Trip Report Oh, the Places We go, The People We See

Welcome to my newest Trip Report. For those who don’t know me, I am Jen.

That’s my Daughter Claire with me.



We just got back from an amazing vacation with several family members.

We traveled Nov. 1st thru the 15th, 2012. We rested our headed at 6 different places on this trip, and though it wasn’t always easy to keep moving from place to place, I am happy to have tried some new resorts out and stayed at some familiar ones as well.



This trip came about over a year ago. My Mom’s cousin Vicki wanted to take a trip with her and my Aunt Mary. Her Daughter Katie also wanted to come along.

After some talking and planning it became a group of 16 traveling. I was elected ring leader since I have quite a bit of Disney experience.

Plans were made, some were changed, and some were a little slower at making decisions than others.

My husband Skip is what is known in the Disney groups as a resistor and he decided NOT to come along. He was not so happy about the amount of time I was going to be gone.



The dates for the cruise were set first, Nov 4 through the 8th on the Disney Dream. We all planned to arrive a day early and stay at the Residence Inn near the port. Soon I decided that I must add a few Disney days, and so did everyone else eventually. I thin decide…heck lets add some more, and Claire and I ended up staying 3 more days after the rest left.

Then after doing some research and with a heads up from my good Dis-friend Carey, I was alerted to the fact that the last Halloween party was on Nov. 2nd. How could I pass that chance up? So Claire and I decided to fly in a day earlier than everyone else to hit that party. Claire and I also decided to fly out of Columbus. My family lives near the Toledo, OH area, and the best direct flights are out of Detroit. My youngest sister, who was not going on the cruise, lives in Columbus, and I was able to get a decent priced direct flight from there, so Claire and I drove down Nov. 1 and spent the night before our early flight.



Plans were finally all set in stone and we just had to wait for our time to arrive. Not an easy task, but we all managed.



Let me introduce you to the crew. This is a picture of a picture. My sister has the CD with the actual digital copy, but hasn’t yet loaded it to the computer, so I had to go with this for now till I can get a copy.

In the back row, left to right, we have my parents, Joe and Paula, next to them is my Uncle Geoff. Next to Geoff is cousin Vicki and her son in law Thad. Next to Thad is Pete, Vicki’s husband and then me. Aunt Mary is on the end, she is married to Uncle Geoff and my Mother’s sister.

Down towards the front, left to right, is my nieces Alexis and Abby with their parents Rob and Gail. Gail is my sister. Front and center is Claire. Behind Claire are Jude, and Katie. Katie is married to Thad and is Pete and Vicki’s Daughter. And then we have baby Luke in the stroller. He is only about 9 months old and what a cutie he is.



This trip had the usual ups and downs that most every family will have, but I have to admit things went much smoother than I planned. We never felt the need to kill each other for the most part. LOL

We had several cruise newbies and several Disney World newbies as well.



Please join me in reliving a very magical trip with all the places we traveled and all the people we met along the way!

 

[jenseib]

We decided to check out It’s a Small World. I do like this ride and Claire loves it. I know some are not as thrilled, but this is one that brings back memories from my first trip in 1974.
As you can see, it is VERY crowded today.





I can’t remember the wait, but I am thinking it was around 30 minutes posted. I think it moved faster though, but still a long wait for this ride.



We did make it to a boat eventually and it was nice to sit and relax. I took several pictures, but I didn’t have a good lens for dark rides with me, so most came out pretty blurry. Here is a few of the better ones. Next time I go, I have a new lens to try. I can’t wait.

 

[jenseib]

There were a LOT of boats running today and we actually came to a stop about ¾ of the way through the ride and then it was stop and go from there on.

One nice thing we saw was the clock doors opened when we arrived back. I think I have only seen this a few times and I was excited about that.



We didn’t have enough time to do anything else major at this point, so we just wandered a bit.





We browsed a few stores.









These guys were all over the place looking for a free meal.



I think he is giving me the evil eye.



I then took a look at Claire’s hair and decided she really needed it to be brushed before the appointment, but I had not packed a brush in my bag. I am sure Gail had one, but I just decided to go buy one for Claire. We browsed around the Castle Couture and Claire picked a Rapunzel brush and we then went to work on her mop and got it nice and smooth.

We then headed to the castle to meet up with Gail. Originally I had made this appointment for Sunday (the next day) after Gail and the family had left. I also made it for DTD since we had not been to the location yet. I did it for that day because I didn’t want to cause any controversy with the girls. Soon after I made the appointment Gail told me that Alexis had one request and that was to go to BBB, so I changed our appointment and made one for all 3 girls on this day at the Castle. We were really unsure what Abby would do. Abby hates anything in her hair or people doing anything to her hair. But we also knew she would be upset not to be included. When I made the appointment I let them know that we were unsure if she would sit, but at the very least we figured she would let them gel and pixie dust her hair.

Soon family members started showing up. We had many who were interested in seeing the girls become princesses.

Imagine my surprise when Gail showed up and this was in Abby’s hair.

 

[jenseib]

Abby had just found this headband and just had to have it. Gail said she doubled checked with her over and over, making sure she knew it went on her head and she wanted it and she purchased it with her own money.



She looked so darn cute in it and we all gave her compliments.



Once we all had arrived, I went in and got the girls checked into BBB. You can see me in the background of Geoff’s pictures.







Little smarty pants.



Claire was not dressed yet, so they called us back to a dressing room and Gail waited for her girls to be called as well.



Abby had to check out the inventory ….as you know, she LOVES princess dresses.



Claire got dressed and I took a quick shot. This is not a Disney dress. We actually got it on clearance at Cracker Barrel the year before. We decided to call it Cinderella’s wedding dress and we brought along her crown from the previous year as well.

 

[jenseib]

While we were back getting changed, Gail’s girls were called to their seats. Sadly we didn’t get seated near each other, but it was fine.
We made our way to our seat.



Claire got settled in with Paige. This made her day. My older daughter is named Paige as well, and this Paige was about the same age, so Claire told her all about her sister and they talked quite a bit.





I then went back to see my nieces.



To our surprise again, Abby was all for this …though she was having issues with her glass slipper …it kept falling off. LOL



Now I will warn you now. I have a TON of BBB pictures. I take a lot, Geoff and Mary took quite a few (and I don’t even have Gail’s at all) and of course photopass pictures as well. I will try to put them in some sort of an order, but I can’t guarantee it’s the exact order….. And believe it or not, but I am not posting all of them either. So just imagine how many we have. LOL

Claire is ready.



Alexis is started.



Abby is having issues. She does NOT want that stupid neck strip. And I don’t blame her. I hate those things with a passion. For those who don’t know, I am a licensed cosmetologist. I no longer practice, but I do keep my license up and do family and friends. Those neck strips are supposed to be for sanitary reasons. You put it around the neck and then the cape and it is to protect your skin from the cap, which is going around several peoples necks a day. The thing is, it’s worthless. 95% of the time the cape is still touching the neck. I never used them and went with a good old fashion towel around the neck. It covers more and if water or anything leaks, the towel catches it. So there is your cosmetology lesson for the day. LOL



She still has a nasty look on her face, but she is letting it happen.

 

[jenseib]

Alexis is getting nice and gelled up.



Now the real test. Will Abby allow someone to brush her hair.



The answer is yes. Gail has complete shock on her face.



Claire is still getting settled in.



Abby loved this shield on her face. When Gail would move it away she would bring it back and she would rub her nose on it and breath on it to steam it up and she might have occasionally licked it. LOL

 

[jenseib]

This isn’t so bad.





Claire is getting started now.











Beautiful nail polish.



Now there was some sort of communication going on between Alexis and Claire, because Claire was NOT picking things I would normally think she would, and they happened to be the same as Alexis for the most part, so they were definitely sending signals back and forth.



Time to pick out makeup.

 

[jenseib]

I was shocked to see that Claire picked out green. She always picks pink. I didn’t mind, but it was just not her usual style.





Pucker up!



We were totally cracking up over the faces that Abby was making. We expected at any minute for her to jump off the chair and be done with it.







And here she is revealing a hint of a smile, letting us know she really does like it.



Alexis picked out the red extension because she wanted to look like Ariel with her mermaid dress on.

 

[jenseib]

That scab on the side of her face is from her pirate tattoo. She kept picking at it till it came off which resulted in a scab as well.







I guess everyone was making a face at one point in time.

 

[jenseib]

I guess this must’ve hurt a bit.



Abby does love to get her nails painted.





The pain of beauty.











Claire picked her hair color too. How ironic that it is the same as Alexis. Now for months before we traveled, Claire and I would take walks and during our walks we would talk about the trip. She had decided she was going to do a different hairstyle this time, the Pop princess. The one with the funky spikey colorful hair. I really don’t care which style she chooses because this is for her and I want her to be happy and have a good experience. So when she chose this style I did intervene a bit. I just wanted to be sure since she had talked about the other style for so long. But she insisted this is what she wanted and I said ok.

 

[jenseib]

Paige gave Claire a few choices on how to wear her hair piece.









They settled for on top of the head.



Abby is still allowing them to work on her. For some reason they had issues with making her bun and it was redone a few times to get it right.



This jewel didn’t last long at all. I am pretty sure she picked it off not long afterwards. I don’t blame her. It would drive me nuts too.



Checking to see if her nails are dry. Abby does love to get her nails painted.



Alexis is making progress.

 

[jenseib]

Still working on Abby’s bun.





Claire swore her choice of red had nothing to do with Alexis at all. She wanted to look like Merida.







Well look who is done. Alexis is waiting for some pixie dust.

 

[jenseib]

Getting close to the reveal. It’s so exhausting. It must be, because I think every year I have a yawning picture of Claire too.







A little bit of primping before the big moment.





Abby was hilarious. Gail would pull the shield away and she would push it back to her face.



At one point in time she pushed a little too hard and it went flying and crashed to the floor and broke. The Fairy Godmothers in training said not to worry as they had this happen about once a day.

We got a good laugh at how she would steam this baby up.

 

[jenseib]

And now for the big reveal number 1.



I always crack up at these too because the kids always have a weird look on their faces. I think it’s because they look so different. It takes them a minute to see it and then the smiles come out.











See Aunt Mary clapping in the background. That’s something our family does about all sorts of things. Skip used to laugh about how we clapped for every little thing and now if we don’t clap he wonders what is wrong.

 

[jenseib]

Alexis was very happy with her look.



Now Abby is close to being done. I can’t believe we made it this far. She got a sprinkling of pixie dust.



Steaming up the shield.

 

[jenseib]

Getting her primped up with her sash.



She’s impressed with it.





Back to Claire before Abby’s big reveal.

 

[jenseib]

Alexis had to be sure they were doing everything right for Claire.



Abby, are you ready to see yourself as a princess.



She was feeling a little shy about this.



And when she turned around, it kind of took her a minute to see herself.



She did look VERY different and at first I don’t think she really knew it was her.

I’m not so sure about this.



Hmmmm, maybe it’s not so bad.

 

[jenseib]

Ok! So, the final verdict? …… She DID like it.













Now when you get a bag of goodies at the end ……. that makes it all worth it.



And a backpack too!

 

[jenseib]

It can’t get any better.



Claire was the final one to be transformed into a beauty.







Ready for pixie dust.

 

[jenseib]

Time to get her sash in place.





Set the right pose.



Close your eyes.

 

[jenseib]

Are you ready?





Claire is clearly impressed with herself.











I loooooook goooood!