A Salute to all things Disney, but mostly Magic Bars; a July 4th 2019 TR*update 11/28 new TR link!

So I figured I'd check back in on your TR since it has been a bit. I don't know why I can't carve out DIS time like I used to. I need to early retire and be a lady of leisure so I can do all my Disney "research"!

One more for today, Chris in Pooh's house in what I believe was called "Pooh's Playful Area" back then. This was across from The Many adventures of Winnie the Pooh where 7DMT is now and was a decent sized play area for the littles:
I remember getting photos with Pooh and friends there in 2005 for Christmas!

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'
OMG he is sooooo cute!

pop stuff like this girl and Debbie Gibson :rolleyes1
I totally had the Tiffany and Debbie Gibson cassette tapes! Wow, I sound old.

We have fastpasses here, the place where I dance:

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Love it!
 
we went to ride Dinosaur first as the wait was rather low:
So funny because we were supposed to head there but ended up skipping it. And we always skip it or miss it. Haven't made it on yet (I have done it before a few times but no one else in the fam). I think I have a FP for it AGAIN in November. Maybe we will finally get it done.
For now we hung with these Georgians:

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I apologize to the readers because I feel like I am coming out of my dress but oh my it was so hot at the time, I did not care.

We had met on the EPIC trip in May but neither of us had met each others' boys:

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What a handsome group!

We also had a little dancing:

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Too funny!

And I made a very good friend whom I was lucky enough to spend more time with the next day!

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Oh, you made a lifelong little buddy that day!

One more shot:

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So glad we had that time together. It was perfect for a hot and humid afternoon!
 
but Steve never wanted to leave Disney for it - yes, I'm serious HE'S the one who didn't want to leave the bubble for Universal!
This is Chad! Which seems so funny to me! We are doing one night at Legoland in June so I was doing one night less at Disney. Um, no...that is unacceptable, per Chad. He is not giving up his Disney time for Legoland. So I have to add another night!

I'll end with some pictures of the people WITHOUT EP waiting in line:

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Um...no.
 


What a disappointing night between dinner and a less than stellar experience at AH - what a huge difference with the others you've done and ones I've read
It was different than most reports I read too and much worse than our first experience there in January. Very disappointing!
So I figured I'd check back in on your TR since it has been a bit. I don't know why I can't carve out DIS time like I used to. I need to early retire and be a lady of leisure so I can do all my Disney "research"!
:wave2:
I feel that way most of the time too! When I started doing m TR's I would update like every other day lol and I would come on every day to see if the ones I was following had been updated. Now I'm lucky if I can update once a week and half the time not even that!
remember getting photos with Pooh and friends there in 2005 for Christmas!
I had forgotten about this area until I saw the pictures again this summer :goodvibes
So funny because we were supposed to head there but ended up skipping it. And we always skip it or miss it. Haven't made it on yet (I have done it before a few times but no one else in the fam). I think I have a FP for it AGAIN in November. Maybe we will finally get it done.
I can really take or leave the ride but Chris likes it. So I don't mind riding it once every couple of trips for something different.
I apologize to the readers because I feel like I am coming out of my dress but oh my it was so hot at the time, I did not care.
lol you look fine! And yes, it was HOT.
Oh, you made a lifelong little buddy that day!
I can't wait to see him (them) in January!
So glad we had that time together. It was perfect for a hot and humid afternoon!
:hug:
This is Chad! Which seems so funny to me! We are doing one night at Legoland in June so I was doing one night less at Disney. Um, no...that is unacceptable, per Chad. He is not giving up his Disney time for Legoland. So I have to add another night!
I was completely surprised that not only did he want to try HHN, but then he suggested staying at a Universal resort for the night!!!! I'm glad we did because I hadn't stayed at any of their premier resorts but it is funny that the guys are the ones who don't want to leave.
 
One week to go until my "work" trip to Disney :mickeyjum I'm getting excited for the most part; I mean, I'll be in Disney! Just.....you know, not MY way lol. I want to get at least one more July update done and then I'll fill you all in on what I should be doing down there!

We slept in a bit on July 6th after the later AH the night before. It also helped since Ricky's foot had swelled up a bit :rolleyes: Not that I was annoyed - well I kind of was, this was now the 3rd trip in a row with the kids that he had an appendage problem - although we knew about the first 2 going in so I can't really count them. But seriously, days away from being cleared after 1 year, 10 months, and 6 days of ACL recovery and now a freakin' swollen foot? *** man??

Anyhow we had a breakfast booked at the Wave for 10:30. Steve and I were ready before the kids and decided to walk outside around the grounds a bit:
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I know I've walked by this before but for some reason I didn't remember it.
You can't be out here and not do this:

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I wanted a picture of my teenage boys here, one in each ear................you can imagine how that suggestion went over later. We walked over to the outer buildings just to see how it felt to be in an outer building lol. The walk isn't bad at all!

We retrieved the boys and went to breakfast. Steve and I had breakfast here a couple years ago and thought it was great so I figured it'd be great again. We did have to wait about 20 minutes past our ADR time which was weird, the restaurant was only about a quarter full.

When we did get seated and had all chosen the buffet, this came to me:

Bay Lake Bloody Mary
St. Augustine Florida Cane Vodka and Bloody Mary mix garnished with Chorizo, Cheddar, and Olives


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This was NOT GOOD. Not as gross as my chicken dish at Maya Grill but still on the gross scale. I'm somewhat new to Bloody Mary's as I've only been ordering them for about 18 months, but I know what I like and this wasn't it! It didn't have any tomato taste but tasted......chemically? And not in a good morning alcohol way. Last time we were here they still had bottomless mimosas which I partook of. After a few sips of this I went with soda instead.

The food wasn't as good as we'd remembered it either. Something I'd loved was the yogurt parfaits that included non healthy bits and pieces like chocolate drops and such and the variety they had wasn't there now. The eggs weren't as good and Steve didn't like the sweet potato pancakes this go'round. But here are a couple plate shots for you:
I believe this was Steve's - sweet potato pancake, cheesy potato casserole, eggs, Mickey waffle :) and something I can't quite make out. Could be a quiche? Again not sure.


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And one of mine:

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My waffles were burned if you can't tell and while I was looking forward to this one type they had,, it didn't taste as good.. That raspberry pastry though was awesome! They had them at the HS EMH we did last year and I may have eaten 1 or 6.

The boys didn't think breakfast was all that either but hey, it fixed our hunger for the time being. Except for Ricky. He barely ate because he was a nervous wreck. Why you ask? Was it his foot? Well it was bothering him but the swelling was down and that wasn't it It had to do with what we were planning for AFTER breakfast that had him scared sh*$less.

What was THAT you ask?

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Something we'd never done before!

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Yes, we rented SeaRaycers! I'd wanted to do this for awhile now but nobody else was ever onboard (onboard; searaycers; boats lol). This time in an effort to introduce something new into our trip to keep the boys maybe wanting to come back I played this up, especially since we were staying somewhere we could rent them from.

It was very easy and quick. We filled out a form, paid - and got an AP discount - and got our crash lesson in driving these thangs! As you see Steve drove one and then the other was driven by none other than the one with the 3 month old driver's license:

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He did great! But he was SO paranoid about being on the water he said he could barely eat :charac2: and I was afraid he'd freak out on the water and we were going to have to switch places Luckily neither happened and after about 8 minutes out there he was totally comfy!


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Look what I could see :love:

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This was so much more fun than we thought it would be! There are 2 speeds slow and faster lol. Ricky quickly got comfortable with the faster speed. We went ALL over, as you'll see in my next picture overload post!
 
Get ready guys, here's a look at what we saw:

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I'd never noticed this little shed before!
Work being done for the new resort:
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That's Chris and Steve ahead; going under the monorail!

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Hello old Discovery Island :(
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Hello Poly!
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If you can't tell, we went all over. They give you instructions as far as where and when you need to slow down and what to do if you get stuck. There are constantly boat patrols or whatever they call them going by so if you did get stuck it wouldn't be for long We actually went by 2 boys, probably 12 or 13 each in their own searaycer who were totally stuck and couldn't get their boats through one of the straights. You only need to be 12 to drive a boat by yourself but they were so small and looked so scared lol!


We even got as close as possible here:

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And went past my now 2nd favorite resort:

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We stayed out about 45 minutes. It was kind of hard to signal to Chris and Steve when we were ready to go in because those things are kind of loud and when you go fast you have water spraying in your face. We just had so much fun together! Loved seeing so much from a different view even though you can see most of it from any watercraft; it's a different perspective. This also was good for Ricky's foot so he could rest it for later.

We made it back to the CR and successfully docked our boats. We all kept saying we'll definitely do this again! It's hard to take time away from the parks but it was so worth it to do this. I'm at my picture limit again but I'll post one or two more next time. This morning made up for the not so great After Hours for sure. Now we just had to hope Ricky's foot held out for another couple days......................................
 


The searaycers look so fun! I've never thought about doing that before. Glad it made up for the not-so-good AH!
 
I have never thought of doing the SeaRaycers before, but it looks like you guys had a wonderful time!! This will definitely be something we will do with Jimmy when he's a litttle older :) Love the smiles on all of your faces!
 
That's such a bummer about your HS AH! Five attractions really is too few for the price you pay. I would've been pretty sad about only one ride on ToT, too, as it's my favorite ride in Disney World!

To follow up your poor evening of a crummy meal and sub-par After Hours with a mediocre breakfast at the Wave - what a rough patch you were having!

I'm glad it all turned around with your Sea Raycer rentals! I would LOVE to do this one day - I'd hoped to back in 2015 when staying at the Grand Floridian but it didn't quite work out. You appear to all be having so much fun!
 
Me and Dan want to do the sea raycers so bad! The one time we tried we got stuck behind a huge family renting one of the bigger boats and thirty minutes later after they had filled out their paperwork and got life jackets on and it was our turn a storm rolled in lol we were so bummed! I think I may need to try to do it in December!
 
Love the Sea Raycers photos...we really enjoy that as well. It's just such a fun thing to do that's not a park. My family has also done the Bass Fishing on Bay Lake also...not me but the family...and they have loved that too.
 
what a fun and different activity to do at Disney. The Sea Racers look like a good time and it is cool to see all the resorts.

I’m sorry The Wave breakfast wasn’t that good. Bummer about the Bloody Mary!
 
You are correct if you're thinking "but there's no Stephen King at HHN" BUT, I love him. I love him so much that my parents took me to his house in Maine when I was 17 and I went to the Vassar College graduation about 20 years ago when he was the speaker just to see him. Good thing I did too because I got to shake his hand!

I am mostly a lurker here but I just had to leave a quick comment....Way back before Stephen King was a hugely famous writer, he taught English at my mom's high school! My aunt & uncle had him as a teacher but he quit the year before my mom would have had him. He still lives in Bangor, ME and the last time I was there visiting my mom, I saw him walking down the street when I was coming out of the Whoopie Pie Cafe...and HE SAID HI TO ME!!!! I was all excited!! LOL back to reading the TR!! Loving it so far :-D
 
Anyway while they were here they booked their very first Disney vacation!! Not only is it Hayden's but my DIL Candace's first trip:goodvibes And of course Steve and I are going! It's not until next September but I already gave Candace a list of restaurants to check out, we know what parks we're doing and how many days in each park.

Aw that will be such a magical trip!

We then went back to Asia for our 3rd FP because I like to make my family criss-cross the park as often as possible.

This is definitely me!

And also FYI, Forky was gone by our Sept. trip! I was very sad, also sad that I couldn't find a Forky plush (for myself) because he's one of my 2 favorite characters from TS4 along with these guys:

Aw I wonder why they got rid of Forky. I love him!

TOT was up to 40 again when we got there; So disappointing. We rode numerous times during AH in January with NO wait to the point that we were walking right through the library, not watching the pre-show.

Ugh that's frustrating. That's my issue with the AH events- they're inconsistent. We've done them in MK when you could just stay on BTMRR as many times as you wanted and other times there's a 10 minute wait. I don't like that!

I wanted a picture of my teenage boys here, one in each ear................you can imagine how that suggestion went over later.

:rotfl: :rotfl:

Yes, we rented SeaRaycers! I'd wanted to do this for awhile now but nobody else was ever onboard (onboard; searaycers; boats lol).

Oo this is on my list to do! Looks like fun!
 
I wanted a picture of my teenage boys here, one in each ear................you can imagine how that suggestion went over later
😆 Lemme guess! They jumped for joy at the mere mention of a photo opportunity such as that! :rolleyes1

I'd wanted to do this for awhile now but nobody else was ever onboard (onboard; searaycers; boats lol).
I see what you did there :laughing: What a neat experience! I'd never considered doing a sea racer but that looked like SO much fun! And the views you must have seen had to have been unbelievable! :wizard:
 
The searaycers look so fun! I've never thought about doing that before. Glad it made up for the not-so-good AH!
It did! So much more fun than I thought it would be! Great first part of the day.
I have never thought of doing the SeaRaycers before, but it looks like you guys had a wonderful time!! This will definitely be something we will do with Jimmy when he's a litttle older :) Love the smiles on all of your faces!
Yes it's a great rest day/break from park thing to do! We will definitely do it again next time the boys are with us :)
I'm glad it all turned around with your Sea Raycer rentals! I would LOVE to do this one day - I'd hoped to back in 2015 when staying at the Grand Floridian but it didn't quite work out. You appear to all be having so much fun!
I'd been trying to get them all to do the sea raycers for like 3 years! It does make it easier when you're staying at a resort you can rent from so you don't have to make an extra trip lol.
Me and Dan want to do the sea raycers so bad! The one time we tried we got stuck behind a huge family renting one of the bigger boats and thirty minutes later after they had filled out their paperwork and got life jackets on and it was our turn a storm rolled in lol we were so bummed! I think I may need to try to do it in December!
Oh man I would have been super annoyed even though they couldn't hep the weather :headache: Definitely plan on it for Dec! You guys will love it and it's a nice non park thing to do
Love the Sea Raycers photos...we really enjoy that as well. It's just such a fun thing to do that's not a park. My family has also done the Bass Fishing on Bay Lake also...not me but the family...and they have loved that too.
I think I remember you telling me you guys did them! There are so many cool activities to do around the resorts
 

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