Well, that didn't go just quite as planned ..... an Aug/Sept 17 Update 07/12

[we"reofftoneverland]

Our kids are enjoying your advent calendars so much and open them daily right alongside their Lego and Playmobil calendars! Thank you! (And your part of the world! Lol) They especially love "the funny hat man." They also enjoy seeing the food and yell out whether we have ever eaten there or not. Even though we go to wdw every year, and it seems like we have gone to many wdw restaurants, you are helping us realize we still have many left to try.

 

[Rista1313]

A bit late, but following along!

 

[MAGICFOR2]

It is a shame people Re inconsiderant, an a shame the CM'S don' do more about it, for the price you pay. I' glad Tom managed to get such great shots anyway!

 

[KathyM2]

Trying to get caught up! The dessert party looked great!! I'm surprised though that you still had to get there so early to get a table? Were there enough tables for everyone but you just wanted to get a good one?? The food looked really good though...that would be dinner for me lol Love your resort pics and good score on the room with a view!

 

[Tink2Day]

You should have yelled 'down in front' to that rude woman....sheesh.
Love the calendars. Tom's hat marathon is a riot. (Hats). I loved the cupcake hat!!!

 

[franandaj]

Pushy people are really annoying, but at least the fireworks were high up and you could still see. Nice that you got in a few rides with a small wait afterwards. I'm not surprised that you both fell asleep so quickly.

 

[OurLaughingPlace]

Just read your review recently. So enjoyable to ready! Thank you for sharing your vacation with us

 

[dizneeat]

Tom and I
would like to wish all of our friends
here on the DISboards

​

 

[kde175]

I'm a little late to the party again...but am really enjoying following along.

 

[dizneeat]

When will I ever be able to stop to apologize for not posting more updates? Sorry for the long absense (AGAIN), but I truly hope that I can squeeze in some updates while I am still enjoying my Christmas holiday.

Wonderful pictures of HEA

Thank you, we much enjoyed watching it and I am going to try for another dessert party next summer.

Not only did it block our view but the breeze kept blowing the balloon in my face
I got up to see but they had left their table for food so I moved their stroller back beside their table

What are people thinking these days? It's like no one cares about the people around them any more.
Well done taking matters into your own hands and pushing back the stroller!

I love how close Tinkerbell comes to you when she’s flying over

It was awesome to see her come so close.

Love riding the Jungle Cruise at night

It is so much fun, isn't it? And especially during EMHs when the skippers are no longer sticking to their scripts.

Awesome photos of the dessert party! Everything looked awesome Can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip!

Thank you! The desserts were as good as they looked and there were plenty to try and grab seconds of. We had such a great trip, even though some things didn't quite work out as planned, as you will see lateron.

Gorgeous fireworks pictures I'm still upset about that lady standing in front. I can't imagine being so rude.

yo

Thanks, Pamela. I think most of us were more shocked about her walking up front than wanting to say something. I was just waiting for more people to join her.

Lovely to get in a few rides during EMH with not bad lines.

So much nicer in the evening, when it is not boiling hot. We love doing EMHs as you know and it was nice to start off the vacation with a little extra magic.

Mom and I are very much enjoying the advent calendars. Please tell Tom they're fabulous!

He loves doing them and it makes him VERY happy to hear they are so well received. Hope you liked the 25th of December ones.

Our kids are enjoying your advent calendars so much and open them daily right alongside their Lego and Playmobil calendars! Thank you!

Tom loved hearing that. He loves making the calendars, so it is great to hear that they are put to good use.

Even though we go to wdw every year, and it seems like we have gone to many wdw restaurants, you are helping us realize we still have many left to try.

Don't "worry" we stay for so long each trip and we always find some new places to eat. Let's count it as another reason to go back to WDW.

 

[dizneeat]

A bit late, but following along!

Never to late to join! I am very happy to have you here.

It is a shame people Re inconsiderant, an a shame the CM'S don' do more about it, for the price you pay. I' glad Tom managed to get such great shots anyway!

It was good to see that most people were as surprised as we were that someone would get up and stand in front of everyone. Not sure what CMs would have been able to do, it would have been even more people standing in your view and they were busily cleaning up the place as well.

Trying to get caught up! The dessert party looked great!! I'm surprised though that you still had to get there so early to get a table? Were there enough tables for everyone but you just wanted to get a good one??

It is a great event, we really enjoyed it, apart from the woman standing in front of everyone. Being there early gives you the greater choice of tables. It's a first come first served basis and the earlier you arrive the better your table. We were sitting front row .......... until the woman appeared.

The food looked really good though...that would be dinner for me lol Love your resort pics and good score on the room with a view!

There were so many really yummy desserts and Tom sampled their cheeses and fruit as well. He is not a huge fan of all things sweet and comes along for my sake.
The room at the GF was really nice and just where we wanted to be, only downside was that it was WAY away from the parking lot.

You should have yelled 'down in front' to that rude woman....sheesh.

It crossed my mind ............. but I bit my tongue.

Love the calendars. Tom's hat marathon is a riot. (Hats). I loved the cupcake hat!!!

Thanks for letting us know. Tom loves to hear that people like his calendars. He takes great pride in searching around to find more hats to model for the next calendar.

 

[dizneeat]

Pushy people are really annoying, but at least the fireworks were high up and you could still see.

Well said. It's just that nowadays more and more people act like they are the only ones in a place, with no thought of others who are there too. Waiting for fireworks on Main Street comes to mind and then people are putting their "not so little ones" on their shoulders and block your view. We now very seldom watch the fireworks from inside the MK, BLT and California Grill are our new viewing spots.

Nice that you got in a few rides with a small wait afterwards.

It was a great way to start our vacation, riding our favourite rides to get us in vacation mode was awesome.

I'm not surprised that you both fell asleep so quickly.

Falling asleep is not the problem, getting out of bed is. But for the first few days it is easy as we have not ajusted to the time change.

Just read your review recently. So enjoyable to ready! Thank you for sharing your vacation with us

Glad to hear that you enjoy coming along. Since we have been counting down together for this trip (and are doing so for the next one) I am more than happy that you decided to join us.

I'm a little late to the party again...but am really enjoying following along.

Never too late to join us. I am glad you found us and are following along.

 

[dizneeat]

Day 3, August 24

Pain and fun and laughter - part 1

Even though we had only gotten to bed around midnight we were up by 6.30 again.
Dawn just started to break and we got our camera ready for the sun to come up. It took a while until both cameras no longer were full of “fog” being taken outside into the already hot and humid air.

But after taking the early morning photos we went back to bed for a while as we had planned on a lazy morning. Around 8am we finally got up, took showers and shortly before 9am we headed to Gasparilla Grill for breakfast.

We looked around, checked what they were offering and how everything was set up and then ordered some breakfast. Tom got us some Diet Coke after we had sat down, while I was supposed to take photos of the food. Turns out my camera was back in the room, but thankfully Tom had his mobile phone with him, so we do have proof of breakfast.

Tom had ordered the

Breakfast Wrap, egg, sausage, potato hash, and white cheddar with tater tots while I stuck with what I already knew, the

Croissant Egg Sandwich, scrambled egg, cheese, and bacon with tater tots. Both were your typical Disney breakfast items and portions were huge, so we both could not finish them. Breakfast done we slowly walked back to our room. We had planned on spending the morning at the pool, but we still needed some items, so we just grabbed our bags and walked over to the car and off we went offsite.

We drove to the nearest Walgreens and did our shopping, then returned to the Grand Floridian

with just enough time to change our shirts before having to leave again to meet our friends Pamela and Jeanette.
Once in the car we both remembered that again we had forgotten to put on sunscreen, but Tom had been clever and put some into his backpack. So when we arrived at Hollywood Studios

and had been directed towards the far end of the row for parking the car, we got out and stopped by the car for a few minutes to apply the sunscreen. Tom sprayed it on himself, while I had him spray it on me. We were already a little late and I very carelessly rubbed it onto my face ….. and into my eyes. Didn’t start right away, but I was already crying my eyes out when we got to the tram. The sunscreen in my eyes was burning. I kept wiping my eyes with a tissue, hoping the burning would stop soon. The tram travelled to the entrance and we went through bag check, the metal detector and into the park and I was still crying, trying to keep my eyes open. To get out of the sun, which hurt my eyes as well, we went through the shops and it helped me a little bit.
But we could not stay for too long as we had decided to meet up with our friends at the Brown Derby Lounge, the outside bar at the Hollywood Brown Derby. When we arrived we were about 5 minutes late, but we didn’t see them and headed for a double table under two umbrellas. We were just sitting down when I heard Pamela’s voice. There was quite a bit of hugging going on and then she finally told us that she and her mother Jeanette had gotten an inside table.
I told her that I had not known that the lounge had inside tables and it didn’t really, it had been a misunderstanding. But now we had a table in a nice air conditioned room and my eyes would hopefully soon stop producing streams of tears. We explained what had happened and I kept wiping my eyes. A server came by and took our orders for drinks and when he handed us the menu it was clear that this was the regular lunch menu, not the lounge one. Well, we did not mind as we had a lot of fun, even with me still silently crying because of my burning eyes. There was a lot to catch up on so it took a while until we were ready to order. We had already snacked on their

rolls and

butter when we finally did. Tom ordered a

Bloody Mary, Absolut peppar vodka and bloody Mary mix garnished with house-made pickles, pickled green beans, celery and olives, which he had had before, while I didn’t even have to look at the drinks menu. What I was looking forward to was the

Grapefruit Cake Martini, Deep Eddy's ruby red grapefruit vodka, Stoli vanilla vodka and a splash of cream with a vanilla wafer rim. All of us had decided on an appetizer and maybe dessert, so Tom got the

Togarashi-crusted Ahi Tuna, house-made kimchi, sesame jasmine rice, sake and ginger-soy glaze, while I got an appetizer size, or at least I thought it was an appetizer size

Famous Cobb Salad with finely chopped greens, turkey breast, egg, bacon, tomatoes, crumbled blue cheese, avocado, chives and Cobb dressing. Tom’s looked like an appetizer, while mine was huge.
I was still crying and my eyes were still burning, so I sat at the table with my eyes half closed, I guess I must have been quite a sight. I was only able to eat about half of my salad and then I had to excuse myself and speed walk over to the ladies room to splash a lot of water into my eyes to ease the pain. I think I spent about 10 minutes splashing water onto my eyes and drying it off again, and while I did this I knew there was only one thing that would really help. Tom and I needed to get back to the resort and I needed to put some eye drops in and close my eyes for a few minutes to stop the burning sensation.
When I finally returned to the table I told Pamela and Jeanette about my decision and told them that I hoped they would not mind using the fast passes, we all had while we returned to our resort to get my eyes sorted out. I was very surprised when they told us that they would come with us. But we had one more thing we did not want to give up, riding Toy Story Mania. I had make FPs for all of us far in advance and we had been lucky enough to push our Tower of Terror one back to later that day, no such luck for TSM though. So we strolled over to the ride and had so much fun in line

and then during the ride, even if I was drying my eyes in frequent intervals. Once we got off the ride we headed to the exit. We all slowly made our way back to our car and off we went back to the Grand Floridian.
Again, we parked at the self-parking, then crossed the main building and tracked over to Conch Key.
Back in the air conditioned room we all relaxed, I had some meds put into my eyes and rested my eyes for a few minutes until I felt better and then it was time to present our gifts for Pamela and Jeanette to them. We had some drinks out of the fridge and just sat there and chatted. And chatted and chatted some more. Time got away from us and when we finally looked at our watches we only had 25 minutes until our reservation at Mama Melrose.

To be continued ........
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[Lesley Wake]

We were already a little late and I very carelessly rubbed it onto my face ….. and into my eyes. Didn’t start right away, but I was already crying my eyes out when we got to the tram. The sunscreen in my eyes was burning. I kept wiping my eyes with a tissue, hoping the burning would stop soon. The tram travelled to the entrance and we went through bag check, the metal detector and into the park and I was still crying, trying to keep my eyes open. To get out of the sun, which hurt my eyes as well, we went through the shops and it helped me a little bit.

OMG-thats the worst! I definitely managed to get sunscreen in my eyes multiple times at Disney (though I tend to rub my eyes a lot). Eventually I just decided to sit in the shade for a bit and think of something sad so I would start crying and get it all out! Because it was Disney, I went with the ending of Toy Story 3 and the part in Lilo and Stitch where Stitch is in the woods alone!

 

[Pinkocto]

When will I ever be able to stop to apologize for not posting more updates? Sorry for the long absense (AGAIN), but I truly hope that I can squeeze in some updates while I am still enjoying my Christmas holiday.

No apologies necessary

He loves doing them and it makes him VERY happy to hear they are so well received. Hope you liked the 25th of December ones.

They were beautiful, mom and I feel very special and honored to be included please tell Tom thank you.

 

[Pinkocto]

Love this update! We were so excited to see you both. Totally my fault about the confusion about the restaurant. Sorry about that. We felt so bad that your eyes were hurting

I love that picture of us in Toy Story.

 

[MAGICFOR2]

Hi Karin! No need to apologize. We are all busy and we'll be here whenever you are able. I'm so sorry you got the sunscreen in your eyes. I know that burning and tearing up is the worst. Looks like lunch was nice anyway. I'm glad you were able to make the most of your day. It was nice of Pamela and Jeanette to go back to the room with you. I will be busy this weekend, Jim is coming back for a visit, and we have lots of family times planned. Happy New Year to you!

 

[Dizly]

Thanks for sharing your trip

 

[dizneeat]

Wishing all of our DISfriends a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

May 2018 only bring you the most magical experiences!

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[Pinkocto]

Happy New Year!!!!!!