Where are we, Jersey? Bye, Phoenicians! An August 2017 TR * NEW DINING/TR LINKS*

ladies, can we talk SPARKLE SKIRTS???

I don't have any info for you but I'm just wondering if you are talking about the running skirts? I think we saw these at a race expo...and they are awesome if they are what I'm thinking they are...I hope you get some!
 
Maybe this will get your feet wet for solo trips!
It just might! I love the idea of doing a completely solo trip in my head, just not sure how I'd like it in real life lol

My "possibly not a solo trip this spring" turned into almost definitely a solo trip and I'm actually kinda relieved :laughing:
::yes:: This seems to be the consensus among people who regularly go solo, they're more comfortable going that way.

Shame, shame, shame on you. What, do you have a life outside of this world or something? :P
:blush: I try not to, but these other people who think they live with me keep bothering me to do stuff for them :rolleyes:

So sad, though on the good news front glad to hear that you could tell Steve you were right :P
Always a good day (and a normal one) when you can tell your DH you're right :thumbsup2

I've been dying to know what this was and I had assumed it was something one of the boys said. I would have been cracking up right along with ya :-)
:laughing: Yup, we would have been making lots of inappropriate jokes I'm sure :P

We just happened to be in Disney when they closed the Maelstrom ride. We hadn't ridden it in ages and I had gotten a fastpass for it at 60 days out. When it turned out they were closing the ride all the fps were gone very quickly and standby lines were very long. I got lucky this time. :)
I was sad I didn't get to ride Maelstrom one final time, I do think they gave a little more warning about that closure than they did for GMR but not much. I still miss it! I had more of an attachment to GMR but thought Maelstrom fit much better in Norway than FEA........

I don't have any info for you but I'm just wondering if you are talking about the running skirts? I think we saw these at a race expo...and they are awesome if they are what I'm thinking they are...I hope you get some!
Yes that's them I believe! Although being #notarunner I could be wrong lol. I still haven't ordered since I tend to do things last minute but I plan on it!
 
Although being #notarunner I could be wrong lol. I still haven't ordered since I tend to do things last minute but I plan on it!

I was thinking if you wanted to try them on, you could see if there are any races coming up near you that have a race expo that they would be at...just a thought :)) Or just wing it! But they are awesome and would be perfect for park hopping as well as running lol
 


Now before I move on -
ladies, can we talk SPARKLE SKIRTS???
Sure. I’ll just go watch the hockey. Let me know when you’re done :P

I know for many of the younger generation the black and white movies didn't "do" anything for them, and one of the reasons this attraction wasn't popular with some people is because it hadn't been updated, but what made this attraction for me was that it had all the older stuff.
I can’t say I’m really a fan of black and white movies, but I do appreciate them. The Great Movie wasn’t at the top of my list but I did enjoy it and I like the fact that movie history was being preserved somehow.

It felt weird walking off the ride. Chris returned to me and said, "so we'll never ride this again, will we?" I said no and he said "wow". Yeah kid, I know.
I’ve never been on an attraction on the last day. I imagine it must have been sad. But a great story to tell, that you rode it one last time.
 
Hi guys! My kids got out early today because we're supposed to get 8" of snow tomorrow. You read that right, they had early dismissal TODAY, because it was flurrying barely at all and we're supposed to have 8" starting at midnight tonight into tomorrow afternoon. So now I'm chilling watching "This Is Us" and then I'll watch some "Ink Master" while I write up a post, because there's a 99.9% chance 3 of the 4 of us don't have to get up in the morning!
Before I start I want to share a couple pictures from last Friday night when Ricky was inducted into the Italian Honor Society at school, or as us real Italians call it-

"LA SOCIETA"

IMG_7885.JPG


IMG_7887.JPG

IMG_7888.JPG

I took them with my phone and unfortunately most are blurry, sorry! Those things they're holding are candles. After all the kids got their certificates they lit each other's candles, much to the horror of Ricky and his friend Frank (standing next to him in the matching clothes :laughing:) Frank made his dad switch ties with him when he saw Ricky so at least they weren't both wearing bowties! Ricky whined a bit about agreeing to the whole thing but we told him how good it'll look on his college applications so he said since Frank was doing it, he would. Whatever it takes! The ceremony was actually really nice and the best part was all the Italian food and pastries afterward.

LET'S DO THIS!
After our elevator brought us back safely we went to watch something we never had any interest in before. Actually most of us still had no interest in watching the SW show, but Ricky had recently watched a couple of the movies and wanted to see it. We had a little bit to wait so we found a seat in the shade and the kids did something out of the ordinary :rolleyes:

IMG_7235.JPG

Not sure why Chris is making that face, maybe it's a "Oh no my battery is dying, whatever will I do then??" look.
Soon the show started and people came out whose names I was clueless about:


IMG_7237.JPG
I do know some of these old school guys, though! I know, some of you are laughing and others have seriously decided not to be my DISfriend anymore:

IMG_7248.JPG

Our takeaway? Chris and Steve had none. I think it's probably a really cool show for SW fans. Ricky, as a new-to-SW-not-really-a-"fan"-yet, thought it was just "eh". But I think the movies he'd watched were older maybe? Because he said he didn't know quite a few of the characters also but knew the ones I did, like Chewbacca, C3PO, R2D2, Darth Vader, etc.

Watching the show had put us very close to our lunch ADR time; in fact we got there about 4 minutes late which is pretty early for how I run but puts Chris and Steve on edge. We still had to wait about 10 minutes before being told to:


IMG_7251.JPG

Believe me, as cold as it was in there I'm pretty sure most headlights were definitely on! This was our 2nd time to Sci Fi and our 1st was probably 3 years ago. The boys vaguely remembered the old movies so we all enjoyed them, and I especially enjoyed the old commercials and advertisements.

When we'd finished lunch we bid a fond farewell to Old Hollywood - or what's left of it in Hollywood Studios - in order to visit one more park before returning to WL and the dreaded departing Magical Express. We were headed here

IMG_7266.JPG

Hi man in front! And our purpose was dessert which we'd skipped at lunch. I had yet to get one of my WS faves this trip and no way was I leaving without it, so first up was a stop in Norway for my beloved schoolbread:

IMG_7260.JPG

Chris got this also but Ricky had a hankerin' for something that had been new to him earlier in the trip so a stop in Japan was next:

IMG_7264.JPG

More kakigori! My notes suck for this day and I'm too lazy right now to check the menu but I think this was a rainbow flavor or something similar that mixed more than one flavor together. And nice sweat-hair, Ricky!

We walked around and did some last minute shopping before taking that second to last bus ride back to our resort. We gave ourselves enough time to change since it wouldn't be 99 degrees and 210% humidity on the plane and after that we sat in the club lounge for a little while. Since it was the "wine and cheese" hour(s) we may have had some more snacks..........and then just like that, our trip was over.

I have no more pics and our actual flight home was fine and uneventful but I'll share this with you. Our flight was originally supposed to leave at 8:30pm and we were flying into Hartford CT. Naturally we get to MCO at 5:15; we see right away that our flight is delayed until 9:30 so we now have just over 4 hours to wait :faint: We aren't really hungry yet so we sit. And sit. And we're freezing. And then we get food and it's only 6:45 and we see that while no flights into NY (remember that's where we live) are delayed, our flight now gets delayed until 11. Which means we'll get in to CT at 2 and home by 3:30. OMG nobody was happy including mom and we were ALL showing how miserable we were! We decided well, let's just go through security what can we do, and once we go through our flight was delayed until midnight :rotfl: Seriously!! Just our flight, no other flights from surrounding airports! Finally we found out that the plane coming for us from JFK had major problems so they were "looking for" another plane to come get us......I can't make this up. So comforting, right? I mean I'm glad they weren't sending a plane with issues but, you can't FIND ONE FOR US? Where are your planes, people????? So now it's 8:15, 15 minutes from when we were originally supposed to leave but it feels like we've been at the airport for days. Steve is convinced it'll get cancelled and we'll be stuck there for the night; I'm saying we should just get a room right there but wait, my straightening iron is in my checked luggage this time because I'm stupid and will they give us our checked luggage if the flight gets cancelled? The BEST give it to me because I will look like a freak if I can't straighten my hair in the morning and I will NOT be happy! I'm very surprised Steve didn't just stay in Florida that night lol.

are you still with me :P
I can tell nobody is listening to me now but I have no idea why, so I go to the bathroom. The one closest to our gate was disgusting so I walked like 8 gates away, and, excuse me @Terra Nova guy, but I'm not in a position to run out of the restroom when I hear on the announcements, " JetBlue flight ......to Hartford we have a plane for you! You are boarding now, attention you are boarding now!!"
WHAT?????
We went from 8:30, to 9:30, to 11 to midnight to like 8:25! Oh I was thrilled, and I ran!!!!! And that's my story :snooty:

That's my last update, so sad, after 6 months it's like my baby. But I'll come back and do a wrap up and write a little bit more about my Feb. trip plans and give you a brief outline of our March trip plans!!


 
But they are awesome and would be perfect for park hopping as well as running lol
LOL I'll park hop in them, but the only running I'll be doing is to the next adult beverage cart :drinking1

BTW - I love your TR! I don't think your bad at all.
Aw, thank you so much :hug:

Sure. I’ll just go watch the hockey. Let me know when you’re done :P
:laughing: Maybe the company that makes Sparkle Skirts makes Sparkle hockey Jerseys!
 


Holy cow, wild airport day!! But thank god they didn't keep you there all night! That could have been so bad! I know you haven't "wrapped up" yet, but just want to say now how much I've enjoyed following along on another one of your Disney adventures. Never a dull moment with those guys of yours!
 
Looks like a fun last day until the dreaded airport yikes! That was awesome your flight got back on schedule, a stroke of luck that does not happen often! I forgive you for your poor SW knowledge :rotfl:
 
Our flights home from Orlando are ALWAYS delayed by h o u r s!!!!!!! Back in July, the flight was delayed like 4 hours. In March, it was delayed like 2 hours...I can't make this sh-- up...I'm prepared for it to be delayed this March too. I'm going to pack extra reading material.8-)

Congrats to Ricky on his induction into the Italian Honor Society! That's awesome! Did I ever tell you Joe is 100% Sicilian??? He even has mob ties. His uncle was actually gunned down in the streets of Sicily back in the 90's I believe...o_O

Damn, that school bread looks good...I have yet to try it.
 
This was our 2nd time to Sci Fi and our 1st was probably 3 years ago. The boys vaguely remembered the old movies so we all enjoyed them, and I especially enjoyed the old commercials and advertisements.

We ate there for the first time on our last trip. I still haven't decided if it was a good experience or not. Maybe by the time I write it up in my TR I'll have decided :laughing:. It was a little crazy with Griffin, in a high chair that doesn't really line up well with the table/car, in the dark, etc. etc. etc.

I had yet to get one of my WS faves this trip and no way was I leaving without it, so first up was a stop in Norway for my beloved schoolbread:

Is it good? I keep going back and forth on trying it because I keep reading mixed reviews on it.
Naturally we get to MCO at 5:15; we see right away that our flight is delayed until 9:30 so we now have just over 4 hours to wait :faint: We aren't really hungry yet so we sit. And sit. And we're freezing. And then we get food and it's only 6:45 and we see that while no flights into NY (remember that's where we live) are delayed, our flight now gets delayed until 11. Which means we'll get in to CT at 2 and home by 3:30. OMG nobody was happy including mom and we were ALL showing how miserable we were! We decided well, let's just go through security what can we do, and once we go through our flight was delayed until midnight :rotfl: Seriously!! Just our flight, no other flights from surrounding airports! Finally we found out that the plane coming for us from JFK had major problems so they were "looking for" another plane to come get us......I can't make this up. So comforting, right? I mean I'm glad they weren't sending a plane with issues but, you can't FIND ONE FOR US? Where are your planes, people????? So now it's 8:15, 15 minutes from when we were originally supposed to leave but it feels like we've been at the airport for days. Steve is convinced it'll get cancelled and we'll be stuck there for the night; I'm saying we should just get a room right there but wait, my straightening iron is in my checked luggage this time because I'm stupid and will they give us our checked luggage if the flight gets cancelled? The BEST give it to me because I will look like a freak if I can't straighten my hair in the morning and I will NOT be happy! I'm very surprised Steve didn't just stay in Florida that night lol.

Oh my goodness! This sounds very similar to our coming home experience. I'm so glad it worked out for y'all and you weren't there overnight.

Congrats to Ricky!
 
Congratulations Ricky such a great accomplishment and proud Mama :hug:. I remember when my girls were inducted :goodvibes
You crack me up when you talk about SW :rotfl:As a fan it's cool to see all the characters together from each of the films :darth:
Glad you were able to get some park time in before your flight home.
I hate how early they pick you up now 4 hours is ridiculous.
Glad you made it home safely and on an earlier flight.
 
Those things they're holding are candles. After all the kids got their certificates they lit each other's candles,

:rotfl: I had to do this for French Honor Society...I didn't almost drop the candle or anything :rolleyes1

The ceremony was actually really nice and the best part was all the Italian food and pastries afterward.

That sounds way more delicious than ours! (And I was mainly in it for the free food :rotfl:)

I mean I'm glad they weren't sending a plane with issues but, you can't FIND ONE FOR US? Where are your planes, people?????

:laughing: One time we had a layover and they couldn't find the whole crew! I was like how do you lose a crew? But it's an ever bigger mystery how they can't find a plane!
 
I'm glad that they found a plane for you and you didn't have to hang around the airport all night. Our flights home always seem to arrive late for some reason or another.

I'm looking forward to hearing about your upcoming trips. :)
 
First of all congrats to Ricky on the Italian Honor Society thing. That's so cool. I wish they had something like that here, because I know I have one kid in particular who would love it...my oldest! He's been big into his Italian heritage lately and in fact my father-in-law (who is 1st generation Italian born here in US) is planning a return trip to Italy in the future and I think he's going to take our 17yo DS with him, who will love it. My FILs parents were both right off the boat from Italy, one legally and one who was in the Italian Navy and just walked off the boat in New York and never returned home to Italy. They raised their family (my FIL and his 3 brothers) in New York before moving across the country to California in their later years. Anyway...definitely a big Italian influence in our family.

*********

So I'm totally with you on the Star Wars stuff...have yet to see that show at HS either, but I'd be like you and really only "know" the "old school" characaters, even though I've seen some of the newest/latest SW movies (but not the current one). I once took my oldest son on a trip to Disney JUST for Star Wars Weekends so he has photos with a bunch of characters from that trip too.

How crazy about your flight back, but it sounds like our last trip. I think our SWA flight was scheduled for 8pm, and we got the airport extra early (of course) thanks to my DH mostly. Then they told us it would be 9pm, then later...and eventually it got moved back and we flew out close to the planned flight time. Similar thing for our flight down there (which was JetBlue). Our original flight was 6:07pm, but when we got there we were told it was 7pm, then 7:30pm, and eventually they started telling people NOT to leave the waiting area (because at one point it was delayed until 8pm) because that had a plane arriving for us and they were going to do a quick empty out of it and we would be taking it...so I think we left closer to 6:30pm in the end. I guess it's just the way things go, and though these are budget airlines at least they have some pretty big fleets and quite a few flight per day. I'm seriously considering my first flight on SPIRIT in March, and that's a bit scary when I think about it being smaller and having less flights so less options if something happens to delay or cancel. We will see how it goes.

I guess I've long since forgotten about your upcoming trips, but one is the Universal training trip I think? I am considering an early March/long weekend trip right now for just me and my oldest DS but that could change. We'll see. Besides I still have YET to have school bread and I think I may need a trip just for that, amiright?


 
Believe me, as cold as it was in there I'm pretty sure most headlights were definitely on!
:rotfl:

img_7260-jpg.295925
I'm making it my mission to get one of these next trip!

I had to do this for French Honor Society...I didn't almost drop the candle or anything :rolleyes1
I was an officer in our National Honor Society and I knocked the candle over...in front of all of our teachers, and school board, and parents.
 
I want to share a couple pictures from last Friday night when Ricky was inducted into the Italian Honor Society at school
Yay! Go, Ricky! :thumbsup2

The ceremony was actually really nice and the best part was all the Italian food and pastries afterward.
Ooooh, I love me some Italian food and pastries :hyper:

And our purpose was dessert which we'd skipped at lunch.
Well I hope you had least had one of the milkshakes! That's half the reason I go to Sci-Fi :laughing:

and then just like that, our trip was over.
:sad:

WHAT?????
We went from 8:30, to 9:30, to 11 to midnight to like 8:25! Oh I was thrilled, and I ran!!!!! And that's my story :snooty:
That was not how I anticipated this story going, but so glad that it did! Phew, dodged a bullet there! :worship:
 
I know you haven't "wrapped up" yet, but just want to say now how much I've enjoyed following along on another one of your Disney adventures. Never a dull moment with those guys of yours!
Thank you Meghan, you're so sweet :hug: And I of course love following along on your trips even though I fall embarrassingly behind time after time :rolleyes1

Looks like a fun last day until the dreaded airport yikes! That was awesome your flight got back on schedule, a stroke of luck that does not happen often!
Right? We had resigned ourselves to being in the airport all night, getting home in the wee hours of the morning (stopping for breakfast along the way) and then sleeping until early afternoon lol, but luckily we were home by 12:45 am which was much better than the 3am we thought it would be when the flight was delayed to midnight.

I forgive you for your poor SW knowledge :rotfl:
:worship:

Congrats to Ricky on his induction into the Italian Honor Society! That's awesome!
Thank you! It was a very proud moment :goodvibes

Did I ever tell you Joe is 100% Sicilian???
I'm not sure! My dad was 100% Sicilian also :thumbsup2

Damn, that school bread looks good...I have yet to try it.
Really?? I can't believe you've never had it! It's wonderful, I wasn't sure I would like it when I first tried it but OMG it was heaven. About 6 months after I tried it we were there with friends of ours and their parents; I practically forced my friends dad to try it and then I couldn't get mine back :laughing:

We ate there for the first time on our last trip. I still haven't decided if it was a good experience or not. Maybe by the time I write it up in my TR I'll have decided :laughing:
lol, I'm interested to read your review. I know tons of people love it and our experience wasn't bad. It's certainly not a terrible place to eat! Just not somewhere we need to return anytime soon. I should be getting around to writing that up in my dining report soon :rolleyes1

Is it good? I keep going back and forth on trying it because I keep reading mixed reviews on it.
Well I certainly think it's good! I've said this since the first time I had it; it reminds me of a Bavarian Creme donut but.......a little different. And eventually I realized the "different" is the cardemom in the cream. If you hate cardemom you won't like it and I think that's what's off-putting to some people. That, and then if you hate coconut like @ArielSRL you won't like it, either!

Congrats to Ricky!
:thanks:

Congratulations Ricky such a great accomplishment and proud Mama :hug:. I remember when my girls were inducted :goodvibes
That's great your girls were/are in it, too, it definitely is an honor and an accomplishment :-)

You crack me up when you talk about SW :rotfl:
Haha, I'm glad I can make you chuckle!

I hate how early they pick you up now 4 hours is ridiculous.
I hated that idea too, although on the other hand with all the construction going on around MCO I guess I understood. Good news is they went back to 3 hours as of Jan. 11th!
 
I had to do this for French Honor Society...I didn't almost drop the candle or anything :rolleyes1
lol, Ricky was sure he was going to drop his or at least not be able to light Frank's!

One time we had a layover and they couldn't find the whole crew! I was like how do you lose a crew? But it's an ever bigger mystery how they can't find a plane!
That's like a Stephen King movie, losing the crew :clown:

Our flights home always seem to arrive late for some reason or another.
I supposed I rather get home late, than arrive down to Disney late :)

First of all congrats to Ricky on the Italian Honor Society thing. That's so cool. I wish they had something like that here, because I know I have one kid in particular who would love it...my oldest!
Aw, that's too bad they don't have it by you. They were actually celebrating their 10 year anniversary at Ricky's induction ceremony, and the French and Spanish dept. started their honor societies this year.

my father-in-law (who is 1st generation Italian born here in US) is planning a return trip to Italy in the future and I think he's going to take our 17yo DS with him, who will love it.
That's awesome! At the ceremony, a member of our school board who is from Palermo spoke about how the best thing all the inductees could do would be to visit Italy. Yeah, I'd love to take Ricky there one day. I guess if I cut down on the Disney trips we could do it, but..................

I'm seriously considering my first flight on SPIRIT in March, and that's a bit scary when I think about it being smaller and having less flights so less options if something happens to delay or cancel. We will see how it goes.
Hmmm, Spirit scares me lol. I have a friend who has been flying Spirit from here to Myrtle Beach a few times a year for about 8 years now and never had a problem but you do hear some horror stories. Mostly about flights being cancelled and then as you say, no option to rebook. But you can't be the prices!

I guess I've long since forgotten about your upcoming trips, but one is the Universal training trip I think?
Yes, two weeks from tomorrow :banana: Feb. 2-4 in Disney and then 4-6 in Universal. Getting so excited!

Besides I still have YET to have school bread and I think I may need a trip just for that, amiright?
There really is no bad reason for a Disney trip ::MinnieMo::MickeyMo

I was an officer in our National Honor Society and I knocked the candle over...in front of all of our teachers, and school board, and parents.
:o

Ooooh, I love me some Italian food and pastries :hyper:
Nothin' like I-talian food!!!

That was not how I anticipated this story going, but so glad that it did! Phew, dodged a bullet there! :worship:
I know! Could have been a much different ending lol
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!










Top