Using My Powers for Good - 4/29-5/7 - Thread 1 - thru Day 4 About This Page:

[DawnDenise]

What a great update!! Your reaction to being woken up was hilarious! I'm going to have to put the Earl of Sandwich on the list for our next trip!!

[BabieeMelly]

Great update! I can't wait to tr Earl of Sandwich in July... thanks for the tip on the restaurant giving a AAA discount, I didn't know that! We'll have to remember that for when we go

[luvnwdwgal]

Looking forward to trying EOS this September! Hope I remember to bring my AAA card!

[TinyTinkerBell]

Come back, come back! I cannot wait to finish this TR! I am in great suspense!

[Jennifer2003]

[ QUOTE ]
Come back, come back!

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah...where are you guys????

Jennifer

[Wild4Diz]

Great update! I admire you brave souls that will do SP - I've been way to chicken. I have this control thing that makes it impossible to not have any part of me touching the slide on the way down !

[Caldercup]

Sorry for the delay - our garden was growing wild and we spent all of the holiday weekend out in it!!

Not to mention that our networked harddrive decided to (literally) jump up and die... and it had all our pictures on it from the vacation. Bob just recovered the images and I'm working on getting them ready.

The next installment will come soon!
Eileen

[Caldercup]

<u> Day Four - May 2 - Part 4 </u>

Since the Earl of Sandwich overlooks the large Pin Station at Downtown Disney, we headed that way to see if there were pins of Summit Plummet and to nab one for Space Mountain, now that Calder had conquered that ride too! I was quickly taken by several pins, but what amazed me was that my normally tight-fisted DH was walking around with a handful of pins too! (YAY!) After a few minutes, I could tell that the Esterles were ready to move on since they weren’t into pin collecting – plus I wanted to do my major purchases at World of Disney since we’d get our AP discount of 10% off. We put back the pins in our hands and headed out.

Stephen was pulling his mom’s arm to get to Once Upon a Toy!! We all went in and it was charming to see the look of wonder on all the kids’ faces – this place is Toy Heaven!! Donna had wanted to buy Disney-specific parts for their Mister Potato Head and started gathering up stuff. Bob saw the Pirate “parts” and gave me that unspoken marital look for “Honey? Can we buy this?” I nodded and pointed to the Mickey Poncho as well. As for the bulk parts, there were a few new ones that we haven’t seen before – a slice of pizza where the pepperonis are Hidden Mickeys, a pretzel (appropriate for us Philadelphians), Mickey’s yellow feet – and some more arms for our “spuds.” It wasn’t enough to even cover the bottom of a box so I offered to let Donna fill the box with her overflow and I’d pay for it. Instead, she insisted on buying our parts for us!! Bonus! I told Donna to find a CM and get them to help stuff the boxes. A lovely young woman named Natalie came over and the two of them started the Great Engineering Feat of getting the most pieces in the box! I wandered off, dazzled by the toys…

Bob got into lots of the toys and loved this funny little “puncher” that was shaped like Mickey’s glove. When you’d press the button, the fist would spring out and “punch” the other person. He also like a “grabber” that was two Mickey hands that would help get things off of high-shelves. Naaah… I don’t need that. When I need something off a tall shelf, I just call “Oh, Tall Boy….” and DH will come get it for me!

We also got some of the little collectible resin figures and vehicles – the ones that you get in a little metallic bag… We bought three packs of these to add to our small collection at home and ended up happy with all of our options, so we didn’t need to trade any in. (Did you know that they’ll trade you for any figures you don’t want – just go to the center counter and ask to see the container of figures.)

What tickled me was that Bob seemed more and more interested in Disney stuff. Not that he’s been converted, but that he certainly more “mellow” about my whole Disney obsession!

Calder wanted to get some of the sour powdered candy that kids can “squirt” into a tube. I gave the go ahead as long as he paid for it and it wasn’t one of the looooong ones. He took a long time making two rounds around the table, getting a good layer of each flavor – twice!! But then the silly wabbit shook the tube and mixed all the colors together. It looked like grey gunk and made his tongue blue – I can’t imagine that it tasted good.


[Blue Tongue]

By the time we meandered through the whole store and made all of our purchases, we came back to Donna – who had been so pleased with Natalie’s attention to detail that she asked for her help exchanging her collectible figurines and off they went. Calder showed me that Natalie had given the kids Magical Moments certificates that are new (for the Happiest Celebration on Earth - HCOE)


[Certifiable]

Then it was on to World of Disney and we all fell under the spell of Disney Merchandising. Frank and Brian played with the hats….


[Arrgghh]

…and Calder and I nabbed some more Mickey feet slippers (the ones Bob bought for my birthday a few years ago are waaaay too big for me) and I splurged on a pair for Calder too – since he wears mine whenever they’re not on *my* feet!

I also picked up the CD’s for SpectroMagic and Fantasmic – thanks to the lovely CM at MouseGears, I knew they’d be here and I’d get the discount. I also picked up lots of pins – and tried desperately to keep Calder from seeing a few special pins that I wanted to keep for gift-giving. (The little bugger knows I got one of Stitch and he keeps asking me if he can have it “now”…) I checked again for some cool earrings and Bob even came over to help. But none of the stuff was my taste – which is rather simple. &lt;sigh&gt;

I got to the counter and split my purchases into the “ship to PA” pile and the “carry” pile (which included some stuff for Donna.) There were some of the “LiveStrong” type bracelets, but none with the Hidden Mickey shape. There were two black ones with pirate “skull and crossbones” that I got for Calder and Michael. They also had the new HCOE antennae toppers with the gold glitter-encrusted ears that I bought, but requested they put into a separate bag – which didn’t arrive at home that way… so I guess the shipping folks repack everything!

Since I had spent over $75 dollars (twice that actually), I was offered a “Party in the Kingdom” lithograph for only $5 – it’s very cute and has the castle “celebrating” the HCOE (although the castle doesn’t have it’s gold trimming!) with lots of classic characters frolicking in front of it. There are signatures at the bottom and it’s embossed with The Art of Disney stamp. The signatures are great because some of them (like Mrs. Potts and Cogsworth) aren’t available anywhere in the parks… I think. (My only disappointment is that the litho they shipped has some flaws in the paper – some nicks and dents and a tear in the top layer of the paper. &lt;sigh&gt; Hopefully, it won’t be visible once it’s framed.)


[Litho - sorry, it won't all fit on my scanner!]

We left WOD considerably lighter in the pocket (although heavier in the bag department!) and decided to sit down and figure out what we wanted to do next. Donna pulled out my “week at a glance” chart and we started going over some of the tentative plans…

At this point my Multiple Sclerosis decided to intrude. Now, I’m pretty darned lucky with my MS – I rarely have attacks and generally have lost very little function… just some numbness, slight vision problems and the occasional episode of fatigue. Well, this was one of those episodes. I just suddenly felt as if I should lie down and go to sleep, right there on the planter at DtD! Bob saw the signs and asked me if I was okay. I replied, in typical, scattered MS-talk, “I have absolutely no spit!” (I think I was partially dehydrated too!) Since we forgot to bring any cash with us, Frank gave Bob a fiver and he dashed off for some frozen lemonade. After a minute of that cool goodness going down my throat, I felt a lot better! Donna and I decided to talk about the long-term plans later and just determined that the E’s and Bob and CJ should go to DisneyQuest for the evening while I went back to the room to rest. They took off for the Lego store and I sat and rested for the return trip back to PORiverside.

I later found out that they didn’t go *into* the Lego store (sacrilege in our family!!) but did play outside with the figures. The “tourists” are awesome and Bob was taken with the little details – like the mini-figure in the “dad’s” camera lens.


[Lego]

When they got to DQ, Bob had to buy a ticket for Calder (since the ones I had bought from Ticketmania were back in the room!) and they headed in. I don’t know the details of this excursion (and I doubt I could strong-arm Bob into another update), but everybody gave DQ a big thumbs up. I know that Calder and Mike made a CD called “I don’t Want to Grow Up” and they played lots of cool stuff.

Feeling better, I finally “unplanted” myself from the planter and headed back to the Pin Station to grab the two pins that weren’t available at WOD – the Space Mountain “slider” pin and a Passholder exclusive pin of Stitch (which, thankfully, Calder does not know about!)

I got back on the boat for PORiverside and chatted with a family from New Jersey (surprise, surprise… someone from New Jersey!!) The mom was pregnant and she was not liking the rocking of the boat &lt;..erp..&gt;. What I found amazing was that they knew nothing about the HCOE launch – didn’t even know that this big celebration was going on… they just booked the room and headed down here. I mentioned that they should ask the front desk for the hours for the next several days since some of the parks were going to have greatly reduced hours for the press events. (How anyone can spend all this money to come to WDW and not do even the *slightest* bit of research still manages to astound me! Especially when they have little ones and are pregnant!)

When I got back to the room, I separated out our packages from the Esterles and started straightening up the room. I then called WDW-DINE to see if we could change around our Chef Mickey’s PS for 10:40 the next morning – originally I had thought that we might sleep in that morning and then go do a little “napkin waving” before heading out to a water park. Unfortunately, the Esterles were balking and wanted to go to MGM in the morning instead. Well, I called DINE and asked about availability for an earlier time at Chef Mickey’s… The CM I talked to was a riot because, as I expected, Chef Mickey’s was completely booked up for the entire week – not a single opening at *ANY* meal! The CM kept saying “Are they CRAZY – don’t they know how hard this PS is to get?!” I started asking about other character breakfasts (since this was the only one I’d gotten a PS for!) and there was no availability at Donald’s Breakfastosaurus for our morning at Animal Kingdom either. I decided to hold onto the reservation for now and just keep my fingers crossed that I could convince the Esterles to go – or at least split off the Lloyds and go on our own.

From that point on, I basically just vegged in the room and watched TV. I know that I slept a little since I pulled out of my “fatigue” attack pretty quickly. The boys came back around 10 o’clock and were pleased with their adventure. Bob must’ve been having a blast, because he only took one picture at DQ…


[Pin Ball Wizard]

… and made up for it by taking crazy pictures of silly faces on the boat ride back.


[Gargoyle Boys]

We were asleep by 11 with plans to get up and go to MGM – although not early enough to get there for EMH (since the shows we wanted to see didn’t start until 10 and the “Big Boys” had their fill of TOT and RnR.


The weather was 80 degrees and partly cloudy
We walked 8.59 miles
The best thing today was need you ask?..... (KTTK tour)
The worst thing today was bang, bang, bang, knock, knock, knock (Michael survived though, so that was good!)
The funniest thing today was seeing the crowds running towards us after the “rope drop”
Today I tried the Keys to the Kingdom Tour
And the result was I had the third best day of my life!
The most magical moment today was having Jonathan tell me that I should give tours because I “had the Disney spirit”…. &lt;sniff, I’m so verklempt!&gt;

Next up: MGM, Typhoon Lagoon and La Nouba...

[Jennifer2003]

Yay! Another update! Glad to hear you had a great day in spite of your MS attack. Your pictures are wonderful.

And...[ QUOTE ]
How anyone can spend all this money to come to WDW and not do even the *slightest* bit of research still manages to astound me!

[/ QUOTE ]...I wonder the same thing! LOL I laughed when I saw this!

Can't wait for more!
Jennifer

[DawnDenise]

What an awesome update!!! I got the litho too!! I had a couple flaws as well but once it was framed, it looks spectactular!!

More please!!!

[lauren-roxy]

I was so happy to see another update, I am really enjoying your trip report!!! Your litho is absolutely gorgeous!!! Sounds like another great day!! Can't wit to read more and see more pictures!

[zacksmom_1993]

Eileen-

You're a woman after my own heart! I kept reading your trip report and thinking, "Oh. That sounds like me." Or reading about Calder, and thinking, "Oh. That sounds like Zack." Zack 's those sugar tubes too. I the attractive shade of purple his tongue and teeth get after he inhales one. Zack's also a little stinker about catching me buying surprises for him. I tried to get some things for our upcoming cruise on our last trip to WDW, and somehow his little "Mom's-buying-something-for-me" radar always went up regardless of how engrossed he was in something else.

Can't wait to hear about Day 5!

Karen

[GATechGal]

FANTASTIC update. I'm so enjoying your reports. Goose Bob and get him to do a DisneyQuest review. I've love to hear a really detailed first hand account.

[Jillybean]

Now you guys know how to shop! I love that litho - - hope the framed version hides the flaws.

Sorry that your MS acted up, but you were smart to take it easy for a while.

Jill

[Luv4My4]

Great update!! I have a confession to make I used to be one of those people who just booked the trip to Disney World and went without any real research. We never made PS's in advance for our 1995 or 1997 (honeymoon) trip, we just played it by ear but the internet changed all of that for our 1999 &amp; 2002 trips and then this board has changed me forever!!! Can't wait to read more!!!