exwdwcm
wishes she was Wendy Moira Angela Darling
- Joined
- Aug 19, 1999
- Messages
- 5,046
Cast:
Me- Michelle, 32, marketing manager, married to a non-disney guy, no kids (but trying now!), former cast member (wdwcp in 1996), the pefectionist/organizer/trip NAZI
Mom- "MawMaw", 50s, married 35 years, recently retired, the generous one! Had brain surgery (pitutary gland)last year that might slow her down a bit this trip as she gets tired more
Dad- "PawPaw", 50s, along for the ride, our driver and constantly pulling out his wallet to pay for stuff!
Great Aunt- Marion or "Auntie", 60s, first time ever to WDW! recently retired as well!
Sister- Mandy, "NeNe", 28, special ed teacher, not big into disney, but loves to go with us, calls her "schmoopy" (boyfriend for those that don't get the Seinfeld reference) every night
Sister- Wendy, 30, paralegal, married with 2 year old, huge Disney NUT and the comedian of the family
Bro in Law- Mike, turned 30 on the trip, married to Wendy, and another comedian and great dad to little Ally
Ally- Mike and Wendy's little angel, 2.4 years old (terrible twos!!!), the first grandkid in our family and completely SPOILED ROTTEN (we love it!)
Monday, December 5
Well it’s day 3 and our happy campers are up at 7:30am, well okay, maybe not so happy,l but they are up nonetheless! Wendy and Mike actually got up earlier to go down and have breakfast at the food court at POR. The rest of us stuck with cereal. We were once again off in the rental van by 9am, heading to the Animal Kingdom. We actually got a great parking space and headed directly to the Safari. It was a 10 minute wait time- not too bad. It was actually better than our last trip, we saw all the animals this time and had a blast. Each time I go back to AK, I seem to like it more and more.
Then we did the Pangani trail which was great. I missed doing all the little things like that last time. We checked out the gorillas and birds etc. Ally had a little meltdown, so half of the gang caught up with us later. We decided that Ally would love Conservation Station, and would love the train ride, so we headed that way. Again no wait and the train pulled right up. What luck! She did enjoy the train ride and we were heading toward the exhibit before long. We entered and saw characters immediately. Mandy had to get a pic with Pochantas since one of her special ed kids loves her!
Ally wanted nothing to do with Rafiki though, and neither did the little girl behind her, they were both afraid of him? We walked through all the cool exhibits in there and saw the vets actually doing surgery on a duck to remove an infected eye. It was sad, but neat to watch it happening right there through the glass.
Next it was on to the petting zoo and this is where it gets interesting. Ally was trying to brush the goats and pet each and every one of them. We finally found a bench in there and were just people watching…..we suddenly see one male goat chasing a female goat, then next thing we know, another male is over there too and the two males are going at it- no, not that, what a dirty mind you have! They were butting heads and fighting though, which was neat to watch. It was obviously over the female. It went on for a few minutes and then the one male decided to have his way with her and he mounted up……we shielded the kid’s eyes….no really we didn’t, she wasn’t even watching. But the guests in there were all laughing and saying ‘we thought this was a G-rated attraction!”. Then it got really gross….but I won’t go there.
After our X-rated experience, we washed our hands and headed back out on the train.
Wendy, Mike and Ally left so she could get a nap. THey bought her this shirt though- i love it "Tigger, is that you?"
The rest of us had a scrumptious lunch at Flame Tree Barbeque. Mandy and I shared a beef sandwich with beans, corn and an order of fries. We found a great spot overlooking the water with a good view. We are scarfing down this yummy food when a boat comes by with music blasting….it is none other than Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald on an adventure----they were all decked out in adventurer outfits and binoculars and jamming to the music. We got some cute pics of them.
We then headed over to ASIA, thinking we would do Kali River Rapids and we see a crowd forming in a busy walkway. I see something tall moving and there she is-----DEVINE. It was incredible to see her. People were in awe. She would climb up into the vines on the side of the pathway and blend in. Then she would suddenly move again. She was so graceful and had the most beautiful face. It was a treat to see her.
TIP- take time to enjoy the extras like DEVINE
We decided to do Tough to be a Bug instead, so we headed that way, showing Auntie all the carved animals in the side as we walked in. We waited about 10 minutes once inside and Auntie got her pic with the cute movie poster…..aren't we clever? I love hearing the bugs sing showtunes!!
We knew Ally wouldn’t have survived this attraction- it can be scary for kids- spiders popping from the ceiling and all…..and Ally didn’t even like the big spider on the movie screen at the Sci Fi……so good thing she wasn’t there. We loved the movie and then headed to Kali….but just our luck, it was broken down. Oh well. Must be a sign that it is time for a break.
Back to the room and we nap for a good hour. About 3:30, we are up and heading to the Magic Kingdom in our trusty van! My dad was our driver each day and every day on the way out, it became a habit for him to hit the curb as we turned from Building 17……”just wanted to make sure it’s still there”, he would say each day as we bumped it!
Main Street appeared somewhat crowded. We wore our matching ‘family vacation’ shirts today. I know, we are nerds, but hey, we still looked cute. An old friend of mine that is a graphic designer did them up for us. She was swamped, so didn’t get a chance to put our names on them, but they still worked. Here is a pic of our shirts
We walked onto Main Street for the first with stares from other guest, probably wondering where we got our really cool shirts from……well okay, maybe they were whispering what dorks we were…..The new Cinderellabration show was going on in front of the castle, so we watched part of that. Wendy and Mike had tried to get the breakfast, which is about as hard as finding the lost city of atlantis….they started calling in the am on their appropriate day, but it was sold out already. Tried calling back almost weekly looking for cancellations and continued to call when we were there too. Never had any luck. They did get a lunch scheduled instead, but the menu wasn’t appealing to them and they hated to spend all that money if they wouldn’t enjoy the food. They just were hoping they would find Cinderella somewhere else so Ally could see her. So this was one quick chance to view “Rella” from a distance. It was a cute show, but we took some pics and continued on our way, smelling all the yummy smells like fresh baked cookies and cotton candy! We headed to Fantasyland first and did “small world”, it had a 20 minute wait, but we braved it. Probably the longest line we waited in the whole week. I like the new outside, really cute and we saw the clock go off too.
By then it was time for our Liberty Tree Tavern dinner. This is one of my favorite dinners because I like the food- it is family style thanksgiving type dishes- turkey, beef, ham, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, salad with raspberry dressing and cobbler for dessert. Who can pass that up? Not me and not my thighs either. We checked in at 5:30 for 6pm PS. We were seated just 10 minutes later, which was great. They were turning down walk ins…..this was a theme throughout the trip- every place we had PS for, I would wait in line to check in and the cast member would come out and tell everyone in line that unless they had a prior reservation, that they couldn’t take them. Happened at Sci Fi, Prime Time and LTT. It was just really busy in those restaurants. We got a great corner table and our waitress was no where to be found. It’s okay, we are patient and my sister and I are former waitresses (got us through college!), so we are even more patient. She finally comes by, gets our drink orders and brings bread. We don’t see her again for a while. Then she is rude to us when she does come back. Just not friendly at all. I don’t expect every cast member to be grinning ear to ear 24/7, heck, I have been in their shoes and we all have bad days, but this CM was just ridiculous. We were disappointed in her service. We all had empty glasses for a good 30 minutes before we saw her. She just would throw our food down and stomp off. She suddenly turned very sweet when she delivered the bill though. Imagine that? The apple cobbler and ice cream for dessert hit the spot….(my thighs!). With tip, meal ended up being about $35 per person and yes, we saw all the great colonial dressed characters like Mickey, Goofy, and more.
Spectromagic was getting ready to start when we left LTT. It was almost 7pm. It was too crowded though, so we decided to skip Spectro and head to Adventureland. It was empty. WE rode Pirates with no line, and then saw Wendy from Peter Pan. We then tackled the Jungle Cruise and the carpet ride. We really enjoyed them all. It is really different doing Jungle Cruise at night. Marion got a kick out of all the corny jokes! We had the camels spit on us on the magic carpets. A few of us then got a dole whip- my favorite snack at Disney. We moved into position for WISHES and stood on the pathway from the hub to adventureland to watch. It actually wasn’t a bad spot. Everyone loved seeing WISHES in the park- we had seen it our first night from the California Grill, but this was different. Ally loved it, she was just laughing the whole time. Wendy was in tears at the end again…..instead of fighting the mad crowds out, we just sat on a bench there and waited about 10 minutes, taking it all in. The crowds died down a bit when we left and as we tried to exit, the magnetic pull of the shops drew us in. My mom got a great mickey watch that is really cute and we did our share to contribute to the Mickey fund. With pockets empty and feet aching, we left the happiest place on earth. Then we headed to Goodings for a quick stop for cough medicine for Auntie. She wasn’t feeling very good, but what a trooper she was keeping up with us all the time, especially being sick. Maybe it was the wine coolers that were helping her survive our crazy schedule and pace? Who knows?
TIP: hit up rides during the parade, no lines!
Stay tuned for the next installment- day 4 and find out who gets lipstick on their forehead? Will we ever find the hot chocolate? Who will be covered in cheese sauce? Will Wendy slap the CM that is rude to her? these and other burning questions answered next time!
Me- Michelle, 32, marketing manager, married to a non-disney guy, no kids (but trying now!), former cast member (wdwcp in 1996), the pefectionist/organizer/trip NAZI
Mom- "MawMaw", 50s, married 35 years, recently retired, the generous one! Had brain surgery (pitutary gland)last year that might slow her down a bit this trip as she gets tired more
Dad- "PawPaw", 50s, along for the ride, our driver and constantly pulling out his wallet to pay for stuff!
Great Aunt- Marion or "Auntie", 60s, first time ever to WDW! recently retired as well!
Sister- Mandy, "NeNe", 28, special ed teacher, not big into disney, but loves to go with us, calls her "schmoopy" (boyfriend for those that don't get the Seinfeld reference) every night
Sister- Wendy, 30, paralegal, married with 2 year old, huge Disney NUT and the comedian of the family
Bro in Law- Mike, turned 30 on the trip, married to Wendy, and another comedian and great dad to little Ally
Ally- Mike and Wendy's little angel, 2.4 years old (terrible twos!!!), the first grandkid in our family and completely SPOILED ROTTEN (we love it!)
Monday, December 5
Well it’s day 3 and our happy campers are up at 7:30am, well okay, maybe not so happy,l but they are up nonetheless! Wendy and Mike actually got up earlier to go down and have breakfast at the food court at POR. The rest of us stuck with cereal. We were once again off in the rental van by 9am, heading to the Animal Kingdom. We actually got a great parking space and headed directly to the Safari. It was a 10 minute wait time- not too bad. It was actually better than our last trip, we saw all the animals this time and had a blast. Each time I go back to AK, I seem to like it more and more.
Then we did the Pangani trail which was great. I missed doing all the little things like that last time. We checked out the gorillas and birds etc. Ally had a little meltdown, so half of the gang caught up with us later. We decided that Ally would love Conservation Station, and would love the train ride, so we headed that way. Again no wait and the train pulled right up. What luck! She did enjoy the train ride and we were heading toward the exhibit before long. We entered and saw characters immediately. Mandy had to get a pic with Pochantas since one of her special ed kids loves her!
Ally wanted nothing to do with Rafiki though, and neither did the little girl behind her, they were both afraid of him? We walked through all the cool exhibits in there and saw the vets actually doing surgery on a duck to remove an infected eye. It was sad, but neat to watch it happening right there through the glass.
Next it was on to the petting zoo and this is where it gets interesting. Ally was trying to brush the goats and pet each and every one of them. We finally found a bench in there and were just people watching…..we suddenly see one male goat chasing a female goat, then next thing we know, another male is over there too and the two males are going at it- no, not that, what a dirty mind you have! They were butting heads and fighting though, which was neat to watch. It was obviously over the female. It went on for a few minutes and then the one male decided to have his way with her and he mounted up……we shielded the kid’s eyes….no really we didn’t, she wasn’t even watching. But the guests in there were all laughing and saying ‘we thought this was a G-rated attraction!”. Then it got really gross….but I won’t go there.
After our X-rated experience, we washed our hands and headed back out on the train.
Wendy, Mike and Ally left so she could get a nap. THey bought her this shirt though- i love it "Tigger, is that you?"
The rest of us had a scrumptious lunch at Flame Tree Barbeque. Mandy and I shared a beef sandwich with beans, corn and an order of fries. We found a great spot overlooking the water with a good view. We are scarfing down this yummy food when a boat comes by with music blasting….it is none other than Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald on an adventure----they were all decked out in adventurer outfits and binoculars and jamming to the music. We got some cute pics of them.
We then headed over to ASIA, thinking we would do Kali River Rapids and we see a crowd forming in a busy walkway. I see something tall moving and there she is-----DEVINE. It was incredible to see her. People were in awe. She would climb up into the vines on the side of the pathway and blend in. Then she would suddenly move again. She was so graceful and had the most beautiful face. It was a treat to see her.
TIP- take time to enjoy the extras like DEVINE
We decided to do Tough to be a Bug instead, so we headed that way, showing Auntie all the carved animals in the side as we walked in. We waited about 10 minutes once inside and Auntie got her pic with the cute movie poster…..aren't we clever? I love hearing the bugs sing showtunes!!
We knew Ally wouldn’t have survived this attraction- it can be scary for kids- spiders popping from the ceiling and all…..and Ally didn’t even like the big spider on the movie screen at the Sci Fi……so good thing she wasn’t there. We loved the movie and then headed to Kali….but just our luck, it was broken down. Oh well. Must be a sign that it is time for a break.
Back to the room and we nap for a good hour. About 3:30, we are up and heading to the Magic Kingdom in our trusty van! My dad was our driver each day and every day on the way out, it became a habit for him to hit the curb as we turned from Building 17……”just wanted to make sure it’s still there”, he would say each day as we bumped it!
Main Street appeared somewhat crowded. We wore our matching ‘family vacation’ shirts today. I know, we are nerds, but hey, we still looked cute. An old friend of mine that is a graphic designer did them up for us. She was swamped, so didn’t get a chance to put our names on them, but they still worked. Here is a pic of our shirts
We walked onto Main Street for the first with stares from other guest, probably wondering where we got our really cool shirts from……well okay, maybe they were whispering what dorks we were…..The new Cinderellabration show was going on in front of the castle, so we watched part of that. Wendy and Mike had tried to get the breakfast, which is about as hard as finding the lost city of atlantis….they started calling in the am on their appropriate day, but it was sold out already. Tried calling back almost weekly looking for cancellations and continued to call when we were there too. Never had any luck. They did get a lunch scheduled instead, but the menu wasn’t appealing to them and they hated to spend all that money if they wouldn’t enjoy the food. They just were hoping they would find Cinderella somewhere else so Ally could see her. So this was one quick chance to view “Rella” from a distance. It was a cute show, but we took some pics and continued on our way, smelling all the yummy smells like fresh baked cookies and cotton candy! We headed to Fantasyland first and did “small world”, it had a 20 minute wait, but we braved it. Probably the longest line we waited in the whole week. I like the new outside, really cute and we saw the clock go off too.
By then it was time for our Liberty Tree Tavern dinner. This is one of my favorite dinners because I like the food- it is family style thanksgiving type dishes- turkey, beef, ham, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, salad with raspberry dressing and cobbler for dessert. Who can pass that up? Not me and not my thighs either. We checked in at 5:30 for 6pm PS. We were seated just 10 minutes later, which was great. They were turning down walk ins…..this was a theme throughout the trip- every place we had PS for, I would wait in line to check in and the cast member would come out and tell everyone in line that unless they had a prior reservation, that they couldn’t take them. Happened at Sci Fi, Prime Time and LTT. It was just really busy in those restaurants. We got a great corner table and our waitress was no where to be found. It’s okay, we are patient and my sister and I are former waitresses (got us through college!), so we are even more patient. She finally comes by, gets our drink orders and brings bread. We don’t see her again for a while. Then she is rude to us when she does come back. Just not friendly at all. I don’t expect every cast member to be grinning ear to ear 24/7, heck, I have been in their shoes and we all have bad days, but this CM was just ridiculous. We were disappointed in her service. We all had empty glasses for a good 30 minutes before we saw her. She just would throw our food down and stomp off. She suddenly turned very sweet when she delivered the bill though. Imagine that? The apple cobbler and ice cream for dessert hit the spot….(my thighs!). With tip, meal ended up being about $35 per person and yes, we saw all the great colonial dressed characters like Mickey, Goofy, and more.
Spectromagic was getting ready to start when we left LTT. It was almost 7pm. It was too crowded though, so we decided to skip Spectro and head to Adventureland. It was empty. WE rode Pirates with no line, and then saw Wendy from Peter Pan. We then tackled the Jungle Cruise and the carpet ride. We really enjoyed them all. It is really different doing Jungle Cruise at night. Marion got a kick out of all the corny jokes! We had the camels spit on us on the magic carpets. A few of us then got a dole whip- my favorite snack at Disney. We moved into position for WISHES and stood on the pathway from the hub to adventureland to watch. It actually wasn’t a bad spot. Everyone loved seeing WISHES in the park- we had seen it our first night from the California Grill, but this was different. Ally loved it, she was just laughing the whole time. Wendy was in tears at the end again…..instead of fighting the mad crowds out, we just sat on a bench there and waited about 10 minutes, taking it all in. The crowds died down a bit when we left and as we tried to exit, the magnetic pull of the shops drew us in. My mom got a great mickey watch that is really cute and we did our share to contribute to the Mickey fund. With pockets empty and feet aching, we left the happiest place on earth. Then we headed to Goodings for a quick stop for cough medicine for Auntie. She wasn’t feeling very good, but what a trooper she was keeping up with us all the time, especially being sick. Maybe it was the wine coolers that were helping her survive our crazy schedule and pace? Who knows?
TIP: hit up rides during the parade, no lines!
Stay tuned for the next installment- day 4 and find out who gets lipstick on their forehead? Will we ever find the hot chocolate? Who will be covered in cheese sauce? Will Wendy slap the CM that is rude to her? these and other burning questions answered next time!
