Is the Grass Greener on the Other Side of WDW? AKL And THE POLY(November 22nd )

Which Resort Do You Think We Enjoy More?

  • The Polynesian Resort

  • Animal Kingdom Lodge

  • Hated them Both Equally

  • Loved them Both Equally


Results are only viewable after voting.
Magic Kingdom In Two Hours or Less! Day 2, Part 1.​

6am and both girls are wide-awake! It seemed like sleep was going to be our biggest enemy this week. We were hoping they'd sleep at least until 8am, they certainly needed it. Oh well, it was EMH at Magic Kingdom today, so now we didn't have to rush to get there for the opening.

Our plan was to spend a few hours at MK before it got busy, and then hop over to Epcot mid-morning. We grabbed a quick breakfast at Captain Cooks, which was Ok. Coffee :coffee: and a Danish for me, which I know is a terribly unhealthy breakfast, but it was quick, easy and, well, yummy! The girls got their Mickey waffles. The poor mouse::MickeyMo didnt stand a chance.

We loaded up the stroller with our mugs full of ice water and a dab of that blue stuff that comes out of the pop machine, and headed for the monorail. (FYI, blue water always tastes better than clear water to a three year old.)

Anytime I Arrive at MK in the morning, even on a slow day, I always get a momentary sense of dread when I see how many people are all waiting to get into the park. There is just so many of them. Who are all these people, and why are they not at Animal Kingdom?!? But Disney is a machine, and very shortly we were waiting for the opening production.

By the way, it was cold! See your breath cold. I know, I know, I was told Disney could be cold in January/February. I should have listened, but darn it, Im a Canadian. What some people consider cold, we call summer. I, of course, was wrong, and or, a very poor Canadian. And so, I had to suffer the morning shivering because I didnt pack for cold weather.

The Mandatory Pose in Front of the Castle and Crane

Not a lot to say about our few hours in Magic Kingdom. It wasnt very busy. So we tried to hit all the rides that would tend to fill up later on in the day. The Goofy Roller Coaster was closed yesterday, so we did that first. Salem had a bit of a panic attack as it went down the first hill, but recovered quickly and then the ride was over. Man was it short! This was Emily's (who is 3) first time on a roller coaster of any sort and she took it all in stride, nothing scares that child!

The girls wanted to do the Carousel again. Which wasnt in the program, but gave me a chance to sneak off and do Space Mountain. This was my first time on Space Mountain, and likely the last. I love roller coasters and Im a huge Cedar Point fan, but found SM neither scary nor fun. It was just rough and loud. :confused3 But to each their own!

Emily on the Carousel

We did Peter Pans Flight (which I love), Dumbo (I had to do it as well, since both Salem and Emily wanted to control the up/down lever), Winnie the Pooh pooh:, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, and the girls did the Magic Carpets.

The Honey Wall at Pooh's


By that time it was not yet 10 am. So in less than two hours we accomplished getting on all rides that typically require a long waits. :cool1: We were planning to return to Magic Kingdom tomorrow, and then we could do a much more relaxing visit without feeling the need to go commando with the whole ride thing.

While thousands upon thousands of people were beginning to enter MK, we were on our way out. :rolleyes1 We grabbed a few oranges from the fruit lady, and headed for the Monorail. On our way to the Monorail, we noticed the Ferry :boat:was docked. To switch things up, we ran like crazy to try and catch the ferry, which would take us directly to the TTC instead of using the monorail. Apparently, we didn't run fast enough!.:sad2:

The woman working at the ferry dock, when seeing our mad rush towards the dock, assured us that another one would arrive shortly.

Now I know that it would have been much faster for us to walk back to the monorail than to wait for the next ferry. But we kind of didn't want to seem like those people :crazy:who rush madly from one thing to another just to save a bit of time...EVEN THOUGH WE SO ARE! :thumbsup2 We decided, for once in our lives, to appear civilized and waited with baited breath:rolleyes1 for the slow moving ferry that would eventually arrive.

Watching a ferry arrive is a bit like watching a kettle boil. You know it's coming because you can clearly see it the whole way, but, well...you know how it is.

Eventually the ferry arrived, and the 500, or so, passengers disembarked, making plenty of room for all 7 of us who were getting on. :sail:


It must have been around 11:00 am by the time we got to the TTC and boarded the monorail to Epcot, And it was likely 11:30am by the time we arrived at Epcot. I was a bit surprised as how long the monorail ride is from the TTC to Epcot. But it gave the girls plenty of time to study the park maps.


 
Welcome Mom! My mom lives in Nova Scotia, you're not her are you? ;)

Hi Dimples. I am very jealous that you are staying for 10 days! :woohoo: As you can probably tell so far, we loved the Polynesian!

I'm currently working on Heather to go this fall (Late October). Looking at a Contemporary/Beach Club or Boardwalk split stay by renting DVC points. I'm not sure if it is too late to rent points for these resorts or not. If it is, we'll try and stay at the Polynesian again.
:cheer2:

Hey Coastgirl! Yeah, we felt pretty lucky to get a direct flight from the Maritimes at that price. Sunwing had a buy one ticket, get one half price. Unfortunately none of the charter flights fly in the fall. So if we do end up going back in the fall, we'll likely have to drive to Portland or Boston.

On a side note, has anyone flew out of Bangor? Allegiant flies direct to orlando for around $1000 for four. I've been reading reviews and most have been less than positive. Also they fly into the Orlando stanford airport...I'd be very sad not to use Magical Express.
 
Have flown out of Portland, but not Bangor. For our trip last month, I thought about flying out of Bangor using Allegiant, but I found that they have a lot of extra flight fees. Luckily we were able to fly Sunwing out of Halifax direct. We flew Jetblue out of Portland for our 2011 trip and we would do this again if the price was right. Great experience with Jetblue...on our flight were other Canadians, one family like us from Dartmouth, and one family from PEI.
 

Sorry for the lengthy delay :( Have been in the process of planning a return trip to Disney World this Sept. We are looking at a Beach Club (5 nights)/Contemporary (3 nights) split stay.

We are going to surprise the girls for this trip...so Shhhhhh! We're driving down to Manchester, NH overnight and flying out that morning. Looking to tell the girls just before we get into the car. pixiedust:

I'm almost finished the next chapter in our trip report so stay tuned.
 
Working For The Platypus. Epcot Day Two, Part Two


We arrived at Epcot and had a quick lunch at Sunshine Seasons. While we were there, we grabbed two Fast Passes for Soarin. It was Heathers turn this year to ride Soarin with Salem, as last year Salem and I went on it together.

Salem was very anxious to do the Agent P game. But on the way we ran into a character spot with an empty line-up. What luck, how often do you get to meet a character without waiting in line!:confused3

Unless of course&.crap, it was the Bear! :mad:



Salem didnt mind though. Ah, the naivety of the young.


On our last trip Salem did the Kim Possible version of the game and we only got though a couple of countries before time and hunger interrupted her quest. We were bound and determined to finish it this time.

One thing people do need to realize when doing Agent P is you are going to end up spending a lot of time in one country. Unlike Kim Possible where you go from country to country, the Agent P game is localized in whatever country you pick. For us it was China. Believe me, there are worse countries to end up in than China& Can I get a Norway anyone!...Just kidding, I love the Norwegians:lmao:.



Anyway, after what seemed like an eternity, Salem saved the duck&err sorry platypus, and China was able to finally rid itself of our presence.

We traded our Perry phones in for a Perry on a stick (cant eat him though 9) and proceeded to explore the World Showcase trying to getting our stick Perry signed by the Kidcot representative from each country.





The girls loved this! And while the girls coloured their Perrys, I was able to find a seat in Italy, and watch the world go by. Of course, I grabbed a glass of wine&when in Rome.;)



By the time we worked our way around the world, the time to get on Soarin was at hand. While Salem and Heather rode Soarin, Emily and I took a trip through Living with the Land. After a long day running around World Showcase with an inedible duck on a stick, a nice relaxing boat ride was very welcome!

Next, upstairs in the Land Pavilion, there was a Lion King show The Circle of Life, which touched on issues about conservation, etc& We decided to give it a go. There is nothing quite like being lectured by Disney about the ills of leaving a huge environmental footprint. I'll admit that kind of set my teeth on edge. Ill take Hypocrisy with a straight face for $100, Alex! Of course, I myself am part of the problem. So perhaps we all need a bit of grace for the lives we live&yes, even Disney. And shows like this may be a small step in the right direction. So I will go to Animal Kingdom and drink my soda out of a cardboard straw and stop complaining!

Finally we did a quick tour of Living with the Seas and decided to call it a day. To the monorail! We got off the monorail at the TTC and walked 5 minutes over to our resort. Isn't the Poly great! :cool1:

It was the only night we had not made a dining reservation. Instead, we originally planned to grab a quick dinner at Captain Cook's before bed. We thought wed first check to see if Kona Café had any room, just in case.:idea: The restaurant was full, but we were able to grab a seat at the Kona Island Bar, where we were able to order food off of the Kona Café menu. It was bit disconcerting at first to watch twenty-something white girls make Sushi.:scared1: Nevertheless they did a very nice job, the sushi was good, and we enjoyed the experience.

It was an exhausting but very good second day. It was 7:30 pm and time for bed!

 
Day Three and Yet Another Morning at MK​

We are back at Magic Kingdom! It is the 3rd time in 3 days. I know this is a bit of overkill, but alas our move to AKL was just around the corner and I really wanted to take advantage of the location of the Polynesian while we could.

This was the day when the commando in me (the ride kind, not the underwear kind) got put away for one morning and we tried to enjoy simply being at the park without worrying about getting on as many rides as possible.

Typically, my wife has graciously allowed me to plan the first two hours of every morning when the park is much slower. Today, however, since we had already been on most of the rides at Magic Kingdom, was to be used as a time where we could simply stroll aimlessly around MK without any plans. As counter-intuitive as that may sound, it ended up being a very fun morning. Although honestly a part of me inside was screaming “WE ARE DOING IT ALL WRONG!”

The girls having a blast on the Teacups :cheer2:


Waiting in line for what I can only assume is the world's shortest roller coaster! The renamed "Barnstormer". Both girls were nervous :scared: getting on the ride, but the anticlimactic nature of the Barnstormer made it a perfect beginner roller coaster for Emily and Salem.:thumbsup2


We had lunch at Be Our Guest Restaurant for the first time. The food was pretty good, and considering the other table service options at MK, for a first time visitor of BOG, it was worth the 30 min wait to get in.

I am not sure what is going on behind the pedestal, but the gargoyle was very cool looking.


Salem and I inside BOG, but haven't ordered yet


We sat in the main dining room, because I guess we missed the snow back in Canada.:confused3


The enchanted rose


After lunch we took the Monorail back to the Polynesian where the girls planned to spend an afternoon at the pool.


For myself, I decided to head to the outlet mall and do a little bit of shopping. I know what you are thinking? “Why is the guy going shopping and the girls are staying at the hotel?”:scratchin The short answer is “I like to shop…OK!” And Heather could spend her whole vacation at the pool and be perfectly content. Me, on the other hands, found sitting poolside very painful,:headache: especially when there is so many other things to do at Disney World. One thing I do have to say is that Disney does really good job at entertaining the children during afternoon pool time. Salem love the games!

Salem on the beach of the Poly, with a wonderful view of the Contemporary Resort.


Polynesian Pool


Anyways…I took the monorail to Epcot and grabbed a cab to the mall. I think I spent about $30 each way! I figured it would be a lot more if I took a cab directly from the resort. Oh by the way, if you do this, be prepared to disappoint fellow monorail passengers who will excitedly will stop you and ask if there is now a Guess store, or Lucky etc., at downtown Disney when they see your bags.

Found lots of great deals and got a number of things for my wife and the girls. I got back to the resort around 4pm and started getting ready for our dinner at the California Grill…stay tuned


UP NEXT…Eating dinner on the last night of the old California Grill!:tink:
 





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