3rd Times a Charm! Mar. 8-14..lots of pics

[jenseib]

She had a blast there. it was definatly a highlight! She loves making new friends too.

[jenseib]

After starting to walk away from my crew who had just got in line for Kali Rivers, I noticed everyone looking up. So I did too. There was this cute monkey carrying her baby across the line. It was cute. I tried to take a picture, but none really came out very good.



I headed off for Expedition Everest.

I took these on the way.





I got into the Single riders line. It kind of looked long, and I asked the CM how long and he said maybe 20 minutes, but it wasn’t nearly that long. It’s a great ride and I am glad I got to do it.

When I got off I beeped Skip and he said they had just got off and were a bit wet. He then went on to say his phone got wet, but it is working. He was worried though about how wet it got. Just how wet did they get? I asked if Claire was wet too and he said yes.
I told him where I was, and we met up. Walking up, Claire didn’t look too wet. That Alice dress will fool you. I felt her and she was soaked. I lifted the Apron on it and the only dry spot was a small circle under her apron. LOL! I asked her if she wanted to change and she adamantly said NO! It was very hot out, so it probably felt pretty good.
DH said they got the bad spot this time around and totally got drenched. LOL!

We decided to head over to Dinoland and see what was happening. We had just missed the Nemo show starting, so I knew there was no chance of seeing that this trip. That had been the last show of the day. Oh well, we’ll try to get to it another year.
So on to Dinoland!



After this picture, I must’ve put my camera away for awhile because there isn’t any other pics in Dinoland.

We went on Chester & Hester’s Dino-rama. It’s cute and fun. (just like Dumbo). Skip then went to see if Claire was tall enough for Primeval Whirl. She’s not yet. I won’t ride it though anyways. I did last year and it about made me sick. I don’t like the spinning parts.
We talked about it a bit and decided we would take Claire on Dinosaur. We told her it was a bit scary and she insisted she wanted to give it a try.

We walked over and parked the stroller, got Claire out and suddenly she had to go potty now! LOL! I think those wet clothes were getting to her. I took a change of clothes in too, (didn’t have a dry pair of undies with us though) and got her changed and all fresh.

Then on to Dinosaur….AGAIN. LOL!

We got right in and did the pre-show and then right on to the car. I like it but it can be a bit scary even for adults. I held Claire’s hand the whole time and told her to shut her eyes when I thought needed. She obeyed too.
When we got out we asked her what she thought and she said it’s scary and lets not do it again. LOL! OK! At least she gave it a try and did really well on it. Never once did she scream or anything.

[jenseib]

I knew there was a 6:00 showing for the Festival of the Lion King and this was one of the 2 shows I has wanted to try and see, so we headed that way. Being that we never have seen the show, I wasn’t 100% sure the way, but we just kept going on instinct.

We stopped for a family photopass.







The lady told Claire to hold her arms out and a baby brother would appear. LOL! Claire had no clue what she meant and was very puzzled. So was Skip!



We then saw a CM directing people over to the Lion King, so we knew we were heading the right way.

We passed one of those vending carts that sells different souvenirs, and Claire started spazzing out over a stuffed Simba. Totally crying over it. I told her I wasn’t stopping now, we had to get in and get a seat. But after the show we would look at it. I told her she still had spending money. She did the laugh cry thing where she is so happy, but can’t stop crying. LOL! She kept saying to Skip, “I still have spending money dad!”

I tried to sit near the front because I have heard sometimes kids get picked for things. For what I had no clue, but I figured lets try.
We sat in the Lion section.
I had no idea what to expect and all I can say is WOW!
This show was AWESOME! I couldn’t believe the talent and all the action and just the fun I had during it. My eyes were wide as saucers taking it all in.

Skip was really impressed by the “monkeys” on the trampoline. I am so glad this was the show we made it to.


















Claire was picked as one of the kids to go out and dance and shake one of the musical instruments, but she said no thank you. ????????? I asked her why and she said she already danced at the parade yesterday. Oh well. LOL!

As soon as it was over she said, “now we go get Simba” What a one tracked mind!

So we headed out and went to the vendors stand. We picked one out and I went to pay. I asked if it was on sale because plushes had been on sale for 25% all over the park and it was, but even on sale it was the most expensive thing we bought her (excluding the castle) LOL!

She was excited it was on sale and kept telling Skip, “Dad it was on sale” and Skip said it was sad that she knew about “on sale” and “clearance”. LOL!

[jenseib]

Claire stated that she was hungry then, so we headed off to Pizzafari.
Skip said he was going to search for a bathroom. As soon as we walked in there was one, but he was gone by then. But Claire and I used it and then ordered.
I got a sandwich and she got spaghetti and meatballs. I also ordered chocolate cake, which I normally don’t like, but love it at Disney.
I never realized till later that night that they forgot to give it to me. My plan had been to save it and eat it for a snack, and I guess I never paid attention at the time. NOW’s the time to call me IDIOT! LOL!

Here is Claire posing with her new best friend.



Skip came back and ended up finishing off Claire’s food, though she did eat a good amount, but it was a very large portion for a kid.

Claire wanted to go back to the hotel and swim. Skip wanted to go back too, but I wanted to browse the shops as we went. They decided they would go ahead and get back and I could then browse freely and meet them back there. Hurray! AND they took the stroller too! I was totally free.

I browsed around looking for that sweatshirt I wanted. I just had a hard time making up my mind. I found 2 I really liked. I finally decided I should get one with the year on it since that is what I always do and should keep up the tradition now.

Here’s what I got.





I then decided since I was alone it would be a good time to go and pick out the free 5x7 photopass picture.
I found the place easily enough and had a short wait. The scanned my card and goes “wow, you have a lot of pictures!” LOL! I had over 200 at the point on there. YAY me!
He asked if I had any idea what picture I would like to get so we didn’t have to go through all of them. I told him yes, I would like to look at the ones from today because I wanted the family one with Claire holding Simba. We found it, but Simba hadn’t been added to her arms yet. But the earlier ones had????? He said no problem and put a Simba in her arms for me.
This is the one I got.



He did tell me that the Simba would be added later on my photopass, so not to worry. But when I got home it wasn’t along with several of the Tinker bells. I emailed photopass and in less than 12 hours they were on the pictures.

I headed out the front of the park then and made a stop to look around. I never really paid much attention to the entrance area before. And I never paid attention that Rain Forest was there. LOL! I had read it was, but never looked at it.

I turned around and got this last shot.

[jenseib]

I went out to the bus stop then and a bus was loading, so I ran and caught it.

It’s kind of nice riding without my family sometimes. LOL!

I got back to find them in the pool. Skip said they had just gotten in and I must’ve took the next bus. I told him I really didn’t hurry back. But I guess they had waited quite awhile for a bus, and I was lucky to have one there when I got to the bus depot.







While they were in the pool I decided to check on doing another load of laundry. No go on that. The laundry room was packed. Much better to do it in the AM.
I called home and talked to my dad a bit.

Claire and Skip went and got some food and ate it.
I then took Claire to the arcade to use the 30 minute card we got with our package. This thing is a dud. Only works on certain games, which I knew ahead of time. But not on anything Claire wanted to do. And it has so much time before you can use it again. Some games we would “die” immediately and it wouldn’t let us use it again till after awhile. I also think it completely stopped working about 5 or more minutes before it should have. But it was free, so I guess I shouldn’t complain.
While we were playing, Skip went up to the bar and had a rum and coke. He said it wasn’t very good.
The shuttle was supposed to launch on this day, so Claire and I walked out front to see if we could catch a glimpse. NOTHING! So we went back in and Skip met up with us and told us that the launch had been canceled.
We decided to go settle down. It was getting late and it had been a very busy day.

When we got back to the room, I remembered I had Claire’s Alice dress in a plastic bag still. I pulled it out. Lets just say this dress isn’t made for water. LOL!
It had bled all over the apron and collar. I rinsed it out in the tub and more and more blue just ran out. I just gave up. I got some stain stick and put it all over the white parts, and hung it up. I figured at home I would try it in the washer. (and it did come out pretty good then)
Claire was bouncing all over with her new Simba. I told her to settle down over and over and she said that it was Simba’s fault. He wasn’t behaving and she was trying to get him to settle down. LOL!
About 11 she finally drifted off. But not me! Nope, I was being serenaded by two snoring people! Claire is just as loud as Skip. When he would snore, she would take a breath, and when he took a breath, she would snore. UGH! I was going crazy. I put TWO pillows over my head to drown them out and finally I went to sleep.

And that is the end of day 4!

On a side note, Claire had her tonsils out in June and no longer snores!

[jenseib]

I’m gonna post some of the photo shoot pictures now. Some are just so cute and some she has such silly faces. LOL!

[jenseib]

This one is so funny. The lady told her to gaze up at the light bulb and she really had no clue what she meant, so she just looked at the light bulb. LOL!

[stitchaholic]

I am lovin the trip reports, can't wait for the next installement !

[jenseib]

Thanks! I'll try to post either later today or tomorrow. want to give everyone a chance to catch up. LOL!

[Kathy Jetson]

We took ds on dinosaur last year and he was scared silly he could not stop crying untill about 20 min. after the ride. Now he talks about how it was one of his faves and cannot wait to ride again lol. We are going to try festival of the lion king for the first time this year it looks great from your pics I hope ds gets picked to be in it. Did you sit in the front row?

[jenseib]

We sat a few rows back and to the side near where the cast members come out. Right on the ailse basically

[Fairy Grandmother]

Isn't it great to have those few minutes by yourself at Disney? It is amazing the things you notice without distractions. Of course, just a little while is enough. I am not one who could ever go to WDW by myself. Sharing the fun and memories is what makes the trip so special.

Beautiful pictures of Claire. How many pictures did you get in all on your PhotoPass? I read that if you tell the photgrapher you have prepurchased the PhotoPass they will take more pictures. Do you know if this is true?

[jenseib]

Yes, it is nice to have time to yourself. I would love to go by myself one time, but I know they wouldn't live without me. LOL! Or at least I think they can't. LOL!

I don't remember how many I ended up with, but it was over 200 before edits. I really tried to get alot, knowing I was getting the CD.

[jenseib]

And some more. I was really impressed at how many she took.







I LOVE these. They had Claire twirl in her dress.











They took several of the two of us together and most were really bad. This is about the only decent one.



And these are with the other photographer. And look how she didn’t even be sure that the framing was done right. She took a picture wider than the background.

[stitchaholic]

adorable,i love the dress twirling ones!

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

Thanks for the reports

[jenseib]

Day 5

Thursday March 12

3rd Times a Charm!

This is what has been known as puke day for the last 2 trips. LOL! If you remember I had mention that every year we come down on a Sunday and every year, so far, Claire has gotten sick on Thursday.
Well here is where the title comes in! She was FINE the whole day! Letting her sleep and not running completely ragged did work for us! YAY!
I know it looks like we did a lot, and we did, but I wasn’t pushing us at the parks to do stuff, and going at a leisurely pace made a difference.
On to the day!

The plans for the day.

Epcot
Arkershus at 4:20
Skip and Claire wanted to do the Behind the seeds tour
I was hoping to last until the Illuminations show since we have yet to see it. I did see it about 10 years ago, but I think some has changed since then.


I woke up around 6:30. It’s hard to sleep with a pillow on your head. I gathered the laundry and took it up to the empty laundry room.

While the laundry was going I showered and went up and got some breakfast. I settled at a table outside our door and began to write in the journal to try and catch up with everything.

Skip woke up around 9 and came out the door. He went up for coffee. I gave him my mug and told him to get me a lemonade refill.

I went in and checked on Claire. She woke up at around 9:45


I can’t remember what the gift for the day was, and I didn’t take a picture.

Here is the note I “think” she got that day.



We knew she was going to wear her Jasmine outfit today, because of the Akershus dinner, but Claire decided to bring it along and wear a sundress to the park..

Skip came back in the room shortly after we got her dressed and said “the freaky guys are out at the pool.” I ran out and didn’t get any good pics, but from other morning’s I knew what it was.
I think at 10 everyday they officially open the pool. The lifeguards come out with multicolored wigs on and pick a child to help use magic to turn on the daisy sprinklers. The Sprinklers were on already when I got out there.





We finished packing our bag then and headed to the bus stop. About 2 minutes before the bus got there, Claire started panicking because she left Simba in the room. I told her the bus was about to come and I was not walking back, but we would get her something special at Epcot. Well I should’ve just went back and got it because she whined the whole bus ride and while walking in too. UGH! Not loudly or crying, but just constantly talked about how she missed him and he was scared by himself, etc.

Finally I told her if I had a chance later on I would go get him…never intending to. LOL!

When we got to the entrance we had to wait a little bit to get in. There were some long lines and it seems I get behind the people who can’t figure out how to use their ticket.

[jenseib]

We finally got in, and with Claire still somewhat complaining, I totally bypassed the photopass photographer without thinking. LOL!

We headed towards the land to see when they could take the tour, and we snapped a few pictures on the way.



We got to the land and saw the Soarin still had fast passes. We got one for 12:40. I was excited. We have never rode it yet, and now Claire was big enough to.

We then got in line for the behind the seeds tour.



There was one for 11:15 (it was just around 11), but only room for one person. Claire wanted to do this with DH, so DH asked if they could still do the 11:15 since the second person was so small. LOL! And they let him. The DH griped when they told him the price. I told him at home the price and he was fine with it then. It wasn’t very much either. I think $16 for him and a little less for Claire and they then gave them the AAA discount too.



We then took Claire potty and decided on a meeting time and space…right back there since it would be fast past time then, and we could do that next…..

I said goodbye and went off on my own.

I walked around a shot a lot of pictures.









I then went up front and got some solo photopass pictures!

[SBETigg]

Nice-looking family, and Claire's adorable! Especially with Pluto-- so cute! I'm enjoying your report. Thanks.

[jenseib]

I must admit this time totally alone was a guilty pleasure. I was loving it, but not sure what to do with myself. LOL!
I started to head back towards World Showcase after the photopass pictures. I took several pictures along the way.







I wanted to get the monorail going through on this picture, but I waited and waited and it never came, so I just took one and went on. LOL!













When I got here, a CM came up to me and asked if I would do a survey about our trip, which I did.