Trip of New Phases, Friends & 40! Updated 8/31 - As If Goodbye Wasn't Enough! The End

[PracPerfPatricia]

Hey Tracy glad that you're writing again...

I loved your review of T-Rex...I wasn't really sure if the food would match up to the atmosphere and it sounds like it did... What a fabulous dessert...it's like an entire experience...

I'm glad that evil twin arrived safely so the evil can now begin...

[TyRy]

Originally Posted by brookelizabeth

Henry happened to be on my lap when I played your video - he asked, "What's that?" So I said, "A lady's Christmas lights."

"More lights." So we watched a second time.

"More lights." So we watched a third time...

He really, really likes it! (and me too!)

Sorry Brook, somehow I missed your post!! I love hearing that about Henry and the lights. We've seen multiple families stop this year and the little kids go crazy. It has really inspired DH and he wants to make it even bigger and better next year.

Originally Posted by brookelizabeth

I LOVE the Rewards Card, don't you?! So fun!!

DH may even sign up for Mypoints so we can try and get even more of those for T-Rex!

Originally Posted by brookelizabeth

That looks so stinkin' good.

It was!

Originally Posted by brookelizabeth

I am thinking to get a MyPoints card for our next trip and eat a meal here, Henry will be three by that time, so I think he'll be really into it! He likes dinosaurs now, but I think the noise would frighten him some....do they roar/are they loud? Hopefully by age three he'll like that!

Ours startled us at first but they weren't too bad. Maybe ask to sit anywhere but in the dinosaur room?

Originally Posted by PracPerfPatricia

Hey Tracy glad that you're writing again...

I loved your review of T-Rex...I wasn't really sure if the food would match up to the atmosphere and it sounds like it did... What a fabulous dessert...it's like an entire experience...

I'm glad that evil twin arrived safely so the evil can now begin...

Hi Patricia - trying to be better now about writing since the holidays are over...although now we have to take everything down.

T-Rex was a great surprise. The food we had was fantastic and so was our server. I'm really really bummed they took the steak off the menu...I'm still hoping they'll bring it back.

And I think having to deal with me, Red and Evil Twin got to DH right away...at least a picture from the next day makes it look that way!

[Flossbolna]

What a fun update!! I am looking forward to all of you wearing the t-shirts!

I think I had the standard room just below your DVC room once and I agree it is one of the best pool views you can have! I am really hoping for a view like that in 16 days!!

[DisneyJo]

Sorry I totally missed your T-Rex post!

Wow the dessert looked awesome, what exactly was it? And too funny that your DH ordered it first

I'm glad you liked the view from your room and how wonderful that you got to meet up with friends. I had the fillet and mac and chesses last December and although I thought it was a very odd combination (us Brit's have different tastes to you guys ) it was nice

[irish dancer]

Great update! We'll have to try TRex next time, the kids love RFC so I'm sure this will rate up there with them too! DSis and I went out to dinner a long time ago and got dessert first (Death by Chocolate at Bennigans-yum!).

Don't you just love AKV? The rooms at Kidani will blow you away, so big!

Will have to check out your videos later, can't get youtube to work.

[brookelizabeth]

Beautiful room pictures!!! Takes me back to a couple weeks ago. That is SO great about getting the same room! Did you request to be in or near that room, or was it completely by chance?

not as bad as they expected, eh?! That's funny!

Originally Posted by TyRy

Ours startled us at first but they weren't too bad. Maybe ask to sit anywhere but in the dinosaur room?

Ah! Good to know there are other rooms - I'll keep that in mind. Thank you!

[TyRy]

Originally Posted by Flossbolna

What a fun update!! I am looking forward to all of you wearing the t-shirts!

I think I had the standard room just below your DVC room once and I agree it is one of the best pool views you can have! I am really hoping for a view like that in 16 days!!

What are you down to now - 12 days? (gotta go get caught up on your PTR). I LOVE that view and the location and wouldn't mind if we had a third time this year in that room.

Originally Posted by DisneyJo

Sorry I totally missed your T-Rex post!

Wow the dessert looked awesome, what exactly was it? And too funny that your DH ordered it first

It was four HUGE pieces of chocolate cake, eight scoops of ice cream (or four very large ones) covered with carmel and nuts. I couldn't even see four people polishing this off. DH didn't even care that he knew he would only eat a tiny bit of it. It sounded good, he didn't want to be too full and bam -it was his appetizer!

Originally Posted by DisneyJo

I'm glad you liked the view from your room and how wonderful that you got to meet up with friends. I had the fillet and mac and chesses last December and although I thought it was a very odd combination (us Brit's have different tastes to you guys ) it was nice

It is a bit of an odd combo and I ate it as if it were two totally separate dishes. It was either a bite of mac n cheese or a bite of the steak...never combined.

Originally Posted by irish dancer

Great update! We'll have to try TRex next time, the kids love RFC so I'm sure this will rate up there with them too! DSis and I went out to dinner a long time ago and got dessert first (Death by Chocolate at Bennigans-yum!).

They really will like it. I know there have been mixed reviews, but we loved it, and it was just so cool in there. People were up and taking photos the whole time we were in there. I loved sitting next to our dinosaurs and watching them move theirs heads and such during our meal. We thought at one point that maybe they wanted a bite of our food.

Originally Posted by irish dancer

Don't you just love AKV? The rooms at Kidani will blow you away, so big!

Will have to check out your videos later, can't get youtube to work.

Hope you were able to see the videos! I do love AKV and DH really really wants to stay at Kidani, but I LOVE Jambo house and the pool view. I'll eventually give in, maybe not just our next trip.

Originally Posted by brookelizabeth

Beautiful room pictures!!! Takes me back to a couple weeks ago. That is SO great about getting the same room! Did you request to be in or near that room, or was it completely by chance?

I put the same request in but it wasn't super specific (Zebra Trail), so we were shocked.

Originally Posted by brookelizabeth

not as bad as they expected, eh?! That's funny!

I can't imagine what they thought they were getting, but we are supposed to be going with Red and her family in 2011...she may have to get a "special" shirt!

[brookelizabeth]

Originally Posted by TyRy

I can't imagine what they thought they were getting, but we are supposed to be going with Red and her family in 2011...she may have to get a "special" shirt!

Do it!!!

[TyRy]

Our first full day altogether was our Epcot day and it looked nice and sunny as we headed out. While we loved the sun, we learned it was not always our friend. As soon as we walked out of AKV we were drenched from the humidity…story about that once we get to Animal Kingdom Park. While I think both Red and DH could have slept in, Evil Twin wanted to get there early. A compromise was reached and we arrived around 9:30am. The plan was to head right to Soarin’, but we were detoured by a Photopass photog.




They then told us to look down and be surprised…well we were! I think Stitch had some fun with this…


Soarin had almost no wait, so we jumped in line, and ten minutes later we were ready to take flight.


After Soarin, we headed over to The Seas…Evil Twin wanted to ride the Clam Mobiles and Turtle Talk. Have I mentioned that she had a HUGE list of things to see/do in every park? Thank god the crowds were really small.

I have to admit, I thought Turtle Talk was great. It was our first time doing that and even DH enjoyed it. I wasn’t sure if four adults without kids would have fun, but we did! The reason being we were probably all acting like little kids…here’s a little proof of that….






We then wanted to show them Spaceship Earth and this time we would be ready with cameras to video the little film at the end. So after a quick grab of TT FP’s we hit SE. It was almost a walk on. So DH and I rode together and so did my BFF’s. We were so excited as we had told them all about how funny this was, and then we had our first letdown of the trip. Here’s what we looked like:


Last time I checked we were not totally cartoon characters (although DH may disagree by the end of this trip ) Our car didn’t work!!! We were so sad. BUT – Evil Twin had her list so we decided to skip riding it again for now. I believe we then headed to Innoventions and then Ellen’s Universe of Energy. Somewhere in between, the sun had run away and we now had rain. Did anyone have ponchos since it was the rainy season…nope! Here’s how we got to TT finally:


We had just a couple minutes wait before we were let in. We got into our car and made it to the checkpoint. We then heard what was the quote of the trip. The CM at the checkpoint makes sure you are wearing your belt properly. After telling us what to do, we did and he said “Thank you for knowing how to buckle your seatbelts and pull on the yellow safety” This almost sent us into hysterics…we could not believe he said that – or that he had to thank us for knowing what to do!!!

The ladies loved the ride and DH grabbed a picture of the picture…not sure why since we then added it to PP




Since the rain had let up, we decided it was time to tackle World Showcase and grab some food...

[DisneyJo]

You disappoint me so much Ty........ your TT photo was so boring

Other than the rain it sounds like a fun morning, too bad the cameras weren't working on SSE I hope you managed to ride it again later

[TyRy]

Originally Posted by DisneyJo

You disappoint me so much Ty........ your TT photo was so boring

Ok - that was odd - I posted a reply and it showed at first but is gone now?

Anyway...I know we let you down I always thought that the camera was at the braking by Evil Twin had her arms up after the outside part, but maybe she had them up the whole time? So now I'm confused!!!

I think DH is just sitting there trying to formulate a plan on how to get away from us for the rest of the vacation after only a few hours.

[brookelizabeth]

You guys were having a blast weren't you?!?! Love it! The pictures inside Bruce's mouth made me laugh out loud!

[jelloarms]

Originally Posted by TyRy

I’m now starting to have those Disney dreams as well – I’m sure lots of you have them too. The ones where you are at the parks and forget your schedules, or completely forgot to go to a park…yep – the crazy types of dreams. DH claims to never have them, and that if I didn’t plan everything out I wouldn’t either. Ummm – yes I would, I would then be stressed that nothing is planned!

My maybe trip isn't until next year and within the past 6 months, I have had this dream 4 times:: I find out that I am going to Disney the actual day that I am supposed to go to Disney and 15 minutes before I have to leave for the airport so I rush the packing and while on the plane, I realize I forgot my digital camera charger.

[TyRy]

Originally Posted by brookelizabeth

You guys were having a blast weren't you?!?! Love it! The pictures inside Bruce's mouth made me laugh out loud!

We really were having a blast...if I can get the next part written, you'll see the fun we had in Norway and a few other places that day!

Originally Posted by jelloarms

My maybe trip isn't until next year and within the past 6 months, I have had this dream 4 times:: I find out that I am going to Disney the actual day that I am supposed to go to Disney and 15 minutes before I have to leave for the airport so I rush the packing and while on the plane, I realize I forgot my digital camera charger.

I'm soooooooo glad I'm not the only one!!!! I've only had one or two for our upcoming trip and it's not until October! I know they'll start even more once our plans are more finalized

[TyRy]

The rain had momentarily stopped and it was time for lunch. We decided headed to China to grab food for lunch.






Our goal was to hit every country, but our tummy’s were winning the battle for now. So off to Lotus Blossom we went where Evil Twin, Red and DH discovered a food they raved about the rest of the trip…..the Potstickers – which kept disappearing so fast I barely got a photo!


I don’t know what it was about them, but they went back and got more. They also noted that they wanted to come back again later in the week. DH and I split an Orange Chicken


and it was ok….probably not as good as their potstickers though .

We then had to decide what to do next…and it was still sprinkling out. Since we were already in China we headed off to see the movie and explore each store. Evil Twin wanted to see EVERYTHING in all the countries and this was fine with us…as many times as we have been, there were still things we had never seen or explored.

We came across Mulan and no one was waiting to see her, so we all got photos together!








We then spent a lot of time exploring the Tomb Warriors exhibit. This was really fascinating to us and especially Evil Twin who loves most things historical.




We moved onto the movie next…since we had not seen it, we consulted my little cheat sheets to see if we needed to know anything. Glad we did since it was in 360 and half our group is prone to motion sickness.


After China we worked out way backwards and Norway was next. We headed straight to the ride, which, of course, had no wait. DH even snapped a quick picture on the ride.


We then posed for our Norway visit picture…we had decided that the girls needed a picture in each country – these are our Norway photos:




We then moved into the store, where we had a lot of fun…who knew hats and coats could be a blast:
Click Picture to Play


Red ended up buying one of the hats she tried on, and I meant to go back and get the coat I had on, but completely forgot!!!

Mexico was up next, but before we got there we found a PP guy and he took these of us:




Mexico was next and Evil Twin loved this pavilion.


And our country photo


After exploring a little bit inside we then went back outside to grab some guacamole and chips – and as a side note I don’t like guacamole but this was FANTASTIC. So fantastic that we forgot to take a picture!

As we turned and were going to start walking back in to go on the ride, we saw DH’s favorite character…and may I say he LOVED our shirts. Donald started clapping his hands and being really animated when we saw we were all wearing him on our shirts –


We then headed back in for the Three Caballeros ride…and how appropriate that we ended up in this boat!


Yep, that was this trip…goodbye 39 and hello 40!!

Continued in next post....