The Surprise! We're going to Disney. Here's a cookie, now get in the car. TR + A One Day bonus?

Hello All!

Avid reader, who had to take a break for a few months due to a self imposed 'Disney break.' But now I'm back and lurking more than ever! Here's the most recent photo of my family. I'd say it sums us up quite nicely:

Ha!
I am so excited for another year of WDW and all the fun that comes with traveling to the World. From May of 2011 to May of 2012, we had an unexpected 'year of Disney' due to some planned and some unforeseen circumstances. When we walked out of the gates of AK in December of 2010, we fully expected not to set foot in a park again until February of 2012. But there were other forces at work that led to us purchasing our first ever AP's on May 1, 2011. It turns out I'm one of the luckiest ducks out there because - after doing the math (over and over and over- Man! Disney makes those numbers tricky!) - we were able to purchase our second set of AP's last month. We had an additional trip planned for September of this year already, so once we did the math, it made more financial sense to invest in an AP, rather than buy tickets for both trips separately.

Anywho - this AP purchase wasn't planned either - we had no idea 8 months ago that this was coming! As I said, we were taking our 'Disney break.' We were making the most of it too! This summer we saw so many cool things - including driving Route 66 (or what's left of it?) from Chicago to St. Louis:

(one day we hope to pick up where we left off and head to Disneyland! I guess some people would tell you Route 66 leads to LA, but we Disney lovers know better right? )

It was around 8 months ago that some of our dearest friends mentioned they were going to take a trip to WDW. "Hmmmmm......" we thought. If there's one thing we've learned - Disney is always twice the fun with friends! Was there really any way we could let them go without us? We might die of jealousy - Ha! When we learned their parents (who were traveling with them) would be departing mid way through the trip, we knew it was 'meant' to be!

Now - we decided to keep the trip a surprise from the kids because - as always- you have to be sure the money all lines up. This particular trip was due to be paid off December 22 - not the best timing? Since we had kept the secret until December, we decided - why not just keep the secret a little longer and surprise the kids?! So that's what we did!

We were able to take advantage of the Stay, Play & Dine package, saving us enough to cover the cost tickets to fly into MCO. It was a super short trip, so it seemed to make the most sense to fly!

On the morning of the trip, the kids woke up to find this box:

wrapped up in another box and tied with a big red bow. (Sorry no picture of the big box - I was running around like crazy getting ready the night before! - just imagine the Mickey wrapping paper - ok?

My husband and I woke up first and woke the kids up, telling them "Someone left a surprise for you in the kitchen!" They unwrapped the box to find this message inside:

And of course, the box was filled with those fabulous cookies made by a sweet friend. Aren't they amazing?!

After all the jumping around and excitement, we really did say, "Here's a cookie, now get in the car!" We had no time to waste. We had to get to the airport to catch an early flight.

 

[Alexis]

Great report, thanks for posting! Looks like you all had such a blast!

 

[erstwo]

So we made our way to the pool. The kids were too excited to eat. I was too hungry to swim.

Bright, bright, bright, bright sunshine-y day!

Love the details:

I'm sorry y'all. I forgot to take a picture before I started eating. If half eaten sandwiches aren't your thing - look away! I post this only because the Caprese sandwich at AoA needs to be recognized. It is sooo good and so fresh and just awesomeness on a plate. Tomato, basalmic, basil and mozzarella on bread, yes please.:

The pool activities were just getting started when we arrived. We decided to participate in our first ever Disney pool game. Dry erase board, number trivia!

We had to come up with a team name. The most creative name got bonus points. We were team Rock Star. My husband and son were Mickey Militia (which I thought was pretty darn creative) but the winning team was 'something-asourus' and it turned out the CM had worked as at CP in Dinoland, so that team won.

We didn't win. The questions were great though - How many countries in the World Showcase? How many triangles on SSE? How many acres make up AoA? How many acres make up DL? Then there were some trick questions: How many gallons of water in the Earful Tower? How many bricks in Cinderella Castle's exterior?

We did have a great time, but the game seemed really long. By the end it was time to eat and get dressed to head out into the parks!

Every time I see this picture, Sir Mix A Lot starts singing in my head...... so wrong, I know:

 

[erstwo]

Getting some lunch:

Now, I knew when my MIL agreed to come to WDW with us, what she really meant was, she was agreeing to come to Epcot with us. More specifically, she was agreeing to come to Germany in Epcot with us. It really is the best thing at WDW to her. She loves to just go and look around and converse with 'her' people. She enjoys the rest of the WS too, but the WS is really the best part of WDW to her.

So, while it might seem strange, we did not take a bus to Epcot, we took a bus to DHS, walked to the boat ramp and then took a boat to the International Gateway at Epcot. It saved us so much walking, but is not the fastest way to get to Epcot for certain. It was just the best way for us.

Flowers everywhere and it was so beautiful!

I had a few things on my to do list. One was the Oz playground, so we headed that way first.

So many cool things. But, I swear I can not take a picture at Flower and Garden without thinking of the infamous WDWmagic "I got into an altercation at the F&G Festival" thread! Hahaha!

Oz!

 

[foreverbelle]

Every time I see this picture, Sir Mix A Lot starts singing in my head...... so wrong, I know:

Wrong but completely hilarious, and now I will have the song stuck in my head for the remainder of the day, and will not be able to look at this ever the same!! LOL

 

[erstwo]

Follow the yellow brick road.....

This was so nicely done. Once again, the fake grass freaked out my OCD - how do they clean that stuff???? But the good far outweighed the grass. There were several nice places for parents to sit in the shade while the kids played.

Next we checked out some other garden areas and then it was time to hit up the food booths!

Soooooooo crowded:

I overheard a Photopass Photographer in front of the Monster's University display tell a few sorority girls that the photos where they displayed their sorority 'sign' (that they made with their hands) wouldn't be showing up on their Photopass card. The Photopass CM said, "Mickey doesn't know what those symbols mean, so he gets confused." I thought that was interesting. I guess it's to be sure no one puts up a gang sign in a Disney photo?

More to come! The rest of Epcot and MK with friends!

 

[erstwo]

Wrong but completely hilarious, and now I will have the song stuck in my head for the remainder of the day, and will not be able to look at this ever the same!! LOL

I know, it's awful! I just can't help it - it's the first thing I thought! Ha!

 

[erstwo]

Great report, thanks for posting! Looks like you all had such a blast!

Thank you for reading! It was a great time!

 

[tiaragirl]

I overheard a Photopass Photographer in front of the Monster's University display tell a few sorority girls that the photos where they displayed their sorority 'sign' (that they made with their hands) wouldn't be showing up on their Photopass card. The Photopass CM said, "Mickey doesn't know what those symbols mean, so he gets confused." I thought that was interesting. I guess it's to be sure no one puts up a gang sign in a Disney photo?

Definitely the case! There was the one epic time in 2008 that Lauren, myself, and two of my cousins were in our own elevator on the Tower and someone did a peace sign. Our picture never showed up. So, no world peace or sororities for Mickey!

 

[plaz10]

I overheard a Photopass Photographer in front of the Monster's University display tell a few sorority girls that the photos where they displayed their sorority 'sign' (that they made with their hands) wouldn't be showing up on their Photopass card. The Photopass CM said, "Mickey doesn't know what those symbols mean, so he gets confused." I thought that was interesting. I guess it's to be sure no one puts up a gang sign in a Disney photo?

They have not put up my picture on Aerosmith when my fam did the "Wait a minute I love that idea" gesture which some can see as obscene depending on the meaning.

But my sisters (ex) boyfriend...probably 15 years ago...went to ToT and lifted up his shirt and everyone in our party pointed at it. They saw it on the screen afterwards and was like OMG we have to buy it. So we went to the CM and they said they can't sell it because of the fact that it's displaying human body parts or something. But their manager came and said if it slipped through their security and made it to the screen - they have to sell it. So I think my sister has it somewhere! I'll have to look

 

[ExtinctJenn]

Did your kiddos catch the underwater sounds at the Nemo pool? That by itself is a huge motivation for us to want to stay there. LOL

 

[sam_disney]

So we made our way to the pool. The kids were too excited to eat. I was too hungry to swim.

Bright, bright, bright, bright sunshine-y day!

Awwww - first year i went (1998)- we sat around the pool at all star sports, listening to that song!

I can see clearly now the rain has gone... good times! xxx

 

[erstwo]

Definitely the case! There was the one epic time in 2008 that Lauren, myself, and two of my cousins were in our own elevator on the Tower and someone did a peace sign. Our picture never showed up. So, no world peace or sororities for Mickey!

Aw. How sad for no world peace. You'd think that one would be okay. I guess not. Boo.
Actually, I did notice that one of our Space Mountain pictures had a guy whose had was strangely missing from one of our photos. I thought maybe his had was just raised too high in the air and the 'space clouds' covered it, but I wonder if they did a quick photo shop because he was holding up a peace sign or something along those lines. Hmmm.....

They have not put up my picture on Aerosmith when my fam did the "Wait a minute I love that idea" gesture which some can see as obscene depending on the meaning.

But my sisters (ex) boyfriend...probably 15 years ago...went to ToT and lifted up his shirt and everyone in our party pointed at it. They saw it on the screen afterwards and was like OMG we have to buy it. So we went to the CM and they said they can't sell it because of the fact that it's displaying human body parts or something. But their manager came and said if it slipped through their security and made it to the screen - they have to sell it. So I think my sister has it somewhere! I'll have to look

That's interesting! I guess we haven't been 'adventurous' enough in our on ride photo taking. It's probably because until Photopass Plus, we knew we weren't going to buy the photos. I have seen some great on ride group shots posted online though. I think it would be cool to try one. Even cooler to create a new one!
Sorry your "Wait a minute" didn't make the cut.

Did your kiddos catch the underwater sounds at the Nemo pool? That by itself is a huge motivation for us to want to stay there. LOL

Actually, they did not! That was one of the big draws for the pool for us too! We asked when we first arrived and the lifeguard said the sounds aren't constant - just intermittent. My kids were in the pool for a while, but they were playing around, and I don't think they ever thought to go underwater again after that. Bummer. But a good excuse to stay there again!

Awwww - first year i went (1998)- we sat around the pool at all star sports, listening to that song!

I can see clearly now the rain has gone... good times! xxx

It is a great song! And even better to sing it at WDW!

 

[erstwo]

My other goal on our Epcot Day (besides the Oz playground) was to try the Limited Time Magic Easter Egg Hunt/ vinylmation thing. We walked into the Showcase Plaza store nearest Canada and asked about the Hunt only to be told they had sold out the day before (Sunday, March 24.) I was slightly bummed, my kids would have loved it. It was supposed to last another week. Thanks a lot you geeksters who came and hunted down all the keychains before we had a chance. (And yes, I do realize you just put on the stickers and got the keychain at the end.......)

I tried to talk my husband into visiting the Oddessy building and converting our AP's to plastic while we were there, but he was having none of it. He didn't want to waste even one minute of park time, plus he was convinced that couldn't be the only location to convert.

So, with nothing to hunt, my MIL took off by boat straight towards Germany as fast as she could get there and my husband and son went with her. My daughter kept asking for a Duffy. I thought she wanted a stuffed bear, but as we pulled into the Duffy store, I realized she just wanted one of the paper Duffy's on a stick that you color around the WS. So we cruised over to Mexico to pick one up:

It was crowded in Mexico! It was crowded everywhere!

Look at the line for 'the Donald ride.'

We saw Donald out for photos - insane line.
We headed around the WS to decorate our Duffy and just enjoy the evening. My husband called to say there was no getting into the Biergarten, but they had managed to get a beer and they were having a great time.

We kept heading their way. We stopped in Norway to color, but I almost choked on the perfume. Normally it's strong, but doesn't bother me. This time it was awful.

Then on toward China where we stopped to watch the acrobats and then to color:

As you can see, we were sort of on the outskirts of the viewing area and just as my daughter was getting bored this woman ran past me yelling 'This way Mom! This way!" "Mulan will be up here!" So I just followed along and.............
Viola!

Second in line for Mulan. Thanks lady!

 

[erstwo]

We wandered more..... all the way to Germany. We bypassed the *insane!* line for Snow White (who wasn't even there yet!) And met up with our German:

These two are kindred spirits. They had already been shopping for a solid hour at this point I'm sure. My husband was still drinking his beer.

We colored our Duffy and shopped with the for a while:

My MIL, my husband and my son decided to eat in Germany. I knew my daughter would never go for that, so we decided to wander toward America for chicken nuggets......

We made it. I wasn't sure if I was hungry yet, so I held off:

But outside the American Pavilion was a 'F&GF 'smokehouse' that smelled amazing. I decided to try it.

I got the brisket with jalapeno cornbread and greens. Yum!

My daughter colored at the 'Duffy table' outside while I ate. This was an adorable F&G area. In keeping with the smokehouse/ Americana theme, the topiaries were Woody from Toy Story. So cute!

 

[erstwo]

And then we did a little shopping.....

And then I think we decided we wanted to see if Mr. and Mrs. Bunny were still out. We had seen them last Spring Break and my daughter wanted to see them again. Their m&g was in the UK.

We got back to the UK and no Mr. and Mrs. Bunny. They were through for the night. So we shopped:

And took note of the Easter Egg hunts that were almost hourly events during the day.

And then my daughter noticed Peter high above us:

How cool is that?

My husband, MIL and son met up with us in the UK and we made a plan. My daughter, my MIL and I were freezing and tired. We decided to head back to the room. My husband and my son decided to brave the crowds and try to hit up SSE and TT before heading back to the resort. So we trudged toward the front of the park:

And were bathed and warm, and sound asleep before they boys arrived 'home.'

Up next - How many rides can you ride in 1/2 day at the MK the week before Easter?

 

[sam_disney]

Up next - How many rides can you ride in 1/2 day at the MK the week before Easter?[/quote]


Hmmmm I am very intrigued to find out!

 

[erstwo]

Up next - How many rides can you ride in 1/2 day at the MK the week before Easter?

Hmmmm I am very intrigued to find out! [/quote]

It was interesting, that's for sure!

 

[erstwo]

Okay! Hoping to get my last posts up today!

A little background on this MK Tuesday...... The Friday before Spring Break, I had texted briefly with a dear friend (former neighbor) about our Spring Break plans. We had *just* been to Disney the month before so I didn't tell her about our little stay over in Orlando, just that we were going to the beach. She texted back that she hadn't made any plans yet. It was supposed to be cold at home, so I texted that if no one wanted the beach, Orlando might be nice because it was at least supposed to be warm there. And that was that.

Well, Monday night after our time in Epcot, I get on Facebook on my phone and there are pictures of her son (my son's dear friend) at Universal! So I text her to let her know that we are at Disney. She asks me where we are going on Tuesday and I reply MK. And she says - 'Well, we'll meet up with you then!' Yay!!!! Disney with friends is so fun.

We had previously traveled to Disney with this family for a week long trip in June of 2009. We stayed at the Ft. Wilderness Cabins and they stayed offsite.

Joining us today would be my friend (the mom), her mom, and my son's friend. MK EMH were 7 am to 8am. Because our internal clocks were still on CST (so 7am felt like 6am to us) and because MK didn't open to the public until 8, we arrived at the MK at 8am in time for the Good Morning show.

It was cooooold that day. Seriously Florida? Didn't you get my memo? Of course there were snow flurries at home......... so I guess I shouldn't complain too much!

My husband and MIL were still sleeping in their rooms. My husband's plan was to pack up the car for us and my MIL wasn't going to the MK today. She knew it would be too crowded and she wanted to shop at DTD. So bright and early, I arrived at MK with the kids in tow.....

Hello, Madhouse.

We walked all the way to the Main Street Bakery for breakfast before remembering it was closed. Luckily there was a CM with a sign pointing the way to the Tomorrowland Terrace where they were serving breakfast (or more importantly, hot coffee and hot chocolate!) Our friends texted that they were on the ferry. Then it seemed to be radio silence...... texts weren't going through due to the crowd size at the MK.

I needed to get a pair of Mickey ears as a birthday present for a 3 year old, so we decided to head toward the front of Main Street. My daughter was tired of walking, so we rented a single stroller for her and headed into the Chapeau.
We picked out a pair of classic Mickey ears and asked for his name to be stitched on - they said it would take 5 minutes and since we still hadn't heard from our friends, we decided to wait.

Not a sound on the phone.

So cold!

We waited all of 2 minutes and our hat was done! So fast! We walked out onto Main Street and a text came through from our friends. We were headed to meet them at Space Mountain!

 

[erstwo]

We met up in front of Space Mountain and got FP's for later.

Reunited and it's time to check out the Disney apps.........

We weren't sure what to do next. I wanted TTA, but everyone was so cold. Buzz already had a long wait and CP seemed was rejected by my kids. Since our friends hadn't seen New Fantasyland yet, and since LM was a ride my friend's Mom could ride on, we decided to head that way.

We stopped by to check out Dumbo. Then proceeded around the long construction walls to LM.

Standby was pretty long, but it is continuously moving, so we knew it wouldn't be a terrible wait.

Soon we were in the warm(er) room. Yay!

After LM, we split the group. The boys wanted to ride SM so my friend took them back there and I took her mom and my daughter to see Belle! The line was about 40 minutes, but it wasn't a terrible wait.

I was sooooo excited to see the mirror change! Then my husband called right in the middle of it - grrrrr....... so I still feel like I haven't experienced it fully. (He was trying to find out the location of my friend and the boys so he could meet up with them and use a fastpass for SM. )

Just like my husband told me, everything about this experience was so well done. It really eliminates all the awkward, walk up to a princess, say hello, get an autograph, take an awkward photo and then say goodbye - aspect of the m&g. It really makes kids more comfortable with the characters and gives them a great memory of their interaction.

My daughter was Mrs. Potts again. She loves to be Mrs. Potts!

After ETwB, we met up with the boys and my friend, who had ridden both BTMRR and SM while we were meeting Belle. At that point it was around 1 pm and MK was at phase 3 closure. It was PACKED. My friend planned to leave and come back in the evening. We decided to ride Pirates together before heading out of the park.
Pirates was a 50 minute wait! But we managed to survive And soon we were headed out of the gates. We said good bye to our friends, hopped a bus back to our resort, met up with my MIL and headed out........... some of us were headed home on a plane...... and some of us were headed back to the (cold!) beach.......

But you know...... a cold day on the beach is better than no day on the beach!

Thanks for reading my long, less than adequate picture(s) Trip Report! It's always so fun to relive the Disney moments with my WDWmagic friends! Now it's time to get back to reading YOUR reports!

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Always squinty pictures in the Florida sunshine - what I really need is a photographer of your caliber to follow us around one trip! I've had some friends who are almost as good as you head to WDW, but sadly never when we are there. When is your next trip again? Hahaha.

Lol! Give me somewhere to stay and I'm there!

You can be a dress repeater when it's a month apart. I'm sure that's in the rules somewhere.

That's hilarious about your MIL and Germany!