Star Wars * Flower & Garden * Link added 10/10/09

[bussellmomof3]

I'm in too. I love your TR's. I'm looking for ideas for our Sept. trip. We'll be there 9/4-13th at POR.

[Charleston Princess]

Cute photos of the kids at the resort! Some of my favorite photos are the ones I take of the kids around the resort!

[xoktenox]

Lovin those ASSp pictures! The place was emptyyyy. Wow, I'm shocked too on Memorial Day weekend. Lucky for you guys though!

My parents were at Epcot and the MK today. They're in Orlando for their 25th wedding anniversary. My dad got two 1 day hopper ticket for free from some lady he works with. He rubbed in it...A LOT! They said MK was pretty crowded but that Epcot was emptyyy. It's Monday so I figured neither park would be slammed but I'm surprised at how empty they said Epcot was!

[meanmom121]

I can't believe you had that whole beach to yourself - I'll be fighting people for space in July

[Me&3]

cute pics

[julezdisney]

Tryin' to follow along on this TR since I finally caught one of yours at the beginning! I love the football one- it totally looks like an actual stadium or something....

[OneTreeHillAddict]

Hello everyone! Well, that horrible storm came through and knocked the power out for HOURS! But the laptop was completely charged and I had photobucket up on the right day so I got a LOT of this trip report done!!! I'll post it in just a second. Meanwhile...I'm going to write all of you back who dropped by while I was in the dark.

Originally Posted by jordanyosh

I can't believe how empty the resort looks!

I know. I noticed this back in March too. WL was a dead zone. Pop was about average and ASMo was dead too. WL was the worst of all though. I bet it wasn't at 5% occupancy. Might be time to really cut those rates Disney!!!! For everyone, forget the pins. Do something. $99 Deluxe ~ $69 Mods ~ $49 Values...anyone listening?

Originally Posted by WrightFamily06

Great update , love all the pictures of the All Star Sports hotel , your kiddies always pose so cute wish I could get mine to do that . Wow did the resort look empty , I guess the less people the better though , I know I like it that way . LOL

I added some more to my TR today if you get a chance to get over there later , I know you said there was storm coming .

The power was out forever! I did a lot of this TR though 'til my battery died. Tonight is my catch up night as soon as I start the new PTR's. Maybe the next time you come I can take some pics of your kids on the beach. It wont take long. I bet they'll smile for me.

Originally Posted by bussellmomof3

I'm in too. I love your TR's. I'm looking for ideas for our Sept. trip. We'll be there 9/4-13th at POR.

Thanks! Ideas...well go back and read the older ones too. Especially the Disney Waiter one...that will give you a ton of ideas since it was last year at the same time! We had a lot of magical moments last September...that was a great trip.

Originally Posted by Charleston Princess

Cute photos of the kids at the resort! Some of my favorite photos are the ones I take of the kids around the resort!

Me too. I LOVE the ones I got this time at CSR. OMG they are heavenly! I'm gonna give you a sneak peek.







That sunset after the bad storm was amazing! I've never seen soemthing so beautiful at WDW before.

Originally Posted by xoktenox

Lovin those ASSp pictures! The place was emptyyyy. Wow, I'm shocked too on Memorial Day weekend. Lucky for you guys though!

My parents were at Epcot and the MK today. They're in Orlando for their 25th wedding anniversary. My dad got two 1 day hopper ticket for free from some lady he works with. He rubbed in it...A LOT! They said MK was pretty crowded but that Epcot was emptyyy. It's Monday so I figured neither park would be slammed but I'm surprised at how empty they said Epcot was!

Lucky ducks! What a great place to hang on your anniversary. FREE is good. I'd be bragging too. Go papa! MK always has people. Epcot I've seen empty a few times these past few visits and I love it!

Originally Posted by meanmom121

I can't believe you had that whole beach to yourself - I'll be fighting people for space in July

Are you talking about WL or CSR?

Originally Posted by Me&3

cute pics

Thanks! When are you going back to Disney?

Originally Posted by julezdisney

Tryin' to follow along on this TR since I finally caught one of yours at the beginning! I love the football one- it totally looks like an actual stadium or something....

Bookmark me then! Late comers are fine with me too by the way. I wish everyone would post when they stopped by. We're all friends here. LOL The football field is really cute. Baseball area too. I didn't care for the rest of the resort much. I'm not a big sports fan either...maybe that's why. I do love the big surfboards but they surround the main pool and it's so ugly so I wouldn't want to stay there in that section. Okay ya'll...time for a HUGE update. You ready?

[msgrimm23]

love it so far we where there for starwars weekend may 22-25

[KatMark]

I found your report and am so glad to read it. The pics at the All Stars are wonderful. And so glad to read that you enjoyed CSR (it is our favorite resort). Can't wait to read more. Love the sunset photos of your daughter.

[OneTreeHillAddict]

I left off as we were heading to Epcot! My second favorite park out of the four! My families first stop ~ TEST TRACK, like always.





I know...I'm so bad but I tricked Dash into this picture in March so it was Gabby's turn to pose as the "dummy".



Gabby and I drove this time and it was just the five of us in our car! By the way...as I write this it is pouring down rain, there's loud thunder and lightning, and the wind is blowing like crazy! I feel like I'm back at Disney again! LOL

After Test Track we stopped to "test sit" the new cars. Kids love this place, don't they? Mine never want to leave. One of these days when they get bored I'm taking them to the car dealership to sit in all the cars. I bet those salesmen will hate me for it! Here are the pics...I sent Sidney to do them. I distracted the baby with other things.







After Test Track we took the Odyssey path (I can not wait to eat here in August!!!)

OOPS We just lost power...thank goodness the laptop is on it's battery or else I'd be in Nic's position right now! Modem isn't working so I'm no longer online but photobucket is up and I'm writing in an email so we're good!

So...we're on the path and I take a look over and the beautiful butterfly garden and floating planters. I thought this would be a wonderful shot with the monorail going through. I took a few pics of just the view so I could find the perfect spot. Here they are.









Here's the old Odyssey restaurant. This is where you eat during the Illuminations Grand Gathering. I can't find many reviews on it but I did walk by on the night they were doing the meal and you could see a little going on inside. It looked like so much fun. People were dancing with characters and they had pictures or movies...something with Disney characters flashing up on the walls. I am so excited to do that GG. (And the safari one too) We did the one at Tony's already and it was a lot of fun! We're doing it again in August though with Colleen (Goofy22) and her family.




Back to the perfect monorail shot...I waited and waited and finally the boys wanted to leave and do the Kim Possible thing so me and Gabby stayed behind. I have never waited this long for the stupid monorail to come through. They must have been running one less train because it was close to an hour before it came back through! Gabby passed the time by going through her Minnie backpack. (I bought these at the DS for $4 a piece!) Bolt has the Mickey one.



Here she is showing the new ponchos we bought at hell mart the night before. These are 3.96 a piece and are a little thicker than those sold at WDW.



Still waiting on that train....



and waiting.....



OMG it's finally coming!!! Check it out!



















Continued in next post...

[OneTreeHillAddict]

I thought it was worth the wait. Of course once photobucket resizes my pictures they look all grainy and blurry. I'm not posting everything life sized though. These will work just fine.

This was our first year doing the F & G festival and Gabby spotted Minnie and a huge butterfly across the way so we had to go check it out! Yep, we dissed the boys for a bit. We were having fun with just the two of us. Gabby wanted her picture taken so we stopped to do that.



On our way over to the butterfly tent we saw the Beauty and the Beast friends...not sure what it's officially called but it's really cute!















Then we arrive at our destination!



Minnie was outside and so so cute!





Gabby wanted a picture with her...



And the butterfly...oh my! It was so pretty!





Continued in next post...

[hlrababy]

Awww, I love the sunset pictures!!! Gabby's dress is so cute!!

[OneTreeHillAddict]

Next we went inside and it was so beautiful to see all the butterflies swarming around. They were everywhere! I actually saw a show last night on the DIY network about a family chosen to help out with the F & G festival. It was really neat to see that after just being there. The family were the first ones to release the butterflies. How lucky to help out with the festival! That would be a dream come true for us!





This is my favorite picture from the butterfly garden.





There was another huge topiary butterfly on the other side too!



That's the other entrance...see the chains they have in the entry way so the butterflies stay in?



Right outside the door was the Fairy garden. Gabby loved this. (You can tell when you see her pictures..I have those coming up shortly!) Where we entered Tinkerbell was the first to be seen. These topiaries were so small and beautiful!











They had cute things like this everywhere to look at too.



Look at the cute little fairy houses that were placed all along the trails...



The main sign
























Continued in next post...

[Maureenmouse]

Love all the pics so far. the ones of DD with the sunset are just gorgeous! I love the ASSports photos too. I've never been to the value resorts cause we always go in summer and joe wants a ceiling fan. some day, when we have a quick trip, we'll have to stay there. I'd like to get some photos there some time. We always seem to stay at POFQ. We'll be there really soon!

I started posting before you previous post and then ran down stairs. Much to my surprise when I finished posting, you had already put up your new post!

I love the Flower pictures. They'll mostly be gone by the time we get there. I wish Pixie Hallow would still be there. My DDs would love that! I imagine your DD was in heaven with taking photos of her favorite fairies and butterflies! Can't wait to hear more. Oh and it was hot and sunny here. Not any chance of rain today! Funny how you're only a few hours away, but a whole different weather pattern today!

[OneTreeHillAddict]

I don't know if they do this every year or not but this year they had playgrounds for kids everywhere. My kids loved this! This is the one they had at Pixie Hollow.





















They had a little station for kids to play too. It was outside of the garden though.







I wonder if they'll let people get married here during the F & G festival!? It's so pretty.



I wanted to buy one of these fountains. I totally meant to and forgot all about it 'til I started uploading these pictures for the trip report.







I finally dragged her out of the garden, she would have stayed for days if I had let her, and we went to the Tink tent.



Here they colored a picture of Tinkerbell and when they were done the sweet lady would add "pixie dust" to the picture and laminate it for the kids. She also gave them Fairy stickers and a packet of seeds to plant at home. Hmm. What did I do with those seeds?





I saw the face painting area next to the tent so I took a picture. I'd like to let the kids do this sometime but is it really sanitary? The thought if using makeup shared with another person kind of grosses me out. I observed this at the Animal Kingdom once before and it looked like the woman used the same stuff with several different kids. Ew!



Finally Gabby was done with her picture.



The finished product...





Continued in next post....