Liz
Make a miracle!
- Joined
- Aug 18, 1999
- Messages
- 4,909
Cast:
ME - 43, Author of this report, grew up in Florida, too many WDW trips to really count
PAUL - 50, my dear husband, several WDW trips under his belt
JEFF - 14, our dear son, this is about his 6th trip to WDW
LAURA - 13, our dear daughter, her 6th trip also. Will be participating in the U.S. Transplant Games in Orlando.
MY MOM - late 60's, been to WDW many times, last time 5 years ago
JUNE 23 - SUNDAY
We got a wake up call at 6:45, which is 4:45 Utah time. That's about as early as I can make myself get up on vacation! We ate breakfast in the room to save time in the mornings with food brought from home (instant oatmeal & granola bars were usually what we ate). We were at the bus stop by 8:30 waiting for a bus to Magic Kingdom! All of us except my mom had to stand. A very nice man was kind enough to give up his seat so she could sit down.
Lines pretty long for security at MK. They won't touch your things in your bags. We were told they needed to see clear to the bottom but it was up to us to jiggle or remove things so they could see what they needed to. They never questioned us about bringing in outside snacks. We didn't have much, like just 4 granola bars or something like that. One guy in front of me had a backpack. He started pulling out several big see-through bags that looked to contain enough food for a huge picnic lunch! Never a word was said about it by security.
Everyone sailed through the entrance at MK with our AP's (and mom and her hopper) except for Laura. She tried several times and kept getting access denied. She had had no problems the day before at MGM. The CM asked her for ID and I said "she's 13, she doesn't have ID!" He then did something and let her in.
Even though our kids are older, we still hit Fantasyland first thing. We rode Winnie The Pooh and as we were getting off we saw Eeyore & Pooh getting on the ride. That would have been fun to ride with them!
The kids and I rode Dumbo, then we all rode Small World & Peter Pan. Next stop was Splash Mountain & Thunder Mountain for Paul and the kids. I sat with my mom at Pecos Bills while we waited for them to return. It took them quite awhile to do just those two rides so when they got back we decided to have an early lunch.
We went to the Columbia Harbor House because they had a vegetarian sandwich mom would eat. She ate it but it was pretty horrible she said. It contained hummas & broccoli slaw. The rest of us had chicken or fish sticks and it was all really good. I had a packet of cherry Kool-Aide in my backpack so we all just got ice water and made our own drinks! It worked really well and if someone thinks this is dishonest since technically its not allowed to bring in outside food or drinks then I'm sorry. But it worked great and I figure we saved about $9-10 over the cost of buying four large sodas.
We all went to see the Hall of Presidents, under mild protest from the kids. Jeff ended up liking it more than he thought I think, because he had to memorize all the presidents last year in school so I think it was a little bit interesting to see them. He had to point out that President Taft was the one who got stuck in a bathtub! It was fun seeing President Bush. It looked pretty much like him but I also thought it looked kind of like Tom Brokaw!
We then rode the Jungle Cruise and Laura wanted to ride PoC. We went over there and the posted wait time was ONE HOUR! The line started just on the other side of the turnstyles. I don't know if it really would have taken an hour to get to the boats but we weren't willing to find out! Its been a long time since I can remember seeing a wait time that long for Pirates!
The kids decided they really wanted to go swimming so we took the train around to the front of the park and caught the bus back to the Dolphin. We could see some ominous dark clouds in the distance so we weren't sure we'd make it but decided to give it a try.
As soon as we changed into our swimming suits and went downstairs we passed a ton of people coming in from the pool area. We looked outside and saw another heavy downpour had begun. So we marched ourselves back up to the room and waited. We used this time to just relax, watch TV and take a nap. It stopped raining after about an hour so we went down to the pool. We only stayed about 30 minutes but the kids had fun.
We went back to Beaches & Cream for dinner. This time we sat at the counter so we didn't have to wait a long time for a table. We ordered a little differently this time so we didn't have so many fries & onion rings. The boys shared a double bacon cheeseburger, fruit cup, onion rings, mango smoothie and No Way Jose dessert. Laura and I shared a double bacon cheeseburger, fries, caeser salad, diet Coke & banana split. That was the prettiest banana split I've ever seen! The waitress said she likes making them because they are so pretty! The food wasn't divided onto four plates this time, which made sharing a little more difficult but we managed fine. My mom used her own voucher this time and was able to have her veggie burger, fruit cup, caeser salad and two scoops of nonfat, sugarfree vanilla ice cream all for $11! I don't know what our bill would have been this time because the waitress never gave us one, she just collected our three vouchers and we were on our way. But I'm sure our savings were again substantial!
When we came out of Beaches & Cream it was raining again, and unfortunately we had forgotten our ponchos! We all went back to the hotel to decide what to do next. It was getting late so we decided to just hang around the hotel. The shoes my mom had brought from home were giving her blisters. She didn't bring any tennis shoes, only sandals. I found her some Gloria Vanderbilt tennis shoes in one of the Dolphin shops for only $21! I thought that was a real bargain for being at Disney World and she did too! Those saved her feet for the rest of the vacation and saved us making a trip somewhere else the next day to look for some comfortable shoes.
We went up to the top floor of the Dolphin and looked out the window. It was pretty cool up there but hard to see a lot because it was raining so hard. We walked in and around all the shops and just had fun exploring. I read on the DIS about the shooting stars in the Dolphin lobby. We didn't see anything like that last year so we tried to figure out what people were talking about. We kept staring up at the circus tent area thinking we didn't see anything like that! Later we walked more towards the doors and looked up and there they were! I think it was Laura who spotted them! Very cool indeed!
We walked over to the Swan but didn't really do much there. By then it was time to get ready for bed and prepare for another fun Disney World day!
Budget for the day:
$5 Maid tip
$25 Lunch at Columbia Harbor House
$22 Two vouchers at Beaches & Cream
ME - 43, Author of this report, grew up in Florida, too many WDW trips to really count
PAUL - 50, my dear husband, several WDW trips under his belt
JEFF - 14, our dear son, this is about his 6th trip to WDW
LAURA - 13, our dear daughter, her 6th trip also. Will be participating in the U.S. Transplant Games in Orlando.
MY MOM - late 60's, been to WDW many times, last time 5 years ago
JUNE 23 - SUNDAY
We got a wake up call at 6:45, which is 4:45 Utah time. That's about as early as I can make myself get up on vacation! We ate breakfast in the room to save time in the mornings with food brought from home (instant oatmeal & granola bars were usually what we ate). We were at the bus stop by 8:30 waiting for a bus to Magic Kingdom! All of us except my mom had to stand. A very nice man was kind enough to give up his seat so she could sit down.
Lines pretty long for security at MK. They won't touch your things in your bags. We were told they needed to see clear to the bottom but it was up to us to jiggle or remove things so they could see what they needed to. They never questioned us about bringing in outside snacks. We didn't have much, like just 4 granola bars or something like that. One guy in front of me had a backpack. He started pulling out several big see-through bags that looked to contain enough food for a huge picnic lunch! Never a word was said about it by security.
Everyone sailed through the entrance at MK with our AP's (and mom and her hopper) except for Laura. She tried several times and kept getting access denied. She had had no problems the day before at MGM. The CM asked her for ID and I said "she's 13, she doesn't have ID!" He then did something and let her in.
Even though our kids are older, we still hit Fantasyland first thing. We rode Winnie The Pooh and as we were getting off we saw Eeyore & Pooh getting on the ride. That would have been fun to ride with them!
The kids and I rode Dumbo, then we all rode Small World & Peter Pan. Next stop was Splash Mountain & Thunder Mountain for Paul and the kids. I sat with my mom at Pecos Bills while we waited for them to return. It took them quite awhile to do just those two rides so when they got back we decided to have an early lunch.
We went to the Columbia Harbor House because they had a vegetarian sandwich mom would eat. She ate it but it was pretty horrible she said. It contained hummas & broccoli slaw. The rest of us had chicken or fish sticks and it was all really good. I had a packet of cherry Kool-Aide in my backpack so we all just got ice water and made our own drinks! It worked really well and if someone thinks this is dishonest since technically its not allowed to bring in outside food or drinks then I'm sorry. But it worked great and I figure we saved about $9-10 over the cost of buying four large sodas.
We all went to see the Hall of Presidents, under mild protest from the kids. Jeff ended up liking it more than he thought I think, because he had to memorize all the presidents last year in school so I think it was a little bit interesting to see them. He had to point out that President Taft was the one who got stuck in a bathtub! It was fun seeing President Bush. It looked pretty much like him but I also thought it looked kind of like Tom Brokaw!
We then rode the Jungle Cruise and Laura wanted to ride PoC. We went over there and the posted wait time was ONE HOUR! The line started just on the other side of the turnstyles. I don't know if it really would have taken an hour to get to the boats but we weren't willing to find out! Its been a long time since I can remember seeing a wait time that long for Pirates!
The kids decided they really wanted to go swimming so we took the train around to the front of the park and caught the bus back to the Dolphin. We could see some ominous dark clouds in the distance so we weren't sure we'd make it but decided to give it a try.
As soon as we changed into our swimming suits and went downstairs we passed a ton of people coming in from the pool area. We looked outside and saw another heavy downpour had begun. So we marched ourselves back up to the room and waited. We used this time to just relax, watch TV and take a nap. It stopped raining after about an hour so we went down to the pool. We only stayed about 30 minutes but the kids had fun.
We went back to Beaches & Cream for dinner. This time we sat at the counter so we didn't have to wait a long time for a table. We ordered a little differently this time so we didn't have so many fries & onion rings. The boys shared a double bacon cheeseburger, fruit cup, onion rings, mango smoothie and No Way Jose dessert. Laura and I shared a double bacon cheeseburger, fries, caeser salad, diet Coke & banana split. That was the prettiest banana split I've ever seen! The waitress said she likes making them because they are so pretty! The food wasn't divided onto four plates this time, which made sharing a little more difficult but we managed fine. My mom used her own voucher this time and was able to have her veggie burger, fruit cup, caeser salad and two scoops of nonfat, sugarfree vanilla ice cream all for $11! I don't know what our bill would have been this time because the waitress never gave us one, she just collected our three vouchers and we were on our way. But I'm sure our savings were again substantial!
When we came out of Beaches & Cream it was raining again, and unfortunately we had forgotten our ponchos! We all went back to the hotel to decide what to do next. It was getting late so we decided to just hang around the hotel. The shoes my mom had brought from home were giving her blisters. She didn't bring any tennis shoes, only sandals. I found her some Gloria Vanderbilt tennis shoes in one of the Dolphin shops for only $21! I thought that was a real bargain for being at Disney World and she did too! Those saved her feet for the rest of the vacation and saved us making a trip somewhere else the next day to look for some comfortable shoes.
We went up to the top floor of the Dolphin and looked out the window. It was pretty cool up there but hard to see a lot because it was raining so hard. We walked in and around all the shops and just had fun exploring. I read on the DIS about the shooting stars in the Dolphin lobby. We didn't see anything like that last year so we tried to figure out what people were talking about. We kept staring up at the circus tent area thinking we didn't see anything like that! Later we walked more towards the doors and looked up and there they were! I think it was Laura who spotted them! Very cool indeed!
We walked over to the Swan but didn't really do much there. By then it was time to get ready for bed and prepare for another fun Disney World day!
Budget for the day:
$5 Maid tip
$25 Lunch at Columbia Harbor House
$22 Two vouchers at Beaches & Cream
