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 think Hunter shot another round or two while I shot another picture or two:

 

[mickeystoontown]

I forgot to mention that, at some point in time, we tried calling Mama to ask if she was ready for us to come and get her. We couldn't ever get her to answer her phone and we figured she was walking around the resort or napping. The reason we called her was because we were eating at Peco Bill's for lunch. You'll recall that Mama had been to Disney with us back in 2000. She has not forgotten about us eating at Pecos Bill's and how good the sauteed mushrooms and onions were there. That's why we had tried calling her....to see if she wanted to come eat with us. But, since we couldn't get her and our stomachs were telling us "feed me!", we went on in to Pecos Bill's.

The restaurant wasn't too terribly busy and John and Hunter told me what they wanted and went in search of a table. John ordered some kind of burger that had an onion ring and bbq sauce on it. I ordered a cheeseburger and Hunter ordered a plain burger. Once we had everything at the table, I went back and got all of the "fixin's" from the bar. This is my favorite part about eating at Pecos Bill's! Weirdo bedeirdo, I know!

John's burger:

Hunter's burger:

I guess I didn't take a picture of my cheeseburger but I did take a picture of all of our fixin's:

No, none of it went to waste. John takes all of the leftover fixin's and makes this odd salad thing-a-ma-bob. It's disgusting!

Stacking it:

Mixing it:

And eating it:

I can't believe that he eats that! He said it tastes like a salad with some fries mixed in. I guess he's right but it doesn't look appetizing to me at all.

For dessert, John and I had the carrot cake and I think Hunter got the strawberry yogurt:

Hunter quenching his thirst:

**I guess I'll stop here since I hear the fax machine ringing and we were expecting a large fax to come through from another attorney.

**Up next: More Magic Kingdom!

 

[mickeystoontown]

The Shootin' Gallery was starting to get a little crowded so, after shooting up his last set of tokens, Hunter said he was done. We didn't really know what we wanted to do next so we meandered down the streets of Frontierland and took a left at the end of Pecos Bill's. Under the archway thingie we went and we came upon Pirates of the Caribbean.

Look at this wait time.....well, it's kinda hard to see the wait time 'cause of the glare of sunshine on the sign...but it says 10 minutes:

Who the heck can pass up a 10 minute wait time for Pirates of the Caribbean? "Not I!" said this band of pirates. And onward we went:

I know that we walked quite a ways before we ever encountered the waiting guests and I guess I was snapping pictures along the way because, as you can tell from these next couple of pictures, I wasn't stopping to really take aim

:

We were soon boarding our boat and making our way through the mist:

 

[mickeystoontown]

Hummmmmm......I don't see him. Maybe next time. But I did see this:

And this:

No, he wasn't kidding either. I guess his tummy was full from his condiment salad and he needed a little shut-eye.

As our boat came to a stop, John's eyes popped open and he was a fresh as a daisy and ready to check out the shop. How the heck does he do that? At home, I have to nudge, poke, prode and call his name at least three or four times before he wakes up.

Anyway, we looked around in the store for a while:

 

[mickeystoontown]

I can't tell you how many of the plastic swords Hunter has bought from this store. I bet it's at least a dozen. No lie! He refused to let me sell any of them in the garage sale and they are in a box in the attic somewhere. He says they have sentimental value.

I don't remember us buying anything in the store but I do remember that I found this:

After my potty break, we continued on through Adventureland:

Hum, I guess we continued on without me taking pictures because that's the only one I have. Enough time had passed that we could now use our Peter Pan Fastpasses so we headed towards Fantasyland via the pathway around the castle:

We walked around the castle to see the Fantasyland crowds! Yikes! I'm so glad that we had Fastpasses to Peter Pan.

***I wanted to do a longer installment but I've got a client who is supposed to be here in about 10 minutes to sign her paperwork. Guess this is as good a place as any to stop.

 

[BookwormxBelle]

I loved the pictures of the Fort and or the Shootin' arcade. Those were two things that I didn't remember doing on my first trip and I had hoped that we could have done them on my last trip but we didn't get to it.

As for Big Thunder Mountain, where were you sitting on the train? Sometimes that affects how fast or slow you think the ride was.

As always, I love the pictures, thank you so much for sharing! :]

 

[mickeystoontown]

I loved the pictures of the Fort and or the Shootin' arcade. Those were two things that I didn't remember doing on my first trip and I had hoped that we could have done them on my last trip but we didn't get to it.

As for Big Thunder Mountain, where were you sitting on the train? Sometimes that affects how fast or slow you think the ride was.

As always, I love the pictures, thank you so much for sharing! :]

Thank you! Back in the day when we only had one Magic Kingdom touring day, we skipped both the fort and the shootin' arcade. When we added another Magic Kingdom day, it gave us more time to experience more. I think we had been over to the island two or three times before we ever found the fort. Thank goodness my friend told me to "just keep going left and you'll find it" or we may have never seen it.

I can't remember where we were sitting on Big Thunder Mountain. I'm thinkin git was fairly close to the end. I think they may have had the train slowed down a bit because it had just rained. :shrug:

 

[dave&di]

Loving your TR, don't want it to end, I'm glad your going back soon just so I can read your next TR! Will your mom be going with you? Plus I' ve never been to Tom Sawyer Island, I keep forgeting it exists! Where is the entrance, it can't be that obvious as I keep missing it.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Loving your TR, don't want it to end, I'm glad your going back soon just so I can read your next TR! Will your mom be going with you? Plus I' ve never been to Tom Sawyer Island, I keep forgeting it exists! Where is the entrance, it can't be that obvious as I keep missing it.

Thank you! My mother is going back with us in May and is just as excited as we are about going.

The raft to Tom Sawyer Island is near the exit of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. You can see the rafts when you walk along the wooden pathway around Frontierland. You should make a trip over to the island if you have a bit of extra time.

 

[mickeystoontown]

It's been a while since I updated so let's see if I can refresh your memory a bit. We ate at Pecos Bill's where John made this condiment salad:

After lunch, we moseyed on over to Pirates.....

...where we saw this...

...and this.....

...let me rephrase that....Hunter and I saw the above and John did this:

After John's little nappy-poo and my pit stop...

....we made our way through Adventureland and over to the pathway around the castle....

....where...holy snikey (sorry, Tommy Boy movie reference)....we saw this....

 

[mickeystoontown]

Move out of our way people, we have Fastpasses to see Peter Pan and the Lost Boys! I was thanking my lucky stars that we had Fastpasses because the line to Peter Pan's Flight was even longer than it was earlier in the day. We flashed our Fastpasses to the castmember and we were motioned on in. Soon, we were aboard our pirate ships and soaring high above the rooftops. I decided to try my hand at taking pictures and was surprised that some of them turned out pretty darn good considering that my camera is just a little point and shoot.

Here's one of Hunter in the pirate ship in front of us. I notice he has a camera in his hand which means I have more Magic Kingdom pictures somewhere. I need to go look for those.

All too soon, our flight was over and we were back in the midst of the crowds:

 

[mickeystoontown]

I always, always have camera "issues"....lost batteries, camera dies completely, we go to Walmart at 2:00 a.m. searching for a new camera, lost 650 + pictures (that were later recovered), etc. etc. Anyway, I now go to Disney with not one but two cameras. This way I know that I will always have a camera handy. Sounds good, right? It is, but it also means that I have double the pictures because usually I have one camera and one of the kids has the other. Still sounds good, right? It is, but I always forget to organize my pictures better and I am constantly finding "lost" pictures.

This installment will be another "lost" picture installment. These pictures were taken by Hunter on the Magic Kingdom attractions I have already talked about.

Tom Sawyer Island pics:

Hidden Stitch poster we found a couple of years ago in the store beside Country Bears:

 

[mickeystoontown]

Country Bear Jamboree:

The chefs preparing the yummy sauteed mushrooms and onions at Pecos Bill's. I so wish I had some of them right now....my tummy is rumbling:

A few while floating down the river in Pirates of the Caribbean:

Outside Pirates:

**Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

Peter Pan's Flight:

I took one of Hunter and he took one of me:

***New installment in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

Okie dokie, "lost" pictures posted.....let's move on. You may recall how crowded Fantasyland was when we got off Peter Pan but, just in case you forgot, here's the picture again:

Holy moley moo-moo-cows! Where do we go to escape all those folks? What attraction moves pretty quickly? How 'bout we go to It's A Small World? Sounds simple but it actually wasn't. We felt like fish trying to swim upstream except we were swimming across stream. Once we made it, we were surprised to see that there really weren't that many people in line. It looked like they had added the extra boats to keep the guests moving.

Pictures, of course:

We had a dinner ADR at Crystal Palace and we still needed to go back to the resort and get Mama. I also wanted to change clothes since I felt all sticky from the heat and humidity. I know that we went into a few of the stores along Main Street but I don't remember buying anything. Hunter thought it would be cool to take a picture of one of the spinning toys:

 

[dave&di]

Thank you! My mother is going back with us in May and is just as excited as we are about going.

The raft to Tom Sawyer Island is near the exit of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. You can see the rafts when you walk along the wooden pathway around Frontierland. You should make a trip over to the island if you have a bit of extra time.

Thanks for the info, I've intended to visit it on both my visits but completely forgot about its existence until I read your TR! I had one of those 'darn!' moments, forgot it again! Enjoy your next trip, hope it stays dry for you.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Thats so great that your Mom is going back with you!!! My sister and I are going with our Mom in 15 days! We are so excited! :animwink:

 

[henrydavies]

hello there, I am new to this community forum. I like your thread. Thanks for sharing.

 

[mickeystoontown]

I apologize for the lack of updates recently. One of my son's classmates (a 12 year old) killed himself two weeks ago. Then, my sister's brother-in-law died of a heart attack while working in his own yard. After that, my boss' dad passed away after a lengthy stay in the hospital. Needless to say, I've had very little time to work on my report. I hope to get a few installments posted today or tomorrow.

 

[mickeystoontown]

In the interest of judicial economy.....oops, sorry, the paralegal in me was starting to show.... Seriously, thanks for the posts that I haven't gotten around to replying to. I promise to do better from here on out.

In the interest of saving time, I'm going to go ahead and post another update. If I don't get this darned trip report finished, I'll never have time to start a pre-trip report and I want to do that ASAP so I can share our plans for our May trip.

Mama had decided to stay at the resort while we enjoyed the morning and mid-afternoon at the Magic Kingdom. We had a dinner ADR at the Crystal Palace which is a tradition for us. We absolutely must finish up our trip with dinner there. We had stopped in one of the stores where Hunter took a picture of one of the spinning toys:

We continued on down Main Street and out of the park. I took a picture of the monorail which was stopped on the track above us:

As we walked along towards the CBR bus stop which is, by the way, one of the last stops at the Magic Kingdom, we saw that there were workers on the monorail track. I couldn't tell what they were doing but I took pictures:

I guess my memory is correct on where I took these pictures from but when I look at them, something doesn't look right. I know we didn't walk further down than the CBR stop. Anyway, no matter where I was standing at the time, I took pictures. There were two workers (that you can't see in these pictures) and they were leaving off the front of the train/car thingie and reaching down into the track. That was certainly something we had ever seen before.

Anyway, a bus came and we were on our way back to the resort. We were a bit hot and sticky so we changed our clothes before going back to the Magic Kingdom. Here's John and Hunter leaning back and resting while at the bus stop:

How the heck can Hunter do that without hurting his neck? Dunno?

We were lucky and a bus arrived fairly quickly after we sat down. There weren't very many other guests on the bus when we got in and we were able to get seats right up front. Good! I can take pictures: