~~ Sew your Disney side Alli-son-son!! ~~ Allison's grad trip Jan 2016 ~~ Complete 2/22

[DMGeurts]

Day 8 Part 1

Saturday, January 23, 2016 - Magic Kingdom!

I was awake at 5:15 am on my own.

I decided to shower quickly this morning, then do my coffee/FB/Dis. I braved the cold and snuck out on the balcony for a morning pool picture...

I woke Allison after - no time noted.

I walked down to Starbucks this morning - and treated myself to a Caramel Macchiato, instead of my normal Americano. I also got Allison a cinnamon roll for breakfast.

Allison is VERY sore this morning - her feet and her shins - from walking yesterday. We've decided to go easy on our last day and leave a little later than planned for the parks. I am also going to try to limit her walking today.

We took the SoG bus to the TTC, then waited in a VERY long Monorail line to MK... Once we were through bag check (Hello - extra security check for me again this morning), Mary Poppins was waiting for us in the train station - so we stopped for a quick photo before we took the train to Frontierland.

We were very COLD! I know you can't really see my layers in pictures... but I was wearing a tank top, a long sleeved tee shirt, my sweatshirt and my jean jacket on top. As a side note - I detest every one of my photos on this day... I can really see the bloat in my face after 9 days of Disney food...

We rode BTMRR - with an accurate 10 min standby wait time.

We stopped for a Photo Pass picture with Rapunzel's Tower in the background...

We had FP for Peter Pan - which was walk on for FP. We hadn't ridden this ride since our 2008 trip, so I was pretty excited about it. Although it's a fun and cute ride - it is not worth the 50+ minute wait that it often is. Note to self - do not ride this ride unless it's a 10 min wait or less on standby or using a FP.

Some blurry Peter Pan photos for you all.

We were so cold - so we decided to do HM again, at least it's warm... Standby was 10 minutes. Spoiler alert: For those of you wondering - as I often have - does the wall go up, or does the floor go down? Our question was answered on this trip. The doors weren't closing completely this trip - so you could see out the door we had just come in from... The floor is stationary - it's the walls that move up. Maybe you all knew this already? I didn't.

We decided to stay in this area, as we had our early lunch reservation at Liberty Tree Tavern... So we looked around in the shops in this area - I am still blown away at how expensive the Christmas ornaments are here! Every trip - I want to buy one, but I just cannot bring myself to spend that much on them.

Yup - still cold... We decided to see the show in the Hall of Presidents... In all of our trips - we have never seen it. It was a good show - very realistic... and warm.

We let out of the Hall of Presidents at 11:28, our lunch reservation at LTT was at 11:30 - perfect timing... So, we went straight there. We were looking forward to being warm for a while.

We were seated at the cutest little bay window seat - I just loved how cozy it looked. It reminded me of Christmas - even though there were no holiday decorations.

And it had the cutest semi-distorted view of Liberty Square...

Both Allison and I ordered our beloved Freedom Pasta with shrimp - I noted that the shrimp was large and very good. It seems that every time we order this - it's a little different, but the pasta portion and the sauce stays the same. As usual - it did not disappoint and it was delicious!

For dessert - we ordered the Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake to share... We really wanted Martha Washington's chocolate cake - but it was no longer on the menu, sometimes if you ask, they can bring it for you, so we asked, but it wasn't available at all. Bummer! The toffee cake was a very good substitute.

We walked out of MK via the shops on the left (as you are exiting) - now frantically in search of a Vera Bradley Perfect Petals Hipster with good pattern placement - as I determined I had just enough left to squeeze out one souvenir for myself - but I wasn't going to buy it unless I could find one with good placement. As it turns out - there is NO Perfect Petals sold anywhere in MK anymore. This isn't looking good for me.

We took the resort monorail to CR - in the hopes that the hipster would be there... but sadly not. They had 4 on the floor and the CM was VERY annoyed that I asked her if they had any more in back... She outright asked me why the ones on the floor "weren't good enough"... Sorry Ms. CM - I am not paying $75 for a DISNEY bag that has NO visible Disney on it. LOL So we left.

We had an important someone to meet up with anyways...

Cindy was waiting for us at the TTC... She picked us up right off of the Monorail and drove us over to SoG... We sat outside of SoG for probably an hour, just chatting. I love this lady so much!!! We laughed until we cried - several times. While we were sitting here - security even came over to the car to check on us - as we were sitting there so long... Sorry Security - but it was too cold to sit outside on a bench to chat. We knew this was the last time we would see Cindy for a while - so we tried to prolong goodbyes. In the end though - it was time for her to leave. BIG hugs all around... And maybe a few tears... Love her so much!

Allison and I went back to our room to drop off our stuff. I had not taken the time to even walk down to the big pool with the new water slide since we had been there - and I really wanted to check it out before we left. It was truly too cold to swim our entire trip - so I felt bad that we spent NO time at the pools at all. We did walk around and take a bunch of pictures though.

Allison and I took this time to organize and do a little packing. Our towncar picks us up at 6am tomorrow morning - so we need to be mostly packed tonight. Once I was mostly packed - I laid down to update my journal and take a short nap. We wanted to spend more time in MK tonight - and I knew I wouldn't make it unless I had some rest.

Link to Day 8 Part 2

D~​

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Our question was answered on this trip. The doors weren't closing completely this trip - so you could see out the door we had just come in from... The floor is stationary - it's the walls that move up. Maybe you all knew this already? I didn't.

A little bit of history on this as I understand it. When the ride was being designed for Disneyland they needed an elevator to get down to where the loading area is but didn't want it to break the flow. Thus a giant elavator in the form of The stretching room. However because the water table is so high building below isn't ideal or feasible in most areas. Thus the floor stays stationary and the walls move instead.

 

[Wood Nymph]

We were very COLD! I know you can't really see my layers in pictures... but I was wearing a tank top, a long sleeved tee shirt, my sweatshirt and my jean jacket on top.

I'm sorry that you had such cold weather. As I told you earlier, we have taken most of our trips in January, and we usually get some cold weather. We've ducked into attractions like Hall of Presidents and Country Bears to get warmed up, too.

We were seated at the cutest little bay window seat - I just loved how cozy it looked. It reminded me of Christmas - even though there were no holiday decorations.

It looks like you are ready for a nice English tea party. It is a good picture of the two of you.

For dessert - we ordered the Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake to share... We really wanted Martha Washington's chocolate cake - but it was no longer on the menu, sometimes if you ask, they can bring it for you, so we asked, but it wasn't available at all. Bummer! The toffee cake was a very good substitute.

The Oooey Gooey Toffee cake is a most have for us and one of the real reasons we like to eat lunch here.

 

[disny_luvr]

It looks like you had a great day at Universal! It was definitely jammed packed but it looks like you were able to do/see a lot.

My boys love Peter Pan so I always FP it. I agree, the ride is cute, but I wouldn't want to wait in line for more than 10-15 minutes. Unfortunately, that ride always has a long wait. Your lunch at LTT looks very good. I've only eaten there once but it was for dinner. I do remember enjoying it though. I love your table and the view out the window.

 

[figment52]

Have you tried using Sea Bands rather than dramamine for your motion sickness? I find them helpful for roller coasters.

Good TR too, thanks for taking the time to write it.

 

[FantasiaMagic]

Wow, i feel bad you and Allison were still so cold at MK! At least you both went into attractions that were inside and warm. That pasta from LTT did look very good, as well as the cake!
How nice you were able to see your friend Cindy so much on the trip!
Sorry you weren't able to find the bag that you wanted. Do you happen to have the Disney Parks merchandise app? I recently got it on my phone for my July trip. They say its not always 100% accurate of what is where, but usually it can tell you where a specific item (like a vera bag) is sold is a specific shop in a park...
Yay! More MK for the night. I think that is a perfect way to end a wonderful trip to Disney!

 

[jandlinz]

I just got all caught up. Your Universal day looks great. It seems like you got a lot done. I loved your ride photo on Forbidden Journey. Santos seemed like a complete gentleman escorting you ladies. What a great friend!
I can't believe it's your last day. You're right the HM room at Disney World moves the walls up and down. At Disneyland the room is and actual elevator that moves down. Very cool Disney trivia. I'm not sure about the other parks though.

 

[sewdisney]

Allison is VERY sore this morning - her feet and her shins - from walking yesterday. We've decided to go easy on our last day and leave a little later than planned for the parks. I am also going to try to limit her walking today.

Was it shin splints that Allison had? oh, those are so painful! I've only had them once but that was one time too many!

Once we were through bag check (Hello - extra security check for me again this morning),

We got stopped by the extra security check TONS of times too. Keep in mind we went into the parks a total of 6 times and my sister was stopped 4 times, my adult daughter was stopped 4 times and I was stopped 5 times. Don't get me wrong - I am glad they are doing this, it does make me feel safer but I just don't understand how we could have been stopped that many times!

My mouth is watering over the Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake. It looks yummy!

 

[DMGeurts]

A little bit of history on this as I understand it. When the ride was being designed for Disneyland they needed an elevator to get down to where the loading area is but didn't want it to break the flow. Thus a giant elavator in the form of The stretching room. However because the water table is so high building below isn't ideal or feasible in most areas. Thus the floor stays stationary and the walls move instead.

This is excellent history that I did not know - thanks!

I'm sorry that you had such cold weather. As I told you earlier, we have taken most of our trips in January, and we usually get some cold weather. We've ducked into attractions like Hall of Presidents and Country Bears to get warmed up, too.

It looks like you are ready for a nice English tea party. It is a good picture of the two of you.

The Oooey Gooey Toffee cake is a most have for us and one of the real reasons we like to eat lunch here.

Yah - If it wasn't for your advice Sue - I wouldn't have made that last minute decision to bring my jean jacket - and that saved me most days - so thank you! But that last day was probably the worst - for cold - it was bitter and not very fun... We wanted to go back to MN where it was "warm" LOL.

Thanks! It was a wonderful seat - a bit drafty because of the window - but it was also a little sunny there, so it felt warmer.

I think we would have enjoyed it more, if it wasn't for the Kitchen Sink a few days prior - both of us took a bite and immediately there was a bit of a "eeew" factor... We were just DONE with ice cream/cake combo thing - I should have thought of that before we ordered. Oh well.

It looks like you had a great day at Universal! It was definitely jammed packed but it looks like you were able to do/see a lot.

My boys love Peter Pan so I always FP it. I agree, the ride is cute, but I wouldn't want to wait in line for more than 10-15 minutes. Unfortunately, that ride always has a long wait. Your lunch at LTT looks very good. I've only eaten there once but it was for dinner. I do remember enjoying it though. I love your table and the view out the window.

We did! I expected it to be more packed - it didn't "feel" that bad - so it was nice.

I highly recommend lunch over dinner at LTT - the menus are different - and if a person wants to try the Freedom Pasta, it's only available at lunch time. We love to have lunch here on our last day - the Freedom Pasta always seems to sit well after many days of theme park food. And I was super happy with our table... It was just so cute!

Have you tried using Sea Bands rather than dramamine for your motion sickness? I find them helpful for roller coasters.

Good TR too, thanks for taking the time to write it.

I have not... I will look into them. Normally - I wouldn't hesitate, but I jam so much on my wrists while I am in WDW - LOL... I have my Fitbit, my Magic Band, my chunky bracelets and all of my Alex n' Ani bracelets too... Sometimes I feel like my arms are really weighed down... But I definitely like this option much better, as I do not enjoy taking medication unless it's absolutely necessary - so I WILL look into it - thanks for the idea!

Thank you - I am happy to hear that you are enjoying it!

Wow, i feel bad you and Allison were still so cold at MK! At least you both went into attractions that were inside and warm. That pasta from LTT did look very good, as well as the cake!
How nice you were able to see your friend Cindy so much on the trip!
Sorry you weren't able to find the bag that you wanted. Do you happen to have the Disney Parks merchandise app? I recently got it on my phone for my July trip. They say its not always 100% accurate of what is where, but usually it can tell you where a specific item (like a vera bag) is sold is a specific shop in a park...
Yay! More MK for the night. I think that is a perfect way to end a wonderful trip to Disney!

It was a bummer - I am glad we had what we had with us... but by the end of the week, I think my denim jacket and that black sweatshirt could have walked home on their own. LOL

Yes - it was awesome to be able to hang out with Cindy so much - she is a great friend!

I did try looking at the app, all hope was not lost - thanks to the app, there was one more location to try before we went home.

Yes - one more MK night... I do have to say - towards the end there, we were looking for stuff to keep us warm/occupied in MK... Not sure I will plan 2 full MK days for V's trip? I"ll see what she wants to do - but we may try to spend time in another park?

I just got all caught up. Your Universal day looks great. It seems like you got a lot done. I loved your ride photo on Forbidden Journey. Santos seemed like a complete gentleman escorting you ladies. What a great friend!
I can't believe it's your last day. You're right the HM room at Disney World moves the walls up and down. At Disneyland the room is and actual elevator that moves down. Very cool Disney trivia. I'm not sure about the other parks though.

Thanks - we had a great time in US! It was awesome to have Santos with us - since he knows that park so well! I don't know that we would have accomplished nearly as much without him with us?

I know - it's so sad... but we were honestly tired and disappointed in the cold and ready to go home - or at least ready to be "warm" again - where there are furnaces and fire places. LOL

Was it shin splints that Allison had? oh, those are so painful! I've only had them once but that was one time too many!

We got stopped by the extra security check TONS of times too. Keep in mind we went into the parks a total of 6 times and my sister was stopped 4 times, my adult daughter was stopped 4 times and I was stopped 5 times. Don't get me wrong - I am glad they are doing this, it does make me feel safer but I just don't understand how we could have been stopped that many times!

My mouth is watering over the Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake. It looks yummy!

It was a combo of shin splints and just general foot pain... It was a lot of walking for anyone... I always start to feel it after a long trip too - even if we are taking it easy. Which is why I always try to limit walking as much as possible - because no matter how much you cut it off - it's still a lot. LOL

YES! Me too - 9x out of 10x, I was stopped... It didn't take long and it was all OK - but sometimes - most times - I felt targeted.

It could have been good - but at that point (and even still now) we are very grossed out by the thought of cake/ice cream/whipping cream combo... That kitchen sink did us in for quite some time. LOL

*************************************************************************************

Again, I am up much earlier than I wanted to be or anticipated... So, I may be able to sneak in an update this morning before the rest of the family wakes.

D~

 

[DMGeurts]

Day 8 Part 2

I woke at 4pm from my short nap.

Allison and I got ready - layered on all of our clothing items & took the Shady Shuttle to the Poly...

According to the Shop Disney Parks app, I saw that Bou-Tiki carried the Perfect Petals pattern... I wasn't very hopeful that they would have a pattern placement that I would be OK with - but it was my last chance and worth the slight detour. Allison also had enough souvenir $$ to purchase the little owl plant she was hoping to get the other day.

I was shocked and utterly surprised - out of the 3 VB PP Hipsters they had hanging on the hook - 2 of them had acceptable pattern placements for me... Not perfect - but almost perfect. Close enough that I was willing to part with my souvenir $$. So, I got my new bag - with my AP discount. For the record - I have not started using it at home yet - I plan to use my other one until it's dead beyond recognition - then I'll break out my new one.

Allison was so disappointed to see that her little light brown owl plant was gone - she really loved that one. So, she settled for the little dark brown one instead - with coffee growing in it. It was still cute, but not exactly what she wanted.

Santos met us at the Poly... He was kind enough to give us a ride back to SoG so we didn't have to carry our purchases around with us all night.

While we were driving - we were trying to decide what we wanted for dinner... It was decided that we would go off site for our very last Disney meal. GASP! We wanted something "refreshing" so Santos decided to take us to his favorite sub shop... I don't remember which one I ordered - but it was very good, and definitely filled my "refreshing" request.

We dropped Santos' car off at French Quarter, and waited a horribly long time in the cold for a bus to MK. I was freezing while waiting - so Santos ran back to his car and grabbed his Roll Tide sweatshirt I had been wearing the night before that was still in his car... He also grabbed another sweatshirt to hand off to Allison in case she needed it later. It pays to have local friends who are prepared.

We had FPs for 7DMT, and didn't want to miss those. This time we rode in the last car... It was a great ride. For future reference... Last car, at night is the best ride to us.

We checked the wait time for Haunted Mansion - our standby ride for when we are cold - but the wait time was 60 min and we didn't want to wait that long.

So, then we walked to Space Mountain - the wait for that ride was 80 min... Definitely not!

We had not done our favorite Carousel of Progress yet on this trip... And it was 20 minutes of guaranteed warmth... As you can see... Not only was I wearing Santos' Roll Tide sweatshirt again - I was also using his other sweatshirt as a scarf... D~'s clothing choices were getting worse and worse as the trip went on... I guess it's time to go home?

We did the Dance Party in Tomorrowland for a few minutes, because Allison wanted to...

We decided to do Monster's Inc, but while we were waiting - I told the kids there was NO way I would be able to sit and stay awake through that entire show... So, when they opened the doors to the theater, we just walked right through and out the other side.

It was time for bed. I was done!

We stopped for a few Photopass pictures on our way out of the park...

We exited the park and said our final goodbyes to our good friend Santos... Regrettably returned his layers of sweatshirts to him... Until October my friend!

We hopped the monorail... Just as we were headed to the TTC - Wishes started...

We arrived at the TTC and had to wait - without our extra sweatshirts - about 5 minutes for the next SoG bus.

We stopped on our way back to our room in the gift shop for some juice/water.

Allison and I finished packing everything we could for the night and we were in bed by 10:30pm.

Link to Day 9

D~​

 

[Terkina]

Looks like you had a great last day.

 

[DMGeurts]

Day 9

Sunday, January 24, 2016 - See Ya Real Soon!

I had my alarm set for 4am... I recorded in my journal that I hit the snooze several times and had a very hard time waking. I did not record what time I actually crawled out of bed.

I did a quick coffee/FB/Dis/shower...

I didn't even write down what time I woke Allison...

I finished my last minute packing and cleaning up... I went around the room taking pictures... For living here for 9 days - we didn't do too badly... You may notice - we had several layers of blankets on our beds... At some point in the first day or two - I raided the extra blanket for the sofa bed, then we asked housekeeping for more. As I said earlier in the TR - I was very unimpressed with our inability to tolerate the FL cold.

And then our bathroom... As I said at the beginning of this TR - this bathroom configuration was not the best for us... The mirror was small - so Allison and I were often jostling for a position, and reaching around each other to get to things on the counter. However - the lighting here was FABULOUS - I don't ever remember my reflection looking better.

I was ready to go... All of my cute VB Perfect Petals carry-ons waiting for the trip home.

We left room #206 with sad faces on at exactly 5:55am... Well, one of us anyways...

On last picture of the water fall in the lobby... One of my favorite places at SoG...

Bell Services kindly weighed my large suitcase for me - it weighed in at 47# - PHEW!!! 2# lighter than my inbound weight.

Our town car driver arrived at promptly 6:05am... She was a very jerky driver - which didn't sit well with my stomach after Universal Studios the other day... I am usually pretty sensitive to riding in the back seat and avoid it when I can - but after US since being home... I cannot do that back seat at all.

We checked our bags in right at curbside check-in... Since it was still so cold, there was no line here, but there was a very long line inside... We grabbed our boarding passes and we were on our way.

We were through security with out a problem (I packed my blingy jeans and opted to wear my leggings home) - so no extra scanning for me. We boarded the proper Fake-O-Rail to our gate - so no extra security line for this trip either. We were to our terminal by 7:15, with pleanty of time for a sit-down breakfast.

We decided to eat at Ruby Tuesdays... I ordered the chicken eggs Benedict... It was awful! I picked it apart and really didn't eat much of it. After theme park food for 9 days, my body was revolting.

We boarded our flight at 8:30 and took off at 9:05am.

Good-bye sunny cold Florida...

We landed in Chicago at 10:50 local time... We had just enough time between flights for a bio break and a quick lunch of Chinese food... After a horrible breakfast in FL - we were hungry... But I am not certain that Chinese was the best choice for us?

We had to rush to board our flight - which wasn't far away... We were on our flight at 11:50am... It was a good layover - would have been nice to have another 10 or 15 min between flights - but we were OK.

We took off at 12:05pm and were home less than an hour later... Warm, warm MN...

Josh met us at baggage claim - it was so crowded there, that I didn't notice him standing there for quite some time... Which he was very unimpressed with. Our luggage made it safely, and we were on our way home very quickly...

I had 2 puppies and a little girl who were very happy to see us!

Link to Allison Growing Up Disney... October 2003

D~​

 

[Wood Nymph]

oops - I posted in the middle of your updates

 

[DMGeurts]

Allison Growing Up Disney ~ 2003

Link to Growing Up Disney ~ 2008

D~​

 

[msluvsdisney]

I really enjoyed reading your report and I absolutely love your bags! You are so talented!

 

[jwwi]

Great report, I hate being "cold" in FL too! I love all your clothing and bag choices for the park. So much fun!

 

[disny_luvr]

I'm so sorry it was so cold for you guys. I think I mentioned earlier that we were on a trip when it was so cold and it really wasn't enjoyable. Part of it was my fault because I didn't pack properly but we had a hard time enjoying ourselves and we skipped a lot of evening parades/fireworks.

I'm so glad you were able to find a VB bag with perfect pattern placement. Mission accomplished!

I'm glad your travel day was uneventful and I'm sure your family was happy you guys were home.

Thanks for taking us along on your trip. I really enjoyed reading your report. I'll miss coming here everyday to read it. I'll look for a new report in the fall.

I enjoyed the photos of Allison (and you and your other daughter) at Disney through the years.

 

[Wood Nymph]

Yah - If it wasn't for your advice Sue - I wouldn't have made that last minute decision to bring my jean jacket - and that saved me most days - so thank you! But that last day was probably the worst - for cold - it was bitter and not very fun... We wanted to go back to MN where it was "warm" LOL.

I'm glad to have helped. We had just returned from our Florida vacation a few days before your trip and it was so cold at night that we decided to stay in the resort most nights. But it wasn't our coldest trip. I'll never forget one January trip when the temps dropped into the 30's, they had a freeze warning, and we could never get warm even though we had brought our winter coats. We couldn't wait to get back to central heating and insulted buildings. We didn't go back to Disney for three years after that trip.

We exited the park and said our final goodbyes to our good friend Santos... Regrettably returned his layers of sweatshirts to him... Until October my friend!

Santos sounds like a great guy. You really had a lot of pixie dust friends on this trip.

All of my cute VB Perfect Petals carry-ons waiting for the trip home.

I see why you needed to look for the right pattern placement. Those bags are cute.

I love your pictures of the girls when they were little. I have a sister who is 13 months younger than me and my mom dressed us alike when we were little. Seeing how much taller Allison is than Victoria reminds me of how different in sizes my sister and I were. The annoying thing about it was that my younger sister was taller than me and everyone thought that she was the oldest.

 

[Terkina]

Great trip report

 

[justgrace]

Wonderful trip report! Loved reading along! Love the "throwback" pictures! Your girls looked like twins when they were younger.

I have to ask, though. Maybe I missed it, but where did you get the title of your TR?