“Bubble” - licious – A Northern Family's Disney Tale! UPDATED 8/27/09 (LAST CHAPTER)!

[Northern Disney Girl]

Loving the TR! Thanks for keeping it going! It's so fun to think back on all the fun, isn't it?

Thanks Sheree! Doing this is helping me not be sad about the fact that we still have a long time to wait to know if we will be going back next January or not! We are really hoping to!

Loving your wonderful trip report!

You have made me want to try Germany for lunch now...we'll see. I know my Dh would LOVE it, but with my mustard allergy I keep thinking it wouldn't be worth it. BUT, you made the ambience sound so charming, I may want to go just for that.

I sent you a PM.

Hey Joanna! Thanks for reading! Mustard is mostly totally optional at the Biergarten! I thought it was quite avoidable! I would encourage to check it out anyway! If you think you could avoid the mustard you should try it! We loved it and are hoping to make it our first dinner there on our next trip!

 

[Northern Disney Girl]

Chapter 22: Musical Aquatic Light bright anyone?

Date: January 24th
Time: about 5:30pm
Place: Wilderness Lodge

We arrived back at the WL after a very nice couple of rides on the Monorail and a lovely bus ride from the MK! When we opened the door to our room, we found found these fellows waiting for us...

What a nice welcome home after a long day!

We got cleaned up a bit and then Ken and I took turns going down to get food for us all! I have no idea what anybody else ate but I can tell you that I had a Turkey and Brie sandwich (with the yummy pasta salad), a magic cookie bar (oh so yummy – I am craving one now!) and a hot chocolate! The receipt from that meal shows that I purchased it at 6:27pm!

We ate our food, watched a little T.V and then we all went outside at about 8:00pm. The girls wanted to play on the playground and I wanted to walk around a bit and take some night time pictures!

I think the girls must have really been craving some free play time cause they attacked that playground like they were play starved! The play structure is really not that big or impressive but they were very happy to have it and played very nicely for a long time without getting bored! I think they also made use of the tether ball court!

While they were playing I took the opportunity to have a bit of alone time. I took the camera and tried to take some night shots of the pathways and pool area! I found some really neat animal footprints in the pathway leading to the DVC building and trued to take a picture but it was too dark!

At about 9:20pm, I found my family and we all gathered on the beach, along with about 30 other families, to watch the Electric Water Parade! We could hear it coming for about 10 minutes before we could even seeit! Such anticipation! All the little children kept asking their parents “when is it coming Mommy?” ! Too cute!

What a wonderful little display! This was another thing that I really wanted to see because I knew that my family would love it! I was right! The kids thought it was just super! I think Emily took about 5 minutes of video with her little camera! So cool! I loved the music from it! I can still hear it in my head sometimes! Ken was very impressed, even though he insisted on dubbing it the Musical Aquatic Lite bright show!

It was very late when we finally finished watching it! Nearly 10pm! We went upstairs, ran the girls through the shower really quick to get all the sand off of them and we were all in bed with lights out by 10:30! What a great day!

 

[MICKEY4EVER!]

Thanks for posting those pics of the water parade. It brings back such lovely memories! And I can still hear the music in my head, too. Such a catchy, make you happy little tune! And I love the patriotic spin they add to the end...

Keep it coming!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Pretty pictures of the water parade. We have seen it a few times from the ferry boat.

 

[schmoopypoo]

Just loving your trip report. You are such a cute family! Glad you liked WL too...we will be staying there for the first time in August. Can't wait for more

 

[Northern Disney Girl]

Hey Everyone!

Hope all my wonderfully loyal readers are having a great weekend so far! The next chapter is almost fully written. I just need to do the fight with photobucket and upload the according pictures!

It has been a bit of a busy weekend so far in our house. Thursday was my 33rd birthday! And interpsersd with celebration I made 4 trips to the chiropracter over 2 days to have my neck tended to! Not sure what I did, but it hurt and it hurt bad! Mostly all better now though!

So we finally were able to see UP! IT was Great! Probably my favourite Disney/Pixar Movie since Cars! SQUIRREL!!! heehee!

Yesterday was a day off of school for our kids and they spent the day tidying their rooms and their playroom because DD8 was having a sleepover last night! WooHoo! I am so proud of myself - they were actually asleep by 10:30 pm! They were up at 6:55am though! Oh well! It was a fun day!

We went to one of our local parks for an annual fundraiser event! It is really fun! Rides, sweets and all kinds of good fun to be had! We took the sleepover friend with us as she had never been before! The girls had a blast!

Now the girls are in bed for the night and I have some time to spend on this poor neglected TR!

I will have a chapter up before the end of tomorrow, I promise!

Oh btw, my DH has signed up for his own account here on the DIS! If you see a low count poster with the screen name "Firestarter" say HI to him and tell him you're a reader of mine! He is very new to the DIS and could probably use a few friendly "faces" to guide him! Thanks!

 

[Firestarter]

Yes, I am moving away from the lucrative 'lurker' class to join the posters on this thread. Suffice to say I will no longer be providing ghost-editing for my dear wife. All typos will now be corrected publicly.

And yes, the musical water parade DID look like giant 'lite brite' screens. I spent most of the show musing how they programmed the light boards to synchronize properly.

 

[KathyRN137]

I loved this picture of Natalie pointing to the hidden Mickey... is she winking?? So cute!!

And this next one of the girls holding Tink is just precious!

So sorry you had the encounter with the drunks... some people just don't know how to behave, I suppose. (Really can't believe they were banging on the drums!)

Those Japanese drummers are one of my favorite WS performances, too!

I love how you stay so tuned in to your girls and give them rest breaks when they need it... Disney can be terribly overstimulating for young ones and they really do need to rest periodically!

Kathy

 

[KathyRN137]

Yes, I am moving away from the lucrative 'lurker' class to join the posters on this thread.

to The DIS Ken!!


Kathy

 

[portocall]

I really have enjoyed your trip report so far. You have a beautiful family.

 

[snowwhitesmom]

Thanks for the great trip report - it makes missing WDW a little less painful!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Yes, I am moving away from the lucrative 'lurker' class to join the posters on this thread. Suffice to say I will no longer be providing ghost-editing for my dear wife. All typos will now be corrected publicly.

And yes, the musical water parade DID look like giant 'lite brite' screens. I spent most of the show musing how they programmed the light boards to synchronize properly.

Hey hubby! Glad you came out of lurkdome and decided to join in. My husband just likes to read over my shoulder and tells me things to add to jmy trip report.

 

[Northern Disney Girl]

Chapter 23:And on the 7th day.....they rested! Finally!

Date: January 25th
Time:8:30am
Place: Wilderness Lodge

This was our scheduled day off – a day of rest! Phew! We really needed it too! We finally allowed ourselves to sleep late! We all were pretty much awake by 8:30! We had 9:05 ADRs at Whispering Canyon Cafe for breakfast! We didn't need to rush as WCC was literally just 5 floors beneath us! Our room looked into the main atrium and we could see WCC from the walkway just outside our room!

We left our room at 8:55 to go and check in and when we got there Ken realized he had forgotten the camera! So back he went to retrieve it! He was back in a flash and we were seated almost immediately! Our server that morning was quite rambunctious and started throwing things even before we sat down! She was a real hoot! I think she may have even been trying to flirt with my husband!

At any rate, straw and napkin throwing aside, our breakfast was quite uneventful! Natalie had French toast specially made for her because of her lactose intolerance. Emily had the kids egg, potatoes bacon and biscuit. Ken had the skillet and I had a Western omelette. All was very good and filling! I also had a very yummy glass of orange juice AND a cappuccino! I had been getting desperate for a good cup of coffee and this did the trick! I LOVE THE DDP!!!

Emily wanted to bring her “Baby Bear” down for breakfast that morning. So we let her! For some strange reason this is one of the only pictures I have from our breakfast that morning!

The girls also participated in the pony races! I think that they were the biggest kids there! They seemed to enjoy it but were not really in the mood to be running around! Especially right after eating! Sorry for the blurry picture – it is the only one I took!

After breakfast was over, which was at about 10am, we went back to our room to tidy up a bit before heading down to the beach for a while. I don't like leaving our room in a total disasterous mess for Mousekeeping to sift through. After tidying up, Ken took the girls down to the playground so they could burn off their breakfast and he could rest in a beach chair!

I took the camera and finally took some pictures of this lovely resort we were staying at! I started inside at our room and wandered around the building and then outside taking pictures of whatever I thought was interesting!

When I was done doing that I joined my family on the beach and enjoyed some time in a beach chair while watching my children be children! It was quite heavenly! A nice relaxing Sunday!

When we had had enough of lounging around we decided to go for a swim! So back up to the room we went to change into our suits and we hit the pool! It was a very nice day for swiming! I think the temperature was probably about 76 degrees. We had a great time in the pool and alternated between the main pool, kiddie pool and both hot tubs! At about 2pm, we decide to call it a day and head in!

We got showered, had a small snack from the stores we had stashed in our fridge and then we ALL lied down for a nap! YES! I did too! I woke up at about 3:55 and woke the rest of the troops! We had a very special dinner to prepare for! We had 5:00pm Adrs for 'Ohana that night!

We quickly got dressed in our Hawaiian finery and went out to catch the bus over to MK and then to catch the monorail over to the Poly! Yes we sure enjoyed riding the Monorail whenever possible! It was our favourite mode of Disney Transportation! I think on this particular trip we could've taken the boat to the Poly but Ken really wanted to take the Monorail!

We arrived and had to stand in a bit of a line to check in but once that was done we only had to wait for about 5 minutes before our name was called! Our “Cousin” took us to our table and took our drink orders. I had a Pina Colada, ken had a Kona beer and the girls had Shirley Temples! They were very excited to have “fancy drinks”!

It wasn't long before our food began to arrive! Okay, let me give a warning for those who may have not yet eaten here: BE VERY HUNGRY!!! This meal is a lot of food! I don't think I ever eaten so much meat in one meal before! Ken was in meat heaven! I believe I saw his eyes glaze over more than once due to protein shock! This was by far one of our Top 3 meals of the whole trip!

At some point during the meal there was some entertainment! Hula dancing, coconut races and a limbo contest! The girls participated in all of it and were given flowered leys for their good sportsmanship! It was a really great night! We will definitely be going back! If I was doing a full blown food report (I am not) I would give'Ohana 5 stars! Great service, Lovely atmosphere, Fun entertainment, Amazing food, An incredible value! Not to be missed! The dessert alone is worth going for! Simply decadent!

We had hoped that we would be able to walk around and see the Poly a bit after dinner but alas it was very dark by the time we finished! We were able to see quite a bit of the Great Ceremonial Hall however and we have decided that if we ever become fabulously wealthy this will our dream resort!

We caught the monorail back to the MK and then hopped a boat back to the WL! By the time we reached our room it was nearly 8pm! We got the girls into their jammies and turned on Stacey for them to watch and Ken and I sat down with a piece of paper and pencil. We had some decisions to make!

You see we had originally purchased an 8 day MYW ticket. Our plan looked like this:

20th – MK, 21st – DHS, 22nd – MK, 23rd – AK, 24th – EP, 25th - rest, 26th – EP, 27th – kid choice, 28th – MK

For some reason that is totally unclear to me now, I assumed that they would want to return to Animal Kingdom on their kids pick day! Boy was I ever wrong! They wanted to do DHS again! Well, since there really wasn't enough to keep us at DHS for a whole day, we began to kick around the idea of upgrading to a park hopper pass for our last 3 days!There was only one small problem! We had to work around our last couple of ADRs! We had a 6:30 pm ADR at Nine Dragons @ Epcot on the 26th and an 8:05 am ADR at Crystal Palace @MK on the 28th!

So knowing that we had to be at those parks at those times, here is the new plan we came up with: Monday 26th - do RD @ DHS until about noon then take the boat over to Epcot for the afternoon and evening. Tuesday 27th – Do am emh @ Epcot until noon then return to WL for a bit of a rest then go to MK from about 3pm til close. Wednesday 28th – Mk from RD til noon (after checking out of WL) take bus to POP and then go to AK for our very last evening!

So once we had devised our plan, I went down to the front desk and upgraded our tickets to Park Hopper status! $200 later we had the ability to hop from park to park at our own whim! Back to the room I went to get some rest cause I knew that the next 3 days were going to be CRAZY!!!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Great update. We couldn't decide whether or not to eat at Ohanas this year. We decided to do the Spirit of Aloha dinner show instead. Hope I am not disappointed because your review of Ohanas have me rethinking.

 

[Dancegrl624]

Great update Kim! Your pictures are great as usual. We upgraded to park hoppers for my birthday trip and I'm so excited about it. We're only there from the 24th-28th, so we have to make the most of our short time there.

Ken-So glad you could join us here on the DIS! My husband makes fun of it constantly and keeps calling it a blog. So, because he teases me about it, I don't let him read it at all.

 

[KathyRN137]

*sigh* your pictures of the resort really bring me back... we were lucky enough to stay there in 2007... what a beautiful place.

My DH loves the monorail, too!

So glad you decided to do the Park Hoppers... there just aren't enough days in the week without them...


Kathy

 

[Northern Disney Girl]

Great update. We couldn't decide whether or not to eat at Ohanas this year. We decided to do the Spirit of Aloha dinner show instead. Hope I am not disappointed because your review of Ohanas have me rethinking.

Glad you enjoyed the "review"! That was our first time at 'Ohana! We really enjoyed it! It is nice to try new things though! I think the Luau would be fun!

Great update Kim! Your pictures are great as usual. We upgraded to park hoppers for my birthday trip and I'm so excited about it. We're only there from the 24th-28th, so we have to make the most of our short time there.

Ken-So glad you could join us here on the DIS! My husband makes fun of it constantly and keeps calling it a blog. So, because he teases me about it, I don't let him read it at all.

Totally! I am beginning to think about our next trip. If we do go i January, we will only have 1 week so...hoppers might be an idea!

*sigh* your pictures of the resort really bring me back... we were lucky enough to stay there in 2007... what a beautiful place.

My DH loves the monorail, too!

So glad you decided to do the Park Hoppers... there just aren't enough days in the week without them...


Kathy

Yes the decision to go "hopper" was unavoidable! Too much to do and not enough time! Glad you liked the pictures!


I am now beginning to think more seriously about the possibility of a January 2010 trip! Airlines are starting to release dates and prices will become more competitive in the next few weeks! We need to start thinking about which dining plan, to "hop" or not! Oh decisions!

 

[Firestarter]

I hope I can add some details that my dear wife misses.

Ohana's is on my list of repeat places to eat. The food was sublime. I had metabolism issues where I wanted to eat lots more of everything, but my body kept saying "NO" in self defence.

It took a while for me to get used to the idea that sit down meals at Walt Disney World are 2 hour occasions with mini-workouts and photo-ops in the middle. After making that adjustment it's neat and something to look forward to. That first meal at Chef Mickey's was difficult with all the interruptions. I remember chafing at the sprints to the buffet so I could be back before the next character arrived.

The day off was another of my wife's genius ideas. It really reacharged all of us to be back in the parks again.

Other reasons we don't have as many pictures of Ohana or Roaring Forks:
1. I had the camera and I was hungry darn it.
2. When there is movement I am taking video. It makes for great memories and crumby additions to trip reports. I may get around to showing my dear wife the intricacies of a screen capture from a video. Or I may do that myself, we are great partners but the whole instructor/student thing. Nope. Happy Wife == Happy Life.

 

[Disney Mommy 3]

Hello Ken!!! Glad to have you! I would love for my hubby to follow suit!!! You may inspire him.

 

[jenjolt]

Another great review and update!! Oh did I love Ohana's it was fantastic!!! Ken my hubby says you're giving him a bad name LOL (He will never show face on here unless its a cute picture of him I have posted LOL)!!!!!

I can't wait to read more Kim you have done such a great job and I can't wait for life to settle down (June 23rd LOL) and we can talk more my lady so much to catch up on LOL!