Our favorite sit down meal was at the Garden Grill.  The marinated steak, potato casserole, and dessert were awesome.  They even gave me the recipe for the steak and potato casserole and I didn't even have to ask for it.  It was also great that it was a character meal.  The kids got pictures and autographs with Mickey, Chip & Dale and Pluto.  The waiter was great very funny and gave us some good info regarding the characters.  He told us that Chip was the one with the brown/black nose just like a chocolate chip.  He also showed us on the map the symbol for the characters so we would know where to locate them.  However, the character meet and greets had long lines so we didn't do them.  We also had dinner at the Crystal Palace so the kids also saw pooh and friends.  Here the waiter told us how the characters would come around which was great cause then we knew when they would come to our table.  This way the kids didn't interupt when they were at other tables.  I highly recommend doing the character meals.  It's the best and easiest way to see a lot of the characters and get pictures and autographs.  Your not just waiting in line to see the characters this way you can eat while your waiting for them to come around.  It's a time saver cause you have to eat anyway.  The buffet at Crystal Palace and Hollywood & Vine was pretty good.  The best tasting meal at Yak & Yetti (AK) was the salmon.  The brownie sundae was huge two or three people could share it.  The steak was terrible.  My DH liked the Crispy Mahi Mahi.  The duck was just ok. 

We did not do any of the extra magic hours and we still saw every attraction that we really wanted to see in one day at the parks.  Granted we only went on every ride one time.  We arrived at the parks around 9am and had no problems.  We followed everyones advice and went directly to the top thrill rides and only had 20 min. wait time in stand-by line in the am.  We also found that all of the stand by wait times were actually less time then what was posted.  By lunch time we had already hit all of the popular thrill rides except at MK.  I will note that you must check the times guide to plan your day for the shows that are scheduled only at certain hours.  We were not able to see the HSM show at Studio's and the only parades we were able to see were at MK the afternoon at 3:30 and the SpectroMagic. 

We had really good weather.  It only rained in the morning while at Epcot on Thurs. then cleared up and was nice and sunny.  On Sat. at MK it rained on and off  in the am and throughout the day but just a light drizzle.  Thanks to everyones suggestions I bought cheap poncho's at the dollar store before leaving and it worked out just fine.  In the am hours and occasionally in the evenings us ladies needed a light jacket but the guys were fine without any. 

Thanks for the tip regarding going to Soarin' as our first attraction at Epcot.  We only had a 20 min. standby wait time and it was absolutely awesome.  This attraction was all out of fast passes before 2pm.  EE was the best thrill roller coaster.  I wish we had rode it twice. 

The photo pass system we used  3 times.  We were able to put our test track photo on our photo pass card but we were not able to put the Dinosaur photo.  We didn't see the photographers that often.  We were able to get pictures taken in front of the castle at MK in the morning and then again in the evening in front of the Walt/Mickey statue with castle in background.  Unfortunately the ones in the evening did not turn out.  They are two dark you can't see the castle or the statue.  I was thinking since they had a more professional camera then mine that it would turn out good.  I will order the ones that they took in the morning however those pictures are more at a distance from the castle so we do not see the statue and unfortunately it was a cloudy day so we do not have a pretty blue sky behind the castle.  With the photopass card we can go online and order the pictures, create a picture book or a dvd with the photopass pictures plus it says we can download our pictures that we took and add them to the book or dvd.  It's expensive but you can add disney backgrounds to the pictures and on the dvd they will add music.  I'm not sure exactly how to do this but hopefully I will figure it out before the 30 days runs out.  If anyone has used the disney photo pass and made a picture book or dvd please let me know how it worked and if you have any tips or suggestions for using these features. 

I just dropped my films off at Walmart to be processed in 1 hr. on a CD.  I let my daughter take pictures throughout the parks using 6 disposable cameras.  By getting the pictures on a cd first then I can just order the pictures that turned out good.   I also used my 35 mm (2 rolls) and my digital camera (289 pictures) so I will have lots of pictures. 

We found Club Cool at Epcot and it was really fun tasting all of the different types of soda's from other countries.  Thanks for the tip on this place.  We all thought it was really neat.  The beverly soda was bitter and nasty some of the others tasted good.  It's a nice way to quench your thirst for free.   We did not find the candy lady in Japan.  We went through the Countries after 7pm so maybe it was to late to see her.  Next time for sure.  The kids went to each Country and had something written in there autogragh book.  We didn't spend the extra money to buy the passport book thought the autograph book would be find just started at the back of the book. 

I'll give you a more detailed day to day report later but the trip was amazingly fun but very tiring.  I think I need an extra rest day from my vacation. 

Time for Pink

D-you can always have them take your pic for the photopass, then decide after you get back.  It's free to use...it just costs to order prints etc.  So get them for sure at the parks...then decide later!  Also, the people taking the professional photos will also use your camera for the same shot...just ask.

Mynde - All it takes is faith and trust...and something I forgot...Dust...just a little bit of Pixie Dust 

Soarin' is one ride I absolutely love - probably my favorite ride overall.  Alex loves it too.  D - I never knew that was your ship!  How cool is that?

I know you can send a link to us so we can view your pics on photopass.  I wonder if you can just post a link here?  If you can, feel free to do that.  We would all love to see them.

Leanne

May All Your Days Be Filled With Magic!  And your nights full of Disney Dreams!

We arrived on Saturday and was met with the rain that afternoon and early evening.

Can't wait to hear the rest

Kristi