got our book and back from the latest trip!!

disneynutstig · 05-23-2006, 03:25 PM

We LOVED having your book while waiting (20-45 mins) to ride this weekend - we thought we were experts until we met you!!! The pics are from our May 19-21st - Kamikaze Weekend - 4 parks/2 days!! The first pic is of Brian (my husband) Me & best friend Dale.... We can't wait for the new book to come out.

disneynutstig · 05-23-2006, 04:04 PM

Cast Members

1st Family
Rose (Tig) – parental figure (& best friend to Dale)
Brian – 2nd parental figure
Caleb – son (10 going on 11 – this trip would be for his birthday)

2nd Family
Dale (Pooh) – parental figure (& best friend to Rose)
Phillip – son (13)
Shawn – son (12)

Ok – first let me explain – we all live in Florida & have seasonal passes to WDW. We bought seasonal passes to ‘give up’ doing traditional birthday parties for the kids – instead of spending a ton on a party – we bought each one a pass & on their birthday trip they get to pick the park, the first ride & the restaurant we eat at.

I live 4 hrs away & Dale lives 2 – we normally crash @ her house & then get up early Saturday and head to Orlando (thus saving hotel fees for souvies!!). Usually we make 1 day trips once a month – but since we were nearing a blackout period – we decided we would stay for the weekend and try to do all 4 parks in the two days– note this is a Star Wars & Flower & Garden Festival weekend too.

Noon – Friday – May 19

Husband calls – says that he MIGHT be able to leave earlier than expected (I’m already off @ 2). So wheels start spinning & I call the hotel that we are booked on Saturday night for to see if there are rooms available tonight. There are and of course they’d LOVE to let us come early. So I hurry and pick up our son @ school and run over to his office. Dale’s kids don’t want to go down early (shaking head – kids are soooo strange!!) so she decides she will just meet us early Saturday morning.

We head down and make record time – I left Tallahassee & made it to Disney property within 4 hours! The Tiki-Gods were on our side that afternoon!!! We head straight to Downtown Disney and find the crowds are just a bit too much to handle. Good news is – I found two of the pins I had been lusting over. We made a few trades & decided to call it a night and head to the hotel.

7:30 am – Saturday – May 20th

By 7:45 – Dale is calling – already on the road and almost to Orlando – we unfortunately are running late. We meet her at DTD & carpool to Animal Kingdom.

By 9:15 we are at AK & taking photopass pics (have to document that we did it!!) - we then head straight to Everest – everyone LOVES the ride & wants to go again – but we’re now looking @ a 45+ wait. We decide to head out, doing some pin trading on the way and head over to MGM.

By 11 we are walking into MGM – we run straight into a parade. Can’t see anything and the crowds are quite daunting. We walk around a bit – take a few photopass pics and leave. We wanted to see some of the events going on – but it was just a bit too crowded for us.

Around 12:30 we are on the monorail heading for Magic Kingdom!! We pose for a few photopass pics and then over to Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café in MK-Tommorrowland to lunch and watch Sonny Eclipse. After lunch we let the kids roam free & head over to Fantasy Land. (Everyone in our party has cellphones.) We (the adults) take a leisurely tour of Fantasy Land (a rarity) and manage to ride – It’s a Small World, Peter Pan, Tour the Castle (drooling over the art in King’s Gallery – I ended up purchasing a HUGE key chain that is a ‘key to the kingdom’); we then headed over to Adventureland to get a much needed break & dolewhip float. We squeezed in a Jungle cruise (one of my favs – I love the cheesy one liners & the fact that no one has updated it!! Let’s hope they don’t!!) and some more pin trading (woohoo I ended up getting a stitch LE Disney auction pin). We ended up catching a show by The Frontierland Band (something we had never seen before) – they were amazing – doing request and all. We then WALKED right in to Haunted Mansion and had a blast (another of my favs).

The kids had stayed in Tommorrowland and Toon Town for about 4 hours – all by themselves and everyone was still alive!! (We had a few calls & checked in from time to time – but had no major meltdowns – at least none that they told us about) They surprised us with their own photopass card (I uploaded them to my account Sunday night – they’re ADORABLE). The kids did a lot of pin trading and pretty much all the rides in Tommorrowland. They had a blast without us (and us w/out them) for a few hours.

We met back up around 6, our ‘dad’ of the group was coerced into riding Space Mountain w/2 of the kids (the wait was 45 mins, but the NICE cast member we had just traded pins with – gave the ‘boys’ 3 fast passes – so they walked right on!!). The two moms & last kid rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (twice – CM didn’t make us leave.. LOL – we must have really looked tired!!). On the second trip around – we saw the other half of our party getting into the cars in Space Mountain (Oh I wish I’d had the camera out & ready!!!).

Leaving was bitter sweet – the lines were GREAT – hardly any wait most of the day & the crowds were not that bad. We had originally planned to close down MK & watch the fireworks, etc., but decided to call it a day (one of the perks of season passes – no rush – you can just come back later and do whatever you missed!). We were back at the hotel by 8:30 (off site – less than $40 a night!!) letting the kids swim and ordering pizza. Everyone was out by 10 pm!

7:30 am Sunday – May 21st

Everyone’s up and shoving stuff into cars. We check out of the hotel – but leave my car in the hotel parking lot to save on parking fees (plus Dale’s got a van – we all fit in her car! LOL). We head straight to EPCOT for our first time to the Flower and Garden Festival. The boys are only interested in Test Track at the moment – so Dale & I head over to the Fountainview for a breakfast snack. We wandered outside, finding seating on the way to The Land & had breakfast - the fruit filled croissant was unbelievable! When the group was all back together again – we (minus Dale –she was getting fast passes to Soarin’) went over to stand in line for Turtle Talk with Crush (one we had not been to before). This is SUCH an AMAZING show – we were all in stitches!! My son was even picked to ask Crush a question.

Caleb - “What is your favorite Disney character?”
Crush got this very strange look on his face – ‘A Disney what??”
Caleb – ‘You know, Mickey, Donald, Goofy??”
Crush (still looking confused) says ‘Dude – am I a Disney character?’
Caleb - ‘Yes!’
Crush – “Well then DUDE, its DEFINETLY me!! I’m my favorite Disney character!!”

Everyone in our party loved the show & I HIGHLY recommend it – even if your kids are older. It was GREAT!

We then went over to Soarin’ and requested a front row. I have to say it is MUCH better in the front (we’ve all done it in the 2nd & 3rd rows before) & I have to admit the dangling feet is a distraction. The front row is DEFINETELY worth the wait.

My husband checked the time schedule and saw that Miyuki was performing in Japan. So we hopped on a boat (another first for us) and went over to Germany – walking the rest of the way to Japan (we got there about 30 minutes early). The kids camped out and all three got picked (unfortunately NOT one of the ****ers made it out of the park intact). Caleb got a frog, Phillip got a turtle & Shawn got a scorpion. This is a MUST do if you see it on the times list – Miyuki is an amazing artist (and it’s FREE)! We then hopped a boat back – and landed in Canada where we trekked back to the Land for our Garden Grill reservations @ 1:50 pm.

Lunch was great! Caleb got his own birthday cake and card (signed by all the characters). This is the way to meet and greet!! We were there for over an hour – it’s a nice way to spend some downtime. The food is good & filling, you get tons of character interaction & the cast members are just fantastic.

Note – we’re supposed to be on the road heading back home now. We leave lunch and split up. I wanted to see Tink’s Garden (ohhh and I am soooo glad I did – I know what we’re going to be doing on Memorial day now – GARDENING!!) and my son wanted to go to Innovations East to make another robot (Another FREEBIE!! - we have a small army of these minions at home). The older boys didn’t want to make a robot (although I TRIED to convince them how much fun it was). They decided to go on Living with the Land (that was shot down since the wait time was 45 mins) – so they headed over to Test Track (again – over 45 minute wait) – finally settling on Mission Space (5 mins) and they opted for the ‘spinning’ version – all the kids love that one. When that was over – they ended up meeting us at the Fantastic Plastic Works and making a robot anyway. They thought it was COOL – and said so about a million times after they were done. I love it when I’m right =).

We all stop to pose for a few photopass pics and then, sadly, headed back out to the car and headed home.

Sad news – I’m back at work today. Good news – we (the girls) are going on a 'hotel' tour @ Disney - planning to visit the prospective hotels we want to stay at..... and as a group, we are going on another trip the end of August (ahhh.. if we can make it that long). LASTLY we (the grown-ups) made reservations to Cinderella’s Castle for lunch in October for Dale’s birthday. (The boys did NOT want to eat with a princess – lol – opting for cash to eat where they wanted to and freedom again!).

**Lou Mongello** · 05-23-2006, 07:38 PM

Great story and photos, Rose! Welcome to the DisneyWorldTrivia.com family!!

iwannabeminnie · 05-23-2006, 07:56 PM

What a great way to spend a birthday! (Or an anniversary, or Mother's Day, or Valentine's Day, or Tuesday). Thanks for the review!

disneynutstig · 05-23-2006, 08:03 PM

thanks so much! we often say (me/bfriend) that we work to support our disney lifestyle... any reason to go is good enough for us!!

05-23-2006, 03:25 PM	#1 (permalink)
disneynutstig A-Ticket holder Join Date: May 2006 Location: Florida - but not nearly close enough to Disney!! Posts: 7	got our book and back from the latest trip!! We LOVED having your book while waiting (20-45 mins) to ride this weekend - we thought we were experts until we met you!!! The pics are from our May 19-21st - Kamikaze Weekend - 4 parks/2 days!! The first pic is of Brian (my husband) Me & best friend Dale.... We can't wait for the new book to come out. Attached Thumbnails To view attachments your post count must be 0 or greater. Your post count is 0 momentarily. __________________ Curtsy while you're thinking. It saves time.

05-23-2006, 04:04 PM	#2 (permalink)
disneynutstig A-Ticket holder Join Date: May 2006 Location: Florida - but not nearly close enough to Disney!! Posts: 7	Cast Members 1st Family Rose (Tig) – parental figure (& best friend to Dale) Brian – 2nd parental figure Caleb – son (10 going on 11 – this trip would be for his birthday) 2nd Family Dale (Pooh) – parental figure (& best friend to Rose) Phillip – son (13) Shawn – son (12) Ok – first let me explain – we all live in Florida & have seasonal passes to WDW. We bought seasonal passes to ‘give up’ doing traditional birthday parties for the kids – instead of spending a ton on a party – we bought each one a pass & on their birthday trip they get to pick the park, the first ride & the restaurant we eat at. I live 4 hrs away & Dale lives 2 – we normally crash @ her house & then get up early Saturday and head to Orlando (thus saving hotel fees for souvies!!). Usually we make 1 day trips once a month – but since we were nearing a blackout period – we decided we would stay for the weekend and try to do all 4 parks in the two days– note this is a Star Wars & Flower & Garden Festival weekend too. Noon – Friday – May 19 Husband calls – says that he MIGHT be able to leave earlier than expected (I’m already off @ 2). So wheels start spinning & I call the hotel that we are booked on Saturday night for to see if there are rooms available tonight. There are and of course they’d LOVE to let us come early. So I hurry and pick up our son @ school and run over to his office. Dale’s kids don’t want to go down early (shaking head – kids are soooo strange!!) so she decides she will just meet us early Saturday morning. We head down and make record time – I left Tallahassee & made it to Disney property within 4 hours! The Tiki-Gods were on our side that afternoon!!! We head straight to Downtown Disney and find the crowds are just a bit too much to handle. Good news is – I found two of the pins I had been lusting over. We made a few trades & decided to call it a night and head to the hotel. 7:30 am – Saturday – May 20th By 7:45 – Dale is calling – already on the road and almost to Orlando – we unfortunately are running late. We meet her at DTD & carpool to Animal Kingdom. By 9:15 we are at AK & taking photopass pics (have to document that we did it!!) - we then head straight to Everest – everyone LOVES the ride & wants to go again – but we’re now looking @ a 45+ wait. We decide to head out, doing some pin trading on the way and head over to MGM. By 11 we are walking into MGM – we run straight into a parade. Can’t see anything and the crowds are quite daunting. We walk around a bit – take a few photopass pics and leave. We wanted to see some of the events going on – but it was just a bit too crowded for us. Around 12:30 we are on the monorail heading for Magic Kingdom!! We pose for a few photopass pics and then over to Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café in MK-Tommorrowland to lunch and watch Sonny Eclipse. After lunch we let the kids roam free & head over to Fantasy Land. (Everyone in our party has cellphones.) We (the adults) take a leisurely tour of Fantasy Land (a rarity) and manage to ride – It’s a Small World, Peter Pan, Tour the Castle (drooling over the art in King’s Gallery – I ended up purchasing a HUGE key chain that is a ‘key to the kingdom’); we then headed over to Adventureland to get a much needed break & dolewhip float. We squeezed in a Jungle cruise (one of my favs – I love the cheesy one liners & the fact that no one has updated it!! Let’s hope they don’t!!) and some more pin trading (woohoo I ended up getting a stitch LE Disney auction pin). We ended up catching a show by The Frontierland Band (something we had never seen before) – they were amazing – doing request and all. We then WALKED right in to Haunted Mansion and had a blast (another of my favs). The kids had stayed in Tommorrowland and Toon Town for about 4 hours – all by themselves and everyone was still alive!! (We had a few calls & checked in from time to time – but had no major meltdowns – at least none that they told us about) They surprised us with their own photopass card (I uploaded them to my account Sunday night – they’re ADORABLE). The kids did a lot of pin trading and pretty much all the rides in Tommorrowland. They had a blast without us (and us w/out them) for a few hours. We met back up around 6, our ‘dad’ of the group was coerced into riding Space Mountain w/2 of the kids (the wait was 45 mins, but the NICE cast member we had just traded pins with – gave the ‘boys’ 3 fast passes – so they walked right on!!). The two moms & last kid rode the Tomorrowland Transit Authority (twice – CM didn’t make us leave.. LOL – we must have really looked tired!!). On the second trip around – we saw the other half of our party getting into the cars in Space Mountain (Oh I wish I’d had the camera out & ready!!!). Leaving was bitter sweet – the lines were GREAT – hardly any wait most of the day & the crowds were not that bad. We had originally planned to close down MK & watch the fireworks, etc., but decided to call it a day (one of the perks of season passes – no rush – you can just come back later and do whatever you missed!). We were back at the hotel by 8:30 (off site – less than $40 a night!!) letting the kids swim and ordering pizza. Everyone was out by 10 pm! 7:30 am Sunday – May 21st Everyone’s up and shoving stuff into cars. We check out of the hotel – but leave my car in the hotel parking lot to save on parking fees (plus Dale’s got a van – we all fit in her car! LOL). We head straight to EPCOT for our first time to the Flower and Garden Festival. The boys are only interested in Test Track at the moment – so Dale & I head over to the Fountainview for a breakfast snack. We wandered outside, finding seating on the way to The Land & had breakfast - the fruit filled croissant was unbelievable! When the group was all back together again – we (minus Dale –she was getting fast passes to Soarin’) went over to stand in line for Turtle Talk with Crush (one we had not been to before). This is SUCH an AMAZING show – we were all in stitches!! My son was even picked to ask Crush a question. Caleb - “What is your favorite Disney character?” Crush got this very strange look on his face – ‘A Disney what??” Caleb – ‘You know, Mickey, Donald, Goofy??” Crush (still looking confused) says ‘Dude – am I a Disney character?’ Caleb - ‘Yes!’ Crush – “Well then DUDE, its DEFINETLY me!! I’m my favorite Disney character!!” Everyone in our party loved the show & I HIGHLY recommend it – even if your kids are older. It was GREAT! We then went over to Soarin’ and requested a front row. I have to say it is MUCH better in the front (we’ve all done it in the 2nd & 3rd rows before) & I have to admit the dangling feet is a distraction. The front row is DEFINETELY worth the wait. My husband checked the time schedule and saw that Miyuki was performing in Japan. So we hopped on a boat (another first for us) and went over to Germany – walking the rest of the way to Japan (we got there about 30 minutes early). The kids camped out and all three got picked (unfortunately NOT one of the ****ers made it out of the park intact). Caleb got a frog, Phillip got a turtle & Shawn got a scorpion. This is a MUST do if you see it on the times list – Miyuki is an amazing artist (and it’s FREE)! We then hopped a boat back – and landed in Canada where we trekked back to the Land for our Garden Grill reservations @ 1:50 pm. Lunch was great! Caleb got his own birthday cake and card (signed by all the characters). This is the way to meet and greet!! We were there for over an hour – it’s a nice way to spend some downtime. The food is good & filling, you get tons of character interaction & the cast members are just fantastic. Note – we’re supposed to be on the road heading back home now. We leave lunch and split up. I wanted to see Tink’s Garden (ohhh and I am soooo glad I did – I know what we’re going to be doing on Memorial day now – GARDENING!!) and my son wanted to go to Innovations East to make another robot (Another FREEBIE!! - we have a small army of these minions at home). The older boys didn’t want to make a robot (although I TRIED to convince them how much fun it was). They decided to go on Living with the Land (that was shot down since the wait time was 45 mins) – so they headed over to Test Track (again – over 45 minute wait) – finally settling on Mission Space (5 mins) and they opted for the ‘spinning’ version – all the kids love that one. When that was over – they ended up meeting us at the Fantastic Plastic Works and making a robot anyway. They thought it was COOL – and said so about a million times after they were done. I love it when I’m right =). We all stop to pose for a few photopass pics and then, sadly, headed back out to the car and headed home. Sad news – I’m back at work today. Good news – we (the girls) are going on a 'hotel' tour @ Disney - planning to visit the prospective hotels we want to stay at..... and as a group, we are going on another trip the end of August (ahhh.. if we can make it that long). LASTLY we (the grown-ups) made reservations to Cinderella’s Castle for lunch in October for Dale’s birthday. (The boys did NOT want to eat with a princess – lol – opting for cash to eat where they wanted to and freedom again!). __________________ Curtsy while you're thinking. It saves time.

05-23-2006, 07:38 PM	#3 (permalink)
Lou Mongello Lou Mongello (AKQJ10) - WDW Trivia Book Author and Site Owner/Admin Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Scotch Plains, NJ Posts: 7,822	Great story and photos, Rose! Welcome to the DisneyWorldTrivia.com family!! __________________ Lou Mongello WDW Trivia Books Author & Site Owner AKQJ10 >: 4 8 15 16 23 42 Listen to The WDW Radio Show Disney podcast Your Walt Disney World Information "Station"

05-23-2006, 07:56 PM	#4 (permalink)
iwannabeminnie I'm old! I'm like the cryptkeeper! Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Berne, IN Posts: 8,020	What a great way to spend a birthday! (Or an anniversary, or Mother's Day, or Valentine's Day, or Tuesday). Thanks for the review! __________________ They call me "Nana"

05-23-2006, 08:03 PM	#5 (permalink)
disneynutstig A-Ticket holder Join Date: May 2006 Location: Florida - but not nearly close enough to Disney!! Posts: 7	thanks so much! we often say (me/bfriend) that we work to support our disney lifestyle... any reason to go is good enough for us!! __________________ Curtsy while you're thinking. It saves time.

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Linear Mode Switch to Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode