Sarah_Rose
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 17, 2008
- Messages
- 1,800
Well, we got back to the Kidani and I fed Callum and put him down for a nap. James' parents' flight was supposed to arrive at 10:00 and they were going to send us a text message when they arrived at AKL. It was now almost 1:00 and we hadn't heard from them, so James sent his dad a message asking where they were. We finally got back a message that they had just finished at the expo and were waiting for a bus back. 
This was problem number one with a big trip like this... it felt like we were always waiting on someone. Whether it was waiting for the late sleepers in our group to wake up (*cough* Dave and James *cough*), or waiting for me to finish with Callum, or waiting on the inlaws to finish their own random plans that they suddenly decided to do, so that we could meet up with them. It was frustrating, to say the least.
So, we sat around the room watching the animals on the savanna until 2:30 until James' parents showed up so that we could go to Epcot. It was a nice day and I didn't mind watching the animals, but it was annoying that we all had our shoes on ready to leave, and we kept getting text messages saying they would be "just another few minutes".
We finally got out the door and on a bus to Epcot. Hurray! Epcot is my favorite park and it's always the first park we do at WDW. Our first stop was The Land... we rolled up to the stroller parking area and... Callum was asleep.
Ok, so Dave and I grabbed everyone's park tickets and we we ran in to grab Soarin' FPs for everyone. The FP's weren't until 7:05-8:05 and it was only 3:00 at this point. James wanted to ride Test Track, so we headed over there next. The stand-by wait was 50 minutes and the single rider line was 15 minutes. This was the next conflict in our group: touring styles. James' parents preferred to take the shortest and quickest route to riding the rides, while my family preferred to stick together. I was thankfully taken out of the equation at this point by Callum waking up hungry, so James' family went to the single rider line while my family went to the stand-by line, while I headed over to the Baby Center (which was right next door at the old Odyssey restaurant) to feed Callum.
I have to say that the Baby Care Centers were really great and I used them a lot during the first few days when Callum was too distracted by everything to nurse in public. There was only one other mom in the nursing room and Callum fell asleep while nursing and we sat there for almost an hour, while he napped on my lap.
Recharged, we headed over to meet the rest of the group at our agreed meeting spot in front of the gulls at The Seas. The ride had no line, and soon we were boarding our Clamobile - there was a bit of a scuffle to decide who got to ride with Callum and I for his first Disney ride, but my mom somehow won out.
Callum wasn't hugely interested in the ride, which surprised me. Afterwards, we spent some time looking at the displays and the aquariums. James and I are pretty novice reef tank-keepers and so the one "Can You Find Nemo?" tank (it's the huge one next to the eels) always fascinates us. It's truly a reef tank with everything done exactly right. They even have the water currents set up so the one anemone (put in there to make the clownfish happy) in the tank stays put and doesn't kill all the coral that fills the rest of the tank. Someone did a good job with that tank. 
Next, we started towards Imagination, mostly just to kill some more time in the area before our FP time for Soarin'. Now HERE was the reaction I expected from Callum! He LOVED the ride - his eyes were so wide and he was laughing the whole time.
At this point we made our way back to The Land to ride Living with the Land. I LOVE this ride - I think it's so cool to see what they're growing in the greenhouses on any particular trip. I planned to take the Behind the Seeds tour during our trip last year, but I came down with a nasty stomach virus on the last 2 days of our trip and so it didn't happen. One day...
We still had about an hour until our FP window of Soarin' at this point, so we decided to have dinner at Sunshine Seasons. James, DFIL and DMIL all got some sort of grilled meat (I think two of them had chicken and one had pork), my parents had potato bacon soup, my brother ordered an Asian noodle bowl of some type (he was surprised it was more like a soup than what he expected), and I ordered the seared tuna noodle salad. Oh. My. Gawd. Can I just state that that salad was one of my favorite things I ate all week? I LOVE rare/raw tuna and this was truly fantastic. In fact, my mouth is watering right now just thinking about it.
It was during dinner than Callum started melting down. We had "dualing grandmas" for a little while as each grandmother tried to outdo each other in calming him down, but he wasn't to be placated. So James and I gave up our Soarin' FPs and headed towards the exit. Callum thankfully fell asleep on the walk out of the park, but we decided to cut our losses and get out before the real screaming started.
We got back to AKL, put the munchkin to bed, and then turned on the TV to watch some Stacy and her "Must-Do's" before going to bed, ourselves. I also made a trip down to the lobby for a Mickey ice cream bar... My family came back pretty soon - turns out they only rode Soarin' and Spaceship Earth before heading out of the park. I think my parents were nervous about their 5K the next morning..
It was going to be an early morning so we all turned in early. And that was the end of day 2!
This was problem number one with a big trip like this... it felt like we were always waiting on someone. Whether it was waiting for the late sleepers in our group to wake up (*cough* Dave and James *cough*), or waiting for me to finish with Callum, or waiting on the inlaws to finish their own random plans that they suddenly decided to do, so that we could meet up with them. It was frustrating, to say the least.
So, we sat around the room watching the animals on the savanna until 2:30 until James' parents showed up so that we could go to Epcot. It was a nice day and I didn't mind watching the animals, but it was annoying that we all had our shoes on ready to leave, and we kept getting text messages saying they would be "just another few minutes".
We finally got out the door and on a bus to Epcot. Hurray! Epcot is my favorite park and it's always the first park we do at WDW. Our first stop was The Land... we rolled up to the stroller parking area and... Callum was asleep.
Ok, so Dave and I grabbed everyone's park tickets and we we ran in to grab Soarin' FPs for everyone. The FP's weren't until 7:05-8:05 and it was only 3:00 at this point. James wanted to ride Test Track, so we headed over there next. The stand-by wait was 50 minutes and the single rider line was 15 minutes. This was the next conflict in our group: touring styles. James' parents preferred to take the shortest and quickest route to riding the rides, while my family preferred to stick together. I was thankfully taken out of the equation at this point by Callum waking up hungry, so James' family went to the single rider line while my family went to the stand-by line, while I headed over to the Baby Center (which was right next door at the old Odyssey restaurant) to feed Callum. I have to say that the Baby Care Centers were really great and I used them a lot during the first few days when Callum was too distracted by everything to nurse in public. There was only one other mom in the nursing room and Callum fell asleep while nursing and we sat there for almost an hour, while he napped on my lap.
Recharged, we headed over to meet the rest of the group at our agreed meeting spot in front of the gulls at The Seas. The ride had no line, and soon we were boarding our Clamobile - there was a bit of a scuffle to decide who got to ride with Callum and I for his first Disney ride, but my mom somehow won out.
Callum wasn't hugely interested in the ride, which surprised me. Afterwards, we spent some time looking at the displays and the aquariums. James and I are pretty novice reef tank-keepers and so the one "Can You Find Nemo?" tank (it's the huge one next to the eels) always fascinates us. It's truly a reef tank with everything done exactly right. They even have the water currents set up so the one anemone (put in there to make the clownfish happy) in the tank stays put and doesn't kill all the coral that fills the rest of the tank. Someone did a good job with that tank. Next, we started towards Imagination, mostly just to kill some more time in the area before our FP time for Soarin'. Now HERE was the reaction I expected from Callum! He LOVED the ride - his eyes were so wide and he was laughing the whole time.
At this point we made our way back to The Land to ride Living with the Land. I LOVE this ride - I think it's so cool to see what they're growing in the greenhouses on any particular trip. I planned to take the Behind the Seeds tour during our trip last year, but I came down with a nasty stomach virus on the last 2 days of our trip and so it didn't happen. One day...
We still had about an hour until our FP window of Soarin' at this point, so we decided to have dinner at Sunshine Seasons. James, DFIL and DMIL all got some sort of grilled meat (I think two of them had chicken and one had pork), my parents had potato bacon soup, my brother ordered an Asian noodle bowl of some type (he was surprised it was more like a soup than what he expected), and I ordered the seared tuna noodle salad. Oh. My. Gawd. Can I just state that that salad was one of my favorite things I ate all week? I LOVE rare/raw tuna and this was truly fantastic. In fact, my mouth is watering right now just thinking about it.
It was during dinner than Callum started melting down. We had "dualing grandmas" for a little while as each grandmother tried to outdo each other in calming him down, but he wasn't to be placated. So James and I gave up our Soarin' FPs and headed towards the exit. Callum thankfully fell asleep on the walk out of the park, but we decided to cut our losses and get out before the real screaming started.
We got back to AKL, put the munchkin to bed, and then turned on the TV to watch some Stacy and her "Must-Do's" before going to bed, ourselves. I also made a trip down to the lobby for a Mickey ice cream bar...
My family came back pretty soon - turns out they only rode Soarin' and Spaceship Earth before heading out of the park. I think my parents were nervous about their 5K the next morning..It was going to be an early morning so we all turned in early. And that was the end of day 2!
!! Not sure why other than maybe it is the 5 month old we have in common. We are leaving Sunday with our 5 month old for a week in "The World". Anyhow looking forward to many more of your posts. 
Have a great time in WDW! 
