A Very Merry Surprise ~ The TR (11/4/11 - 11/12/11) About This Page:

[jovigirlnj]

Love it!! Love seeing all of your pictures. Cant wait to go back!!

[Cam22]

Awesome day! Glad you all finally managed to ride TSMM! And the Osborne Lights are almost beyond words! Your pictures of it are great!

[JoJayMom]

Playing catch up! I loved the parade at MK during the party! I can't believe (well, yes I do) the FP for TSMM were gone by 11!! But it was good you all got the rest! The Osborn lights are amazing! I could stand there all night looking at it!

[ilovedisney247]

Great night at the Osbourne Lights!

[JKnott17]

Originally Posted by lauriep

More wonderful photos! I'm sure they have their meltdowns, but your girls sound like go-with-the-flow types and pretty cheerful travelers. The bucket of aliens is cute, but I agree, that vinylmation is CREEPY .

You are so right, and we are very lucky that the girls tend to just "go with the flow" when we are traveling. Trust me, they do have their moments, just like we all do

Abby just loves that Vinylmation, she thinks he's the cutest. I guess he's got a face only a "mother" could love

Originally Posted by chezp

What a wonderful day - I'm glad you finally got to go on Toy Story Midway Mania and lovely shots from the Osborne Lights!

TSMM and the Osborne Lights were a great ending for our day!

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Great pictures from the lights and the BatB show! I too would not have waited 110 minutes for TSMM! Glad you finally got to ride!

More please!

Thanks! I really don't know what I was thinking getting in that 110 minute long line

Originally Posted by jovigirlnj

Love it!! Love seeing all of your pictures. Cant wait to go back!!

I know, I'm still trying to get a trip together for this year. Hopefully I can make it happen

Originally Posted by Cam22

Awesome day! Glad you all finally managed to ride TSMM! And the Osborne Lights are almost beyond words! Your pictures of it are great!

Thanks! I came home with so many pictures of the lights, it was hard to choose which ones to put into my report I'm so glad we got to experience them!

Originally Posted by JoJayMom

Playing catch up! I loved the parade at MK during the party! I can't believe (well, yes I do) the FP for TSMM were gone by 11!! But it was good you all got the rest! The Osborn lights are amazing! I could stand there all night looking at it!

I know, me too! If not for two little, tired girls, I'm sure we would have stayed there much later

Originally Posted by ilovedisney247

Great night at the Osbourne Lights!

It was amazing!

[MayraLR]

What an awesome day! Beauty & the Beast is one of my favorite movies but I haven't seen the DHS show yet.

Wow, what wonderful pictures of the Osborne Lights! They look spectacular! I hope some day to be able to see them in person.

[valegirl5292]

Yay that you finally got to ride TSMM, kudos to your girls for waiting so long, I don't think my boys would have lasted more than 15 minutes. The Osborne Lights are just amazing, I could spend hours just walking around there.

[JKnott17]

Originally Posted by MayraLR

What an awesome day! Beauty & the Beast is one of my favorite movies but I haven't seen the DHS show yet.

Wow, what wonderful pictures of the Osborne Lights! They look spectacular! I hope some day to be able to see them in person.

I hope you get to see them one day too, they truly are amazing!

Originally Posted by valegirl5292

Yay that you finally got to ride TSMM, kudos to your girls for waiting so long, I don't think my boys would have lasted more than 15 minutes. The Osborne Lights are just amazing, I could spend hours just walking around there.

Trust me, I was really shocked they made the wait without complaining, even after that guy got sick I could have spent hours watching the lights, too, I am so glad we got to see them!

[JKnott17]

Day 8, Part 1 -11/11/11- Time to say goodbye


I have no idea what time I, or anyone else for that matter, woke up this morning since I failed to mention it in my notes . I'm quite sure it wasn't incredibly early, we were in no rush today. I do, however, remember waking up feeling anxious and a little sad, today would be our last day in the parks . We had absolutely no plans made for this day, not even a single ADR. I always like to keep our last day open as a "free" day, using it to revisit some of our favorite attractions and get to those we might not have done earlier in the week. Almost all of the time this means we'll be heading to the MK, and today was no different. Aunt Lorraine and Aunt Christine would not be joining us, they decided to head to Epcot to enjoy the F&WF before it was gone. We made a loose plan with them to meet up at Epcot later on if we finished up at the MK early, but nothing was set in stone.

We took our time getting ready this morning, and we arrived at the MK somewhere between 10:30 and 11 am. Again, there were some issues boarding the tram at the TTC parking lot. Chris and the girls were ahead of me, making there way into a seat, when a large family (of about 6 - 7) cut in front of me, separating me from the rest of my family. Even though there was really only room left for 2, maybe 3 people, they were all going to try and cram into the seat with Chris and the girls . I loudly said "Excuse me! I am with that group, please let me through." They all gave ME the stink eye, as if I was the one doing something wrong! Please, people, I'm tired and I haven't had my coffee yet, you don't want to make me mad. I have no idea how they even thought they would all squeeze into the seat, once I sat down there really wasn't much room left over, defintely not enough for all of them.

We brushed it off and hopped on a monorail for a quick ride over to the MK. At the request of Kaeli and Abby, our first stop was the Town Square Theater for some Princess time! The wait was posted at 20 minutes, but once we got on line I knew it would be much longer than that, it just wasn't moving. We decided to head outside and get some FPs for later, but we knew we would not be back in the area for the posted return time. We asked the CM there if it was ok for us to return later, and he said yes, you can return any time after the posted return time, even hours later.


A quick game of checkers before heading off to some rides!

I was pretty sure I knew where our next stop would be, and when Kaeli and Abby announced they wanted to ride SM and BTMRR I smiled . We stopped for a couple of Photopass pics





After that, I needed to make a stop at the jewlery store on Main Street, so I told Chris to take the girls on ahead and I would meet up with them shortly. I wasn't in there too long, I knew exactly what I wanted. Kaeli's birthday was coming up just a few weeks after we got home, and she was going to get her ears pierced to mark the occassion. I decided to pick these up for her as an extra birthday surprise.



Purhcase in hand, I remember walking up Main Street just staring at the Castle, intrigued at how well the icicle lights are hidden during the day. It really is amazing, even with looking really closely, they are hard to see in the daylight. I stopped to grab a quick picture on my phone, and as I did, a woman ran in front of me chasing after a small boy. I recognized the name that she called out, but didn't think anything of it until I looked at the picture,



and then I noticed that she was someone I knew from home! She didn't see me at first, but I yelled out a hello and we began chatting as we made our way over to her husband and two daughters. Kaeli and Abby have played spring softball with their two girls the past couple of years, I wished the girls were with me as I'm sure they would have loved to have seen their friends. We chatted for a bit, and then went our separate ways.

I texted Chris to let him know I was on my way, he replied letting me know that they had stopped at the Magic Carpets along the way and were just getting on the ride. I made my way through Adventureland and stopped at the snack cart outside the Tiki Room for an iced coffee while they rode. Remind me never to do that again! I'm not sure how much coffee was even in that thing. It tasted more like vanilla milk with a splash of coffee thrown in , and it was over the top sweet. Blech!

We then made our way to BTMRR, which had a 30 minute wait posted. In actuality, it was about half that. In about 15 minutes we were off on our crazy runaway train adventure.







The line hadn't really grown as we exited, so Chris and the girls rode again. I sat that one out, multiple rides and I just don't get along.

Kaeli decided that SM would be next, but again Abby did not want to ride. That was fine with me, it was a little chilly this morning and I really did not want to take the chance of getting wet. Chris and Kaeli got on line (which I think was only a 5 minute wait), while Abby and I did some browsing in the Briar Patch.





It seemed like we were in there forever, but Chris and Kaeli still weren't back yet. I checked over by our stroller to see if they were there, maybe forgetting that we were in the store, but they weren't. Abby wanted to look around the shop a little more, so we headed back in. Finally, about 10 minutes later Chris and Kaeli were there. Turns out their log kept getting stuck throughout their ride, again! We finished up inside of the Briar Patch, Abby decided to get this cute Minnie dress up set



and Kaeli chose a digital Princess watch that has interchangeable faces. (Sorry, no pic of that one)

As we made our way through Frontierland towards Liberty Square, Kaeli decided that she wanted to give the Haunted Mansion a try, but by the time we got there she already changed her mind. That girl is so fickle! Instead, we continued on to Fantasyland and hopped on IASW for one last time. We were quite hungry after our happy cruise and decided to stop for lunch. I was hoping to head back to CHH again, but Chris wanted to try something new. We stopped to read the menu at Pinnochio's, and after the girls saw that they had pasta and meatballs (their favorite meal!), our choice was made. We entered the restaurant, and the seating areas were blocked off so that you could not get to them until you placed your order and had your food. I know that there are a lot of mixed feelings on this new system, but I, for one, really like it. Please forgive me for my soapbox moment. When eating at the CS restaurants, we always stayed together as a group when ordering, though I know many split up sending the rest of their party to find a table while another gets the food. It always bugged me to be walking through the restaurant with full trays of food, unable to find an empty table because they are all full of people sitting, but not eating because the rest of their party was still on line. It seems only fair, to me, that the people who actually have food on their trays be the ones to get the empty tables, but I digress.

We made our way over to an empty line and began placing our order. We asked the CM if we could take a look at the ingredient binders for Kaeli's peanut allergy, honestly not thinking that anything would be a problem since Italian foods are usually a safe bet. We were shocked to see that the meatballs were labelled with a cross contamination warning, I guess there was a risk that the breadcrumbs used could contain traces of peanuts/tree nuts. Now, normally Kaeli is really good when it comes to things that she can't eat. She knows the common foods that are typically off limits and rarely gets upset when we tell her that something might not be safe. I'm sure it had everything to do with the long week we had all had, but when we told her the meatballs were not going to be safe she melted into a puddle of tears. Eventually, she did calm down, and we ended up ordering a bowl of pasta marinara for her. Now, Abby does not have any food allergies, but since she knew that Kaeli could not have the meatballs, she decided to change her order to mac & cheese so that Kaeli wouldn't feel bad. Bless her little heart. I ordered the chicken parm with caesar salad and I believe Chris got the meatball sandwich. Food in hand, we made our way towards the dining room where a CM guided us to an empty table.









Now, I should preface this with a disclaimer. I am an Italian food snob. I grew up with two Italian grandmothers who loved to cook, and I am very picky when it comes to eating Italian out. So, I'm sure plenty of you will disagree with me, but I really did not like Pinnochio's at all. I was happy that they offered whole wheat pasta, but when whole wheat pasta is overcooked it is just terrible. Even more so than traditional pasta. The sauce, too, was dissapointing, though Kaeli did not complain about it. Chris said that his sandwich was alright, but he has had better take out here at home. I ended up not eating my pasta, and took the sauce and cheese off of my chicken, eating it plain with my salad. Definitely not one of the better meals I've had at Disney.


Up Next: Princesses, A Parade and Some Rude People ... Oh My!

[lauriep]

Awwww, your last day? Nice time at the MK, aside from the bad food at Pinnochio's. I've never eaten there. I know I can get great Italian food in Boston (and, frankly, in my own kitchen!) so unless it's outstanding, like Tutto Italia, I don't bother. I'm a fan of the new seating system, too. What a very sweet story about Kaeli turning down the meatballs because her little sister couldn't have them. She's a super kid! She'll love the earrings you got her, I'm sure.

[chezp]

What a great last day so far - I agree with leaving it free and going back to do whatever you feel like, sounds like a plan to me!

[Colexis Mom]

Sorry it's your last day! Looks like a great time so far (except lunch)!

[JoJayMom]

Awww, your last day!!! Thanks for the info about Pinnochio's, we had thought about trying it on our day at MK. So, they really don't let you sit down until after you have your food? Is this at every CS with indoor seating? I just love love your daughter's earrings!! What is the name of the store where you purchased them at?

[JKnott17]

Originally Posted by lauriep

Awwww, your last day? Nice time at the MK, aside from the bad food at Pinnochio's. I've never eaten there. I know I can get great Italian food in Boston (and, frankly, in my own kitchen!) so unless it's outstanding, like Tutto Italia, I don't bother. I'm a fan of the new seating system, too. What a very sweet story about Kaeli turning down the meatballs because her little sister couldn't have them. She's a super kid! She'll love the earrings you got her, I'm sure.

We haven't eaten at Tutto Italia yet, but I think I need to get it on our list for next trip just to make up for that lousy food at Pinnochios Kaeli did love the earrings, but sadly she can't wear them yet. Just a few more weeks to go before she can change the earrings she was pierced with though!

Originally Posted by chezp

What a great last day so far - I agree with leaving it free and going back to do whatever you feel like, sounds like a plan to me!

It does make for a very enjoyable and relaxing last day, no pressure to run here and there, we just go with the flow

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

Sorry it's your last day! Looks like a great time so far (except lunch)!

It was a great day, even with that terrible lunch

Originally Posted by JoJayMom

Awww, your last day!!! Thanks for the info about Pinnochio's, we had thought about trying it on our day at MK. So, they really don't let you sit down until after you have your food? Is this at every CS with indoor seating? I just love love your daughter's earrings!! What is the name of the store where you purchased them at?

I think that the new seating system is pretty much hit or miss. Pinnochio's was the only CS we experienced it at all week, but I've heard of it going on at other places as well. It might be only in effect at peak dining times, but I'm really not sure.

Those earrings are cute, aren't they? I'm not sure of the name of the store, but it is the jewelry store on Main Street. Main Street Jewelers perhaps? As you make your way up Main Street, it is on the right hand side about halfway up the street. They had a lot of beautiful things in there!

[JKnott17]

I had this update all ready to go last night, as part of what I already posted, but my computer was acting a little wierd and I was afraid I would lose everything so I didn't post hit. So, here's a little bonus for you


Day 8, Part 2 - 11/11/11 - Princesses, Parades and Rude People. Oh My!


After our less than perfect lunch, Abby wanted to take another ride on the Peoplemover, so off to Tomorrowland we went for one last tour.





After that, the girls decided that they were done with rides and wanted to head back down Main Street to use our Princess FPs. After just a short wait, we were brought in to meet with our favorites, Cinderella, Belle and Aurora.



















The Princesses were, of course, very sweet and kind. The girls enjoyed their time with them very much. I could not hear everything that was said, but they did have some lengthy conversations with each of them. I do remember hearing Aurora ask Kaeli about her shirt, which had Ariel on it. Aurora thought that perhaps Kaeli was also a mermaid princess and asked if King Triton had given her "legs" so that she could visit with her today It was very sweet. It was so nice to see how much the girls have grown over the years. They went from barely posing for pictures with the characters on their first trip in 2009, to giggling and twirling their hair (but not actually speaking) around the characters in 2010, and now having full conversations with them. My little girls are growing up

When we were done with our meet and greet we had planned on leaving the MK to head over to Epcot, but we realized as we were leaving the theater that the afternoon parade would be starting shortly. We hadn't seen this parade since our trip in 2009, and there were plenty of spots open along the curb, so we decided to stay and watch. We stopped to get a quick picture



and then grabbed a spot on the curb in front of the Confectionary and settled in to wait for the parade to start. Kaeli started getting a little restless, and then announced that she really wanted to ride the Haunted Mansion before leaving. Chris was fine with that, but wanted to make it clear to her that if they walked all the way back there they were riding. He didn't want to make that trek only to have her change her mind again at the last minute.

We still had some time before the parade started, so Abby and I popped into the Confectionary for a snack. This was a real treat for us, we don't usually go in here because there are so few things that Kaeli can have with her allergy, it just doesn't seem fair to her. Abby decided to get some of the bulk jellybeans, while I had my eye on some of the treats in the cases.





I decided on a piece of fudge, it was so yummy! I think it was chocolate and caramel, but don't quote me on that. Treats in hand, we headed back outside to find our spot from before still open. Abby wanted to sit while she snacked on her candy, so I pulled the stroller up as close as I could get it to the ropes. Being a jogging stroller, the front wheel sticks out further than the seat of the stroller, which made it hard for me to get it really close (be sure to remember this), as I didn't want the wheel to stick out in the street under the rope and possibly trip some of the parade characters.

While we were waiting for the parade to start, two young girls (late teens, very early 20s) came and sat on the ground right next to Abby in the stroller. At first, I thought nothing of it, but when the parade finally started they stood up and because of the angle we were facing they were completely blocking Abby from seeing the parade. I grumbled something under my breath, but loud enough for them to hear, thankfully they realized they were in the way and moved. Abby was enjoying the parade, and then a family with a young girl (probably about 6 or 7) came up to watch along side of us. Well, that little girl decided to take the space that was left over from me pulling the stroller wheel out from under the rope as her own. She was literally climbing up and over the stroller foot rest, going back and forth. Only once did her mother say anything to her, but of course she didn't listen. I was beyond annoyed, and finally had to ask the mom to have the girl stop climbing on the stroller. Besides blocking Abby's view, I didn't want this little girl to fall and get hurt climbing on my stroller, I'm sure somehow I would have gotten blamed for it . The girl did eventually stop, but she did jump in front of Abby each time a character would come close, so then Abby would not get a chance to say hello to them. (Keep an eye out for her, you'll see her in a lot of my pics. Just look for the dark haired girl in a red shirt.) I kept my cool, but the whole time I was in disbelief. How could this other mom be so oblivious to what her daughter was doing?



















After the parade, Abby and I headed to the Emporium to do some browsing while we waited for Chris and Kaeli. We spotted a couple of penny machines, so we got some to add to our collection and then started browsing the Christmas ornaments. Abby had a little more spending money, so she decided to pick up this to put on our tree at home



I picked this ornament up for myself





And then a few of these as Christmas presents for the girls' teachers.



In the meantime, Chris had texted me that they were on their way back from the Haunted Mansion. They stopped along the way for these cute pictures





and met us in the Emporium. I'm happy to say that Kaeli finally rode the Haunted Mansion, and Chris said she loved every minute of it! They even got to take a look at the new interactive queue, which they thought was pretty cool. I can't wait to check it out for myself on our next trip. I was so proud of Kaeli for finally conquering her fear, I knew she would love the ride once she got passed that!

Kaeli did a little browsing, and decided to buy these two "learn to draw the characters" books with the rest of her spending money.



After we finished up our shopping, we stopped on Main Street for one last photo before saying goodbye to Cinderella castle.



We sadly walked under the train station and made our way out of the MK for the last time this trip and then hopped on a monorail over to the TTC, where we transferred to another monorail heading to Epcot.


Up Next: Some fun in Epcot