Making New Friends - One Coffee Crisp At A Time! EPIC trip May 2019 Update 2/24

Our Canadian group involved in the Secret Pal game is a tiny but mighty group,
But of course...
one of the girls in our group - who also has an account here on the Disboards (I'm tagging you @SaraJR :love: ) - got married in Ontario and Luke and I flew there to be in attendance.
Wow! That's great!
Also in September, Luke went to Winnipeg for a work trip. We went to see Elton John in concert (we used to go to concerts all the time, but we've really reeled that in lately - but I hadn't seen Elton in over a decade so it was a must) -
:lmao:
So you came to Winnipeg to see Elton and I went to Toronto...
In October, we spent ten days in the Maritimes, complete with all my favourite snacks that I can't buy in Alberta haha:
Wait... you don't have Lays in Alberta???
We get 200+ kids every year, and most of our block goes all out decorating.
We get a bit less... I think we had... 110? 120?
Our block sucks. We decorate, but we are one of a very few who do.
I was too tired to dress up for it, but... I have before and will again.
the little girls were very excited that Snow White was handing them candy :rotfl:
I bet! :)
 
Hey everyone! Since we’ve now made it official on social media, I figure it’s time to let everyone here know what’s been going on with us :) I’ve been so MIA from the boards because I’m over 19 weeks pregnant! We had a difficult first trimester with a lot of doctor appointments (and I was exhausted all the time) but the second trimester has been great so far! I worked 6 days/week for most of November/December - which didn’t leave me much time for anything besides appointments and baby prep (I’m a planner who likes sales - I took advantage of Black Friday and Boxing Day and already have the crib, monitor, stroller and car seat as well as various other small items).
I’m hoping to get back to a normal work schedule, but I don’t really see that happening, I think I’ll be insanely busy there until I go on maternity leave. But I’ll try to check in here periodically! :lovestruc
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Happy, happy, happy :) Enjoy this special and exciting time as a couple before you become a most perfect little family!
 
Hey everyone! I can't believe it's been months since I've been here - my apologies!

I'm now over 37 weeks pregnant, so we're just counting down the days until baby is here! Luke and I have both been working from home since mid-March, and as of today I've dropped back to only 4 hours/day. This Friday will be my final day of work before beginning my maternity leave - as Canadians, we are entitled to a full year of paid leave (at a reduced wage... you can actually take up to 18 months of leave, but it works out to only be ~33% of your regular pay). I'll be taking 15 weeks total, returning to work August 24th if all goes well, which leaves Luke to take 37 weeks of parental leave. It's not traditional, but it's the best option for us!

We still have a few last minute things to do - like hook up the baby monitor and hang up the custom artwork we had commissioned by @MeghanEmily 's husband, Nathan (he's insanely talented! I'll post a picture once we have it hanging on the nursery wall!). But otherwise - I think we're ready!

Even before we found out we were pregnant, our plan was to take 2020 off from Disney :sad2: :sad:. It's now looking like 2021 won't happen either - but I've already started making plans for a big 2022 trip haha! I'm leaning towards May 2022 - which will be baby's birthday month, baby will be turning 2 (so still Disney free!), and we loved Flower and Garden festival so much! My Mom has already expressed interest in wanting to get back to WDW, since her only trip was for our wedding, when she delayed her arrival and had to leave early - so she has never stepped foot in DHS, and spent a total of about 2 hours in Animal Kingdom. I have lots of time to plan for this one!

Enough rambling - how about I get back to this trip report (which is now over a year old :rolleyes1)...
 
Best of luck to you with your delivery! I can't wait to see pics of your beautiful new little baby!

We have a few trips planned for next year but I haven't given any thought to 2022 yet. Maybe we'll see you there in May :-)
 
I'm now over 37 weeks pregnant, so we're just counting down the days until baby is here!
soon!!
as of today I've dropped back to only 4 hours/day.
so... you're saying your lazy.


(Yes, of course I'm kidding!)
This Friday will be my final day of work before beginning my maternity leave - as Canadians, we are entitled to a full year of paid leave
::yes::

But it wasn't always that way...
I know that it started on January 1st, 2001.
How do I know? Because our youngest was due in January 2001. But for personal and medical reasons, DW had a C-section. And that was scheduled for end of December 2000... so she only got 6 months. We wanted the C-section scheduled for January, but that didn't happen.
I'll be taking 15 weeks total, returning to work August 24th if all goes well, which leaves Luke to take 37 weeks of parental leave. It's not traditional, but it's the best option for us!
If that works for you, then that's great.
hook up the baby monitor
did you get the one with video and motion (breathing) sensing?
hang up the custom artwork we had commissioned by @MeghanEmily 's husband, Nathan (he's insanely talented! I'll post a picture once we have it hanging on the nursery wall!).
Oh! Nice! Yes, I'd love to see that.
Enough rambling - how about I get back to this trip report (which is now over a year old :rolleyes1)...
Wait... there's a trip report?

:lmao:
 
but I've already started making plans for a big 2022 trip haha! I'm leaning towards May 2022 - which will be baby's birthday month, baby will be turning 2 (so still Disney free!)
So excited for you and @HeiChewChewChewsYou :lovestruc and baby-to-be. Jimmy's first trip to WDW was for his second birthday. Of course we heard from plenty of people that he was too young, and he'd never remember it. But, someone gave me the best advice, which was to take the trip anyway, because even if HE didn't remember the details of the trip, WE would never forget them.

Seeing his face light up the first time he met Mickey Mouse, and even more special, Cinderella (his #1 girl!), are moments I could not possibly forget, and may not have been as magical when he was a bigger boy.

SO excited for all the blessings coming your way, Fallon!!! and all the magic that comes after!
 
I'm just getting back to the Disboards now after yet another long hiatus. I've already said this elsewhere, but congrats on the birth of your brilliant little one! And thanks for the shoutout for Nathan's art! He had a lot of fun with that one and I could tell he was really proud of it—he loves Animal Kingdom. I hope your little bean enjoys it in the nursery!
 
May 3, 2019 - Part One

As is the case on way too many mornings at Disney, we were awake extremely early, and by 7:30am we had already taken a Lyft over to the Polynesian hotel.

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Every time we step into this lobby, we talk about how much we would love to stay here one day – it’ll happen someday!

Of course we were heading to a breakfast reservation at Kona Cafe, one of Luke’s favourite breakfast places on Disney property. Our reservation was at 7:45am (maybe one day we’ll sleep in while at Disney…). We checked in, and had another great meal here - it's located here in my dining report :)

After finishing up our meal, we headed out to the monorail. We rarely travel via monorail – but we do enjoy it! We were heading to Epcot, and this method of transportation was amazing – I loved the view of the Flower and Garden Festival as the monorail circled the park on its way to the station.

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Before long, we found ourselves through the security check, and scanned into the park. I love Epcot so much, and we planned on spending quite a bit of time in this park on this trip, so we were not in any rush and took the time to soak up the atmosphere.

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Of course I quickly spotted a photopass photographer, and made Luke stop for pictures with me. On our first trip, he grumbled about this a bit, but by this point he accepts it, knows how happy it makes me and will actually point out short photopass lines – I married a great one <3

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Oh yes – today’s outfit! My pants are from the Disney line at Hot Topic, my shirt is the Rose Gold spirit jersey from the parks, and my hat was found at the Character Outlet on Vineland (originally sold in the parks). Luke skipped the Disney clothes and just wore his Mickey hat (which was purchased in the parks).

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We made our way through the park, stopping to check out the topiaries as we went. I think I managed to snap a picture of every single one of them in the park throughout the course of our trip….

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Since we were headed to Future World East, we decided to make a quick pit stop at MouseGears so I could grab my Annual Passholder magnet (based on the date, it was the Daisy one) – which I was very excited about! They scanned my AP, which let them know I had not received a Pluto one either – but they still had some left so I left with both!

As an out-of-country Annual Passholder, I have never received the AP magnet in the mail (despite having multiple AP’s over the past few years), and I can’t exactly stop in to the park every single time they release a new magnet – so I treasure these things! So, now you can understand my extreme disappointment/anger when I returned home, and found my Pluto magnet had been stolen from my checked bag. I had the two magnets stuck together, inside a pocket accessible only from the inside of my bag – Daisy was still there but no Pluto to be found anywhere, and a slip from TSA stating they had opened my bag. I’m sorry, but if it just “fell out”, they would have both been gone – I know for a fact they were stuck to one another. I contacted MCO and filed a missing claim, but of course nothing ever came of it. I also reached out to Disney and basically got a “sucks to be you” response. I wasn’t the only one on the Epic trip who had an item go missing from a checked bag either – so yes I am accusing someone who works at the MCO airport of stealing items and more than likely reselling them for profit on Ebay (these magnets are handed out for free – last I checked there are dozens of them listed on Ebay for $15 and up (plus $20-$30 in shipping costs to Canada). I know next time, any AP magnet will be going straight into my carry-on bag. Rant over.

But, back to May 3, 2019 before I knew one would go missing. I left the store so excited, and shared this picture on my social media before tucking them safely into Luke’s backpack.

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Here is what our fastpass plans looked like for the day (and yes, that 3:30 one was timed intentionally to line up with the approximate time we’d be leaving the park, so we could hop on Spaceship Earth as we walked past it – and of course our plans are always subject to change haha) –

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I stopped to snap a picture of this topiary before heading over to our first Fastpass:

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We had timed it so we were towards the end of our fastpass window for Mission Space, allowing us to travel around the Earth on the green side of the motion simulator before walking straight over to our second fastpass on Test Track. We really don’t love Test Track (we’ve been to Disneyland multiple times, Radiator Springs racers is FAR superior) – but we do enjoy building the most ridiculous vehicle possible haha.

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As is the case on way too many mornings at Disney, we were awake extremely early,
Such is the case.
How much I would give to have to get up extremely early at Disney once again.
Every time we step into this lobby, we talk about how much we would love to stay here one day – it’ll happen someday!
I've only been in there a very few times, but... I'd love to stay there too, some day.
We checked in, and had another great meal here
I made Tonga Toast at home! Turned out pretty good. :)
I loved the view of the Flower and Garden Festival as the monorail circled the park on its way to the station.
Nice shots. :thumbsup2
On our first trip, he grumbled about this a bit, but by this point he accepts it, knows how happy it makes me and will actually point out short photopass lines – I married a great one <3
You've trained him well. ::yes::
Luke skipped the Disney clothes and just wore his Mickey hat (which was purchased in the parks).
But he wore a far superior T-shirt! ::yes::
We made our way through the park, stopping to check out the topiaries as we went. I think I managed to snap a picture of every single one of them in the park throughout the course of our trip….
Dedication!
So, now you can understand my extreme disappointment/anger when I returned home, and found my Pluto magnet had been stolen from my checked bag.
Oh, no!!
I’m sorry, but if it just “fell out”, they would have both been gone
:(
I know next time, any AP magnet will be going straight into my carry-on bag. Rant over.
Valid rant. That sucks.
we do enjoy building the most ridiculous vehicle possible haha.
:laughing:
 

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