Better Late Than Never ~ 13 Oct Surprise, Birthday, Free Dining, Pop TR UPDATE 2/16

[Sisa]

Love Hope's attire choice, totally awesome!

Cute photo shoot while waiting.

Yay for a good Minion ride.

Boo for Mummy...poor Hope, that must have been a scary feeling.

Losing your phone that had to be the worst feeling. I would have been the same way, not able to fully enjoy the ride. They couldn't check for your phone until 1:00am???? I hope it was 1:00pm, but even that would suck!!!

Awe, the MIB dog...how cute! My DD is a major animal lover, it would have been hard to get her to leave.

A Hedwig puppet? How awesome!!! Great Choice!!

I'm so glad you guys loved POP so much, it's making me feel very confident with our choice to stay there. The food looked so yummy! I can't wait to try the tie dye cheesecake too, even if it is smaller now.

Loved your update

 

[vleeth]

Love Hope's attire choice, totally awesome!

Cute photo shoot while waiting.

Yay for a good Minion ride.

Boo for Mummy...poor Hope, that must have been a scary feeling.

Losing your phone that had to be the worst feeling. I would have been the same way, not able to fully enjoy the ride. They couldn't check for your phone until 1:00am???? I hope it was 1:00pm, but even that would suck!!!

Awe, the MIB dog...how cute! My DD is a major animal lover, it would have been hard to get her to leave.

A Hedwig puppet? How awesome!!! Great Choice!!

I'm so glad you guys loved POP so much, it's making me feel very confident with our choice to stay there. The food looked so yummy! I can't wait to try the tie dye cheesecake too, even if it is smaller now.

Loved your update

Thanks!

Nope, that is 1:00AM. They can't check for it until the ride is shut down for the say. It was HHN that night and the park didn't close until 1:00AM.

We really did love Pop.

 

[Sisa]

Thanks!

Nope, that is 1:00AM. They can't check for it until the ride is shut down for the say. It was HHN that night and the park didn't close until 1:00AM.

We really did love Pop.

Oh my, that really is awful

 

[vleeth]

Oh my, that really is awful

Yep, I would have to wait until the next day to find out if my phone was broken into a million pieces.

 

[Gracefulskinny]

MIB is about one of the only rides that I can ride at Universal and not risk getting sick on. Its about the only ride over there (Besides the HP stuff because I haven't seen it) that I really like.

Glad you were able to get the most out of the Universal time.

 

[mdsouth]

Great update!

What a bummer about your phone. I guess you are making us wait for the next installment to see if your phone is returned.

Looking forward to your next installment!

 

[vleeth]

MIB is about one of the only rides that I can ride at Universal and not risk getting sick on. Its about the only ride over there (Besides the HP stuff because I haven't seen it) that I really like.

Glad you were able to get the most out of the Universal time.

I wasn't a big fan on Universal. I know we will go back because we were a bit to early for the HP stuff and when Hope gets older she may want to try some of the rides again.

I am glad we were able to get done early enough to have some pool time.

 

[vleeth]

Great update!

What a bummer about your phone. I guess you are making us wait for the next installment to see if your phone is returned.

Looking forward to your next installment!

Thanks!

Yeah, it was a bit stressful.

I'm working on my next post. We've been a bit busy with field trips (Renaissance Festival) and today we spent the day at the dr. Hope has scoliosis (not bad) and today we found out her hips are tilted (one side is higher than the other) so they want to do an MRI. They sedate kids to do MRIs and this is the first time she will be sedated, so I'm a little stressed over the situation. But working on my trip report brings me back to my happy place!

 

[vleeth]

It was another early day and we were scanning those Mickey Bands to pay for our breakfast at 6:45.







We got in line for the Epcot bus only to realize we were in the Magic Kingdom bus stop. We didn’t figure this out until the MK bus pulled up. Then we got into the right line and got there without further incident.



This one wasn’t in the best mood. Red flag?





Before long we were waiting for rope drop.



Then we stopped for a couple of photos.





We went to Test Track first and got to design our own cars. I think there was only one other family in there with us. It was our first time to ride since the update.





During the ride Hope was freaking out a bit. When we got to the doors that open for you to go outside, I realized what the problem was. I explained to her that this was like BTMR and then she was fine. She totally relaxed and had a great time. I just wish I had thought to tell her that earlier. That Mummy ride really messed her up. She was scared that she was going to feel like she was falling out of everything after that.

We only rode once because we had TT FP+ for the end of the day.

Our next stop was Mission: Space.

Dave and I rode this once, back before there was a green side and an orange side. This was back even before they toned it down a bit because people were puking so often. We swore we would NEVER ride this again. But Hope wanted to ride it and there was a no spinning side so I put it into the plan. When I told Dave the plan, he said he would sit this one out. When we got to the ride, however, he read the signs and decided to join us. I guess he didn’t believe me when I told him there was no spinning.

We had a really good time. I was commander and I reached over to be engineer since there was just the three of us. I spent a lot of time flipping switches that were completely unnecessary just because it was fun to do. It was like we were on Star Trek. (Voyager, in case you were wondering.)

Spaceship Earth was fun as always. I rode solo. For some reason, I was both people in my future.



And here is two of me on the big screen.



Then we journeyed into the imagination with Figment. Then there was some play time in the Figment area. And I don’t just mean Hope.

I think Dave could spend an entire day at Innoventions…which is where we headed to next.

On the way there, Hope sneezed. Red flag?

While there we did an old favorite. The Great Pig Something or Other.



Somewhere around here Hope started asking to go back to the hotel and swim. That was the first time she ever said that to me. Red Flag?

We had FP+ for Living With the Land, but it was a complete walk-on. We didn’t even bother scanning our bands.

I put our LWTL and Soarin FP+ back to back since they are in the same building, so it was onto Soarin.

I really forget how much I like Soarin. I read some reports that said the quality was getting bad and it was going downhill but I didn’t really notice that. I thought it was great and I really enjoyed Soarin’.

On the way to World Showcase we passed by a bog. I had never seen a bog before.



We stopped at our first Food & Wine booth at 11:00. It was Australia and we got shrimp ($0). We all thought it was okay.

We stopped in Mexico to take a boat ride and this pic.



We stopped at the Singapore booth and had Mahi Mahi at 11:19.

Then it was on to Norway (she wasn’t very happy about having to take this picture.)



I’m glad we rode Maelstrom, since it will be changed the next time we ride it.

Our next stop was the Italy booth at 12:05. We got the ravioli ($0) and it was my favorite thing at the F&WF. A few minutes later Dave got the artisan cheese ($0) from the Cheese booth. I think Hope had some with him, but ‘artisan’ cheese is not my thing.

We went to see the American Adventure because it fit in well with what Hope was learning in history. She really liked when they said a part of the Declaration of Independence because she had just memorized it.

After that we went to the Hops & Barley booth and got both the lobster roll and the lobster tail ($0) at 1:27. Hope wanted a ‘real’ lunch so we went to Liberty Inn for a hot dog and a chocolate milk (also $0.)

Hope had enjoyed doing the Kimpossible Mission when she was 4 and was looking forward to Agent P. Her first Agent H mission was in Japan. She made a waterfall appear on the kao pond, had a Japanese symbol appear on a rock and a crazy looking doll thing appeared in the middle of a store.

She did a second mission in France which involved taking a pic at the tower and watching Agent P on a zipline. Then she had to go to a store and ask a question. They gave her a penny and she got a free pressed penny that isn’t shown on the machine. Nice! Free is always nice!



This is our first ever Magic Shot and Chip was supposed to be on Hope’s hand, but they didn’t put him there. This was when photopass was changing from the old web address to the new and I ran out of time so I didn’t bother to try and call and get them to fix it.



We stopped and got some fish and chips, water, cookie ($0) & then at 3:25 Dave got a Moosehead 6oz $3.50 (beer) & beef ($0) from Canada.



Then we went back to innoventions. They played around for a bit and then we got our Visa picture.





Yay, science on vacation! (We were on chemistry that year.)



to be continued!

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Yay for reinforcing education at Disney! Sounds like you had a good morning.

 

[disneyfreak25]

Christmas time is the best we try to go every year for Christmas!

 

[vleeth]

Yay for reinforcing education at Disney! Sounds like you had a good morning.

One of these years we might do 'homeschool day' and even get to take a class a Disney!

 

[vleeth]

Christmas time is the best we try to go every year for Christmas!

In 2007 we were at Disney in January. We got to see Animal Kingdom's big tree out front and the lights an Studios. Now I just need to get there in early December so I can see Epcot and MK.

 

[Sisa]

Breakfast looked yummy!

Love your shirts, very cute!

You all got some very nice Photopass pictures, bummer about Chip not being in one picture though.

Poor Hope looked so sad Glad she was able to enjoy TT though.

Great update!

 

[vleeth]

Breakfast looked yummy!

Love your shirts, very cute!

You all got some very nice Photopass pictures, bummer about Chip not being in one picture though.

Poor Hope looked so sad Glad she was able to enjoy TT though.

Great update!

Thanks, we wore them on our cruise the year before and had fun making them.

Dave said he could photoshop Chip on her hand, but it hasn't happened yet.

Yeah...spoiler alert...there are more red flags to come.

Thanks!

 

[SimplyGoofy]

I'm glad you enjoyed your day at Universal, but I agree that I enjoy Disney more.

What a bummer about your phone! That would make me nervous for the rest of the day!

What a super productive day at Epcot! I hope the red flags don't lead to anything too bad!

 

[vleeth]

I'm glad you enjoyed your day at Universal, but I agree that I enjoy Disney more.

What a bummer about your phone! That would make me nervous for the rest of the day!

What a super productive day at Epcot! I hope the red flags don't lead to anything too bad!

So much still to tell...guess I'd better get to work on that!

 

[vleeth]

When I last abandoned you, I mean left...we were playing around in Innoventions.

For our Visa picture we got Minnie and Pluto. We were happy with that because we really weren’t doing many character greets this trip. But our trip in 2009 spoiled us. We had Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Pluto.







We picked up our free photo and did some shopping in Mouse Gear. My Mom also sent some Disney rewards money for my 4 month old nephew. We picked out a cute bodysuit for him. It cost $17.95 plus tax and we checked out at
3:52.

Then we decided to leave. Hope had been asking to leave for a while. It felt very weird leaving Epcot before it closed. We don’t normally do that. On occasion we spend two full days at Epcot. Because of this we didn’t use our evening FP for Test Track and only rode it once this trip.

We took a ride on the monorail, just because we like it.



I asked Hope if she wanted to go get her dress up set before going to the room since we now had the extra time. She did. We took bus to Port Orleans and then to DTD.

After looking around a bit she made her purchase at Once Upon A Toy at 6:33. Her Indiana Jones role play set cost $26.95 and was paid for with Hope’s Disney Rewards.

We took a bus to AOA to walk through and have dinner.

Hope was really into Cars when she was younger. She only watched the movie a couple of times, but she collected the cars. So she was happy to see these guys.



















Then we made our way to dinner.






At Landscapes of Flavor (AOA) we had Mongolian Beef, Odwalla Strawberry Banana, Vanilla Gelato, CYO pasta, crisped rice, chicken Caesar wrap, pineapple cup, red powerade, blue powerade, chocolare éclair, tandoor shrimp, oswalla strawberry banana

I don’t have the notes from my phone (cause it was still at US) and I don’t remember what happened, but Hope didn’t like something she got and we ended up getting more food. We got the chicken Caesar wrap to take with us to IOA.

I took this photo when we got back to the room because back then the new bedding was being talked about a lot.



At some point in this day I did call and they did have my phone, but it would be a few days before we would drive there to get it.

Our next day is Studios where we will see more red flags and a few tears before it all starts to make sense.[/SIZE][/COLOR]

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Fun evening. We also are folks that will ride the Monorail just because its fun.

 

[vleeth]

I'd better get an update on here soon or it will be a month between updates.