Couple of DINKS in Disney

[PAcpl]

Alright, I figured after five trips I would do a post trip report. This is my first report on any message board, so please be gentle. We are Brian and Deanna, a couple of DINKS (Dual Income No Kids) from the suburbs of Philadelphia. We are DVC owners and our home resort is the Animal Kingdom. Since DW and I are absolutely addicted to Jellyrolls, we try to stay the the Boardwalk when we visit Disney. So this trip took place in a 1BR Villa with a gorgeous Boardwalk view. The weather although hot, wasn't unbearable and the rain really did hold out for the better part of our vacation.

April 30th, 2010: It starts

Our flight didn't leave Philly until 7:50pm so after a long day at work we headed to the airport. What should have taken us 45 minutes took us over 2 hours so we JUST made it onto our flight. Fast forward a couple hours and we are landing 20 minutes early . Since we were getting in so late we decided to go with a Tiffany Town Car and bypass the Magical Express. We have used this service before, but never to and from the airport. After this trip we will use them from now on. The convenience was worth the money and it gave us some extra time in Disney. Our driver Sam was a great guy and very knowledgeable about Disney so the ride to the Boardwalk was enjoyable.

We get to the Boardwalk and check into our standard view studio. Since we were checking in so late we just checked into a studio for the night. We checked in and left our bags with bell services so we could head right out to Jellyrolls for a couple of hours . We get to Jellyrolls and it was like we never left. The set we walk in on was Daniel and Johnny, although I forget what they were playing. The bar was PACKED with standing room only which is to be expected at 11pm on a Friday night. We found a little corner to stand in and let our vacation begin! I have been waiting to hear Daniel play and sing Baba O'Riley since the last time we left in October, so that was our first request. Before Daniel had a chance to play it, Single Ladies was requested and the guys started on that. I wasn't prepared for what was about to happen next...............as Johnny pounds the keys and Daniel is hitting those high Beyonce notes a very talented bar back pops on stage named Antwan. Antwan proceeds to do the ENTIRE Single Ladies dance without missing a beat. Antwan dancing, Daniel and Johnny playing and the entire bar is going absolutely nuts. This is what Jellyrolls is all about, a great crowd having fun and enjoying themselves! There wasn't a better way to start our vacation.

We end the night/morning and head to our studio. We pick up our bags, hit the room and grab some much needed shut eye. In the blink of an eye, the alarm is blaring at 9am (I know, 9am wake up call in Disney is blasphemy to most of you).

May 1st, 2010: Day 1 Magic Kingdom

We wake up in our studio, crack open our Owners Lockers and get ready for the day. We were checking out of the studio and checking into the 1BR BWV for the rest of the week. I figured since we would be one of the first ones checking in, we would have some great room choices. Boy were we wrong, they were only showing a couple of available 1BR BWV rooms and they were all on the second floor. Not that those rooms are bad at all, but we were really hoping to stay on a higher level. Regardless we aren't very high maintenance people so we were happy with the second floor. Since the room obviously wasn't ready yet we headed right out to the MK.

We get our first glimpse of the Castle and we know we are officially home. We usually head right over to the Jungle Cruise, but there was a 45 minute wait so we blew that off and headed up to the Mountain! We grabbed a couple of Splash Mountain FastPasses and headed over to Big Thunder Mountain. Stand By time was listed for 40 minutes so we figured as we got off of BTMRR the FastPass for Splash would come up. The actual wait time on BTMRR was about 10 minutes, so we decided to ride it again.

After another 10 minute wait we still had some time to kill for Splash Mountain. We started walking over to Splash and saw Woody and Jessie. There wasn't much of a line so we decided to wait. Plus there was a PhotoPass photographer there. When you are a couple in Disney you don't get a lot of chances to be in pictures together. After that our SM FastPass' were finally up so we headed over there. The stand-by line was 65 minutes and unlike BTMRR, it looked accurate. There were a ton of school groups in the MK so the park was busy. This is our third time going in May and we have never seen the crowds so big, but they were still easily manageable. So we went off to ride Splash Mountain and as always DW has to buy the picture at the end of the ride We go to purchase the picture and the CM covers it up and says there was someone in front of us doing something inappropriate to the camera so they couldn't sell it to us. Oh well, at least it got me out of buying it for once! But that was the first time we had encountered that, so that was interesting.

We head off the mountain and walk over to Pirates to pay tribute to George. Next up was the Jungle Cruise. Our Skipper was funny, but she didn't sway off the script very much. After seeing the backside of water we wanted to grab a bite to eat so we headed over to the Liberty Tree Tavern for a late lunch. It was our first time here so we were looking forward to trying out the food. The lunch was ok, but after looking at the dinner menu we realized we should have waited to eat.

We finish up and head over to The Haunted Mansion to finally drop off this hitch hiking ghost that has been following us around since October! The line for the HM was past the queue and out into the park. We have never seen such a long line for the HM, but the wait time was only about 15 minutes. You can tell we are spoiled and only go during the off season.

We drop off the Hitch Hiker, but another one finds his way home with us. So the three of us head over to The Hall Of Presidents. This really is such a great attraction that tends to get walked passed. I remember going on this as a kid and I was bored to death! So it is understandable, but a great attraction none the less. And with the new artifacts you can really appreciate it. The show starts and the Presidents introduce themselves and oddly enough when Clinton is introduced everyone starts clapping. Did I miss something? Nothing at all against Clinton, I never had a problem with the man. Just odd that he would get more applause then any other President introduced.

Now that we were cooled off we headed back out and over to Fantasyland. We figured we would take our time here because we have no idea what it will look like in December when we come back. There were already walls up everywhere, but in typical Disney fashion it didn't take away from the Magic at all.

We skipped Peter Pan since there is always such a long wait and headed to IASW. I have no problem skipping right past this bad boy too, but DW won't have it. So 152 thousand mind numbing It's A Small World After All's later we head over to Philharmagic.

Donald is by far DWs favorite character so Philharmagic is a must do a couple of times per trip. The show ends and we leave the theater and something absolutely amazing happens. DW walks into the gift shop, looks around and doesn't buy anything. That's right ladies and gentlemen, there is finally nothing left in that store for DW to buy! It really was magical!

At that point it was getting kinda late and it was Grad Night so the park was closing at 7pm anyway. We headed out and jumped on a bus to head back to the Boardwalk. This is when this trip started to feel a bit.....off..

We get on the bus and a gentlemen enters behind us fumbling with his stroller, bags, water bottles, etc. He looked like your typical beaten dad at the end of a long HOT Magic Kingdom day. The bus driver turns to the guest and says that you can't bring the stroller in the bus when it was open. The bus was half empty, and the stroller wasn't bothering anyone, but I understand rules are rules. The guest apologizes and starts to collapse the stroller, the driver then tells the man he shouldn't even be doing that on the bus and asks why he is doing it right there. Instead of arguing with the driver the guest gets off of the bus and takes two seconds to break the stroller down. He gets back on the bus and sits down. The driver now stands there and just awkwardly stares at the guest. After everything calmed down and the situation was over the driver then proceeds to start again and tells the guy how he has rules that he has to follow and how the guest was making his job harder then it needed to be. I finally said to the driver that it was enough and to just get going. The driver turns to me and asks me "You got a problem with me man? This doesn't even involve you man, you gotta a problem with me?" At that point I was laughing and had to repeat the question because I couldn't believe that just came out of a cast members mouth. Someone from the back of the bus yelled TELL HIM YES. So I said that the entire bus apparently had an issue with him. The driver just said "I will go when im ready, you don't tell me when to go". Then he sat down for about five minutes before taking off.

We get off of the bus and both DW and I are confused and laughing over what just happened. It came out of nowhere like a whirlwind, and after the obscene finger gesture on Splash and then this, we thought we were in the Disney Trip Twilight Zone. We head into the resort and go to the front desk. The Cast Member we spoke to that morning said to check in after 4pm for a room on a higher floor. She told us not to get our hopes up on a Saturday, but it was worth a shot. So we checked back in when we got back and the friendly CM apologized and said the only room available was the one we had on the second floor. The manager over heard her and starting typing on her computer. After a few seconds she told the Cast Member to refresh her screen and like Magic up popped up a perfect room on the fifth floor.

We get up to our room and once again crack open the Owners Lockers, put the groceries away and unpack. Oh wait....lets jump off subject and onto the groceries for a second. There seem to be two bigger grocery services talked about on this board, WeGoShop and GardenGrocer. We started using WeGoShop in 2007 and have been happy so we stuck with them. In the past the people have been extremely friendly and we have never had a problem. Unfortunately we seemed to hit a misunderstanding this trip. Since we were heading out to the park and our room wasn't ready we were going to leave the groceries with bell services until we got back. Apparently you have to tell WeGoShop that before they get there because their employee was not at all happy to hear that. She complained about how busy she was that day and how she didn't have time to separate our stuff that morning. So I figure we should give them a much needed break in December and give Garden Grocer a try.

Alright, back on course here. We are unpacked, groceries are away and we are freshened up for another night at Jellyrolls. Tonight we have Tommy, Michael, Ray and Scotty. Looking forward to hearing Scotty do his Disney Medley and Ray belt out some Philadelphia Freedom for us........

That concludes the first day of Disney rambling. Stay tuned for a little park hopper action with a MK EMH tomorrow!

 

[OhMari]

I enjoying reading your TR. My kids are all in their 20's, either in college or starting their career's. Anyone the last couple of times, it has just been me and my dh at WDW. We were at WDW at the BC the last week in February, and we were going to go into JellyRolls on a Friday evening. It looked so dead inside, we decided not too. We really should have. But it was so cold/rainy out that evening, we just went back to the BC. What a mistake.
Looking forward to the rest of your report.
And, what was with that bus driver.

 

[heaven2dc]

Oh my!! The bad finger on Splash Mountain and a rude bus driver?!! I'm sure glad this wasn't your first trip to WDW (and I hope it wasn't the poor dad's either). My daughter's fiance had a similar experience on their first visit and he was so flustered and embarrassed at how the driver was berating him for trying to bring the stroller on the bus opened up. There was a long line of people trying to get on the bus and he had to try to back up to get off the bus to fold up the stroller. It was their first visit and I was appalled at the driver but thankfully the people were kind and helped him.

I LOVE BWV and boardwalk views! We had boardwalk view w/one-bedroom on the trip mentioned above. They put us in room 2001 at first but I asked to be moved the next morning (which we did to room 3041 which was much closer to the elevator -helping this old lady with her foot brace ). I'm glad you got switched to the fifth floor.

I have never been to Jellyrolls so can't wait to try it out next trip!

 

[cmr154]

great trip report! I feel bad for that poor Dad, thank goodness you stood up for him, it probably made him feel better to have someone back him up!

 

[Goofy442]

Great start to your first TR. If that was me and the CM was acting that way I would report him. My son say's they tell you when working in the parks the customer is always right. It's hard to be nice to a billion people all day, but like my son say's it's your job. Can't wait to hear more.

 

[PAcpl]

I enjoying reading your TR. My kids are all in their 20's, either in college or starting their career's. Anyone the last couple of times, it has just been me and my dh at WDW. We were at WDW at the BC the last week in February, and we were going to go into JellyRolls on a Friday evening. It looked so dead inside, we decided not too. We really should have. But it was so cold/rainy out that evening, we just went back to the BC. What a mistake.
Looking forward to the rest of your report.
And, what was with that bus driver.

Jellyrolls is a blast, but the better the crowd the more fun the night will be. I found out this trip that the crowd doesn't necessarily have to be big to be a great crowd. This past Monday may have been the best crowd we have seen and it wasn't very big at all.

Oh my!! The bad finger on Splash Mountain and a rude bus driver?!! I'm sure glad this wasn't your first trip to WDW (and I hope it wasn't the poor dad's either). My daughter's fiance had a similar experience on their first visit and he was so flustered and embarrassed at how the driver was berating him for trying to bring the stroller on the bus opened up. There was a long line of people trying to get on the bus and he had to try to back up to get off the bus to fold up the stroller. It was their first visit and I was appalled at the driver but thankfully the people were kind and helped him.

I LOVE BWV and boardwalk views! We had boardwalk view w/one-bedroom on the trip mentioned above. They put us in room 2001 at first but I asked to be moved the next morning (which we did to room 3041 which was much closer to the elevator -helping this old lady with her foot brace ). I'm glad you got switched to the fifth floor.

I have never been to Jellyrolls so can't wait to try it out next trip!

I can see how a small experience like that after a LONG Disney day can have a mass effect on your entire trip. We are still Disney rookies so we are still on that New To Disney cloud. It would take a lot more then a bus driver (amongst some other things we saw on this trip) to alter our opinion on Disney and our trip.

And yes, the BWV is amazing. We stayed at the BCV in October and SSR last May and neither of them can compare in my opinion. Don't get me wrong they were absolutely amazing resorts, we just really like the Boardwalk.

We were very lucky being able to move up to the fifth floor. Im sure we would have liked the second floor just as much, but it is that extra effort that sticks out. I made sure we hunted down Jennifer at the end of the week and thanked her again for taking care of us. And im sure we will remember her when we are back in December.

great trip report! I feel bad for that poor Dad, thank goodness you stood up for him, it probably made him feel better to have someone back him up!

Yeah, I felt terrible for the poor guy. We are in our early 30s and don't have any kids, so Disney is much easier on us. We went last year with my DB, SIL, Niece, and two Nephews........WOW!!!!!!! What a different experience! It was an amazing time and we will never forget going to Disney with the kids. But we were happy going back alone the following trip. So I could somewhat sympathize with the guy.

Thanks for the kind words.

Great start to your first TR. If that was me and the CM was acting that way I would report him. My son say's they tell you when working in the parks the customer is always right. It's hard to be nice to a billion people all day, but like my son say's it's your job. Can't wait to hear more.

Thanks for the compliment. This thing takes time, but its a good way to remember the time line of your events.

And you will see in the upcomming report that I did report the guy the following day. Right after it happened we found out that they were able to give us the room on the higher floor. At that point I didn't want to go into the bus driver issue. The last thing I wanted them to think was I only complained because I was fishing for free stuff. But the following morning I made sure to contact the appropriate people. I just hope it does something.

 

[PAcpl]

May 2nd, 2010: Day 2 Epcot Future World & Magic Kingdom EMH:

So this mornings wake up call was for 10am and even that was difficult. But the wake up call was followed by a call from the front desk. They were delivering something, but we had no idea what. Twenty minutes later a knock on the door and these beauties appear:

The card reads "Welcome Home. From your friends at the front desk." No idea why, but who are we to argue?

We get ready and head out to Epcot around noon or so. We wanted to stop by the front desk and leave a complaint on our wonderful bus driver from the prior day. Before I got off the bus I got the drivers name and then I took the bus number off the side of the bus. So between that info and the time and route the transportation supervisor was able to find the exact trip the incident occurred on. We weren't looking for a handout so I didn't even give my name to the supervisor we spoke to. Hopefully the situation will be taken care of.

We hop on a friendship and head over to the International Gateway. We have never been on one of the Epcot Friendships, so we decided to grab one over by Morocco. We get dumped off by the front of the World Showcase and head over to the Land for a Soarin' FastPass. The return time for Soarin' was 6:40, exactly one hour after our Coral Reef reservations so that worked out well. We left Soarin' and headed over to Living With The Land. Both DW and I really appreciate this ride. Neither of us have green thumbs, but there is something about hydroponics and aeroponics and all the new ways to control life that just amazes me.

We leave Living With The Land and head out of The Land. We take a quick stroll over to Innovations West to see what Disney Visa Characters were out. This was our third or fourth Disney Visa meet and greet and still no Donald for DW. We always seem to get Mickey, Pluto and either Minnie or Goofy. This round was just Mickey and Pluto though. Still a good time seeing those guys and there was only 1 family in front of us, so there was no wait.

Next stop is the highly anticipated Club Cool for a glass of the ever so frightening Beverly! Club Cool was actually very busy and half of the machines were out of order. I find a corner and grab my favorite (and only) Japanese drink, Vegitabeta! I don't know how I did it, but I talked DW into chugging a cup of Beverly. She only got about a third of it down, but bless her bitter soul! I wasn't even man enough to give it a try this trip.

With the horrible taste in DW's mouth we leave Club Cool and head over to Imagination. I remember riding this when I was a kid and Figment having such a big impact on the ride. I was shocked when I rode it the first time on our trip in 2008. What a disappointing change. So this was only the second time we rode this one, but I will honestly say it wasn't bad this time around. I guess the first time I was in shock with all the changes, but I knew what
to expect going into it this time. It is also nice to see a sponsor sticking with Disney, and Kodak does a great job. We get off the ride and start heading out and DW spots a wall of pictures. Remember the Splash Mountain picture earlier I thought I was getting out of, well DW is about to make up for it. She
spot's her perfect picture, lets out a squeal and $25 later I am on my knees in front of a green screen. They click the picture and I run out of there before DW gets anymore ideas.

We leave Imagination and head into Honey I Shrunk The Audience. This one was a new one for both DW and I. Reading all the reviews this one was never a must do for us. But since Captain EO was coming in and we didn't know what the future held for HISTA we figured we should do it this trip. What a nice surprise! It was dated, which was to be expected, but from the reviews I read I thought it would be horrible. It wasn't bad at all and I thought the show itself was great. Not very kid friendly though, we even jumped a couple of times. But we are glad we saw it and regretted not doing it before this trip. Hopefully it will still be there in December when we are back.

At this point it was just about time for our Coral Reef ADR so we started heading over in that direction. The Coral Reef is such a hidden gem, im surprised anybody knows about it all tucked away. This was our second time eating at the Coral Reef and the food was just as good as the first time. DW had the salmon again and loved it. I went with the NY Strip and a great glass of MacMurray Pinot Noir.

We finished dining with the fishes and figured we should pay some tribute to Nemo since DW just polished off one of his salmon friends. We walk around the corner and jumped on Nemo with absolutely no line at all. We just walked up and hopped right into a shell! Mid way through the ride I turn to DW and the water works are on. Now I can count on a couple of rides making DW cry, but I never imagined Finding Nemo. We get off of Nemo and head upstairs to see the cuttlefish, and the rest of the neglected reef room. Sadly the cuttlefish tank was off and covered up. Cuttlefish only have an 18 month average life span, so they don't last long. When we were there in 2008 a CM told us they were actually able to breed them in Disney, so hopefully they have more on the way. I just really wish there was a behind the scenes tour of the aquarium area where the equipment is because there is never anyone there to talk about the animals.

After Nemo DW dried her eyes and we walked over to the Land for our Soarin' FastPass. We were on the end of the first row in the middle section of the second concourse. I really think this is the best seat in the house. No feet dangling above you and you're in the center of the screen. We lucked out and as always the ride was amazing!

Alright, that about covers Future World for us. We are heading over to the Magic Kingdom for night time EMH.

So we get over to the monorails and we're hoping to get an up close glimpse of the TRON car. We saw one earlier when we were in the park, and I have to admit it didn't look bad. Originally I didn't like them at all, but seeing them in person really wasn't bad. Regardless both of our monorails were black, so no TRON for us.

We get to the MK and it is dark and there is a nice breeze. I don't think we could have asked for a better MK EMH night. There is something about the Magic Kingdom at night that is different. It has a different look, feel, smell, and magic about it at night.

For the first time ever we needed a locker so we stopped by the shop and picked up our key. Now the whole mission is to not forget we have the key when we leave. This was going to be difficult, I know we are going to forget about the key and get right on the bus.

The one thing I wanted to do during EMH was The Jungle Cruise. We have only been on it once at night and it was great. Unfortunately we headed counter clockwise and started in Tomorrowland this round so we never made it back to Adventureland. First stop in Tomorrowland was Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. I always hear good jokes for this ride, but always forget them when we get in line. The show was funny and the little girl right next to DW had gotten picked to participate.

We fill up the Laugh Meter and I convince DW to let me beat her on Buzz Lightyear.......again! We walk right past Stitch's Great Escape to Carousel Of Progress. The last scene of CoP really needs an update. The rest of the ride should be left perfectly as is, I just think the future scene needs a massive revamp. Although they finally got rid of the HUGE TV and replaced it with a flat screen.

We bid farewell to John and head over to the people mover to grab a cold Sarsaparilla. Apparently the TTA doesn't participate in EMH and it was closed! So we head over to something else we have never done, the Tomorrowland Speedway. Man, I don't know how kids drive those cars. We could barley stay on the track and we have been driving for 16 years!

Much like Stitch we happily walk right past the Tea Cups. The ongoing argument of skipping Dumbo comes up as always. I win (for once) and we skip that as well. There is a 10 minute wait for The Many Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh so we jumped on that.

Once again we have to do Philharmagic. And now that I know there is nothing left in the gift shop that DW could possibly buy, I am more then happy to watch it again and again!

We walk around the corner to Peter Pan and use the Fastpass that we grabbed earlier. I could never understand why there is always such a long wait for this one. It is a great classic ride, but why isn't Snow White ever that long of a wait? I just don't get it..

After leaving Peter Pan I felt guilty for skipping Dumbo so I agreed to ride It's A Small World AGAIN! I know what you're all thinking, but nope still the same song!!!

Alright, something a little more fun for an EMH night....The Haunted Mansion! There is something great about the Magic Kingdom at night and there is something even greater about the Haunted Mansion!

This time the hitchhiking ghost didn't even get off at the Mansion, he just stayed with us. We headed to Splash Mountain and fortunately there were no obscene gestures given this time. We finish up Splash and hike up the Mountain a little further to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

We conquer the Mountain once again and decide to start heading out of the park. It is just about 1am and we would usually wait until the masses leave, but we wanted to try and fit in a song or two at Jellyrolls. We get to the insanely long bus line and the bus is pulling up as we get there. As we are getting closer and closer to the bus it is getting more and more packed. We are about 7 people away and the driver stops loading people. He does a head count and asks the family in front of us how many. They say five and the driver says "I can only fit two". That was music to our ears! We get on the bus and are at Jellyrolls by 1am for the last set!

And that was the end of day two. It was another great night at Jellyrolls even though we were only there for an hour. Tomorrow we are heading to the World Showcase. Maybe if we are lucky we will get to see some highly controversial religious sky-writing over Epcot.

 

[not_Joanna_eggs]

Loving your TR! Your commentary reminds me of my DH....

That bus driver story is crazy... how un-Disney! We've never been to Jellyrolls, but I'm staying at BWV in July. We might have to check it out - sounds like a blast!

 

[manntra]

Hi there!!! Loving your trip report!! I was there last week too and miss the weather terribly!!! It is in the 30's here tonight!!! Ughhh What a nice surprise with the cupcakes---especially after your challenging day!! I saw two different fathers having meltdowns--both at Epcot!!

Tracy

 

[katiebelle21]

Great report! I hope the cupcake surprise balanced out the crazy day you had the day before! I have never been to Jellyrolls; I have to make a point to try it on my next trip--it looks like fun! Is any night better than another, or are they pretty much all the same?

 

[Goofy442]

Great update

 

[PAcpl]

Alright everyone, sorry for the lack of updates. Work has been insane and when I have time to jump on here it has only been for a few minutes. I am going to do another report today, so there should be an update later on.

As always thank you for the complimentary feedback. I always think I am boring people talking about our trip. But I like reading about other peoples trips, so I don't get it.

Is any night better than another, or are they pretty much all the same?

The weekends on average will be busier then during the week. There is no longer a "Tuesday" Cast Member night, so any weekday can be different. One of the best nights we have had at Jellyrolls was I believe on a Monday and the bar wasn't even that packed. Standing room only, but it wasn't overly crowded.

Anyway, thanks again and stand by......

 

[PAcpl]

May 3rd, 2010: Day 3 Epcot World Showcase & Disney PhotoPass Session

After yet another late night we didn't even fool ourselves by requesting a wake up call this morning. Plus I woke up that morning and didn't feel right. I hoped it was because of the late night at Jellyrolls, but I knew that wasn't it. I didn't care what I felt like, we were on vacation in DISNEY and I was going out and enjoying it. So I pop a couple of Advil and our morning slowly starts. As I am waiting for DW to put on her face (as I often am) I have a cup of coffee and enjoy our view.

We hop on a Friendship and head over to Epcot for another HOT day in Disney. Within minutes we are in Epcot, this is one of the reasons we really like the Boardwalk. It is so close to everything!

We enter Epcot and see the highly controversial skywriter. He was actually around most of the week.

Usually we cross over the bridge and head counter clockwise around the world, but this round we decided to stay left and head over to Canada. We have never done the 360 movie so we wanted to check that out. Wow, what a great show. I didn't think it was going to be just a movie, but I didn't expect that. Very impressive!

Outside of Canada much like last year was a Bambi, Thumper and Flower topiary.

There were still a bunch of great new looks at the 2010 Flower & Garden Fest. Here are a few:

Alright, next stop is Mexico, and this one is a dangerous one. As previously mentioned DW is a big Donald Duck fan and what woman doesn't like bling? We walk in and as always head right over to The Grand Fiesta Tour.

The tour is over and I have been through this enough to know what happens next.......................the bling.

As DW drools over the Arribas Brothers pieces I usually hide in the corner watching the always talented glass blowers. The gentlemen today was blowing a piece to look like a diver scuba diving. The piece looked great when the artist finished it. As he tried to crack off the remaining glass to separate the finished piece, the entire piece fell onto the table and shattered! I'm sure it happens, but that is the first time I saw an artist break one of these pieces. I felt horrible for the poor guy, watching his mouth mumble some rather subjective words you could tell he was crushed!

We had 5:30 reservations for the San Angela Inn, but it was only around 4 so we still had some time to kill. So we head over to Norway and ride Maelstrom.

I don't know what happened, but we got there just in time. We got in line and there was a 15 minute wait. As we are standing in the very short line the place filled up. After we got off the ride the wait time was 35 minutes. Once again, we lucked out with great timing.

We get off of Maelstrom and like 90% of the rest of guests we walk into the theater on one end and walk right out the other. We walk over to Germany because DW needs to pickup a Pickle for the tree (I don't know why she never bought one before). And of course more Arribas Brothers.

You can tell that DW was working the camera this trip. We have more shots of Arribas Brothers then we do in the MK. By this time our ADRs for The San Angel in were coming up. Which was perfect timing because I was starting to drag (this isn't good). After our pager goes off we bring it to our host and they escort us to a perfect table for two right next to the water. I excuse myself to wash my hands for the fiftieth time and when I return there are home made nachos waiting. Yum! We finish dinner and head back over to the International Gateway to catch a Friendship.

We had a Private PhotoPass session scheduled for 7 so we wanted to go back to the resort and get freshened up before hand. I showered and we are heading out the door with about 10 minutes to spare. As we are walking out of the Boardwalk we see a Friendship in the DHS dock. We figured perfect since we were running short on time. As we walk over to the Friendship the CM yells up to us "Sorry we're full". She proceeds to remove the roped and take off. We saw there were clearly empty seats, but you can't win em all. So we QUICKLY walk over to the Beach Club and meet our Photographer for our session. He was a very nice and talented guy, but I can't for the life of me remember his name. He was very willing to work with us and had a bunch of great ideas. The photos came out fantastic and I would suggest this package to anyone.

The session ends conveniently enough right next to the "Pick A Pearl" stand. And of course our photographer tells DW to take her time looking at the pearls while he gets our pictures ready. Boy, does Disney know how to market . This worked out well because for Christmas I gave DW a Cinderellas Carriage pearl cage. We just needed to pick the pearl up in Disney. The CM at the Pick a Pearl stand was a great guy and talked DW right into an oyster. She picks one out and right away we see a beautiful pearl, after further inspection another pearl pops out. So DW picked out an oyster with two pearls and of course now she needed pearl earrings because two pearls wont fit in the cage. And again, this conveniently means that DW needs to pick out another oyster for her Cinderellas Carriage. So DW picks out another oyster and although there is only one pearl this round (lucky me) it is a big one. So as the CM gets the pearls cleaned up and mounted I head into the BC to grab our CD and photos. I finish up there, meet DW at the Pearl place and we walk over to.........you guessed it Jellyrolls . For another fun filled night with our friends at Jellyrolls!

The next report is going to be a short one due to some wonderful news I get the following morning.......

Thanks again everyone for caring enough about my rambling to leave such complimentary comments! Hope you enjoyed this one.

 

[Roccosmom]

Loving the report! Can't wait to hear your wonderful news!

 

[heaven2dc]

You are such a beautiful couple! Loved your pics

What a great view you got of the boardwalk - I love watching the Friendship boats coming and going.

 

[PAcpl]

Loving the report! Can't wait to hear your wonderful news!

Sorry about the sarcasm, as you are about to find out the good news is not so wonderful.

You are such a beautiful couple! Loved your pics

What a great view you got of the boardwalk - I love watching the Friendship boats coming and going.

Thank you, that is very sweet. DW adds a lot of the beauty.

 

[scoobndolliesmom]

Your pictures are great! Hmm.. I wonder what the news is!

 

[PAcpl]

May 4th, 2010: Day 4

So I wake up this morning and feel even worse. At this point I knew it wasn't anything a couple of Advil would help. So DW called the front desk and explained our situation, the desk put her in touch with this wonderful service that sends a doctor directly to your room. I can't believe it, I haven't gotten sick in over two years and now we are in Disney and I get something! So the doctor comes over and proceeds with her examination. After all is said and done the verdict is......Bronchitis! The doctor was very good and I don't doubt her for a second, but I really didn't feel Bronchitis kind of sick. But regardless the doctor gave me some meds and she was on her way. After she left we debated on where to go. We were originally supposed to head to the Animal Kingdom, but it was another day that was going to be in the high 90's. I really didn't feel like dealing with that in the AK so we decided to head back to the Magic Kingdom. We figured we would take it very slow and do the more relaxing attractions and some shopping.

Now before anyone is concerned regardless whether I am sick or not I am always overly considerate when it comes to germs. I am constantly washing my hands and you will never see me sneezing or coughing in my hands. DW and I always have hand sanitizer gel or wipes on us that we use all day. We are not germaphobes, but we are very aware of our surroundings and go above and beyond when we are in Disney.

So we get to the Magic Kingdom and we are greeted by this fantastic PhotoPass photographer. That is something else I will say about this trip, there were PhotoPass Cast Members everywhere. We came home with 264 pictures (including the 68 from the PhotoPass session). He wasn't very busy so he conjured up some creative poses including some balloon shots and clicked away.

Actually the balloon theme seemed to be very popular with PhotoPass photographers this trip.

So we get our picture taken and head into the park and right up to another attraction that we yet to experience, Walt's Railroad! So we get on the train for a relaxing ride around the park. Once again, we were surprised at what we saw. We never thought we would pass any scenery at all much less spots of SM! Very cool surprise.

We get off Walt's train at the Toontown stop. Since all the future construction I wasn't sure if Toontown would be around come December when we are back. So I figured take advantage of the time we have and capture some memories of Toontown before it is too late.

After saying our goodbyes to Toontown we are on our way back to the Haunted Mansion. Of all the attractions in all of Disney, this really has to be my number one. It really never gets old and I hope I feel that way for a long time. Again the line was past the queue and into the park, but again it went very quickly. We jump into our buggy and we are off. At this point all our hitchhiking friend can talk about is the great time he has been having with us and what songs they have been playing at Jellyrolls. We get off the ride and of course the ghost isn't going anywhere (he knows where the fun is!). DW tries to snap a picture of Mr. Toad outside of the Mansion. Unfortunately I didn't have the right lens on me so that wasn't happening.

We ride Pirates Of The Caribbean and The Jungle Cruise, do a little more shopping and then took a bus back to our room. We relaxed for a little while, cooled off, freshened up and headed right back out to Jellyrolls. It was Cinco De Mayo, how could we not go? But since I was sick I was a good boy and drank VERY light Screwdrivers that night for the vitamin C. And of course there were no regrets going, it was another great night with Scotty (black shirt), Ray (multi-colored shirt), Daniel (blue shirt) and Johnny (white shirt). One of the players (Mike) was on his Honeymoon and had the week off. As unfortunate as that was since Mike is one of our favorite guys, we did get to see the newer player (Johnny (white shirt) a lot more. He is a great guy and really fills a perfect niche with his personality and the songs he knows.

And that concludes our tour of Brian & Deanna's day 4 trip to the Kingdom! Tomorrow these kids venture back out to the Magic Kingdom for some Wishes Dessert Party action! Stay tuned.....

 

[not_Joanna_eggs]

Ugh... Sorry to hear you weren't feeling well. Getting sick on vacation is always 10 times worse than getting sick in real life. Hope it goes away quickly and doesn't effect your trip too much.

You think like me. I try to "drink" my germs away on vacation. I like that you rationalized that the screwdrivers were vitamin C - my kind of guy!

Good idea taking pictures of Toon Town. We never go over there, but it's on my list to do before its too late.

 

[Dugette]

Just found your TR and really enjoying it! Fun to read about another couple in our category (early 30's, no kids). We've never been to Jellyrolls, though. Maybe we'll have to check that out on a future trip. Can't believe the bus driver you had...wow! I love your wife's necklace she's wearing during the photo shoot. Can't wait to hear about the Wishes Dessert Party...we'd love to do that!