A Gem of a trip-quality, clarity, color and "Cut that out!" completed 8/4

[scottny]

glad he was found.

I like the pics of the dolphins and tank.

I forgot what kind of camera did you get?

 

[quest4dl]

I've been lurking and enjoying your report for quite a while now. Your writing style is refreshingly genuine - I feel I know your whole family! The oddest detail on the title of the your last update poked me out of lurkdom. I noticed the update date and initially thought - hmmm....she reversed the day and month. Duh! I've been living in the States way too long now (I'm originally from Ottawa, Canada)!

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

you didn't think your Bday trip was WORTHY of a TR???? Oh you best be doing one! We all know that there is going to be a tantrum even without the kiddos

 

[Diamondintheruff]

Phew and wow you have a wonderful memory, I can barely remember what I said to DD a few minutes ago let alone whole conversations

We went to that dolphin viewing area too, it wasn't very innocent though the dolphins were being naughty Beautiful photo

I'm not a great sleeper so each night I would record the day in my journal. I knew I was going to include all the meltdowns in my trip report and paid special attention to recording them. So while all my conversations may not be exactly word for word but the sentiment is there.

Again love the dolphin viewing area. Didn't notice any particulary naughty dolphins. Just cranky children.

Ok, we feel better now, he's found
We liked all of the pictures, we think Cindy looked happier at hockey!
That's great that the kids have those opportunities

When looking at Cindy's pictures remember the dance ones were taken just before she went on stage and she was nervous. The Hockey ones were taken after the game (they won and she got an assist) so she is more relaxed.

Wow, that was a fast update... thank goodness he was found in short order... looking forward to lunch.

I'm trying to get this trip done before I leave for my next one. It's looking pretty tight though. I think I finished my 2007 report a couple days before I left for this one.

glad he was found.

I like the pics of the dolphins and tank.

I forgot what kind of camera did you get?

I got a cannon powershot. My last two camera's have been Fuji's and it's taking me a while to get used to this one.

I've been lurking and enjoying your report for quite a while now. Your writing style is refreshingly genuine - I feel I know your whole family! The oddest detail on the title of the your last update poked me out of lurkdom. I noticed the update date and initially thought - hmmm....she reversed the day and month. Duh! I've been living in the States way too long now (I'm originally from Ottawa, Canada)!

Well, I'm glad you came out of lurkdom! Opps! I always forget what comes first the month or the day.

We're heading to Ottawa (okay Gatineau-the old Hull) for a dance competition soon. Beaver Tails are high on my kid's list of things to do while there.

you didn't think your Bday trip was WORTHY of a TR???? Oh you best be doing one! We all know that there is going to be a tantrum even without the kiddos

You don't think that little old "moi" might have a tantrum do you? Never. I'm as cool as a cumcumber and as flexible as a pipe cleaner. Like I said I hadn't planned on doing a report but who knows. Maybe I can be convinced. Or maybe like DisneyJo I'll get to stay in the castle and having something really worthy of writing about.

 

[quest4dl]

Beavertails! (drool). Where will you be staying? If in Hull, then the closest Beavertail fix would be in the market on George St. Some of the best gelato is around the corner at Pure Gelato and at the other end of the market building you can get delicious pastries from Moulin des Provences.

If you have time, the Children's Museum in the Museum of Civilization in Hull is really good. They also show Omnimax movies there.

 

[Diamondintheruff]

Beavertails! (drool). Where will you be staying? If in Hull, then the closest Beavertail fix would be in the market on George St. Some of the best gelato is around the corner at Pure Gelato and at the other end of the market building you can get delicious pastries from Moulin des Provences.

If you have time, the Children's Museum in the Museum of Civilization in Hull is really good. They also show Omnimax movies there.

Yes, we are staying in Hull. Accross from the Children's museum in fact. We've been there twice before and the kids enjoyed it. We like the museum of technology too. Dh's uncle lives in Ottawa and has a season pass. He usually takes us. Eeoyre much prefers it to the children's museum now that he is getting older. However, Eeoyre hates 3D movies. Even Mickey's philharmagic so I doubt if I could even convince him to go to a large movie screen 3D or not it would be sensory overload for him.

We will be going to the market for sure to get our beaver tail fix. Plus I always visit that french bakery place you mentioned but I never knew the name of it. I love that place. My Brother went to Carleton and he introduced me to it years ago when I used to visit him.

We also want to go to this beading store where you make your own jewelry. It's in the market somewhere. A bunch of girls went last year and raved about it so Cindy is determined to go this year. I hope it's still there.

How much we do all depends on when our competition times are. We never know until a week before what time we will be dancing. I'm afraid that since we've increased the amount of dances we are (7 this year while it was 4 last year) that we won't have any free time to spend outside of the competition.

 

[lazydoxy66]

OMG! This is every parent's nightmare. I am so glad that he never really ran off. At least not as far as he was concerned. There are so many distractions at these parks. I don't blame people for using the 'leashes' sometimes.

I thought the carousel was cool. I've never seen a picture of it.

The pictures from the new camera look pretty good. You'll get used to it. What did you get?

 

[Diamondintheruff]

We left the dolphins and crossed the boardwalk/walkway again (count three). We made our way to the restaurant for our Backstage at Believe lunch.

I just went online to try and find the menu for this and noticed that Sea World is not doing this anymore. When I booked it last May I had the choice of Dine with Shamu for dinner or Backstage at Believe for lunch. The menu was the same put the price was cheaper for lunch. Hence, I booked the lunch. I think it was about $28 a person. $12 or so for kids. Now when I was checking I noticed the price is $42 a person. Not worth it in my opinion.

Okay so to get back to our lunch. It was pretty late as we were going to see the 3:30 show. The restaurant was pretty empty. We had like four servers refilling our drinks each time we took one sip. It got annoying very fast.

It was not air-conditioned. But it was in the shade beside the water with plenty of ceiling fans and of course all the cold drinks we could consume. We were tired and hot and quite frankly not all that hungry. We sat and drank for many minutes before heading to the buffet area.

We got the best seats in the house. We were right beside the buffet station and waterside. We sat the kids next to the water. Apparently, the kids like the dolphins better. They weren’t all that impressed with Shamu.

They had a video playing of the making of believe. Since we had never seen Believe or had any concept of what it was about the video was just background noise. We didn’t really watch it. There were supposed to be the trainers available for us to talk to. If Sea World defines “available to talk to” as being on the other side of the pool then yes there were trainers available to talk to. I have trouble screaming across an olympic size pool. Perhaps the really keen Shamu lovers can accomplish that.

Here are the trainers on the other side of the pool.

Mostly my kids just wanted to sit still and drink some ice-cold liquids so I wasn’t really upset. As I said, I hadn't prepped them about this lunch or show. They thought the coral reef was better.

When we finally made our way to the food we were pleasantly surprised. There was a wide variety of food available and I remember the pasta and the garlic mashed potatoes as being heavenly. The usual kid fare was there as well. Chicken nuggets, corn, cheese and macaroni, hot dogs etc… so the kids were happy. Their favourites were the deserts. Cindy and Jedi went gaga over the gummy shark candies. Eeoyre enjoyed the brownies. He’s a chocolate lover like his Ma. A day is not complete without a little chocolate in it. The rest of us enjoyed everything. Poppa and Dh were very happy with all the fixins. They piled their plates many times. They were also happy to sample some of the different beers. The two of them rolled out of their happy as larks.

I even tried a beer. It was a raspberry grapefruit beer. It had no aftertaste. I had two. I lost count of how many Dh and Poppa had. They sampled a few different ones but managed to snag a sip of mine too.

Normally I don’t drink beer. I’m a girlie alcohol drinker. Make it sweet. Put an umbrella in it and I’m happy. But that cold fruity beer tasted mighty fine. I wish they sold it in Canada. It would be great on a summer day at the cottage.

So happy was Dh that he tipped higher than he normally ever does. I’m not sure if it was the alcohol or what. We certainly had better service here than any of the other restaurants at Disney but then, this restaurant had as many servers in it as it did customers. I wish I had written down some of their names. There were a couple who really interacted with the kids and even followed them into the food room and carried their plates for them. Normally my kids would have freaked out and clung to me with getting that kind of attention but the servers did it in such a gradual non-threatening way that the kids were okay.

Here are some pictures of us at our table. Our faces are really dark even with our flash up because it was so bright out on the water even with my editing program to lighten them up. Cindy was the most intrigued with the whales or maybe it was just that she likes getting her picture taken. Anyhow here are the pictures.

This picture is probably the best one. I actually got Shamu in the picture with Cindy.

So we overall we enjoyed ourselves $24 plus tax and tip worth. I’m glad we booked it. Dh would have been crabby if we had just gotten a quick service meal of burgers and fries.

After lunch the staff gathered us up and checked that we received our necklaces and our special VIP seating passes. Then the woman in charge grabbed a flag. Yes, I said a flag. Just like the Brazilian school groups use. Only there are hundreds of them. There was like 15 of us. She didn’t need a flag. I felt silly following her.

“Mom. I don’t want to wear these things.” Eeoyre whispers to me as I suck back the remainder of my beer.

“I don’t want them either. You can’t make me wear them. They’re stupid. I don’t even want to go to this stupid show. “ Jedi starts to wrestle with the necklaces trying to get them off.

I guess he want to argue with me. But honestly, I didn’t have it in me. I knew I had to correct him about the “stupid” remark.

“Jedi, in this family we don’t use the word “stupid”. You know that.” I bring out the eyeball glare.

“Well, you can’t make me wear them” he snaps back. He has started to regain some energy has whipped the necklaces on the table and begins to wiggle his way around the restaurant. Most likely in an attempt to get Dh and I to chase him. I do a quick check and notice that there is only one exit and he has to pass me to get there so I relax and let him blow off steam.

The flag lady is not impressed. She’s motioning us to get going. I’m thinking it is still over 40 minutes until the show and quite frankly I didn’t pay extra money to wait the same amount of time as everyone else. I can do the math. The restaurant was empty and they have more than enough seats saved for us. I wasn’t in a hurry.

Flag Lady informs us that she will be back for us and takes the rest of the restaurant to the stadium.

We sit back down and let the kids run around and blow off some steam.

“Would you like to take a drink with you to the show?” one of the servers asks me.

“Sure” Like I’m going to turn down a refill of a cold drink.

“What would you like?”

“What are my options?”

I was expecting her to list the different types of soda pop available when she rhymes off the list of beers instead. I interrupt her.

“I can take alcohol into the stadium?” I ask shocked.

“Yes, ma’am”

Dh, Poppa and I exchange happy glances. We all restock our drinks (that would be my second beer). I think we got the kids a drink to go obviously non-alcoholic but I didn’t record that. It wasn’t as important as getting the beer to go.

By now the kids are feeling comfortable, cooled down and full of energy again. They are leaning over the side trying to get the whales attention. There is a staff member with them so I’m not worried. Besides, I had my beer. I was happy.

The Flag Lady returns and insists that we have to get going.

"Kids! It's time let's go" I yell at them.

Amazingly the listen and appear at our side. Or maybe the beer is having an effect on my concept of time?

"Where's my necklace? I can't go without my necklace?" Jedi starts to panic. Yes, this is the same child who refused to even let one touch his body earlier. I can't explain him. Well, I can but it would take some time. You'd all rather hear about Sea World instead.

His necklaces weren't on the table where he left them. The table had been cleaned up and was ready for the next patrons. Jedi was getting distraught.

"Where are they? I left them right here."

I offered him mine but he wasn't having it.

"No, mine had a mark right there. I want mine."

After much searching a staff member comes out of the back room and hands him one. We all pretend it was his and they found it in the backroom. She even apologizes for picking it up. I'm not pleased with Jedi's behaviour and I make him apologize for being rude and demanding.

He bats his eyelashes and flashes he blue eyes at the staff member while he delivers the most touching apology. I'm thinking I have to get this kid into Drama lessons. He's a natural.

Anyhow this is what the VIP passes looked like up close.

So all draped in our special VIP necklaces we follow the flag lady and her silly stupid flag through the special entrance. (Yes, I know I told my son we don't use the stupid word in our family but I never said I couldn't think it.)

Flag lady leads us to the assigned seating. As I predicted the area was so empty. I’m glad we gave the kids those extra minutes at the restaurant. We still had 25 minutes until the show started.

I couldn’t help but notice that not only was our roped off area practically empty but so was the whole theatre. There were still had tons of empty seats. Good ones too. There really was no need for our assigned seating for this show. I wished we had waited longer to sit down. If I hadn’t had my beer to consol me I would have felt silly for spending money to secure these seats.

Dh mentioned many times over the preshow how pleased he was with my choice of lunches. I know it was the beer talking but it was still nice to hear.

Up next, the Believe show. Click here http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=30766914&postcount=676

 

[Diamondintheruff]

OMG! This is every parent's nightmare. I am so glad that he never really ran off. At least not as far as he was concerned. There are so many distractions at these parks. I don't blame people for using the 'leashes' sometimes.

I thought the carousel was cool. I've never seen a picture of it.

The pictures from the new camera look pretty good. You'll get used to it. What did you get?

Actually my nightmare was yesterday when Dh drove the kids to his parents and I drove to visit my Mom aka Nanny (who had gallbladder surgery last week). We followed each other on the highway for a while. Then he had to veer north. I had a sudden thought that my whole world was in that van-Dh, Eeoyre, Cindy and Jedi. If anything happened to them all I don't know how I would go on. That is my nightmare.

On to a happier topic.

My new camera is a cannon powershot SX110 IS.

It's still a camera for dummies as I'm not professional but it got good reviews both in magazines and here on the photography boards. So far I'm still figuring it out.

 

[KittyKat08]

Great update!

I have never had the chance to do the dine with Shamu here in San Diego and I've always wanted to. Looks like fun.

Sea World Orlando looks pretty cool, I'm hoping that AJ and I get to see it on our next trip.

 

[DearDaisyinDurham]

the lunch sounds great!! beer to go, gotta love it!!!!

 

[lazydoxy66]

Nice update.
I'm glad the meal was good - and the beer. It sounded like fun. Except for that 'stupid' flag.

 

[MapleGirl]

Oh my! That sounds like a great beer you had. Was the other beer the standard Bud and Bud light? Hope you all enjoyed the show!

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

Fun update!!! You guys got great seats! That would have thrilled me but I love Sea World. I find it weird that they made you sit around and wait in VIP seats. Isn't part of the VIP deal that you don't have to wait? Weird???

 

[Diamondintheruff]

Great update!

I have never had the chance to do the dine with Shamu here in San Diego and I've always wanted to. Looks like fun.

Sea World Orlando looks pretty cool, I'm hoping that AJ and I get to see it on our next trip.

I've been to the one in San Diego, mind you it was over a decade ago. It was the first place I touched a sting ray and that was really neat. So I have fond memories of it.

the lunch sounds great!! beer to go, gotta love it!!!!

It was better than rose coloured glasses!

Nice update.
I'm glad the meal was good - and the beer. It sounded like fun. Except for that 'stupid' flag.

I'm guessing that the flag lady got to have a break after she sat us. Otherwise there was no need to rush us like that.

Oh my! That sounds like a great beer you had. Was the other beer the standard Bud and Bud light? Hope you all enjoyed the show!

I didn't record it so I just asked my hubby. He barely recalls any of the events during the trip so I wasn't hopeful when much to my surprise he can recall the beers he liked instantly. Go figure. He had michelob ultra extra smooth and bud light lime.

Fun update!!! You guys got great seats! That would have thrilled me but I love Sea World. I find it weird that they made you sit around and wait in VIP seats. Isn't part of the VIP deal that you don't have to wait? Weird???

Totally my point. I could entered the stadium myself 30 minutes earlier and have gotten great seats. It was the first day of "free dining" at disney and a monday so Sea World wasn't that busy.

 

[Diamondintheruff]

So here we all are in our VIP seats just waiting around for the show to start. The adults had their beers and the kids took a cup full of candies.

Don’t we look all sweaty and tired again? I think the carbohydrate overload from lunch was starting to set in.

About this time Eeoyre started to get antsy.

“Tell me why we are here again Mom?” He leans over his siblings and of course a small battle begins. Eeoyre and Jedi slap each other around a bit before Dh and I can intervene and stop them.

“What are we doing here?” Eeoyre tries again. This time picture more pre-teen attitude in the voice.

“Watching the Shamu show”

“But we just saw it.”

“No we didn’t.” I answer.

“Yeah we did. When we were sitting there. I watched it on the video screen.” he points to the restaurant where we had lunch.

I admit, I laughed at him. It just goes to show you how unprepared my kids really were for this park. I explained that we watched the pre-show about the making of this show.

“Okay so this is the show we’re waiting for right?”

“Yup” I answer a little too quickly because it appears that Mom hasn’t done her homework after all and we are about to witness the real pre-show.

The big Video screens light up and begin to show images. On one of them and I really wish I had my camera ready for it because the words “Pre-show” flash by. The announcer might have actually said the words too.

Eeoyre throws me a look that could kill and the three kids slink farther into their seats with a groan which opposed the rest of the crowd who yelled a cheer in delight.

I get my camera out and try to get a picture of the captions with “pre-show” in it to put in my report for you all but alas. It was not to be. I did however capture these questions.

Finally after the making of the show and the pre-show the actual show started. The music was lovely and as far as killer whale shows go it was fine. Nothing to rave about but nothing to really complain about either. The whole connection they tried to milk between the young boy who grows up to be a trainer kind of left us wanting. As I mentioned the music was our favorite part. We bought the CD on the way out much to Dh’s chagrin.

I never took any pictures of the show. I have to use my flash to get steady pictures with that camera and you weren’t supposed to take flash pictures so I was a good girl and listened to the rules. Of course that didn’t stop me from making a few choice comments about how much I hated this camera and wanted a new one to Dh. That was an ongoing topic for the whole trip. I have my new one now. I just need to figure out how to use it.

I forgot to mention in my last installment that we visited the stingrays just before the dolphins. I didn’t write that down in my journal but remembered last night.

Jedi was all over them. We had to calm him down to get him to hold his hand still so that the rays would go near him. Cindy just watched Jedi. She encouraged him and stood near him but wasn’t interested in touching them herself. I’m sure you can all guess by now how Eeoyre felt about it. He made a big deal of standing against a wall incase any freak spray of water came out of the pool.

I reminded the kids about the stingrays at breakfast this morning and Eeoyre distinctly remembers them. Well not the sting rays themselves but Jedi taunting him by shaking his wet “stingray” hands near him on the way to wash his hands off when we were leaving. Typical.

Anyhow back to the Shamu show. After the show I thought we could watch some other shows. The plan was to spend the whole day here. It was only about 4pm. When I got out the map and event schedule everyone groaned. They were all done-totally finished. I was a bit sad to call it quits when I knew we had hardly seen or done anything. However, I too was hot. We weren’t used to the sun we had all day and I too was feeling tired. So I gave in.

Poppa stopped us before we crossed that dreaded boardwalk bridge again (4th time).

“I have a suggestion to make.”

We all stopped and listened as Poppa usually just goes along with everything quietly. I suspect we were all a bit shocked by this.

“How about if I pay for us to take a cab back to the Hotel?”

The kids all jumped for joy. Yay for Poppa! Dh felt a twinge guilt because of his earlier cheapness but quickly got over it.

We made our way out of the park and stopped to shop in a couple stores (which is when I bought the Believe soundtrack) and play in some fountains. Poppa took these shots while I shopped.

The Taxi stand was right outside the park entrance. We couldn’t take the next one in line though as we had to get a Taxi Van since there were 6 of us. The Taxi Van was parked a little further away but it barely seemed like anything since I could make out the bus stop way off in the distance.

It was heavenly taking that air-conditioned taxi van back to the hotel. The driver chatted a fair bit with Poppa and Dh. Apparently he was from the Philippines and was debating whether to relocate to Canada or Florida. When he found out how much we Canadians pay in taxes he decided on Florida. We all got a laugh out of that.

All in all the Taxi Van cost us or rather I should say Poppa $40 plus tip. It was so worth it. I tried hard not to be bitter about taking the bus this morning. I sat with my anger for a moment and imagined it flying away into the greenery around the POR parking lot. Then I took a deep breath and ran with the kids to the quiet pool near us.

They all wanted to go swimming so that’s what we did. I totally shocked them when I jumped in the pool fully clothed. It was all dryfit clothes after all. They soon followed suit and we frolicked like a happy vacationing family unit should.

We had a quiet dinner at the POR food court tonight. I could bore you with some details over our continuing fight *ahem* I mean spirited discussion to get Eeoyre to consume some fruits and veggies but you’ve heard it before.

Just know that we did indeed "discuss" the topic and he did consume some fruits and vegetables. Not as much as we would have liked but more than he liked. Somewhere during that time he also managed to piss off his sister. She hissed and screamed at him to stop in a voice louder than the situation called for. The kids were separated, apologies mandatory and I took Cindy to another table. So there I did bore you with the details after all.

Tomorrow we have our last full day of our vacation. We were finally going to the animal kingdom. The time had come to start packing to go home. While Dh and I were discussing packing we decided that there was no point in taking our old stroller home with us. Remember way back at the beginning of the trip when I talked about our two strollers. One new one that I bought just for the trip and our old evenflow one that was as old as Eeoyre and broke down twice. We weren't able to fix after that second brake and we hadn’t been using is for many days now. To be honest my plan never included bringing it home. It had served us well but with the new stroller and Jedi turning 6 we really didn’t need it anymore.

Overhearing our plans to take the old stroller "out to pasture" so to speak sent one of our children completely over the bend with grief. So much so that by the next night they had Dh, Poppa and I in tears with them. Who was it? Stay tuned and find out. Click here http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=31005976&postcount=695

 

[DisneyJo]

The meal sounds nice, well except the silly flag lady, how great that you got extra beers, I'm intrigued how yours tasted, I don't like beer but that sounds nice!

It must have been lovely to go home via taxi after your eventful bus journey there and once that sun did come out it really did get hot didn't it, we weren't used to it either

 

[DearDaisyinDurham]

Fun update! My favorite part was when you all jumped in the pool! And Poppa paying for the a/c van ride back, that must have been heaven. Once we were on Centre Island and there was a HUMONGO line for the ferry, and LM paid for a water taxi for us - it was like $10 and we had our own boat! A fond memory.

Sad to say I only guessed a couple of the Shamu questions correctly.

Hmmmm....who is sentimental about the stroller? Eeyore, Cindy or Jedi? I don't think it's Jedi - I'm guessing one of your older two but can't decide which as either one can remember it as "their" stroller?

 

[Diamondintheruff]

I'm off tomorrow for Myrtle Beach so I won't be around on the boards for a bit. I just didn't want you all to think that I had deserted you. Just checked the long term weather report though and it doesn't look promising. Sigh! At least there isn't a tropical storm on the horizon.

The meal sounds nice, well except the silly flag lady, how great that you got extra beers, I'm intrigued how yours tasted, I don't like beer but that sounds nice!

It must have been lovely to go home via taxi after your eventful bus journey there and once that sun did come out it really did get hot didn't it, we weren't used to it either

The beer was good (for beer). It was fruity with no after taste and ice cold. I remember the cold hurt my teeth.

Fun update! My favorite part was when you all jumped in the pool! And Poppa paying for the a/c van ride back, that must have been heaven. Once we were on Centre Island and there was a HUMONGO line for the ferry, and LM paid for a water taxi for us - it was like $10 and we had our own boat! A fond memory.

Sad to say I only guessed a couple of the Shamu questions correctly.

Hmmmm....who is sentimental about the stroller? Eeyore, Cindy or Jedi? I don't think it's Jedi - I'm guessing one of your older two but can't decide which as either one can remember it as "their" stroller?

Due to the extreme weather conditions this trip we hadn't spent that much time in the pools so we were trying to make up for it.

I didn't get that many Shamu questions right either.

All three kids used the stroller at some point. But you are right the new one belonged to Jedi so he was the least upset about it.

 

[Diamondintheruff]

YIPEEE!

40th Birthday Celebration Trip with Dh Only Update!

We switched resorts today. My TA called to tell me about the new deals Disney released and I upgraded us from POP to.....































The Animal Kingdom Lodge!



I'm totally psyched for it. There were two other options. One was the Wilderness Lodge and while I like the idea of the ferry boat to the MK you all might remember my feelings on the actual resort itself. I can visit Great Wolf Lodge anytime I feel the need to fufill my "lodge decor" needs. The other was the Beach Club and I thought I would walk around wishing the kids were with us to enjoy it. Since I'm not trying for sadness this trip it was out.

We leave 43 days from today. Of course I still have this Myrtle beach vacation to get over with first. Speaking of which I haven't finished packing so I'd better go.