Free Dining and DS's 14th birthday

[tkd lisa]

Cast: Me, single mom, 42. I just counted up my trips to Disney for a survey, and I think I'm up to 26 trips with this one.
DM, my mom. She's in her late 60s, and does a good job keeping up with us. She doesn't do the thrill rides, but she's good for just about everything else.
DD, 15. Loves the thrill rides, and can be quite the drama queen.
DS, just turned 14. Enjoys his "alone" time. Has never officially celebrated a birthday at WDW before.

When: 31 Aug - 3 September
Where: Port Orleans Riverside
Why: Free Dining & DS's birthday

Living in Tampa, we visit WDW frequently. Unlike most of our neighbors though, we like to stay over rather than take day trips. I bought DVC about a year ago, and this is our first trip in a regular resort since then. Our previous trips (pre DVC) we've stayed in: Dixie Landing (back when that was the name, 97 and 99), Boardwalk, off-site (twice), All Star Sports, and Pop Century. We decided to try for a moderate for free dining this trip, since my kids are getting bigger. My kids go to high school about 5 miles east of our house, so we planned on picking them up on the way to WDW.

Okay, on the with the story!

Friday, 31 August.

I worked until 11:30, then headed out. The plan was that I was going to meet my mom at the car dealership where I would leave my van for a routine oil change and tire rotation while we were gone. We would make a quick stop bya bookstore for something I wanted, then we'd pick up the kids before their pep rally. I had called the school and they said the pep rally started at 1:22. That seemed early to me (school gets out at 2:57), but that's what they said. Disney plans were to check in and head over to EPCOT for the evening. Dinner ADR at Rose & Crown at 8:00, with plans to watch Illuminations from there.

What really happened?

Well, I did work until 11:30 and I called mom to meet me at the dealership. She unfortunately got a little lost, and she didn't pick me up until 12:45, so we weren't able to swing by the store. I ran into the school at 1:10 because I knew there was NO way to find those kids once they were in the gym. At student affairs it was an absolutely ZOO! The secretary asked why the kids were checking out, and I told her they were going out of town. She said "It will be unexcused". I said "Huh, it's just a pep rally. What's to excuse?" She said "The pep rally doesn't start until later." Well, my kids don't need any unexcused absences, and I didn't want to start a bad precedence, so I told her we would just wait until the pep rally. I went out and got mom so we could wait in the a/c. Boy, you couldn't pay me enough money to be a school secretary! It was absolute chaos in there! They were telling everyone with a "doctors" appointment that they needed a note from the doctor Tuesday or it was unexcused. One guy came in to pick up his little sister, and it turned out she was skipping school. The mom came in to see what was going on, and it turned out that she had taken off around lunchtime. Now why would you skip school on a day you KNEW you were going to get busted? It finally settled down and I asked the secretaries (there were two, plus about 4 student aides), "Do you go home at night and say 'Calgon, take me away!!!!!'?" They laughed. One said she's been doing this for 17 years and keeps threatening to retire. The other one was a school bus driver for 11 years and she says this job is easy compared to bus driving!

Anyway, the kids were finally released about 2:10 and we hit the road headed east. We pulled into POR about 3:30, dodging the raindrops that had started. Everyone was starving. Mom and I hadn't eaten, and the kids just had a light lunch because we had planned on arriving about 2:30 and eating something there.

There were only a couple of people in line at checkin, but there were only 2 people working so it took a little bit to get up there. When I got up there, I told the guy "You'll make your day if you say we're in Alligator Bayou". I had requested Alligator Bayou when I switched to Riverside so that the teenaged kids would each have their own bed. I was actually angling for one of the close buildings, since everyone had said that most people WANT the mansions so AB is usually available if you request it. Unfortunately he said "Oh no. We have you in the mansions." About that time, DS came up and I said "Well, considering I have a boy and girl teenager, I'd REALLY appreciate it if you can find me something in AB." DS said that my DM had lost her glasses and case and was going to try to find it. The CM told DS to go help his grandma. Once DS was gone, the CM asked for some info on DS's birthday and said we'd probably see something on Sunday.

The CM headed into the backroom to get us a new room assignment, and we ended up in 3936. Building 39 is the last AB building, which wasn't quite as bad as it sounded. The CM said we'd be on the first floor, but we were really on the 2nd. We were about 5 numbers away from the first floor numbers. It was on the inside ring of buildings, and was about a 6 minute brisk walk from the food court door, or 10 minutes from the lobby. Meanwhile, someone had turned in DM's glasses, so we were all set.

We headed over to the food court to use some of our dining credits. Since dinner wasn't until 8:00 and the kids were going for their standard chicken strips and pizza, Mom and I got a sandwich to share. She picked the beef and bleu, and we got a hot apple dumpling for our dessert. The kids picked cheesecake and a magic bar (kind of like the Eagle Brand 7 layer bars) for their dessert. With 3 fountain drinks, the total came to $38.35 for 3 CS credits. We settled down and ate all but the magic bar. I guess we were pretty hungry! Mom had asked for the beef and bleu items on the side. The sandwich was served hot, but the onions and cheese were cold. I'm glad she got it that way, because I'm not a big bleu cheese fan. It hit the spot though because I was pretty darnded hungry!

DS decided to walk to the room, while the rest of us drove around. We were in the room by 4:15. Our room overlooked one of the quiet pools, and we got fairly close parking spots all week. Thankfully the rain had stopped by this time. Thankfully DS had scouted out the room for us, or we would have been looking all around the first floor! And each building is pretty doggone big there! We found a staircase and got our stuff inside. DS took a shower while Mom and I unpacked. Here are a few pictures of the room.

Note the coffeemaker location. I pulled out the refrigerator and the bench, and never could find an outlet. I don't know where the fridge was plugged in! I ended up moving the coffemaker over by the sinks and set it on that shelf for the weekend.

I didn't take any pictures of the trundle bed, but it was bigger than I expected. The CM on the phone told me it was a crib mattress, but it was really as long as a twin, but about 3/4 as wide as a standard twin. It was on a metal frame and rolled out easily. I had asked housekeeping for extra sheets, but I realized that there were sheets underneath the cover once I pulled that off. DD was pretty comfortable there. If you were a "normal" sized adult, you would fit, but you wouldn't have room to roll over very often. But since DD weighs 100 pounds soaking wet, she was just fine.

We headed over to the bus stop about 5:00 for an evening at EPCOT. But I'll put that in another post.

 

[tkd lisa]

31 August, evening

Okay, when I left off, we had headed out to catch the bus to EPCOT. Now before this trip started, I had read an awful lot of bus horror stories at POR, so we decided to go over to the lobby bus stop (North Depot), even though the south depot was closer to our room. The PO buses pick up in the following order: POFQ (one stop), POR - North depot (lobby), POR - west depot (AB), POR - south depot (AB/mansions - back of the resort), and POR - east depot (mansions). Our previous stays at this resort (97 and 99), we had been at the east depot, and never had any problems with the buses. But since I had read the buses here fill up quickly, we decided to go to the first stop to improve our chances. It's a good thing we did! When the bus arrived (about 10 minutes after we walked up), all seats were already full. There was a family with a wheelchair, who had apparently been waiting 1/2 hour since the last bus didn't have room for the chair. They got the wheelchair person on, and we squeezed on right at the yellow line. The bus driver didn't speak English very well (only time I've EVERY had that), and it added to the chaos. He skipped all the other riverside stops, and we made it to the park about 5:45..

DS had $50 of birthday money burning a hole in his pocket, so he headed to Japan. DD wanted to ride test track, so she headed out to the single rider line. Mom and I went to see if the Disney visa picture stop was still open. I checked the tip board, and all FPs were gone for Soarin and TT, and the Soarin standby line was 50 minutes. The photo station was closed, but we decided to try the Segway demonstration. We waited while the group finished up, and were in our briefing room in about 6-7 minutes.

A little background info here. Last year, my DS REALLY wanted to ride the Segways. He was so crushed when he found out you had to be 16 at WDW. My mom lives just south of Ft. Myers, and she found an article in her local paper about a Segway tour on Sanibel Island. I surprised DS with this for his 13th birthday. Here's a picture of us enjoying it!

Anyway, this was the first time I'd had a chance to take the tour at WDW. The video shown here was a little different from the one I saw on our Sanibel Island tour. The Segway inventor talks about the process of inventing, and they show how the Segway changed over time. It was a pretty neat film! We signed our waivers and got in line. Mom and I were about 5th and 6th in line, so we were up fairly quickly. I had never ridden this model of segway (my tour was on the first version), and I was amazed at how responsive this model is. It really does seem to react to your thoughts rather than your actions. I was able to get some cute pictures of mom. In the second one, you can see her smiling a little!

DD had called and said she was done with TT, so the three of us headed over to World Showcase. We were able to catch the new movie in Canada (it opened a day earlier than planned). I really like this movie! Martin Short is your host, and he's pretty funny. This movie seems to be more scenery focused so it shouldn't get dated as quickly as the last one. They did keep some of the scenes from the previous movie though, and they kept the "Canada" song, but it was done by last years' Canadian Idol winner.

Once we finished with the movie, Mom and I decided to stay fairly close so we wandered around France and Morocco, while DD went over to Japan. I did some pin trading while we waited. About 7:30 it started to rain, so we ducked into the tea shop. We had a nice chat with a CM in there and told him we were eating at Rose and Crown that evening. He told us his favorite meal there was the bangers and mash. He said on a gray rainy day it just seems like home to be snuggled into a cozy pub eating a plate of comfort food.

The kids came in about this time, and we went over to check in for our ADR about 7:45. It was still drizzling, but Mom found a covered bench right in front of the beer garden. And we waited, and we waited, and we waited. DS had spent his money and had bought a book about Ninja warriors. Here's a picture of him reading while we waited.

DD went over to the toy store and used some of her money to buy a dragon that is in her dragonology book. And I wandered over to watch a bit of the British Invasion.

We were finally called in about 8:50! We waited over an hour with an ADR. In their defense, since it was raining they had closed the lower terrace, which reduced their seating capacity by 20% and it had been closed all day which meant they were backed up. Plus with the rain, people were lingering over their meal so they didn't have to get wet. But boy was I glad we had eaten that sandwich earlier!

We went ahead and placed our orders, and they dried off the tables on the terrace so we could watch Illuminations from there. The table behind us had a family originally from England who had moved to Canada. They had two beautiful young girls and they were chosen to "start" the fireworks. Each of them got a crown, and they used a Mickey lightsaber to "start" the show. It was pretty cute! I did get some good pictures of the fireworks. Mom experimented with her camera, but none of them came out.

Once the show was over, we came back to our inside table. Boy was it COLD in there. No kidding, it was at least down to the high 60s. DD was freezing! My mom had a sweater on, and DS isn't usually affected by the cold but brrrrr! We decided to split two meals here (this comes up later), and we had:

Appetizer: Cheese Plate and salmon timbale.
Main course: Steak & Fish and Lamb
Dessert: Sticky toffee pudding and Bailey's trifle

The kids each got a soda since no specialty drinks came on the plan.

The cheese plate was fairly good. It had the stuff we had liked from our ploughmans' lunch, plus a couple of other stronger cheeses. It also had candied walnuts which were really nice. DD thought the salmon timbale was good, but not as good as the norwegian sample from Food and Wine Festival last year.

DS ate all the steak, and DM had his fish and a little of the lamb. I had some of the lamb plus DS's veggies. DD ate most of her vegetables and quite a bit of lamb.

DM and I ate most of the toffee pudding. It was warm!!!! Which was really good since it was still freezing in there. DS ate every bite of the trifle by himself! We didn't leave much behind at this restaurant. I guess we were hungry! The total came to $96.27. We left about 10:15, and DM and DD went over to ride Figment (it was late EMH that night. The ladies had gotten wristbands when we came over the IG bridge earlier, but DS hadn't gotten one). DS was tired so he and I went back to the room.

We waited for two buses and still had to stand the whole way. And this was 10:30. I decided then we would be driving quite a bit this weekend. We got ready for bed and DM and DD came in about 11:05. Everyone was asleep by 11:30.

Up next: MGM for morning EMH

 

[tkd lisa]

Saturday, 1 September

Disclaimer: For some reason I didn't take any pictures this day. We spend a lot of time in MGM, so I've got many, many in my computer files. That's probably why I didn't take any today.

As usual, I was up early, about 6:00. I had set the coffeepot up the night before, so I pulled the privacy curtain and pushed the button while I ran a bath for myself. I have to say, after staying at DVC for the last year, I really miss a big bathroom! Even the studios have more space than this one did! Anyone, enough whining. Bath, devotions, coffee and notes taken care of, I decided to head down to the food court to bring breakfast back for everyone. I had set the alarm for 6:45 and I headed out about 6:35. I was carrying my very old Dixie Landings refillable mug. My family stayed at Dixie Landing back in 1997, and then the mugs were very specifically sold as "refillable for life". I used it several times through the weekend and no one said anything to me about it. Anyway, when I got down there, I found out that only the bakery is open at 6:30. The regular food lines don't open until 7. I called back to the room to get everyone moving, then walked back to join them. Also as typical for my family, my mom and DD were ready by the time I got back. But DS was moving pretty slowly. He had just made it into the shower, and he's notorious for taking LONG showers. I sent Mom and DD down to the food court to get started, since I expected DS to take a while. But he surprised me! It turned out mom and DD made a few wrong turns along the way, so we caught up with them just at the food court. I knew they were in trouble when DD called me 5 minutes after they left the room to ask "Mom, what signs should we be looking for???"

Once at the foodcourt, we split up to get the food. We got a bounty platter and a waffle with fruit topping and meat. Boy that bounty platter was huge!! It came with eggs, meat, a waffle, and hashbrowns. At the cash register, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they had changed their CS breakfast from last year. We were able to get two full sized drinks with each breakfast. So each of us picked out our own drink. Last year, the two drinks (juice/coffee or juice/milk) was only an option at the table service breakfasts. Anyway, total was 27.35 for two CS credits.

We finished every bite, and headed to the main bus stop again. We had to wait for a second bus to come because the first was almost completely full when it stopped for us. The second one came within 5 minutes, but we filled it up. I wouldn't have wanted to be at one of the other bus stops that morning! We were at the park at 8:05.

I headed in to get ToT FPs with the other 3 tickets. DD went to ride RnR single rider, while my mom slowly headed over to the Great Movie Ride. That's the only thing she enjoys that's open early in this park. The FPs for ToT were good for 8:55, and I headed over to meet mom. DS had come in by this time, and he was sitting with mom. It turned out that GMR wouldn't open until 8:30, so he sat reading his ninja book. I did a little pin trading, and we all went into the ride when it opened. About the time we were boarding, DD finished up with RnR, so she met us at the exit.

After GMR, it was time for our ToT FPs. DS decided he didn't want to ride. He was wanting to check out the Indiana Jones store. My mom just sat and waited for DD and I to use our FPs. As we went through the FP entrance, the CM directed us to the library to the right. We could hear squeals of joy coming from inside, and we said "Oh, they must be getting a dream! So close!" The doors opened, and the dream squad was still inside! At the end of the pre-show, they said "And you all are going to share in one of our million dreams!" And we all got dream FPs! Woo Hoo!!!

We had a great ride. We had a great drop sequence. Once we were done, DD decided it was snack time. I called DS and he met us in the candy shop. Both kids picked out candy. DD got a bag of cotton candy and DS got a package of 3 rock candy suckers. Anything pre-packaged until $4 is usually a snack credit according to the CM. Total was $7 for 2 snack credits. DS decided to head back to the room. He wasn't interested in using the FPs. He said his friend Timy wasn't working in the animation studio that day.

We met up with mom, and DD decided to head over to the Indiana Jones store to buy a necklace. DM and I used the FPs for the VOLM. We wanted to do Indiana Jones that day, but the first show wasn't until 11:30. After VOLM, DD and I used the FPs for RnR, then we all headed over to the boat dock to get lunch at EPCOT. We picked up the boat about 11:10 and had a nice chat with someone a DISer. They were also there for free dining, and staying at POR. But they had checked in Fri then back in Sat for the promotion. They said it was a zoo Saturday morning, with huge crowds waiting to get their passes/dining cards.

Once at EPCOT, we decided to eat at the Counter Service in France. DD got the cheese plate and chocolate mousse. DM and I got the ham & cheese quiche and a creme brulee. With two sodas, it came to $16.79 for 2 CS credits. In case you're counting, we're down to 5 CS credits left, and we're only 1/2 way through the trip. I panicked a little until I realized that we had lots of TS meals coming up. We had some leftover, which we put into a to-go box.

DD decided to head back to the room. Mom & I headed to Downtown Disney. DD's crocs were getting pretty worn down, and she mentioned she'd like either the black ones or the pirate ones. DD has a tiny foot, and can wear the XL kids or the XS adult. I also wanted to get some locking pin backs, and I figured that I'd use our 10% discount at WOD. And I had also gotten a limited edition pin during my trading and I wanted to stop by the professionals to see if anyone had the matching copper/todd best friends pin she had been looking for.

So DD caught the bus, and mom and I walked to the Yacht Club to catch a different bus. As we passed Storm Along Bay, we saw lifeguards enforcing the "no pool hopping" rules. The bus was there quickly and we were Downtown before you knew it. First stop was the pin trading area. There was a new lady there, and she actually had the missing pin we wanted. But she wouldn't trade. She said her best friend had the other half, and it was special to her. However, she did do a two for one trade for the Kwanaa pin I had gotten earlier this summer. It was a 500 Limited Edition, but the other pin trader wasn't interested in it. I got a Davy Jones glow in the dark pin for DD, and a malificent one that I kept.

We headed into WoD, only to find that they didn't have DD's size except in red and blue. I called and she said that she didn't want that color, so we bought the pin backs (7.95 before the 10% discount), then headed back to the bus stop. Just as we got under shelter, it started to rain! It was more of a steady drizzle than a downpour, but we were glad to be under cover! We waited about 15 minutes for a bus, and by the time we got back the rain had quit.

Up next, POFQ pool and return to MGM with dinner at 50s Prime Time.

 

[tkd lisa]

Now, on to Saturday afternoon/evening. Mom and I got back to the room about 2:20. Meanwhile, DS had gone to the foodcourt and gotten some lunch. He got the build your own pasta, a piece of carrot cake, and an iced tea for a total of 16.73 and one CS credit. Boy, looking at this, our France lunch would have been a good price out of pocket, since it cost about the same as DS's one credit lunch. Anyway, once we got back, we decided to go over to FQ to swim. DS plays on VMK, and they have some sets from POFQ on that site. He specifically wanted to see if he could find the gator waiter (he's apparently dressed in a tuxedo, like a waiter), and he also said he wanted to try the dragon slide. DD decided to stay in the room and watch a little more tv in the peace and quiet. This didn't really surprise me, since she really doesn't like to put on a bathing suit!

We drove over to FQ, and parked out front. There were several cute gator statues scattered about, but no waiter. Mom and I found the hot tub, and settled in for a soak. The main pool had a neat waterfall area that seemed to be a splash zone for the littler kids. As we were sitting in the hot tub, I kept looking at the vine covered wall that separated this area from the main pool. There was a metal lion head, that kind of looked like an ornate door knocker, but off to the side was a set of water faucets. About this time, DS hopped into the hot tub with us. He said that the gator slide was kind of "babyish", and the pool was "too small". I really think he was just a little uncomfortable there by himself. I got out and found out that the lion head was a shower. It was kind of neat! We probably stayed about 20 minutes, then dried off and headed back to the room. DS got a quick shower while I made a run down to refill the mug for DD who was having a Coke attack!

We were on the bus at 4:10 headed back to MGM. This time it wasn't crowded at all. We stopped at all the depots, and made it to MGM by 4:45. DS headed off on his own, and DD and I went to ToT with our dream fast passes. DD had a nice chat with a teenaged boy who lived in Tampa too. He seemed like a Disney lover, and was very nice to talk with. They talked about all the Hidden Mickey's they had found. After this, I stopped to get a frozen lemonade while DD and DM headed into the last show of Indiana Jones at 5:15. It wasn't crowded, so they didn't take their FPs. I was able to join them and we really enjoyed the show. I called DS when I was walking in, and he came in too, but he sat by himself. They've changed a few things in this show from the last time I saw it, so if you haven't gone in a while, it's worth another try if you've got the time.

After the show, DD decided to head off on her own. She used the Star Tours FP, and then headed over to the Muppets. DM and I went over to the Backlot Tour. This was the most crowded I've seen this show! We waited about 15 minutes to get in, then it was so full that we had to wait for a second set of trams to come. It probably took us about an hour and 20 minutes for the whole thing. Meanwhile, DD had apparently gone into the animation movie. When we got out of backlot, it was about time to head for our 50s Prime Time ADR, so I called the kids. DS was already over there, but DD said "Mom, you've got to call Aunt Shirl! She kept calling me (DD had my mom's phone), and I thought it was Casey (her brother), so I kept hanging up, and finally I said 'stop calling me!!' She's going to be really mad at me!"

So while we waited for DD to meet us, we called my aunt and explained what happened. She got a good laugh out of it. In fact, she had called my phone and left me a message that maybe my mom's phone had been stolen! Once we were all together, we went ahead and checked in. DS said "It's my birthday and this is my birthday dinner. But I'd really like it if they didn't sing to me. Of course, I'll take a cake if they want to give it to me. But I don't want them to sing." The CM said "Well, it's in the computer now, so there's nothing I can do about it."

We ended up waiting about 10 minutes to be seated, and the person who seated us was a riot! His name was Michael, and he was wearing those really dorky 50s glasses, and he had an old fashioned camera around his neck. He just looked like your geeky cousin Michael who always embarrassed you to death at family reunions! We had Cousin Elizabeth as our server, and she was a hoot! We told her we were on the dining plan and she said "Shocker!" She made DS set the table, and told him he was making quite the mess. We split two meals here too. We had:

Appetizers: Chicken Noodle Soup & Shrimp Cocktail
Main Course: Fried Chicken & Salmon
Dessert: Smores & Brownie Sundae (formerly Dad's sundae)
Drinks: Coke & Root beer float (DS)

Everything was REALLY good! The soup was excellent, and Elizabeth brought an extra bowl for DD to share with DM. The shrimp cocktail was huge! I think we had at least 8-9 pieces of really big shrimp. DM and DD split the salmon, and I got a piece of DS's chicken. DM ate the greens off the chicken plate, and I had the potatos. And what can you say about desserts with that much chocolate? Of course they were good! Total was $76.22 for 2 TS credits.

A couple of other funny things during dinner. At one point, Elizabeth mentioned that she could use a babysitter for her 6 year old daughter. She said "Her name is Princess Snarky, and she really thinks she's a princess!" We decided that my kids could probably handle her, but it would be a close thing! And then another group of two families were seated, and when they sat down Elizabeth said "Oh goodie! You're here! And how nice (dripping sarcasm), You're still wearing your hats!" The one guy got it right away and pulled his off. The other one just sat there while Elizabeth stared him down. When he finally pulled it off, he was messing with his hair. She said "Oh, don't fuss! You don't have hat hair. You don't have enough hair left to have hat hair!" After she left, the guy put his hat back on, and my kids were just waiting for Elizabeth to drop the bomb on him. But I have to say that we saw no one standing in the corner or singing I'm a little teapot the whole night, so they may have stopped doing that.

Anyway, we finally finished up about 8:25, which was too late for Fantasmic (showing at 8:30), so we took an uncrowded bus back to the resort, and we were settled in for the night by 9:30 (after I made one more mug run for DS).

Up next: Early morning at the resort, and Animal Kingdom in the morning. I promise I took pictures this time!

 

[tkd lisa]

Sunday morning, 2 September

Once again, I was up really early. It was 5:15 this morning, but I was wide awake. I decided to get a quick shower, then head out with my coffee. I had devotions down by the quiet pool near our room, and took this picture.

The building in the picture has the laundry facilities in case you ever need it. And one nice thing about the moderates over the values is that they have towels by all of the pools.

After I finished up, I dropped off my coffee cup and Bible, and took a nice walk. Here's a friend I saw on the way!

I grabbed these pictures of Old Man Island (the main pool area). The lifeguards were already there, cleaning everything. The hot tub was drained about 1/2 way down, and they were scrubbing out the area by the slide.

You can see the lounge chairs are a step up from the value resorts here too.

By this time, the sun was coming up, so I just had to try some artsy shots. What do you think?

I headed back to the room to start the family moving. DD got up at 7:00, and she made the run for breakfast with me while everyone else got ready. We got french toast with fruit topping and bacon, plus a cheese omlette, which also came with meat. 4 drinks, and the total came to $27.35 for 2 CS credits. As I was waiting for the omlette, I spent some time chatting with a lady from another board I post on. She said that they had been battling some tummy problems and made a couple of visits to the ER this trip! I was glad we had missed out on that this time.

Anyway, laden down with food, DD and I headed back, and everyone was ready to head out by 8:20. We decided to drive today, since AK is so far away. The night before, DS had shown me that his AP was getting pretty badly used. It was soaking wet, and he said it was just from being in his pocket. Since his AP had tinkerbell on it, I was surprised he hadn't "lost" it before now! I told him he could get a new one at MGM, so he split off. The ladies were in the park just as they were doing the opening. I took the passes and headed to EE for FPs, while DM and DD took their time heading over to the safari. As I recall, our FPs were good for around 10:00, and I headed back toward Africa to meet Mom and DD.

On the way, I stopped for this cool picture! He was setting up the displays outside the store across from Tusker House.

After finding Mom and DD, we headed into the standby line, and waited about 10 minutes to be boarded onto our 2 week safari truck. I grabbed this shot just before we boarded. I've never seen the tortoise before.

Our driver was Brandon, and I think he missed his calling. Every once in a while, he'd just start muttering "Head on. Apply directly to the forehead, Head on.... apply directly to the forehead." He should have been a jungle cruise driver. He had this very dry sense of humor. We were sitting in the 2nd row behind him, and I grabbed this cute shot of the inside of the cab.

As we were driving, my mom's cell phone rang. Brandon said "Who's phone is that? Let me answer it!" So we handed him the phone, as my mom said "His name is Casey and it's his 14th birthday". Brandon chatted with him a while, then handed the phone back to me. DS decided to meet us at the exit so we could go to EE after the safari.

We got some fairly good pictures on this trip. Here are a few of the better ones.

As we came up to a bend where the white rhinos were, Brandon said "Oh, there's the new baby rhino and his mother. Aw Oh. Looks like they're blocking the road. Guess we'll have to wait." And I couldn't resist. I said "Head on. Apply directly to the forehead." He burst out laughing! But we did get a good photo of mama rhino herding the baby away.

After we finished our safari and saved the day, we met DS at the exit. Mom took some time going through the Pangani Trail while we used our FPs. We saw Devine on our way over.

This time we were seated toward the back, and I forgot how much faster you go back there! I was a little rocky when we got off. We found Mom waiting for us at the area where you can watch the big drop. DD started talking to a little boy who was having a birthday, and she decided to draw him a picture. DS decided he was about done for the day. He had a FP for Kali, and he used that then stopped to get a churro on his way back to the bus stop. He was back in the room by 11:30. DD used a snack credit for some candy from a store, and I got Mom and I an ice cream sandwich to split while DD finished her drawing.

Once we were done with all that, we headed over to DinoLand because we wanted to see the 11:30 Nemo show. DD rode Primeval Whirl while I refilled our water bottle and Mom waited in the shade. We made it into Nemo at 11:10, and were seated pretty close to the front, but on the outer side. They didn't have Crush in this show, which was kind of disappointing! And the lady who used to play Dory was playing Nemo. It was still a very good show, and it was nice to sit down out of the heat. We headed out with the herd of cows, and exited the park to head for Downtown Disney.

DD decided to look at their crocs again, and DM wanted to get some new socks, because the ones she had brought were rubbing her toes. I figured we'd go ahead and try out Wolfgang Pucks Express for lunch since we were headed that way. First stop was WoD where DD decided to go ahead and get the red mickey Crocs. Mom got a pack of socks, then we headed out.

We stopped by the pin traders, and I saw the man in the scooter who's always there. I said Hi, and told him that I'd actually seen the missing Copper pin we had been looking for the day before. He said "You know, that set wasn't supposed to be broken up." I said "I know, but she got it in a trade, and by that time it wasn't being sold anymore". He told us to hold on, and started digging through one of his bags. I couldn't believe it, but he ended up pulling out the complete set, plus the missing single pin that we needed! DD was about jumping for joy! I said "The best pin I've got is this LE 2500 from the 2006 MNSSHP." Meanwhile, he was looking at DD's lanyard, where she has a pin of Mushu holding up the dragon form of Malificent. He said "Would you be willing to trade that one?" to her. She hemmed and hawed, and just as I was saying "You know, this is the pin you've really wanted", he said "If she doesn't want to trade it, I'll take the halloween pin." So our long standing quest is FINALLY over! It turns out that the Mushu pin was a LE Disneyland pin, which DD has had for quite a long time. This guy seems to really prefer Disneyland pins, which is probably why he wanted it. But I think he was tired of us stopping by there every month or so!

Anyway, with that mission accomplished, we headed into Wolfgang Pucks, where we split one CS meal. We got the foccacio bread BBQ beef sandwich, a drink and a creme brulee. The sandwich came with ColeSlaw which mom ate. It wasn't a huge meal, but it was enough for us. Total was $16.92. After this, we went to the candy store so Mom could get her fudge (she gets this every trip!), then we headed back to the resort.

Once there, DM, DS and I changed into our suits to go to the main pool. It was really hot, and the water was refreshing. I even went down the slide! But I couldn't convince DM to try it. She doesn't swim, so she used that excuse. I said "Mom, the water is 4 feet deep. You can stand in it!" DS tried out the slide too, but he mostly hung out underneath the water spill area (the one I took picturs of that morning).

After he finished with the pool, DS was finally ready to eat lunch. He wrapped a towel around him, and went in to get another order of shrimp pasta your way, carrot cake and a drink using our last CS credit. (Total was $16.97 again) I waited with him in case he couldn't get it without a shirt.

We headed back to the room where I changed and DS ate.

Up next, wandering to POFQ followed by a not so fun evening at EPCOT.

 

[tkd lisa]

Afternoon/evening of Sunday 2 September

When I finished up, we had just gotten back to the room after our swim. I forgot to mention that mousekeeping had left us a couple of cute towel animals.

This is the dragon that DD got Friday night in the toy store in the UK.

The note underneath this is a promotion for "bounceback" free dining. You had to reserve before you left. More about that in tomorrow's report.

I also forgot to say that I had driven back from DTD, but mom and DD took the boat. It was just about to leave when they walked on, and they got to the room about 5 minutes after I did, so the boat is probably faster than the bus (no stop at TL).

Anyway, while DS finished his meal, Mom and I decided to take a nice boat ride over to POFQ. She had really enjoyed the ride back from DTD. Unfortunately, the last boat was docking as we came up, and they were stopping because of lightning in the area. Mom decided we should go ahead and walk over there anyway. We took our time, and it was about 10 minutes from the marina to the POFQ food court. We decided to try some fresh beignets. There was only one person working in that area, and she was responsible for ice cream, milk shakes, and bakery goods, so it took about 20 minutes to get to us. They make the beignets fresh when you order, so they came out piping hot! We got an order of 6 for one snack credit. We sat outside and each ate one, but the clouds were rolling in, so we decided to head back. We successfully dodged the rain, and once it was over we headed out to the bus stop. Our plans for the evening were dinner at Le Cellier at 7:00. Then mom and I were going to catch the monorail to the MK to watch SpectroMagic and the fireworks. The kids would either come with us, or go back to the room.

We were on the bus about 5 and at EPCOT by 5:20. The bus wasn't too full this time. On the way over, I asked the kids to stay together long enough to get a photopass picture. Last year, one was included in the free dining package, and I thought it would be this year too. I personally don't like the area between the entrance and spaceship earth. The leave a legacy tiles just remind me of tombstones, and I didn't want them in my picture, so we headed to the other side of the walkway. DS was being a little grumpy, and the photographer was trying to get him to squat down so that he didn't block the rest of us. He wanted to stand at "parade rest", and just wasn't being very cooperative. All the photopass shots came out terrible, and the one below is the best one she got on my camera.

Once we finished that ordeal, DD decided she wanted to try riding test track, and DS wanted to head over to World Showcase by himself. He said he was going to watch the movie in Canada. Mom waited for us, and we headed toward TT. The single rider line said 20 minutes, but it was almost to the entrance and it wasn't moving. Someone said that the ride was down. We waited about 5 minutes, then since no one was moving at all, we decided to skip it.

I called mom, and she met us over by the Odyssey building. We headed into Mexico and took a quiet ride on El Rio de Tiempo, or whatever it's called now. There's still no line for this one! The sky was definitely threatening by this time, so we decided to head over to Canada. I called DS but he didn't answer. I made a quick stop in the store and did a little more pin trading, then I joined Mom and DD under the overhang at Le Cellier. A very nice young man named Kyle was serving door duty, and he chatted with DD about her obsession with Tower of Terror. He confessed that he had never ridden ToT, but said he might ride it now, just because she liked it so much. He said that Mission Space is his personal favorite. He must have told 45 people without ADRs that they were full up. I asked how often he gets yelled at, and he said "A lot!"

DS came walking up just about 7, and we found out that he hadn't answered the phone because it was sitting back in the room. He had spent the time talking to Andrew, the wood carver in Africa. About that time, a very nice young couple signed in and were waiting for their table. We chatted a bit about the dinner choices. They were on the dining plan, and were just starting their vacation. She was a DISer, but didn't post often. She had done a lot of planning on the board though, so we chatted a bit about this, then they were seated.

We were seated about 10 minutes after our ADR time in the back room, which was supposed to represent Nova Scotia. Our server was Lindsay, and she told us that St. Johns' Nova Scotia is the oldest town in North America. And that's where our worship leader is from, so we had something to talk to him about.

The trouble started shortly after we were seated. DD started getting annoyed at everything that DS was doing, and she was really snappy. I figured she was just hungry and she'd settle down once she got some breadsticks. Unfortunately, it just went downhill from there. Thankfully it didn't get very loud so the only people it affected was our family. I did tell her that if she said one more thing we were taking the rest of our meal to go, and that seemed to at least stop most of it. DS also stepped outside and spent some more time chatting with Kyle while we were waiting on dessert. As it turned out, she was definitely hormonal, and was having a bit of an anxiety attack too.

Our meal was really good, even though I didn't really take the time to enjoy it. We had:

Appetizers:
Seared Tuna (DD)
Beef Barley Soup (Mom)
Shrimp Cocktail (DS and I)

This was the shrimp cocktail. We only ate about 1/2 of it! It was very good though.

Main course:
Red Maple Filet (DS)
Pork Chop (Mom & I)
Salmon (DD)

The pork chop was excellent. It was thick, but cooked perfectly all the way through. DS's steak was great. He likes his medium, which is too pink for me, but I ate a small bite and it was very tender. DD devoured the salmon, but she was really in a snit by that time, so I have no idea if it was good.

Dessert:
2 creme brulees (DD and DS)
berry shortcake with ice cream

I was going to get dessert to go, but they don't do creme brulee to go, and DD had quieted down by that time.

Total would have been $152.74, and we used 3 TS credits.

After dinner, DS and DM headed for the exit. DD was convinced that Figment would be open, so we made a small detour that way even though I knew it would be closed. I wanted DS and mom to get on their way back to the room just to give DD time to cool off. We made a stop in Mouse Gears where she picked out a jollipop (the jawbreaker on a stick that's her normal snack) to have the next day, then we went out to the bus. We were walking out of the park just as Illuminations was starting.

We found seats right away in the back, but the driver waited while the bus filled up completely. DD was definitely in the middle of the anxiety attack by that time. The young couple from Le Cellier had just gotten on the bus, and were sitting by us. I had a nice conversation with them, and just talking normally seemed to help DD calm down some. Once back in our room, I got her some medicine and she finally fell asleep about midnight. I'm so glad she only has this kind of thing a couple of times a year! Doggone hormones!

Up next:

Checking out, and "How many credits are left?????" plus fun with reservations.

 

[tkd lisa]

Monday, 3 September. Our last morning.

Once again, I was up pretty early and had my coffee and devotions. I went ahead and packed up all the dirty clothes while everyone was still sleeping. I do miss having a washer/dryer. It's nice to come home with everything already clean. We had breakfast ADRs at Boatwrights at 8:00, so I got DS up and into the shower. Mom finished her packing, and I loaded most of it into the car. DD woke up slightly better, but still grumpy. I made a run to the food court for a mug of coke for her. I also re-heated the left over beignets for her. Great breakfast, huh? Don't turn me into child services please!

We were seated fairly quickly, and DS saw that he could get a frozen cappaccino. Mom had a hot chocolate. I had already had my coffee, so I got a juice and chocolate milk to go for DD (we were taking the leftovers to her). DS ordered the full stack of pancakes, which came with sausage. Mom & I split the banana stuffed toast, which came with bacon. We probably ate about 1/2 of the food among the 3 of us, and our server Jenn packed it up for us. When she gave us our receipt ($34.79 which was a pretty good price for that much food!), she had circled that we only had 1 TS credit left. Wait a minute??? That's not right! We should have 3 left. She told us that conceirge could take care of that, so I sent mom and DS over to EPCOT on the bus while I headed over to see what had happened. I figured it had happened the night before with all the drama.

I made it through the line and found out that it had happened our first night when Rose & Crown charged us 4 credits even though we only ordered 2 meals worth. The lady said that she could fix it with the receipt, so I went back to the room for it. I also asked about the "bounceback" reservation, and she said that she didn't know anything about it. I went back for the receipt, and left DD with the leftover food. She was much better by this time, and had already gotten her shower.

Back at the lobby, they were able to fix our credits and suggested I try the check in area to get a new reservation. Unfortunately, they didn't know anything either, so they told me to call the main reservation number. By this time, I was just ready to get to the park, so I gathered up DD and we headed over to EPCOT and were in about 9:20. Mom had just finished up riding Nemo, and we headed that way to meet her. Once we passed under the walkway, we saw this!

I called mom and had her join us instead. I got another cute shot, then I headed over to get Soarin Fast Passes.

We then headed over toward Figment, but it was closed for technical difficulties. So we started to cut over to Test track, when .......

We ran into the Dream Squad! We got....

Dream Fast Passes!

This was my Mom's first official dream, so she was pretty excited! Of course, we had to go use our Soarin passes right away (One of the things DD was melting down about the night before was that we hadn't ridden Soarin yet this trip!). We walked right through the FP line, and we were chatting with a man who had two fairly small children. The kids had just ridden with their Mom, and were riding again with Dad's baby swap pass. They were really nice kids, and we enjoyed chatting with them. About this time, we came around the corner to find.....

The same Dream Squad!!! This time they were giving out pin lanyards. I ended up giving the family we had talked to my lanyard for the mom. I felt like we had just been showered with blessings already. One of the people in line was asking the dream squad how to get chosen. The guy said "Talk to these people. They've definitely been in the right place at the right time!"

I guess my overall advice is: Get there EARLY!! That seems to be the primary thing that has run through every dream we've either gotten or witnessed. And in EPCOT, I have to suggest the area between Club Cool and Imagination pavilion, since we've gotten 3 dreams there.

Anyway, you can imagine that all those dreams had put DD back into a pretty good mood. We decided to head over to test track, but it was down again. I never did get on TT this trip. I had taken my dramamine this morning, so DD and I went ahead on mission space, green side. We rode with a middle aged man and his father in law. I wasn't sure if the FIL knew what he was getting into, but it turned out they were both military pilots, so it was fine. As we were riding, DD had a coughing fit, and I was worried she was going to get sick. She turned out okay though. This ride always leaves me feeling a little weird. We met up with mom and decided to head over to World Showcase. We gave away two of our FPs (Mom kept hers) to a couple since we didn't plan on hanging around long enough to use them.

We walked over to the Outpost, where we found DS talking with the carver Andrew again. I had gotten a frozen lemonade for mom and I (DD was eating her jollipop from last night), and DS decided he wanted a frozen coke. Total was 2 snack credits (7.02).

Then we left DS behind, and headed over past Italy. Sergio was just coming out, and I got some good shots.

We started out sitting in the shade, but it kept getting hotter and hotter. There weren't too many people there, and Sergio picked on mom for his ball throwing routine. Here are a couple of pictures of it.

And of course she missed, so here he is explaining HOW to do it!

Afterward, she said "You know, I think he MADE that ball miss the net."

We kept up our leisurely stroll, but eventually checked in over at Chef de France for our 1:00 ADR. Our server was Tiphanie, and she was fairly good. She didn't seem to speak very good English though. This was such a nice meal! It's very light in this restaurant. We were seated in the main area, near the bathroom and kitchen. I expected it to be fairly loud, but it really wasn't. You definitely had the impression of a sidewalk cafe. And the food was really good! You can tell this was a better meal, because I took pictures! We had:

Appetizers:
Cheese Plate (DS)

Lobster Bisque (2) DD and me

Entrees:
Salmon (DD)

Roasted Chicken (DS)

There were potatos and roasted tomatos too, but I put them on my plate since he doesn't do vegetables!

Vegetable lasagna (DM)

Dessert:
Creme brulee (DD, bet you didn't guess that one! No picture though)
Chocolate Banana tart(me)

Sorry, I ate a bunch of it first!

Apple Crepe (Mom)

Tifanie couldn't understand that I wanted to see the receipt with the prices on it, so I'm guesstimating that this was about $120 for 3 TS credits.

After we had finished our appetizers, DS pulled out his cell phone and started playing a game he has on it. The manager, Christophe, came around the corner and said "Excuse me. Is zis your cell phone?" DS said "Yes." He said "Shame on you! You should put zis away. You are having a nice meal wiz your maaamaaan, your nana, and your zister. You can play later!" DS was soooo embarrassed he was almost purple! He just said "Yes sir!" and put it away. Afterward, he kept looking around the restaurant for Christophe. He said to mom "You must have put him up to that, didn't you!" Mom said "No, he probably has a teenager of his own." It was just comical how DS was traumatized by it!

After the main course, my mom reached behind her to the wheel of newspapers, and started to look through one. Of course, they were all in French, and this particular one was dated sometime in March, but it just adds to the effect of a sidewalk cafe.

Anyway, it was an excellent meal. We left there about 2:30, and slowly headed toward the front. I took some leftover chicken, and headed for Norway where I used our last two snack credits to get an almond pretzel and an order of schoolbread (6.69) to take home for later. I think DM and DD stopped by Figment while I was doing this, but we were all back at the car and headed east by about 3:00.

While I was driving, I called 407 WDisney, and after a few transfers finally got someone who knew about the bounceback dining. I tried to set up a reservation for labor day weekend next year. Unfortunately, the promotion starts 8/30, and Labor day is 1 September next year. I am not willing to pull my high school kids out of school right now, so I passed on it. I may end up trying to reserve during the Night of Joy weekend, and just stay for 2 nights even though we'll have to pay for 3. We'll just see how the year goes.

Up next, final thoughts.

 

[tkd lisa]

Final thoughts.

Once again, we really experienced a different trip. This one was all about the food. You'll notice that we only rode about 1/2 the things we typically ride. That's because we had 5 table service reservations in 3 full days. But we fully expected this. The only thing we missed that I planned on was the MK fireworks.

As expected all the restaurants were quite full. Breakfast and lunch weren't nearly as bad though, so if crowds bother you, that's an option to consider. We had excellent service, and no one had any problems with splitting our meals.

Our best meal food was was probably Chef de France. Le Cellier probably would have beat it out, if it hadn't been for our personal drama. But I've already booked a return lunch ADR at Chef de France, and I don't know when we'll got back to LeCellier, especially paying out of pocket.

Our best meal experience was once again 50s Prime Time Cafe. We all had lots of fun there. And the food was good home cooking.

The food court was fine, and we only had standard fast food once. I'm really going to miss Tusker House as a CS lunch option (I tried to eat there on AK day, but it's already closed).

Resort:

As has been said many times, the bus service at POR leaves a lot to be desired. Having the trundle bed was a really nice feature for my family. I liked having the fridge and coffeepot in the room. The privacy curtain was used a few times. But overall, I didn't feel like the price difference between value and moderate was worth it for us. However, recognize that I'm used to DVC amenities, so a regular resort is going to be a fairly rare occasion for my family. If we do free dining again next year, I'll drop back down to Pop Century. For the $220 price difference, it's not worth it to me.

CMs.

We met a number of excellent CMs this trip. I didn't mention them in our report, but WDW sent me a detailed email survey, and I specifically referred to them in that. MGM always seems to have great workers at least to me.

Dreams.

What can I say? The only one we need is the mouse ears! Of course, a big dream would be wonderful, but I just feel so blessed by all the magic we've experienced.

What's next?

We're going for 2 nights in mid-October for Food and Wine Festival, then an overnight trip in late Nov/early Dec for the Christmas stuff. Mom is taking a cruise in January with a good friend of hers, and we'll do 2 nights over MLK weekend at OKW with them.

Hope you enjoyed reading this!

 

[tinawv]

I really enjoyed your trip report.

 

[dismom9761]

I read your report and enjoyed it!