Brett & Katie's 10Yr Anniversary- 8 days in Disney, Sept 2010 (POR & Waldorf Astoria)

[ktjohn]

Where do two adults go who are children at heart?? DISNEY WORLD!!! Where do two adults go for an unbelievably romantic vacation?? DISNEY WORLD!! Where do two food lovers go to feast on more food than any human being should ever eat?? DISNEY WORLD!! Ok, Ok… I’m sure there are lots of other great vacation destinations out there, but I’m not interested in any of them. BAAHAHAHAHAA!!

This was us relaxing in a hammock… in Disney World… a gentle breeze… no kids to attend to… just me and my bestest friend in the whole wide world. Does it get any better or more romantic than this?!!

This is my trip report of our 10 year Anniversary getaway to Disney (September 11-18, 2010). I should have written this a long time ago, but when we got back home, we were immediately hit with all manner of life drama and haven’t had a chance to breath since then. I’m FINALLY going to write this! Wild horses can’t stop me (ok, maybe they could… I'm slightly melodramatic ). Deep breaths… here I go…

Here was my pre-trip report…

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2515446



The drive down to Orlando was insanely romantic, because my husband had been secretly making plans the month before. When I hopped in the car early that Saturday morning, he had covered the interior of the car with pictures of us and our family (and pets) that spanned the past 11 years of our dating and married lives together. Then he played old “mixed tapes” I had made when we were dating. We don’t have a tape player anymore, so he bought all the songs on itunes and re-compiled the playlists. There were little love notes all over the place, and I was completely overwhelmed! It was a blissful beginning to a very blissful trip!

We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside. After much research and poring over pictures, reviews, and descriptions of all the resorts, we chose Riverside. We were not disappointed!! I was so excited when we finally pulled into the resort. Months and months of planning totally paid off! We were wildly pleased.

This was the entrance…

Here is the Riverside Mill which houses the giant food court…

Looking at the Mill from across the river…

This is part of the dock area (behind the main lobby)…

Boatwright’s Dining Hall…

The river ferry that takes you to Downtown Disney…

We stayed in the Magnolia mansions section in the Acadian House. It was so peaceful and the grounds were beautifully maintained!

This was the main pool… complete with water slide, water fountains, etc… it was always pretty busy in there…

We stuck to one of the quiet pools next to our building. It was gorgeous!

I was quite happy with our room and had no complaints!

I would recommend Riverside in a heartbeat to anyone. It was a glorious experience from beginning to end. We never had a single complaint. The only slight hiccup was at check-in, but it was resolved super fast. We had requested to stay in Magnolia, but they had assigned us to Alligator Bayou. I don't have anything against that section, but my husband and I just really wanted to stay in one of the mansions for this trip. We asked if she could move us, and she had us moved immediately. No fuss! It was such a relief!

More to come soon!

 

[ktjohn]

We arrived at POR early, and they let us into our room immediately, which was about 4 hours before actual check-in time (hallelujah!). We unpacked and rested for a little while, and then our first order of business was to high tail it over to The Boardwalk to watch the Ohio State vs. Miami football game at the ESPN Club.

Let me pause here to say that this wouldn’t have been my first choice of activity on our first night of our magically romantic vacation. However, my husband is a die-hard Ohio State alumni, and he was so thrilled that I built the game into our itinerary. Marriage is all about compromise! Encouraging each other’s interests (even if they might not be your own interests). I went to that bar and screamed just as loud as the crazy fans there, and my husband had the time of his life. (Thankfully OSU won… otherwise it would not have been the time of his life).

The ESPN Club at Boardwalk…

Inside the bar section of the ESPN Club... (There were TV’s EVERYWHERE! My eyeballs had trouble deciding where to focus!)

DH and Me at the ESPN Club…

The food at the ESPN Club was actually pretty good! I went in with very low expectations, and was pleasantly surprised.

After the game was over, we walked around the Boardwalk, did a little shopping, crossed the bridge and walked around the resorts on the other side of the lake. It was so pretty in the evening. It was especially nice to walk around at our own pace and not worry about our little kids trying to keep up. We just walked hand in hand and called the kids to say goodnight to them (they stayed with their Grammy and Grampy for the week).

Here are some pictures we took of the Boardwalk…

After we finished walking around, my body reminded me that I'd been up since 2am to drive down to Orlando, and fatigue hit pretty hard. We stumbled half conscious into our hotel room and tried to get some sleep. Morning was going to come fast and we'd be off to the Magic Kingdom!!!

I'll write more later!

 

[shoppgirl]

Great start to you report and lovely photos. What a romantic start to your anniversary trip! My husband and I also left the girls at home with their grandparents and spent three fabulous nights at the Waldorf Astoria, so I am looking forward to reading your thoughts on your stay there. We loved it so much we plan to return this summer with the girls!

 

[Disneychix]

HeeHee, I love that you went to ESPN Club on your 1st day! My DH is a die-hard NotreDame football fan and we've spent many Saturdays in Sept and Oct watching college football there. It is the little things we do for love!

 

[ktjohn]

My husband and I also left the girls at home with their grandparents and spent three fabulous nights at the Waldorf Astoria, so I am looking forward to reading your thoughts on your stay there. We loved it so much we plan to return this summer with the girls!

That is awesome! Yes we absolutely loved, loved, loved our one night at the Waldorf! I'd love to go back again. Here is a link to my official review of the Waldorf, but I'll be going more in depth in my trip report later (we stayed there on our last night).

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2619275

HeeHee, I love that you went to ESPN Club on your 1st day! My DH is a die-hard NotreDame football fan and we've spent many Saturdays in Sept and Oct watching college football there. It is the little things we do for love!

We definitely do crazy things for love! LOL!! He was so happy, though, so it was worth it

 

[ktjohn]

Day Two- Magic Kingdom!

We had never been to a rope drop before in our previous trips. Since it was just the two of us on this trip, we decided we must brave the early morning alarm clock, drink an impressive amount of coffee (sweet nectar of life), and haul our sleepy selves out to the Kingdom for rope drop! I’m so glad we did, because it was lots of fun!! When we go back in January with the kids, we’ll be dragging them out for this…

Instead of immediately running towards a ride (It is the second week of September, you know… no need to rush… it’s the quiet season), we stopped at the Main Street Emporium to get our wedding anniversary ears (Seriously, we really are just big overgrown kids) and our happy 10yr anniversary buttons!

Then we strolled across the street to the Main Street Bakery for a relaxing breakfast. I was pleasantly shocked when we got to the front of the line. I asked them which items would be considered a “snack” on the dining plan. The gentleman said, “Anything here! Except the sandwiches.” HOLY WOW!!! Can anyone say bakery nirvana??! I decided to get a parfait this time around (even though I really wanted a gigantor cinnamon roll), because I knew I had a whole week of eating stretched out in front of me. I decided to ease my way into the pig out! (However at the end of the trip when we had tons of snack credits leftover, we raided the bakery. HAA!)

Once we were finished eating, we immediately went to Space Mountain. This isn’t a ride we could do on previous trips, because our kids were too young and short. It jumped to the top of our priority list on this trip, since we were kid free. I figured we’d probably have to get a fast pass and wait, but we actually walked right on… no lines no waiting! I love September!!

Next we ran over to the tea cups. I have a lot of history with those tea cups. My Dad used to spin me in them SUPER FAST when I was a kid, and I love taking my girls on them each year. My DH doesn’t do well on spinning rides, but he wanted to out rank my Dad as superhero #1. So he agreed to go on them with me. DH was determined to spin me faster in the tea cups than I'd ever gone before. Unfortunately, he made himself a little sick and had to sit down after. Poor guy. BUT IT WAS THE FASTEST I'VE EVER GONE! Woohoooo!!

After that, we rode the following (I made little notes in my iPhone to show how quiet it was on the second week of September! Have I mentioned I love September?)

Philharmagic- walk on

Peter Pan- got a fast pass, came back and waited 1 minute

Haunted Mansion- walk on

Splash Mountain- got a fast pass, came back and waited 1 minute
(I got so drenched… it took forever to dry)

Thunder Mountain- walk on

Pirates- walk on

Then we had lunch at the Columbia Harbor House. The bell ringer was so excited to wish us a happy anniversary, and he let me ring the bell! EEEEEKKK!!! How exciting!!

After lunch we headed over to Tom Sawyer’s Island. I haven’t been over there since the ill-fated raft ride of 1987. Haha! My parents took me in the heat of July when I was 8. I got heat stroke and passed out on the overcrowded raft. I don’t remember anything after that (obviously), but I hear my Dad had to carry me, panic stricken, and made a mad dash for the clinic in Fantasyland. I never got to see the island, and they never went back on future trips. So this was actually my first time, and I was excited to see what was over there!

It was so much fun and such a cute little island!!!

This is my DH’s impression of Captain Morgan. LOL!

I have to say, by this time in the afternoon, we were dying in the heat. However, the island had more of a breeze than anywhere else in the park. We lingered there for that reason. Once we crossed back over, it was blazing hot again. I’m guessing it must have had something to do with being surrounded by water and lots of tree cover and shade.

Well, my lunch break is over, and duty calls. I’ll write more later (that evening proved to be our most hilarious Magic Kingdom memory. I'll write about it this evening)!

 

[ktjohn]

So where did I leave off? Oh yeah… still in the Magic Kingdom! And it was REALLY HOT!

We started slowing down from the heat, so I spent some time leisurely taking pictures. I usually take about 3,000-4,000 pictures per Disney vacation. (Yes, I’m a wee bit of a camera freak). I was taking pictures of the Liberty Belle riverboat, and apparently a guy on the boat thought we looked funny in our wedding ears, because he started taking pictures of us taking pictures of him. HAA! Then we waived, and he waived back. I LOVE the friendly neighborly spirit in Disney (well…. MOST people are friendly, and I appreciate it).

After that we went to dinner at Tony’s. As we were walking past the castle, I thought the afternoon reflection in the water was beautiful. I stopped DH for the many hundredth time with my personal Disney motto… “OOOH! STOP! I must take a picture!” (My kids hate this motto. My husband finds it slightly endearing.)

Anyway, onward to dinner! I love Tony’s! I've read lots of awful reviews on this board for Tony’s, but I guess everything is subjective to one’s own opinion, because we think it’s awesome. I’ve never had a bad meal there. When we got to our table, it had been sprinkled with mickey confetti and curled ribbon. I nearly hit the roof with excitement that they had done that for our anniversary. Yes… I know… all the tables had this neat celebratory touch… People. Please. Let me live in my little fantasy world.

Dinner was fantastic (as usual), and I was so full I had to be rolled out (as usual). We lumbered around the shops for awhile trying to digest. Then it was time to go find a spot for Wishes.

I have to pause here and tell you that the evening I’m about to describe can’t really be accurately described. It can only be experienced. So if I’m laughing with tears rolling down my face and you’re sitting here scratching your head thinking I’ve completely lost it… well, it’s because I can’t do it justice. This was the most memorable moment of our trip, and you’ll just have to pat me on the head, roll your eyes, and take my word for it.

As we stood waiting for Wishes, storm clouds began rolling in. We started seeing massive lightning in the distance, but for some reason, Wishes wasn’t being cancelled. Everyone stood there waiting and watching. The thunder and lightning got closer, but still no announcement about Wishes. Brett looked at me and said, “It’s going to start pouring any second. Quick, put all your camera equipment away. I’ll throw our phones into the plastic baggies.” Like crazy people, we started putting everything away while people stared at us. At the exact moment I finished zipping up the backpack, the heavens literally opened. It didn’t start as a sprinkle. It started as a deluge. We threw on our ponchos, but the rain was so outrageous, our ponchos didn’t keep us dry.

Still, no announcement about Wishes…

The crowds were in absolute hysterics. Everywhere we turned, there were people running in all directions in frantic meltdown. People were acting as though their very lives were under threat. Brett and I stood there watching the scene play out. Parents screaming… children desperately trying to stay dry under the tiny stroller awning… it was more hilarious than I can describe. (I do feel bad for people who hate to get wet. I'm not heartless. It was just one of the funniest things I've ever seen).

Then a woman went running by with her three kids, and she began yelling at the top of her lungs, “WHERE’S THE STROLLER???!!! WHERE IS THE STROLLER???!!!!!!!!” And her children began yelling the same thing at the top of their little lungs. Over and over again. It appeared for a few minutes that their lives depended on a certain missing stroller. At this point, the mass hysteria was so funny, I just stood there in the buckets of rain laughing my head off (because really, when you’re caught in the rain, what else can you do?!).

Still, no announcement about Wishes….

Brett grabbed my hand, and we began the long dash through giant puddles of water and pelting rain from the castle to the monorail. People were huddled under the Main Street awnings, so we couldn’t walk under them. We were just “Walking right down the middle of Main Street USA!” At one point, I realized my poncho was no match for the driving rain, and every piece of my clothing was soaked. I just threw my head back and delighted in no longer caring about my appearance, makeup, hair, or all those other things that we women fret over. It was so fun to not care and just run through the rain laughing with my best friend!

We made it to the front entrance. And then we finally heard it…

“Ladies and Gentlemen, this evening’s performance of Wishes has been postponed due to weather.”

Yah think??!!!

It took 3 days for my shoes to dry and 4 days for Brett’s sneakers to dry. For the rest of the week, no matter what we were doing, one of us would look over at the other and whisper, “Where’s the stroller?” And we’d both lose it in fits of giggles and laughter.

We slept well that night. I think I smiled in my sleep. Those unexpected kind of moments are some of the best vacation memories. And I'm pretty sure the mother found her stroller.

I’ll write more later! Next up, a fun day at HS!

 

[Nermel9]

Really enjoying your TR so far! September is a great time to go, gotta love the non-existant wait times! Love your pictures!

My DH and I had dinner at Tony's on our Disneymoon this past May, and I got really excited about the Mickey confetti on the table too...they gave us a little baggie to take it home with us!

 

[ktjohn]

My DH and I had dinner at Tony's on our Disneymoon this past May, and I got really excited about the Mickey confetti on the table too...they gave us a little baggie to take it home with us!

HAHAHA! They gave you a baggie?! That's so awesome! We should have asked for one, but I was afraid they'd think I was weird. So I just secretly stowed it away in my backpack and tried to hide the guilty expression of "I'm a theiving felon" that was written all over my face.

 

[ktjohn]

Day 3- Hollywood Studios and MK

After reading for months on this board about the insanity that is TSM, Brett and I got to the park as early as we could for rope drop (we wanted to be at the front of the rope drop crowd). We may have overdone it just a wee bit, because we were the second people to arrive at the gate. HAHA! So we had a long time to sit and wait. No matter! iPhones are fun little gadgets, which kept us entertained.

When they let us in, people went charging past us like stampeding buffalo. But we walked (briskly) and calmly to the rope… determined to keep some small piece of our dignity.

The rope drop performance was funny but not nearly as awesome as the MK rope drop.

We walked with the throng of people over to TSM, got our fast pass, and hopped in the standby line. We actually walked right onto the ride in under 1 minute! Pretty cool, if I do say so myself! I did insist on stopping Brett for half a second with my personal Disney motto, “OOOOHH! STOP! I must take a picture!”

He didn’t appreciate it so much, since people were passing by us, and we were losing our place in line. But in hindsight, it didn’t matter. We pretty much walked right on the ride anyways!

Prepare to fire!!

Prepare to fire!!

I forget what time our fast pass was for, but we did end up riding it again later. I think we waited about 5 minutes in the fast pass line.

Now that our TSM mission was accomplished, it was time for a little marital compromise. DH did tea cups at MK for me, so now it was my turn to go on a ride for him. Brett is a TOT fanatic. I, on the other hand, have a significant fear of falling elevators (re-occurring nightmares and all). Every time I get in an elevator, my palms begin sweating, and I have to find a focal point to stare at till the doors open. So as you can see, I really should receive some sort of medal for getting on TOT with him! (still waiting for my medal).

My legs were wobbly for about an hour after that, but we immediately ran over to RNRC (as if my wobbly legs and queasy stomach needed more abuse)! I’m not a big fan of going upside down usually, but I can handle that roller coaster. We had fun riding all these rides that we can’t do with our kids who don’t yet meet the height requirement.

After much abuse to my stomach and my wobbly legs, it was time to go recover for a few minutes at Starring Rolls.

Starring Rolls café… breakfast of champs! LOL! I only have two words to say… CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER CUPCAKE!!!! (ok, that was 4 words…).

Whenever we have the kids with us, we always do all the shows (Playhouse Disney, Mermaid, Beauty, etc…). So we skipped all that and focused on things we don’t normally get to do. It was a very different experience!

These were our wait times:
TOT- walk on
RNRC- fast pass, then 5 minute wait
Great Movie Ride- walk on
Sounds Dangerous- walk on
Indiana Jones- walk in
Backlot Tour- 10 minutes

Have I mentioned lately that I love September?!

All this fun was making us hungry. Time for our lunch ADR at Mama Melrose!

Let me stop here and say that I read a lot of dining reviews on this board, and I find such a vast array of opinions (good and bad). So when we began the process of deciding where we wanted to eat and making reservations, we found it too difficult to decide based on reviews. Instead, we just looked through menu after menu and made choices based on which menus looked yummy to us. DH is a pasta lover and a meat and potatoes kind of guy. He gets nervous when there are weird looking things on the menu (such as Ahi Tuna and other things that do not rhyme with chicken). So I catered our ADR’s to him. I’m pretty easy to please and will eat anywhere.

Ok, where was I? Oh yes! Mama Melrose. BEST MEAL OF THE TRIP!!! Ommm nom nom nommm….

I ordered a steak, because I’d just had pasta the night before at Tony’s. It was out of this world delicious (I guess that’s the beauty of being on the free dining plan… you can order the most expensive thing on the menu). I forget what we ate for dessert, but it was equally amazing. Mmmm… now I have visions of Mama Melrose dancing in my head…..



*sigh*

Here are a few of our pics from the afternoon…

After the Block Party Bash, we suddenly started feeling really sick from the sun and heat. We’d been doing fine up till then, but I think standing still under the sun with no shade was a bad idea. I dehydrated faster than I could blink. So we got some water and ducked into the shops to spend some money. Brett bought me a silver Mickey ring that I wear all the time now. I love it! We also got a few things for the kids and had them sent to our hotel room.

Then it was time to hop over to MK for the MSEP...

 

[ktjohn]

I was SOOOOO psyched to see the MSEP parade again. It was the most notable part of my childhood trips to Disney, and I was very excited for a walk down memory lane. We got to MK a couple hours before the parade and scoped out a good place to stand for picture taking.

At this point, I’m going to need your help resolving a heated debate between me and DH. We didn’t want to lose our great spot, but we were ready to use our CS credit for dinner. My idea was to leave him standing there and go get dinner from Cosmic Rays to bring back. He insisted that we weren’t allowed to take food out of the restaurant and that we’d have to eat it there. I insisted it was our food, and we could eat it wherever we pleased! (Oh the ridiculously small things married people argue about. It’s comical, really). Anyway, I won. We carried all the food, by any means necessary, back to our spot on Main Street. We held the drinks and fries, and he stuffed burgers and desserts into the big giant pockets on his shorts. He wasn’t pleased with this scenario at all. I personally thought it was brilliant.

Soo… are you allowed to bring your CS meals to eat in the park? Or is it a rule that they have to be eaten in the restaurant? (if you vote for Brett and not me, I’ll unsubscribe you from my thread. KIDDING!!!! )

The Main Street Electric Parade was more sentimental and emotion provoking than I expected it to be. I was flooded with memories and sheer childhood joy. I’m so glad they brought this parade back for awhile!

We stayed after the parade for Wishes, and I was all excited to see it again. But as we were standing there watching, I couldn’t enjoy it as much. I started really missing my kids, because Wishes is something we always get them excited for. We watch their faces as they watch Wishes, and that’s a large part of the magic for us. Not having them there felt like something was missing. *sigh* This trip was desperately needed by DH and me, and I don’t regret it at all. It was amazing. But for this one moment, I wanted my kids there with me…

I got over it after we boarded the monorail and headed back to the resort. I knew tomorrow we’d be heading to Typhoon Lagoon, which isn’t a place we can currently take our kids (they are too short and not good swimmers yet). A whole day at a water park with just DH and me! I was going to take this rare opportunity to act like a kid again.

 

[Shannon84]

I am so glad you guys had a great time at MK even though it poured on you guys...we had a few days like that and you just have to roll with it and have fun! Though I love when people FREAK OUT!!!

The picture with the castle and reflection in the water came out beautiful!! I am the same way, having to stop and take pictures everywhere in WDW...its part of the experience!!

 

[ktjohn]

I am the same way, having to stop and take pictures everywhere in WDW...its part of the experience!!

It's so nice to know I'm not alone!! Can you please tell my kids it's part of the experience?? They don't believe me!

 

[ktjohn]

Day 4- Typhoon Lagoon

Water park day!!!!!! Wake up! Wake up! Actually, that’s not entirely accurate. It was more like,

Brett- “Honey, you want to get up and get ready?”
Me- “No fanks. I sleeping…”
Brett- “K. Zzzzz…”

Eventually we rolled out of bed and slowly got ready (covering your entire self with sunscreen is such a process!). Two things became very apparent to us. 1) The first 3 days of high octane vacationing were catching up to our bodies (if anyone says 32 is the new 18, they are lying). And 2) We forgot to pack towels.

$18.95 per souvenir towel at Typhoon Lagoon!!! GAG. We knew it was ridiculous, but we decided to spend the money and then just use them as gifts for our kids. Brilliant!! They love those towels and use them at bath time incessantly. I feel better knowing at least we’re gonna get our money’s worth out of them.

We got to Typhoon Lagoon in the late morning once we felt like we could function as alert and awake human beings.

After getting our locker and buying our towels, we headed over to Gangplank Falls.

I’m not sure this was the wisest choice for a first ride. I wasn’t really wet yet, so the little waterfalls and splashes of water that hit you all along the way down were like total shock to my system! I kept screaming in shock! Brett thought it was amusing.

If I wasn’t drenched before, I certainly was now!! After that it was smooth sailing. We hit almost every slide in the park in rapid succession. It took longer to run up the winding trails and staircases to get to the top of each slide than it did to actually wait. When there are no lines and no waiting, you can get a massively intense workout racing up all those stairs!!!

These were our wait times…
Gang Plank- walk on
Keelhaul falls- 5 minutes
Mayday falls- 2 minutes
Storm Slides- walked on to all 3 slides
Crush n gusher- 10 minutes
Humunga- 1 minute

September is seriously amazing!

After Gang Plank, Keelhaul, Mayday, and Storm Slides, we went over to Humunga. This is one slide I will politely decline every time. Back in my youth, I would have done it in a heartbeat. I’m getting old.

So Brett went on it without me. He waived to me from the top as I juggled both the camera and video camera.

This was him hitting the bottom. Hahah!

Aaaannd this was him getting off the slide and trying to remember what year it is and what his name is. LOL!

We hit Crush ‘n’ Gusher next.

And here we meet the old man CM who reminded me of ALL my worst insecurities in life! He made me sit in the front end of the tube, because “whoever weighs more sits in front.” Kill me now. I hate weighing more than my husband. Why can’t I be one of those tiny petite wives? Why?!!

Oh well…

I climbed in front, wanted to cry, but repressed my feelings. The happiest place on earth is not the place to dwell on insecurities and unhappy thoughts! I threw it far from my mind as soon as we started down the slide. It’s a seriously fun slide!! I wanted to go on it again, but we were totally wiped out from all the stair climbing/running and suddenly the top of the Crush 'n' Gusher looked like Mt. Everest. We headed over to relax in the wave pool.

I love this wave pool. I’ve been in love with it since I was a kid. The “tsunami” waves thrill my very soul

We did some heavy duty wave jumping for awhile (so much for relaxing! LOL!) and worked up a massive appetite. I don’t even remember what we ate at The Leaning Palms, because it was inhaled so quickly off my plate. I think it must have been a burger.

After that we truly needed to relax before we killed ourselves. We’d done every slide in the park (some twice) in 2 hours! Yikes! That’s a lot of stair climbing. Time for some floating!!

We traveled the entire way around the lazy river.

It was glorious…

We began feeling better, so we walked the scenic trail to the top of the park. It was a little tricky to find the beginning of the trail, but a CM pointed us to it, and a really nice guest offered to take our picture on the suspension bridge!

After that, we walked around a little more and found this lovely set of teeth.

But the more we walked, the more we realized we were not going to recover. A nap was desperately needed. We dragged ourselves out to our car and headed back to the resort.

SLEEEEEEPP!!!! It was a beautiful thing. I slept like the dead. When we woke up that evening, we got dressed for our ADR at Boma.

 

[ktjohn]

Boma has been highly recommended to us for several years by a close friend of ours. But as I said earlier, Brett gets a little jumpy when you start reading a menu full of stuff he doesn’t recognize. In any case, he agreed to trust her and give this place a chance.

We have never eaten so much food in our entire lives…. Ever. It was insane. The food was so delicious we couldn’t stop. Brett had 5 plates of meat. 5. No lie.

I kept going back for more of that heavenly African seafood chowder (as well as everything else on the buffet).

The desserts looked amazing, and we were indecisive. So we got some of everything!

Nobody should ever eat that much, and we have now learned our lesson! When we were done, we could barely climb the stairs back up to the AKL lobby.

This is me… in the lobby… collapsed… trying to digest.

Brett too…

We tried to walk around for awhile to check out AKL (never seen it before), but we couldn’t fully appreciate the beauty of it, because we just wanted to lay down and digest.

This was Brett’s impression of Samson…

We drove back to the resort and collapsed into bed certain that this was an amazing meal that will go down in our history books and also certain that it would take days to recover from that pig out fest! (What never entered our minds was that we had an ADR the next day for dinner at Tuskerhouse… ANOTHER all you can eat buffet. OUCH! )

 

[Shannon84]

LOVE the pictures of Typhoon Lagoon...I want to take DBF there next time,I feel so bad this trip we skipped a waterpark and he tells me after that he has NEVER been to a waterpark! unheard of!!

You are tiny...but so is your DH so its all good

We felt the same way after every meal at Disney...like we need someone to come wheel us away to our room!

 

[ktjohn]

LOVE the pictures of Typhoon Lagoon...I want to take DBF there next time,I feel so bad this trip we skipped a waterpark and he tells me after that he has NEVER been to a waterpark! unheard of!!

Wow!! How can that be?!! That is a travesty! Girl, you must take him to a water slide immediately.

 

[ktjohn]

Day 5- Animal Kingdom

We were so tired on this morning, we took some time to walk around the resort a little and eat breakfast at the Riverside Mill cafeteria. MICKEY WAFFLES! I was so happy. Why do waffles taste better when they’re in the shape of Mickey???

We found this little guy as we were walking back to our room. He was extremely friendly and visited with us for awhile! I think he must be a CM!

Onward to Animal Kingdom!

We went immediately to Everest, but the ride had been temporarily shut down. One of the cars had stopped on the first hill (DH thinks someone’s seat restraint wasn’t fully locked or something). We got a picture of the abandoned car.

We got fast passes to come back (hoping it would be open by then). When we came back an hour later it was open again. Hooray! No wait in the fast pass line!

Aside from Everest, this day was filled with things we hadn’t done with the kids. There is so much to do at Animal Kingdom, you can’t do it all in one day! So we focused on everything we hadn’t had a chance to do on previous trips.

“It’s Tough To Be A Bug” was cute (5 minute wait time), but we both laughed and agreed our kids would have FREAKED OUT. I even freaked out a tiny bit. Hee hee!

We decided to go to the Flights Of Wonder show, because one of our friends told us it was great. We got a pretty good seat towards the front, so I could take 578,926 pictures (hee hee).

It was such a great show! About halfway through, they were looking for a volunteer with a good camera. DH said, “Hey, raise your hand!” I don’t know what came over me, because usually I’m pretty shy and like to remain unnoticed. But I had an out of body experience and raised my hand (HAHA!). Wouldn’t you know they picked me?! I started walking up the stage steps and thought I might die. But the CM in the show was so nice and friendly to me, I took a deep breath and smiled.

They wanted to demonstrate how fast an owl flies, and I was supposed to take a picture of it flying straight at me. That was a crazy experience. It woooshed right over my head! I did get a picture (sort of), but they mentioned that he was flying much lower than normal that day, so the owl is in the bottom of my picture instead of the middle.

Aaaaannnd I got this little handy dandy certificate after! Yay!

 

[ktjohn]

After that, we took the Kilimanjaro Safari tour (5 minute wait time). Brett and I sat in the back of the truck, and it was crazy bouncy!!! I had to put my camera on the sport setting, because I couldn’t hold the camera still!! Haha!

Here are some of the pictures from the Safari…

When we finished the Safari, we did the Maharajah Jungle Trek and the Pangani Forest Trails.

After that we spent some time gaping at the walking tree girl/thing… whatever it is.

The heat was getting to me, so we sat down and waited for the parade. We sat in front of Tuskerhouse, because we had an ADR for 4pm and knew the parade would interfere with us getting there on time. So we sat where we could easily sneak out.

Tuskerhouse was an amazing dinner. Again we ate way too much! It was similar to Boma, but I definitely like Boma better. Unfortunately, eating 2 all-you-can-eat buffet dinners on back to back days was a fatal mistake. I was beyond full! I know you should stop when you’re full, but there were just so many awesome things to choose from! And I wanted to try everything!

NOTE TO SELF: Do not. I repeat. Do not attempt to ride Primeval Whirl immediately after dinner! ROFL!!

We staggered off that ride like two drunken pirates

Here were a few of our pictures from the afternoon…

Brett on the drums (he usually drums on whatever is in front of him... as most drummers do... so I put him in front of some real drums and let him have at it!)

These birds would get all sentimental and nuzzle each other and then start biting each other and fighting. They may need marriage counseling. LOL!

Some of the carvings in the Tree Of Life

Street Musicians

Brett on the bridge to Asia

Wildlife everywhere.

We were so tired and over-stuffed after a long day in the heat and a giant dinner, so we left before the extra magic hours were finished. The hotel bed was calling me………..

 

[ktjohn]

Day 6- Resort Hopping

Today was supposed to be a day of rest, but we decided to cram, like, EVERYTHING non park related into this one day. Hee hee

We began with breakfast at POFQ. I heard the beignets were noteworthy, so I just had to go check it out for myself! I ended up sitting in the food court with my face covered in powdered sugar like a 4 year old, giggling and bouncing up and down in merriment. YUMMY, YUMMY, YUMMY!!!!!!

POFQ was very nice, but we both agreed POR is more our style. We definitely made the right choice for us! After that, we walked around POR a little bit and took a few pictures.

This is Brett's friend... the horse. He really felt like this horse was staring at him every time we came out of our room

After taking a nice leisure walk through POR, we left and headed over to the GF.

It was a perfectly beautiful day. We explored the resort grounds and inside the lobby and had so much fun!

The giant bird cage (actually it could house several humans... I think they keep it handy for misbehaving children. Tee-hee!)

The Grand Floridian staircase... where all brides get their picture taken before their Cinderella royal wedding. I couldn't afford the bazillions of dollars for such a thing, but hey... I can still get my picture taken on the staircase ;-)

It turns out while we were walking around, a wedding was in progress! I fell in love with the miniature ponies and of course, you can guess what I said… “OOOHH! STOP! I must take a picture!”

These miniature ponies were so tiny and CUTE!!!!! I want one!!! "I will hug it, and pet it, and squeeze it, and love it, and name it George!"

Well after the little ponies left, we hung out for awhile in the hammocks. It was so romantic and relaxing. I really could have stayed there forever.

This is our valiant attempt at a self portrait. HAA! It didn’t quite work, but oh well. Can’t say we didn’t try!

We spent some time walking over to the Polynesian to check that out too. It’s very beautiful, but we both agreed it wasn’t really our style. If we were going to stay at a deluxe ever, we’d choose either the GF, CR, or BC.

Eventually we made it back to the GF for lunch at the Grand Floridian Café.

Everyone there was EXTREMELY friendly and took great care of us. Our server got into several long conversations with my DH, and they hit it off very well.

This is Brett… showing of his mad skillz of romance.

A nice old gentleman came strolling through the café at one point passing out little flowers to all the ladies. It was so sweet!

Anyway, check out that massive sandwich on my plate!! It was indescribably yummy. I think I gained 5 pounds just by looking at it! HAAA!

The dessert tray... my heart skips a beat just looking at it. (oh wait... that might be my rising blood pressure from all the desserts we ate all week!)

After that feast, we had to go back to our resort to digest!!