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 25 - TUESDAY
This morning our plan was to go to Animal Kingdom. This is the only WDW park my mom hasn't ever been to and frankly she had little desire to go to, but curiousity got the better of her and she agreed to see what it was like. Its a long bus ride from the Dolphin to the AK! I didn't realize that it stops at Blizzard Beach first. It was already looking like rain. Nobody on that bus looked like they were going to BB and no one got off, but I guess they are required to go by there anyway.
Oh, by the way, mom said she had no problem finding her way back to the room yesterday. She even left the room and went back downstairs and ate at the Fountain. They had veggie burgers she would eat, and had more fat-free ice cream! She was quite proud of herself for her independence and how well she had done alone!
Back to Animal Kingdom, we got there as the park opened and went against the crowd who all seemed to be heading for the safari. We went to Dinoland and rode Triceratops Spin. Paul and the kids rode Prehistoric Whirl. I didn't ride that one because I wasn't sure it was something I'd like. I probably could have handled it though and now wished I'd been brave enough. I loved Triceratops Spin though! That's my speed!! Ha!
So far mom wasn't impressed with AK at all. The walk from the bus just to the entrance was long, and once inside the park there was long walk before getting to anything. Admittedly Dinoland is kind of an ugly area and she likes pretty things, bright colors, etc. Paul and the kids went on Dinosaur while I waited with mom. I'm not afraid of that ride and have been on it a couple of times, I just don't particularly like it because its so bumpy.
While we were waiting for them we watched a dinosaur character act like he was a statue and when some unsuspecting little kid would come to get his or her picture taken with him he'd growl and come to life scaring the beegeebees out of them! It was kinda funny when the kids were startled but not truly scared, but it made one really small child cry!
It started to rain again so we found a place to buy another poncho and replace the one that had ripped up. After buying the poncho it stopped raining, but we knew we'd most likely be using it later!
Laura wanted to ride Kali River Rapids. She really loves that! I watched from the bridge so I could film them as they came past. Mom found a place to sit and wait. I went back to check on mom when it seemed like it had been a long wait for their raft to come by, and when I went back to the bridge I had just missed them. They ended up getting right back in line and going on the ride again because the line was so short. After it stopped raining, while we were still waiting on them to come back, we noticed a man going around drying off all the places to sit with towels. I thought that must be a thankless job! As soon as he gets things dried off it starts to rain again! I guess his job is secure! I got to where I didn't even care if it was wet if I needed a place to sit down. I'd brush it off with my hand as best I could but figured if I had a wet back end I'd fit right in with most of the other people.
After that I knew we needed to find something my mom would enjoy so we all went to Flights of Wonder. We saw this on our last trip and its really, really good! Mom enjoyed it very much too. The audience is under cover but the stage is not so they said if it started to rain they would have to end the show. It had stopped raining briefly so we were able to see the whole show, thankfully!
On our way to lunch we saw a group of African men playing drums. Of course Jeff had to stop & watch them!
We ate lunch at Tusker House and got the AK meal deal. These meal certificates are $10.99 each and you can get any entree plus certificates that can be used later for a drink and either popcorn or ice cream. These seemed like a great value. All 4 of us got rotisserie chicken & drinks for lunch. While we were eating a man came through the dining area playing some little instrument about the size & shape of a ukulele. I don't know what it was but to me it was just part of the charm of Animal Kingdom. I loved it!
Mom stayed at Tusker House while we went on the safari. She had surgery a year ago and couldn't go on anything rough or bumpy, so as much as I would have loved for her to go on the safari, I knew she shouldn't. They told us it would be particularly bumpy this day because of all the rain they'd been having, and there were lots of holes in the road. We saw a lot of animals on the safari and it was fun.
We got mom and walked through the Pangani Trail. I wasn't sure if she'd like it but she really did. We didn't walk the other trail because she said she didn't want to see anything gross and I knew she would not want to see the bats. She might have really enjoyed it though, if we had just skipped that part. But she wasn't up to walking that far to go back to it.
We used our certificates for the ice cream. Paul and I got the Nestle ice cream sandwich. That was soooo good! Highly recommend it! Laura got popcorn with her certificate. Jeff had a Mickey bar and then Grandma said he could have hers and he got a frozen banana too. After eating our ice cream treats and washing up, we all got our drinks to take back to the Dolphin.
It was raining again, hard. Jeff bought a disposable camera that was ridiculously high priced. The CM was telling Jeff that the weather system was in a vortex and that's why there was so much rain. I don't know if she was right but it sounded good!
The only thing left that we might want to see was Lion King. I was the only one who wanted to see it and since I was outvoted we left. We saw FOTLK last year but we got there just as it was starting and were on the very top row. None of us were overly impressed then, but I've heard so many good things about it that I wanted to go again to give it another chance. I thought maybe if we had better seats we would enjoy it more. Oh well, maybe another time.
The rain had its benefits. It definitely kept it from being too hot. Visiting Florida the end of June we just prepare ourselves for the inevitable heat & humidity. As a result of the rain we never were really hot. The heat can just be miserable and zap energy so in retrospect maybe the rain wasn't all that bad. Also we didn't spend nearly as much money on buying pop, water and ice cream. We kept trying to focus on things like that, but sometimes it did get to be a bit much trying to see the bright side of all that moisture!
Mom decided her opinion of AK wasn't favorable overall and she probably wouldn't want to go back again.
We had a long wait for the bus back to the Dolphin. It was crowded and all of us had to stand except my mom. Again a very nice gentleman gave up his seat for her. Laura almost fell during the trip back to the hotel though.
We always rent a car when we go to Florida since we have family in the state. Even staying onsite we used to always drive to the parks, except MK. Last year was the first time we relied solely on Disney transportation to all the parks because it was all so convenient staying at the Dolphin. After that trip we are sold on Disney transportation. Yes, there are times when we waited longer than we would have liked for a bus or a boat, and there are times we had to stand. We had more times like that this trip than last, but we are still sold on not moving that rental car any more than we absolutely have to! Even if it takes a little longer, it is sooooooooo much more stress free this way! I know its a personal decision, but for us we're happy with Disney transportation. Now after saying all that, if we stay at the Dolphin again I might consider driving to AK instead of taking the bus to avoid the Blizzard Beach stop!
Back at the hotel Paul took a nap, Jeff & Laura went to the pool with instructions to stay together. I tried calling a fellow DISer, SideShowBob, to see if we could say hi. He wasn't there so I left a message. I went down to the laundry room to do a few loads of wash. Not something I looked forward to, but it would be necessary at some point before going home and this seemed like a good time.
The laundry room was crowded. Fortunately I was able to get 3 washers pretty quick. The machines take tokens and you get 4 tokens for $1. One load of wash takes 6 tokens. Dryers are the same. If you have tokens left over these are the same tokens used in the game room. I brought individually bagged laundry soap from home so that saved having to buy some.
Like I said the place was pretty crowded. There were only 4 chairs in the laundry room, 3 of which had one lady's kids sleeping in them. My feet hurt from walking around AK all morning, then standing on the bus ride back. I wanted to sit down so once I got my laundry going in the washers I went to sit in Tubbis and refilled my mug. I sat there awhile and went to check on the laundry every now and then. Tubbis and the laundry room were luckily very close to each other.
When my three loads of laundry were done, I was fortunate enough to get 3 dryers from a man who was just finishing up. Someone had a load of clean, wet laundry on the floor on a towel. I imagine someone had removed laundry from a washer and put it there because the owner of the laundry was no where to be found. I don't know, but I can't imagine any other reason it would be there. While I was transferring my 3rd load of laundry from a washer to the dryer I forgot about that big load of laundry on the floor and tripped over it. My arms were full with my wet laundry so I couldn't see it. I came within inches of crashing to the floor. The man who was just finishing and turning his dryers over to me kind of caught me and helped me regain my balance. I felt like an idiot!
But that trick wasn't near enough. I wasn't done yet making a fool of myself! Finally the lady with the 3 sleeping kids finished and I was able to sit down and watch the news on TV. The weather people were talking about the amazing number of days of continuous rain! No kidding!
Anyway, finally the dryers stopped and I went to get everything out. I was leaning into a bottom dryer trying to reach everything when I stood up quick and banged my head on the bottom of the medal thingy where you put the tokens in for the upper dryer! Ouchhhhhh!!!!! Right at that moment a lady started asking me about the dryers and if one cycle was enough, etc. I answered her but don't know if I made any sense because I was just trying to remain conscious!!! No one said anything and I hoped no one noticed because by this time I was thinking they must think I need a guardian or something!!! Paul came down to help me bring the laundry back upstairs. It was one of those times when you know you can't tell what happened because you know if you do you'll cry so I just kept quiet about it till we got back upstairs! I had a big knot on my head for the rest of the day! Never knew doing laundry was so hazardous!
We all went to the Dolphin Fountain for dinner and used the 20% discount. That's a great deal! I didn't write down what we all ate this time and I can't remember. Must be because of the head injury!
Mom said she didn't bring enough toothpaste so we went to Tubbis for her to buy some. I was nervous to see what it was going to cost! It was $1.75 for a travel size, which I didn't think was too bad. I mean you know prices are inflated at a resort and I think a similar size at Wal-Mart at home was $1.00. Another day we were in Daisy's Garden, the shop on the lobby level, and they have a few drugstore type items in the back. They had a travel size toothpaste for $1.50. Not sure if it was the same brand as sold in Tubbis, but when you're on vacation does it really matter?
After dinner Paul, the kids and I took the bus to MK. We had planned to do E-night tonight, but decided not to. Once again we all got into MK with no problem except Laura. Access denied. I could see if she had trouble at EVERY park but it was only MK that was a problem for her. Again they had to override something and let her in. We stayed at MK till the regular closing time of 11:00. We thought if we stayed for E-night then we'd just end up sleeping late the next day and wasting the morning. We figured we might as well just sleep at night, get up early at our regular time, and save the money.
At MK we rode Pirates for Laura, still somewhat of a long wait but not an hour. We rode Jungle Cruise, which I don't think we've ever ridden at night. That was kind of fun and different. Outside the Jungle Cruise a CM came up to Laura and in a very serious voice said "I'm sorry but did you know you have Pooh on your head." Laura forgot she was wearing her Pooh & Piglet headband and immediately looked at me and said "Ewwwwwww!!!!!!!" She didn't catch on it was "poo" as in Winnie the Pooh until we told her! Boy was she relieved!
We saw some of Spectromagic. I love watching the parades but I'm the only one in my family who does so I just catch little bits when I can or sometimes put my foot down and say we WILL watch this!!!
We rode Buzz, BTMRR and Splash Mountain (no Splash for me) and then it was time to go back to the hotel for bed.
Budget for the day:
$5 Maid tip
$6 Rain poncho
$44 Lunch - Four meal certificates at AK ($10.99 each)
$6 Tokens for laundry
$300 Emergency room visit from doing laundry (just kidding!!!)
$40 Dinner - Dolphin Fountain
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 25 - TUESDAY
This morning our plan was to go to Animal Kingdom. This is the only WDW park my mom hasn't ever been to and frankly she had little desire to go to, but curiousity got the better of her and she agreed to see what it was like. Its a long bus ride from the Dolphin to the AK! I didn't realize that it stops at Blizzard Beach first. It was already looking like rain. Nobody on that bus looked like they were going to BB and no one got off, but I guess they are required to go by there anyway.
Oh, by the way, mom said she had no problem finding her way back to the room yesterday. She even left the room and went back downstairs and ate at the Fountain. They had veggie burgers she would eat, and had more fat-free ice cream! She was quite proud of herself for her independence and how well she had done alone!
Back to Animal Kingdom, we got there as the park opened and went against the crowd who all seemed to be heading for the safari. We went to Dinoland and rode Triceratops Spin. Paul and the kids rode Prehistoric Whirl. I didn't ride that one because I wasn't sure it was something I'd like. I probably could have handled it though and now wished I'd been brave enough. I loved Triceratops Spin though! That's my speed!! Ha!
So far mom wasn't impressed with AK at all. The walk from the bus just to the entrance was long, and once inside the park there was long walk before getting to anything. Admittedly Dinoland is kind of an ugly area and she likes pretty things, bright colors, etc. Paul and the kids went on Dinosaur while I waited with mom. I'm not afraid of that ride and have been on it a couple of times, I just don't particularly like it because its so bumpy.
While we were waiting for them we watched a dinosaur character act like he was a statue and when some unsuspecting little kid would come to get his or her picture taken with him he'd growl and come to life scaring the beegeebees out of them! It was kinda funny when the kids were startled but not truly scared, but it made one really small child cry!
It started to rain again so we found a place to buy another poncho and replace the one that had ripped up. After buying the poncho it stopped raining, but we knew we'd most likely be using it later!
Laura wanted to ride Kali River Rapids. She really loves that! I watched from the bridge so I could film them as they came past. Mom found a place to sit and wait. I went back to check on mom when it seemed like it had been a long wait for their raft to come by, and when I went back to the bridge I had just missed them. They ended up getting right back in line and going on the ride again because the line was so short. After it stopped raining, while we were still waiting on them to come back, we noticed a man going around drying off all the places to sit with towels. I thought that must be a thankless job! As soon as he gets things dried off it starts to rain again! I guess his job is secure! I got to where I didn't even care if it was wet if I needed a place to sit down. I'd brush it off with my hand as best I could but figured if I had a wet back end I'd fit right in with most of the other people.
After that I knew we needed to find something my mom would enjoy so we all went to Flights of Wonder. We saw this on our last trip and its really, really good! Mom enjoyed it very much too. The audience is under cover but the stage is not so they said if it started to rain they would have to end the show. It had stopped raining briefly so we were able to see the whole show, thankfully!
On our way to lunch we saw a group of African men playing drums. Of course Jeff had to stop & watch them!
We ate lunch at Tusker House and got the AK meal deal. These meal certificates are $10.99 each and you can get any entree plus certificates that can be used later for a drink and either popcorn or ice cream. These seemed like a great value. All 4 of us got rotisserie chicken & drinks for lunch. While we were eating a man came through the dining area playing some little instrument about the size & shape of a ukulele. I don't know what it was but to me it was just part of the charm of Animal Kingdom. I loved it!
Mom stayed at Tusker House while we went on the safari. She had surgery a year ago and couldn't go on anything rough or bumpy, so as much as I would have loved for her to go on the safari, I knew she shouldn't. They told us it would be particularly bumpy this day because of all the rain they'd been having, and there were lots of holes in the road. We saw a lot of animals on the safari and it was fun.
We got mom and walked through the Pangani Trail. I wasn't sure if she'd like it but she really did. We didn't walk the other trail because she said she didn't want to see anything gross and I knew she would not want to see the bats. She might have really enjoyed it though, if we had just skipped that part. But she wasn't up to walking that far to go back to it.
We used our certificates for the ice cream. Paul and I got the Nestle ice cream sandwich. That was soooo good! Highly recommend it! Laura got popcorn with her certificate. Jeff had a Mickey bar and then Grandma said he could have hers and he got a frozen banana too. After eating our ice cream treats and washing up, we all got our drinks to take back to the Dolphin.
It was raining again, hard. Jeff bought a disposable camera that was ridiculously high priced. The CM was telling Jeff that the weather system was in a vortex and that's why there was so much rain. I don't know if she was right but it sounded good!
The only thing left that we might want to see was Lion King. I was the only one who wanted to see it and since I was outvoted we left. We saw FOTLK last year but we got there just as it was starting and were on the very top row. None of us were overly impressed then, but I've heard so many good things about it that I wanted to go again to give it another chance. I thought maybe if we had better seats we would enjoy it more. Oh well, maybe another time.
The rain had its benefits. It definitely kept it from being too hot. Visiting Florida the end of June we just prepare ourselves for the inevitable heat & humidity. As a result of the rain we never were really hot. The heat can just be miserable and zap energy so in retrospect maybe the rain wasn't all that bad. Also we didn't spend nearly as much money on buying pop, water and ice cream. We kept trying to focus on things like that, but sometimes it did get to be a bit much trying to see the bright side of all that moisture!
Mom decided her opinion of AK wasn't favorable overall and she probably wouldn't want to go back again.
We had a long wait for the bus back to the Dolphin. It was crowded and all of us had to stand except my mom. Again a very nice gentleman gave up his seat for her. Laura almost fell during the trip back to the hotel though.
We always rent a car when we go to Florida since we have family in the state. Even staying onsite we used to always drive to the parks, except MK. Last year was the first time we relied solely on Disney transportation to all the parks because it was all so convenient staying at the Dolphin. After that trip we are sold on Disney transportation. Yes, there are times when we waited longer than we would have liked for a bus or a boat, and there are times we had to stand. We had more times like that this trip than last, but we are still sold on not moving that rental car any more than we absolutely have to! Even if it takes a little longer, it is sooooooooo much more stress free this way! I know its a personal decision, but for us we're happy with Disney transportation. Now after saying all that, if we stay at the Dolphin again I might consider driving to AK instead of taking the bus to avoid the Blizzard Beach stop!
Back at the hotel Paul took a nap, Jeff & Laura went to the pool with instructions to stay together. I tried calling a fellow DISer, SideShowBob, to see if we could say hi. He wasn't there so I left a message. I went down to the laundry room to do a few loads of wash. Not something I looked forward to, but it would be necessary at some point before going home and this seemed like a good time.
The laundry room was crowded. Fortunately I was able to get 3 washers pretty quick. The machines take tokens and you get 4 tokens for $1. One load of wash takes 6 tokens. Dryers are the same. If you have tokens left over these are the same tokens used in the game room. I brought individually bagged laundry soap from home so that saved having to buy some.
Like I said the place was pretty crowded. There were only 4 chairs in the laundry room, 3 of which had one lady's kids sleeping in them. My feet hurt from walking around AK all morning, then standing on the bus ride back. I wanted to sit down so once I got my laundry going in the washers I went to sit in Tubbis and refilled my mug. I sat there awhile and went to check on the laundry every now and then. Tubbis and the laundry room were luckily very close to each other.
When my three loads of laundry were done, I was fortunate enough to get 3 dryers from a man who was just finishing up. Someone had a load of clean, wet laundry on the floor on a towel. I imagine someone had removed laundry from a washer and put it there because the owner of the laundry was no where to be found. I don't know, but I can't imagine any other reason it would be there. While I was transferring my 3rd load of laundry from a washer to the dryer I forgot about that big load of laundry on the floor and tripped over it. My arms were full with my wet laundry so I couldn't see it. I came within inches of crashing to the floor. The man who was just finishing and turning his dryers over to me kind of caught me and helped me regain my balance. I felt like an idiot!
But that trick wasn't near enough. I wasn't done yet making a fool of myself! Finally the lady with the 3 sleeping kids finished and I was able to sit down and watch the news on TV. The weather people were talking about the amazing number of days of continuous rain! No kidding!
Anyway, finally the dryers stopped and I went to get everything out. I was leaning into a bottom dryer trying to reach everything when I stood up quick and banged my head on the bottom of the medal thingy where you put the tokens in for the upper dryer! Ouchhhhhh!!!!! Right at that moment a lady started asking me about the dryers and if one cycle was enough, etc. I answered her but don't know if I made any sense because I was just trying to remain conscious!!! No one said anything and I hoped no one noticed because by this time I was thinking they must think I need a guardian or something!!! Paul came down to help me bring the laundry back upstairs. It was one of those times when you know you can't tell what happened because you know if you do you'll cry so I just kept quiet about it till we got back upstairs! I had a big knot on my head for the rest of the day! Never knew doing laundry was so hazardous!
We all went to the Dolphin Fountain for dinner and used the 20% discount. That's a great deal! I didn't write down what we all ate this time and I can't remember. Must be because of the head injury!
Mom said she didn't bring enough toothpaste so we went to Tubbis for her to buy some. I was nervous to see what it was going to cost! It was $1.75 for a travel size, which I didn't think was too bad. I mean you know prices are inflated at a resort and I think a similar size at Wal-Mart at home was $1.00. Another day we were in Daisy's Garden, the shop on the lobby level, and they have a few drugstore type items in the back. They had a travel size toothpaste for $1.50. Not sure if it was the same brand as sold in Tubbis, but when you're on vacation does it really matter?
After dinner Paul, the kids and I took the bus to MK. We had planned to do E-night tonight, but decided not to. Once again we all got into MK with no problem except Laura. Access denied. I could see if she had trouble at EVERY park but it was only MK that was a problem for her. Again they had to override something and let her in. We stayed at MK till the regular closing time of 11:00. We thought if we stayed for E-night then we'd just end up sleeping late the next day and wasting the morning. We figured we might as well just sleep at night, get up early at our regular time, and save the money.
At MK we rode Pirates for Laura, still somewhat of a long wait but not an hour. We rode Jungle Cruise, which I don't think we've ever ridden at night. That was kind of fun and different. Outside the Jungle Cruise a CM came up to Laura and in a very serious voice said "I'm sorry but did you know you have Pooh on your head." Laura forgot she was wearing her Pooh & Piglet headband and immediately looked at me and said "Ewwwwwww!!!!!!!" She didn't catch on it was "poo" as in Winnie the Pooh until we told her! Boy was she relieved!
We saw some of Spectromagic. I love watching the parades but I'm the only one in my family who does so I just catch little bits when I can or sometimes put my foot down and say we WILL watch this!!!
We rode Buzz, BTMRR and Splash Mountain (no Splash for me) and then it was time to go back to the hotel for bed.
Budget for the day:
$5 Maid tip
$6 Rain poncho
$44 Lunch - Four meal certificates at AK ($10.99 each)
$6 Tokens for laundry
$300 Emergency room visit from doing laundry (just kidding!!!)
$40 Dinner - Dolphin Fountain
