Suzy and Perla Skip the Lines Again: From roughing it to the lap of luxury

[Lisa0620]

Finally, I hate this little tent area of TSM. It's hot, I feel claustrophobic, and heaven forbid someone were to fart. Everytime I'm in there I ponder who on earth designed this terrible tent?

Yes! Such a weird little purgatory between the visually fun queue and the ride. I wish it was 'Andy's room' themed so there was something cute to read on the walls instead of those stripes. It seems to have a funhouse affect on peoples' sense of personal space too; I always have someone nudging up way too close behind me as if that will somehow make the ride load faster?! Hello, not a preshow - no need to fill in all available space! (Rant over )

Edited to add: the part about Donald needing to be "up for it" to wear his mr perfect shirt was hilarious!!! (They are really cute!)

 

[Laura Loves Tigger]

I totally agree with you on rope drop. It makes the whole day much easier and more fun!

 

[estherhead]

Yes! Such a weird little purgatory between the visually fun queue and the ride. I wish it was 'Andy's room' themed so there was something cute to read on the walls instead of those stripes. It seems to have a funhouse affect on peoples' sense of personal space too; I always have someone nudging up way too close behind me as if that will somehow make the ride load faster?! Hello, not a preshow - no need to fill in all available space! (Rant over )

Edited to add: the part about Donald needing to be "up for it" to wear his mr perfect shirt was hilarious!!! (They are really cute!)

Purgatory. Love it. That's exactly what it is. But the hell side of purgatory.

I totally agree with you on rope drop. It makes the whole day much easier and more fun!

 

[Mommy2BnB]

Just popping in to say Hi! I haven't been on at all since school started but now I am caught back up. Sorry to hear about your dad. My dad had colon cancer when he was 36. Scary! He survived and is healthy today (25 years later). I will be saying prayers for your family.

 

[ellajeansmom]

Just wanted to let you know that I am still reading along when I can - I'm just a bit lazy about posting

So sorry to hear about your dad, your family is in my prayers. You are fortunate to have a close family, it makes it so much easier when things like this happen to be able to pull together and be there for each other

On a happier note, the evening when you all split up sounded like everyone got what they needed. It's great that you are able to do this - I'm starting to prep my girls that this may happen on our Nov trip...Ella needs much less sleep than Jean, and will hang out with me later at night, but Jean can be a bit of a mommy-suck so she may not want to head back to the room without me.

The shirts look great as usual - definitely helps to keep track of you all

 

[estherhead]

Just popping in to say Hi! I haven't been on at all since school started but now I am caught back up. Sorry to hear about your dad. My dad had colon cancer when he was 36. Scary! He survived and is healthy today (25 years later). I will be saying prayers for your family.

hearing stories like this! My grandmother died of colon cancer and we just had a dear friend's funeral yesterday of pancreatic cancer. Both were 18 month long ordeals ending in death so my family is struggling with positive thoughts, which you know isn't like us. We've been able to mostly push it all out of our minds and get on with life since life has been SO BUSY this late summer but today, with it just 48 hours away, I'm ready to give it my full attention. I know a lot about hospital waiting rooms so I've got a list of things to get (Disney movies, anyone?) and a list of things to get done. We're hoping for the absolute best but preparing for the worst.

On a positive note, maybe with me just sitting about for a few days I might get a chapter up! I'm just so excited to start on June's trip that the dragging out of this one is driving me nuts.

Just wanted to let you know that I am still reading along when I can - I'm just a bit lazy about posting

So sorry to hear about your dad, your family is in my prayers. You are fortunate to have a close family, it makes it so much easier when things like this happen to be able to pull together and be there for each other

On a happier note, the evening when you all split up sounded like everyone got what they needed. It's great that you are able to do this - I'm starting to prep my girls that this may happen on our Nov trip...Ella needs much less sleep than Jean, and will hang out with me later at night, but Jean can be a bit of a mommy-suck so she may not want to head back to the room without me.

The shirts look great as usual - definitely helps to keep track of you all

Yes, we are all so happy to have each other. As good as we are at WDW, we are even better at tragedy (sadly, I know) all of us willing to work hard, to drop everything for one another, and to sob when needed. my family and support team.

On another note, how excited are you???? Two MONTHS!!! Soooo exciting for you. Maybe you can put Jean to sleep in her stroller and she'll never even know you partied without her.

On our way to the funeral yesterday Boo said, "Is it time to go to Disney World again?" I said, "No, but man I wish I was doing that instead of this!" Once we get our house remodelled and and paid for (working on both in our limited spare time) I wanna save for the blow out trip. Think I could muster up the courage to spend the money on a week at the Poly? Can you imagine?????

 

[dalmatian7]

I had to reread your last post twice. I thought something had happened to your dad when I read you were at a funeral. Hope all goes well with the surgery. I have been in your exact shoes. My dad and I worked together in the family business and he was diagnosed with esphogus cancer. They were the hardest months of my life. You are lucky to have your sister and such a great family.
My own sister and I have been getting ideas from your report and I made your empandada's recipe (holy moly does that feed a ton of people).
You seem like good people, I hope everything works out for you all.

 

[MaryAz]

I am sorry to hear about your Dad. Thoughts and prayers coming your way.

 

[estherhead]

I had to reread your last post twice. I thought something had happened to your dad when I read you were at a funeral. Hope all goes well with the surgery. I have been in your exact shoes. My dad and I worked together in the family business and he was diagnosed with esphogus cancer. They were the hardest months of my life. You are lucky to have your sister and such a great family.
My own sister and I have been getting ideas from your report and I made your empandada's recipe (holy moly does that feed a ton of people).
You seem like good people, I hope everything works out for you all.

Shockingly, those empanadas didn't feed our family at ALL. Barely a snack. Now you understand why food is such a big deal around here. Voracious doesn't begin to describe it. Eleven people, hungry all the time.

I am sorry to hear about your Dad. Thoughts and prayers coming your way.

Thanks for all the well wishes!

 

[estherhead]

I'm sitting in the hospital waiting room with my family for the next 6 hours and most of tomorrow as well so I'm thinking I can get some writing done. I was hoping that sitting here with Suzy and Donald and Mulan I might be able to get all the details right, seeing as they are the accuracy police and all. But the next portion of our story was just Boo and I by ourselves and I can't remember what on earth we were doing that put us all by ourselves.

Suzy and her 3 youngest boys had left Buzz & Woody and were supposed to meet their family at the Great Movie ride. But that connection didn't happen so she ended up riding without Milo & Charming. And Boo and I ended up watching Disney Channel Rocks all by ourselves:

I've never seen this show before, had never heard of any of the songs or shows, but I still enjoyed it. Basically, because people in general amuse me. Boo also enjoyed it as I had bought her popcorn before hand and she was digging eating her popcorn and watching people dance and sing their hearts out for her amusement.

Because it was early in the morning, no one, not even 4 year olds, would dance with these dancers and having the group dance with them is clearly a big part of the act. Boo was eating her popcorn and was NOT going to dance but the dancers were determined and kept coming over.

Now this is where you see the weirdness of my memory. Because I have no idea what events put me at this show but I do remember the young couple standing next to me. They were 18-20 and the girl's name was Danielle. I was fascinated by them because they were clearly in love, holding hands, calling each other sweetie, etc. But the man was obviously gay. It was very confusing for me. Danielle was enjoying the show. And knew the songs. But the man knew EVERY word to EVERY song they were singing and after the dancer tried to get Boo to dance for the millionth time the guy turns to Danielle and says, "Let's us dance!" And out they went. Obviously, a 20 year old man who loved Disney Channel Rocks songs would be suspect, but I can believe a straight guy who LOVES Disney would be that. Or maybe he was on the show just visiting on his day off. But I'm telling you, I'm telling you. He was gay. And totally in love with a girl. These things happen, I guess.

Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed this whole experience. No kids were talking to me. No Donald was telling me it was lame and I should move on. It was just me watching those Disney employees work their absolute hearts out, enjoying pondering Danielle and her man and what on earth they were all about, watching the crowd in general, and standing in the wonderful sunshine.

Would I ever stop, with my family, at noon in the blasted heat? Probably not.

After the show ended, I headed over to the newly opened Disney Junior. Though refusing to budge for the Disney Channel dancers, she was out of that stroller in a heartbeat for Jake & Izzy.

In my time line of things is this photo. Though I'm wondering if our camera's time are off as I'm pretty sure they were still over on Sunset Blvd here.

Disney Junior is a great show. Boo & Jack LOVE it.

Boo carries those dumb pieces of paper that fly from the ceiling around with her all day. Can you imagine trying to keep track of tissue paper circle "Dubloons" all day at WDW?

Boo scores in the treat area by not riding a lot of things:

Alright, here's what I think happened despite having no notes and very few pictures. I believe that after Disney Junior I gave Boo to Donald and enjoyed Rockin' Roller Coaster myself and it is Donald who gave her this donut, not knowing about the popcorn. Though, it is odd for him to take a picture of a donut case and we have one. So that makes me ponder.

Regardless, the rest of us hadn't been snacking left and right. And it was time for lunch. Here is the truth. We always eat lunch at the same place at DHS. Suzy likes to get her veggie sandwich and they have excellent chicken nuggets. And it's got indoor and outdoor seating. It's great for us.

Another thing of note is Boo wasn't terrified of Darth Vader this time. This allowed us to walk around the park without screaming and clawing.

After a potty break we headed into AI. Through this entire show, which was just awful and only had two singers, we were discussing what a shoe-in Charming and our good friend Emmy, who would be traveling with us in June, would be for getting on the show.

Bellies full, shows out of the way, it was time to head over to what you all know is a must do for us: Animation class. This time Suzy felt her family would all enjoy it so we were able to go together.

First, though we stopped in the store there to trade Vinylmations:

I still think Vinylmations are weird and ugly. But they are really fun to trade. Or at least all three of my kids think so:

Then, Frozone was heading out & the Incredibles were heading in. There was little to no line and so we stopped.

Because it was uncrowded, they took their time with us. But we are mayhem. If you looked in a dictionary under mayhem, there would be our photo. Perhaps this photo:

I know it must be under 'mayhem' because it is certainly NOT under 'strong' nor 'incredible.'

Then we went into the little animation class holding tank. With the cool guess the character on the tv's. I'm so awful at that game that even though it never changes and I've seen them over & over I still get them wrong. Sigh. We can't all be gifted at everything, I guess.

Donald likes to torture the younger ones in our crowd by deliberately shouting out the wrong answers and insisting he is right. That is always a crowd pleaser for the under 10 set.

Then into our class. Our teacher this time was great! So great, she ran out of time. This is the first time I've seen this happen but evidently when you are the main animator and you don't follow the rules the lighted projector table turns off. Whoops. She didn't seem very repentant for breaking the rules and continuing to draw after her table went off and her time was clearly off. Being a rule breaker myself, this is probably why I was left with such a great opinion of her.

For those who are too small or if there are too many people for just the light tables, there is seating in the front and clip boards. Though the light tables are nice, I almost enjoy the clip board better as it is easier in my opinion to get my paper in a better position.

So, Perla, what character did you draw???? Ha, ha. Gotta wait.

 

[Lisa0620]

Loved the people watching story about the gay guy and his girlfriend. Isn't it funny how those strange little encounters stick with you? (Does she know? Does HE know? etc.) We had that in Epcot once where we literally crossed paths with a family twice for less than 3 seconds each time and I feel like I know their whole story. The man was whining loudly about needing to get a fastpass for Soarin' (late in the afternoon ) and his wife was completely ignoring him, walking towards the WS like she was on a mission. Neither one looked back once at their son who was several steps behind them both, just looking around at everything Epcot had to offer and enjoying the day... I couldn't forget these people if I tried! For some reason that's lodged forever in long term memory but I have to practically pin my cell phone number to my shirt to remember it. Why IS that?


I hope we get a good update soon re your Dad.

 

[Mommy2BnB]

Still praying for your dad. Thanks for the update.

 

[estherhead]

Loved the people watching story about the gay guy and his girlfriend. Isn't it funny how those strange little encounters stick with you? (Does she know? Does HE know? etc.) We had that in Epcot once where we literally crossed paths with a family twice for less than 3 seconds each time and I feel like I know their whole story. The man was whining loudly about needing to get a fastpass for Soarin' (late in the afternoon ) and his wife was completely ignoring him, walking towards the WS like she was on a mission. Neither one looked back once at their son who was several steps behind them both, just looking around at everything Epcot had to offer and enjoying the day... I couldn't forget these people if I tried! For some reason that's lodged forever in long term memory but I have to practically pin my cell phone number to my shirt to remember it. Why IS that?


I hope we get a good update soon re your Dad.

I don't know. I do wonder why. Possibly because people are interesting and phone numbers are boring?

Still praying for your dad. Thanks for the update.

Dad update! His surgery yesterday went super well and the tumor was not touching other organs. They sent the lymph nodes to see if he'll need chemotherapy which we'll know in a week but visually, according to the surgeon, they got it. So in our opinion, we got the best possible news. Even if he has to have chemo, he'll kick the cancer's butt.

And my hope is that this entire circumstance has taught him to GO TO THE DOCTOR when something is bothering him. He claims it's a lesson he's learned. But we'll see in the next few years.

I'm back to the hospital today as he's in pretty severe pain since they cut him from head to toe! But he felt well enough to let Mom & I come back to sleep in real beds.

 

[estherhead]

Ta-Da! Pluto.

Pop quiz: What type of dog is Pluto? And did you know that Goofy and Pluto are the same type of dog?

Early Goofy:

They are bloodhounds. Weird they are the same, huh? Considering one is a person/dog and one is a dog/dog.

As always, we love these art classes. It's quiet, calm, interesting, and true Disney. Personal and art-focused.

When we were done with this, we were ready to head back to the Dolphin for a little break as we were then switching to Epcot. I'm again at a loss of what everyone else did. But I'm crystal clear on what I did.

The night before, as you all know, McQueen and I had gone out on an aunt/nephew date and had a fantastic time. But once back at the hotel he realized that he had left his video camera on the table. He LOVES making movies and was really sad. I had called but to no real avail. But I had faith. The wait staff is the ones who would have found it and they would turn it in. It wasn't an expensive one or anything. But still. It's pretty sad to lose your video camera.

But the ESPN Club doesn't open till later so we had to wait.

There are not many moments when I'm alone in my life. And almost none that I'm alone and outside my house. And pretty much no moments at all that I'm alone, outside my house, and somewhere cool. So despite the fact that my mission was not that great of one (to find a lost item) I was pretty excited to walk away from my family towards the boardwalk.

And I can assure you I did not rush. I meandered slowly. Really slowly. But I did manage to get to the ESPN Club. And they managed to find the camera! Success! I texted Suzy and she told McQueen and all was good in the world.

And then I said to my self, "Self, why should I rush back to the room and the mayhem?" And so I didn't.

(sorry, short chapter, gotta go, still at hospital and I'm needed.)

 

[Lisa0620]

Dad update! His surgery yesterday went super well and the tumor was not touching other organs. They sent the lymph nodes to see if he'll need chemotherapy which we'll know in a week but visually, according to the surgeon, they got it. So in our opinion, we got the best possible news. Even if he has to have chemo, he'll kick the cancer's butt.

Wonderful news! Sounds like they caught it early.

 

[Mommy2BnB]

Great news about your dad! So glad for your family.

I would have meandered slowly back from ESPN, too. That mint chocolate chip cone looks wonderful. Yum.

 

[sassie_kat]

Great news about your dad! I have been reading every update and loving all your pictures. I have to take some time and get our trip down for my kids while the memories are still (sort of) fresh!

 

[Tinkerkell007]

Hi Perla, I very much enjoyed reading your TR! I hope that your dad is doing well and feeling better. Looking forward to reading more!

 

[Perkins5]

I just love reading your trip reports. Hope your dad is doing well.

 

[christypooh402]

Hi! I'm been a lurker here for a while, and I just wanted to say that I really enjoy your reports! I am just at your Epcot day and I had to comment on what you said about the Duffy bear. I COMPLETELY agree with you! What is the bear doing at Disney?! And this guy here at AK was creepy already, he kept showing us souveniers and the way he was pushing this Duffy, I'm wondering if they get a percentage of the ones they sell! haha

I also wanted to say that your girls are gorgeous, and your sister's boys are so adorable! Beautiful family! I'm glad you had fun on your year at Disney, I can't wait to get caught up. We were there in May, but I've never written a TR.