Horseless Headman and Evil Squirrels Are Out To Get Us! April TR

Hi! I'm joining in. Enjoying the report so far. :thumbsup2
 
We had just left Pop Century and was headed off to Animal Kingdom Lodge. We hadn't been there in a few years, so it was about time to pay that resort a visit! It's a little dark inside the main building, but the atmosphere is incredible!

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My husband is leaning on the railing, but as I took the pic, I must have moved (alot...:laughing:) and it came out shrieky. Thought it was a cool pic anyways. Boma smelled so good. I wanted to eat there, but no dice.
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I wish it would have been chilly. The fireplace looked so inviting.
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We strolled outside to see the animals.
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Check out the horns on this guy!
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Another inviting "fireplace". Too bad it was 80-something degrees!
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This CM is from South Africa. She had such a cute accent.
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After a quick dip in the Animal Kingdom Lodge gift shop, we headed to Riverside to eat supper.

I remember years ago on a trip when it was still Dixie Landings, the maintenance people were refreshing the paint on this sign.
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:rotfl:
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The food court wasn't very crowded. It's funny when you go looking for food and everyone in your party sort of disappears and you're looking around to see what line they hopped in :laughing: The turkey dinner was calling my name, and it was so yummy. I ate it ALL!

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Sitting in the Riverside dining room made me feel so at home. Not much has changed since we first stayed there in 1993. Also not staying there for 4 years then realizing we were actually going to stay there again was a :cloud9: moment.

It was getting late, and Mom and I wanted to go to DTD. We dropped off the guys back at the Comfort Inn and went back to DTD...big mistake. Everyone knows that it's very hard to find a parking space at DTD in the evening. We had never seen the parking lots so FULL. There literally was no where from the Marketplace to West Side to park. We finally found out why. There were tons of people dressed up in dresses and tuxedos. There must have been some big shindig going on and it took up the whole place! If we would have known about that, we would of had the guys drop us off and pick us up later. Mom and I drove off sadly :sad2:

We spent the rest of the evening relaxing, though I was so hyped to go do something. But this night was probably the worse night I have ever had in my life. Worse than the time my Aunt Becky came to WDW with us and elbowed me in the eye while she was sleeping. We had to put up with the DREADED SNORE MONSTER a.k.a. my dad.
 

Sounds like a fun evening of resort hopping. Sorry to hear about you missing Downtown Disney. Parking there can be so bad at times. :sad2:
 
Sounds like a fun evening of resort hopping. Sorry to hear about you missing Downtown Disney. Parking there can be so bad at times. :sad2:

I can't imagine that many people visiting DTD at the same time, but it's always so darn crowded! It's like you have to run over other cars or stalk leaving guests to get a parking spot.
 
Parking at DTD gets very frustrating for me too! Of course I seem to have that kind of luck any time I try to find parking anywhere. DW has trouble parking at DTD too, though, and she's the lucky one of the family so that tells you how bad DTD is. :)
 
Recapping...me and my mom had tried to go to DTD, but there was some kind of fancy party going on and we couldn't find a parking spot. We went back to the Comfort Inn and just hung out for the rest of the evening.

My husband and I were sharing a room with my folks that night then we'd get our own room at Riverside. Sharing a room was the WORST mistake EVER on a WDW trip. My dad is a horrible snorer. He has kept me up many nights at WDW from his constant snoring. My mom has lived with it so long she doesn't even hear it anymore and tries to conveince me that my dad didn't snore! What? :confused3

Our last trip to WDW in Oct. '09, my dad actually did not snore the whole time. I'd never gotten some much sleep at WDW before! This time, the Snore Monster came back with a revengence and it just so happened that my husband was there to be tormented by it.

Anthony and I probably got one hour of sleep that night. It was THAT bad. And after being awake for 24 hours, Anthony was not a pleasant person to be around. He got up about 4 a.m. and disappeared, leaving me alone with the snore monster. I got up, got dressed, and went looking for him. He had went to lay down in the car :headache:

Sleeping in the car didn't last long. He got up and we walked around the hotel for a long time. He was so angry and I was upset. Not a good way to start your first day at the Happiest Place on Earth :guilty: Around 6 a.m., my folks woke up only because I went back to the room and they were all like, "What's going on?" I explained, but then my mom said, "I didn't hear your dad snoring." :headache: Well, we definitely weren't imagining it!

My folks got up and we packed the car. I had to go find my husband, who was in the game room playing pool. He asked why we weren't staying for the continental breakfast. Trying to explain why to him was totally useless. I wish we just would have STAYED for the free breakfast now.

We headed to POR, checked in, and got breakfast. Here's where the sticker shock started. My husband wondered why we went there to pay $2.50 for a danish and $12 for a refillable mug (he only bought one, yes we are people who reuse mugs and aren't ashamed that we do :rolleyes1).

I had looked forward to my cheese danish I got ever morning at WDW.

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But it turned out not to be as good as when I buy them from Pop Century. That was another disappointment to add to the already growing list of my husband's complaints.

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My folks decided to head to MK for the opening ceremony, which was like a hour and a half away. We stayed behind and walked around POR for a while. Anthony was really not someone to be around at that time and I was so sad :sad2:

I promise the day gets better! That morning was just so horrible and writing it out makes me wish I would have done some things different. Sorry for the depressed story BUT the day did get better.
 
I'm so sorry you had a rough first morning! I'm glad it gets better, but it's not fun to start off on a bad note.
 
I'm so sorry you had a rough first morning! I'm glad it gets better, but it's not fun to start off on a bad note.

Tell me about it. I was trying to share the magic with my husband and it didn't work out the way I had expected. But there were some really great moments later on. Will get to those soon!
 
With my folks off to MK, Anthony and I walked around POR for a while waiting for something to be open. It was a very pretty morning, at least!

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There's Anthony at the end of the bridge.
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We walked down the pathway parallel to the main parking lot and sat on a bench to enjoy our coffee. Here is where the EVIL SQUIRREL came after us! :scared1:

Not even a minute after we sat down, a random squirrel started barking at us. Y'know the noise that squirrels make? It kept barking and barking then it was coming CLOSER to us like it wanted to attack! I threw some sticks at it, but that only made it worse. The evil squirrel called in some of it's buddies. We had a pack of squirrels barking at us from that tree. :eek:

Now I have loved those little varmints my whole life. I actually have had two pet squirrels. One used to come inside our apartment and we'd give it chocolate chip cookies. So, to have a squirrel want to attack is just weird for me. :confused3 That evil joker and it's buddies barked at us for over 15 minutes until we finally got up. It was funny at first, but became annoying very soon.

Here's a pic of the culprit. If you're at POR, beware of this EVIL SQUIRREL and it's band of henchmen.

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Left off with a hanging out at POR extremely early in the morning. My folks had left for rope drop at MK. DH and I had just gotten harassed by an evil squirrel and it's henchmen.

I decided we needed to get going, so we hopped a bus to MK. Looking at DH's watch, I thought it was almost 7:30. Turns out, it was almost 8:30! We had already gotten to MK and caught the monorail to Polynesian to do more resort hopping. :headache:

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Polynesian is one of the resorts on my list to stay at ONE DAY...if I ever get the chance. We walked around just enjoying the atmosphere.

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HIDDEN MICKEYS!
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Anthony in the chair grumping about. :rolleyes1
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I love watching the ducks play everywhere around WDW. I could make a whole photo album of just Disney duck pics!
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I took a pic in the same exact spot a few years ago, but I can't find the pic of it!
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After our site seeing, we were off to MK...
 
Hi, I'm just joining in!! DBF and I stayed at POR our last trip and just fell in love :lovestruc. He'd be happy never staying anywhere else! Sorry your hubby wasn't feeling the magic :-\
Congrats on your Disney buddle of joy! Do you know what you're having?
LOL I love the "evil squirrel" picture!
 
Your DH does seem to be really grumpy early on. Was it just not going as he expected or did he get there thinking that he wasn't going to like it?

Love the pictures from the Poly beach.
 
Thursday, I went to the doctor's and finally found out we're having a GIRL!!! We had a perfect view for about minute. The doc snapped a pic, circles the area, and said "Looks like a girl." Now I can go buy little girl stuff and decorate the baby's bedroom with Alice in Wonderland! When I buy Mickey ears for the baby this coming Nov. trip, I'll put Cadence on the back :goodvibes
 
:wave2: From Connecticut and Congratulations to you and your DH :cheer2:

I like to read TRs especially since we'll be going in Oct.

You and family look like very nice people. Your Dad is a good guy going out of his way to
express his appreciation to the CMs. My Dad used to snore loudly, that's
why it's better to get your own room. Even on vacation we need our
precious sleep.

Your pictures are very good. The colors of the flowers are wonderful! Maybe
the squirrels were trying to protect babies...that's all I can think of. Animals
are usually predictable unless they're dealing with some type of illness.

I'll look forward to reading more. :thumbsup2
 
While me and DH were exploring the Polynesian, my folks were having fun hanging around the outside of MK waiting for it to open.

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And making more new friends!

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MK opened and they must have spent like a hour on Main Street talking to CMs and looking around.

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Anthony and I arrived and I started snapping pics right away! Happy shiny people!

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I like me some Disney ducks!

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As we were walking to Adventureland, my folks popped up and they joined us in our quest to ride POTC! It's sort of become a tradition to ride Pirates first for some reason. For several years, POTC freaked me out. I'd ride it but was the animatronics were too real for me. Thankfully, I got over that on long time ago! I still can't ride Haunted Mansion without closing my eyes. :laughing: That, I think, will never change.

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Bottles, anyone?
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There was a photopass dude outside POTC. He made us stand against a wall and told us to play like we were fighting Captain Hook. Cool!

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More to come!
 
Great pictures! I em enjoying your report, especially since we are headed to POR at the end of October.
 












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