Dimplenose
Stranger from the outside
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2002
- Messages
- 5,956
Libbys Trip Day 3 Magic Kingdom and DTD
Cast Me 43 in love with Mickey Mouse
DH (of 20 years) 43
DS 14 cynical teenager
DD 11 a stroppy little madam
Location 14 day holiday at Windsor Palms with 1 night trip to Royal Pacific Resort
Date August 11th to 25th 2005
Saturday August 13th 2005
Today I woke up at 5:30 with a terrible thirst. I got a drink and was now fully awake this is a problem I have with my sleep patterns compared to the rest of the family, Im always up before them and ready to get going but they like their sleep and no matter how much I try I cant get them to have an early start more than once or twice during our trip.
I watched a bit of Craft Day on QVC. DS joined me soon after. I tried to get DD out of bed by tempting her with the swimming pool but she just wanted to sleep.
By 8am everyone was up and breakfasting and my plans of an early start were fading. I went outside to tidy things away and heard a noise. Looking around I saw a hot air balloon, very low, behind the villa that backed onto ours. A little later and a second balloon flew very low over the houses. I think they may have been landing nearby.
It was 8:40 before we set off to the Magic Kingdom, again we used the Sherbeth Road were not having any problems going its coming home that we keep getting lost. We park in Pluto 15 and get a tram to the monorail. At the entrance to the monorail/ferry a CM is checking that everyone has a signed ticket before shell let them through. We decide to take the monorail. Im stretching my neck to see the castle and we also get a good view of Chip (or was it Dale?) as we pass through the Contemporary Resort.
We get to Magic Kingdom and go through the bag checks and then into the park. We decide to take the rail road around to Frontier Land. The Main Street Station is shrouded in scaffolding, but it doesnt seem to be affecting the running of the station. Before entering the platform area I stop to get some nice photos of the kids with the Castle in the background much easier from higher up than in the street below.
Once in Frontier Land we go on Splash Mountain (with DS and DH singing the alternative words of go ahead show us your b***s) then straight onto Thunder Mountain. We all want to stop for a snack or drink so I suggest we go to Tom Sawyer Island and Aunt Pollys. But the sign near the rafts states that Aunt Pollys isnt open for another 40 minutes.
By the way, this is a problem we have all over WDW, we often want a snack at about 10am but nothing is open until 10:30am apart from a few food carts or places that are a long way from wherever we are. More frustratingly the buildings are often open long before and long after the counters stop serving.
We pop into Peco Bills which is open but not serving. We go to Diamond Horseshoe where we often bought ice cream in 2002 the counter looked like it hadnt been in use for a while. We decide to go to Adventure land and get a snack when ever we see one.
Were by the Aladdin ride before we find an open drinks stand so we stop and have drinks and the kids have ice cream it was very messy due to the heat. DD is very tetchy today and DS is starting to moan about how boring MK is (what happened to the 4 and 7 year olds who thought everything was magical?)
We went to the Tiki Room (it annoyed DS even more but I enjoyed it!) and then onto Pirates of the Caribbean (DD didnt want to ride this last time, and it took bribery to get her on the one in Paris, but with her first pre-teen crush on Johnny Depp she was very keen to ride this time.)
After this we decided on an early lunch and as Pinnochios Village Haus was listed as having both hot dogs and pizza we headed there. We found that they would not be serving pizza for at least another 2 weeks! Now that the Plaza Restaurant (previously our favourite counter service) is a noodle station (and to add insult to injury it was closed) there is no counter service pizza in MK. This was going to be a problem on future trips to MK as there is no counter service food that DD was prepared to eat at MK. For now we settled on hot dog and fries for DS, turkey sandwiches and crisps for DH and myself and a side of fries for DD.
By now the MK was very busy. We went to tomorrow land and got fast passes for Buzz but in the end we couldnt be bothered to wait so we went back to the car via the ferry. Its very hot today and there are no signs of yesterdays storms. We tried to get back to the villa via the Sherbeth Road and ended up in the Animal Kingdom car park! We turned round and found our way back to the villa somehow (via World Drive I think).
Back at the villa 3 of us swam for a while it was a relief to be in the water as the day was still getting hotter.
We went to Down Town Disney for the evening. As we parked DH noticed the Cirque de Soliel building, thats new! he said I suppose you dont see so much when youre the driver.
We wandered around the stores in West Side and then went over to Market Place (on the way we noticed that Pleasure Island had been renamed for and Elvis weekend were still not sure if it was Elvis Island or Pelvis Island from the way the word Elvis has been placed over the word Pleasure it could have been either).
The kids spent some money in Once upon a Toy on potato head stuff. We had a good look around but were getting hungry. We joined the queue for Rainforest Café and were soon approached and told there was a one and a half hour wait for an inside table or we could sit outside immediately. So we sat outside, undercover and with fans and watched the boats come and go from Port Orleans. Having been to RFC in London we were quite happy not to be inside. The kids had ribs, we both had BBQ chicken wrap. No-one could finish but we declined the offer to have the leftovers boxed up. ($100 including tip). I think this was the nicest meal of the whole trip.
We carried on shopping looking in the Christmas Store and World of Disney. DS wanted to pop back to a film memorabilia shop in West Side. As it wasnt too far from where we parked the car we agreed. He didnt buy anything as it was all so expensive. On the way back to the car we filled in a questionnaire (the lady CM laughed at the way I pronounced Kissimmee no matter how I try I just cant get the emphasis in the right place). After wed finished she asked about rental homes she had no idea how many British people own these homes or that the travel companies offer them in their brochures, she thought it worked out more like a house swap.
Back to the villa via the supermarket (I can see a pattern here). Then off to bed.
Libby
Cast Me 43 in love with Mickey Mouse
DH (of 20 years) 43
DS 14 cynical teenager
DD 11 a stroppy little madam
Location 14 day holiday at Windsor Palms with 1 night trip to Royal Pacific Resort
Date August 11th to 25th 2005
Saturday August 13th 2005
Today I woke up at 5:30 with a terrible thirst. I got a drink and was now fully awake this is a problem I have with my sleep patterns compared to the rest of the family, Im always up before them and ready to get going but they like their sleep and no matter how much I try I cant get them to have an early start more than once or twice during our trip.
I watched a bit of Craft Day on QVC. DS joined me soon after. I tried to get DD out of bed by tempting her with the swimming pool but she just wanted to sleep.
By 8am everyone was up and breakfasting and my plans of an early start were fading. I went outside to tidy things away and heard a noise. Looking around I saw a hot air balloon, very low, behind the villa that backed onto ours. A little later and a second balloon flew very low over the houses. I think they may have been landing nearby.
It was 8:40 before we set off to the Magic Kingdom, again we used the Sherbeth Road were not having any problems going its coming home that we keep getting lost. We park in Pluto 15 and get a tram to the monorail. At the entrance to the monorail/ferry a CM is checking that everyone has a signed ticket before shell let them through. We decide to take the monorail. Im stretching my neck to see the castle and we also get a good view of Chip (or was it Dale?) as we pass through the Contemporary Resort.
We get to Magic Kingdom and go through the bag checks and then into the park. We decide to take the rail road around to Frontier Land. The Main Street Station is shrouded in scaffolding, but it doesnt seem to be affecting the running of the station. Before entering the platform area I stop to get some nice photos of the kids with the Castle in the background much easier from higher up than in the street below.
Once in Frontier Land we go on Splash Mountain (with DS and DH singing the alternative words of go ahead show us your b***s) then straight onto Thunder Mountain. We all want to stop for a snack or drink so I suggest we go to Tom Sawyer Island and Aunt Pollys. But the sign near the rafts states that Aunt Pollys isnt open for another 40 minutes.
By the way, this is a problem we have all over WDW, we often want a snack at about 10am but nothing is open until 10:30am apart from a few food carts or places that are a long way from wherever we are. More frustratingly the buildings are often open long before and long after the counters stop serving.
We pop into Peco Bills which is open but not serving. We go to Diamond Horseshoe where we often bought ice cream in 2002 the counter looked like it hadnt been in use for a while. We decide to go to Adventure land and get a snack when ever we see one.
Were by the Aladdin ride before we find an open drinks stand so we stop and have drinks and the kids have ice cream it was very messy due to the heat. DD is very tetchy today and DS is starting to moan about how boring MK is (what happened to the 4 and 7 year olds who thought everything was magical?)
We went to the Tiki Room (it annoyed DS even more but I enjoyed it!) and then onto Pirates of the Caribbean (DD didnt want to ride this last time, and it took bribery to get her on the one in Paris, but with her first pre-teen crush on Johnny Depp she was very keen to ride this time.)
After this we decided on an early lunch and as Pinnochios Village Haus was listed as having both hot dogs and pizza we headed there. We found that they would not be serving pizza for at least another 2 weeks! Now that the Plaza Restaurant (previously our favourite counter service) is a noodle station (and to add insult to injury it was closed) there is no counter service pizza in MK. This was going to be a problem on future trips to MK as there is no counter service food that DD was prepared to eat at MK. For now we settled on hot dog and fries for DS, turkey sandwiches and crisps for DH and myself and a side of fries for DD.
By now the MK was very busy. We went to tomorrow land and got fast passes for Buzz but in the end we couldnt be bothered to wait so we went back to the car via the ferry. Its very hot today and there are no signs of yesterdays storms. We tried to get back to the villa via the Sherbeth Road and ended up in the Animal Kingdom car park! We turned round and found our way back to the villa somehow (via World Drive I think).
Back at the villa 3 of us swam for a while it was a relief to be in the water as the day was still getting hotter.
We went to Down Town Disney for the evening. As we parked DH noticed the Cirque de Soliel building, thats new! he said I suppose you dont see so much when youre the driver.
We wandered around the stores in West Side and then went over to Market Place (on the way we noticed that Pleasure Island had been renamed for and Elvis weekend were still not sure if it was Elvis Island or Pelvis Island from the way the word Elvis has been placed over the word Pleasure it could have been either).
The kids spent some money in Once upon a Toy on potato head stuff. We had a good look around but were getting hungry. We joined the queue for Rainforest Café and were soon approached and told there was a one and a half hour wait for an inside table or we could sit outside immediately. So we sat outside, undercover and with fans and watched the boats come and go from Port Orleans. Having been to RFC in London we were quite happy not to be inside. The kids had ribs, we both had BBQ chicken wrap. No-one could finish but we declined the offer to have the leftovers boxed up. ($100 including tip). I think this was the nicest meal of the whole trip.
We carried on shopping looking in the Christmas Store and World of Disney. DS wanted to pop back to a film memorabilia shop in West Side. As it wasnt too far from where we parked the car we agreed. He didnt buy anything as it was all so expensive. On the way back to the car we filled in a questionnaire (the lady CM laughed at the way I pronounced Kissimmee no matter how I try I just cant get the emphasis in the right place). After wed finished she asked about rental homes she had no idea how many British people own these homes or that the travel companies offer them in their brochures, she thought it worked out more like a house swap.
Back to the villa via the supermarket (I can see a pattern here). Then off to bed.
Libby