eandesmom
I'm with Beast
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2009
- Messages
- 14,172
When I left you it was midnight on our first full day at Disney. And it had been a full day at that. A little magic kingdom, a little pool time, some animal kingdom, hiding from thunderstorms, great food and crazy cab drivers. It had also been a very long day.
Which was both good and bad. And I knew it even then.
The good?
We all slept like rocks. Id been worried, as many of you know, about the combo of supersonic hearing Jeff and wiggly Eric. When you are that tired, all bets are off and everyone slept like the dead. I cant say the beds at WL were the most amazing ever, but they were fine. Id been a bit concerned with all my earlier neck issues how Id do with 2 weeks on hotel beds and pillows but night one put those fears to rest. Id fallen asleep easily and slept well. Jeff whined that he thought the thread counts at WL were at about 10. Seemed a bit harsh to me. They were fine, not anything special, but fine. I will say on the bedding front though, after visiting all 3 resorts for our trip, it was our least favorite. Which was still pretty darn nice. But I digress.
Jeff and I got up around 8 made coffee, headed out to the balcony with our books. Wed taken the brewer out of Kendall and Taylors room so we each had our own brewer. Jeff had gotten it staged the night before as we were all getting ready so all we had to do was push brew and we were good to go. We enjoyed our lovely view, the peace of a quiet courtyard and pool and that wonderful silence you can have on vacation where its just you, your book, a good cup of coffee and warm sunny air.
Sigh. Pure bliss. Uninterrupted adult time. I decided to check my phone
I was loving life!
For a bit. Sleeping in is great and everyone had been pretty excited that we were deliberately not in a rush to move. However I had said it might be nice to be out the door around 10. Seemed reasonable, right? I'd hoped for earlier but has also assumed a bedtime more along the 11pm lines.
here was the touring plan I'd put into TripIt
8:00 wake up
8:30 am Roaring Forks light OOP Breakfast ($10 pp), sleepyheads can miss breakfast or we bring something back to room. No showers. Suncreen!
9:30 am - on bus to Typhoon Lagoon! BRING OWN BEACH TOWELS!
10 am - 2pm Typhoon Lagoon. Typhoon Tillys or Lowtide Lous Lagoon CS for lunch CS#2
2 pm - Back to resort , shower, change
3:30 - get on bus to Downtown Disney
4 pm - Downtown Disney, Disney Quest, Goofys (Snack #2)
meet up with JULIE and her mom! Whoo hoo!
7:00 pm Raglan Road for dinner (TS#2- 6TS)
8:30 pm - bus back back to WL
9:15-10:30 - Electric Boat Parade from WL Beach @9:25, Watch Nightastic from beach @10
Bed!
I started to get ansty. Although that may have been the fact that I'd brewed, and started in on, a second pot of coffee by then.
Ok, I was exaggerating, it had only been 9.5. Still, we let them sleep. My thinking at the time was that hey, we were going to the water park, let them get that morning laziness out of their system and have one really good sleep in day. There really wasnt a rush other than a small concern about thunderstorms cutting the day short and the need to get back and shower before we went to DTD for dinner, where wed be meeting a dear college friend and her mom.
At 10 we started poking at them. I got ready and started organizing the supplies for the day, figuring out what wed need. By 10:30 we were good to go. The great thing about a waterpark day is .no one needs to shower first. The fact it took an hour to get everyone ready had far more to do with how slow everyone moved, than any actual getting ready things that really needed to happen. My original plan had been to get some pastries from roaring forks but no one wanted anything yet. Which didnt thrill me as I knew that meant it would be food first, then water at WL but .I wasnt hungry yet either.
As we were getting ready to leave I went to pull out my daily mousekeeping tip envelope out of the safe. WL, for reasons that escapes me, has very old fashioned in room safes. They use a key. A single key, that is NOT on a key ring.
I couldnt find the key.
For the life of me.
Id had a bad in room safe situation on our spring break trip to California. This was some serious déjà vu.
I called down, thinking that hey, its a regular key, they must have a master set, this shouldnt be a big deal.
Uh. No. think again.
We will have to call the locksmith, it could take up to 3 hours and will be a charge of $30.00
Well THAT wont work.
I tried to think about what might be in the safe. All I could think of was all the tip envelopes and a small, but empty, wallet.
I decided to play Scarlett and think about it another day. We needed to GO! Between my searching and the phone calls, Id lost a good half hour. We headed out, swung by the pool to pick up towels and headed off to the bus.
11:33 am Facebook post
Finally waiting for the bus. In room safe karma followed me from California. Ugh
We waited
And waited
And waited
It was hot out there waiting!
It did allow for plenty of time to apply sunscreen though, so that was good. I really dont think we waited longer than 20 minutes but it felt like a lot more thanks to the heat. Our bus pulls up, TL and DTD combo. It takes off. Finally we are on our way.
But wait, we have a few stops first.
First up, the Grand Floridian.
No one got on.
Next stop
Downtown Disney Marketplace
Next stop
Downtown Disney West side
Not much on/off activity here either. I forget sometimes just how BIG and how FAR things are. Wilderness Lodge with its lovely hop skip and a boat to Magic Kingdom really seemed, at that moment, to be on the other side of the earth from where we wanted to be. Between last nights interminable wait and long ride home from AKL to the multi stop trek to TL our day was giving me some serious déjà vu to the previous years trip. You know, the one where we never made it to a park before 11? Even though Id planned it to be a lazy, late, morning, this was giving me a bit of anxiety. Not to mention I'd had a lot of coffee and not a bite of food.
Finally, FINALLY, we pull up.
First stop?
Food of course. More déjà vu. This was EXACTLY our MO the previous year. Get to park between 11-12, eat first and then finally do stuff. Even though there was no earthly reason this wasnt ok this day, I was not thrilled with the fact that it was past noon. Our decision process was quite simple. Whats closest? Leaning Palms! Which was insanely, INSANELY, busy. Jeff decided to scope out a spot to sit while I took the kids up to order and then wed swap. Kendall and Taylor kids opted for the double cheeseburger. Why they cant also offer a single one is a bit beyond me. Evan and I went for the special basically a Italian Style Panini. Id learn as the week went on it was the special in a lot of places but at the moment it sounded special and different. Eric went for the kids cheese pizza. Which, we were thrilled to learn, came in a bucket! With a shovel. Eric loves his sand and this solved, immediately, a concern Id had for him for SAB. BIG drinks were in order, we were all thirsty and needed to hydrate. I sent 3 of them back to take Jeffs place so he could order. I am pretty sure Jeff either got the Chicken Wrap or there may have been some kind of pulled pork sandwich if memory serves. It took a while to get our food but finally, food in hand, we settled down to eat. And basically inhaled it all! Good, basic, food. Nothing earth shattering but nothing bad either. No pictures. I was hot and slimy and carrying way too much stuff. Sorry! LOL.
It was HOT. I mean HOT. 93 with a real feel of something like 103. We were drippy. While the heat hadnt bothered us at all the previous day, we all felt pretty nasty at that moment.
And ready to get wet!
It was about 1pm by this point. 1pm.
Sigh.
Still. It really didnt matter. Except it did. A little bit. We had a 7:00 dinner reservation in DTD. Wed need to go back, shower, and then come back to DTD. And we needed to allow plenty of time based on how long it had taken to get there already. Jeff and I conferred and informed the group that we had until 4:30, tops. Which should be plenty of time as long as there werent any thunderstorms.
Straight to the surf pool we went, stashing our stuff on some chairs. We did not spend any time scoping the perfect spot, it was more like finding something as fast as we good that had easy access .stashing and RUNNING into the water. Oh man did that feel good! As you can imagine .its a waterpark! My camera, while I had brought it, never made it out of my bag. We played in the waves for a good half hour and decided that it was time to go explore. First though I needed to take care of the locker situation. The group decided to meander while I dealt with it. I had no idea when wed be back and while I hadnt brought much, there was enough that I wanted to lock up our wallets and the camera. Ive never been to Blizzard Beach so I have no comparison but one thing I loved about TL is how that surf pool really wraps around the front ot he park, allowing you to wade from one side to the other and keep cool. For some reason the locker thing took forwever. Not due to how long it took to rent one, but my inability to find the number Id been assigned. The way they do the numbers is counter intuitive at best and despite not having a drop of alchohol yet and getting plenty of sleep, I had to go back and get help. Pathetic! By the time I made it back to the group, patiently waiting near the edge but keeping their toes wet, they were on the verge of a search party.
We wanted the falls. Keehaul, Mayday and Gangplank to be specific. On the way there we saw Photopass guy #1! And so, while it would be my great preference to have this not be the case, the first official picture you get of me on this trip is
While Im drippy wet
Yeah, I know thats not a TL border on that second one but hey, it covers more stuff up! LOL Ill spare you all the full uncropped version.
First up, Gangplank Falls. Then Keehaul, and Mayday. Ill be honest, they kind of run together in my mind. We did like them all and the lines werent horrible, maybe 15 minutes tops for each. We enjoyed watching the shipwrecked boat spray, hearing the roar of the wave pool and the screams when it went going. We did not enjoy watching the clouds roll in and the sky darkening. Drizzle started and was off an on during our fall adventure but thankfully, nothing worse happened. It looked like it might so we were awfully relieved. While I did like all of the raft rides, we all did, I will say they have 2 major drawbacks. Way too short and carrying tubes up. Its not that big of a deal but plenty of other places (Great Wolf Lodge for one) have figured out conveyors work much better and it would make the whole experience a lot nicer. And faster.
Next up was .Humunga Kowabunga! We were on that side of the park so it made sense. It was, however, nothing Eric or Kendall had any interest in going on and besides, Eric, (of course it was Eric) needed to take a bio break. We headed to the restroom, and locker, so I could reapply Eric, and myself.
On the way back we spotted Photopass guy #2! And took some snaps of the 3 of us with the surf pool and shipwreck in the background. Sadly, these are lost forever. I know he took at least 3 and swear he scanned my cute wrist card from the earlier shots but, they are MIA. Apparently PP will look for them for you but ONLY if its within 30 days of them taking the shot. I didnt know they could do that and by the time I contacted them, it was about 33 days. My pictures were all still in the account for a few more days so the logic didnt exactly make sense to me but .oh well. Good thing to know in the future.
Now the good news is that thanks to my locker visits and bathroom visits, I knew how to get where we wanted to go next. Crush and Gusher! Had I not, wed have been stumbling around. It is not well marked, at all.
I would have LOVED to have my camera here, the theming is truly top notch! I stole a few pics for you to see how cool it is.
There are 3 slides to choose from. Pineapple Plunger, the Banana Blaster, and the Coconut Crusher. Supposedly, the Banana Blaster offers the most thrills. We all took off, Kendall and I were together, Evan and Taylor and then Eric and Jeff. Im not positive but I think we chose the Pineapple Plunger. It may have been the Coconut Crusher. It was not the Banana Blaster. Why not? Well the line looked ridiculous and we didnt know which was better, only that it was getting late in the day and we didnt feel like waiting. We could always go again I reasoned. As we hiked our way up the stairs, lugging tubes, we realized .there were only 4 of us. Jeff and Eric were nowhere to be seen. If youve ever been in those lines, with those tubes, going backwards to look for someone just isnt an option. We assumed they chose a different slide, but didnt know which one. I felt bad as I assumed theyd have seen which one we turned into, but apparently not. We finally made it to the top, and went down. It was fun. Again too short in my opinion. Kendall experienced some small technical difficulties that made me happy Id chosen to wear my board shorts instead of my bikini bottom. Enough said. Sadly, Photopass guy #3 didnt take a picture of any of us.
We migrated to the edge of the pool and turned in our tubes and waited for Eric and Jeff.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
We waited so long I started to freak out a little. Had they gone down a faster one somehow? I just, for the life of me, couldnt picture Jeff of all people choosing the longer line. I went over to the restrooms, thinking that maybe Eric had needed another bio break. I waded around the front of the pool, thinking perhaps they were off splashing somewhere. There is a nice wading pool and chair area here (great spot if you want to avoid crowds at the surf pool but still get wet) No Jeff. No Eric.
We waited so long I started to get crabby, we should have just gotten back in line and gone again, now wed have to hike back all the way out to get a tube as we were out of the line and couldnt easily sneak back in. FINALLY, they appeared. Photopass guy #3 was apparently focused on their slide, and their slide only. Which was, as you may have guessed by now, the Banana Blaster. Jeff chose it on purpose due to the long line, not even trying to see where we went as he assumed long line = best. He liked it, but again, thought it was too short in comparison to the wait.
By now it was approaching 3:40 and we had 2 more items on our agenda before we could head back. Castaway Creek (the lazy river) and a smoothie or drink of some sort. From Crush and Gusher its a bit of a walk back to the creek and of course only so many entry points so it took us a little while to figure out where exactly to get in! Casting away we settled in for a lazy ride. Which was alternatively lazy, and silly, dumping kids off their tubes, steering people right under sprays and generally just having a total blast. I have to admit, and I think I speak for my entire family, this was by far my favorite part of the day. I like the slides and the surf pool but this was just one of those times where it was all of us together, just being silly and not thinking about the time, just having fun. I spotted Photopass guys #4 and 5 here but it was difficult to stop and try and get a shot wed whizz by too fast for me to haul anyone off without some prior planning. So no photos. Castaway Creek takes about 20 minutes to float around and we didnt want to get off. So we didnt. We did about 1.5 trips instead. Not really knowing how late it was at that point, we sadly, sadly, slimed out and turned in our tubes.
Drinks were next. Wed gotten off at where I thought Id seen some smoothies (Lets Go Slurpin) but they are all of the adult variety (or virgin versions) and it didnt appeal to the entire crew. Instead, despite the fact that it was now 4:30, we were on a mission and hiked back to Typhoon Tillies. Or more accurately the snack shack next door.
This was what we were looking for!
Smoothies $4.19; served in a souvenir coconut $10.19 - orange-pineapple; strawberry-banana; strawberry; banana; frozen cappuccino; mango-passion fruit
Taylor, Jeff and I all went for the frozen cappuccino, at least one of the kids got the mango one and the others I think actually went for a soda and a powerade. We did skip the souvenir coconut though. I have to say, this was the BEST frozen cappuccino of the trip. Made to order in a blender instead of out of a machine, the difference was noticeable. Very worth the hike and the wait.
By now it was almost 4:30. We still needed to collect our things from our chairs (why we bothered having then I have no idea) and the lockers, get back to WL, shower, change and make it to Raglan by 7:00. My visions of any pre-dinner shopping were gone to say the least. We are perpetually 5-15 minutes late so this really wasn't a huge surprise, but there were others meeting us.
The question was .could we make it? Neither Jeff or I even wanted to consider another cab! But...it was cutting it close.
Which was both good and bad. And I knew it even then.
The good?
We all slept like rocks. Id been worried, as many of you know, about the combo of supersonic hearing Jeff and wiggly Eric. When you are that tired, all bets are off and everyone slept like the dead. I cant say the beds at WL were the most amazing ever, but they were fine. Id been a bit concerned with all my earlier neck issues how Id do with 2 weeks on hotel beds and pillows but night one put those fears to rest. Id fallen asleep easily and slept well. Jeff whined that he thought the thread counts at WL were at about 10. Seemed a bit harsh to me. They were fine, not anything special, but fine. I will say on the bedding front though, after visiting all 3 resorts for our trip, it was our least favorite. Which was still pretty darn nice. But I digress.
Jeff and I got up around 8 made coffee, headed out to the balcony with our books. Wed taken the brewer out of Kendall and Taylors room so we each had our own brewer. Jeff had gotten it staged the night before as we were all getting ready so all we had to do was push brew and we were good to go. We enjoyed our lovely view, the peace of a quiet courtyard and pool and that wonderful silence you can have on vacation where its just you, your book, a good cup of coffee and warm sunny air.
Sigh. Pure bliss. Uninterrupted adult time. I decided to check my phone
9:14 am Facebook post
Coffee on the balcony. 4 kids still asleep. Which is a good, and bad, thing. Being able to use both in room coffee brewers? Priceless.
Balcony view pictures from our morning readCoffee on the balcony. 4 kids still asleep. Which is a good, and bad, thing. Being able to use both in room coffee brewers? Priceless.
I was loving life!
For a bit. Sleeping in is great and everyone had been pretty excited that we were deliberately not in a rush to move. However I had said it might be nice to be out the door around 10. Seemed reasonable, right? I'd hoped for earlier but has also assumed a bedtime more along the 11pm lines.
here was the touring plan I'd put into TripIt
8:00 wake up
8:30 am Roaring Forks light OOP Breakfast ($10 pp), sleepyheads can miss breakfast or we bring something back to room. No showers. Suncreen!
9:30 am - on bus to Typhoon Lagoon! BRING OWN BEACH TOWELS!
10 am - 2pm Typhoon Lagoon. Typhoon Tillys or Lowtide Lous Lagoon CS for lunch CS#2
2 pm - Back to resort , shower, change
3:30 - get on bus to Downtown Disney
4 pm - Downtown Disney, Disney Quest, Goofys (Snack #2)
meet up with JULIE and her mom! Whoo hoo!
7:00 pm Raglan Road for dinner (TS#2- 6TS)
8:30 pm - bus back back to WL
9:15-10:30 - Electric Boat Parade from WL Beach @9:25, Watch Nightastic from beach @10
Bed!
I started to get ansty. Although that may have been the fact that I'd brewed, and started in on, a second pot of coffee by then.
9:31 am Facebook post
Is thinking 10 hours of sleep is enough and those kids need to wake up!
Is thinking 10 hours of sleep is enough and those kids need to wake up!
Ok, I was exaggerating, it had only been 9.5. Still, we let them sleep. My thinking at the time was that hey, we were going to the water park, let them get that morning laziness out of their system and have one really good sleep in day. There really wasnt a rush other than a small concern about thunderstorms cutting the day short and the need to get back and shower before we went to DTD for dinner, where wed be meeting a dear college friend and her mom.
At 10 we started poking at them. I got ready and started organizing the supplies for the day, figuring out what wed need. By 10:30 we were good to go. The great thing about a waterpark day is .no one needs to shower first. The fact it took an hour to get everyone ready had far more to do with how slow everyone moved, than any actual getting ready things that really needed to happen. My original plan had been to get some pastries from roaring forks but no one wanted anything yet. Which didnt thrill me as I knew that meant it would be food first, then water at WL but .I wasnt hungry yet either.
As we were getting ready to leave I went to pull out my daily mousekeeping tip envelope out of the safe. WL, for reasons that escapes me, has very old fashioned in room safes. They use a key. A single key, that is NOT on a key ring.
I couldnt find the key.
For the life of me.
Id had a bad in room safe situation on our spring break trip to California. This was some serious déjà vu.
I called down, thinking that hey, its a regular key, they must have a master set, this shouldnt be a big deal.
Uh. No. think again.
We will have to call the locksmith, it could take up to 3 hours and will be a charge of $30.00
Well THAT wont work.
I tried to think about what might be in the safe. All I could think of was all the tip envelopes and a small, but empty, wallet.
I decided to play Scarlett and think about it another day. We needed to GO! Between my searching and the phone calls, Id lost a good half hour. We headed out, swung by the pool to pick up towels and headed off to the bus.
11:33 am Facebook post
Finally waiting for the bus. In room safe karma followed me from California. Ugh
We waited
And waited
And waited
It was hot out there waiting!
It did allow for plenty of time to apply sunscreen though, so that was good. I really dont think we waited longer than 20 minutes but it felt like a lot more thanks to the heat. Our bus pulls up, TL and DTD combo. It takes off. Finally we are on our way.
But wait, we have a few stops first.
First up, the Grand Floridian.
No one got on.
Next stop
Downtown Disney Marketplace
Next stop
Downtown Disney West side
Not much on/off activity here either. I forget sometimes just how BIG and how FAR things are. Wilderness Lodge with its lovely hop skip and a boat to Magic Kingdom really seemed, at that moment, to be on the other side of the earth from where we wanted to be. Between last nights interminable wait and long ride home from AKL to the multi stop trek to TL our day was giving me some serious déjà vu to the previous years trip. You know, the one where we never made it to a park before 11? Even though Id planned it to be a lazy, late, morning, this was giving me a bit of anxiety. Not to mention I'd had a lot of coffee and not a bite of food.
Finally, FINALLY, we pull up.
First stop?
Food of course. More déjà vu. This was EXACTLY our MO the previous year. Get to park between 11-12, eat first and then finally do stuff. Even though there was no earthly reason this wasnt ok this day, I was not thrilled with the fact that it was past noon. Our decision process was quite simple. Whats closest? Leaning Palms! Which was insanely, INSANELY, busy. Jeff decided to scope out a spot to sit while I took the kids up to order and then wed swap. Kendall and Taylor kids opted for the double cheeseburger. Why they cant also offer a single one is a bit beyond me. Evan and I went for the special basically a Italian Style Panini. Id learn as the week went on it was the special in a lot of places but at the moment it sounded special and different. Eric went for the kids cheese pizza. Which, we were thrilled to learn, came in a bucket! With a shovel. Eric loves his sand and this solved, immediately, a concern Id had for him for SAB. BIG drinks were in order, we were all thirsty and needed to hydrate. I sent 3 of them back to take Jeffs place so he could order. I am pretty sure Jeff either got the Chicken Wrap or there may have been some kind of pulled pork sandwich if memory serves. It took a while to get our food but finally, food in hand, we settled down to eat. And basically inhaled it all! Good, basic, food. Nothing earth shattering but nothing bad either. No pictures. I was hot and slimy and carrying way too much stuff. Sorry! LOL.
It was HOT. I mean HOT. 93 with a real feel of something like 103. We were drippy. While the heat hadnt bothered us at all the previous day, we all felt pretty nasty at that moment.
And ready to get wet!
It was about 1pm by this point. 1pm.
Sigh.
Still. It really didnt matter. Except it did. A little bit. We had a 7:00 dinner reservation in DTD. Wed need to go back, shower, and then come back to DTD. And we needed to allow plenty of time based on how long it had taken to get there already. Jeff and I conferred and informed the group that we had until 4:30, tops. Which should be plenty of time as long as there werent any thunderstorms.
Straight to the surf pool we went, stashing our stuff on some chairs. We did not spend any time scoping the perfect spot, it was more like finding something as fast as we good that had easy access .stashing and RUNNING into the water. Oh man did that feel good! As you can imagine .its a waterpark! My camera, while I had brought it, never made it out of my bag. We played in the waves for a good half hour and decided that it was time to go explore. First though I needed to take care of the locker situation. The group decided to meander while I dealt with it. I had no idea when wed be back and while I hadnt brought much, there was enough that I wanted to lock up our wallets and the camera. Ive never been to Blizzard Beach so I have no comparison but one thing I loved about TL is how that surf pool really wraps around the front ot he park, allowing you to wade from one side to the other and keep cool. For some reason the locker thing took forwever. Not due to how long it took to rent one, but my inability to find the number Id been assigned. The way they do the numbers is counter intuitive at best and despite not having a drop of alchohol yet and getting plenty of sleep, I had to go back and get help. Pathetic! By the time I made it back to the group, patiently waiting near the edge but keeping their toes wet, they were on the verge of a search party.
We wanted the falls. Keehaul, Mayday and Gangplank to be specific. On the way there we saw Photopass guy #1! And so, while it would be my great preference to have this not be the case, the first official picture you get of me on this trip is
While Im drippy wet
Yeah, I know thats not a TL border on that second one but hey, it covers more stuff up! LOL Ill spare you all the full uncropped version.
First up, Gangplank Falls. Then Keehaul, and Mayday. Ill be honest, they kind of run together in my mind. We did like them all and the lines werent horrible, maybe 15 minutes tops for each. We enjoyed watching the shipwrecked boat spray, hearing the roar of the wave pool and the screams when it went going. We did not enjoy watching the clouds roll in and the sky darkening. Drizzle started and was off an on during our fall adventure but thankfully, nothing worse happened. It looked like it might so we were awfully relieved. While I did like all of the raft rides, we all did, I will say they have 2 major drawbacks. Way too short and carrying tubes up. Its not that big of a deal but plenty of other places (Great Wolf Lodge for one) have figured out conveyors work much better and it would make the whole experience a lot nicer. And faster.
Next up was .Humunga Kowabunga! We were on that side of the park so it made sense. It was, however, nothing Eric or Kendall had any interest in going on and besides, Eric, (of course it was Eric) needed to take a bio break. We headed to the restroom, and locker, so I could reapply Eric, and myself.
On the way back we spotted Photopass guy #2! And took some snaps of the 3 of us with the surf pool and shipwreck in the background. Sadly, these are lost forever. I know he took at least 3 and swear he scanned my cute wrist card from the earlier shots but, they are MIA. Apparently PP will look for them for you but ONLY if its within 30 days of them taking the shot. I didnt know they could do that and by the time I contacted them, it was about 33 days. My pictures were all still in the account for a few more days so the logic didnt exactly make sense to me but .oh well. Good thing to know in the future.
Now the good news is that thanks to my locker visits and bathroom visits, I knew how to get where we wanted to go next. Crush and Gusher! Had I not, wed have been stumbling around. It is not well marked, at all.
I would have LOVED to have my camera here, the theming is truly top notch! I stole a few pics for you to see how cool it is.
There are 3 slides to choose from. Pineapple Plunger, the Banana Blaster, and the Coconut Crusher. Supposedly, the Banana Blaster offers the most thrills. We all took off, Kendall and I were together, Evan and Taylor and then Eric and Jeff. Im not positive but I think we chose the Pineapple Plunger. It may have been the Coconut Crusher. It was not the Banana Blaster. Why not? Well the line looked ridiculous and we didnt know which was better, only that it was getting late in the day and we didnt feel like waiting. We could always go again I reasoned. As we hiked our way up the stairs, lugging tubes, we realized .there were only 4 of us. Jeff and Eric were nowhere to be seen. If youve ever been in those lines, with those tubes, going backwards to look for someone just isnt an option. We assumed they chose a different slide, but didnt know which one. I felt bad as I assumed theyd have seen which one we turned into, but apparently not. We finally made it to the top, and went down. It was fun. Again too short in my opinion. Kendall experienced some small technical difficulties that made me happy Id chosen to wear my board shorts instead of my bikini bottom. Enough said. Sadly, Photopass guy #3 didnt take a picture of any of us.
We migrated to the edge of the pool and turned in our tubes and waited for Eric and Jeff.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
We waited so long I started to freak out a little. Had they gone down a faster one somehow? I just, for the life of me, couldnt picture Jeff of all people choosing the longer line. I went over to the restrooms, thinking that maybe Eric had needed another bio break. I waded around the front of the pool, thinking perhaps they were off splashing somewhere. There is a nice wading pool and chair area here (great spot if you want to avoid crowds at the surf pool but still get wet) No Jeff. No Eric.
We waited so long I started to get crabby, we should have just gotten back in line and gone again, now wed have to hike back all the way out to get a tube as we were out of the line and couldnt easily sneak back in. FINALLY, they appeared. Photopass guy #3 was apparently focused on their slide, and their slide only. Which was, as you may have guessed by now, the Banana Blaster. Jeff chose it on purpose due to the long line, not even trying to see where we went as he assumed long line = best. He liked it, but again, thought it was too short in comparison to the wait.
By now it was approaching 3:40 and we had 2 more items on our agenda before we could head back. Castaway Creek (the lazy river) and a smoothie or drink of some sort. From Crush and Gusher its a bit of a walk back to the creek and of course only so many entry points so it took us a little while to figure out where exactly to get in! Casting away we settled in for a lazy ride. Which was alternatively lazy, and silly, dumping kids off their tubes, steering people right under sprays and generally just having a total blast. I have to admit, and I think I speak for my entire family, this was by far my favorite part of the day. I like the slides and the surf pool but this was just one of those times where it was all of us together, just being silly and not thinking about the time, just having fun. I spotted Photopass guys #4 and 5 here but it was difficult to stop and try and get a shot wed whizz by too fast for me to haul anyone off without some prior planning. So no photos. Castaway Creek takes about 20 minutes to float around and we didnt want to get off. So we didnt. We did about 1.5 trips instead. Not really knowing how late it was at that point, we sadly, sadly, slimed out and turned in our tubes.
Drinks were next. Wed gotten off at where I thought Id seen some smoothies (Lets Go Slurpin) but they are all of the adult variety (or virgin versions) and it didnt appeal to the entire crew. Instead, despite the fact that it was now 4:30, we were on a mission and hiked back to Typhoon Tillies. Or more accurately the snack shack next door.
This was what we were looking for!
Smoothies $4.19; served in a souvenir coconut $10.19 - orange-pineapple; strawberry-banana; strawberry; banana; frozen cappuccino; mango-passion fruit
Taylor, Jeff and I all went for the frozen cappuccino, at least one of the kids got the mango one and the others I think actually went for a soda and a powerade. We did skip the souvenir coconut though. I have to say, this was the BEST frozen cappuccino of the trip. Made to order in a blender instead of out of a machine, the difference was noticeable. Very worth the hike and the wait.
By now it was almost 4:30. We still needed to collect our things from our chairs (why we bothered having then I have no idea) and the lockers, get back to WL, shower, change and make it to Raglan by 7:00. My visions of any pre-dinner shopping were gone to say the least. We are perpetually 5-15 minutes late so this really wasn't a huge surprise, but there were others meeting us.
The question was .could we make it? Neither Jeff or I even wanted to consider another cab! But...it was cutting it close.
I love the waterparks and did not make it there the last two trips... But I can understand your issue with getting there so late in the day when you got up at 8! It would have driven me crazy!!
Another 5 reasons I heart DVC. The space alone to have room to move is worth every single penny! 
I remember feeling so bad for the kid that I gave him some of mine. My GF had let 6 or 8 snacks left over at the end of the week. No wonder! Sheesh!
We loved Castaway Creek too! Definitely a favorite for us as well!
It wouldn't hurt them to put up a few more signs.
), some of those things look really great.
on the lost photopass pictures. My family had pictures taken at RockNRollercoaster, and I'm almost positive they made it on the card because I reviewed the pictures while still at the BC, but when I contacted PP support, they couldn't recover them! Even though I could tell them exactly where and when they were taken, and provided pictures of us from that day.
that balcony at WL. While each room had something special about it and while the balcony at the YC was much bigger physically, for whatever reason the WL one was the most Zen for me. Just loved it.
