OUTPLAN-OUTPLAY-OUTLAST: a Sleepingbooty TR! New Princess trip update 4/2

[Sleepingbooty]

I'm really enjoying your TR! I was interested in your visit to Islands of Adventure. Our oldest children (7 & 5) LOVE Harry Potter! We have only let them see the first two movies in the series. Do you think they would get much out of the Harry Potter Town at this age or would you wait until they are older? Also, did you just call the resort to reserve a towncar? I think I would prefer it to a taxi. Just trying to do some more planning for our next trip.
Can't wait to read more!

Hmmm. I think they would probably really enjoy it, even at that age. My youngest was 7 and she thought it was pretty darn cool.

As for the towncar, I reserved it through a company that our agency recommends. I can't mention it here because they are not a DIS sponsor, but you can pm me. I think a taxi would be okay for two people, but they want to charge you per person, so for more than two, the towncar is cheaper. I suppose you can haggle some with the taxi drivers, but I've never had much luck with that.

I think it was a particularly lovely update in all respects! Your pictures are really pretty and what you didn't do was just dreamy! A leisurely walk around the resort and some much needed down time!! Nice work!

I agree, just "playing it by ear" rarely ends in a Meet!

We had the same experience on this last trip of two weeks ago - we never did hook up with the other three girls at the parks. Just couldn't make it work.

 

[Sleepingbooty]

Your girls are so pretty!
I love the fact that you went swimming or hot-tubbing at midnight
I think the saturday you were in Magic Kingdom your first day was a MNSSHP day we were there that day and all the wait times were really short because of the Halloween party. Halloween party was fab

Thank you!!

I know, the wait times were awesome that day, weren't they? Was the party good that night? We went on Tuesday and had a great time!

I love the reaction to Harry Potter visit news. Poor Lucy thinking you were leaving already. Jenna looked very nervous on the Hippogriff coaster

Yes, the poor baby is definitely a nervous Nellie. And she tries to hide it, which makes it all the more sweet and adorable (yet annoying, because I want her to like it!)

I love your Snowpocalypse stories there as well. We had about two months snow on and off in November/December last year we even got a white Christmas and we had had snow January 2010 as well.. All this is odd as we don't normally have snow apparently because we're beside the sea. I think the last time we had snow that was only really light was about ten or twelve years ago. This time was really heavy. I loved it but I think I was the only one

Oh gosh, I do NOT enjoy the massive amounts of snow we got this year. I always like snow up until Christmas, as it just adds to the holiday spirit. But after Christmas, I'm DONE. I want spring, and I want it NOW!

I am way too far behind to comment on everything. But I love the pictures of the girls and the pool at CBR.

And I love the photo above of Flat Marcy.

I promise to keep up now.

Don't worry about it! I'm so behind myself!

 

[eandesmom]

Somehow I missed this! Off to catch up.

 

[Sleepingbooty]

Princess Trip Report, Part 2:

Then we were off – to Animal Kingdom! After a 10 minute or so wait for a bus, we were on our way.

After taking a few pictures we headed to the right for Dinosaur. I’d consulted my “Lines” app and it said that Dinosaur had only a 10 minute wait, while Safari had 40. Fastpasses were gone for Everest already. I do like that app! Come to find out, we walked right on to Dinosaur. What a great first ride! My mom and I were the only ones who’d been on it, and it was so fun to listen to the rest of them shriek and laugh.

We walked through Dinoland and around to Asia. The park was pretty darn crowded, but somehow, the standby line for Everest was down to 20 minutes! It was probably 3:00 by this point, so people were already starting to leave the park, but I was still surprised by a 20 minute wait on a 9 out of 10 crowd estimate.

Everyone loved Expedition Everest, but no one (but me) noticed the Yeti. I guess he’d be more noticeable if he, uh, moved. I still think it’s pretty scary with the strobe effects. From there, we were off to check out the wait for the Safari. I figured if the wait was too long we could walk some of the trails instead.

Lo and behold, it was only 20 minutes! We were getting luck-ee! Actually, the 20 turned out to be more like 5. We were seated at the back of the truck behind the loudest group of Brazilians ever! That was a tad annoying, as you couldn’t hear much of the spiel, but other than that – this was the best ride I’ve ever had on Safari. We’ve always done first thing in the morning to see the most animals, but we saw plenty this afternoon. The coolest part was the hippo. I wish I had a picture, because I’m sure my description won’t do it justice, but it happened too fast. As we rounded a curve, we heard a scream from off to the right. We all turned just in time to see an enormous hippo tearing out of the brush at full speed, mouth WIDE open, chasing the birds into the water. It was unbelievable. I felt like I was watching a National Geographic special – I’ve never, ever seen anything like that in real life. Just. So. Freaking. Amazing. Do you know how wide their mouths can open? I guess that Hungry Hungry Hippos game was actually quite realistic.

After our bad timing of the morning, we seemed to have fallen into some good timing at Animal Kingdom this afternoon. After getting off the Safari, there was 10 minutes until the 5:30 show of Festival of the Lion King, our last must-do at AK. We hoofed it over and got ourselves seated with time to spare.

Why does this show tug my emotions? I cry every time. I guess it’s the music – I’ve always loved the music from the Lion King. But the whole performance was just amazing. Sadly, the bird girl was missing. The bird guy was there, but during the time that they normally perform, the two singers just stayed on the stage. I’m thinking she must have been injured in the previous show or something.

At this point, we decided to leave Animal Kingdom before the droves left at park closing time. We decided to go back to POR to get sweatshirts instead of just heading straight to Downtown Disney. Oh, and there also isn’t a DTD bus at Animal Kingdom, so we didn’t have much of a choice. We’d been texting back and forth with Cathy for the last couple hours. She, Holly and Shanna had arrived and checked in, then headed over to the race expo. We decided to meet by the boat dock and ride to DTD together for dinner.

Wow, the line for the boat was huge! You could definitely tell that POR was quite full. It was one of the official race resorts so I imagine that had something to do with it. We had to wait for the third boat.

We went and looked at the menu for Wolfgang Puck Express (of course, I already knew what was on the menu, but I have to humor the newbies, you know?). It looked good, but they also wanted to check out Earl of Sandwich. One look at the line and they didn’t need to see the menu at Earl. It was back to WPE. I ordered the Roasted Vegetable Pizza and Crème Brulee. It was a bit crowded, but we were luckily able to find some tables to push together to fit all 8 of us. Our food took quite a while, but we didn’t mind. There is a nice ambience in there, and we were enjoying the conversation and getting to know Cathy, Holly and Shanna.

It was probably 9pm or later when we finished dinner. My plan of catching Yeehaw Bob’s show was looking doubtful as we hadn’t even done any shopping yet. We started at the Christmas shop, always a must for me. I purchased an Alice ornament – I thought she would be a good symbol for a girls trip.

We somehow lost Cathy and her friends at this point, so we headed in the direction of World of Disney. I stopped at Basin to pick up some bath bombs for friends. Then checked out the goodies at Tren-D. I love that store! So many cute things in there. I really had my eye on the Disney Sketch bag by Dooney & Bourke, but I wasn’t ready to bite yet. At World of Disney, we browsed through a few of the rooms, but it was very crowded and the check out lines were long and we were all exhausted. I think Linda fell asleep standing up at one point. It was time to head back. No Yeehaw.

Luckily we didn’t have to wait long for a boat back. As we were in line, a drunk guy behind us leaned over the rail and threw up in the water. Yuck! Who does that at Disney?! When we stopped at French Quarter, he was half carry-ing his even more drunk girlfriend off the boat.

We quickly got ready for bed – I think we were out by 11:30. I set the alarm for 6:40. Magic Kingdom was opening at 8 am tomorrow and we wanted to be there as close to opening as possible!

 

[Poolrat]

A great afternoon at AK.You seemed to have good luck with attractions.

Sorry you missed Yehaw Bob.

A little scary about the hippo, a little funny too. Seeing that mouth wide open and charging the birds. I gues the hippo had enough and was going to teach the birds a lesson.

 

[Sleepingbooty]

Thanks Pat, yes we did have good luck!

I know, I was bummed about Yeehaw Bob. Another trip to POR, another missed opportunity. Maybe next time

Oh you could tell the hippo had just had it up to here with those birds! It was amazing to see!

 

[glennbo123]

Maybe you didn't get to see Yeehaa Bob, but at least you got to see a guy chuck it at DTD. Okay, not an even trade, but at least it's TR material.

That's cool about the hippo charging the birds. It sounds like it was quite a sight to see.

 

[petals]

I know, the wait times were awesome that day, weren't they? Was the party good that night? We went on Tuesday and had a great time!

Yes, the poor baby is definitely a nervous Nellie. And she tries to hide it, which makes it all the more sweet and adorable (yet annoying, because I want her to like it!)

Lol I'm the same about rides like that so I won't go on them.. She's braver than me

The Party was fab that night definately worth the extra money for the ticket. Wasn't to packed either I think the only thing we missed that we wanted to do was get a pic with Abu but that was a kind of either or as it was going to be Aladdin and Abu or Genie and Jasmine by the time we got to them it was last pics of the night and we got Jasmine and Genie.

 

[Sleepingbooty]

Oh yeah, not even close to an even trade! But, very unique, I give you that! It just seems like such an odd choice to me. Someone who, on the one hand must enjoy the wholesome, innocent, childlike wonder of Disney (or he wouldn't be there, right?), but on the other hand, decides it is the perfect opportunity to get himself inebriated to the point of puking Maybe he was drug on this trip unwillingly by his girlfriend? Oh wait, she was more sloshed than he was!! Anyway, I enjoy a good adult beverage as much as anyone so I really shouldn't judge - it just didn't seem like the right time and place

 

[Poolrat]

Oh yeah, not even close to an even trade! But, very unique, I give you that! It just seems like such an odd choice to me. Someone who, on the one hand must enjoy the wholesome, innocent, childlike wonder of Disney (or he wouldn't be there, right?), but on the other hand, decides it is the perfect opportunity to get himself inebriated to the point of puking Maybe he was drug on this trip unwillingly by his girlfriend? Oh wait, she was more sloshed than he was!! Anyway, I enjoy a good adult beverage as much as anyone so I really shouldn't judge - it just didn't seem like the right time and place :rolleyes:

Better in the river than on your shoes. Sloppy drunk and then you think it is good idea to get on a boat? But then again, a slow boat or a faster moving bus with no- over the side- ... he probably made the better choice.

Sorry you had be on the same boat.

 

[IheartDDuck]

Oh, I totally have the lines app too, and I love it! It is so nice not to have to worry about walking over to a location to know what the wait time is or if fastpasses are out.

Sounds like you guys had a good day at the Animal Kingdom.

 

[Sleepingbooty]

Better in the river than on your shoes. Sloppy drunk and then you think it is good idea to get on a boat? But then again, a slow boat or a faster moving bus with no- over the side- ... he probably made the better choice.

You are right about that!!!

Oh, I totally have the lines app too, and I love it! It is so nice not to have to worry about walking over to a location to know what the wait time is or if fastpasses are out.

It is really cool! The only problem was that with all the pictures I was taking and then uploading to FB with my phone, my battery was dying by mid afternoon. Even on a full charge!

 

[klacey1]

Sounds like you had a great day! I love your description of the hippo-- that is crazy!

 

[All7OfUs]

Sounds like the hippos were just like the Brazilians- Mouths Wide Open.

Throw up stories are great! I've got one too. Over the side is great for fisherman on the Lakes.

I don't think they'll EVER get the Yeti fixed. Such a bummer.

 

[PirateKate]

I can't believe you got so much done at AK on a 9/10 day! Sounds like a great safari. Too bad about the bird people not flying during the FotLK. That's always one of my favorite parts.

Shopping at Downtown Disney and dinner at WPE is such a perfect way to spend a night.

 

[Sleepingbooty]

Sounds like you had a great day! I love your description of the hippo-- that is crazy!

I wish I had pictures of it, it WAS crazy!

Sounds like the hippos were just like the Brazilians- Mouths Wide Open.

Throw up stories are great! I've got one too. Over the side is great for fisherman on the Lakes.

You have a REALLY good throw up story - or wait, is that a hint of things to come?

I don't think they'll EVER get the Yeti fixed. Such a bummer.

I wonder at this point if they've just given up?

I can't believe you got so much done at AK on a 9/10 day! Sounds like a great safari. Too bad about the bird people not flying during the FotLK. That's always one of my favorite parts.

I really think the touring plans folk overestimated. It didn't look too different crowd wise from when we were there in September. And those were all 1 to 4 crowds.

The bird part is one of my favorites too. And I didn't realize they weren't going to do it until they started reprising at the end. Out of the five of us, only my mom and I'd seen the show before. The other three were all blown away, and I had to tell them that its normally even better!

Shopping at Downtown Disney and dinner at WPE is such a perfect way to spend a night.

It was! Wish we had some steam left, and we could have seen Yeehaw Bob too, but it was still a really nice evening.

 

[KatMark]

What a productive day at the AK. We saw Lion King for the first time on our last trip and I got a little teary eyed myself. I can't remember the last time I saw the Yeti working.

And that is way cool about the hippo!

 

[All7OfUs]

You have a REALLY good throw up story - or wait, is that a hint of things to come?

Definitely some foreshadowing there....

 

[jenbear123]

Definitely some foreshadowing there....

That does not sound good.


Rebecca! Honestly, who gets so drunked off their bum at Disney and literally can't walk back to their room. I can't understand it. It used to be worse when the clubs were still open at DTD. I always steered clear of Pleasure Island for that reason. Those crazy drunk people really ruin the magic. Despite all that, it sounds like you had a great day at AK!

 

[Sleepingbooty]

What a productive day at the AK. We saw Lion King for the first time on our last trip and I got a little teary eyed myself. I can't remember the last time I saw the Yeti working.

And that is way cool about the hippo!

It was definitely a surprisingly productive day, especially considering the delays we had throughout the morning.

Definitely some foreshadowing there....

Uh oh!!!

Rebecca! Honestly, who gets so drunked off their bum at Disney and literally can't walk back to their room. I can't understand it. It used to be worse when the clubs were still open at DTD. I always steered clear of Pleasure Island for that reason. Those crazy drunk people really ruin the magic. Despite all that, it sounds like you had a great day at AK!

It is crazy. I mean, it definitely didn't put a damper on our time, it was just a head scratcher, you know? I guess to each his own, but its certainly not a choice I would make!
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Well, I can't believe how behind I've gotten! Its been a super busy work week for me, so I've barely touched the DIS. Hopefully I'll get caught up on yall's reports. I think I actually have an update that I've already done in Word that I can put up today. No promises, but I'll try!