The "Surviving Disney w/ a Techno-Teen" TR {Jan 2012} About This Page:

[niccole]

Originally Posted by islandgirl

I'm sorry to tell you this but comparing my boys to my friend's girls....boys are a piece of cake! The word drama keeps coming up in most every conversation....boys just don't want to be bothered! Sounds like you'll have a fun Disney partner to travel with...train them young! DH is obsessed with tv.....that's a whole other story!

Oh! I know the drama well already DD is nicknamed DQ and she is only 12. I just hope the "need" to be "plugged in" is less, She is glued to her camera (but that works in my favor). If she is too much a DQ I think I'll rent her out, not sure how much that will cost me.

[islandgirl]

With room pictures taken, I was ready to hit the parks. It was our Epcot day, which would be open until midnight, but it was already past noon and I was ready to get into full Disney mode. As we walked out of our room, Nathan spotted this little lizard, hidden in the bushes.

I would have walked right past it, but Nathan is so observant when it comes to animals. He'll spot another animal at the end of our trip, but I'll share that story when it comes up. After a few minutes of delays {Peter needed something from the SUV, keys were left in our room, we couldn't find the bus stop, you know, all that fun stuff}, we were on the bus to Epcot, which pulled right up as we got to the bus stop. NO WAIT!! YAA!!!


Within a few minutes, we were getting our pictures taken in front of the big ball.





If you followed my previous TRs, you've seen the picture comparisons with Peter and Nathan here.
Here is this year's picture:

I wish they were standing like they are in the other two, but I like this one too.

2010


2008

cont..................

[islandgirl]

First things first, SOARIN!!! The wait time was 90 minutes..UGH...so FPs for us.

WOW! not ripe until 6:15 and we have ADRs then, so we won't be riding until later tonight. Spaceship Earth was showing a 20 minute wait so we headed back to ride. It was Nathan's first time, and he was semi-impressed.




Okay, let's get this party started! Test Track would surely perk everyone up. We hoofed it over to TT, but took a detour as we passed Club Cool. Nathan just had to try some delicious free soda!

I suggested the Beverly......


We continued our trek over to TT, only to find that it was down....
We couldn't get FPs for another 20 minutes, and noboby wanted to wait or decide what to do next, so Nathan wanted to get icecream.

Nathan got a double scoop of cookie dough and Peter & I got sundaes. Total: $14.78 or 3SC {great use of snack credits!!}






This really hit the spot! Now, what to do next. Nathan wanted to check out the gift shop in Canada, so we made our way over to WS.
This was where things started turning sour.

cont..........

[Colexis Mom]

So far so good in Epcot although it doesn't sound too good coming up!

[Coop]

Ominous cliff hanger. Oh No!

[OhToodles!]

After seeing those dumplings I really want some!
I'm afraid to read the next update, but I know you get past it too.

[B.M.]

Nooooo; not a cliff hanger..... Hurry back please!!

Love the comparison pictures.... I wish I had taken pics in a designated spot each year to compare.... (I'm sure I can still compare, just not with the same background/pose). I think my oldest would have the same effect your did in the pic.... His first trip at age 10; he was noticably shorter than me..... He is now (at 14) just shy of 6'..... I'll have to pull out my Disney pics and do a comparison after we go this December....

[Cam22]

You've made it to the bubble! Love your room! But I'm not liking the idea of things going sour.

[MayraLR]

Love the pirate room!

[ilovedisney247]

Love the room! Those pirate rooms are great--but far from OPR! Epcot sounds like it started off wonderful, but I'm a little worried about what is coming next!

[chezp]

Oh my goodness.... I'm really worried about what happens next...

[islandgirl]

Originally Posted by KMB733

All caught up!! Glad you made it to Disney. The room is so cool!!!

The room was very !!

Originally Posted by niccole

Oh! I know the drama well already DD is nicknamed DQ and she is only 12. I just hope the "need" to be "plugged in" is less, She is glued to her camera (but that works in my favor). If she is too much a DQ I think I'll rent her out, not sure how much that will cost me.

LOL...

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

So far so good in Epcot although it doesn't sound too good coming up!

Originally Posted by Coop

Ominous cliff hanger. Oh No!

Originally Posted by OhToodles!

After seeing those dumplings I really want some!
I'm afraid to read the next update, but I know you get past it too.

It's coming up now....

Originally Posted by B.M.

Nooooo; not a cliff hanger..... Hurry back please!!
Love the comparison pictures.... I wish I had taken pics in a designated spot each year to compare.... (I'm sure I can still compare, just not with the same background/pose). I think my oldest would have the same effect your did in the pic.... His first trip at age 10; he was noticably shorter than me..... He is now (at 14) just shy of 6'..... I'll have to pull out my Disney pics and do a comparison after we go this December....

It's amazing how much they change!!

Originally Posted by Cam22

You've made it to the bubble! Love your room! But I'm not liking the idea of things going sour.

Originally Posted by MayraLR

Love the pirate room!

Originally Posted by ilovedisney247

Love the room! Those pirate rooms are great--but far from OPR! Epcot sounds like it started off wonderful, but I'm a little worried about what is coming next!

We loved our room!!

Originally Posted by chezp

Oh my goodness.... I'm really worried about what happens next...

Update coming up.....

[islandgirl]

FRIDAY JAN 13 continued-

Don't let this picture fool you. Somehow I snapped this at just the right time, because Epcot was super crowded today
and not a ghost town as it appears here in this picture!
I got this really good shot of ToT in the background of Morocco.

I tried showing Nathan how it was, but he again was less than impressed. Time to move on....
Last year, we found Nathan a Calgary Flames hoodie in Canada that he loved! He was hoping to find more Flames merchandise
today. He did, and decided on a t-shirt and a beanie, which he was happy about...YAAA!!!
We got outside and I saw this cool photo-op that we have never done before and got in line. The PP photographer took this picture with my camera, which turned out better than the PP photos.

Side note: We had a few PP pictures taken this trip, on the first 2 days anyway, but they weren't all that great. I'm glad I handed my camera to the photographer as well, at least I got a couple of good family shots {because my family hates getting pictures taken}.
Where to next? Nobody had any suggestions, so I suggested we walk our way around WS and stop if there was something that
we wanted to see. I immediately saw that Off Kilter would be playing in a few minutes and asked to stop there. They wanted to know about the show and I said I had heard good things but never actually heard them perform.

The show started and I was just feeling like they didn't really want to be there. They assured me they did, but I was worried that they weren't enjoying it, and I just couldn't get into it at all. It was also very hot. We couldn't find a shady spot, so we were sitting in the direct sun and that was making me even more miserable. I told them that we should move on, that I was fine with just watching for a few minutes, but I thought they were thinking I wanted to leave because they weren't enjoying it. Mistake #1.
We get to the UK, and I'm strolling through, just looking around, and I stop at the phone booth to get a picture....cue the eye rolling........and they kind of just keep walking. I follow, but I'm a little frustrated and they look at me with a look like "is something wrong?". "Um yea, I wanted to get a picture there." After an exchange of words between the 3 of us, we walk back to the phone booth and my picture is taken...see how happy I look?

I ask what they wanted to see next? "I don't care.... Whatever you want." Not the answer I wanted. Mistake #2
I then say.."We are in WS, surely there is something you want to see or do." Nathan wanted to do something "fun". He was really disappointed that he couldn't ride Soarin' or TT right now, but I know there had to be something he wanted to see.
Coming up was France, my favorite country. I mentioned as we were walking by France, about how we got our pictures taken there last year......... they never stop walking. I lag behind, a bit sad. Not only aren't we going to get any pictures here, we aren't even
going to stop and look around at all. I stop to get this picture {which I love}

and Nathan is looking at me with this look like, why are you taking a picture of a bike? More eye rolling and a bored yawn...........and I flipped again. Mistake #3..."What do you want to do???" "I don't care" "But nobody is having fun!!! We are in Disney and nobody is having fun!!"
Add to this, that since we hit the park, Nathan has been preoccupied with that darn phone! Peter steps in and assures me that he is fine, this is exactly what he loves to do, just wander through the countries and stop whenever we see something that interests us. If Nathan is bored, then let him be bored.
I told him that I wanted pictures in France, so he said let's go get pictures in France. Nathan's smirk tells the story!

I had hoped to get one at the fountain as well, but this couple was hogging the best spot to get a picture. We stood there for a few minutes, but they just looked at me like "I'm not going anywhere anytime soon..." Fine, we'll skip the fountain picture!
We continued walking...too quickly to actually browse, and soon we were in Japan.

The drummers were out, so I looked at the guys and asked if they wanted to stop. "Whatever you want to do." AGRH! Mistake #4
Nathan found a bench to text as he waited. I walked a little closer to get some pictures. We soon moved on.




　

[islandgirl]

After Japan, we talked a bit more as we walked. I was just so sad that we couldn't get into the groove. Peter assured me he was fine, this is what he loves doing in WS, he was game for whatever. Nathan was enduring it but was hoping there would soon be something more fun, like rides or something. He then said the Epcot wasn't his favorite park. I was still in a sad, pouty mood, and even suggested we leave Epcot and find something else to do or add PH to our tickets so that we could go to another park. Nobody wanted to leave, and Peter said he wanted to tour like we always do, knowing I had some things for us to see that I had read about. We all agreed to take a chill pill, make the best of the time we had left, and move on from the drama thus far! Okay....let's move on to American Adventure.....





After Fife & Drum, everyone started inside. Peter asked if we wanted to go, so we went inside to wait 15-20 mins until the next show. Voices of Liberty were performing....Nathan sat in the corner a texted, I took this time to run to the restroom. When I came out, I saw Pooh, Tigger, Smee, & Rafiki meet and greet next to Liberty Inn. Once I got back inside, we were ready to go into the show. We have never seen anything in America, so I was glad we got to take it all in today. We all 3 admitted later that almost fell asleep during the AA show.
On the way out Nathan got a slush and Peter got a soda & popcorn.

We walked through Italy






The architecture is so beatiful. I then remembered that I had wanted to get some pictures in Morocco, but I didn't dare suggest backtracking!
On to Germany......a quick picture of the train and walk through the candy shop without buying anything.....

[Dlandmom2]

Oh Susan, I can just feel the tension in your last update!

I can definitely sympathize (as I'm sure most of us can) when you're so excited to be experiencing something but the person(s) you're with makes you feel like they're just "putting up" with everything for your sake. Plus, reading your PTR, I know how much you were looking forward to this trip and how it almost didn't happen.

When I read about things like this, it makes me wonder what I (unintentionally) did to my aggravate my parents when I was a teenager! You did say that after the first day, it got better, so I'm looking forward to hearing about that. And I'm sure the guys didn't mean to upset you, but I'm convinced it's just a guy and gal thing...sometimes they think they're being totally supportive, but it comes across as insensitive!

You are one tough cookie, though. I think I would've just told them I'd see them at the end of the day and walked away. I wouldn't have been strong enough to stay there and work through it! Good for you!