"Do You Mind?" - Disney Adventures with Teens August Trip Report

[hlrababy]

Hey!! I just found your TR and I love it!!! That lobster stuffed potatoe looked yummy!!

 

[swwake]

We have arrived! (me and my little friends) LOL

Yay!!! I love green jumpy men!

Oh, well, one right!!

Keep the quizzes coming ... can't wait for a new update (HINT)

Update coming right up

I just came across your trip report. we stayed at the Beach Club a few weeks ago and fell in love with it. I can't wait to read all about your trip!

I loved the BC. More coming soon. I think we'll finally finish out our first partial day.

I am greatly enjoying your TR. The pics from Bluezoo are amazing and I would love to go there but I'm afraid my husband would be the one asking for the kid's menu. Alas, it's a little too seafoody for him.

Your report has been excellent so far. Love the quizzes!

and thank you! I really enjoyed bluezoo. They did have other items like lamb, beef, etc. I am sure your hubby could find something he likes.

Caught up on the "meat" or in this case "seafood" of your TR! (still have to go back for the PTR one of these days!

My cousin is the webdesigner for Wyland! Yup, my claim to fame is a cousin who works for an artist. :rofl: I haven't talked to lately, but I will as about any discounts just for future reference.

I loved your panoramic shot of the boardwalk! That worked out great. I have tried that on several occassions.. none of them near as pretty. Is it just me or is that GIANT SWAN ATTROCITY really annoying???

I love all the details.. I've never been to WDW so even the things that everybody has seen, I have not.

Looking forward to more!

that is very cool that you have the Wyland connection! Do you get a discount on the artwork?

Just wanted to tell you how much I am enjoying your Trip Report!! You are an excellent writer, and you have a gift of immersing the reader into your experience at WDW! I'm excited to read more!

Robert

and thanks so much for the compliments. I am really writing this for our scrapbook, but cross-posting here. Thus the details. Glad you are enjoying!

 

[swwake]

Anxious for Updates!!!!

banana man is too!

Hey!! I just found your TR and I love it!!! That lobster stuffed potatoe looked yummy!!

both of you! I have more coming up.

 

[swwake]

Part II, Chapter 5
Saturday, August 9
Can you sing solo?​

As we waited for our dinner check, I checked my feet and, yes, the blisters were still there. I guess I thought they’d magically disappear in the hour and a half we were sitting there. So my next personal mission was to change shoes.

While finishing up and signing the check, we discussed our next step. It was the girls’ choice. I pulled out my calendar and checked the closing times of all the parks.

MK – green/yellow – 12:00am
Epcot – yellow/green – 9:00pm (already closed)
DHS – green – 9:00pm (already closed)
AK – red/yellow – 8:00pm (already closed)

It didn’t really matter that the other three parks were closed, because the girls wanted to go to – where else? – the Magic Kingdom! Mom said she was ready for a rest, after all of the excitement of the past two days, so she was going to stay in the room. Knowing we were sharing one shower between the five of us, she also said she wanted to get her showers in at night, so as not to be in the way in the mornings.

We strolled back toward the Swan and past the Boardwalk to our hotel. Here are a couple of pictures:

Dolphin at night:

The picture doesn’t do it justice. It is just beautiful.

The girls at the Boardwalk sign:

They were so excited to finally be going to the Magic Kingdom.

As we rounded the corner toward Yacht Club, I noticed how good the boardwalk boards felt on my bare feet (as I had taken off my sandals). I was also in awe of how beautiful the Boardwalk looks at night. My shot wasn’t great, but I kinda like the artsy effect of the movement.

Back at the Beach Club, we decided to test the first of our “elevator games”. If you read my pre-trip report, you know about these. I had dared Katie and Caitlin to try each of them at least once on the trip.

For this attempt, we did the everyone-stand-facing-the-back-of-the-elevator one. We boarded the elevator first, and an unsuspecting gentleman got on after us. We were all turned backwards, little giggles under our breath. Of course we couldn’t see the man, but when he got off on the 3rd floor, we turned to watch and he SPRINTED down the hall. He couldn’t get off that elevator fast enough. We laughed so hard.

We went up to the room and Chris and Caitlin changed clothes. I changed shoes. Then it was out to the bus stop to wait for the MK bus.

Our wait was about 5 minutes.

Our first Disney Transportation bus ride!

Katie was in a goofy mood and didn’t want pictures. I think the goofy came from the 80’s retro side-ponytail residual.

The bus was empty. I don’t think many people wanted to go to MK at 10:30pm on a Saturday night. Maybe we were crazy.

While we were on the bus, Caitlin was singing some hip-hop song. Katie teased her:
Katie: Hey Caitlin, what’d you do with the money?
Caitlin: What money?
Katie: The money your Mom gave you for singing lessons.

So Caitlin decided to retaliate:
Caitlin: Hey Katie, can you sing solo?
Katie: Solo?
Caitlin: Yeah, so low I don’t have to hear you!

Caitlin: Hey Katie, can you sing tenor?
Katie: Tenor?
Caitlin: Ten or 12 miles away from me

That was it for the improv, and we arrived at the MK bus stops.

We were inside the park at 11:00pm.

Yep, everyone else was leaving.

Our first glimpse of Cinderella’s castle:

We headed to Splash Mountain first, but the sign said there was a 40 minute wait. We stood in line for about 3 minutes, then decided to try BTMRR next door. There, the sign said the wait was 30 minutes. We decided to go for it.

We were actually in line for less than 15 minutes. Here are Katie and Caitlin right before we boarded the train.

They were so excited to finally be at Disneyworld, finally be in the Magic Kingdom, and finally be riding their first ride.

I LOVE BTMRR at night, but I have to admit, you miss a lot. I wanted to make sure we got to come back and ride it during the day one day. Would we get to?

After BTM, we hopped back over to Splash Mountain. The wait time was still 40 minutes. We got into line and waited approximately 15 minutes again before boarding. What was it with these misposted wait times? Were they discouraging people from entering the lines so close to closing time?

Just as we boarded our boat, we could hear Spectromagic starting. According to my Times Guide, it started at 11pm, but since we were near the end of the parade, it was probably closer to 11:20 or 11:30. It was really neat to ride Splash Mountain during the parade. On the outside parts of the ride, they were piping in the Spectro music and we could see the twinkling lights through the trees.

Splash Mountain seems to always bring us magical memories. When we were there in 1997, Chris and Katie took one last ride on Splash Mountain, and as they came over the top of the hill right before the fall, the very first firework from the fireworks show went off. They will never forget that moment.

As we exited Splash Mountain, the park was closing, so we decided it would be best not to hurry, or we’d end up in big crowds. We stopped at a kiosk and got a couple of bottled waters, then strolled slowly back to the park entrance/exit, taking it all in. It’s hard to believe that as we were ending our first partial day, just beginning our vacation, many of the people leaving the park with us were ending theirs.

We waited only 5-10 minutes for our bus back to the hotel, and it was a 20 minute ride back. While on the bus, we made a plan for the next day.

Sunday was a Green day for Animal Kingdom. The park opened at 9:00am. We would get a wake-up call for 7am and when we woke up, we would make a decision about whether we wanted to get up and go, or maybe sleep in a little longer.

Answers to previous questions:
• Who, if anyone, went to bed? Grandma Bonnie stayed in the room
• Who stayed up and out? Susan, Chris, Katie and Caitlin
• Did we stay in the Boardwalk area? Nope
• Did we stay at our resort? Nope
• Did we visit a theme park? Yes, Magic Kingdom
• Did we go to Downtown Disney/Pleasure Island? Nope
• What time did we get to bed? About 1am

Next up: Our first full day
• Did we get up early for AK?
• Did we make rope drop?
• Did we all stay together?

 

[SwansLoveDisney]

Splash Mountain during the parade sounds awesome!

I'm going to have to remember that.

The elevator thing cracks me up. That experiment is one of the only things I remember from my psych undergrad degree!

 

[swwake]

Splash Mountain during the parade sounds awesome!

I'm going to have to remember that.

The elevator thing cracks me up. That experiment is one of the only things I remember from my psych undergrad degree!

It is a different take on the Splash Mountain attraction, but it is very neat.

Did you do the personal space on the escalator experiment?

 

[swwake]

If anyone is interested, I am adding onto our old Vegas trip report for last weekend's trip. See the link in my siggie.

 

[Charleston Princess]

Your elevator game cracked me up! That poor man! I wonder what he was thinking?

I loved that you guys went to MK for an hour just because you could and it was your first night there!

Splash Mountain is one of my favorite rides, but you know what? I don't think I have ever ridden it at night before! I think I will need to fix that!

Can't wait to hear more about the trip!

 

[Marshay]

Going to MK for 2 rides and the experience -- so cool that you guys could do that!! Probably felt like you were "breaking the rules" a little With our 3yo, that would never happen!

I love to hang back and let the crowd leave MK...I always want to be one of the only people left ... but DH is more like -- ok, it's closed, let's go!

Poor feet!!

I'm going to guess conservatively and say you didn't get up early, didn't make rope drop but you did split up.

 

[SwansLoveDisney]

Did you do the personal space on the escalator experiment?

Nope, we just watched a video of people who did it. It's funny to hear about your experiences!

 

[ThePin Princess]

i
Next up: Our first full day
• Did we get up early for AK? No
• Did we make rope drop? No
• Did we all stay together? No

Whats my score???

I must say Katie and Caitlin are both very pretty I myself, one year younger, am the same when it comes to the canded and posed for photos, and I hope you vacation was fantabulous, i was there the same time you were, well almost, August 14 - 20. I love you trip report so far

 

[travelmel]

Great update!

We once caught the fireworks from a great roller coaster at LegoLand in California and it was REALLY neat! I can totally relate

 

[irene_dsc]

Yeah, gotta love that you went to MK for just 2 rides on your 1st night! Sounds like you had fun!

I'm guessing you got up early, but not for rope drop, and split up....that seems to be a popular vote!

 

[TPCShauna]

I LOVE Splash Mountain at night. It is so cool to come over that hill just before heading into the Briar Patch and getting that gorgeous view of the Castle all lit up. It is one of my favorite sights in all of WDW.

Very cool on the quickie MK trip. I love doing stuff like that! I'm judging from the Green/Yellow thing that you do TGM? LOVE him!

My votes on your questions:
Next up: Our first full day
• Did we get up early for AK? Yes
• Did we make rope drop? Yes
• Did we all stay together? No

How'd I do?

 

[xoktenox]

I've been lurking along the whole TR and am absolutely loving it! I really do try and guess the answer to your questions at the end haha can't wait to read more!

 

[princess&her4princes]

Hi, just spent the last hour reading your TR, really enjoying it!! Can't wait for the rest!!

 

[dddisrunner]

Great update Susan! I love all the nighttime MK pics! The ones of you waiting for the bus are cute too! Katie seems like such a go with the flow kind of girl!

 

[Grandma Bonnie]

Hey!! I just found your TR and I love it!!! That lobster stuffed potatoe looked yummy!!

It was!!!

 

[Grandma Bonnie]

I would add more comments, but so far in this trip report all I've done is eat, shower, watch Olympics and sleep.
I do so love the pictures because they bring back such great memories.
I can't wait for Susan to add more to this report.
I am much more involved in the first full day of Adventure.
Stay with us and be patient, Susan is in another "busy season" with her job.
And a big southern welcome to all of you new visitors. Y'all come back real soon,

 

[tiggerbell]

I'm really enjoying your report - and let your dad know he's not the only one: both my husbands had 10/7 birthdays!!! OF THE SAME YEAR!