Happy Birthday, Dear Dude - A Sept 2010 PTR - 9/22 Trip Report Started p34

[swwake]

Part I, Chapter 3​

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Friday, August 8
Ease On Down The Road​

Continuing our eastbound journey, not much had changed by 9:45am. Girls were still sleeping. Dogs were still sleeping. I was DISing (using my cellular adapter card on my computer), which my DIS friends appreciated as I posted live updates . Mom had awoken and was working on her newest hobby:

Yes, she is latch-hooking. Do you remember this fad? From the 70s? Yes, the 70s! It’s her new big thing. I think she is now on Project #5 or 6. She vows to decorate her house in latch hook mosaics of her creations.

By the way, I forgot to mention that it’s Mom’s birthday. August the 8th. She turned 67. and say “, Grandma Bonnie!!” We will celebrate later in the week.

Around 10am, the girls woke up. At this point, they finally opened the goody bag that I had put together for them. In my “crazy Mom” planning mode, I sometimes forgot that the girls are 15 and 16. Or maybe is it that I sometimes secretly wish that they are younger. In any case, I was hoping to harness their inner children when I assembled the bag. Katie had eyed it on Thursday night, but I wouldn’t let her open it. I packed it in the car, thinking that they would jump right on it first thing in the morning.

It slipped my mind (again) that they are 15 and 16 and at this age, top priority is a 5-letter word: S-L-E-E-P. Silly me.

So, inside the bags, they found the following items:

Yes and Know book. I used to love these for road trips as a kid. I really liked “Baseball” and “Battleship”. I later borrowed this book on the airplane, only to find that the one and only Baseball game had been played, and Battleship wasn’t as much fun as I wanted it to be. Most of the rest of the games had been completed, so I am assuming they enjoyed this one. Just a guess…

Disney character and princess invisible ink books, which I found at the Palm Springs airport on a business trip back in January/February. I knew they were too old for these, but thought they would be light-hearted fun anyway. I was a little disappointed in these. I expected them to be like the old water color paint books, where you could use the invisible ink pen to fill in the outline of the character and it would fill in colors. Well, not exactly. There were vague outlines of “blobs”, which, when hit with a touch of invisible ink, caused character outlines to emerge. Guess I should have included colored markers in the bag. You live and you learn.

Princess Putty. This is similar to Silly Putty. I don’t think they opened it. They gave these (and some of the other remnants) to our friends’ Troy and Jen’s kiddos Saturday morning when we left Memphis. Still, I thought it was cute. Maybe I shoulda brought a newspaper so they could lift the comics like I used to do. Ahh the nostalgia. Why didn’t they have Princess Putty when I was little?

Princess goody bags. I have no idea what was inside these. I picked them up at Party City in March, when I was making a run for pots ‘o gold and chocolate coins as employee gifts for St. Patrick’s Day. I think the girls opened these, and then gave them to Troy and Jen’s kids. Must have been quite entertaining!

Meant for Dude, a pirates goody bag. Not sure if he ever even saw it. This was given to Troy and Jen’s boys Saturday.

We all remember Mad Libs. As I mentioned in my live update in my PTR, this was a bust. I think to enjoy Mad Libs you have to be drinking heavily. And none of us were. Needless to say, this book was hard to get rid of. We couldn’t even GIVE it away to Troy and Jen OR their kids. Maybe we should have offered it with a bottle of vodka.

Next, we stopped at Wendy’s for deliciously unhealthy fare. Pit stop for the doggies, and ease on down the road.

Next up: A visit to the hospital

 

[swwake]

Part I, Chapter 4​

Friday, August 8
Melodies and Memories​

As we continued our journey through Dallas and eastbound toward Texarkana, and since everyone was awake and alert now, we decided to test out the sound system with the 26k songs. Our test revealed that we could only connect the sound when the computer was running on battery. When we plugged the computer into the inverter, we got ridiculous buzzing feedback that ruined any sense of enjoying the music.

This also meant I couldn’t have my external drive plugged into the inverter, and it doesn’t have a battery.

So, MacGuyver that I am, I decided to copy about 2500 songs over from the external drive to my computer and run the music only when the battery was at full charge. And that’s what we did.

When we play music on road trips, we play a little game called “Next”. Each person gets a certain number of Nexts (usually 3) to use. If he/she doesn’t like a song that is playing, he/she can call one of his/her Nexts and the DJ moves to the next song. We played this for a short time, but I don’t think Caitlin was playing (listening to her own ipod) and I don’t think Katie or Mom cared. So it got pretty boring with only a total of 6 Nexts for Chris and me to use.

Next invented game was “guess the next song”. I sorted the music alphabetically by title, and Chris guessed what the NEXT song would be. He was almost never correct, but with 2500 titles to choose from, it’s a little difficult.

Also, around 1:45, I was able to check in for our flights on Saturday! Yippee!! It’s getting closer!

At 3:30pm, we pulled into the parking lot of Arkansas Childrens Hospital in Little Rock.

We were there to visit Paxton. There is a story here. Katie’s biological father lives in Arkansas and was once engaged to Paxton’s mother. At age 4, Paxton was diagnosed with ALL (Leukemia). She is now 9 years old and is a real trouper. For the past five years, Katie and Paxton have spent vacations and other quality time together whenever Katie has visited her father during the summer and around Christmastime. They have grown very close.

In May, Katie was able to join Paxton and the family for a portion of their Make-A-Wish trip. Here are a couple of pictures.

We received a call Wednesday or Thursday before the trip letting us know that Paxton was not doing too well and had been hospitalized. They had attempted an experimental chemotherapy on her, which had sent the cancer into remission, but which had taken its toll on her liver. The liver was swelling and blocking the kidneys and heart, causing them to shut down.

We had made the decision Thursday night to stop for a visit with Paxton. Only Katie and I would go to the room, while Chris, Caitlin and Mom tended to the dogs and allowed them to romp and stretch their legs.

We got to see Paxton for about an hour. She was doing better than I expected her to. They said she had slept almost 23 hours the day prior. While we were there, she was awake much of the time. She was visibly happy to see Katie. Katie crawled up into the bed and laid with her and hugged her. We had brought two stuffed animals, which they played with. Paxton also reminisced about Florida and Disney World with Katie. It was so sweet.

At about 5pm, we were back on the road, headed toward Memphis, then Jackson, TN.

Next: A visit to another hospital??

 

[swwake]

Part I, Chapter 5
Friday, August 8
Like Saltwater Taffy​

We left the Arkansas Children’s Hospital at about 5pm headed eastbound to Memphis. Not only was today Mom’s birthday, it was also my step-mom, Sierra’s, birthday. Yes, my Dad has one rule for “the marrying type”: they must be born on August 8th. He has married three times to two women, both born on August 8th.

But, I digress. We had planned to take Sierra out for a birthday dinner, since we would be in town. However, when we left the hospital at 5pm, we realized that we were all hungry, and that an 8:30 or 9pm dinner would be very late and would get us back to our friends’ house in Memphis after 10pm. At this point, it had already been a long, emotional day and we were looking forward to a nice, comfortable bed.

So I called Dad and Sierra and asked them if it was ok to skip dinner. We would get dinner on the road and do something else special for Sierra’s birthday later. Since he rises at 5am each day to run the boarding kennel and is typically asleep in his recliner by 8:30pm, of course he was fine with this.

The trip to Memphis was quite uneventful. We grabbed a bite of fast food on the road and dropped Mom off at her house. She hadn’t been home for almost three weeks and needed to shuffle some packing and do laundry for the Disney trip. We made good time and got to Jackson about 8pm. Here’s a map of our progress:

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That’s 737 miles traveled so far. We will have 62 miles to travel back to our friends’ home in Memphis before the night is over.

Magic and Harry played with Dad’s border collie, Bumper. They drank a little water and were ready to settle down for the evening. We got the dogs all settled in a single large indoor air-conditioned run in the kennel annex just behind my Dad’s house (closer than the actual kennel business).

Dad worked a little obedience with Bumper (a hobby for him), and we noticed that Magic suddenly was acting ill. She would find the nearest corner to curl up in. She was dry-heaving, whimpering, and curling into the tightest ball she could make of her 84-lb self. As we watched her, her stomach became very bloated and tight and we knew something was wrong.

Dad looked at Sierra with a strangely haunting look in his eye (he was trying not to scare me, his beloved daughter) and said “classic symptoms of gastric torsion. We have to get her to a vet now. What do you think?” Sierra replied “absolutely. Let’s go.”

At this point, things moved so quickly that they were a blur to me. We left Harry in his kennel run. (He is a rescue who has separation anxiety issues, so I am positive he was petrified to be alone without his 2-legged family or his sister Magic.) Chris, Katie, Caitlin, Magic, Sierra, Dad and I all climbed into the Denali and took off for the overnight emergency veterinary hospital.

Along the way, I asked Dad what all this meant. He said not to worry and it may not be what he suspected. We just need to have her checked out to be sure. He didn’t want to share with me the potential issues and outcome.

The vet on duty was Dr. Webb. She called us back to her exam room and asked why we were there. I started into the whole “this is our dog, Magic and she is 9 years old and she was from a show litter but she is a pet and she and I did agility training for a few years and she’s never had babies and we live in Austin but we’re going to Disneyworld and my Dad runs a kennel and she’s acting funny and her tummy is bloated……”

About 3 of my words into the conversation, Dad interrupted with this: “Magic is uncomfortable, and the unproductive vomiting and abdominal distention really concern me.”

Now, why couldn’t I have come up with that? Perhaps because it was all literally GREEK to me?!?! That’s my dad. Mister Concise. I kid you not.

Dr. Webb immediately understood. She calmly explained to Chris, Dad and me that this might be a condition called “gastric torsion” whereby the stomach has twisted upon itself. She needed to take an x-ray to determine if this was, indeed true.

We left Magic in the back and waited in the lobby. A very few minutes later, Dr. Webb returned to the waiting room and invited us back, saying “who wants to see some x-rays?”. Dad, Chris, Katie and I went back. When she put the x-ray up, even my untrained eye could easily spot the twist in the stomach. I liken it to the wrapping of a saltwater taffy.

Dr. Webb showed us how Magic’s belly was completely full of gas, and getting worse. She said that the next step would be to insert a tube through the esophagus to relieve the gas, followed by emergency surgery to untwist the stomach and tack it to the ribcage wall in attempt to prevent future gastric torsion.

She explained that, although there are multiple theories (eating quickly, gulping water really fast, playing hard, etc.), there is no known cause of gastric torsion. The commonalities that have been determined are three:

1 – large breeds
2 – deep chest cavities
3 – older dogs

Bingo! (no pun intended) Magic fit all three of these!

I asked a few more questions. Katie broke down in tears and hugged Miss Magic. Dr. Webb strongly encouraged us to go ahead and leave so she could do her job. She stated that this is a very serious condition and it needed to be treated sooner rather than later and that there were no guarantees whatsoever. She said the alternative was euthanasia and that time is of the essence. She had to get started on the first procedure.

Katie and Sierra went back to visit Magic just before she was sedated. Chris and I couldn’t bring ourselves to go see her. I just couldn’t see a point. I didn’t want to remember her like this. Chris said “I feel like if I go to see her, I am saying ‘goodbye’.” He just wasn’t ready for that.

So we reluctantly, but trustingly, left Magic in the able hands of Dr. Webb and went back to Dad’s house. There, we gave Harry a big ole hug and said goodbye. We couldn’t do anymore by staying in Jackson. At one point, we considered calling on our trip insurance (assuming they would accept a canine illness as an insurable event of trip cancellation – ha!) and canceling our vacation. Dad knowingly encouraged us not to do this. He said the outcome would be the same, whether we were with Magic or not, and we shouldn’t miss our vacation. It would be just what we needed.

So we headed to our friends, Troy and Jen’s, home in Arlington, TN, to visit with them for a bit, and to get some rest – or so we thought. We had to wait for the call from Dr. Webb to tell us how the tube procedure went.

Next up: Overnight phone calls

 

[swwake]

Part I, Chapter 6
Friday, August 8/Saturday, August 9
Squeezing Howard​

We arrived at our dear friends Troy and Jen’s house in Arlington, TN at about 11:30pm. We always love spending time with them, and were disappointed that our time with them was limited. Their two youngest kiddos, Samantha and Ian, were asleep before we got there. Sean, the 9-year-old, was up to greet us, though. He was excited to have people to (hopefully) play Guitar Hero with him.

We rehashed our stories of the day to Troy and Jen while we tried desperately to stay awake until we heard from Dr. Webb. It was about 12:15am when we received the call that Magic was out of the procedure to insert the tube and release the gas. Dr. Webb told Chris that she was unable to send the tube through the esophagus, because (as the tube determined) there was definitely a blockage there. She was, however, able to successfully relieve the gas. I didn’t ask how. Don’t think I want to know.

Next step, Dr. Webb told Chris, was to fully sedate Magic and open her abdomen to turn the stomach back to its proper position. She estimated that this would take approx. an hour. So we would wait for another call.

Chris called Dad to relay the message. Dad was excited to hear that it was going well so far. We tried again to stay awake for the next call, but, alas, gave in to sleep at about 12:45am. At this point, we had been up since 5am (almost 20 hours), and it had not been the easiest of days, either physically or emotionally.

We slept with Chris’s phone by the bed. When it rang at 1:50am, I refused to answer it. I was so afraid of the outcome. Dr. Webb reported to Chris that Magic was out of surgery just fine. I was so happy to hear this. She had successfully turned the stomach and tacked it to something inside, near the back of the rib cage, in attempt to prevent this from happening again. Magic was resting.

I went to Katie and woke her up to tell her Magic was ok. She was so happy that I woke her up. Chris called Dad to tell him, and we all settled in for a few hours of sleep.

Another call at 6:30am to tell us that Magic was recovering well and needed to be picked up from the emergency clinic before they closed at 7am. Chris and Dad talked and Dad went to get her.

I think we were up by 8am. All taking turns showering, repacking, and getting ready to go to the airport. Dad called at about 8:30 to tell us that he had taken Magic to his regular vet’s office for post-op checkup and that vet complimented Dr Webb’s work and said Magic is doing wonderful. Dad took her home and kept her right by his side, day and night, for the whole remainder of the week. We called him and got updates whenever we wanted to, and she was always right beside him, resting comfortably.

For good measure, here’s a picture of Magic in the car on the way to Memphis, before she got the gastric torsion. Just so we can put the face with the name.

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I posted on the DIS for my PTR one more time from Troy and Jen’s house. Then we loaded up, picked up Mom, and went to “the Motor Mile” to check out a used Mitsubishi Eclipse that Chris had his eye on for Katie. Chris and Troy looked it over and took it for a test spin. Katie liked it – except for one thing. It had obviously belonged to a heavy smoker previously. After sitting in the car in the sun for about 10 minutes, both of us were feeling sick.

Chris and Troy turned in the keys and politely said something to Howard, the manager at the dealership, and we all hopped in the Yukon and headed for the airport. Along the way, Katie asked about the car. Chris said that he felt like they were asking too high of a price for the vehicle, based on its condition. Chris’s dad is a car dealer from another dealership and had helped locate this car. The rest of the conversation:

Katie: Dude, what happens next?
Chris: Dad’s gonna squeeze Howard to see if he can get the price lowered.
Katie: Oh.
(silence for about 2 minutes)
Katie: Dude?
Chris: Yes, Katie?
Katie: When’s Tom gonna squeeze Howard?

This was the first of many of our bouts with hilarity due to Katie’s (and Caitlin’s) sense of humor during the trip. A preview of things to come.

Next up: Check-in, Security, and Gate-Waiting

 

[swwake]

Part II, Prologue​

Previews of the Trip​

Before we board the plane, I thought I’d provide a little preview of things to come. Some things we will find later in the trip report:

- We had a favorite restaurant and a least-favorite restaurant.
- We canceled two ADRs and added one ADR.
- A Cast Member truly went “out of his way” for us.
- I have two new favorite characters.
- Chris picked up a surprising new hobby.
- We met a famous Cast Member at the Beach Club.
- Katie and Caitlin befriended a live animal.
- All but one of us received a special button.
- The Kitchen Sink became a bone of contention.
- We visited a Disney Icon soon to be Disney History.
- We only used two of our Water Fun and More experiences.
- We had an unofficial “Magical Moment”.
- Katie and Caitlin surprised me by participating in a traditional Disney vacation activity.
- We did not get to all of our “Not To Be Missed” activities.
- We learned some really fun trivia on the Keys to the Kingdom tour.
- “Do You Mind?” has a special meaning for our family now.
- Katie and Caitlin found creative ways to entertain themselves on buses and in lines.
- We overheard some “funniest comments” made by others.
- We rode some rides twice with no wait.
- We had excellent seats at one of the shows.
- We waited in line for a show, only to be cut off when the theatre was filled.
- One ride became a sentimental favorite for Katie.
- We experienced three different Disney night time shows in one evening.
- Mom got unlimited refills of a cherry coke.
- Some of us weren’t too excited about The Beverly.
- We found where all the Cast Members play on Tuesday nights.
- More than one ride broke down while we were on it.
- I planned a treat for everyone before La Nouba.
- We met the Crazy Bird Lady.
- We learned to hula.
- We each got a very meaningful souvenir (some different from others).
- A character tried to “steal” Katie.
- After much discussion, we were allowed to purchase a Mickey-ears hat with a forbidden name embroidered on it.

Stay tuned for the details about each of these items, coming soon in the Trip Report!

 

[swwake]

Part II, Chapter 1
Saturday, August 9
Journey to Lake Buena Vista​

Tentative plans for today:
• Fly to Orlando
• Disney’s Magical Express to Beach Club
• Check in and check out our room
• Explore the resort
• Find something else to do before dinner
• Dinner at bluezoo
• Evening open

We will see whether we stuck to our plans.

We arrived at the airport at about 12:30pm, plenty early for our 1:45pm flight. Troy dropped us off and we hugged all around. We should see him again in October for a motorcycle track day in Texas.

Check in and security were completely uneventful. Once through security, we quickly located our gate and then split up to each find a snack, a magazine, or both.

I don’t remember what everyone got. I got a little bag of cashews and a bottle of water. I wasn’t too hungry, due to the big home-cooked breakfast at Troy’s house. I think Chris got a sandwich.

Here are some pics of us waiting at the gate at the Memphis International Airport:

We had a reservation for dinner at a “business casual” restaurant, so we were all dressed a little nice. But based on what they’re wearing in the pics, I think Katie and Caitlin changed clothes after we got to the Beach Club. We’ll see about that a little later.

There were several families with kiddos hanging out in the waiting area, though not too many. Memphis schools were starting two days later, so I would imagine not many families were leaving for a vacation this Saturday.

While we were waiting at the gate, I received a call from a 407 area code. You can imagine how my heart skipped a beat. Was there a problem with our resort reservation?? Maybe the surfing at Typhoon Lagoon was back ON! I immediately (of course) answered. It was Garden Grocer. The kind gentleman let me know that he had just delivered our order to the Beach Club and it would be waiting for us at Bell Services.

Check! Wow, the vacation is becoming so real!

Our flight was a few minutes late leaving, but nothing to worry about. Mom, Katie and Caitlin sat in one row, and Chris and I sat behind them. Katie and I both had windows, Chris and Caitlin in middle seats, and Mom on the aisle. Someone did sit in the seat next to Chris, but I think she slept the whole way.

Pictures of us just after boarding the plane:

Katie was already bored with the photo opportunities. Caitlin was just excited to finally be going!

I was very excited that after all the planning and anticipation, we were finally on our way.
Chris was tired from the overnight Magic saga.

I think Mom was most excited of all of us.​

Katie and Caitlin both had their ipods, so they listened to their individual music along the way. I think maybe they slept. Mom finished out the Yes & Know book. I read the Chelsea Handler book and napped, and Chris also read and napped a little, I think.

We arrived in Orlando just 5 minutes late, at 4:45. The flight was only 2 hours.

They told us which terminal we were arriving at, and I glanced at my Magical Express instructions and figured out where we needed to go. We boarded the tram to the main terminal. Caitlin was really cute. Having never been to WDW before, she asked “is this that monorail thing that takes us to Disney World?” We explained to her that it just takes you to the main airport terminal. I don’t think she was disappointed. She was very excited. Soon, she made a friend. He was a really cute little kid. But somehow his mom squeezed him in right between Caitlin and Katie.

Don’t ask me what magazine Mom was holding. I have no idea. Surely it wasn’t Playgirl or Hot Male Bodies or something like that. Katie, again, was frustrated with me and my camera.​

We were met at the airport exit by our first CM, who directed us down the escalators to the DME line. After reading all the trip reports, I figured we were in for a long line. So I was pleasantly surprised when we got there and I walked right up to the CM who registered us. And it was off to the bus!

We only waited a short time for our DME bus to arrive. Under 5 minutes. Then we were escorted outside to board the bus, where we were asked our resort (Beach Club) and were told “Great! That’s the first stop!” Someone must have gotten the signals mixed, because Caribbean Beach Resort was actually the first stop. We really didn’t care. We were well on our way to the Happiest Place on Earth!

Mom, still obviously the most excited of us all:

Caitlin was humoring me and my camera. Katie had had it by this point and was hiding out of frame.
It should be noted that Mom couldn’t have been reading a dirty magazine, since Jenny McCarthy and her son were on the cover. Or maybe not – wasn’t she once a playmate??​

Chris’s side mission for the duration of the trip was to find Katie an affordable, used Mitsubishi Eclipse. So if I had taken lots of pictures of him on the vacation, this is what they would look like:

The hot pink iphone case was the only color they had where and when he bought it (so he says).
Yeah, right.

As for me, I was mesmerized by the bus next to us, fully consumed in planning our NEXT vacation:

Next up: Arriving at the Beach Club
• Is check-in eventful?
• Did we receive any special treatment?
• Did the Garden Grocer shipment make it to our room?
• Did the UPS Ship-ahead box make it?
• Were my room requests honored?
• What floor were we assigned?
• Did we have a full balcony?
• Did we receive an upgrade?
• What did we do before dinner?

 

[swwake]

Part II, Chapter 2​

Saturday, August 9
What’s that Funny Smell?​

As I mentioned above, our first stop was the Caribbean Beach Resort.

Entering here brought back memories of our last stay for a long weekend in 1998. It is a really neat resort. But we were excited about the new adventure of the Beach Club. I do like how all the resort entrances are gated. It gives an added sense of security.

Next stop:

This was one of our Top 3 options in narrowing down at which resort to stay for this visit. We liked the idea of the hustle and bustle activity. Katie liked the boardwalk theme, but was disappointed that there wasn’t a real midway (as far as we knew) with games and such. Also, from the online pictures of the rooms, we felt that the décor was too “busy”. I have seen pictures of the recently-renovated rooms, and they look much classier, so maybe next time…

Finally, though the ME trip didn’t seem like a long one, the 8 months of planning did. And so we arrive…

I really like this picture:

Without even seeing faces, you can just feel the anticipation and energy.

Inside the front doors, we were greeted by a secret service man with the earpiece and a clipboard. He was very friendly – much friendlier than the secret service men I have been in contact with. He welcomed us and directed us to the registration/check-in desk.

Katie had warned us that the Yacht Club had a “funny smell” from when she stayed there in April with Paxton and family. She commented as we walked in that the Beach Club “smells funny too”. I think they are just piping in the pleasant aroma of Disney aura. Later in the week, Katie commented that she had really grown to like the Beach Club’s “funny smell”.

At the desk, we were greeted by a friendly lady CM. She seemed to have a lot of things to tell us. First, she said “I see you are celebrating your 10-year anniversary with us!” And we got these:

Then: “and we have a birthday girl?” So Mom was presented with this:

I gave my camera to Katie and asked her to take some nice lobby pictures, and this is what I got:

Yep, a sole picture of one small area of the Beach Club lobby. Not exactly what I ordered, but what’s a girl to do? Maybe I can remember to take more lobby pictures later this week.

During check-in, we were told that there was a box waiting for us and the CM called to let the person holding the box know our room number for delivery. I asked about the Garden Grocer delivery which was supposedly left with “Bell Services”. They had me check over at the Bell Desk, and they located the package and said they’d bring it up to us.

Then Mom told me to ask whether we had received a renovated room (as I had requested). I mentioned (in front of the check-in CM) that I didn’t want to know. I wanted to be surprised, and I didn’t want to complain if our request was not honored. I was going to be happy to be there either way.

We were presented with a really nice blue folio that included a map of the property, the Times Guides for the week, and the Recreation Activities for BC and YC for the week.

We were given our Keys to the World and it was explained to us that our park tickets, with park hopper and water fun & more options are included on the room key cards. We were each asked to sign the backs of our cards on the spot, and we were told that we could charge items on these cards. I was asked if I wanted to place spending limits on the cards, but I didn’t do this. I knew the girls might need to use their cards when they were separate from us, and I knew they wouldn’t abuse this.

With directions to our room (through the lobby, behind the stairs, up the elevator to the 4th floor), we headed off to check out our crib for the week.

We were Room 4626. This was (obviously) on the fourth floor, just outside the elevator bank. This location was absolutely wonderful for us. It meant very little walking any time we entered the hotel. Also, the BC Marketplace is right at the base of the elevators on the first floor, which was very convenient for snacks, shopping and other essentials. I don’t think we could have asked for a better location. And the 4th floor is the highest non-club-level floor.

Also, because the 5th floor does not expand the full length of the hotel corridors, there was nobody above us. The left wall of our room was along the hallway, so we didn’t have neighbors on that side. We ended up with neighbors only on the right side and below us. Less risk of noise from other rooms. So far, so good.

(too many pictures - continued next post)

 

[swwake]

As soon as we entered the room, I recognized that we had been granted our first Disney wish – a refurbished room!! This meant that we were likely to be one of the first parties to use the new beds and other digs.

The bathroom:

Vanity (Mom taking the picture):

This is the dresser near the door, and part of the closet:

Here’s the closet. The safe was in the left wall.

Close-up of the Mickey lamp. I thought this was just so cute! You can also see the seahorse wallpaper.

Another view of the beds, from the other direction. The girls were not photo-ready at this point.

We got a full balcony!! This is a much-discussed topic on the DIS boards. Many of the balconies at the Beach Club are just barely large enough to step out onto (like the one directly in front of us in this picture). Our balcony was quite large and had a table and two chairs, with room to still move around. All five of us could fit comfortably on the balcony at once.

These pictures are my attempt at a panorama from our balcony. The above is straight ahead.

Next: center pan:

And looking to the right:

Here’s a view from below:

And zoomed in:

The red oval is our balcony. The blue circle is the balcony where the ice and vending is on the floor above us.

The only towel critter we ever saw the entire week. But it was a friendly welcome.

I found a hidden Mickey in the wallpaper in the vanity/bathroom area:

While we were checking out our room, someone arrived with our ship-ahead box. This was a little bit of a relief – all of our toiletries, ponchos, emergency/first-aid, etc. We unloaded the box into one of the drawers in the dresser.

Also, our Garden Grocer order arrived. We double-checked everything and it was exactly what we ordered. Another victory and relief! We had drinks and snacks for the trip. We quickly loaded the refrigerator with goodies and promised each other to always replace a drink whenever we snagged one.

We absolutely loved our room! It was the perfect location. The renovations make it so nice. We loved having a full balcony. We were glad that with our “standard view” room, we overlooked a garden, and not a parking lot or loading dock. The proximity to the elevators made it easy to get to and from our room all week. The beds were comfortable, and Mom didn’t have any complaints about her daybed (which was really a twin bed, the best I could tell). I will say that it is a bit of a tight squeeze for five adult-sized people to stay in one room, so that would be the one drawback. Sharing the bathroom 5 ways meant we had to get creative in timing our showers.

Answers to questions, per above:
• Is check-in eventful? Not particularly, but we did receive excellent service!
• Did we receive any special treatment? We got buttons!!
• Did the Garden Grocer shipment make it to our room? Yes, exactly as ordered!
• Did the UPS Ship-ahead box make it? Yes – what a great idea! So glad we did this.
• Were my room requests honored? Yes! We got our recently-renovated room.
• What floor were we assigned? 4th
• Did we have a full balcony? Yes!
• Did we receive an upgrade? No, but this didn’t have any impact on our vacation whatsoever.

Next up: “Wasting” time until dinner
• What favorite gallery did we visit?
• What other resort did we explore?
• What performing CM(s) did we watch?
• What mode of transportation did we use?

 

[swwake]

Part II, Chapter 3
Saturday, August 9
Strolling the Boardwalk​

Having established that our room was perfect for our party, we decided to head out and explore the resort and find something to do before dinner. It was about 6:30 now and our dinner reservation was for 8pm at bluezoo.

First, we walked around the outside of the Beach Club on the Crescent Lake side.

This butterfly was in the courtyard as you exit the back side of the lobby. Mom said she didn’t even notice it when I took the picture, so she would look for it later in the trip.

A few more pictures from our stroll along the beach.

I tried to get a panorama of the Boardwalk from a distance. How did I do?

Hey, there’s one of the Friendship boats!

Here’s the pan, all put together. There’s a little gap. I’m obviously no pro!

Here is the ship at the Beach Club that’s where you can climb up to slide down the slide into Storm Along Bay.

I didn’t try this slide, but the girls did one day. It looks like it’s in the dark, and you walk right under it as you walk the pathway beside the beach.

From this point, we continued along the walkway, to the right, past the light house and the Yacht Club, past the Dolphin and Swan, into the Boardwalk area. There were several street performers out that night. Here is a magician who was magically placing wine glasses inside wine bottles and making them disappear.

I’ve always had an affinity for magic (hasn’t everyone?) and I quickly figured out this trick. I think maybe I’ve performed it before with one of the many magic kits I received from Santa over the years. Regardless, the kids really were enjoying themselves.

Don’t ask me who the lady in the blue is. Clearly she wanted to be in my pictures. It’s a pretty color, don’t you think?

Since I was bored with the magician, I found something else to do while my group was busy being amazed. From this vantage point, I took a couple of pictures of the Beach Club.

It was getting close to sunset. Isn’t it pretty?

Continuing along the Boardwalk, we noticed that they indeed had a few of the midway-style games that Katie and I thought they wouldn’t have. Also, there was the familiar smell of popcorn and funnel cakes in the air. Several of the self-propelled surreys were moving around (we saw many of these all week – must be a popular thing for families to do during “down time”).

We explored all the way down to the ESPN Club and back to the center section. We all decided that we wanted to check out the Boardwalk Inn’s lobby, in part to see what we had missed by choosing BC over Boardwalk. Here is a shot of the inside.

I still feel like it’s a little busy and gaudy. Maybe that’s the feel they’re looking for. I just don’t need to have so much “stuff” around.

And here’s the chandelier:

I kinda liked this chandelier. It was HUGE!

Next, we walked back outside and found – lo and behold – our FAVORITE art gallery! It’s called Wyland Galleries. Wyland is a marine life artist whose work is very different and full of life. It is beautiful. I think the first time I saw one of his galleries was in Las Vegas. When Katie was younger, she loved dolphins and thought she wanted to be a marine biologist working with dolphins when she grew up. Chris and I fell in love with Wyland’s work and knew Katie would love it if she could ever see it.

A few years ago, we took a girls trip to San Francisco, and there’s a Wyland Gallery right there on Pier 39, so Katie got to see it then. She did love it. So for Christmas that year, we ordered her a poster-size print.

The cool thing about the Wyland Gallery at the Boardwalk is that many of the pieces included Disney characters like the Little Mermaid and Tinkerbelle. We saw one that we fell in love with and strongly considered purchasing, but, alas, it was just our first day at Disney. We would have plenty of opportunities to buy it later in the week.

Another cool thing about the gallery is that they feature various artists. That evening, the featured artist was actually there, on location, and you could walk up to him and discuss his work. We didn’t get involved, but it was still cool that they did this.

We didn’t take any pictures here. I never feel comfortable taking pictures in an art gallery. Not sure if it’s allowed. I was just checking the website to see if there were any pictures I could share in the TR, and guess what I found? An entire Wyland HOTEL!! That’s right – in Waikiki! I might have to check that out for a future vacation.

So, after spending a good amount of time browsing and playing in the Wyland Gallery, we contined backtracking along the Boardwalk. We stopped for a few minutes to see this guy juggling some cups.

Not only was he quite a good juggler, he was also a great entertainer. He got the audience involved and the kids laughing. We had fun watching him.

It was about 7:40 now and our tummies were starting to rumble. So we headed back along the boardwalk toward the Dolphin for dinner. By this time, my feet already had blisters on them from walking in my cheap gold flip flops, so I was walking VERY gingerly.

It was fun to explore all around the lake and the outside of the Swan and Dolphin, which are also very beautiful hotels. Here is a picture I took at the entrance to the Dolphin.

It was very nice and relaxing to just explore and see what the resorts were about with ample time to stop and take it all in. I think it’s great to plan for some low-key strolling and exploring on the first day of any vacation.

Answers to questions from above:
• What favorite gallery did we visit? Wyland Galleries
• What other resort did we explore? Boardwalk (and the outsides of Yacht Club, Swan and Dolphin (in hindsight, why didn’t we go inside these?)
• What performing CM(s) did we watch? Magician and juggler
• What mode of transportation did we use? Feet!

Next up: bluezoo for dinner

 

[swwake]

Part II, Chapter 4
Saturday, August 9
He Had Me at “Rock Candy Syrup”​

Is anyone hungry? Let’s go to bluezoo!

When I was planning the trip, I used Zagat’s and some other restaurant reviews to decide where we wanted to eat. I was waffling between getting the dining plan or not. bluezoo had rave reviews, but it was not on the dining plan. I knew I wanted a seafood restaurant on our list. Since I had planned for the seafood dinner to be our first night, I narrowed it down between bluezoo and Flying Fish Café on the Boardwalk. Both were walking distance from our resort. Flying Fish was on the dining plan (but maybe a 2-TS Credit?) and bluezoo was not, as it is not owned and operated by Disney.

Ultimately, I decided not to purchase the dining plan and that made the decision to eat at bluezoo much easier. We walked by Flying Fish when we were exploring the Boardwalk, and it gets great reviews, so maybe we’ll try that one on a future trip.

Now, as dinner approached, Katie and Caitlin asked what we were eating for dinner. Remember, they hadn’t had a solid meal since breakfast before the flight. They were none too pleased when I told them that bluezoo is a seafood restaurant. At this point Caitlin asked if we had any Italian restaurants on our ADRs for the week (we didn’t). Poor Caitlin. 

But this is Disney World, right? Surely they will have something that appeals to finicky teens on their menu. We shall see.

At 7:45pm, we entered the Dolphin and quickly found the bluezoo entrance.

I was really looking forward to this meal, as I had eaten at Todd English’s Olive’s at the Bellagio in Las Vegas last October and loved it. The atmosphere, service and food were all amazing.

As you enter the restaurant, you have to walk through the lounge area to get to the table seating. They asked if we wanted to sit in the lounge, but I declined, wanting the “full bluezoo experience” (whatever that is). We walked past the bar, which is beautiful and has the metal school of fish swimming above.

I borrowed this picture from J.C. & Ali’s Mom on the DIS boards (without her knowledge), so I have to give her photo credits here.

As we were escorted to our table, our hostess stopped at this location by the kitchen. (Another shot borrowed from J.C. & Ali’s Mom.)

The hostess explained to us that this is the house specialty – the Dancing Fish, and she told us what that night’s fish selection was (but I don’t remember). This looked very intriguing. I know that you should always order the chef’s special at any restaurant, if you think you might like it at all. And in my experience, most chef’s specials are excellent. I would have to think about it.

From the menu description:
This Evening's Dancing Fish - roasted (daily fish name here), silky white bean puree, grilled romaine, lemon caper emulsion

I really enjoyed taking in the atmosphere. The décor was really modern, crisp and unique. Here is one of the light fixtures over a table near ours.

We sat just outside of a room where private parties can be held. The walls dividing the two rooms had windows in them that were made of acrylic (or similar) and had holes in them to hold wine bottles. The lights projected inside the acrylic continuously changed colors from blue to teal to green to purple and back to blue. I tried to take pictures of these, but wasn’t very successful.

Oh well, you get the point.

Here are Katie and Caitlin while we waited for our server. You can see the windows behind them as well.

If you could read their minds, I think you would hear something along the lines of “why did they bring us to a seafood joint?”

Service seemed quite slow. There was a large party at the table next to ours, which seemed to garner the majority of our server’s attention. We did have people who brought us water while we waited.

The waiter finally came to take drink orders. I hadn’t read the specialty cocktail menu and couldn’t decide if I wanted wine or a special drink. The waiter recommended the “zooberry” martini.

So of course, I had to order it.

Zooberry – ketel one vodka infused with blueberries, with a splash of both fresh lemon juice and rock candy syrup

All I can say is: he had me at "rock candy syrup". How was it, you ask? It was very good. So good, that I ordered a second one!

Chris ordered his old standby, Makers Mark and Coke.

Mom and Chris also each ordered a Ginger/Peach tea

For some reason, we felt it necessary to take an action shot of pouring the ginger/peach tea.

I should be a hand model. LOL

And, for good measure, here is the duo together.

Katie and Caitlin ordered Cokes with refills. This would be their old standby for the trip.

Continued...

 

[swwake]

As we looked over the menu, Katie and Caitlin noticed that there was a date printed on the bottom corner. They asked what this meant, and we explained that the menu may change daily, depending on seafood availability and chef preferences.

Next came the appetizers. Chris ordered clam chowder.

bluezoo's New England Style Clam Chowder - light and brothy with salt cured bacon, house-made oyster crackers

Chris really liked the chowder; however, he did not expect the clams to be in the shell, so it was a little harder to eat that he had thought it would be. I had a taste of the chowder and thought it was very good myself.

I ordered the tuna tartare.

Yellowfin Tuna Tartare - from the "Olive's" table, twisted cucumber salad, crispy rock shrimp, orange glaze, scallion cream

“Crispy rock shrimp” is just a fancy name for shrimp tempura. I LOVED this. Although it looks small, the plate was HUGE and the portion was just perfect for a single appetizer.

Grandma Bonnie ordered the jumbo shrimp appetizer with a variety of sauces.

Chilled Poached Jumbo Shrimp, avocado puree, bloody mary sauce, fennel salt

I think that is cocktail sauce on the left, avocado puree third from left, and bloody mary sauce on the right. I am not sure what the yellow one is. Maybe those are avocado slices on the bottom of the plate? Mom enjoyed this – especially the bloody mary sauce.

Entrees were next. Chris ordered the salmon.

King salmon block - macaire potato, bacon clam ragout, tomato butter, almond haricot vert

(We knew what haricot vert was (were?) because the week before I had been in Napa and it was on the menu at one of the hoity-toity restaurants there. Just small, thin green beans.) The powder you see is an almond powder, for the green beans.

Another picture from the opposite angle.

Beautiful presentation!

After much deliberation over the “Dancing Fish of the Day”, and remembering that the hostess had described it as being served “whole” (which I think means skin-on and head-on), I decided against the special and ordered the miso-glazed Chilean sea bass.

Miso Glazed Chilean Sea Bass - warm sesame spinach, pea tendril salad

The pea tendril salad was basically sprouts in vinegar. The warm sesame spinach looked like a tablespoon-ful. I don’t remember what the sauce is, but it may have been similar to a sweet oriental sesame sauce. The fish was wrapped in the leaf (?) when they served it, and the waiter pulled the toothpick out when he presented it. This entire plate was delicious. The sea bass was so rich that I could only eat less than half of it.

Bonnie was already feeling full, so she ordered the side lobster-stuffed potato in lieu of an entrée.

Lobster Broccoli Stuffed Cheddar Potato

She loved this. I’m not sure if she even was able to eat all of it.

Katie perused the menu and proclaimed that she really didn’t see anything she liked on it. She commented that “the dessert menu is probably fish cream cones and shrimp drizzled in chocolate”. Ok, you have to laugh at that one. Not sure where this one got her sense of humor!

Since the girls didn’t see anything appealing on the menu, we asked for kids menus for them. Our waiter was extremely hesitant to allow this, telling us three (or more) times that “they really don’t like to do that”. I got a little frustrated with this and almost told him we’d be happy to pay “adult” price for kids’ menu items. I understand that the restaurant doesn’t want older kids to order from the kids menu, because they don’t make as much money per entrée; however, there truly weren’t very many options on the regular menu that are suitable for teens. We finally did get the kids menus. I was relieved when Katie decided to order from the adult menu – at least the restaurant would get adult price for one of the two meals and we didn’t feel so guilty for breaking the rules – although we shouldn’t have felt guilty at all. I have to wonder if a Disney-owned property would have treated us this way.

Katie ordered the half-chicken from the regular menu.

Cast iron half chicken - 'panzanella' bread pudding, melted tomato, parmesan

It was a lot of food. She really dug in and loved it. I don’t think she was able to finish it, but she commented many times on how good it was.

Caitlin ordered the kids spaghetti.

spaghetti - tomato meat sauce, parmegiano reggiano

She enjoyed it well enough. It was spaghetti, after all. Caitlin is not a complainer, so I’m not sure we would have ever known if it wasn’t to her liking.

After dinner, waiting for the dessert menu, everyone was feeling great with their full tummies.

I love this picture of Chris.​

He was having such a great time. This picture really explains the emotions we were all feeling at this time. Satisfied, relaxed, happy to finally be on vacation, knowing that Magic was fine and Paxton was getting the best care available.

Alright, now it’s time for dessert. We were full, but we couldn’t resist. We watched as the table next to us (the large party) was served their dessert, and it made our mouths water.

When we were presented with the dessert menu, I was happy to see that there were no fish cream cones.

Mom wanted the same dessert she had seen at the table next to us. It was described as follows:
mai tai banana cream tart……roasted pineapple and dark rum flambéed exotic fruit sorbet

The waiter soon returned to tell us that they had unfortunately just served the last one of those desserts, so she had to choose something else.

So she ordered the napoleon dessert.

raspberry chocolate napoleon - litchi mousse and manjari chocolate cream……
raspberry litchi sorbet

Looks delicious, huh? Wait ‘til you see it from the side!

We helped Mom with this one. It was delightful! We loved the touch of the gold leaf on top. Reminds me of Goldschlagger.

Katie ordered the melted chocolate cake to share with the table.

Warm Chocolate Cake, with liquid ganache center, maracaibo chocolate cream pudding, peanut ice cream

This was also fabulous!

All in all, our review of bluezoo is as follows:
Atmosphere – excellent (clean, crisp, fresh, modern, not too loud)
Service – fair. Our waiter was very slow, although he knew the menu and made some great recommendations. I was disappointed in how he handled our request for the kids menus. The back-up servers (expos, bus-people) were a little quicker, but I still think we had to wait for water refills a couple of times.
Food – very good to excellent
Presentation – excellent

I would return to bluezoo, but it wouldn’t be top of my list, simply because there are so many other great restaurants we didn’t get to try in WDW. In my opinion, the restaurant was more Vegas than Disney, very adult-oriented. I wouldn’t mind hanging out in the lounge area for a few cocktails. It is a really nice atmosphere. The food was good, but the selection for kids was very limited. They should find a way to let people know that this is not a place where kids will be comfortable.

To be honest, until I was writing this section, going through my photos, I had forgotten just how much I liked this meal. It was expensive, but the food and atmosphere met my high expectations, based on the prices.

Next: What to do at Disney World after dinner on the first night
• Who, if anyone, went to bed?
• Who stayed up and out?
• Did we stay in the Boardwalk area?
• Did we stay at our resort?
• Did we visit a theme park?
• Did we go to Downtown Disney/Pleasure Island?
• What time did we get to bed?

 

[swwake]

Part II, Chapter 5
Saturday, August 9
Can you sing solo?​

As we waited for our dinner check, I checked my feet and, yes, the blisters were still there. I guess I thought they’d magically disappear in the hour and a half we were sitting there. So my next personal mission was to change shoes.

While finishing up and signing the check, we discussed our next step. It was the girls’ choice. I pulled out my calendar and checked the closing times of all the parks.

MK – green/yellow – 12:00am
Epcot – yellow/green – 9:00pm (already closed)
DHS – green – 9:00pm (already closed)
AK – red/yellow – 8:00pm (already closed)

It didn’t really matter that the other three parks were closed, because the girls wanted to go to – where else? – the Magic Kingdom! Mom said she was ready for a rest, after all of the excitement of the past two days, so she was going to stay in the room. Knowing we were sharing one shower between the five of us, she also said she wanted to get her showers in at night, so as not to be in the way in the mornings.

We strolled back toward the Swan and past the Boardwalk to our hotel. Here are a couple of pictures:

Dolphin at night:

The picture doesn’t do it justice. It is just beautiful.

The girls at the Boardwalk sign:

They were so excited to finally be going to the Magic Kingdom.

As we rounded the corner toward Yacht Club, I noticed how good the boardwalk boards felt on my bare feet (as I had taken off my sandals). I was also in awe of how beautiful the Boardwalk looks at night. My shot wasn’t great, but I kinda like the artsy effect of the movement.

Back at the Beach Club, we decided to test the first of our “elevator games”. If you read my pre-trip report, you know about these. I had dared Katie and Caitlin to try each of them at least once on the trip.

For this attempt, we did the everyone-stand-facing-the-back-of-the-elevator one. We boarded the elevator first, and an unsuspecting gentleman got on after us. We were all turned backwards, little giggles under our breath. Of course we couldn’t see the man, but when he got off on the 3rd floor, we turned to watch and he SPRINTED down the hall. He couldn’t get off that elevator fast enough. We laughed so hard.

We went up to the room and Chris and Caitlin changed clothes. I changed shoes. Then it was out to the bus stop to wait for the MK bus.

Our wait was about 5 minutes.

Our first Disney Transportation bus ride!

Katie was in a goofy mood and didn’t want pictures. I think the goofy came from the 80’s retro side-ponytail residual.

The bus was empty. I don’t think many people wanted to go to MK at 10:30pm on a Saturday night. Maybe we were crazy.

While we were on the bus, Caitlin was singing some hip-hop song. Katie teased her:
Katie: Hey Caitlin, what’d you do with the money?
Caitlin: What money?
Katie: The money your Mom gave you for singing lessons.

So Caitlin decided to retaliate:
Caitlin: Hey Katie, can you sing solo?
Katie: Solo?
Caitlin: Yeah, so low I don’t have to hear you!

Caitlin: Hey Katie, can you sing tenor?
Katie: Tenor?
Caitlin: Ten or 12 miles away from me

That was it for the improv, and we arrived at the MK bus stops.

We were inside the park at 11:00pm.

Yep, everyone else was leaving.

Our first glimpse of Cinderella’s castle:

We headed to Splash Mountain first, but the sign said there was a 40 minute wait. We stood in line for about 3 minutes, then decided to try BTMRR next door. There, the sign said the wait was 30 minutes. We decided to go for it.

We were actually in line for less than 15 minutes. Here are Katie and Caitlin right before we boarded the train.

They were so excited to finally be at Disneyworld, finally be in the Magic Kingdom, and finally be riding their first ride.

I LOVE BTMRR at night, but I have to admit, you miss a lot. I wanted to make sure we got to come back and ride it during the day one day. Would we get to?

After BTM, we hopped back over to Splash Mountain. The wait time was still 40 minutes. We got into line and waited approximately 15 minutes again before boarding. What was it with these misposted wait times? Were they discouraging people from entering the lines so close to closing time?

Just as we boarded our boat, we could hear Spectromagic starting. According to my Times Guide, it started at 11pm, but since we were near the end of the parade, it was probably closer to 11:20 or 11:30. It was really neat to ride Splash Mountain during the parade. On the outside parts of the ride, they were piping in the Spectro music and we could see the twinkling lights through the trees.

Splash Mountain seems to always bring us magical memories. When we were there in 1997, Chris and Katie took one last ride on Splash Mountain, and as they came over the top of the hill right before the fall, the very first firework from the fireworks show went off. They will never forget that moment.

As we exited Splash Mountain, the park was closing, so we decided it would be best not to hurry, or we’d end up in big crowds. We stopped at a kiosk and got a couple of bottled waters, then strolled slowly back to the park entrance/exit, taking it all in. It’s hard to believe that as we were ending our first partial day, just beginning our vacation, many of the people leaving the park with us were ending theirs.

We waited only 5-10 minutes for our bus back to the hotel, and it was a 20 minute ride back. While on the bus, we made a plan for the next day.

Sunday was a Green day for Animal Kingdom. The park opened at 9:00am. We would get a wake-up call for 7am and when we woke up, we would make a decision about whether we wanted to get up and go, or maybe sleep in a little longer.

Answers to previous questions:
• Who, if anyone, went to bed? Grandma Bonnie stayed in the room
• Who stayed up and out? Susan, Chris, Katie and Caitlin
• Did we stay in the Boardwalk area? Nope
• Did we stay at our resort? Nope
• Did we visit a theme park? Yes, Magic Kingdom
• Did we go to Downtown Disney/Pleasure Island? Nope
• What time did we get to bed? About 1am

Next up: Our first full day
• Did we get up early for AK?
• Did we make rope drop?
• Did we all stay together?

 

[swwake]

Part III, Chapter 1
That Thing Needs a Trip to Victoria's Secret
Sunday, August 10
​

The last post was where we left of with my abandoned trip report. So, here's the problem. I lost my journal! It has to be somewhere in this home office, but I couldn't find it today. So I am going to have to run on memory for the rest of the trip report. Or at least until I find my misplaced journal.

I had forgotten how much work goes into posting these updates and the photos. Well, I'm determined to get the "first" one posted tonight.

First issue: I don't remember the answers to the questions we left unanswered yesterday. You remember:

Answers to previous questions:
• Did we get up early for AK? I seriously doubt it!
• Did we make rope drop? I seriously doubt it. And since I don't remember an AK rope drop, I don't think this happened.
• Did we all stay together? Again, I don't remember.

Isn't this gonna be fun?? A trip report that is almost 2 years old from a girl who can't remember squat. Well, we'll do our best.

So here's what I've got. I think Mom and I were the first to arise. I think we went downstairs to the little shop on the first floor and got kind-of a snack-y breakfast, waiting for the rest of the crew to wake up.

We finally decided to head on over to AK, just the two of us. Later, the rest of the bunch would meet us.

Some photos:

I think we went to Animal Kingdom

Set our sights on this odd mountain in the middle of all the foliage

Our journey took us through somebody's office. It was very dusty. (Have you ever played "I Spy"? I spy with my little eye an old-fashioned glass Coke bottle. The kind with the 5c deposit. Can you find it?)

He or she read lots of books and had some kind of old-timey radio. I think they've been to Australia. (Wait - those aren't books! They are accounting ledgers. How did I NOT notice that?)

(Where are the animals? Isn't this place called Animal Kingdom?) What's a Yeti?

The Beach Club Resort has washing machines. I'm glad I'm not staying at this "resort".

Money and treasures left to honor someone (or something)

Funny, they value American pennies, nickels and dimes. Maybe it's because American's don't use them much anymore.

I'm not real sure. Looks like an Easter egg hunt to me. I'm gonna look for the golden egg.

That thing really needs a trip to Victoria's Secret.

That's hot.

Next up:
This is quite the adventure. I'm not sure what's next. I bet you've never seen a trip report quite like this.

 

[swwake]

I just want to see my 6 month ticker.

 

[swwake]

Part III, Chapter 1 (Continued)
That Thing Needs a Trip to Victoria's Secret
Sunday, August 10
​

Guess what!? I found my journal!

Here are the notes from the beginning of Sunday morning, Animal Kingdom day:

7am - alarm and rise. Mom and I got up and everyone else slept in a bit.
We went to the Beach Club Marketplace and had a quick breakfast. Mom got an omelette and ham croissant with water. I actually had a protein cookie I had brought from home and some V8 juice.

We decided to go on to Animal Kingdom.

When we got there, we immediately went to Expedition Everest and then rode standby. The sign said there was a 35 minute wait, but we only waited 15 minutes.

Answers to previous questions:
• Did we get up early for AK? Mom and I did. The others slept in.
• Did we make rope drop? No, but it didn't bother us.
• Did we all stay together? Not in the morning.

Next up: More Animal Kingdom
• What did Mom and I do next?
• What time did Chris, Katie and Caitlin arrive at AK?
• What was the first thing they did?
• What did we do for lunch?
• What did we ride twice with no wait?

 

[swwake]

Friday is our ADR 180-day mark. The IPO (Don) already has some of our requests ready to go for Friday. But, on the advice of some of you, we have decided to go ahead and make an ADR for each night.

Here are my thoughts. I am looking for any input you may have.

Wednesday - Boma ~8pm - This will be our second day at Universal, which closes at 6pm. We can't predict what time we will be finished with the theme parks there (depends how much fun we're having and/or how tired we are and/or how anxious we are to get to our new AKL home for the week). But I figure at the latest, we'll close out the park, grab our luggage, catch a cab, and be at AKL in time for an 8pm dinner. We know we want to do Boma again this trip. We do have park passes for this day, so we may want to go to MK or AK (both open 'til 8) or Epcot (open 'til 9). But we both think we'll be very tired after an early morning yesterday (flying out of Austin at 5:45am) and an early morning today (early entry hours at IOA). So we're thinking we'll get to know our room, the animals, the CL, and the rest of the hotel that night.

Thursday - Jiko - ~6pm - This was already on our IPO request. This will be Chris's birthday dinner. We had an ADR for Jiko the last trip, but canceled it at the last minute. This is our "apart day", and we figure I'll be back from my massage and Chris will be back from visiting clients and returning his rental car by about 4:30 or 5. At the time I planned this, I thought we could have dinner, then head out to a park, but I didn't realize they close so early in September. MK and Epcot are both open until 9pm that night. I wonder if we should grab a snack at 5 and go to one of the parks, then re-schedule our Jiko ADR later, like maybe 9pm?

Friday - No ADR for dinner - MNSSHP

Saturday - Le Cellier ~7pm - I really want to go to Le Cellier. Everyone seems to say it's wonderful. I think this is supposed to be a very hard ADR to get. MK is open until 11 that night, so maybe we'll take the monorail and go do some night-riding after dinner.

Sunday - Artist Point ~7pm - We have always wanted to explore Wilderness Lodge. Last time, we had an ADR at WCC, which we ended up canceling. WCC seems more of a "family" and "kid" environment, so I thought Artist Point might be a better choice. We could always change this one. MK has EMH 'til Midnight. Just a boat ride back.

Monday - Narcoossees ~7pm - The only reason for this choice is that everyone says Narcoossees is a must-do. We don't know what's special about it, and we may drop it. I just can't think of something else to substitute in on this night. This will be an early morning for us (surfing Typhoon Lagoon), but hopefully we will get in a nap or some rest earlier in the day. This is also our last night at WDW.

Ok, so I'll open it up to all of you. Comments? Suggestions?

 

[swwake]

I'm starting to wonder if I lost all my readers. Any lurkers out there who want to chime in on the ADR ideas?

I think I'm going to drop Narcoossee's and possibly Artist Point. I just don't think we need all these expensive dinners. Jiko can be our one expensive one. Now I need to come up with some substitutes. Maybe WCC instead of Artist Point?

One of those nights is EMH at DHS, so maybe we should try somewhere there for dinner. What about Sci-Fi? (We have done Brown Derby and 50's PTC before.)

 

[lildamo]

I'm starting to wonder if I lost all my readers. Any lurkers out there who want to chime in on the ADR ideas?

I think I'm going to drop Narcoossee's and possibly Artist Point. I just don't think we need all these expensive dinners. Jiko can be our one expensive one. Now I need to come up with some substitutes. Maybe WCC instead of Artist Point?

One of those nights is EMH at DHS, so maybe we should try somewhere there for dinner. What about Sci-Fi? (We have done Brown Derby and 50's PTC before.)

I'm still here! I wish I could help with those ADRs, but I haven't been to any of them (at least since I can remember, we did Le Cellier as a kid!). I'm sure they will be delicious no matter what you choose!

 

[Charleston Princess]

I am still here, Susan! It's just been a crazy week so far -- with more craziness looming -- I can't wait to come back and read and comment on your TR -- love all the pictures of Beach Club.

I would do Sci Fi -- I love the atmosphere, theming, and corny 50's movie clips! It's a fun meal!

 

[swwake]

I'm still here! I wish I could help with those ADRs, but I haven't been to any of them (at least since I can remember, we did Le Cellier as a kid!). I'm sure they will be delicious no matter what you choose!

Thanks for reading along!

I am still here, Susan! It's just been a crazy week so far -- with more craziness looming -- I can't wait to come back and read and comment on your TR -- love all the pictures of Beach Club.

I would do Sci Fi -- I love the atmosphere, theming, and corny 50's movie clips! It's a fun meal!

I totally understand crazy weeks. I hope you get a break to breathe. We might end up with Sci Fi...we'll see.