Magic in the Kingdom 2012! BIG 2/16/2014 FINAL UPDATE! (2024)

jenseib said:

Too funny, I was getting my car tire fixed when I saw it. LOL

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Seriuosly? Another tire? What are you DOING to those things?????

Caretames1 said:

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The Plan:

What a complicated trip to get planned! Unfortunately this is just going to get more complicated from here. I don't do Disney in the heat. So that leaves me only around 3 good Disney months per year. Oh, and I don't do crowds. Well, not by choice anyway. So that limits it even more. So every year since Kindergarten, I have taken Katie out of school for a week to visit Disney.

The problem of course is that I haven't found a way to talk her into freezing time. This year she was off to middle school. And while she has never had issues with missing school, she did express some hesitation this year. Since most of our planning is done months in advance, she had no idea how hard it would be to miss a week of middle school and catch back up.

I did finally get her on board with the plan (Really honey, we like good grades and all.... but this is DISNEY! ) and we finalized some dates. Just like the last 2 years, we chose the second full week of December, just after parade taping and Pop Warner. The original plan was to leave Saturday the 8th, but our schedules seldom just pop out completely done. They usually underogo a lot of revision, and this one was no different.

My husband likes Disney, and usually wants to go. But he doesn't quite understand why anyone would want to do a park more than one day. Or any ride more than once (well, except for his favorites!). Or meet any character other than Mickey or Chip & Dale. Once he's done all that, he's done. So my favorite trips are when he comes along, we enjoy all that he likes, then he goes home and lets us character hunt in peace!

Like last year, our friends would be travelling to Disney at the same time, and we arranged to meet them in the parks for some girl time later in the week.

My biggest concern in scheduling was wanting to see the Fantasyland Expansion. All we knew at the time was that it would be open for "Holidays 2012". Of course, that's pretty vague. But I didn't want to take a chance on missing it. Even then, I was thinking I'd want to get back to Disneyland in 2013. And I knew I couldn't stand 2 years of hearing everyone talk about New Fantasyland before I saw it. So I really needed to catch it this time and go as late into 2012 as I could handle.

I was less than thrilled when I found out the Grand Opening was set for the day we were arriving. Remember..... not so fond of crowds. But I crossed my fingers and moved forward.

mom2rtk said:

Seriuosly? Another tire? What are you DOING to those things?????

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it's the rims. They leak easily ...or just break.

jenseib said:

Really? Your favorite trips are when he comes along and then leaves. Come on be truthful, you like the alone trips way better.

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LOL, as long as we get enough girl time, then I really do like when he comes and we get to enjoy Disney with our one child who has not yet turned to the dark side of ..... shall we say..... Disney avoidance.

Of course, it does help that by the time he decides for sure to come along, I have our other plans set and always end up adding extra days to the trip. That helps a lot.

OK, quiz time. What day did I take these photos? They definitely are related to the trip.

IMG_5678-2 by mom2rtk, on Flickr

IMG_5818 by mom2rtk, on Flickr

mom2rtk said:

OK, quiz time. What day did I take these photos? They definitely are related to the trip.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28159731@N02/8365541397/
IMG_5678-2 by mom2rtk, on Flickr

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28159731@N02/8365531689/
IMG_5818 by mom2rtk, on Flickr

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The day BOG ADR's were available!!!!

What did I win?!?

jenseib said:

Too funny, I was getting my car tire fixed when I saw it. LOL

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At least you weren't driving and looking for it!

mom2rtk said:

Seriuosly? Another tire? What are you DOING to those things?????

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it's from Skip driving her crazy. Hahaha...driving. I crack myself up.

jenseib said:

it's the rims. They leak easily ...or just break.

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You should get some of those fancy spinning rims with Mickey heads! LOL

Best laid plans and all. But I 100% agree about the weather.

mom2rtk said:

Me too! I really wasn't looking forward to seeing an imposter. She made the trip feel "official"!

Glad you're along for this trip!

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Julia made me promise I would show her all your new pictures from this year. We had to cancel our December trip and move it to May so we are living vicariously through your trip. I know I read in another post that your friends got to test out the FP+ and you did not. I am curious to see how that worked out. We are going with our friends in May and we are staying on site and they are staying off site, so not sure how the FP thing will work out for us all on this trip.

jenseib said:

If thats from your BOG reservation day ...then you need a photo of me too!

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There. I fixed it!

mom2rtk said:

OK, quiz time. What day did I take these photos? They definitely are related to the trip.

IMG_5678-2 by mom2rtk, on Flickr

IMG_5818 by mom2rtk, on Flickr

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MelMel11 said:

Count me in!!

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Officially counted in. Welcome!

katt789 said:

I'm here! I'm here! Super excited for another one of your trip reports, and to see all of dresses that Katie wears throughout the week! I saw one of her in a blue Belle dress hanging out with Gaston on tumblr earlier in the week, haha!

I hope everything ends up working out with the crowds and opening or FLE! From the first picture of Katie on 2 phones, I would guess it would be the day of making ADRs hah!

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LOL, I just posted that one with Gaston on Flickr a couple days ago. We did sort of outdo ourselves on the Belle front this year. It was ALL about Belle this trip!

Sounds like a pretty good guess!

Caretames1 said:

The day BOG ADR's were available!!!!

What did I win?!?

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Can I get back with you on that one?

Caretames1 said:

it's from Skip driving her crazy. Hahaha...driving. I crack myself up.

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You KILL me Carey!

I always know I can count on you when I need a laugh!

mommy2E said:

I'm here! Looking forward to hearing all about your trip!

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Glad you made it!

Glennie5 said:

Julia made me promise I would show her all your new pictures from this year. We had to cancel our December trip and move it to May so we are living vicariously through your trip. I know I read in another post that your friends got to test out the FP+ and you did not. I am curious to see how that worked out. We are going with our friends in May and we are staying on site and they are staying off site, so not sure how the FP thing will work out for us all on this trip.

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Wha a sweetie!

I'm so bummed you had to cancel. But glad you can plan for May!

It really was disruptive to have part of our party with FP+ and part without. At this point, nobody really knows how it will roll out for real. Only that apparently everyone gets 3 reserved spots, onsite or offsite. But no word at all on whether you can get more spots same day inside the park. But it does look good for you guys to be able to all have 3 spots to plan together.

Disney9.9.10 said:

Hi Just joining in!

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Glad you found us!

Excited for the TR - 10 days.... WOW - this is going to be a coffee table book of fab photos and costumes!

Can't wait and thanks in advance for sharing!

Sydnerella's Mama

Sydnerella said:

Excited for the TR - 10 days.... WOW - this is going to be a coffee table book of fab photos and costumes!

Can't wait and thanks in advance for sharing!

Sydnerella's Mama

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Thanks Synderella! Glad ou're on board.

Lots of photos to follow, to be sure. I added a 32GB card to my collection before leaving and still had to buy a new one at the gift shop our last morning. Remember though, I shoot RAW (no Carey, I don't shoot NAKED.... let's just get that out of the way now ) and my files are close to 25 MB each. But I love having all that latitude to adjust things.

Here's an example.

Shot from ETWB straight from the camera:

IMG_9843_1 by mom2rtk, on Flickr

And after about 30 seconds in Lightroom 3:

IMG_9842_1 by mom2rtk, on Flickr

mom2rtk said:

There. I fixed it!

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You guys and your naked shooting, so disrespectful!

Edit...
Actually if you did have a picture of me from that day, I would've most likely had hair sticking up all over and still in my jammies!

jenseib said:

You guys and your naked shooting, so disrespectful!

Edit...
Actually if you did have a picture of me from that day, I would've most likely had hair sticking up all over and still in my jammies!

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Well, PURELY in the interest of documenting tha day accurately........ just send me the picture. No problem updating it again!