TRWCN - September 16-27, 2012

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

We left of on our way to O'hana.

We grabbed a monorail over to the Poly. The lobby was super crowded. There was no where to sit upstairs so we checked in and then headed downstairs to chill until they called us.

It is so pretty in there.

My kids love doing the penny press machines. For months we saved up quarters and shiny pennies to take with us.

Ali made herself right at home.

Pretty soon we were escorted to our table and they gave us some of that yummy bread. The name escapes me at the moment, but it was delish! Then they brought out the dumplings and the chicken wings. I swear, we could have made a meal out of that stuff alone!!

While we were stuffing our faces they called for all kids to come up. A beautiful Hawaiian lady with a lovely voice lead them around the restaurant and then lined them up for coconut races.

They were given Lei's and taught some hula moves. During this time the meat and shrimp started arriving. And I must hang my head in shame because I completely forgot to take any pood forn pictures.

One last pic of my little Pineapple princess.

As we left, Wil hugged me and thanked me for "reservating" O'hana for dinner. :rofl3:

Up next :

Animal Kingdom

[charitycase20....Charity 10]

Awww...just when you think they don't get it...kids...mine are like that too. Melts your heart. :heart:

[caveat lector 181]

Wonder how much it would cost to get my F250 and 30 foot TT on that auto train. :) That thing looks awesome.

I am also of the camp Jedi should be getting a royalty check.

Walking from the parking lot into the Polynesian is one of my favorite sensory sensations. Then again, it might just be my brain realizing that copious amounts of great food at ohana is to immediately follow.

Great TR. thanks for sharing

[stefa70 205]

"reservating" That's great!

I'm so jealous of all the posters who have young kids. It makes for such a fun report.

I love AK! Looking forward to it.

[fladogfan aka Gretchen 259]

Just joined this TR..what a fun time, kids so pretty and kind to each other (ok i know they aren't ALWAYS that way ) Yep Rover cough up the $$$, auto train is worth it (did you know the metalic numbers won't 'stick' to Saturns? The driver had to hold it out the window :rofl2:

[Southern Blessings 4]

Enjoying hearing about your trip! Your kids are so sweet in those pics holding hands!

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

Awww...just when you think they don't get it...kids...mine are like that too. Melts your heart. :heart:

Yeah, several times during our trip Wil hugged me and thanked me for planning this trip. Made it all worth it!

Wonder how much it would cost to get my F250 and 30 foot TT on that auto train. :) That thing looks awesome.

I am also of the camp Jedi should be getting a royalty check.

Walking from the parking lot into the Polynesian is one of my favorite sensory sensations. Then again, it might just be my brain realizing that copious amounts of great food at ohana is to immediately follow.

Great TR. thanks for sharing

Thank you! O'hana is definitely on our must do again list! That was an awesome dining experience.

"reservating" That's great!

I'm so jealous of all the posters who have young kids. It makes for such a fun report.

I love AK! Looking forward to it.

Isn't it cute?! I use it all the time now. LOL!

We love AK too.

Just joined this TR..what a fun time, kids so pretty and kind to each other (ok i know they aren't ALWAYS that way ) Yep Rover cough up the $$$, auto train is worth it (did you know the metalic numbers won't 'stick' to Saturns? The driver had to hold it out the window :rofl2:

They're actually better when we're not at home. Wil is usually very considerate and sweet to Ali when we're in different surroundings. He's a good big brother.

What the heck are Saturns made out of if a magnet won't stick?

Enjoying hearing about your trip! Your kids are so sweet in those pics holding hands!

Thank you! More coming right up!

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

Tuesday was Animal Kingdom day! Since 2008, whenever we talked about Disney, Wil would talk about Expedition Everest and how much he loved it. Ali was too little in 2008 to ride so this would be her chance.

I "reservated" Tusker House at 8:05 since the park opened at 9. I figured that way we would be able to get on EE and the Safari before it got too crowded.

I'm going to take a minute to say that throughout our trip, we hit very minimal crowds. In fact, out of 7 days in the parks, we only used fast passes twice. Like for 2 rides, not two days. For most rides, the stand by line would say 20 minutes but was actually far less. September rocks!

Ok, back to your regularly scheduled TR.

The characters started to come around.

When Goofy got to our table, he pointed at me and started making hand motions. I had no idea what the heck he was trying to do, so I smiled and nodded as if I understood. Then he grabbed Ali's autograph book and wrote "Merida" and pointed to me. The hand motions were him pulling back a bow and arrow. Since flat ironing my hair had been a waste of time, I just let my curls run free that day and he was comparing me to Merida. I'll take that compliment, thank you very much!

When we were done, we snuck out a side door and were right by the rope! The park wasn't even open!! When they dropped the rope, we were about 15 steps from the safari, so on we went. It was great getting the first trip of the day. We had a wonderful guide named Justin...he was funny and he actually stopped while we were out there! Is that new? They didn't used to be able to stop and I wasn't sure if it was because we were first, or because they changed that.

Then of course, we headed for Expedition Everest. And I will say this. I love EE...from Pittsburgh. Talking about it...looking at the pictures. I even love it as we're heading toward it and getting our Photopass picture taken in front of it. But I'm all talk. The closer we get to the front of the line, I suddenly fall out of love with it.

I also feel this way about Tower of Terror.

But here we were and it was Ali's first time, so on we went. Ali thought it was hysterical. She laughed the whole time. When we got "stuck" before going backwards, she turned to me and had such a look of pure joy on her face that I decided EE isn't so bad after all. The jury is still out on ToT.

Up next:

First time at Nemo

and a ride out to meet Rafiki

[KeepSwimmingDory 2]

Love their hats! And EE "totally scared the nuggets out of me," so I don't do it anymore.

They are too cute. And even if staged I love the hand holding walking to the castle.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I love it how your kids kept wearing their mouse ears!

You have some more great photos there!

How come we don't get to see a photo of you with your Merida hair?

That is great that you got to be among the first on the safari.

I don't think stopping on the safari is new. I remember stopping for many different reasons- sometimes to let an animal pass, or to let the truck in front move on a bit.

Good for you for riding EE even when you really didn't want to.

TCD

[fladogfan aka Gretchen 259]

":What the heck are Saturns made out of if a magnet won't stick?"

The body is covered with a type of plastic.

I love my Saturn, just turned over 300,000 miles, GM stinks for stopping production of them

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

Yeah, I think one of the early Saturn commercials showed that shopping carts wouldn't leave door dings or something.

[Katman1356...Jason 1,140]

Yeah, I think one of the early Saturn commercials showed that shopping carts wouldn't leave door dings or something.

yep but god help you if you ht a bad pot hole. if the impact was on the bottom of the panel it shatters like glass...ask my wife..

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

Love their hats! And EE "totally scared the nuggets out of me," so I don't do it anymore.

They are too cute. And even if staged I love the hand holding walking to the castle.

EE is fun. We rode it again later in the trip and it didn't bother nearly as much as the first time. Maybe I'm getting used to it.

I love it how your kids kept wearing their mouse ears!

You have some more great photos there!

How come we don't get to see a photo of you with your Merida hair?

That is great that you got to be among the first on the safari.

I don't think stopping on the safari is new. I remember stopping for many different reasons- sometimes to let an animal pass, or to let the truck in front move on a bit.

Good for you for riding EE even when you really didn't want to.

TCD

I have a picture coming up that shows my Merida hair.

And EE is fun once I get over the wobbly legs.

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

":What the heck are Saturns made out of if a magnet won't stick?"

The body is covered with a type of plastic.

I love my Saturn, just turned over 300,000 miles, GM stinks for stopping production of them

Yeah, I think one of the early Saturn commercials showed that shopping carts wouldn't leave door dings or something.

yep but god help you if you ht a bad pot hole. if the impact was on the bottom of the panel it shatters like glass...ask my wife..

Look at that! My own mini-hijack!! This is how I felt when I first got tagged. :rofl3:

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

On with the show...

We wandered around AK. Went to see the tigers and gorillas.

Here's my Merida hair.

Peek-a-boo

Eventually we hopped on board the train to Conservation Station.

Wil got to pet a snake. Ali and I stayed as far away as possible.

Then we met Rafiki.

While we were in line, Vaughn got to talking to the castmember with Rafiki and told him about our last trip with Make-a-Wish and how much better Ali is doing now. When we were finished with Rafiki, the castmember called Ali over and gave her a special Tinkerbell pin. It was very sweet!

We checked out the Affection Section.

When we got back, we went to Dinosaur. This is another one that Ali was too little for last time.

Here's another recreation.

2008

2012

And here's our ride photo. When we got it, Vaughn said to the kids "apparently Mummy thinks the dinosaurs are real!"

Apparently, I did.

This trip marked another first for all of us...the first time seeing Finding Nemo the musical!!

We really loved it. We were all singing "just keep swimming" the rest of the trip. Which, is just about what we had to do when we came out of the show. The skies had opened up. Torrential downpours, thunder and lightning. Our choices were to stay and see another show or head out into the downpour.

Can you guess which we chose?

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

We headed out.

I am anti-poncho for myself, but pro-poncho for my kiddos. I happened to have three ponchos in my backpack that my son had gotten thru boy scouts.

I gave one to Vaughn since he had the camera backpack and put one on each kid and out we went into Armageddon. It was crazy! We walked along and finally found a little overhang to stand under until it cleared up a bit. And it did clear.

We ate lunch at Flame Tree BBQ which was yummy. The kids had fun watching all the white birds wander around and the ducks play in the puddles.

We hit Tough to be a Bug before heading back to the Caribbean.

The rain was gone and it was still early, so we decided to hit the pool.

We got pizza take out from the food court and just ate in the room that evening.

Up next:

EPCOT

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Love the Merida hair!

And the Dinosaur photos- the recreation and the ride photo.

Great underwater photos too!

I'm always happy to see when folks ride out to Conservation Station- yes, it's on the boring side, but they still have some interesting things to see out there.

TCD

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

The pool time looked like fun!!!!

[stefa70 205]

More great updates Misty.

Why on earth would you ever flat iron your hair?!?! I love it curly. Now I know why your screen name is Hotmama.

Ali is quite a little bathing beauty in her swim attire. Too cute!

[fladogfan aka Gretchen 259]

_{Your kids are so darn cute. The head piece with the matching swim suit....lovely and sweet.}

_{Your hair is beautiful.....sell the iron!}

[Southern Blessings 4]

Your hair is pretty! You were enjoying the ride, and getting scared is part of it, lol!

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

Love the Merida hair!

And the Dinosaur photos- the recreation and the ride photo.

Great underwater photos too!

I'm always happy to see when folks ride out to Conservation Station- yes, it's on the boring side, but they still have some interesting things to see out there.

TCD

We are big animal lovers and we hadn't had a chance to do Conservation Station on our last trip. The kids got to pet a pig, so they were happy.

The pool time looked like fun!!!!

It was! Caribbean Beach has a great pool. It's huge and has two slides.

More great updates Misty.

Why on earth would you ever flat iron your hair?!?! I love it curly. Now I know why your screen name is Hotmama.

Ali is quite a little bathing beauty in her swim attire. Too cute!

Aw..shucks! Thank you ma'am. :heartsmiley:

_{Your kids are so darn cute. The head piece with the matching swim suit....lovely and sweet.}

_{Your hair is beautiful.....sell the iron!}

Thanks!! I wasn't going to buy that swim cap, but Ali loved it at the store. She really does love to wear it.

Your hair is pretty! You were enjoying the ride, and getting scared is part of it, lol!

Why thank you! The kids think it's hysterical when I get all freaked out on a ride and they don't. The pictures are a highlight for them.

[Hotmamac aka Misty 11]

We're up to the first Wednesday of our trip and today we planned to hit EPCOT. EPCOT was open until midnight for EMH so we decided to sleep a little later and swim before getting ready to head over.

Couple of shots of the kids on one of the pool slides.

We got to EPCOT around 1-ish.

I'm going to take a minute here and point out something that everyone has surely noticed by now...I'm one of "those people" that forces my family to wear matching shirts to Disney. There was a great deal of moaning about this before hand (mostly from Wil and Vaughn) so I only made 4 sets of shirts and only actually ended up making them wear 3. This is the last day for matching shirts.

At this point in the trip, we decided to try to get the kids to do different poses when we took their pictures.

We stopped after that. :rofl2:

Here are some of the usual photo ops in front of the ball.

Wil loves to be the "map man" where ever we go.

Since it was around lunch time, we headed to the Land and Sunshine Seasons. It was a mad house in there. We found a table and Ali and I sat down to claim it while Vaughn and Wil went to grab some grub.

After we ate, we saw there was no wait for Living with the Land so we hopped on board. We missed this one the last time too so it was new for Wil and Ali.

When we got off that, we saw that Soarin' had a posted stand-by time of 75 minutes. But the fast pass return time was for the time when we would be eating dinner. We went back and forth about what to do, but eventually decided to just get in line. We planned to be in EPCOT another day as well, so if we didn't get to something today, we'd get it on the next pass. Luckily, our wait time was no where near 75 minutes. Maybe 45...but that was about the only line the whole trip that was that long.

Up next...

Nemo and Friends

[stefa70 205]

Ali is pulling a Ricky Bobby: "I don't know what to do with my hands?!" :rofl2: