Dr. Jones and the Spitting Camel - Link to Alaska Cruise TR 9/18

[eandesmom]

Just stopping by to say ta-ta for now! Leaving for our cruise on Friday - playing planes, trains and automobiles to get to Port of Miami Don't get too far ahead of me!

Have FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! at the rate I'm going, I won't

 

[norybell]

Now, I have to admit that I don't like water parks. At all. But that lazy river sounds awfully nice, even to me!

I miss being able to sleep for 10 hours guilt-free! I don't think I could ever do it at WDW, though...not even when I was a teenager!

 

[manntra]

Oh I bet it will be so pretty in there in Dec! Is there anywhere you haven't eaten????? Or won't between now and May?

I may have laughed a little too hard at this

Looks like you had a great day at TL....I haven't been to a water park either some of my friends have expressed interest for this trip....so we'll see what happens. The lazy river sounds the best.....I do love the slides though...just not the walk with the tubes We have a Great Wolf Lodge about 2 hours away.....when I went though I thought my skin was going to fall off.....there was soooooo much chlorine it was unbearable

I have had my own safe issues from time to time....it amazes me that some of them still use keys!!!! How barbaric!

Tracy

 

[brookelizabeth]

Ugh! I hate those kinds of days, when you want to be lazy and slow, but you end up having to rush because you were too lazy. Or in your case, the kids were too lazy! I sure hope it all works out. Two rooms, 6 people, 2.5 hours....you can do it!

Despite the rush/time issue, it really does sound like a great day at TL! I look forward to trying it in a coming year when Henry is a bit older and can enjoy the slides! The themeing just looks awesome, it's so pretty too!

The safes at the BWV had the key too - and I had thought I put it on my key ring at one point during the trip, but it wasn't there! I had that SAME sinking feeling...thankfully Joe found it, just tossed into my bag...oops. Hopefully you find yours, a $30 charge would not be fun.

 

[eandesmom]

Now, I have to admit that I don't like water parks. At all. But that lazy river sounds awfully nice, even to me!

I miss being able to sleep for 10 hours guilt-free! I don't think I could ever do it at WDW, though...not even when I was a teenager!

I'm sure I could have as a teenager. The assumption is that you can just stay up late, to make up for the getting up late!

LOVED the lazy river...

I may have laughed a little too hard at this

Looks like you had a great day at TL....I haven't been to a water park either some of my friends have expressed interest for this trip....so we'll see what happens. The lazy river sounds the best.....I do love the slides though...just not the walk with the tubes We have a Great Wolf Lodge about 2 hours away.....when I went though I thought my skin was going to fall off.....there was soooooo much chlorine it was unbearable

I have had my own safe issues from time to time....it amazes me that some of them still use keys!!!! How barbaric!

Tracy

GWL made my eyes BURN! Part of it is that you are indoors of course so you can't escape the choline. TL is a ton of fun, if you go, you'll have a good time and it's not a full day thing by any means so a nice way to play for a few hours

The key thing was crazy and even crazier that there is no master key with security.

Ugh! I hate those kinds of days, when you want to be lazy and slow, but you end up having to rush because you were too lazy. Or in your case, the kids were too lazy! I sure hope it all works out. Two rooms, 6 people, 2.5 hours....you can do it!

Oh they weren't bad and certainly earned the right to sleep in. I was less worried about how long it would take to shower and change and more about allowing enough time for transportation.

Despite the rush/time issue, it really does sound like a great day at TL! I look forward to trying it in a coming year when Henry is a bit older and can enjoy the slides! The themeing just looks awesome, it's so pretty too!

It is pretty! And we LOVED the kiddie area back in 2004 but I think Dan made a good point that it's really older toddler friendly (3-5) versus 1-2.

The safes at the BWV had the key too - and I had thought I put it on my key ring at one point during the trip, but it wasn't there! I had that SAME sinking feeling...thankfully Joe found it, just tossed into my bag...oops. Hopefully you find yours, a $30 charge would not be fun.

Tossed into my bag, even when I have a small small bag, seems to have disastrous results for me. Funny thing was that I didn't toss it. I carefully zipped it in somewhere...

 

[carissanboys]

I am so helplessly behind around here, but wanted to stop by and say I hope your new job is going well!

 

[DisMomAmy]

Uh oh... I hope you found the safe key! We were bummed to find our safe at BWI had a key too. Laura hid it in her dirty laundry!

I'm glad the kids finally got up and you got to TL. Looks like you had fun once you got there.

Hope you made it to dinner!

 

[eandesmom]

I am so helplessly behind around here, but wanted to stop by and say I hope your new job is going well!

thanks Carissa! It is. I know the feeling, I'm horribly behind as well

Uh oh... I hope you found the safe key! We were bummed to find our safe at BWI had a key too. Laura hid it in her dirty laundry!

that's hysterical! I'd be afraid I'd just pack it up if I did that. The only way it would be in the dirty laundry is to have left it in a pocket.

And...I learned...the laundry isn't a safe place at all.

I'm glad the kids finally got up and you got to TL. Looks like you had fun once you got there.

Hope you made it to dinner!

We did have fun!

 

[eandesmom]

When I left you it was about 4:30 and we had just finished trudging backwards to find ourselves some refreshments. And I must say, they were worth the trek. I took off to collect items from the locker and do a quick change for myself.

Jeff was happy to get his hat. I’d been chided earlier for putting it in the locker with all the sunscreen. Ok valid point on the sunscreen but it’s not like he’d have worn his hat on the lazy river? Whatever. He did have a bit of a burnt head though. Still, he’s a big boy and could have gone to reapply at any time. Harrumph. Could I have gotten on the bus as I was, sure, but if you ask me, I think that womens swimsuit manufacturers are sorely lacking in the quick dry aspect of design. I realize, looking at the pictures from that day, that I was in sad need of a new suit but still, it wouldn’t have mattered. Some sick person designed the top half of womens suits to…never dry. Which I suppose is one way of ensuring a wet t-shirt!

Not for me though. And I’m darn glad I did change. A hat and dry clothes were much appreciated by me. My family on the other hand…not so happy. Why? Our bus was a MEAT LOCKER! This happened a couple times on the trip and the timing couldn’t have been worse. It was FREEZING on the bus, with the AC cranked up way too high. BRR!

Heading back seemed mildly faster. Sure we had to stop at DTD but we didn’t go to the GF, since we were in reverse, we were left off first! On the bus I received a text from my TA asking if we’d gotten anything special in our rooms last night. I mentioned the kids had gotten birthday cards from Mickey. Apparently that isn’t what she meant.

Arriving at our rooms we did notice a little surprise from mousekeeping. Which made me feel really really guilty about that locked up tip envelope. Jeff grabbed our mugs and headed down to fill them up with coke so we could have our “getting ready” cocktail of rum and coke (or coconut rum and coke for me). I let the boys go first and then decided I needed a shot of our surprise!

But first I had to document what Snowy and Rufus had been up to while we’d been getting wet.

And then, take a picture of one of our favorite features in the room. The carved headboards!

Yeah, I realize the picture might be cooler if you can see the whole bed but hey we took pictures of what we liked at that moment in time! I was liking my drink.

Since the surprise revolved around Eric, I had to wait till he was clean and ready and dressed in his new surprise shirt I’d stashed in his bag. He loved his new shirt!

Can you see what it is?

What about now?

Now?

Yes! It’s a towel birthday cake for Eric! So cute.

Jeff had arrived back and had our drinks ready. For those of you who followed our TR last year, Jeff likes to wear the towel animals.

It didn’t work out so well this time.

Drink spewing moment for me. And the kids. the OH MAN........coming out of Jeff when it happened, equally as funny.

And then the engineer complained about the construction of the cake...it should have been sturdier.



It was about 5:30, The little boys were clean, big kids were getting there and Jeff and I scurried to get ready. I made one more attempt to find the safe key but my heart wasn’t in it. I was too excited! We were headed to DTD and meeting a very very dear friend and her mom for dinner. My friend Julie was driving up from Savannah (actually Tybee Island) to meet us. They’d come in the night before and were spending the day at the MK. I’d gotten a couple of texts from her while we were getting ready…it sounded like they were running a bit late just like we were but were soaked from Splash so wanted to freshen up. I was thrilled. It meant even if we were late, they might be too! Kind of sad to be happy about it but at least I wouldn’t feel like we were holding them up, it would be mutual. Ready in a surprisingly short amount of time we headed back out to the bus at about 6:20. Not bad! Not bad at all!

Perfect in fact. We waited about 15 minutes for the bus and by the time it did the GF/Marketplace stops it was….drumroll…..7pm on the nose when we strolled into Raglan!

And Julie was right there at the door waiting for us.

I hadn’t seen Julie in about 8 years. She’d never even met Jeff or Kendall or Taylor. We were very close in college, dating guys that were friends and had a lot of fun together. But then I married and moved away, she married and moved away. She moved back to Seattle and was there for a couple of years right when I first moved back but I hadn’t seen her since then. She’s been through some pretty brutal things over the years, some I can relate to very directly with similar experiences. You know how you have those friends that you can go 8 years without seeing, and then you see them, and it’s like it was yesterday?

That’s Julie.

We both cried. A little. A sniff.

And then I took a step back to check out my surroundings. I had never been to Raglan before. I had high expectations. It had great reviews and a menu that looked amazing.

But would it meet them? Would Julie and her mom like it? Would the kids actually let us chat? Would the kids find stuff they liked on the menu?

Would we stick to my post dinner touring plan? Ok, we'd missed out on the first part (though we did get our snack about 4, just the location had changed)

This had been the plan...

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!

up next. Ger, I think I love you!

 

[Millie12591]

Great post Cynthia!
I know just what you mean about the freezing buses, we had a few of those on our trip too, it's great when your sweating up a storm, but probably not so much when wet and already cooled off.

The carvings are kinda cool, would love to have seen the whole headboard, I'll have to find some pics on the boards.

Hope your meet went well, and you liked your dinner. I'm so set on eating at WGPE when we're in DDT that I don't even think to eat anywhere else, I'll have to make a point to dine at Ragland Rd next time. It's just so hard when you know an amazing turkey cobb salad and some beyond crazy good creme brulee is calling your name.

 

[mrsksomeday]

We are perpetually 5-15 minutes late so this really wasn't a huge surprise

We are the exact same way. I try and try to get us places on time we even leave early sometimes, but something always seems to happen.

The towel animals are cute, I hope you found your key. I agree the birthday cake should have had better construction .

You have me thinking I need to bring rum with us in December . It was great you got to see your friend again. I am thinking you went off plan again and spent more time with your friend maybe?

 

[carissanboys]

I've never seen a towel birthday cake! How cool!

 

[DisMomAmy]

I know what you mean about the buses! We've never been to a waterpark, but the few times I've been on Disney buses & stopped at a waterpark, I've felt really bad for the folks with the wet bathing suits! I wouldn't enjoy that at all!

I hope you had fun with Julie! I have a friend like that too - whenever we get together it seems like we haven't been apart.

 

[mickeysmyboy]

That towel cake is too cool! I've never seen that before!

I laughed when you said that Jeff complained about the construction of the cake! My DH, also an engineer, would have done the same thing!

I'm glad you made it to DTD, even if the snack plan had changed! Yippeee for meeting Julie! Where are the pictures!

You know I'm excited to hear your review of Raglan!!!

 

[Charleston Princess]

Very cool birthday towel cake!!! Too funny about Jeff trying to wear it!

Ah, I do have friends like that! Isn't it always so wonderful to see them?

 

[creativeamanda]

That was a very cool towel cake! I love it!

And I understand completely what it's like with your friend--there are just some people who time does not change your closeness!

Great update!

 

[Happydog]

SO fun! That is a great day. Waterpark days, I agree, that just requires getting there. So relaxing. It is understandable that the day started off a little slower than you anticipated, afterall, you had had a HUGELY long day/night/day just before! So I get that! Seems like there will be time to make up what you missed at somepoint!

I have not been on the busses too much, we have always had our car or rented a car and for us that helps to keep us on track. I get that there is always luck or misfortune with the busses, but having it is really such a deal, so eitherway I am glad Disney provides them! It is nice not to fight the parking lots.

Looking forward to dinner!

 

[norybell]

How wonderful that you got to see your friend after so long!

Can't wait to hear about Raglan Road...

 

[Native NYer]

Disney buses are always so cold. The buses are my least favorite mode of transportation.
Love the towel birthday cake! So cute.
And excellent timing for Road.
Can't wait to find out if you liked the food.

 

[mermaid764]

I love the towel cake..too neat!

Yes I can definitely imagine how uncomfortable the air conditioning would be in a wet bathing suit...not exactly the most appealing situation.

Can't wait to hear what you thought of Raglan