2 Big Kids do Disney--May 5-14, 2006**Last day up 7/6**

[bornwiththeears]

I have tried to be patient, waiting for the rest. I want to hear about LeCellier and the rest of your trip. Great report!!

 

[Ron from Michigan]

I'm enjoying your report. Waiting for the next part.

 

[Disney owl]

Thanks for sharing

 

[scrap4u]

Thank you all for your kind comments! I'm so glad someone is enjoying reading about our trip. I apologize for the delay. I was home sick from Monday night until this morning (Monday) with some kind of stomach/intestinal virus that wouldn't go away. I'm back up and running though running slowly--very weak from not being able to eat. If it stays slow at work today, I will try and get another chapter posted.

 

[scrap4u]

Still Tuesday, May 9.

We drove back to Epcot after napping and icing my swollen ankles and feet. We were running just a little bit late so DH takes the first parking place he sees—waaaay in the back of the 2nd lot. We don’t see a tram anywhere so we’re walking as quickly as my fat feet will allow to the entrance. Of course we pass tons of empty parking places closer to the entrance but it's too late to run back and move the car! Normally, this wouldn’t seem like that long a walk but it sure was today.

We got through the entrance with just a little trouble. DH has started having trouble with his pass not being accepted in some of the ticket readers. Then the mad dash to Canada, or the mad shuffle for me anyway. But we got to Le Cellier right on time. Which of course as we all know, is a no-no. Always arrive early for your ADR, right! We’re given a pager thingy and told it should just be a few minutes until out table is ready.

I have on my funny looking Mickey sandals with ugly Thorlo ankle socks. Hey, I bought the socks for comfort, not because they were pretty! Who knew I’d be wearing them without tennis shoes covering them up! So I asked DH to take a picture of my funny looking feet for our scrapbook. A very nice CM walked by and saw DH getting ready to take my picture and offered to take one of both of us. Well, ok. That will look good in the album too and I never turn down an offer to get a picture of the two of us together. So we snap some pics of each other, the beautiful gardens outside of Le Cellier and then wait for our pager to go off.

With only a 10 minute wait we are taken to our itty bitty table for 2. It has a booth seat on 1 side and a chair on the other. The rest of the booth seat is taken up by 3 other tables that are one large party with teens and adults. Very well behaved and not loud, plus they are getting ready to leave. We meet our waitress—no idea what her name is—she is very friendly and chatty and telling us all about where she is from in Canada.

Of course I order the Cheddar Cheese Soup that I’ve read so much about and I think DH had the Shrimp Cocktail. I knew I could only have a couple of tastes of the soup as I am lactose-intolerant, but I had to at least try it. Plus I knew DH would eat whatever I didn’t! While waiting for our appetizers, our waitress brought out the yummy breadsticks I had heard so much about and everyone was right about the pretzel breadsticks. I could make an entire meal off just those! Yummy!

While we’re munching on our pretzel sticks and looking around the restaurant we realize that the noise level is very loud. For those of you that haven’t been to Le Cellier, it has these beautiful rock walls and wooden beams that don’t absorb any noise at all. So the noise just bounces around the restaurant. We quickly realize that the bulk of the noise is coming from the children of 3 families sitting at 2 very large tables right in the middle of the restaurant. Between them, there are about 6 children, none of them older then 7-8. I don’t know about you all, but I was raised in the 60’s. And my father believed that children should be seen and not heard. While I don’t necessarily agree with that rule, I do believe that children should use their indoor voices when indoors and especially when dining. These kids were running around from table to table, yelling, screaming, throwing things at their parents, etc. At the larger of the 2 tables, one couple is desperately trying to act like they aren’t with the first family. The family whose kids are causing most of the disruption are laughing and talking with each other. The father is actually playing with his kids and encouraging them in their unruliness! I doubt he would have found it funny if one of his kids had run into a poor waiter or waitress with a large tray of hot food and dishes were dropped on the kids. I will never understand why parents want to take a chance on their children being hurt by letting them run around a restaurant. It’s not like we were in a McDonald’s Playland or anything. I guess we were lucky with DD. When she was little, she stayed in the booth and never wanted to get up and run around. I’m not talking about a fussy tired toddler that needs a nap, or a fussy hungry infant. Everyone understands that kids make noise. But these kids were extremely annoying. I tried giving the father my best evil stink-eye look but that didn’t seem to bother him at all. But that’s it for my rant today!

I will say that all this screaming and yelling was a big distraction to both of us and it kept us from really enjoying our dinner. All we really wanted to do was leave to get away from the noise.

For entrees I had the plain filet and DH had the Prime Rib. There wasn’t anything wrong with our food, but we didn’t find it spectacular either. I know a lot of people love Le Cellier and think the food is terrific. I believe what they say and that is why DH and I will be trying dinner there again in September. Hopefully, the Unruly family won’t be there! We both decided to skip dessert and get something from Tangierine Café instead.

We walked around Epcot for a while and went to Minnie’s Butterfly Garden—pretty cool! Then got dessert and coffee from Tangierine Café and went to grab seats at our favorite place to view Illuminations; The International Gateway bridge over near France. We picked out spot by the railing and sat down to enjoy our wonderful Moroccan pastries. It was only about 8pm so we had a good hour to kill. We people watched and munched. Two of our favorite things to do. We stood up as Illuminations started. We saw a private party—a wedding reception over to our left. The bride looked very beautiful. What a cool place to have your reception! Illuminations was terrific as always.

When it was over, we stood around for a while as I didn’t want to be in the crush of people rushing out of Epcot. I was afraid people might step on my poor feet. I was able to get a terrific picture of the Epcot ball from the back side with the Innoventions fountain going off in front of it. We were lucky this time and were able to catch a tram out to our car so I didn’t have to do the swollen foot-shuffle through the parking lots.

DH drove us back to our home away from home to sleep and prepare for tomorrow--a big day at Animal Kingdom and our big meltdown of the trip. There’s always one, isn’t there?

 

[bornwiththeears]

We had the almost identical experience in LeCellier (it wont keep us from returning.) A couple let their child (maybe 2 or 3) run across the tops of two tables and tried to catch her before she would jump off. She screamed the entire time and they made no effort to stop her. Like you, we would not have allowed it.

Very sorry about your feet.......the report is great....keep it coming.

 

[averill94]

Ohh cant wait to read about the meltdown!

Your POOR feet- I hope you recovered quickly. Nothing like busted feet at WDW!

 

[OhMari]

Your poor feet.

Anyway, how did you sign up for the Segway tour, plus how much did it cost. I am trying to find things to do with my husband when we go in April.

Thank you.

 

[lynn71092]

The Segway Tour is $80.00 per person and incldes the tax.When I did mine I got a discount with my Disney Visa Card. It is so well worth the money. I would highly recommend it!! It also usually sells out so call Disney and make your reservations asap.

 

[scrap4u]

Day 6—Wednesday, May 10—

We wake up Wednesday morning to a beautiful sunny warm day. Since the storm/rain blew through yesterday morning, today is supposed to be cooler. So far, it has been in the 90s every day but today should be 80s.

DH and I are both up early, say good morning to our animal friends. I snap a few more pictures—because you can never have enough pictures of giraffe munching leaves—and we head over to Animal Kingdom. We have an 8:10am ADR at Donald’s Breakfastosaurus. Neither of us had done this character breakfast before, but I had read lots of good reviews of it. Both of us were very excited because we knew we’d be done here in time to make it to Expedition Everest as the park opened.

Since we were staying at AKL the bus ride over to AK was very short. But the bus dropped us off at the furthest bus stop from the entrance. So I do my fat, hurt foot shuffle through the bus stops and we get in line to enter the park. If you’re attending Donald’s breakfast there is a separate entrance that is normally the cast member entrance. They hang a banner over the normal sign so you know where to check in. We’re in with just a short delay because DH’s pass isn’t working again.

Now we’re walking through an empty AK and it’s very cool. There are a few CMs directing us so we don’t wonder too far off the path.

For some reason, every time we’ve been to AK, we’ve never had our pictures taken by the Disney photographers. Either we couldn’t find one or there was a long line, etc. I really like to do this since it’s normally just DH and I and this is almost the only time we get pictures taken together. This time, we find a photographer and no one is waiting to have their picture taken. We stop and he snaps a few pictures of us and we’re on our way again.

When we get to Dinoland and up to Donald’s place, they ask everyone to have their picture taken in front of a conservation emblem sign. We did let them take the pciture, but didn’t buy them. We might have if it had been a sign showing Donald’s Breafastosaurus. Anyway, we’re seated within 5 minutes of having our picture taken. The building itself is pretty cool. The way it was decorated reminded me of either an airplane hanger or a garage. The building has some big open rooms but a lot of smaller rooms off the big rooms. We were in a smaller room which was very nice. Our waitress got our drinks right away. Carafe of juice and pot of coffee and then offered to bring other drinks if we needed them. She said the characters were in the next room and would be in our room in just a few minutes. We were starving but decided to wait it out. Don't want to miss those characters and then have to wait for them to go around the whole restauarnt before getting back to us!

Within 5 minutes, we had Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Pluto all in our room at the same time. I even got some cute pictures of Mickey and Donald together goofing around—no pun intended! They posed for multiple pictures with each family and then moved on to the next room.

We got in line for the buffet breakfast which was very good. It had a number of items on it that I hadn’t seen at the Crystal Palace buffet or Chef Mickey’s. Sorry, I don’t remember what they were, but everything was tasty and fresh. When we finished stuffing ourselves, we went outside and thought we could head right over to EE. Wrong! They had CMs holding us in Dinoland until they got word that the park had opened. Then they walked in front of us all the way to EE, I guess to make sure we didn’t run. As if I could have!

I had studied Tour Guide Mike’s suggestions on how to make AK work the best for us and had a plan in mind when we got there. Somehow DH blew that plan to pieces in no time. The first idea was to get FPs for EE and then walk on and ride it. Well we were so caught up in the excitement of the new ride that we headed right for the ride and missed the FP machines. Ok, no big deal there.

We end up in the first train car of the day heading out of the station. We were in such a hurry to get on the ride that we completely missed the pre-show.

A short aside here, DH can ride anything and rarely if ever gets motion sick. I can ride regular roller coasters and Tower of Terror no problem. But put me on something like Cinderella’s Carrousel and I am sick as a dog. I can ride Rock n Roller Coaster and Thunder Mountain maybe once and that’s it. Because of the banked round and round circles they make. Yuck.

So we get on the ride—Yay! It starts going up this big hill. I had read that it goes backwards somewhere during the ride—and I wasn’t looking forward to that part of it. So when we start going up that hill, I’m thiniking that’s where we’ll be going backwards. Wrong! Anyway the ride is fun, we’re screaming and having a good time, until it goes backwards. It doesn’t do it for long, but just long enough to start making me queasy. Then instead of having a big drop to get down the mountain, it just makes those banked circles going around and around and down. I’m thinking I’m going to see breakfast for a second time. But finally the ride is over without seconds on breakfast! DH wants to ride again but of course the standby line is now a mile long but shows just a 20 minute wait. He gets in line and I get FPs for both of us to ride again later. I manage to find a bench in the shade to sit and rest my feet while DH is waiting to ride. Somehow, I lost him in the line and have no idea where he is. So I sit and wait, and wait, and wait. About 40 minutes later he comes off the ride, all big smiles. I’m sitting there fuming because we’ve wasted a ton of time when we could have been over in Africa riding Kilimanjaro safaris!

Our touring plan is now blown and I’m very upset! But I keep my mouth shut, even though DH knows I’m upset, and we trudge over to Africa. We get to Kilimanjaro safari and the standby line is 45 minutes and FPs are returning about the same time. So we opt for FPs. DH wants to go walk through the Pangani Forest trail and see the gorillas. Yeah hon, that’s what I want to do. Walk some more on my aching swollen feet. But I say yes and off we go. I have now turned into a 5 year old and won’t look at anything, just shuffle along. DH starts pointing things out to me and I’m like, yeah, unhuh, whatever. Here's the camera, take pictures of whatever you want, I don’t care. We finish the trail and go back to sit at KS to wait for our return time. While we’re waiting I finally turn to DH and tell him I’m going back to the hotel after we ride this, that my feet hurt too bad and I’ll just ruin the day for him. DH gets huffy and says he won’t have fun by himself. We sit the rest of the time in silence shooting venomous darts at each other with our eyes. I felt sorry for anyone sitting near us that was people watching. They may have been injured by one of our darts!

It’s finally time for our FPs and we get on the ride. It’s almost noon now and pretty warm so I’m wondering if we will see many animals. But I turn on the camera just in case. Well we saw a ton of animals. 2 leopards and both were visible for a change, the big shaggy lion, the white rhino, the hippos weren’t under water completely. It was a really good ride. Somehow, seeing all those animals and enjoying a ride that we love, we both were able to turn our moods around and make the best of most of the rest of the day.

We went to Pizzafari for lunch. I had the Caesar salad without chicken, DH and I split some breadsticks, and DH had the Chicken Parmesan sandwich. We were able to find a table near the back of the place and cooled down, relaxed and filled our grumbling tummies.

The lunch crowd was getting pretty heavy as we were leaving and we gave our table up to another family with a bunch of kids. Maybe it was the HappyHaunts as they were at DW while we were. But I believe they eat at Flametree BBQ when in AK.

Anyway, we walk over to Camp Minnie Mickey and manage to walk right into Festival of the Lion King. Always a great show. But Camp Minnie Mickey itself, well I’ve never seen any characters there. We’re usually rushing to get in line for Festival of the Lion King or we’re getting out of the show and trying to get away from the crowds.

We’re still doing well mood-wise and my feet are holding up so we walk over to see It’s tough to be a bug. Always a great show! Then over to Maharajah Jungle Trek. We’ve missed this every time we’ve been to AK. There isn’t any line and we’re able to get some great pictures of the fruit bats and lots of different tigers. Very cool.

Next we go back to EE where DH uses one of our FPs to ride again. I find another bench in the shade to rest on and just didn’t worry about anything. I people watched and took some pictures and rested my feet. About 20 minutes later, here comes DH and we head back to Dinoland. I have never ridden Dinosaur before because of the motion sickness warnings out front. But I had recently seen a show on the Travel Channel about AK and they showed Dinosaur and it didn’t look like it would make me sick. DH didn’t think so either so we rode it together. The pre-show was pretty corny but funny and the ride was great! No motion sickness at all and I was able to keep my eyes open to see what was happening. When the ride was over we were laughing our behinds off at the last big scare during the ride!

Then we walked over to Primeval Whirl so DH could ride that. I tried to find shade and a seat but couldn’t find both. So I settled for shade as it was pretty stinkin’ hot by this time. DH comes off the ride and we decide we’ve done enough for today. So we head back out to the front of the park. That always seems like such a long walk. They were starting to put up the ropes for Mickey’s Jammin Jungle parade so it must have been 2p or 230p, but we opted to skip it. We've never seen that either. Maybe one of these days.

We walked out to the bus stops to catch our bus back to AKL and a bus was at our stop. I told DH to run for it and hold it for me since I couldn’t run. He just kept trudging along as if he didn’t hear me. Hello! Turn up your hearing aid! And the bus pulls away! So guess who turns into a 5 year old again. Yes, me. Now we have to stand or sit on the hard concrete and wait 20 minutes for another bus. You would think being so close to AKL—5 minutes tops!--that the buses would run every 10 or 15 minutes. But no, it’s every 20-25 minutes. I felt like smacking DH on the head like Gibbs does to Tony on NCIS. If you watch the show you know what I mean!

Finally the bus comes and we get to go back to our home away from home. We lay down to rest for an hour or so and then clean up and change. Because tonight, we have a 630p ADR for the Yachtsman Steakhouse and I’ve read really good things about it. Plus my CM cousin has said he thinks we’ll really like it.

Next up—Yachtsman Steakhouse and the strange couple that kept leaving their table.

 

[scrap4u]

Still Wednesday 5/10—

On our way back to our room, we stopped at Zawadi Marketplace at AKL so I could look for just regular flip-flops. I had finally realized that the ugly Mickey sandals I was wearing did allow room for my feet to swell, but the bottoms of the shoes were hard as rocks. No give or cushion to the shoe and perhaps that was causing the terrible foot pain when I walked. So I got a beautiful pair of Mickey multi-colored flip flops to wear to dinner.

After napping, cleaning up and changing—yes, this is another signature restaurant that supposedly doesn’t allow shorts anymore. They allow jeans, but not shorts. Go figure. I reminded DH when packing to bring a couple of pairs of khakis and some collared polo shirts. Me, I made do with skorts and nice tops. For any men out there that don’t know what a skort is, a skort looks like a skirt from the front and the back but it has shorts underneath. So very comfortable but still looks nice. I added my Mickey flip-flops and we were off for a new dining adventure!

We drove from AKL to the Yacht Club. As I’m sure you all know, you can’t take a Disney bus from one resort to another. We didn’t want to waste time taking a bus to a park and then waiting for another bus to the Yacht Club. We managed to find the Yacht Club without getting lost but finding the Yachtsman once inside the resort was sure a challenge. We had to ask for directions and then we just kept wandering further and further away from the lobby. But we did eventually find the restaurant.

We waited less then 5 minutes for our 630p ADR. While waiting to be seated, we watched the butcher cutting filets. They were beautiful looking steaks.

We were seated at a 4 top table in between 2 very large round tables. As we were escorted to our table, I tried to look around the restaurant without being obvious. Lots of white linens, plus carpeting, comfy chairs. Kind of quiet and dignified. At home, I would never have walked into this type of restaurant with flip-flops on. But it wasn’t a stuffy place. All the CMs were very pleasant. There was a group of 6 adults at one of the tables next to us. They seemed to be in a very happy alcohol induced state. A little loud and giggly, but not enough to bother us.

The restaurant wasn’t crowded at this time. It would be by the time we left but for now was very nice. We thought with this being an upscale restaurant and pretty pricey that we wouldn’t see many families with small children. But there were a number of them here this particular night. One family had a toddler that was very unhappy, but they took turns taking him out of the restaurant until he quieted down. I felt sorry for the parents as they had to eat in shifts. You know, dad walks the child while mom eats. Dad comes back and they do the trade off and dad gets to eat his cold dinner while mom walks the child. But the rest of the dining patrons appreciated their thoughtfulness.

During dinner, we saw a youngish couple being seated not too far away. They ordered their drinks and received them and then got up and walked out. I wondered if maybe they didn’t see anything on the menu they liked. About 10 minutes later they returned. They ordered their next course, salads or whatever. Ate that and got up and left again. Returned 10-15 minutes later and waited for their main courses. I finally mentioned this to DH and we tried to figure out what they were doing. Were they running out for a quickie? We finally figured out they were going to the bar or somewhere else in the building to smoke cigarettes. All quite normal but really funny to watch. Can you tell I’m a people watcher!

DH started the meal off with lobster bisque which he said was very good. We both had Caesar salads. I thought these were one of the best we had on the trip. DH had the New York strip steak while I had the filet. We added 1 rock lobster tail for us to split and I’m pretty sure we had some type of potatoes to share as our side. This was the best meal of the whole trip!!!
The steaks were moist and tasty without being overcooked. The lobster was excellent. I don’t eat seafood at all but will sometimes eat some lobster tail if DH will take the meat out of the tail for me. They always want to serve it in the shell. Yuck! Looks like a big bug! We both had a glasses of red wine with our meals and for dessert I had the bread pudding and DH had the key lime pie, I think.

The atmosphere here was wonderful, the food scrumptious but the service was just so-so. Our waitress Linda, started out very well, but as more of her tables filled, her service level slipped quite a bit. It took forever to get our check and pay. DH was starting to get very antsy after sitting for over 2 hours. I told him to go outside and walk around and I would pay the bill, but he stayed with me. Finally, we were free to go.

DH had been complaining of a sore throat since Monday when we went to MGM. He thought he had just yelled so much on RnR and ToT that his throat was raw. But at dinner he realized he was starting to get a cold. So we called my CM cousin and asked for directions from the Yachtsman to a nearby drugstore or grocery store. It was very easy. We just turned left out of the Yachtsman and then made a left on the main drag which took us past Downtown Disney and all the DD hotels. There was a grocery store just across the street from some of the off property hotels.

Luckily, they had the cold medicine and throat lozenges that DH prefers when he is sick. We decided to head back to the hotel after this so DH could get some rest and hopefully head off the cold. My feet were doing pretty well in the Mickey flip-flops. We managed to get back to the hotel without getting lost and made it an early night.

In previous trips when we have driven around Disney World, we tend to get lost. Either because we were busy talking and missed a sign or because the navigator couldn’t read the map right. Now the navigator is sometimes DH and sometimes me. We were both surprised how easily we were able to navigate the World this time.

Next up—Tommorrow--Back to MGM and no crowds!

 

[Philadisney]

yeay, great updates! sorry to hear you had some rough moments at AK. i hope your DH did not get sick!! great report, thanks!

 

[Mary Lou in Ohio]

Day 4—Monday 5/8

We did get some cute pins there and a very nice CM at the pin cart gave me some ideas on how to display my pins. I used her ideas as soon as I got home so now they are all easily viewed instead of being stuffed inside a Mickey shopping bag!

Could you share some of the ideas for displaying pins? I have so many!! I really would like to display them. Other than putting them on a cork board, or perhaps a black felt banner, I don't know what to do with them.

Thanks,

Mary Lou

 

[scrap4u]

Could you share some of the ideas for displaying pins? I have so many!! I really would like to display them. Other than putting them on a cork board, or perhaps a black felt banner, I don't know what to do with them.

Thanks,

Mary Lou

Hi Mary Lou,

What the CM showed me were these felt pages that go into 3 ring binders. The pins stick through the felt and you put the back on them on the other side. Then there is a vinyl type page divider that goes between each felt page so the pins don't scratch each other up. I had some regular old blue 3 ring binders at home and put these pages in those and they fit fine. The pages are sold at most of the gift shops in WDW and any of the pin trading stations. I checked on the Disney shopping site and the official pin trading sight and I didn't see the pages sold there. Sorry.

But if you're in any of the parks or resort hotels anytime soon, you can pick them up there. I think there were 5 pages for $8.00. I also put my collection of Hard Rock Guitar pins on these pages too. Then I just sit the binders out open to whatever page I want.

I was going to try using really thick foam inside a huge shadow box but I couldn't figure out how I was going to attach the pins to the foam. Now I'll have to find another use for that foam and shadowbox!

I hope this helps!

 

[MARY-IN-OH]

thanks for sharing your report! I am enjoying it very much, (you are doing a great job! You are giving me courage to maybe try one someday too!)

I am hoping I can get my husband to take a trip with me (and not the kids) soon! When we all go in December, I hope to convert him to love disney. (Or, at least like it better than he thinks he does now). We are almost "there" as our youngest is starting high school this year!
- mary

 

[scrap4u]

Day 7—Thursday, May 11

DH didn’t have a really restful night last night. His cold really started kicking in with head congestion. I woke up one time during the night to use the bathroom and he was in there. I knocked on the door and asked him if he was ok. He said yes, he just couldn’t sleep because of his cold and was sitting in there reading so he didn’t wake me up. Poor thing. He did go back to bed and manage to fall asleep for a while longer.

We got our morning wake up call from Stitch and Mickey. Always a good start to the day. Though some days, Stitch would start talking and then just stop in the middle of the message. Weird!

We waved hello to our giraffe friends patiently waiting for us outside our balcony. They were starting to feel like family. Always there for us! I decided today to try and wear my tennis shoes in the morning before my feet got too big and then switch to flip-flops for the afternoon/evening. So we headed down to another wonderful Boma breakfast buffet.

DH sounded terrible but once he took all his cold medicines and they stared kicking in he seemed to feel better. We had originally decided to go back to MK today for the EMH from 8am to 9am. But if we couldn’t get there by 7:30am, then the EMH would be wasted. I wanted DH to get as much rest as he could so we opted to sleep later and head over to MGM. According to TGM, “They” should all be at MK today for the EMH and because tonight was a SpectroMagic night.

Since we did MGM on Monday and I was bad and didn’t keep notes each day, I have no idea what we did this day at MGM. I do remember that we didn't have to wait more then a few minutes for any ride. The park almost felt empty! I do remember that we saw some black clouds coming in after watching LMA, and decided to head to Muppets 3D. It started raining on us just before we got there but we weren’t too wet by the time we got inside. Of course we didn’t have our rain ponchos with us. I guess we neglected to watch the weather forecast that morning. Or it was just one of those pop-up showers that always happen in Florida.

We watched Muppets, which I still love. Philharmagic is technically a much better show but I still have a soft place for the Muppets. Even though they weren’t around when I was a kid! When the show let it out, it was still pouring. We stood around in the exit area for a few minutes and then decided to make a dash across the road to Mama Melrose’s and try to have lunch.

I figured there would be a long wait as it looked like lots of other people had the same thought. But without an ADR, we waited less then 15 minutes for a table. We have eaten here many times and always enjoy the food here. DH and I split an order of the Bruschetta, both had a Caesar salad and then split the vine ripened tomato flatbread. Ummm Yum! Thank goodness it’s almost lunch time for me here today.

By the time we were finished eating, the rain had stopped. I’m sure we did some more rides. We never miss RnRC or ToT. We walked through the shops looking for different things but didn’t buy too much.

By mid-afternoon we were heading back to AKL for our afternoon nap. When we got back to the room, DH made umpteen trips to the ice machine for ice and then dumped the ice into the bathtub. I had filled the tub with just enough water to cover my ankles and thought this might be a better way to ice both feet and ankles at the same time. Well it may be easy but it sure is painful that way. I lasted about 15 minutes and then had to take my feet out. Argh!

That evening we were eating again at Boma. We had 530p ADRs. Boma changes their buffet once a week and we thought we would get to experience a different buffet from Monday night. Wrong! We were off by 1 day. But it was fine. The food was still terrific and the service great. Of course we stuffed ourselves and then took the bus over to MK. We wanted to Wishes one more time but from in front of the Castle this time.

We wandered through the shops and then headed over to what I believe is the outside sitting area for Cosmic Rays. If you are walking down Main St. from the park entrance, you turn right going towards The Plaza restaurant. You keep walking way past that and there is a covered concrete patio with chairs and tables. We grabbed a table there and sat to wait for SpectroMagic to go by. While we were sitting and people watching and just gazing at the Castle, I realized there was a concrete overhang over top of us. I said something to DH asking him if he thought we should move. Would the overhang block the fireworks? He didn’t think so.

So we waited and finally SpectroMagic started. We could hear the music and sort of see the parade though we were pretty far from it. We felt very superior to the crowds of people along Main St. because we were sitting comfortably and relaxing and not being pushed and shoved by the crowd. I was even able to use the 48x extended optical zoom on my camera and get some pretty cool close up pictures of some of the floats in the parade.

We started chatting with a lovely family sitting next to us. I don’t remember where they were from but they were very nice and it passed the time. Huge black clouds were all around the castle and it was starting to get very windy. Lightening was flashing off and on but no thunder. Wishes starts but no Tinkerbell tonight. Too windy and dangerous for her to fly. The fireworks start going off and it looks like we’re going to have a great view and I’ll be able to get some great pictures. But no, the wind starts blowing the fireworks way over to the right of the castle and the stupid concrete overhang is blocking our view. I’m lying down on the table so I can see under the overhang. Great for the neck by the way.

I give up on the idea that I’m going to get any pictures tonight and just try to enjoy the music and what little I can see. Once Wishes is over, the park is closing. No nighttime EMH tonight. We manage to get down Main St. using the sidewalks very quickly and no one steps on my poor feet exposed in flip-flops. We head over to our bus stop. We are in the queue for a bus and we’re waiting and we’re waiting. I think we waited 20-25 minutes for a bus. The entire bus depot is slammed full of people. The lines for all the resorts have extended way past the queues and people are trying to form lines in the aisles. Other people are trying to get through these lines to get to their own bus stops. Next thing you know, people are walking in the bus lanes to try and get to their bus stop.

Finally an AKL bus comes in. There are 2 wheelchair people that have to be assisted on. Even though we’re in the queue we guess that we won’t make it on the bus. Finally the driver lets the rest of the line start getting on. As we get up near the bus door, we see a man, red in the face, yelling and up in the face of the bus driver. The man is upset because he’s been waiting in line but saw another family trying to butt in line right up at the bus door. The driver is trying to tell the man that he isn’t letting that family on his bus. They will have to go to the end of the line. But the yelling man is evidently at the end of his rope and can’t let it go. He’s yelling about how Disney needs to change the whole bus system and blah, blah, blah. I was afraid the man was going to punch the bus driver in the face. The bus driver was a beefy guy but he was fairly old. I give the bus driver credit though for not yelling back, trying to explain things to the man, for staying calm in the face of danger, and for keeping a riot from starting.

We did manage to get on that bus. We were packed in like sardines and standing at the back of the bus. I get motion sick very easily on buses unless I can look out the front window. But I did ok on this trip.

I will say that had there been CMs at the bus stops directing people into lines and helping them find their stops, we might not have experienced what we did. It was a bit scary as you just never know what people are going to do. Everyone is hot, tired and grumpy and sometimes it doesn’t take much for a riot mentality to take over. Thankfully it didn’t this night.

So back to our room with only 2 days left at Disney.

Next up—Magic Kingdom one more time!

 

[scrap4u]

Day 8—Friday, May 12

We wake up to Stitch yelling in my ear again and Mickey wishing us a good day. Say hello to our little friends outside our balcony. DH is doing pretty well with the cold as long as he medicates himself. I manage to get my sneakers on again as long as I have the laces extremely loose. Get dressed and take the bus over to the Magic Kingdom. We then walk to the monorail and head over to the Polynesian.

We have a 9am ADR at Kona Café. My cousin and his girlfriend met us here for breakfast on our trip in April 05 and we fell in love with it both the café and the hotel. We wish we could afford to stay at the Poly but it is just too far out of our price range.

Anyway, we check in for our ADR and are seated pretty quickly. Our waiter was friendly enough but not great. I ordered the Jungle Juice which only comes in a large size for like 5.00. But the juice blend at Boma is so terrific that I want to give this a try. Well it was awful! Way to sticky sweet. I barely drank any at all. After telling my CM cousin about it (he used to work at the Poly in food services) he said if it tasted like that then whoever was mixing it was doing it incorrectly.

DH had the Tonga Toast which is always terrific but a bit much for me. I had the macadamia pineapple pancakes. Boy were they good! I asked for the bacon to be extra crispy which of course it wasn’t. I sent it back to be cooked some more and it was better but still not great. I want it so crispy that it breaks if you pick it up and drop it on the plate. But not burned. It can be done. I do it myself and I eat breakfast in plenty of places that manage to do it without burning. This wasn’t one of those places. But I made do.

After we finished, we walked around the lobby a bit just looking around and then took the monorail back over to MK. We rode all our favorite rides without much of a wait for anything. We did make it over to Mickey’s Toontown Fair to get our pictures taken with Minnie, Donald, and Goofy. We had tried to do this when we were there on Sunday but the lines had been too long. We only had to wait 10-15 minutes this time. Minnie and Donald were fine but when we got to Goofy, he put his arms around both DH and me and then started slowly rocking from side to side. DH and I both started cracking up laughing. I don’t know why. It just struck us as funny. I was worried that the pictures would be blurry but there were fine. I guess because Goofy wasn’t rocking very fast.

We exited the photo area and did some shopping while waiting for our pictures to be ready. I went to check out the pictures and when the extremely nice CM saw how many we had, he suggested we buy the photo cd for $99.00. He said the cd would have 2 files on it. 1 file would be all the original pictures with no logos or signatures on them and the 2nd file would have the logos and/or signatures. We had already bought a few of the pictures and had logos or signatures added. I had been told earlier in the week that if we bought the cd we couldn’t get those added to our pictures. But this CM stood there and put things on almost every picture. We had over 40 photos so this was a very good deal. If only I had know before I purchased the other 4 or 5 pictures. It took a while for him to add all that stuff and burn the cd for us but we didn’t mind waiting. We happily walked out a short time later with our cool cd and some other things.

We were originally going to be at MGM today and had an ADR for Sci-Fi for lunch. DH really wanted to eat there. I didn’t really care. But we’re were having a good time and riding everything we wanted at MK and I told him I didn’t want to leave to rush over to MGM just for lunch. He pouted a bit (his turn to be 5 years old!) until I suggested we have lunch at The Plaza. Another place we both like to eat. That cheered him up considerably.

We headed over to The Plaza and were seated within 20 minutes. I ordered the vegetarian sandwich which was very yummy. I substituted fries for the chips. The Plaza has really good fries. DH had a cheeseburger and fries. I believe we split the Plaza Sundae for dessert. You just can’t eat here and not have dessert because they have really good ice cream.

We did a few more rides and then decided to take the monorail over to the Grand Floridian to walk around the lobby area. Neither of us had been there before. We got on a monorail with no problem and within minutes were pulling up to the GF. We walked around, heard the musicians playing for awhile. Saw a bride and bridal party getting their pictures taken, did a little shopping in their gift shop and then decided to head back over to WL to get a shirt DH had seen there but hadn’t seen anywhere else. It has a totem pole with Mickey and friends on the pole. Very cute. So we grabbed a monorail back to MK and then walked over to the launch to WL. No problem. We walk around the lobby here again and then head to the gift shop where DH makes his purchase. Yay!

We want to head back to our hotel now, but DH doesn’t want to take the launch back to MK. He wants to take a bus. As a veteran of Disney, I should have known there wasn’t a bus back to MK, but I didn’t. We found the bus stop but none of the signs listed MK. So I thought we’d take a bus to another park and then switch to a bus to AKL. The first bus that pulls up is for AK. We hop on with another couple of people. The bus driver announces that the next stop is the GF. While we riding to GF I realize it’s now after 5pm and AK is closed. So the bus probably isn’t going back there. Darn it! So we hop off at the GF bus stop, walk back into the hotel and upstairs to the monorail stop. We catch that back to MK, again, and then get on a bus back to AKL. We are of course, tired, cranky, and frustrated but at this point we are just laughing at how ridiculous this whole circuit has been.

Of course there is a ton of Friday night traffic on the way back to AKL so we are lucky to get back there by 615pm. We walk quickly to our room and drop off our purchases. I change into my flip-flops and we both try to clean up very quickly and then head down to the parking lot to retrieve our rental car and drive over to the Boardwalk. We’re meeting CM cousin and his CM girlfriend for dinner at Spoodles at 7pm.

We manage not to get caught in traffic and not get lost—thank goodness, and get to the Boardwalk right on-time. DH drops me off at the hotel entrance and I sit and wait for him to park the car and walk back to the entrance. CM cousin calls to see where we are and I tell him I’m in front of the hotel. He says GF is running a little late so he’ll meet me in the lobby of Spoodles and we’ll wait for her to show up. No problem. DH finally shows up and we walk down the stairs next to the Boardwalk hotel to get to the actual boardwalk.

We love this hotel! We stayed there in January 05 and loved every minute of it. So walking around here brings back good memories for us. We meet CM cousin and have a seat in the lobby. GF shows up a few minutes later and we're escorted to our table. We had a terrific waitress, whose name I forget. But she knew the menu inside and out, knew the wines and just gave us terrific service. Probably the best we’d had the entire trip.

We started off with a carafe of Sangria that was yummy. We had a couple of different appetizers; the Mediterranean dips, always one of my favorites, the garlic shrimp, I don’t do seafood but everyone else seemed to like this one, and one of the flatbreads.

For entrees I had the Lemon chicken which was very good, DH had the Portuguese Seafood Stew, GF had the Rigatoni and CM cousin just had the Greek salad. For dessert we all split the dessert sampler. Everything was terrific. We have eaten here quite a few times before and have never been let down by the food or the service here.

CM cousin and GF had worked that day and were stuffed and ready to go home. DH and I walked around the boardwalk for awhile and watched the street performers. It’s always so much fun on the boardwalk. Then we drove over to DD to do our final shopping. We had a 160.00 Disney rewards card to spend and we hadn’t touched it yet.

We drive to DD and manage to get a parking place pretty easily this time, even though it is a Friday night. We head immediately for the World of Disney—the holy grail for me. The store is pretty crowded and we each want to look at different things so we decide to divide and conquer. We agree to meet in 20 minutes at a designated spot. I’m a Disney watch fanatic so I find 2 watches I like, a purse, a shirt, pens, scrapbooking stuff and gifts for some family and friends at home. DH finds a shirt, pens and some Disney drawing stuff for DD. When we finally check out, we only have to pay 35.00 over the Disney Rewards card. Woo Hoo! That’s the least amount of cash we’ve ever spent there!

We drive back to AKL and decide to start some of our packing. Our suitcases were practically full when we headed to Disney. How the heck are we going to fit all this stuff in them now?

We do some basic packing, knowing that we’ll have some time tomorrow to finish. We’re meeting CM cousin at Boma for 1 last breakfast buffet. He’s never had breakfast there before so he wanted to join us.

Next up—Our last day at Disney.

 

[bornwiththeears]

Your trip report is great. I thought you had to purchase the CD when you had the first photo taken. Was the CM just being extra nice or can anyone purchase the CD after you have taken your photos?

 

[Cinderella's slipper]

Scrap, thanks so much for your wonderful trip report. I'm not able to get to the magic this year and reading reports helps me feel a little bit closer.

 

[IMN2DSNY]

I haven't finished reading your wonderful trip report yet, but wanted to stop by and say from another Richmonder. You're doing a great job!!