter and I enjoyed the steak, we didn't like the fish or the turkey as well as I'd hoped and the children's items were not anything my daughter was interested in at all. Most of the characters were very good but we were disappointed that Chip and Dale wouldn't stop to pose together for a pic with my daughter even though they were standing together and could have (it seemed, in all fairness I don't know.) Our waiter was good, although he often brought us sprite instead of water- which was still refreshing so we didn't complain. I think the hardest part for me was the rotating. I was getting a bit motion sick with the heaviness of the food and the visual movement I struggled a bit but I too could have been very tired. Who knows perhaps one day we will have to give this place another try as the odds may have been stacked against it.
One really good thing that came out of it was my daughter's determination to get autographs- we hadn't predicted this as she didn't seem excited to see characters so much as we were to see her with them. But on the first floor- I believe the exit for the Soarin ride she bought an autograph book and a pen to have the characters sign and we had started at this meal and she had fun with this.

First night turns out to be a bust: Here's one of my first bad planning parent moments. I had wanted to get a good spot for Illuminations after we ate but on a saturday night during food and wine festival by 8:15 all the good spots were already taken. We found a small standing spot by a trash can and settled in but you could tell each of us was exhausted. The early flights and running around had caught up with us. I had planned a second option for Illuminations on our last night so we had a mini family meeting and decided unanimously to return to our hotel and call it an early night. I had a mixture of emotions. Illuminations was my favorite nighttime show and I was sad to leave but I knew we all needed a break and sitting for over an hour would be too hard and make us miserable when we really did have an early start the following morning. So we cut our losses and headed back to our room. Our luggage was there, we all had relaxing showers or a bath and we settled in for the night.
It wasn't the first dream day I'd planned or hoped for but we were there and I was ready to get started on a memorable getaway.

(again if anyone can post some advice on posting pics I'd sure appreciate it. I know I'm long winded- a former English teacher (now history) I can go on for a bit and the pics would make it a bit more entertaining I'd imagine.) But thanks for sticking with me, I may be able to add more later but its time to get the kids tucked in for bed for the night.

NebraskaMinnie · Oct 30, 2012

Sunday- Day 2.
After a decent nights sleep we got to Magic Kingdom by the opening time. (Oh, did I forget to mention gracie didn't find that alarm clock she was looking for! I was shocked not to find it at World of Disney- however we would find one later!) Back to MK, Gracie loved Main Street. She loved the shops, the bakery just everything. Steve and I wanted to get Space Mountain and some favorites in Tomorrowland done before it got crowded. We went straight to Buzz Lightyear in case we needed Fastpasses. We walked right on so we jumped in and had fun. Once again I managed to beat my video game playing husband because he doesn't research great spots to shoot at on message boards like this and others like I do.

We all had fun. Then we jumped straight on the People mover with again- NO line. Gosh, its unbelievable with all the crowds you come in with at the opening time just how empty it feels at the beginning of the day. On the People mover we got Gracie, our 10 yr old roller coaster hating daughter, excited to try Space Mountain. I think there were some social demands on her from her friends back here to go on it at least once so it looked like this was our chance with a 10 minute wait. Again- we all had fun- this was one of those rides I remember going on with my mom when I was 12 and we first visited. She was so scared the whole time I was going to fly out. We got a great laugh reliving that memory with Gracie when we got back home as she said- I bet you did, I about fell out- which of course she didn't but ... not a fan of roller coasters. She tried and I'm proud of her for each one of the rides she tried on this trip that weren't really her "thing". After Space Mountain she wasn't feeling well and wanted a nice calm walk over to our breakfast at Crystal Palace. So we took a stroll through fantasyland and eyeing some of the new expansion on our way to the restaurant. Our table was ready right when we got there and this was hands down one of our favorite meals.

Crystal Palace (breakfast): Again a favorite for us on this trip. The food was all good, Gracie couldn't get enough cereal, rolls, fruit and even tried some eggs. We loved the fun family atmosphere and the characters were great. Our favorite part was our waiter Judd. He was great. He would stop by whenever we seemed to need something and always had a fun trivia question for us. Gracie enjoyed the challenge and we all did our best not to cheat and look up the answers on our phones. We noticed a lot of servers doing this on our trip and we enjoyed it each time. I don't know if others do- but we always got a kick out of it. Judd had the hardest questions for us! Highly recommend.

Our afternoon called for a trip over to Hollywood Studios. So we decided that right after breakfast we would head back to our hotel for those recommended afternoon nap/breaks and then we'd head back out to the parks later. It was great! We got back by 11:30 and swam did some laundry (wow that is so easy and convenient at POFQ) and then before 3 we got back to the bus stop and headed to HS. The bus was crowded which wasn't surprising considering this was to be an Extra Hours night for studios for resort guests. So a lot of other folks had the same plans we did.

We made it there just in time for the Motor Parade and wow- we are huge Pixar fans. Steve was so excited to see some of the characters he loaded up his phone with pictures. We have never been parade people but this trip we really wanted to stop and watch as many as we could because we felt Gracie would enjoy that part of it and we were right- she almost always did. After the parade, we went straight to the Great Movie Ride- one of my favorites I knew Gracie would enjoy it too. Steve and I were a little bummed with the crook- she didn't "sell" it like the folks in the past and we felt like Gracie wouldn't get the enjoyment out of it we were hoping for- but we were wrong. She loved it all and having never seen it before didn't notice the lack of enthusiasm on the part of the actors. We got through that ride and opted to head to the Muppet Show "show" its probably one of Steve's favorites. We both grew up on that show as kids and we LOVE the nostalgic feeling we get seeing the muppets. We had great seats and Gracie enjoyed it too. (She was so happy when we did shows as opposed to rides.)

After that we headed to Star Tours - with a 20 minute wait we didn't think that was so bad and we had an hour still before dinner. If that wait was only 20 minutes that was a really LONG 20 minutes- it could be the line outside -but I don't remember waiting that long in the past. We all enjoyed the updates- although I always get a little sick on rides like this where you're in a small room simulator and no surprise I felt a bit icky afterwards again. As we were right by Indiana Jones and the show time was about to start we jumped in at the last minute and got bumped straight to the front on the side but it was still better seats than I've ever had before and this too became a Gracie favorite.

A very early dinner at 4:30 was next at Primetime Cafe. This is probably Steve and I's favorite park restaurant and we've dined here since our honeymoon in 98. The food is always good the staff is always fun and we always leave satisfied. Although our waiter was hilarious he didn't interact or involve us in much of his shenanigans. This might have been a good thing as we all had trouble clearing our plates. Steve challenged him on the elbows thing but another server came by to correct him and he did blush. Gracie was nervous about being embarrassed and I often wonder if our waiter was so used to this that he picked up on it and spared us the attention. We enjoyed the fun for the tables around us and Gracie even wanted to stick around long after we were done and ready just to see what he'd do next. She was really enjoying herself and we were all really starting to relax. I did try the roast beef and while it was good I thought Gracie's pork chops were better and I think next time I may order those instead of the roast beef. Somehow I never have room for the Smores desert- another "someday" wish list item.

Now we did a true walk through of the whole park- showing Gracie fun spots. We spent a lot of time checking out the Toy Story mania madness- sure enough FP were gone and there was a crazy line way out the door. Steve thought about doing Rock N Roller Coaster- I had wanted to do Little Mermaid but the show times didn't match up yet so we headed down by RNR and Tower of Terror. Gracie had been looking forward to trying the Tower. I'd told her she didn't even have to think about the RNR as it goes upside down and I'd promised she wouldn't have to try anything that did that on this trip. So Steve debated riding solo and I thought about taking her on ToT but she didn't want to and started getting a tummy ache in nervousness we think. We sat and watched a show with lucy and marilyn monroe out in the streets and even took a water break and sat and people watched for a while. Since we were so close and the line was already building we debated getting in line for Fantasmic but it seemed too early. So we went back and those two did Star Tours again and then we went back to the Fantasmic line. Of course that was just enough time to get us back in time for Standing Room Only. ughh! We again debated Tower as it didn't have a line. I think i made Gracie fell a little guilty about not trying- not my best parenting moment. But we all opted to use some quick service credits and the three of us split 2 hot dog meals at Fairfax Fare- wow the BBQ Pork hot dog was really good! We found that splitting our quick service credits worked well for us instead of using three we ordered two things "meals" and split it between us and we didn't feel so overwhelmed- this also paid off on our last night when we had enough credits to get a whole pizza while he and I packed us up. (But that's later.)

We people watched again and just talked about what we liked what we didn't and Steve and I shared a lot of memories with Gracie. My friend and her family arrived but was at Epcot that night instead of Studios so we ended missing one another but texting a lot. A group of people starting lining up for Fantasmic for the 9:00 show and this time we jumped in line and stayed. Seriously I think it was 7:45 when folks started lining up for that late show! Sunday night I figured. In the end it paid off- we got front row seats right smack in the center of the theater and although we got wet we loved every second of it. We could hear the Illuminations show I think and that was fun knowing our friends were just on the other side of the trees enjoying a different show even though I was a tiny bit jealous since I'd missed it the night before. I think at some point I even got a little teary eyed seeing how happy my daughter was watching this show and telling me about the characters she saw on the boat at the end. She was super excited to see Meg from Hercules and some of the other not mainstreamed characters - the wait was so so worth it.
Afterwards we got serious. We got straight to Little Mermaid while many went straight to Toy Story Mania. We always enjoy the Little Mermaid show and it was a great chaser to Fantasmic. After that we decided we couldn't put it off any longer and we got in line for the Mania. Gracie again got asked to be the carrier of the "acurate reading on line wait" lanyard (she got this a lot) and I think we revealed that it was a longer wait than was advertised outside but the line started inside and that was a good sign right? I enjoyed the line theming so I didn't mind the wait- we saw a friend from Lincoln in line and got a kick out of getting random updates from her as we passed one another in the line. The ride was a blast- I had to ride by myself and I did well (I thought) but on this one I couldn't compete with my husband and he doubled my score. I'm kinda surprised he didn't take a pic of it- but we weren't in the same car so gloating would involved rotating through two pictures so I don't think he wanted to expel the effort. We walked through the stores like Villains one more time on our way out and decided to head back a tad before extra magic hours ended to avoid crazy bus lines.

I know we missed a lot of folks favorites- the whole movie tram ride "backlot" but Steve and I had decided this could be passed as we'd do so much at Universal like this. We also skipped Beauty and the Beast, American Idol, Soundstage thingy and we did mourn that we missed the car stunt show- we had wanted to see that but it wasn't in the timing for me. (poor planning on my part!) So we get to add that one to the to do list for next time.

Getting back we grabbed sprites with our cups (got Gracie a Rice Crispies cereal - snack credit YES! and some milk for breakfast) and all settled in for the night in our room- which we were really considering a home away from home by now.

The next morning we were off to Epcot by opening so we definitely needed to get some sleep. That opening business paid off and I for one really wanted to take advantage of it. We also figured we'd do the afternoon break thing and hit Magic Kingdom that night for extra magic hours. Another fantastic day down and another one to come the next day.

wiigirl · Oct 31, 2012

In for this...love reading your TR.

NebraskaMinnie · Nov 1, 2012

Monday October 15.
We were off to EPCOT this morning to get there by opening time. We were a little late with transportation stuff. This was one of those mornings where we didn't quite make it on the first EPCOT bus that came so we had to wait for another one. I learned at POFQ if you miss the first bus at FQ you will be a small crowd at first but you sure pick up a lot of folks that couldn't get on that first bus at Riverside too. But it was all good- there was plenty of room even after all the stops. We split up thinking I could do the bag search line which was pretty long and Steve and Gracie headed in to get fastpasses for Soarin. I hadn't realized that he'd need my "ticket/card" to get the fastpass so he waited. I get a little motion sick on simulators and was a little nervous about this one so I was happy to skip it but he waited for me - silly man! We got a FP for 12:45 not bad. Since the masses were heading straight to Living Seas it seemed after getting their FPs we opted to head to Imagination Pavillion. Which of course seemed deserted! We walked right on the ride which we all enjoyed and thanks to other trip reports I plugged my nose at just the right time. After playing with the musical instrument screens and creating our own figments we leisurely looked through the gift shop. Gracie also discovered "pins" on this trip. We had bought her a starter lanyard when we'd begun planning a trip years ago - so hers were all pretty old and she wasn't overly invested into them as much as she was the ones they had NOW. We had NOT traded with a staff person yet. We explained this to the girl at the checkout as we bought some more (we had indulged day one with one pin for each of us) and now we wanted to get one for some of our friends we were meeting down there. IN a surprise our checkout girl gave us a 30th anniversary pin for Epcot. We were pretty psyched. I had lucked out and gotten a 40 year pin at Downtown Disney and then this- I let Gracie keep the 30 as I turned 40 this month so that one was meant for me I told her.
After this we headed over to Energy pavillion and Ellen's adventure. Gracie liked this one - I usually do too but this time I guess I noticed some of the outdatedness and I wish they'd taken the time to update or modernize a few things in the film/presentation. Its about then we realized we'd skipped breakfast. We'd told Gracie we would have lunch at the Liberty Inn Food court and so we started making our way for the long walk around World Showcase. We lingered in Canada and England- got Gracie a Doctor Who shirt (she's a big fan but only the David Tennant Doctor actually- this purchase turned out to be quite profitble I think for our Universal days.) We ended up getting to the bridge a little too soon, the ropes were still up. We talked about walking over to Beach Resort but agreed we were all too tired to take on the extra steps after all we had a lot of the world left to walk through. So we grabbed some bottles of water and watched some segway tourists zoom around on thier machines. When it opened we headed across with all the others and were tickled to see Belle waving us welcome - that was pretty neat. (SEcretly I'd wanted Gracie to want her autograph so we could go see her but she said No- too hungry and in typical tween format said- its just some college kid who looks like her mom- my heart always drops a bit but she's not my disney princess daughter- never really has been its the baby Tatum who enjoys the princesses and pink- this one loves BBC shows and Star Wars like her dad.) I waved to Belle in a strange adult excitement because to me even if only briefly she was the real belle and loved books every bit as much as I do. We did some window shoping in the shops of Italy and Japan and made our way to the American Adventure. This is where I should mention that I'm an American History teacher for 8th grade. I love my quirky history stories and although I teach from a more multiple perspective than some of the shows I still love this and the Hall of Presidents every time I go. I can be brought to patriotic tears while my friends and family practically fall asleep.
Lunch at Liberty Inn- Yummy! This place can't go wrong. The fries were good, the drinks were big, the deserts were ehhh... but the rice krispie was a great takeaway snack for later because who could eat 3 deserts? I think the was the first time on our trip Gracie actually got full and she wasn't even too crazy about her chicken but she ate so many fries she carbed out!
After we ate were were in need of some serious walking and digesting. We walked the rest of the world and enjoyed the lack of crowds that were always present at night on this trip.
Gracie asked if we could go back to the hotel for a nap again- so we opted to do some shoping in Mousegear one of my favorite stores (still no alarm clock!) and then got some drinks at the Coca Cola place (I didn't let her do the Beverly) then realized we'd missed our time for Soarin. We asked some of the staff if we could use our fastpass after our window and they had told us no. (I started getting the feeling that Gracie like me was hesitant about riding this one so I played the protective mom and said we should just head back to our hotel. AT 1:00 we had a bus practically all to ourselves while the Riverside station was overly packed. I took some laundry down back at the hotel, took a swim in and grabbed drinks for my husband and I and got back to the room where everyone was snozing. I decided to grade some quizzes while they caught up on some sleep. Again by 3 we headed back to the parks- this time to Magic Kingdom. WE wandered Main Street for a while then knowing we'd be back for the extra magic hours etc we headed to Contemporary Resort for our Chef Mickey's dinner- my favorite pick for a character meal because I get to see Minnie!

(I'll need to come back to this a bit later and finish up this day.)

jkl2000 · Jul 26, 2013

I loved this part:

"When it opened we headed across with all the others and were tickled to see Belle waving us welcome - that was pretty neat. (Secretly I'd wanted Gracie to want her autograph so we could go see her but she said No- too hungry and in typical tween format said- its just some college kid who looks like her mom- my heart always drops a bit but she's not my disney princess daughter- never really has been its the baby Tatum who enjoys the princesses and pink- this one loves BBC shows and Star Wars like her dad.)"

Great character description!

Great writing.

NebraskaMinnie's October 2012 Adventure

maryszhi

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maryszhi

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NebraskaMinnie

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NebraskaMinnie

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wiigirl

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NebraskaMinnie

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jkl2000

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