Super Family Fun Weekend 2010 pt 3

Princess Peanut playing "drums" at EPCOT. In front of Innovations

Talk about a whirlwind weekend....

Part 3 of our adventure found us at Epcot...and what a beautiful day it was. Not too hot, not too cold...not too windy. Just plain beautiful ;)  Mini-Me went off to take pictures...The Boy & Future Headache  went off to do Sum Of All Thrills & Princess Peanut & I went off to the Character Spot.

This was our first time in the Character Spot. The wait was not bad..maybe 20 minutes. And she was all excited about seeing her favorite Disney characters...Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto & Goofy! Thank goodness for Photopass...or so I thought....

Mickey's picture was great, but in moving to Pluto, the photographer had to do something with the scanner (sorry for lack of proper terms). So we were pushed thru & I had to take a picture with my video camera..*not* the best quality :( Can you say disappointed?? Moving on to the next character.Minnie..her favorite, and guess what?? It happened again!! This time I was not a happy camper about it. I told the CM I was very disappointed & this was the 2nd time this had happened. She let Princess Peanut finish her visit & pulled me to the side. She apologized & told me that I could wait to the side. As soon as the photographer was done, they would put us in front of the line. Sweet :) I was now a happy camper! Only waited about 5 minutes.

The photographers must be on the same sort of a schedule, because it was a chain reaction. As I approached each Photopass person, they had to do whatever it was they had to do with their scanners. *UGH* Um, hellllooooo...I have a 2 yo here, people!!

Luckily, I was allowed to wait for each to finish, but only because I asked. I feel bad for others this has happened to that didn't ask & possibly missed out. I woudl think that if the photographers had to stop to do whatever it is they had to do, shouldn't there be a back-up photographer? This is not the first time this has happened to us. We have missed several character shots because the Photopass CM had to do something with the scanner, one actually had his batteries DIE (they don't carry spares?) & another had to "take a break". Yikes!!

Bottom line, I got my pictures...and I am still buying the Photopass CD. Still happy (for the most part) with Photopass. I just don't understand how this kind of issue hasn't been corrected.

We finished up with pictures & waited in front of Innoventions for everyone to finish whatever they did. We all met up & were serenaded by Princess Peanut's Drum Solo (see picture above). Group picture & to the car for Superbowl!!

The weekend was great! It was a very busy 48 hours, but they were exciting!!! Can't wait til next year!!

Super Family Fun Weekend 2010 pt 2

The view from our hotel room...Orange Co Jail ;)

Let's see...the recap...

Great football game

Great Fireworks (x2!!)

Found a penny..heads up...

And then we found our hotel...lol

I really cannot complain about this place. It was clean...didn't smell like "cheap hotel room". Even the bathroom floor was clean. Of course, though, we were on the 4th floor & didn't see the elevator til AFTER we were already upstairs. And we had such a lovely view of the jail...lol

Needless to say, I think we all slept in our clothes. I had friends that were also headed to see the Shuttle take off, so we were meeting up with everyone. I figured we could sleep til they made it to Lakeland. My wake up call was at 1:47am....

With everyone super-excited...we left about 2:15ish. Driving thru Downtown Orlando was neat. Would have loved to have found a 24-hr Starbucks! We drove thru Christmas, Fl...and boy did they capitalize on the name. The Ft Christmas Museum had lights & decorations up (& ON at 3am!!). They even had Rudolph's Restaurant! About an hour into the trip, I get a text from my Disney-Sis telling me that the launch is only a 30% GO. *Ugh* Only 30% is not good. I followed @NASA on Twitter the whole way. They really provided very timely updates...which was very helpful when driving across the state on the road to nowhere.

We finally got to Titusville....can you say LOTS of people?? We met up with our friends in a parking lot and waited!! At 4:10am, NASA gave the GREEN/GO for weather...only 20 minutes left. We were kept busy getting cameras ready, tripods, blankets (it was VERY cold that night)...and in about 10 minutes it went RED again. Within a few minutes, they were GREEN again. And then it was RED....

We were on pins & needles waiting for this. It was the first launch of the year..the last night launch of the shuttles. It was one to be remembered. And at T-9 minutes, it was scrubbed. :( We looked out across the water & saw the launch pad. The lights. The beams of light that stretched from the launch pad to the sky. I wanted them to at least see something.

Oh...and I gave Disney Sis one of the pennies I found. They say if you find a penny heads up, you must pass it along to someone else within 24 hours to keep the good luck going!! A friend of mine made a great observation, so I will quote her..

"Shuttle launches aren't like Disney shows. Disney shows always go on time"

Super Family Fun Weekend 2010 pt 1

What a whirlwind weekend!

Itinerary:

Saturday - Future Headache's Football Game, Magic Kingdom, Hotel

Sunday - Space Shuttle Launch, Epcot, Superbowl

If you could define a perfect weekend, this would have been the one. For one thing, my house was clean & everyone was packed (including the car) by Friday night!! That itself is an extreme rarity! (you can read about past OCD issues here).

After Future Headache's phenomenal game(read here), we were off to Magic Kingdom. Granted, after all the trips I make there, a normal person may not be as excited as I was. There was another photo lesson to be taught..this time ACTION! So, after the standard & customary Move It Shake It, the rest of the group & I headed off. It was cold & windy...so we hit Pirates of the Caribbean. For once, we were thankful there was a LINE! After PotC, we met up with the rest of the gang over by the Crystal Palace. Thanks to the refurbs being done at that time, most of the area was blocked off. So, that beautiful little area that overlooks the castle was pretty much dead(think..great spot for fireworks!) We love finding new angles to watch the fireworks from.

So while we held our seats, we just had fun. Princess Peanut ran around the circle area there & sang songs. Patriotic music played in the background with twinkling lights surrounding us.  Later on(we waited for about an hour), I did send some of the troops over for a Waffle Bowl Ice Cream Sundae from the The Plaza Ice Cream Shop. Can you say excited children?? Watching them sit around this one dish of ice cream... and before you can say " 1 bowl?", there was a reason for that....seeing the sharing... laughing... talking... was priceless.

Just before fireworks started, I got a text from a friend, Michelle (<---follow her on twitter!) that I have not seen since 8th grade. Thanks to Facebook, I have reconnected with most of my gradeschool friends. She was in the park, too. She & her family made their way over to where we were & watched fireworks with us. It was so neat to reconnect during such a magical moment!! Luckily, they are local (& passholders!) so we will meet up again -next time to ride Cinderella's Golden Carousel. Disney is such a great place ;)

We decided to leave after fireworks, since we were driving over to the Space Coast st 2am. Originally, we were at Epcot, so we had to take the monorail back there for our car. As luck would have it, we boarded at just the right time. By the time the monorail was pulling into Epcot, we rode thru the park on the monorail during Illuminations. I have been wanting to try that for a while! While missing the music, it was still a great sight!

What a great night!

OH! & I found a penny...heads UP!