Isn't the Villas pool so nice and quiet compared to the main pool?! That's another reason why we loved staying there!
Oh my gosh, poor kid!
Ugh, I don't miss that TT line!
I was behind three installments!But, I am all caught up now. Believe it or not, I actually picked Dumbo for the Disney character cloud!
Looking forward to reading more!
Lisa
Now that you said the cloud was Dumbo, I can totally see it!
The boat ride pictures are so pretty! I've never been on one of the boats from MK to any of the resorts - I def have to now!
Can't wait to hear about EMH at Hollywood Studios!
Love the pics of the boat ride! The sky looks gorgeous
Riding TT at night sounds really cool, minus the lightning of course!
August 20, 2009...part 5
We took the boat back to the Wilderness Lodge for a little break and to get out of the sun for a while. We couldnt wait to jump in the pool and cool off. It was funny because on the boat ride back Dad spotted another Disney cloud that he said looked like Minnie. Hehe! The lady in front of us overheard and said she could see it too. Sorry, no picture of that one but Emma got a bunch from the ride back.
When we got back we walked past the main pool which turned out to be pretty crowded.
So we ended up deciding to just go to the quiet pool near the villas. We went back to the room, quickly changed into our suits, and headed to the pool which was called Hidden Springs Pool (or something along those lines). It was neat because there were little springs in the pool that kind of bubbled. Even though the water was pretty warm it was still refreshing. After half an hour or so we went back to the room, took a quick shower and decided to head over to Epcot. Epcot was having PM EMH that night so we were hoping to be able to get on Test Track and possibly Soarin (yeah right!). So we headed out to the bus stop.
Heres an interesting story from the bus: when we got on, there was this little boy, maybe 7 or 8 years old who was getting on in a wheelchair. I was really confused as to why he needed a wheelchairhe didnt really look like he needed one. Then I noticed his foot was all wrapped up. As we were driving along I overheard his dad telling some other people how they were at Epcot earlier that day. I think the dad said he was trying to get Soarin fastpasses when all of a sudden he hears this scream. Turns out somebody in one of those ECVs RAN OVER THE BOYS FOOT! Apparently it was an older man and he obviously felt horrible about it but how sad is that?! What made it worse was the poor kid was wearing one of those first visit buttons. I felt so bad for that kid.
Anyways, we arrived at Epcot, went through the bag check and headed to Future World. The obligatory SSE shot:
We were curious to see if the park would be like the MK or if it would be more crowded because of EMH. Some of the Future World attractions had pretty short waits but Soarin had over 100 minute wait. No surprise there, so wed have to do it some other time. It also seemed like there were more people around than there were at the Magic Kingdom. So our first stop was the Electric Umbrella for some dinner. I like it there, but does anyone remember the old restaurant that used to be there (I think it was called Pasta Piazza) where you could get pizza and pasta? I kind of miss that it was pretty good. After grabbing some burgers and sandwiches we decided to walk over to Test Track.
The wait was 40 minutes and since we had just finished eating we didnt mind. But right after we got in line it jumped to 80 minutes so we decided to get in the single riders line instead, which was still 40 minutes. We had never done single rider before but it ended up working out pretty well. Some shots from inside the queue:
self-portrait...bleh.
They were using one of the briefing rooms just for the single riders so I think one group of people went in before us. There were also a few times when they would just load an entire car with single riders. Emma and I ended up in the same car. So it was kind of neat because it was getting dark by the time we got on and wed never ridden Test Track at night. In the end it took us about half an hour to get through which wasnt bad.
When we got off there was some pretty crazy lightning out in the distance good thing we got out of Test Track when we did! It never did end up raining though. Since it had been a long day we were starting to get tired. On the way out we stopped in Mouse Gear to look around and scope out any souvenir ideas.
I read in one of my Celebrations magazines that the old Dream machine from the original Journey Into Imagination was in the store so I pointed that out to Dad. Still miss that version
While we were in the store we tried on some hats:
As we wandered around some more Emma spotted the display of the Vinylmation Mickeys. I had seen some stuff online about it so I explained it a little bit to her. I was really surprised when she said she wanted to get oneI thought for sure shed think they were stupid! I wanted to get one too but the problem with them is that theyre sold in blind boxes so you dont know what youre going to get. But we still really wanted one! There were 3 different sets so we decided to go with the clear onethat set was just a bunch of different colored Mickeys (think giant gummy bear-style Mickeys!) so we figured wed be happy with whichever one we got. They were all pretty cute! So we each picked out a box and were both excited and a little nervous about opening them. haha When we got to the bus stop we decided to open them up. I went first and got a blue Mickey. YAY! Then Emma opened hers and she got a red one. Needless to say we were both satisfied. And thus the addiction was born (you were right Colleen!)! Leave it to me to pick out the most pointless souvenirs. What can I say, I am a sucker for anything cute.
After a few minutes our bus pulled up and ohhhh boy, the windows were literally covered in water. When we got on the bus it was FREEZING! It was sooooo cold. Everyone was pretty much hugging themselves or each other to try to keep warm it was that cold. The driver said if he turned the AC down the bus would get really hot really fast. It actually felt good getting off at the WL even though it was still so warm outside.
So that brings us to the end of our arrival day. I think we mightve gone to the store to pick up some cereal and milk for the room before going to bed. But we needed to get some rest since wed be getting up early again the next morning
Up next: Extra Magic Hours at Hollywood Studios!
I looked at them and thought they were really cool and would be great collectibles if I had a place to put them! I was going to buy one just to see which I got but I knew I would be hooked! 
so I chose not to! there's always december for me though! haha. I love the quite pools at the Villas especially late at night.
what a sad way to spend your first trip to Disney!
Aaron refused to ride it with me. I didn't care. I still rode it at least 10 times. I'm such a sucker for pool slides. 
That's ashame for that poor young guy! I totally had a feeling it was the vinylmations!
Dad thought we were crazy for buying them. OH WELL!That pool sounds cute with the bubbling springs!! Poor kid
TT is fun at night and the single rider line is always a good way to go. I loveeee MouseGears! I think that is the best store in WDW besides for the one in DTD. I am ashamed not to know, but what is vinylmation?!
I'm here, great first day!!! Sounds great. I love the crowd level at the MK, very nice! It was more crowded than that in May!
Can't wait to see how the rest of your August trip went, I may be able to pick up on some ideas on how to stay cool! Or, at least on how not to pass out!!
Love your latest update and the pictures! Did you go swimming in the main pool at all while you were there? We went one day and had a lot of fun. At one point, there were 13 ducks in the pool w/ us. So cute! Oh, and why was I the ONLY adult w/o a kid going down the slide?
It always seemed pretty crowded and then there was one afternoon we got back and the pools were closed. That is cute about the ducks...one morning before we headed to the parks we walked by the pool and saw a bunch of ducks in there.
So was the one at AKL for that matter.
Can you believe how nice the weather has been here in WI lately?! They were calling for rain yesterday (Tuesday) and it never came!
