Great picture declansdad. I remember the view well, although in your picture it looks like they didn't have any resort buildings up across the lagoon yet.
Day 3 - AK and CdS
We slept late this morning, which for me, meant 8:00. Usually DH is the one up early around our house, he gets up at 5:00 every morning for work, but my Disney adrenaline was still flowing, and it wouldn't let me sleep when there was fun to be had.
Gabriella was up next, so she and I went to check whether the hair wrapping place at the resort was open. She had wanted to try the new Bippity Boppity Boutique, but I thought it was too expensive and she was probably too old for it, so I promised her a hair wrap instead. Alas, the stand was closed, so we looked around the store at the resort for a bit and got our free pin that was included with our package. It was a pin of a Disney bus. Big whoop, I wanted a princess.
We made it to AK around 10:30, too late to do EE without a long wait and I thought the FP times would be after we needed to leave the park, so I skipped it. So much for my rollercoaster ride. Cody had the sprayer bottle with him again, so we went through the whole routine of him constantly stopping to play with it. We looked at the schedule and determined that we would see The Lion King show first. We had a bit of time before we needed to be there. The kids, especially Cody, like the zoo, so we took some time to look at the animals on the way in.
We were near the front of the line for The Lion King show and got seats only three rows up. The theater has a new roof, it's fully enclosed now. I thought it took away some of their seating but I may be wrong. The new air conditioning was wonderful, though. I love this show and for some reason music always makes me cry, so I was sitting there sniffing and telling myself firmly that I would not cry. It didn't work. It was just one of those Disney moments.
Next, we went to see Pocohontas. It was standing room only when we got there, which wasn't surprising, since it started only about 10 minutes after LK ended. The whole LK crowd headed straight for Pocohontas. We managed to sit on the ground near the front, but our view of most of the animals was obstructed. The kids got some paper leaves from the CM after the show, gave them to me to hold, and promptly forgot about them. They are still gathering dust in the bottom of my bag. I couldn't throw them away though, because if I did, it would be a certainty that they would ask about them 3 days from now and throw a fit if I didn't have them. In fact, Cody did ask about his leaf a few days later and ta da, I was able to produce it. He looked at it for about a second and then told me to put it away again. He hasn't asked about it since, though.
We hadn't gotten a lot of autographs up to then, so we spent some time at Camp Minnie-Mickey seeing the different characters. In the past, getting autographs had been one of the highlights of our trip. This time, the kids just weren't as interested. They preferred going on rides to standing in incredibly long lines to get a signature of someone dressed in a costume. We did want some autographs, though, so this was the time.
It was time for lunch, so we headed to Tusker House in the Africa section. I checked on FPs for KS, but the return time was 4:00 and we needed to be out of the park before then, so we skipped it. It pays to get up early. After lunch, we went to Rafiki's Planet Watch. Except for the train ride, it's a complete waste of time, in my opinion. But DH wanted to go and it was something to do. The kids wanted to leave almost immediately.
On the plus side, we saw the talking trash can there. It wasn't Push. It said its name, but I didn't catch it. It was a big hit, but some other kids were monopolizing it. It even had to gently reprimand one of the kids, who was trying to push it around. It talked to Gabriella for a little bit, but never noticed Cody.
It was time to leave the park. We left a bit earlier than we needed to because I wanted to be certain we had enough time to get to Downtown Disney. We took the bus to AKL and looked around a bit. We had an opportunity to stay there a few years ago, but I chose Coronado Springs instead, so I wanted to see what I missed. The lobby is awesome. We looked at the animals from the observation deck. Since it was afternoon and very hot, they weren't very active. We saw a few zebras and some Ankola cattle in the distance and that was about it. I also thought that the bus stop was a bit far for a premier resort. Since we weren't staying there, I'm sure we missed quite a bit of the resort. We never saw the pool, so I don't know what it is like. I'm glad I chose the resort I did, CS was lovely, had a nice pool and I really liked the landscaping.
We took the bus to DD. It went past Saratoga Springs. I was surprised to see the amount of building going on there. There is a huge expansion in the works, with quite a lot of new buildings going up. We got to DD West side and I sent DH and the kids into an ice cream shop while I ran to will call to pick up our tickets.
When I arrived at will call, they didn't have the tickets. I had my confirmation that I printed off my computer. Now this was the confirmation that they had sent me, to my e-mail account, after I bought the tickets. There was no confirmation number on it and no record that we had bought anything. The only thing the person at the window could do was allow me to buy the tickets all over again and then check my credit card receipt when I got home. She gave me a number to call so I could get a refund. Also, the tickets they had left were in a better, more expensive section, so I ended up paying more than I had originally. I was too tired to argue and didn't want to disappoint the kids, so I bought the tickets.
When I got back and told DH, he told me that he would have yelled and all the things he would have done differently if it was him at the window instead of me. So I told him that there was still time and he was welcome to do so. He didn't.
I should add that when we got home, there was no record on our credit card receipt of the tickets having been purchased. I have no idea why they sent me a confirmation without a number when the purchase never went through.
Before the show, we all used the restrooms near Pleasure Island. We got to the show and our seats were wonderful. We were right in front of the stage toward the back of the first section. During the show some of the actors danced right behind us in the aisle.
Before the show started, I realized I didn't have Cody's sprayer bottle, so I asked DH about it, since he was probably holding it. He wasn't. He had left it in the restroom and it was too late to go back. Cody was worried about his sprayer and wanted to leave right now to get it. Now the sprayer cost $16 and the tickets were nearly $400, so we told him there was no way we were leaving the show. DH apologized over and over. Cody was extremely upset. We had seen CdS before on TV and Cody thought his sprayer was much more important. "What's the big deal about this stupid show we've seen a hundred times anyway?" Then the clowns came out and distracted him.
The clowns were hilarious, the show was wonderful. If you ever get a chance to see it, definitely do it, it's worth every penny. Cody payed attention the whole time and loved it, but as soon as it was over, he and DH had to make a bee line for the restroom. The sprayer was gone. DH promised him a new one. Luckily, Cody wasn't too upset anymore, so he kept his temper in check.
In the meantime, Gabriella and I had stopped at the Virgin Megastore because she wanted the Disneymania 4 CD. It was advertised on all the buses, but we couldn't find it anywhere. The store had a display for it, but no CDs. We wanted to stop and ask someone, but they were all exceedingly busy, so we left.
While we were gone, Cody had seen the boat going across the lake and wanted to take a ride, so we checked it out. It was going to the Marketplace. Our original plan had been to call it an early night and do some swimming at PC. Cody and DH wanted to ride the boat and since we could catch a bus from the Marketplace, that was fine. Besides, Gabriella and I realized that if we went to MP, we could do more shopping! Cody ended up getting something at the
Lego store. Gabriella and I looked for her CD. This time we were able to catch a CM who told us she thought it wasn't out yet as she had been checking her computer for it herself. Why would they advertise something you can't buy yet?
We made it back to the hotel and the hair wrap place was still open, so Gabriella and I stopped to get her hair wrapped. We were the last customers she took for the night. I thought it wouldn't be as expensive as the BBBoutique. It ended up costing nearly as much. Gabriella has hair half-way down her back and you have to pay by the inch. Plus, all the beads cost extra. Gabriella immediately started digging into the nice looking $5.00 beads. After she had picked about 4 of them (note $20.00 just for beads), I noticed what she was doing and nixed that idea. I made her get the 50 cent ones, mean mother that I am. It still ended up costing $32.00. She was extremely happy with it.
We got to bed around 10:30. Our plan for tomorrow was to get up early and go back to AK to see all the things we missed, especially EE and KRR. After that, we would do some park hopping.