I have no title to hold me down...Aug08 POR trip --- 12/12

[Phibbles]

Day 4, Part II – Sun., Aug. 24th – It’s someone’s birthday….

After our day at DQ, it was time to meet the family for dinner. So we hopped on a bus to Fort Wilderness, then grabbed a boat to the Magic Kingdom. Perfect! Didn’t take too long and I got to see my favorite resort for a few moments.

As we enter the Magic Kingdom, I see our first opportunity for a character photo. Who is it? You tell me. I am surprised how many people don’t know who this THUMB-SUCKER is.

We had about an hour and a half to burn before dinner, so I rushed us over to Tomorrowland. I wanted to do Laugh Floor, since it was “new”. Skoochy wanted to ride Space Mountain. I pleaded with him to just get on the line for MLF, but no he demanded Space Mountain. What 5yr old wants to ride a scary coaster over a funny show with the cast of Monsters Inc?

We went over to SM and found the line to be too long. So I got us Fast Passes instead. Then we went to MLF.

I thought the show was just great. He was a little less impressed. What-EVA!

Now it was time to find the family and go for a little dinner at Crystal Palace.

Found the twins:

Look at my happy family:

We love this place. Food is good…and the characters are fun.

Oh, and it was my Mom’s birthday. So I ratted her out to the CMs.

She got a special cupcake and card signed by the characters in the restaurant. It was perfect.

After dinner we walked through adventureland and grabbed a couple rides. Aladin’s Carpets was very good. A quick trip with Jack Sparrow. All good…all good. So happy to be back in the kingdom. Well, it got late very quick. So we ran to find a place to sit and watch the fireworks.

After the show, we hoped the park would empty as it was an Magical Hours nite. Nope! We ran to Haunted Mansion and got on quick. I shared a car with my son. He swore to me he wasn’t scared, but he spent the entire ride shivering with fear. It was great! But the more I joked about the silly ghouls on the ride, the bigger his smile got. He was scared happy!

Well, we got off the ride to discover one of the twins out cold with Grandma on a rocker.

We took that as a sign, that it was time to go. My family headed straight to the exit, while my smaller group ran to Space Mountain to us our FPs. Skoochy LOVED this ride. It is officially his favorite ride in the world. I will never ride again! I just don’t need a restraint in my crotch while traveling 60 MPH. Nope, not fun for me at all.

After SM we headed to the busses to find a mob of people. I still can’t get over how busy the park was this night. Long lines for the lines after park closing and now a 90minute wait for a bus. This became all the evidence I needed to not use Disney transportation again this trip. The rest of the trip we drove and took advantage of my AAA parking pass. Whew…what a treat.

Up next…will this beast let us into our room?

 

[Diamondintheruff]

I've been afraid to let my DH and DS's learn about DQ. I just know they would love it. I guess I really should spill the beans soon.

We love CP too. It always feels sunny in there (even during Tropical storm fay).

Love the sleeping twin on the rocking chair? Too cute. Did Grandma pass out too?

 

[Phibbles]

I've been afraid to let my DH and DS's learn about DQ. I just know they would love it. I guess I really should spill the beans soon.

We love CP too. It always feels sunny in there (even during Tropical storm fay).

Love the sleeping twin on the rocking chair? Too cute. Did Grandma pass out too?

Drop them off at DQ, while you get a special massage at one of the spas. Sound like an even swap.

Nope...GMa stayed awake. Poor little fella couldn't stay up any longer though.

 

[Phibbles]

Day 5, Mon., Aug. 25th – Stay Tuned for Pics of Phibbles in a Teeny, Tiny Speedo

Quick…someone help. They are attacking my son.

So our first day at Disney was great. A wonderful, relaxed morning of video games, a joyous birthday dinner with Pooh, and my son fell in love with his first Disney ride.

This day we get up early and bust a move to Typhoon Lagoon. Now I don’t have any photos from this morning, since I way to nervous nilly to carry a real camera to TL. I did bring a waterproof disposable camera with me, but we haven’t developed those pics yet. And we only took one Photopass picture at TL, but I am saving them for the end of the report.

It is a shame too…cause I look good in a thong!




So after our super-fun day at TL, we went back to the hotel, cleaned up, and headed to DHS for dinner. Tonight we would be visiting our Disney relatives at Prime-Time Café. Mmmm….yum.

Before we left for WDW, Skoochy had been begging us to buy him a lightsaber. I convinced him to wait till we got to DTD, so he could build his own. Back on Day 1, it was the first thing he wanted to do after we checked out. But after arriving to the store and seeing them, I talked him out of it. What a rip off. They looked so cheap and were much more expensive than I thought. So, as we walked through the gift shops at DHS, he saw something he just couldn’t say no too. Neither could I. In fact, we bought three of them so he could battle DW and DSil.

It’s a light-up Light Saber on a Key Chain. A much better investment and he carried it with him everywhere for the rest of the trip.

After a little shopping I ran over to TOT to get FPs for after dinner. Check, no problem.

Then I saw Skoochy’s all-time favorite Dis character, Aladin. We quickly got on line and he chickened out just as it was our turn. What? But it’s Aladin. How can you be scared?

Look at him plead to Skoochy to come over.

They were very good so I talked DW into taking a pic with them instead.

Where next? Oh yeah, dinner.

Mmm…I love this place. A little **** tube.

A little choo choo help from Aunt Jennifer (I miss her)

I had the pot roast, to die for. Most of the adults in the party ordered milkshakes instead of sodas, as they were included in the DP. Not me. I is smart. I ordered a Diet Coke with a little cherry flavoring added, YUM!

Well come dinner time, I ate my whole plate of food. Not my big Bro. Nope, that’s him getting help from Aunt Jenn. Oh, and my Aunt T needed a little help too. She was even worse than Big Bro, being an older person. The yummy milkshakes filled their bellys making it too hard to get the delish entrees in. I think even my Bro’s wife needed a little help from Aunt Jenn.

This is one of the best table-service locations in all of Disney. Never a let down. Well, except for the 45 MINUTE WAIT TO SIT. But I choose to not look at the ugly side.

After dinner it was time for a quick-ride of TT, while it was raining. Stoopid rain!
Then we called it quits! Off to bed.

Tomorrow…MK take two!

 

[CleKait]

We got off the boat and I throw a small hissy fit. Why can’t the boat drop us off on the West Side? Don’t they know I don’t have the time to waste! Stoopid boats! After crying like a little girl (sorry girls), we make the long trek across DTD to DQ. A short magical elevator ride and we enter my new home. Oh, if I could live inside this building I would.[/IMG]

Hi

Liking your trip report so far

When my mom and I went to DTD from POR we got off the boat and then got on to another boat that took us to the West side. They didn't have that one running? But then we walked the whole way back from the West side and it took forever!

 

[Diamondintheruff]

Sounds like you had fun at the prime time diner! It's on my list for our next trip.

I'm getting the feeling that you like DQ.

 

[Phibbles]

Hi

Liking your trip report so far

When my mom and I went to DTD from POR we got off the boat and then got on to another boat that took us to the West side. They didn't have that one running? But then we walked the whole way back from the West side and it took forever!

Nope, it was early so they weren't running the second boat. Plus it probably would have taken us just as long to wait for a 2nd boat, as it took to just walk. At least it wasn't raining on us.

Sounds like you had fun at the prime time diner! It's on my list for our next trip.

I'm getting the feeling that you like DQ.

PTC is a must-do and DQ rocks.

Thanks all for reading...

 

[Nancy for Disney]

Enjoying the TR. It caught my eye as we stayed at POR in Aug too. I think we were in building 25 but it is all kind of foggy now.

 

[My sister's princess]

This report is too cute! I like hearing the dad's side of the story for once!

 

[Phibbles]

Okay folks, at this point I have lost some interest in spinning this tale. But I don’t want to leave you all hanging, so I am going to do some speed posting. It will all be brief though.

Day 6, Tues., Aug. 26th – Magic Kingdom Rope Drop

On the advise of my dis-buddies, we made it to MK this morning for rope drop. While none of us were impressed with the ceremonies, it was great to be in the park for opening. First things first, time to find an elephant that flies.

The line was maybe 10 minutes long by time we shuffled back there. Not too bad for Dumbo.

My DS demanded the next ride be Space Mountain. Uh…no thanks! My crotch still hurt from 2 nights earlier. So I sent the three of them off without me while I went to get fast passes here.

Well, guess what. There was no line. So not only did I get FPs, but I got to ride all by myself. Ah, what fun. Line was so short, I probably could have done it twice.

Once they finished on SM, we went back to Buzz to ride as a family. I kicked ash!

On the way out my DS and Sil got attacked.

His hugs were so warm I tricked everyone into ride Stitch’s Great Escape. It was hilarious to listen to my son whimper in the dark. By this point in the trip he had figured out that some of the rides were more than meet the eyes experiences. I think he thought the building was going to spin or something because of the shoulder restraints. He he he he…

Oh and I like the smell of chili dogs…doesn’t bother me one bit. Good ride!

After Stitch, we took a spin on the Carousel of Progress, my DWs favorite ride.
A classic that will be missed when they rip it down someday. Which is bound to happen.

It was about 11:30, so we decided to get lunch at the Starlight Café. Sorry, no pics. But the food was good for burgers. We loved the toppings bar!

When we got out of here it was too hot to play anymore. We stopped at Pooh Play Spot for DS to unwind a little. He was getting cranky from the sun and we hoped a little play time would help.

We had enough time for one more ride before leaving the park. So we got online for Philharmagic. Line was real short (since everyone was busy eating lunch now). It is so smart to eat lunch early.

The show is awesome!!!!!!!!!! A must do on the next trip.

On the way out, DS bought himself a fan/water bottle gadget because he was too hot to walk.
Boo hoo, boo hoo!

And that ended our day at the MK.

We went back to the room, cleaned up, and headed to the Polynesian for Photos and dinner.

Here are some pics from Ohanas.
Good bread…

Yummy salad and dipping sauces

Fabulous wings

Dumplings

Party Time

Meat from a stick

Meat on the stick

Dessert to drool for

 

[Phibbles]

Day 7, Wed., Aug. 27th – Epcot (our new favorite place in the world)

We got up early and headed to Epcot for opening. I think we missed rope drop by 10 minutes, but that was just fine with us. Driving ourselves to this park was a great idea. The AAA parking was very close to the gates. Perfect.

The first ride I wanted us to try was Mission to Mars.

Since none of us had been on this ride, we opted for the calm orange side. There was no wait, we walked straight onto the ride. I don’t remember all of our positions. I am pretty sure DS was the pilot. DSil got the job were you activate hypersleep, which made us all laugh since she is a lazy butt.

The best part about this ride was DW freaking out as the machine closed for the ride. Apparently she decided she was claustrophobic and the small space was bugging her out. I laughed, which made her mad, which made me laugh more. Oh, good times. LOL

After the ride we got caught up in the exit attractions. Now I know we should have run right past them, but it was too hard to resist. So many pretty lights, we just had to play. We spent at least 30 minutes in this room playing everything (maybe twice).

Once we finally emerged, we made our way over to test track. Thankfully I had sent DSil ahead to get FPs before riding Mars.

Then we stopped for a drink. No…don’t drink that one son!!!!

Off to find nemo:

The ride to get into the building is a little boring, but worth the experience.
The crush show was hilarious! We didn’t get picked to ask a question, but it was good fun and amazing technology.

We wandered around a little and DS got into some trouble.

Thankfully, he doesn’t taste good and the sharks gave him up.

After Nemo I ran intot he land building to get FPs for Soarin.
While I did that the fam got lost trying to find the imagination building. Once I found them, all was good.

Nothing of great interest happened the rest of the day. We saw a 3D movie:

The skinny adults got to play with toys:

And I drank a lot more soda…yumm!

We had special plans for dinner tonight. We were stealing the twins so their parental units could have a romantic dinner in Canada. While they drank cheesy soup and ate pretzel bread, we got to spin with Chip and Dale.

Garden Grill was a lot of fun. Food was good. Characters were fun to watch as they chased each other around the spinning restaurant. Great for families.

After dinner we all rode Soarin. While in Canada, my Bro won magic fastpasses. So they got to use the fast pass line with us.

Soarin might be my favorite ride now. Too much fun!

Next up: Animal Kingdom

 

[Phibbles]

Day 8, Thur., Aug. 28th – Animal Kingdom

We got up very early this morning to go here:

This is my favorite park tip. Schedule an in the park breakfast for 1 hour before the park opens. You get to walk through the park with no crowds (which is just a precious experience) and when you finish eating bfast, you get a good head start on the crowd. Especially here where the restaurant is in the way back of the park. It’ll take the average rube at least 30 mins to get to the back of the park. By then we’ve already FP the Safari ride and been on Tri Spin.

This is a great breakfast. The Jungle Juice rocks and most of the food is good.
Biscuits and Gravy were a big let down. I make it better, and I am from the North!

After eating we made our way over to Asia. On the way we saw her:

pretty, isn’t she!

It was very hot this day. Then add to it the AK green house effect and forget about it. I was sweating buckets and DS was on super crank mode. So I decided it would be best to just hit the highlights, not necessarily in this order:

Triceratop Spin
Dinosaur: scared the beeswax out of DS and DSil. I almost lost my breakfast.
Nemo: wonderful show, but wouldn’t do it again. Just took too long.
EE: line said 10 mins, took 40. I had a nice Root Beer float while they rode it. My tummy was to topsy turvy from Bfast and Dinosaur. I thought for sure a Yeti would have done evil things.

It was about noon, and it was scorching hot. We couldn’t think. We were no longer having fun.
This was a low-point for us. The line for the rapids was 40 mins, uh, no thanks!

I devised a new game plan. Let’s go ride the Safari with out FPs and get the hell out of here. Now AK used to be my favorite park. There were a lot of attractions I really wanted us to do, but the heat was just too much. I could smell disaster in the air if we pushed DS any further.

So we rode the safari:

Walked out through some gift shops:

And headed back to POR for a nice cool swim. What a good idea. It was just what we needed.


To keep the Africa theme strong, we went here for dinner this night:

This hotel is gorgeous and the food was really good. A+ of a meal.

The animals outside the resort were pretty to look at too.

It was a very hot…but a good day.

 

[Phibbles]

Day 9, Fri., Aug. 29th – Skipper is born

We went to bed early the night before, so that we would make it to DHS for rope drop. All was going well till we got the car. Then my Sil got attached by the curb. She fell to her knee and whimpered worst than DS in the Stitch ride.

I suggested she just “shake it off” and threw her into the car. We made it over to DHS, parked in our special AAA lane and was running on good time to catch the rope drop show. We all got out of the car and Skipper was born.

No matter how hard she tried, my Sil just couldn’t walk. She limped and limped. Made it to the first bus stop before she decided she couldn’t make it anymore. We offered to drive her back to the hotel, but she opted to hop on a bus instead. So while she began her first solo adventure we scrambled to the gates, which were now open.

CRAP! I just knew the lines at TMM were going to be bonkers. And they were. The mob to get FPs was very thick. The line for the ride was already up to 45 mins..

We stood on the FP line, took 20 mins to get FPs for 2:30. I think they sold out of FPs by 10:00.

We walked around the park a little.

And took DS over to the Honey! Playground for some fun.

We rode the important stuff while waiting for our FPs.
Muppets – love it!
Star Tours – yippee
Movie Ride – boring
Grabbed a boring lunch at the commissary

Then I thought we would wander through Walt’s attraction, when we won these:

We finally got to ride TMM, and it was a great ride. Would have been more fun if Skipper was with us. In fact, her injury kind of ruined the day for us. We spent a lot of time calling to check on her. Thankfully my parents weren’t doing much this day, so they went over to tend to her. Turned out she had a very bad sprain. My mom bullied the hotel and got us a wheelchair for the rest of out trip, so she wouldn’t be held up in the room alone.

We all felt very bad she missed our day at DHS. So we demanded she come with us to the Biergarten for dinner.

I love this place. GOOD food, lots of fun. We all had a splendid time.

Did I mentioned we rented an electric scooter for the night? It was going to be too hard to push her around the world.


After dinner we wandered the world. Just a nice slow meander to take in the sights a little.
Made our way to the exits and rode Mars one more time. Well, DS and I rode Mars. Sil was too nervous to hop her way in and DW was happy to keep her company. I think they got to see the fireworks while we traveled to space.

It was a wonderful last night in Disney. Tomorrow we go home.

 

[Phibbles]

Day 10, Sat., Aug. 30th

Time to check-out. Originally we were going to make the drive home a three day adventure. But since skipper wasn’t feeling good, I decided to make the trip less stressful.

We took our time this morning getting packed. DS went for a quick swim. We had a nice breakfast at the Mill. A lovely finish to the trip.

We had tons of snack credits left, so I used them in the gift shop buying treats for the car ride.

Packed up the car. Checked-out. Returned the wheel chair. And drove away from a wonderful Disney vacation.

We stopped in Savannah, GA and stayed the night. Was an uneventful stop since we had skipper and couldn’t go exploring the city. Oh well. Maybe next time. At least DS got to swim again.

Pics from the top of the hotel:

Next day we loaded up the car again and made the long trek back to Jersey.

Quick stop at SOB for lunch (not the best of ideas):

Then we hit a Ponderosa for a surprisingly good dinner. I don’t remember what city we were in, but the meal was better than expected. Like Skipper’s new cane. I bought it at SOB for like $5.

Made it home by late in the evening. Skippers parents were waiting for us to take her home from our house. She probably would have stayed the night normally and gone home in the morning, but she was missing her mommy. I guess she didn’t like my “take no pity” style of comfort for the injured. Oops…

Final thoughts:
We had a great trip. Tons of wonderful memories, as always.
I will just never go in August again. Simply too hot to do everything, and I like to do everything.

 

[Diamondintheruff]

Always wanted to stop at South of the Border (we head to Myrtle Beach each march break) but never have. Good to know that the food there is not worth the stop. My kids love counting all the signs for it on the road though.

Yes, August it hot and AK is really the hottest park of them all. We too have melted there and just gave up.

Thanks for finishing up your report for us. I know first hand how hard it is to stay motivated to finish them.

I enjoyed reading your report. Thanks for sharing!