Hold my umbrella while I find your poncho! A May 2012 TR-- NEW-FINALLY! 1/17; pg. 29

[JustADreamAway]

Joining in! Can't wait to read about the rest of your trip!

 

[MiaBella05]

joining in

 

[cbcrockett]

We got home last night, so I'm back and reading along! Can't wait to hear about y'alls trip!

 

[KatMark]

I thought to myself this morning, Michelle must have started her TR by now. And, lo and behold, after some searching, I found it. I'm here now and caught up (glad you didn't get too far ).

Love the intros -- and the picture.

I used to love driving to Disney, but now that I know I can get there in 3 hours by flying, I much prefer that.

We've got a Fuddruckers around here somewhere, but haven't been in years. Did you enjoy it? Maybe I ought to give it another try.

Can't wait to hear about check-in at the Poly.

 

[MHTeacher]

Off to a great start!

Thanks, Shannon!

Your stretch from Tallahassee to Gainesville sounds like our stretch from Macon to Valdosta. The LONGEST, most boring stretch! It does feel like forever!

Tell me about it , Jackie!

Count me in!!

Glad you're here!

Bless you for driving. Sounds like everyone did well!

Usually I don't mind driving. It's just the detour on this trip made it seem double longer.

Fudruckers! Yummy! Glad you had a pleasant trip down. Woohoo for free hotel room!

I hadn't eaten at Fuddruckers in years--it was fun to do it again.

Love a free hotel room. Wish I could get one at Disney!

Great start...can't wait to read all about it!

Thanks!

 

[MHTeacher]

I made it here Michelle! Your girls are beautiful, as always, and I can't believe how much Reid has grown!!

Like MeMom, I am going to need a pass here soon. 5 more school days with kids and 10 days until we leave for Vero and WDW!

Glad to see you Stacy!

I will gladly give you a pass if you're going to be at Disney! How exciting!

Joining in!

Glad you're here!

Whoo Hooo the TR has started!!! Glad the day of travel went well. Oh dear about the title-sounds like our May 2009 trip.....

Glad you're here, Mary!

I remember a lot of those 2009 TRs, and I don't think it was quite that bad, but it was wet!

Looks like your travel day went smoothly! Can't wait to see where you ended up at the Poly!

Soon, Jen! I promise to have room pics soon!

I wanted to walk around and stretch my legs just reading about your travels! I have become so spoiled to being at MCO in less than two hours. Whenever we have to drive again, I'll probably be a worse passenger than any of the little ones.

Can't wait to see your arrival at Poly.

I don't remember ever having a Fuddrucker's burger, either. It's always fun to try new places.

I would definitely prefer to fly, but airfare for five folks gets expensive, on top of an already expensive trip, so driving is not so bad.

 

[MHTeacher]

Great to have your travel day behind you. Sounds like you made the trip without any trouble, despite the detour drama.

Definitely so, Dee! Wait til you hear the detour drama coming home!

Whoohoo! Departure day! It's always such an exciting morning...


I actually live in the Destin/Crestview area, so I giggled when I saw that you stopped there for lunch. Hope getting to a fast food place wasn't too bad. It's kind of common knowledge that the road system and the drivers (especially the drivers) are horrible in Crestivew. All of us locals feel for travelers, because we know you're there are you are all coming off the interstate trying to make U-turns to get to the McDonald's or having to get into the left lane in a short amount of space to make the exit.


Glad that Fuddruckers was a success and that the one night at the Marriott was free. I can only imagine how exhausted you all were having just driven 12 hours!

How funny that you live in that same area where we at lunch. I actually think we ate at a BK that day.

Exhausted doesn't describe it!

Joining in! Can't wait to read about the rest of your trip!

Glad you're here!

joining in

Glad to have you reading along!

We got home last night, so I'm back and reading along! Can't wait to hear about y'alls trip!

Welcome home! Can't wait to hear about your trip!

I thought to myself this morning, Michelle must have started her TR by now. And, lo and behold, after some searching, I found it. I'm here now and caught up (glad you didn't get too far ).

Love the intros -- and the picture.

I used to love driving to Disney, but now that I know I can get there in 3 hours by flying, I much prefer that.

We've got a Fuddruckers around here somewhere, but haven't been in years. Did you enjoy it? Maybe I ought to give it another try.

Can't wait to hear about check-in at the Poly.

Glad you made it Kathy!

Fuddruckers was fine...just hamburgers, you know. It was VERY crowded though.

 

[MHTeacher]

I’ve decided that I will use song titles to introduce each new update. So without further wait, here we go!

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I”VE GOT SUNSHINE ON A CLOUDY DAY---Sunday, May 27

After getting our night’s rest at Courtyard, we rose early and were ready to leave by 7:30 that morning. We made a quick stop at a nearby McDonalds, and then we were ready to eat and drive the ten minutes to our resort. Our GPS directed us back onto I-4, and pretty soon, we saw this wonderful sign again!

By 8 am, we were pulling into this wonderful parking lot. Even the sign out by the street gets me excited!

As soon as we arrived, we unloaded our van, and checked our luggage with bell services. Kevin went off to park the van, the kids headed off to explore the lobby and the shops, and I headed to the check-in desk.

Check in was painless. There was no one in line and the CM was very friendly. She told me that our room was not ready (didn’t really expect it to be at 8 in the morning), but she could tell me that it was in Samoa---just like I’d requested! She took my cell number and told me I would receive a text when our room was ready. And, then finally, she handed me our keys to the world! We were ready to go…OR NOT!?!

It seems as if my dear husband had decided that it was now time for his morning bathroom stop! What is it with men? We sat and relaxed. Some of us played on the pressed pennies machine:

Others just relaxed and took some notes in our travel journal!

Still, others posed for pictures!

After what seemed like forever, he was finally finished, and we were set to head out to the bus stop. We were heading to Animal Kingdom for the day.

We sat down, and took some pictures,

and waited…and waited…and waited…

Three buses came and went---one for DTD, and two for DHS. We finally got frustrated, and headed to our van. We decided we would drive over to AK. Kind of sad, because I so look forward to that first ride using the Disney transportation.

We arrived at Animal Kingdom in less than fifteen minutes, and we headed into the park.

We headed straight to Kilimanjaro Safari.

CONTINUED IN NEXT POST

 

[MHTeacher]

The stand-by posted time was ten minutes, so we jumped in the line.

One thing happened that had never happened before. Our safari vehicle had to stop and just wait and wait. Apparently, there was some animal up ahead in the road, blocking another truck. We had to sit about 5-8 minutes, and eventually, they had to call folks to “lure” it out of the road with some sort of food item. But, eventually we began to move again.

We saw lots of animals---creatures that are not native to our home in Alabama!

Something you don’t see very often---the front side of the elephant!

Even though I wasn’t crazy about the “little Red” and the poacher angle, I have to admit that I missed it. Without it, the end was just a little blah. I’ll be glad when the zebras are in place!

We left there and backtracked toward Camp Minnie-Mickey to catch the 10:30 show of the Festival of the Lion King. I love this show, and it never disappoints.

When we exited, we decided to head toward Dino-Land and ride Dinosaur. On the way, we walked past Expedition Everest, and pulled a set of fast passes.

I also got a text around this time, telling me that our room was ready---Samoa, rom 1609. I promise for pictures later! Dinosaur had a stand-by posted time of 15 minutes, but I had to slow everyone down with a restroom stop, and the time had jumped up to 20 minutes. We didn’t mind, so we went ahead and got in line.

By then we were all getting hungry, so we headed into Restaurant-o-saurus for some lunch. Sorry for no pictures-it was just your standard hamburger, chicken nuggets fare.

CONTINUED IN NEXT POST

 

[MHTeacher]

We left there, and still had some time before our FPs for EE, so we walked over to Kali River Rapids to take a fast pass. Now we had not ridden this since 2003! During that July trip, Kevin and the girls rode, and Kevin got so wet that he had to go to the restroom and take his clothes off to wring the water out! The stand-by line was crazy long

So we decided to pull fast passes for this.

I was not happy about the late return time—didn’t fancy getting wet so late in the afternoon. But I decided to go along with the family.

We walked over to EE to use our FPs.

Believe it or not, we got assigned rows 1,2, and 3! FRONT ROW!

Afterwards, we walked over to It’s Tough to be a Bug. I absolutely love this, though it scares my big kids to death. I love that too! After that it was back toward Asia.

I’ll take a minute here to confess---I WAS a fast pass hoarder. There, I’ve said it. Yes, we would pull a set of fast passes, and as soon as possible, pull another set, and then maybe another. We might leave, and go back to our resort, and come back hours later and use those late that night. With the fast pass enforcement that Disney started back in March, I was worried about how it would affect my touring. The major con that I noticed was that it seemed as if we crisscrossed the parks a whole lot more. That creates a lot of tired feet/legs on people.

We decided to have an ice-cream break, and sat in Asia and relaxed for a little while. We realized that we could still catch the 3 o’clock Flights of Wonder show, so we wandered over there.

I know many of you suffer from a fear of birds, but this really is an interesting show. It’s so informative and really is amazing.

When the show was over, it was beginning to rain---not heavy, just a slow summer shower. We decided to take a little shopping break. As we walked toward the shops, we saw our own little Flights of Wonder ---right near the little area behind Flame Tree Bar-B-Q—was this little mama duck and her babies!

While Elizabeth and I shopped, Kevin, Rachel, and Reid watched the parade.

By then it was almost time to use our FP to ride Kali River Rapids. I have to admit that I was just a little nervous about the thought of getting soaked. Of course, that was when I thought I would only be riding it once…

UP NEXT: WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENS ON KALI RIVER RAPIDS?

 

[natebenma]

Congrats on getting the longhouse you wanted. I can't wait to see pictures!

Wow!!! Great day so far at AK. That stinks about the bus and having to drive. But maybe that will be better when you are headed back to the resort if you are soaking wet. Those buses are SO COLD!!!

I love your picture of the tracks on Everest- the close up. Don't see that often.

I have never seen the Flights of Wonder show, but I really really want to.

My boys are not big fans of It's Tough to Be a Bug either. First time we visited this attraction, we didn't tell them about the scurrying bugs or stinging seats.

 

[BrerMama]

Sounds like a fun AK day. We had the same thing happen to us on the Safaris once... except we were the vehicle stopped by a giraffe just standing in the middle of the road eating his breakfast. Didn't think about how boring it must be for the vehicles behind us. You really packed a lot into your first day!

 

[Charleston Princess]

Yeay for your first park of the trip!!!

We've been stopped on the safaris before -- I wonder what animal was blocking traffic...

I wondered that, too, about the Fast Passes. I was thinking the other day that it might mean a lot of criss-crossing. I guess we should be ready to hoof it a lot!

 

[MHTeacher]

I love your picture of the tracks on Everest- the close up. Don't see that often.

My boys are not big fans of It's Tough to Be a Bug either. First time we visited this attraction, we didn't tell them about the scurrying bugs or stinging seats.

I took that picture on EE with my cell phone and uploaded it to my facebook that afternoon.

We didn't tell our kids either! I guess we scarred them for life, because even now, eleven years later, they are terrified of this show!

Sounds like a fun AK day. We had the same thing happen to us on the Safaris once... except we were the vehicle stopped by a giraffe just standing in the middle of the road eating his breakfast. Didn't think about how boring it must be for the vehicles behind us. You really packed a lot into your first day!

I guess it would be more exciting for the first vehicle in the line, because you'd get to watch the animal for a longer time. But for those of us back in the line, it wasn't very exciting!

Our AK day isn't even over!

Yeay for your first park of the trip!!!

We've been stopped on the safaris before -- I wonder what animal was blocking traffic...

I wondered that, too, about the Fast Passes. I was thinking the other day that it might mean a lot of criss-crossing. I guess we should be ready to hoof it a lot!

They told us on the safari which animal was blocking the road, but I can't remember! I'll blame it on summeritis!

You will definitely be criss-crossing the parks more, Jackie. The other option is to cool your heels and just wait around the area where you are waiting to ride.

 

[MissLiz]

Looks like a great first day!!!

You got some great pictures on the safari. My husband gets after me every time we ride the safari because I keep taking pictures. We probably have a thousand pictures of the sarari.

Glad your request was met at Poly! That is fantastic!

Can't wait to hear more!

 

[StitchIsOurHero]

Yay!! Love this update--AK is my favorite park! You got some really great pics! Can't wait to read more about Kali and see pics of your Poly room!

 

[Bridora]

My kids don't like It's Tough to be a Bug for the same reason! I think they sit on the very front edge of their seats the whole time!

 

[wdwgirl03]

Well other than the bus not showing up, what a great start to your trip! I LOVE the Animal Kingdom (don't know how many times that has been mentioned...lol) and the safari is always one of my favorites. Are my eyes deceiving me?! TWO lionesses?!?! Awesome!

I totally agree about FOW. I don't particularly care for birds but it's a fun show.

Can't wait for more!

 

[MeMom]

I sense the joy of the beginning of a vacation here.

I like the FHU shirt.

 

[Moodyzblu]

I love being at the front of EE !! I find it doesn't bother my motion sickness as much.
I also love getting "stuck" during the safari.
You got great lion shots !!

Great start to your vacation !