Alice28
DIS Veteran<br><font color=blue>I'm Doombah Fricki
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2002
- Messages
- 9,583
Sunday, March 2 Animal Kingdom & date night at Shulas
Mickey calls at 7:30. We get ready and are at the bus stop by 8:35 or so. We must have just missed the bus because the other one didnt come till close to 9:00. This was the only time we were unhappy with Disney transportation. 30 minutes is quite awhile to wait for a bus, esp. at a peak time. We saw several MGM Studios & Downtown Disney/Typhoon Lagoon busses while we were waiting. Plus then we stopped at the Poly and the GF. Anyway, we finally get there around 9:30 and had to make bathroom breaks, etc. My parents and Sara were really intrigued with this park, but Bob had already made up his mind he wouldnt like it. Hes not really into animals. I knew there were some things I wanted to see, but that it could probably all be accomplished by 2:30. The weather was incredibly humid today- sweat just pouring down you even if you were just sitting still. About 78+ degrees or so. We make our way back to the Safaris and there is only about a 10-minute wait. I was so glad- I wasnt sure if there would be a wait since it was 9:45 by this time. Jambo! We really enjoyed this- we saw lots of grazing animals, good views of the elephants, rhinos, crocs (or is it gators? I forget) and saw a baby hippo. The lions were sleeping and the giraffes were quite a ways away. We would have liked to do the safari again, but we ran out of steam too soon. We go on to Pangani Trails- I didnt realize it would be quite so long and it was STEAMY. I was miserable because I was lugging Joshua who absolutely refused to sit in his stroller. We liked the gorillas and were only able to see the hippos bottoms. We trek on over to Asia and do the baby swap for Kali River Rapids. First Sara, Mom, Dad, Sam and I go on and Bob stays back with Josh. Sara and Sam get soaked, and I stay almost dry!! It was fun, but shorter than I thought it would be. We walked on the ride, which was nice. Then we exit and I go on again with Bob and Sam, while Sara, Mom, Dad and Joshua go and find something to drink. Again, I didnt get that wet! Miracle! I wouldnt have minded if I had gotten wet, because it was so hot and humid. Being from Oregon & California, I just am not used to the humidity- whew!! It saps the life right out of ya! We get off and most of our party is getting grumpy so we decide to eat. Sam is freaking out over some Doritos he saw on a cart, so good ole Dad goes off to get them for him. We order chicken stir-fry from the Chakrandi Chicken Stand and Sara stands in line to get Sam a hot dog from the nearby McDonalds window. The stir-fry was ok- I really had wanted to eat at one of the restaurants that offered the meal coupons, but we really needed to eat at that point. Anyway, it was filling and the chicken was tasty- the veggies were too soggy, but I ate them anyway. I liked that our drinks came in a cute souvenir Animal Kingdom cup for the same price as a regular drink- again, Im amused easily. My mom got a beef salad and she said that was really good. I think the 3 stir-fries and drinks were about $27; Sara paid for the hot dog. At this point we decided to split up the groups- our kids were really getting restless and Bob and I didnt feel like walking them through the Maharajah Jungle Trek, and our parents really wanted to see the animals. So, we took off to DinoLand USA and agreed to meet them at the 1:15 Festival of the Lion King show. The kids burn off a ton of energy in the Dino play area. I didnt know what to think of this area- I kind of liked it in its ticky-tacky sort of way. We didnt go on any of the rides because Sam was adamant about NOT going on Dinosaur after watching the planning video. And he wasnt tall enough for Primeval Whirl. We watched and rocked out to the music of the Triceratops ride, but the kids expressed no interest in going on it. So we poked around the shop after spending 30-40 minutes in the dig site and left. We duck into Island Mercantile to pick up a few souvenirs (postcards, a toy jeep and some jelly bellies- $13) and run into our parents. We look outside and it is raining the hardest I have ever seen. And I live in Oregon. It was absolutely pouring down buckets. We had ponchos, so we donned them and braved our way out- it had slowed down at this point. No wonder it was so humid earlier! We sloshed through inches of water and made it to the Festival of the Lion King. We waited about 20 minutes or so for the show to begin. We should have tried to greet some characters with the kids, but cest la vi! The show was spectacular- gave me the chills at some points. The kids enjoyed it as well- Josh fell asleep in my arms while we were waiting, but he woke up when the music started. Its amazing that these performers do this day after day and keep it so fresh. We exit the park after the show and Sam was whining about a dinosaur he had seen. I didnt want to go back and get it, and again, Fairy Godmother gramma Sara appears and shows Sam a toy Kali River Raft that she bought him. So, he was pleased with that and played with it on the bus ride home. I gave Josh the safari Jeep and they have had fun with those.
We get back to the hotel and rest for a while. We leave around 5:45 for the Dolphin. We had 6:45 reservations for Shulas. Bob thought we could leave at 6:00, but I insisted on 5:45 knowing that we had to wait for a bus for Downtown Disney and then wait for a bus there for the Dolphin. Guess who was right? Ding-ding-ding---youre so right, it was I. While waiting for the bus at DtD, I was drooling at the Once Upon A Toy store. We had plans to mini golf afterwards, but I was considering scrapping those plans for the opportunity to shop- with no kids for a few hours after dinner. We check in at Shulas and are immediately seated. We wait for a while for our server, Ted, and he finally comes to take our drink order. The menu is on a football, which is kinda funny. Ted disappears again, Bob goes off in search of the mens room (The one by Shulas was closed he had to go all the way down to the other end of the resort) and his co-waiter (the serve you in teams of two) Aleks, brings us our drinks and bread. This is the beginning of a trend. We got the feeling that Ted was the headwaiter for us, and Aleks was his assistant. However, Aleks was really our true waiter- he brought all the food, drinks, checked on us, refilled our water, and cleared our plates. Ted took our order, presented the meats so we could choose, and brought the tab. The reason being is that 5 minutes after we were seated, a party of 15 business people was seated right behind us. And they were high rollers- they ordered several bottles of wine, cocktails, lobster and shrimp appetizers for everyone- and each entrée is $30-80 each, plus about $6 per side. I said to Bob, We are never going to see our waiter again that party is easily a $500 tip. When Ted came (finally) to take our order, my husband says very cordially We see you have a big party over there. I sure hope you will still have time for us. Ted tripped all over himself with Of course sir, absolutely. No problem. I order the Filet Mignon, and the potato skins. Bob orders the Kansas City Strip and the creamed spinach. We split a Caesar salad and a shrimp cocktail appetizer. (Well, Bob had the shrimp). Aleks brings the salad and appetizer quickly and offers to get us another cocktail- we decline. The salad was huge- dont order one for only yourself! It is more than enough to split! The shrimp are huge- I think there were 5. Then our steaks and sides come. Aleks asks us to cut open our steaks to ensure they were cooked to our liking- they were (medium), and oh my oh my, these babies were big and absolutely delicious. Think Ruth Chris steakhouse- melts in your mouth meat. And my potato skins were divine- a huge bakers potato cut in half-length wise and stuffed with cheese, bacon, chives and sour cream. Yummy. I ate one of the halves and wish I could have eaten the other. Ted checks on us, as does Aleks. Aleks clears our plates and sweeps the table up for us. We decline on dessert- I havent eaten that much in a long time and my stomach hurt. Ted brings us the check- it was $117. Bob slips Aleks some cash and says This is only for you- you were great and then we leave an additional $30 or so for them to split however they do that. We waddle out of there and decide to get a cab to Downtown Disney. ($20 with tip). We hit World of Disney first and Bob finds the mens room. I dont know how he found me- luckily we both had our cell phones in case we lost each other- that store is unbelievable! We walked around with our mouths agape at everything. We have been in the DL World of Disney and this place is at least twice the size. Miraculously, we dont buy anything. I had plans to come the next day to do some damage. We go to Once Upon a Toy and I stuff a box full of parts and a potato (be sure to stuff all the little pieces inside your potato), plus the additional Pirate accessory box and the Frontierland accessory box for Joshua. Okay, I admit it; I had a ball picking out the stuff. We each make our own Potato-head postcard. I spent about $28 on the potato head. Then onto the Scrapbook store. I was under whelmed- I had high expectations for this store, as I am a pretty serious scrapper, and it had nothing that any of the other stores didnt have. And it didnt even have the stickers I had seen at the MK (a plastic box of four rolls of stickers- 1 for each park). I still plunked down about $20 for a pen, a post-it cube and some assorted stickers and was the 3rd person from Oregon on their board that day. We bought some huge cookies at the Gourmet Pantry ($2.75 each) and shared the raspberry/white chocolate/dark chocolate chip cookie. It was an enjoyable evening. We had back to our room and Sam is asleep with Gramma Sara and Josh is asleep in our room- my parents left the connecting door open to their room. All is bliss.
Magical Moments- lots of them today! The safari, the Lion King show, marveling at the rainstorm, having a delicious dinner with my hubby, and strolling around Downtown Disney, just the two of us.
Chernabog Moments- the noisiness of Shulas- you can hardly have a conversation and feeling a little bit shafted by our server Ted. The slow bus arrival to Animal Kingdom. Joshua the toddler showing his will and refusing to sit in his stroller in the Pangani trail.
Mickey calls at 7:30. We get ready and are at the bus stop by 8:35 or so. We must have just missed the bus because the other one didnt come till close to 9:00. This was the only time we were unhappy with Disney transportation. 30 minutes is quite awhile to wait for a bus, esp. at a peak time. We saw several MGM Studios & Downtown Disney/Typhoon Lagoon busses while we were waiting. Plus then we stopped at the Poly and the GF. Anyway, we finally get there around 9:30 and had to make bathroom breaks, etc. My parents and Sara were really intrigued with this park, but Bob had already made up his mind he wouldnt like it. Hes not really into animals. I knew there were some things I wanted to see, but that it could probably all be accomplished by 2:30. The weather was incredibly humid today- sweat just pouring down you even if you were just sitting still. About 78+ degrees or so. We make our way back to the Safaris and there is only about a 10-minute wait. I was so glad- I wasnt sure if there would be a wait since it was 9:45 by this time. Jambo! We really enjoyed this- we saw lots of grazing animals, good views of the elephants, rhinos, crocs (or is it gators? I forget) and saw a baby hippo. The lions were sleeping and the giraffes were quite a ways away. We would have liked to do the safari again, but we ran out of steam too soon. We go on to Pangani Trails- I didnt realize it would be quite so long and it was STEAMY. I was miserable because I was lugging Joshua who absolutely refused to sit in his stroller. We liked the gorillas and were only able to see the hippos bottoms. We trek on over to Asia and do the baby swap for Kali River Rapids. First Sara, Mom, Dad, Sam and I go on and Bob stays back with Josh. Sara and Sam get soaked, and I stay almost dry!! It was fun, but shorter than I thought it would be. We walked on the ride, which was nice. Then we exit and I go on again with Bob and Sam, while Sara, Mom, Dad and Joshua go and find something to drink. Again, I didnt get that wet! Miracle! I wouldnt have minded if I had gotten wet, because it was so hot and humid. Being from Oregon & California, I just am not used to the humidity- whew!! It saps the life right out of ya! We get off and most of our party is getting grumpy so we decide to eat. Sam is freaking out over some Doritos he saw on a cart, so good ole Dad goes off to get them for him. We order chicken stir-fry from the Chakrandi Chicken Stand and Sara stands in line to get Sam a hot dog from the nearby McDonalds window. The stir-fry was ok- I really had wanted to eat at one of the restaurants that offered the meal coupons, but we really needed to eat at that point. Anyway, it was filling and the chicken was tasty- the veggies were too soggy, but I ate them anyway. I liked that our drinks came in a cute souvenir Animal Kingdom cup for the same price as a regular drink- again, Im amused easily. My mom got a beef salad and she said that was really good. I think the 3 stir-fries and drinks were about $27; Sara paid for the hot dog. At this point we decided to split up the groups- our kids were really getting restless and Bob and I didnt feel like walking them through the Maharajah Jungle Trek, and our parents really wanted to see the animals. So, we took off to DinoLand USA and agreed to meet them at the 1:15 Festival of the Lion King show. The kids burn off a ton of energy in the Dino play area. I didnt know what to think of this area- I kind of liked it in its ticky-tacky sort of way. We didnt go on any of the rides because Sam was adamant about NOT going on Dinosaur after watching the planning video. And he wasnt tall enough for Primeval Whirl. We watched and rocked out to the music of the Triceratops ride, but the kids expressed no interest in going on it. So we poked around the shop after spending 30-40 minutes in the dig site and left. We duck into Island Mercantile to pick up a few souvenirs (postcards, a toy jeep and some jelly bellies- $13) and run into our parents. We look outside and it is raining the hardest I have ever seen. And I live in Oregon. It was absolutely pouring down buckets. We had ponchos, so we donned them and braved our way out- it had slowed down at this point. No wonder it was so humid earlier! We sloshed through inches of water and made it to the Festival of the Lion King. We waited about 20 minutes or so for the show to begin. We should have tried to greet some characters with the kids, but cest la vi! The show was spectacular- gave me the chills at some points. The kids enjoyed it as well- Josh fell asleep in my arms while we were waiting, but he woke up when the music started. Its amazing that these performers do this day after day and keep it so fresh. We exit the park after the show and Sam was whining about a dinosaur he had seen. I didnt want to go back and get it, and again, Fairy Godmother gramma Sara appears and shows Sam a toy Kali River Raft that she bought him. So, he was pleased with that and played with it on the bus ride home. I gave Josh the safari Jeep and they have had fun with those.
We get back to the hotel and rest for a while. We leave around 5:45 for the Dolphin. We had 6:45 reservations for Shulas. Bob thought we could leave at 6:00, but I insisted on 5:45 knowing that we had to wait for a bus for Downtown Disney and then wait for a bus there for the Dolphin. Guess who was right? Ding-ding-ding---youre so right, it was I. While waiting for the bus at DtD, I was drooling at the Once Upon A Toy store. We had plans to mini golf afterwards, but I was considering scrapping those plans for the opportunity to shop- with no kids for a few hours after dinner. We check in at Shulas and are immediately seated. We wait for a while for our server, Ted, and he finally comes to take our drink order. The menu is on a football, which is kinda funny. Ted disappears again, Bob goes off in search of the mens room (The one by Shulas was closed he had to go all the way down to the other end of the resort) and his co-waiter (the serve you in teams of two) Aleks, brings us our drinks and bread. This is the beginning of a trend. We got the feeling that Ted was the headwaiter for us, and Aleks was his assistant. However, Aleks was really our true waiter- he brought all the food, drinks, checked on us, refilled our water, and cleared our plates. Ted took our order, presented the meats so we could choose, and brought the tab. The reason being is that 5 minutes after we were seated, a party of 15 business people was seated right behind us. And they were high rollers- they ordered several bottles of wine, cocktails, lobster and shrimp appetizers for everyone- and each entrée is $30-80 each, plus about $6 per side. I said to Bob, We are never going to see our waiter again that party is easily a $500 tip. When Ted came (finally) to take our order, my husband says very cordially We see you have a big party over there. I sure hope you will still have time for us. Ted tripped all over himself with Of course sir, absolutely. No problem. I order the Filet Mignon, and the potato skins. Bob orders the Kansas City Strip and the creamed spinach. We split a Caesar salad and a shrimp cocktail appetizer. (Well, Bob had the shrimp). Aleks brings the salad and appetizer quickly and offers to get us another cocktail- we decline. The salad was huge- dont order one for only yourself! It is more than enough to split! The shrimp are huge- I think there were 5. Then our steaks and sides come. Aleks asks us to cut open our steaks to ensure they were cooked to our liking- they were (medium), and oh my oh my, these babies were big and absolutely delicious. Think Ruth Chris steakhouse- melts in your mouth meat. And my potato skins were divine- a huge bakers potato cut in half-length wise and stuffed with cheese, bacon, chives and sour cream. Yummy. I ate one of the halves and wish I could have eaten the other. Ted checks on us, as does Aleks. Aleks clears our plates and sweeps the table up for us. We decline on dessert- I havent eaten that much in a long time and my stomach hurt. Ted brings us the check- it was $117. Bob slips Aleks some cash and says This is only for you- you were great and then we leave an additional $30 or so for them to split however they do that. We waddle out of there and decide to get a cab to Downtown Disney. ($20 with tip). We hit World of Disney first and Bob finds the mens room. I dont know how he found me- luckily we both had our cell phones in case we lost each other- that store is unbelievable! We walked around with our mouths agape at everything. We have been in the DL World of Disney and this place is at least twice the size. Miraculously, we dont buy anything. I had plans to come the next day to do some damage. We go to Once Upon a Toy and I stuff a box full of parts and a potato (be sure to stuff all the little pieces inside your potato), plus the additional Pirate accessory box and the Frontierland accessory box for Joshua. Okay, I admit it; I had a ball picking out the stuff. We each make our own Potato-head postcard. I spent about $28 on the potato head. Then onto the Scrapbook store. I was under whelmed- I had high expectations for this store, as I am a pretty serious scrapper, and it had nothing that any of the other stores didnt have. And it didnt even have the stickers I had seen at the MK (a plastic box of four rolls of stickers- 1 for each park). I still plunked down about $20 for a pen, a post-it cube and some assorted stickers and was the 3rd person from Oregon on their board that day. We bought some huge cookies at the Gourmet Pantry ($2.75 each) and shared the raspberry/white chocolate/dark chocolate chip cookie. It was an enjoyable evening. We had back to our room and Sam is asleep with Gramma Sara and Josh is asleep in our room- my parents left the connecting door open to their room. All is bliss.
Magical Moments- lots of them today! The safari, the Lion King show, marveling at the rainstorm, having a delicious dinner with my hubby, and strolling around Downtown Disney, just the two of us.
Chernabog Moments- the noisiness of Shulas- you can hardly have a conversation and feeling a little bit shafted by our server Ted. The slow bus arrival to Animal Kingdom. Joshua the toddler showing his will and refusing to sit in his stroller in the Pangani trail.
Good report!
