From Terror Threats to Hurricanes...Day 4 update w more pics

[andy_fish]

OK…I am going to start my very first Disney trip report. My family (Me, Wife, 9 year old son, 8 year old daughter, and 6 year old daughter) traveled from Seattle to Disney World to Nags Head back to Disney World from 8/13 until 8/31. 7 days of Disney sandwiched around 10 days in the outer banks…5106 miles of flying 2100 miles of driving. The trip started with the "liquid bomb" terrorist threat right before we left and finished with us scrambling to rebook flights and find a room with Ernesto was aiming to hit us the day we were supposed to leave.
My kids had never been to Disney World but my wife and I had our anniversary there in August of 1995 :love: . We spent 4 nights at Saratoga Springs :thumbsup2 , then drove to nags head :moped: , then spent 3 nights at Worldmark in Orlando.
Anyway…here is day 1…I was so tired that some of the details are probably missing and I didn’t take any notes on this day when I got back to the room since I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

8/13-8/14: This is two days but to me it seemed like one very very long day. We left our house 7:30 for our 10:40 Flight. With the new airport rules we were worried about long lines through security. Of course check-in and security took about 11 minutes leaving us two hours or so to kill at the airport. Fortunately the service at Anthony’s was ridiculously slow so dinner took up just about all of the time. Before we left I printed our boarding passes snagging 4 seats in row 6 and an aisle in row 8. DS9, DD8, and DD6 took A, B, and C and I took D. DW took row 8. Anthony’s took long enough for me to gulp down two 22 ounce beers so I was ready to actually sleep through the red eye to Orlando. DW had a glass of wine…actually she had a half a glass of wine which I cleaned up as we left the table. The flight was uneventful but I didn’t get much sleep. The kids were remarkably well behaved on the plane…likely because they were asleep most of the flight.
We land at MCO at around 7:30 AM. All of us exhausted we do the red-eye zombie walk though the airport looking for magical express. We follow the pointing arms of the magical express cast members until after walking for 17 miles we reach the launch zone for the ME busses. Once aboard we all seem to get a second wind…the reality that we were now going to Disney World has woken us up.
The bus pulls into Saratoga Springs…wow…we are actually here :banana: . I can’t believe it. After all this planning and the years of saying “next year we will take the kids to Disney World” we are finally here. It is still early…about 9:30 AM. We figured we would check-in and then head to MGM until our room was ready but it turns out our room is already ready. Fantastic! So we get a golf cart ride to our building and head to the room. It was a nice room…didn’t blow us away but definitely nice. Boy did those beds look comfortable…I just had to test them out and rest my eyes for just a minute…two hours later we were off to MGM.
We chose MGM for this day because they were having the evening magic hours. Most of this day is a blur since I was operating on about 60 minutes or beer induced sleep. We walk into the park and I am immediately hit with “Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan Dad can we get a fan” ugghh. I don’t remember how much they cost but at the time I thought they were way too expensive…I guess the drugs that Disney adds to the water that makes you attempt to spend money as fast as possible hadn’t taken effect yet (although the next day the drugs clearly had taken effect because among many many other things we bought two fans).
We decided to head to thelft as we entered which seemed away from the crowds who were probably heading toward the bigger rides. On the way we walked by the sci-fi theater where my wife and I had once eaten on our honeymoon and we thought the kids would enjoy having dinner there so we walked up to the podium and asked about any available tables for dinner. The CM at the podium stared blankly at me…it was probably not for more than a second or two but in that time and recognizing the meaning of the expression on his face I realized something that my tired brain had not yet comprehended…everyone is getting the DDP for free…I have no reservations for any meals…holy crap :furious: . “We are totally booked up all night including the Magic Hours”. That line was repeated to me at every other restaurant in the park. So not only am I paying for the DDP when everyone else is getting it for free but because EVERYONE is getting it for free there are no restaurants available at which we can use our DDP to eat. Wife made some comment to the effect of...how is the DDP a bargain if we can't actually eat the meals... :teacher:
So trying not to let this get us down we set off to enjoy the park.
The first thing we did was hit the 3D movies :3dglasses since fatigue started to catch up to us and our Sammamish, WA bodies were not adjusted to the weather. The kids absolutely loved the Muppet show…even more than Honey I shrunk the Audience (which we saw next). We hit the movie ride (which oddly enough the kids also enjoyed even though they hadn’t seen most of the movies). Now you have to remember that we were a step slow and our brains were adjusting to Disney…but we totally blew it and never got fast passes for Tower of Terror or Rockin’ Roller Coaster…the only two good rides in the park and we were going to miss them. At the time we figured that we could just stand-by on them during the magic hours. Well when the magic hours started the park was about 10x more crowded than it was all day. I sat down on the curb and did something I should have done weeks or months ago…I called advanced dinner reservations :sad2: . I sat on hold for a few minutes and glanced at the family…wife looked spent…girls seemed in a daze…my son was hopped up on whatever natural amphetamines kick in when he gets really tired which means a major crash was around the corner…I really needed to find us a place to eat. ADR CM was very helpful…she checked every park and every resort and found nothing…finally she managed to get us in to the Turf Club at our resort. This was actually perfect since we were all ready to call it a day anyway. Not a great start to our trip…we didn’t plan our park very well and we totally skipped the magic hours which was why we came here first…but we are here and is there really a bad day at Disney?
Turf Club was running late but that worked out. It gave us time to have a drink and let the kids settle down in front of the TV outside of the restaurant. My wife took my son to the gift shop because he really wanted a Sorcerers’ Apprentice Hat. He was really excited when he had it on when he came back :wizard: . My wife told me that she felt really bad because some older boys (age 12 or 13...my wife pointed them out later on a bus from one of the parks) in the gift shop were making fun of him when he was wearing it. My son is extremely intelligent but he can sometimes seem a little bit odd to other kids…so this wasn’t the first time something like this happened and to his credit he didn’t let it affect him what so ever (I don’t know if he even noticed…he usually doesn’t). When we got back he said he wants to be the sorcerers spprentice for halloween :). My girls just sprawled out on the couch the whole time managing to stay awake watching some Nick cartoon that I hate and they love.
Dinner was awesome… so much wonderful food…I finally won my big points for getting the DDP even if we did have to pay for it. In fact every meal we had on the trip was fantastic except for our final table service meal (which I will talk about in a later installment). After dinner we took the loooooong walk back to our room and were all asleep within minutes…tomorrow at the Animal Kingdom would be a much better day and we would actually check out our resort.

[pumba]

I know about not having ONE ressie........we were in May and didnt make any priority seating and we only could get to Biergarten while we were there.....thanks so much for your report so far

[Bev J]

Good report so far. It is amazing what kids think they can't live without when they get to WDW, then never touch them again when you get home :confused3

Looking forward to more, hope you got some good ADR's for the rest of the week..

bev

[katiesmomluvsdizne]

My DH always tells me that I need to be more spontanious and not plan all of our meals and what parks on what days. You just experienced what I never want to experience. Glad to hear you didn't let it ruin the rest of your day. Looking forward to hearing more.

[mince]

sub thanks

[ampc3]

enjoing your TR, It is also so nice to see this written from a DH perspective :thumbsup2 Your wife seems very laid back, which is great! I am a complete control freak so there is NO WAY I would leave ANY planning to my dh :bitelip:

[Backstage_Gal]

Enjoying you TR, please keep it coming...

[VaNana]

Love your TR and hope tomorrow at AK is a better day! You are a trooper! My DH would have been back at the hotel asleep!

[Dizneydaz]

Great TR so far! :thumbsup2 I can totally relate to how you felt that first day. In Jan. 05 we flew red-eye (for the first and only time). Our flight left LAX at 10:30 p.m. and arrived at MCO at 6:30 a.m. We thought we (myself, my DM, and my DD5) would sleep on the plane-not really! The flight was great (on Song, now Delta). My DD slept maybe 1-1/2 hrs. My DM and I about 25 min. When we arrived at POP at about 7:30 a.m. we were so gald to find that our room was already ready! We all crashed and took naps.

And then, and I have to plead lack of sleep here, here's where it got interesting. When I went to get our luggage out of our van, the keys didn't work. To make a long story short, and so I don't look as stupid as I felt, several hours and a $95 lock out charge (and a new van) I found the real set of keys in my jacket pocket. I had picked up two sets (from two different vehicles) at Alamo! It had to be sleep deprivation! :confused3 I'm usually not that stupid! When all else was said and done, we didn't get to the parks til about 2:30 p.m. that day so arriving so early wasn't that much of a benefit and now we arrive late at night (usually about 10-11 p.m.) which isn't so bad since due to the 3 hr. time change, our bodies still think it's early. The time change also lets us eat a little later so we usually get the ADRs we want. And yes, thankfully, I have our ADRs made! :grouphug:

[Cass]

Can't wait for more!

Glad your son didn't let those kids get him down :wizard:

[andy_fish]

Day 2: Today was a good day...a lot of this probably had to do with the fact that we were rested but I think AK is just a better park than MGM. Also we really liked the Saratoga Springs pool...although paying $6 for a Corona and $11 for a Margarita seemed a little steep...even steeper since we each ordered two ;)

Before my wife went to bed on day 1 she ordered a bunch of food and drinks from Green Grocer with a note to deliver at 7 AM :thumbsup2 . Good thing because when they called at 7:30 to let us know that they would arrive soon we were still asleep :surfweb: . Once I hung up the phone I rolled out of bed to wake the kids. They of course were wide awake watching something on Nick again (don’t they realize that we are in Disney?). I got on the phone to the ADR line while my wife took a shower. I got a great cast member…she worked with me forever. Nothing I wanted was available but we did manage to get a character meal at Epcot and dinners at the Grand Floridian Café and Key West. She actually found a dinner open at Cinderella’s Castle but between the time she found it and I decided to use 2 meal credits for it it was taken :guilty: . I was a little disappointed that none of the places I wanted were available but just knowing that we had places to eat lifted a big weight from my shoulders. The Groceries arrived around 8 with Milk, soy milk, rice milk (don’t ask…each kid drinks a different milk) cereal, sausage, fruit, snacks, soda, water, and Gatorade. The kids ate their cereal and DW and I ate some kind of pig meat and we were off to the bus stop. We chose today to go to AK because we had the Epcot Character meal tomorrow and the extra morning magic hours for the MK were the following day.
We were pretty far from the lobby at Saratoga Springs but we were pretty close to the Congress Bus Stop which was nice. We all walked across the grass to the busses feeling much better than they day before. The stop wasn’t too crowded and we only waited about 10 mins for the AK bus…I had heard horror stories about long waits and crowds for these busses but we had a great experience…at least when trying to catch busses from our resort.
I have to say…Animal Kingdom was probably our favorite park :sunny: . This was partly due to the fact that we actually had a plan going in instead of misadventure at MGM. We arrived at the park just after it had opened and headed immediately to get a fast pass at Everest. I was just amazed when we entered the park…wow…Disney did a wonderful job. It is a great amusement park built into one of the best Zoos that I have ever seen. Wife navigated and we made a bee line to EE. By the time we got there the return time was 1:20 PM and we did the Olympic fast walk from the entrance right after it opened. Our next fast pass was available at 11 AM which we figured we should use for the safari…on the way we went stand by to the Kali River Rapids which at that time of the day was very quick. We had a great ride…we didn’t even get very wet. My son does not like scary rides…and by scary ride I mean anything that has any kind of warning sign causes him agitation in line. This was no exception…he was worried the whole way but he sucked it up and we had a great ride. We had him take off his shirt which might have been a Disney faux pa but it seemed to make sense at the time and the CM said it was ok.
After the Rapids we headed to the Safari to get a fast pass…we were a little early so we walked through the pangani forest trails next door. The kids really liked it…Komodo Dragons, Bats, Snakes, Bugs…they were in heaven (well…two of my kids anyway…middle daughter is more into Hello Kitty than snakes and bats). We got our safari fast pass with a time of 11:45 and left to see more of the park and get our DDP snacks. 4 Smoothies and a triple mocha later we headed back to catch the Safari…my watch said it was 11:48 but apparently Disney clocks can differ a little bit and the CM guarding the fast pass line was not going to yield even a second :hourglass . No big deal…we stood around waiting until she calls out 11:45 and away we go. It was a good ride...great feel and lots of amazing animals…I kind of wanted the Disney story part of it to end a little differently though. After the ride we headed over to DinoLand to kill some time before the EE fast pass time. Dinoland was HOT…whoever designed it should have realized that it can get very warm in Orlando and an all blacktop section might not be the greatest of ideas. The kids loved the time machine roller coaster…even my son who hates roller coasters…we rode it several times. We wasted zero dollars on the midway games but we did spend lots of money at the gift shop and we bought each girl a squirt bottle fan :sad2: . I instantly regretted it since it made all the kids walk even slower while they squirted themselves…and then guess who got to carry them on rides or when the girls decided they didn’t need them for a while.
We grabbed a fast pass for the Dinosaur ride and headed over the EE. I don’t know how but we convinced my son to ride with us. The only problem was that this ride (like many others) seats 2 per car and DS9 had to ride with my wife. Which left me making sophies choice with DD8 and DD6…the man that was going to have to sit with one of my DDs was Japanese and didn’t speak any English but he realized what was happening and motioned to me that he was switching places with his young daughter (probably 6) and my DD6 happily hopped into the seat next to her…problem solved :banana: (we bought ride picture which turned out great which I will scan and post). Great ride…my girls loved it…my son said that he was terrified and would never ride it again.
After EE we needed to eat so we looked for a place to escape the heat and found Pizzafari. I did the table hover while my wife orders the $50 worth of food (the kids got the frozen lemonade as dessert which normally is too expensive to be a snack!). It was a nice break…I think the best part of the DDP was that it allows you to relax when ordering food and not make cost based choices that you shouldn’t be making on vacation anyway. After lunch we headed to the Dinosaur ride making a quick detour for a time machine roller coaster ride. The ride was fine although I could have used more visual and less banging around in my seat. Kids found really enjoyable. After Dinosaur my wife decided to shop at every gift shop in the park (and out of the park too actually as we stopped in the one outside of the gates). I think she was looking for a shirt but no shirt ended up in the bags of stuff that we bought. We took some pictures at the tree of life and let the kids run around some more in the play area and then headed out to make our table at the Grand Floridian. We had a great time at AK…more than made up for the day before.
We headed back to our hotel to let the kids swim a little bit before dinner. The kids loved our hotel pool which had a pretty decent waterslide that never seemed to be crowded. After quickly changing we caught a bus to MK and took the boat to the Grand Floridian :thumbsup2 :thumbsup2 . We hadn’t been there before and had a nice walk in the lobby before dinner. What a nice hotel…doesn’t really work for the 5 of us but if the Wife and I were to take a trip without the kids this would be our hotel. The dinner was great…the best meal we had on the trip. I was kind of worried when all we could find was the Grand Floridian Café for this evening but I can’t imagine that any other single meal credit restaurant could have been much nicer. The kids even had a steak option on their menu (although only DD6 ordered it) and the server let her add the shrimp skewer just as he had let my wife. Nice atmosphere with great food and great service…everything was coming together. My wife loved the chocolate fondue for dessert.
We headed back to our hotel (after going through the Grand Floridian gift shop) to get to bed. The next day would be Epcot which ended up being our fullest day…in fact we tried but just couldn’t do everything we wanted to do.
I will post some pictures soon :)

[andy_fish]

Finally figured out pictures :)

Here are the kids at the Epcot Character meal. I have a bunch more but I need to get them uploaded.

Shoot...I can't post images...how many posts do I need to be able to post pictures?

[Magic2000]

We love the Grand Floridian Cafe too! We usually eat there at least once every trip! It has a great atmosphere too!!

[Lan]

I am enjoying your report.

[andy_fish]

Great TR so far! :thumbsup2 I can totally relate to how you felt that first day. In Jan. 05 we flew red-eye (for the first and only time). Our flight left LAX at 10:30 p.m. and arrived at MCO at 6:30 a.m. We thought we (myself, my DM, and my DD5) would sleep on the plane-not really! The flight was great (on Song, now Delta). My DD slept maybe 1-1/2 hrs. My DM and I about 25 min. When we arrived at POP at about 7:30 a.m. we were so gald to find that our room was already ready! We all crashed and took naps.

And then, and I have to plead lack of sleep here, here's where it got interesting. When I went to get our luggage out of our van, the keys didn't work. To make a long story short, and so I don't look as stupid as I felt, several hours and a $95 lock out charge (and a new van) I found the real set of keys in my jacket pocket. I had picked up two sets (from two different vehicles) at Alamo! It had to be sleep deprivation! :confused3 I'm usually not that stupid! When all else was said and done, we didn't get to the parks til about 2:30 p.m. that day so arriving so early wasn't that much of a benefit and now we arrive late at night (usually about 10-11 p.m.) which isn't so bad since due to the 3 hr. time change, our bodies still think it's early. The time change also lets us eat a little later so we usually get the ADRs we want. And yes, thankfully, I have our ADRs made! :grouphug:

I thought the 3 hour time difference would help but having no sleep probably negated any benefit :(

[andy_fish]

Here are the kids at the Character meal.

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/122693IMG_0700-thumb.JPG (http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=23663)

[kaitlin-n-mom]

Great TR, keep it coming.

[helenm29]

WOW! Sure sounds like you had a busy time! I know how you feal about your first day there after taking a red-eye...we've done that 3 times before and you always feal like a washed out rag when you get off that plane! I won't do it again I don't think. Fortunately for us we made all of our restaurant reservations as soon as we could when we booked out trip in December!
we didn't go on the DDP untill a couple of months ago but we just couldn't resist because we figured the price it would be for the 5 of us WITHOUT it and it would have been ASTRONOMICAL! there's me, dad and three kids...all pretty big kids! DD13 is 5'6, DS13 is 5'9 and DS19 is 6'3 and BOY can they pack away the food!
Can't wait to hear some more on your trip....sounds like you had a BLAST! Helen

[andy_fish]

Here are the Bats :)

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/122693bats-thumb.JPG (http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=23664)

[horsegirl]

Here are the Bats :)

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/122693bats-thumb.JPG (http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=23664)


Hi, Mr. Fish. Welcome to the Dis, and I am enjoying your persoective. I agree with you on the design of Dinoland. Has that cool peeweehermanesque feel but needs some trees and more shade!

Congrats on figuring out how to post pics. Now would you enlarge them so us seniors don't need a telescople, glasses and a magnifying glass to see the pictures! :lmao:

[andy_fish]

OK...here are the pictures full size :)

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/122693bats.JPG

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/122693IMG_0700.JPG

[horsegirl]

MUCH BETTER! What cuties. And I loved the bats too. Very cool. :thumbsup2

[Minniespal]

Enjoying reading your reports ~ Thanx for sharing.

[jns]

enjoying your report and thanks for sharing your photos

[andy_fish]

Thanks for the words of encouragement. I read these boards religiously for the months leading up to our trip and really enjoyed other people's trip reports.

Day 3:

Once again we wake up late and arrived at the park 30 minutes after it opened. I really liked having a full kitchen but it also seemed to slow us down in the morning. The kids were fighting all morning…my poor 8 year old was getting the worst of it from her 6 year old sister and my 9 year old was tormenting them both. :bounce: Once we got on the bus to epcot they seemed to calm down.
We were greeted by a massive bag check line that seemed to have no order except at the point bags are actually checked. We battled our way through and I with a few other dads had a fast-walking race to Soarin’ to get a fast pass. A few other dads actually threw any humility to the wind actually ran at nearly a full sprint. We got a return time of 2 PM which actually would work pretty well since of Character Meal at the Garden Grill was at 2:45 (or so we thought). We watching Circle of Life and then walked over to Mission Space and got in the standby line for the green side.
From what I read and heard about Mission Space there is no way that my kids would make it through the orange side. We had to split up since it was a 4 person ride so I took the girls and my wife took my son (who was looking for an emergency exit at that point). I am assuming that the reason they emphasize the warnings to much is because of the deaths on this ride, but by the time my son took his seat he was in a full panic. When Gary Sinise gave the option of leaving the ride during the final instructions DS9 took him up on the offer much to my wife’s chagrin. :confused3 Meanwhile, the girls and I had a nice ride…I barely felt like I was moving. We explained the ride to DS9 but he was upset and embarrassed and we figured the best thing was to move on. We went over to ride Spaceship Earth but the ride was being repaired with no estimate as to when it would be opened. Bummer…I thought the kids would have really liked it…we would check back later. We decided to keep walking and found ourselves at Honey I Shrunk the Audience. Did I mention that DS9 doesn’t like anything scary? Well this isn’t the first time on this ride…several years ago we were in Orange County for a Wedding and saw it at Disneyland. We literally had to drag him into the theater where he watched with his feet on the chair and his hand in front of his face (I assume he remembered the rats and the sneeze). :stir: After it was over my wife was unhappy with him :furious: , he was unhappy with everyone including Rick Moranis, and the girls were going at it again. My wife, nearing her caffeine-less wits end, sat down on a nearby bench trying to regain her composure and my kids, apparently having burned through whatever nutrients their cereal provided were starting to spin out of control. I figured this was a perfect opportunity for a DDP snack…I left the wife sitting under a tree and headed off to find something to keep us going…4 Smoothies and a Triple Mocha later we were good to go. :thumbsup2
I don’t know why but we kept criss-crossing future world all morning…we check Spaceship earth which was still down and headed over to The Living Seas. The kids love aquariums and ran around find the dolphins and sharks (oh…one thing I forgot to mention at AK was we saw a bird start gulping down fish in the Hippo tank/aquarium on the Pangani trail…the kids thought that was the greatest! ). We then got in line for Turtle Talk with Crush. The line seemed really long but I had hoped it would move quickly…boy was I wrong. That Crush must have something pretty important to say if people are willing to wait 90 minutes to hear it…unfortunately for Crush we weren’t and left after moving 20 feet in 30 minutes. :rolleyes1
By this time we were able to get another fast-pass and walked over to Test Track and got a return of 4 PM and a bonus fast pass for Mission Space right now. After a lot of convincing my son agreed to give it a go. My wife and DD8 wanted to try the orange side so the plan was that I would take DS9 and DD6 but at the last minute DD8 chickened out and jumped over with me. This time he stayed for the ride which of course was mostly a non-event. My wife came out pretty flushed though and said that there is no way that DD8 would have enjoyed the orange side (she said I would have liked it though). Now it was getting close to 2:00 so we figured we would head to Soarin’ and then to the Garden Grill. One problem…Soarin’ was now closed and under repair with the same “no estimate for it to reopen”. :furious: Ever the optimist I figured there is no way they would not get this ride opened up again. We rode Living with the Land instead which was interesting. During the middle of our trip with their grandparents in the Outer Banks the kids talked quite a bit about the weird plants in the greenhouse. After the ride we went over to the Garden Grill which was running late. Next to it was a table with the little Epcot badges for the kids where they color cutout and attach it to the badge. What a great idea…when we went around the world we got another cutout to hang from the badge. They were excellent souvenirs for the kids. Table was ready and we ate. Great meal…food was good and the kids loved that the restaurant rotated “just like the space needle restaurant”. The big hit of course (other than table visits from Mickey, Goofy, Pluto, and Chip and Dale” were the build your own cupcakes for dessert. Build your own to my kids meant trying to figure out a way to get every topping on stay on top of the cupcake.
After lunch we checked soarin’…still down…no estimate…uh oh…this is bad. :guilty: We walked through Innoventions and then headed to the World Showcase. On the way we checked Spaceship Earth which was now open but with a line that was miles long…well beyond the ropes. We started at Canada (which we visit a lot since we live in Washington and like to Ski) picked up the badge chahckis and moved on to the UK which was a similar quick stop. The wife and I tasted wine in France and DD8 bought a Parisian Minnie Mouse. DD9 felt ripped off when the French “Arcade” was not at all what he was expecting. We spent a lot of time in the shops in morocco and Japan. DD6 bought a Japanese version of Minnie Mouse (who she called Miniko). We skipped the American Adventure (expect for the Badges of course). Wife hit the shops in italy while I bought the kids itialian sodas and myself a beer. Bought myself another beer in Germany while the wife and kids were doing the badge stuff. China had some really good young acrobats out front which we watched for a while. With Norway came another beer (hey…it was hot) but we skipped the boat ride. We did ride the boat in Mexico which was fine…I liked the atmosphere of the Mexican Restaurant there. After some more shop and badge time we found ourselves walking over to test track.
My son didn’t want to ride it so my wife took DD8 while we waited at the exit and then I would take both DD8 and DD6 while she waited with my son. I don’t know about anyone else, but I found the machine press at the exit to be mesmerizing. I just couldn’t stop staring at it while I waited…Kathunk!.....Kathunk….Kathunk! Kathunk! :confused3 After what seemed like a long time they finally emerged and I got in line with the girls. It was a fun ride…my son definitely could have handled it. It was now after 6 PM and the kids really wanted to swim so we figured one more check on Soarin’ and then we would go. It was open! :banana: And they accepted our long expired fast passes….good thing too because standby was an hour and a half. After we exited DD8 burst into tears because she left her Epcot badge necklace under her seat…I ran back and walked in the exit just as the doors were closing. After being tackled by a CM (ok…not really tackled) he let me walk over and ask the person now sitting in that seat to check…it was there…crisis averted.
The bus took forever…and was almost full when we got on…I almost sat in a seat between my two girls that was full of water. The girls of course didn’t say a word hoping that I would actually sit in the puddle. :rotfl: I called Magical Express to confirm my time for a ride to the Airport the next evening (I would then take the Thrifty shuttle from the airport and pick up the rental car). We made it back to the room and changed and rode the bus to our lobby stop to go to the pool. The pool bar was closed…oh well no $6 coronas…and they turned off the water slide pretty shortly after we got there. We needed to eat anyway since now it was pretty late so we walked up to the Artist’s Palette :artist: for a counter service dinner. The kids, wet from swimming, were freezing inside so they kept going outside to warm up. The food was pretty good…plenty of food for a dinner. We also picked up the Ride Photo from EE the previous day. The only downside now was the loooong walk back to the room since the busses don’t go in that direction. It was probably good for us though since we had eaten like piggys the entire trip. Tomorrow would be the Magic Kingdom and our final Disney day of the first half of our Disney stay.

Here is a picture of the Cup Cakes at the Garden Grill

http://www.wdwinfo.com/photopost/data/500/122693cupcake.JPG

[andy_fish]

Day 4

Today is morning Extra Magic Hour for the Magic Kingdom! :cool1: We of course wake up late again. :guilty: We made an effort...dumped a bunch of nutritionless cereal down the kids throats and let them skip baths/showers even though the girls had serious swimming pool hair from the night before. Alas, we still arrived about 3 minutes before the park opened to the general public. Oh well. We made it through and we were off. We walked as fast as DD6 could go to splash mountain to grab a fast pass and then headed to Pirates of the Caribbean. I still like the ride but why did they have to change it? I absolutely loved the old ride. It had charm and humor…and what happened to the drops (or is that just in Disneyland?). Oh well…kids thought it was great but what do they know. Outside of the ride a Captian Jack look-a-like was entertaining the crowd but we could really see anything. :Pinkbounc At this point it was about 20 mins to 10 so my wife got in line for the Jungle Cruise opening and I took the kids to the magic carpet ride across the way. We were about to get on when I hear “Andy!! Andy!!!! ANDY!!!!!!”…the Jungle Cruise was opening early. So we run back over…someone was nice enough to save my wife’s spot as the ran off the grab us. Now I am sure this is a really dumb newbie type question…but did Ferris Bueller work at Disney World at some point? :listen: The ride was fun…cheesy humor and animatronic animals never gets old. And it was on to Splash Mountain. DS9 was in panic mode again but he got over it quickly. What a great ride…probably my favorite Disney ride since they screwed up Pirates. DS9 loved it (although you might not know it from the ride picture that I will post later tonight). We didn’t get that wet though (we didn’t get that wet in the rapids at AK either…go figure). :confused3
After splash mountain we decided to catch the train to get closer to Space Mountain so we could grab a fast pass. We rode Star Tours and the Cars (why do I like riding in those little cars as much as I did when I was 7?). DD6 was throwing a temper tantrum in line…I can’t remember why…I think she was picking on DD8 again and DW was tired of it. She was in tears when we got in the car but was all smiles by the finish line. Man she is a terrible driver…I hope she improves during the next 10 years. :badpc:
We had a DDP counter meal at Cosmic Rays. WOW! I had the Chicken and Ribs…what a meal for a counter service. At this point the DDP had been fantastic…every meal had been a pleasure beyond out expectations…at this point.
At this point we still had time to wait so we got in line for Stitches great escape. With decent food in their stomachs the kids were much better behaved although DS9 was taking the ride warning seriously again. It is a decent ride…reminded me of the Alien ride from MGM. I could have done without the bad breath effect though. :bounce:
Finally it was time for Space Mountain. DS9 refused and we let him. DD8 got to go twice just like Test Track the day before. We spent some time (and money) in the gift shop and got in line for Buzz Lightyear. DS9 was worried that this was somehow a scary ride that he wouldn’t like…boy was he wrong. I of course had the highest score in the family but he was a close second. :thumbsup2
The kids wanted to go to Toontown which we walked by from the train. This day I had a big fire at work and for the next two hours I was on my phone. Boy was the wife unhappy :furious: (this happens all the time but it is really hard for me to avoid…if you ever see someone skiing the moguls at Whistler while talking on a cell phone it is probably me). Anyway…we rode the goofy Roller Coaster…all the while with a dire warning on the loud speaker that they might close the ride any second because it is an outdoor attraction and the clouds above us looked scary. The kids rode it 2 or 3 more times (I think…I was on the phone) and they never did close the ride. The kids ran around Toontown for a while…I am sure I missed some classic moments.
We walked over to fantasy land and rode snow white. The Pooh ride was really crowded to we skipped it and went to it’s a small world. I was actually going to skip it and get a fast pass for the Haunted Mansion (and sneak in another phone call while the wife wasn’t looking) :rolleyes1 but the Mansion was closed. So I walked back just in time to be able to join the family in line as they snaked by on the outside. It was like I remembered…at this point I had moved from talking on the phone to doing email and managed to have a decent connection all the way through. The fire was out at that point and managed to stay away from work for the rest of the day (other than just glancing at the Subjects of incoming email messages…which the wife also noticed). :guilty:
We had a reservation at Olivia’s at Key West at 6:40 and the girls really wanted to see Cinderella’s coronation (which I think was at 5:35?). Anyway, we spent some more time in the gift shops…girls got ears...DS9 got something…I forgot what he specifically got here. And we camped out in front of the castle for the show. I went looking for a bathroom (which I didn’t find until well into Liberty Square) and some drinks. I can’t believe that people way up in front needed the loudspeaker to tell them to sit down. Anyway we were pretty close (and already sitting down) and the girls loved the show (I think DS9 liked it a lot too but he would never ever admit it)…and we off to catch the Bus to Key West for dinner.
They were backed up a little so we spent some time (and money) in their gift shop. Wife was still in the gift shop with DD8 and DS9 when DD6 (who was holding the buzzer) and I were seated. This would be our only disappointing meal of the trip. :sad2: The server comes over and immediately asks me if we are on the DDP (which is fine…nobody else had asked that until the end of the meal but no matter) and then asks what we would like to drink. I order a Corona to which she replies with just a hint of a condescending tone “you know that’s not including in the dining plan”. To which I replied “Well gee wiz…thank god I have been saving all those pennies so that I can afford a beer with my meal”…not really…I said I knew that and would pay for it separately. But that is what I was thinking. DW and the other kids join us and we order appetizers. The kids order off of the main appetizer menu and two of my kids ordered crab cakes…I could tell she thought we were just picking the most expensive items…but the kids just love crab. :confused3 DW orders a Margarita with no salt. Server returns with a Margarita with tons of salt which my wife refused…the server blamed the bartender and went back to get a new drink. She drops off a new Margarita with no salt on the glass…DW takes a sip and gags. “Oh my god…this is full of salt”. :furious: I took a sip and she was right…it tasted like salt water. DW was not happy at this point. “She poured the old drink into the new glass. She must think I’m stupid”. :furious: :furious: DW is fuming…server is nowhere to be found. After a while DW takes the drink back to the bar and asks the bartender about it who swears he made one with no salt. DW stood and watched as he made her a new drink. She returned and we still hadn’t ever seen our server (afterwards I realized that what must have happened is that the server had more than one margarita and gave someone else the glass with no salt and then obviously dumped DW’s salty drink into a new glass”. Some other people served all of our food which tasted fine (hard to enjoy a meal that started off so badly). Server finally returns…DW won’t make eye contact…I order another beer…Server returns with the wrong kind. I drank it anyway…DW didn’t notice. I was afraid that if I said anything it would put her over the edge. When our meal is about finished the server proceeds to dump an entire tray of ice water on an elder lady behind us. :rolleyes: I know the gratuity was included in the meal but I left no additional tip for the drinks.
DW, DD8, and DD6 went to catch a bus back to MK while DS9 and I went to the hotel to catch Magical Express to the airport to pick up the rental car. We got to the room a little early so I of course fired up the laptop and found that I had been scheduled for a conference call with my VP and EVP at 10 PM…Magical express was to arrive at 10:30 to pick us up. DS9 and get there at 10…I dial into the call while DS9 plays his gameboy. Calls over…its 10:35…where is the bus? I ask the guy “earning his ears” at the bell desk and after several phone calls Magical Express has no record of my reservation. Wonderful! :rolleyes: Mr. Ears (not his real name…I don’t remember his name) was very very helpful. He spent 20 minutes calling different people, apologizing, calling more people, until he finally arranged for a Town Car to come pick us up. :banana: 10 minutes later and we were on our way. The driver drops us off right next to a Thrifty Shuttle I tip him 10 bucks (am I supposed to tip him? Was that a decent amount). I signed up for BlueChip so I got to go in the short line and got assigned my two week minivan rental (which was a grand total including taxes and fees of $330 :thumbsup2 ). DS9 get in the van…and it smells like throw up. Not gonna spend two weeks in this…back to the counter. New van in much nicer…a town and country vs a caravan…and a lot newer. Meanwhile DW, DD8, and DD6 have a fabulous time at MK watching the fireworks and riding Thunder Mountain Railroad several times.
We got back to Saratoga Springs around 11:30 PM…Girls were asleep and wife was packing so that we could get an early start on our 11 hour drive to Nags Head in the morning (early start ended up being 11:00 AM).
Part 5 will be when we got back to Orlando…don’t want to bore anyone with details of 10 days in the outer banks. :wave2:


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