The Magical Birthday Adventures of Princess Katie ***Completed*** About This Page:

[Ears42]

Last installment for this weekend. My family is complaining that they are hungry. I'm glad everyone is enjoying my trip report, I'm having fun writing it.

Everyone had a great week and I promise to finish next weekend.

Janet

[disneyknut]

Originally posted by Ears42:
. West Mifflin used to be my home away from home, RE: Century III. Depending on the age of your SIL niece I'm sure she knows me or one of my siblings. My DB was the QB of the football team. My dad also owns the funeral home in Fayette City so almost everyone knows him and my brother. And my sister just knows everyone.
[/QB]

<font size="2" face="Comic Sans MS, Arial">Janet- I live right by CIII... up by Community College couple house down from Co-Go's..
SIL is 47 & her nieces are 26 & 21, I believe, so if you're in that age group you might know them... Last names Seliy (SIL) & Nohavicka (SIL niece) LOL about your sister knowing everyone.. That's the way my brother is.. Every time I say my maiden name I get " Are you Bob Rager's little sister?" Used to annoy me terribly when I was younger now I'm used to it [img]images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

Tikibird: I don't know what happened to the Steelers (I was at the mall ),

<font size="2" face="Comic Sans MS, Arial">SANDY!!!! you should have called me.. I would have gladly met you at the mall.. I quit watching in the 1st quarter & started playing on the computer, listening to the men in my family scream & yell.. Mall shopping would have been much better [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[luvnwdwgal]

Janet, I have really enjoyed reading your trip report. What a fun Mother/Daughter trip! Looking forward to reading the rest! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[FanOfMickey]

What a great trip report, I can't wait till next weekend. I am planning on going to Disney in Sept. for my Birthday or beginning of November. I will have to plan on going for tea at the GF after reading about your tea [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] Sounds so yummy and fun. Thanks for sharing your trip with us.

Janine

[Ears42]

December 13, 2002: Last full day, More RAIN and TORNADO WARNINGS, and the best character experience ever!

The wind and the rain woke me around 5:30 on Friday. The wind really sounded like hurricane winds and the trees outside our patio were bending practically in half. I was not thrilled with the prospect of going out in the rain again. The night before I had called Disney Dining and changed our PS at Hollywood and Vine to the latest possible breakfast seating they had available. Now I was really glad I had done that. I got up, made coffee and got into the shower. Katie was starting to wake up by the time I got out of the shower so I turned on the Today Show. I turned the TV on to hear that annoying beep that means bad weather warning. I read the ticker line only for a minute when they switch back to the local station with the tornado warning, “and if you on the second floor or higher, you need to seek immediate shelter in the basement or ground floor in an inside room.” PANIC MODE. [img]images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] They are listing the counties that need to take shelter when I realize I don’t know what county we are in. I call the front desk and try to remain calm as I ask, “Can you tell me what county we are in.”? The front desk CM chuckles a little and tells me we are not in a county with tornado warnings; they are the counties closest to the east coast. Apparently I am not the only person who called with that question.

Katie and I get dressed and munch on our remaining breakfast foods and I try to convince her to miss our PS at Hollywood and Vine. No such luck. She loves this restaurant and insists that we go. I delay as long as possible as it is still coming down really hard outside. But I finally give in and call for bell services. They arrive quickly and take our bags for storage. We take one last look around the room and we are off to the bus stop.

By the time we get to MGM it still raining hard and the park is practically deserted. We get to Hollywood and Vine, and the restaurant is empty. There are only two other tables being used. The CM at the door said they had a 99 percent no show rate today! Our server came to the table, immediately followed by Chip and Dale and the best character experience we have ever had begins. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] We could hardly eat because we always had a character at the table. Pluto played tick-tack-toe with Katie for over 20 minutes, Chip and Dale drew her pictures and brought her balloons (six of them to be exact), Goofy tried to eat her breakfast, even Minnie came to the table. When the music started Katie got to dance with both Minnie and Goofy. It was amazing. I am so glad we braved the rain. This was so much fun.

The food, as always was good, plentiful and we ate too much. But they didn’t have any chocolate French toast today. I made up for it by eating two waffles instead. We practically had to beg to leave. They just didn’t want to let us go as by this time we were the only people in the restaurant, and it was 11:30! At last they brought us our check and we were off.

Katie wanted to see Playhouse Disney again, so we headed in that direction. The rain by this time had slowed to a continuous drizzle. We waited a few minutes for the show to start and we were seated in the middle section again. Katie really loves this show. She sang and danced and had a great time. After Playhouse Disney we had pictures taken with Sorcerer Mickey and with Stitch. He’s cute. The small display that they had with the Elvis record was great. My mom actually still has that Elvis album that they had out. She will love that picture. We wondered through some stores and looked for characters but I guess they were afraid of the rain so we picked up the Mickey picture, Stitch wasn’t ready yet but I’m sure my pictures will be ok and headed towards Downtown Disney.

We first took a bus to TTC hoping to catch a bus to DD only to find that we had to take a bus back to WL and catch a bus to DD. This was ridiculous and my only complaint with Resort transportation. Why can’t they have a direct bus to DD from the parks or from TTC. [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] It took us over an hour to get to DD. The rain had stopped and I thought that people would be heading to the parks by now. Was I ever wrong!

DD was packed! The line for the cashiers in the Christmas store was over a thirty-minute wait. I had wanted to buy Christmas cards but not that badly. I also wanted a 2002 scrapbook but they were sold out, resort wide, according to the CM at 2R’s. They did have a nice selection of scrapbook supplies but they were rather pricey for the quality, I thought. OK two items on my list that I can’t get, off to The World of Disney. What a zoo! Katie gets to buy a snow globe every year so we went in search of that first. She picked the 2002 snow globe and we went in search of a Tinker Bell charm. My niece Bailey loves Tinker Bell and my sister said that it would be a good Christmas present for her. Tinker Bell is hard to find. I finally located one and got a Mickey for my other niece. I was also trying to sneak some little items into my basket without Katie noticing for her Christmas stocking. There were so many people in the store it was crazy! I definitely did not buy as much as I planned because I just couldn’t take the crowd. After World of Disney we headed to the new toy store for a birthday gift. Katie had seen the Pretty Princess game and wanted to buy it for friend whose birthday party she missed while we were at Disney. We got that, and I got one for Katie from Santa also. Katie also picked out an Ariel doll as a reward for being a good shopper in the crowds. I had to buy one of those really big shopping bags by the time I was done.

By now I was exhausted so we headed back to the WL. If was about 5 pm by now and Tiffany Town Car was scheduled to pick us up at 7 to take us to the Hampton Inn at the Airport. I called Tiffany when we got back to the lodge and asked if we could get picked up early. They were very accommodating and said the driver would be there in 45 minutes. Great, just enough time for us to run to Roaring Forks and pick up some food. We took one last look at the lobby and were on our way to the airport.

When we travel (non Disney Travel) we always use Hampton and Hilton. I used to travel on business quite a bit and I’ve always liked the quality at Hampton for the price. I was very disappointed with the Hampton at the Orlando Airport. It was older, needed lots of repairs and wasn’t practically clean. I wouldn’t use it again.

We had an early night and the next morning we on our way home by 10 am. We landed on time at noon in Baltimore and headed home. The end of a magical, (but very wet) birthday adventure!

Only 317 Days until our next trip! October 24-November 2, 2003 at the Grand Floridian and The Beach Club Villas!
[img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[ 01-19-2003, 06:21 PM: Message edited by: Ears42 ]

[tikibird]

Wow, I was reliving the morning of the 13th with you - the rain was ridiculous, wasn't it?! Glad to hear that you braved it though, because your time at H&V sounded magical! Thanks so much for sharing your trip with Katie with us - I'm sure she enjoyed it much more than a birthday party! [img]graemlins/love.gif[/img]

[Ears42]

Sandy,

Thanks for all your encouragement and kind words while I was writing my trip report. I had a lot of fun and it will be a great way to preserve the memories.

Janet

[Teddysmom]

Great trip report. Katie is one lucky little girl. Much better than a birthday party and less work and more fun for Mom too [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] I love your description of the GF Afternoon Tea. I am travelling with an all male contingent, no GF for me. All I can say after reading your report is I want a daughter [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] WTG for braving the rain for Katie as well. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Awesome job!

[Ears42]

Michele,

Thanks. I don't know how old your boys are but there were quite a few at the Wonderland Tea Party. Also noticed that you are going in February. Why not hint at GF tea as a Valentine's present! [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

Have a great time!
Janet

[Hanners]

Thanks so much for the trip report. It made me have goose bumps on more than one occasion. And my sis-in-law and I have made a date to have tea during our trip in 2/04! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Mel & Richard]

What an absolutely wonderful report! I really enjoyed it. I bet you were glad Katie twisted your arm about going to Hollywood and Vine. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

Mel

[Ears42]

This really was a great trip. We had a great time and it was extra special because I hadn't been able to do much with Katie over the previous two months. It was fun being just us girls.

I'm glad that everyone is enjoying reading about it.

Thanks
Janet