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Jennifer Ledford -- September 2000 -- Walt Disney World (DL)Cast of Characters:
And joining us periodically:
After I posted our pre-trip report, a few things changed. We were no longer leaving my youngest daughter here, in Seattle, but sending her down to Orlando to stay with relatives while we were at Dixie Landings. We changed our itinerary to accommodate spending time with these relatives and also to taking her to the Magic Kingdom for one day. We did a little rearranging of the schedule before we left, and when we got down there, ended up tossing the whole plan out the window. (all my hard work, sob!) Apparently, there were some things that I hadn't considered (like we would be dead tired the first two days) when making my fabulous plan. Oh well, live and learn. So, instead of re-posting the old pre-trip report, I think that I will write what the plan was for each day and then what really happened. So, everyone neat and pretty? Then on with the show! Day 0, Tuesday, 9/12 We both worked a full day and the kids went to school today. I sent my last daycare kid home at 5pm, Charles went to the bank and did his 2 chores. Fed everyone dinner, then sent my 3yo son home with my friend (he'll be staying with her while we're gone). That was very hard for me, to say goodbye, but I soon recovered- we were on our way to Disney World!!! Left my Dad's at 8:30pm, hit the airport at 9:15, checked in and on the plane by 10:20. My plan was to sleep for our 4+ hour flight, but the gentleman next to me snored the whole way, so the best we could do was doze off and on. We landed in Detroit at 3am our time then switched our watches to 6am. Wow, this is very odd losing 3 hours just like that. We were not very tired, surprisingly, the kids were still bouncing around. Disney energy, I guess. Now we are technically on... Day 1, Wednesday, 9/13 We had an hour layover in Detroit, we took this opportunity to grab a light snack and a fresh magazine for me. ($6.56) The flight was delayed by an hour and a half due to left engine trouble. Turned out to be a sensor, but still got me worried. Anyway, 31/2 hours later, we were in Orlando, safe and sound. We were going to have Tiffany town car pick us up, but my Uncle did instead. Cool, I like saving money. Not as much as I like spending it though. :) We went right to Dixie Landings, our room was ready at 11am- Parterre Place room 9727. I had asked for bldg 14 in Alligator Bayou, but after seeing everything first hand, am glad we got what we did. Our room was in the perfect location, right next to the quiet pool, laundry, and the bridge to the main building. It was in the back overlooking the parking lot, but with the trees there, you couldn't tell. We loved Dixie Landings!!! I can't say this enough. Everything was just perfect. We unpacked right away, then headed off to Fulton's to buy two autograph books ($11.66), then went to the Cotton Mill food court for lunch and 4 mugs ($51.13). We wanted to go to Down Town Disney to exchange our AP vouchers for passes, so we hopped on (what we thought) was the boat to DTD. Turned out to be the PO shuttle, so we wandered around PO for awhile, filled our mugs, then hopped on a DTD bus (which took us right back to DxL!) Eventually we got to DTD and, yes folks, we did get the hang of Disney Transportation (after a few days). I have got to say this, no matter how much you read about and look at pictures, nothing prepares you to the reality of being there. Everything was so amazing. The Rain Forest Café, the WoD store, the Lego store, seeing Pleasure Island- WOW is all I can say. After we exchanged our vouchers, we treated our sleepy kids (remember no sleep last night) to ice cream at Ghiardelli's ($13.76) which perked them up a bit. Then it was off to WoD store for some shopping, which perked me up a bit. :) ($117.34) We had a PS for Chef Mickey's for 6:30, so we went back to the hotel via bus. Let me tell you, those 3 stops at DTD are so annoying- just take me home, really! So, back at the hotel, ready to go, looking at the transportation map-to get to the Contemporary from DxL, take the DTD then transfer to a Contemporary bus. No, I don't think so. I am NOT taking that annoying route again today (or so I thought). Let's see 4 stops at Dxl, 1 at PO, 1 at Typhoon lagoon, and 3 at DTD- that's 9 stops for our DTD route. This, to me, is the only down side to staying at DxL. Ok, rant off. (sorry) In a flash of brilliance on my part, we took the MK bus, then hopped the monorail to the Contemporary. Way to go Jenn! Chef Mickey's wasn't all that great, we just didn't like the food and only Minnie and Mickey stopped by for a total of 30 seconds then left. The rest of the characters were too busy playing with each other and the staff to stop by. Kind of disappointing for our first meal ($61.27). Took the monorail to TTC, got on the wrong bus (DTD instead of DxL) so we went through that loop again. ARG! Had to switch to the right bus, then home and in bed by 9:15. Tomorrow- MK EE , CRT PS for 9:30, WS in EPCOT, ToN parade @ 6:25 Day 2, Thursday, 9/14, "Where are all the kids?" Plan: MK EE, CRT PS for 9:30am, WS in EPCOT, ToN parade @6:25 Mickey woke us up at 6am, put the phone on speaker so the kids could hear too, they thought this was so cool. Everybody ready to go and out the door at 6:40. Got to MK by 7:20. First stop Main Street Bakery for banana bread (yum), 2 Mickey bunt cakes, a Danish, and OJ ($9.80). We did Snow White, Dumbo, IASW, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh (my new favorite dark ride), shopping for gifts ($12.19), tea cups, Indy cars, bought a fan ($15.90), and more shopping at Tinkerbelle's ($62.44). We did this all by our 9:30 PS for Cinderella's Royal Table. Not bad, huh? They were running 30 min late, so we had plenty of time to wait in line and visit Fairy Godmother. She did a wonderful job keeping everybody occupied while they waited. Finally, our name was called, just as Cinderella was coming down to sit with FG. So we were bummed that we didn't get to see the very person we came to see. L Breakfast was delicious! The characters- Snow White, Belle, Aladdin, and Esmerelda all were there. We all liked the French toast the best. ($48.55). On our way out the door, we ran into our Pediatrician. Went on Space Mountain before we left- a walk-on at 11am on an early entry day. We were pretty excited and hoped that the lines would be like this the rest of the time. Took the monorail to TTC, while we were waiting for it, A CM named Edwin, played with the kids doing magic tricks and making them laugh. He invited us to ride in the front cab, which I thought was really nice of him. Transferred to the Epcot monorail. I really like how it takes you around the park before it lets you off. Again, our first impression was WOW, WOW, WOW this is so cool! SE is so big. Sorry for this lackluster description of our first impression, but we were so awestruck.... We stood in "line" for SE, took about 3 min. We met this nice couple whom we befriended. We actually saw them several more times during the day, we would wave and say "look there's our friend's" Isn't it funny how you keep running into the same people during the day? By this point, were starting to notice that there were very few children around. Then it hit me DOH! They're all in school! Bad parents we are, taking our little ones out of school for vacation. We will now take a moment for Ron Ng to lecture me on how my kids will turn out to be degenerates and ne'er do wells. And we're back. We went through the main area between Innoventions and headed straight for Ice Station Cool. I got Charles to try to Beverly- typical reaction J it was so gross. I liked the ginger ale the best and Charles and the kids liked the German one. We then went to meet Mickey, the CM there had a stuffed Mickey which she tried to tell the kids that that's who they were lined up to meet. They didn't buy it, they knew he was behind the doors. The heat was really getting to us at this point. Remember, we're from Seattle, we pull out the shorts when it hits 60 degrees. And the humidity combined with missing a night of sleep did not make for a good experience. We made it to Test Track the stand-by line was 30 min, so we got FPs for 1:30 and got into line. We didn't mind the wait, frankly we were glad to be in air-conditioning. Maddy tripped and fell and got a nasty scrape on her knee. Two CMs came over immediately to help, but we had a 1st aid kit on us, which they were impressed that we had, so we took care of it ourselves and continued on. The ride itself was really fun. We loved the outside part where you go 65 mph, but we do this every day at home on the freeway, so I don't know why we did like it so much. Maybe cause we knew we wouldn't get a ticket or into an accident? Got a frozen coke (2.50), which we shared while we waited 5 min for our FP time. Went on it again, then headed over to the Wonders of Life. Went on Body Wars, the kids really thought we got shrunk. Then we discreetly discussed taking the kids into the Making of Me movie. Our kids haven't asked us "The Question" yet, so we agreed that we'd see it and hope that they'd start asking questions (they still haven't). It was pretty funny watching them watch this movie- they'd been acting up and being silly all day- but when they were watching the screen they were transfixed. By this time, we were fading fast, so we went in search of food. Our quest took us to WS, we're we couldn't decide what to eat. We had blisters, were sweaty, and generally crabby at this point. We needed food, we needed to sit, we needed air-conditioning, and we needed moleskin. We decided to go into Millennium Village and get something at the food court there. We got inside and were so confused and upset, that we sat for a minute and applied our moleskin (love that stuff). The kids didn't want any thing on the menu, the portions weren't big enough for Charles and I just wanted to sleep. So we did what any person does when they don't get what they want- we threw a small temper tantrum amongst ourselves and left. We then stopped at the fish and chips stand in UK. They didn't have indoor seating, which we so desperately needed. We walked a bit further and discovered the International Gateway. I had the bright idea to take the boat to Beaches and Cream, so we hopped on the boat for the short ride over. We couldn't find it, so we walked into the Yacht Club and asked the Guest Relations lady. She told us it was being rehabbed and the dining rooms weren't open until 5:00. (it was 4:00) I tell you, I just about lost it right then and there. So we went out to their bus stop to take a bus to where? You guessed it- Down Town Disney. While waiting we were bombarded by those pesky Love Bugs. Talk about PDAs! So, off to DTD we went, changed busses, got to DxL by 5pm. We ate at the food court. The food's pretty decent and reasonably priced. We all had a big dinner and dessert for $32.37. Not bad. We filled up our mugs and stopped by Fulton's to get some more gifts, some milk for the am, and an Official WDW Resort CD ($45.86). Feeling much better, but still tired, we went swimming in the themed swimming pool. I like the water slide and the waterfall. There weren't very many people at all there, in fact, we hadn't seen hardly anyone our first few days there. It was kind of nice. Back to the hotel and in bed by 9pm. I was disappointed that we didn't get to see much today and that we missed the parade. We'll try to fit it in the next day. Tomorrow: Epcot, Rose and Crown PS for 7:30, ToN parade, Illuminations. Day 3, Friday, 9/15, "Mom, somebody put presents in our room!" Woke up to Mickey at 7am, Charles went and got Hot Cocoa and doughnuts for breakfast. I got mad (and I shouldn't have) because I packed stuff for breakfast and he went and bought something! So, I publicly apologize to my husband, I'm sorry and I'm a toad. We stopped by Guest Services to buy E-Ride tickets ($38.16) and then caught the Epcot bus. We got there 15 min. early, and waited at The Land for rope drop. I can't tell you how many people came up to the CM, found out they had to wait, and then left. I can't figure those people out. They couldn't wait 7 min? Went to The Living Seas first, the CM outside was begging people to come in. Do they not get very many people or was he just being extra silly? The ride through the tank was pretty neat, wish it was longer. We watched the manatees eat lettuce for awhile all by ourselves. There was a CM there and he was explaining everything to the kids, how they came to be there, how the boats almost killed them. My husband wants a boat, but I told him he couldn't now because of the manatees. Shh don't tell him there aren't any in the Puget Sound. Wonder if I can convince him that motorcycles are bad for them too? Sorry- a bit OT. So we found a gift shop where we bought some stuff ($20.14), darn those gift shops! We meandered upstairs just in time for the 10am feeding. The same CM was talking, so he pointed some more stuff out for us. It was amazing how when the diver came out to feed the little fishes, they swarmed him so much; you couldn't even see him. After that, we walked over to the Land. We skipped the Lion King movie to go downstairs, thinking we'd do it on our way out. The ride was very interesting. Of course the kids were bored. We got off the ride just in time for the Food Rocks show. I was entertained, but kids didn't get the songs. They should have done a Britney Spears song and they would've gotten it. Goodness, I'm feeling old. My kids don't get my music. We ate lunch at Sunshine Food Fair, Charles and I got the Fajita potato - I didn't like it because of the nacho cheese, and the kids got the Macaroni and cheese meal ($20.14). We got FPs for HISTA and went on the JIYI. I am now proud to say that after that amazing ride, I have an imagination. Can you believe that all my life I had none, and now because of JIYI, I do? Quite astounding. I hated that ride and I never even saw the original. We were deafened by the train and made blind by the super-mega-watt light they shine right in your eyes. When we recovered, we played for awhile and made one of those pictures ($13.73). The CM was so old and so deaf, I was thinking to myself he should stop going on that ride. It took 25 minutes to get our picture taken and positions properly. Whatever, we were in air-conditioning, what'd we care? HISTA was next, I've always liked this show, but after seeing some of the other 3-D movies in WDW, it's now my least favorite. My chair wasn't working, so I missed some of the effects. We decided to keep going into World Showcase. First stop, was Canada. The kids made a mask at the Kidcot stop while we looked into the shops. We skipped the movie because we would've had to stand and once again, we were dead on our feet. So we hit the Off Kilter show. I love these guys! There wasn't that many people around and I kinda felt bad that not many people were clapping. That is so rude, to sit and watch someone playing for you and not appreciating them enough to hit your hands together once or twice. So, I tried my best to make up for the lack of enthusiasm. I think they appreciated it, because they came over to my side of the stage. They are incredible; I can't understand how they can handle all that hopping around in the heat. When they finished, we were off to the UK. Charles really wanted a chess set, but it was $700. Ouch. One day, I plan to be one of those people who can afford to buy a $700 chess set on vacation, purely for the heck of it. We listened to British Invasion for awhile (actually for longer, we could still hear them when we were a couple countries away!) then walked to France. I love France and will visit there someday, so this was very pleasant pretending to be there. We caught the ending of the World Showcase Players doing Cyreno de Bergerac. I know I spelled that one wrong. We laughed so hard at these guys! Wish we could have been there for the beginning. I loved the movie (the song is on the CD I bought) and afterwards, we stopped at the bakery for some treats. We shared a Black Forest cake, a éclair, and some cheesecake- all were very good, but rich ($13.68). We were so tired, that we mostly just walked past the rest of the countries. We bought a shot glass in Germany ($3.17) and three parasols in China ($31.80). We did manage to go on the Maelstrom, which the girls loved esp. the backwards part. We skipped the movie and went to ride El rio del Tempo. The first thing Maddy said on the ride, was that this is just like Pirates of the Caribbean. I took me a second to realize that she was talking about the restaurant inside. She was also worried about the erupting volcano. We looked around in the shop for awhile, then headed over to Future World. We stopped by MouseWorks and bought some more gifts and stuff for my kitchen ($153.76). We decided that we would do Ellen's universe of Energy and the call it quits. I figured we would try to see ToN and Illuminations later on in the week. UoE was down when we got there, so we passed out in the grass. When we came to, it was up and running so we ran inside. The pre-show was way too funny. I just love Ellen; her joke about her popping up in the back of our car had me giggling hysterically. We liked the ride, but we spent most of trying to figure out how it moved. It kind of bothered us that the Earth's creation was presented as the Big Bang theory and nothing else was suggested, it goes against our belief. But we'll get over it. We left Epcot at 6:45. We got to DxL at 7pm and went to eat at Boatwright's we didn't even need a PS. Charles had the ribs, I had cheese bites & French onion soup, Kenzie had chicken strips, and Maddy surprised us by ordering chicken soup. The food was OK, mine was too salty ($49.91). Stopped by Fulton's for OJ for the morning and found a Tigger shirt on sale ($24.72). Trudged home and the kids discovered that "somebody put presents in our room!" They thought that the deliveries were presents, and were disappointed that it was just what was bought yesterday. In bed at 10pm. Tomorrow: MK with family and Meagan, Liberty Tree Tavern PS for 6:30, MSEP and FiS Fireworks Day 4, Saturday, 9/16, "I told you so" This was supposed to be a day at MK with my Aunt, Uncle, Grandmother, two cousins, and my youngest daughter. Early in the morning, we decided to go tubing at the Butler Chain Lakes on my Uncle's boat instead. We had a fabulous time, the kids loved it. I chose not to go out on the tube, because I knew that being that I've never done it before, I would hurt myself or at the very least be incredibly sore. Not wanting to ruin my vacation with aches and pains, I opted out. I also explained my reasoning to my DH. He, being a big tough male, thought that he'd be fine. HA! His very first time out he took a really big spill and injured something near his ribcage. He spent all week moaning and groaning. Dare I say it? No, I shouldn't. But I will. I TOLD YOU SO!!!! Anyway, we decided to skip MSEP and the fireworks and spend it with the family. I was kind of bummed, but again, I'll get over it. Tomorrow: PS at Crystal Palace at 8:20, MK Day 5, Sunday, 9/17, "and the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down..." We woke up at 6:45 to Tropical Storm Gordon. Being from Seattle, a little rain wouldn't stop us! We bought ponchos from Fulton's ($23.32) and took off to the MK. The nice Cm at the gate let us in early so we could stand under the bridge. We went to the CP for breakfast- it was wonderful the best breakfast on property we thought.($48.55). We went to Adventureland after that. I knew the Jungle Cruise was being rehabbed, but I was still disappointed. Climbed up SFRTreehouse- is it just me or was there more stuff to look at in the tree house in DL? Walked on PotC, then went on Splash 2x in a row. We asked if we could just stay on, since there was no one in line, but they said that the same amount of people have to get off the ride as get on. I didn't see where they take count, but oh well. We went on BTMRR 3x, it was funny we sat in the back of the train and all you could see was this sea of yellow ponchos. It looked like a train full of garbage sacks from the back! It was pouring by then, so we went inside the HM. I love how my kids aren't afraid of much anymore. It's nice that they realize it's all pretend. We stopped by the kitchen store where I found utensils on sale and a Tigger cutting board ($48.73). Stopped by Sleepy Hollow for some cobbler and carmel corn. We went around back to the covered area and there was Pluto, just waiting for people to come by. We spent about 10 min alone with him. It was so much fun, we almost forgot that it's a real person inside the costume! Our backpack was getting in the way of our poncho, so we walked to the lockers to stow it. We went into the Camera store abd saw Snow White and 6 dwarves. (Happy said Doc was digging)Cinderella was also there so the girls were able to get her signature after all. Took the train to Toontown Fair where we went on the Barnstormer (fun, but too short), saw Minnie's House, then left for Fantasyland. Stopped by and saw Rafiki, Baloo, and King Louie. The kid's really wanted to get Louie's signature, so they made me forge it for them. Couldn't resist another ride on Pooh, then we went to Tomorrowland. Space Mountain was our longest wait of the day- 25 min. The rain had stopped a little and the crowds picked up a scootch. We then did TTA, Astro Orbiter, Carousel of Progress (Maddy loved this one, not sure why), and then did Buzz 3x in a row. This is a really cute ride. I, of course, sucked (hand-eye coordination isn't any good), but Charles did pretty good. We decided to take the kids on Alien Encounter. I knew that they would be scared, but explained again, that it was pretend. They weren't that scared, in fact, Kenzie was miffed that the alien "drooled" on her. Watched the Timekeeper which I didn't like because of standing with screens all around me makes me feel dizzy. We were pretty hungry, so we decided to go to 'Ohana because with our AP discount the kids would eat for free. We were seated immediately, which was nice for our tired feet. The food is absolutely wonderful and the atmosphere fantastic. The kids even liked it, which surprised me. They were too shy to participate in the coconut races, but lined up for the candy anyway. Cheaters. The bill came to $76.24 because we forgot our AP discount. But it was worth it. Got home, Charles took the kids swimming while I did Laundry. Not fair, I do it at home and on vacation. Met some guy in the laundry room who was one of those really friendly people who keep talking no matter what you do. He was raving about the Disney Vacation Club. I finally got out of there and we went home to bed. I am glad for the rain. It didn't bother us any and only about 9,000 people were in the park, I found out later. So it was a nice, relaxing day. Tomorrow: MGM, Fantasmic 8:00pm Day 6, Monday, 9/18, "I liked it a little bit" We started the day at 7:15. Had breakfast in the room, out the door at 8am, and at the studios by 8:30. Waited at the Sunset rope drop for ToT and RnRC. The bellhops there were so nice , they let us under the rope to get a really good picture of the empty street and ToT. We hustled to ToT when the park opened and got two sets of FPs. Yes, we cheated. No, we don't feel bad. J Got in line and was on the ride 10 minutes later. We loved this ride, well, except Maddy. She refused to go on again. We spent a few minutes shopping in the store and bought a key chain for my brother ($6.36). Maddy decided to go on one more time, since we bribed her with ice cream. If she was really crying and didn't want to go, I wouldn't have forced her. But she was agreeable, so off we went to the line. We gave our 2nd set away, since we figured she wouldn't go on it again. We walked past all the stand-by people right to the doors. We did get a few glares, and the lady we went in front of was so rude! She says loudly to the CM "why are they cutting?" and started giving her a hard time about it. So she walks right up to me, looks me straight in the eye, and say s to her friend "Come on, let's get back to where we were in line, before these people cut". I politely asked her if she knew about Fast Pass (uhm how can you not know) and she snapped back at me that "she does now." Whatever, I'm really sorry that she's stupid, but what gives her the right to be rude to me? I hoped her elevator really would disappear. And then I got over it. After the second ride, Maddy says with a sly grin, that she liked the ride "just a little bit" and wanted to go again. Little stinker. We then went over to Rock n Roller Coaster. I don't know why, but this was a 5 min. wait the 3 times we went on it. The kids loved this ride! They wanted to go on a 4th time, but it was time for Beauty and the Beast show. We bought some ice cream at Scoops ($10.60) and headed over to the show. Maddy tripped and fell on the same knee as the day before and dropped her cone in the process. I couldn't tell if she was more upset over her knee or the cone. Charles got her another one, she recovered, then off to the show. Fabulous show! Charles taped the whole thing for Meagan since she loves BatB. Went to the Villains shop and bought a poster for my sister ($21.20). Saw Doug , Patti, and the Army men from toy Story outside the Great Movie ride. We sat in front with the driver for this ride, he kept telling us interesting trivia about movie making. I'm sure he tells everyone this stuff, but he made it seem like he was letting us in on a little secret. The gangster that kidnapped our car, played with Maddy, even trading hats with her. He just didn't look to menacing wearing a pink Minnie hat. Did the Doug show next, got seats in the middle, 2nd row. Had a 2:30 Ps for Prime Time Café. Our server was funny/sarcastic, but didn't get into anything with us. It was kind of a bummer after reading the funny stuff here. I got the Pot Roast, Charles got the Tuna melt, and the girls got cheeseburgers. For dessert, the kids got make-your own sundaes and we split a s'more. Everything was really good (56.00) We got FPs for Indy, then went on Star Tours and Sounds Dangerous. We played around in the interactive area until we noticed the Mulan parade. We caught the last half of it. I was going to take pictures, but I remembered that we already had some from Disneyland. After the last float went by I realized that the pictures we had didn't turn out because it was night. GRRR, that ticked me off. Went to sit down for the Indy show, got front row seats. We've have a really lucky day, getting the fronts rows in the rides and shows. Loved the pre-show and the extras they cast for the show were too funny. After the show, we hustled to Pizza Planet to see the TS characters, but we just missed them. We decided to eat there since it would be fun for the kids. We split 2 pizza meals ($16.94). Went to the Muppets 3-D show, I loved this one. The cannons at the end were funny, I didn't even notice the stuff going on behind us until the movie was over. It was now 6:45, so we hustled to the Fantasmic show, I told the kids that I didn't care how tired they were, I was NOT missing another show!!! The place was packed at 7pm. We were able to sit in the ront row in the Hades section. I thought these would be really crappy seats, but it turned out that they were the best crappy seats. The water screen was right in front of us, so all wasn't too bad. There wasn't any pre-show entertainment and the show was 15 min. late. The crowd started getting restless, so the ushers started the wave on the right side of the theater. Well, after 10 waves we were getting bored again, so our side started a wave at the same time as the other side. The poor people in the middle were so confused. Then an all out wave war started between the left, right and middle. That was great fun. The show was absolutely wonderful, the first time I've seen it ever. It took a long time getting back to the busses, and when we got home, we stopped by the Cotton Mill for light meal ($14.90). Tomorrow: Animal Kingdom Day 7, Tuesday, 9/19, "and you are very wet" Mickey woke us at 6:45, I fed the kids breakfast, and we were all out the door by 7:30. Animal Kingdom was already open by the time we got there and the characters were just leaving the main entrance. We walked on to It's Tough to be a Bug. Because there was no line, we had to walk quickly so we didn't get to examine the Tree of Life closely. It's very beautiful, we had fun shouting out the different animals as we walked by them. This movie is now my favorite of the 3-D ones! We loved the bug spray part; it blew Kenzie's hat off! We didn't know where we were when we got out of the theater, so we just went along a path and eventually wandered into Asia. Several CMs were begging for people to ride Kali River Rapids, so we went on that. The first time, MacKenzie and I went over the falls first, so everyone else had a good laugh at our expense. We were able to stay on for another ride, which wasn't good idea in retrospect. Another family had gotten on, so this time it was a full boat, and we thought for sure that they would get it this time. Wrong. We got it again and we were soaked. I don't mind the rides that get you wet, but this was a little much. We literally spent the dripping wet and uncomfortable. We walked the Maharajah (however you spell it) Trek, the tigers were all out sleeping. Their enclosure with the fountains/pools is so beautiful; I could've stayed there all day. There weren't any other animals out, so we left. We then sloshed over to the pearl stand where we talked a CM for awhile. The girls begged for a pearl, they only had $6 each left of their spending money, so we told them we'd pay for the rest. At $12.99, it seemed reasonable. They did the ceremony, which was sweet, and then they popped the poor oyster open and hacked him up to get the pearl out. I kind of felt bad for doing that. Then, come to find out, you have to buy a setting for the pearl. $63.56 later, we had our pearls and went to Harambe. By this time, Charles and I were ready for breakfast. We ate at Tusker House- we both had the croissant meals and the kids split a cinnamon roll ($20.17). We got a FP for the safari and hopped on the Conservation Station. We ran into Tarzan where we had the funniest character moment. He was speaking to them in his "Me Tarzan, you Jane" voice. He says to them: Jane show me how to write my name, I write it over and over all the day so I will be good, see? (as he's signing their books.) Then he said: You are the same family. I can tell because you have same shoe, you have same hair, and you have same hat. And you are very wet. (as he hugged them for the picture). The exchange was so funny; the people around us were laughing too. There wasn't much to do, they wanted to pet the goats, but they were all behind the ropes. I think the most fun we had out there (besides Tarzan) was washing our hands in the elephant snot. When we got back to Harambe, we used our FPs for the safari. It was a 10 min. wait. The driver said that there were no fences of any type used, but I wonder how they keep the animals separated? I mean, if I were a lion, I'd be over snacking on some gazelles. How come these ones were just lying under a tree? I thought the poacher plot was lame. Why does every Disney attraction have to have a story? We walked quickly through the Pangani trail, because Kenzie had to "go" so bad. We missed the gorillas. I was bummed. We had to leave for the hotel by then to rest up for E-Night. We took a 2 hour nap, then walked outside just as the rain started. We got to MK by 4:45, swapped the tickets for the wristbands, and then decided to eat at the Pirate and the Parrot restaurant. As we were getting on the train, I saw a Guy named Bruce. I thought, what the heck, and asked him if he was from RADP. He was! I completed the Zazu challenge without even trying. I asked him if there was a prize, there was- a Zazu business card. Don't feel jealous, folks, I'm sure if you find him he'll give you one too. We got the restaurant at 5pm, and the place was closed! What was up with that? Since we were there, we went on PotC. We were starving, so we decided to try our luck at the Liberty Tree Tavern. We got in w/o a wait. The food there was all right, to me it tasted like a TV dinner. (Aha, on the way out the sign says- Hosted by Stouffer's") The server was s-l-o-w, and Minnie walked right by us 2 times w/o stopping. We mentioned this to our server when he showed up, next thing we know, Minnie was there at our table. Because he redeemed himself by getting Minnie, we actually tipped the guy. (63.39) It was almost closing time, so we hung around fantasyland for a few minutes. During the E-ride night we went on HM 1x, BTMRR 3xs, SplM 1x, Buzz 1x, and SpM 2xs. To be honest, the lines were shorter on Sunday! (That was a fluke, I know). We were pooped out at 9pm, so we dropped some more $$ on gifts ($145.22) and took the bus home. We stopped by the bar to listen to the piano player for awhile he played YMCA, which my girls knew the motions to. He thought they were cute (of course) and told everyone to watch them cause nobody did it as well as they did. We got ice cream at the food court, then stopped by Fulton's to pick up milk for the am. I ended up buying some Mickey pretzels and pasta, too ($16.66) Back at our room, we tidied up a bit, packed our gifts away, and went to bed by midnight. Tomorrow: sleep in, Kona Café for breakfast, DVC tour, meet relatives for swimming and dinner, and Down town Disney Westside Day 8, Wednesday, 9/20 Slept in this morning until 8:45. I fed the kids a light breakfast and we hung out until 9:30. We took the bus to MK, then got on the monorail at 10am to go to the Polynesian for breakfast. They were adding another monorail or filming (we never got a straight answer) so our monorail was stopped on the tracks for quite some time. We got off at 10:45, I was so angry because we weren't warned this was going to happen. Being stuck for 45 min in the front cab of the monorail with a hungry husband, a crabby driver, and two bored kids was not my idea of a great start to our day. We missed our PS for the Kona Café, but they sat us anyway. I had the Tonga Toast, Charles had the big Kahuna, Maddy had a Mickey waffle, and Kenzie had Minnie's French toast. It was all delicious! ($32.21)Because of the Monorail fiasco, we didn't have time to get to our DVC appointment We called them, and they sent a driver to pick us up, which I thought was nice. As the driver started the tour of the Boardwalk, Kenzie said she had to go potty. He said he would take us to the bathroom, but ended up continuing on with his tour. I had to remind him twice before he took us to the welcoming center. That kind of irritated me that he was more concerned with the 'sale' than getting a little girl to the bathroom. We were told by our sales guy it would be an hour tops for the whole thing; we told him we had to watch the clock because we needed to meet our relatives. We were very interested and asked only a few questions since we watched the information channel the night before. Since we are from Washington, our state doesn't allow them to sell to us. The guy kept pressuring us to make a decision before we left, which I didn't care for. I asked him did he mean before we left our meeting or Florida we needed to buy. He said Florida, but he still continued to pressure us for an answer before we left. He left us to think and we overheard another salesguy telling someone else another reason why they should decide right now. We were still interested, but started to have a few doubts. We decided to talk to my Uncle, who is in the timeshare business, and see what he thought. This is a lot of money for us and we wanted to be absolutely sure before we committed to this. We explained to our guy that we did have a few more questions, but we had to go right away because we would be late to meet our relatives. He got huffy after that (like I was feeding him a line, even though I told him we had to leave by a specific time) and took us to check out at the front desk. The gentleman there handed me our free lunch certificate (a thank you for coming) and our guy took it out of my hands and said "They won't have time for lunch today, they can get it when they come back." Then he ushered out the door. We realized that we had no ride back to our hotel. We didn't know where the bus stop was and were late. I was very angry at the shabby treatment we got all because we had a few more questions. Needless to say, we didn't go back. Which is too bad, because we really liked DVC. We finally figured out how to get home, and we were 45 min late to meet them. Oh well, they understood. My Uncle told me that he was friends with the guy who runs DVC, so if we decide to do this that we'd go through him. The kids had fun swimming with their cousins for an hour, and then we went by the DTD boat to go to the Rainforest Café. We have one here at home, but is nowhere near the size of this place! The food was great- the kids all had the Dinosaur nuggets, I had the appetizer sampler, Aunt had the Cobb salad, Uncle had the Mojo Bones, and Charles had the Mayan sampler. The dish I ordered was the one I usually get, but they did some thing different with the sauces that I didn't care for. Other than that, everyone's food was great. My Uncle bought so I don't know the cost. On the way out, we bought all the kids those water weenie things ($26.24). We were going to go to the Westside afterwards, but it had started to rain. We didn't have our ponchos/ umbrella with us (when will we ever learn?). So we went home, watched the video we'd taken so far, and went to bed at 10:15. Tomorrow: MGM in the AM, AK in the afternoon, meet Uncle to pick up Meagan at 4:30, DTD Westside Day 9, Thursday, 9/21, "Clean up on aisle 3!" Mickey woke us up at 7:30. We were going to eat in our room, but we decided to grab something at MGM since we were doing so well with our food budget. We were there by 8:15, but they weren't opening the gates until 8:45. They were letting the Hollywood and Vine breakfast people in, so we decided to eat there so we'd be done with breakfast by rope drop. The food there is standard breakfast fare, stuff like scrambled eggs, pancakes, muffins, etc. We can only eat a plate of food at buffets. So we felt it wasn't worth the cost. ($52.79) We were finished right before rope drop, so we hustled over to Sunset to wait for ToT. There was quite a large crowd there, and this family pushes their way past the line and goes under the rope. They, of course, were stopped and turned back, but you gotta wonder what they could have been thinking? We headed to ToT to get FPs. We then went on RnRC 3 times in a row. The third time there was a young couple behind us; the woman was very nervous about going. Maddy turns around and tells the lady " I've been on this 6 times- you can't be scared." This lady started laughing that this little kid had to reassure her, and was fine after that. Charles didn't go on the ride the last time because his ribcage was still sore, so he sat in the gift shop and bought guitar picks (4.03). We used our FPs to go on twice. The second time, I asked for and got the seatbelt. I gave myself lots of slack and had the best ride. We walked to see The Voyage of the Little mermaid. On the way, we saw Mary Poppins, Cinderella, Jasmine, Alice, and Aladdin. Aladdin remembered us from breakfast last Thursday, which I had trouble believing. After we were home and I was looking at our pictures, I realized it was the same guy! That's really cool that he remembered two kids from the week before. I bought the girls princess hats that they had been drooling over, they wore them for an hour and then Daddy had to carry them the rest of the day. We didn't have any strong feelings about the Mermaid show- we didn't really like it or really hate it. We went to the Backlot tour next, this was really boring to me. I guess after the excitement of Universal Studios (in California), the tour didn't have very much to look at. We skipped the room with all the collectibles stuff, which I would have like to have seen, to make the Hunchback show. We got there a couple minutes before the show started and were able to get seats near the center stage. We all loved this show, I don't care for the movie, but they did a great job putting it on. I especially liked how they incorporated puppets into the performance. We were running out of time, so we skipped everything else and left for the Animal Kingdom. As soon as we got there, we got FPs for Dinosaur and then went to Restaurantosaurus for lunch. I couldn't believe how much it cost ($27.18) for McDonald's food. The place was dirty and the food was gross to boot. We won't go back there I can assure you. By the time it was our FP time, the FP line was longer than the Stand-by line. Nobody enjoyed this ride. The part where you get your picture taken, no one was scared. Our picture was a bunch of people looking at a dinosaur. I'm sorry guys, but Indiana Jones in Disneyland is so much better. :) We ran to the Tarzan Rocks! show. This was not at all what I had expected, and was pleasantly surprised. I thought the rollerbladers were so cool. The way Tarzan and Jane do all those acrobatics on ropes was just mesmerizing. I took almost a roll of film on this show (which didn't turn out :( ). We were getting close to the time we had to meet Meagan, so we let the kids play in the boneyard. Our girls went into a cave and came out on the other side of the playground. All the parents were hanging out outside of this hole waiting for the kids to come out, and they'd surprise us from behind! Whoever designed this is a genius! The kids get the feeling of being an explorer and the parents get the peace of mind that's it's a safe, contained area. I wish we had more time to spend here. We had to leave at this point. We never got to go into Camp Minnie- Mickey at all, nor did we see Flights of Wonder. So, that was kind of disappointing. Oh well, something to look forward to for next time, right? Met my Uncle, got Meagan, went to the hotel to change, and grabbed the bus to DTD. We went to the World of Disney store to get the girls their stuffed animals they wanted ($78.23). I saw a Tinkerbell and a Captain Hook costume I wanted to get for Andrew (my son) and Meagan, but didn't get them for some reason. As soon as we left the store, the girls made a beeline for the Lego store. The playground there is really neat; while the kids were playing, I went inside to dump legos on the floor. Really. I picked up a bucket of Legos and turned it over to see the price. Well, the lid wasn't secured and the whole bucket dumped all over the floor. As if I wasn't embarrassed enough, the CM yells out "Clean-up on aisle 3!" to make fun of me. I'm pretty sure that everyone in the store was laughing at me, so I cleaned up and ran out of the store. It was pretty funny, though. The Candy Cauldron was next, so we walked over to the Westside. We bought the kids candy apples, Charles some fudge, and me a Dalmatian pretzel ($20.30). It was very good, but pricey for mere candy! Went home, grabbed some dinner at the Cotton Mill ($19.88), Charles took the kids swimming, and I packed. I couldn't believe our vacation was almost over! Tomorrow: MK Day 10, Friday, 9/22, " Look at the neat birds, they're eating out of our hands!" Our last park day started at 7:30. We had breakfast in our room and threw the leftover food away. I would have like to have taken it home, but with all our extra stuff, we just didn't have the space. Meagan decided that she would like to go to the Magic Kingdom today. I gave her the choice where we were going today since this was her only day with us. We got to MK by 8:45. Meagan's first choice was Snow White. We decided that this was her day, so she would set the pace. The girls wanted to sit together in one car, the CM there said it was OK since we were on the ride with them. We then went on Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan, IASW, and got Ariel's autograph. Then it was off to the Haunted Mansion. The girls again wanted to sit together, which surprised me. I'm so glad they're not frightened anymore; they can just enjoy the parks now. We did BTMRR, Meagan didn't like this at all. I forgot she didn't like it at Disneyland last March either. We did Splash once, then PotC. The girls wanted us to buy them Hula outfits for Halloween, but all you got for $30 was a fake grass skirt and a bikini. So we passed. Besides, here in Washington, wearing that in October- they'd freeze! We hopped on the ferry to Tom Sawyers Island and had lunch at Aunt Polly's. We all got the bag lunches that were served on a tray- go figure. ($26.66) Not bad, but not good either. While we were eating these little birds came over (I think they were egrets), we had been seeing them all week and oohing and ahhing over the Florida "wildlife". Anyway, they just sauntered over to us and started begging for food. We then realized that these birds are pests just like our Canada Geese back home. We felt a little dumb. Just hand us a Hawaiian shirt and some knee high sweat socks and call us tourists. : ) We were going to explore the Island, but didn't think we'd have enough time to finish the rest of the park and get to the Wilderness Lodge before 6pm. We were going to take advantage of our AP discount at the Whispering Canyon Café. We got back on the ferry and hopped on the train to Toontown. We got lots of Autographs there, to the kids delight. Their books were almost full! We got in the 25 min line so Meagan could see Minnie. We exited out into the store in the tent. I found the same Tinkerbelle and Hook costume there. This time Charles let me buy them. (If only he let me buy it in DTD, we could've gotten a discount) The costumes were beautiful and very well made with lots of detail. ($106.00) (I ended up getting the wrong size for my son and had to exchange it when we got home. The Disney Store costumes are not the same quality, so I was very disappointed.) We went on Barnstormer next. We asked the CM there if there would be room for all the girls in the seat. He asked their ages and said they weren't old enough to ride alone. We had been doing it for our whole vacation and specifically asked about it today. But I wasn't going to argue. So we go to get on the ride, and our kids have to ride alone! 2 Adults, 3 kids , you do the math! : ) This guy was doing a good job, but wasn't shiniest tool in the shed. Meagan really wanted to stay in Toontown, but we had to press onward. We got FPs for Space Mt. And went on Buzz. The girls sat together again, Kenzie and Maddy shooting and Meagan steering. It wasn't time for our SpaM FP, so Maddy begged to see CoP. Soon we were all singing "It's a great big beautiful tomorrow" all the way to SpaM. We had to do the baby swap for Meagan, I could have swore she was tall enough last March (or maybe different height requirements at DL?) so I took the older girls, then Charles took them while I waited in the Arcade with Meagan. They have every kind of video game imaginable. From, jet skis to surf boards, to skateboards, to semi trucks. We were impressed with the variety. It was time to leave, we were starving. It's weird the days we didn't eat lunch until late, we weren't that hungry; but on the days we had a regular meal, we were so hungry by dinnertime. We opted to take a ferry over to the Lodge for dinner. It had just started to rain when we got there at 5pm. We waited for a few minutes and then got seated for dinner. We all decided on the BBQ for dinner except for Meagan who wanted a hot dog. I'm not a big meat eater- I don't like it when it looks like the animal it once was. The rib, turkey leg, and the chicken didn't go over well with me. The rest of the family loved it though. Our waitress was good, but a little shy so she didn't mess around with us. The guy the next table over was having his birthday, his waitress made him a chef's hat that said "birthday boy" and made him trot around the restaurant on a stick horse singing happy birthday to himself. Then she made him do it around the lobby of the hotel!!! We laughed so hard. The kids did the stick horse race- I guess they've loosen up this week. We decided to get dessert for once, I got the Bread Pudding, Charles the cheesecake, and the girls all got worms in dirt. Yum! Yum! ($71.45) As we left, we explored the lobby and looked inside the Cub's Den. That seems like a cool place to leave the kids for awhile. We might try it next time we go. Provided our kids are still young enough! The DTD bus was waiting at the bus stop, good thing it was pouring. When we got there, the DxL was waiting- good timing! We got home and finished packing. The girls wrote in their journals and I finished my notes. In bed by 9:30. Tomorrow: Home Day 11, Saturday, 9/23, "Mom can we come back here next week?" Mickey woke us for the last time at 7am. We let him do his greeting three times cause we'd miss it so much. Our bill was on the door when we went to get breakfast. I overpaid slightly before we came, so there was a credit. It was only 8 bucks, but still. I had brought a phone card to use, but they still charge .75 every time you use the phone. I don't remember how much breakfast was, I got a breakfast pizza, Kenzie and Maddy got milk, cereal and a muffin, Meagan had a Mickey pancake, and Charles got biscuits and gravy. It probably was around $20.00. We then walked around for awhile, taking pictures, and feeling generally mopey. Maddy asked if we could come back here next week. I wish! Actually, we were kind of glad to go to our real home. We really missed Andrew. My Uncle picked us up at 9:15 and we made it the airport just as they were boarding for our 10:45am flight. I don't know how we got so late. We got to Detroit at 1:30 to find out our 3:00 flight was delayed until 4:15. Ugh. There was another plane that was broken, so the waiting area was so clogged with people. We took the kids to get ice cream to waste time. After 10 days of non-stop excitement, we had nothing to do for 3 hours. Talk about excruciating! We boarded the plane at 4:20 to find out that there was a computer problem so we'd have to wait some more. We finally got out of there at 5:15. This flight was so long. When we flew down, we dozed so it didn't seem so long! We finally made it home at 7:30 Seattle time. (Which was 10:30 Florida time.) We were dead tired while the family was rarin' to go! It was good to be home. Next up: Final thoughts Final Thoughts On:
I didn't think that we'd see everything our first trip. We still have DisneyQuest, all the Water Parks, and even IOA to see next time we go. I just have to convince Charles to do it over next year. ;) I want to thank everyone for all the help and advice they've given me. I don't think we would have had nearly the wonderful experience we had without it. Totals (All are for 2 adults, 2 children):
Anyway, thanks again for all the help and feel free to ask me any questions! Jennifer Ledford - TDC Administrator of all Mint Juleps and Mardi Gras Beads in NOS-DL sprstr5366@cs.com Mail a Comment to Jennifer Ledford |
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