"...We'll thank the little stars that shine..." A GRAND week in WDW *UPDATED 8/1

[UncleOrville]

Loved the update (and our surprise appearance, of course)! Darting from the MK to MGM and back to the MK reminds me of another group I know well...

 

[kittyprincess]

One month from today we will be at Disney!!!

 

[iheartpluto]

I had to come check out the TR of a fellow GF lover!! I just started, so no insightful comments yet, but I'm sure you'll be sick of me by the end!
P.S. I LOVE your kitties...

 

[kittyprincess]

One month from today we will be at Disney!!!

OOPS Wrong thread! :

 

[Scott MC]

i will finish this tr before this year's trip begins...i will finish this tr before this year's trip begins...i will finish this tr before this year's trip begins...i will finish this tr before this year's trip begins...i will finish this tr before this year's trip begins...i will finish this tr before this year's trip begins...i will finish this tr before this year's trip begins...i will finish this tr before this year's trip begins...i will finish this tr before this year's trip begins...i will finish this tr before this year's trip begins...i will finish this tr before this year's trip begins...

 

[camsmomE]

I'm joining you 'cause Monymony told me to... JUST KIDDING! I'm glad I found you- I think you're hilarious!! Heading back to the beginning....... -Stace

 

[Scott MC]

I'm joining you 'cause Monymony told me to... JUST KIDDING! I'm glad I found you- I think you're hilarious!! Heading back to the beginning....... -Stace

Thanks for reading! I'm sorry it took me so long to reply! After this Thursday, I won't be working again before our trip, so I'll have about 14 days to either wear down the floorboards, or finish my trip report. I'm hoping the latter is what occurs!

 

[Scott MC]

Lo and behold!
I am ready to FINISH this.
That's right. I leave for my 2010 trip in less than 2 weeks yay, and I am determined to wrap up this TR before I have to think about a new one. I'll work round-the-clock if I have to.

But before I do,
I have one question...

Is there ANY other way than Photobucket to get pictures up here? I consider myself very computer literate, and I find that site confusing as all heck. Does anyone have any other suggestions? Once I get an answer, we'll definitely be on our way!

 

[UncleOrville]

I agree Photobucket is annoying, but it's the best option I've found for pictures for the DIS. When you're uploading photos to Photobucket, click on "more options" and then set your photo size to large - it takes care of resizing all of your pics at once to the size that best fits in DIS posts. You can also customize it to get rid of all the extraneous material at the bottom of each picture when you're in "album view" mode - I have mine so only the "IMG Code" (which is the one you need for the DIS) is visible. I'm not sure where I got that setting on the Photobucket site, but I'm not that awesome at Photobucket (as you can tell), so I'm sure it was pretty easy to find.

 

[Scott MC]

All right,

Let's try to get this going....shall we?

Thursday, August 20, 2009

**I'm going to note here that since it's been *SO* long since this trip, my memory for details has slipped, and the exact order in which events unfolded may not be 100% accurate. Please forgive me.

It was an EMH morning at the Magic Kingdom, and for the first time, we got to see the opening show outside the gates. I know Seth was dying to see this, but I don't think he got to see all of it due to a monorail technical difficulty, but Tom and I saw it, and it was a lot of fun. Sadly, it's wasted on the hordes waiting to push through the doors.

We decided that our first destination would be Splash Mountain, which is my favorite of the mountains. I love the big drop, I love the characters, and I love the music. I certainly don't have all the words memorized thanks to my "Four Parks One World" CD.....

I love the walk to Splash...

We were heading in the right direction!

During this jaunt, we also ran into a very lonely looking Frontier Donald. We took a picture, and Tracy (CorysMom) was very jealous, as apparently this is a great find. The picture is great and is framed in my living room. Would you like to see it?

Well, you can't.

Let me explain why.

The pictures you're seeing posted here were mostly taken by my sister Erin. I admittedly hate lugging around a camera and being responsible for capturing memories that will last a lifetime. I'd rather somebody else do it. Is that selfish? If it is....I'm O.K. with it.

Anyway,
Our other photographer was Mary Willowtree, and when we came home, I immediately began bugging her about her pictures. When she brought them to me, she brought a large pile of beautiful printed out pictures. While they're lovely for decorating your house, they're not suitable for posting here. Sometime in the near future, I will bug her about bringing her actual camera with her and we'll try to upload the pictures to this TR as a "Mary Montage." Until then, you're gong to have to deal with Erin's pictures.

So there.


You've been told.

So where was I?
Oh yes, we were almost at Splash Mountain...

There it is!

Pre-soaking

Post-soaking

Gosh, I love that ride!

After this, the pictures move on to Epcot, so I'm assuming that in addition to Splash, we probably did quick runs on BTM and PPF (my favorite), and then made our way to Epcot, which I'll pick up in another post.

 

[Scott MC]

Thursday, Part Deux

So we'd hit the MK hard and fast, and based on the pictures, seemed to have spent a rather leisurely day in Epcot, leading up to dinner at Les Chefs De France. I'll start with the pre-dinner pics.

Does anyone else love this ride as much as we do? Tom and I actually watched The Three Caballeros and Saludos Amigos last week and really loved it!

I'm going to pause here, since it's past my bedtime. I'll finish up day 2 tomorrow with our experience at Les Chefs De France.

G'night y'all!

 

[LakesRegionNHMom]

Great TR! I can't wait to read more! I am from NH, but used to work in the Boston area, so I am enjoying your NE references too!

I'm so happy for you that you got to stay at the GF..it looks beautiful....I've stayed at the WL 3 times and BC, 2 times. I hope to stay at the GF someday!

 

[jakeybake]

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaack.

I'd like to thank the dear moderators for unlocking this thread.
We won't discuss the fact that it's been so long that it was locked in the first place.........

Ahem...
Where was I?

Aaaah, yes, no Tiki Room for us.
I kept meaning to get to this, but we never did. It's now been '07 since I've been in. I'll have to take up residence here in August. It kinda looks like the Polynesian doesn't it?

I do love Aladdin, but we didn't meet him on this trip either.

It was now time for our first ride of the trip, and I have this thing for riding a Disney classic. It's a mini tradition of mine that the first park is always MK and the first ride can only be one of the following...
*Space Mountain
*Small World
*Peter Pan's Flight
*Snow White's Scary Adventures
*The Haunted Mansion
*Pirates of the Caribbean

On this trip, we decided to go visit some pirates. This decision was based on it being midday and there being a decent likelihood of there being lines elsewhere. Usually the Pirates aren't too crowded.

We weren't disappointed. It remains a masterpiece.

We waved at Splash Mountain and its horrendous line ....

Passed through Liberty Square....

...and headed for another classic and acceptable ride for early in the trip.

Who doesn't like 999 Happy Haunts?

At this point, the sky was looking ominous.

So, much to my delight, we ducked into yet another classic on my list!

Can I tell you that we have a restaurant in my neck of the woods that looks just like this picture? You can feel free to be the judge.

I'm glad my companions realized that these rides had to get out of the way before anything else could get done.

KOWLOON BABY!!!!!

This is where my DW and I had not only our first date but also where I asked her to marry me! Love seeing Kowloon on the DIS!!

Jay

 

[Scott MC]

KOWLOON BABY!!!!!

This is where my DW and I had not only our first date but also where I asked her to marry me! Love seeing Kowloon on the DIS!!

Jay

Heh, you're not the only one I know who's gotten engaged there.

 

[Scott MC]

Great TR! I can't wait to read more! I am from NH, but used to work in the Boston area, so I am enjoying your NE references too!

I'm so happy for you that you got to stay at the GF..it looks beautiful....I've stayed at the WL 3 times and BC, 2 times. I hope to stay at the GF someday!

Thanks for the compliment! The GF really is magical. I hope YOU get to stay there very soon!

 

[jakeybake]

Heh, you're not the only one I know who's gotten engaged there.

Admittedly not the most romantic place to get engaged but it held special significance for us given that it was where we had our first date!

Though I did try to class it up a bit by asking for a table in the "Thai Room" to the left That's about as classy as it gets at Kowloon!

Jay

 

[Scott MC]

It is with a heavy heart that I inform you all that I will likely not be able to finish this TR before I head to WDW for this year's trip.
This afternoon, my uncle (my father's brother) passed away suddenly, and I am likely going to be on a plane tomorrow morning to GA for his funeral. By the time I return, there will barely be time to do a wee bit of laundry and turn around and head for "The World."

I will try my hardest to keep up with this and finish it in a timely fashion. Will you all forgive me?

 

[kittyprincess]

This afternoon, my uncle (my father's brother) passed away suddenly, and I am likely going to be on a plane tomorrow morning to GA for his funeral. By the time I return, there will barely be time to do a wee bit of laundry and turn around and head for "The World."

I'm so sorry to hear about your uncle Scott! If there's anything I can do to help with your preparation for the trip or anything at all, let me know.

 

[iheartpluto]

So sorry for your loss. We will be waiting patiently for your return, no need to stress over the TR. It just means you'll have readers already in place for the next one.

 

[UncleOrville]

So sorry to hear about your uncle, too. And no need to worry about finishing this TR before the next trip - we'll just be waiting to hear about this year's trip.