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.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

I don't know that I'd like to stay at the Grand Floridian but it is a beautiful resort and I am sure Mama will like looking around. If I were you, I'd keep checking the Disney Dining reservations every day. You may be able to get a Ohana ADR. I was able to get one at a little over 60 days out.

Whispering Canyon DOES have a lot of food! The last time we ate there, our waitress was "Heada Lettuce". :ROFLOL:

You leave tomorrow!!!!!! YAY!!!!! :sohappy: Thanks for the info... Ill keep trying for Ohana. We booked Kona Cafe at the Poly for that night instead. We're getting in around 1pm and going to MVMCP that night so we need something for around 5-6pm. Ohana originally had availability for 8-9pm but now even that is gone.
Our waiter was "Right N Neighborly" lol.. We're not getting a chance to do WCC this time.... We're doing Kona, Le Cellier and Chefs in France at Epcot, 50s Prime Time at MGM and Tusker House character breakfast at AK. It's only 4 nights so we're not doing as much as we usually do.

 

[mickeystoontown]

So jealous! Have another 2 months roughly before mine!
Have loved your trip report and can't read to read your new one once you get back

And, I'll be jealous of you when I get back 'cause I'll have another year to wait until we get back. :lol:

You leave tomorrow!!!!!! YAY!!!!! :sohappy: Thanks for the info... Ill keep trying for Ohana. We booked Kona Cafe at the Poly for that night instead. We're getting in around 1pm and going to MVMCP that night so we need something for around 5-6pm. Ohana originally had availability for 8-9pm but now even that is gone.
Our waiter was "Right N Neighborly" lol.. We're not getting a chance to do WCC this time.... We're doing Kona, Le Cellier and Chefs in France at Epcot, 50s Prime Time at MGM and Tusker House character breakfast at AK. It's only 4 nights so we're not doing as much as we usually do.

Definitely keep trying to get an ADR at Ohana. You may luck up and find one available. Your ADRs sound really good. We have a few new ones this year that I am looking forward to trying.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Because we didn't leave the Magic Kingdom until 2:00 a.m., we were all exhausted. But, it was the most wonderful kind of exhaustion I had ever experienced. I mean, think about it. Would you rather be exhausted from a hard day at work or exhausted from a day at Walt Disney World? Stupid question huh?

There were only a handful of people on the bus back to the resort. I guess not many could make it until 2:00 a.m. We shuffled our tired feet across the pavement and to our room. Thank goodness the walk wasn't long or we would have crawling on our hands and knees up the sidewalk.

When Mama asked what time we thought we would want to get up, we said we had no idea. The drive ahead of us was a long one....over 15 hours...but we didn't want to get up at the crack of dawn to make it either. Heck, the crack of dawn would only be a few hours away anyway. I wanted to at least get a little sleep. So, no alarm clocks were set.

I gathered up what little energy I had left and threw a few more things into the suitcases. That was a few less things I would have to pack in the morning. We changed out of our day cloths and into our night cloths and fell into the bed. Nope, we didn't take a bath that night...err...morning.

My inner alarm clock woke me up the next morning. Or was it John's snoring that woke me up? Either way, I don't recall the exact time but I'm thinking it was around 7:00 or so. That would have been 6:00 our time at home which is when I wake up anyway. I jumped in the shower and then packed up the rest of my stuff. I nudged Hunter and John awake so they could start their morning rituals as well. When I placed the call to Mama, she sounded like she had just woke up but insisted that she would be ready to go by the time we were. I told her to take her time and not to worry.

Once everybody ready, I went over to Mama's room and saw that she had everything ready. We talked about what to do with what little groceries we had left. There was only a couple of little boxes of cereal, a banana and a few canned drinks. We put it all in a paper bag and took it to the car. Who knows, we might want to snack after a while on the road.

I absolutely hate packing the car after we've spent over a week in Walt Disney World. How come it's easier to pack it before you leave than when you are leaving? I guess I buy too many souvenirs. Or maybe we're all excited about leaving home but not about leaving WDW and simply don't care how things are put into the trunk. If we can't fit it all in the trunk, we might have to stay a couple of more days. Yeah, I like that idea!

Somehow, we got everything smooshed into the back of the car and we were ready to leave. Since we hadn't made any phone calls, used the internet or had a credit card on our KTTW card, we didn't have to stop at the Custom House. We drove out of the Jamaica parking lot and down the road past the pretty palm trees and spouting fountain in the lake.

As we got to the red light and were about to turn out of the CBR, I handed Hunter the camera and told him to take a picture of the CBR sign.

I continued to snap pictures as we left "The World":

Oh No! Seeing those Buckle Up and See Ya Real Soon signs mean that we are officially not in Walt Disney World anymore. I wanted to turn the car around right then and there but knew that I had to return to the real world. We made the loop onto Hwy. 192 and passed by all of the wild and wacky buildings:

Bet you've never seen a palm tree faced mermaid have ya?

 

[mickeystoontown]

We hadn't been on the road for more than 20 minutes before John was doing this:

I know ya'll can't believe it but he was fast asleep and getting some snore on.

We drove through the rolling hills that were once citrus fields but are now acre after acre of homes. Homes all built so close to one another that you could yell to your neighbor if you ran out of toilet paper. Yes, houses nestled together like a bunch of stalls in a public bathroom. I tried to take a picture but you can't really tell how close the houses are because they were off in the distance. They were already building more closer to the highway:

The remainder of the drive was uneventful which was a good thing. We chatted about this and then chatted about that. Until, soon, the sun was setting:

After what seemed like forever, we made it to Pensacola, Florida and then, Mobile, Alabama:

Here's what Hunter did to occupy his time in the backseat...act silly and stack condiment cups up on the portable DVD player:

The drive from Mobile, Alabama to our house took about 5 1/2 hours because we stopped every now and then to fill up our gas tank and our tummies and also to walk around. We made a stop at the Mississippi/Louisiana line to take a bathroom break at the Welcome Center. I like the Welcome Center because it has a guard on duty at night and it's clean. After the short break, we made the last leg of the drive home.

I can't remember what time we actually rolled into our driveway but I know it was in the wee hours of the morning. John walked Mama across the yard to her house to make sure she got in okay. Hunter and I waved goodnight or good morning to her across the yard and said we'd unpack the car later. We couldn't go in without first letting Oddball out of his pen and to give him hugs. He was so happy to see us and could not stop wagging his tail. We stayed outside for 15 or 20 minutes with him and took a few bags in the house in between. I knew that I would have a junk load of washing in front of me so I went ahead and put a load in the washing machine before we hit the sheets.

We fell into our beds glad that we were home and glad that we had had one heck of a vacation!

***If I have a bit of time tomorrow, I'll write a "reflections" post. I can't promise that I will though since we are off to visit "the World" again right after I get off work tomorrow.

If I don't get back on today or tomorrow, I want to say that I truly appreciate each and every one of you for reading along and for sticking around so very long. I hate that it took me this long to get it all written up and posted but, as you can see, I'm a bit of a picture taking freak and am very detail oriented. I can't seem to make myself leave out a picture (even if it's semi-blurry) and or a detail (even if it's a long winded one).

 

[duran385]

Great trip report, loved all of your pictures. Its so cool that you are leaving to go back already so jealous have a great trip and anxiously waiting for your newest report

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Such a wonderful trip report and I know you'll have just as much fun next week when you're there. Can't wait to read that one!! :animwink:
These trip reports are great. Not only do they help me with my "Disney Blues" but it also feels like you get to know people on these forums, yet sometimes you never meet. Its amazing what a love for something (in this case, Disney) can do. Have a safe trip!

 

[wishes2013]

Have fun! I can't wait for the next report! I loved all your pictures and details. Again, have fun in "The World" (and take lots of pictures!)

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Ohhhh, and I wanted to tell you.. I took your advice and checked again for 'Ohana today and whatdayaknow.... There was a 5:10pm available for 3 people!! YAHOOOOOO!!!! I booked it right away!! Super excited now!! Thanks for the advice!

 

[Silverfang]

I just read your whole trip report. All I got to say is, "So awesome." I'm in the process of planning my own trip with my brother and a friend of mine, and it can't come soon enough!

 

[Raven66]

I enjoyed every picture and every detail. Thanks for taking the time to write it. Have fun on your current trip and can't wait to read about it when you get back.

 

[Ariel484]

FINALLY got around to reading your trip report, and I loved it!! Good timing since we should be expecting another one from you soon, yes?? :lol:

Hope your recent trip was a great one!

 

[ESL teacher]

I absolutely loved reading your trip report! I feel like I know you and your family. I lived in North Carolina for 6 years and you remind me so much of one of my good friends I made while living there. Thanks so much for sharing your trip with us. I am anxiously awaiting a report from this year's trip! Since my mom passed away several years ago, can I borrow your Mana? She is wonderful.

 

[mickeystoontown]

We are back from our most recent trip to Walt Disney World. I have uploaded about 1,500 pictures so far and I think I have about 1,300 more to go. I filled up two 4GB memory cards and started on a 8GB card before we left. Once they are all uploaded, I need to organize them.

I thought I would work on organizing my pictures before now but I have a nasty head cold and couldn't do a darn thing when I got home from work. I laid down on the bed and fell asleep immediately which is definitely not my normal routine. I usually don't even sit down when I get home from work. I immediately start cooking supper and doing chores. The entire family knew that I felt bad and let me sleep. I woke up at 15 minutes until 9 p.m. I couldn't believe it! I hate being sick!

I am sure it will come as no surprise to any of you that I have another Disney trip in the works already. I know the dates but I don't know any specifics yet. I do believe that we are going to try a new resort next year. This time I REALLY mean it. (I say it every year.) There was absolutely nothing wrong with our stay at the Caribbean Beach Resort but, at some point during our trip, I had this feeling that we needed a change. I think that "feeling" may have come from the fact that we spent a lot of down time at the resort and there wasn't anything "new" for us to do since we've stayed there six times.

The moderate resorts are in our normal price range/budget so more than likely we'll go with another moderate. John's truck is almost on it's last leg (or should I say tire :ROFLOL: ) and we are going to purchase a new one soon. We've been without a car note for three years now and I know that it's going to sting having another monthly note. If we absolutely have to, we will book a value resort. I know a lot of people love 'em but I can't seem to make myself want to stay in one. But, if that's the only way I can get to Disney, then, by gosh, I'll do it.

I'll start out by researching the other moderates first and, after we get the truck and see how our pocketbook feels, I'll see if I need to research the values. Hopefully, we will have reached a decision by the time the 2012 rates are out which should be mid-August.

In the meantime, Lacey's wedding plans continue in full force. Lacey's first wedding shower is Monday night at church. The ladies at the church wanted to host a shower for her and a Monday night is the only time it could be done. She'll head to Tennessee later next week and will have another wedding shower on the 18th. She and Jesse have one more pre-marriage counseling session to do so they'll make the drive to Georgia for that. The ladies at the church have offered to help out any way they can so Lacey will talk with them while she's in Georgia too.

We have to get the alterations done to her dress, order the invitations, make her "we don't want any babies any time soon" appointment, etc. Everything is falling into place though and we are hoping that we don't hit any brick walls.

Oh well, I need to get back to work. Thankfully, my boss didn't work too terribly much while I was gone. His fiance' was in Louisiana during most of my time off and he spent as much time as he could with her. Having said that, I still have a few piles on my desk that I need to go through.

Hopefuly, I can get my report started soon! Once I've started, I'll post the link here.