Evil Queen & Son's TR for 9/16-23/2006 **UPDATED with Day 4-Post #6**

[Evil Queen]

I will update this thread as time allows..........

Who went:

Myself (Evil Queen)
DS 24
DS 23
DS 10

Day 1 9/16/06

We finally got away from the house and on I-95 by 8:45 a.m. Saturday morning. Thank goodness, I thought it was going to be much later, considering, I hadn't finished cleaning the house and the lawn still needed to be mowed before going. Of course, had to stop by Dunkin Donuts to get coffee and donuts for breakfast (to be eaten on the drive up).

We arrived at Pop Century around 11:45 a.m. Just seeing the resort hotel upon arriving was fun! And the 2 older boys finally seemed to get hit with the excitement they lacked all week about the trip.

The line seemed long, but we only were in it for about 25 minutes, and this does include the actual check in with the CM behind the counter. It went rather smooth.

When originally booking the trip back in May, I had 2 requests......1) Smoking and 2) rooms next to each other

They got the rooms next to each other, but not the smoking. Our CM was great, she was able to find us the smoking rooms, not next door to each other, but the same building, same floor, just around the corner from each other. DS10 and I had 8413, towards the parking lot, DS24 and DS23 got pool side with 8411. So we were all happy with this. These also proved to be very quiet rooms. On occaion you could hear a toilet flush or a door slam close, but no one running up and down the hallways making noise. Since we drove and would be using the car much of the trip the walk to or from the buses never proved to be a problem.

We got our small amount of luggage up to the room and most unpacked rather quickly. We packed really light this trip, and I had planned on doing laundry once. I hate hauling baggage up to and from the room, so I wanted as little to do as possible. For the 1st time ever, it was a 1 trip unloading.

We then walked over to Everything Pop. We did cut through the parking lot, for this seemed to be the shortest route from our room to the main building.

We got there there about 12:30-12:45 p.m. There was hardly any Disney visitors in there, or at least at the food court. I guess they were at the parks, checking in, shopping in the gift shop or unloading their own luggage. Ds10 and I had lunch there. We decided on the meatball subs. Surprisingly, they were rather good and quite filling. We skipped on dessert, due to we were still slightly full from the donuts.

Then we browsed in the gift shop. DS10 was on a budget, and didn't want to start spending that day, but wanted to get some ideas on what he wanted to buy.

We then took our drinks and hung out by the main pool for about an hour and a half. Not too crowded, and plenty of sitting room to lounge by the pool. We mainly just took in the sites and talked about what we were going to do that evening.

Then we headed back to the room, cleaned up for dinner. We had reservations for Spoodle's at 6:30 p.m., but got to Boardwalk about 45 minutes early, to see what the crowd was like at ESPN Club. We stuck with our original ADR at Spoodle's (you can read the Spoodle's review-by clicking on Dining Review link in my signature).

After we ate, we walked along the Boardwalk for awhile. Decided we wanted to be well rested for our first day at the parks on Sunday-headed back to Pop.

Once back at Pop, we thought we'd finish up the night with a quick dip in the computer pool. It wasn't very crowded, and the temp was pleasant. I did get a bit chilled anytime I got out. After an hour in the pool, we decided to call it a night.

Got back to the room and I popped the top on a nice cold beer, from the cooler. We got with the older boys and made our meet up game plan for Animal Kingdom the next day.

We slept well. The beds were comfortable, the AC kept the room cool, and I heard no noises on this night.

It was a great and relaxing start to our trip.

Stayed tuned for Day 2 at Animal Kingdom.

 

[Evil Queen]

I will update this thread as time allows..........

Who went:

Myself (Evil Queen)
DS 24
DS 23
DS 10

Day 2-Sunday- 9/17/06

DS10 got his wake up call from Stitch about 8 a.m. We normally get up earlier than this, but thought we would just sleep in a bit late for us.

Get him up and moving, call the other room to wake up the older boys. Told them to meet us at Everything Pop around 9 a.m.

DS10 and I head to the food court, and he thought the line too long to stand it. I offered to wait for him, but he said he would pick something up at AK. No sign of the older boys, so we call their room. They say they are just finishing up , getting ready to walk out the door. I told them we'd meet them in the car in the parking lot close to their room. So we sat for 20 minutes waiting on them. I didn't mind a bit of a later start, but I wasn't meaning this!

We finally get to AK. Headed over to Guest Relations. Needed to see if we should change DS10's ticket to reflect he's 10 now, not 9 (we bought the passes on our previous trip-Sept. 05). The man said not needed. We exchange our Yeti Vision coupons for our free 5 x 7 photos for Everest.

About 10 we're inside the park and start heading to EE first, before the line gets too long. Of course, DS10 starts to get hungry so he grabbed a pretzel, which he ate (and shared with us) on the way to the ride. He decides he's not going on EE. Him and I wait for older boys. Stand by said 20 minutes, we met up with them in the gift shop within 15 minutes. They get in line to get their free photo, I go jump in line. Standby still states 20 minutes, and it was fairly close to it.

This ride was awesome!! It did remind me a bit of BTMRR, but only a "bit". But, I believe I was hyped up for more. But I wasn't disappointed, I think I was just expecting more.

So, I go to get my free photo. The lady offers to deliver it to my resort gift shop. Great, I go for it. I asked would it be possible to send the older boys pic with it (they already had theirs and had not been offered this by the other CM). She said no problem. Good, now we don't have to carry those around with us. We head over to Kali.

Kali states 20 minute wait. By the time we walked the queue, and met up with those before us, it was only a 2-3 minute wait. DS10 and I got the most soaked. Which was fine with him, he lives to get wet on this ride.

Next we hit Primeval Whirl, another DS10 favorite. We rode it twice, because there was only about a 3-4 minute wait each time on this. Older boys and I want to head over to Dinosaur, but DS10 hates this ride. So we tell him to ride PW as many times as he wants. If he gets tired of riding to wait in the gift shop across the way.

Dinosaur stated 20 minute ride. We were the first ones in line before they take you to the "briefing" room. Once to the loading area, we are behind one other group. Fun as always.

We head to the gift shop to find DS10. He looks exhausted. He wants to ride PW again. Ok, so I tell older boys to go ahead and we would just meet up later that night. Gave them the quick reminder of their ressie for dinner, and not to be late for it. So young one and I ride PW 2 more times. Wait time still about the same as the previous times. I had to finally put my foot down, I was getting nauseated.

After this he saw Chip and Dale, and got their autographs.

We then headed to Pizzafari for lunch. It was good and quick. No lines, but we could only find one table. It was too big for just us, so we let another family sit with us too.

As we were leaving Pizzarai, he saw Stitch had just come out. He was the first one in line. So he got his autograph and picture.

I asked him what to do next, he was burnt out too, so he was ready to head back to the room. Then asks if we can do Kali again. Sure, why not.

Wait time again says 20 minutes. Time we got to the loading area (which we walked right too in the queue line-until we found life) maybe 5 minute wait. Again, we get the most soaked out of the raft, but it was nice to cool off.

We are heading out and notice the Flights of Wonder was getting ready to start. So we decide to do that. We love this show.

After this he was done for the day. I asked him if he wanted to do the Safari and he declined. So we called it a day and headed out.

We got back to the room, relaxed a bit and got ready for our dinner ressie at Olivia's, that was for 6:30 p.m. (You can read the review of Olivia's-by clicking on the link in my signature).

I figured he'd want to swim once we were back at the resort, but I was wrong. He did go to the gift shop and bought a stuffed Stitch for his 1st souvie of the trip.

When we got back to the room, we were beat. We are use to Florida heat and humidity, but it really took it out of us this day. We both took a little bit of sinus meds, because we both thought we had a sinus headache coming on.

Left the older boys a message on their phone, what time we were leaving for Blizzard Beach the next morning. They could be ready and ride with us OR take the buses and meet us later. Set up his morning wake up call as well.

Next.................Day 3........Blizzard Beach.

 

[tictoc]

Great start. I can not wait to hear more!

 

[BeautyNBeast]

Nice start! Waiting for more

 

[Evil Queen]

I will update this thread as time allows..........

Who went:

Myself (Evil Queen)
DS 24
DS 23
DS 10

Day 3-Monday- 9/18/06

I woke up early without the alarm or wake up call. So I get ready for Blizzard Beach, lay out DS10's clothes, and pack up everything for the day. I figured I'd head on down to the food court, get breakfast chocolate milk and coffee & let him sleep. I was down there around 7:00 a.m. The place was yet to be too crowed. I was back to the room well before 8:00 a.m. (My planned wake up time.)

DS10 got his wake up call from Stitch about 8 a.m. He had his breakfast and gets ready. We call the older boys to see if they want to ride with us or meet us later. They say they are sleeping in and will see us later.

We get to BB, just as they open the gates for the EMH for resort folks. GREAT!! First the CM at the gate wants me to put my room key into the turnstile, I refused. I tried explaining that there is only a 1 day MYW ticket on there and I'm saving it for future use, but here are my Fl. PAP's (valid until the Sunday coming up). He still doesn't want to let us in. I've got tickets for ALL the parks, plus my resort ID. Finally another CM who overheard all this, let's us in. I'm thinking we might had not gone about this correctly, for we never got wrist bands, but saw many folks with them.

We head out to find 1 chair to lay our stuff on. Since we don't all spend our time at the chairs, we only get 1 for 4 of us. Then throughout the day we go rest, re-apply sunscreen, relax, etc. I get in front of the wavepool, but closer to the pathway. I pick an area near the Polar Pub. Almost no one there, it's near a smoking area, and between the name of the Pub and the lazy river letoff named Polar Bear, it would be easy to remember for DS10, should we get separated. He only has to remember "Polar".

We get to the Chairlift, only a few parties in front of us, so we ride together. The first ride is always the nerve-wracking one, after that we are ok with it.

We did Teamboat Springs 1st. No line, it's a walk on. So much fun. So we decide to hit it again. So do the same routine. Again, no line.

We hang in the wave pool for a bit and try to decide what to do next. He thinks he'd like to try the mat water slides. I'm feeling good, so we take the stairs, not bad. (I don't do well, with too many stairs, I have a bad back and knees).

So we get in almost non-existant lines for both The Toboggan Racers and Downhill Double Dipper. Stairs seemed to be no problem the 2nd time either.

Then it's off to be lazy on the river. WE get off to do Runoff Rapids. Now this walk, carrying the raft up the stairs bothered me a bit, but I made it. Also, so much fun. He wanted to do this one again. I offered to wait for him, but he wouldn't go. I just couldn't do those stairs again.

I try talking him into doing Summit Plummet-uh...nope, he won't. So we waits in the wave pool, while I catch the chairlift, and head up more stairs. (Yes, I was fully aware of the stairs-they just seem to multiply once you're walking on them.) This was great, but I'm such a wimp I keep my eyes closed. And of course, I got the "Famous wedgie" by the time it was over.

It's still rather early and we decide to hit the lodge for lunch before the noon rush comes. Rather good, filling and the frozen slushie hit the spot.

We got back to the chair, so I can grab a cigarette and smoke in the area designated right behind where our chairs are set up. Needless, to say someone had moved our stuff over about 2 chairs. I wasn't happy. I replaced my stuff with the stuff that had been put on the chair I picked. I neatly moved the other belongings to the chair "they" picked for my new spot.

We still haven't seen the older boys, but we failed to make a meet up plan, because I didn't know what time they would be there. We decide we want to do Teamboat Springs again. As we are waiting in the single rider line for the chairlift (so much quicker than trying to go as a full party), DS spots the older boys.

Boys go run and put their stuff with my stuff on the chair. We all did teamboat springs together. DS10 decides he wants to do it yet AGAIN, and talks DS23 into doing it. We tell them we'll meet back at the chair. DS24 and I go to grab a smoke. As we are smoking, the "stuff moving family" shows back up. They notice the stuff is moved, but no comments or moving of the stuff happens. But then one of the ladies goes to sitting on my towels. I lean over the rail and ask her to please don't, I wanted dry towels. She's says she's sorry and moves. No problem. We'll we are still waiting on the 2 boys and are sitting at the Polar Pub. Then a teenage looking age boy goes and sits on my towels (same family as the woman I just asked not to do that). I ask him to please get off my towels, he moves, but says nothing. A few minutes later, yet another teenage looking boy comes along. He doesn't sit on my chair or towels, but see my stuff has been moved back and theirs removed and placed on another chair. He snatches one of my towels, knocking my bottled water-that was wrapped up inside-into the sand, and looks like he's going to us it for himself. I did get a bit upset over this and said please don't touch my belongings anymore. I'll be dang in a few minutes, if the 1st boy, didn't grab my towel to try to kill lovebugs on his chair. This was the final straw for me.

I explained I had gotten there early, purposely picked a chair basically at the end of a row, so to leave plenty of others next to each other for other guests. That also, since we don't spend all our hours at the chair, I only get 1 for a group of 4 to share. About this time, the group of about 4-5 pick up a few belongings and head off.

The 2 other boys return. DS10 and I just decide to stay in the wave pool, while the older boys go catch some rides. They had done many before we all met up and only wanted to hit Summit Plummet before we left. I think they figured they couldn't let their old boring Mom do it and not them. They were hesitant, but they did it. So they catch a couple of slides and we all headed out together.

On a side note, I did notice folks smoking at their lounge chairs that were not in a smoking area. The CM did say something to them, and they promptly moved to the smoking area.

By the time we got back to the room, I could tell the stairs had taken a toll on my back and knees. So, I ran a tub for myself. Which helped alot and popped a couple of Aleve. After me, got DS10 showered and ready, so we could make our ressie at Concourse Steakhouse (6:40 p.m.).

We had never stepped foot in the Contemporary, only rode the monorail through it, so we were so excited to finally go see it for ourselves and visit. We arrive at about 6:30 to the podium, and she gave us a pager. We visited the gift shops and DS was asking for a souvie (he was only budgeted for the 4 regular theme parks and the last day at DTD), but I told him no, this was a water park day and he had no budget. I told him if he still wanted it, he could get it Friday when we would be there for Chef Mickey's. We finally got seated about 7:00 p.m. for dinner (you can read about it on my Dining Review-click on link in my signature).

When we got back to the room, I had a message that my package (my Everst photos) were at the gift shop, to please come pick it up. So we head down there. The CM was pretty quick at locating packages, since there were so many people there. I told her I wanted to check it first. Of course, only the boys pic made it, not mine, and mine was the original one to be sent, we added the boys to it. The CM said she would leave them a message to send it over and it should be there on Wednesday. I'm not thrilled, but I'll live with it. So I take the boys pick and head back to the room.

I pop the top on a beer. DS and I discussed the day and what we would be doing the next day. Then we watched a little TV, took sinus meds (we were hurting after all that water), I called to arrange his wake up call, and hit the sack.

Next.................Day 4.......Magic Kingdom

 

[Evil Queen]

I will update this thread as time allows..........

Who went:

Myself (Evil Queen)
DS 24
DS 23
DS 10

Day 4-Tuesday- 9/19/06

We hit the MK about 10:30 a.m. after our breakfast at 1900 Park Fare (you can read the review on breakfast-just click on the dining review in my signature). Little bit later than we are use to on previous trips, the character breakfast was worth it.

First we head to Fantasyland!! This is really the only part of the park we plan out, due to it can get quite crowded as the day goes on.

We get FP for Peter Pan. And head for Dumbo. It's about a 20 minute and we all agreed we could skip this one this trip.

So we head off to it's a Small World. Can't remember the posted wait time on this, but it took us less than 5 minutes until we were in a boat. We do still enjoy this ride, of course, the song we could do without burning into our brains, but that's part of it. This was the only time we saw the clock at the boat dock work. It opened up and gave the time. Too cool.

Next it was Mickey's PhilharMagic. My DS10 has insisted since we arrived on WDW property, I really needed to do this one. I didn't go with the boys last trip, because I wanted to ride Snow White's Adventure and none of them wanted to do that. So we split up on that trip. I really enjoyed this. Donald Duck being one of my top 3 fav's- it was great. But I did get a bit nauseated when he was riding the carport through the buildings. Also, there was no line for this one either. The FP machines were still covered.

Now we can use our FP's for Peter Pan. Even though the stand by line stated 20 minutes, we used the FP's. We got right on without stopping walking. This was a favorite of my oldest son's from his first trip when he was 6, so it holds fond memories for me. This will always be enjoyable, if for that reason only.

Cinderella's Carrousel here we come. We all decide to do this one. We are second in line, so the wait wasn't long at all. We take a row, I take the big horse on the outside. I have back and knees problems and should had known better than picking this one. My oldest son stated I'd never get on it without help, I proved him wrong. We enjoyed our ride. When it came to an end, I was getting off, and my knee gave out on me for a moment. Resulting in me hitting my arm, hard, on my trusty steed. It hurt and left a bruise, but I was fine. So hence my "riding" accident.

Next on our minds-the Haunted Mansion. One of my favorite's from childhood. We enjoy this so much. I love to be in here and think of my happy childhood memories of being here with my Mom and brother. Gotta love that hitchhiking ghost at the end, too.

There wasn't much of a crowd for the Country Bears Jamboree, so we decided to duck in here. I hadn't done this since I was young, and my kid's have never seen the show. So, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Now, don't get me wrong, the show is cutsey, but I know next time I walk by it, I really am not missing much. Somehow my child's mind remembers this being so much more likable and funny.

Next, we head for the 2 mountains......DS10 normally won't do these rides, so the older boys and I usually take our turns on these. This year he changed his mind and went on both-YEAH!!

Both had wait times under 20 minutes, so we decide not to FP either one. I'm not even sure if Splash Mountains FP machines were uncovered or not.

First BTMRR-fun as always. WE only actually waited less 5 minutes. DS10 and DS24 got the front seats, so youngest wasn't thrilled with that, but didn't say anything (until after the ride).

Then Splash Mountain. Actual wait time on this less than 10 minutes. I love the themeing of this ride the most, other than POTC. And another plus about this one, for me, it's not your typical "drop" then end of ride. It's a nice short leisure boat ride, to enjoy the wonderful themeing.

We take the train over to the Toon Town stop, but decided to return to Toon Town later. We wanted to head over to Tomorrowland next.

About this time, you can see the clouds in the distance. We already knew they were calling for much rain this day with storms, so were prepared for it, we thought.....

Teacups up next, well for DS24 and DS10. DS23 and myself can't stomach a ride on the Teacups, so we waited. Wait time was posted as 10 minutes, but was actually closer to 5 for the 2 brave boys.

Space Mountain was next on our list. Standby was 15 minutes, we walked right on. This is also an old time favorite. Both from when I was little, but was my oldest son's first roller coaster and also, youngest son's 1st. We still loved this one. Had to laugh after getting off. Oldest son's water bottle had leaked onto his shorts, so it looked like he had an accident. He was thinking, "Great! Now people are going to think it scared the #$% out of me."

Stitch's Adventure we hit next. The wait wasn't long-15 minutes, but having to stand with all those people crowded in the waiting area, was almost unbareable. The heat and humidity was bad anyway, but grouped in with so many people made it worse. But, we did it. DS10's favorite is Stitch, so we did it for him.

I was a bit tired after this, so while the boys shopped in the shop where Stitch's attraction let's out into the gift shop (can't remember the name), I sat outside and rested. DS10 bought a Stitch pin and a container of cotton candy. The CM also asked him, if he could find the 7 hidden Mickey's in the store paintings on the walls. He did it with no help, and got a certificate for being a #1 detector of Hidden Mickey's.

By now, you can hear the thunder and the clouds were basically upon the park. We stop to watch Push the trashcan for a bit.

Buzzlighter is what we went to next. 20 minute standby stated, it too was a walk on. I stink at this game, but got a rather high score this time, but that's due to the ride stopped in one of the room's and we could keep hitting the targets over and over. But I still lost to my oldest son who was in the car with me.

By the time we got off this ride, the storm had started hitting. Lightening everywhere and pouring the rain. We waited a few minutes in the gift shop, but it become so crowed, and it looked like the lightening had stopped, so we made a run for it. We were at the entrance for the TTA. We see lightening again. So we ride it around 2 times. It's still raining after this, but the lightening again looks like it has let up.

So we just start walking, and we see lightening again. The older boys said forget it, they were heading back to the resort. DS10 wasn't quite ready to leave, so we head to Cosmic Ray's. We decide to eat lunch here.

By the time we are done eating, it stopped raining and storming. They had the Indy cars opened, so we decide to do that. Standby time of 15 minutes, and we actually probably did wait that long. By the time we got off, the line had at least doubled and they had standby time at 30 minutes.

DS10 wants to try to get to Toon Town before we leave, so that's the direction we head.

We love the Barnstormer and decide that's the first thing we'll do. There's a few folks ahead of us in this one, but we were in the next coaster that came thru, so we had only a few minutes wait time on this one. There were 2 kids that had skipped some of the queue behind us and in front of other people trying to reach the kids that were in front of us (2 parties in front of us). The 2 kids tapped me on the shoulder and said I'm trying to join my 2 friends up there. I said, "I'll be happy to pass the word up if you all would like to ride together you are back here waiting.". The kid's say "Nah" and give me one of those heavy sighs of disgust. Oh well.....And the kids ahead DID wait until it was theirs friends turn. This kids all seemed to range in age 9 to 12, and no parents involved. When our ride was over, there were only 4 people waiting for the next coaster, so we asked CM if we could stay on. She said yes. So that was nice to have another turn around.

When we got off Barnstormer, we can see more clouds and hear the thunder. DS10 goes to look around the Judge's Tent while I wait. When he comes out, the thunder is loud, so we decide to call it a day at the park. We can handle rain, but not thunder and lightening. We take the train back up to the front.

We were bummed, because we didn't get to POTC or Jungle Cruise. We decide if we can we'll come back before we leave and try to hit those, along with Dumbo.

We get back to the resort, shower and get into dry clothes. It had stopped thunder and lightening, but just didn't stop pouring. We got bored, so decided we'd hit DTD for awhile.

We didn't do really much of anything in DTD. Just stopped in every other store and look around. But we did walk one end to the other and back again. We looked like a couple of drowned rats by the end of the night. So off we head back to the resort again. Once there, warm showers again and dry sleepwear.

Call in request for wake up call and off to sleep.

Next.................Day 5.......MGM/Disney Studios

 

[sharonW]

Lisa..I'm really enjoying your report. Its nice that your
older ds's still enjoy disney. Ya have to cherish the family
time surrounded by the disney magic!