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]

I was of the frame of mind that it didn't matter how long I had to wait, by golly, I was gonna have my picture taken in front of my namesake sign. And, as you know, we finally did:

Once the pictures were snapped, we joined the rest of the people walking into Toontown. I knew that this would probably be our last time to see Toontown in all it's glory. Which is why I wanted to take pictures....lots of 'em. Want to see lots of 'em? So do I! This is all I took:

What the heck? I didn't take more than that? NOOOOOO! I can be so absent minded sometimes. Now, I think I remember that John and Hunter rode Goofy's Barnstormer. I don't have picture proof of it but I know that there's no way that Hunter would have gone to Toontown and not ridden it. He knew that the Fantasyland expansion meant a change to Barnstormer and he had already said he was riding it. So, I am sure that's what happened next.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Once they had ridden, we went into County Bounty to see how long the character lines were.

Yikes! The line for the fairies was 90 minutes. Ummm, I don't think so. I don't remember how long the lines for the other characters were but they were long. We chose not to wait for any of the characters this go round.

We did a little shopping and I saw graduation ears. I took a picture of one for Lacey and sent it to her via text picture message or whatever you call it.

Hunter tried on the ears and asked that I take a picture of him to send to Lacey. Notice the chocolate on his tongue? When we were in the shop near Haunted Mansion, Hunter used a snack credit to purchase some chocolate coins and he decided to snack on them.

John went off on his own to do a little secret shopping. I may have mentioned it already but we like to pick up little secret gifts for each other while in Disney. John usually gets me some piece of jewelry. I, on the other hand, have a harder time finding something for him. He may not look like it but he's pretty picky. I never buy him hats. He had mugs out the wazoo. He likes to pick out his own shirts. So, yes, it's hard to find the right "secret gift" for him.

Mama was on the lookout for a cookie cutter, magnet and an antenna topper. The magnet and antenna topper were for herself. The cookie cutter would be for her cousin. She buys her a cookie cutter every year for Christmas.

Hunter wasn't on the lookout for anything in particular. He's old enough that we don't mind him wandering around on his own. He knows that he can't leave a store without our permission. Mama, on the other hand, doesn't like it when we let him get out of our sight. She was always following him around. It was funny because she was trying to act like she wasn't following him but she was.

Right near the checkout was a plastic container that had keychains in them. They were little rubber type balls that were in the shape of different characters. They had Goofy, Donald, Mickey, Minnie and a pirate Mickey. The best thing was they were just $1.95. I had seen them when we were at Epcot but didn't take the time to really look at them. By this time, John had found me and I told him that the keychains would make good gifts for Lacey's fellow Mission students. I try to get them a little something and these would be very inexpensive. We picked out ten and then I threw in three or four more for good measure.

I think I remember that Mama found the magnet she was looking for but I can't be sure. Anyway, we left the store with our goodies. Since we had a little time to kill before we could use our Winnie the Pooh Fastpasses, I suggested that we hop on the train and take a ride around the park. That would be a good way for Mama to see everything and we would give our feet a little rest.

Here's Hunter waiting on the train and licking a now melted chocolate coin:

I, of course, took pictures:

Mama and Hunter did this:

Lord have mercy! I do believe my Mama would wrestle an alligator if Hunter asked her to.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I took only one picture while we were on the train. Here's a glimpse of the line for Splash Mountain:

We stayed on the train all the way back to Toontown and walked back to Fantasyland. The construction work on the Fantasyland Expansion had already begun. They had moved the tree from Pooh's Playful Spot over by The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh:

I am so not a "sitter". I like to do stuff even while waiting. So, while we wait the few minutes to pass before we could use our Fastpasses, Hunter and I walked into Fantasyland:

Mama and John had found a bench to sit and wait on us and on the Fastpass return time. I am so very blessed that my mother and husband get along so well. I often joke that, should John and I ever divorce (not a chance but I'm just saying), my Mama would keep John and toss me away.

Here they are talking about something:

And, then, they spotted us and smiled:

**Up next: A visit with the Heffalumps and Woozles.

 

[ABigBrassBand]

Just read the first few paragraphs, and good for Hunter! Throw in acoustic/upright/electric bass, and those are the instruments I play as well--just happy because it's rare to find violists these days...

Will read the rest now

EDIT: Just finished, what a great TR! Thanks for the good read!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Just read the first few paragraphs, and good for Hunter! Throw in acoustic/upright/electric bass, and those are the instruments I play as well--just happy because it's rare to find violists these days...

Will read the rest now

EDIT: Just finished, what a great TR! Thanks for the good read!

Wow! You have some talent! I was very surprised when Hunter said he wanted to join the orchestra but he's done so well. We actually just got back from an orchestra concert where he got to play with the high school orchestra.

I'm glad that you're enjoying the report. There's a whole lot more to come.

 

[Thumbelina]

Im enjoying your tr sooo much. I cant wait to hear the rest!
Sounds like you guys had a wonderful trip.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Im enjoying your tr sooo much. I cant wait to hear the rest!
Sounds like you guys had a wonderful trip.

I'm glad that you are enjoying it so far. I hope to get another updated posted before I leave from work today.

 

[mickeystoontown]

You'll remember (and if you didn't...I just reminded you

) that I had picked up Fastpasses for the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh as we passed through Fantasyland earlier in the day.

The time had finally come where we could visit Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, Rabbit and the Heffalumps and Woozles. Here's John standing in line and pretending to be asleep again. I'm actually surprised that he wasn't really asleep as he likes to take a nap every once in a while.

He has been known to catch a few ZZZZZZs here and there. I know! I know! You can't believe that John would actually sleep while at Walt Disney World.

Even with Fastpasses, we had to wait a little while. So I did what any perfectly normal trip reporter writer would do.....took pictures:

 

[mickeystoontown]

Here I am standing behind the striped line (with little honey bees on it):

Mama and Hunter sat in the back of the honey pot:

while John and I sat in the front of the honey pot:

And, then, we were bouncing off in our honey pot to follow Pooh on his adventures:

I was snapping pictures and turned to see:

I knew he wouldn't last!

 

[mickeystoontown]

The ride was over with all too soon. I nudged John and he was wide awake again. How in the world he gets refreshed after a 2 minute nap, I'll never know!

For the life of me, I can't remember where I took this picture. Do ya'll know?

I have no idea at all.....maybe in Philarmagic? That's what I am thinking but it doesn't make sense that it is in numerical order in my pictures. I don't remember going back to see Philarmagic again that day. Maybe I took it in the little store outside of the Snow White attraction. I am soooooo confuuuused! I refuse to think that I am getting older and am forgetting things.

 

[mickeystoontown]

After seeing Pooh (and apparently doing something else since I took a picture of a poster

), we didn't really have a plan other than using the Space Mountain Fastpasses that I had obtained earlier in the day. We knew that we had another day at the Magic Kingdom and we were trying to take it slow for Mama's sake.

By this stage of the vacation, Mama had figured out that I was picture happy. At first, she would stop and let me take the pictures. Now, she would keep walking with John and Hunter and let me catch up. However, this time, John had no idea where we were going so they had no choice but to stop while I took pictures of the castle:

We took the path to the left of the back of the castle and stopped to make a wish or two at the wishing well. There was just one other family there so we were able to take a few pictures:

I don't know why John and I look so serious in the picture above. We really were enjoying ourselves.

 

[mickeystoontown]

John asked "where to" and I told him that it wouldn't be long before we could use our Space Mountain Fastpasses. John said he didn't want to ride so he would wait outside with Mama while Hunter and I rode. Off we went down the pathway, past the Tomorrowland Speedway (which I have never ever understood being named that since you go as slow as a darn snail) and into Tomorrowland:

We made it over to Space Mountain and noticed that there were hardly any people waiting outside. What's up with that? What up was the ride was shut down temporarily. I asked the castmember if he knew when it would be back up and running and he said they hoped not too long.

See those clouds rolling in? So did we! The wind was starting to pick up and we could see a huge bank of black clouds making their way from way back behind Adventureland. They were coming straight towards us. I asked Mama and John what they wanted us to do. They both said we should wait and see if the ride got back up and running. They found a nice bench over to the left side of the building. Hunter and I found one to the right side of the building so that we could watch and see if the castmember started letting people in again.

After about 10 minutes, it started sprinkling. We walked back over to Mama and John who said they'd find a seat inside and wait on us. We walked in with them so that we'd know where they were. I snapped this picture of Hunter with the giant Vinylmation:

Hunter and I put on our ponchos and headed out into the sprinkling rain. At first it was just sprinkling but soon it was raining and raining pretty hard. I looked at Hunter and Hunter looked at me. "You wanna stay out here?" I asked. "Sure, why not?" he said. So, we did. We moved off to the side and watched it rain:

You can tell by the person's poncho in this next picture that the wind had picked up a bit too:

The place where we were standing had a slope to it and the water was really rushing by us at this point. Hunter had on his Crocs and couldn't have cared less. I was sitting up on a little ledge and had my feet propped up so I didn't get them wet:

It calmed down a little bit and we could see that they still weren't letting people into the ride. We walked back in the building to check in with Mama and John. They were talking and having a good time just people watching. They said to just wait it out a little longer. We didn't have to be anywhere until our dinner ADR at The Plaza.

Hunter spent a little time playing in the arcade:

After about 10 minutes, my phone rang and it was John. He said that he had heard someone say that the ride was back up and running. We hotfooted it outside and were soon blasting off into space! This was our first time to ride it since the rehab and it did seem smoother. Hunter said it was "awesome" and "I have to make dad ride it." I took pictures while we were on the conveyor belt thingamabob:

 

[mickeystoontown]

Hunter went straight to his daddy and begged him to please ride. John tries to act all tough but we all know that he is a sucker for his kids. It didn't take too much begging and they were off to ride. Mama stayed right where she was and I sat down beside her to wait. Since they used Fastpass, it didn't take long for them to make it back to us.

I went to take a peek outside to see if it was still raining. It was. It was one of those rains that you don't know if you should take out the ponchos or not. You know the kind of rain I am talking about. After a look at the sky, we figured it would be best if we did wear them.

I could tell that Mama wasn't quite sure about keeping on touring even though it was raining. She has this thing about getting out in the rain. We often laugh at her when she says "I was going to go to *** (insert name of a store or a person's house) but it was raining." John will just say "you don't have windshield wipers on your van?". I guess it's just because she's older.

Anyway, she soon realized that a visit to Disney almost always meant at least a rain shower or two or three or four....... We started making our way towards Main Street. It was a bit early for our ADR at The Plaza so we went down Main Street and did a little window shopping. Hunter wanted to show her the super duper expensive blown glass items:

Check out the price tag for the carriage:

That's right....it was $2,500.00. I bought three of 'em! Yeah right

**Up next: dinner at The Plaza

 

[hbaker]

Lovin' It

I am loving your trip report. Your mama is fabulous. We took my husband's mother and grandmother (85) on our last trip and was amazed at how well she did. It is almost as much fun watching her as it is our little kids. Looks like you guys had a great time. Can't wait to read more.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I am loving your trip report. Your mama is fabulous. We took my husband's mother and grandmother (85) on our last trip and was amazed at how well she did. It is almost as much fun watching her as it is our little kids. Looks like you guys had a great time. Can't wait to read more.

Thank you! I think my Mama is a pretty good lady and I think I'll keep her.:ROFLOL: Wasn't it fun seeing Disney through a Senior's eyes? Almost as much fun as watching the little kids experience Disney.

 

[mickeystoontown]

After peering through some of the Main Street windows, we looked at our watches and realized that we could go check in at The Plaza. It had been many years since we had eaten there and we were looking forward to it.

************************************************** ********
In true McBride fashion, I have a funny little story about The Plaza. Several years ago, we had dinner there and our waitress was Pam. If I am remembering correctly, she was from China or maybe it was Indonesia. Heck, I can't remember. Anyway, Pam had a little bit of trouble understanding English. Well, she had a little bit of trouble understanding our Southern drawl English.

For those of you who have met John, you may remember that he talks slow and is very Southern. (I can spit out an entire sentence before he can even say two words.). He also tends to flirt with people. That's perfectly okay when he goes to buy lumber and the lady decides to throw in an extra sheet or two of hardwood at no extra cost.

But, it's not okay when your waitress is having a hard time understanding you.

Once Pam had taken our order, I told John to just stick with plain old English and not try to add any kind of little joke or compliment or anything into the conversation. He didn't know what I was talking about (yeah right) but agreed. Pam would come to our table while we were waiting on our food and John did a little of his eye batting at her and told her that it sure was hot outside. He was in need of some water. We ended up with...no lie....9 glasses of water on our table.

Our burgers and sandwiches came out a little while later and John told Pam that we needed mustard, mayo and ketchup....lots of it. "Lots?" Pam asked. John said, "Yes please". (blink, blink, blink with the long eyelashes). Back then, the condiments were in little miniature bottles. Imagine our surprise when Pam came out of the swinging doors carrying a tray full of mustard, mayo and ketchup. She put every single one of them on our table. "Here's your lots." Pam said with a smile. When she walked away, we couldn't help but laugh. We had so many condiments on our table it was beyond funny. Of course, in true Disney obsessed fashion, I put the ones that we didn't use in my backpack.

Okay, so maybe that wasn't funny to you, but it was (and still is) to us. We barely had room on our table to eat there were so many glasses of water and miniature bottles of condiments.

************************************************** ********

 

[mickeystoontown]

We check in at the podium and were given a buzzer. There really wasn't a good place to sit down because everything was wet from the rain. But, at least it had stopped and we were able to take off the ponchos. I took pictures of our surroundings:

I didn't remember seeing a bathroom in The Plaza last time we ate there. So, Mama and I decided we better make a trip to the bathroom before we were seated.

After about 10 minutes or so, our buzzer went off and our hostess said "follow me". The doors opened and we were hit with a blast of cold air. I mean really cold air. I had flashbacks of being stuck on Test Track. Thank goodness I had made the trip to the bathroom.

Our waitress came to our table as soon as we were seated. I asked her if they had any complimentary throws to cover up with. She admitted that it was a bit chilly in the restaurant but that they couldn't do anything about it. She took our drink orders and left us to peruse the menus.

It was so hard to decide what to order. 1) Because everything on the menu looked so tasty; 2) We couldn't concentrate because it was so darned cold. We had chillbumps on our chillbumps!

Our drink order came out quickly and we placed our order.

John ordered the Angus Burger served on a flour-dusted kaiser roll with lettuce, tomato, and onion. Choose from the following toppings: Cheddar, American cheese, Bacon, Grilled Mushrooms and Grilled Onions and a side of fries.

Hunter ordered a plain burger with fries.

I ordered a Plaza Club: smoked ham, turkey, bacon, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise layered on sourdough bread with fries.

Mama ordered a Turkey Sandwish: smoked turkey, bacon, lettuce, vine ripened tomato and mayonnaise on toasted multi-grain bread with a side of some kind of slaw.

All of us had ordered sweet tea. I was beginning to get a little bit of a headache. I get frequent migraines and lemons or lemon juice seems to lessen the pain. Since our waitress had brought a small bowl of lemons with our tea, I ate a few wedges with a little salt. John thought he'd try one as well:

We didn't have to wait too terribly long before our food came out. I had to take pictures of course.

Hunter's burger:

Mama's sandwich:

John's burger:

My sandwich:

The sandwiches were so big and Mama and I immediately knew there was no way either of us would finish our's. We put a good size dent in them though because they were so very good.

Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

Due to the construction, there was a huge tarp thingie over the building (I know there is a correct name for it but that's all I can think of right now.) all of the windows were covered so we couldn't see out. Had they not been there, we would have been able to see a bit of the castle.

Our waitress came over to check on us several times during the meal. She took our plates away and we ordered our desserts. Funny how we can somehow find a way to stuff in desserts after being so full from our entrees.

Mama ordered a pineapple sundae. John ordered a banana split. I can't remember what the heck I ordered for dessert. I don't have a picture of anything but I know I ordered something. Hunter said he didn't think he wanted anything. He's never been a big dessert eater.

About this time, Hunter said he had to go to the bathroom. Uh-oh, another one of those bathroom breaks that seem to take forever.

John had to take Hunter to the restroom beside the Tomorrowland Noodle Station. In the meantime, desserts started coming out:

John's banana split:

Mama's pineapple sundae:

My invisible dessert:

The waitress brought out a birthday cupcake for Hunter. We told her that he was gone to the bathroom. She took it back with her and said she'd watch for him to come back because she had another surprise for him. Mama and I did the nice thing to do and waited on our men to return before starting our desserts. NOT! We dug right in.

As soon as Hunter and John made it back, the waitress came back out with the cupcake and had the entire restaurant sing happy birthday. She also gave him a set of Mickey ears:

You can see that Hunter had his Mickey ears on top of his ballcap in this second picture. We had all gotten a bit wet from the earlier rain and our hair was a complete mess. Hunter didn't know it until I had snapped the first picture but after that he said there was no way he was taking off his cap where everybody could see his hair.

 

[mickeystoontown]

We settled our bill using the dining plans and when we walked out of the restaurant, we saw the the Spectro Magic parade had already started. We could see a bit of it from where we were standing:

I didn't know whether or not we were going to stay for the fireworks that night or not. I knew that we were going to see them on our last night and I thought that Mama was probably pretty worn out from traveling and our first two days in Disney. But, when we saw the parade had already started, and there was an open table in front of us, we decided to "cop a squat" (as Lacey likes to say) and watch them from where we were. We also knew that there was no way we would be able to squeeze through all of the parade crowds.

More pictures of the parade in the distance:

Hunter kept us entertained doing his signature dance:

***Up next: Wishes! pictures and video

 

[mickeystoontown]

Sorry I haven't posted another update. Our house flooded and we've been doing clean-up for the last several days. I'm getting ready to post another installment now.