YES, touring Cinderella’s Dream Suite was Amazing!+14 Other Magical Days* Dismeet & Wrap

[KatMark]

Brenda, you truly are the DISmeet queen...I have no doubt.

I think we are missing Paula by mere days in September or we overlap. I can't remember...I have to check with her again when I get done with my June TR.

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Man Brenda, they all just keep coming to see you don't they??? Of course, I totally get it. And more on the way...

And both meet-ees just happen to be part of the upcoming DIS-ember (darn, I totally should have used that in my title... how did I miss that???) TR, so nice foreshadowing there. Plus, I was so fortunate to meet them too!!!

 

[livsmom04]

Finally all caught up with the trip report! I am finished with accounting and I can say I am happy that I am. I thought I would never finish with that class but it's over with and now I have an easy class for the rest of the summer. I am due to graduate in 2016 from Liberty University. I did however add a minor onto my degree in accounting so that I will have a better chance in getting a job when I do graduate.

I am planning on finishing up my trip report within the next few weeks and I am going to begin on a PTR for our September trip because we have a lot of new things we are going to try on that trip.

 

[Leshaface]

What fun DIS meets!

And I agree with KatMark. Definitely the Queen of Meets

 

[MEK]

Yay for more DIS meets! Rachel & Corey are so cute!

Put me on your DL DISmeet list for 2015. I thought we were going at the end of February, but now it looks like it will be early June (after Denny retires in May). And I'm trying to convince Nick (my youngest) to head out with us too. He usually finishes finals around Memorial Day.

 

[peachmermaid]

Yay for dismeets!! Cute pictures. We must meet up again soon, either coast.

 

[amazingact21]

I feel like people are going to start planning DL trips just so they can have a meet up with you guys! It's so wonderful that you get the opportunity to meet/hang out with fellow DISers and get to share the love of Disney with friends who understand and share the passion.

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

Those DIS meet pictures look like so much fun! And now I'm seriously missing DL's Space Mountain - it's definitely my favorite version of the ride, and one of my favorites in Disneyland Park.

I was hoping that all the hype over the Mine Train ride put it over the top. When they re-engineered BTMRR in DL it was fabulous. It still has long lines. Now you have me wondering about this ride.

What? You caved? You are now a proud DVC owner! Congrats! I'll be staying at the VGF, on cash, part of our trip. I've not even toured the villas yet.

I'd love to try DL's renovated Big Thunder Mountain. Previously, I felt it was roughly on par with WDW's (with DLP's actually beating both of them), but DL's might be #1 right now. In comparison, the Mine Train is extremely smooth, and it has some great animatronics - it's just a bit short.

And how awesome that you'll be trying out VGF! Poly and GF were always our two favorites when I was younger, and while I still think the villa building is ugly on the outside, the villas themselves look great.

 

[teekathepony]

Wow, more Dismeets! You guys rocks. Love it! Love all the pics from your meets too.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

 

[DaveinFallsChurch]

Looking at your DISmeets and DL is getting me excited for August! Only 43 more days to go but who's counting?

 

[happy tink]

Hi Brenda!

Just wanted to say, I read every word and enjoyed your TR, it was great!

I am a big Disney fan, always have been. I was born and raised in San Diego. My grandmother and I went to Disneyland 5 - 7 times per year. I grew up during the E ticket days, meaning I get the Andy in Mayberry reference.

I live about 1 1/2 hours from DLR, my 13 year old son and I have been AP holders for years. I'm in the process of planning our third WDW adventure, December 5 - 14.

Thank you for sharing your magic!

Linda

 

[emmysmommy]

Two DISMeets?! How fun! And a "Via Napoli" in Disneyland! That is reason #35843947529769293058 why I need to go. Hopefully next summer.

Thank you Brenda! And yes, I most certainly am. I just started and I'd love it if you followed along: http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3298004

Get her the vanilla one! You really don't taste Pineapple, at all. It's just very sweet Vanilla. I mean, I cannot stand pineapple. Ever since I devoured most of my mom's pineapple souffle she made one time, I was just done and it makes me gag now (nothing bad happened, I just had SOOOO much). Really though, if I liked the basic vanilla one, I'm sure Em will like it too.

Hi Timmy! Yep, think VN but without Italian speaking waiters! It's the same company that owns both restaurants I've heard.

Thanks for sharing your TR link! I finally joined.

I'm filing away your recommendation! Heck, I may need more than one next trip anyway.

Be sure to let me know when you visit DL!

I am a little latd to the game here but I am finally all caught up! Subbing

Hi Jessica! Thanks for joining in. It's never too late! I'm glad you're here.

Brenda, you truly are the DISmeet queen...I have no doubt.

I think we are missing Paula by mere days in September or we overlap. I can't remember...I have to check with her again when I get done with my June TR.

I've got some serious competition with you and a few others here. Let's see.... how many did you have just your last trip alone? You have your own fan club Kathy.

I think you miss Paula as well. She's there either at the very end of September or starting the first of October.

Man Brenda, they all just keep coming to see you don't they??? Of course, I totally get it. And more on the way...

And both meet-ees just happen to be part of the upcoming DIS-ember (darn, I totally should have used that in my title... how did I miss that???) TR, so nice foreshadowing there. Plus, I was so fortunate to meet them too!!!

Nooooo, not coming to see me! Otherwise they wouldn't need to purchase park tickets! I'm looking forward to seeing Dee and Alicia this week and then Dave next month!

You may have returned the favor for giving me a much better Dec. TR title! Credit would certainly go where it is due.

Coincidently you are getting to your last night for your December trip when I'm at my last night for our August trip.

Finally all caught up with the trip report! I am finished with accounting and I can say I am happy that I am. I thought I would never finish with that class but it's over with and now I have an easy class for the rest of the summer. I am due to graduate in 2016 from Liberty University. I did however add a minor onto my degree in accounting so that I will have a better chance in getting a job when I do graduate.

I am planning on finishing up my trip report within the next few weeks and I am going to begin on a PTR for our September trip because we have a lot of new things we are going to try on that trip.

Glad to hear that it is downhill for you now with school. I could use more of an accounting background for some areas of my job like some of my staff. It is never a bad thing to have that knowledge.

I need to get caught up with your TR! How exciting that your next trip just a couple months away! I'm curious to see what is on your must-do list.

What fun DIS meets!

And I agree with KatMark. Definitely the Queen of Meets.

I'm excited to get to meet the cutie-pie Leshaface of the Boards this week!!!!

Yay for more DIS meets! Rachel & Corey are so cute!

Put me on your DL DISmeet list for 2015. I thought we were going at the end of February, but now it looks like it will be early June (after Denny retires in May). And I'm trying to convince Nick (my youngest) to head out with us too. He usually finishes finals around Memorial Day.

Corey and Rachel are adorable!!

YAY!!!! I look forward to meeting you and your family next year! I know if I planned my WDW trips better we would meet up but this is even better.

Yay for dismeets!! Cute pictures. We must meet up again soon, either coast.

Hey Jennifer! I agree! That or Michael has family in the burbs near you.

I feel like people are going to start planning DL trips just so they can have a meet up with you guys! It's so wonderful that you get the opportunity to meet/hang out with fellow DISers and get to share the love of Disney with friends who understand and share the passion.

I'm truly grateful that we've had an opportunity to meet some wonderful Disers both in FL and CA. No one books a trip to see me; however, I appreciate anyone that takes the time out of their vacation to get together. This is really a great community of people that I've been blessed to form some great friendships through this Board.

Those DIS meet pictures look like so much fun! And now I'm seriously missing DL's Space Mountain - it's definitely my favorite version of the ride, and one of my favorites in Disneyland Park.

I'd love to try DL's renovated Big Thunder Mountain. Previously, I felt it was roughly on par with WDW's (with DLP's actually beating both of them), but DL's might be #1 right now. In comparison, the Mine Train is extremely smooth, and it has some great animatronics - it's just a bit short.

And how awesome that you'll be trying out VGF! Poly and GF were always our two favorites when I was younger, and while I still think the villa building is ugly on the outside, the villas themselves look great.

Hands down BTMRR at DL beats any of them. The did a great job with the re-furb. And the mine explosion is a perfect touch. I'll see for myself how short that Mine train is shortly.

I'm looking forward to our next trip.... for more than just Mine Train and VGF!

Wow, more Dismeets! You guys rocks. Love it! Love all the pics from your meets too.

Sent from my iPad using DISBoards

Thanks Wendy! I love meeting DISers! Hopefully our paths will cross some day.

Looking at your DISmeets and DL is getting me excited for August! Only 43 more days to go but who's counting?

Hi Dave! I'm pretty excited about 43 days from now as well. Definitely count that one down!

Hi Brenda!

Just wanted to say, I read every word and enjoyed your TR, it was great!

I am a big Disney fan, always have been. I was born and raised in San Diego. My grandmother and I went to Disneyland 5 - 7 times per year. I grew up during the E ticket days, meaning I get the Andy in Mayberry reference.

I live about 1 1/2 hours from DLR, my 13 year old son and I have been AP holders for years. I'm in the process of planning our third WDW adventure, December 5 - 14.

Thank you for sharing your magic!

Linda

Hi Linda! Thanks for reading!! You are from Patrick Warburton's neck of the woods. One of my DH's business partners has been a long time friend of Patrick since he grew up in the OC.

Sounds like our paths could easily cross at DL!

Ohhh those dates for your next WDW trip are almost my exact dates last year. I will miss a holiday visit this year.

 

[emmysmommy]

Friday August 30, 2013: Day 15, Part 1​

May I take this opportunity to thank anyone that has hung in there for the last 10 months of this Trip Report and to anyone who thought the end would NEVER come! We have FINALLY arrived at our last day – Day 15 of the trip. People have had babies in the time that it has taken me to get through this TR – looking at you Lori (Vettegirl) congratulations on the arrival of Alexander! And others have posted two more TRs and PTRs in the time that it has taken me to get through this – looking at you Kathy (KatMark!)

Indeed we are on the last day…. Let’s wrap this long ago toured Dream Suite TR up shall we?

Despite such a late night, I was awake a little after 6am. Darn! I wanted to sleep longer but as they say, “there’s no sleeping in Disney”…. People, we need a new saying. I was exhausted. The sky didn’t start to get pretty pink and show clues of sunrise until around 6:40am. Once again, I took more than a few photos. The boats on the lake were making their way to wherever it was the boats needed to go… the skippers don’t have signs on the boats like the buses so I can only guess that they have a specific destination in mind!

In between taking sunrise photos I was packing last minute items and getting things ready to call bell service. I called the airline check-in desk and asked to have our boarding passes printed. Since we were flying Southwest there were no bag fees. They delivered our boarding passes to our room before too long. Nice!

Since Em was still sleeping I decided to deal with delivering our bags to airline bag check after breakfast. We had until 1pm to get that done so there was no rush. Having a later flight made it less rushed and more relaxed with our morning. I try to avoid the earlier return flights for the following reasons:

1. More time in WDW!
2. I don’t have to get our bags downstairs at the crack of dawn to airline check-in.
3. We can squeeze out one more Disney dining meal if we plan it right – very important stuff!
4. Again....More time spent in Disney! I can’t emphasize that one enough!

With the timing of the baggage check decided, it was time to focus on breakfast. We had an 8:30ADR at Crystal Palace. I figured dining at a great character breakfast for our last morning makes the reality of leaving in a few short hours more tolerable.

We left to walk over to MK a little after 8am going through the Event entrance since it was before park open.

We posed with Roy and Minnie.

While on Main Street we saw Carlos, the nice CM who had helped me time the burst of fireworks from DawM.

And then, farther up Main Street… there he was…. The best CM to end our trip! Alex was stationed at his usual spot at the end of Main Street messing with families and being his crazy funny self. Watching him perform his magic with other park guests is half the fun.

Bringing Sexy Back

Then some of Alex’s best poses…

Selfies with my camera were well done…

And then he posed us….

Oh and look who showed up. He must have had his Brenda radar tuned in. He’s got his sad face since we told him we were leaving in a few hours.

We eventually made it to Crystal Palace where we were checked in for breakfast. After having skipped this last trip I was glad to be back. (For continuity, this is so confusing since we’ve been back a couple times since this TR!) You can read my dining review here if you wish to see us pose with cute adorable characters while indulging in the best breakfast buffet at WDW! Wait.....Executive decision here, you get to see us pose with adorable characters even if you don’t read that dining review!

Tigger love!

Piglet love!

Continued Next Post

​

 

[emmysmommy]

Friday August 30, 2013: Day 15, Part 2​

I wanted to troll for more characters since this was our last morning but we had luggage to address so we moved towards the exit. On the way out we stopped to pull some FPs to see Mickey. Em used one machine and I used the other. We have a problem Houston!

The machine that I used was for the Princesses. Evidence that someone used the wrong FP machine. (In my defense, they were right next to each other….

Forget that they are clearly marked with what characters you will be seeing!)

There was a nice CM there who gave us a FP for one each for the Princesses and Mickey. The times overlapped so if we planned it just right we would be fine.

Ooops!

Mary was out seeing guests and she had almost a non-existent line so we scored one more character photo op than planned. The poor gal was dripping sweat from her hairline. I wanted to take a hanky and wipe her brow but that would be creepy so we simply posed and smiled for a photo instead. She didn’t skip a beat being in character and never let on how miserable she must have been. Kuddos to you CMs in the blazing August weather!

Talking with my hands… not sure what that gesture was all about??

We took the monorail back to CR/BLT. We called bell service for assistance getting our bags to the airline check-in desk since we wanted to take everything down at once including our carry-on bags that we’d check with bell service.

At the airline desk, our bags were sufficiently underweight at 46.4 lbs. Whew! I’m always relieved when we come in under weight. We checked our few carry-on items and had 5 more hours before our DME bus arrived.

We stopped to chat with the greeter Carl and his side-kick Alfredo. We see Carl every time we stay at BLT/CR.

We headed back to MK and wanted to take the monorail one last time. Up to the 4th floor we went and hopped on the resort monorail and made it to the MK by 10:20am. It was time to use our FP to the Princesses. We walked straight in despite a 25 min. stand-by time. Note: This was before they moved the princesses over to their very own hall.

First was Rapunzel. She’s adorable! And chatty and ohhh so perfect.
Look at Rapunzel’s face.

Then Aurora. I love the new dress.
She seemed mildly interested in whatever I was saying – with my hands!

I must have missed the memo for the pose.

And finally – Cinderella. I asked if glass slippers were difficult to dance in and although she wasn’t willing to dis her Fairy Godmother, I could tell that she completely agreed with me on that one. I’m sure the new FGM designs for next year will include less glass and more man made materials.

After finishing up with our Princess meet and greet it was beyond the window for one of the Mickey FPs. We could have asked nicely if they’d let us in but we decided to move on up Main Street since Em wanted to go to Tomorrowland for some rides.

Of course one of the 16 daily DawM shows were underway!

Thanks to my personal DAwM photo tips I was able to nail the burst of fireworks at the end.

First ride, Monster’s Inc, Laugh Floor. They had recently incorporated Monster’s University into the show. The guy that felt the urge to dance did a great job. Much better than my hubby who had amazing will-power and refused.

We must have sufficiently filled the laugh canister since they allowed us to leave before the next show was scheduled to begin. That Roz can be very charming when she wants to be I’m sure.

Next, Stitch’s Great Escape. We survived a level 3 prisoner escape with only being belched on and spit upon. This may just be the classiest attraction in WDW!

Oops! This guy “oiled” himself! See, classy!

Continued Next Post​

 

[emmysmommy]

Friday August 30, 2013: Day 15, Part 3​

It was nearing our lunch reservation at Plaza Restaurant at 1:30pm. See my dining review here. I will say that I like what has become a tradition of having our last lunch be Plaza Restaurant. Such great classic Disney food. And those fries… yum!

Fries with a side of onion and bacon!

If you weren’t craving a banana split, I bet you are now!

We posed for our last Main Street photo….

As we were walking down the street we noticed a group of female CMs that were dancing and singing along with another version of DawM show. It was adorable. I loved their carefree, fun-loving attitude. What a great last memory of Main Street that trip!

See ya real soon! It would be 97 days to be exact.

Time for that last monorail ride! And then the sad wait for the bus pick up. Our DME bus arrived and there were only a couple other people for our pick up.

We settled ourselves at the front of the bus and I found a way to occupy my time for a few minutes! Look what I can do!!

The lines to get through security at MCO were crazy long. It took as long to get through security as it does to see Anna and Elsa! Sheesh! TSA pre-approved is the only way to fast pass that line. (spoiler alert, someone from our little travel party was TSA pre-approved every flight since! And…. It wasn’t me! I met Em at the gate but on the way I stopped to pick up a sandwich to take with us since our layover in Denver wasn’t going to be long.
When we boarded the plane we sat in the very last row again. The flight was full except for the seat right beside me. Was it something I said?? I suppose everyone boarding the plane grabbed a seat before they could reach the back. It worked out nicely for us since we could stretch out a little.
Empty seat – such a rare thing now days!

Remember early on in my TR when I mentioned sitting in the back of the plane and the flight crew…. Yeah, probably not since that was like a year ago! Anyhoo… Em immediately recognized the flight attendant, Joe, from 2 weeks earlier when we flew to Orlando. We said hi and chatted briefly before they had to get busy with their flight duties.

We stopped in Denver but didn’t have to get off the plane since the same plane continued to Orange County. The flight attendant Joe chatted with us during the lay over as they would continue to be our flight crew.

When we were underway again I told Joe that I had 4 drink coupons that I wasn’t going to use before they expired. I wanted to “buy” drinks for the first 3 people that ordered a cocktail on that flight. This way I could get rid of the coupons. I myself ordered a Bloody Mary. In the end he wouldn’t take my drink coupons. He gave the drinks away on the house. Very nice!!

A cocktail with adorable airplane cookies:

We finally arrived back in OC around 10:30! Home sweet home!

Next Up: Wrap up and highlights. Part 1 here.

DaveinFallsChurch DISmeet here. ​

 

[FancyNancy]

Looks like you had a wonderful last day! That was so thoughtful of you to want to use your drink coupons for others. I love little random acts of kindness like that!

 

[annie170]

Yes, this has taken awhile, but I've read reports that have taken longer. At least you finished what you started and didn't abandon this altogether, so good for you!!!

Crystal Palace is an awesome last breakfast in Disney! Can't beat that puffed french toast!

I have often felt for the poor CMs in those unbearably hot costumes. I hope they get ample water and cooling off breaks.

I love how often you change clothes. Do you pack enough for two or three outfits a day? That had to be a lot of luggage for fifteen days.

 

[smile4stamps]

Wo-Hoo!! Completion!! Looks like a good last day! We've never done Stitch!! I honestly don't even think about it lol.

Hmmm.... I seem to remember those drink tickets finding a home!!

 

[DonaldDoleWhip]

Beautiful sunrise pictures - BLT definitely has some incredible views, and it looks like you definitely made the most of them!

I'm impressed that you managed to sit through Stitch's Great Escape (although I guess they restrain you, so you don't have a choice). That show was so much better when it was a terrifying (yet entertaining) Alien Encounter without a movie tie-in. They should have moved it to DHS or something instead of 'classing' it up with Stitch.

We know Alfredo! We met him when staying at CR a few years ago and he was very nice (and we saw him again at CR last July). We don't know nearly as many cast members as you do (we have a few friends scattered around certain resorts), so it's cool to recognize someone you met.

Nice job finishing this up and replying to everyone along the way! These reports can be so much work, so it's impressive that you've completed this while still keeping up with a dining report.

 

[MonsterWDWmom]

Awesome last day! I think a breakfast at MK before rope drop is the perfect way to end. Crystal Palace breakfast, I cannot wait to expirence it

I will be looking for your next TR!!