PixieDusting
The Red-headed Pixie!
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2000
Cast:
Lauren (me-39)
Brett (DH just turned 46)
Colin (DS almost-11 the Disneyaholic kid)
Grace (DS's friend-11)
Are you ready for day 2? I know my trip reports tend to be long winded (an understatement...I know
, and may be boring to a lot of you, I'm sorry. I write these to share of course, but I also write them for us. I place them in our scrapbook with our pictures, and they make great memories! On with the show....
Thursday!
We had decided to go to EE at DL (7:30). Now, when I went to bed Wednesday night I had been up for 39 hours straight, so needless to say I was dragging this morning in a BIG way! Sitting on the balcony with my coffee and watching the water and the rafts start up for the day on Grizzly River really helped me get into the mood to tackle the day! We managed to get out of the room on time, and walked the 5 minutes to DL (through DtD). My only goal this morning was to ride Peter Pan since we had missed it the last trip :-(
We managed to ride ALL the Fantasyland rides and Astro Orbiter, Space Mountain and Star Tours before the park opened. WOW! Pretty good, eh?!?...and this was without any rushing and with Grace checking any lanyard she saw! She had pretty much decided on a theme for her pins, she wanted Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore and Tigger. Once she had these 4 characters she retraded them until she was satisfied, she ended up with some darling pins. She also ended up with a Bride Minnie and a Groom Mickey as well as a few asst. pins. Colin was very bummed that the Matterhorn was closed while we were there, it's his favorite ride at DL. It's closed until the end of June :-(
I digress....sorry! We headed over and the kids rode Splash twice (Grace was HOOKED), it was still too chilly for Brett and I to want to ride it. We hit BTMRR on our way out of the park.
Everyone headed to DCA while I walked back to the hotel and dropped off our sweatshirts. Is this convenient or what? While I was doing this I got a call from an online acquaintance. We agreed to meet at the DL pin trading area at 12:30.
I then met DH and the kids at Paradise Pier. It was time to ride Screamin.' Grace wanted to ride this ride but was REALLY nervous about it. It was virtually a walk on, so she didn't have time to get really freaked about it, but she was still on the edge. She asked to ride with me. As we got ready to board I told her several times that she could back out, but she didn't. I was very proud of her! She asked me to talk to her continually while we waited for take off, which I did. But that kinda threw me off, as I need to mentally prepare myself for the "launch" as well! I didn't get to. Off we went. Several times during the ride I asked how she was doing. The first 2 times I asked she was so-so, the last time I asked she smiled from ear to ear. She loved it! Enough in fact that we rode it again right away and got an awesome picture! To let you know how much she loved this ride (was already one of Colin's faves) the 2 of the rode it a total of 11 times during our trip. LOL! The Sunwheel was closed :-( as was Golden Zephyr, due to "high winds" (it was closed due to these "winds" every time we went to ride it the next 2 days) but there was barely even a breeze.....go figure. Mulhulland Madness was closed too.
We decided to head to Pacific Wharf for lunch. BIG MISTAKE! It was 11:55 and the ONLY things open were the smoothies place, the milkshake place and the bakery. I don't understand this at all. The other places weren't even getting ready to open later, there was no one in them. DCA made this area as supposedly a wonderful place to get different foods but nothing was open? We were not happy. We didn't want to wander all over looking for lunch (especially since I needed to get over to DL at 12:30), so the kids each got a milkshake and then clam chowder (not the healthiest lunch in the world) from the bakery, and DH and I got salads in bread bowls from the bakery as well.
I headed over to DL and met with Barb. She is a local, and a big pin trader, so I was able to look through her (and another gal's) pin books and oh and ah. Didn't bother to take my measly few pins out of my purse, as no one would be interested in trading for them....they all had almost ALL the pins! It was really fun to see them, and I've been spending some time at eBay since we got home, trying to acquire several of them
DH and the kids stayed at Paradise Pier for another hour or so and also rode Grizzly River...they loved it, and of course got SOAKED! Do not go on this ride if you don't want to get wet! During this time Grace managed to lose her park pass :-( YIKES! They went to Guest Relations, and the CM told them to check back at 5:00 to see if it had been turned in. Fat chance of that, eh? They did give Grace a slip of paper so that she could come back into the park later that day. So, they headed back to meet me in the room at 2 and we all went to the pool for some fun in the sun!
We relaxed by the pool for several hours, then stopped by the World of Disney store in DtD. Lots of cute stuff. Grace found an Eeyore t shirt she loved, so she decided to save her next 2 days allowance (both kids got $15 a day) and buy it on the last day.
Back to DCA where we stopped at Guest Relations again. No sign of Grace's pass, they told us to come back at park closing :-( We realized that Grace couldn't get FPs without her ticket, so they did give us a card with a strip to run through the machines to get her FPs.
Side note here with a bit of ranting. Each of us had a room key, a park ticket AND a room charge card to keep track of. I don't understand why DL cannot have the same system as WDW. When you check in a WDW you get charging privileges automatically on your room key, and if you buy a LOS pass it's on there too. 1 key....3 uses, instead of 3 keys and passes. Hmmm...which system is better?!? Ok, done now!
We stopped at Soaring to get FPs for later, then head to the Animation building. We saw both the presentations, then headed to the Sorcerer's Workshop. We spent quite a bit of time in the first room where you make your own cartoons. The kids (and DH) loved it. The other two rooms were terribly crowded, so we decided we'd stop first thing in the morning to see them. As we left the building, Colin and I got into it. Sometimes he and I rub each other the wrong way, kinda like 2 PMSing women. He had a meltdown, so I took him off to sit with me for a while Brett and Grace headed to Muppets 3D. It took a good 20-30 minutes, but Colin and I finally got back on track and he felt much better, thank goodness!
We then all headed to Guests Services again, and of course Grace's pass had not been turned in :-( I was very surprised to find that the CM's were willing to replace it. A bit of Pixie Dust maybe? All I know is that it kept a bad situation from turning worse and I appreciated it! It took quite a while as they had to do it as 2 1 day hopper passes with EE privileges on them. Confusing as there is not such a pass. After we got the new passes, I kept Grace's with me except during the times that she and Colin went off alone. He took hers then. He is a very organized kid, and I trusted him with them completely. grace's feelings weren't hurt about it, she knows she somewhat disorganized...I think she actually felt better not having to worry about it!
That done we finally headed to Soaring. Standby was 30 minutes, but with our FPs we thought we'd be on in 5-10 minutes. WRONG. It was a full 30 minutes until we entered the ride. Something is wrong with the FP system on this ride. We rode it a couple more times this trip, always with FPs, and it still was 20 minutes one time and 30 the other. To top it off the building was FREEZING....truly. I think we all had blue lips when we got out of there! I loved watching Grace's face when we saw this, especially when (well, I can't say it or I'll ruin it for folks that haven't seen it yet). I still adore the ending, they absolutely could not have ended it better....gave me even more goosebumps than I already had!
We had planned to be out of the park at 7, but with the lost pass fiasco with the 2 trips to Guest Services and the wait at Soaring it was 8. The kids, especially Grace, were pooped! It was so sweet to see the two of them walking with their arms around each other (I took a few candid pics from behind, I hope they turn out). They did this quite a lot during the trip, and I thought it was precious. There is no "girl/boy" interest between the 2 of them, they are just good buddies. They were so thoughtful towards each other, so helpful and sweet. Not an argument or disagreement (which surprised me) during the whole trip.
Anyhow, we headed into Whitewater Snacks for dinner, which we took back to the room and ate while watching TV. We definitely needed to decompress, and this helped! BTW, the hotel has nightly turn down service, and the housekeeper leaves chocolates on the nightstand. Nice touch
I know I've griped several times in this post, but every day can't be perfect. We tried not to let the little things ruin our day, they just were annoying.
Thanks for reading, I know these posts have been very long!
Lauren (me-39)
Brett (DH just turned 46)
Colin (DS almost-11 the Disneyaholic kid)
Grace (DS's friend-11)
Are you ready for day 2? I know my trip reports tend to be long winded (an understatement...I know
, and may be boring to a lot of you, I'm sorry. I write these to share of course, but I also write them for us. I place them in our scrapbook with our pictures, and they make great memories! On with the show....Thursday!
We had decided to go to EE at DL (7:30). Now, when I went to bed Wednesday night I had been up for 39 hours straight, so needless to say I was dragging this morning in a BIG way! Sitting on the balcony with my coffee and watching the water and the rafts start up for the day on Grizzly River really helped me get into the mood to tackle the day! We managed to get out of the room on time, and walked the 5 minutes to DL (through DtD). My only goal this morning was to ride Peter Pan since we had missed it the last trip :-(
We managed to ride ALL the Fantasyland rides and Astro Orbiter, Space Mountain and Star Tours before the park opened. WOW! Pretty good, eh?!?...and this was without any rushing and with Grace checking any lanyard she saw! She had pretty much decided on a theme for her pins, she wanted Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore and Tigger. Once she had these 4 characters she retraded them until she was satisfied, she ended up with some darling pins. She also ended up with a Bride Minnie and a Groom Mickey as well as a few asst. pins. Colin was very bummed that the Matterhorn was closed while we were there, it's his favorite ride at DL. It's closed until the end of June :-(
I digress....sorry! We headed over and the kids rode Splash twice (Grace was HOOKED), it was still too chilly for Brett and I to want to ride it. We hit BTMRR on our way out of the park.
Everyone headed to DCA while I walked back to the hotel and dropped off our sweatshirts. Is this convenient or what? While I was doing this I got a call from an online acquaintance. We agreed to meet at the DL pin trading area at 12:30.
I then met DH and the kids at Paradise Pier. It was time to ride Screamin.' Grace wanted to ride this ride but was REALLY nervous about it. It was virtually a walk on, so she didn't have time to get really freaked about it, but she was still on the edge. She asked to ride with me. As we got ready to board I told her several times that she could back out, but she didn't. I was very proud of her! She asked me to talk to her continually while we waited for take off, which I did. But that kinda threw me off, as I need to mentally prepare myself for the "launch" as well! I didn't get to. Off we went. Several times during the ride I asked how she was doing. The first 2 times I asked she was so-so, the last time I asked she smiled from ear to ear. She loved it! Enough in fact that we rode it again right away and got an awesome picture! To let you know how much she loved this ride (was already one of Colin's faves) the 2 of the rode it a total of 11 times during our trip. LOL! The Sunwheel was closed :-( as was Golden Zephyr, due to "high winds" (it was closed due to these "winds" every time we went to ride it the next 2 days) but there was barely even a breeze.....go figure. Mulhulland Madness was closed too.
We decided to head to Pacific Wharf for lunch. BIG MISTAKE! It was 11:55 and the ONLY things open were the smoothies place, the milkshake place and the bakery. I don't understand this at all. The other places weren't even getting ready to open later, there was no one in them. DCA made this area as supposedly a wonderful place to get different foods but nothing was open? We were not happy. We didn't want to wander all over looking for lunch (especially since I needed to get over to DL at 12:30), so the kids each got a milkshake and then clam chowder (not the healthiest lunch in the world) from the bakery, and DH and I got salads in bread bowls from the bakery as well.
I headed over to DL and met with Barb. She is a local, and a big pin trader, so I was able to look through her (and another gal's) pin books and oh and ah. Didn't bother to take my measly few pins out of my purse, as no one would be interested in trading for them....they all had almost ALL the pins! It was really fun to see them, and I've been spending some time at eBay since we got home, trying to acquire several of them
DH and the kids stayed at Paradise Pier for another hour or so and also rode Grizzly River...they loved it, and of course got SOAKED! Do not go on this ride if you don't want to get wet! During this time Grace managed to lose her park pass :-( YIKES! They went to Guest Relations, and the CM told them to check back at 5:00 to see if it had been turned in. Fat chance of that, eh? They did give Grace a slip of paper so that she could come back into the park later that day. So, they headed back to meet me in the room at 2 and we all went to the pool for some fun in the sun!
We relaxed by the pool for several hours, then stopped by the World of Disney store in DtD. Lots of cute stuff. Grace found an Eeyore t shirt she loved, so she decided to save her next 2 days allowance (both kids got $15 a day) and buy it on the last day.
Back to DCA where we stopped at Guest Relations again. No sign of Grace's pass, they told us to come back at park closing :-( We realized that Grace couldn't get FPs without her ticket, so they did give us a card with a strip to run through the machines to get her FPs.
Side note here with a bit of ranting. Each of us had a room key, a park ticket AND a room charge card to keep track of. I don't understand why DL cannot have the same system as WDW. When you check in a WDW you get charging privileges automatically on your room key, and if you buy a LOS pass it's on there too. 1 key....3 uses, instead of 3 keys and passes. Hmmm...which system is better?!? Ok, done now!
We stopped at Soaring to get FPs for later, then head to the Animation building. We saw both the presentations, then headed to the Sorcerer's Workshop. We spent quite a bit of time in the first room where you make your own cartoons. The kids (and DH) loved it. The other two rooms were terribly crowded, so we decided we'd stop first thing in the morning to see them. As we left the building, Colin and I got into it. Sometimes he and I rub each other the wrong way, kinda like 2 PMSing women. He had a meltdown, so I took him off to sit with me for a while Brett and Grace headed to Muppets 3D. It took a good 20-30 minutes, but Colin and I finally got back on track and he felt much better, thank goodness!
We then all headed to Guests Services again, and of course Grace's pass had not been turned in :-( I was very surprised to find that the CM's were willing to replace it. A bit of Pixie Dust maybe? All I know is that it kept a bad situation from turning worse and I appreciated it! It took quite a while as they had to do it as 2 1 day hopper passes with EE privileges on them. Confusing as there is not such a pass. After we got the new passes, I kept Grace's with me except during the times that she and Colin went off alone. He took hers then. He is a very organized kid, and I trusted him with them completely. grace's feelings weren't hurt about it, she knows she somewhat disorganized...I think she actually felt better not having to worry about it!
That done we finally headed to Soaring. Standby was 30 minutes, but with our FPs we thought we'd be on in 5-10 minutes. WRONG. It was a full 30 minutes until we entered the ride. Something is wrong with the FP system on this ride. We rode it a couple more times this trip, always with FPs, and it still was 20 minutes one time and 30 the other. To top it off the building was FREEZING....truly. I think we all had blue lips when we got out of there! I loved watching Grace's face when we saw this, especially when (well, I can't say it or I'll ruin it for folks that haven't seen it yet). I still adore the ending, they absolutely could not have ended it better....gave me even more goosebumps than I already had!
We had planned to be out of the park at 7, but with the lost pass fiasco with the 2 trips to Guest Services and the wait at Soaring it was 8. The kids, especially Grace, were pooped! It was so sweet to see the two of them walking with their arms around each other (I took a few candid pics from behind, I hope they turn out). They did this quite a lot during the trip, and I thought it was precious. There is no "girl/boy" interest between the 2 of them, they are just good buddies. They were so thoughtful towards each other, so helpful and sweet. Not an argument or disagreement (which surprised me) during the whole trip.
Anyhow, we headed into Whitewater Snacks for dinner, which we took back to the room and ate while watching TV. We definitely needed to decompress, and this helped! BTW, the hotel has nightly turn down service, and the housekeeper leaves chocolates on the nightstand. Nice touch
I know I've griped several times in this post, but every day can't be perfect. We tried not to let the little things ruin our day, they just were annoying.
Thanks for reading, I know these posts have been very long!
