Episode MMXIV: We Don't Say Goodbye, We Say Kwahirini (updated 2/28)

[khaleesi]

I'm still here. I think that's a great idea to share your upcoming trip.
Who knows? Maybe you'll hit a cold front.

One just came through here. It's 55 degrees this morning in Orlando, feels like winter. Last night was in the 60's, so JJ was feeling great!

Hiya!!! Looking forward to sharing my adventures! It's been VERY cold there the last couple of days... which pretty much guarantees it won't be when I'm there! Haha.

Hi Sue! I'm still here! I feel behind and I'm catching up too. Glad you and your dad had some fun despite the rain! I wouldn't mind hearing about San Antonio/Deep Fried Hell.
I really love the People Mover. It's a nice smooth tour of Tomorrowland and a few minutes off your feet!
I love your iasw nostalgia story I am the same way, absolutely have to ride each trip!~
Awww I saw your Elsa costume on Facebook!! I love it!

We did have fun! What have been nice to do some stuff outside, but at least I got to see him!! I will definitely share my San An trip details!

Yay for the Small World love!!!!

Thanks!!! I was SO happy with how it turned out!!!

 

[khaleesi]

Day Four, Part Eight​

Happy Snowvember!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here is a snow picture for you:
















Oh wait. That's just white space. HERE is the picture. Can you really tell the difference??? Hahahahaha.

My car is somewhere underneath all that snow We have about five feet and it just started snowing again! What's absolutely crazy is that fifteen minutes down the road, my friends can see the grass!

And.... the thing is... it's just snow. It'll go away. No worries here!



Soooooooo.... let's talk Disney

I decided to try again to find something I was looking for. So I headed back to the Liberty Square area. I can't remember if I already posted this picture, since it seems that I took it on two separate occasions. But I think this is the first time you're seeing this:

This tree has 13 lanterns... one for each of the original colonies. Pretty cool! I *thought* what I wanted to see was in this same area. But I'm a dingbat, and it was not. So I finally figured out where I needed to go in order to see something special!

But first, this:

In addition to being surprised by how much it rained, the entire day I was shocked by how many people were there. And this picture was taken right after it stopped raining for the gazillionth time!

But I was able to FINALLY find this!!!

Roy and Minnie!!!!

This is NOT in Liberty Square. Just so you know.

Here is a picture of happiness. Seriously. If you look up "happiness" in the dictionary, this is what you'll see!

I decided that I really needed to take another ride on the Little Mermaid!! Because twice was not enough. So, that's two rides that I rode three times on this trip. Star Tours, which I rode three times in a row... and the new LM ride that I rode three times throughout the course of the day.

After Ariel and Eric's wedding, I started walking back in the general direction of the Tangled restrooms and stopped when I noticed that they had just sent a car through the Seven Dwarves Mine Train!!! This is obviously not that exciting anymore but at the time I was really excited and stood there for a really long time hoping that they would send another one, but no such luck.

So, here is the carless track:

I then switched directions and headed over to Storybook Circus to buy some gifts. I don't even remember what I bought for my friend who was watching my cat... it was a bunch of Disney-themed food items, but I don't remember what specifically. Not sure why I didn't take pictures

I did pick up these two pin sets:

Since I enjoyed the LM ride so much and since my niece recommended it, I wanted something to commemorate that. And I have a friend who LOVES Ariel, so the set was the way to go since individual pins would have been twice as much.

I also gave one of the Minnie's to each of my close girlfriends and then kept one for myself. I'm glad I checked the price of the sets, because it wound up being a fairly cheap souvenir.

I absolutely have to end this update with a non-Disney picture. This is the Buffalo Zoo's newest addition!!! He was born on October 24th, and I took this picture on Saturday:

He's so flipping cute!!!

 

[Tracy161]

I've been thinking about you (and everyone else near you)! I'm about 3 hours from Buffalo and haven't seen hardly any snow at all. But that's much less shocking now that you've said friends of yours can see grass just a ways down the road! Mother Nature is an unpredictable woman, huh?

Love the update! And, while it's not quite as "exciting" now to see the Mine Train in full action, I can imagine it was quite a thrill then!

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Honestly, both snow pictures look about the same to me. When I saw and heard about this I was just in awe. We've barely seen a flake so far this year.

Hahaha, no, Roy and Minnie have never been on Liberty Square as far as I know. But they do move around Town Square quite a bit. Super glad you found him because Roy is such an overlooked treasure.

Actually, seeing the cars going through on the Mine Train is still pretty exciting, so seeing that happen then would for sure be a treat.

 

[librarygeek]

Oh my goodness, snow. I'm glad you're not letting it bother you! We are supposed to get some heavy snow on Wednesday and I'm just praying my boss will let me take the day off so I can leave Tuesday night to drive to my parents' house for Thanksgiving. Otherwise I don't know if I'll be able to go

Aww, Roy and Minnie! And you know, I never actually looked around for those 13 lanterns in Liberty Square - I'll have to do that next time.

Great call on the souvenirs - a package set is a good way to go!

That baby giraffe is too cute! I remember when they brought a baby out on the Savannah in AK - and I got to see it on one of its first days out there. They are just adorable.

 

[MEK]

I absolutely have to end this update with a non-Disney picture. This is the Buffalo Zoo's newest addition!!! He was born on October 24th, and I took this picture on Saturday:

He's so flipping cute!!!​

OMG! He's adorable! How cute!

The amount of snow you guys got up there is just amazing! I hope you are slowly getting unburied!

I think I can tell you are a really big fan of LM! :good vibes

I got to ride the Mine Train once in October and it was really fun. I look forward to riding it again in February.​

 

[khaleesi]

I've been thinking about you (and everyone else near you)! I'm about 3 hours from Buffalo and haven't seen hardly any snow at all. But that's much less shocking now that you've said friends of yours can see grass just a ways down the road! Mother Nature is an unpredictable woman, huh?

Love the update! And, while it's not quite as "exciting" now to see the Mine Train in full action, I can imagine it was quite a thrill then!

It was pretty crazy!! And unfortunately, there were some storm-related deaths, and some pretty bad structure damage to buildings because of the weight of the snow. But from my perspective... it was fun!!!

It was SO cool seeing that car go along the tracks! I was bummed I didn't get a picture of it.

Honestly, both snow pictures look about the same to me. When I saw and heard about this I was just in awe. We've barely seen a flake so far this year.

Hahaha, no, Roy and Minnie have never been on Liberty Square as far as I know. But they do move around Town Square quite a bit. Super glad you found him because Roy is such an overlooked treasure.

Actually, seeing the cars going through on the Mine Train is still pretty exciting, so seeing that happen then would for sure be a treat.

It is the most snow we've ever had in a 24-hour period, and when I was talking to my family about it, their reaction was "we've seen snow". I had a hard time convincing them that they hadn't ever seen this much snow.

I have no idea what made me think that statue was in Liberty Square! I was really glad I found it!!

It was pretty awesome!!

Oh my goodness, snow. I'm glad you're not letting it bother you! We are supposed to get some heavy snow on Wednesday and I'm just praying my boss will let me take the day off so I can leave Tuesday night to drive to my parents' house for Thanksgiving. Otherwise I don't know if I'll be able to go

Aww, Roy and Minnie! And you know, I never actually looked around for those 13 lanterns in Liberty Square - I'll have to do that next time.

Great call on the souvenirs - a package set is a good way to go!

That baby giraffe is too cute! I remember when they brought a baby out on the Savannah in AK - and I got to see it on one of its first days out there. They are just adorable.

Hopefully you made it home for Thanksgiving!!! I had a friend who was stranded in Florida. I suspect most people wouldn't really complain about that

I thought the lanterns were pretty cool. I love those little touches.

My heart was melting with that giraffe. It was just too cute!!!

OMG! He's adorable! How cute!

The amount of snow you guys got up there is just amazing! I hope you are slowly getting unburied!

I think I can tell you are a really big fan of LM! :good vibes

I got to ride the Mine Train once in October and it was really fun. I look forward to riding it again in February.

Isn't he a honey?? I want one!!!

The crazy thing with all that snow is that once it stopped snowing, the temperature shot up to near 60º!!! And we got rain, too... so it actually disappeared rather quickly. Took me about 2.5 hours to dig my car out which made me feel pretty invincible that I did it myself! Haha.

Huge fan!!!!! Love the movie, loved the ride!!!

I can't wait to ride on it!!!

 

[khaleesi]

San Antonio Trip, Part One​

Hi everyone!!!! So, I made it to San Antonio and back and did NOT melt! Haha. I was very lucky... the weather hovered in the low to mid 60's, which was quite tolerable. When the sun came out, I got really warm... but it was overcast most of the time. So yay!!!

I think I only have three more updates for my Disney trip and as you can tell... I'm dragging my feet. Once I write that last update, then the trip is really and truly over. And I don't want it to be! So, here's some Texas instead! I think this will probably be four separate updates.. the installments will be longer than my Disney ones, because otherwise this entire report will last two years! Haha.

I left Buffalo in the pitch dark and rain on Saturday morning. Getting through security was a breeze.

Look at me pretending that I like to fly

My layover was at Chicago's Midway airport. At one point before the trip, I got very anxious about the time zone changes. I couldn't figure out what was going on, but eventually I got that all figured out. I had breakfast at the Harry Caray sports bar, which was wicked cool. Lots of baseball memorabilia to make my heart happy!

I arrived in Austin early. Actually, all four flights were about twenty minutes early and probably the smoothest flights I've ever taken!!! Hooray!!! I reunited with my parents and hit the road for the hour-ish drive to San Antonio.

First order of business was making my dad stop for Chick-Fil-A!!!! Yummy!!!

We got to my sister's house and I was SO happy to see my niece and nephew!!!! They are my loves and I couldn't wait to spend the next four days with them!! I also got to meet my sister's dog for the first time.

The greatest part of this entire trip was doing the Baymax fist-bump with my nephew They had seen 'Big Hero 6' a week or so ago and when I asked if he wanted to do the fist-bump, he was very excited. I initiated it a lot, but eventually he would walk up to me and hold his fist out

We left my sister's so we could drop my stuff off and headed to the grocery store. Then it was back to my sister's for dinner.

Both of my brothers also popped in. I would be seeing two of nieces later in the week. I have two other nieces and a nephew who I would not be seeing on this trip

We watched the video from Sydney's (my niece) Christmas concert, which was really cute. Hers was the week before I got there... Ben (my nephew's) Christmas program is this week. Figures. Nothing going on the week I was there!

The next day we went to SeaWorld!!!! The kidlets were super happy about this and so was I! I had been to Marineland in Canada before but I couldn't remember ever going to SeaWorld.

I made shirts for me and my sister

My mom was super excited, because when we walked through the main entrance, they had a snow machine! I tried taking a picture, but it didn't work. Inside the park, there was a snow area... the wait for that was an hour an a half!!!!!

We were immediately snatched by SeaWorld's version of a Photopass photographer, and had this taken:

There were lots of Christmas decorations everywhere, which made me There were even some mariachi singers out front:

I'll get into what we actually did at SeaWorld in my next update! Have a great day, everyone!!!

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Low to mid 60's? Yeah, I'd say that would be comfortable. Does San Antonio have more of a dry heat? If so, even better.

Ah Chick-Fil-A!!! I can finally say I've had it!! And can now rightly agree that it is indeed a YAY!

Awww your shirts are too cute Sue.

Really looking forward to seeing a new SeaWorld.

 

[MEK]

Love the t-shirts! They are super cute!

Glad you had a lovely trip to visit your family. the weather sounds absolutely perfect and I like that picture of you pretending that you like to fly!

 

[Tracy161]

Sounds like your trip to see the family got off to a great start!!! So happy you're sharing it with us I know what you mean when you say that once the TR is over, then the trip is really over. But maybe you'll then be able to start a PTR!

 

[MEK]

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

 

[librarygeek]

Oooh, great start to the Texas TR! Sea World sounds like a lot of fun (well, I know I enjoy the one in Orlando!) and I love those shirts that you made for you and your sister!

I hope you had a great holiday too!

 

[khaleesi]

Low to mid 60's? Yeah, I'd say that would be comfortable. Does San Antonio have more of a dry heat? If so, even better.

Ah Chick-Fil-A!!! I can finally say I've had it!! And can now rightly agree that it is indeed a YAY!

Awww your shirts are too cute Sue.

Really looking forward to seeing a new SeaWorld.

It's funny... the first time my parents moved there, it was a very dry heat. But recently it's been a lot more humid. Luckily, I didn't have to really deal with it too much!!

Glad to have you in the Chick-Fil-A fan club!! Haha.

Thanks We had fun wearing them!!

Love the t-shirts! They are super cute!

Glad you had a lovely trip to visit your family. the weather sounds absolutely perfect and I like that picture of you pretending that you like to fly!

Thank you!!!! All four of my flights on this trip were pretty non-eventfaul, which makes me happy!

Sounds like your trip to see the family got off to a great start!!! So happy you're sharing it with us I know what you mean when you say that once the TR is over, then the trip is really over. But maybe you'll then be able to start a PTR!

Thanks!!! It was wonderful! I'm *hoping* to go back to Disney in December. I've got my fingers crossed!!

Oooh, great start to the Texas TR! Sea World sounds like a lot of fun (well, I know I enjoy the one in Orlando!) and I love those shirts that you made for you and your sister!

I hope you had a great holiday too!

SeaWorld was lots of fun!!

Hope your holiday was awesome, too!!!

And thank you, Mary Ellen and Phil for the Christmas wishes!!

 

[khaleesi]

San Antonio Trip, Part Two​

Ugh. I'm the WORST. Finding time to log onto my computer has been challenging. Long days at work have me doing almost everything from a social media standpoint from the comfort of my recliner chair, using a cell phone! Not exactly conducive to uploading pictures and writing a trip report!

But I am still here!!! And excited to share the rest of San Antonio and rest of Disney World. Just not in a very quick way, apparently.

Annnnyway... back to SeaWorld!!

As I was uploading, I couldn't figure out what happened to all my pictures and then I remembered that I took a LOT with my cell phone! I had a very panicky moment there, but crisis averted!!

The first thing we did was walk over by the dolphins. Ahhhh. My heart!!! I just kept snapping away, hoping for a decent shot and I think this is the best one I got:

You can sign up to do a dolphin encounter, but they were "sold out" by the time we enquired about it. I would have liked to do that, but I was just happy to be with my babies!!

We went in to the aquarium area next, which was really cool. Unfortunately, I had a hard time getting good pictures. There was a very large shark area and these guys were SO cool!!! I wish I had some better pictures, but here you go!

Look who I found

We then went to a show that featured Belugas and Manatees. This was fun a lot of fun!!!

They had Christmas-type M&Gs.... Benny didn't want anything to do with these guys!

On the other hand, he was super excited for these guys!!!!

This show was amazing!! I love how shiny they are!!

At one point in time (and it probably wasn't actually during this show, but it fits here so I'll tell it), I noticed that the map had a blurb about doing the Polar Plunge in the Orca tank. Now... they talked about how cold they had to keep that water, and it would be super cool to be able to jump in there! BUT... considering that on this exact same weekend I had coworkers doing a Polar Plunge in Lake Erie in Buffalo in December... I really had to (A Polar Plunge is on my bucket list, by the way. At some point in time, I will participate in one.)

As you all know, I'm not a thrill ride person. So there were some pretty scary looking rides. You won't be seeing those here! But Sydney and I did ride the kiddie roller coaster, and later in the day Benny wound up going on as well. The reason I'm sharing our selfie is because right after I took this picture, one of the ride attendants insisted that I put my cell phone away. I had to laugh because in my head I was thinking of the pictures Mary Ellen and others have posted from Expedition Everest and here I'm being told to put the cell phone away on a kiddie coaster!

That's a good place to stop! Have a happy weekend everyone

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Sounds like a lot of fun at Sea World - love the picture of the Seahorse!

Did they also warn you not to dance on the kiddie coaster?

 

[MEK]

What? No cell phones on the ride? Hmmmm - Maybe a safety thing. It's a lot easier for a cell phone to turn into a projectile than a camera with a strap around the neck, so I get it - sort of. It would really stink to lose a phone on a ride.

Love the Seaworld pictures. I really HAVE to get to Seaworld. I can't believe I have never been there. It's just wrong. It really does look like a cool park and there are some rides I would like to try.

Glad to see you posting.

Polar Plunge is on your bucket list? That is so NOT on mine. I admire people who do it but I can't think of much worse.

 

[teekathepony]

I totally understand what you mean about it being easier to socialize via smart phone!

Awww I adore dolphins. They're just so cute! Too bad the dolphin encounter was sold out.
I am WAY to wimpy about cold water to do the polar plunge! But maybe I could be convinced to do it in the orca tank.

Too funny about having to put your phone away on the kiddie coaster!

 

[DisneyKid4Life]

Any picture with a dolphin in it is a good one Sue. Best animal ever!!! That stinks that the interaction was sold out. They are such wonderful creatures

And Wow, a show with Manatees. That's different. They don't have that in Orlando.