Disney Marathon Weekend Trip Days 3&4!

I don't know what it was about these 2 days, but we took a TON of photos... get ready for an onslaught....
On Tuesday we got to the MK just in time for the morning show. The weather was perfect and the sky was blue, and THIS time we got the whole version of the show, with all the singing and everything instead of "morning show lite".

 Everyone headed to Big Thunder while I ran to grab Peter Pan FP's. On the way to frontierland I got to see some more areas of Fantasyland that they are still working on. I had no idea they were building this tower!

First ride of the day!

On our way back we saw Chip and Dale with almost no line. Kids had to meet them. They were hysterical and animated and made a big fuss over the C&D pins the kids had collected so far on the trip.

Love them!

Then we hit the shooting gallery:

And onto the stockades. These 3 belong there for sure!

Even Mema and Papa got in on the action!

After that it was onto the Mansion with lots of fun in the interactive queue area. Nice Photo-bomb Dad!

 We headed over to the New Fantasyland to check it all out. Gaston's tavern is great and the Little Mermaid ride, while pretty much identical to the one in DCA, has a beautiful exterior.

Onto Lunch! We hit BoG really well. The first opening crowd had gone in but the lunch rush hadn't happened yet so we only waited about 20 minutes.

Hall of knights:

Lunch there was AMAZING! Best counter service I have ever had. So good I forgot to take pics. Seriously who gets to eat a seared tuna salad in a theme park? The kids had beautiful healthy meals and it was just really nice. So to counteract that we went to the Big Top area to get a chocolate candied apple...

 After that we rode space and CoP (NO ONE would sing with me... how lame is that?!?) and then headed back to the central hub. I love this picture spot. It's so gorgeous that it almost looks like an artificial background....

 Getting ready for Flower and Garden festival?

One thing I noticed on this trip was that Main Street was still all Christmas decorations and Christmas music and we were a good 2 weeks after Christmas! What I WANTED was the Christmas treats ie gingerbread shingles and cupcakes and peppermint chocolate cupcakes and Normal Mainstreet but the treats were all gone. At this point it was like "enough already with the Christmas music" especially as Main Street/central hub music is my fav. Then someone told me that they have to keep it all up for marathon weekend or the runners freak out. But by the time we ran the races the garlands were all down. Help me understand....

While everyone else got some ice cream Sasha and I went to trade pins and stopped for a photo:

 Then it was onto the Pirate's League! Teddy opted for the skull face and his CM was awesome. She gave him such a hard time telling him that she was going to have to remove his skin.

 See that smile? We would not see it again for an entire day. Once his make-up was on the kid stayed in character and NOTHING would make him smile!

 Sasha's CM was also amazing and the 2 of them chatted away like old friends the whole time!

 The transformation begins!

 Panda face:

 A beautiful mermaid!

 Taking the pirate oath. He had to do it twice because she said his "Arrrr!" wasn't loud enough!

 Then it was time for some Photo Ops...

 And then since we WERE pirates we had to RIDE pirates!

They try to charge you about $100 for special pictures after you do the pirate thing but since we had already pre-ordered photopass we decided to go do a free shoot with a photopass photographer! I had to keep asking Teddy "Are you OK? Are you happy?" And he was, he was just totally in character and did not want to crack his make-up AT ALL! Hysterical!

 That evening we all headed to the monorail. We clean up real good don't you think?

Got this great shot of Sasha looking at the sunset:

 And Teddy STILL was totally serious about being a pirate....

 Can't MAKE me smile!

 We were eating at the Grand Floridian but I heard that their kids club is lame so we dropped the kids off at the Neverland club at the Poly. It was so cool!

The check-in area is Wendy's bed!

 Then they had to get sprinkled with Pixie dust and fly through the window to go in!

 The Grand Floridian is one of my favorite places to get all dressed up and go for dinner. I don't think I would ever want to stay there - it's way too formal, but It's fun to visit once a trip.

 Our Christmas present to the Grandparents was eating at the Chef's Domain at Citrico's. We had an AMAZING meal!

 My dessert:

 Jeff's!

 I couldn't even begin to finish it but hated to waste all that chocolate. Think I could wear it as a crown for the Princess 1/2?

 It was a great day except for the very end which involved throwing Teddy in the shower and ATTEMPTING to scrub off his make-up. We couldn't get all the black off from around his eyes so he kind of looked like Adam Lambert for a few days.
The next day we headed to the Studios. Visiting Disney with a Handicapped tag is awesome. Look where we parked... some of the buses don't even drop off this close!

 We headed straight to Toy Story to hash out some deep-seated family grudges....

 And gentle readers, I am proud to announce that I am STILL the undefeated family champion even after 2 rides on Toy Story. Yes!
 Ready to rumble:

Never, EVER pass up the chance for a cheesy photo opp:

 After that it was time for the Rock and Roller Coaster. Those are some brave grandparents!

Teddy tried on a rocker wig afterwards and with his black eyes he looked the part!

 We decided to skip Fantasmic this year as we've all seen it so in the afternoon we headed back to BLT for some pool time. I got to meet up with Pam Foster, one of my LLL "imaginary friends". It was so nice to meet her in person!

 That night we went to the Cali Grill. But there were a few casualties. We used to nap in the afternoon but now the kids want to use the time to swim. This guy turtle-shelled 10 minutes into the meal and was sound asleep on the table for about 35 minutes! What manners at the Cali Grill!!

 Tuna 3 ways appetizer. Awesome!

 Teddy's barely hanging on!

 After that we put Teddy and My dad to bed and the rest of us went up to the Top of the World Lounge to watch Wishes. It was really nice, but not nearly as magical as from inside the park. We had 2 great days, but the Marathon Weekend events were about to begin!!!

Disney Marathon Weekend Trip: Days 1&2

As planned I was able to land in Orlando with just enough time to don my Goofy hat and mortify my children. In fact I was so fast that I beat them all to the Magical Express!

We dropped off our stuff and grabbed some lunch at the resort (first cupcake of the trip... YUM!) Then the adults got settled into Bay Lake Tower (BLT) and the kids and I went to pick up our annual passes. The walk to the Magic Kingdom (MK) only took about 6 minutes!

While we were there we decided to play a round of a new game called "Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom". You get these cards and then find hidden portals and use your cards to defeat villans. It's really cool and all 3 of us loved the game. Many of the portals are so well hidden that you could be looking right at one and never know they were there!

Please stand clear of the doors:

We headed back to our villa and picked up the rest of the gang. It was time to go to the Studios and see the Osborne Family Festival of Dancing Lights! But the first the rest of the gang had to get their park tickets.

What a crew!

 

Our arrival day fell on the very last night of the Osborne lights so we were really lucky to get to see them. When they all light up at once it's pretty amazing! Here's the backstory on the lights.

Mema even found the black cat!

We left the Studios and took the boat to Kouzzina.

The food was AMAZING - definitely a new Disney fav... and the kids added another over-the-top dessert to their list of favorites.... design your own cupcake!

Teddy's final masterpiece...

After dinner we were ready to hit the sack so we drove back to the Contemporary. The Mickey wreath was all lit up and the resort looked beautiful!

View of the MK from the top of BLT:

View of the main Contemporary from the top of BLT:

The next day my Mom and Dad decided to take it easy in the morning but Jeff and Papa had a 9am segway tour in Epcot. We got there on time and they got checked in.

While they were doing their tour, Mema and the kids and I rode Mission Space:

....and Soarin'

And the Sum of all Thrills. All with no line! This time Sasha was tall enough to go upside down on this ride so she and I built one doozy of a coaster and then there was still no one at the ride and the cast member asked us if we wanted to ride again! Yes, of course we did! So he sent us on a great jet ride that someone else had designed.

We grabbed some Fast Passes for later and then got to see Jeff and Papa finish up their tour.

Looking good gentlemen!

We ate lunch and rode Test Track with Jeff and Papa as their tour ended just when our fastpass window started. Nice timing!

After that we went back to the Villa for a mid-day break and then grabbed my Mom and Dad and headed back to Epcot for dinner. We ate at Via Napoli, a table service restaurant in Italy with three huge wood-fired ovens. The food was excellent.

Can't go wrong with Italian food!

The funniest thing about the Italy pavillion is that it is all staffed by Italians and they are all gorgeous! In our restaurant it seemed like a bunch of GQ models had all gotten fired and been forced to wait tables. Everyone was thinking the same thing but no one mentioned it until my Mom goes to our waiter "Can we have some more water?..... handsome man?" We all lost it. So I had to grab a shot of the 2 grandmas and our waiters.

After that the plan was to stay for Illuminations but it had started to drizzle and it was a little bit cold. No one wanted to get sick for our races so we decided to head home and save Illuminations for Sunday night. At least we got 2 chances for it. On the way out Teddy cracked us up trying on hats in Mexico. It was a great first 2 days and we were glad that we got to go to bed relatively early on our first 2 nights!

A few days in NC...

 At the last minute I decided to fly down to NC for 3 nights so that I could see my brother and my grammy since we won't be in the USA again until June. I found a super-cheap fare that got me into Orlando 25 minutes after the rest of the gang so I jumped at the chance. The distillery is open for business and Defiant Single-malt is now available in North Carolina. So I got to check in with everything up and running. And I got to help! Here's me giving the ageing whisky it's daily stir...

Making a mash:

 Looks good!

 I got to see several tours in action and I have to say that my brother is an absolute natural when it comes to touring people around and explaining the process. He needs to clone himself so he can lead the tours and his clone can make the whisky! While we were there a team of journalists came out and stayed overnight. They were really nice and they published this article and were nice enough to send me THIS LINK TO IT.

 I also got to run with Ana, who is on a facebook group with me and a whole slew of others running the Disney Princess Half in February. Someone had to show up to protect her from the rednecks that occasionally stalk her on her 5mile loop...

And I got to see Gram! She is about to turn 97!! So lucky to still have a grandparent in this world, and so blessed that I got to stop in and give her a hug.

As usual it was a whirl-wind trip. I showed up Thursday night and then had to get up at 4am on Sunday to make my flight. Onto Orlando!

Rhode Island!

On Dec 28th we boarded a plane for a loooong trip to the USA via Johannesburg and Amsterdam. We landed in Boston and were so glad to be back home!


It started snowing as soon as we landed and by the time we got to Mema and Papa's house it was starting to stick. Perfect timing as it didn't impact our travels at all. And after 4 seasons that were spring, summer, spring, summer the kids were thrilled to see snow!


It finally felt like Christmas, and we had a second Christmas right that afternoon as we all got to visit and open gifts.


By night time we really had some snow!! We were so thankful that such a big dump waited for us to land and then drive down from Boston. Even a few hours later and our trip would have been EPIC. The kids were so excited that they had to go out and play in the snow in the dark.


The next morning the sun had come out and we woke up to a winter wonderland.


We headed over to Auntie Beth and Uncle Rod's house that day to have brunch with our cousins. It was so good to see them!


And after lunch the kids had to head straight outside to play in the snow. Pig pile on Teddy!


It was great to be with family and great to feel the cold, crisp, winter air.


We spent a really great week just relaxing and I got to re-bond with my little buddy. She especially liked my goofy hats...


New Year's Eve dinner... check out little bit at the end of the table. She is hysterical!


We got to see our newest little cousin Stella. The last time we saw her she was only a few weeks old!


And we got to see Grandma and Grampa Cast!


We had a great week, visited the American Girl Store up in Boston, and had an amazing time with all of our cousins.


And of course, Mema fed us some amazing food!!


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