This Trip Broke The Bank. Update 11/26 Day 11: Why can't I get in the MK?

[Stefy]

Have fun housesitting, will be eagerly awaiting an update soon

 

[oboedm]

I don't think I could house-sit for someone without internet access. I would go crazy! Have fun and can't wait for the next installment!

 

[heathers4um]

We will be here....

*stares at computer until you get back*

Wanted to quickly post that I will be house sitting without internet access starting tomorrow. I will try to write some, but no promises!
Please don't forget about me, even if it is a little while before I can post again!

 

[Aimros]

Hey Joyce!

I subbed into your TR a few weeks back, and I'm really looking forward to your next installment! My DFi and I will be honeymooning in Disney next August, so I love hearing about all of your adventures!

It was called 'Outsourced' I think it'll be on NBC. I do plan on watching- just to see if it is as bad as I remember!

You were absolutely right... it was horrible! I could barely stand the first 10 minutes. I'm a big Office fan so I just left the TV on after The Office ended, but then promptly went upstairs and went to bed! As I was laying there, I remembered "HEY! That was the show Joyciemc wrote about in her TR! Good thing they PAID her to watch it...!"

 

[klacey1]

Just wanted to let you know-- saw a Secretariat commercial last night and OF COURSE thought of you lol. I burst out laughing-- to the utter confusion of DBF haha.

 

[snookie5605]

i love seeing your reviews of universal and islands. weve been there plenty of times but we are going back in november when we go to disney. in your opinion which of the harry potter rides can a pregnant woman ride? i know they have 3 and i know not the dragons one cuz thats a roller coaster, but can i ride the other two? cant wait to read more! lovin it so far!

 

[oboedm]

I also thought of you when I saw a Secretariat commercial and when I saw the commercials for Outsourced as well! I just don't understand why its supposed to be funny. I never laughed during the commercials.

I do like the Office, but Park and Rec REALLY improved during the second season and I think I prefer that now. 30Rock was great as well, I don't know if you watch that... I loved her trying to comfort Matt Damon.

 

[Joyciemc]

Have fun house sitting. I'll try not to drive myself crazy for more of your trip!

I hope you haven't gone crazy.. an update is in the works!

Have fun, and dont get scared at any random creaks! Im always weird getting to know an empty house at first. Its probably because I jump and cry at Jafar....


Wuss

The first time I stayed at this house (it's in the middle of the woods), I woke up crying in the middle of the night because I was scared. I called Ben (we had recently moved in together at the time) and he was thisclose to just driving there to keep me company. I sucked it up and made it through the night. That was almost 4 years ago, and I still get the willies at night there!

Wow! I can't believe how action-packed this day was! I also can't believe that your (first ) room at the Poly hadn't even been cleaned! I know we all sometimes set our expectations a little high for Disney hotels, but a clean room is something I would expect at any hotel! It disappoints me that they didn't upgrade you - especially since you were celebrating.

We hadn't planned on this day being so crazy, but it ended up that way. I'm glad we went to Epcot, but I wish we hadn't gone back to MK for EMH.

Seriously- I've never checked into a dirty room, even at the skeeviest places I've stayed (there was one nightmare trip to LA that comes to mind) so I was really bummed! The rest of the Poly lived up to our hopes- except for the crazy crowded volcano pool!

 

[Joyciemc]

Have fun housesitting, will be eagerly awaiting an update soon

Thanks! It's coming up...

I don't think I could house-sit for someone without internet access. I would go crazy! Have fun and can't wait for the next installment!

I am going crazy! I had the day off work today, so I commuted home for a little while. Just have to head back this evening for the animal chores.

We will be here....

*stares at computer until you get back*

Thanks for hanging in there!

Hey Joyce!

I subbed into your TR a few weeks back, and I'm really looking forward to your next installment! My DFi and I will be honeymooning in Disney next August, so I love hearing about all of your adventures!



You were absolutely right... it was horrible! I could barely stand the first 10 minutes. I'm a big Office fan so I just left the TV on after The Office ended, but then promptly went upstairs and went to bed! As I was laying there, I remembered "HEY! That was the show Joyciemc wrote about in her TR! Good thing they PAID her to watch it...!"

Hi and welcome!!
Congrats on your upcoming wedding and honeymoon! You're gonna have a blast! Where are you staying?

I am glad to hear that I have support in my opinion of that show! If it gets kept for anymore episodes, it won't be my fault- I gave it a very bad review!

Just wanted to let you know-- saw a Secretariat commercial last night and OF COURSE thought of you lol. I burst out laughing-- to the utter confusion of DBF haha.

This is why I love trip reports!

i love seeing your reviews of universal and islands. weve been there plenty of times but we are going back in november when we go to disney. in your opinion which of the harry potter rides can a pregnant woman ride? i know they have 3 and i know not the dragons one cuz thats a roller coaster, but can i ride the other two? cant wait to read more! lovin it so far!

Thanks for reading!

I don't think a pregnant woman can ride the Forbidden Journey- it jostles you around a bit.
The third ride is the Flight of the Hippogriff, which is a kid's coaster we didn't go on.
Sorry I couldn't be more help! There is plenty of atmosphere in Hogsmeade, though- and I would definitely go through the line for Forbidden Journey and just exit instead of riding. It's worth it!

I also thought of you when I saw a Secretariat commercial and when I saw the commercials for Outsourced as well! I just don't understand why its supposed to be funny. I never laughed during the commercials.

I do like the Office, but Park and Rec REALLY improved during the second season and I think I prefer that now. 30Rock was great as well, I don't know if you watch that... I loved her trying to comfort Matt Damon.

Outsourced is a ridiculous show that actually hurts to watch. And makes me feel dumber. Ugh. That was the hardest $10 I've ever earned!

I love 30 Rock, but here is a confession: I never remember to watch 'real' TV cause I am so addicted to Bravo's crap reality stuff. So I am only on season 2 of 30 Rock via Netflix. So I'll probably see this season in a couple of years. I suck.

 

[annmarieda]

can't wait for your next update!

 

[Joyciemc]

Can I just say that 12 cats and a dog are not fun to care for? That's what I've been doing since Thursday. I have a few days left, but I came home for a little bit today to get some sanity. And to post an update, of course!

If I recall correctly, we are ready to start a brand new day! Get ready for:
Day 5: Stuff we did till it was time for Hoop Dee Doo!

As the title suggests, dinner would be at the Pioneer Hall with a group of new friends. But we have a whole lot of fun to get through before we can eat! Let's get started...

We woke up at 7, but were dragging from our tiring Sunday. Even though it took longer to get ready, we had no problem making it to Kona Cafe for our 7:30 ADR. They actually hadn't started seating yet when we walked up, but it wasn't too long before we were shown to our table. I already knew what I wanted (begins with a T and is covered in cinnamon sugar), but Ben was having a problem. He didn't know what a macadamia nut was! I tried to explain, but I couldn't. When our waitress came over, he asked her. She was really nice and it was funny to hear her try to describe. Ben took the risk and ordered the macadamia nut pancakes.
Before our meals came out, we asked for a couple of waters. After a few minutes, our waitress brought our waters to the table behind us. As soon as she set them down, she realized what happened and we all laughed. We joked that she wanted to keep all of her guests hydrated.
I loved the Tonga Toast! I ended up eating just the middle- didn't want to waste room on the part without the bananas. Ben's macadamia pancakes were also quite tasty. Breakfast was finished quickly, and we headed for the monorail because we were going to MK for park opening!

I love this opening show more than almost anything else in Disney. It makes me happy.
We headed down Main Street and we were right behind Tiana and Neveen- they were running and playing the whole way down the street. They were so fun! We were walking next to these folks, too:

I had never noticed the characters walking along with everyone else after the opening before. I thought it was great!

We rode Thunder Mt first, since we never made it on the night before. After a spin on Splash, we headed to Fantasyland. Ben and I love Peter Pan, but don't like waiting for it. This early in the day, we just walked right on.
Since we were in the area, we took a spin on the Teacups.

Alice was riding with a little boy and they were so cute! After the ride, we walked right into the line to meet her, so why not?

Haunted Mansion was next- this had been closed on our last trip and it was fun to see the updates (I noticed them- Ben didn't remember what it used to be like).

We were headed for Adventureland, but couldn't pass up a chance to visit my buddies.

I have no explanation for this pose. Maybe I was thinking about all the reasons why I love the Country Bears...

those bears!

We finally made it to the land of Pirates, Jungle Cruises, and Dole Whips. Though I have no pictures to prove it. What is up with that?
I know we had a good skipper, we walked onto Pirates, and we had to wait for a while to get a Dole whip float. But it tasted great when we finally got it!

Lunch was at Columbia Harbour House. I got the Anchors Aweigh sandwich and it was some seriously yummy tuna! Not sure what made it so good, but I loved it! Ben had fish and chips. We really liked this place!

After lunch, we took a vote (easy to do when there's just 2 of you!) and knew we wanted to head out of the MK. We needed to get to the TTC, and why not try a new thing?

Here is where we coming from.

That's where we're going.

I had never taken the ferry before! We chatted with a CM on the boat and he was telling us about crowd levels. Crowds were predicted to be lower starting today.... I cant remember what the attendance numbers were that he told us, but Sunday was more crowded than the CMs had been expecting- so it wasn't in our heads- the park had been busy!

We disembarked at the TTC and began leg two of our journey...

 

[klacey1]

Woo hoo for an update!! Sounds like the perfect MK morning. I completely agree with you, the opening is one of the best things at WDW. Can't really explain why, but it's sooo magical and sentimental!
I'm SURE you were contemplating all the wonderful things about the Country Bears! The only problem I have about that show is that some of those guys are in desperate need of some TLC. Miss___ that sits on the swing needs some cleaning up!

 

[annmarieda]

Great update! And guess what? We were in that same crowd at rope drop. We were on the other side of you. (you were left, we were right) I have a pic with that same boy standing near Mickey...different view point, but same boy...hanging over the rail...looking somewhat bored. You got Jasmine and Aladin in your shot. I got Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen in mine. Funny how different vantage points give you just a bit different experience.

All this talk about Tonga Toast...I regret not getting some myself. What was I thinking??? Dh has decided that he is going in March to Florida. wonder if I go, if I can swing in for some toast?

 

[Joyciemc]

Woo hoo for an update!! Sounds like the perfect MK morning. I completely agree with you, the opening is one of the best things at WDW. Can't really explain why, but it's sooo magical and sentimental!
I'm SURE you were contemplating all the wonderful things about the Country Bears! The only problem I have about that show is that some of those guys are in desperate need of some TLC. Miss___ that sits on the swing needs some cleaning up!

I really can't believe that the Country Bears are still there. I keep waiting for them to taken away and I am probably going to have to take a break from Disney when that happens.
But you are right- those bears could use a good shampooing.

Great update! And guess what? We were in that same crowd at rope drop. We were on the other side of you. (you were left, we were right) I have a pic with that same boy standing near Mickey...different view point, but same boy...hanging over the rail...looking somewhat bored. You got Jasmine and Aladin in your shot. I got Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen in mine. Funny how different vantage points give you just a bit different experience.

All this talk about Tonga Toast...I regret not getting some myself. What was I thinking??? Dh has decided that he is going in March to Florida. wonder if I go, if I can swing in for some toast?

Too funny that you were there with us! We kinda hung back a little because I was more interested in seeing the show than in rushing to any ride in particular.

Tonga Toast- I really liked it, but I know lots of folks end up being underwhelmed. I actually don't even like bananas very much, but I loved this and the banana bread pudding at 'Ohana. Weird.

 

[Joyciemc]

Pretty soon I'm gonna need to head back to the herd of cats, but I have time to post a bit more.

Day 5, part two: more stuff we did before Hoop Dee Doo

We left off with our first ever ferry ride to the TTC. From there, we caught a bus to DHS. I couldn't believe we were already heading to our 3rd park and only halfway through our first full day! If you read the PTR, you'll know that I wasn't sure we'd do any park hopping at all!

When we got to DHS, we headed straight for Toy Story to see if there were any FP left. There weren't (it was about noon). So we kept walking and ended up near the Lights, Motor, Action stadium. We didn't care to see it, but we did find this little gem:

Can you believe I never found this before? It was really hot and that rain felt very, very good.

Before we knew it, we were here:

MuppetVision Threeeee-Deeee (you have to read that in Fozzie Bear's voice)
One of Ben's favorite attractions, he was once again excited to see it with his new eyeballs.

I was getting ready to check for the key under the mat.

After this, we couldn't stand it any longer and had to get to the Tower of Terror! This is my absolute #1. After a fantastic trip on the crazy elevator, we hopped on Rock N Roller Coaster. Neither of these had much wait at all. It seems like Toy Story does a good job of keeping people away from this part of the park!
After riding these, I admitted that I really, really wanted to check out Toy Story. I asked very nicely if we could pleeeeeeease wait for it. After all, we didn't have anything else on the agenda. Ben couldn't argue with reasoning like that... so we walked in the building. What do you think the stand-by wait time was? Keep in mind that we wouldn't wait 40 minutes for any ride at all in WDW, and it would have to be a pretty special circumstance for us to wait anything more than 20.
Ahem.

We willingly got in a line with a posted wait of 140 minutes. We had a funny (in a sad way, not a funny way) conversation in which Ben commented on the "more than an hour wait". I debated whether I should point out that 140 minutes is two hours and 20 minutes. I didn't.
In my defense, I was under the impression that the stand-by line was something worth seeing. Turns out, it's not that great. But I guess nothing would be for that long of a wait. If I remember correctly, we were in line for just under 2 hours.

We were almost in the second queue area! And Ben liked me being 'Life Guard Louie"

Yay. Potato Head. He was very repetitive and it got kinda annoying. I thought I'd read that he interacted with guests, but that wasn't the case. Oh well.

We finally got on and I really liked the ride! It wasn't worth the wait, but nothing would have been. We didn't do very well, but it was fun.

After another visit to the Hollywood Tower Hotel, it was time to head back to the Poly. We had to get ready for dinner! At Hoop Dee Doo Revue!
I was so excited to finally see this!!!

It began to rain on the way back, and by the time we were ready to leave our room it was pouring. Bad thing about the Poly: you can't get to the lobby/monorail without going out in the rain. We waited for a bit, but it was getting late (6ish and we had the 7 seating) so we headed out, cutting through longhouses on the way.
We saw a decorated door that belonged to DISers (Maroo, and someone else?) and signed the guestbook before continuing on.
The monorail came pretty quickly and we were at the MK before we knew it. Luckily, the rain had lulled a bit and we made it to the Ft. Wilderness boat dock mostly dry.
Ben asked for my best upset face.

I love how my gimpy eye looks extra funky here.

Up until now, Ben had been having a really hard time understanding where we were going. He just could not separate Wilderness Lodge, Ft. Wilderness and (get this) Animal Kingdom Lodge. He thought they were all the same place. It became pretty funny, because he would think he got it right, but it would always be a little wrong. This boat ride helped though- I pointed to WL and he got to see that we were not getting off there.

It was still raining as we looked for Pioneer Hall, but we found it pretty quickly and no one was drenched. Transportation was cooperative, and we had a half hour before being let in. Because of the rain, we all were huddled under the roof of the porch near Pioneer Hall. We entertained ourselves with picture taking

And people watching (which was more like 'eavesdropping', I guess). There was a family near us and the parents were having one of those passive aggressive whispery fights where they think the kids don't know they're fighting and try to have a normal conversation with them at the same time. As a person whose parents did this a lot- trust me, the kids know. It went on and on and on. We were all cramped pretty close together, so I couldn't help but hear it all. I hope their trip got better!

When we were brought to our table, I had to laugh.

(That's not me laughing, just showing why I laughed- our table was as close to the stage as possible.) This was going to be interesting...

I ate a ton of cornbread- it was good!!
The rest of the food was fine... nothing spectacular, but tasty! I really enjoyed the fried chicken- maybe because it's something I hardly ever eat. The sangria was good, but refills were not plentiful. There would be no drunkeness this night!

We very much enjoyed the sillyness of the show

One of these audience participants made the show for us. The guy playing the Indian was a-mazing.

This is one thing that lived up to all my expectations- I loved it!

The boat ride back to MK was fun- I got to see this for the first time:

Back at the Poly, we were once again just a bit disapointed by something...

 

[annmarieda]

2 hour wait on TSM??? holy cow! The ride is fun...but TWO HOURS? You are the queen of perseverance now! I would never have made it.

Looks like dinner was good. I had thought about going there... I think it looks like a fun place.

The lights on the lake...thanks for posting that. We were on the train at night and I could see the lights and couldn't figure out what it was. Good to know,what it was I was seeing!

 

[oboedm]

I loved the Tonga Toast! I ended up eating just the middle- didn't want to waste room on the part without the bananas. Ben's macadamia pancakes were also quite tasty. ...

I order the TT this trip as well and thought it was delicious! DH was underwhelmed last year, but he didn't use the strawberry sauce. I got the pancakes last year, and thought there were too many nuts and not enough pancake.

...

This Mary Poppins looks a bit clownish to me. We met a much less scary looking one-- our MP had normal makeup, not something from a 1980s music video.

We willingly got in a line with a posted wait of 140 minutes. We had a funny (in a sad way, not a funny way) conversation in which Ben commented on the "more than an hour wait". I debated whether I should point out that 140 minutes is two hours and 20 minutes. I didn't.
In my defense, I was under the impression that the stand-by line was something worth seeing. Turns out, it's not that great. But I guess nothing would be for that long of a wait. If I remember correctly, we were in line for just under 2 hours....

Eek! I can't believe you got in line! We waited for an hour and I wanted to DIE! I was holding the baby most of the time. I should have brought my baby sling more often, but didn't want the mom to think I new better and that I liked my sling more. Don't ask why I have a baby sling but no baby. I don't know either.

Back at the Poly, we were once again just a bit disapointed by something...

Can't wait to hear about!

 

[Tracy161]

Oh, no! What was waiting back at the Poly?!

Great update! Glad you got to try the Tonga Toast and holy cow, a 2 hour wait for TSMM! At least you got to experience it though!

Looking forward to more... good luck with the pets!

 

[Stefy]

Great pictures

I can't believe you guys waited that long for TSM

Sounds like you had a great day and park hopping too

Not liking the sound of what's coming up next

 

[JMat]

Great Pic of the Country Bears I havent been in forever, and now im actually really looking forward to checking it out next month! I had forgotten much about it - until you posted that it was your 'Must Do'.

Also, im loving on that shot of you both from the teacups - its classic and I think everyone should have one, but you and Ben look so genuine and happy. Im thinking this is a pic that should be left at work for those bad days

Excited to hear about leg two of this day - sorry house-sitting is scary, there are times where I get creeped out even in my OWN house, let alone someone elses... youre a good friend for doing it. Sending happy thoughts your way in case you arent home yet!!

<3