PTR-Cheating on Mickey w/Harry!...OMG! Only a month to go!

[bangzoom6877]

That's hilarious!



We love cruising too, I prefer the fancier ones where they have formal night and you get to dress up and have a night on the town. We've been on three cruises, all before Fran's RA got really bad and her mother got very sick. We've been to Alaska and on a Disney cruise, I'd love to do another Disney Cruise and a European (Russia), and a Canadian Fall Foliage Cruise. I'm hoping with her new drugs she'll feel up to going on vacations more often. We're talking about DC in April, maybe we'll go to the bookstore today and get some guide books. I'll fell more like we're planning it if I can make some hotel reservations!

We also prefer the cruises where there is a true formal night, not where it is optional in the dining room. That's why I would rather go on Royal Caribbean or Carnival than Norwegian Cruise Line. We went on NCL our last 3 cruises, and while it was nice, I miss the cute little "shows" they put on in the dining room, and having a "true" formal night where the only place you can dress casual for dinner is at the buffet up on deck. Many others would disagree with me and don't want to be "told how to dress", but I think it is nice to dress for dinner once in a while. We always opted to dress formally on NCL too, including my older son when we was 18 months old and we dressed him in a tux! Next summer when we go, both boys will be dressed in tuxes! We're going on Royal Caribbean this time, on a 9-night cruise, with 2 formal nights!

A European cruise sounds great! We want to do the Mediterranean cruise someday, but not until the boys are much older. They're definitely too young now, with how much it costs to fly to Europe! The Fall Foliage cruise is very enticing too, and we plan to do that many years down the road once we retire! Unfortunately they're in September and October when the school year begins so we have to work!

 

[franandaj]

So no matter how many F&W kiosks we hit or events that we do, we will still want to go on some rides. After we hit a few F&W Kiosks, I do have my favorite rides that are non jarring and good to work off the full belly and plenty of wine. Any of you who know me, will know that I do love my thrill rides, but really the only thrill ride in Epcot IMHO is Mission Space. I do love this ride but after a whole lot of F&W kiosks, it would not be my first choice. In fact these are the rides I would choose with a full belly and several glasses of wine….

Ellen’s Energy Adventure

This is the best F&W ride ever, you just slink back in your chair, it’s nice and dark and long. You’re entertained the whole time and by the time you get out of the ride, you can hit some more F&W booths!

My second favorite F&W ride is this:

The American Adventure

I like the show, it always brings me a tear of patriotism at the end, and it’s sort of long and dark! That’s the key to a good F&W ride!

The next one might be a little iffy. We didn’t go on this one last year after the kiosks, and I just remembered that you go backwards, but I still like it and it is slow moving.

Spaceship Earth

I will NOT be riding this:

It’s not that I don’t like the ride, it’s just that in Florida the ride traumatizes me, when you finally come home, you go through Downtown LA and back to DisneyLAND. But when you get off the ride, you’re all the way across the country and NOT in California.

However, I love this ride, and love to do the Orange team!

And this one is especially fun

There will be other attractions as well, but these are some of my favorites! Until next time!

 

[PrincessInOz]

I note that the rides that you've nominated as good F&W rides are ones that take a longer time to get through. I suppose that when you finish with them, you'd both be ready for another round of F&W blissful bites and sips.....

 

[DisneyFirefly]

Awww, I love the tiara and the look on your face in the last one at the Seas!

 

[franandaj]

I note that the rides that you've nominated as good F&W rides are ones that take a longer time to get through. I suppose that when you finish with them, you'd both be ready for another round of F&W blissful bites and sips.....

Exactly! Well either that or a nap!

Awww, I love the tiara and the look on your face in the last one at the Seas!

Thanks, I know we were on our way to an ADR but I don't remember where. That was the same night that I took the picture that is my Avatar! Perhaps it was Rose & Crown, I think on that trip we had our bad and last experience there and haven't been back. I don't have any pictures so that would make sense!

 

[franandaj]

So right now things are sucky here...our house is going to be tented two weeks from today. We were supposed to do it probably three years ago, but there was no way we could have dealt with it while Fran's father was alive. Since he's been gone we've been trying to find a time when we could do it, find the money, so we're just biting the bullet and taking care of it. The problem is I have to pack up a ton of my stuff!

Anything edible has to come out of the kitchen and get bagged up, but they are reccomending also packing up the kitchen. Then we're going to have spend our two nights out of the house at her father's old house with all of our cats. The pest people will be here at 8AM Nov 15th and so we'll need to have ALL the cats out of the house and in carriers, best case over at the father's house, but at least in our front yard.

This means we need to be up at like 4AM Monday in 2 weeks, herding the cats...you all know what herding cats is like! And I have friends who have been helping me pack up my kitchen, but I have three freezers full of food that need to be bagged! Not to mention the cupboards and refrigerators! Ahhhhh!

My friend Yasu helped me for 2-3 hours today and we'll do it again Wednesday, and perhaps over the weekend, ugh....way too much going on...

 

[DisneyFirefly]

I hope it goes well!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Me too....wish I could be there to help!

 

[franandaj]

Thanks! I have 10 boxes on the table with all my stuff. We still have seven or eight cabinets to go through in #1, then I have to go through #2 (spare apartement) and #4 (office). Luckily I only have a few things up in the office. I haven't been working up there for a couple years. Canned goods are fine so I can just put them elsewhere, the other stuff I will probably throw away as I will with a lot of stuff in the freezer (s). I have a dedicated freezer in the gargage.

Depending on how long it's been there, I may just toss it! I did that when we cleaned out the pantry last week!

Last night I made a Prime Rib (from the freezer) and later this week I'll make a Turkey. Unfortunately I have to dig my Roasting Pan from the already boxed up stuff! Tonight I used the leftover Prime Rib meat to make stroganoff, Wednesday I'll ust the rest to make Fajitas. I think we'll still have more, it was a 4.5 lb (2 kg) roast, and was really yummy. The turkey is scheduled for Thursday and then I have a bunch of leftover recipies for the next week.

By the weekend prior to the fumigation, we'll be done eating home cooked meals, and the last two nights I have us planned to get take out and go out the last night. I've planned all the meals between now and then so that I can pack up my spices and everything else.

I think I'm going to start stressing out between now and then. I better schedule a massage. I think I'm going to need it!

 

[bangzoom6877]

Sorry you have to do all that...here's hoping all goes well!

 

[franandaj]

I have the worst news ever! They have canceled the California Food & Wine Festivals for 2011 and 2012! !

I already had booked my rooms for the supposed opening and closing weekends, and that's the WHOLE reason that I bought my DVC points in CA. I mean why else would I stay somewhere that's 25 minutes from home if it wasn't to enjoy something like Food and Wine. The worst part of it is that they make no mention of resuming the Festival in 2013.

I have a feeling that this is only an excuse for a reason to cancel the Festival completely. I'm so bummed. I'm going to have to get a new ticker....perhaps this one should read "x number of days until we never have a F&W Festival in CA again".

 

[PrincessInOz]

I saw that notice last night and wondered how you'd feel about no F&W in California. I'm sorry that they cancelled it. The note said that it was cancelled because of DCA expansion. I'm guessing that it will be back in 2013 .

 

[franandaj]

Actually, the way they worded it there was not guarantee that it would come back in 2013. I'm going to guess that because of our laws in CA they are using this as an excuse to cancel it forever. I will not get my hopes up that it will ever come back again because if I do, it won't. If I assume that it will come back it won't.

The biggest drag is that I bought our DVC points assuming that it would continue. Now I guess we'll use them for other things and events that come up throughout the year. For now, I'll just assume that there will never be a F&W Festival in CA ever again and if it comes back I will be ecstatic.

For those of you who are interested, in 2015 there will be a helluva party at the Napa Rose for my birthday for I think 24 of my closest friends, which may include some of you because my local friends are not being as friendly as some of you have been!

Life goes on, but not as planned!

 

[franandaj]

Well our last trip in January of 2010, we completely skipped DHS because my parents weren’t really interested in it. We were only going to do one day at MK (DP and me on the day my parents went birding) but my mom was sick one day that we had planned to go to AK so instead my father and DP and me went to MK. It has been a long time since we’ve been to DHS. My Absolute favorite ride at WDW is Rockin Rollercoaster (OK so I gave away my post for my top 10 rides) but this is a kick *** ride. I love launched coasters, Screamin, RRC, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like other rides!

Another favorite is the Tower of Terror. I’m really glad they added this ride in DCA, but somehow the original of any ride always seems to be my favorite.

These are my two must do rides. Hopefully the new Star Tours will be open when we go. They said at Destination-D in September that the new ride will have either 34 or 54 different possible destinations, so you will rarely see the same one twice. This will now mean that I will have to ride Star Tours every time I go to DL or DHS to try and see them all!

We don’t seem to do a lot at DHS other than shop and eat, although we won’t have any ADRs there this trip. If DP can get in and out of rides, we’ll do the movie ride. We’ve never seen the stunt shows, but we did take the tour a couple years ago.

That’s why we’re probably going to only spend one day here.

 

[DisneyFirefly]

Yay! I love those two rides as well!

 

[PrincessInOz]

One out of two ain't bad. I love RnRC but have steered clear of elevators that drop. I was in a real-life ToT some years back. The elevator dropped about 5 or so floors before the emergency brakes kicked in. Once is quite enough, thanks.

DHS is all about stunt shows.... so, if you don't like them, shop till you drop (on ToT).

 

[bangzoom6877]

Hey there! My DH LOVES Tower of Terror...his favorite ride in all of WDW! DS5 was finally tall enough and he wanted to go on with him back in July, so I waited outside with DS3. They had fastpasses from the morning, so we went just before lunch. I waited with DS3 for about 10 minutes (while talking with a lovely family from Scotland, who were at WDW for the first time ever and loving it!), and DH returned with DS5. I said, "that was fast!" and my son had that look on his face like he was about to disappoint me. They got all the way to the front, and were about to get on the ride, and DS5 decided he didn't want to go. I told him it was all right (as DH had said to him before they came back to me), and the CM at the line was nice enough to allow DH to return through the exit and ride right away. We told DS5 that we were very proud of him for trying, and that he shouldn't go on any ride he is not comfortable going on. That made him feel much better, and the lunch at Sci-Fi afterwards definitely helped, especially when a Tom & Jerry cartoon came onto the screen!

DH tried RnRC for the first time on that same day, at the end of the day while I went back to the resort with the boys. He liked it. He is not as into the HUGE roller coasters (Six Flags style) anymore, because he doesn't feel well when he gets off of them (he used to be fine going over and over again), but he finds the Disney ones to be very mild in comparison and so he likes those!

 

[franandaj]

I have some actual NEWS! This might not seem big to the rest of you, but it is for me. Today DP told me to plan a day in our trip next year for Discovery Cove. 'We'll spend the full day there, and do the swim with the Dolphins. I think we'll be adding a day to the trip because I had it pretty jam packed as it was, and I don't want to lose a day of F&W or the days at MK or our ADRs.

The reason this is such a big deal is that this is the first request that she has made to even seem like she is part of this trip. The whole time I've been excited about the trip, and she says, "Whatever you want dear" in that kind of Ricky Ricardo reading the paper sort of tone...

Yay Group Participation!

 

[bangzoom6877]

I have some actual NEWS! This might not seem big to the rest of you, but it is for me. Today DP told me to plan a day in our trip next year for Discovery Cove. 'We'll spend the full day there, and do the swim with the Dolphins. I think we'll be adding a day to the trip because I had it pretty jam packed as it was, and I don't want to lose a day of F&W or the days at MK or our ADRs.

The reason this is such a big deal is that this is the first request that she has made to even seem like she is part of this trip. The whole time I've been excited about the trip, and she says, "Whatever you want dear" in that kind of Ricky Ricardo reading the paper sort of tone...

Yay Group Participation!

Hey that's great!! My DH doesn't get all too excited about the trip until it gets real close! So, you can imagine when I am sitting here, trying to figure out our dinners a year in advance and he's like, "just book whatever you want...I don't know what I want for dinner next summer!" It's awesome that she is starting to help you plan...it makes it even more fun!

 

[franandaj]

Hey that's great!! My DH doesn't get all too excited about the trip until it gets real close! So, you can imagine when I am sitting here, trying to figure out our dinners a year in advance and he's like, "just book whatever you want...I don't know what I want for dinner next summer!" It's awesome that she is starting to help you plan...it makes it even more fun!

It looks like a real fun day. It's really pricey so you want to be there the whole time from 9AM to 5:30PM, but you get 1/2 an hour (scheduled) with the dolphins. They provide a continental breakfast with breads, cereals, yogurt, etc. The lunch sounded pretty good, salmon, pasta, chicken, or burgers with lots of sides and they even include beer & wine as beverages. Basically the only thing scheduled is the dolphin time and other than that, you can swim in the lazy river, they have a small snorkeling area and a bigger one is opening in June. They also have a beach where you can just lay in the sun or swim.

Sounds like a fun day and I'll have something simple marinating at home in the fridge so we can just come back to the villa, pop it in the oven and have a nice relaxing meal. Maybe we'll even pick up a DVD at the Community Hall. See I've got that whole day planned as well. Now where to fit it in?