"I think I'm in love, and her name is Polynesia..." an Aug/Sept '15 TR (NEW TR link @ end!)

[rteetz]

Looks like a great meal! I enjoyed the be our Guest lunch when we did it in July 2014. That was when they did the FP reservations for it. We are having dinner there in January. I have yet to have breakfast there. My favorite dessert is the masters cupcake at lunch or grey stuff brownie at dinner.

I've never found myself to get soaked on splash mountain nothing like Kali at least.

You made it back to the room just in time! Some day I'll stay at the poly or any MK resort for that matter.

 

[franandaj]

I really want to try the braised pork at BoG. It has gotten such rave reviews. Sometime again I'm going to have to ride Splash. Someday when I don't have a camera and don't mind getting wet. I just hate being wet in the parks, such an uncomfortable feeling, but it's been awhile since I've been on it.

There's something about your posts that the text is all "hot". I want to try and multi quote certain things but when I go to highlight it, a new browser window opens instead and goes to photobucket.

 

[PrincessInOz]

What a great meal at BoG. I'd love to eat there someday.

 

[skier_pete]

Looks like a great meal! I enjoyed the be our Guest lunch when we did it in July 2014. That was when they did the FP reservations for it. We are having dinner there in January. I have yet to have breakfast there. My favorite dessert is the masters cupcake at lunch or grey stuff brownie at dinner.

I've never found myself to get soaked on splash mountain nothing like Kali at least.

You made it back to the room just in time! Some day I'll stay at the poly or any MK resort for that matter.

The only time I've ever gotten truly soaked on Splash Mountain was in California, and it wasn't on the big drop. It was on one of the smaller inside drops, we were close behind another log, and that backwash wave from that boat hit us just as we splashed down, essential POURING water over the sides. We were all soaked completely from the waist down - DD was bawling crying from it because she was so uncomfortable. She was 9 and just the other day she told me she is NOT going on Splash Mountain when we are out in DL because she doesn't want to get all wet - she's 12.5 now. I love Splash Mountain, so I hope to try and ride it, but we'll see...it will depend greatly on the weather and where we end up staying.

I really want to try the braised pork at BoG. It has gotten such rave reviews. Sometime again I'm going to have to ride Splash. Someday when I don't have a camera and don't mind getting wet. I just hate being wet in the parks, such an uncomfortable feeling, but it's been awhile since I've been on it.

There's something about your posts that the text is all "hot". I want to try and multi quote certain things but when I go to highlight it, a new browser window opens instead and goes to photobucket.

I agree about being wet in the parks. See above story - we went right back to the room afterwards. Last trip (the Backstage Magic one) we went to our room and changed into bathing suits before going over to Splash Mountain, then we came back and rode GRR twice. I don't know if we will be up for the water rides in February - I guess it will depend on what sort of weather/temperatures we get. I'd like to ride GRR if it is not too cold, but Splash I don't mind missing because of it's similarity to WDW version.

On this day, we specifically planned our Splash Mountain FP so that we knew we would be returning to the room immediately after, so even if we got soaked we'd be able to change.

That problem with the text has been going on since the last board change. I can't figure out how to stop it from happening, it's something to do with the Photo files, but I just can't figure it out.

What a great meal at BoG. I'd love to eat there someday.

It's getting less and less difficult to get into, so you'll probably be able to get in the next time you come. When is that again??

 

[skier_pete]

So - I thought I would wrap up Day 8. I really like to get one TR done before the next trip comes along. With DL looming in 2 months I have 3 more days to finish in that time.

So - I left off with us returning to the hotel in the pouring rain. We were hoping to go swimming, but the pool ended up being closed all afternoon for the thunderstorms, even after the rain stopped. We actually ended up staying in the room for several hours relaxing, only heading back to the park as night approached. I don’t remember the exact time, but it must have been around 7 PM.

We had gotten so much done in the morning, there wasn’t really a pressing need to get a lot done in the evening. I was hoping we would stay for the fireworks, but knowing the 10 PM fireworks time is typically too late for DD usually, I thought even that was going to be iffy.

We started out by heading to the Enchanted Tiki Room. I relish this show every time I get to see it. Having had it destroyed with the “Under New Management”, the fact that they brought it back to the original version brings me infinite joy.

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Beyond the Tiki Birds, we headed over to Tomorrowland before the parade crowds clogged up the hub.

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We started out by using our Buzz Lightyear FP. The wait was only about 25 minutes, but it was still nice to cut by it.

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I can’t remember who won – but I know DD and I rode together:

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At this point we were getting pretty hungry for some dinner. The decision was made because of our locale and the parade starting shortly that we would eat at Cosmic Ray’s. Not, I know this place doesn’t have the best reputation, but I actually find the food here to be decent fast food quality. I like the toppings bar as well. The selection is usually good with the 3 bays, but because crowds were low, they only had two bays open, and both were serving the same thing. That was the biggest disappointment, so we ended up all ordering burgers. They were serviceable.

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After eating, we went and rode the TTA. Our whole family loves the TTA – I don’t know what it is, but we never tire of it. The Electric Parade was going on at the same time, so we got some views of that. (I am not a big fan of MSEP and neither is DD or DW, so we don’t even bother.)

We then headed to Carousel of Progress – every time I get annoyed at my DD, I realize that this girl for all her faults loves Carousel of Progress, and that makes her OK! We actually missed out on CoP last trip in 2013, because it was actually shut down because they were shooting scenes from the movie “Tomorrowland” that day. So it’s been 4 years since we rode CoP. Hasn’t changed, though!

Once we were done on CoP – it was approaching 9:30 PM and DD was getting pretty tired. We decided to call it a night and head back to the room. We were going to take the boat, but when we got out there, the line was really long, so we decided to switch to the monorail. (Ah, the luxury of two transportation choices!) We headed back and we got back just in time to again watch the fireworks from the hotel, though DD again wasn’t interested.

Overall a really successful day, we got what I would consider to be more than half the park done. We rode a total of 13 different rides in our 8 or so hours in the park. With no Pirates of the Carribean, we managed to hit all the headliners except for Space Mountain, leaving what was left to be either repeats or taken at a more leisurely pace our remaining day and a half at MK. (Though it actually ended up not even being that much.) I love frequent travel to Disney – it just allows for such a more relaxed pace.

Up next – our 2nd day at Animal Kingdom, and a spontaneous evening plan. (Yes – spontaneous! You don’t see THAT very often!)

 

[rteetz]

A fun filled yet relaxing night at the MK!

Buzz is fun but I don't know if I'd use a FP there.

Cosmic Rays is always a safe bet. If we want some typical theme park food that's where we head.

I like MSEP but don't need to see it. Last time I did it really looked dated.

 

[skier_pete]

A fun filled yet relaxing night at the MK!

Buzz is fun but I don't know if I'd use a FP there.

Cosmic Rays is always a safe bet. If we want some typical theme park food that's where we head.

I like MSEP but don't need to see it. Last time I did it really looked dated.

MSEP looked dated when it came back to MK. It feels so super-70s/80s to me.

We picked up that FP+ for Buzz at around 2:30 PM as our 4th FP. The pickings were getting rather slim, so of what was available it was the best bet. It cut out a 25 minute wait so it worked out OK.

I should have pointed out we never waited more than 5 minutes for anything we rode that day.

 

[Stargazer9]

Enjoying your report! Great photos!

 

[skier_pete]

Enjoying your report! Great photos!

Thanks for joining in!!!

 

[skier_pete]

Day 9: Today was Saturday, the start of Labor Day weekend. It dawned hot and steamy – the same as every other day. The original plan for today was AK in the morning, and then over to BB for a while afterwards. Again, DD decided she didn’t want to go to the water park (Guess I’m not springing for WP&M next time – we got 3 uses of the entitlements including DQ, but really not a lot of time at any of the places.) DW and DD failed to get going in the morning, irritating me immensely – I really wanted to try and get rope drop. Well, between the slow start and the long bus ride from the Poly to AK, we were there probably about 10 minutes after rope drop. [/URL]

We went right for the Safari ride, which DD wanted to do again. The thing showed a 10 minute wait, but the queue was really backed up a lot, seemingly mostly due to the stroller parking. It probably took us 15-20 minutes to get to the trucks.

This was actually DW and DD third ride on this of the trip (they did it once without me as part of the YES class), but we really saw a lot of neat things this trip. In particular there was a baby White Rhino out with the other Rhinos on the savannah. They were all rolling around in the mud, and were actually VERY close to the trucks. [/URL]



We also saw a couple of lions on Pride Rock, the warthogs were out and about, as well as the zebras. Overall, a fun safari.

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Next we headed over towards Flights of Wonder. Our DD LOVES this show. When she was maybe 9 she got picked to throw a grape in the air, and since then we have often seen it twice on a single trip. This trip we only saw it the one time, but always enjoy it!



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Third on the list was our first FP+ of the day – for Festival of the Lion King!

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This was our first time in the new show building, which was really I nice thematic add to the Africa area.

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I really do love the way they always have these signs plastered everywhere.

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Even the restrooms in Animal Kingdom are well themed!

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The FP+ queue was actually separate from the regular queue, though I am not sure there is much of an advantage. They put all the FP+ people in the Lion Section, so unless you are the first ones in the FP+ line, you really don’t get that great seats. The set-up in the new theater is essentially Identical to the old theater. The show is great – and while I didn’t take any pictures I can assure you it is one not to be missed. (Maybe next time with my new camera I will try and take some pictures.)

To be continued in next post.

 

[skier_pete]

By the time we saw this show, we were all hungry. We were really looking forward to trying out the new Harambe Marketplace QS location. We had walked through it our previous AK day. We thought it would be fun to eat here, but turned out it was a nightmare. The place was so crowded that you couldn’t get a table:




It’s at this point I have to state that we started seeing the first real crowds of our trip. This was the first day of labor day weekend, and it appeared that it was time for all the locals to head to WDW. While the previous weekend proved to be full of Brits/UK folks, THIS weekend was full of folks from Florida/Georgia/Alabama…etc, and the nice low crowds we encountered all week were at an end.

We finally found a seat around the corner at the Dawa Bar. It was so hot, I let DW and DD take a seat while I waited in the scorching sun in line for sausages on a stick and fallefel wraps for almost 30 minutes, even though there were probably only about 40 people in front of me. The service was SOOO slow. It was awful. While the food was good enough, we won’t be rushing back to this location until the solve the seating/crowd issue.

I guess I was so upset about all this I forgot to take pictures of our food. But DW wanted to order a Milk Tart – which was quite tasty, and I managed to get a picture of that.


We actually had one last ride to ride to complete the day. Kali River Rapids, which we had a FP+. We threw our stuff in one of the free lockers, and got in line. Standby was like 75 minutes long, but FP+ got us on in about 10 minutes. (I would never wait 75 minutes for this ride.) Not a family favorite, but we enjoyed it and got only moderately soaked.

Once that was done, DD was ready to head back to the room. DW wanted to go and look in some shops, so the two of us went back. I managed to get DD to pose for some photopass photos. These were the only ones on the day.

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You can see we were pretty much DYING from the heat at this point, even after having gone on Kali.

We got back and took a little bit of a break, but once DW got back we decided to FINALLY head down to the pool. Here’s DD in the “lobby” of our building. She really liked these chairs.

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Now, I know most people have rave reviews of the Lava Pool at the Polynesian, but I have to say I found it one of the more disappointing aspects of the resort. It was often very crowded and it’s not as big as many resorts main pools. I’m sure it didn’t help that the secondary pool is under construction, making this the only pool available on property.

Anyways, here are a few shots of the pool.

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There’s a pretty good pool slide, but the pool being so crowded, the line for the slide was at least 10 minutes long. (Probably 20-30 people waiting in line for it.) It was mostly an inside (dark) slide and DW doesn’t like these, so DD and I did it twice while DW took pictures.

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There was a kids play area – and we couldn’t get DD to go there and pose for pictures, so DW had me do it. I joked around and did some “model” poses. Please forgive me in advance for these…

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We actually decided on spontaneity again for the evening....yes! You hardly believe it right? Well, you'll have to wait a little longer to see how it went.

 

[Tinker326]

Great Modeling!

I loved the new Lion King theater area too when Becca and I saw it in May there. I thought it was well done.

Thanks for the note on the new QS in AK- I will be sure to avoid that.

My kids all love COP & People Mover too- they always remain top favorites in our family.
"There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow..............."

 

[rteetz]

Stroller parking really does tend to back up the line at the safari.

I need to check out Flights of wonder in January if I can.

I will stay at one of the MK resorts someday and hopefully the Poly. My mom would always camp at FW when she was young. Some of her favorite memories are of going to the Poly to Swim. That was before the they stopped pool hopping of course.

 

[DisneyJo]

Loving the posing

I'm very interested in your crowd reports as we'll be there from August 26th to September 9th next year!

 

[skier_pete]

Great Modeling!

I loved the new Lion King theater area too when Becca and I saw it in May there. I thought it was well done.

Thanks for the note on the new QS in AK- I will be sure to avoid that.

My kids all love COP & People Mover too- they always remain top favorites in our family.
"There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow..............."

Do you think I have a future in modeling? Frumpy guy magazine?

The food was good - but if you get there and it's overrun with people - go somewhere else!!

Who doesn't love the people mover. Carousel of Progress is great too - but once a trip is fine.

Stroller parking really does tend to back up the line at the safari.

I need to check out Flights of wonder in January if I can.

I will stay at one of the MK resorts someday and hopefully the Poly. My mom would always camp at FW when she was young. Some of her favorite memories are of going to the Poly to Swim. That was before the they stopped pool hopping of course.

Yes, yes and yes! They definitely restrict pool hopping nowadays. Again, I wouldn't sweat the pool there though - you are better off at Beach Club.

Loving the posing

I'm very interested in your crowd reports as we'll be there from August 26th to September 9th next year!

So - here's my view of the crowds - they were really, really low until Labor Day. Labor Day weekend they were pretty bad, a lot of "locals" (southerners) clearly coming in for the long weekend. It wasn't like peak season crowds, but significantly more than the previous days...

 

[franandaj]

Love the modeling shots!

sounds like it was pretty crazy hot there.

Bummer that you just barely missed rope drop.

I've heard really good things about the Harambe Market, but I guess you have to catch it on a slow day.

 

[khertz]

That problem with the text has been going on since the last board change. I can't figure out how to stop it from happening, it's something to do with the Photo files, but I just can't figure it out.

Do you type it up in Word and then paste here? I was having the same problem until I realized doing a right click and selecting "Paste as Plain Text" solved the problem for me!

Anyway, I fiiiiiiiiiiinally got all caught up! Every time I would try, I'd get stopped part of the way through and by the time I'd come back, you'd have updated more!! lol I absolutely LOVE those pics of the rain from your Poly room. It's so true, it looks perfectly natural in that landscape!

Really enjoying so far. If your career doesn't work out, splash pad modeling should be your next step!!!

 

[franandaj]

That problem with the text has been going on since the last board change. I can't figure out how to stop it from happening, it's something to do with the Photo files, but I just can't figure it out.

I noticed that almost all your photos have a dangling [/URL] after them. I wonder if the link to photo bucket isn't being closed properly due to that. The previous poster mentioned something about writing it up in word, which I do as well, but the text doesn't seem to become "hot" like it does in your updates. Strange.

 

[skier_pete]

Do you type it up in Word and then paste here? I was having the same problem until I realized doing a right click and selecting "Paste as Plain Text" solved the problem for me!

Anyway, I fiiiiiiiiiiinally got all caught up! Every time I would try, I'd get stopped part of the way through and by the time I'd come back, you'd have updated more!! lol I absolutely LOVE those pics of the rain from your Poly room. It's so true, it looks perfectly natural in that landscape!

Really enjoying so far. If your career doesn't work out, splash pad modeling should be your next step!!!

I noticed that almost all your photos have a dangling [/URL] after them. I wonder if the link to photo bucket isn't being closed properly due to that. The previous poster mentioned something about writing it up in word, which I do as well, but the text doesn't seem to become "hot" like it does in your updates. Strange.

I do realize that the problem seems to occur when I delete the "dangling URL", so I tried not doing that last time.

I do write everything in word and then paste it in later. I will try Paste as Plain Text.

And I guarantee no-one will be paying me to model ANYTHING!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Joining in late in the game but I have enjoyed reading about your trip. The Poly room looks lovely. One day I will get to stay there if I can get a good discount, not crazy enough to pay rack rates!