Laughter, Tears & Screams- Two Aussies in WDW! New - 6/10 - The End!!

[AussieAngel]

Hello, I really enjoy all of your posts! IOA is a great park and Spiderman is not really too jerky of a ride, it is one of my favorites in the park, I am sure you guys would have loved it. Also Poseidon's fury is fun, I love that tunnel of water! Can't wait for your next posting.

Heya! Thanks for reading!!
Hmm, maybe really should have tried Spiderman, since it wasn't too jerky!? Oh well... live and learn!
As for Poseidon's Fury, I think we skipped that one because a massive Brazilian tour group walked into it just before we were going to, and made us change our minds!!

very cool! i'm so wanting to go there now. i love coasters and as much as i love disney world, it is not known for its thrill rides. so i really want to do IoA now! i may have to add it to our december 2010 plans.

your love of jurassic park made me laugh because my sister's boyfriend likes to do his imitation of a valosa raptur and it's quite amusing! you'd get a kick out of it.

you know, i used to love getting wet on rides when i was a kid. but now i just really hate it. it's not the actual water part - that doesn't bug me. it's the aftermath of walking around a park all day with wet underwear and socks. nobody can honestly say that's a comfortable thing to do!

love the pics of the EWP from your room! i know it's old and boring but it's so "disney."

You definitely should pop into IoA in 2010 - we were finished there by about 2.30, so you really only need half a day to do it, I reckon. Lots of awesome rides!!
You'll totally have to make a video of your sister's boyfriend doing a raptor impersonation for me! Heeee. It's such a silly movie, I love it.
And I totally agree with you on the wet undies thing. Does anybody actually like walking around with wet undies and socks?! Ewwww!

I just finished reading your dinning report and just loved it. Of course I had to pop over here to read all about your trip. I hope your kitty is doing well and I hope you post a picture of her so I can see her cute face.

Yay, thanks for joining us over here on my trip report! Annie is doing much better now, thanks for your concern!! In fact, right now she's lying on the couch next to me, snoring. Hehee.
There's a photo of Annie sleeping on Conan's head in my first post, on the first page!

I lurked through your dining report, but I'm joining in now! It looks like you're having so much fun! I should have mentioned this on your dining report, but I like the point you make about saving money, but not really. If you'd eat that much food normally, then I imagine you definitely save money, but if you are eating it just beacuse it's there, then I imagine you're not. Also, did it prevent you from eating other snacks and desserts that you wanted to try?
Anyway, now on to the TR! I love reading along with the fun other people have. Jusrrasic Park sounds like a blast! It makes me that much more anxious to go back!

I'm so glad you decided to join in and say hi!!
You're right about the food thing and saving money. There's no way we would have eaten all that food under normal cirumstances! And yep - we missed out on trying heaps of yummy snacks because we were so full all the time! I had a big list of snacks I wanted to try - like yummy bakery treats from Norway, the French toast loaf from MK, and lots of drinks in the World Showcase - and we passed on all of them, because we were so full all the time! Boooo.

Islands of Adventure looks awesome. We weren't planning on going there on our trip but I think we might take a day and go.

Funnel cakes are so good. We always get them at festivals.

As always great pictures!

IoA was lots of fun! I'd recommend it to anybody who loves thrill rides especially. It was much more lively and interesting than Universal.
Lucky you - you get to eat funnel cakes!!

I hate wearing wet clothes too! If it's my shirt, I don't mind so much. But, when the pants get wet, ugh!
No funnel cakes in Australia? I suppose that's why they have them at the American pavillion in Epcot.
It didn't look like there were a lot of people at IOA when you were there.

Yep, I think funnel cakes are an American thing, aren't they!? Wet pants, unfortunately, seem to be a universal thing.
And no, there weren't too many people at IoA the day we were there either! It was a Tuesday, so I guess that might be a slow day. Worked well for us!

I love Islands of Adventure! I agree about toon lagoon, I wore jeans when I was there last and totally regret it! Not wearing jeans to IOA anymore! haha!

I totally wished I was in shorts that day, that's a great idea! Would have been much more pleasant!! It was worth it though - IoA was great!

I am totally subscribing to this trip report. I just got done reading your dining report and it was awesome!!!! BTW, you made an absolutely beautiful bride!

Aww, thank you! thanks for stopping by and saying hi!! Welcome!!

Yep, we really need to wait a few years before we do Universal. Which might work out okay because the Harry Potter hoopla may die down a little by the time we get there. Or maybe not. And it may not matter anyway, because it sure didn't look very busy!

It was very quiet at IoA the day we went! Christmas 2012 might be perfect for you then!? Although there's a few more Harry Potter movies to come out before then, isn't there? So no doubt that area will still be busy. But you'll be okay!!

Guess what everybody.... 4 more days until school holidays!!! I'll be able to write lots of trip report then!!

 

[PrincessCaitlin]

Thanks! We had fun at IoA too, although we didn't do the Spiderman ride!! We were told it was a simulator ride, and we'd had so many bumpy, jerky rides on simulators that we decided to skip it!! Whoops! Was it really good?

It was a lot of fun

The entire ride is in done with 3d movie screens so you actually feel like you are chasing the bad guys with Spiderman

On the scale of jerky rides it was probably just a little bit jerkier than dinosaur at DAK

 

[torsie24]

Love your report Julie!!!!

Can't wait to hear more!!!

Your wedding looked beautiful also!

 

[Loafmastermom]

Subbing! I just finished your dining review...awesome

Wow, I have to catch up here!

 

[BellaBaby]

Great TR!! I read the whole dining report and loved it!! We are going in May, so until then I'm living vicariously thru TRs!! Can't wait to see more of this report and wanted to mention that you and your hubby look adorable!! You guys are so much fun!!

 

[pamouselover]

Thanks Glad to hear that, I cant wait till they are done.

 

[AussieAngel]

Hey everybody!!

I've been a bit slow to update this week, sorry! It's been a crazy week at school - but there's only 2 more days until holidays! Woohooooooo!!! I'm not going away - just staying at home and having lots of sleep-ins, catching up with friends, and relaxing! And of course, updating my trip report a lot!!

It was a lot of fun

The entire ride is in done with 3d movie screens so you actually feel like you are chasing the bad guys with Spiderman

On the scale of jerky rides it was probably just a little bit jerkier than dinosaur at DAK

Ooh, that does sound fun. Except I find Dinosaur really jerky!! So I might have found Spiderman really, really jerky!!? Hehee, oh dear. Maybe next time!!

Love your report Julie!!!!

Can't wait to hear more!!!

Your wedding looked beautiful also!

Aww, thank you!! That's nice! Thanks for reading!!

Subbing! I just finished your dining review...awesome

Wow, I have to catch up here!

I hope you got caught up eventually!! I'm glad you popped over here to say hi!!

Great TR!! I read the whole dining report and loved it!! We are going in May, so until then I'm living vicariously thru TRs!! Can't wait to see more of this report and wanted to mention that you and your hubby look adorable!! You guys are so much fun!!

Hehee, thanks for your nice words!! And welcome!!
Wow, you're going in May! Lucky you! You should start a pre-trip report!!

Thanks Glad to hear that, I cant wait till they are done.

The Harry Potter area should be awesome! I wonder what rides they'll have?

 

[AussieAngel]

So when I last wrote (seems like ages ago, sorry!!), we'd just finished two busy, fun-filled days at Universal. And we were exhausted!! Which worked out perfectly really, because the next day was our first scheduled relaxing Disney day! Yayyyyy!!!

We really had no plans for this day, except breakfast at Chef Mickeys at 11am, then dinner that night at Raglan Road in Downtown Disney. We thought we might head to DisneyQuest that afternoon, but really, we just wanted to take it easy and do whatever we felt like that day!!

And I have to say, it was sooooo nice to sleep-in that day! We didn't even wake up until 10am. Lovely!! Then we slowly got dressed and headed out to the boat dock, to catch a boat to the Contemporary for our Chef Mickey's breakfast.

We passed this little duck having a swim in the WL pool on the way...

Here I am, walking out to the boat dock, looking a bit sleepy still!!

We never waited long for the little boats on our stay - no more than 10 minutes really, perfect! Here's Conan all rugged up on the boat - it was sunny, but a bit chilly that day.

And tadaaaah, we arrived at the Contemporary!! Doesn't Mickey just look like he's saying, "Tadaaaah!"

So we actually really enjoyed our late breakfast at Chef Mickeys! The food was great, which was kind of unexpected. I didn't expect to like the food much - we were really only going for the characters. The characters weren't really a highlight though. They stopped for a photo and that was about it. Not that we wanted them to sit down for a 15 minute chat, but the whole thing just seemed very rushed. I wrote more about it in my dining report, but also, this was the only time at Disney that we felt a bit odd not having kids with us! We kind of felt like we were crashing a kids' party at McDonalds. With really yummy cheesy potatoes instead of cheeseburgers.

Here's our photos with the characters though...

Whew, that's a lot of characters! It was a fun breakfast, and we'd definitely go back if we have kids one day, but probably not by ourselves again.

Anyhoo, after that it was still only about 12 noon - what would we do for the rest of the day!?! Don't you just love days like that, especially in Disney World, when you have the whole day ahead of you!?

We decided to head back to the WL and conquer one of Conan's goals for our trip - we hired a Sea Raycer!!! Woohoooo! Actually, we hired two. We decided to splurge so we could race and chase each other. Hehehee.

And do you know what!? Sea Raycers are FUN!!! At first I was a bit worried, because actually, those things go pretty fast! Especially when you turn - there were moments I was sure my little boat was about to flip over! Waaaah!!!

You're not meant to take cameras with you out on the lake, but phhht. We did anyway! Here I am in the beginning, gripping the wheel like grim death...

I relaxed after a while though, after I realised that my boat wasn't about to flip. Hehee. Here I am with the Magic Kingdom in the background...

And the Grand Floridian wedding thingy... Pretty!!!

Hello, Grand Floridian!

Alooooooha, Polynesian!!

At one stage, we pulled our boats up really closely to each other and slowed right down so that Conan could pass the camera to me. Waah! That's easier said than done, believe me!! After both nearly falling out of our boats a few times, we eventually got the job done - but not after the boat inspector man drove up to us to ask if everything was okay! Heheheheee. We had to pretend we were just chatting and not actually smuggling our illegal camera onto another boat. So naughty.

So here's Conan heading straight for the Contemporary. Look out!!!!

He LOVED the boats. Actually, he just loved going as fast as he could in circles around me. Phhht. Boys.

Before we knew it, our 45 minutes was up and we had to return our little boats to the dock. Here's the WL from the water...

So yay, we'd done the Sea Raycers! We both had lots of fun actually, and I'm sure it'll be a tradition of our Disney trips from now on.

Now we had another decision to make... Should we hang around the resort and chill out for the afternoon, or head to DisneyQuest like we originally planned?!

Continued in the next post!

 

[AussieAngel]

You could probably guess our decision - it was our lazy day, after all! We decided to hang out around the pool for a while. It was too chilly to swim, but we were happy to just lie back on a chair and relax with a freezing cold drink!!

Yum! These were great. Mine was on the left - an Orange Dream, and Conan's was a Pina Colava. Two thumbs way up!!

Here's some views of the pool...

I just love swimming pools! In fact, I pretty much judge how good a resort is by it's swimming pool. Conan and I both love swimming, and there's nothing like a beautiful resort pool! The WL has two little hot tubs too, which were very busy that day!

So after hanging out around the pool for an hour or so, we headed back up to our room, to discover a little surprise waiting for us on our bed!! A towel animal! Yayyyyyyyy!!!! We never received a towel animal in 2006, so we were so excited to get one this time!! We called him Ducky. So original!!

And then... we had an afternoon nap. I know that doesn't make for the most exciting trip report, but seriously, how good are afternoon naps on vacation!?!

We slept for around an hour or so, then decided to head to Downtown Disney. I was a bit sad we didn't make it to DisneyQuest, but we'd had a much-needed relaxing afternoon anyway. Lovely!!

What did we do at Downtown Disney? What else!? We shopped!! Yahooooo!! I bought some Princess presents for my niece, some scrapbooking stickers for myself, and we generally just had a great time browsing around the shops. And I made friends with a big green dragon...

We spent a while in the Lego store - it's so cool! I especially liked the Lego men wall... Lego, anybody!?!

And soon enough, it was 7.30pm - time for our ADR at Raglan Road!! This was one of our favourite restaurants last time in 2006, and again, it didn't disappoint. We love the relaxed vibe of the place, and most importantly, the awesome food!! It's definitely up there as one of our favourite Disney restaurants ever. Here's Conan, enjoying his beer flight!

Whew, after stuffing ourselves with delicious food and great drinks, we rolled home to WL and decided to have a dip in the hot tub!! A perfect way to end a relaxing, fun day at Disney World.

After that, it was time for showers and bed - we were off to Magic Kingdom the next day and needed our beauty sleep!

 

[torsie24]

Great updates!!!

I love the view of the Wedding Pavillion from the boat!! Hope you don;t mind if I steal it for my wedding planner!!

WL pool looks beautiful too!!

 

[ShannonMB]

Fun, fun update! I love the idea of just letting a relaxing day unravel. Unfortunately so far we have not been long enough to just relax for a day. Hopefully we can sometime, it looked like a marvelous time!

 

[Happy Elf]

What a fun day! The little boats look like so much fun!

 

[PrincessAlways]

Great updates! I totally agree with you about the Tonga Toast! I enjoyed mine just this past Tuesday!!! mmmmmm good!
So IoA is a better park than Universal. I've never been to that one. It sounds like it's mostly rollercoasters. I'm not the bravest coaster person! Don't know if that would be a park for me. You certainly did get soaked on JP ride!!!

 

[Mysteria]

All cuaght up again. I've never done mini golf there either. I think it's going on the agenda for this trip. IOA and it's water rides. I learned that the hard way too. Now I wear very fast drying clothes when I go there. I think DH would love the sea racers. Something else we may have to try this time.

 

[lmillercrew]

I think the pics of the hotels from the water are great! I love browsing around DTD too. Did you happen to go into Make your Own T-Shirt store?? I can't wait to do that. If you did, how was it??

 

[GreenAcres]

When I found your TR yesterday and you were commenting on how you're the planner and your husband's the laid-back one, I said to my husband, "Honey, they're just like us!" He did have to remind me how long it had been since we were in our 20's, so okay, maybe not EXACTLY alike.

Anyway, I agree that the planning is half the fun of vacation. Our family is headed to the World on May 23rd (the day after our son gets out of school for the summer) and have ADRs at many of the same places you enjoyed. We always eat at Chef Mickey, O'Hana, and Boma. We've eaten at the Cali Grill in the past and also had bad service. (So bad that we've never thought about going back.) I also had a very bad bird attack problem once many years ago at Sea World! (The bird hit me in the head and made me drop a fish!) When I was reading about your round of min-golf, I said, "Hey, they used the golf voucher! You know, the one we always get and never use?" and my husband looked at me with raised, accusatory eyebrows and said, "No, I never knew we got any vouchers." Yikes.

You are really making us excited about our trip in just under 7 weeks! We'll be staying at AKL for the first time. I've never written a trip report, but you are certainly inspiring me to maybe give it a shot!

 

[punkin413]

what a great day!!!! i really want to try to do this in 2010. ray and i both agree that because we've been to disney a good bit over the past couple of years, we don't need to do EVERY attraction there when we go now. so our time at the parks is going to be less in 2010, i have a feeling. especially if we have a baby with us!

by the way, how much were the sea raycers to rent, if you don't mind me asking?

 

[BellaBaby]

Aloooooooha Polynesian!! You are too funny!!

I love all the pics and your writing is so fun to read!!

 

[AussieAngel]

Great updates!!!

I love the view of the Wedding Pavillion from the boat!! Hope you don;t mind if I steal it for my wedding planner!!

WL pool looks beautiful too!!

Feel free to pinch the Wedding Pavillion photo for your wedding planner! How exciting! It did look very pretty.

Fun, fun update! I love the idea of just letting a relaxing day unravel. Unfortunately so far we have not been long enough to just relax for a day. Hopefully we can sometime, it looked like a marvelous time!

It was a fun day!! We made sure we allowed for some "days off" this time in our planning, and they were great!

What a fun day! The little boats look like so much fun!

The sea raycers were lots of fun! They went pretty quickly too!!

Great updates! I totally agree with you about the Tonga Toast! I enjoyed mine just this past Tuesday!!! mmmmmm good!
So IoA is a better park than Universal. I've never been to that one. It sounds like it's mostly rollercoasters. I'm not the bravest coaster person! Don't know if that would be a park for me. You certainly did get soaked on JP ride!!!

Oooh, I'm glad you enjoyed your Tonga Toast last Tuesday!! Lucky you!!!
IoA is not all roller-coasters - lots of rides, but they're not all coasters. I'm not very brave either, but I still had fun!!

All cuaght up again. I've never done mini golf there either. I think it's going on the agenda for this trip. IOA and it's water rides. I learned that the hard way too. Now I wear very fast drying clothes when I go there. I think DH would love the sea racers. Something else we may have to try this time.

Oooh, mini-golf was fun! And you're so right about quick drying clothes at IoA - I wish I had have been wearing some light shorts or something more appropriate!!

I think the pics of the hotels from the water are great! I love browsing around DTD too. Did you happen to go into Make your Own T-Shirt store?? I can't wait to do that. If you did, how was it??

Nope, we didn't go to the Make Your Own T-Shirt store I'm afraid! I'm actually made my own Disney t-shirts before we left, on zazzle.com, so I didn't really need to make any more t-shirts!! Sounds like fun though!

When I found your TR yesterday and you were commenting on how you're the planner and your husband's the laid-back one, I said to my husband, "Honey, they're just like us!" He did have to remind me how long it had been since we were in our 20's, so okay, maybe not EXACTLY alike.

Anyway, I agree that the planning is half the fun of vacation. Our family is headed to the World on May 23rd (the day after our son gets out of school for the summer) and have ADRs at many of the same places you enjoyed. We always eat at Chef Mickey, O'Hana, and Boma. We've eaten at the Cali Grill in the past and also had bad service. (So bad that we've never thought about going back.) I also had a very bad bird attack problem once many years ago at Sea World! (The bird hit me in the head and made me drop a fish!) When I was reading about your round of min-golf, I said, "Hey, they used the golf voucher! You know, the one we always get and never use?" and my husband looked at me with raised, accusatory eyebrows and said, "No, I never knew we got any vouchers." Yikes.

You are really making us excited about our trip in just under 7 weeks! We'll be staying at AKL for the first time. I've never written a trip report, but you are certainly inspiring me to maybe give it a shot!

How funny! You do sound a lot like us! And wow, you're going to Disney so soon!! How exciting! The AKL is beautiful - I hope you enjoy it there!
My goodness, you had a bad bird experience at Sea World too!! Evil birds! I think I would have passed out if a bird hit me on the head. Hehehee.
Anyway, yes, you should totally write a trip report!! Of course!!

what a great day!!!! i really want to try to do this in 2010. ray and i both agree that because we've been to disney a good bit over the past couple of years, we don't need to do EVERY attraction there when we go now. so our time at the parks is going to be less in 2010, i have a feeling. especially if we have a baby with us!

by the way, how much were the sea raycers to rent, if you don't mind me asking?

Relaxing days at Disney are great. There's so much to do at the resorts, so we wanted to relax and enjoy the WL a bit. And yes, especially if a baby is involved!! Yayyyy!!!
I think the Sea Raycers were $40 for 45 minutes, or something like that. We took them out for 45 minutes, but you can also take them out for 30 mins or 60 mins. Time flew out there though, so I'd say definitely go for at least 45 minutes.

Aloooooooha Polynesian!! You are too funny!!

I love all the pics and your writing is so fun to read!!

Hehee, thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying my report, thanks for reading!!

Next installment coming up now!! I'm on holidays, yayyyyyyyy!!!! One of the best things about being a teacher is the holidays, I have to say. Two weeks of relaxing and catching up with friends, and writing my trip report!!

 

[AussieAngel]

So after our lovely relaxing day the previous day, we were up and at 'em the next morning!!! Today was a big Disney day - we were off to Magic Kingdom, yayyyy!!!

We got ready quickly and were straight out the door, heading for the buses. We were in a bit of a rush because we had an 8.05am ADR at Crystal Palace, to eat with Pooh and the gang! I'd made the ADR 6 months beforehand - before the park hours had been released. I was so excited to get an 8.05am ADR so that we could walk through a relatively empty MK before the park opened. But bummer, that day turned out to be an Early Magic Hours day, so the park was open at 8am anyway! Booooo!

But nevertheless, we were still excited to be eating with Pooh! We arrived at the Magic Kingdom with plenty of time to spare to take photos of the pretty entrance!

It was cold that day! Brrrrrrr!!! I'd bought a new Mickey hooded sweater the night before at Downtown Disney too, so that came in very handy that day!

We headed towards the entrance gates and asked a CM if we could sneak in early because we had an 8.05 ADR at Crystal Palace. It was around 7.50 by this stage. We were told, "No!! You can wait with everybody else!" What a terrifying CM!! So we found a friendlier CM and asked the same thing. This time we were told, "Sure! Enjoy your breakfast!" Phew!!!

I was so pleased!! We still got our obligatory empty MK shots!!

And here we both are, freezing on Main Street!

We were naughty and didn't head straight to Crystal Palace. Instead, we stopped at the castle for a few quick photos, without the usual big crowds! (There was a nasty crane in our photos though, grrrr! I think they were painting the top spire thingy!)

A nice CM offered to take our photo...

Then we were off to the Crystal Palace!! We had a lovely breakfast, filled with donut holes, breakfast potatoes and fresh fruit. Yum!! And of course, we met all the characters!! They were very cute and stayed with us for a bit longer than the Chef Mickeys characters.

I love how Pooh is standing in this photo... Funny old bear!

Eeyore was all shy and embarrassed because our server pointed out my t-shirt to him! Hee!

Tigger nearly squashed me with his huge head...

And Piglet was just so pink and cute!

We were in and out of Crystal Palace in about 50 minutes - nice and quick! Plenty of time to enjoy some yummy food and have some fun with the characters. So where did we go next? Where else, but.....

The Winnie the Pooh ride! Yayyyyy! We'd never ridden this before and we were feeling the Pooh love after breakfast, so why not?! Wait time was only 5 minutes or so. It was very cute. Although apparently not very memorable, because now, I really can't remember much about it!! Hehehee, oh well. It was early, I may have still been half asleep!

After Pooh, Conan caught sight of one of his favourites so we had to go straight there. The spinning teacups!!! Waaaaah!

We both love the Mad Tea Party. There's something so simple and fun about it, isn't there!?

Staying in Fantasyland, we decided to hit Peter Pan's Flight next. We loved this last time and couldn't wait to try it again! Here's Conan, getting ready to board our flying ship...

And it was just as cute as we remembered! Peter Pan is lovely!!

We were starting to feel a bit Fantasylanded-out, so we decided to wander over to Frontierland to ride Big Thunder. It had been down on our first night so we were keen to try it this time.

Conan stopped for a bathroom break while I had a little rest by this pretty little area...

(I look about 8 years old in that photo, don't I!!?)

Magic Kingdom is so pretty! One of our goals this trip was not to rush through the parks so much - to actually stop and look around. To quote Ferris Bueller (my favourite movie!), "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." And so do vacations!!! Here I am, stopping to take in some more nice views...

I'll stop there and keep going in the next chapter! This was a big morning!