Lilo's Mom & Dad Orlando & WDW Trip

[missmun52]

great installment!

I would have been so upset if I had to wait that long with only 5 people in front of me. Those CM's were really rude and inconsiderate.

 

[fizz13]

Fantastic report I am going with my husband, adults only, in August and he too is a golfer. How was it for you out on the golf course? Will I be bored if I book it for him, I know he would like it. parasailing sounded amazing too, do you think it is something worth doing once, as it looks quite pricey.
Thankyou for the great report so far, keep up the great work. BTW, please tell your friend that she looked amazing at her wedding, that was great wedding hair
Claire xx

 

[Lilo's Mom]

Wednesday, June 7th

I forgot the day before we left Pal Mickey in the room to see if Mousekeeping would do anything neat with him, but all they did was fold the washcloths into fans. So Pal Mickey was going to Epcot. While Bob was getting ready I did the walk to fill the cups, when I got back he was sitting on the edge of the bed holding his foot. What the heck happened? Ever since we got into our room, he had been having near misses stubbing his toe on the legs of the bed frame. The frames of the bed are really neat they are dark colored logs, which when the lights were out, Bob kept bumping into. Apparently he was walking from the shower to the bed towel drying his hair and walked smack into one of the legs of the frame. After I looked at his foot, I was pretty sure he broke his toes, and by the end of the day they were swollen and purple. Since there isn’t really anything that can be done with broken toes, we padded his gym shoe with moleskin and headed out for the day.

Pal Mickey turned out to be the hit of the Epcot bus. I had to stand because the bus was so crowded and all the little kids around me wanted to play with Mickey, so I pushed his hand and they played a game of trivia with him. I probably was responsible for the sale of at least ten Pal Mickeys that day. Everybody fell in love with him wherever we went. I was impressed that as soon as we were in Epcot Mickey said”Hey pal, there’s no waitin’ at Test Track, wanna ride?” Isn’t he a helpful little mouse? Yes Mickey, I want to ride….let’s go!!!! We got there and true to his word, there was no line, so we got a Fast Pass and got into the line. Why ride once when you can ride twice? It worked out great, it took us about 15 minutes to get to the ride, and by the time we got out of the ride the standby wait was an hour, but we just used the Fast Pass and got right back on. The second time we got out of the ride we looked around the gift shop. Bob spotted a “Cars” pin set that had six pins and the lanyard for $50. Since he was now hooked on pin trading he wanted to pick it up, but decided that we would be riding Test Track later in the day, and he would get it then.

Next helpful Mickey suggested that we get a Fast Pass for Soarin’ so we headed over to the land, to pick them up. Surprisingly, it was now 9:45, and the return for Fast Pass was 1:35. Oh well, at least that gives us plenty of time for our lunch at Le Cellier. Along the way we went through some of the displays from the Flower and Garden Festival. The last two trips we have made to Hawaii, I took a bunch of pictures of the ocean, and of Koi fish…so I decided the theme of my pictures this trip was going to be flowers. Here is my favorite from Epcot

By the time we had gone through all of the gardens and stands for the Festival it was time to head over to Le Cellier for our 12:15 ressie. We checked in and were taken to our table where our server was Bridget. Pal Mickey sat back to look over the menu.

He made several great suggestions….just kidding Bridget did the suggesting, although it would have been really cool if Mickey had. We decided to both have the cheddar cheese soup. I ordered the fillet and Bob ordered the strip steak. Be both loved the soup.

But Bob over did it a little on the pretzel bread.

Bridget noticed how full he looked and asked if we wanted to hold up the main course for a little while, since it hadn’t been made for us yet.. Thanks Bridget, great idea! She checked back on us in about 15 minutes and Bob was feeling much better, so she put in the order for us. Meanwhile we had stuck up a conversation with the people at the table next to us, so the time waiting on the entrees really flew by! Before we knew it Bridget was back with my fillet

And Bob’s Steak

We both enjoyed the steaks. Mine was 5 ounces, which I would have been able to finish if I hadn’t eaten the soup, but try as I might, I just couldn’t. Bob had no problem finishing it off for me. He did mention that my mashed potatoes were better than the potatoes that came with his steak. We finished lunch with the Maple Crème Brule, which ended up being my favorite dessert of the trip.

After lunch we decided to stroll around World Showcase. We made it all the way to Japan, when I noticed that I didn’t have the backpack. Opps! Just the Day before Bob was in charge of the backpack and had left it on the Monorail. We got it back with everything still in it, our digital camcorder and the brand new digital camera. The question was would we be lucky two days in a row?! Bob has diabetes and he was not feeling the greatest, so he wanted to sit down and test his blood, so I left him in Japan and ran back to Le Cellier to see if they had the bag. I got there breathless and asked at the hostess stand if they had my bag. Bridget came to my rescue with the bag, since we had used our dining plan for lunch; Le Cellier had called Port Orleans to leave us a message about finding the bag. Thank goodness, once again everything was inside the bag! You have no idea what a relief that was! Bag firmly on my back I made my way back to Japan. Bob was on a bench drinking some water and was feeling much better already, so we continued our trek around World Showcase, with shopping in each country!

Once that was completed we went back to Test Track, got in the single rider line and rode it again. When we were walking out Bob stopped to buy the “Cars” Lanyard, but they were all gone. We asked one of the cast members if they had anymore, and they told us no, but they were sure that we could pick them up at MGM or Downtown Disney. By now it was 4:15 and we had completely forgotten that we had a Fast Pass for Soarin’ at 1:35; we made the trek over there to see if we could still use it, and found thankfully that we could. The standby line was 120 minutes, eeek! The Fast Pass queue had only a two other people in it, a woman and her 6 year old daughter. While we were waiting to get on the ride, I started to freak out about the warnings regarding fear of heights. I hate heights, don’t like riding in glass elevators, so I was working myself up just standing in the line. The little girl asked me if I was afraid, and I told her that I was. She was so cute, so told me that she had ridden it before, and that if I got afraid I should just close me eyes for a little while. Sound advice! By the time we actually got in the ride, my mind was all worked up about being in the front, and falling out…but honestly, once it started I was fine and I would do it again, now that the initial fear is out of the way.

We decided to check out the Living Seas to see if we could get into Crush, no such luck. So we went to the bus to head back to Port Orleans. We got to the room, and I felt like I had run a marathon, my legs were killing me and I was so sleepy. I took a shower and got in bed, while Bob went swimming. I couldn’t tell you what time I fell asleep, but I can tell you I woke up at 3:00 am and was so sick that I threw up all over the bathroom. I can’t say if it was the heat, the rich food I had been eating or what the heck it was, but I felt like the scene in “Alien” where the creature pops out of the guy’s chest. I cleaned the bathroom, and put all the yucky towels in a plastic bag, and then I took a shower and put on my shorts and headed to do laundry…at 3:30 am. I was in the laundry room about 15 minutes when security came by to check on me. I guess when I used my card key to get into the laundry room, they knew I was there. I was grateful that there is someone to watch over the guests in the wee hours of the morning! It took me an hour to get the laundry done, and then I headed back to bed. Sadly, this was not to be a single incident…it would happen again. More on that another day!

Next up Animal Kingdom, Typhoon Lagoon, and Downtown Disney

 

[Lilo's Mom]

Fantastic report I am going with my husband, adults only, in August and he too is a golfer. How was it for you out on the golf course? Will I be bored if I book it for him, I know he would like it. parasailing sounded amazing too, do you think it is something worth doing once, as it looks quite pricey.
Thankyou for the great report so far, keep up the great work. BTW, please tell your friend that she looked amazing at her wedding, that was great wedding hair
Claire xx

I actually liked my "Caddy Duties" on the golf course. We did twilight golfing, so it was $10 to golf for him, and they were supposed to charge $10 for me, but they waved the fee. It was nice and relaxing to walk the golf course, plus Bob really enjoyed showing off his golf skills, which I had never seen before. I would do it again, it was really cool seeing deer come out of the bushes to check out what was going on.

The parasailing was pricey, I think with the tax it was $105 for basically 10 minutes up in the air. We were on the boat going around the lake while the other people were parasailing, so I think in total we were out about 45 minutes to an hour.

I will tell Becki that you liked her wedding hair, she went through lots of books to find exactly what she wanted. It was beautiful and held up the entire day which was impressive for the humidty and the heat.

 

[missmun52]

So sorry to hear that you got sick. How was bob walking around with a broken toe?? Must have been painful.

You have me soooo hooked. Keep the reports coming

 

[fizz13]

Oh dear, sounds like you're going to get worse before you get better, great installment,
Claire xx

 

[Lilo's Mom]

I was so exhausted from the night before that I actually slept through the wake-up call. This was Bob’s big clue that I must not have been feeling well, because everything about Disney World makes me so happy and hyper, he knew something was wrong. I explained to him what had happened while he was sleeping and he was upset that I didn’t wake him up to help. I tried to explain to him my logic that since we had only been married two years that I wasn’t ready to have him see me hanging over a toilet being sick. He told me my logic was flawed and that I should have woken him up. He is such a sweet guy! Since he had already been in the shower, he told me he would run and fill up the cups with our morning caffeine. When I got out of the shower and was dressing I noticed that there was an envelope with my name on it on the nightstand on my side of the bed. Hmmm, curious I sat on the bed and opened it up. Inside was the sweetest note about how much Bob was enjoying my enthusiasm for all things Disney and how much fun I was making things for him. In all the shopping we had done, I had yet to get anything for myself, so tucked into the envelope was a crisp $100 bill for me to spend on myself. This guy is a keeper! When he got back to the room I was still sniffling over the note, so he grabbed the back pack and dragged me out the door to see that we finally had some signatures on our door sign. Yippee!!! I knew sooner or later somebody was going to sign it.

This would be the first day that we would decide to have some breakfast, so we headed to Boatwright’s since the food court was a madhouse. They sat us right away and I had some grits and toast and Bob ate an order of biscuits and gravy. Both were good, and I was actually hungry since my stomach was completely empty, so it was a good thing we stopped to eat. We made our way to the bus stop for Animal Kingdom/Blizzard Beach and again it was really crowded and we had to stand. We both really liked riding the buses, and it never bothered us to have to stand. We were really fortunate that we never waited longer than 10 minutes for a bus. I don’t know if it was good timing on our part or if they were scheduled that well, but we never had any problems.

We actually had a plan when we entered Animal Kingdom, do Dinosaur, check out Everest, do the Kilimanjaro Safari, the Maharajah Jungle Trek, and It’s Tough to Be a Bug…then decide how the crowds were and evaluate the rest of the day. Having a plan is good, but in this case all did not go according to plan. The bus to the park was very deceiving, we thought it would be a nice un-crowded day…WRONG! We were able to get on Dinosaur right away, but the walk over to Everest was so crowded that you could barely move. I think the stand by to ride was 180 minutes, Fast Pass had a return about 4 hours later, but it didn’t mater, Bob took one look at it and said “NO WAY”. Neither one of us is fans of big drops, and although it was going backwards neither one of us felt up to riding it. We tried to make it over to Kali River Rapids, but it was wall to wall people. We did get to the Jungle Trek, but all the animals were passed out, it was just too darn hot. We decided that the Safari would probably be a waste of time since it was so hot, so we did it’s Tough to Be a Bug and called it a day for Animal Kingdom. Here is a picture we took of ourselves in the Jungle Trek

And another of parrots that Bob took on the way out.

On the bus ride back to the hotel, we decided to get on our suits and go to Typhoon Lagoon; it was so hot that getting in the water sounded really like a good idea. When the bus dropped us off Bob decided that he wanted to have lunch so we headed to the food court, which was pretty empty. I walked up to the counter at Bayou Favorites and was ready to place our order. There were two cast members behind the counter ready to wait on us; they looked like they were about 16 years old. One of them looked me dead in the eye and told me that he couldn’t wait on us because we had walked the wrong way through the queue. Excuse me? There is nobody anywhere near this place, and you want me to walk out of the queue and walk back in the other way, why? Answer….because we are not allowed to wait on people that walk the wrong way through the ropes. Bob leaned over looked them in the eye and placed our order, “One Philly Cheese steak Please, just meat and cheese”. Amazingly they went to make the sandwich, I decided I was going to go sit down and let him handle it. When I got to the table I counted a whole 23 people in the entire seating area. Bob came to the table and put his sandwich down….I looked at it and saw the onions and the peppers hanging out. He looked at the sandwich, and told me I better go over there and ask them to fix it, because he was not in the mood to argue. So I walk over there and the two boys are gone and there is a woman my age at the counter. I walked through the ropes and she says to me, “Honey, you should have just walked right up!” So I told her how I got scolded by the two boys that had just left the counter, and how they had messed up our order. Next thing I know Kyle, the food service manager of Riverside is standing next to me, with both boys, who apologize to me about making me walk through the queue a second time. Then he had Bob’s sandwich remade and gave me free snacks for all the trouble. Thank you Kyle!

When lunch was done we hopped the bus to Typhoon Lagoon, got a locker and headed for Castaway Creek. Now this was another thing on my list of post Gastric Bypass Surgery that I wanted to do. I have never been small enough to fit in an inner tube, at least not that I didn’t feel like a beached whale in. Bob grabbed a tube brought it over to the stairs and held it for me to get in. It’s kind of hard to explain what it feels like to go from little kids pointing at you because you are so fat to suddenly not being that way, but still feeling like you are sometimes. I was so amazed that it was easy to get into the tube and that I fit, I started to cry. Thankfully not sobbing crying, just “leaking” crying; just little tears that I kept brushing away. What an amazing feeling it is to be able to do things that so many people take from granted. I had such a good time in Castaway Creek that we spent about an hour there. Then we headed over to the wave pool. Now, let me tell you, I don’t swim, never learned how to, but I wanted to go in the wave pool. Bob and I walked in to the point where the water hit me in the chest, and then the wave came. When it hit us, Bob let go of my hand and I fell down on my butt and shot back in the water until I was skidding along the ground in the shallow end. You would think that since I don’t swim that would have freaked me out, but it made me laugh. I laughed from the moment the wave knocked me over all the way that I skidded to the wadding area. I enjoyed it so much I did it four more times before my sides hurt so much from laughing that I had to quit. I went to dry off by our chairs while Bob enjoyed the wave pool for about another hour, then we gathered out things and went to the bus. Surprisingly the bus had very few people on it, and everyone got a seat. We went back to the room changed and decided to go back to Boatwright’s for dinner.

Since I have had the Gastric Bypass surgery I almost never finish anything I order. I take a lot of food home from restaurants, but since there was really no way for me to heat up food for a snack, Bob made it his duty to try and finish both of our meals when we ate! With the dining plan we got an appetizer each, he got the French Onion soup

which he said was nothing special. And I had the Cesar Salad.

. I thought the salad was pretty good, and since he had to finish that for me, he liked it to.
We both ordered the prime rib which came with a baked potato.

I have read lots of reports where people had a bad experience at Boatwright’s, but everything we ate from there was made the way we asked for it, and was served warm. We both enjoyed the prime rib, but were kicking ourselves for not asking them to put some cheese in the potatoes. For dessert we both had their version of apple pie, which was more like a tart really.

All in all dinner was really good.

Afterward we were back on the bus and on our way to Downtown Disney to look for the “Cars” six pin lanyard. Every store we went in that had pins told us that they had never seen a six pin set, only a four pin set. Although disappointed, Bob still managed to buy another lanyard and another 10 pins. I told you all earlier that he was hooked on pin trading, by the time we left he had four lanyards and around 50 pins. We had a nice leisurely ride back on the boats and were asleep by 11pm.

Next to come: Star Wars Weekend & MGM

 

[heaven2dc]

How sweet it was how your husband treated you (esp after your bad night and he didn't even know anything about it) You look awesome in your pics (I personally think you looked great before your surgery but having been heavier myself, I know how great it feels to do things I couldn't before).

Am sooo hooked on your report - please keep posting!

 

[missmun52]

Bob is so sweet, but i noticed you still did not buy yourself anything lol

 

[fizz13]

Bob sounds lovely, you couldn't send him this way to teach DH how its done could you? So sorry about those two monkeys serving you that day, not fair to upset someone like that, great report, please keep writing,
Claire xx

 

[Lilo's Mom]

This was an early rise day for us, the plan was to get some breakfast and head to MGM for Star Wars weekend. When Bob was getting dressed for the day I noticed that the toes he broke were really purple and swollen. I was worried about him because he does have diabetes and you have to be really careful with your feet. The poor guy tried to put on his gym shoes and the pressure from the top of the shoe was just too much for him. Besides his dress shoes that he wore to the wedding that only other shoes he had with were his pool shoes, so he decided to put his gel inserts in those and see if it was any better. Ironically enough they were loose enough on the top that he was able to walk without pain, but since they were only mesh on the top of the shoe we were going to have to be careful that he didn’t get stepped on after all, pool shoes don’t offer very much support or protection. Once that was settled we checked out the food court for breakfast, and once again we must not have been timing things right because it was packed! So we headed over to Boatwright’s where they were able to seat us right away. Ironically enough we were seated at the same table every time we ate there, we were joking around about have a reserved sign on the table just for us. The waitress came over right away with coffee, which is always a big plus for Bob because he loves his coffee! Now every place we had eaten at during our trip the first thing our server has always asked us was if we were using our dining plan, this morning the waitress just took our order and didn’t ask us anything. I ordered the stuffed French toast, which I thought was fabulous!

And Bob had the combination breakfast.

He loved the French Toast (his was just sprinkled with sugar, not stuffed) by was iffy on the sausage, he thought they were too spicy, I loved the sausage, but then again, I like to eat pizza with chorizo on it rather than regular sausage. He asked for the eggs scrambled soft and they were so he was pleased with that as well. While we were eating he had pulled out his Key to the World and had it sitting on the edge of the table, when we were halfway through the meal our waitress came by and picked it up, when she came back with the card, she said that she had applied the dining plan on the bill. Bob said, “I’m sorry I guess that was my mistake, you didn’t ask when we sat down, so I thought you would just charge it to the room. I don’t want to use the dining plan.” The waitress said she couldn’t make an adjustment it had to stay on the dining plan, so Bob asked her if there was anyone else we could talk to about making the adjustment for us. Within minutes over walks Kyle; the food service manager that had helped us the day before with our problem in the food court. He was so nice to us, he took the bill was gone probably less than three minutes, and came back with the corrections all taken care of. Then he sat down and talked to us for awhile, he really was a nice guy and very eager to make sure that you left with a smile on your face!

After breakfast it was a quick trip to fill up the cups, then off to the bus. Suddenly Pal Mickey started to act strangely. He began to vibrate and keep repeating “Oh Gosh” and giggling. Bob took a quick look at him and decided that he probably was low on batteries and needed a fresh set. He was able to run into the gift shop and make it back before the bus got there! What a great guy I’ve got. We had yet another very deceptive bus ride, the bus barely had any passengers, so we thought we might get lucky in the park. Boy, were we wrong, the park was jam full! Oh well, smile and make the best of it! First things first…we are on a mission to find that six pin lanyard for “Cars”! We stopped at every store, every stand in MGM and didn’t find it. By now, we both thought we must be crazy because every cast member we talked to said they had never seen a set with six pins! So pretty much Bob had given up on the set, now he wanted a “Cars” shirt, and there was nothing to be had in adult sizes. I told him I knew where he was coming from, when “Lilo & Stitch” first came out they only had shirts for kids, but now you can get all kinds of neat Stitch shirts. It’s still hard to find anything with Lilo, but at least I can have Stitch!

Since shopping didn’t get us anywhere we rode The Great Movie Ride, which I have been on many times before. It was Bob’s first time and he liked it, but thought they should have thrown in Indiana Jones since they had a scene in a tomb. That probably wouldn’t be a bad idea. What they really should do is give the park an Indy Ride like the one in California, it’s really awesome. By the time we got out the Star Wars parade was ready to start. Wow, were the streets crowded! I am only 5’4” so I had to keep jumping up to see stuff, but Bob with his 6’2” was able to see it all and video tape it for me to watch later. After the parade we went to Star Tours. Surprisingly the Star Wars characters that were in that area were the most organized I had ever seen character meetings setup. The lines were long and I really felt bad for the poor guy in the Chewbacca suit, he had to be practically dying of heat exhaustion. Too bad they couldn’t have put him in some place air conditioned. After we rode the ride we spent about an hour shopping in the Star Wars shop. It was so crowded in there that it took a long time to just walk around the store, and then when you picked out what you wanted to buy, you had to wait in a really long line. I finally bought something for myself, I got Jedi Mickey, and a t-shirt with Darth Tater on it. He is standing by a French fry and it says “ I am your father!”. That just cracked me up. Bob bought a Darth Vader t-shirt that said “Whose your Daddy”, along with you guessed it…more pins! Here are a few pictures from around the park.

More to come later!

Thanks everyone for reading.

 

[missmun52]

Great installment! I dont know how Bob was able to walk around with a broken toe, must have been so painful.

Looking forward to your next post!

 

[missmun52]

Are you planning to continue your trip report??? I was really injoying it

 

[Philadisney]

Are you planning to continue your trip report??? I was really injoying it

me too, me too! it's been a while, huh!

 

[Lilo's Mom]

Yes, it has been awhile...sorry! Since I started this report, my DSS and I took a day and a half trip to POP to make a futrue Reservation with the Dining Plan, and I am planning a trip to Disneyland for February 17th! All of this and I am sooooo close to convincing my DH that we need to join DVC! I promise to finish this weekend!

 

[Cass]

Hi there, I am enjoying your TR and all the photos from now and days gone by.

California Grill! Just ate there 3 weeks ago on my Birthday and also had Ron as our waiter, and also had the filet - yum, thanks for bringing back the memories of a nice evening.

I'm looking forward to reading more of your TR.

 

[Lilo's Mom]

Friday, June 9th Continued…after a very long delay…sorry!

After shopping I decided we had to go “Lights, Motors, Action! Stunt Show”. We actually timed our arrival pretty well; we got in the line just as they were letting people into the stands. We ended up sitting far enough up to not have the sun directly on us, and close enough to a bunch of families with young kids who were more than happy to squirt us with their water bottles! Hey, it kept us cool! So, there is this pre-show trivia test they do on the screen before the show starts, so Bob was sitting there reading the questions and giving the answers out loud. After the sixth or seventh question he got right, the people around us were slapping him on the back and high fiving him. By the time he had gone through all the questions, and didn’t miss any there was a lot of male bonding going on with all the guys sitting around us. They were talking about cars, and movies with cars, cars they owned when they were teenagers, cars they would like to own….you get the idea, lol! Anyway, the show was really enjoyable, the people we met were great, but when it was done, I wanted to do a “girly” thing. In the two other trips Bob and I had made to Disney World, I was never able to talk him into seeing Voyage of the Little Mermaid, but if there was anytime to get him to go, it was now. So without a complaint we headed over to the Animation Courtyard and the Little Mermaid. This was actually the first time that I have seen this show. Every other time that I have been in the studios, I could either never talk anyone into going with me, or the line was just too long to wait in. Fortunately this time we were able to walk in about 3 minutes before the show started. I thought it was really good. The girl playing Ariel had a lovely voice, and I was really surprised with the production value. What I didn’t like was all the water that they hit you with….granted it was hot outside and normally that would have been a great way to cool off, but I swear they had the air conditioning cranked up way too high that day. I was freezing, and poor Bob’s teeth were chattering! When we got out of there we sat out in the sun to dry off and get warm, then we caught Muppets 3-D, then went to the Magic of Animation Tour. At the end of the movie and talk they had characters from the Incredibles taking pictures and signing autographs with all the kids. I turned my head to tease Bob about getting in line to have his picture taken, only to find that he had gotten in a line to take a picture with a background from cars. Here is Bob channeling his inner child.

He was the only adult taking his picture here! But honestly there is no better place in the world to let the little kid inside of you out, so I am glad that he was able to get the picture he wanted.

Usually when I am visiting MGM Studios I eat at the 50’s Prime Time Café, but this trip we decided to try out the Sci-Fi Diner. I went to the podium to check in for our reservation, only to find that they didn’t have one for us. Good thing I had a print out with all of our reservations and confirmations with me because that helped them find us! We were seated in the back seat of a car with group of young girls in their late teens or early 20’s. They were already on their appetizers and gleefully chatting away with each other. Bob and I really enjoyed the atmosphere of the restaurant and really the only complaint we had was that the menu is really tough to see. Our server came and took our drink order and told us he would get a flashlight for us to read the menu, in the meantime, one of the girls in the car with us offered her cell phone to use as a light. Apparently they had some trouble reading the menu as well! Anyway we settled on what we wanted to eat, and sat back to enjoy the movie clips.
I had the Spinach and Artichoke Dip for an appetizer. I thought it was really good. Bob wouldn’t even try it; he’s not big on too many vegetables. Anyway here is a picture of it:

For dinner I had the ribs, which were also surprisingly very good. I expected them to be dry and tough, but they were very juicy and not overcooked at all.

Bob ended up having a bacon cheeseburger. Sorry no picture of that! I tried to take one, but it was so dark in there, the only thing you can see of his plate is the cole slaw. We were getting ready to order desert when Bob told me his toes were really bothering him, and he wanted to know if I minded if we headed back to the hotel. Poor guy thought I was going to be mad at him! I got the waiters attention and told him that we would be skipping desert and to just use the dining plan for our meal. He came back with deserts wrapped up for us to take to the hotel. He said hey, it’s part of the plan and you may be hungry later! So desert in hand we headed to the bus. By the time we got back to the hotel, Bob was noticeably limping, so I sent him to the run, and I took the cups to the food court to fill them up. When I got to the room he had already was coming out of the shower and walking on his heel…but what was the thing that concerned him the most you ask? He said to me and I quote “Baby, why won’t Mousekeeping make me a towel animal?” Poor guy was having towel animal envy! So I gave him his coffee, propped up his foot and sat with him until he fell asleep. After I was sure he was going to be out for awhile I took a trip to the lobby to see if I could arrange for him to get a towel animal the next day. The young lady that had checked us in, Angela, was working at the desk, so I went up to her and asked if she could help me get a towel animal the next day. She was so sweet about it; she called housekeeping and asked them to make sure that we had a towel animal when they refreshed the room in the morning. Great, mission accomplished! Since I was in the main building I decided to look around the gift shop and ended up picking up a photo album, some dog bowls for Lilo, and Harley, and some kitty treats for Angel and Doyle. By the time I got back to the room, Bob was waking up from his nap and wanted to go to the hot tub. We changed into our suits and spent an hour just relaxing at the hot tub and in the pool. On the way back to the room we stopped at concierge and asked if they could adjust our reservations for the next night at Ohana to include Sue, Billy and David. No problem, all taken care of! So it’s back to the room, time to munch on our desserts and get a good night sleep!

Up next…back to the Magic Kingdom!

 

[tkd lisa]

This is a really nice report! I've enjoyed reading so far and look forward to the end. I particularly enjoy the photos, especially the "then and now" ones!

Thanks for being so open about your feelings re: bypass surgery. I've been blessed to not have weight problems. However, most of my extended family is quite large. This Christmas, I visited with some of them and I realized how difficult many ordinary activites can be when you're that large. How wonderful that you're able to enjoy some of those things now!

 

[Philadisney]

Yay, glad you're back! Thanks for another lovely installment! Poor Bob and his foot!

 

[Lilo's Mom]

It’s Magic Kingdom Day!

We started our day by heading over to the food court to grab some breakfast. Bob had a ham and cheese omelet and I had some grits and toast. The food was about what you would expect, nothing spectacular but filling and more than enough to start the day with. As we were getting ready to head to the bus, our buddy, Kyle, the food service manager came over to ask how we were doing. No complaints, said Bob. Kyle replies with a “Great!” and gives us two orders of fruit to munch on for the bus ride. Bob was really impressed that he went out of the way to check on us. Poor Bob now expects to get the same service every time we travel. Silly man! That only happens at Disney!

So the bus ride over to the Magic Kingdom was uneventful, and after we got through the security check Bob tried to call Sue on her cell phone to see if she and the boys had made it to the park yet. Before he was even able to punch in the numbers, Billy and David had spotted him and were running over. This was going to be a really special day for the boys. Although they live in Orlando, because of their circumstances (all the time they spent in the Foster Program) they have never been to Disney World. Let me tell you, no matter how many times you have been to the parks, there is nothing in this world compared to seeing everything through the eyes of child on their first visit. This was going to be a great day! So what was up first for the boys you may? Pirates! Ok, so off we go! Along the way we stopped to do the tree house, which David, who is 5, thought was great. Billy on the other hand was not interested. So we continue our journey on to Pirates and we pass the Tiki Gods by Bwana Bob’s. As we were passing the boys both got squirted. Now they were both excited, and ending up playing for almost an hour with Sue and Bob.

Here’s Bob laughing at all the antics

Here’s Sue and the Boys Soaked to the Skin

Now everyone is in a good mood all at the same time and we manage to do a few rides in a fairly quick succession. Thumbs up all around for Pirates, the Magic Carpets, The Tiki Room, and Big Thunder Mountain (can’t believe we waited only 10 minutes in the line!). By this time everyone is ready for lunch, so a vote is taken and we head over to Pecos Bill. Surprise, Surprise cheeseburgers all around! What I like most about Pecos Bill is the fixings bar. It’s nice to be able to get the toppings you want in the right amount. While we were eating lunch we let the boys look at the map and pick where they wanted to go next. After much discussion, we were headed for Buzz Lightyear. Now this is where things temporarily went bad. Sue decided that she wanted to make a stop at Small World. The boys asked what it was and she told them “Don’t worry you will like it”. Now, I only have a daughter…so maybe you can’t go by me, but I would never have dragged a little boy into Small World, figuring that they wouldn’t get the “big picture” of the ride. They would only see it as a bunch of dolls. Boy oh boy, that is exactly what happened. They were very vocal on the boat, which thankfully was just us an a young couple. They must have repeated “This is for girls!” about a hundred times. Bob who wanted to turn the whole experience around decided to introduce the boys to his new favorite pass time…pin trading! So off the boys and Bob go to pick out their lanyards and buttons. Now we have three happy boys, (two little ones and the one big one)!

We did Buzz, Stitch, the Rockets, went back over to Fantasyland, did Mickey’s PhilarMagic (twice in fact) tried to do Peter Pan, but the line was 80 minutes with no Fast Passes left for the day. It was about 40 minutes away from our reservations at O’hana so we told the boy’s we would come back to the park after dinner, and headed over to the monorail. Now there has been this standing joke with Bob and I where he wants to retire to Orlando and drive the monorail. So I decided that I was going to run ahead of everyone and see if I could get Bob and the boys to ride in the front. The cast member loading the monorail, made a call, and said it would be no problem. Yeah! All taken care of before everyone even made it up the ramp. Damn, I’m good! We stood around and waited for the next monorail, and when it got there the driver came out and escorted Bob, Sue and boys into the front! You should have seen their faces! It was like one of those American Express commercials….Priceless!. Since only four riders are allowed in the front, I rode in the car behind. This is the only picture they took from their ride (they were too excited to take more!)

When we got to the Poly, all the boys (the big one too!) got a card from the driver saying they were monorail co-pilots. BTW, Bob carries his in his wallet now!

More Magic to Come!