5 NIGHTS - NO DREAM TEAM BUT WE'RE STILL HAVING FUN! 1/8 MK Pt 2

[kimbo0569]

After lunch, we wandered around the hospitality center for a bit because the girls wanted to see the Clydesdale horses. They even got to pet one...

At this time, it was around time to head over to the Shamu Stadium for the Believe show - my favorite (I always get teary eyed during this show). The girls loved it as well. After that, we headed over to the Blue Horizons Dolphin show. We passed Atlantis again but dd(6 1/2) still didn't want to ride, so we got the girls some popcorn and went into the show. As we were sitting there, the winds started to kick up a bit and it started drizzling. The show started and we were watching it, though maybe 5-10 minutes into it, I happened to glance over to the side and notice the rain starting to really come down and people who were sitting in the "splash zone" were now moving up for cover. The show continues - and we're enjoying it but distracted by the rain as well. The show finally ends at 3pm and now it's a full on DOWNPOUR!! We grab the stroller, dump out the water and begin walking towards the exit when the thunder starts. Dh suggests that it might be a good idea to hang back a few minutes and see if it subsides. We found a spot to stand under an awning of one of the shops and wait a few minutes. It finally looks like it's calming down so we make a break for it We were only walking for maybe a minute when this huge clap of thunder hit - that made three of us jump and dd(3) freaked out completely. We duck for cover again, still pushing the stroller. This was not going well, realizing that it was probably not going to stop or slow down even, any time soon.

Disclaimer **** Now normally I would not do this but under the circumstances - I say to dh that we should probably just abandon the stroller and high tail it to the exit. He reluctantly agrees. It was pouring and we had the girls and a huge tote bag. So off we went! ****

The thunder is finally calmed down now but we find as we're walking to the front of the park, there are spots that we are literally ankle deep in water! Our shoes and socks were flooded as well as the rest of us.

Finally we make it to the exit - the girls want souvenirs (I'd promised earlier in the day that we would do our shopping before we left for the day). Fine, we go into the store, closest to the exit and I give the girls the go ahead but say "do it quickly and let's go!".

Dd(3) picked a toy polar bear and dd(6 1/2) picked a dolphin tee shirt. I picked up a keychain and some postcards. Done - so we head to the taxi stand. Luckily they were lined up 10 or 12 in a row - we didn't have to wait one minute. We did apologize to the driver for flooding his car

In about 20 minutes, we were back to POR and took our water logged bodies back to our room, got out of our wet clothes - everyone showered, dressed and we were ready to head to the boat (or so we thought) for DTD.

On the way to the boat launch from our room, we start to pass one family - there were a couple of kids with the group. As we pass, one of the "charming" children decided it would be a good idea to take a running leap into one of the huge puddles along the walkway. The four of us were "lucky enough" to be able to share in his "splash fest"
Dh just gave one of the men in the group (I think it was the father) kind of a look and I gave my usual sarcasm "thanks for that", I said as we walked on.
The man does say to the boy "I told you not to do that". But honestly I was kind of surprised that there was not even an "I'm sorry" from anyone in this group, not even the kid who did it.

Normally I might have blown it off but having just spent an afternoon getting drenched from the rain, I really wasn't expecting to get splashed by some kind having fun in a puddle. Kids do silly things but if my kid bumps into someone or does something like this, I would at least offer up an "I'm sorry" to them.........off my soapbox now.

Back to our evening, the boat wasn't running due to the rain so we head to the bus stop. We get there and a DTD bus shows up pretty quickly.
The front door aren't opening and that's when we hear a commotion from the rear entrance of the bus. Seems someone thought they were going to be "slick" and try to board from the rear of the bus. The bus driver, obviously not realizing this, starts to close the rear door of the bus after everyone had left the bus, and the door was closing on this woman trying to get on. Her dh starts to get loud at the bus driver and the bus driver goes right back at him.

Everyone finally gets on - by the time this family gets on, it's standing room only.

We get to DTD - now it's starting to drizzle again and we're about 15 minutes early for our ADR at Rainforest Cafe.....

More later on our RFC dinner and wandering around DTD.

 

[kimbo0569]

Day 4 - Part 3 Rainforest Cafe/DTD

The girls were busy looking at the fish in the tubular tanks while we were waiting for our table. We only waited a few minutes and were shown to our table.

We sat down and our server was there pretty quickly to take our drink order so I figured I'd order the girls' meals as well as all our drinks. By the time, the server put our drink order and the girls' orders in and came back, dh and I had figured out what we wanted.
I had the cajun chicken sandwich, dh had the Rasta Pasta (I think), dd(6 1/2) had the dino chicken nuggets and fries and dd(3) had the mini hot dogs. Every thing was good and the service was good and pretty quick, I might add. We opted to have dessert later on so we took care of the bill. (Though through dinner, we kept noticing alot of people getting this Volcano dessert, which looked really yummy!!! but too big for just dh and me. Dd(6 1/2) doesn't eat chocolate and dd(3) would probably eat a few bites and be done with it so we decided that next time we come, if mom and mil came with us, we'd get it then.

When we left RFC, we decided to wander around the shops. I got both the girls a tee shirt from the RFC since they were on sale (2 for $18).
Then we wandered around the rest of the DTD shops. I had to pick up something for a friend of mine while the girls had fun playing with the Potato Head pieces. We also stopped to check the pins and take some pics of the girls.

In one of the shops, dd(6 1/2) saw some really cute headbands so I said she could use her gift card. She picked out one and I checked the price, told her it was 9.95. So she opted for just that one. When the cashier rung it up, it came up on sale as $2.99! So she went back to get the other one she wanted. The 2nd wasn't on sale but she was okay with it.

(I would definately do the gift cards again for the girls! It was a great idea and saved us money as well. I got the idea from a trip report on here, I apologize I can't remember exactly who's report it was though )

After purchasing the headband, dd(3) had to go to the bathroom so I took her in and dd(6 1/2) waited outside with dh, We happened to be right next to Wolfgang Puck Express. Now rewind for a sec back to April, when I booked the trip initially and was trying to figure out where to make ADR's, I asked dh to go through the menus I printed up and see what he wanted to do. I finished all the ADR's in August, asking him the whole time, up until I made the last one - "let me know if there's something you want". He just kept telling me "I don't care, you know what I like and don't like"

Fast forward to back outside the bathroom, I come out and he's looking at the menu for WPE and what happens? He points to the menu and says to me "Why didn't you book this place? The menu looks really good!"

I just stood there, dumbfounded! Looked at him and said "I TOLD you to give me suggestions and you told me you didn't care! UGH!
I just shook my head and rolled my eyes at him. "What?" he says.
All I could say was "mental note for next time".......

After that, the girls were asking for ice cream so we went over to Ghirardelli. The girls got a chocolate and a vanilla cup, and dh and I both got cones with cookies and cream. We found a relatively quiet place to sit and enjoy our treats.
It was starting to drizzle as we were finishing up, it was almost 9pm and we were getting tired so we made our way back to the bus stop. Not a long wait there either. Get back to the room and everyone got ready for bed. And it was off to dreamland!

More to come - our last full day at MK, Ohana for dinner and will we make it to Illuminations?

 

[kimbo0569]

9/23 Tuesday Day 5 - Magic Kingdom

I seemed to be the first one up everyday during this trip, then dd(3), then dh and dd(6 1/2) was consistently last.

We all got showered, dressed and got our stuff together. I had a change of clothes for both the girls since we were going to dinner at Ohana and had decided that we'd spend pretty much the whole day at MK, head directly to Ohana from there, then take the monorail over to Epcot for Illuminations.

Got the bus over to MK (no wait) - quiet uneventful ride - all was good.

Got off the bus and made our way to the security check, then through the ticket entrance and grabbed the stroller on our way to Main Street.
Grabbed another photopass op in front of the castle. The first show was going on in front of the castle and we watched for a few minutes but then moved on to Adventureland.
The girls saw the Magic Carpet Ride and wanted to do - there was no wait so that was our first ride of the day. We all got on and wound up on the other side of the entrance, out of the corner of my eye, I spied a CM with none other than Aladdin himself. Aladdin was pointing to something on the opposit side and heads over with the CM to a car that had only a little girl and little boy in the front row and empty back row so Aladdin hopped in with them...I thought that was pretty cool.

After that, we headed over to the Jungle Cruise, only waited 10 minutes for that. Dd(6 1/2) still kind of freaked by ToT, is taking everything in while we were on line and starts to ask "is it safe?". I felt really bad that she was so bothered by ToT that I looked her right in the eye and said to her "Daddy and I would never take you or make you go on anything that was unsafe". I also explained that she'd been on this twice before and she survived, tried joking around with her. She finally relaxed when we got on, the boat started and she realized that the animals were just pretend. By the time it was over, she was fine.

From Jungle Cruise, we grabbed our stroller and headed to Pirates of the Caribbean. As you go through the line towards the ride, it's a little dark and we could tell dd(6 1/2) was a little bothered but I just grabbed her hand as we walked. Once again, no wait - we hopped right on. The first part is really dark and dd(6 1/2) commented on it and just held my hand. Once we went down the hill through the rest of the ride she was fine...Both the girls liked it. When we came out, we saw Peter Pan and Wendy (and with only two people on line ahead of us). Dd(6 1/2) wanted to have her pic with them but not dd(3). I took some pics and used the photopass as well.

Finished with Adventureland (and much to dd(6 1/2)'s relief) we moved onto Frontierland....

Part 2 to come....will dd(6 1/2) be freaked out the entire day?

 

[kimbo0569]

Another update!!!!
Right before we were seated, I got this pic:

We were seated at our table at Ohana and our server wasted no time in coming over and getting our drink order - the girls had sprite, I had a margarita and dh had a Malibu Macaw, I think.

We got our drinks and ordered dinner for the girls - dd6 had chicken strips and fries and so did dd3 - dd3 also picked from our plates. One of the servers brought the wings, veggies, noodles and salad. I'm not big into the wings but dh likes them. I took the veggies, salad and noodles - those were sooo delicious! (I found the recipe for those so I'll be making those at home soon). We love the bread as well.

While we were eating the appetizers, the host was doing the coconut races for the kids but the girls didn't want to participate.
Soon the server brought the shrimp to us - YUM! The girls' dinner came and our drinks were empty - so our lovely server offered to get us more - of course - I had another margarita and dh had something else this time - Island Sunset - or something like that. The next server brought us the dipping sauces for the meats and then brought over the chicken, beef and pork!
YUM, YUM and more YUM!!! LOL

Now the kids were being called again to use the maracas for the parade - both the girls wanted to do this - I followed them over so I could get some pics.

After the parade, they did the limbo which dd6 wanted to do but not dd3. She just watched.

After that, we went back to the table and ate some more. Some more time had passed and the host was back, asking for any celebrations - honeymoons, anniversaries, birthdays, etc. A few couples got up and were given flower leis and danced in front of everyone. Then he asked the kids to come up, giving them flower leis and taught them how to do the hula. I went up again with the girls. Dd6 was trying really hard to learn but dd3 was more interested in playing with the flowers around her neck.

I was starting to walk over to see if I could get another one for her, when this sweet lady just put hers around dd3's neck and said "here, take this one, I don't need it" as she was making her way back to her own table. I thanked her profusely!

Finally went back to the table to finish up. Our server twisted our arms, so to speak, for another round of drinks for the "grown ups", of course, it was our last night and we weren't driving..

The girls had ice cream for dessert and we got the Bananas Foster bread pudding which was amazing! Once again, Ohana did not disappoint! Hands down, our favorite meal of the trip.
We settled up our bill (or so we thought - it will come back to haunt us the next day..stay tuned). Because we had the drinks from the bar with our dinner, they aren't included in the dining plan. The drinks and tip came to $84.11 so we left $85 in cash and filled out the slip accordingly, gave our room key and told her we were on the dining plan. Got everything settled, said goodnight to our server and headed out to the monorail. We were heading over to Epcot to hang out for a bit and see Illuminations (another must see for us). Had a nice leisurely ride over to TTC, then on to Epcot. Once we arrived there, we headed to the gates and over to Spaceship Earth one last time.

The girls loved answering all the questions and seeing the cartoon with our faces on at the end. I wasn't able to get our pics the first time we did it on Sunday but this time there happened to be a computer free once we got off the ride so I sent both pics (the one of me and dd6 and the one of dh and dd3) to my home e-mail address.

After we finished here, the girls wanted to see Nemo, so off to The Living Seas - both times that we did the Nemo Ride, as we were walking to the "Clam-mobiles", dd3 kept calling "Nemo, where are you?" because it was the Finding Nemo ride. After the Nemo ride, we still had some time before we wanted to head over to WS and dd6 wanted to do "Turtle Talk" again because I think she was hoping to get picked to talk to Crush. She was slightly disappointed that she didn't get picked the first time. We only waited a few minutes, maybe. Dd6 sat in front with the rest of the kids but dd3 wanted to sit with us. I think she was a little unsure of the whole thing, though she did enjoy it. The show started, Crush was talking to the crowd - had everyone rolling laughing! And then it happened! - Dh and I hear Crush ask about "the little dudette in the striped shell" dd6 got to talk to Crush! I managed to get the video on my camera...I have to figure out how to get it on here though...
Dh and I were laughing so hard we were crying. Dd6 was over the moon that she got to talk to Crush! (see, we don't need a "dream team" to make us happy )

After Turtle Talk, we made our way over to WS and found a spot right near Mexico, got some drinks for the girls and chilled out. Dd3 was exhausted so dh and I were going back and forth as to whether or not to cut out of Illuminations early. It's one of my favorites and it was killing me, though I knew it was probably the right thing to do

Illuminations starts and it's everything I expected it to be, as usual. A few minutes before it's over, I poke dh and motion to "head out". Dd 3's asleep on his shoulder. He knew I didn't really want to go so he just says "don't worry about it, we'll just stay - it's really not going to matter".

When it ends, we leave with the rest of the crowd - the bus line, although it was long, was not too horrible - three buses came at once so by the time we got on, there were plenty of seats. Dd3 slept the whole way back to POR, as well as the walk back to the room - luckily it wasn't too far of a walk because dh had to carry her the whole way.

We got to the room, opened the door and the tv was on - I thought I was going mad for a second when I looked at the one bed - Mousekeeping strikes! All of the girls' stuffed animals were sitting on the bed with the remote control! Dh and I both laughed. I tried to get to my camera to take a picture but dd6 grabbed her dolls and the remote - oh well, I'll have to be quicker next time

I got dd3 into her pj's and back to bed, and then packed up the rest of the stuff - got everything ready for ME/airport check in for first thing in the morning.
I promised dd6 we could go for one last swim in the pool once dd3 was asleep. That happened in no time at all. Dh stayed in the room with her, the bags were all packed and taken care of so dd6 and I changed into our suits and headed to Ol' Man Island. It was about 10:30pm at this point so I told her that we were weren't staying long because it was so late. She was fine with that. We swam for about 45 minutes and headed back to the room. On the walk back to the room, I called my mom to give her our flight info for the next day.

Got back to the room, changed and put our suits in a ziploc bag, hung up the towels and went to bed.

Next update: our last morning at MK, Crystal Palace and the moment dd6 had been waiting for!

I was busy taking pics and taping dd6 when I looked over and saw that dd3 had broken her lei.

 

[kimbo0569]

Sadly but finally this trip report must come to an end -

Wednesday 9/24 -

I was up super early, I think around 5:45am, grabbed the stuff from the swim the night before, popped them in the suitcase and checked over to make sure I had everything packed up. I called bell services to come get the bags, got changed and got everything by the door by the time he knocked.

He took me and the four bags to the ME desk in the main building. I checked us all in and headed back to the room. Dh was awake and dressed and the girls were waking up bythe time I got back. We cleaned out the fridge and packed up the carry on bags.

I realized that I forget to go to the ATM while I was in the main building so after I got the girls dressed, I figured I'd walk back while dh was getting the rest of the stuff together.

I closed the door to the room and realized the check out envelope was hanging there so I opened it to check it out as I was walking. Whoa! Back up! I see a charge for $84.11 billed to our card for Ohana for the exact amount we left in cash the night before. As soon as I get to the main building, I head right to guest services to try and straighten out this mistake. Unfortunately the CM was not very helpful (it was early so they might not have been able to verify it yet) plus I didn't have the receipt in my purse with me. All he can do for me at that point was take my cell number and name and tell me they'll have to research the matter. I wasn't too happy with that but I didn't want it to damper my morning either.
Back to the room I went, told dh about it and he said the same thing I was thinking - "leave it alone for now and we'll deal with it before we leave for the airport".

We had an 8:30 ADR for Crystal Palace so we checked the room one last time, made sure we didn't leave anything behind, said goodbye to our "home" for the last couple days, and head to luggage storage with all our carry on bags. Dropped the stuff off and walked over to grab the bus for MK. Didn't have to wait long for a bus and it was a short trip over to MK as well. Got there by 8:15 and were inside by 8:25am. Got to Crystal Palace and it looked kind of crowded - we gave our name and I thought it would take awhile but within 5 minutes we were called and shown to our table. We love this place - it was our 2nd time here with our oldest daughter and it was youngest daughter's first time.

The girls loved it, loved the characters, getting pics with them and having their books signed.

After we saw all, we finished up our breakfast, settled our bill and headed out. I had a promise to keep to oldest daughter, from the day before. Off we go through Fantasyland to Ariel's Grotto. As we walked up to the entrance, the CM said "perfect timing, there's no wait right now". Dh let youngest dd play on the mat in the waiting area while we went in. There was only one person in front of us and she was almost done - this was the moment oldest dd has been waiting for since we got here. She finally got to see Ariel - they talked for a few minutes - I took some pics and used another photopass opportunity.

Got some great shots and the best part of all - she got a hug from Ariel!

Once we left that area - they both wanted to see Mickeys Philarmagic again - another new favorite of ours. We also hit the carousel, Peter Pan and Snow White again.

Oldest dd wanted to do Space Mountain again so dh and younest dd went on Winnie The Pooh while I headed over to Space Mtn one last time. (I think oldest dd was better now from her scare on TofT). Space Mtn is now her favorite along with Everest.

We left Space Mtn and the girls decide they wnat to do Indy Speedway again - off we go, another favorite of theirs.

We have time for two more rides after this before we have to head back to POR. Oldest dd picks Buzz Lightyear - she did better this time around, forgot what her score was. Youngest dd wants to do Tomorrowland Transit Authority again - what a nice way to end our morning in MK.
After we get out of TTA, we make our way towards Main Street, both dds want popcorn and we have a few snack credits left. Got that and head towards the confectionary shop to get some gifts for the girls' teachers and for dh's mom. We're all set now so out of MK we go Till next time.

Oldest dd and I get a little sad, we head towards the bus for our way back to POR. We decided once we got off the bus to go right into Fulton's to get our last minute souvenirs - both dds get another pin each as well as a baby Minnie plush for oldest dd and a Goofy plush for youngest dd (this choice would come back to haunt us as well once we land in NY). I picked up a keychain for my dad and a travel coffee mug for myself and my mom. I also got the Mickey head pancake mold because both girls love when I make Mickey Mouse pancakes at home.

We use up the gift cards and I only had to pay $17 out of pocket once the cards were run through. The only thing I didn't get that I'm regretting now was this cute MM purse (they had it in pink or white) and I just wasn't sure but I'm kicking myself now (sort of) for not getting it. It was only $25...OH well.


We finish in the gift shop and decide to check on that $84 charge.

More to come later on.....almost done.