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]

Soon, we were at the Wilderness Lodge dock and walking up the walkway towards the resort.

The only reason we were making the stop at WL was so that Mama could see it. Mama said, while it was a very pretty resort, it didn't look like someplace she'd ever want to stay. I don't know if the resort fails to impress us because we live in a log home and it's not unique to us or what. Having said that, the resort is absolutely beautiful and I would love to have my house decorated like the WL.

The massive fireplace in the lodge:

I took more pictures inside the lodge but some didn't turn out very good because it was dim in the lobby:

 

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Hunter had to rub Humphrey's nose for good luck:

I guess this is the only picture I took inside the store and it's not very Wilderness Lodgy at all:

John found a Wilderness Lodge t-shirt that he liked and I found a pair of earrings. Hunter didn't find anything that he wanted. I don't think Mama did either. We made our purchase and walked back out into the lobby:

 

[mickeystoontown]

After our tour of the Wilderness Lodge, we walked back down the wooden walkway towards the boat docks. We had plenty of time before we had to check-in for the dinner show so we weren't stressed when we saw that no boats were there. It was a nice pleasant evening which made the wait go by quickly. After about 15 minutes, the boat came, we boarded and we were on our way. In no time at all, we were at Ft. Wilderness:

My cellphone rang and it was my sister calling to check in with us. She said she had tried calling Mama's cellphone but it was turned off. Surprise! Surprise! NOT! I don't know why she does that. While Mama was talking, I walked around the outside of the Ft. Wilderness store and took pictures of the metal signs:

Once Mama was done chit-chatting, we went into the store to have a look around. On one of our previous visits, we had bought our nephew a coonskin cap. I knew that they had some "unique" and "different" items during our other trips there. However, not this time. I was disappointed that a lot of the merchandise was the Disney World/Disneyland generic stuff. I always like having resort specific merchandise.

It was nearing time to check-in for the Hoop so we meandered over to the hall. But, not before I took this picture:

We were asked if we wanted to take a picture with the Photopass Photographer. We passed this time around. We were all checked in and were directed to a line to stand in. Hunter spent his time arm wrestling his dad:

Soon, we were ushered into the hall and we were pleasantly surprised when we were seated at the second table from the front of the stage! We had never been seated that close before. But, we had never been in Category 1 seating either. Keep in mind, too, that we were attending the 9:00 p.m. show and most every guest was seating in the middle of the theater.

In no time at all, the food started coming out. Salad, cornbread and butter:

 

[mickeystoontown]

I took pictures of the theater while I was eating the delicious salad:

The music started and out came the performers!

Sometime during the performance, our server came around and asked if she could take the salad and bread. We told her yes. Had we wanted, she would have brought more for us or simply left them there.

The servers brought our the entrees. We got tickled because she set the entire bucket of ribs right in front of Mama:

Mama pretending she was about to chow down on the ribs:

We moved the food to the center of the table:

Everything was delicious with the exception of the beans. While they had a good flavor, they were a little on the hard side to us.

 

[mickeystoontown]

The performers started walking around in the audience asking if there were any guests celebrating birthdays or anniversaries. John held up his hand to tell them we were celebrating Hunter's birthday:

The comedian of the troupe kept telling her to give him a little "smoochy poo" which had the audience laughing. Instead she took this picture:

To which the comedian said, "that ain't no kiss" which led to this:

 

[mickeystoontown]

The show has some corny moments but it's fun and energetic:

Even the guests were included in the show with a little napkin twirling:

The comedian was absolutely hillarious! He would make all sorts of silly comments and funny faces. Hunter and John laughed so hard at him!

Then the performers started singing the strawberry shortcake song and out came the desserts:

Soon after dessert was served, the show was over. It was a riot and we had so much fun. I'm glad that we had decided to take Mama to see it. We stopped by the bathroom before going to the bus stop. There were buses waiting for the guests and a castmember waiting at the end of the walkway directing us where to go. Our bus was almost empty. There may have been a dozen guests going to the CBR.

***Up next: Our last day in the parks

 

[tink65]

I absolutely love your TR. You are quite the funny story teller and I love all the pictures you've included! Thanks for sharing!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I absolutely love your TR. You are quite the funny story teller and I love all the pictures you've included! Thanks for sharing!

Thank you so much. I am glad that I'm able to keep you entertained. I have more updates coming up soon.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Photobucket took it's own sweet time uploading the two videos. Here's the one of Hunter participating in the Backlot Tour at Hollywood Studios:

 

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This is the video I took of the rain storm:

 

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Let's see if Photobucket will stay up and running long enough for me to write an installment.

I found a picture of John and Hunter on the bus back to the CBR after Hoop Dee Doo Review. You can tell by the look on John's face that he was super tired and that it must have been a bit chilly on the bus because Hunter has his arms tucked into his shirt.

The plan for our last full day at Disney was to visit the Magic Kingdom which is a vacation tradition for us. Mama had decided that she was going to sleep in and relax at the resort until sometime in the afternoon when we would go back and get her.

We arrived at the park a little after park opening. I was through bag check in no time and we were soon walking under the train station and down Main Street:

 

[mickeystoontown]

The plan for our last full day at Disney was to visit the Magic Kingdom which is a vacation tradition for us. Mama had decided that she was going to sleep in and relax at the resort until sometime in the afternoon when we would go back and get her.

We arrived at the park a little after park opening. I was through bag check in no time and we were soon walking under the train station and down Main Street:

In this picture, you can see all of the tarps on the buildings on the left side of Main Street:

See how the sky looks cloudy in this next pic?

I wanted to have our picture taken in front of the castle and John and I had said, prior to our arriving that day, that we wanted it to be a picture of the two of us kissing. We knew that this would probably embarrass the heck out of Hunter and that's why we wanted to do it.

The Photopass photographers were super busy that morning. While we were waiting, I took a picture of Hunter wiping an imaginary tear from the Indian's eye:

And then trying to sneak his knife away from him:

 

[mickeystoontown]

We walked a bit further down Main Street because there was a Photopass photographer there that didn't seem to be quite as busy as the others. We waited a few minutes and then it was our turn. We told the photographer that we wanted a picture of us kissing in front of the castle and Hunter just shook his head

. That really made John want to ham it up. I don't know if I should post the first picture the photographer took or not. Let's just say that the kiss the photographer captured wasn't an "American" kiss. John had his tongue stuck out (not down my throat or anything) and the photographer clicked at just the right time! I squealed and even Hunter laughed. So did the others around us, one of those being my fellow Louisiana residents whom I had meet at Hollywood Studios. Her husband was laughing at John and said "That's the way we do it in Louisiana!".

Then, we got even more tickled, John did some little move like he was going to dip me and this is the picture they got

:

I knew that I wasn't going to like the looks of that one so I asked for just one more try:

The Photopass photographer told Hunter to come on over and he snapped a picture of us all:

I introduced John to my new "friend" and the guys shook hands and we talked for just a few minutes. We bid them adieu and continued on into the park.

Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

We really weren't too sure what we wanted to do first so we ventured off towards Adventureland. Along the way, I took pictures:

As we got closer to Adventureland (by the way, when did they take the Adventureland sign and the tiki guy off this?)

...we decided to take a right and go across the bridge towards Liberty Square.

Hunter wanted to stop and have his picture taken in front of the Liberty Bell:

And I wanted to go off in search of a bathroom

:

 

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Hunter took these while they were waiting on me to get back:

I'm baaaaack!

 

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As you can see from the pictures, it wasn't very busy in Frontierland. That's because they were all in Fantasyland! I went to the bathroom near Peter Pan and I could see the line to Peter Pan was wrapped all the way down to the bathroom.

The wait for Haunted Mansion wasn't long at all so we figured now was as good a time as any to get in line too.

I took a close up of this tombstone because we have two that we put out at Halloween and want to do another:

I wanted to see if any pictures would turn out if I turned off the flash. They didn't turn out good at all. As a matter of fact, they look as if I captured pictures of ghosts:

 

[mickeystoontown]

All too soon the ride through the mansion was over and we were on the moving conveyor belt thingy. Cute little bats were painted on it:

When we walked outside, we felt a few raindrops. Remember those darkening skies? Well, looked like we were in for some rain.

I snapped one more picture before we needed to duck for cover because the raindrops were coming a bit quicker than before.

My camera batteries had died in my old camera and I wanted to buy more but the little cart outside the Haunted Mansion exit was closing up shop. The castmember was nice enough to roll up the tarp to see if she had any more AA batteries. Of course, with my luck, she didn't. We thanked her and ran into the store where Mama and I had shopped a few days before. They didn't have any batteries and directed us towards the shops near the Christmas store.

**Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

But, before we could go out, we were in need of either our ponchos or an umbrella or two. John can't stand wearing the ponchos because he's hot natured and he has a big head. Hey, I'm not saying anything he doesn't know so don't go fussing at me for saying it.

He usually rips the neck of his ponchos so they'll fit which kind of ticks me off because we just paid for the dang things.

Anyway, he didn't want to wear his poncho so we bought two umbrellas for he and Hunter and I wore one of the ponchos we brought with us.

We walked over to the Christmas store:

The entire time we were in the store, I kept thinking "I wish Mama was with us because she loves looking for new Christmas ornaments." However, I also knew that it wouldn't have been good for Mama to be out in the rain and she needed the extra rest that morning. We looked around for a little bit and I took a picture or two:

or three:

well, actually four:

When we went into the store, the castmembers were helping other guests but now, they were available to ask if they had batteries. Again, just my luck, they didn't. They told us to run across the way to the store beside Hall of Presidents as they knew they had them. And that's exactly what we did and plopped down a gosh awful amount of money for four batteries.
What's a gal to do though? You're in the middle of Walt Disney World, your last day in the World as a matter of fact, and you just have to have batteries. (Never mind the fact that I actually had two cameras and one had completely charged batteries

)

Batteries in hand, well, in camera and we were back out into the rainy streets of Liberty Square.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Ring! Ring! Ring! Guess what? John got a phone call! Hey, it was the first one of the day and it was already mid-morning. That must be a record for him.

Hunter and I talked while John was on the phone and we decided we wanted to go over and see how long the wait was for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I told John where we were going he tagged along while on the phone with his brother.

Instead of going directly down the streets of Frontierland, we walked down to the walkway around the river. We've found over the years that this is a path less taken and we can avoid a few hundred million people by going that way.

Okay, so maybe I was exaggerating the few hundred million people this time but I swear it's a better path to take than the streets during the more busy times of the day.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Once we reached Big Thunder Mountain, we saw that the wait was just 15 minutes. That's not bad for a weekend in June! John was being a sissy and said he would sit and wait for us because the train seats always hurt his back. Cry baby!

Hunter and I certainly weren't going to miss it so we jumped in the line and were soon boarding our mine train:

These pictures were taken on the climb up one of the hills:

I guess because it was still sprinkling rain, they had slowed the ride down more than usual because, even though we were still zipping around the tracks, we certainly weren't going as fast as we normally would have been going. We weren't the only ones who noticed it either. There was a lady and her son behind us that were commenting on it too.