A Jersey Family Returns to WDW for Jersey Week 2005 -- **Chapter 7 Now Up**

[angbatiato]

trifecta....so funny...hope i don't run into that problem with my DD-3 on her first trip in January!

 

[exwdwcm]

Totally enjoying your report!! can't wait to read the rest of the story. lol at the trifecta, it never fails. we leave for POR on saturday and here's hoping we don't get a bad location!!

oh and my coworker is an ex jungle cruise skipper, Danger Dave.....he loved the job.

 

[jsfein]

A twist had been thrown into our itinerary on our Magic Kingdom day. My stepmom, who we were originally supposed to visit in South Florida half-way through our trip but cancelled due to Hurricane Wilma, had suddenly traveled to her South Florida home to deal with property damage and insurance issues suffered as a result of the hurricane. We now had a dilemma. Do we cut WDW short after having extended our stay at POR and spent a small fortune on 10 day park admissions in order to satisfy family obligations? I may not have mentioned earlier that my stepmom paid for one-half of our airfare which was a significant consideration. The decision wasn’t easy (yeah right). We decided to stay put at WDW, but to travel to South Florida on Friday (the day before our return to NJ) to squeeze in an overnight stay. We also reached the understanding that we would attempt a return visit in the next few months. This eased my conscience. Our surprise extended WDW vacation was left intact.

Tuesday morning our 1st POR reservation concluded and our 2nd POR reservation commenced … back to the hotel lobby to check out and check back in. Silly, but I don’t make the rules. We drove over to the Animal Kingdom in time for the park’s opening. Animal Kingdom is a Disney park that has always been difficult for us. Its either been exceptionally hot on our visits to AK and the heat wore us down and we were at each other’s throats early in the day or the kids freaked out in Its Tough To Be A Bug and were catatonic for the day or DW forced us to suffer through another performance of Tarzan Rocks. I vowed that today would be different. We would avoid Tarzan Rocks at all costs.

This morning we had our first double stroller revelation. We observed a family with three kids even older than ours squeezed into a double stroller. The 2 older kids were seated and the youngest was seated in the foot well. If those older, larger kids could share a stroller, why couldn’t our younger, smaller kids? We employed this technique and it eased our stroller conflict. DW had another stroller revelation later in the day which eased the conflict even further. See below.

Upon entering the park, we followed the herd to Kilimanjaro Safaris. There are certain attractions that I can ride again and again, year after year, and still find them fun and exhilarating. The Safari doesn’t fall in this category. Two years ago the Safari was different and interesting, last year it wasn’t so different and interesting, this year I could have done without it. However, the kids still enjoy it so I must persevere. Is it possible to visit AK and not ride the Safari? If so, please reveal your secret.

As we left the Safari, DW noted how nice the theming is in the Africa area of AK. Although we haven’t visited Africa and have no idea how authentic the theming really is, I agree. Its one of our favorite areas of all the Disney parks and the CMs are particularly friendly and engaging. We are always ready with a “Jambo” before the CMs can get their “Jambo” out to us. We intended to spend more leisure time in the Africa area, but just didn’t get to it.

We took off to Kali River Rapids which was a first for us. Everyone met the height requirements and we sneered at the poncho stand with much bravado that a little water wouldn’t hurt us. Thankfully, there was no wait. The walk from the entrance to the start of the ride was exceedingly long. For those who have actually waited in this line, you have my sympathy. The rapids were fun and the the boys were disappointed that we didn’t get more wet than we did. We rode a second time without having to leave our boat and could have rode again, but passed over the kids’ objections.

We then saw the Flights of Wonder show – also a first for us. Another thumbs-up. DS7, in particular, loved this show. A pretty good start to our day. We were soon off for an early lunch at Tusker House where we were expecting to get the lunch deal offered last year which included lunch, drink, and vouchers for a water and snack later in the day. Unfortunately, the deal was no longer being offered, but we still had a nice lunch. This is our go-to lunch place at AK.

After lunch, we opted for the Pocahontas show over Festival of Lion King since we had seen FOLK the past two years, but had never seen Pocahontas. Next year we will return to FOLK. Sorry Pocahontas, but you didn’t make the cut. ITTBAB was up next. DS5 has never had a good experience on ITTBAB and passed for the Boneyard with DW. DD wasn’t phased. Shhhhhh … don’t tell anyone that DS7 had his 3D glasses off and his eyes covered during some parts.

We then rode Dinosaur for the first time. I left the ride wondering, “What was the point of that ride?” I just didn’t get it. It was plenty loud, plenty dark, and plenty bumpy. But the sum of the parts just didn’t add up. No one clamored to ride again. DS7 and I rode Primeval Whirl, which the other kids would have loved but weren’t tall enough to ride. We hit the Boneyard and had to drag the kids out of the dig site. On the way out of AK I gave our double stroller to a family that was just entering and heading for the stroller rental counter. They were extremely grateful for the gesture. I tried to remember to pass off our stroller each time we left a park and always received much thanks from parents. Be on the lookout for the “Stroller Fairy” from NJ.

It was around 2 pm and we didn’t know what to do. Should we go to POR and take a swim? Should we go to MGM and catch Fantasmic? Should we go to Epcot and catch Illuminations? MK was open late and was also an option. What to do, what to do. The indecision was too much for this recovering Disney commando. I could not help my commando instincts from taking over and I made the decision to head to MGM. I hoped the kids could handle back to back parks without a ho-towel break. A very risky strategy.

Upon entering MGM, DW had our next stroller revelation. She “innocently” inquired, “If I get a stroller with our prepaid ticket, and then discretely give you the prepaid ticket, couldn’t we get ourselves 2 double strollers?” DW is the “rule breaking” parent, not me. Wonder where DD gets it from? Remember that DW would have sanctioned pool-hopping had we had bathing suits with us when we visited the Poly earlier in the trip. DW’s stroller scheme was not as offensive as pool-hopping on my spectrum of adherence to Disney rules and I became a co-conspirator. At the outset, Operation 2 Double Strollers worked well. That was until DD decided to play “stroller partner” favorites. DD decided that she only wanted to ride with DS5 and wanted nothing to do with DS7. There had been no falling out between DD and DS7; she just wanted to stir the pot. DD knew exactly what she was doing as DS7 is the more sensitive of the boys. DS7 was extremely upset by his 3 year old sister’s affection for DS5 and rejection of him, and sulked. Thanks to DD, Operation 2 Double Strollers did not alleviate our stroller issues.

We attempted to get all 3 kids to ride Tower of Terror. DS7, who rode ToT earlier in the trip was willing but a little tepid; DS5 declared that there was no way he was riding; and DD was gung-ho to ride. Despite DS5’s objection, we tried to get him to join us but when we got to the entrance of the Hollywood Hotel, he wouldn’t budge. We didn’t push him further and DW took him pin trading. To my amazement and the amazement of the other riders in our elevator car, DD was not phased in the least by ToT. She had a sort of ho-hum attitude about it. Having ridden ToT was no big deal to DD, that is until we returned home and she told family and friends about her WDW trip. The first thing she mentions is her ride on ToT and seeing the “electricity ghosts.”

We trekked to the rear of the park to see the Stunt show. It was now 4 pm, we had not taken a break all day, were tired and hungry. Either we just weren’t in the right frame of mind for the Stunt show or it didn’t live up to the hype. It didn’t get high marks from any of us. We were exhausted and ready to leave. However, the boys really wanted to hit the Honey, I Shrunk The Kids Playground. We’ve been before and know that it’s a zoo. But they really, really wanted to go so we did. We were the ultimate irresponsible parents and let the kids run free with instructions that they were to stay together. DW and I plopped on the ground. We watched parents chasing kids and laughed. We shared some candy from the backpack. We may have fallen asleep. I don’t know how much time passed. We were pretty sure that we hadn’t seen the kids in a while. I said to DW, “Do you think we should go look for them?” DW responded, “Do we have to?” The stars must have been aligned because we found the kids, all 3 together, on our first search attempt.

It was around 5:30 pm and we had no plan for the evening. The rational plan with 3 young kids would have been to return to POR, swim and relax. We, however, returned to Epcot for the Food & Wine Festival which we didn’t get to enjoy on our earlier visit. A 3 Park Day – a first for us!! We used our new double stroller trick when we arrived at Epcot. After hitting the McDonald’s stand for the kids, we began to graze around the FWF. We stuck to the food only and had more misses than hits. I left much lighter in my wallet. The kids did the Kidcot stations for the first time and had fun visiting the different countries. We will return to do the Kidcot stations again. The highlight of the night were the drummers who perform in Japan. Actually, the highlight wasn’t the drummers themselves, but DD and DS5 who danced the night away to the rhythm of the drums. I think they got as much applause from the crowd as did the drummers. We made it to the start of Illuminations but we were all bored by the show and left early. Is there something wrong with us for not enjoying Illuminations?

We had a very fun, very tiring day. I was pretty amazed by the kids’ durability. We needed a good night’s rest and were pleased to find the vomit soiled sheets removed upon our return to POR. We slept well that night and avoided the dreaded last leg of the trifecta for another day.

 

[teentoddlermom]

A true commando day! Great installment!

 

[Thumper's Tara]

I love it! Thanks for writing it. I love the humor and I am taking parenting notes for when I have children