Takemethere81's Quick Trip-Lots of Pics!

Yippee!!! I finally get to write my own trip report after reading all of your wonderful ones. So to get started, I'll recap on a few categories:

New Experiences:

ALL OF THE BOARDWALK!
Tom Sawyer Island
Tommorrowland Transit Authority
NEW Haunted Mansion
Beautiful Christmas decorations!
Beautiful Crystal-lit Cinderella Castle
Dole Whip Pineapple Float
Nighttime Pics that actually came out
Mexico Donald Character Greeting
NEW Spaceship Earth
UK Pavillion
France Pavillion

Experiences I didn't quite catch and so far have never seen:
CoP(I know I'll take a hit from this one)
Monster's Inc Laugh Floor
Stitch's Great Escape
Minnie's House
Hall of Presidents (under refurbishment)
Ellen's Energy Adventure
Circle of Life
Innoventions (I've got impatient kids)
Snow White's Scary Adventures

There's probably more that maybe I'll remember later. Point is, one of the great things about Disney is, that this is not my first trip, yet check out all the new things I saw! I noticed that some of my old favorites seemed better than ever now that my kids are experiencing them for the first time. And I know that next time we go, there will still be great things to experience for the first time.

OK...Enough already! On to the trip report!!

Day 1

So Saturday my DH wakes up and he's got that look in his eye...he NEEDS to escape for a long weekend. I'm praying in my head for my FAVORITE place on earth and he says it! "Hun, let's go to Disneyworld!" So we pack up ourselves and our 3 kids in about an hour and head to Orlando, a 6 hour drive. On the way, we book a hotel (off property) and buy our Fl Resident 3-Day tix.

We got there at 6pm and we started our mini-vacation by heading over to The Boardwalk, where our younger kids and I explored and my oldest and my DH went over to the ESPN club for some FOOTBALL!!

Now I've never been to the Boardwalk, or even explored the resorts much, and this one is breathtaking! The detail is amazing and I absolutely love the ambiance of the seaside bustle.

My husband and son had to wait in a pretty long line, but they got in eventually and loved it!

My younger kids, ages 5 and 3 basically walked around and I just let them go and do whatever they wanted, no major agenda. We went to Seashore Sweets and I let them fill a little candy bag about half full and I picked up a yummy white-chocolate-covered-mickey-mouse-shaped pretzel.

Then when we came out, we bumped into a street magician, and no one had met him yet. My boys got like 2 uninterrupted minutes by themselves with him as he teased them by pulling coins out of their ears and making their shoes and noses magically squeak. They particularly loved how he would "throw" a ball up into the air so high it never came down.

After that, the kids and I strolled down to the boatdock and took a tour on the Friendship 1. I got to see all of The Boardwalk and the Dolphin and Swan resorts, as well as the entrance of DHS. I've never seen this view before. It was very relaxing. Sorry some of the pics are a little unclear, but they are certainly better this trip than last! :shrug:

After we took our little water tour, the boys were getting a little antsy and I saw some kids playing in the grass in a courtyard there so I let them do cartwheels and play for a while. While we were there, a banjo player came and played a few ditties for us while the kids danced. It was so cute!

Then we noticed a juggler a few feet away so we went to watch him. The kids got a huge kick out of the show! At one point, the man dropped a pin and my 3-year-old went and retreived it, which prompted a whole lot of dropping and the crowd was rolling with laughter as my little pin-ging child ran around the juggler.

Right after we walked away from the juggler, my 3-year-old started screaming bloody murder because he heard the booms from Illuminations across the way. This prompted us to hide in the nearest gift shop and decide it was time to go. Aside from this ending, I had to admit that starting our mini-vacation this way-slow paced-was the best thing to do ever!

 

[TakeMeThere81]

After Test Track, DH was wanting to get out to some open space and get a good beer in World Showcase, so we made our way over there. On the way past, the Fountain of Nations put on a show for us. It really is great!

On the way, we grabbed Hot Dog/chip combos for the kids and they ate quietly while we toured for a bit.

I just love World Showcase. I love sampling the food, customs, landscape and architecture of places I'd like to visit in person some day.

Canda (although I've actually been there):
My poor son with sun in his eyes

Next we continued on to UK

Where DH got a frothy beer at the Rose and Crown

And I took some pics from around the lake

The ceiling of the Crest and Crown (I think that is what it is called)

 

[TakeMeThere81]

We continued on to The Toy Soldier in the back and were surprised that there was a character greeting area there. We met Pooh, Eyeore and Tigger. We barely missed Mary Poppins. My middle son was the only available one at the time, and myself. It was really nice how the characters totally took their time, they weren't about just saying hi and getting us out of there.

Haha, this first pic it looks like Tigger is eating Samuel...

We walked out of the greeting area and around to the main pathway. DH really wanted to hear British Invasion, but they weren't playing for another hour and a half. So we continued our tour.

 

[coastierox]

Lucky I want to go! The boys are getting HUGE! Let us know when you go again! Nessa, the kids and I could use to get away...

 

[disneygirl1]

What a great trip! Wish I could just pick up and go to Disney for the weekend! Glad to see you and your family had such a wondeful time... Heading down for my vacation in 3 weeks! Yipee!!!

 

[TakeMeThere81]

Lucky I want to go! The boys are getting HUGE! Let us know when you go again! Nessa, the kids and I could use to get away...

I've been back for a whole week and I'm already ready to go back to see what we missed this time!! *sigh* We'll definitely let you know when we make some plans again.

What a great trip! Wish I could just pick up and go to Disney for the weekend! Glad to see you and your family had such a wondeful time... Heading down for my vacation in 3 weeks! Yipee!!!

Yay for your vacation soon! You'll have a great time. We are lucky that we live close enough to do what we did. We're working on upgrading our remaining day on our tickets to a seasonal pass so it will be super cheap to do what we did also.

 

[TakeMeThere81]

On our way out of The Toy Soldier, I met back up with my husband who was sitting in the audience area of where British Invasion plays. Unfortunately, they weren't playing for another hour and a half so we continued our tour through WS.

We crossed the bridge over to France, where we noticed some street performers and caught the end of their show.

While in France, we sampled a little wine here:

and a little dessert here

I had the strawberry tart which was divine (don't mind my sad lap picture, it was so pretty)! You do get a feel for the shady tree we were sitting under though. It was so pleasant.

This was not my favorite picture of us but we were in France, so how disappointed can you be?!

My son had a knack for finding and playing in all the fountains around WS. He especially liked throwing a penny or two in each one.

 

[HollyBelle]

Loving the report and pictures :sohappy: ! Keep them coming!!

 

[TakeMeThere81]

We've eaten in Morocco so instead we just browsed the shops

We bumped in to Aladdin and Jasmine who were shopping in the marketplace. They past us and just said, "Hey guys," like they were just hanging out. It was peculiar.

We sampled this place last time we were here and loved it

This picture has horrible glare, but notice my children checking out the fountains...again

And AGAIN...

And there he is in the background still by the fountain...

Restaurant Marrakesh:

And on our way out, I found a hidden Mickey!

 

[TakeMeThere81]

And on to Japan...

Hidden Mickey in the grate:

Throwing a penny in:

Having a little sushi in Japan. DH sampled the Saki and the kids got a Japanese snowcone treat:

Then we were lucky enough to catch the drummers who are fantastic.

 

[TakeMeThere81]

We walked right past The American Adventure because we wanted to continue on to Pavilions we'd never experienced.

Italy got overshadowed by Germany, and partly because my son who'd fallen asleep back at the UK was now awake and cranky. So we headed toward Germany.

I did snap a few pics of Italy and I was so touched because there was a wedding reception being prepared on the terrace there.

Once we reached the Germany pavilion, I got stuck at the miniature village Wurzburg. My 3-year-old is crazy for trains so he was in heaven. My husband went over and got our reservation at Biergarten and we just hung out for a while as the kids watched the trains.

While the kids were watching, they were so excited they kept running up and back on the pathway and running into people on their way. At one point, I went up and said, "Look out you guys, don't run into those people..." and this nice man with a British accent said, "They're not bothering me, that's what little boys do. Don't worry mum." It made me feel so great that he felt that way. My boys are so active that it is very likely while we are out in public, we will offend someone because they are too loud, or they run into someone. It just warmed my heart so much that he said that. So thanks elderly British man, you made my day!

One great thing that happened while being stopped at the Germany pavillion is that I noticed the Illuminations ball cruising into the harbor. The bridge at the Outpost is a drawbridge, I never knew that! Anyone else ever seen this?

 

[nibblesandbits]

I'm loving your report! Can't wait to read the rest!

 

[EPCOT Explorer]

WOW...Your WS pics are AWESOME.:sohappy:

Made me feel like I was there.

Can't wait for more.

 

[TakeMeThere81]

A few pics of Germany:

The guy in this one looks ghostlike

We need more COWBELL!! LOL

We really had a lovely dinner.

 

[TakeMeThere81]

We continued on, walking and me, stalling to take pics.

Outpost:

This one's cool because you can see the Swan and Dolphin in the distance.

Norway:

The famous Viking:

(It was starting to get dark and it was harder to get good pics)

On to Mexico!

Sorry it was blurry!

 

[TakeMeThere81]

Little carvings:

There's ghosts again!

Caleb's favorite-Donald Duck!

We love the Gran Fiesta Boat ride!

 

[TakeMeThere81]

After Mexico, it was only about 6:30 so we had time to kill before Illuminations. We decided to head back toward The Land, so my DH could use his Child Swap from earlier in the day for Soarin'. He took both bigger boys, and 5-year-old Samuel especially loved it! It was probably his favorite ride. While they rode Soarin', I took our 3-year-old for his second trip Living with the Land. I love that ride. I was a little disappointed because most of the pumpkins have been harvested. That is to be expected this time of year though.

Oh, I have to mention that my camera battery died at this point:brick: so I didn't get to take many more pics.

Anyway, next we walked over to Spaceship Earth. I was highly anticipating the new refurbishment. I love this ride!! I loved all of it, I only noticed that the ending was different, and that we got to see our friend Bill Gates now? Funny. We all loved the Build Your Future computer game you play at the end and were cracking up seeing our faces on those electronic bodies!! :lol: We spent a good amount of time at the ending area and sent our postcards to ourselves and let the kids play games. It's a really fun place to hang out!

We still had time to kill so we went on over to Nemo again and walked on again. Kids loved it again. Unfortunately, I was busy asking our 3-year-old how he liked it and our 5-year-old fell on the conveyor belt. he was fine but it stopped the whole ride. Yes, we ended up being "those people" who stop the ride and annoy other people. lol

While we waited for the others to experience Turtle Talk w/Crush again, our littlest and I went out side to simply watch the "Mine" seagulls. He never got tired of watching them, and the water come in and out.

As we walked over to the World Showcase plaza for Illuminations, I managed to sqeeze out a few more pics with the little battery power I had left.

 

[TakeMeThere81]

We got to World Showcase Plaza only 15 minutes from Illuminations time so we didn't get a very good view. But it really didn't matter in the end because our 3-year-old started screaming bloody murder again as soon as he heard the fireworks. We DID learn from the night at the Boardwalk, and I'd bought him earplugs which some lady swore would work. It didn't, so we briskly walked out of the park as quickly as we could. I felt so bad, he was covering his ears and I was starting to worry that I'd scarred him for life w/fireworks.

So the end to our day was bittersweet, but overall it was great!! Everyone had a great time. They all fell asleep right away in the car. On our way back to our hotel, we ended up at a toll which was only $.75 but we'd realized we had spent all of our cash. I managed to scrounge up $.72:hammer:. We ended up waiting for someone to pull up behind us and with absolutely no pride I went and asked if they had 3 cents. Funny. :lookaroun Sort of.

We had 3-day park tickets so the next day we'd planned on going to DHS. But we woke up the next day and were understandably pooped. So we decided to save the remaining day for another trip. We bought Fl. Resident tix so they don't expire for 6 months. I hate that I didn't get to go to Animal Kingdom and Disney's Hollywood Studios.

On the way home, my once non-believer husband was calling Disney and getting all the info about upgrading our tickets to seasonal passes, talking about going back in a few months. I'm so glad he's caught the fever. We love it there so much.

I hope you enjoyed the trip report! Until we are back again...February can't come soon enough! :wave:

 

[Computer Magic]

Looks like you need to purchase a spare battery so you have more pic to show us



Loving the report BTW....Such a wonderful family :wave:

 

[rbrower]

Thanks for the report!

 

[TakeMeThere81]

Loving the report and pictures :sohappy: ! Keep them coming!!

All I can say is that I wish we'd been there longer!!

I'm loving your report! Can't wait to read the rest!

Thanks Nibs!! I believe you had a great report not long ago as well!

WOW...Your WS pics are AWESOME.:sohappy:

Made me feel like I was there.

Can't wait for more.

Thank you so much. My photography skills pale in comparison to some outstanding pics I've seen on this website. However, they are getting better because of all the great tips too! I wish I was back there...

Looks like you need to purchase a spare battery so you have more pic to show us



Loving the report BTW....Such a wonderful family :wave:

Thanks! I was afraid I was posting a rediculous number of pics, but I didn't care! Another battery, that's a great idea...

Thanks for the report!

You're very welcome! I loved writing it! It allowed me to relive our trip...for the several days it took me to write the report. I hope we can go back again in a few months!!