Girls Only Trip - Days 5, 6 & 7

MermaidMom

Mouseketeer
Joined
Apr 4, 2001
Messages
137
Cast of Characters
Me, 31, Mom, trip imagineer
Nana, 58, world’s best grandmother, corporate sponsor
Julia, 2 ¾ , little princess, world’s youngest expert on Disney characters

Day Five- Wednesday
Our “Rest” Day

Even though we could sleep late this morning, we were still up by 7:30 and had plenty of time to shower and watch TV before our 8:30 PS at the Cape May Café in the Beach Club. When we came into the lobby at the Beach Club we saw Gepetto and Pinocchio as well as the Fox & Cat that tried to get him into trouble. We did pictures and autographs. Greeting us at the Cape May Café was Pluto! We had such fun meeting characters during our vacation and there were so many different ones. The breakfast buffet here is wonderful – many different choices and all that we tried was delicious. We also had fun when Goofy, Chip and Dale visited our table. Julia had a lot more fun with Chip and Dale today than she did when they stole her stroller on our first day! Julia ate free at this buffet as well as the others and total cost was about $39 including tip.

When we got back to the room Nana was not feeling very well. We decided that Julia and I would head to the pool while Nana stayed in the room and napped. Julia and I had a great time playing in the sand at Stormalong Bay. We worked with a lifeguard to build a beautiful sand castle and also did some swimming. After a quick lunch from Hurricane Hannah’s we headed back up to see how Nana was doing. She was a little better and Julia laid down for her nap. I headed to Downtown Disney for some souvenir shopping so I could use my Disney Club discount.

Downtown Disney was hot (everywhere seemed to be steamy and hot this week) and I was glad I had come by myself. My first stop was the Christmas store where I had a great time loading up on gifts as well as many things for our tree at home. I finally found an advent calendar I liked (with Pooh & Tigger on it). I also bought some gifts at Team Mickey and World of Disney. Before heading back to the hotel I treated myself to an ice cream cone at Ghirardelli’s.

When I returned back to the room, I found that Nana and Julia had gone. I called Nana’s cell phone and discovered they had gone to Epcot and were at the Wonders of Life pavilion. I went down for a quick swim and when I got back to the room they still hadn’t returned. Finally when they did get back it was because they thought the stroller had been stolen. Nana was not aware that they move and rearrange strollers sometimes so it took a while to find a Cast Member to help find it.

At this point we also decided to change our schedule for the rest of the week. We wanted to head back to Animal Kingdom to see a couple shows and we thought getting up early for an Early Entry morning at the Magic Kingdom would be too much. We also thought staying up for the Magic Kingdom fireworks on Thursday might get us back to the room too late for Julia. And since we could see Illuminations from our balcony each night, that was enough. So we rearranged some PS meals and decided to do a morning at MGM, a morning at Animal Kingdom and our last afternoon at the Magic Kingdom.

Tip for the day: A rest day/non-park day in the middle of your vacation is a GREAT idea. We really needed this day to rest our feet and get energized for our last couple days.

Just after 6:00 we walked over to the Boardwalk for our PS time at Spoodles. This restaurant was excellent. We chose to order several of the Tapas instead of entrees. This was a great choice and we enjoyed them all. My favorites were the Mediterranean dips (especially the chermoula) and the Garlic and Four Cheese flatbread. Julia had a cheese pizza. I also had a virgin sangria (because I’m pregnant) and that was a nice treat. Cost was about $55 with tip and we got a lot of food for this money. We walked the Boardwalk and did a little shopping before going to Seashore Sweets for some ice cream.

Day Six - Thursday
MGM & Out of the World

Up and at ‘em once again as Mickey instructed us in our wake up call. Our original plan was to go to Animal Kingdom this morning but we saw that the weather was supposed to be much cooler on Friday so we decided to switch the AK plan for a morning at MGM. Our two priorities were Voyage of the Little Mermaid’s first show at 10 and then the first show of Beauty and the Beast at 11:00. I have to say that the shows starting so late makes it really difficult to plan a day if you need a midday break for a toddler. We arrived early and I decided to go on the Great Movie Ride by myself while Julia & Nana walked around. This was a mistake. For some reason I remembered this ride as fun. It is not. It is slow and pretty boring. And I was nervous because we wanted to get in line for VOTLM by 9:50. I had to run out of the ride when it was over and sprinted to a flustered Nana. I’m never going on that ride again! We did just make it into the theater for the Little Mermaid and Julia really enjoyed it.

We had some time so we slowly walked over to the Beauty & the Beast theater. It was really getting hot. As we waited I thought we would melt. Four for a Dollar performed before the show and they were a great a cappella group. The Beauty and the Beast show was excellent. We were so hot when we got out of there we headed for the ABC Commissary to get into some cool air. I went down the wrong street and was frustrated that I went totally out of my way. For some reason, this is the only park I get “lost” in. We finally arrived at the commissary and it was a nice break and a pretty decent meal of fish and hamburgers. We thought we might sneak in a visit to the Toy Story characters before leaving. The line was quite long so we decided to skip it. Julia fell asleep in the stroller on the way to the boat dock. So much for a good nap today. She was awake again when we got on the boat back to the hotel. But we managed to get her back to sleep in the room and she slept for hours!

After a morning of near unbearable heat, we decided that swimming was the only thing that appealed to us for the afternoon. At about 4:00 we headed to Stormalong Bay. We put our things down on chairs and just as we step our feet into the water, they come around to close the pool because of an incoming lightening storm. Oh no!!! Please, this is our last day to swim! And Julia is hungry but they are closing Hurricane Hannahs. I felt very frustrated at this point because there was no where easy to eat. Julia was really excited about playing in the sand again and didn’t quite understand my explanation of why we had to leave the pool. We went over our choices for dinner and none sounded too appealing. This meant it was time to escape from The World. I’d heard that Bahama Breeze was good and had brought directions so we headed there. It was great! It only took about 10 minutes to get there. And for once Julia was totally pleasant during the whole dinner…what a treat! The cost of the meal was about $50 with appetizers, drinks, meals, tax and tip. It felt like a steal after paying some Disney prices. After dinner we headed to Downtown Disney for a hot fudge sundae at Ghirardelli’s. It was a nice ending to a day that didn't start out great (heat, no swimming, tired feet…)

Day Seven- Friday
Animal Kingdom & Magic Kingdom - Our last day & departure

Ok, this is our last day so LET’S HAVE FUN! And the weather set the tone for the day – cool and breezy today! Finally we are getting fall weather for our fall vacation. We drove to Animal Kingdom and got in line. This was the first park we went to that didn’t even start bag inspections until the official opening time of 9:00. So effectively, their opening time for those far down the line was 9:30. I found this very disappointing for a park that’s only open 8 hours a day anyway. The best thing about waiting in line was the talking & moving palm tree – West Palm. How do they do that? Is there someone IN there? Where are they? Where are the cameras? It was very funny.

We headed for the Pocahontas show and stopped for some fresh baked chocolate chip cookies and a visit with Brer Bear who was outside the character greeting huts. Since he’s quite tall and Julia doesn’t recognize him, she wanted nothing to do with meeting him. The little Pocahontas theater is very cute and the show is great for little kids. Julia really enjoyed this one and was excited to gather up some of the leaves that Pocahontas scattered at the end of the show. We then went over to Dinoland for some playtime in the Boneyard. Most of the slides were too big for Julia but she loved the little one and driving the Jeep.

Next it was time to head to Asia for the Flights of Wonder show. A trainer with a Eurasian Owl was out front and Julia thought the bird was very cool. She wasn’t quite as interested in the rest of the show but Nana and I enjoyed it. There were many different types of birds in the show and several of them flew around over the audience. We wanted to grab an early lunch at the Flame Tree Barbecue but it was closed. It looked like Julia was about to fall asleep on us again so we got her out to the car and she fell asleep immediately. We went to the McDonald’s near the All Stars Resorts, got food in the drive thru and parked our car to eat while Julia slept. She got about an hour nap and when she woke up we headed to the Magic Kingdom.

Our first stop was for The Lion King show. It was a lot of fun but during the pre-show you have to stand and little ones can’t see very well unless you hold them up. that can be tiring! Once again we headed for Cinderella’s Carousel and had our last ride on that. We also went on It’s a Small World again. Since Julia seemed pretty brave, we got Fastpasses for Peter Pan. We had almost an hour before our time came up so we went to Tomorrowland for another ride on the TTA and Buzz. This time Julia really loved the Buzz ride. She was definitely getting braver. It’s too bad we were leaving the next day. Nana was quite disappointed that there were no show times for the Carousel of Progress but I was happy to skip that one. We went back to Peter Pan and this time Julia loved it!! I knew she would love it if she just gave it a chance. When the ride was over she said “let’s do that again!” But the line was getting long and we needed a snack. It was time for ice cream and Julia had her first Mickey Bar while Nana and I had vanilla soft serve cones. We decided just to head over to the Polynesian early and see if we could get in to dinner at Ohanas before our PS time.

We took one last ride on the monorail over to the Polynesian Resort and were seated at Ohanas after waiting only a few minutes. Unfortunately we did not get a good table in the main seating area but we still enjoyed the meal. Julia’s lack of sleep started to show and she broke into tears several times. But we loved the food and our server was excellent. We agreed that our favorite was the turkey. We thought the pork was a little dry. Julia really enjoyed the pineapple and caramel sauce for dessert. She had a grilled cheese sandwich for dinner and wasn’t interested in trying the grilled meats.

We went back to our hotel and packed up to head home. It seemed to take forever to get all our stuff into the suitcases. Finally by 9:00 I had finished and I took a shower. I pretty much fell asleep on the bed with a towel on my head. I didn’t have the energy to blowdry it. We got up at 5:15 the following morning and headed to the airport. We used curbside check-in which made it easy. Returning the car was a breeze. I really like National’s Emerald Club service. Our flights were on time and we got back home about 2:00 – just in time to watch the final quarter of the Oklahoma vs. Nebraska game. And the Huskers won!!!!

The End! :D
 
I really enjoyed reading your trip report!! I'm glad to hear you had such a good time, despite some inconveniences- it does pay to be flexible, doesn't it!
 
Wes Palm is a good "friend" of mine. So if you PM me, I'll tell you all about him! ;)
 
Thanks for taking the time to post your wonderful trip report, it was fun reading it. :)

Beth
 















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