Poncho's, Poncho's everywhere..and let's not forget the itchy feet too! An August TR

Alison1975 · Sep 6, 2011

derelicte19 said:
That's ALWAYS how it works!!! lol :lol:

Believe me after this vacation I learned whatever I plan for..the opposite will happen..LMAO

Alison1975 · Sep 6, 2011

This Place is Haunted..don't make me go on! pt 1

PLEASEEEEEEEEE mom.. screamed my 9 year old as we walked up to the queue for The Haunted Mansion. He was NOT happy with me which lead the other 2 to also be not happy. Now I am a mean Mom. I make my kids do certain things no matter what they want. I would never ever make them go on a ride that was truly too scary, fast, big or whatever for them..BUT Haunted Mansion was none of these. I knew it.. my mom knew it.. so I said you have no choice.. you must go on once and if you hate it you never have to go again!

So off we went..

Of course we opted for the "longer" queue through the cemetery. This is def a must do. My kids had a blast.. and so did I!

I let a few families go ahead of us so I could take this picture:

Luckily there was a little line so the kids could play and not hold anyone up:

We got to the stretching room and I said a little prayer that no one we were crammed in there with would scream as I knew that would set Taejan off. Taejan has sensory issues and I was already rather worried about how he would do with all the stimulus at Disney. Well my prayers were answered because it was silent once the lights went out! We each grabbed a wee one because I remember the mad dash and crush a thon it can be getting to the doombuggies!

It was not in vain.. it was stupid from the doors opening to hitting our buggy.. seriously people.. must you crush a 5 year old to get on a ride??

While on the ride it stopped twice. I was fully expecting this. Once we were stopped on the backwards part for like 10 minutes..lol. Luckily all 3 kids loved it, Taejan was very proud because he didn't keep his eyes closed at ALL!

At this point Noah and Kate had texted me.. they planned to meet us at the next ride.
We headed off to It's a Small World.

No one would sit next to me.. I don't understand why..it's not like I threatened people for 9 months that if they made me mad on the trip I'd shove them under the water or anything :shrug:

Noah and Kate met us at the end of the ride and OMG was my son in a rotten mood. Noah is like me and likes to be left alone when grumpy and the lovely girlfriend would not..so it was just pure pleasure the next hour or so..:hammer:

We decide to head for the People Mover.. it happens to be one of my favorite rides and I hoped my little ones would love it to. Noah wanted nothing to do with going on it so he and Kate stayed by the little kiosk while we rode. I was right.. all 3 loved it!

footnote..I dislike only being able to put 10 pictures in a post!

Alison1975 · Sep 6, 2011

Cupid Shuffle Time

Next we all went on the Carousel of Progress. Declan did not believe me when I said the audience was moving not the stage. I think he spent each move trying to figure it all out..lol . We came out to some stage show and yes.. I got in the mix and danced the Cupid Shuffle.. my kids and husband were so embarrassed!

Taejan tried to maul Pluto..poor Pluto!

Declan did some MORE pin trading.. oh goodness me day 1 and we are already almost out of trade able pins for Declan.. ack!

Did ya happen to notice those lovely dark clouds in the last pictures? Oh yes.. August dark clouds..can only mean one thing right??

Up next.. So begins the adventures of the Ponchos

Ariel484 · Sep 6, 2011

Ah, teenagers...don't you just love 'em??

LOVE that Peoplemover picture...adorable!

Alison1975 · Sep 6, 2011

Teens SUCK.. Still wanting to go back in time and smack myself for ever asking his G/f to come with us!

Alison1975 · Sep 6, 2011

The Adventures of the Ponchos begins!

So after I embarrassed my family and Taejan tried to maul Pluto we decided to hit up The Laugh Floor.. wait said 10 minutes ( LIE).. I parked the stroller under the overhang at Stitch because I didn't like the looks of those clouds at all.

Well after a closer to 20 minute wait between the queue and preshow we got into the Laugh Floor.. cute.. not a repeater for me..but cute.

Well we came out to POURING rain.. surprise surprise. I ran and got the stroller..tossed the cover over it.. thank goodness I had a brain and parked it under the overhang..it was dry! Then we all got on our poncho's and decided it was time to just head to the Contemporary for our Chef Mickey ADR's.

This was the point where I looked and Noah and he was between being mad and in tears. He was exhausted and just did NOT want to go. So I told him to just hop a bus and go back to Pop. I really think he also needed a break from his g/f and my mother. Since we had left overnight Sat he had been with my mom or his g/f 24/7 except for work. He had never taken the bus alone..but he was almost 17 I knew he could handle it..lol.

I told him to text me when he got on a bus and to the room. He did like a good son. I also told him to EAT.. use whatever DDP credits he wanted..I didn't care as long as he got out of the MOOD. Now comes the first ARE YOU KIDDING ME moment.. his girlfriend tried to go with him! Um HELLO..no way in you know where are they going to be in the hotel together alone.. Noah knows that and she was told but she ( not him btw) tried and was not happy with me when I said she was coming to dinner with us!

So off he went and off we went:

Oh another tip.. have hats for your kids.. pop them OVER the poncho hoods. We did this later on and it helped the hoods not blow off!

We left MK and headed to the Monorail and who did we see ahead of us? Why the other 13 people we were traveling with! Hi Warner's Hi Sweeners!

They did not have ponchos.. at all.. and they had soaken wet kids who froze at Chef Mickey's.. I had dry kids who did not.. I win!

My little ones first Monorail ride.. Declan was sad he couldn't ride up front like Noah had done when he was younger..but I had told him the story of why so he understood.

I wish I could say Chef Mickeys was great.. i wish I could say the staff was great and the food was yummy.. I can't.. I'm NOT complaining because no one was hurt, we all ate and it was fine. it was the least favorite meal of our whole stay and it was clue #1 that should we ever travel with friends again we will make our own ADR's!
We arrived a good 30+ minutes before our ADR. We checked in, we waited.. and waited and waited.. and I won't say the kids were great.. some better than others as some are allowed to do things other's are NOT. ( I apologize to anyone that waited on Aug 19th from 7:30 on and had kids climbing and jumping all over .. they weren't mine..I had no control)

A CM came over after a long while and offered us all free drinks ( including alcohol) because seating us was becoming such an ordeal. Sigh.. Finally they sat us.. well most of us.. they had out 18 chairs for 20 of us.. yeah good times! We had to split up kids and families to make it all work. I did not like this. I'm a stickler for how my kids behave and I wanted them all near me.

Luckily I was able to keep the one child who has some behaving issues with me..lol.. we ate. No mention of my allergy even though it was on our ressie and I saw it stamped on the paperwork. I was so hungry by this time I just took my chances.. I ate very cautiously and lucked out.
Ziah sat with Missy and some of her crew:

Declan and Kate sat at yet another table with some more of Missy's krew ( no that's not Kate but she was over there some where):

After a little food the characters started coming.. oh my. To say pure chaos would be a mild statement. Small children not of my genetics were jumping, kicking, screaming etc making it all very difficult. Again.. I apologize even tho they aren't my kids!
Minnie was first:

See this?

Pluto is not signing the book.. he is writing "it's easier if the kids sit down until we get to the table"..again..lovely.. my kids were btw.. they aren't perfect kids but um..no way! Not real thrilled that got written in my daughters autograph book but what can ya do right? ( I know..never eat another meal with 13 other non family members that includes characters!)

She was in awe of the whole Mickey and Minnie and Krew at her dinner table!

Up next..part 2

Alison1975 · Sep 6, 2011

The Adventures of the Ponchos begins!pt2

WOW..a rarity ..me in a picture..in fact I think until I get our Photopass pictures this may be the only one! Please note my official Disney Vacation hairdo.. pulled back..sunglasses on top.. yep. Normally I fix my hair either all curly and pretty or straighten and sleek.. nope..I did my hair ONCE while down there and an hour later the humidity and rain killed it!..not worth it!

And there is Declan.. all i wanted to do was take the monorail to MK then hop a bus..it was after 10 and I was tired Plus Noah had been at the resort for hours alone! Sir Declan needed to trade pins though!

While waiting for the bus ( longish wait) we had some entertainment...

Think they are tired? They all fell asleep on the bus.

Oh did I mention it was a longish wait?? Whatcha think?

yeah..cus Chef Mickey's took us so long we ended up behind the lovely Wishes crowds..good times!

So we finally get on a bus and then back to Pop.. we are exhausted and hot and well things go downhill from there.

We get back to the rooms and I open ours and let the kids in.. and then we try to open the room Noah is in.. yellow light.. WHAT? I try another key..yellow light.. anyone who knows the locks knows this means the deadbolt is on. So I call Noah..no answer.. I knock..I pound..no answer!

This goes on for a good 5 minutes.. to the point we woke the people next door..GREAT..Sorry! Did I remind you we didn't get connecting rooms?? So um I can't get into Noah's room that way.

At this point Kate is ed! I headed down to classic hall and found security who called the manager on duty then I headed back after calling from the house phone like 10 times to the room phone. No answer!

So I have a 16 year old in the room not answering the phone, the knocks nothing. I am starting to worry. Noah had a seizure disorder from 9-14. He's been seizure free for 3 years but that is always a worry. I'm worried and his g/f is getting mad at him.

After a few more minutes of calls and knocks the night manager comes with the master key thing. It DOESN'T work!! Are you kidding me?? He tries it in our door and it works fine. He then places a call to maintenance.. which he says must come from Epcot at that time of the night. Panic really sets in..WHY is Noah not answering the door, the cell the room phone..why why why??

I go back in our room ( eric and my mom are outside) and call the room 5 times in a row while one of them knocks. Finally Noah opens the door. He's alright.. he's fine he was just dead tired! Management and security leave..I thank them..especially security . The security gentlemen was so nice and kept calling management until someone came with that key!

I can't begin to say how relieved I was. I wasn't the slightest bit mad. Noah had no clue if he locked the deadbolt we'd have no access and he didn't mean to lock us out for an hour. We had another ARE YOU KIDDING ME moment because Kate was mad and I had to ream her a new one because if his MOTHER wasn't mad then guess what..she didn't get to be either! She def didn't get to get mad AT him!

So it's now after midnight and this night that was supposed to be "early" was anything but. We had rope drop plans for the "next" morning..yawn..did they happen??

HouCuseChickie · Sep 6, 2011

OMG!!! Between the Chef Mickey's issues and the door drama- what an end to the day!!! At least he was OK...that's the most important thing.

I think I sported the same style most of our trip last month. I think I had one or two nights where I wore mine down and curly and even then- people rarely see it b/c guess who is taking the pics!?!?! :lol:

Can't wait to read more!!! :wave:

Alison1975 · Sep 7, 2011

HouCuseChickie said:
OMG!!! Between the Chef Mickey's issues and the door drama- what an end to the day!!! At least he was OK...that's the most important thing.

I think I sported the same style most of our trip last month. I think I had one or two nights where I wore mine down and curly and even then- people rarely see it b/c guess who is taking the pics!?!?! :lol:

Can't wait to read more!!! :wave:

Yeah I tell ya that evening was a test.. I hope we passed..>LOL... and yes..since I am on no other pictures you may see one of me with the hair down once I get the Photopass.

mickeysshoes · Sep 7, 2011

Its really fun to read your TR and think where we were. While it was raining on your way to CM for dinner we were at Ecpot walking (well sampling the beers) the country and people watching waiting for our ADR in Canada. Sorry the night ened with suck fireworks (not the good kind). Very glad Noah was just ok and nothing had happen...and the G/F...get a life honey..you are very luck to even be on this trip.

:lol: Cant wait to compare more!!!

Alison1975 · Sep 7, 2011

mickeysshoes said:
Its really fun to read your TR and think where we were. While it was raining on your way to CM for dinner we were at Ecpot walking (well sampling the beers) the country and people watching waiting for our ADR in Canada. Sorry the night ened with suck fireworks (not the good kind). Very glad Noah was just ok and nothing had happen...and the G/F...get a life honey..you are very luck to even be on this trip. :lol: Cant wait to compare more!!!

LOL..i keep hoping someone is going to be reading and see themselves in a picture..I keep reading all the reports from that time hoping I'm in someone elses pictures..LOL

disneygirl1 · Sep 7, 2011

Awesome start to your TR! We just returned home from POP last night. I have to say I love the place too, this was our second time staying there, but the lines for the buses are TERRIBLE!!! That fact alone will have me rethinking a future stay there.

We had issues at Chef Mickey's too this trip. I am not one to complain, but the serve, or should I say lack of serve we received there this trip was a disgrace!

Alison1975 · Sep 7, 2011

disneygirl1 said:
Awesome start to your TR! We just returned home from POP last night. I have to say I love the place too, this was our second time staying there, but the lines for the buses are TERRIBLE!!! That fact alone will have me rethinking a future stay there.

We had issues at Chef Mickey's too this trip. I am not one to complain, but the serve, or should I say lack of serve we received there this trip was a disgrace!

The bus lines were pretty much the same for all the resorts. I will say VERY often we had stacked busses.. 2 at the stop at once..

Alison1975 · Sep 7, 2011

I'm leaving with or without you!

That's what I muttered to the entire group after we got into Noah's room the night before. I had plans to be at Hollywood Studios for rope drop and nothing was going to stop me!

I set my alarm for 6:15...got out of bed around 6:25 showered, got all the kids stuff ready and then I was ready.. but ummm:

They were not!

Well in case I haven't mentioned it.. I'm mean.. yep. I am. I woke their cute little behinds and we were out the door and on a bus and at Hollywood Studios and thru the turnstiles by 8:04.. but GRRR. It was EMH and the park had opened 4 minutes earlier. dang it all. I was sooo close but no cigar to rope drop. Oh and I left a few people behind. My mother,Noah and kate were not up..so we left without em..see I told ya I am MEAN!

Declan and krew had decided they did not want to do Jedi training afterall so we headed to TSMM to get passes and or get in line. I was dumbfounded when I saw the mass of people. I had read how crazy it gets..but nothing prepares you for what you see. So I was like.. what do we do?? Get in the OMG line or get in the other OMG line? We the kids decided let's just wait and ride.. so we headed to the standby which had added about 100000 people while we were deciding. So I said forget it.. I ran and got Fast passes. It was 8:25 and they were already for after noon ( they were GONE by 10:45 this day!)

So after getting the fastpasses we got the heck outta dodge--errr Pixar place. We headed for Star Tours 2!

We all loved the ride..well except Eric.. who got very nauseous from it. After Ziah was in a mood so she refused to get in the picture but here's the boys!

Noah texted me and said they were on their way finally but we had some time so we opted for The Great Movie Ride .

After that we headed for the front of the park.. got the kids a snack and Declan did some pin trading and some pin shopping.

Up next.. WHERE is Taejan??( or my husband lost my kid!)

disneygirl1 · Sep 7, 2011

Alison1975 said:
The bus lines were pretty much the same for all the resorts. I will say VERY often we had stacked busses.. 2 at the stop at once..

Well you were VERY lucky then!

We started to see stack buses once people in line started to complain!

Alison1975 · Sep 7, 2011

disneygirl1 said:
Well you were VERY lucky then! We started to see stack buses once people in line started to complain!

Pretty much any time we stayed late enough to have huge lines there were busses stacked after a few. Of course the worst was at MK when we were waiting to leave and a bus came.. dropped off a few people then changed his signage n left..whaaa

lbrad · Sep 7, 2011

Alison1975 said:
We finally got the text that our 2nd room was ready. It was right next door..cool. This would be my mom, Noah and Kate's room so I didn't really do anything with it.

Missy and I decided we wanted to take everyone to Downtown Disney before the place got really packed so we headed to the bus stop.

Of course I made the kids all stand for a picture.. I'm such a horrible person!

This fun CM came by on a Segway and Montana was being..well Montana and was about begging the guy to let him ride the Segway..the CM was very nice and had some fun with the kids which helped the time waiting for the bus go by faster.

Once we arrived I let my krew go nuts in the water.. which of course meant Missy's kids followed suit..oppps..not sure she wanted them to get wet. Oh well it was about 2000 degree's out so they dried fast after anyway!

Here's the 10 kids together.. I was really wishing Noah and Kate were here at this point ( that would change about 8 hours after they arrived the next day..TEENS!).

And 5 of my immediate family..

Missy's 3 youngest girls were so excited to take Ziah to BBB to get Dusted..but the thing is..Ziah is not exactly a princess fan and she is painfully shy and was not at all happy about this! We finally got her to do it though..dang "dust" was in her hair for days!

After this we separated do to logistics.. 9 of them plus 5 of us..doesn't work well all the time..plus I move a LOT faster than the average tourist and wanted to go DO and SEE not wander slowly!
Off to the Lego store.. where Declan probably would have stayed for the next 1 nights had I allowed it. In fact he's not in many pictures cus he was too busy filling up a pail of parts to buy!

We went and looked around and let the kids dig at T-Rex before we left..

I love "forced picture taking" ... that is what my family calls it ... I am well known for it .

Great TR!!!...

lbrad · Sep 7, 2011

TheMouseFan said:
Where did you find the Mickey Mouse head soap pump? I can't find them anywhere and want them for our trip in October and for our Mickey themed bathroom at home!

They also sell them at Lowe's !!! They have Mickey & Minnie

Alison1975 · Sep 8, 2011

I just checked our Target and they still had em!

Alison1975 · Sep 8, 2011

WHERE is Taejan??( or my husband lost my kid!)

So after we got our snack and Declan did his pin trading the rest of our krew arrived. ( the other 13 people we were traveling with were still MIA..morning people they are NOT). We walked towards Pixar Place to get them FP's but they were gone. So we decided to just wait in the stand by.

On the way there we ran into this guy:

And then we entered the TSMM queue. Now this is about when I should tell you we have a buddy system. One adult per "small" child.It was supposed to be me/Taejan My mom/Ziah and Eric with Declan because Declan can handle himself and Eric doesn't watch the kids well. ( he lost Taejan in our yard once when he was 18 months old and I found him almost in the VERY busy road I live on!)
Well Taejan wanted his daddy and I foolishly allowed it. So I had Ziah, my mom had Declan and Eric was supposed to have Taejan..yes supposed to. We got in the queue... got handed a little red card for the wait time thingy.. and talked then I said "WHERE" is Taejan?? OMg my heart sunk.. Taejan was NOT with us.. Taejan was NOT in the queue..Eric did NOT have my son.

To say my heart jumped into my throat would be an understatement. I was nearly instantly in tears because we had been in the queue for a good 3 minutes already. Eric didn't even budge ( reaction time is not his strong suit)..Noah and I bolted out of the queue.. finally Eric followed... Noah and I went one way Eric another and THANK GOD Eric found him up near the FP machines.

Poor kiddo was a wreck.. he was so upset and crying and I wanted to slaughter my husband. From then on Taejan was MY buddy no if's and's or but's! He spent most of the 35 minute wait for TSMM very upset..

As for me.. well my husband was on my list for a few days after that!

I love this queue:

Well I love it all but that stupid "tent" area.. that was a bit much!
Taejan was my ride buddy ( duh)

i won!

So after this we needed food. I got a text that Missy and Krew were in the park.. and mad cus the FP's for TSMM were gone..

We headed over to The catering Co for lunch: Ziah was hot, tired and hungry!

Poncho's, Poncho's everywhere..and let's not forget the itchy feet too! An August TR

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