Friends & Fun, a Fabulous First Family Trip

[ellajeansmom]

Hi! Welcome to my first trip report! I finally decided to do one for a couple of reasons...first because reading reports before our trip helped so much with the planning, so hopefully someone out there finds some useful nugget from our experience Second, it really helps with the Disney withdrawal

Let me introduce us:

I am a chartered accountant and work for a medium-sized insurance company. I also serve on the Board at our local community hospital and enjoy reading and gardening.

DH (E) is an environmental engineer by training who now works for a computer software company. He is much more athletic than I am – in the winter he plays hockey 2-3 times a week and in the summer he plays softball We started dating in high school, stayed together through university and have been married for almost 13 years.

DD7 (Ella) has been a Disney princess girl since she discovered them at about 18 months! She has always loved to play dress up and enjoys dance and music. She has just passed her Primary ballet exam through the Royal Academy of Dance. She also loves to learn and soaks up information like crazy about all sorts of topics.

DD4 (Jean) is much more of an outdoors girl. While she still likes to play dress-up and act like a princess, she is just as happy (if not more so) mucking about in the garden with me or riding her bike (she just mastered riding without training wheels).

Here is a family pic from Epcot

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E and I both had family trips to WDW when we were about 11. His was at Christmas and all he remembers is huge crowds – he didn’t like crowds then and still doesn’t now! My family went in March, I don’t remember crowds although I know we waited in lines but I did have fun!

We knew that there would be a family trip to WDW someday and started thinking that 7 and 4 were good ages and spring would be a nice time (not crazy busy but should be decent weather). With a lot of planning on my part (including becoming addicted to trip reports - E used the word “obsessive” a few times) everything took shape and Friday May 1 found us driving towards Detroit where we would stay overnight before a 9:18am flight to Orlando on May 2.

Up next, our first day!

 

[Goofy'sFriend]

looking forward to more

 

[ellajeansmom]

WDW Day 1 – Sat May 2:

We got up and going quickly in the morning, helped ourselves to the complimentary breakfast (we’re all big breakfast eaters so we really appreciate the Hilton hotels’ full complimentary breakfast – a muffin doesn’t do it for us!), and were ready and waiting when the shuttle arrived. Check-in was a breeze once we realized that Northwest and Delta had merged and stopped looking for the Northwest sign Security was not a problem but I always find it stressful to get everything through with two kids (E looks after his stuff and I have to look after 3 carry-ons, 3 pairs of shoes, 3 fleeces plus the stroller, which was borrowed so I didn’t have the hang of collapsing it yet) and not hold the line up too much. We found our gate and claimed some chairs. The girls were set up with the laptop and watched Mama Mia to pass the time:

I had just brought them back from a pre-boarding bathroom break when they announced that our flight was being delayed due to some maintenance issues

We ended up waiting another 2 hours, and it was a little unnerving to be able to watch the airline workers actually doing their work on the plane you are about to board – especially when they kept going to the other side of the plane to check how things were set up on that side. That’s what it looked like from our perspective anyways! Through this whole time I was doing mental calculations of just how tight our timing was going to be for the rest of the day. Very good friends of ours (we’ll call them the P family) had been at WDW since Sun. the 26th and this was their last night and another family we’re both friends with (we’ll call them the B family) had arrived the night before. The plan was to meet them around 5pm at Crystal Palace – we had ADRs with them for 5:15. So by the time the flight got underway at 11:20, I knew that we would not have time to rest at POR but as long as there were no more delays we should be able to still stop at Wal-Mart for various items (cereal, bowls to eat out of, dish soap, a power bar/extension cord), get checked in, and get to CP for 5pm.

We hit some turbulence in the second half of the flight, nothing too bad however E does not do well in turbulence. The more he flies the more nervous he becomes (and he travels regularly for work ). Our seating arrangement therefore ended up working out well – we had initially planned to sit 2 and 2, but were re-arranged at some point to 3 and 1 across the aisle. I looked after the girls and they did not pick up on his nerves at all. We landed without incident just before 2pm and found our way to the baggage claim and our bags and the booster seats were there very quickly. E went to deal with getting the rental car and about 10 minutes later (after the girls changed into their shorts in the parking garage!) we were on our way!
We gave the P’s a call to let them know we were behind schedule but should have no problem meeting them at 5pm. We easily found the Wal-Mart and split up to get the various items, then back in the car. We were all commenting on how hot it was and were hoping that it just felt hot since we weren’t used to it (no such luck!).
Five minutes later we were passing under the WDW sign and easily found our way to POR, here's the pics:

It was now approaching 4pm (the Wal-Mart stop took a bit longer than I anticipated), but as I had done the on-line check-in everything was set and waiting for us and there was no line at the on-line check-in desk. I had planned to have E take the girls to the gift shop while I did this to get autograph books, but they had found the lobby TV and due to our tight timeline I didn’t trust the 3 of them to get in and out with the proper books in the 2 or 3 minutes I was willing to give them

We made our way to the proper parking lot, found our building (we were in Alligator Bayou as I had requested) and after walking at least half way around the building finally found our room. They hadn’t said anything at the desk, but I believe we were upgraded. I had booked a standard room, and our room (1849) not only looked at the river but it looked at the river out of 2 windows I took 30 seconds to be excited about having a corner room and the excellent view and then turned back into the drill sergeant! E got on the phone to call a cab - as this was our first visit I did not want to rely on driving or the bus since we now only had 40 minutes before our meeting time! E and I changed into our shorts, we got the park bags thrown together and we were off.

Will we make it to meet our friends at CP on time? Stay tuned!

 

[ellajeansmom]

looking forward to more

and thanks for joining! You even got in before I had the next post done

I'll have more tomorrow!

 

[dd50]

I'm in.

 

[ellajeansmom]

I'm in.

Glad you joined in, an update will be up shortly!

 

[ellajeansmom]

So we had just called a taxi to take us to MK to meet up with our friends at CP...

The cab dropped us off at the TTC and we hopped on the monorail. I was still anxious about the time but started to let it sink in that we were actually here! The girls thought it was really cool that the monorail went right through the Contemporary, and then we rounded the bend and I pointed out the castle in the distance – all I could manage was “Look!” as I was getting a bit choked up at seeing it! In retrospect, we had time to stop and find autograph books as we walked up Main St., but I didn’t want to be late and was not entirely sure how long it took to get to CP. The whole walk up Main St I was saying to myself look around, enjoy this, you’re here, but after the long day it was hard to get over the anxiety of being late. Turns out we made it to CP before the P’s or the B’s and by the time they arrived a few minutes later I was saying to E “see all that research paid off, I knew exactly where to go!”.

The girls’ all had a joyous reunion, especially Ella and P-DD7 (they are in the same class and are best friends)

We checked in then got caught up on how the P’s cruise and week had been and what the B’s were planning for the week to come. After 15 or 20 minutes we went back to the check-in desk – because we were such a large party it was taking a long time, so the B’s decided to have their gang sit separate, which was too bad but we were seated within 5 minutes after that change.

We really enjoyed the food here, there was lots of variety and everything was fresh and hot (a trend will develop) and I liked the décor as well (E tends not to care about that part). Tigger was the first character to come by and this photo op went well

…unfortunately Jean was feeling the effects of the long day and being hungry and was not in a playful mood when, after the picture, Tigger tried to take her doll – I felt bad for him as she was close to tears. He handed the doll back and patted her on the head.

When Winnie the Pooh came by next she wanted me with her, afraid that the same thing would happen

After that she was OK but still a little shy, it really helped that P-DD7 and P-DD6 were there and right into it so she knew everything would be good

By the time she ate a bit of real food and then a few desserts she had bounced back to her normal good-natured self and was explaining to the P’s that she planned on riding all of the “circle rides”! Before leaving we stopped at the B’s table to say goodnight to them. We arranged to watch out for each other the next night at Fantasmic! as we both planned to get there around 7pm.

We had some discussion about what rides to do. It was the P’s last night but they didn’t have anything in particular that had been left undone. Ella was itching to ride Thunder Mountain and I suggested Splash Mountain since we wouldn’t want to do it on Tues with the princess dresses on. Ella was annoyed at my suggestion but we headed off through Adventureland with the plan to get FPs for one and ride the other while we were waiting for the FP. Based on the times it made more sense to get the FPs for BTMR and do standby for SM. For some reason that I still have not figured out Ella refused to go on SM. We were starting to cause a scene so I finally said forget it (to Jean’s utter dismay) lets ride something else while we wait. So we went back to Adventureland and rode Aladdin’s Magic Carpets (check one off Jean’s circle ride list). We had the girls all sit together in one “carpet” and the 4 adults sat together in the one in front of them so we could take pictures of the kids

P-DH and P-DW get right into the spirit of things, especially at Disney and that attitude rubbed off on E which made it a great start to the attractions, despite the incident at SM.

After their magic carpet ride, the girls investigated some rubber snakes at one of the stores

Then we toured the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. It was almost time for our FP so we headed back to BTMR. Ella had been hoping to sit at the back and her wish came true, she and P-DD7 were in the very back seat. The dads somehow ended up in the very first row and the girls thought it was hilarious that we could see them up ahead doing a hill or turn before we got there!

At this point it was getting close to 8pm. The P’s had to get up at 3:30am to get the ME to the airport for their 7am flight, so they were ready to call it a night. I had hoped that we could stay for Spectromagic at 9pm as that would be our only chance to see it, but since we hadn’t had a rest and had been up since 5:30am and I wanted an early start the next day, I conceded that it was probably not a good idea. The girls did not seem tired but they were still on the BTMR adrenalin rush! I did however want to walk around through Liberty Square and Fantasyland so that I would get a better feeling for where everything was for our MK day on Tues. We said goodbye to the P’s (not before P-DH pointed out a turkey leg cart to E and said he should try one at some point!) and headed in different directions. This time we did walk at a leisurely pace and just took everything in. The girls were excited to walk through the castle and thought the murals were beautiful. We headed around the hub and down Main St., it was only 8:20 or so and people were already lined up (2 deep in some spots) and we felt that not staying was definitely the right decision – not that it is probably ever any better crowd-wise but we were just not up to it that night.

We found our way to the bus stops and ended up seeing the P’s still waiting for their bus, so said good bye again! Our bus came almost right away and while it was full it was not packed. When we arrived back at POR we went into the gift shop to get milk for the morning and the girls got their autograph books. Then back to our room and got the girls settled in bed right away, then I got unpacked and organized and had a shower (it felt so good to get rid of the “travel grime”) before settling down as well.

Except for the plane delay it was a fabulous first day!

Day 2 starting at Epcot is up next...will we make rope drop?

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

great report so far!!! I can't wait to read more!! Did you get any room pictures? I didn't know POR had 2 windows in their rooms!!! Nice upgrade

 

[ellajeansmom]

great report so far!!! I can't wait to read more!! Did you get any room pictures? I didn't know POR had 2 windows in their rooms!!! Nice upgrade

Thanks! The corner rooms at POR have 2 windows - for sure in Alligator Bayou where we were, I'm not positive about the mansions now that I think about it but I think they do as well. I had thought about requesting a corner room as I had heard they felt roomier with the increased natural light but figured I didn't want to be disappointed if it didn't work out so I just went with the luck of the draw, and we did great!

For some I never did take any pictures of the inside of the room - probably because we were in such a rush when we first got there and after that the room was always cluttered I do have some shots of the view from the balcony standing in front of the windows and of the building itself...those will be coming a little later on

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

Thanks! The corner rooms at POR have 2 windows - for sure in Alligator Bayou where we were, I'm not positive about the mansions now that I think about it but I think they do as well. I had thought about requesting a corner room as I had heard they felt roomier with the increased natural light but figured I didn't want to be disappointed if it didn't work out so I just went with the luck of the draw, and we did great!

For some I never did take any pictures of the inside of the room - probably because we were in such a rush when we first got there and after that the room was always cluttered I do have some shots of the view from the balcony standing in front of the windows and of the building itself...those will be coming a little later on

Wow, that's awesome!!! When I stayed at POFQ back in Sept, we had booked a standard and got placed in building 3 next to the lobby and had a view of the courtyard/pool and were 5 doors down from the lobby and food court!! We were shocked at the upgrade esp with a cast discount (you typically don't get upgrades!) We were so happy that instead of staying one night we (myself and 2 roommates) decided to stay for 4 nights!! Disney is truly magical!! Can't wait to hear more!

 

[ellajeansmom]

Day 2 - Sun. May3

The plan for today was to spend the morning and early afternoon at Epcot, come back for a rest and swim then head to HS for Fantasmic! It took a bit to get the girls up and going after the long day on Sat. but we eventually got going and I think we were at the bus stop around 8:30, maybe a bit later (I had hoped to be there by 8:15 so not too bad). We waited less than 10 minutes for a bus so I was able to get the girls’ sunscreened while we waited. We were through the gates shortly after 9am - we didn’t make rope drop but were not too far behind. We stopped to do the obligatory pictures in front of the gardens with Spaceship Earth in the background.

We hadn’t gotten any photopass pics yet and decided to wait on that as all the photopass people were being mobbed!

As per the instructions of every guidebook and person I had spoken to, we headed straight for Soarin’ (again I pointed out to E that I was pretty confident in where I was going without looking at the map!). The standby line for Soarin’ was 20 minutes so we decided to go ahead and do it now. The time went by fairly quickly and it may have been more like 15 minutes. We watched the instruction video and headed in. I made some comment about being excited to be in the front row but E of course was clueless about why that was a good thing. I pointed out that it meant we wouldn’t see anyone’s feet dangling above us, but he still didn’t know what I was talking about I had prepared myself that this ride might be overhyped and I had seen the video of it on youtube, but wow! It was amazing and E’s face was as awestruck as the girls since he really hadn’t known what to expect!!

When we walked out the wait time for the Living with the Land boat ride was 5 minutes (essentially it was a walk-on) so we jumped on. I was concerned that the girls might find this boring but they thought it was really neat, especially the part through the greenhouses and seeing all sorts of different fruits and vegetables and cotton growing. After that we watched the Circle of Life movie (Ella especially has always loved the Lion King so anything to do with it was a must-see). Ella definitely got the message, Jean not as much, but both thought is was very entertaining! I felt that we had conquered the Land and it was a good time for a bathroom break before moving on to the Seas.

We made our way to the Seas Pavilion, stopping for some photo ops…

not sure why Jean is standing that way, she posed like that all day every time I took a picture! We rode the Clam Shells with a very small wait and then examined some of the display aquariums. We found the Turtle Talk with Crush waiting room – Ella loved watching the stingrays. We had about a 10 minute wait before we were let in to see Crush. Again, I knew a little of what to expect but all I told E was that Crush would be on the screen and would talk to the audience interactively. We all enjoyed this show a lot, it was really funny and Crush reacts so well when the kids say funny things! At this point we realized that Ella had left her hat in the Clamshells, so we exited through the gift store and bought her a new one – didn’t occur to me to check lost & found either then or later in the week.

I suggested we go see what the line was like for Spaceship Earth and it was only 5 minutes so on we went. Jean rode with me and she didn’t really get why I started asking her questions on the way “down” but she was very impressed when we were in the stars! Ella quite enjoyed this, she loves stuff that has an educational component and just soaks it up. They wanted to try out some of the interactive stuff but it was past 12:30 and we still planned to eat lunch and see at least one country, so we promised that we would do this ride again later in the week and went back out into the hot sun. As an aside, by this point we had concluded that the heat was actually hotter than usual for the first of May and it wasn’t just us northerners feeling it!

We let Ella choose the country for us to visit and have lunch in. She chose China, so off we went, stopping for some photo ops along the way…

You may notice that Ella is wearing shoes that are not typical comfort walking shoes...it eventually becomes an issue, stayed tuned!

We found the Lotus Blossom Café very easily and luckily there was no line since this was going to be our first time ordering a counter service on the dining plan. The girls each had the Beijing Drumstick with rice and the usual kids’ sides, E had the Beef Noodle Soup Bowl and I had the Shrimp Fried Rice with Egg Roll. For the desserts we had a Caramel Ginger ice cream and a Red Beam ice cream. It was all very yummy! We started to wander around China a bit, then Jean needed the toilet. While I took her to do that Ella saw Mulan walk by. E told her to go up to her but she was too shy to do it on her own and settled on waving (Mulan did wave back so Ella was happy!). We went to see the movie – there was about a 10 minute wait before the next showing so we looked at all the terra cotta figurines and other displays.
Some more pics:

Cute aside story…starting on a sad note, my grandma passed away about 10 days before we left. So her death and the funeral were on our minds and Jean spoke of it often (she’s the one who says whatever she is thinking, Ella tends to keep a lot of her thoughts to herself). Anyways as we’re going through this exhibit and we get to the area that shows the archeology dig I’m trying to explain that these people had a lot of their belongings buried with them and digging them up now, thousands of years later allows us to learn about the lives and their beliefs. Jean turns this right around and asks if that means someone is going to dig up grandma someday. She didn’t seem concerned, just curious. We assured her that grandma was not going to be dug up and had to laugh at how her mind never stops working!

We were all very impressed with the movie, none of us had seen a 360degree movie before and thought it was really well done. Ella has a friend who is Chinese and had been to China for a visit last summer, so every time there was a shot of the Great Wall she would say “Andy’s been there”! After the movie it was time to go back to POR to have a nap and a swim – we finally got some photopass pics done on our way out.

I think we waited maybe 10 minutes for our bus, which again I thought was pretty good. It was on this bus ride that E asked why we were taking a bus that we had to wait for and crowd into when we had a perfectly good rental car sitting at the hotel. For most of the parks I agreed that it was likely just as quick and easy to take the car but I wanted to give the bus a try and was concerned about getting out of the parking lots after an evening show. We decided to try driving to HS that night and see how it went. While planning, I had a feeling that E would feel this way, which is why we had the car for the whole week instead of just for the one day that we planned to go to Kennedy Space Centre. We used Air Miles for the car so that if we didn’t use it much it wouldn’t have felt like we spent a whole lot of money for nothing.

We had a great first visit to Epcot and definitely needed to set some priorities for our visit later in the week!

Next...we rest, explore the pool, and experience Fantasmic!

 

[ellajeansmom]

Day 2 cont'd

A short bus trip later we arrived back at POR and everyone settled down for a much needed siesta.

After a rest (Jean, who still needs a nap most days, had been warned ahead of time that she would not be allowed to the pool until she had actually slept at rest time – and it worked!) we went across to the island and checked out the pool. What a great pool! There was a lot of people – took some doing to find an empty chair to dump our stuff on – but the pool itself did not feel crowded. Ella did the waterslide a couple of times and declared it “cool” and we all felt refreshed. I did take some pics of the pool but not until later in the week so those will be coming later

After the earlier bus vs car discussion, we drove to HS and made our way in. The plan was to find some counter service meals that we could take in with us. E spotted turkey legs so went to get one for himself but I couldn’t decide what to get for myself and the girls and stressed about getting in a long line and then not being able to find E. I knew we could get food inside the “theatre” so decided to just wait and do that. Turned out to not be a great idea as the snack items there are on the dining plan but the hot dogs are not (at least as far as I could tell and I didn’t actually ask) so I paid cash for those – if I’m wrong someone please let me know so we’ll know for next time!

Here’s E with his turkey leg:

Anyways we had met the B’s just outside the entrance (that still amazes me that in those thousands of people we found them just by casually watching out for each other!) and we were there early enough to get pretty good seats – we were close to centre stage and about half way up. We knew it would be a long wait so we had brought the iPod and the girls watched HSM3 to pass the time while E & I chatted with the B’s. I would say that ¾ of the seats were filled by 7:30 and it was completely full by 8:00, including people up in the grass sections.

The show finally started as scheduled at 8:30. The girls and I thought it was great. I really liked how the laser images are projected and the girls of course liked any part that had a princess in it – they were excited to see Mickey too! E wasn’t as impressed. He said it was OK but he would not wait for 90 minutes on a metal bench with heat radiating up off the cement again. If he could walk in 10 minutes before he might go again

The pictures I took were not great but here are some of the better ones:

We managed to find the stroller and then had a bit of a melt down from Jean. The deal we had made with Ella was that she would be expected to walk during the day but leaving at night if she was tired she could use the stroller and one of us (preferably E) would carry Jean. Well, Jean had forgotten about this and was quite annoyed about not being able to ride in the stroller and was having no part in being carried by Daddy. We managed to get her calmed down by giving in and agreeing to me carrying her.

It was obviously quite a crowd getting out of the park but I was really surprised that once we got in the car we had no trouble at all – we drove straight out and were “home” in minutes. To give some context, the amusement park near us is absolutely awful to get out of at night – there is only a couple of exits from the parking lot and those go to regular, high traffic streets. So you sit in your car for at least 20 minutes waiting to get out of the parking lot. We were so impressed that any evening at WDW you get in your car drive out and you are on your way, no traffic jams at all (we never did take the bus again). As E kept saying all week, these Disney people know how to move people!

We got the girls settled quickly – I think they were in bed by 9:45 which was good as I was hoping to hit EMH the next morning at AK!

 

[Angies1274]

Hi Joining in!! Great start so far and your girls are just adorable. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed Crystal Palace as we will be eating there next month. We really enjoy breakfast there but we thought we'd give dinner a try this trip. Great photopass pics!! We haven't seen Fantasmic yet but it's definitely something I would like to do.
Can't wait for more....

 

[ellajeansmom]

Hi Joining in!! Great start so far and your girls are just adorable. I'm glad to hear you enjoyed Crystal Palace as we will be eating there next month. We really enjoy breakfast there but we thought we'd give dinner a try this trip. Great photopass pics!! We haven't seen Fantasmic yet but it's definitely something I would like to do.
Can't wait for more....

Hi! Thanks for joining and thanks for the compliments! Looking back at our pictures I'm really glad we did photopass because I am not in hardly any of our own

The girls and I really enjoyed Fantasmic - there's so many things in that show with foutains and laser projections that I have never seen anywhere else, its just really cool The girls really liked the visual effects in the lagoon with the boats - and I'll leave it at that so as not to ruin any surprises

I should have our AK day up later this evening...

 

[ellajeansmom]

Day 3 – May4

We were a bit slow getting going in the morning – I had hoped that the girls would get ready quickly seeing as we were at Disney and there was fun to be had, but they took the same amount of time as they do in the morning at home I was a bit frustrated by this especially since we weren’t even having our usual breakfast that day, just a cereal bar to tide us over until our 10:15am ADR at Tusker House. Anyways we got going and I figured that we would at least still get in the park during EMH and get to the Safari before the rest of the world was let in at 9am. We parked the car and as we started walking I double-checked that I had the girls and my KTTW cards and checked that E had his. He didn’t know. He couldn’t find it on a quick check of pockets and thought he had given it to me after we went through the parking gate, which I was sure he hadn’t. I told him to go and check the car while we kept walking. He caught up but still hadn’t found it so I went back to the car and couldn’t find it either. I went back to where they were waiting (it was now 8:50 and we were still in the parking lot, so much for making EMH) ready to tell him he could go and find it while the girls and I went in. By the time I got back to them he had found it in the one pocket he had not checked before. I was beyond annoyed – we had wasted over 15 minutes in the parking lot looking for his card that he had all along and now we were going to be crammed together with all the non-resort people getting there for 9am. Luckily when we got to the turnstiles they still had the resort guest ones open for us to walk right through and as we went through they just started letting in the huge line of non-resort guests. So it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, we were still ahead of the crowd but it is a good thing it is a fair hike back to Africa because I needed that walk to get rid of my frustration!

It was only about a 15 minute wait for the Safari and we had a great ride. All of the animals were out and about (from other trip reports I knew they tended to be more active in the early morning) except the hippos who were under water. Even the male lion was out in the grass although his head was down it was still really cool as any other time I have seen lions at zoos (I know this isn’t a zoo ) they are always asleep! Jean was following the storyline – even though she didn’t know what a poacher was she was very worried about the baby elephant and was quite happy to know that all was well in the end!

Here are some of our pics:

Giraffe

Giraffe under tree

Elephant

Rhino

Lion

I had hoped to walk the Pangani Trail before our ADR at TH but by the time we found the stroller and got organized again there wasn’t really enough time to do the trail (had we not been held up in the parking lot for 15 min we probably could have done it…but I’ll let that go now ). It was too soon to check in so we went over the bridge and checked out the Creature Comforts store (at least I think that was the store’s name!) while E found a restroom.

We made our way back to TH and after several minutes in line checked in and received a pager. While waiting we noticed that Ella was being a bit cranky but chalked it up to being hungry (she had barely eaten any of her cereal bar and she usually has 2-3 bowls of cereal for breakfast). About 10 minutes later the pager went off so around we went to have our picture done and be led to our table (we didn’t buy it and I didn’t think to ask them to take one with our own camera). The décor was fun and the AC felt great! Our server was really good – he was silly with the kids, brought our drinks promptly and had me take a picture of an unsuspecting E using his trays as Mickey ears!

Daisy came almost right away so we waited for her before heading to get some food.

I thought the food selection was great, there was some African dishes that I tried as well as the usual breakfast fare. This was our first taste of Mickey waffles and we agreed that they were yummy! All except Jean also enjoyed the jungle juice. Mickey and Donald came by shortly

and there was also the standard parade with various rattles and noise makers – the girls thought this was lots of fun!

You’ll notice that Ella is wearing her fleece. We thought it was strange that she was complaining of being cold (despite the flushed face) because she usually doesn’t get cold, that is usually me and I found the temperature at TH quite pleasant.

We had to wait a bit for Goofy but he eventually came around

We were all full from a delicious meal and were ready for our next adventure!

 

[ellajeansmom]

Day 3 cont'd

It was just past 11:30 and there was a noon showing of TLKF, so we headed in that direction and after a short wait they let us in. Ella asked to sit on E’s lap (again unusual for her) and it was at that point that we realized that she was really not well because as soon as E got her on his lap he looked over at me and told me she was burning up. Well that explained why she hadn’t been herself all morning, poor thing As I said earlier, LK has always been a favourite of Ella’s so even not feeling well she enjoyed it and sang along. We agreed that it was an excellent show and it was over too fast. When it was over we went straight back to the First Aid Centre (which we had found earlier when E was looking for the restrooms). The nurse was very kind, took Ella’s temperature (102F), gave her some Motrin and advised us to try to keep her cool and well hydrated. We thought keep her cool, in this heat? Alrighty, we’ll get right on that

We stopped at a stand just down from the First Aid Centre and the girls bought some souvenirs – Ella wanted leopard ears and Jean chose a hair band with Minnie ears and veil streamers. Unfortunately we didn’t think to try it on Jean first…she has a large, round head (hers is bigger that Ella’s) and the hair band didn’t stay on very well for her. We continued on towards the entrance to rent a stroller for Ella and stopped for some Photopass Pics on the bridge back to the Oasis.

We got the rental stroller and went to join the line for Finding Nemo – we thought it made sense to get Ella in a cool building while waiting for the Motrin to kick in. This was another great show – the kids love the “Spot Nemo” game while waiting for the show to start as well as the bubbles and the catchy music. On the way back to get the strollers after the show we spotted an ice cream cart, so I told E to get a frozen lemonade and frozen strawberry while I collected the strollers. Those both tasted so good and refreshing in that heat – and combined with coolness of the theater and the motrin Ella was perking up a bit.

We decided to go into Dinoland to cross another “circle ride” off of Jean’s list. As usual for those types it was about a 20 min wait but we shared the frozen treats while we waited and enjoyed our ride on the flying dinosaurs. After a restroom stop we debated which way to go. We had wanted to do Dinosaur originally but Ella wasn’t sure she was up for it. Expedition Everest and Kali River Rapids were also on the “to do” list, but are in the opposite direction of Dinosaur. We decided to just skip Dinosaur and thought we’d get FPs for EE and then ride KRR while we waited. Unfortunately the FPs were gone and there was a 40 minute standby time – which probably isn’t that bad but Ella didn’t want to ride EE, and Jean isn’t tall enough so it would have only been E & I. Given how Ella was feeling we didn’t think it was fair to have them wait that long for only us to go on the ride. So we gave up on EE as well and got in the KRR line. It was posted at 30 minutes but I think it was more like 20 - you move pretty steadily and it has some great theming so it doesn’t feel that long. We took some pics to pass the time:

On the ride, Jean got the biggest soaker – the wave at the bottom of the hill came right over top of where she and I were sitting. I had seen it coming so leaned forward and was ready for it but she had no idea – once we all made sure she was OK everyone in the raft was laughing at her expression of total shock when all this water was suddenly dumped over her head!

It was a little after 4pm - given that the park closed at 5pm and we didn't know how long the motrin would last for Ella, we decided to call it a day. First we stopped at a stand that was selling sandals among other things. Ella was having trouble with her shoes (remember I mentioned at Epcot that her shoes were not meant for distance walking -she had been told this several times, but she had been refusing to wear her crocs since they were apparently not comfortable for her). So she picked out a pair of flip-flops and Jean picked out some hair clips. I have a sneaking suspicion that Ella planned this to some extent to get new shoes, if so she won...oh well!

We headed towards Discovery Island and found that our way was blocked by the parade that was just starting to come by. No choice but to enjoy it The crowd was only a couple of people deep so I found a small opening and positioned the girls so they could actually see and we stood back making sure not to block people who were there ahead of us. I love the creativity that goes into these things!

We made another quick exit from the parking lot and once back to POR we got dried off (Jean and I still had wet shorts from KRR!) and decided to have dinner at the POR food court. E had pesto pasta, I had chicken strips and fries, Ella had a hamburger and Jean had mac & cheese. It wasn’t great but it wasn’t bad either. After dinner we went for a swim and then got the girls to bed at a decent time.

All in, we didn’t get to all the things we wanted to at AK but given that Ella was not feeling well we did pretty good - we still covered quite a bit and had a fun time doing it

The next day will be an early rise and shine as the girls have castle-BBB appts at 8:05am! (Translation the next post will have lots of pics, I hope to have it up tomorrow!)

 

[dd50]

So sorry that your daughter got sick. That happened our first trip to Disney, we went on a Greyhound Bus special (3 hour trip) and about an hour after we were there my daughter wasn't herself and when I felt her she was burning up. Gave her some Motrin and she was better. I had rented the stroller for my 2 year old niece but my daughter (4) ended up in it all day.

 

[Angies1274]

Great update!!

Your Tusker House breakfast looked like so much fun! Great safari pics!! especially the close-up of the giraffe.

Awww...so sorry that your daughter wasn't feeling well. I'm glad that the Motrin kicked in for her, so she was able to enjoy the rest of the day.

Your photopass pics turned out so good!! We definitely have to have more taken on our next trip!! Love the ones with your daughters and Baby Simba---soooo cute!!!

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

I love the update!!!! I must say that for as many times as I've been to Disney I did not see the AK parade until I worked there and quickly fell in love with it!!!

..I looked back on my calendar and I was working 8-8 at BBB the day your girls had your appt so I can't wait to see who your FGITs were!!!

 

[ellajeansmom]

So sorry that your daughter got sick. That happened our first trip to Disney, we went on a Greyhound Bus special (3 hour trip) and about an hour after we were there my daughter wasn't herself and when I felt her she was burning up. Gave her some Motrin and she was better. I had rented the stroller for my 2 year old niece but my daughter (4) ended up in it all day.

It was too bad because we didn't do as much as we wanted at AK, but it was another time that the research paid off - if I hadn't read about all the things the First Aid stations can do (including dispensing Motrin!) we probably would have gone back to the room to get the meds we had there. Renting the stroller was a must at that point as it let her rest between attractions...you also just have to adapt your plans when something like this happens

Great update!!

Your Tusker House breakfast looked like so much fun! Great safari pics!! especially the close-up of the giraffe.

Awww...so sorry that your daughter wasn't feeling well. I'm glad that the Motrin kicked in for her, so she was able to enjoy the rest of the day.

Your photopass pics turned out so good!! We definitely have to have more taken on our next trip!! Love the ones with your daughters and Baby Simba---soooo cute!!!

Thanks! TH was fun and good food! I still can't believe how close the animals were on the safari even though that is what I was expecting

I laugh whenever I look at the photopass pics because Jean was right into it with Baby Simba and the pictures turned out great, but both times when they did Tinkerbell she has this look on her face like she doesn't know what is going on, even though I had prepped them ahead of time

I love the update!!!! I must say that for as many times as I've been to Disney I did not see the AK parade until I worked there and quickly fell in love with it!!!

..I looked back on my calendar and I was working 8-8 at BBB the day your girls had your appt so I can't wait to see who your FGITs were!!!

I didn't get the full effect of the AK parade as it had already started and then as you can tell in the pics I was behind a few people, but from what I saw it is really cool...very different from others in the float designs

That is too funny that you were working that day! I believe our FGIT were Carmen and Allyson...the post is coming so you can see them in the pics. It is very neat that you worked there, must have been an amazing experience!