The Smith's take on the Poly July 2010-Finished!3/1/11

[heidijanesmith]

Well, for our last day at WDW the kids decide to go to Typhoon Lagoon. We went to both waterparks last time and like TL the best. We spent the AM and early afternoon playing in the giant wave pool! I only took one pic?? Where did the rest go???
Here is the lonely TL pic:

After TL, Rod decides to stay at the Poly. He is at his limit, end of his rope and wants to chill at the pool. The kids and I decide to spend the last night at WDW at AK. We love AK at night!

1st up, Dinosaur. Anthony's not so favorite. He is a trooper and will ride it with Alex and I. If you look closely at the ride pic, he has his head down!

Next Dinoland and the dreaded Primevil Whirl! I really do not like this ride, but Anthony told me that if he can ride Dinosaur, I can ride Primevil Whirl. So, I ride the darn thing!

It's getting dark, so we head over to EE.
One of my favorite pics!

We had to take a pic of our favorite little stand. They have the BEST frozen drinks here. The strawberrie smoothies were my kids favorite and I love the Chia Tea!

Up next, EE at night!

 

[ddstratton]

I am loving your report! Sorry to hear that your DD was sick, but I am very happy to hear how helpful the CM's at the Poly were.

 

[heidijanesmith]

We are making our way over to EE. We love to ride this at night, just is somehow more fun!

Anthony is obsessed with prayer flags! He wants some in his college dorm room, when he goes.

EE que line at night:

The ride:

Alex on the ride:

Anthony, scolding me to put the camera away!

I tried to take some pics while on EE, none of them turned out very good:

This is it---the last pic of the night at AK!

Up next: many, many pics of the Poly at night

 

[heidijanesmith]

I am loving your report! Sorry to hear that your DD was sick, but I am very happy to hear how helpful the CM's at the Poly were.

Thank you!! I am go glad you like it. I am nervous about my first TR, so you have made my day!

We were lucky it was just a 12hr bug. She only missed a day at WDW, it could have been much worse! The CM's, management and mousekeepers were wonderful. Went above and beyond to make her stay more magical. Our family travels quite a bit and can not ever say that we have had better customer service than this trip!

 

[heidijanesmith]

After the kids and I spent our last night at AK, I decided to take my camera and take a bunch of Poly pics at night. I hadn't really spent much time taking pics before, so I kind of went a little nuts!

Our longhouse, Niue:

Items around our Longhouse:

View of the only two floor longhouse, Niue:

Great map:

Quiet Pool, which we like almost more than the volcano pool. The volcano pool was awesomely themed, great slide and awesome to watch Wishes from. It was always crowded, no place to sit and very loud. The quite pool was deep at the end, quite, always a place to sit and the kids enjoyed it more.

Another longhouse pic:

Our longhouse is steps from the GCG:

Inside the GCH:

Coming up next: more Poly pics, second floor

 

[heidijanesmith]

Here are some more pics of the Poly second floor:
A caricture artist would draw awesome pics. Alex got her pic taken, but I only took picture of it with my phone, so none to share

Seating area:

Monorail at night, just waiting for me

Nighttime flowers by monorail:

Pics headed from the monorail back into the Poly:

Inside pics:

Back outside headed towards Captian Cooks:

Looking into Captian Cooks from the outside:

Seating outside Captian Cooks:

Around the pool:

That's from the Smiths at WDW and the Poly. I will end this with my favorite pic and no it's not from WDW. We spent the end of our trip at Universal Studios to see Harry Potter(huge fans). This pic is from our last night at Portofino Bay.

Not sure if I should continue the TR from Universal?
thoughts?

Thank you all for taking a picture trip with my family and I, hope you liked it

 

[heidijanesmith]

Thoughts or comments?

 

[appleorchard]

I enjoyed your report and pictures! Glad your daughter felt better after a day--nothing says "vacation" in out family like a trip to the emergency room, it seems.

 

[Disney_Jill]

What an awesome trip report, I LOVE the pictures!! Glad your dd's illness was very short lived and the CMs were incredible! That is what makes Disney so magical. We love EE at night too (or any time, really but at night is really cool).
I think you should definitely continue your trip report with your time at Universal.

 

[heidijanesmith]

I enjoyed your report and pictures! Glad your daughter felt better after a day--nothing says "vacation" in out family like a trip to the emergency room, it seems.

Thank you! We were very lucky

 

[heidijanesmith]

What an awesome trip report, I LOVE the pictures!! Glad your dd's illness was very short lived and the CMs were incredible! That is what makes Disney so magical. We love EE at night too (or any time, really but at night is really cool).
I think you should definitely continue your trip report with your time at Universal.

Thank you very much! The Poly spoiled us for sure, what great CM's all the way around!

Well, I think I will continue on with the Universal pics, as I am really enjoying writting my first TR.

Thanks again!

 

[heidijanesmith]

1/20/10
We left the Poly and rented a car at the Car Care Center. National has a great agency here. I had rented a car online, called them the day before we needed it and they sent a shuttle to the Poly to pick me up. I was only gone for about 10min.

We packed up our room and hopped into our rental car, got directions and were off to Universal Studios. We had no plans this day for parks, just planning to hang out at the pool and relax at the hotel.

We chose Portofino Bay Hotel at US, for the lovely rooms and pool. I don't know why I have no pics of this day, must have been just too tired and sad to leave WDW!

1/21/10: Plan is to tour Islands of Adventure, using the early entry into WWoHP. WWoHP opens at 8:00 AM this morning, so we use the rickshaw service as the boats are not running yet at 7:30. We are the 1st family to arrive at IoA

The lines started behind us and we were let into IoA around 7:50. Here is a couple pics of us headed toward WWoHP:

We lead the pack into WWoHP:

Were one of the first on FP ride. This ride was AWESOME and hard to describe. A motion simulator, but you are moving too. The que line is inside the castle. The good thing about being 1st- no line! The bad thing, hard to take pics. You are moving thu the castle so quickly to get on the ride, it's hard to stop and take your time to get more pics. I hear that they have a line now, that is just thru the castle. I will have to do this next time.

More que castle pics:

 

[heidijanesmith]

Here are some pics of the que line in Hogwarts Castle:

We rode the ride x2 and decided to get some Butterbeer! Yummy, love the frozen kind. WWoHP area is still not crowded, so we get to do some more exploring:

Up next:
Dueling Dragons or now called Dragon Challenge

 

[housetomouse]

Great trip report! Thanks for sharing it!

 

[heidijanesmith]

Great trip report! Thanks for sharing it!

Thank you! I am glad you like it so far

 

[TXdisney]

Your TR is really great! I'm really enjoying it!

 

[heidijanesmith]

Your TR is really great! I'm really enjoying it!

Thank you very much! I appreciate your input

 

[heidijanesmith]

After riding FJ x2, we decided to ride the Fire and Ice versions of the Dragon Roller Coaster. DC coaster is a very smooth ride, where you sit below the track, feet dangling. There are parts of the ride where it feels like you are going to either hit the other track or drag your feet on the ground. We love roller coasters and loved this one. It reminds me of the Batman coaster at 6Flags. Here are some pics of the que and the coater:

We loved the Ice/Blue side better:

Coming up: more pics of Hogsmeede WWoHP

 

[heidijanesmith]

Here is a pic of The Three Broomsticks, we could not get inside yet, as they were only allowing people with packages that had breakfast included.

We decided to go shopping at Honeydukes. This is a very small candy shop, that was very crowded. All kinds of sweets in here, but I only bought Berty Bots every flavored Jellybeans.

Even thought it was 98degrees, the fake snow was inviting and great detail on all the buildings!

Time for more Butterbeer. I really liked the frozen kind, its a kind of mix between cream soda and butterscotch.

The Hogwarts Express!

Lovely sign:

The store fronts had lovely displays. This sign really looked like the part of the movie with "puking pastilles"

The owlrey....too crowded for us to even get inside

Inside Hogs Head, many choices of beer. Great break for a very, very hot day

More beautiful store fronts: You can see Hermonie's dress that she wore to the ball for the Triwizard Tornament and Harry's Dress Robes

This is it for WWoHP this AM. The crowds were huge! 3hour wait for Olivanders, 2 hour wait for the Shop Dervish and Bangs...125 min wait for FJ

Next up: IoA pics

 

[soarinup]

Everyone has their own little "quirks". My favorite photo was the shot of the entrance to POLY from the monorail,,,at night...just heavenly.