Who Knew Choking Each Other Would Earn Us Fastpasses? We were just kidding!

Hello there and welcome to my trip report.

I guess I'll start out with the introductions of the cast and crew.

My name is Lisa (a/k/aTinkerbell as my boss likes to call me) and I am a 44 year old paralegal, wife to John and mother to Hunter and Lacey (who didn't join us on this trip 'cause she's attending missionary college). My husband, John, also 44, owns and operates a cabinet shop which is good because I can always talk his boss into letting him off work to go to Disney.

John acts all nonchalant about going to Disney but when somebody asks him a question, he immediately starts chattering away.

Since I am still uploading pictures and can't seem to find a picture of John and I from this year's trip, I guess I'll just use a picture from last year's trip.

Hunter is our son and he turned 13 just 3 days before we arrived in Disney. We couldn't think of a better way to celebrate becoming a teenager than by partying hard with Mickey and the gang. Hunter is a multi-talented little dude. He can play the acoustic guitar, electric guitar, keyboard and viola. Magical illusions and cup stacking are his newest tricks and he's pretty darn good at both. When he's not playing an instrument or trying to trick you, he's playing football or singing in the honor choir. See....I told you he was multi-talented.

Also along for the ride this year was my Mama, Edna. She's 76 years old and dotes on John and Hunter like they were her little babies. Mama has been to Disney with us once at Thanksgiving, 2000. That was back in the day when we stayed offsite 'cause we didn't know any better.

We were anxious to see how Mama would do with all the walking, heat, humidity, conveyor belts, etc.

Again, I don't have all of my pictures uploaded so I'll just use a picture of Hunter and Mama riding the clamshells into The Seas with Nemo and Friends. Not the best of pictures but a picture nevertheless:

We are a pretty silly fun loving family that always seems to attract.......hum.......let's just say,we always seem to have an "incident" happen during each of our trips. Over the years:

1) We got stuck on Test Track in the cold section and I almost tinkled myself;

2) My tooth (temporary crown) fell out while eating lunch at the Electric Umbrella and I had to super glue it in;

3) John got his toe broken after being run over in a drive-by scooter incident;

4) Hunter boogied with every character we ran into;

5) My wonderful, beautiful, loving family pedaled off on the surrey bike without me when my shoe hit the pedal and flew over my shoulder;

6) Lacey and Hunter jumped for joy in front of the Epcot ball;

7) We laughed so much during the trips that I caught myself saying "stop making me laugh or......" every 30 minutes.

And so forth and so on. We love spending time together and there's no better place than Walt Disney World to act silly and have a good time. Our goofiness paid off during the trip and that same goofiness inspired the title of this report.

This was our 15th trip to Disney in 13 years and our 5th stay at the Caribbean Beach Resort. We spent 9 1/2 glorious days at Walt Disney World and I could have stayed longer had my boss not insisted that I return to "the real world".

I have people ask me all the time why we go to Disney World year after year after year. I've tried to explain it to them but, unless you are a Disney fan like myself, you just can't understand. Remember those old Lay's potato chips commercials? You know, the ones that said something like "Lay's potato chips...so good you can't eat just one!" I liken Disney to a Lay's potato chip....."Walt Disney World is so fun you can't go just once!"

Now that the introductions have been made, I guess I'll get busy working on the next installment.

Oh....I hope that everybody feels free to post replies/comments 'cause I really like chatting.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Hunter walked around the restaurant taking pictures:

While Hunter was gone, our server brought our drink order. Just as Hunter sat down at the table, the meteor shower began and the room started changing colors:

 

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Mama and Hunter:

John and I:

Our server came back around to give us refills and to see if we were readyto order. We gave her our orders and she said she'd try to get it out as quickly as possible. While we were waiting, Hunter and John began to play "slide the salt shaker". Never heard of it? That's 'cause John and Hunter made it up. One person slides the salt shaker across the table and the other is ready to catch it. The goal is to get the shaker as close to the edge of the table as possible without it going over. Hey....whatever it takes to keep 'em occupied.

Hunter decided he needed to take a little drink break:

While John rested his eyes:

Continued in next post

 

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I just realized that one of Hunter's pictures of the octopus has a hidden Mickey on it. Cool!

Before long, our server was bringing out our food. John ordered the ribs, slaw and waffle fries:

Hunter ordered a burger with waffle fries:

Mama ordered the chicken quesadillas from the appetizer menus. The portion they brought out was an entree portion....it was a lot!

I ordered the appetizer sampler which has onion rings, chicken quesadillas, queso dip and chips and bruschetta and toasted bread. They bring it out on this big stand:

The individual plates:

John's rib plate (again):

There was soooo much food and it was all so good. We knew there was no way we could even take a tiny bite of any dessert so we skipped dessert that day.

Had we gone to Planet Hollywood, Mama would have used her $15.00 voucher meaning her meal would have been just about paid for. Since we had decided to skip Planet Hollywood and go with T-Rex, we weren't going to let her pay for her meal. That just wouldn't be right. So, we settled the bill and went to have a look around in the store.

The store was mega-crowded and we only looked for just a few minutes before deciding to just leave:

****Up next: Hunter's heavenly place

 

[mickeystoontown]

All year long, Hunter had regretted not buying something in the magic shop at DTD. We promised him that we'd go there on this trip. So, we started walking that way.

And, I know you're not going to believe this but John got a phone call.

Hey, this was his first call of the day so I couldn't fuss about it too much:

Once John hung up and Mama and Hunter were ahead of us, I filled John in on Lacey's Jeep situation. He had the same reaction as I did.....tell Mr. Rick we'll send money. Then, I told him that Mr. Rick wouldn't accept any money because Lacey had already asked. John said he would try and call Mr. Rick that evening to thank him for what he was doing for us.

Here's Mama and Hunter up ahead:

Soon, we were at the magic shop. If you've never been in the magic shop, let me tell you....it's a very small shop. There were quite a few people standing around watching the castmembers demonstrate the tricks. Hunter and John stayed in the store while Mama and I walked across the street to sit down under an umbrella table.

Why....looky here....John had another phone call:

If it had been up to Hunter, he would have stayed in the magic shop for hours. Since John was on the phone, I told Mama I was going to go over and see if Hunter had decided on anything yet. (This was about 20 minutes after we had sat down.) I went into the store and Hunter had two different things he wanted to buy. One was a set of magic cards and I can't remember what the other was. I think it may have been a levitating ball. I do remember that they were both really expensive (in my book).

John came back in and I let him help Hunter decide what to buy. Eventually, he decided on the deck of magic/levitating cards. He looked out the store front and waved for us to come over. By the time we got there, he had bought the cards and the two magicians were showing him how they worked.

$29.50 poorer, we were back on our way to explore more of Downtown Disney.

 

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Some of the sights we saw on our way back to the bus stop:

There was a street performer in between two of the buildings so we stopped to watch him. John and Hunter love love love this kind of stuff:

The guy was really good. He would juggle, toss things in the air and catch them and all sorts of other things. We watched him the entire time. The only thing about the performance that I didn't like was the fact that he had some whistle thing hidden in his mouth and, instead of talking, he made this high pitched squeaking noise that got irritating after a while.

 

[mickeystoontown]

We could hear it thundering a bit and figured we better move on. No trip to DTD is complete without stopping at Basin to have a "sniff" around.

It was starting to thunder more and more so we continued on until we reached the bus stop. The bus stops at DTD confuse me so much. The stops are numbered according to your resort name but you don't know if you are supposed to be on the left or the right. Maybe it's just me but I am always confused.

John croutched down so that others could sit on the bench and this is what Hunter did:

We did have a little bit of a wait for the bus....I'm thinking it was about 15 minutes or so. Then, we had to stop at the Pleasure Island bus stop (don't know why I didn't think about us just getting on the bus there). Once we left DTD, we had to make the loop through Typhoon Lagoon to pick up guests. There was no one waiting to get on so the driver just sat there a minute or two and left.

***Continued in next post

 

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Hunter said he wanted to go swimming. It was already dark out and Mama was ready to sit and rest a while. She decided to just stay in her room and get to bed early.

I didn't really feel like swimming and neither did John but we told Hunter we'd walk him to the main pool and watch him swim.

I needed to tinkle and went into the bathroom/shower room near the pool. Being the good trip report writer that I am, I took pictures:

 

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I went back out and took one more picture before there was a loud clap of thunder:

Which meant the pool was closed. Bummer! Hunter might have swam 45 minutes before it closed. As a consolation, we went in to play a few arcade games:

Hunter said he was about to starve to death. Poor thing...we never feed him. We asked what he wanted and weren't surprised when he said pizza! Now that John and I thought about it, we were a little hungry too. I don't know how since we packed away so much food at T-Rex but we were.

Hunter ordered his pizza. I ordered baked ziti and John ordered a burger. The only pictures I have of food is my baked ziti:

But Hunter did take a picture of his dad and I goofying off:

***Up next: Our second day at Epcot

 

[mickeystoontown]

Okay so I forgot something that happened during our "down day". Remember Hunter buying an almost $30 pack of magic cards? Well, by the time we got back to the resort and Hunter played around with them a little while, they were no longer "magic". They weren't rising like they were supposed to. We took out the instructions and it said that after a while the "magic" part might wear down a little and that you could replace it with a scrapbooking dot. Ummmm, no, we would not be replacing any of the magic with a scrapbooking dot. If anybody was going to be doing any replacing, it was going to be the magic shop we bought it from.

I told John that I was going back to Downtown Disney and make them give me a replacement deck. After all, we had the cards less than 24 hours and they weren't working any more. John and Mama said they would stay at the resort with Hunter and let him swim. Mama also wanted to wash some of her clothes and, since the laundry is beside the quiet pool, that would work out fine.

I walked over to the bus stop and lucked out when a DTD bus pulled up in less than 5 minutes. Lots of other folks were getting on and, because the majority of them were wearing bathing suits and/or cover-ups, I could tell they were going to Typhoon Lagoon.

This time, the driver said he would be stopping at both DTD bus stops so I waited and got off at the Pleasure Island stop so I wouldn't have so far to walk. I took pictures on my way over to the magic shop:

When I walked into the magic shop, there were only two people in the store and one of the guys recognized me. He asked if he could help me and I told him the problem that Hunter was having with the cards. He set up the little shield thingie so nobody could see what he was doing and then said "yep, these seem to be duds". And, without giving me time to show him my receipt, he gave me a new deck. But, not without trying them out first.

I thanked the guys and started walking back towards the bus stop. Like I said in my previous posts, the bus stops at DTD confuse the heck out of me. I can see the signs that say which bus stop is for which resort but I can never tell if I am supposed to stand behind that sign or in front of the sign or what. So, I usually stand kind of in between and wait for the bus to pull up.

While I was standing there, I called John to tell him that I was about to come back to the resort. I got no answer and I figured John had decided to take a dip in the pool too. Just as I was getting on the bus, he called back. No, he wasn't swiming, he was actually on the phone with his Mama checking in with them. I told him that I'd be back soon. I was all alone on the bus until one lady came running up and caught it too. Then, we had to make the stop through Typhoon Lagoon where a few others got on and then we were back at the CBR.

I took a picture or two as I walked to our building:

Just as I started towards the quiet pool, I see all of my bunch coming towards me:

***Okay, that's it for my "forgotten" moment of that day. I think I have also found a few more picture of the resort I took on my walk to the Custom House. I'll see where those are and then post them before moving on to Epcot.

 

[accord99cutie]

I am still enjoying your report!!! The amount of details is making me feel like I am right there with you guys!! Can't wait for more!!!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I am still enjoying your report!!! The amount of details is making me feel like I am right there with you guys!! Can't wait for more!!!

I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying the report. I'm a very detail person anyways (I am a paralegal in a family law office so we have to be pretty detail oriented.) and that definitely comes into play when I write my reports.

 

[mickeystoontown]

You'll also remember that I said I thought I took more pictures in the Christmas Store at DTD. Well, that's because I did. Here they are:

_______

 

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And, while we are on the subject of "lost" pictures, here are more that I took while walking to the Custom House and back. I knew I took more pictures!

 

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***Now that I have the lost pictures posted, I'm about to post another "real" installment.

 

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Now that we had had a "down" day, we were all ready for another park day. Today we were going to tour Epcot again and having dinner at LeCellier. We hadn't been to LeCellier in several years and were looking forward to it again.

I called Mama when we woke up and made sure that she was still feeling up to going to Epcot. Her voice sounded a little better and she said she felt like going.

The sky was a pretty blue and the sun was shining as we walked across the parking lot to the bus station. When we got there, there was no one at the bus stop. We looked up and saw the skywriter. I tried taking pictures:

I can't remember exactly what time it was when we got to the bus stop but I do remember that we didn't make rope drop that day. But, we didn't miss it by much either. The Epcot bus pulled up after just a few minutes and we were all, again, able to get a seat. So far, Mama had not had to stand on the bus once!

As I've said before, that had been one of our concerns.

Because the CBR is so close to Epcot, it took us just 10 minutes to arrive at the park. I love that! Mama and I had to go through bag check while Hunter and John walked through the side gate and met us on the other side.

Here I am putting our park tickets into my handy dandy Vera Bradley card holder. Have I mentioned how much I love the card holder? It's the perfect size for holding our tickets and my "folding" money (dollars).

I had to take a pictures of the big golf ball:

John and I did the "stretch your arm as far out as you can and take a picture of the two of us" picture:

What were Mama and Hunter doing while I was taking pictures? People watching:

Well, since they were sitting down, I may as well take a few more pictures:

 

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I made Hunter pose for me in this one:

One more as we got closer:

Mama was still looking for some kind of peppermint or other mint so we stopped in the store on the right hand side of Spaceship Earth to see if they had any. This is where John got his first phone call of the day:

This phone call was from a customer we had done work before so he had to take it and I didn't fuss. When you have a repeat customer, you like to keep 'em happy.

Mama found a little tin of mints and bought those to see if they would help her throat. It wasn't really sore but she said it would get dry and scratchy and she wanted the mints so that she could keep her mouth from being so dry. By the time she had made her purchase, John was off the phone and we were ready for the first attraction of the day.

Since the wait time for Spaceship Earth was short, that's where we went first:

Mama was a champ and was able to get right into the ride vehicle without any bobbles. John sat with Mama and Hunter and I sat together just like the visit before. I kept fiddling with the settings on my camera so I could try and get some decent pictures:

 

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Look really closely at the top right hand corner of the paper in this picture. You can see the hidden Mickey:

**Continued in next post

 

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Every time I see this section of Spaceship Earth, I think of how, when my Mama started working for a wholesale drug company eons ago, they actually still had the old timey switchboards where you plugged in and pulled out the wires to answer and put through calls. The company owner had money out the waaaaazoooo but he didn't want to spend it to upgrade the phones. They had that switchboard for many years:

I tried taking pictures of our screens but they didn't turn out well.

 

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Since Mama and Hunter hadn't seen World Showcase this trip, we wanted to go there next. For those of you who read my previous trip report, you may remember the picture of Hunter and Lacey jumping in front of the fountain at Spaceship Earth. I thought I'd give it a try. I am so uncoordinated and should have known better. And, I should have known better than to think that John could take a good picture. It took us forever to get a halfway decent picture:

Hunter wanted to give it a try and, believe it or not, this was my first shot:

I tried to talk Mama and John into giving us a little jump but they both said no way!

We decided to go to the left and start with Mexico. We took the path that goes over the water.

By now, Mama knew to be on the lookout for hidden Mickeys and she found this one on the ground (I didn't have the heart to tell her these were everywhere.)

 

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We made it over to Mexico and I snapped a picture or two before we headed into the ever so comforting air conditioned building.

Some pictures inside the Mexico pavilion: